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
thoughts of his fellow-countrymen in that direction. Ecgbert,
the Northumbrian, who in his youth accompanied Ceadda to
Ireland, had, while there, fallen sick of the plague. He vowed
that if he recovered he would not return to England, and
would spend the rest of his life in the service of God among
the Scots and Picts. From that time he lived as an ascetic,
teaching the Irish among whom he dwelt, and gaining great
influence among them, for he was gentle-spirited, holy, and
humble of heart. About 687 he was seized with a desire to
go and preach to the peoples from which the " Angles and
Saxons of Britain were known to have derived their origin."
As his vow prevented him from starting from England, he
meant to sail round the island, and so reach the land of the
Teutonic heathens. His companions were chosen, his ship
was ready, and he was on the point of embarking, when a
message, which he believed to be a divine command, and which
seemed enforced by a violent storm, prevented him from
sailing. One of the party that he had organised named
Witbert, who had lived for many years as a hermit in Ireland,
embarked without him, and landed in Frisia. The king
Rathbod, unlike his predecessor Adelgis who had entertained
Wilfrith, refused to listen to his preaching. For two years he
laboured patiently and fruitlessly among the heathen, and then
returned to Ireland, where he set himself to do good to his
neighbours since he was not enabled to win strangers to the
faith.
Though Ecgbert gave up the idea of going himself to
Frisia, and must have been disappointed at the
brord, b. 658, failure of Witbert's mission, he did not relinquish
^' ^^^^ his efforts for the conversion of the Frisians, and
in 690 organised a mission of twelve Englishmen to preach
XI ST. WILLIBRORD 213
to them. At the head of this party was Willibrord a North-
umbrian, a man of great courage and wisdom. He had been
brought up from infancy in Wilfrith's monastery at Ripon, and
at the age of twenty had gone to Ireland to gain instruction
in the Scriptures. He was in priest's orders, and was in his
thirty-third year when he set out with his companions on the
work which was dear to the heart of his old master Wilfrith.
They landed at the mouth of the Rhine, and Willibrord,
finding that Rathbod would not listen to his words, went to
Pii:)pin of Heristal, Duke of the Franks, who had conquered
the south-western part of Frisia, and offered to go and preach
there. Pippin willingly accepted his offer, and in 692 he went
to Rome to obtain the approval of Pope Sergius. That the
Christian missionary, while seeking the salvation of individuals,
should regard the increase of the one Catholic and Apostolic
Church, the kingdom of Christ on earth, as the aim of his life,
may be gathered from the teaching of Christ Himself. It was
thus that these early missionaries regarded their vocation, and
as they recognised the pope as the spiritual head on earth of
this Church, the guarantee of its unity, they sought his ap-
proval when they endeavoured to plant a church in a heathen
land. Willibrord returned with many relics, which he intended
should take the place of the idols of the Parisians.
After Willibrord had laboured for about three years among
the conquered Frisians, Pippin sent him to Rome a second
time, and at his request Sergius consecrated him „,.„.^ ,
' '^ T-. • • -XT Willibrord
as Archbishop of the Frisians, on November consecrated
22, 696, presenting him with a pall, and giving ^^'^ '^ °^'
him the name of Clement, though he was, and still is,
generally known by his English name. Besides carrying
on his work in the part of Frisia which had been won by the
Franks, he also preached to the unconquered Frisians, and
showed extraordinary courage in destroying their idols. Once,
while preaching in Heligoland, he baptized three converts in
a spring sacred to Fosite, the guardian deity of the island.
Enraged at this desecration, the people with Rathbod's sanction
made him and his companions cast lots, to determine which
of them should be sacrificed to appease the wrath of their
gods. One of his company was martyred, and Willibrord was
brought before Rathbod. He fearlessly told the king of his
214 ACTIVITIES CHAP.
need of salvation, and Rathbod marvelled at his courage, and
sent him in safety to Pippin. He made an attempt to convert
the Danes, and when they would not hear him, took away
with him thirty lads that he might educate them to be mission-
aries to their fellow-countrymen. As archbishop, he formed
an organised church among the Frisians, consecrated assistant
bishops, built monasteries and churches, and for each church
ordained a priest, establishing a settled clergy and making
a decided step towards a parochial system, such as was then
growing up in England. In 703 or 704 he received a visit
from his old master Wilfrith, who must have rejoiced greatly to
see how one of his former pupils was gathering in an abundant
harvest from a field in which he had himself been the first
labourer. In the course of their conversation Willibrord told
him that miracles had been wrought through some relics of
King Oswald. The success of Willibrord's work was largely
due to the support of the Franks, and was much increased by
their completion of the conquest of Frisia. Rathbod died
in 719, and Pippin then, if not before, gave Utrecht to
Willibrord for the place of his see. He was highly esteemed
both by Pippin and his son Charles Martel, who succeeded his
father as Mayor of the Palace of the Austrasian kings, and at
Charles's request he baptized his infant son Pippin, the future
King of the Franks. Towards the end of his long life he con-
secrated a coadjutor to himself, retired from work, and died
probably in 739, in his eighty-third year, at a monastery which
he had founded at Epternach near Treves.
During Willibrord's first visit to Rome, one of his com-
panions named Swidbert was chosen by his brethren in Frisia to
be consecrated as bishop ; he returned to England in
Other 5g2 or 693, and received consecration from Wilfrith,
. ^^^ Bertwald, the archbishop-elect, was then in Gaul,
whither he had himself gone for consecration. For a while
Swidbert had his see at Dorostat, or Wyk-by-Duurstede, on the
Rhine, went thence to preach to the Bructeri, a people settled
between the Lippe and the Ems, and turned many to Chris-
tianity. An invasion of the heathen Saxons scattered his
converts, and Pippin, at the request of his wife Plectrude, gave
him an island in the Rhine, the present Kaiserswerth, where
he built a monastery. He died at Kaiserswerth in 713, and
XI ENGLISH MISSIONARIES 215
there, in the romanesque church, relics of him still remain in
a silver shrine. The country about Elst in Betuwe was
evangelised by Werenfrid. One of Willibrord's companions,
named Adalbert, or ^thelbert, laboured with much success
at Egmond in Holland, and Wira, whose name is mentioned by
Alcuin in connection with Swidbert, and who may also have
been one of the missionaries sent out by Ecgbert with
Willibrord, is said to have preached in the country about
Ruremond.
Acting independently of Ecgbert's mission, and apparently
at about the same time that it went forth, two English priests,
both named Hewald, and distinguished according to
the colour of their hair as Black and White Hewald, JeVaTcfs.
who had spent some years in study in Ireland, went
together with some others as missionaries to the old Saxon
land. Leaving their companions, the two Hewalds went
to the reeve of a certain township and asked him to
bring them to the ealdorman of the tribe, for they had a
message for him. This the reeve promised to do, and
they abode some days in his guest-house. It soon became
noised abroad that they were of a different religion, for every
day they sang psalms, and prayed, and celebrated mass on a
portable altar which they had brought with them. The country
people were much excited, for they feared that, if the strangers
were received by the ealdorman, they might convert him to
Christianity, and that so the worship of their gods might be
endangered. They determined to prevent this danger, fell upon
the missionaries suddenly on October 3, and put them both to
death. White Hewald being slain at a blow, and Black Hewald
with long and cruel torture. Their bodies were thrown into the
Rhine, and floated down to the place where their companions
were staying. They were found by one of them named
Tilmon, a man of noble birth who had given up a warrior's life
to become a monk, and were buried by him. When Pippin
heard of their martyrdom, he caused their bodies to be taken
up and buried them with great honour in the church of
Cologne. The larger number at least of these missionaries
appear to have been natives of Northumbria.
Wessex also bore a good part in missionary enterprise, which
w^as evidently dear to Bishop Daniel, for thence came Winfrith
2i6 ACTIVITIES CHAP.
or St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, and many of his fellow-
helpers. Winfrith, whose parents were of noble race, was born at
Crediton about 680, and, like Bede, was presented at
^the^ApSk' seven years of age to the abbot of Exeter, where he
of Germany, entered the monastic order. He transferred himself
O. 000, a. 755.
to the abbey of Nutsall near Winchester, and there
entered fully into the intellectual movement in Wessex promoted
by Ealdhelm, for he became skilled in grammar, rhetoric, and
music. Having been ordained priest at the age of thirty, he was
chosen by the West Saxon abbots to attend a synod of Arch-
bishop Bertwald, and must have known that in his own land
ecclesiastical dignity was certain to come to him. But he gave
up all for mission work, and, possibly in 716, sailed wath two
or three fellow-monks to Frisia. As Rathbod was then making
war on Charles Martel, and was destroying churches throughout
the country, missionary work was impossible, and Winfrith,
after a fruitless interview wdth the heathen king, returned to
his English monastery. In a year or two he determined to
renew his attempt, and taking with him a commendatory letter
from Bishop Daniel, went to Rome to Gregory II., who gave
him his blessing and sent him as a missionary to the Germans.
He preached in Thuringia, where the people, though nominally
Christian, had fallen into evil practices, and the clergy were
uncanonical in life and unsound in doctrine. On the death
of Rathbod in 719, he again went to Frisia, and stayed there
three years helping Archbishop Willibrord. He refused Willi-
brord's offer to consecrate him as his bishop-coadjutor and
successor, because he desired to perform the work entrusted
to him by the pope. Accordingly he left Frisia, and preached
to the heathen Hessii.
Winfrith again visited Rome in 723. Gregory gave him
instructions for his future work, and consecrated him " region-
ary" bishop, that is, a bishop without a see. On
Boniface . / ^' . ' , ^ , r l j-
consecrated his cousccration he took an oath of obedience
bishop. ^Q ^i^g Roman see, founded on the oath taken
by the bishops of Italy, and probably also at that time
received from the pope the name of Boniface. He
returned to his labours among the Hessii, and, finding
their pagan superstition hard to overcome, took the tre-
mendous step of hewing down the sacred oak of Thor at
ST. BONIFACE 217
Geismar, in the presence of a crowd of heathens. This
courageous act met with its reward in the conversion of the
beholders, and Boniface and his companions built a chapel in
honour of St. Peter out of the wood of the huge tree. Boni-
face kept up a constant correspondence with his friends in
England, wliere the progress of his work was watched with
deep interest. Among his English correspondents were Arch-
bishops Nothelm and his successor Cuthbert, and Ecgbert of
York, Bishop Daniel, several abbesses and specially Eadburh
or Bugge, abbess of Minster, his kinswoman Leobgyth, and
her sisters in religion at Wimborne, Tecla and Cynehild. He
and they ask for one another's prayers, he tells them of his
wants, asking for a copy of the prophetical books of the Bible
in large handwriting, because his sight was bad, for Bede's
minor works, and other books ; he thanks them for their gifts,
and sends them presents in return.
In spite of much opposition Boniface succeeded in reform-
ing the church in Thuringia. Gregory III. made him an
archbishop, still without a see, and papal legate,
and he was the valued friend of the house of Pippin feiiow-
of Heristal, of Charles Martel, Carloman, and Pippin ^''''^^'^'
the Short, whom, in accordance with the command of Pope
Zachary, he crowned king of the Franks at Soissons in 751.
The power of the Prankish house in Southern and Central
Germany owed much to the influence of Boniface, and there,
as in Frisia, Christian missionaries and Prankish rulers worked
in full accord. This, however, only concerns us here in so
far as it explains the dominant position which Boniface held
in Germany. He founded four bishoprics in Bavaria, held
councils of the German province, and in 743 fixed his archi-
episcopal see at Mainz. Many men and women of the monastic
order came to him from England, and specially from his own
West Saxon land, to help him in his work of evangelisation
and ecclesiastical reform. One party under the charge of a
priest-monk named Witbert seems to have been sent out from
Glastonbury, and Witbert in writing to the convent to an-
nounce their safe arrival asks them to send his news to Abbess
Tetta at Wimborne. Tetta had a deep interest in these
missions, for Leobgyth, or Lioba, possibly at that very time
joined her kinsman in Germany, and with her went Tecla and
2i8 ACTIVITIES CHAP.
perhaps also Cynehild. Of two of the West Saxon helpers of
Boniface, the brothers Willibald and Wunebald, we have
memoirs written by an English nun of Heidenheim, who was
related to them. Willibald, who was brought up from infancy
in an abbey at Bishop's Waltham, in Hampshire, was a great
traveller. In company with his brother, he visited Rome.
Wunebald stayed there, and after some years joined Boniface
in Thuringia. Willibald, however, set off with two other
friends, and journeyed to Sicily, Ephesus, Cyprus, and Pales-
tine. They bathed in the Jordan, and stayed for a time in
Jerusalem, where they visited the holy places, and among
them the Holy Sepulchre, "a square house cut out of the rock
with a chapel above it." After a tour of seven years Willibald
returned to Rome, and, in obedience to a request of Gregory
HI., went to help Boniface.
Some of these English fellow-workers Boniface consecrated
as bishops, and others he set over monasteries. Lul, or
Lullus, who had been brought up from childhood
Their work \^ ^\^q abbev of Malmcsbury, and had worked with
m Germany. . •' , ,,• j-. ^i\/r-
hnn for many years, he made his coadjutor at Mamz ;
Burchard he consecrated Bishop of Wurzburg; Willibald, the
traveller. Bishop of Eichstatt ; and Wittan, Bishop of Buraberg
in Hesse. Wunebald became abbot of Heidenheim, where
he was succeeded by his sister, whose English name Walburh
appears as Walpurga, and has, in some strange way, become
connected with witches' festivals, but there were perhaps other
saints of the same name, and one of them may have given her
name to the Walpurgis night. Lul's aunt Chunihilt and her
daughter Bertgith, both skilled in secular learning, Boniface
made teachers and probably abbesses in Thuringia ; Chunitrud
taught the Scriptures in Bavaria, Tecla he appointed abbess
of Kitzingen, and Lioba abbess of Bischofsheim on the
Tauber. As abbess, Lioba gathered round her a large number
of disciples, and many of them were chosen to rule other
German convents. She ever had the Scriptures in her hands,
studied them diligently and lectured on them, and on the
works of the Fathers, the canons of the Church, and the Latin
language. Beautiful in person we are told she was, and she
was not less lovely in spirit, for she was humble and kind as
well as wise and learned, she ruled by love and was never
XI MARTYRDOM OF ST. BONIFACE 219
provoked to harsh words. While she was hospitable and
careful for the comfort of others, she herself ate and drank
sparingly, and the small cup that she used was called in her
house " the Beloved's little one." Boniface regarded her with
deep affection, and often visited her ; her influence was wide-
spread, and she was highly esteemed by Charles the Great
and his queen Hildegard. She died in 780, probably on
September 28, the day on which she is commemorated.
In his old age Boniface longed once again to preach the
Gospel to the Frisians, the people of his earliest mission,
many of whom were still heathens. He resigned _
-' . . ^ , T T . T^he martyr-
the administration of his province to Lul, and taking domof st.
with him a band of clergy, some of them certainly
of English birth, journeyed through the marshes of Frisia and
preached in its scattered villages. Many believed on his
words, and on June 5, 755, he had arranged to confirm a
large number of newly-baptized persons at Dokkum, near the
Lauwers Zee. Soon after sunrise on that day he was told
that a heathen force was advancing against him. He called his
clergy round him, ordered them to bear in procession the relics
which he always carried with him, and went forth from his tent
with them to meet his enemies. The younger men of his
company, which numbered fifty in all, wished to fight for their
lives, but he forbade them, saying that they were taught in
Scripture not to render evil for evil. He exhorted them to be
of good courage ; death would be short, they would soon
reign with Christ for ever. He and nearly all his company
were slain by the heathen. His body was buried in the
church of Fulda in the monastery that he had founded. A
relic of him still remains in the crypt of the cathedral church
of Fulda, and his crosier is also preserved there. He was a
man of no common order, at once a saint, a statesman, and a
scholar. As a missionary, he was courageous and indefatigable ;
as a prelate, skilful in organisation and firm of purpose. The
oath of obedience which he took to the Roman see was strongly
expressed and unreserved, and as the founder and first
spiritual ruler of the German Church, he brought it into close
connection with the papacy. Apart from any consideration
of the effects which the relation thus created with Rome may
have had upon the course of German history in later ages, his
220
ACTlViriES CHAP.
action in this respect gave the Church which he created a
standard of orthodox faith and practice, and prevented it from
becoming a mere handmaid to the CaroHngian House. To
the English Church he was ever a loving and dutiful son ; he
watched its fortunes with anxiety, and looked to its bishops
and councils for advice ; he was cheered by the sympathy and
strengthened by the prayers of its members, and was nobly
supported by the devotion of those whom it sent to help him
in his work.
Yet another English missionary did great things for the
continental kinsfolk of his people. A Northumbrian priest
named Willehad, anxious for the salvation of those
/'■ ??i^^^8^' ^°^ whom Boniface laid down his life, landed in
• ^^° ■ ^ ^" Frisia in 770 and settled in the very place where
the archbishop and his companions were martyred. There he
stayed for several years doing good work, both among Christians
and heathens ; he baptized many, and made excursions with
his followers into the surrounding country, preaching and
breaking idols. At last he was forced to flee for his life, and
took shelter with Charles, or Charlemagne, who welcomed him
gladly. The king was determined not to suffer the Saxons,
whose lands stretched from beyond the Elbe almost to the
Rhine, to remain heathen, and since 772 had made attempts
to force Christianity upon them by war. In Willehad he
saw a useful ally, and he sent him in 779 to preach the
Gospel to the Saxon people settled between the Elbe and the
Weser, about Bremen, where he had much success. When
the Saxons rebelled against Charles under the leadership of
Widukind in 782, many of his converts were slain, and he left
the country. He visited Rome, where he was comforted and
encouraged by Hadrian I., and then went into retreat in
Willibrord's monastery at Epternach. Charles put down the
rebellion of the Saxons after three years of bloody war, and
in 785 Willehad again returned to his labours among them.
Widukind made his peace with Charles, was baptized by
Willehad, and is said thenceforward to have been zealous
for the spread of Christianity. On June 13, 787, Charles
caused Willehad to be consecrated Bishop at Worms, and
fixed his see at Bremen. He at once began the work of
ecclesiastical organisation, but his time was short. He died
XI CONCLUSION 221
on November 8, 789, a week after the dedication of his
cathedral church.
Such, and so great, was the work done among the heathen
for Christ's sake by members of the English Church in its
early days. Of the peoples of Western Europe none ^ , .
. , , ^ , . , , . , , Conclusion.
receiyed the Gospel with more gladness than the
English, and among none was it spread by worthier means.
The wars and massacres by which Charles forced Christianity
upon the Saxons stand in strong contrast to the means by
which the faith of Christ won its victories over the Englisli.
Nowhere was the preaching of that faith followed by nobler
results than in England, and no church was so quickly or so
richly adorned by saintly and learned men and women as the
English Church, or was so eager to spread the kingdom of
Christ in other lands.
The death of Bade in 735 may perhaps be taken as
marking the close of what may be called the heroic period in
our church's history. Wise and holy men survived him, and
others came after them, but, speaking generally, few, with the
exception of those who went forth as missionaries to the
heathen, seem to have attained to the measure of those who
went before them. Nor were they equally happy in their times,
for the love and simplicity of early days began to fade, and
they were called upon to contend against evil both within the
ecclesiastical orders and external to them. Bede, however,
lived the quiet life of a scholar, and the year of his death can
only arbitrarily be chosen as the date of a change which was
of gradual growth, and of which some signs appear earlier, and
were lamented over by Bede himself. The learning and the
missionary zeal which saved English monasticism from the
danger of sinking into a selfish and inactive asceticism by
providing the best members of the monastic order with lofty
and unselfish interests, have been followed out in this chapter
without regard to the general course of the history of the
Church. We must in our next chapter go back to note how
the progress of the Church was often hindered, and how it
struggled, not always successfully, to reform abuses in its own
order and ministers, and to resist the evils of the world in
which it was placed.
222 ACTIVITIES CHAP. XI
Authorities, — On the danger which threatened English monasticism
before 669, see Bp. Stubbs's Introd. to Memorials of Richard I. vol. ii., Epp.
Cantuar., Rolls sen For much concerning monastic learning and early
missions, see Bede's Historical Works, ed. Plummer, u.s. Ealdhelm's Works
[Aldhelmi Opera) are edited by Giles in his P aires Eccl. Angl. u.s. The
best account of Bede and his works is given by the Rev. C. Plummer in the
Introduction to his edition of Bede, which contains a translation of the Letter
of Cuthbert narrating Bede's death ; the letter itself is in Symeon of Durham's
Hist. Dunelm. Eccl., Rolls ser. , and is printed by Plummer and Stevenson.
For the grant of the pall to Ecgbert of York see Bede's Epistola ad Ecgbertum in
Plummer's Bede and in Councils and Eccl. Docs. iii. 314-326, and Symeon
of Durham's Hist. Regum, an, 735, Rolls ser. For Archbishop Ecgbert's
work and the York school see Alcuin's Carmen de Pontiff Ebor. and his
EpistolcB, ap, Monumenta Alcuiniana, ed. Jaff6, Berlin, 1873, which contains
materials for Alcuin's Life, and Raine's Fasti Eboracenses, London, 1863,
For the schools of handwriting see Sir E. M, Thompson's Greek and Latin
Palaeography , London, 1893, International Scientific Ser, No, 73, and more
briefly his art. " Palaeography" in Encycl. Brit. 9th ed. ; and on the textual
value of Codex Amiatinus and C. Laud, see Scrivener's Introduction to the
Criticism of the N. Test., ed. Rev. E. Miller, London, 1894, 4th ed. The best
edition of the De Nuptiis Philologice et Mercurii of Martianus Capella is by Dr.
F. Eyfsenhardt, Leipsic, 1866 ; its effects on Latinity in south-west Britain are
pointed out by Dr, Zimmer in his Nennijis Vindicatiis, p. 330, Berlin, 1893.
The story of Ecgbert the priest is told by Bede. The Life of Willibrord is
written by Alcuin, see Mon. Ale. u.s. Swidbert's acts are recorded in a
spurious Life of no value ; all we know of him comes from Bede and Alcuin,
the date of his death being supplied by the eighth cent, Aiinales Franc, ap.
Recueil des Historiens, ii. 641. For Werenfrid see A A. SS., Bolland, Aug.
vi, 102 sq,, and for Adalbert, AA. SS. O.S.B., Mabillon, ssec, v, pt, i. 586,
A Life of Boniface and his Passio written by Willibald, a priest of Mainz, for
Abp. Lul, and another Life by Othlo of the eleventh cent., together with the
Letters of Boniface and Lul, are in Monumenta Moguntina, ed. Jaffd, Berlin,
1866, Lives of Bp. Willibald, Wunebald, Lul, and Lioba are in AA. SS.
O.S.B., Mabillon, saec. iii. pt, ii. The original authority for the acts of
Willehad is his Life by Abp. Anschar {d. 865), printed by Pertz in Mon.
Germ. Hist. ii. 378 sq., and elsewhere, see also Adam of Bremen's Gesta Pont.
Hamjuaburg. Eccl. ap, Pertz, u.s. vii. 267 sq. Some excellent articles, and
specially that on St, Boniface by Bp. Stubbs, in Diet. Chr. Biogr. have been
found useful, and should be consulted for fuller information. Miss Eckenstein's
Woman under Monasticism, c, iv. , Cambridge, 1896, gives a good account of
the religious women who corresponded with Boniface,
CHAPTER XII
EVIL INFLUENCES
Bede makes many references in his writings to the degeneracy
of his times, and, though it must be remembered that a man
of his deep spirituahty of mind would naturally be
inclined to magnify any decline in piety and ^^^^^^^y^^^^^J^;
religious activity, the definite character of his
complaints and the course which things took in later years
alike assure us that he did not speak without good cause.
Shortly before his death, he wrote fully to Ecgbert of York
on the evils which he saw were existing in the Church in
Northumbria. His visit to Ecgbert, in 733, was undertaken
for the purpose of study, and he hoped to repeat it the next
year. Failing health prevented him, and on November 5,
734, he wrote to his friend and former pupil the letter on the
need of ecclesiastical reformation noticed in our last chapter.
First, as regards the clergy, he urges that bishops should be
more careful in choosing their attendants, for some bishops
surrounded themselves with men who were given to folly,
feasting, and drink. Bede had himself suffered from some
unguarded talk that had been permitted in the presence of
his own diocesan Wilfrith, when Bishop of Hexham. Certain
country-bred monks, while sitting at table with the bishop,
had talked of Bede's work on chronology entitled De
Temporibiis, and one of them had declared that it was heretical.
That such men should be talking about a book of chronology
while sitting at their drink, illustrates the widespread interest
which was taken by the monastic order in matters of learning.
Bede wrote a letter to Plegwin, one of his friends at Hexham,
224 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
to be shown to Wilfrith, proving how baseless the charge
was.
j In his letter to Ecgbert, Bede reminds the bishop that there
were villages in his diocese without priests, and he exhorts him
to ordain men to them that they might preach,
Need of more celebrate the holy mysteries, and baptize. He
parish priests, ,i-i i i i i-i
would have the bishop take care that they preached
the Catholic faith, and specially taught the x^postles' creed and
the Lord's Prayer. Even among the monks and clergy there
were ignorant men who did not understand Latin, and for
this reason Bede says that he had translated the Creed and the
Lord's Prayer into English. His complaint as to villages lacking
priests shows that the parochial system was becoming general,
and that godly men considered it scandalous that a village should
not have its own priest.
He was not satisfied with the efficiency of the Northumbrian
episcopate. There w^ere, he declares, many villages in the
mountainous parts of Ecgbert's diocese which for
episcopal years had not been visited by a bishop, and
supervision, j-gj^^j^ed wuthout learned preaching and without the
rite of confirmation, though the episcopal tribute was levied
everywhere. What Bede says about preaching shows us that
the country clergy were as a rule unlearned, and that
rudimentary teaching only was to be expected from them.
He says that the bishops neglected to make a yearly visitation
of their dioceses, which were, indeed, too large for that, nor
were the bishops willing that their dioceses should be subdivided,
because subdivision would diminish their wealth. More bishop-
rics, however, were urgently needed, and King Ceolwulf, Bede
said, would be wilHng to create them if Ecgbert applied to him.
Let him strive to have Pope Gregory's plan carried out in
the North. As Bishop of York he should apply for a pall that
his see might become metropolitan, and he would have him
then cause his province to be divided into twelve bishoprics.
By this means ample provision would be made for the spiritual
care of the people.
It was hard to say where new sees could be established,
for former kings had, Bede says, made such reckless grants to
monasteries that the churches which were most fit to be made
cathedral churches were already appropriated. To meet this
XII PSEUDO-MONASTERIES 225
difficulty, he proposed that the new sees should be placed
in existing monasteries, and in order to overcome any objection
which a convent might have to such a use of its ^,
IS^cw sees to
church, he suggested that the bishop should be be placed in
elected by the monks, and should rule his diocese "»°"^^'"'«s-
in conjunction with them. This plan of joint diocesan
administration would scarcely have found favour except
with those who, like its author, belonged to the monastic
order ; it seems to exhibit the influence of the Scots' system,
though it was, of course, different from it, and if it had been
adopted would certainly have led to the subordination of
bishops to monastic superiors.
A monastery that received a bishop's see would, as Bede
said, probably need an increase of revenue ; its expenses
in hospitality would certainly be greater. This he
would have provided by annexing to it some so- Pseudo-
^ . -' ° monasteries.
called monasteries which were monastic only in
name. Of these there were many in Northumbria, of no
profit, as he says, either to God or man, for God was not
honoured in them and they sent no men to the defence of
the kingdom against barbarian invasion. The barbarians of
whom he speaks were the Picts, who had threatened North-
umbria ever since the overthrow of Ecgfrith at Nectansmere.
Some pretended monasteries he would have suppressed. In
many of them young nobles were brought up who, on reach-
ing manhood, remained in them, idle and unmarried, but
leading evil lives, and even corrupting consecrated virgins,
a form of iniquity of which we hear a good deal. Full of
evil consequences was the custom of regarding monasteries
founded by laymen on their hereditary estates as their
private and heritable property. A provision in the privilege
granted by Wihtred to the Kentish monasteries, and
accepted and confirmed by ^thelbald of Mercia in a
council held at Clovesho in 742, seems directed against this
abuse, which was closely connected with the tendency to
treat abbacies as pertaining to the families of founders.
Under pretence of founding monasteries, rich laymen would
obtain grants of lands of inheritance from kings and their
witan, and, though continuing to live with their wives, would
make themselves lords of convents composed of renegade
Q
226 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
monks and worn-out henchmen. So, too, they would set up
monasteries for their wives, who without taking monastic
vows would make themselves rulers of religious women.
The evil had gone on in Northumbria for about thirty years,
ever since the death of Aldfrith in 705, and there was
scarcely a man of wealth and importance who did not hold
the lordship of a monastery. Now and then one of them
did receive the tonsure, but he did not become one of the
brethren of a convent, but straightway abbot of his own house.
It was Ecgbert's duty, Bede urged, to make most diligent
inquiry into the state of every monastery in his diocese, and
particularly as to the conduct of their rulers, both
duty respeci abbots and abbesses, " specially as I hear," he says,
ing them, a ^j^^^^. ^^^ bishops are wont to assert that to hold an
inquiry of that sort is the right of a bishop and not of a king."
His words seem to point to the perpetual antagonism which
existed between bishops and the monastic order, of which some-
thing has already been said. A bishop was far more likely
to interfere with a monastery, whether by an unfair exercise
of his authority, or by an attempt to enforce wholesome
discipline, than a king, who would, as a rule, be content to
know that his name was inscribed as a benefactor in its
"book of life," that he had a right to the prayers of the
convent and the support that the good word of the monks
would give him in his kingdom. Bede was too thoroughly
a monk not to share, at all events to some extent, in the
feelings of his order, but with him the good of the Church
came before everything. The evils that he lamented pro-
ceeded from the action of great men, royal officers, and the
like, and from the carelessness of kings who did not check
their ill -doings, and, therefore, as he knew that Ecgbert
claimed, and would doubtless exercise, jurisdiction over the
monasteries in his diocese, he would have him use his power
for the good of monasticism and of the Church at large.
He again impresses upon him the duty of providing for the
religious instruction of the laity, and observes with regret that,
instead of the practice of daily communion, many even of
the more religious communicated only at Christmas, Epiphany,
and Easter. Towards the end of his letter he speaks of the
^in of avarice which had spread even among the monks.
XII NORTHUMBRIAN BISHOPS 227
The monastic obligation to poverty was often disregarded, and
men under religious vows not only kept, but even added to,
their possessions.
Bede's letter is mainly a cry for more efficient episcopal
administration, which he thought might be secured by an
increase in the Northumbrian episcopate. At the
date at which it was written there were four North- Northu^mbrian
umbrian bishoprics, — York, Lindisfarne, Hexham, bishops,
and Whitern. The see of Whitern, the scene of
the labours of St. Ninian, had been established shortly before
731, when Pecthelm appears as its first occupant. Though
the Northumbrians lost the Pictish land on the Firth of Forth
by their defeat at Nectansmere in 686, they still remained
masters of the Picts in Galloway, and, as they had increased
in number there, a bishop was consecrated for them. Five
English bishops sat at Whitern before 803, when, the North-
umbrian power having fallen into decay, the line came to an
end. As Bede hoped, Ecgbert of York became archbishop,
but no addition was made to the northern episcopate. Even
had it been otherwise, further reform would have been neces-
sary, for it is evident that Bede was not satisfied with the
bishops of his time.
Yet the Northumbrian bishops of the last thirty years of
his life were excellent men. At York, John of Hexham, who
succeeded Bosa in 705, was famed for his holiness,
and miracles were attributed to him. He seems to OfVork and
Hexham.
have gone about his diocese performing episcopal acts,
and he founded a minster and a house for nuns at Inderawood,
on the Hull, later known as Beverley, whence he is usually
called John of Beverley. Thither, when he grew too old for
further work, he retired in 718, after consecrating as his
successor a second Wilfrith, who had, like himself, been a
scholar in the monastery of Whitby. Wilfrith II. was, we are
told, diligent in preaching, spent his revenues on the adorn-
ment of his minster and other churches, and in charity, and
was universally honoured and beloved. He, too, ended his
days in retirement, and was succeeded by Ecgbert in 732. At
Hexham, Wilfrith I. was succeeded by his faithful follower
Acca, who carried on the work of his former master. He com-
pleted and adorned the churches built by Wilfrith at and
228 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
near Hexham ; he was skilful in song, brought a singer named
Maban, who had been trained at Canterbury, to teach his
clergy the Roman method of chanting, and collected a large
library of books, Lives of the Saints, and other religious works.
He was deposed from his see, probably in 732, perhaps on
account of some opposition to the scheme for the restoration
of metropolitan dignity to York.
At Lindisfarne, St. Cuthbert was succeeded by Eadfrith,
chiefly known as the writer of the Lindisfarne gospels, and for
his devotion to his predecessor's memory. He
Of.^^dis- (jig(j in ^2 1, and, after a vacancy of three years,
was succeeded by ^thelwald or Ethelwold, in
earlier life one of Cuthbert's attendants, a skilful artist, who
caused the splendid cover of the Lindisfarne gospels to be
wrought by an anchoret named Bilfrith, a famous goldsmith,
and had a fine cross erected at Lindisfarne. Such were the
bishops of Northumbria during the period marked in Bede's
eyes by the rise of abuses which should have been checked by
episcopal control, men not lightly to be condemned as though
they winked at abuses, especially as the evils of which Bede
complains were not confined to Northumbria. It may be
that the lives of these bishops were too exclusively monastic,
and were consequently not conducive to good diocesan
administration ; for it is obvious that a bishop might be a
pattern of monastic virtue, and yet be hindered by the hold
which monastic Hfe had upon him from ruling his diocese
efficiently.
Another cause of trouble in the Church is pointed out by
St. Boniface, who speaks of the mischief wrought by wicked
kings. He says that ecclesiastical privileges were
picked i^j-st violated in the reigns of Osred of Northumbria
(705-717) and Ceolred of Mercia (709-716), thus
agreeing with Bede, so far as Northumbria was concerned, in
taking the death of Aldfrith as marking the beginning of a
period of trouble. Osred, whom we have seen as a child
presiding over the council on the Nidd, in the first year of his
reign, grew into a wild and dissolute youth ; he oppressed his
nobles, and forced consecrated women to minister to his lusts.
Ceolred also broke into monasteries and committed like
iniquities. Both came to an evil end. Osred was slain by his
xii ST, GUTHLAC 229
kinsfolk, and Ceolred was seized with sudden madness while
feasting with his nobles, and died miserably. Under such
kings as these, ecclesiastical property and institutions were
abused, and religion naturally declined. The letter in which
Boniface speaks of the wickedness of these kings was written
to Ceolred's successor y^thelbald, urging him to reform his life.
^thelbald had been banished from Mercia during the reign
of Ceolred, and while in exile had visited a hermit named Guth-
lac, who was believed to have the gift of prophecy. n,^^^^\^^
Though the desire for a solitary life spent in ascetic ^'d. f^\^'''
practices, which was so common in the saints of the
Scots, was becoming less general among the English, it was still
powerful in some persons of ecstatic temperament, and led them
to adopt the lives of hermits or anchorets. Though these terms
are often used synonymously, a distinction should be made
between them. The anchoret or recluse, male or female, was
immured in a cell or anchorage, often built near some
monastery or church; the hermit was free to leave his cell,
which was usually placed in a more or less lonely spot,
and wander whither he would. The distinction, however,
was not clearly observed in these early times, and Guthlac
is called a hermit and an anchoret indifferently. He
was the son of a Mercian noble, and his youth was spent
in wild forays. Suddenly the thought of how soon death
put an end to all earthly things came forcibly to his
mind, and he entered the double monastery of Repton,
then under the rule of an abbess named ^Ifthryth, or
Elfrida. For a while his fellow-monks were annoyed with
him because he would not drink with them, for on receiving
the tonsure he made a vow of total abstinence.
After spending two years at Repton, he obtained permission
to become a hermit, and journeyed until he came to an unin-
habited island in the fen-country about the rivers
Nen and Welland. This was Crowland, in the south ^^^l\l^l
of the present Lincolnshire. There he dwelt with
two followers from Repton, amid sluggish waters and fever-
haunted marshes, contending with evil spirits which appeared,
as he beheved, in bodily forms. On one occasion, at any rate,
the intruders seem to have been Britons, some of the
conquered race who had found shelter, and either preserved or
230 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
regained their freedom, in that desolate district. A few miles
from his dwelling his sister Pega lived in a cell as a female
hermit, but he refused to see her until they should meet in
heaven. The fame of his sanctity brought crowds of men
of every degree to visit him, bishops and nobles, rich and
poor ; and to all alike he spoke profitable words, for he was
in truth a holy man and well versed in the Scriptures. After
his death, his island was the site of a monastic settlement
which became a famous abbey. When ^thelbald came to visit
him, Guthlac told him that he should speedily and peaceably
succeed to the Mercian throne, and his words were fulfilled
soon afterwards on the death of Ceolred.
Under the rule of ^thelbald the Mercian kingdom entered
on a period of greatness which, though marked by many
religious foundations, was not conducive to the
S^Merda. true Welfare of the Church. ^thelbald gained
yEtheibaid, supremacy over the whole of England, south of the
Humber, and for a time completely abased the
kingdom of the West Saxons, though a few years before the
end of his reign they inflicted a severe defeat upon him. In
ecclesiastical as well as civil affairs he acted as the head king
of Southern England, and his predominant influence may be
discerned in the election of three archbishops of Canterbury, —
of Tatwine a priest from a Mercian monastery, of Nothelm a
priest of London, then under Mercian rule, and, in 740, of
Cuthbert who was translated from the see of Hereford. He
seems to have allowed, and indeed to have encouraged,
synodical action, and he made grants to many monasteries
both in Mercia and in kingdoms which were not under his
immediate rule. In spite of this liberality, which was perhaps
evoked by a desire to do what was expected of a great king,
his reign was injurious to the interests of religion. In the
letter to which reference has already been made, Boniface and
five bishops of sees in the Prankish dominions, three of them
of English race, reprove him severely for his evil life. He
had abstained from marriage only that he might commit
fornication, specially with mynchens, or as we should call
them nuns, and other women consecrated to God. His
wickedness was imitated by his great men, and child-murder
was practised even in monasteries. Moreover, he allowed his
xn COUNCIL OF CLOVES HO ±yi
ealdormen and thegns to oppress the servants of God and
violate their privileges.
In 747 the Church made a vigorous effort to reform abuses.
Its action may with great probability be connected with
Bede's letter to Ecgbert ; while the immediate cause
of it was a letter sent by Pope Zachary, demanding ^j^;^'^^^'°f^
instant reformation, and threatening the contuma-
cious with excommunication. Acting on this letter, Archbishop
Cuthbert held a provincial synod at Clovesho in September, at
which ^thelbald and his nobles were present. Eleven out of
the twelve bishops of the province attended the synod. The
bishoprics and bishops of the province of Canterbury at that
date were, in addition to the archbishop, Dunn of Rochester,
the bishops of the three Mercian sees, Torthelm of Leicester,
Hwitta of Lichfield, and Podda of Hereford; of the two
West Saxon sees, Hunferth of Winchester and Herewald of
Sherborne ; of the two East Anglian sees, Eardulf of
Dunwich and Eanfrith of Elmham (Eanfrith was absent from
the synod) ; Ecgwulf of London, the East Saxon bishop,
Milred, bishop of the Hwiccas, or of Worcester, Alwig of
Lindsey, and Sigga of the South Saxons, or of Selsey. The
pope's letter was read, and the bishops drew up thirty canons
for the reform of abuses.
It will be convenient to consider the more important of
these canons, so far as is possible, under two heads, according
to their relation to the secular clergy and laity and
to the monastic order, though it will not be possible conc?rn?ng
to keep the two classes perfectly distinct. Bishops ^^^[|iJy^"^
were to give themselves to teaching God's people,
were to set them a good example, and were to visit the
whole of their dioceses every year, summoning the people
to meet them at different places, that they might preach
the Word of God to them, and forbid, among other sins,
the practice of heathen magic. They were not to ordain
any clerk to the priesthood without previous examination into
his character, doctrine, and ability. Priests were to be
diligent in baptizing and preaching in the places assigned to
them by their bishops, that is, in their parishes. The
parochial system was, then, by this time thoroughly estab-
lished. They were to learn how to explain in EngHsh the
232 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the sacramental words in Baptism,
and the Mass, and other offices of the Church. They
were to observe festivals and saints' days, according to the
Roman use and calendar, and a special order is made for
the observance of the days of Pope Gregory " our father," and
Archbishop Augustine. At a council held in 755 it was
decreed that the day of the martyrdom of St. Boniface should
also be solemnly observed. The four Ember seasons were to
be kept as fasts by all, laity as well as clergy, and in accord-
ance with the Roman rite. All ecclesiastical persons were
carefully to prepare themselves for receiving the Holy Com-
munion, and lay persons were to be exhorted to communicate
more frequently.
The canons with reference to monastic persons illustrate
the irregular and unsettled condition of English monasticism
at that time, and indicate the separation which was
co^cemfng about to take place between ecclesiastics of secular
monastic ^nd rcligious life. It was decreed that the bishops
should admonish all abbots and abbesses in their
diocese to live according to rule. This was an attempt to
enforce the Rule of St. Benedict ; it probably caused monks
and clergy to cease from dwelling together, and led them to
form communities, exclusively monastic or secular, as the case
might be. A complete reformation of the pseudo-monasteries
was considered impossible, but the bishops were to visit them
and do what lay in their power for the good of the inmates.
All bishops, abbots, and abbesses were to provide schools in
which young people might be instructed in religious knowledge.
Monks and the seniors of convents were to lead regular lives,
to wear a fitting dress, and to eschew fine garments. This pro-
vision was by no means unnecessary, for the monastic
^^dS^'^ habit was not exclusively worn by the religious of either
sex. St. Boniface remarks upon the purple borders
which were worn upon the robes of young men in Enghsh
monasteries, and Ealdhelm says that there were monastic
ladies who wore violet-coloured vests, scarlet tunics, and
sleeves slashed with silk and lined with fur, and curled their
hair with irons. The punishment which fell upon Coldingham
did not prevent ladies in other houses from using their skill in
needlework for the gratification of their own vanity, instead of
XII SYNODTCAL DECREES 233
for the .adornment of God's altars. Another ot these canons
orders that the cells of mynchens {sancti?nonialwni dotnicilid)
were not to be places of gossip, feasting, and drinking, but
rather of reading and psalm-singing, than of weaving or sewing
fine clothes. So, too, bishops were to take care that monas-
teries generally answered to their name, and were not made
the resorts of minstrels, musicians, and buffoons. No lay
person was to be admitted into the monastic order without
due probation as laid down in the rule, lest it should after-
wards be found necessary to expel him from his monastery,
and he should then wander among the laity to the scandal of
religion, and no abbot was to receive more monks than his
house could support. From that time no clerks, monks, or
mynchens were to dwell in the houses of the laity, each was
to go back to his or her monastery.
All ecclesiastical persons were to refrain from excessive
drinking, and except in cases of sickness were not to drink
before the canonical, or third hour of the day.
People used to rise early at that period, and nine in d?fnS^
the morning was probably the time of the principal
meal of the day. Excessive drinking was a national habit,
and Boniface says that he had heard that even bishops in-
dulged in it. In order to render these and other synodical
decrees effectual, it was decided that bishops on returning
from a synod, should call the priests and abbots of their
dioceses together and instruct them as to w^hat had been
decreed, and that if a bishop found anything amiss in his
diocese which he was unable to amend, he should lay the
matter before the archbishop in a synod. Cuthbert sent the
acts of this synod to Boniface, who in return wrote him an
account of a council which he had held in Germany, and sent
him several recommendations for reform in the English
Church, enforcing the necessity of some of the measures
already taken by Cuthbert's synod.
^thelbald was possibly moved by remonstrances addressed
to him by the bishops, against the violence and extortion of
his officers, for, in 749, he and his witan decreed j^^^^j^^^
that no burden should be laid on churches or ^theibaid
monasteries, except for the building of bridges and
the defence of strongholds. A few years later he was defeated
234 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
by the West Saxons at Burford, and lost his supremacy in the
south, and in 757 was slain by his own followers, dying with
an evil character, for a dreamer saw him in torment. After a
usurper had reigned for a short time, Offa, a member of the
royal house, succeeded to the Mercian throne.
Cuthbert, who was evidently an active and excellent arch-
bishop, died on October 26, 758, and first of all Archbishops
of Canterbury was buried in his cathedral church.
"^piscopS' I^ ^^ said that, with the consent of the Kentish king,
burial- he obtained a decree from Gregory III. that Christ
Church should for the future be the burial-place of
the archbishops, and that he ordered that his death should
not be made known until he was buried. Accordingly, when
the monks of St. Augustine's, on hearing the tolling of the
Christ Church bell, came to carry off his body to bury it, they
found that he had already been buried in the baptistery which
he had added to his church. They were grieved that their
church should lose the honour it had so long enjoyed, to say
nothing of the payment called " soul-sceat " made at burials,
or of offerings presented at the archbishops' tombs. Cuthbert
was succeeded by Bregwine, a friend of Lul, the successor of
Boniface in the see of Mainz, whom he had met in Rome.
He was not a Mercian, and Offa probably thought him no
friend to the Mercian party in Kent, for he despoiled him of
the Mercian monastery of Cookham, which ^thelbald had
granted to his church. Bregwine died on August 25, 765, and
was buried with Cuthbert in Christ Church, his death being
kept secret until after his burial, so that though Jaenbert,^ the
abbot of St. Augustine's, and his monks were prepared to
carry off his body by force, if need be, they were outwitted.
He was succeeded by Jaenbert, who, according to a late and
entirely untrustworthy story, was elected by the monks of
Christ Church in order to avoid an appeal to Rome on the
burials question. We may believe that Cuthbert and
Bregwine each received a pall, Jaenbert certainly received one
and in 767, apparently after receiving it, consecrated ^thel-
bert to the see of York, and two other bishops, besides
1 This name should be written laenberht, for it is, Mr. Pluramer points
out, a form of Eanbriht. The initial is therefore vocalic, not consonantal.
The usual form is retained in the text to avoid confusion.
XII OFFA OF MERCIA 235
Alubert an English missionary, whom he consecrated as a
bishop for the Old Saxons.
Though the greatness of Mercia was shaken by the defeat
of yEthelbald and by civil discord, Offa, after some years,
raised it to a climax. He made himself master of
the whole country from the Humber to the Thames, the MerdLs,
for he defeated the West Saxons, and added the ^^t"^^^-
present Oxfordshire to his immediate kingdom ; he conquered
Kent, extended his border at the expense of the Welsh, and
exercised a strong influence in the affairs of Wessex and
Northumbria. Some years after conquering the East Anglians,
he caused their king ^thelbert to be beheaded. ^Ethelbert's
death was made the subject of legends ; he is said to have
been a holy king, and became the patron-saint of the church
of Hereford. It was believed that Offa founded St. Alban's
Abbey as an atonement for his murder. There is no reason
to doubt that he was the founder of St. Alban's, and he may
possibly have restored a minster on Thorney Island, the pre-
decessor of the Confessor's West Minster, said to have been
founded in the earliest days of English Christianity ; indeed,
his grants to monasteries, to Peterborough, Worcester, Christ
Church, and St. Augustine's at Canterbury, and many more,
though generally recorded in spurious charters, are so numerous
that there can be no question as to his liberality to the Church.
His relations with Popes Hadrian I. and Leo III., and with
the mighty Prankish ruler, Charles the Great, who was, through
his intimacy with Alcuin, thoroughly acquainted with English
affairs, show that he was regarded on the continent as a
powerful monarch. In a letter written by Hadrian to Charles,
before 786, the pope refers to a mahcious report that Charles
and Offa, "King of the English people," had conspired to depose
him, and says that he would gladly receive envoys from Offa.
In spite of his liberahty, Offa brought evil on the Church.
He sought to consolidate his kingdom by giving it an inde-
pendent ecclesiastical organisation. The rise of
Mercia had divided England between three large thesee'of
states, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. North- Canterbury.
umbria, which had its own archbishop, was weakened by civil
discord, and virtually stood apart from the politics of the rest
of the country. Mercia, though mistress of Kent, was ecclesi-
236 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
astically subject to Canterbury. The grievance was not merely
sentimental ; the primate was a factor of importance in the
politics of Southern England, and the success of English
missions, and the fame of English scholars, had contributed to
exalt his position in Europe. In Kent, which had for a time
been subject to East Saxon kings reigning with Mercian
support, had passed under West Saxon influence, and had
next been conquered and reconquered by Mercia, civil rivalries
had vastly increased the power of the metropolitan see. The
archbishops coined their own money, at least from the time
of Jaenbert, some of whose coins are in existence. A hostile
archbishop might be a serious menace to the continuance
of Mercian rule in Kent. Offa designed to divide the southern
province, and erect a Mercian archbishopric as a means of
strengthening the unity of the Mercian dominions, and of
weakening the power of the church of Canterbury, which he
perhaps suspected was being used by Jaenbert against his
sovereignty in Kent. For political reasons he endangered the
peace of the church, and attacked the see of Augustine.
Offa's opportunity came in 786. George, cardinal-bishop of
Ostia, who was then residing at the court of Charles, as the
legate of Hadrian, received a command from Hadrian sent by
Theophylact, cardinal-bishop of Todi, that they were both to go
as legates to England "to renew the faith and peace which
St. Gregory had sent us by Augustine the Bishop." This was
the first time that England was visited by papal legates. The
mission of legates acted as a powerful instrument
A legatme \^ increasing the papal authority. A legate repre-
sented in distant lands the pope by whom he had
been sent, and coming from the pope's side {legatus a latere)
was invested with a measure of his authority, so that in all
matters of jurisdiction he acted as the superior of the bishops
of the land which he was commissioned to visit. The legate a
latere was different from a mere envoy, who simply conveyed a
message, or was sent to carry out the pope's bidding as to
some special matter, but was not personally invested with any
measure of the dignity and authority of a representative of the
pope himself. In later times there were legates in England of
another sort, whose presence was far less prejudicial to the
independent life of a national church. These were called
XII A LEGATINE VISIT 237
native legates (Jegati nati)^ but with them we have nothing
to do here. No other legates came to England after this
visit, until the eve of the Norman Conquest, when the English
throne was occupied by a king who was a foreigner in heart
and by education. Not that earlier kings would have refused
to admit legates, but they did not want them or ask for them,
and the popes did not send them. For there were no heresies
in the Enghsh Church which called for correction, and as the
custom arose that archbishops should go to Rome for their
palls, and make oath of obedience to the Roman see on re-
ceiving them, there was no need to enforce an acknowledgment
of the papal authority in England by any further means.
So the English Church was allowed to go on its way with
remarkably little direct interference from Rome. Along with
the legates, George and Theophylact, Charles sent as his
ambassador a Frankish abbot named Wigbod.
On arriving in England in 786, the legates went to Canter-
bury and discussed the affairs of the church with Jaenbert.
Thence they went to the court of Offa, who received
them with joy. He had doubtless already laid his umbrian
scheme for the creation of a third archbishopric ^^"°^'
before Hadrian, and we may believe that it was the determin-
ing cause of the legates' visit, though, as we have seen, the
abuses which had appeared in the English Church had caused
some anxiety at Rome, and Hadrian may have been glad of
an opportunity of using his authority to suppress them. The
legates had much talk with Offa, and with Cynewulf, the king
of the West Saxons, who was visiting him, and with the great
men of Mercia. George, who was the head of the legation,
bade his colleague stay with Offa, and visit " parts of Britain,"
or England,^ while he and Wigbod went into the North to
Eanbald L, Archbishop of York, to hold a council in his
province. Eanbald sent to ^Ifwald, then king of the North-
umbrians, who, after some delay, came from the northern parts
of his kingdom, and a day was fixed for the council. It was,
perhaps, held at Finchale near Durham. Alcuin, the famous
1 Bishop Stubbs says that the Britain meant here is probably North Wales,
the principality of Gwynedd, which adopted the Roman Easter 768-809, see
Councils, etc. iii. 461. But if the report of the legates' doings was written by
Wigbod, see postea, he would have used the name Britain as suggested above.
238 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
scholar, who had come over from Gaul on a visit to his own
country, was present at it, together with Pyttel, one of his
friends, both of them only in reader's orders. George caused
the pope's letters to be read. Then, after all had declared that
they would obey the pope and him, he read twenty decrees which
he had drawn up, and all present accepted them for themselves
and those subject to them, and subscribed them, each adding
the sign of the cross to his name.
After this, George went south with Wigbod, taking with
him Alcuin and Pyttel, who carried the acts of the northern
council, met Theophylact, and in 787 held another
The synod , . ' m >-. i i i r^^ ^ i • i
of Chelsea, Icgatmc council at Cealchythe, or Chelsea, which
^^^" was attended by Jaenbert and the bishops of the
southern province, and by Offa and his witan. At this council
he caused the decrees which had been accepted in Northumbria
to be read clearly in English as well as in Latin,^ that all
might understand them, and all accepted them.
^ In the report of the legatine mission first printed by the Magdeburg
Centuriators, and copied from them by Spelman, Wilkins, and Haddan and
Stubbs, these words were given as "tarn Latine quam Teutonice. " Philo-
logists said that "Teutonice" must be wrong, as that word was not used to
denote a language until much later. It was also remarked that the report
contained no notice of the creation of the archbishopric of Lichfield, and
Bishop Stubbs, fully convinced of its. authenticity, noted that it was imperfect.
The MS. used by the Centuriators, and believed to have been lost, has lately
been discovered, and a corrected version of the report is printed in Monu-
menta Ger7n. Hist., Epp. Karolini ^vi, ii. 20 sq. , Berlin, 1895. It is now
proved that "Teutonice" is an arbitrary alteration, the word in the MS. being
"theodisce," which in this connection must mean English. Dr. Dove in an
admirable paper "Das alteste Zeugniss fiir den namen Deutsch " in the
Sitzungsberichte of the Munich Academy for 1895, p. 223 sq. , Munich, 1896,
points out that no Englishman would have used "theodisce" to denote his
own language, but that it might very well have been used in opposition to
Latin by a North German, who would, more or less, have understood English,
and have recognised it as a form of his own speech, and ai-gues from this and
other internal evidence that it is probable that the report was written by
Wigbod for his master Charles. Wigbod, in copying from the report pre-
pared by the legates, would select for his master the acts of canonical import-
ance, and leave out a matter of p;irely insular interest such as the Lichfield
archbishopric, so that the incompleteness of the report is in favour of its
authenticity, of which there can now be no question. It is from the amended
version of the report that we learn that Alcuin was present at the two councils,
while philologists have found in it the earliest known use of the word Deutsch
(theodisc) as the name of a particular language. I have to thank the
Bishop of Oxford for calling my attention to the corrected version of the
report and to Dr. Dove's paper, and Professor Napier, of Oxford, for kindly
explaining the significance of the new reading.
XII SYNOD OF CHELSEA 239
Of these decrees we need only notice three. In cap. 3 it is
ordained (i) that two synods should be held every year; it is
unlikely that this was carried out, but the number of councils
known to have been held in succeeding years suggests that the
decree was not ineffectual; and (2) that bishops should hold yearly
visitations. Cap. 4 orders bishops to see that canons
lived canonically, and monks regularly. This is the Canonical
first notice of canons in the history of the English
Church. From the time of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
(395-430), the clergy of a bishop's church sometimes dwelt
together under his direction in a semi-monastic manner, though
not under monastic vows. About 750, Chrodegang, a Bishop
of Metz, drew up a rule for the clergy of his church, founded
on the Rule of St. Benedict, ordaining that they were to eat
together, sleep in a common dormitory, and be under officers,
who, though bearing other titles, corresponded to the officers
of a convent. The clergy who lived thus by rule {k(xvw or
ca?wn) were called canonici or canons. An attempt was made
in the Frankish empire to bring secular priests generally under
this rule ; it failed, and canons remained a class apart ; they
were seculars not under monastic vows, though theoretically
bound by a semi-monastic rule. In England, the term "canon,"
appearing in these conciliar acts draw^n up by foreigners, does
not appear to have been in ordinary use until at least the end
of the tenth century. After the revival of Benedictinism,
attempts w^ere made to bring the clergy to accept the canonical
life. They were quietly resisted, and though, as we shall see,
the rule of Chrodegang was introduced into a few churches,
it never gained any hold on the English clergy, and generally
the term "canon" meant little more than a member of a college
of clergy, serving a church in common and having a common
claim on its revenues. Cap. 1 7 orders the payment of tithes,
though without directing how they were to be applied.
As these legatine councils were attended by kings
and their witan, they had the authority of witenagemots, and
therefore the obligation of tithe, previously declared by the
Church, w^as in these councils made imperative by secular
law.
In addition to canonical business, the question of a
Mercian archbishopric was debated in the council of the
240 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
southern province. After some contention, the council agreed
to the proposal that the see of Lichfield, then occupied
by a bishop named Higbert, should be raised
bishopric of to metropolitan rank. Jaenbert was compelled
Lichfield. ^Q surrender to Higbert a part of his province,
said to have been as much as seven out of the twelve
southern bishoprics, so that Canterbury was left with only
Winchester, London, Sherborne, Rochester, and Selsey as
suffragan sees. Higbert received a pall, probably in 788,
and thenceforward attested charters as equal in dignity with
Jaenbert, though junior to him in date of consecration..
Apparently before the council broke up, Offa caused his son
Ecgferth to be hallowed king, and thus obtained through the
legates the papal recognition of him as his colleague and
successor. Out of gratitude to the pope, he vowed at the
council to send every year to Rome three hundred and
sixty-five mancuses — a mancus being thirty pence — for the
poor and for the maintenance of the lights in St. Peter's.
This was probably the origin of Peter's pence, a tax of a penny
on every hearth, which was sent from England before, and
after the close of the ninth century. The king's offering was
not an excessive return for the help that he had derived from
Rome in his scheme to subordinate the dignity of the see of
Canterbury, and the welfare of the Church, to the political
greatness of his house and kingdom. Jaenbert was the last
archbishop buried in St. Augustine's; he was succeeded by
^thelheard, probably a Mercian abbot, who was, perhaps,
elected in 791, and was consecrated on July 21, 793. The
delay in his consecration may have been caused by the
unwillingness of the clergy and people of Kent to receive a
Mercian archbishop.
The mission of Wigbod established close relations between
Charles and Offa, and the interest felt by Alcuin in the
Church of his native land gave the friendship of
^^andThf"^ the two kings an ecclesiastical importance. Charles
Church^ strongly disapproved of the decrees of the Second
Council of Nicaea, held in 787, which not only
condemned the iconoclasm of the Isaurian Emperors, but
declared that adoration was due to the images of Christ and
His saints. In spite of Hadrian's confirmation of these
XII TROUBLES IN NORTHUMBRIA 241
decrees Charles ordered the publication of a treatise called
the Caroline Books in which this doctrine was censured in
indignant terms. Being anxious to obtain the support of
the English Church, he sent a copy of the acts of the
Nicene Council to England in 792, and it was there decided,
evidently by synodical authority, that the worship of images was
reprobated by the Church of God. Alcuin, who was then in
England, was deputed to present to the Prankish king, in the
name of the English prelates and princes, a letter which he had
written proving it to be contrary to the Scriptures. By
Charles's invitation English bishops attended the council of
Frankfort held in 794, in which the action of the Nicene
Council was anathematised and the adoptionist heresy was
condemned. The prevalence of this semi-arian heresy in
certain parts of his dominions caused Charles to order that
the words Filioqiie^ asserting the catholic verity of the procession
of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, should be intro-
duced into the Nicene Creed chanted in his chapel. This truth,
it will be remembered, had already been acknowledged by the
English Church at the council of Hatfield. On the death of
Hadrian in 795, Charles sent a present of vestments to the
bishops of the Northumbrian and Mercian sees to obtain
prayers for the pope's soul, and further promised Offa that
English pilgrims to Rome should be free from toll.
During the eighth century the Church in Northumbria
was distressed by civil discord and disaster. From the death
of Aldfrith, in 705, to the end of the century, ^.^.^ ^.^^^^^
fourteen kings reigned in Northumbria, of whom inNonh-
not one died peacefully in possession of the kingly
power.i Two, Ceolwulf and Eadbert, voluntarily entered
monasteries, the rest were slain, banished, or simply deposed.
They were, for the most part, violent and evil men. One
fragment of Northumbrian history will suffice to illustrate the
disturbances which put an end to the prosperity of the Church
in that kingdom, ^thelred, the son of a banished king,
was elected king in his youth on the deposition of his father's
successor. He was cruel, and after a reign of five years was
banished in 779. He was succeeded by ^Ifwald, who was
present at the legatine council of 786. Unlike most of these
1 See the list in Bp. Stubbs's Constitutional History, i. 137, ed. 1S75.
242 EVIL INFLUENCES chap.
kings ^Ifwald was just and pious ; he reigned for nearly ten
years and then was murdered. The next reign was short;
the king was banished, and afterwards slain. Then, in 790,
^thelred was recalled from exile, and was restored to the
throne. Alcuin, who was then in Northumbria, was much
interested in his restoration, for he hoped that he would rule
well, and after his return to Gaul he wrote more than once to
^thelred, exhorting him and his nobles to avoid excess and
be guided by the clergy, reminding him that his predecessors
had reaped the due reward of their injustice, covetousness,
and debauchery, ^thelred, however, reigned no better than
before his deposition, and was slain by his nobles in 796.
The next king was banished after a reign of only twenty-
seven days, and was succeeded by Eardulf, who had, among
many others, suffered from ^thelred's cruelty. It is said
that ^thelred had ordered that he should be put to death at
Ripon, and that the executioner left him for dead, but he was
found to be alive when the monks came to bury him.
In the midst of these disturbances the Church in the
North received a heavy blow from beyond the sea. In 793,
Scandinavian pirates burnt the monastery on the
LiiSsfa/ne. holy isle of Lindisfarne, plundered the church, slew
Decay of gome of the monks, and carried others into captivity.
religion. ' , . '^ . .
Bitter was the cry of lamentation over the injury
done to this venerable place, and Alcuin exhorted ^thelred to
take this awful warning as a call to repentance. He wrote to
Higbald, the bishop of the church, and his monks, entreating
them to be of good courage and to seek to live a higher life,
and promised to seek help from Charles for them and for
their captive brethren. The monks of Wearmouth and Jarrow
he exhorted to take warning by the calamity of Lindisfarne.
His letter shows that religion had decayed among them
since the death of Bede ; he urges them not to be unv/orthy
of their spiritual fathers, not to be slothful, or careless of the
treasures of their library and the beauty of their churches.
Their pupils, he says, should imitate Bede's industry, and not
spend their time in digging out foxes or hunting hares.
The year after the overthrow of Lindisfarne the pirates fell
on Jarrow and plundered it. Some English warriors caught
them and slew their leader, and soon afterwards their ships
XII ARCHBISHOP EANBALD II. 243
were wrecked, some of the crews were drowned, and all who
escaped to the shore were slain without mercy.
Eanbald I. died on August 10, 796. He seems to have
consulted Alcuin as to his successor, for Alcuin exhorted him
to secure a free election to the clergy of his church, g^^^^,^ jj
and wrote to them warning them against simony. Abp. of "'
The next archbishop, Eanbald IL, was elected y°'''' 796.
probably before the death of Eanbald I., as though to avoid
some anticipated interference, for he was consecrated on the
14th by his suffragans, at Sockburn. He had been brought
up in the school of York, and was much beloved by Alcuin,
who, on his consecration, wrote him a letter full of godly
counsel. Alcuin bade him beware of worldliness and self-
indulgence, and be careful as to the conduct of his clerks ;
they were not to drink to excess, wear fine clothes, or scour
the country hallooing after foxes — fox-hunting of a sort
seems to have been popular in the north — but should ride
by his side singing psalms. He did not write thus with-
out a thorough knowledge of the state of the Church in
Northumbria. Eanbald struggled to reform abuses; for he
held a provincial council which was attended by laymen
as well as clergy, in 798 or 799, at Finchale, where a
profession of faith was made, and ordinances were enacted
for the increase of religion.
Eanbald suffered much from the hostility of King Eardulf,
who suspected him of intriguing against him with the Mercian
king, and, in 801, the archbishop thought that he ^.^ ^^^^
might be forced to leave his church. Eardulf had with
put away his wife and was living in adultery, and '"^
we may be sure that the archbishop condemned his wicked-
ness. Eanbald, however, seems also to have taken a part in
politics less consonant with his sacred office ; for Alcuin
suggests that he harboured the king's enemies, and says that
he kept too many soldiers in his train. Eardulf was driven
from his kingdom in 808, and laid his grievances before
Charles the Great, then Emperor of the Romans, and Leo HI.
He is said by a Northumbrian authority to have married one
of the emperor's daughters, but the statement lacks confirma-
tion. Both the pope and the emperor evidently thought that
Eanbald had had a hand in the king's expulsion, and they
244 E^IL INFLUENCES chap.
joined in sending envoys to Northumbria who restored him.
On leaving Northumbria the papal envoy fell into the hands
of Scandinavian pirates, who brought him back to England,
where he was ransomed by a Mercian noble. Eanbald
seems personally to have been an excellent man, though he
was, perhaps, led by the exigencies of his position to adopt a
line of conduct not to be commended in a bishop. His
secular power is illustrated by the large number of his coins
which are still extant, and are said to be the first issued by an
archbishop of York, with the exception of those of Ecgbert.
The date of his death is not known. After his time civil discord
and disaster shrouded the Church in Northumbria in dark-
ness. That its light may be discerned shining so long amid the
surrounding gloom, is due to the school of York, which had
supplied it with learned and godly clergy.
Offa and his son Ecgferth, who succeeded him, having both
died in 796, Cenwulf, or Kenulf, was chosen king by the
Mercians. He had at once to face a revolt in
Revolt in Kent which had broken out before his accession.
The Kentish men chose as their king Eadbert
Prsen, a member of their royal house ; he was in holy
orders, and had probably been forced by Offa to receive
ordination to prevent him from aiming at the throne. This
revolt made the support of the see of Canterbury important
to the Mercian king, and consequently the archiepiscopal
authority of Higbert seems to have waned after the death of
Offa, for the bishops-elect of Lindsey and Dunwich sought
consecration from ^thelheard, and made profession of
obedience to him. No earlier records of professions of
obedience made by English bishops-elect at their consecration
are known to exist, and it may be that the wrong done to the
Church of Canterbury either caused documents of this sort to
be drawn up for the first time, or at least ensured their
preservation, as evidences of the rights of the metropolitan see.
^thelheard warmly upheld the Mercian cause in Kent, and
obtained from Leo an anathema against Eadbert as an
apostate priest. This enraged the Kentish people ; he was
forced to leave his see, and in 797 Alcuin wrote to the nobles
and people of Kent exhorting them to recall him.
The next year Cenwulf reconquered Kent, took Eadbert
XII RIGHTS OF CANTERBURY RESTORED 245
prisoner, and blinded and mutilated him. He was not un-
mindful of the help that he had received from ^thelheard ; he
restored the estate at Cookham, which Offa had
taken from Archbishop Bregwine, and wrote to Leo ofThrrlghts
asking him to ascertain the rights of the see of £^^''"202
Canterbury, and enclosing a letter from yKthelheard
and his suffragans on the subject. Leo replied that Hadrian
would not have divided the southern province if Offa had
not told him that the division was generally desired. It was
obvious from his letter that ^thelheard had only to go to
Rome to obtain the restoration of the rights of his see.
Alcuin rejoiced at y^thelheard's return to Canterbury, advised
him to do penance for deserting his church, and encouraged
him in his efforts to put an end to the archbishopric of Lich-
field, expressing a hope that, though Higbert should be
deprived of all metropolitan authority, so pious a man would
not be mortified by being stripped of his pall. In 801, Alcuin
asked the emperor to receive the archbishop on his journey
to Rome, and sent his servant, with a horse and a saddle, such
as the Frankish bishops used, to meet him at the cell of St.
Judoc, near Etaples, which Charles had conferred upon Alcuin.
^thelheard prospered at Rome, and on January 12, 802,
Leo restored the rights of his see. This restoration was
acknowledged by the bishops and clergy of his province at a
council held at Clovesho on October 12, 803, in the presence
of Cenwulf and his witan. At this council it was decreed
that thenceforward no layman or secular person might be
elected as lord of a monastery. Poor Higbert seems to have
been deprived not only of his pall, but even of his episcopal
orders, for Eardulf attended the council as Bishop of Lichfield,
and first among the names of the clergy of his diocese who
accompanied him comes " Hygberht abbas."
Authorities. — Bede's Epistola ad Ecgbertmn Episcopuvt is in Mr.
Plummer's and other editions of Bede, and his Epistola ad PUgwinum in
Giles's edition, 1843. The greater part of the other materials for this
chapter will be found in Councils and Eccl. Docs. vol. iii. ; see also, for the
correspondence of St. Boniface, Alcuin, and Charlemagne, Jaffa's Monumenta
Moguntina and Man. Alcuiniana, u.s. , and Man. Carolina, Berlin, 1867.
The Life of St. Guthlac, written shortly after his death by Felix, is in yiA.
SS., Bolland. Apr. ii. 37, and elsewhere. The dispute about the burial-place
246 EVIL INFLUENCES chap, xii
of the archbishops is recorded in Thome's Chronica Abb. S. Augustini, ap.
Twysden's Decern Scriptores, London, 1652, and is related by Hook in his
Lives of the Alps. vol. i. The place of the legatine council in the north is
not quite certain. A synod was held at Finchale in Sept. 787 (see Symeon,
Hist. Regum, sub an.), and Bp. Stubbs identifies it with the legatine council
{Councils, iii. 443, 444). Mr, Plummer, however, in the forthcoming vol. ii. of
his edition of the Sax. ChroTi., inclines, with reason, to the opinion that the
northern legatine council was held before the end of 786. In any case, it was
probably held at Finchale, which seems to have been the ordinary meeting-
place of northern synods. The rule of Chrodegang is in L. d'Achery's
Spicilegiuvt, torn, i., Paris, 1723. Most of our knowledge of Northumbrian
history after the end of Bede's work comes from Symeon of Durham, who, as
Bp. Stubbs has pointed out, preserves some ancient Northumbrian annals.
Symeon's Opera are in the Rolls series. Eardulf s marriage to a daughter
of Charlemagne is asserted in Ann. Lindisfarn. ap. Mon. Germ. ed. Pertz,
xix. 506. The story of the restoration of Eardulf is in Einhard, Ann. Mon.
Germ. i. 195, and Mon. Carolina, pp. 313, 316. Other general authorities
are the Sax. Chron. ed. Plummer, Florence of Wore, and the ancient Lists
appended to his Chronicle, William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum and Gesta
Pontijicum, all already quoted, and Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus, Engl. Hist.
Soc. See also Bp. Stubbs's art. " Offa" (4) in Diet. Chr. Biogr.
CHAPTER XIII
VIKING INVASIONS
During the first three-quarters of the ninth century the
English Church passed through a period of vicissitudes and
storm. In the early years of the century it was
delivered from the dangers which threatened it from ^''sJj^j.J^'^^
the predominance of the kings of the Mercians,
who had sought to make it subservient to their own ends.
Later, its alliance with Ecgbert and the West Saxon house
contributed to the future consolidation of the kingdom, and
promised to advance its influence and means of useful-
ness. The fair prospect was speedily overcast by the clouds
of viking invasion, which had already begun to lower, and
soon shrouded it in almost total darkness. Throughout by
far the larger part of the country, all over Northumbria
and the Midlands, the organisation of the Church was for a
time virtually destroyed. Churches and monasteries sank in
ruins, their ministers and religious congregations were
scattered or slain, episcopal sees remained vacant, and in
some cases bishoprics were not revived. The West Saxon king
alone was left to roll back the ever-rising flood of heathen
invasion, and to begin a work of restoration in Church and
State which was carried on by a line of great kings.
In order to appreciate the significance of events during
this period and at a later time, we must for a moment
take a look at things which lie far ahead of us. The
ecclesiastical and moral reformation of the tenth century was
closely connected with a monastic revival and the importation
from abroad of a stricter form of Benedictinism. In this
248 VIKING INVASIONS chap.
light the taste for continental civihsation and the pohcy of
fornaing relations with continental powers, which is conspicuous
in the kings of the house of E;:gbert, become matters of
ecclesiastical importance. Nor, if we would rightly understand
the reformation of English monasticism, must we omit to
mark the nature of its decay. This is too generally ascribed
solely to the cataclysm of the viking invasions. Had this been
so, its restoration would have been more quickly accomplished,
and would have been brought about without much hardship
to the secular clergy, who would not then have had what
may be called a prescriptive title to monastic property. The
comparative slackness of English Benedictinism, and the early
period at which seeds of decay are visible in English
monasticism, have already been pointed out. The progress of
this decay is not easily discerned amid the records of more
stirring events or the darkness of invasion, but some indica-
tions of it may be noted. The monasteries fell into the hands
of the secular clergy, partly because monasticism had long been
in a feeble state, and not merely because it was well-nigh ex-
tinguished by war and massacre, though these put a finishing
stroke to a change which had previously been in progress.
Archbishop ^thelheard, after having defeated the mis-
chievous policy of Offa, and procured the restoration of the
Wuifred ^^^^^ °^ ^^s s^^j ^^^^ ^^ -^^y ^2' ^°5> ^^^ "^^s
Abp. of Cant, buried in his cathedral church, where for so many
05-332. centuries his successors were laid to rest. He was
succeeded by his archdeacon Wuifred, who was, probably, a native
of Kent, where he had great possessions. A fragment of a
letter, addressed by the English bishops to a pope named Leo,
which cites precedents to show that the archbishops of Canter-
bury were not bound to go to Rome for their palls, seems to
belong to the time of his election, when Leo IH. was pope,
though there is not sufficient evidence that the custom was
established so early. Wuifred received a pall, but the
assertion that he went to Rome for it does not rest on
satisfactory authority.
For a short time he was on good terms with Cenwulf, but
by 808 so serious a quarrel had broken out between them that
it had come to the pope's ears. The cause of their dispute
may easily be guessed. Cuthred, who since the overthrow of
XIII PERSECUTION OF ABP. WULFRED 249
Eadbert Praen had reigned in Kent in dependence on
Mercia, died in 807, and though he was succeeded by a
king named Baldred, with whom the archbishop was ^^.^ ^^^^^^^
on friendly terms, Cenwulf really ruled the kingdom, with Cenwuif
,. , • 1 J 1 • r 1 of Mercia.
Wulfred s large possessions rendered him peculiarly
powerful in Kent. While his predecessor's coins are stamped
on the reverse with the names of Offa or Cenwulf, his coins
do not bear a king's name. The quarrel between him and
Cenwulf doubtless arose from the king's jealousy of his
political influence in Kent, and Cenwulf, like his kinsman Offa,
was not scrupulous as to the means he used to depress the
metropolitan see. In 814, Wulfred and Wigthen, Bishop of
Winchester, went to Rome on some business of the Church,
probably to represent the archbishop's cause to the pope, who
seems to have arranged matters, for in 816 Cenwulf was
present at a provincial council held by Wulfred at Chelsea.
The next year the king seized the monasteries of Minster
in Thanet and Reculver. Wulfred was not the man quietly
to allow his church to be robbed, and in order to
defeat his resistance Cenwulf laid false charges ^^'i^^^^^^
against him before the pope. Then, according to
a contemporary document, "the whole English nation was
for six years deprived of primordial authority and the
ministry of holy baptism." We cannot be sure of the
meaning of these words. It is incredible that a virtual
interdict of so tremendous a character should have been laid
on the whole English people, specially as the event is not
mentioned elsewhere. The words are no doubt rhetorical,
and those concerning baptism may only signify a cessation of
Wulfred's authority ; for from the see of Canterbury baptism
first came to our people, and the archbishop was, as one of
the greatest of his successors was called, "the head of
Christianity in this land." It seems possible, then, that this
puzzling sentence may simply mean that, during the progress
of the dispute, Wulfred was more or less — for the literal sense
of the words must surely not be insisted upon — prevented
from exercising his authority, either by Cenwulfs interference,
or by the pope, during such time as the king's charges against
him were still under consideration. Wulfred evidently repre-
sented his innocence to the pope and the emperor, Lewis the
250 VIKING INVASIONS
Pious, who both seem to have taken his part. This enraged
Cenwulf, who, about 820, cited Wulfred to appear before him
at a witenagemot at London, his royal city. He there
demanded the surrender of another estate and the payment
of a fine, as the price of his withdrawing the charges against the
archbishop, declaring that if he refused he would confiscate
all his property, banish him, and never receive him back
either for pope or emperor. After some resistance, Wulfred
was forced to agree. The king, however, did not keep his
word, and the quarrel still went on.
Cenwulf died in 821, and is said to have been succeeded
by his son Cenhelm or Kenelm, a child of seven. According
e r^ , to legend the little kind's sister, Cwenthryth, an
St. Kenelm. i , '^ j j i • t i -h , • •
abbess, persuaded his guardian to kill him m a
forest. His head was cut off, and the murder was made
known by a white dove which flew up to heaven from his
fair hair. In after -times the legend was elaborated : it was
said that the dove flew into St. Peter's at Rome, and laid
a letter on the high altar. None could read it, for it was
written in English, until an Englishman who was standing by
took it, and read how the little king was slain, and his body
was hidden in a thicket. Then the pope wrote letters to all
the English kings telling them what had been done. So men
found Cenhelm's body and buried him with his father, in the
minster that his father had built at Winchcombe, and they
built a chapel in the place where the body was found, near
Halesowen in Shropshire, and called it St. Kenelm's Chapel,
and the day of St. Kenelm's death was kept on July 17.
His uncle Ceolwulf was chosen king by the Mercians, and was
consecrated by Wulfred. The whole story of St. Kenelm
seems highly doubtful, and at any rate we need not believe that
Cwenthr>th's eyes fell out at her brother's funeral, though an
historian of the twelfth century says that the psalter she was
carrying was shown in his time stained with the blood which
flowed from them. She inherited her father's private possessions,
and among them those that he had taken from the archbishop.
Ceolwulf was banished, and, in 825, when the goodwill of the
archbishop was of the highest importance to the Mercian king,
Wulfred, at a witenagemot held by Ceolwulf s successor Beornwulf,
obtained from Cwenthryth a surrender of the estates which he
XIII THE CHURCH AND NATIONAL UNITY 251
claimed, and which she had previously pledged herself to restore
to him. Again the Church triumphed over an attempt of the
Mercian house to use it as a means of self-aggrandisement.
The greatness of that house had by that time passed away; the
final agreement between Wulfred and Cenwulf's daughter was
made on the eve of the fall of Mercian independence.
We have now arrived at the beginning of the period
of the West Saxon supremacy, won by Ecgbert, and destined
under the kinos of his line to ltow into the „. „, ,
r . , . T 1 • 1 • ^^^ Church
sovereignty of a united nation. In this *' making and national
of England " the Church of England bore a signal """^'
part. Amid the divisions and struggles of the heptarchic
period, the Church alone represented the idea of unity. It
was the Church of all the kingdoms, and of none of them
exclusively ; it was not the Church of Kent, or of Mercia, or
of Wessex, but of the English nation. Each kingdom had its
own legislative assembly; the Church alone had assemblies
gathered at first from every kingdom, and later, in the province
of Canterbury, from every part south of the Humber. A
layman of one kingdom was a stranger, perhaps an enemy, in
another ; a churchman was at home in all. Bishops were not
necessarily natives of the kingdoms in which their dioceses lay.
The see of Canterbury was held now by a West Saxon, and
now by a Mercian, as well as by Kentishmen. The North-
umbrian Ceadda was Bishop of the Mercians ; Berctgils, an
East Anglian bishop, was a Kentishman ; Pecthelm, the first
Bishop of Whitern, though probably by birth a Northumbrian,
as his name (the helm of the Picts) suggests, had been one
of Ealdhelm's monks in Wessex. Thus the Church fore-
shadowed and set an example of a unity which was gradually
attained by the nation, for the story that represents Ecgbert as
declaring himself sole king of the English is a late fabrication.
Offa's policy of providing Mercia with a separate ecclesiastical
government would, if successful, have hindered the attainment
of unity, and its defeat by ^thelheard is therefore an
event of the highest importance in the making of the J\^ ^''P^'
. ^ ^ bishoprics.
nation. While the elevation of the see of York to
metropolitan dignity certainly strengthened the separation of
Northumbria from the rest of England, it was not in itself a dis-
252 VIKING INVASIONS chap.
ruptive measure, and only contributed to effects produced by
other causes. Nor did the foundation of the archbishopric of
York detract from the example of unity afforded by the
Church. The two archbishops stood, according to Gregory's
plan, in close relations to each other, and though notices of
intercourse between Canterbury and York are rare, we find
Alcuin advising ^thelheard to take counsel with his "co-
bishop" of York, Eanbald II., with reference to the restoration
of the rights of his see, and three years later, when ^thelheard
w\as setting out for Rome, a second meeting took place between
the two archbishops.
Ecgbert was the son of Ealhmund, a member of the royal
house of Wessex, who, about ten years before the revolt of
Eadbert Prasn, had reigned in Kent, no doubt in
of Wessex, opposition to Offa. As a probable claimant to the
802-839. i^ingship both in Wessex and Kent, Ecgbert was
obnoxious alike to Offa and to the West Saxon king Beorhtric.
In 789, Beorhtric married one of Offa's daughters, and the
allied kings drove Ecgbert out of the countr\'. Like many
other English exiles, he found shelter with Charles the Great.
He may have been in Charles's train when, on Christmas Day
800, Leo HI. placed the imperial crown on Charles's head ;
he must have seen much of the civil and military organisation
of Charles's dominions, and can scarcely have been unaffected
by the ecclesiastical atmosphere of his court. He returned to
England on the death of Beorhtric, who was poisoned by his
wife in 802, and, after overcoming some slight resistance,
became King of the West Saxons.
Eleven years later, Ecgbert overran West Wales or Cornwall,
the last fragment of the British kingdom of Dyfnaint. This ex-
pedition marks an epoch in his career, for in after-
con^iests. Y^ars he seems to have regarded it as marking
the beginning of his hegemony. He completed his
conquest in 823-825, and extended his immediate kingdom
to Land's End. As he marched westwards, he halted
at Crediton, and in the presence of Wigthen, Bishop of
Winchester, of Hereferth his coadjutor, and of Ealhstan of
Sherborne, made grants to the see of Winchester, and either
during this war, or after some later rising of the West Welsh,
is said to have dedicated a tenth of the conquered land to
XIII ECGBERT AND THE CHURCH 253
God, and certainly gave three estates in Cornwall to the
church of Sherborne. Since the days of Ine the West Saxon
kings had not given largely to the Church, and these grants
made by Ecgbert, when, as we may suppose, he was seeking
the blessing of Hea.ven on his campaign, are therefore specially
noteworthy as significant of an alliance with the Church. His
power became a menace to Mercia. In 825, the year in
which Beornwulf and his Mercian witan had forced Cwen-
thryth to settle the just claims of Archbishop Wulfred, and
probably before Ecgbert had returned from his campaign in
Cornwall, Beornwulf invaded Wessex. Ecgbert defeated him
with great slaughter at EUandun, probably in Wiltshire.
The West Saxon victory was followed by a complete break-
up of the Mercian power. The people of Surrey, the South
Saxons, and the East Saxons submitted to Ecgbert,
and the East Anglians purchased peace from him by "^^^oVKeSr^^
slaying Beornwulf, who had taken refuge among
them. Then Ecgbert sent his son ^thelwulf, and with him
Bishop Ealhstan, whose part in the expedition should be noted,
to conquer Kent. They drove out Baldred, who, on the eve of
his flight, granted Mailing to Christ Church, as though to
purchase Wulfred's goodwill. This grant, together with the
presence of Ealhstan in the invading army, suggests that, in
spite of the friendly relations which had existed between
Baldred and Wulfred, the archbishop favoured the cause of
Ecgbert. This may well have been so, for Ecgbert was the
son of a former king of Kent, and had for thirteen years resided
at the court of Charlemagne, from whose son, Lewis, Wulfred
had received sympathy, and possibly help, in his quarrel with
Cenwulf.^ Ecgbert made ^thelwulf the King of Kent under
himself, and soon afterwards conquered Mercia and set a king
over it. Moreover, in 831, he received the submission of the
Northumbrians, so that he was acknowledged as supreme over
all the kingdoms of the English.
Ecgbert's interest in the Church is unmistakable, and may
safely be connected with his long residence at the Frankish
court, where he must have seen how Charles strengthened
his power by the support of the Church, and employed.
1 Bishop Stubbs, however, conjectures that " the sturdy prelate submitted
with reluctance to the rule of Egbert " {Cons. Hist. i. c. 8, sec. 88).
254 VIKING INVASIONS chap.
the clergy in secular affairs. It seems probable that during
Ecgbert's reign some increase was made in the West Saxon
episcopate. Hereferth, though described as Bishop
S?chur?h^ of Winchester, was perhaps the bishop of some tribe
included in Wigthen's diocese, and some thirty years
after Ecgbert's death a notice occurs of a bishop of Wiltshire.
It may be that Ecgbert designed to complete the administrative
organisation of his immediate kingdom by setting a bishop
and an ealdorman over each tribe, the people of each shire,
of the West Saxons, and that the viking invasions hindered
the full accomplishment of his design, which was not carried
out, so far as the bishops were concerned, until the beginning
of the next century.
The relations between the Church and the West Saxon
dynasty were soon drawn closer. Wulfred died on March 24,
832. He enriched his church with his great wealth ;
CameTbu?y i^ his Struggle with Cenwulf he proved himself a man
and tJie^West Qf courage, and his political conduct suggests that he
had no small ability. He was succeeded by a Kentish
abbot named Feologeld, and also called Swithred, who died in
less than three months after his consecration. Ceolnoth was
elected in his place, probably also in 832, and was consecrated
and received his pall in 833.^ He is supposed to have been a
West Saxon, and no doubt owed his see to Ecgbert's influence.
He crowned the friendly relations between the Church and
the West Saxon house. At a witenagemot held at Kingston,
in Surrey, in 838, he made a perpetual alliance between himself
and his successors, and Ecgbert, ^thelwulf, and their heirs.
The kings confirmed Baldred's grant of Mailing to Christ
Church, and promised liberties to the ancient monasteries
under their protection. In return, the archbishop promised
that he and his successors would maintain a perpetual friend-
ship with them and their heirs, and would help them in all
times of need. The archbishop's promise was kept, and the
1 On the difficulty as to the date of Ceolnoth' s succession see Councils and
Eccl. Docs. iii. 609, 611. That Ceolnoth was a West Saxon is asserted by
the late E. W. Robertson, Essays, pp. 196, 200, who probably had some
authority, though he does not refer to it, and seems to be making a pure
assumption when he says that Feologeld' s election was quietly set aside by
Ecgbert. The dates in the text are those adopted by Bishop Stubbs, whose
arguments seem, as usual, to rest on a secure foundation.
xiii CLERGY IN SECULAR AFFAIRS 255
West Saxon house, which was at last enabled by the wisdom
and energy of Alfred and his successors to bring the work of
Ecgbert to a triumphant end in the union of the English
people, received constant and valuable support from the Church.
Unhappily this support was not given without some loss of
spirituaHty of character on the part of the bishops and clergy.
With the advance towards national unity, government
became a more complicated matter than in the days employment
of small kingdoms, and the crown needed educated ^nd^Jfie^gy
ministers. At the Frankish court Ecgbert had seen
how profitably churchmen might be employed in the service
of the crown ; they brought to it a training and knowledge not
to be found among the laity, and they had not the same tempta-
tion to family aggrandisement He and his successors constantly
employed the clergy in secular affairs. An attempt to sketch the
part taken by churchmen in the administration of the kingdom
may, for convenience sake, be deferred until we have arrived at
a time when the machinery of government was complete. Yet
it is necessary to notice here, that the part taken by Bishop
Ealhstan in a military expedition by no means stands alone.
The presence of bishops and clergy in campaigns will meet us
continually. Bishops were sometimes in joint command of
expeditions, at other times a bishop would act with the ealdor-
man in leading the force of his diocese to join the main army,
while generally one or more of them would come to a battle-
field as the chaplains of the king. Many clergy were slain in
battle, specially during the viking invasions. Yet they did not
mingle in actual fighting. There may have been exceptions
to this abstention, and certainly, during the later Danish wars,
it became necessary to forbid clergy to wear arms and fight.
As a rule, however, the bishops and clergy used only spiritual
weapons, and, while fighting was in progress, offered the
sacrifice of the mass, and remained in prayer for the success of
their countrymen.
The promise made by the kings to Archbishop Ceolnoth
with reference to a certain class of monasteries is suggestive
of the progress of change in English monasticism.
The rights of founders and their kin, the source of n,^nasticirm.
abuses noted by Bede, were strengthened by the
principle of dependence on a lord in social life. It was in
256 VIKING INVASIONS CHAr.
accordance with the general trend of society that a convent
should have a lord who represented the original grantor of
their land. This lay lord had a right to the spiritual services
of his house, and seems to have claimed to appoint its ruler,
while on his side he was bound to protect, and was expected to
enrich it. Kings were lords of the larger number and the
more important of the monasteries, and the authority of the
West Saxon kings in this respect would seem, from the agree-
ment of 838, to have been increased by the fact, or theory, that
the monasteries founded in their dominions in ancient times,
which claimed to belong only to their religious superiors, and to
be " free monasteries," had commended themselves to Ecgbert
and ^thehvulf, taking them as their lords and protectors.
The bishops were strongly adverse to the lordship of
laymen over monasteries. Apart from their power over the
monasteries which formed part of the possessions of their sees,
they declared themselves in the Legatine Council of 787 to
be the "spiritual lords" of all the monasteries in their
dioceses, and claimed that monastic elections should be free
from lay control. This claim was urged in the councils of
the southern province of 803 and 816. At the same time in
the council of 816 the bishops seem to arrogate to themselves
a larger part in monastic elections than is assigned to their
order by St. Benedict ; they declare that they have the right
of choosing abbots and abbesses with the consent and advice
of the family of the house. The Kingston agreement, which
recognises the bishops as the spiritual lords of the anciently
free monasteries, described as then under the lordship of the
kings, and guarantees that elections in them should be free
according to the rule, does not appear to apply to any other
religious houses.
Repeated injunctions by conciliar authority that convents
should live according to their rule suggest departure from it.
Monastic life was declining. In the north, irregularities
even at Wearmouth and Jarrow had evoked remonstrances
from Alcuin. In the south, religious women no longer
dwelt in the monasteries of Bath and Gloucester. Offa
is said to have refounded them, and given Gloucester
over to secular clerks. So, too, Christ Church, Canter-
bury, is said to have fallen into the hands of seculars during
xiii RAIDS FOR PLUNDER 257
the archiepiscopate of Ceolnoth (833-870). In this case,
however, there is evidence of a gradual change. Arch-
bishop Wulfred gave a charter to the "family" of Christ
Church (the use here and elsewhere of farnilia, a looser term
than conventus^ is noteworthy), in which he speaks of them as
clergy, and allows them to hold certain houses as private and
heritable property, though he enjoins on them the use of the
common dormitory and refectory. It is probable that this
command was an attempt at reformation, and in any case his
charter represents the family of Christ Church as living, in 813,
like Chrodegang's canons rather than like monks. Notices of
definite acts handing over monasteries to secular clergy may,
indeed, generally be taken as attempts to explain a change
which took place gradually. This change was completed by
the viking invasions.
Forty years after their descents on Lindisfarne and Jarrow,
the vikings began again to attack England. Meanwhile they
had made many raids in Ireland, and had wrought ^^^ ^.^.^ ^
much evil in the western islands ; had destroyed St.
Columba's monastery in lona and slain all the monks there,
then sixty-eight in number. The religion of these invaders
was much the same as that of our heathen forefathers — a
branch of Teutonic paganism ; it does not appear in literature
until a later period when it had received additions due to
contact with Christianity. In character they were brave,
cruel, greedy, and treacherous. They came first to plunder,
and later, when they found out the weakness of Christian
countries, to conquer and to settle. Everywhere their fury
fell most heavily on ecclesiastical persons and things ; they
sacked and burnt churches, tortured and slew priests and
monks, and violated consecrated virgins. While it may well
be that their heathen rage was excited by the fierce wars by
which the Franks had propagated Christianity, their invasions
were not undertaken from a religious motive ; they came to
gain treasure, and specially gold, which played an important part
in their heroic legends as "the ringing gold, the fire-red hoard,"
for which Siegfried dared the curse. In churches and monas-
teries, gold, and silken hangings, and rich things of all kinds
were to be found guarded only by defenceless men and women.
In spite of their heathen rage, their beliefs lost hold
s
258 VIKING INVASIONS chap.
upon them in the lands they invaded. Unlike our fore-
fathers, they were brought under the influence of Churches
in an advanced state of organisation, and of teachers who
were ready to expound to them a purer creed, and offer them
sacramental mysteries in the place of heathen magic. Ac-
cordingly, the Northmen who settled here, and indeed in other
Christian lands, accepted Christianity either at the time of
their settlement or not long afterwards. Before the period of
settlement many terrible raids were made on England.
During Ecgbert's reign the viking invaders came from Ireland,
whither they had already begun to establish themselves. In
835 a fleet came to Sheppey, where Sexburh's minster stood,
and made an entrenchment. The next year Ecgbert fought
with them at Charmouth in Dorset, and was defeated, and
there Bishops Wigthen and Hereferth were both slain. In
838, the year of the king's agreement with the Church,
Ecgbert inflicted a signal defeat on the vikings and their West
Welsh allies at Kingston Down in Cornwall. He died in 839,
and was buried in the minster at Winchester.
Ecgbert was succeeded by his son ^thelwulf, who had
been brought up by the wise and learned Swithun at Win-
Chester. It is said that he had received subdeacon's
and St. orders, and was released from them by the pope ;
Swithun. ^^^ ^j^jg jg mere legend. A brave warrior like all
his line, he was also deeply religious, and had a desire, which
may be connected with his father's long residence in Gaul, for
a higher culture than was then to be found in his own land.
His religion was not of a lofty kind, for he was superstitious
and neglectful of his kingly duties. The decay of learning,
and the consciousness of a decline from the high religious
standard of earlier days, caused many to seek refuge in
superstition from the terror of the impending storm of viking
invasion. In Northumbria, one Pehtred had written an account
of a deacon named Nial, who pretended to have been raised
from the dead, and of a letter which he said had been sent
down from Heaven, commanding a stricter observance of
Sunday, together with other foolish and heretical matters.
The Sunday question evidently agitated many minds, for
^thelwulf was much troubled by a story of an Anglian priest,
who declared that it had been revealed to him that, unless
XIII BIRTH OF ALFRED 259
men kept Sunday more strictly, the pagans would waste the
land with fire and sword. The king thought that he could
ward off this danger most effectually by a pilgrimage to Rome.
He made some arrangements for his journey, but his design
was hindered for a time by a renewal of the invasions.
He had two excellent ministers, who are said to have done
what they could to stir him up to action. They were both
churchmen, Bishop Ealhstan and his own old tutor, Swithun.
Ealhstan, who held the see of Sherborne for forty-four years
(824-868), was his treasurer and war minister ; he provided the
king with forces, and, once at least, marched against the enemy
in person in conjunction with the ealdorman of the people of
Somerset, and defeated them. Swithun is said to have con-
fined himself to ecclesiastical administration, though he was
probably the king's constant adviser on all matters, ^thel-
wulf gave him the bishopric of Winchester in 852, and he
held it until his death ten years later. His true claims to
honour are obscured by silly legends, yet it is possible to
discern that, in addition to his piety and learning, he was
munificent and able ; he built a stone bridge across the Itchen
at the foot of Winchester, and persuaded the king to defend
the minster with a wall, on the foundations of which the
present wall of the close doubtless stands. After the battle
of Hingston the attacks of the vikings from Ireland seem to
have ceased, and a new series of attacks began in 840, made
by Danish fleets, which sailed round Frisia, and landed both
in England and Gaul. Among other raids of the time the
vikings made slaughters at London and Rochester, and, accord-
ing to one account, at Canterbury, though this is a misreading
for Quentavic, where the neighbouring shrine of Saint Judoc
would excite their cupidity. Again, in 850, Rorik, "the gall
of Christendom," sailed up the Stour with a large fleet and
stormed Canterbury, and thence sailed to London, defeated
the Mercian king, who attempted to relieve his city, and
slaughtered the inhabitants.
In this calamitous time, in 848, ^thelwulfs wife Osburh,
a noble and pious lady, bore her youngest son Alfred, or
Alfred,^ at Wantage in Berkshire. Young as he was ^jf^ed,
in 853, his father in that year sent him to Rome, -^^ 848.
1 His biographer elsewhere says that Alfred was in his eleventh year in
26o VIKING INVASIONS chap.
probably along with an embassy charged to arrange his own
projected visit, for ^thelwulf desired to obtain the pope's
blessing for the child. Leo IV. invested the boy with the
insignia of the Roman consulship, and is said, at ^thelwulf s
request, to have "hallowed him to king, and taken him for his
bishop's son." As Alfred had three brothers older than
himself, such a royal hallowing would have been somewhat
premature. It is probable that the rite performed by the
pope was that of confirmation, and that the unction used at
confirmation, together with the ceremony of investing the child
with the consular insignia, presented themselves to the mind
of the chronicler in after-years as a consecration to the kingly
office.
Although the Danes had made a step towards conquest
and settlement, by passing the winter of 854-855 in Sheppey,
^thelwulf would no longer delay his pilgrimage.
"^dSnaTk-n^ Before he left his kingdom, he dedicated a tenth
part of his possessions in land to the service of
God for the redemption of his own soul and the souls of his
predecessors. What this dedication imported is not certain,
for the charters which relate to it are of doubtful authority. It
is, however, generally accepted that being distressed by the
viking invasions, ^thelwulf sought to purchase divine help by
a sacrifice of a portion of his wealth, both official and private.
He accordingly released a tenth part of the folcland in his
kingdom, whether held by ecclesiastics or laymen, from all
burdens, except the three universal public charges ; he gave
away a tenth part of his private estate to churches and
his thegns, and he ordered that for every ten hides of his
land a poor man should be clothed and fed. Whatever
his donation was, it could, of course, apply only to his
immediate kingdom ; it certainly had no connection with the
tithe of increase, and only claims a place in the history of
tithes as an illustration of the prevalence of the idea that the
tenth of a man's wealth is sacred.
853, and this would explain some difficulties in the narrative ; for example, a
child of five years was young to be sent on so distant a journey (see Bishop
Stubbs, Introd. to Gesta Regum, ii. ) Yet the biographer bases his calculations
on the date 849. The Preface to the so-called Winchester version of the Sax.
Chron. , a strictly contemporary authority, is conclusive. It says that Alfred
was twenty-three at his accession in 871 ; he was therefore born in 848.
XIII
JETHEL WULF'S PILGRIM A GE 261
.^thelwulf journeyed to Rome in 855, taking Alfred with
him, and remained there a whole year. Many and splendid
were the gifts which he presented to Benedict III.
and his church. Among them were a crown, two piigj^age.
dishes and two images of pure gold, and a silken
stole and other vestments embroidered by English hands.
To all the bishops and clergy of Rome he gave a piece of
gold, and a piece of silver to all of meaner degree. Like Offa,
he promised a yearly offering to the Roman see, which he
ifterwards confirmed by will, and so helped to establish the
payment of Peter's pence. While he was at Rome he caused
the " Saxon school," a hostel founded in earlier times for the
entertainment of English clergy and pilgrims, to be rebuilt,
for it had been destroyed by fire.
On his way home ^thelwulf visited the Frankish monarch,
Charles the Bald, and on October i, 856, his wife Osburh
having, as we may suppose, died, he married ^^^.^^^^^
Charles's daughter Judith, a child of not more
than thirteen years. Although it was contrary to West Saxon
custom that a king's wife should be crowned or styled queen,
Charles caused Archbishop Hincmar to crown his daughter
on her marriage. When ^thelwulf returned to England, he
found that the witan of Wessex, with Bishop Ealhstan at their
head, were unwilling to receive him, and had chosen his
son ^thelbald as their king. ^Ethelbald had probably received
the government of the western part of his father's dominions
during ^thelwulfs absence, and refused to resign it. The
witan may have resented yEthelwulfs violation of national
custom, and have preferred an active and warlike king,
such as yEthelbald was, to his idle and pious father, with
his foreign tastes and foreign bride. ^thelwulf resigned
the western part of his kingdom to his son, and reigned
only over Kent, and the other eastern lands which had been
annexed to the West Saxon kingdom. On his death, in
858, ^thelbald outraged Christian morality by marrying his
father's youthful widow. That the bishops condemned this
union is probable, but the assertion that the king did penance
for his sin, and sent Judith back to her father, rests on no
evidence worthy of consideration. She returned to Gaul after
^thelbald's death, married Baldwin the Forester, Count of
262 VIKING INVASIONS chap.
Flanders, and became by him the ancestress of Matilda, wife
of William the Conqueror, ^thelbald died in 860, and was
succeeded by his next brother ^thelbert, who, after a reign
of about six years, was succeeded by his brother ^thelred.
From 866 the viking invasions assume a new character;
they are no longer merely raids for plunder, a period of
conquest begins. "The army," as it was called,
"^York^^*^ gathered by various leaders, and recruited both
from Denmark and from the viking fleets from the
Rhine to the Seine, invaded the land and remained in it,
conquering it first in one direction and then in another. The
invaders were constantly reinforced, and every river was an
open gate through which fresh foes poured into the land.
Each band on landing entrenched itself for a while, until it
had seized horses, and then rode inland. All were men of
war, and hastily gathered local levies stood little chance
against them. The army in which Ivar and Ubbe were
among the chief leaders entered by the rivers and lagoons of
East Anglia, and the next year invaded Northumbria. York
was stormed on November i, 867. Some remains of the
culture of earlier days seem to have lingered on in the
Church of York amidst incessant civil strife. Eanbald II.
had been succeeded by an archbishop named Wulfsige, and
Wulfsige by Wigmund, who, about 850, when there was a
gleam of peace in the North, wrote to Lupus, Abbot of
Ferrieres and St. Judoc's, at Quentavic, requesting a renewal
of friendly intercourse. In his reply the abbot asked for a
loan of books from the York library that he might have them
copied, and among them for two of Bede's biblical works.
Such light as still remained at York was quenched in blood,
and the library doubtless perished. The vikings spread them-
selves over Deira. St. Hilda's house was destroyed, and the
place where it stood appears later under its Scandinavian
name as Whitby ; all the monasteries and churches of the
province probably shared its fate. Archbishop Wulfhere,
Wigmund's successor, appears to have first found shelter in
Wharfedale, and later, with a puppet king whom the Danes
set up beyond the Tyne. He and the king were both driven
out by the Danes in 873, and after another year's exile he
was allowed to return to York.
XIII ST. EADMUND OF EAST ANGLIA 263
In 870 the army invaded East Anglia and destroyed all
the minsters that stood thickly in the country. At Medes-
hampstead, or Peterborough, the Danes burnt the -^iMt
abbey and massacred the abbot and all the monks, martyrdom
And as they did there, so did they at Bardney, Eadmund,
Crowland, Ely, and every minster to which they ^^°'
came. A wonderfully vivid account of the resistance which
they met with in East Anglia, and the havoc that they wrought
on its churches, occurs in a book written, as we have it,
in the fourteenth century, and of no historical value except as
preserving traditions. The East Anglian king, Eadmund,
fought with them, was defeated, and suffered martyrdom
for Christ's sake. It is said that on his refusal to deny
Christ, the Danes, on November 20, bound him to a tree
at Hoxne in Suffolk, shot at him with arrows, and finally
cut off his head. With him also was slain Hunbert,
Bishop of Elmham. Very shortly after Eadmund's death
he was revered as a saint and martyr ; his body was trans-
lated, in 903, to the minster which Sigbert had built at
Bedrichsworth, and which became in after- times the stately
abbey of St. Edmund's Bury. The story of his martyrdom
was told to Dunstan by an eyewitness, an old man who had
been the king's armour-bearer.
In the midst of these calamities Archbishop Ceolnoth died
on February 4, 870, and was succeeded by ^thelred, who
is described as Bishop of Wiltshire at the time
of his election to Canterbury. The Danes next '^^f^H^^^
invaded Wessex. ^thelred, who was nobly sup-
ported by his younger brother Alfred, resisted them manfully,
and inflicted a severe defeat upon them at Ashdown in Berk-
shire ; but they soon gathered strength again and routed the
West Saxons at Basing, and again at Merton in Surrey,
where Heahmund, who had succeeded Ealhstan as Bishop of
Sherborne, was slain. Soon after his defeat at Merton, ^thel-
red died on April 15, 871, and was succeeded by Alfred.
Very heavy was the burden which the new king took up, for
in the year of his accession nine pitched battles be-
sides many skirmishes are said to have been fought ^8''^^^^^'
to the south of the Thames. Though he struggled
manfully against the invaders he lost ground, for they were
264 VIKING INVASIONS chap.
constantly reinforced. The year after his accession, the
Danes encamped before London, and in his distress he vowed
to send alms to Rome and to the Christians in India.
Nevertheless, the Danes took the city and colonised it. They
were beginning to settle down in the country which they had
conquered. After burning the minster at Repton, the burying-
place of the Mercian kings, they drove out Burhred, the
King of the Mercians, Alfred's brother-in-law, apportioned
the eastern part of his kingdom among themselves, and set up
a puppet king over the western part. Burhred went on a
pilgrimage to Rome, and died there. Bernicia was ravaged
by Halfdan, who destroyed its monasteries and churches, the
holy places of which we have read so much. At Wearmouth
and Jarrow, at Tynemouth, Coldingham, and Lindisfarne, the
servants of God were tortured, mocked, and slain.
Since the first slaughter of the monks of Lindisfarne in 793,
the church seems to have been served mainly by secular clergy.
The wander- ^^^^^ the monastery was again threatened in 875,
ingsof the bishop, Eardulf, and the Abbot of Luel, or
St. cuthbert. cariisle, which as one of St. Cuthbert's foundations
was dependent on Lindisfarne, remembering Cuthbert's charge
concerning his body, took up the coffin containing " the in-
corrupt body of their father." They placed in it the head of
St. Oswald, the relics of St. Aidan, and the bones of some other
bishops, and carrying it with them, left their holy isle with the
younger clergy. All who remained were slaughtered. The
fugitives wandered about with their sacred burden for eight
years, seeking in vain a place where they might rest in safety.
Once they tried to cross from the Solway to Ireland and were
beaten back by a storm, and then it was that a precious
volume of the Gospels, believed to be the " Lindisfarne
Gospels," which Bishop Eadfrith had written, fell into the sea,
was washed ashore, and recovered. The volume was preserved
at Durham in the twelfth century. At last, in ZZ^^ when
peace was restored in the North, the bishop and his company
settled at Chester-le-Street, near the present Durham.
By the beginning of 878 Alfred's power of resistance
was at an end. The Danes under Guthorm dominated
Wessex as far west as Selwood Forest, and Alfred retreated
with his personal war-band into the woods and marshes of
XIII
ALFRED'S VICTORY 265
Somerset. Shortly before his misfortunes reached their climax
he seems to have had a dispute with Archbishop ^thelred,
who apparently complained of the king to John VIII.
The pope encouraged the archbishop in his resist- ^^^'^f^l
ance to the king, and hinted that Alfred might lose
his kingdom if he persisted in his perverseness. Neither the
cause nor the issue of the dispute is known ; though it may
be guessed from the pope's letter that it concerned the
temporal rights of the see of Canterbury. This incident, in
itself of little importance, may be taken along with the fact
that some jealousies and disloyalty existed among the West
Saxons, as affording a suggestion for the late and wholly un-
trustworthy legend that in the early years of his reign Alfred
was harsh and arrogant, and that his misfortunes were the
result of his own conduct. Among the legends of Alfred in
Somerset, a story that St. Cuthbert appeared to him and
promised him victory, probably represents an early effort to
exalt Cuthbert's fame in Southern England, and specially to
connect it with the house of Alfred with a view to the profit
of the saint's church.
After Easter (March 23) Alfred and his men fortified
the isle of Athelney, formed at the junction of the sluggish
waters of the Tone and the Parret, in the midst of ^. .
r-^-i r /• /-.I • • T-- His Victory.
inaccessible marshes. The fate of Christian Eng-
land hung upon the king, who, though brought so low, did
not lose faith or courage. He kept his men and his friends in
Somerset in good heart by making sudden attacks upon the
foe, and set himself to raise a new force. His summonses
were obeyed, and in the second week of May he was at the
head of an army. He defeated the Danes at Ethandune,
probably Edington, in Wiltshire, and besieged them in their
fortification. After a siege of fourteen days they submitted
to him ; Guthorm promised to leave Wessex and to receive
baptism. Three weeks later Guthorm and thirty of his chief
warriors came to Alfred at AUer, near Langport in Somerset,
and there Guthorm was baptized, Alfred standing godfather to
him and giving him the name of yEthelstan. He then went
with Alfred to Wedmore, where on the eighth day the chrisom-
fillet was taken from his forehead, and the king gave gifts to
him and his men.
266 VIKING INVASIONS chap.
The attempt to conquer England had almost succeeded :
its failure was due to Alfred's steadfastness in adversity and
his perseverance in a seemingly hopeless conflict,
tse ects. g^ preserving the south of England from heathen
conquest he made possible the triumph of the gospel, the
restoration of the Church, and the establishment of a national
monarchy. By his treaty with Guthorm, and probably other
treaties with the Danes to the north of the Thames, the land
was divided between the English and Danes. Alfred had his
West Saxon kingdom, and the western part of the old Mercian
land to a line defined later as marked by the Thames, the Lea,
the Ouse, and Watling Street. To the north and east of this
line lay the Danish land. This included Halfdan's Northum-
brian kingdom, the eastern half of the old Mercian land under
the rule of the five Danish boroughs, and East Anglia and Essex,
where Guthorm and his host settled. London, which at first
remained in the hands of the Danes, was before long acquired
by Alfred, who colonised it and caused it to be fortified.
The division of England led to its political consolidation.
By Alfred's peace with the Danes the immediate dominion of
the West Saxon house was enlarged, for he gained the
western part of Mercia. He wisely committed his Mercian
subjects to the rule of an ealdorman named ^thelred, one
of their royal house, and gave him his daughter ^thelfiaed in
marriage. Both ^thelred and his wife, who became famous
as the "Lady of the Mercians," contributed largely to the
reconquest of the Midlands, and after they had passed away,
their country became fully incorporated with Wessex. For in
Mercia, and in the other old heptarchic divisions, the extinction
of the native kingships left the West Saxon king the natural
lord of all the EngUsh, so that as the house of Alfred won back
the country from Danish rule, the people of every part of it
became subjects of the king of the English nation.
Turning from the political side of Alfred's victorious
peace to that which concerns our proper subject, v/e may
regard the baptism of Guthorm as the starting-
of Danish point of a series of conquests won by the Church.
settlers, j^ ^^^ events in these spiritual conquests are
known to us, they are not the less certain. Guthorm
reigned as a Christian king, and, save in one war, was faithful
XIII CONVERSION OF DANES 267
to his agreement with Alfred. His Danes, who were near
akin to the people of East Anglia, quickly became one with
them, and followed their king's example in accepting Chris-
tianity. So, too, in the North, though Halfdan died a heathen,
his successor Guthred was a Christian and, if we may believe
the Durham story, a special devotee of St. Cuthbert. And
so throughout the whole Danelaw, the Danes had not long
settled down among the English before they renounced
heathenism, and in less than a hundred years after their
heathen forefathers conquered the North, gave three arch-
bishops to the English Church.
Authorities. — The Saxon Chronicle, which at 855 becomes virtually
contemporary. Until 870 Councils and Eccl. Docs. vol. iii. still gives much
help. Besides the general authorities previously noted, as Florence of
Worcester, William of Malmesbury, and Symeon of Durham, who relates
the wanderings of St. Cuthbert's body in his Historia Dunelm. Eccl. ap.
Opera, Rolls series, we have ^thelweard's Chronicle, written by a layman,
a great-great-grandson of King ^thelred, in the latter part of the tenth
century, which, though jejune and obscure, is of some value, specially for the
time of Alfred ; it is printed in Monutnenta Hist. Brit. pp. 491-521. We
also have the delightful work De Rebus gestis ^Ifredi, attributed to Asser,
which may be divided into two parts, the first consisting of general history
from 849 to 887, apparently founded on the Chronicle, and largely translated
from it, and the second part containing the Life of Alfred to 893. It comes
from one ancient manuscript, MS. Cotton. Otho A. xii. , used by F. Wise in
his edition of Asser, Oxford, 1722, who collated it with a sixteenth-cent.
MS. in C.C.C. Cambridge. The Cottonian MS. was burnt in 1731,
but an engraving of it proves that it belonged to the early part of the
eleventh century. The Life as we have it was certainly written or edited by
a Welshman ; it has received many interpolations, some of them well
ascertained. Florence of Worcester, who died 11 18, uses an ancient Life of
Alfred which contained much that is in our "Asser," but does not mention
the name of the author. William of Malmesbury also used a Life which seems
to have been the same with that we now have, with the exception, of course,
of later interpolations. T. Wright attacked the genuineness of the Life in
ArchcBologia, xxiv. ; it was defended by Pauli, and accepted by Freeman ; and
Bishop Stubbs, while pointing out the grave doubts that arise from the present
condition of the text, is not disposed to question the general truth of the work
as history, or to throw suspicion on its genuineness and authenticity (see
Will, of Malms. Gesta Regum, Pref. vol. ii.. Rolls series). While there
seems no sufficient reason to refuse to believe that the work was written by
Asser, it cannot be accepted as a settled matter, for some of the chief
difficulties in it are concerned with the relations between Alfred and Asser.
The text has been tampered with so much that its statements must be
received with caution, except when supported by oUier good authority, but
there is no reason for a wholesale rejection. Wise's edition is reproduced in
the Monumenta Hist. Brit. Among modern books Keary's Vikings in
Western Christendom, London, 1891 ; Pauli' s Life of Alfred, translated
by Thorpe, Bohn's Lib., London, 1893 (reprint); and Green's Conquest
of England, have been found useful.
CHAPTER XIV
ALFRED
The viking invasions well-nigh destroyed all religion and
learning in England. Some idea of these effects on the
Effects of C^^^^h "^^y be gained from the changes which they
the viking brought about in the episcopate. They entirely
invasions. ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ York from the life of the Church
in the South. Little is known of its history for about a hundred
years, save the names of successive archbishops, and when at
last it emerges from darkness we shall find its archbishop
acting as the political head of a separate people, and as
almost independent of the English king. From the Danish wars
to the Norman Conquest, Northumbria, though soon nominally
brought into subjection, can scarcely be said to have been
thoroughly united to the rest of England; it remained a
separate land though under the kings of the English. The
general tone of morality was lower than in the South, and
the Church to no small extent shared in the isolation and
the backward condition of the society in which it was
placed. The see of Lindisfarne ceased to exist, though the
bishopric survived at Chester-le- Street until the removal of
the see to Durham in the last years of the tenth century.
The bishopric of Hexham, which came to an end before
the death of Ecgbert, was not revived. In the east the
bishopric of Dunwich disappeared, the succession to Elmham
seems to have been interrupted for nearly ninety years after
the death of Bishop Hunbert in 870, and a gap of almost
equal length occurs in our knowledge of the succession to the
bishopric of Lindsey. In the Danish Midlands the Bishop
CHAP, yiv CLERICAL LAXITY 269
of Leicester fled to Dorchester in Oxfordshire, so as to be
near the West Saxon border, and the succession to Lichfield
appears to have been broken.
Throughout the districts occupied by the Danes the
churches had for the most part perished. Things must have
been better in Wessex and the Mercian territory of
the West Saxon kings, yet even in those lands the ^tJe'cieJ^^"^
churches which had escaped the fury of the invaders
were falling into decay. The clergy were almost wholly
uneducated and neglectful of their calling. A letter of Pope
John VIIL (872-882) to the archbishops, ^Lthelred of
Canterbury and Wulfhere of York, and the bishops generally,
tells us that the English clergy had adopted the dress of
laymen. The pope required them to resume their clerical
garb. This laxity in the matter of dress was significant of other
irregularities ; the clergy lived as laymen, and many priests had
taken wives in violation of the obligation of continence.
These disorders must be attributed partly to the relaxa-
tion of discipline and the deterioration of character brought
about by the troubles of the times, and partly
to the difficulty of obtaining fit persons to fill
the places of the priests who had perished in the wars.
Marriage was always allowed to clerics of the lower orders,
such as readers, cantors, and acolytes ; while it was for-
bidden to those in holy orders — priests, deacons, and sub-
deacons — a married man seeking admission into the higher
orders being compelled to separate from his wife. The
scarcity of candidates for the priesthood consequent on the
viking invasions, during which many priests were slain, and
the schools for the education of the clergy held in the episcopal
minsters were broken up, probably caused the admission to
the priesthood of a number of married clerics of the lower
orders who disregarded the obligation of continence. Pope
John wrote to Burhred of Mercia condemning these dis-
orders, and about 890 Fulk, Archbishop of Reims and Abbot
of St. Bertin's, sent a letter to Alfred saying that he heard that
English priests and bishops lived with women, and that there
were people who defended such things, though he knew that
Alfred was endeavouring to check them. Fulk also wrote to the
same effect to Plegmund, vEthelred's successor at Canterbury,
270 ALFRED chap.
encouraging him to extirpate these and similar abuses. The
consciousness of living in violation of their obligations tended
to lower the standard of clerical character generally.
The monastic life may be said to have been virtually
extinct. Many monasteries were totally destroyed. Others,
specially in Wessex, had churches and buildings
^a"foik"'^ still standing, and here and there some books
would be left. Even these monasteries were fall-
ing into decay, the books were unread, and the churches
were served by secular priests, for the most part married
men, who preserved the monastic name merely as the suc-
cessors to monastic property. The laity were rude and
ignorant. Superstitious and even heathen rites were openly
performed. The long period of war had encouraged violence
and lawlessness, and the poor were oppressed by the rich
and powerful. MoraHty had decayed ; concubinage, and the
marriage of persons of near kin, and of women dedicated to
God, were not disapproved by public opinion ; the marriage tie
was loosened, and divorces without due cause were common.
Alfred mourned over the sad change that had come upon
his people. He called to mind, he says, " the happy times "
that once had been, when "the kings who ruled
religion and obeyed God and His evangeUsts," and when "the
learning. J.gJjgiQ^g orders Were earnest about doctrine, and
learning, and all the services they owed to God." And he
remembered, " before all was ravaged and burnt, how the
churches throughout all the English kin were filled with
treasures and books." Whereas, he tells us, at the begin-
ning of his reign, "so clean was the decay that there were
very few on this side of Humber who could understand their
rituals in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English,
and I believe not many beyond Humber. So few were there,"
he adds, "that I cannot remember a single one south of
Thames when I came to the kingship."
He set himself to restore religion and learning among
his people. His work was done in spite of discourage-
ments, and of many other cares and occupations,
labours and As he found it difficult, and in one case impossible,
difficulties. ^^ make his people carry out his schemes for their
defence and prosperity', he must have found them at least
XIV HIS LABOURS 271
equally unwilling to submit to religious and intellectual
improvement. We are told that he was forced to blame his
officers very sharply for their ignorance, and that his severity
frightened them, and caused them to seek to learn from their
children and others who had been taught to read in the king's
new school. Though the later years of his reign were
generally peaceful, a fresh viking invasion under Hasting,
which was backed up by the Danes of Guthorm's kingdom,
sorely tried his strength. At the outset of the war, he forced
Hasting to submit to him and to consent to the baptism of
his two sons, to whom Alfred and his son-in-law ^^thelred,
the Ealdorman of Mercia, stood sponsors. But the viking
leader soon violated his agreement, and it was only after a
struggle which lasted for three years that the Danish army was
broken up. Alfred was constantly engaged in strengthening
the defences of his kingdom ; he built and manned a fleet
which proved more than a match for the pirates, and he re-
organised the land-force. He also, we are told, took part in,
and controlled, the administration of justice, causing the
decisions pronounced by his officials to be laid before him,
that he might see that they were just and that the poor were
not injured. He engaged in all kingly works and pursuits,
directed the building and decoration of royal dwellings,
instructed his goldsmiths in their art, and his huntsmen and
falconers in their crafts, which he loved and well understood.
Yet, with all this, he found time to teach his people
wisdom and righteousness ; for he valued time, as we know
from the story of his invention of candles set in
lanterns to mark the hours. His many-sided ^'^
■' perseverance.
activity will seem more wonderful if we accept
his biographer's statement that during the greater part of
his life he was constantly subject to painful attacks of ill-
ness. This physical infirmity has been brought into later
legends, but that is no reason why we should not believe that
it existed. Alfred was not a man to be daunted by difficulty ;
he earnestly desired that his people should enjoy true happi-
ness, and having a lofty conception of his kingly calling,
laboured with all his might to enable them to attain it. The
spirit in which he worked is illustrated by the noble words
with which he ends a short statement of his theory of a king's
272 ALFRED chap.
duty : " This I can truly now say, that so long as I have lived
I have striven to live worthily, and after my life to be re-
membered by posterity for good works."
His desire that his people should learn to look on the will
of God as the guide of their lives, is illustrated by his code of
laws. The West Saxons, the Kentish men, and
^fla^ws.^ the Mercians had each their own laws, and as they
were united under his kingship he desired that they
should all live under one law. Accordingly, he compiled a
code from the laws of the three peoples to be binding on all
alike. In this code he disclaims any attempt to make new
laws. To him and the men of his time and race, law was the
embodiment of good custom, theoretically declared by the
people, and put into writing with their counsel and consent.
With characteristic modesty he says, " I'dared not write laws of
mine own, for I cannot tell what may seem good to those who
come after, but I have taken what seemed best from the
times of Ine, my kinsman, of Oiifa, King of the Mercians, and
of ^thelbert, the first of the English kin to receive baptism,
and the rest I have passed by."
His code, like those of other kings, contains ecclesiastical
as well as civil laws ; it stands alone in the way that it repre-
sents the divine decrees as the basis of Christian
^^^ bS^^^" ^^^* Beginning with a paraphrase of the Ten Com-
mandments, in which the Second Commandment,
according to the present reckoning of the English Church, is left
out, and a tenth is supplied from Exodus, chap. xx. 23, it
recites virtually the whole of Exodus, chaps, xxi. and xxii., and
the first part of chap, xxiii. Then, after some words of preface,
comes the conciHar epistle in Acts, chap, xv., in which the
church at Jerusalem orders that no greater burden should be
laid on Gentile converts than was needful. Did the large-
minded king, who had been the means of bringing so many
heathen to baptism, design by this extract to impress on the
Church of his own day and nation, that not more should
be required of these new Christians than was essential to
Christian life? He next copies the Lord's command, "that
which ye will that other men do not unto you, do ye not that
to other men," and adds the comment that he who keeps that
law "need heed no other doom-book." Then he ends this
XIV HIS EDUCATION 273
long introduction to his code with an account of how the
institution of the money payments assigned by Enghsh law to
various offences was due to the Christian feeling of bishops,
and others of the witan, which, though not historically true, is
interesting as an illustration of his view that the law of Christ
was the foundation of the law of a Christian state.
His efforts for the intellectual improvement of his people
show that he had a clear perception of the special needs of
his time. A religion that was contented with in-
tellectual darkness might enslave the conscience ^vishesfor
without elevating the soul, and was sure to sink into '^p^°p^-
a superstition which would fail to ennoble life or reform the
morals of society. With such a religion as that he would not
be content, for he sought to raise his people to a higher level
of civilisation and morality. The viking invasions had
thrown them back into a state of comparative barbarism, and
the religion which he desired for them was such as would rescue
them from degradation, and not such as that which had so
strong a hold on the mind of his own father. Having saved
his people from conquest, he set to work to save them from
barbarism by giving them such means of education as lay in
his power.
No part of his work was more congenial to him than this,
for he loved learning, laboured hard to acquire it, and lamented
that he had not learnt more in his youth. It is said
that owing to the neglect of his elders he did not gjj^atbn
learn to read until he was in his twelfth year. Appar-
ently in connection with his learning to read, his biographer
tells the famous story that his mother offered to give a " book "
of English poetry with illuminated capital letters to that one
of her sons who should learn to read it, and that Alfred won
the prize. If this story means that he then learnt to read, it
cannot be true, for his mother Osburh was dead in 856, at
least three years before Alfred's eleventh birthday, and it
cannot be supposed that his step-mother Judith, herself a girl
of thirteen, would have troubled herself about the education
of her step-sons. Besides, the word used by the biographer
means mother, and is never used for a step-mother. The
story, however, appears to mean that the child learnt to say
the poem written in the " book," which may not have been
T
274 ALFRED chap.
more than a single page, and that he thenceforward loved
English poems. The incident, then, may well have taken
place long before Alfred's twelfth year, possibly on his return
from his first visit to Rome, for it is certain that he was at
home in 854. Alfred's learning must not be exaggerated.
Though, with the help of others, he translated books, it is
doubtful whether he could write with ease. He perhaps did
not advance much further in writing than Charlemagne, who
tried hard to accustom his fingers to form the letters, but
found that it was too late in life to attain the art. Nor
could he have gained a thorough acquaintance with Latin,
for it was not until after he had been king for several years
that he learnt to read Latin books, and he used to regret that
he could not read them better. Nevertheless, he had by that
time gained a good stock of knowledge, for, whenever he had
leisure, he used to make one of his clerks read to him, the
reader apparently translating the Latin as he went on, so that
he knew the contents of several books before he could read
them himself.
Alfred had himself suffered from lack of teaching, and he
saw that his wishes for his people could not be carried out
unless he could procure learned men to help him.
heipSs^ Sorrowfully he dwelt upon the time when " foreigners
m learning. ^^^^ j-q |.j^|g \^^^ j,^ scarch of wisdom and lore,"
whereas now, he says, " we must get teachers from abroad if
w^e would have them." Some helpers, however, he found in
Mercia, in the western part of the old kingdom, where learn-
ing seems to have been not wholly extinct. Thence he called
to him Werferth, Bishop of Worcester, an active and godly
prelate, versed in the Scriptures and other learning, and
Plegmund, a priest, who for fear of the Danes had lived as a
hermit on an island near Chester. Plegmund became one of
the king's principal teachers and gave him much help. On
the death of Archbishop ^thelred, of whom we know little,
in 889, Alfred appointed Plegmund to succeed him, and he
was consecrated in 890. No better appointment could have
been made, and Fulk, the Archbishop of Reims, who took a
lively interest in the affairs of the English Church, wrote to
the king congratulating him on having fixed on a man so
good, devout, and learned in ecclesiastical matters, to occupy
XIV HIS HELPERS 275
the see of Canterbury. Two other learned Mercian priests,
^thelstan and Werewulf, he also called to him and made
them his chaplains.
He procured other helpers from foreign lands. At his
request there came to him Grimbald, a priest and monk from
the abbey of St. Bertin, at St. Omer, who was well
skilled in church music and ecclesiastical learning. His foreign
He had entered St. Bertin's as a child, had grown up
there, and had become prior. On the death of the abbot in
892, the monks were anxious that Grimbald should succeed
him, but the Prankish king overruled their wishes and gave the
abbey to Archbishop Fulk, who sent Grimbald to Alfred with
a letter of commendation. His coming to England may prob-
ably be fixed at 893. There also came to Alfred, John, called
from his native land, the Old Saxon, a priest and monk of
much learning and artistic skill, and, according to a tradition
on which it would be dangerous to rely, another more famous
John, an Irishman by birth, and thence called the Scot or
" Erigena," who had long resided at the court of Charles the
Bald.i This John the Scot was eminent as a philosopher
and scholar. He had translated from the Greek the works
attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, and was the opponent
of the extreme doctrine concerning predestination advocated
by Gottschalk, and of the doctrine propounded by Paschasius
Radbert with reference to the Eucharist, and known later as
transubstantiation. Ever eager to obtain knowledge, Alfred
welcomed all who could impart it to him, and, we are told, set
aside a portion of his yearly revenue to be spent in rewarding
them. Among them was the Northman Othere, a mariner
who gave " his lord Alfred " an account of his voyages, telling
him how he had sailed as far as the Gulf of Archangel to
catch walruses, and how the whales there were smaller than
in his own seas, and describing to him the Northmen's land,
^ The authority for the coming of John the Scot and for his death at
Malmesbury is WilHam of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, ii. c. 122 (Rolls ser. i.
131, 132 ; see also Preface, cxliii. cxliv.), and Gesta Pont. v. c. 240 (Rolls ser.
392. 394)- It would seem that Malmesbury confounds the two Johns and
transfers the attack on the Old Saxon to his own house. Mr. R. L. Poole,
however, in his Illustrations of Medicsval Thought, maintains Malmesbury's
story. The question may be considered open, and the story is therefore
briefly noticed in the text, but Mr. Poole's arguments have not convinced me.
276 ALFRED chap.
and his own way of life at home. All which Alfred had
written down for his people's instruction.
Of the learned men whom Alfred attracted to his court the
one best known to us is Asser, a priest and monk of St.
David's. It must, however, be confessed that a good
part of our knowledge of him does not rest on a
very satisfactory basis, for it comes from his Life of Alfred.
While there can be little doubt that Asser wrote the king's
life, and that much, if not all, that he wrote has come down to
us, the book, as we have it, contains many interpolations and
inconsistencies. Some of these, indeed, like the references to
the foundation of the University of Oxford by Alfred, are now
of no importance, because they are known to be late inser-
tions, but others are still puzzling, and it is hazardous to rely
absolutely on many things which the Life contains. Asser says
that he was engaged on it in 894, and seems to imply that he
came to Alfred shortly after Grimbald's arrival. He tells us that
he met the king at Dene, in Sussex, and that Alfred invited
him to enter his service, promising that he would requite him
largely for what he gave up in his own land. Asser said that
he would not desert his home, but that he would return to
the king after six months. He fell sick of a fever at Winchester,
and remained there for a year and a week. When he re-
covered he rejoined the king at a place which he calls Leonaford,
and with the consent of his church promised to stay with him
six months in each year. Then, he says, " I stayed with him
eight months, during which I read to him all the books which
we had at hand, for it is his constant wont by day and by
night, whatever may be the hindrances of mind or body,
either to read aloud, or to hsten to others reading." He also
tells us that Alfred gave him two minsters, at "Angersbury,"
probably Congresbury, and Banwell, both in Somerset, and that
he afterwards gave him Exeter with all its parochia, or diocese,
both in " Saxony," that is the English part of the diocese, and
Cornwall.
Asser, who died, possibly, in 909, and certainly after
904, was at the time of his death undoubtedly
^^bop of Bishop of Sherborne. The biographer's statement,
therefore, seems to suggest one of those temporary
additions to the West Saxon episcopate of which we have
XIV HIS CARE FOR EDUCATION 277
already met with two instances. Alfred may have given him
the minster at Exeter, and appointed him co-bishop with
VVulfsige, Bishop of Sherborne, giving him charge of the
people in the present Devonshire. The mention of Cornwall
seems to confirm the genuineness of the biographer's statement,
for it will be remembered that Ecgbert gave three estates in
Cornwall to the see of Sherborne, and these as well as
" Saxon " Devonshire would be under Asser's charge. As a
Welshman, Asser would be among people of his own race.
After the death of Wulfsige, of whom nothing is known after
892, he no doubt became sole bishop of the whole diocese of
Sherborne,
Having procured the help of learned men, Alfred called on
the English Church again to undertake its old work of
education. He commanded his bishops to see that
the sons of freemen, who were rich enough to afford ^gJucaton"
the time, should be set to learn, so long as they
were still too young for active work, until they were well able
to read English writing, and those who expected promotion
were afterwards to be taught Latin. Like Charlemagne, he
had a school attached to his court in which he took deep
interest. There the children of his nobles, and of many of
lower rank, were taught to read and even write English and
Latin, ^thelweard, his younger son, was educated there and is
said to have become a good scholar, and his elder son Eadward
and his third daughter ^Ifthryth were also carefully taught,
and learnt psalms, and read English books, and specially poems.
It was, we may believe, partly at least in order to pro-
mote education that Alfred founded monasteries, for it was
from monastic schools that his people had in time ^^.^
past gained learning. He founded a house for monasteries,
monks at Athelney, his former stronghold, and made ^ ^ "^^'
John the Old Saxon its first abbot, and a house for women at
Shaftesbury, in Dorset, over which he appointed as abbess
his second daughter ^thelgifu, who had weak health. At
Winchester, he planned the foundation of a new minster close
by the cathedral church, over which Grimbald was to be the
first abbot. This church was built by Eadward, his son and
successor, and was called the New Minster, while the cathedral
church, which about a century later was called after St.
278 ALFRED chap.
Swithun, was known as the Old Minster. Near, too, to the
Old Minster he, or his wife, a pious lady named Ealhswith,
built a house for women called the Nunna Minster. His
monastery at Athelney seems to have been small; its little
church, which was probably of wood, is described by one who
saw it in the twelfth century as resting on four posts set in
the ground, and to have had the unusual feature of four apses,
one on each side of a quadrilateral nave. A tangible witness
to Alfred's connection with Athelney, and perhaps also to his
care for his monastery there, exists in "Alfred's jewel," now
at Oxford, which was found near Athelney in 1693. It seems
probable that this jewel may have been the handle of a
precentor's staff used for beating time, and if so, it would be a
gift from the king to the house of his foundation.
Alfred, we may believe, was anxious that his monasteries
should be inhabited by men and women who would live a
more truly monastic life than was then practised in
Yirwimen'^^ English monastcries. If our Asser may be trusted,
and is to be interpreted strictly, this was the case at
Shaftesbury, for the noble ladies who joined his daughter there
are described as mo7iiales^ and are said to have lived monastic-
ally. Whether they were really mynchens, who had taken the
perpetual vows, is perhaps open to doubt. At Winchester, at
all events, it was otherwise, for there Ealhswith 's church
was probably from the first, as it certainly was later, a " nuns'
minster," a foundation for religious women, whose vow of
chastity might be remitted by the king and the bishop, and
who, though in many cases living together in common, did
not invariably do so, and did not do so at Winchester, at
least within three-quarters of a century after the house was
founded.
For Athelney, the biographer tells us, Alfred could not find
any monks ; no men of his own people would consent to live
_, „ ... a monastic life : so completely had monasticism lost
The Prankish . ./, J, ,.■;__,. .
priests at its attraction for the English. He therefore im-
^ ^"^^' ported "certain priests and deacons from over sea,"
and specially from Gaul, to people his house, along with servants
to attend upon them, and scholars who were to be educated
by Abbot John, in order that they might become monks when
they grew up. The comment in the Biography on the total
Kiv ATHELNEY 279
decay of English monasticism is more like what a monk would
have written after the Benedictine reformation, than what
might be expected from a contemporary, and suggests the
possibility of some tampering with the text in this part of the
narrative. Nevertheless it is quite likely that Alfred desired
that his house should not go to married clerks. This, how-
ever, does not necessarily imply that he objected to giving it
to seculars, provided that they would live what was then held
to be a monastic life. The foreigners whom he imported are
described as priests and deacons, from which it would be
natural to infer that they were seculars ; that they are also
called monks is no proof that they had taken the monastic
vows, for the word " monk " was used as laxly as " monastery "
or " minster."
Alfred's prime design both at Athelney and in his pro-
jected new minster at Winchester was the promotion of
religious education rather than monastic reforma-
tion. He wished to establish a school at Athelney. '^^|;^ J^^^JSj^^^^
He knew that married clergy, living with their
wives and families, would not do the work he wanted done.
He may well have felt that a monastery should be peopled by
men who would live monastically, using a common dormitory
and refectory, and as he could not find men of his own people
who were learned, or would consent to live unmarried, he
imported teachers from abroad who, though apparently secular
clergy, professed themselves wilHng to live a common life, and
he brought over scholars also that they might in time succeed
their teachers. We must then be careful not to make too
much of Alfred's wish that his monks should live monastically,
or think of him as a kind of forerunner of the men who in
later years turned the secular clergy out of their minsters to
make room for Benedictine monks.
Before long there was trouble at Athelney. Two of the
Prankish brethren conspired against Abbot John, and incited
some servants of the house, their fellow-country-
men, to kill him. Is it presuming too much to ^Shiey.^
suppose that the conspirators, a priest and a deacon,
were enraged at some attempt of the abbot to enforce on them
monastic duties which they, as seculars, were not willing to
fulfil? The assassins attacked him by night in the church
2 So ALFRED chap.
and wounded him severely. All concerned in the crime were
put to death. According to a tradition of Malmesbury Abbey
a similar and more fatal tragedy took place there. It is
asserted that John the Scot taught at Malmesbury, and that
his scholars killed him by stabbing him with their metal pens.
Alfred's liberality to the Church was not confined to his
foundations ; he did much good work in restoring the minsters
and churches in Wessex and Mercia that had been ruined by
the Danes, and sent money to rebuild and enrich churches in
lands beyond his own dominions. He was wont, it is said,
to devote half his private income to pious purposes, dividing
it among the poor, his two foundations at Athelney and
Shaftesbury, his palace-school, the minsters of Wessex and
Mercia, and minsters in Wales, Cornwall, Northumbria, Gaul,
Brittany, and Ireland, to which he sent alms from time to time.
While providing schools for his people, Alfred saw that if
they were to be educated they must have books. Such books
as were left in his kingdom were in Latin, and there-
tra'JiSons ^^^^ °^ X\\.\\q use for purposes of general education,
for few could read them. He wondered, he said,
that none of the wise men among the English of earlier times
had translated books into their own language, and he set
himself to supply the need of his people by translating such
books as he thought would be most useful to them. The
books which he translated personally, with the help of others,
or caused to be translated under his supervision, are the Con-
solation of Philosophy by Boethius, the Roman senator who
was put to death by Theodoric the Ostrogoth, about 524;
the History of the World, written by Orosius, a friend of St.
Augustine of Hippo, in 416; the Pastoral Book of Gregory
the Great ; a large part of Bede's Ecclesiastical History ; and
probably selections from the Soliloquies of St. Augustine. His
choice illustrates the kind of education which he desired for
his people ; all the books which he translated are religious, or
at least ecclesiastical. Boethius, it is true, though a professing
Christian, and indeed a theologian, while awaiting in prison
the visit of the executioner, turned for consolation to the
philosophy which he had studied in his youth rather than to
religion. For while the "golden volume," that sets forth the
sublime sources of his consolation, might, though written in
XIV HIS TRANSLATIONS 281
the darkness of the sixth century, have been the work of the
greatest of the Athenian philosophers, it breathes no hint of
that confidence which is the right of the least in the kingdom
of Heaven. Yet, as the author was put to death by an Arian
king, the Catholic Church regarded him as a martyr, and his
book, which became exceedingly popular during the Middle
Ages, as an edifying work. The History of Orosius, which is
written on Christian lines, was also highly esteemed in the
Church.
Alfred probably began his work as a translator soon after he
had attracted Plegmund to his court. His method of working
is partially explained in the letter which serves as a
preface to the Pastoral Book, or Hirdehoc. He sent 5;^'^^^.^^,°'^
a copy of this book to each bishop in his kingdom,
that it might be placed in his minster, together with an sestel,
probably a marker for it, worth fifty mancuses, ordering that " no
one should remove the aestel from the book, or the book from
the minster," unless the bishop wanted the book, or it was lent
to be copied. In his letter to the bishops he says, " I began,
among the various and manifold troubles of this kingdom, to
translate into English the book called Pastoralis, or in English
Hirdehoc, sometimes word for word, and sometimes according
to the sense, as I had learnt it from Plegmund my archbishop,
and Asser my bishop, and Grimbald my mass-priest, and John
my mass -priest, and when I had learnt it as I best could
understand it, and as I could most clearly interpret it, I
translated it into English." He seems to have had the Latin
construed for him, and then either to have accepted the
version given him, or to have put it into his own words.
Both in his Boethius and Orosius he deals freely with
his text, omitting and expanding as he thought best for his
readers, and sometimes inserting passages of his
own, now speaking of his conception of the duties "^f hk^wS?'^
of a king, or of his own feelings, now explain-
ing some reference which might not be understood by his
people, and now giving them some piece of information
more or less connected with his text. In his translation, the
Consolation of Philosophy becomes a Christian book, and
the philosopher's city of truth the heavenly Jerusalem.
Whether Alfred actually wrote, or indeed could have written,
282 ALFRED chap.
the words of his translations, is a small matter. In his Boethius,
Orosius, and Pastoral Book, they may safely be taken to be
his own words, though sometimes, no doubt, suggested by his
helpers. Much English poetry existed before his time, but he
is rightly held to be the Father of English prose. His version
of Bede's Ecclesiastical History seems to have been the work
of one of his Mercian priests ; it was written under his
direction, and he chose for translation the parts that would
specially interest the people of his own southern kingdom.
At his bidding, too, Bishop Werferth translated part of the
Lives of the Saints contained in the Dialogues of Pope
Gregory. Alfred, then, provided his people with a library of
religious and useful books. His work as an educator had a
strong bearing on the Church ; it was not to seek to enslave
an ignorant people, but to appeal to men whose intelligence
had been awakened.
One book we owe to Alfred which, though not ecclesiastical
in character, is so necessary to an historian of the English
Church that it cannot be passed by here. There is
^ChfSntcie' ^^ doubt that he began the English, or, as it is also
called, the Saxon, or Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A
basis for the earlier part of the Chronicle was found, probably,
in short local chronicles, written in English, in Bede's work,
and in national traditions. From the death of ^thelwulf
the entries become fuller and more instinct with life. Alfred,
we cannot doubt, had a large share in the composition of
the Chronicle. Year by year, during his reign and the reign
of his son Eadward, it seems to have been written regularly
under royal direction, and no doubt by some of the king's
clerical officials, and was copied with variations in different
monasteries. When the official chronicling became irregular,
or perhaps stopped altogether, it seems possible that some
one monastery took the lead in the work, and sent round
notes of events which Vv^ere used as a basis for their work by
the chroniclers of other houses. From the end of Bede's
History to the year 1 154, when, so far as is known, the last of
the writers of the Chronicle ended his work at Peterborough,
it is the highest narrative authority for EngUsh history, and
forms a record the like of which cannot be found in the early
vernacular literature of any other people.
XIV RE LA TIONS WITH ROME 283
Immeasurably superior to his father as Alfred was, he
probably inherited from him, and from his grandfather Ecgbert,
an absence of insular feeling and an admiration for
the culture of other lands which must have been ^^^^{^^^
fostered by his youthful visits to Rome. His feel-
ings on these matters had an important bearing on the history
of the English Church. He strengthened the ties between his
people and the Roman see. Mindful of the vow which he made
in his trouble, he sent alms to the Christians of India in 883.
The messenger whom he sent thither also bore his alms to
Rome, and from that time ambassadors carried to Rome offer-
ings from him and from his people with such regularity, that
the national Chro7iick notes under one year, as a remarkable
fact, that that year there was no embassy to Rome, save that
the king sent two messengers thither wnth letters, Alfred's
personal contributions were made in accordance with the
will of his father; the contributions of his people, which
were sent with them, tended to establish the tax called Rom-
feoh, or Peter's pence, which was enforced by law in the days
of his successor. In return for the alms of 883, Pope Marinus
at Alfred's request freed from toll the Saxon school, the house
of English pilgrims, and further sent him many gifts, and
among them a piece of the wood of the cross. Pilgrimages
to Rome seem to have been frequent during the stress of the
Danish invasions. Many probably went thither who ought
to have stayed at home to fight the national foe, for John
VIII. in his letter to Burhred of Mercia says that his decree
concerning the dress of the clergy had been approved by the
English nobles at Rome. Burhred himself ended his days
there, and some years later his widow ^thelswith, Alfred's
sister, set out thither, and did not return, for she died and
was buried at Pavia.
As relations with Rome were so frequent, there is no
reason to doubt the assertion of a late writer that Plegmund
went thither to fetch his pall. He was probably
there before the end of 891, and seems to have f^PfPJ?
brought back a letter from Formosus, who attained
the Papacy in the September of that year, to the English
bishops on the state of the Church. Formosus declared
that he had had a mind to excommunicate them for their
284 ALFRED CHAP.
neglect in not checking the practice of heathen rites among
the people, and was glad to hear from Plegmund that they
had at last become active in the matter ; he also referred
to the scarcity of bishops in England, and ordered that on
the death of a bishop a canonical election should at once
be made to the vacant see.^ Among the pilgrims from Eng-
land in that year were three Scots whose arrival at Alfred's
court excited so much interest that it is minutely recorded in
the Ch?'onic/e. Desiring to make a pilgrimage " they recked
not where," they came over from Ireland in a boat or coracle,
covered with hides, and without oars, landed in Cornwall, and
went to Alfred, who received them with gladness, and sent
them on their way to Rome, whence they went on to
Jerusalem. One returned, and was probably the bearer of the
letters and gifts which Abel, the patriarch of Jerusalem, is
said to have sent to Alfred, no doubt in return for alms from
the king. Although Alfred's affection for the Roman see
permanently and materially affected the relations between
England and the Papacy, it did not lead him to assume any
position of subserviency. His work for his people was done
independently, and, save for the letters already mentioned, the
English Church pursued its way without external interference.
No serious effort, indeed, could have been made to direct it by
the Popes of that period, for ecclesiastical virtues had become
extinct at Rome, and the spiritual power of the Roman see
was an empty pretence.
The letters of Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, some of which
have been noticed here, prove that churchmen in Gaul were
deeply interested in the affairs of the English
Relations Church at this period. Before long a closer tie
with Gaul. ^ ^
was to be formed between churchmen on the two
sides of the Channel. The marriage of Alfred's third
daughter yElfthryth, or Elstrud, as she was called in her
new home, to Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders, was
1 This letter, given by William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontiff, i. c. 38, is
not quite free from suspicion, for it appears among the proofs of the dignity
of the See of Canterbury sent to Alexander II. in 1070, and contains matters
omitted here, which look as if it had been concocted for the occasion. Never-
theless the bulk of the letter is probably genuine (see Regesta Pontificum, ed.
Wattenbach, No. 3506 ; Bishop Stubbs's Preface to William of Malmesbury's
Gcita Regum, ii., Rolls series, and next chapter).
XIV DEATH OF ALFRED 285
destined to establish relations between her native land and
the monasteries of Flanders which were of the highest con-
sequence to the English Church. Monastic life had decayed
in Flanders, and indeed throughout Gaul generally, as it
had decayed in England. The Rule of St. Benedict was
disregarded ; princes and nobles made themselves lords of
monasteries, and seized their lands and tithes. Other monas-
teries were given by the Frankish monarchs to some powerful
prelate, and though saved for a time from the lordship of lay-
men, were not in much better case. The pious Klstrud took
special interest in the monastery of Blandinium, or St. Peter's
at Ghent, and endowed it with lands in Kent which long
remained its property. There she buried her husband, a
powerful and remarkably unscrupulous prince, who died in
918, and there she herself was buried in 929. Her zeal for
the service of God was inherited by her son Arnulf the Great,
who restored the monasteries in his dominions, and revived
the observance of the Benedictine Rule. In the revival of
English monasticism the monasteries of Flanders, restored to
activity and usefulness by the work of Arnulf, played no incon-
siderable part.
The death of Alfred is generally dated October 26, 901 ; the
day is certain, but the year of his death was probably 900.^
His body was laid in the Old Minster at Winchester
until the church which he had planned, the New death,
Minster, was ready to receive it. By his will, made ^^^' ^^' ^°°"
many years before his death, he left legacies to Archbishop
yEthelred ; Esne, Bishop of Hereford ; Werferth, Bishop of
Worcester; and the Bishop of Sherborne, who must have been
Wulfsige, though in the later Latin version of his will the name
of Asser has been inserted arbitrarily and incorrectly. He also
directed that ^£"200 should be distributed equally between the
mass-priests of his kingdom, the poor among God's servants,
the lay poor, and the minster where he should be buried.
What were the effects of his work on the religious, moral,
and intellectual condition of his people? Something was
1 The year 901 is given in the Winchester version of the Chronicle, but
the dates there from 893 to 929 are a year in advance. Mr. Stevenson, in
Engl. Hist. Review, xiii. 71 (Jan. 1898), argues ably in favour of 899, but his
authorities seem hardly sufficient to establish that year as against 900.
286 ALFRED chap.
certainly done through his liberality towards the restoration
of the churches which had been burnt and sacked by the
Danes. He chose good bishops, who, as we learn
hb wOTk^ from the letter of Formosus, strove to put down
the evil practices which had arisen, partly from the
barbarism consequent on the wars and distresses of the
time, and partly from contact with the heathen invaders.
He set his people a bright example of a strenuous and
noble Christian life, and did his utmost to raise them to
the same lofty standard that he ever kept before himself.
Wide in sympathy and cultivated in taste, he preserved the
Church from the dangers of insularity, and prepared a way
by which it was in after -years to receive much help from
abroad. The conversion of the Danish settlers may largely
be traced to his influence, for he used his power and his
success in war as a Christian king, for the furtherance
of Christianity. While he may well have desired that men
and women in monasteries should live in a religious fashion,
he did not probably attempt to introduce true monasticism,
and for more than sixty years after his death the monasteries
remained in the hands of secular clerks.
, That we should find Alfred's labours bringing forth fruit
in an immediate reformation of society is not to be
expected ; such changes are generally of slow
^°effects°'^ growth. Still, it is impossible to study the reigns
of his successors without seeing that he did accom-
plish much even in that way. It is true that morals gener-
ally remained for some time longer in an unsatisfactory state.
Yet in this respect things seem to have been better in Southern
England than in the Danish districts. The difference was due
to Alfred, principally of course to his success in war, which kept
the South and West comparatively free from Danish influence,
but also, it may be believed, to his teaching. To his care
for education the Church and nation owed the succession of
wise and noble rulers who came after him. Nor can it be
doubted that the great churchmen who, later in the century,
devoted themselves to the spiritual, moral, and intellectual
reformation of the clergy, monks, and laity, were in a measure
the fruits of his work. It was due to him that they were not
born in a barbarous land, and that they received some early
XIV HIS CHARACTER 287
training. For full seventy years after his death the transla-
tions which he made, and caused to be made, must have
been well-nigh the only English books of religion or learning.
While his place in the history of English literature must not
detain us here, it may again be pointed out that his love of
learning was of immense value to the Church. Degradation
is never far off from a Church in which the clergy and people
are uneducated. The decay of learning in the North was,
as we saw in our last chapter, quickly followed by the appear-
ance of certain abject superstitions. The viking invasions
almost entirely extinguished learning in England, and the
character of the English Church would have rapidly deterior-
ated had Alfred been such a one as his father. His work
in promoting learning and education saved the Church from
an imminent danger.
No king has left behind him so lofty and stainless a
record. The active principle of his life was his love of
God ; it appears constantly in his words, and not
less constantly in his actions. He was diligent j.jj'^r^^jje^r
in religious observances ; he is said to have heard
mass every day, to have worshipped at the canonical hours,
always carrying about with him a little book of psalms and
prayers, and to have been wont to enter the church by
night to pray there in secret. In all his doings he was
mianful. As a warrior, a ruler, and a teacher of his people,
he was undaunted by difficulty and ungrudging of personal
exertion. His industry was amazing; no task seemed
grievous to him, for his aim in hfe was to "live worthily."
To this end he devoted himself to seek by every means in his
power to do good to the people over whom he was called to
rule. He was well fitted for the task, for, though he was
greater and wiser than they, he was one with them in heart.
He had suffered and triumphed with them ; he loved their
songs and traditions, and he spoke to them in his books in their
own language, and as one who thoroughly understood their
minds. Conscious of this sympathy between himself and his
people, he sometimes stops in his translations to tell them
something of his own feelings. He speaks of his troubles ;
" hardship and sorrow " ; he says " every king would wish to
be free of these if he could, but I know that that is im-
288 ALFRED chap, xiv
possible," and elsewhere he tells them how he v^^ishes to rule
well, and hopes to be remembered for good.
His hope has been fulfilled. The legends, foolish as
some of them are, which have gathered round his name,
attributing to him the foundation of schools at Ox-
^^^ ^ ford, the institution of trial by jury, and other things
to which he has no claim, show how deep an im-
press was left on the popular mind by his actual work as a
teacher and a ruler. Nor have the thousand years which have
passed since his death, or the more critical mood in which
history is now studied, dimmed the lustre of his fame. From
generation to generation, the children of the people whom he
loved and served so well are taught to admire the famous
warrior and the blameless king, whose figure seems most real
to them of all the English monarchs of ancient days. Still
the name of " England's darling," specially appropriated to
him centuries ago, dwells on Enghsh lips, and still his noble
memory is dear to English hearts.
Authorities. — As before Asser, Wyt Saxon Chron., Florence of Worcester,
William of Malmesbury. Much has been taken from Alfred's books, and
specially from the prefatory letter appended to the Pastoral Book. The
editions of his works used are his Boethius, ed. Fox, Bohn's Library, see the
new critical edition, King Alfred's Old English version of Boethius, by W. J.
Sedgefield, Oxford, 1899 ; Gregory, Pastoral Book, ed. Sweet, 1871-2, Early
Engl. Text Soc. ; Orosius, ed. Thorpe, Bohn's Lib. The Bede, which was
not his own work, is in Smith's Bede, Cambridge, 1722 ; the Selections from
the Soliloquies of St. Augustine is in MS. Cotton. Vitell. A. 15, and is not yet
printed. For the correspondence of Fulk, Abp. of Reims, see Flodoard's Hist.
Eccl. Remens. iv. cc. i, 5, 6, ap. Mon. Germ. SS. xiii. ed. Pertz. For Papal
letters see Regesta Pontiff. Jaif6 and Wattenbach, Leipzic, 1888, with refer*
ences. Notices of Grimbald are in Folcwin's Gesta Abbatum S. Bertini, ap.
Mon. Germ. SS. xiii. ed. Pertz, and have been given by Bp. Stubbs (chiefly
from the Chron. Berlin, of John Iperius, ed. Mart^ne and Durand, ap.
Anecdotutn Thesaurus, iii., Paris, 1717) in his edition of Will, of Malm.'s
Gesta Regum, ii. Preface, Rolls series, which see also for other matters of this
time. Alfred's will is in Kemble's Codex Dipl. ii. 112, and the Latin version,
ib. V. 127.
CHAPTER XV
RECOVERY
In ecclesiastical as well as in civil matters Eadward and
^-^thelstan, the son and grandson of Alfred, built upon the
foundation which he had laid. Ecclesiastically, their ^
. . T ,. . General
reigns are marked by organisation and religious sketch
progress. The West Saxon episcopate was largely 901-40.
increased, and episcopal administration was revived in districts
conquered by the Danes and won back by the English kings.
The national assembly legislated on the affairs of the Church,
pious and worthy bishops were appointed, and close relations
were formed with the continent, some of which were destined,
as we shall see, to exercise a strong influence on the history
of the Church. On the other hand, while the efforts that
Alfred made for the education of his people were by no
means fruitless, they were not apparently pursued by his
immediate successors. And though there was legislation for
the Church, the Church no longer legislated for itself in its
own assemblies. Conciliar action ceased with the Danish
invasions, or, if it may be said to have continued, was carried
on in such close combination with the national assembly as
no longer to be separable from the action of the witan.
Monasteries received grants, and some new houses were
founded, but they were monasteries merely in name, though
the houses of women generally approached more nearly to the
monastic life than those of men.
Alfred's eldest son Eadward was crowned by Archbishop
Plegmund on Whitsunday 901. While he was not so learned
as Alfred, hec was by no means unworthy to be his son, for
u
290
RECOVERY CHAP.
he was religious, able, and energetic. He brought the whole
country south of the Humber under his immediate rule, while
the Northumbrians, English, Danes, and Northmen
Eadward ^like, the Scots (the names Scots and Scotland are
mg, 901-24. .^ ^^ i^xiXki century used in their modern sense),
and the Welsh of Strathclyde acknowledged his superiority.
The reconquest of the Mercian Danelaw he mainly owed to his
sister ^thelflaed and her husband ^thelred, the Ealdorman of
the Mercians. Their wars do not concern us, but, as the con-
solidation of the kingdom affected the history of the National
Church, it should be noted that on the death of ^thelflsd
the last vestiges of Mercian independence were swept away,
for Eadward deprived her only child, a daughter, of all power,
and brought Mercia under his immediate government. At the
outset of his reign, his right was disputed by his cousin ^thel-
wald, a son of King ^thelred, who seized Twineham, or Christ-
church, and Wimborne. yEthelwald carried off a nun from
Cuthburh's monastery at Wimborne, and married her without
the leave of the khig and the bishop. On the approach of
Eadward's army, he fled to the Danes in Northumbria, leaving
behind him the unfortunate lady, who was sent back to her
monastery. He was made king by the Danes, and three
years later invaded Eadward's kingdom in conjunction with
Eohric, who had succeeded Guthorm in East Anglia. He
and Eohric were both slain in battle. Guthorm H. succeeded
Eohric, and seems to have reigned in dependence on Eadward,
who, after a time, incorporated East Anglia with his immediate
kingdom.
In conjunction with Guthorm II., Eadward promulgated
a series of ecclesiastical laws to be observed by the subjects of
both kings, whether English or Danes. All heathen
^""^^Swf '^^' practices, witchcrafts, and divination were strictly
forbidden. The payment of tithes, enjoined, it will
be remembered, by civil authority in 787, was enforced by a
penalty: "If any one withhold tithes let him pay lah-slite
among the Danes, wite among the English," and a like
penalty was decreed for the non-payment of church -dues,
such as "light-scot" and "plough-alms," and of Peter's pence.
From this time, laws concerning the payment of tithes are
common, though no direction as to the church I0 which they
XV THE CHURCH IN MERCIA 291
were to be rendered appears until about fifty years later.
Sunday marketings, working on a Sunday or festival, and dis-
regard of a lawful fast, were to be punished by fines. On
these holy days no ordeal or compurgation was allowed, and
until the Sunday had passed the condemned criminal was to
be respited.
Eadward lost no time in carrying out his father's design
for the building of the New Minster at Winchester, which
seems scarcely to have been begun at Alfred's
death. The church was dedicated by Plegmund, M^nSn
perhaps in 903, and the body of Alfred was re-
moved into it. Some buildings were probably erected before
Alfred's death, and the monastery, which was from the first
peopled by secular clerks, was placed under the rule of Abbot
Grimbald. The abbot died in the year of the dedication of
his church. A lofty tower was added to the New Minster, and
was dedicated five years later. Eadward was liberal in his
gifts to churches ; he evidently took a lively interest in
ecclesiastical affairs, acted in full accord with Plegmund, and
promoted good men to bishoprics.
Nor were Eadward's sister, ^thelflaed, and her husband,
^thelred, less careful for the Church in Mercia; they were
godly people, and were on excellent terms with Werferth, the
learned and holy bishop of Worcester, to whose church they
were benefactors. At Gloucester, which may have been the
seat of the ealdorman's government, they founded a new
minster and richly endowed it. Thither they brought the
body of Oswald of Northumbria from Bardney, where it had
been buried by his niece Osthryth, the wife of ^thelred of
Mercia. Bardney had been wrecked by the Danes, and was
lying in ruins, and the Mercian ealdorman, descended, it may
be, from the royal house of Northumbria as well as of Mercia,
was anxious to do honour to the saintly king whose memory
was reverenced in both lands, y^thelred was buried in St.
Oswald's church in 912, and in 918 his heroic wife ^thelflaed
was laid beside him. Their church was served by secular
clergy. While monasteries of men were in the hands of
secular clergy, who were often married and lived with their
wives, those of women were held by virgins and widows who
at least kept their vow of chastity. Religious life of a lax
292 RECOVERY chap.
kind seems to have revived among women after the Danish
wars, and was encouraged by the example of many ladies of
the royal house. It differed widely from Benedictine monas-
ticism, for there were nuns who lived separately in their own
houses, and were not content to wear the monastic dress.
The most remarkable ecclesiastical event of Eadward's
reign is the extension of the West Saxon episcopate on the
lines of the shires of which Wessex was composed,
"^of th?WesT In Wessex, which had escaped Danish colonisation,
Saxon episco- ^^ shire-system. had been grafted on to the old tribal
pate, 909. ^-^-g-Q^g before Eadward's time. In this respect
Wessex differed from the Mercian Danelaw, which was mapped
out into shires by Alfred's successors at a much later date.
Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire each represent the settlement
of a single tribe, Hampshire probably the settlement of more
than one tribe ; the origin of Berkshire is more obscure.
Devonshire was a province conquered from the Britons in
later times, and colonised gradually. Each of these districts
had its own history and administrative machinery, and prob-
ably local, or rather tribal, feeling was strong in them.
Eadward and Plegmund, then, did wisely in making these
divisions the basis of their enlarged system of ecclesiastical
government in Wessex. Some foreshadowings of this change
have already been observed, such as the description of
^thelred before his elevation to Canterbury as Bishop of
Wiltshire, without a see or cathedral establishment. If, how-
ever, Ecgbert or his son had any plan for the creation of shire-
bishoprics in Wessex, the Danish invasions caused its post-
ponement. Under Eadward the time had arrived for carrying
it out.
The creation of the new dioceses is the subject of a story
told in its latest form by William of Malmesbury. He says
that, in 904, Pope Formosus wrote to Eadward
MaimeJbury's declaring that he would excommunicate him and
^^°^' his people because, for full seven years, the West
Saxons had been left without a bishop. Whereupon Eadward
held a synod presided over by Plegmund, in which the king
and the bishops chose bishops for the West Saxon shires,
making five bishops where before there were only two;
and Plegmund, he adds, on one day consecrated these five
XV WEST SAXON BISHOPRICS 293
at Canterbury together with two more for the South Saxons
and " Mercia." Now this story cannot be accepted as it
stands, for Formosus died in 896, and the West Saxon sees,
Winchester and Sherborne, had not been vacant for seven
years in 904. It does not, however, rest merely on WilHam's
authority, for he found it in the Missal of Bishop Leofric, who
died in 1072, and there the date of the pope's interference is
given as 905. And it appears still earlier in a letter of
Dunstan, written perhaps before the end of the tenth century,
which gives a similar account of the division of the West
Saxon bishoprics. Not more, then, than a hundred years after
the event Dunstan connected it with the name of Formosus.
An explanation of the difficulty has been found by the
help of what we know independently of the story. In 909
both the West Saxon sees, Vv'inchester and Sher- . ,
' An explana-
borne, were vacant. In that year charters tell us tionofthe
that Eadward divided the bishopric of Winchester, ^ °^'
and from that year begins the succession to the three new
dioceses. Plegmund, we know, visited Rome in 908. His
visit must doubtless be connected with the division of the
bishoprics. Had it any connection with Formosus? Most
probably it had. The right of Formosus to the papacy
was disputed during his hfetime, and in 897, the year after
his death, a scandalous trial of his corpse was held by
Stephen VI. The dead pope was condemned, his corpse was
thrown into the Tiber, and all whom he had ordained were
declared deposed, and were reordained. His memory was
vindicated by John IX., but was again condemned, in 904, by
Sergius III., who renewed the declaration of the invalidity of
his ordinations. Now it was from Formosus that Plegmund,
according to Canterbury tradition, received his pall, and
therefore the decrees invalidating the pope's acts rendered his
position uncertain ; indeed, on the restoration of Arngrim,
Bishop of Langres, to his see, in 900, Benedict IV. thought it
necessary to confirm to him the grant of a pall which he had
received from Formosus. By 905, then, the date attributed in
Leofric's Missal to the papal letter, the position of Plegmund and
of the bishops consecrated by him must have caused them deep
anxiety. When Plegmund went to Rome in 908, carrying
with him the alms of Eadward and his people, he doubtless
294 RECO VER V chap.
sought a confirmation of his own authority and of the orders
which he had conferred. So acceptable a visit would not fail
of its object.
The extension of the West Saxon episcopate had already
been planned by the king and the archbishop, with the
The consecra- ^0'^^^'^^ of the witan, and all that remained to be
tion of seven done was to obtain the pope's approval. Having
bishops. • J ^-U . r o • ^ .1 1
received the consent of Sergms to the scheme,
Plegmund returned home, and in 909, possibly on one day,
consecrated five bishops for the West Saxon sees, and two for
Dorchester and Selsey. The belief as to the letter of
Formosus would arise from the interest which he is said to
have taken in the affairs of the English Church, and, it may
be, from the letter, if genuine, in which, as we have already
seen, he reproves the bisliops for neglect of their duties,
speaks of excommunication, and urges that vacant sees should
be filled up.
The five West Saxon bishoprics which received bishops in
909 w^ere the two already existing, Winchester and Sherborne,
and three that were newly formed, one for the
^sl^r' Wilsaetas, the people of Wiltshire, one for the
and b?fhopl Sumorssetas, the people of Somerset, and a third
for the people of the province of Dyfnaint. The
see of Winchester was vacant by the death of Denewulf, the
subject of one of the many legends which soon gathered round
the name of Alfred. It is said that while Alfred was in
Somerset, he met Denewulf driving a herd of swine to the
forest to feed on acorns, and falling into conversation with
him, was struck by his natural ability ; he caused him to be
educated, and afterwards made him bishop. And so it was that
there was a bishop who had not learnt to read until after he
had grown to manhood. As Denewulf seems to have been
consecrated in 879, the story can scarcely be accepted, but it
probably has an element of truth in it, and Denewulf, like the
king himself, may have had his education comparatively late
in life. He seems to have died in 908.
To Winchester, Plegmund consecrated Frithestan, a man
of remarkable piety; he was in later years reputed a saint,
and his holy deeds were written in many books for the
edification of posterity. He resigned his bishopric in 931,
XV WEST SAXON BISHOPS 295
consecrated his successor, and died tlie following year.
Since the formation of the bishopric of Sherborne in 705,
the diocese of Winchester had included all to the Winchester
east of Selwood as far as Sussex, where, from .and
709, the South Saxons had a bishop of their own at
Selsey. On Frithestan's appointment, Eadward and Plegmund
took Wiltshire and Berkshire from Winchester, and formed
them into a new diocese. The bishops of this diocese are
usually called Bishops of Ramsbury, a little town in Wilt-
shire, and sometimes Bishops of Sunning, or Sonning, a
village near Reading, where they had an estate. It would be
more exact to call them Bishops of Wiltshire, for they were
shire-bishops without a fixed see or cathedral establishment.
To this bishopric Plegmund consecrated ^thelstan.
Asser of Sherborne is said to have died in the same year
that Frithestan was appointed to Winchester. To his see
Plegmund consecrated Wserstan, of whom virtually Sherborne
nothing is known. The ancient list of bishops ap- Weiis, and
pended to the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester
inserts a bishop named ^thelweard between the names of Asser
and Waerstan, and it may be that ^thelweard was co-bishop
with Asser, as Asser had probably for a time been co-bishop
with Wulfsige. Waerstan and his successors at Sherborne were
bishops of the people of Dorset. The Sumorsaetas now received
a bishop of their own. To this new bishopric was consecrated
Athelm, or, as his name would be at large, ^thelhelm. He
is said, on highly questionable authority, to have been a monk
of Glastonbury ; he was doubtless a Somerset man, and of
noble birth, for he was, we are told, the brother of Heorstan,
the father of Dunstan. That he was a satisfactory bishop
may be inferred from his promotion to the see of Canterbury
on the death of Plegmund on August 2, 914. The bishops
of the Sumorsaetas had their see at Wells, which may already
have been a place of some ecclesiastical importance. There
is a story that in the time of Ine a mythical see of Congresbury
was moved thither, and though this story is of no historical
value, it suggests that there was an ancient minster at Wells,
and that Wells may have been made the seat of the bishopric
of Somerset for that reason. The third new West Saxon
bishopric was made for Devonshire, and its see was placed at
296 RECOVERY chap.
Crediton, where a monastery had been founded by King
^thelheard and Forthere, Bishop of Sherborne, in 739.
Eadhsed, who was consecrated to the bishopric, became the
head of the "family" of this minster. To him the king
assigned the three Cornish estates said to have been given by
Ecgbert to the see of Sherborne, in order that he and his
successors might pay a yearly visit to the Vv^est Welsh or
Cornishmen, to turn them from their errors, for to that day
many resisted catholic authority. The customs of the British
Church still had a strong hold in Cornwall.
By the care of Eadward and his Archbishop Plegmund,
Wessex was thus provided with a sufficient and well-devised
episcopal government. Along with the five West Saxon
bishops, Plegmund is said to have consecrated Cenwulf to
the Mercian see of Dorchester, and Beornege to the South
Saxon see of Selsey. The story of the consecration of seven
bishops together, in one day, is to be met with in many of
our chronicles.
Eadward, who was thrice married, had fourteen children.
The private life of the king and the tone of his court must
have had a strong influence on society, for the kings
^hUdSi?'^ of early times were constantly moving about from
one royal estate to another, and they and their
families came into personal contact witli a large number of
people in different parts of their dominions. The care with
which Eadward's children were brought up can scarcely
have failed to have a salutary effect in the households of
many of his subjects. In this respect, as in others also, he
was a worthy son of Alfred, and carried on the customs of his
father's house. He is said to have caused his daughters to
be taught book-learning when they were children, and when
they grew older, made them work like modest maidens with
the needle and distaff; his sons he had well educated in all
things that would fit them for the duties of their station.
His was a religious household, and one in which, it would
appear from the lives of several of his children, the teaching
and counsel of the clergy were held of much account. His
eldest son ^thelstan, and Eadmund and Eadred, his sons by
his third wife, all reigned in turn, and all were warm supporters
of the Church. Another of his sons, /Ethelweard, was, we are
XV EADWARirS FAMILY 297
told, like his grandfather Alfred both in person and tastes,
and gave himself to learning ; it is possible, however, that the
twelfth- century historian, our authority for ^thelweard's
learning, may have confused him with his uncle and name-
sake. Of Eadward's nine daughters three retired from the
world. One of them, Eadfl^ed, was a nun at Wilton, where
a monastery had been built apparently by more than one of
her immediate ancestors ; it became a house of renown, for
several ladies of the royal line, and no doubt, consequently,
many others of noble birth, became sisters there. Eadflasd
was buried at Wilton in her nun's habit, and there, too, was
buried her sister ^thelhild, who, hke her, had renounced the
world, though she did not become a nun, and perhaps lived as
a recluse.
Their sister Eadburh, Eadward's daughter by his third
wife, became a nun in the Nunna Minster at Winchester. She
is reckoned among the saints, and is said to have
given early proof of her fitness for the religious ' ' "^^^'
vocation. When she was but three years old, her father
pondered whether he should devote her to God, or prepare
her for a secular life, and one day laid out, on the one side,
rich garments and jewels, and on the other, a chalice and
book of the gospels. Then he sent for the child, who was
brought to him in her nurse's arms, set her on his knee, and
bade her choose w^hich she would have. She frowned at the
heap of earthly gauds, and eagerly clutched the chalice and the
holy book. The king embraced her fondly, and bade her
follow the Spouse whom she had chosen, declaring that he
and her mother would rejoice to have a daughter hoher than
themselves. So Eadburh, or St. Edburga, became a nun at
Winchester, and all her young companions followed her
example. As she grew in years, she grew in holiness and
humility, and, it is said, would rise at night and secretly
wash the stockings of the other sisters, and lay them clean
and fragrant on their beds. This, however, is a bit of late
hagiography ; the ladies of the Nunna Minster did not at
that time live together in one house. Eadburh died and v.'as
buried at AA'inchester. About an hundred years after her
death some of her relics were bought from the convent,
and presented to the monastery of Pershore, which thence-
^ OF THE ^\
298 RECO VER V CHAP.
forward was called after her, and in the twelfth century both
convents told of miracles wrought at her shrines, though her
fame in that respect was greater at Pershore than at Win-
chester. Of the personal characters of the six daughters of
Eadward who were married, the eldest to Sihtric, a Danish
king of Northumbria, and the others to continental princes
and lords, little is known, save in the case of one who, as
we shall see, did credit to her religious training.
Eadward died in Mercia, at Farndon, in the present
Northamptonshire, in 924, and sixteen days later his son
^thelweard died at Oxford. It may, perhaps, be
Eadward" ^'^^^ ^^ ^°^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^thelwcard was learned, that
has nothing to do with his death at Oxford, which
was not a place of learning till two centuries later. Both
father and son were buried in the New Minster. More than
a year before Eadward's death, Archbishop Athelm died on
January 8, 923, and was succeeded by Wulfhelm, who, like
his predecessor, was promoted to the archbishopric from the
see of Wells. He went to Rome, evidently for his pall,
in 925.
As in the case of Eadward the dominating personality of
.'Ethelstan causes the ecclesiastical history of his reign to
centre round him rather than round any of his
^Etheistan prelates. He was crowned at Kingjston by Arch-
king, 924-940. '^ 1
bishop Wulfhelm. A Latm poem, written perhaps
before the end of the century, gives a curious picture of
the combination of religion and rude festivity at the corona-
tion, which, if not specially true of yEthelstan's coronation,
represents what was customary. The feasting was enor-
mous, the royal hall v/as a scene of noisy confusion, the
stomachs of the guests were satiated with dainties and their
souls with music, and all joined in singing, "To Thee
the praise, to Thee the glory be, O Christ." The new
king was thirty, in the flower of his manhood. In his
childhood his beauty and grace had delighted his grand-
father Alfred, who is said, young as the boy must have
been, to have invested him with arms, putting on him a
scarlet cloak and a belt studded with gems, and giving him
a sword with a golden sheath, a ceremony which roughly
answered to the arming of a knight. He had been well
XV .^THELSTAN 299
brought up, for he had his training at the court of y^thelred,
the Mercian ealdorman, and his aunt ^thelflaed took pains to
fit him for his future career. Completing his father's work,
he added Northumbria to his immediate kingdom, and
enforced the submission of the principalities and kingdoms of
the Welsh and Scots. The greatness of his fame is attested
by his relations with the continent, which, so far as they have an
ecclesiastical side, will be noted later. With all his splendour,
he was humble, and affable to men of all conditions, and
specially to the clergy. For the Church his reign was a time
of prosperity and growth ; he cared for its interests, promoted
good men, lived on excellent terms with his bishops, some of
whom he seems to have employed in secular matters, and
was a liberal benefactor to minsters.
^thelstan's policy of endeavouring to conciliate the Danes
of Northumbria, and weld them into one nation with the Eng-
lish, has an ecclesiastical bearing. The foreign and
hostile element in Northumbria was constantly re- j^r^^J^hJ^i^^^lj^
cruited by fresh invasions of pagan vikings coming
mainly from Ireland, where the Ostmen, as the Danes and
Northmen of that land were called, had established them-
selves as masters in the South and East. During Eadward's
reign a heathen Dane named Rognvaldr or Reignwald, who
had sailed from Ireland and invaded Scotland, marched into
Northumbria and stormed York. To two of his jarls, or
earls, he granted lands which were claimed as the territory of
St. Cuthbert, that is as part of the lands of the Bernician
bishopric, by Cutheard, the Bernician bishop, then dwelling
with his clergy and monks — if, indeed, there were monks among
them — at Chester-le-Street. One of these earls, a harsh and
cruel man, is said to have been reproved for his evil deeds by the
bishop, who threatened him with the vengeance of St. Cuthbert.
The viking answered with a sneer at the belief in a dead man's
power, and turned away in v*'rath ; he fell on the threshold
of the door, and there perished in agony. The story, like
some other matters recorded by the Durham chronicler, was
perhaps invented to strengthen the title of his church to its
vast possessions.
^thelstan hoped to prevent future invasions, and to
establish his power in Northumbria, by conciliating the
300 RECO VER V chap.
Danes and Northmen, who were aheady settled there and
had accepted Christianity. With this end in view he sought
to gain the support of the Church in the North,
^WuSant^'^and specially of the Archbishop of York, for the
Archbishops archbishops seem to have exercised a vast influ-
ence over the lately converted people, and held a
powerful, and almost independent, poHtical position. Though
the death of Sihtric, the Northumbrian king, in the year
after his marriage with ^thelstan's eldest sister, was a check
to ^thelstan's plans, and he was finally forced to bring the
North into subjection by war, his policy met with some success
during a large part of his reign, for Rodeward, the Archbishop
of York, and his suffragans attended his witenagemots. He
made large grants to the great Yorkshire minsters, to York,
Ripon, and Beverley, and to the church of St. Cuthbert,
probably during his campaigns in the North, and his liberality,
of course, bound the clergy to him. On the death of Rode-
ward, he secured the election of Wulfstan as archbishop in
931, and is said to have granted the whole district of
Amounderness to the see. As long as ^thelstan lived,
Wulfstan remained faithful to him ; he attended meetings of
the witan, and it was probably owing to his influence that,
when things were quiet in the North, several Danish earls
from his province also appeared at them. After yEthelstan's
death, however, Wulfstan, as we shall see, caused his suc-
cessors much trouble.
Some disturbances between the West Welsh and their
English neighbours seem to have led to another increase of
the West Saxon episcopate. In, or about, 926
_the"corarsh yEthelstan drove the Welsh from Exeter, where,
bishopric, 930. ^r^gj. j-^^Qj.g ^^^^ ^^^,Q centuries of English occupa-
tion, they still had a settlement in the northern part of the
town, marked by the dedication of churches to Welsh saints.
He completed the subjugation of the Cornishmen, made their
land from the Tamar westward into a new diocese, and
appointed as their new bishop Conan, whose name bespeaks
his Celtic origin. It seems almost certain that Conan placed
his see at St. Germans, where it was at the time of the
consecration of his successor Daniel. Later it was certainly at
St. Petrock's, or Padstow, and in the eleventh century, perhaps.
XV THEODRED, BISHOP OF LONDON 301
again at St. Germans. As in the case of the bishopric of the
Wilssetas (Ramsbnry), the episcopal seat of the bishopric of
the Cornish people seems to have been movable. The
three Cornish estates which had been granted the Church
of Sherborne by Ecgbert, and had been transferred to the
bishops of Crediton, were granted to Bishop Daniel by a decree
of the witan. The title of Bishop of Berkshire given to a
bishop named Cynsige, whose name occurs 931-934, at first
sight suggests a design for a further increase of the episcopate
by a division of the Wiltshire diocese. The documents,
however, in which this description occurs are by no means
above suspicion, and even allowing that Cynsige was bishop
in Berkshire, he had no successor, and may, perhaps, have
been consecrated as a suffragan to the Wiltshire bishop.
We know little more of Archbishop Wulfhelm than we do
of his predecessor Athelm. Perhaps neither of them was a
man of very marked character, though W^ulfhelm is
described by a late writer as a good man, and an Ecdesiasticai
active and dignified prelate. The cessation of
synodical action after the period of the Danish invasions
deprives us of one means of information as to an archbishop's
work, for ecclesiastical legislation proceeded at that time from
the king acting by the advice of his witan, lay and clerical.
Some laws which ^Ethelstan and his witan published at
Greatanlea, or Grately, near Andover, are prefaced by direc-
tions to the king's reeves, expressly said to have been made
with the counsel of Wulfhelm, the bishops, and the servants
of God. The king gives orders to his reeves respecting the
payment of tithes and church-dues, the relief of the poor,
and the manumission of bondmen for the Lord's sake. In
the laws which follow, along with those that concern purely
secular matters, are decrees against "church-breach," and
witchcraft, and for the regulation of ordeals.
Of some of Wulfhelm's suffragans we know more than we
do of the archbishop. The eminent virtues of Theodred,
Bishop of London, in 926 and later, caused him
to receive the surname of "the Good." One ofThe reign.^
error is said to have marred his life. Happening ■^'j^°ndon.°^
to be at St. Edmund's Abbey, while on his way to
join the king in the North, he found some men in prison
302 RECO VER V chap.
who had attempted to rob the shrine of the royal saint, and
had, it was beHeved, been caught through his miraculous
interference. Theodred is said to have caused them to be
hanged, and this uncanonical act weighed heavily on his
conscience ; he performed a life-long penance, and as an
expiation erected a splendid shrine over the saint's body. A
law ascribed to ^^thelstan says that Theodred persuaded the
king to decree, in a witenagemot held at a place called
Witlanburh, that no one younger than fifteen years should be
put to death [for theft], unless he made resistance or fled, " for
it seemed to him too cruel that so young a man should be
killed, and besides for so little as he has learned has some-
where been done." Was this noble remonstrance caused by
the bishop's repentance, or is the story of his hasty act and
subsequent penitence, which, by the way, does not rest on
perfectly safe authority, a legend founded on the remembrance
of his interference to mitigate the severity of the law? In
either case, his memory deserves to live, and did live in the
twelfth century in the affections of the Londoners, who, as
they looked upon his tomb set on high in the crypt of St.
Paul's, used to tell the story of their good bishop's error and
life-long sorrow.
Another bishop famed for holiness was Beornstan, whom
Frithestan on his retirement had consecrated to succeed him
Two Bishops ^^ Winchester in 931. He was a man of much
of prayer, specially on behalf of the departed. Every
day he sang a mass for their souls, and at night
would pace the cemetery singing psalms for them. One
night, as he ended these psalms, and added the prayer
"Requiescant in pace," he suddenly seemed to hear the
response "Amen" as the voice of a mighty multitude
beneath the earth. Daily he washed the feet of the poor,
set food before them, and served them. On All Saints'
Day, 934, after he had dismissed his poor guests, he retired
to pray in secret. Hours passed by, and as his attendants
knew that he often remained a long time in prayer, they
wondered not at his stillness. At last they entered the room,
and found that his spirit had departed. He was reckoned as
a saint, and his cult was preached by one of his successors,
Bishop ^thelwold, to whom he was believed to have
XV BISHOP ODA 303
appeared, along with St. Swithun and St. Birinus, and to have
announced his own beatification. He was succeeded by
^Ifheah, or Elphege, called the Bald, who was also famed for
his holiness, and was held to have the gift of prophecy. He
appears to have upheld discipline and to have been exalted in
spirit and dignified in speech. He exercised a strong influence
on the lives of two at least of the great churchmen who revived
monasticism in England, and may therefore be regarded as
the originator of the monastic movement, of which we shall
hear much in later chapters.
Of greater fame than these in the history of the Church
is another of ^Ethelstan's bishops named Oda, or, in Latin,
Odo, who is said to have been the son of a Dane ^.^^
in the army of Ivar. In early life Oda suffered of Wiltshire!
persecution at home on account of his persistence
in going to church, and was adopted by an English noble
named ^thelhelm, who had him baptized and taught Latin.
He is said to have served as a soldier, but was young when he
received the tonsure. After he was ordained priest, he went
to Rome with ^thelhelm, who was perhaps sent thither by
the king with his alms, or Peter's pence. While on the way,
^thelhelm fell sick, and his recovery was attributed to a
draught of wine over which Oda had made the sign of the
cross, and was therefore, at least in after- days when Oda had
become archbishop, reckoned as a miracle. On his return
^thelhelm introduced his adopted son to ^thelstan, who,
about 926, made him Bishop of Wiltshire. No better or
wiser man could have been chosen for the office.
Besides his benefactions to the churches of the North,
^thelstan made grants of land and other offerings to several
West Saxon and Mercian minsters. To Malmesbury
he was particularly liberal, for he had a special rever- ^^l^f^
ence for St. Ealdhelm. We must not, therefore, take
too literally the grateful exaggeration of the Malmesbury his-
torian, that there was scarcely an old minster in England which
he did not enrich with buildings, ornaments, books, or estates.
Two of his charters, one to Malmesbury and the other to
Bath, have appended to them a strange story, told as though
in the words of the king himself. Both charters are, however,
of less than doubtful value, ^thelstan is represented in
304 RECO VER V chap.
them as saying that an ealdorman named Alfred, or Alfred,
had conspired against him and had sought to blind him at
Winchester, that the rebel was caught, and sent to Rome to be
judged by Pope John [XL ?]. He swore folsely before the
altar of St. Peter that he was innocent, fell down straightway,
and was carried to the " English school," where he died on
the third day. The pope sent to ^thelstan to ask whether
he should have Christian burial. At the request of the witan,
the king agreed to this, and all the rebel's possessions having
been adjudged to him, ^thelstan gave from them the lands
in question to the two abbeys. Whether there is any truth
at all in this story it is impossible to say.
^thelstan founded two monasteries — Middleton, or Milton
Abbas, in Dorset, and Michelney, or Muchelney, in Somerset
— which were, of course, served by secular clerks,
'^ifafis^ne"^ Michelncy was a refoundation, for a monastery
had originally been founded there by King Ine.
^thelstan is said to have founded these monasteries
for the good of the soul of his brother Eadwine. The
Chronicle notes, under 933, that "the aetheling Eadwine
was drowned at sea." Later writers say that he was
accused of conspiring against his brother and was put out to
sea with his armour-bearer in a boat without oars, that in
despair he leaped into the sea and was drowned, that his
armour-bearer brought his body to Wissant, and that it was
buried in St. Bertin's by his cousin Adulf, Count of Boulogne,
brother of Arnulf of Flanders, ^thelstan, it is asserted,
found out too late that his brother had been accused falsely ;
he retired for a while in penitence to " Lamport," evidently
Langport near IMichelney, and did penance of some kind for
seven years. The story is in the main true, though ^thelstan
must be acquitted of a design against his brother's life. Some
commotion had arisen in Wessex, and Eadwine was concerned
in it. He is called king by a writer at St. Bertin's about
thirty years after his death. He may have been under-king
of Kent, and have resisted the full consolidation of Kent
with Wessex. He left England apparently as an exile, was
drowned, and was buried at St. Bertin's, as the legend says.
Both Eadward, and in a greater degree ^thelstan, had
many relations with foreign lands. Several of these relations
XV CONTINENTAL RELATIONS 305
have an ecclesiastical interest, and some of them an import-
ant bearing on the history of the English Church. Early
in Eadward's reign the Northmen, not for the first
time, ravaged Ponthieu. In their distress the monks ^rdSonsf^
and clergy of the house of St. Judoc sought shelter
in England. Their house had once been ruled by the English
Alcuin; the English king was the son of Alfred, who had
given so freely to churches beyond the sea, and men and
women of English race had constantly worshipped and offered
in their church on landing at the neighbouring port of
Quentavic. They came to Eadward, bearing with them the
rehcs of their Breton patron, and the king received them kindly,
and lodged them and their precious burden in his New
Minster.
Not long after this many Bretons fled to England, for
their land also was ravaged by these Northmen. Among
these fugitives was a certain count, the son-in-law
of Count Alan the Great, who brought over with refugee'i.
him his young son, afterwards famous as Alan
Twisted-Beard, Count of Nantes. Eadward stood godfather
to the child, and caused him to be brought up at his court,
w^here he was the companion of ^thelstan.^ With the
hospitality which Eadward extended to these Breton fugitives
must be connected the help that he sent to the clergy of the
great Breton church of St. Samson at Dol. In return for his
liberality, the prior and clergy of St. Samson's enrolled him
as a member of their confraternity. An admission to con-
fraternity was the means by which convents, and colleges of
clergy, requited their benefactors ; they entered their names in
their " Book of Life " among the names of those for whom
they were bound to pray in life and after death. Fresh
troubles fell on the Bretons in ^thelstan's reign, for the
Northmen of the Seine, who were then settled in the land
called after them Normandy, subdued Brittany about 933.
The prior and clergy of St. Samson's were forced to flee into
France, and in their exile found the English king a generous
friend. Prior Radbod wrote to him assuring him of their
1 The Chron. Namnet. ap. Rec. des Hist, viii, 276, seems to confuse
Eadward and ^thelstan, for /Ethelstan could scarcely have been Alan's go4-
father and his youthful companion.
3o6 RECOVERY chap.
gratitude. He styles him " the father of the clergy, the friend
of the poor," and so on, and says that he was sending him the
relics of certain Celtic saints which he knew would be the
most acceptable present that the king could receive. These
relics ^thelstan placed in his minster at Milton.
The marriage of Alfred's daughter, ^Ifthryth, to Baldwin
of Flanders brought one refugee to England who must have
been shunned by all English churchmen. Fulk,
Flemish the Archbishop of Reims, who, as we have seen,
reugees. ^^^^ ^ ^^^^ interest in the affairs of the EngUsh
Church, was assassinated in 900 by one of Baldwin's
lords named Winomar. For the count had a quarrel against
Fulk, because the Frankish king had taken the abbey
of St. Vedast from him, and had given it to the archbishop.
Fulk's successor Heriveus, and the prelates assembled at his
consecration, pronounced a tremendous anathema against the
murderer, and Winomar thereupon sought shelter with
Eadward, his lord's brother-in-law. He is said to have died
miserably of some awful disease. In later days other Flemish
refugees of a better sort came over to England. When
Arnulf of Flanders restored monasticism at St. Bertin's in
944, a number of the brotherhood, who were expelled
because they would not accept the count's reforms, sought a
home in England, where they felt sure of a welcome, for
yEthelstan had enriched their house for his brother Eadwine's
sake. Eadmund, ^thelstan's brother and successor, received
them graciously, and placed them in the monastery at Bath.
The laxity of an English monastery must have been con-
genial to them. Before many years Flanders was to give
shelter to one of the chief restorers of English monasticism,
and Flemish monasteries were to sympathise with, and help
forward, a reformation which introduced into England a monas-
ticism as vigorous as their own.
A series of events which helped to bring English church-
men under the influence of the monastic life as practised in
the most famous monastery in France at that time,
Marriages of began bv the marriage of one of Eadward's daughters,
rOV3.l mdlGS. O -/ o \^ '
named Eadgifu, to Charles the Simple, the Carlo-
vingian king who reigned at Laon. The policy of forming
continental alliances by the marriages of the ladies of the
XV ROYAL MARRIAGES 307
royal house to foreign princes, begun by Alfred, and carried
on by Eadward, was much extended by ^^^thelstan. In
Germany, ties were renewed which had of old bound the
Church of St. Boniface's youth to the Church of his apostle-
ship. In 928, Cynewald, Bishop of Worcester,
visited the German monasteries, bringing with 'waid in^"^'
him a large sum of money sent to them by ^^^'"-'^"y-
/Ethelstan and several great people of his kingdom. In
return the convents inscribed the names of their English
friends and benefactors in their books, and remembered
them in their prayers. Of this we have evidence in the
case of the monastery of St. Gall, a house which had been
founded by, and called after, one of the fellow-countrymen
and companions of St, Columban. Cynewald arrived there
on October 15, and stayed for four days. On the second
day of his visit he entered the church, bearing a large
bag of money; part he laid on the altar, and gave the re-
mainder for the use of the convent. In return, the monks
inscribed in the Book of their Confraternity the names of King
yEthelstan, Archbishop Wulfhelm, seven bishops, two abbots,
and several great persons, including two ladies.
Cynewald's journey was probably connected with negotia-
tions for the marriage of one of ^thelstan's sisters to Otto,
the future emperor, the son of Henry the Fowler, the first
German king of the Saxon line. Of the king's sisters the
lady finally chosen to be Otto's wife was Eadgyth
(Edith), who was married in 930. She carried out ^T^\
as a German queen the lessons of piety which she ^ ^^* '
had learnt in her father's court. A contemporary Saxon his-
torian says that she was not less ennobled by her holiness than
by her royal birth, and that the day of the death of " queen
Edidis of blessed memory," February 26, 946, was a day of
mourning for all the Saxon nation. She did not live to
become empress. She was buried in the minster of Magde-
burg, which she had prompted her husband to build, and where
many years later Otto the Great was laid beside the wife of
his youth.
Another of ^thel Stan's sisters named Eadhild he married
to Hugh the Great, Duke of the French, the father by a
later marriage of Hugh Capet. The embassy which came
3o8 RECOVERY chap.
to demand her hand, headed by the king's cousin, Adulf
of Boulogne, was received by ^thelstan at Abingdon.
The monastery that Ine had founded, or helped
A French |-q found there, had been ruined by the Danes,
em ass>. ^^^ ^^ church (for a church seems to have
still stood there) was served by seculars, and was prob-
ably in a state of decay. The ambassadors brought many
precious and splendid gifts to the king, among them pieces of
the Lord's cross and the crown of thorns, each enclosed in
crystal, which he gave to Malmesbury, the banner of St.
Maurice, the leader of the Theban legion, and other matters
of a like kind, .-^thelstan, in 936, carried on negotiations with
Duke Hugh concerning the election to the French throne of
his nephew Lewis, the son of Charles the Simple, who had taken
refuge with his mother Eadgifu at his uncle's court. The
king, who had been called into the North by trouble in that
quarter, and was then at York with his nephew, sent Bishop
Oda, at the head of an embassy composed of other
of Bhhop ^ bishops and great men, to the duke to arrange for
^^^' his nephew's return. Oda impressed the French by
his high character and eloquence ; he succeeded in his mission,
and Lewis, called from his exile in England by an equivalent
of " d'Outremer," was crowned king at Laon. During this
embassy Oda may have seen, and must at least have heard,
much of the glories of the Abbey of Fleury, where Bene-
dictinism of a strict sort had lately been introduced, and was
zealously practised. If so, his visit to France would be of far
deeper ecclesiastical interest than merely as an illustration of
the employment of bishops in civil affairs, or as an incident in
the career of a great churchman.
Soon after Oda's return, he and Bishop Theodred of
London went north to join the king, who, in 937, crushed the
allied forces of Danes, Northmen, Scots, and Welsh
The battle of ^t the battle of Brunanburh. They were not the
Brunanburh. . •' , .
only bishops with the kmg m his victorious
campaign. One bishop, whose name is not known, ^ was slain
with all his attendants in the night attack made upon ^thel-
stan's camp. In the confusion the king's sword dropped out of
1 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontiff, c. 50, says that he was Wasrstan
of Sherborne, but Alfred was then, and afterwards, Bishop of Sherborne.
XV A REBEL ARCHBISHOP 309
its scabbard. Being surrounded by the enemy, he called — so
the Malmesbury historian says — on God and St. Ealdhelm,
and the sword was miraculously restored to its scabbard, or,
according to another version of the story, was handed to him
by Bishop Oda. ^thelstan died on October 27, 940, and
was buried at Malmesbury, in the church of his patron St.
Ealdhelm, where by his orders two cousins of his who had
fallen at Brunanburh had been buried three years before.
On the accession of ^thelstan's next brother Eadmund,
the Northumbrians broke the peace, and chose Olaf, the son
of the King of Dublin, as their king. Olaf died after
having burnt the church of St. Balthere, an ^^^"I^f^^^j^
anchorite who lived in the middle of the eighth
century, at Tyningham in East Lothian, and the Danish
garrison in York, apparently enraged at the death of their king,
wasted Lindisfarne. The Northumbrians chose another Olaf,
the son of Sihtric, their former king, the husband of Eadward's
eldest daughter. Olaf had refused to follow his father's
example by receiving baptism, and remained a heathen.
Nevertheless, Archbishop Wulfstan joined himself to him, and
accompanied him on an invasion of the land of the Five
Burghs, the eastern part of Mercia. Olaf and the archbishop
were surprised and nearly taken prisoners at Leicester in
947. Peace was made through the intervention of the two
archbishops, Wulfstan evidently treating on behalf of the
Danes. Olaf was baptized, Eadmund standing godfather to
him, and after a while Olaf s nephew, who was also king in
Northumbria, followed his uncle's example, and became
Eadmund's godson. In the next year Eadmund subdued
Northumbria, and drove out the two Danish kings Olaf and
Reignwald. The land, however, had no long period of rest,
nor was Wulfstan long content to be the subject of a king of
the West Saxon line.
Authorities. — The Gesia Reguvi and Gesta Pont. 01 William of
Malmesbury, who, though a twelfth-century writer, is of special value, as he
used materials not now known to exist (see Bp. Stubbs's Preface to the Gesta
Regum, Rolls series, which contains discussions on many points in this
period and specially on the West Saxon episcopate, freely used in this chapter).
For the character of the West Saxon shires see Freeman, English Towns and
Districts, London, 1883, and for the formation of the Mercian shires, a
3IO RECOVERY chap, xv
paper by the Rev. C. S. Taylor in Bristol a?id Glouc. Arch. Soc. Proc. for
1898, xxi. pt. i. The Chronicle, though full for Eadward's reign, has not
n:iuch of ecclesiastical interest ; for the reign of ^thelstan it is meagre
and confused. Florence of Worcester's Chronicle adds many details, and
Symeon of Durham's Hist. Eccl. DtiJiehn and Historia Regum are useful for
the affairs of the northern province ; the former, however, contains much
that is of doubtful authority. For the notices of ecclesiastical legislation see
Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes, u.s. ; for charters, Kemble's Codex
Dipt. U.S., Birch's CarttilaHum Sax., London, 1885, and the Crawford
Charters, Anecdota Oxon. vii. ed. Napier and Stevenson, Oxford, 1895. The
charters telling the story of .Alfred are in Will, of Malm. Gesta Regum and in
Charters of Bath Priory, Somerset Record Soc. London, 1893. The story of
Eadwine is also in the Gesta Regum; see Bp. Stubbs's Preface to G. R.,
where reference is made to Jo. Iperius, Annates Berti7i, ap. Martene and
Durand, Thesazirus, iii. 547, Paris, 1717, and Meyer, Ann. rerum Belgic.
an. 932, Frankfort, 1580. Freeman, HistoHcal Essays, i. , London, 1871,
condemns the story as mythical ; he could not then have been acquainted
with Folcwin's Gesta Abb. S. Bertini Sithien. ap. Pertz, Mo?i. Germ. Hist.
SS. xiii. 628, 629, written less than thirty years after the .^theling's death,
from which the account in this chapter has been taken. Some other state-
ments are also derived from Folcwin, who records the coming to England of
the dispossessed brethren of St. Bertin's, dating it 944, but saying that
.iEthelstan was then king : he is more likely to have been correct as to the
date than as to the king's name. For Bp. Cynewald at St. Gall see Con-
fraterniiates S. Galli, pp. 136, 137, 238, 363, ed. Piper, ap. Mon. Germ.
Hist., Berlin, 1884. Bp. Stubbs, in his Preface to his Memorials of St.
Dunstan, Rolls series, points out the interest which the relations of England
with the Continent during this period have for the student of Church history.
For those noted here, as regards Brittany, see the Gesta Pont. pp. 399, 400 ;
Chron. Namnet. ap. Recueil des Hist. viii. 276, and Will, of Jumieges, \X\. i,
ap. Duchesne, Script. Hist. Norman. , Paris, 1609. For the character of
Queen Eadgyth see Widukind's Res Gestce Saxon, ii. 41, ap. Pertz, u.s. iii.
For Oda's embassy, Flodoard's Annales a. 936, ap. Pertz, u.s. iii., and
Richer's Hist. ii. 4, ap. Pertz, u.s. ii. Constant reference has been made
to Bp. Stubbs's Rcgisirum Sac. A?iglic.
CHAPTER XVI
THE CHURCH AND THE NATION
At this point in our narrative, a pause may be made with-
out inconvenience in order to consider the relations, so far as
they can be ascertained, in which the English Church
stood towards the State, and the part taken by its clergy in
the life of the people.
In an attempt to examine the relations between the
Church and the civil government, it must be remembered
that in the tenth century the constitution of the
State entered on a period of well-marked though ,J,yar^wef.
silent change. Owing partly to the consolida-
tion of the kingdom, and partly to the influence of the
Danish wars, the position and power of the king became
strengthened and magnified. Personally, he had a pre-
eminence of a new kind. In old days he was the repre-
sentative of his people, their leader in war, and their
supreme judge; his people were bound to him by a
personal tie ; his dignity was greater than that of the greatest
noble, but still it was a difference in degree. After the
Danish wars his people are bound to him by an obligation
of fealty, and to plot against his life is treason. So, too, as
concerns his power, he becomes regarded as the source of justice
and the guardian of the public peace ; the public land becomes
virtually the king's land, almost his demesne; a grant of it
binds the receiver by a special obligation to do him service
in war, and an approach is made to territorial and feudal
sovereignty. While in theory the constitution and functions
of the witenagemot remained the same, its importance and
312 THE CHURCH AND THE NATION chap.
character are changed. Possibly it was never so popular an
assembly as it has sometimes been represented ; in the tenth
century it assumes on ordinary occasions the character of a
king's council. These changes, which seem to have begun
with the reign of Alfred, were soon accompanied by an
assumption of grandiloquent titles such as imperator and
basikus, adopted from the imperial court. This increase of
the royal dignity and authority had a bearing on ecclesiastical
matters ; for the personal action of the king becomes more
apparent than in earlier times.
For this growth of the royal power the Church cannot be
held responsible. It is true that, apart from any questions as
to the influence of the hallowing of British kings, or
and tSr of heathen coronations, the English kingship owed
kingship. ^Q ^^ Church the religious rites of coronation and
unction. These rites guarded a king's life by a special sanction.
A canon of the council of 787, directed against the murder of
kings, then a common event in Northumbria, declared that to
plot against a king's life w^as specially wicked, because he was
the Lord's anointed. The Church, too, certainly inculcated
the apostolic command of obedience to the civil powder. Yet
it did not claim to invest the king by coronation and
unction with such a character, or authority, as made resistance
necessarily unlawful, for in administering those rites it de-
manded from him that he should govern righteously, protect
God's Church and people, forbid iniquity, and rule wdth justice
and mercy. This is plainly laid down in the Pontifical of Arch-
bishop Ecgbert of York. A definite promise to this effect was,
at least in later days, required of the king by the archbishop
who performed the rites, and towards the close of the period
of the native monarchy, not only was this promise made in a
record which was laid upon the altar, but it was insisted upon
by the archbishop in an address. On the strength of this
promise, the Church pronounced the divine sanction of the
royal election, the act of the nation, by ceremonies which
signified the consecration of the elected king to the holy work
of righteous government.
Far from unduly exalting the royal dignity, the Church
declared the duty of kings towards their subjects, and in the
council of 787 ordered that the bishops should teach them
XVI EPISCOPAL ELECTJONS 313
God's Word without fear or flattery. As we have ah-eady seen,
the wickedness of certain kings of the eighth century was freely
condemned by churchmen. While the Church repro-
bated the murder of kings, the Northumbrian bishops ^^^^^jf^^,".^
do not seem to have disapproved of the frequent acts
of deposition decreed by witenagemots in which they had a
voice, and Archbishop Eanbald II. appears to have taken an
active part against the tyrannical Eardulf Bishop Ealhstan
was deeply concerned in the revolt against ^thelwulf, and the
later revolt against Eadwig (Edwy), though supported by a
portion only of the clergy, was certainly not condemned as
contrary to the teaching of the Church.
In episcopal elections no rule can be clearly discerned,
and practice seems to have varied. Theoretically, a bishop
was elected by the clergy of his Church, while the .
right of the people of the diocese to a voice in the elections
election is also sometimes recognised. Practically, ^^^'^^^'
the bishop was often appointed by the king, with the " advice
and consent " of the witan, and in later times this was almost
invariably the case. The royal appointment, however, does not
preclude clerical election ; for in early times the king probably
acted in concurrence with the wishes of the clergy of the
bishop's church. As late as the ninth century, it would
seem that on ordinary occasions the election by the clergy
frequently determined the appointment. When Archbishop
Eanbald I. was about to retire, Alcuin, it will be remembered,
wrote to beg him to see that the clergy of his church had
freedom of election, and exhorted them to avoid simony. So,
too, Bede's plan that the new bishoprics which he desired should
be held by men elected by, and if possible from, the convents
of monasteries attached to their sees, seems to imply that
ecclesiastical election was a reality. When a bishop con-
secrated his successor, as John of Beverley consecrated Ecgbert,
as Ecgbert consecrated ^thelbert, and as he in his turn
committed {tradidit) his see to Eanbald, the election by the
clergy must have conferred the right to consecration. In the
case of ^thelbert, it is said that his election was requested by
the people of York. In Ecgbert's reign a Bishop of Lichfield
stated in his profession of obedience that he had been elected
by the whole Church of his diocese.
314 THE CHURCH AND THE NATION chap.
On the other hand, elections to the see of Canterbury
seem to have been subject to royal dictation. Oswiu of
Northumbria and Ecgbert of Kent selected Wighard
^y "Jwef ^^^ ^°^ consecration, " with the choice and assent of the
English Church " — words which, whatever their
import may be, seem to ignore the prerogative right of the
metropolitan church. Again, Offa of Mercia, while master of
Kent, evidently appointed archbishops who would scarcely
have been chosen by the clergy of Christ Church, if they had
elected freely. In some, and specially in important, elections
to other sees, the action of the civil power is also prominent.
Wilfrith was elected Bishop of the Northumbrians by the
two Northumbrian kings in a witenagemot, with the consent
of the witan and all the people. Cuthbert was chosen by
Ecgfrith to succeed Tunbert at Hexham, and was afterwards
elected by a council of ecclesiastics and laymen, held under
the presidency of Archbishop Theodore, in the presence of
the king ; and Oftfor was elected Bishop of the Hwiccas " by
the judgment of all," probably in a Mercian witenagemot.
In later times, Helmstan, who was consecrated to the see of
Winchester in 839, declared in his profession of obedience
that he had been elected by the pope, by the " congregation
of the city of Winchester," King ^thelwulf, and the bishops,
nobles, and people of Wessex. Florence of Worcester, who
evidently had access to Winchester records not now known
to exist, says briefly that he succeeded to the see "by com-
mand of the king." He was probably selected by the king
and sent on an embassy to Rome ; the pope expressed his
approval of the king's choice, he was elected by his church
either before setting out or on his return, and after he had
come back was appointed in a West Saxon witenagemot.
From these notices it may be gathered that, while theoretic-
ally the clergy of the bishop's church had the right of free election,
and sometimes exercised it, of course with the king's consent
and approval, the king in heptarchic times as a rule nominated
the bishop, probably in most cases holding some communica-
tion with the clergy of the episcopal church. An election
was made in accordance with his appointment by the clergy \
in this election the people often took a part which was
generally, at least, confined, like their part in witenagemots.
XVI LEG IS LA TION 3 1 5
to applauding the announcement of what had been done, and
this was followed by an election in the next witenagemot,
in which the choice of the king and the clergy was declared,
and of course approved. As the royal authority increases
under the house of Ecgbert, appointments to bishoprics are
evidently determined solely by the king's will. Clerical election
still survived, but it became a mere matter of form, and though
the formal appointment was made in a meeting of the wilan,
their advice and consent could not have signified anything
more than that the king acted with his ordinary counsellors.
In the eleventh century the bishop-elect was consecrated in
obedience to a royal writ, and in the reign of the Confessor
received his bishopric at the king's hands by investiture with
the insignia of his office, a crosier and ring.
English bishops w^re in virtue of their office members of
the witenagemot, first in each heptarchic kingdom, and later
in thiT'consoTrdated kingdom. Other ecclesiastics
also sat in these assemblies, though not in virtue of the church°in
their office. Their number was few in early times, iJ^is'S^
and they were perhaps only the king's priests or
chaplains, the abbot of some neighbouring church, or some
churchman called to the assembly for a special and personal
reason. In the witenagemot the king made laws with the
advice and consent of the witan, the counsel of his bishops
being expressly stated on several occasions. These laws were
often on ecclesiastical as vv^ell as civil matters ; no line was
drawn between obligations to God and to the State. The
witenagemot was also the supreme court of justice, and the
bishops, as members of it, took part in the determination of
suits and in all other business.
From the time of Theodore to the period of the Danish
wars, the Church, as we have seen, had its own councils.
To these each bishop seems to have brought
with him a few of his principal clergy, abbots ^wSS?'
and priests. The business transacted was purely
ecclesiastical, canons were decreed, and disputes between
churches with respect to land were, if possible, arranged,
though an arbitration concerning title to property would
not be legally binding, unless it were confirmed by a
civil court. In other respects the decisions of these
3i6 THE CHURCH AND THE NATION chap.
councils do not seem to have needed confirmation by the
secular power. When after the Danish wars purely eccle-
siastical councils were no longer held, the Church lost the
means of independent self-government. Ecclesiastical legis-
lation was then either supplied by enactments of the king and
the witan, or was carried on by constitutions drawn up by
archbishops, and issued by royal authority, or by canons framed
by private ecclesiastics, and deriving such authority as they
possessed from their intrinsic merit or the estimation in w^hich
their authors were held.
In the witenagemots of the tenth and eleventh centuries
matters of a purely ecclesiastical character were made the
subjects of legislation, and the observance of
carried on in feasts and fasts was decreed by the same as-
witenagemots. •'
sembly that ordered the punishment of deserters
from the national militia. It must, however, be remem-
bered that the witenagemot was by no means a purely
secular body ; it included the chief officers of the kingdom,
clerical as well as lay, bishops and ealdormen, together
with a varying number of others nominated by the king.
The bishops generally attended in large number, and the
clerical element was strengthened in the tenth century by
the presence of abbots. In an assembly of 934 there were
present the two archbishops, four Welsh kings, seventeen
bishops, twelve ealdormen^ four abbots, and fifty-two thegns ;
in another of 968, the two archbishops, eight bishops, four
abbots, seven ealdormen, and twenty thegns. In another of 980
were present the two archbishops, ten bishops, six ealdormen,
and fourteen thegns ; and in another of 1002, six aethelings, or,
to adopt a modern phrase, princes of the blood, the two arch-
bishops, twelve bishops, twelve abbots, three earls, and fifteen
thegns. The influence of the clergy in these assemblies was
therefore strong, and was acknowledged in legislation not less
fully in later than in earlier times. In the laws enacted in the
witenagemot of Greatanlea, ^thelstan, as we have already
seen, speaks of the counsel of Archbishop Wulfhelm and
" my other bishops." The ecclesiastical laws of Eadmund,
though published in a mixed assembly of laymen and ecclesi-
astics, are described as the fruit of the deUberations of the
archbishops and bishops, and certain of ^thelred's laws are
XVI CHARACTER OF THE EPISCOPATE 317
declaied to have been chosen by the king and the witan,
ecclesiastical and lay. While, then, the Church lost its separate
legislative assemblies, it was not made subject to a lay assembly,
but rather joined with the laity in legislating for itself and for
the State. The union between Church and State was so close
that their action in legislation cannot be separated.
The position of an English bishop differed widely from
that held by a bishop in countries where the municipal system
of the Roman province had survived Teutonic _ ., , , .
rr-ii 1 • 1 /- 11 Tribal basis
conquest. Ihere, the city was the seat of all of the
political life and local authority, and was the place *p'^*=°p=^^^-
of residence of the wealthy proprietors of the surrounding
district, which formed its territory, and was ruled by its
oligarchy. Accordingly, in Gaul, for example, the episcopal
sees were established in cities, and the bishop took a leading
part in municipal politics, and was the rival or ally of the
Prankish count. By the ninth century, the bishops of Gaul
were little different from secular lords, they were greedy for
wealth and power, they had shaken off obedience to their
metropolitans, and they oppressed their clergy. In England,
on the other hand, where the polity of the invaders was
unaffected by Roman institutions, the episcopate was, as
we have seen, arranged on a tribal basis. Many episcopal
churches were planted in small villages, some of which seem
to have grown up round the minster. Others, it is true, were
planted in the chief towns of kingdoms, yet their bishops were
not the less bishops of peoples, for the English city had no
independent political importance, such as pertained to the
cities of Gaul.
The English bishops, then, did not become secular poten-
tates, like the Frankish bishops ; for though the two arch-
bishops held positions of secular power, they did
not seek to become secular lords. The bishops did
not cast off metropolitan authority, or oppress their clergy, and
were seldom drawn into pohtical struggles. Save one or two
Archbishops of Canterbury, v;ho were involved in politics by
their position in Kent, and one Archbishop of York, they seem
to have kept clear of politics altogether, until the West Saxon
dynasty became predominant. After that date they still, as a
rule, avoided independent political action, but many of them
3i8 THE CHURCH AND THE NATION chap.
became involved in politics as ministers of the crown, and
they were called upon to take an active share in local
administration. The employment of the bishops and clergy
in secular affairs was a gain to the nation, for it gave the State
the services of men more highly trained than the laity. But it
was, on the whole, calamitous to the Church, for while it cer-
tainly gave it a strong hold on the national life, it was a hin-
drance to spirituality and in many cases to ecclesiastical activity.
In addition to his share in the legislative and judicial work
of the witenagemot, the bishop had an important place in local
administration. When the shire-system was organised
intempoSi he held a position in it co-relative to that of the
jurisdiction; g^ldorman. As the ealdorman was the civil governor
of the shire, so the bishop was its spiritual ruler. In special
emergencies he sometimes, as we have already seen, marched
with the ealdorman at the head of the local force. In the
shire -moot he sat with the ealdorman to declare the law
of God, as the ealdorman declared the civil law, and he
also had a right, probably exercised only on occasions of
special importance, to sit in the court of the hundred.
Certain classes of suits determined in these courts seem to
have specially belonged to his jurisdiction. As the head and
guardian of his clergy, who were in his niund or legal pro-
tection, he would uphold their rights in the court, and would
pronounce sentence on clerical offenders. He was also the
legal protector of the stranger and the widow, and would
specially guard their rights. Within his particular province
fell suits concerning certain crimes, such as perjury, and incest,
and offences against the Church, infringement of sanctuary, or
robbery from churches. In such cases he would act in the
secular courts in virtue of his spiritual office, for, so far as
the public law was concerned, there were no special courts
for the trial of ecclesiastical persons or causes before the
Norman Conquest. The bishop would also give special
attention to the legal processes of compurgation and ordeal,
of which something must be said later. His functions in the
court, however, were not confined to these matters ; he acted
in all suits together with the ealdorman, and, as the exponent
of God's law, would be expected to check undue severity or
wrongful judgments.
xv; EPISCOPAL JURISDICTION 319
While ecclesiastics were tried in the same court as laymen
on all charges of which the civil law took cognisance, the
bishop also exercised a disciplinary jurisdiction over
his clergy, apparently, in his private court, where he j;,"iXcUon_
was aided by his archdeacon. This officer first
appears in the history of the English Church, in the person of
Wulfred, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury ; for the bishop's
deacon of earlier times was simply his attendant, and assistant
in spiritual ministrations. Some traces of this jurisdiction
appear in secular laws. A special penalty was provided for
perjury before a bishop ; a clerk guilty of homicide, or other
enormous crime, was degraded by the bishop, and sent out
of the land until he had performed such penance and
pilgrimage as the pope might prescribe ; and all ecclesiastical
offences for which the civil law provided no remedy, such as
a clerk's drunkenness or neglect of duty, were punished by
the "doom" of the bishop. The bishop also directed the
penitential discipline inflicted on the laity for their souls'
health. In the cases in which he exercised spiritual juris-
diction, whether over clerks or laymen, apart from his juris-
diction in the civil courts, his sentence was, if necessary,
enforced by excommunication. Nor would the offender be
absolved until he had made amends by the payment of a fine,
and submitted himself to the bishop's sentence. As the
secular law concerned itself with moral and religious as well
as civil obligations, the excommunicate person was forced to
submission in order to be wdthin the protection of the peace,
and there was no one so highly placed that he could contemn
the sentence of the Church. The support given by the civil
power to ecclesiastical jurisdiction is illustrated by a law of
1008, v/hich says that, "if any excommunicated man, unless
he be a frith-suppliant (one seeking restoration), dwell any-
v/here near the king, before he has earnestly submitted to
divine bot (made amends to the Church), be it at the peril of
himself and all that he has." The spheres of action of the
Church and the State in jurisdiction, as well as legislation,
were closely connected, and, as it seems, imperfectly defined ;
yet there is no sign of disagreement between them as to
their respective powers and functions until after the Norman
Conquest. *^^
320 THE CHURCH AND THE NATION chap.
The dignified position accorded to the clergy may be
gathered from the laws on the " wer-gild," the value attached
by the law to the lives of men of different classes.
statul ofrhe The subject is somewhat involved. It has, however,
clergy, j^^^^ |^-^ d^o^NX). by high authority that, in most of the
heptarchic kingdoms, the "wer" of the simple freeman was
assessed at 200 shillings, that of a thegn and a priest at six
times as much, that of a bishop and ealdorman at four times
as much as that of a thegn, and that of the king and arch-
bishop at six times as much. By the later law of the
northern people, an archbishop had the same "wer" as an
aetheling, a bishop as an ealdorman, a mass-priest as a thegn.
On the same principle, he who fought in the presence of an
aetheling or an archbishop was fined 150 shiUings, in the
presence of a bishop or an ealdorman ibo shillings. The
amount of a man's "wer" determined the legal value of his
oath in a civil or criminal action, and the number of com-
purgators that he was required to produce in support of it.
The word of a bishop was incontrovertible ; the oath of the
mass-priest was of equal value to that of the thegn.
The legal process of the ordeal, the appeal to the judgment
of God, adopted in criminal cases when the truth could not
otherwise be ascertained, was carried out under
Ordeals, g^clesiastical supervision and with religious cere-
monies. The accuser having sworn to the truth of his
charge, and the accused to his innocence, the accused was
taken before the priest who was to conduct the ordeal, three
nights before it was to take place. From that time he
was to fast on bread and water, herbs and salt, and each
morning was to be present at the mass. On the third morn-
ing the priest publicly adjured him not to venture on the
ordeal unless he was innocent, gave him the sacrament, and
received his declaration of innocence. Then followed the
ordeal, which usually took the form of trial either by hot
water or hot iron. The water or iron, as the case might be,
was heated in the church. The priest made the male friends
of the two parties stand in opposite rows, and sprinkled them
with holy water. After he had sung the litany, he hallowed
the water or iron, and the trial was made. The accused
either plunged his hand and arm into a caldron full of
XVI THE PARISH PRIEST 321
boiling water and drew out a stone, or carried a bar of
glowing iron three paces along the floor of the church. The
injured arm was bandaged by the priest, and was not un-
covered until the third day, when the guilt or innocence of the
accused was decided by its condition.
The parish priest had, like his bishop, his place in the
machinery of local administration. As the bishop made the
diocese, so did the priest make the parish. When
churches were built, one or more townships became ^pHe^n?
the district of a church and the parish of its priest, secular
. ^ ^ , .' business;
who, as he was the constituent personage of this
ecclesiastical unit, came to be called its persona or parson.
In each township the landholders formed a distinct body with
certain rights of self-government, and the priest had a recog-
nised position in its secular life, for when the reeve and four
best men of the township went, as they were bound to go, to
attend the local courts, the parish priest went with them.
His learning, though in most cases small, was more than his
neighbours', and he must therefore have taken a useful part
in the ordinary business of the township. He would be able
to write, he possibly knew something of arithmetic, and he
might even be equal to translating a Latin document, if a
question arose which could be settled by documentary evidence.
The church where his parishioners met for ecclesiastical
purposes would often be used by them for secular business,
and so it came to pass that certain matters not connected
with religion were, and still are, transacted in vestries, and
that the parson of the parish has a legal right to preside at
vestry-meetings, though the business for which they are called
may be secular in character.
For good, and sometimes for ill, the English parish priest
was one with his parishioners in other matters besides local
business. The priests of the great minsters, once . . . -
held by monks, and by the tenth century served '° ^' y ' ^^ >
by bodies of secular clergy, were for the most part richer
and better born than their fellows. Those of the ordinary
parochial churches were probably not different from their
neighbours either in birth or means. At least from the
time of the Danish invasions, the parish priest would, it may
be gathered, generally be a married man living with his wife.
Y
322 THE CHURCH AND THE NATION chap.
He would be fairly well off, deriving the larger part of his
living from the cultivation of the land which had been granted
to his church. Some increase to his income would come
from offerings at the mass, from plough-alms, the penny from
every plough-land paid yearly in the fortnight after Easter, and
the fees paid for burials. In the tenth century, if his church
had a burial-ground, he also received a share of the tithe.
He and his church were connected with the pleasures of his
people. He announced their holidays, the church festivals, on
which slaves as well as freemen rested from labour,
in festivity; ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^.^^^^ ^^ ^ ^^^.^ penalty if he gave a
wrong notice. Among the holidays of his parishioners the
festival of his church was a day of special merry-making, and
he was bound to do his best to prevent the '* church- wake " from
being made, as it too often was, an occasion for excess. In
common with many of his neighbours, he would often be a
member of a gild, an association for mutual help of various
kinds. The gild, though not a religious institution, generally
seems to have performed some religious acts, at least in the
burial of a gild member, and he would act as its chaplain, his
position in this respect being carefully guarded from interfer-
ence, for no other priest might deprive him of his rights in
" minster, shrift-shire, or gildship." He would take a leading
part in the gild-feast, and then, and probably at all merry-
makings, was ready to join in the music and singing, without
which no English feast would have seemed complete ; for what-
ever he might have forgotten since his school-days, his know-
ledge of music would have been kept up by constant practice in
divine service. If he was a godly man, he would doubdess,
when the harp came round to him, sing some religious verses,
perhaps some paraphrase from Scripture, made by C^dmon,
or Ealdhelm, or one of Caedmon's imitators, which in simple
words and with stately cadences told the story of man's
redemption.
The religious teaching which he gave to his parishioners
would not be of a learned kind ; but, unless his bishop was
careless as to the qualifications of those whom he
in his clerical ordained, he would be able to explain to them the
duties '
elements of the Christian faith, and the meaning of
the most important parts of the services of the Church. In
XVI THE PRIEST AND HIS PEOPLE 323
somewhat later days than those to which our narrative has
brought us, he was bound to give instruction to the children
of his parishioners, and the better parish priests no doubt did
so, according to their ability. If a bishop was active in the
visitation of his diocese, he would exercise some supervision
over the work of the parochial clergy, and, in any case, every
parish priest had once in the year to go to the cathedral church
to fetch the chrism, or consecrated oil, and seems then to have
been liable to be called upon to answer questions concerning his
services. Every day the priest said mass, and on Sundays
and festivals the service was performed with greater dignity.
The observance of Sunday was strictly enforced by the civil
law, and all work was forbidden both to freeman and slave,
under heavy penalties. The Church taught that all men
were to attend mass on that day, and this duty was to be
performed even when a man was on a necessary journey.
The services of the Church were of course in Latin, the
gospel being explained in English by good priests. The priest
v^^as bound to be ready at all times to minister to the religious
needs of his people, to hear confessions, and specially to
administer baptism as soon as it was required of him. He
was not to receive payment for the discharge of his office,
save in the case of burial fees. If a sick man desired to
declare his last will to his priest, it was the priest's duty to
take one or two others with him to the man's house, that there
might be no dispute afterwards. To the dying he carried
the housel which he had previously consecrated, and was
bound to keep ready in his church for the use of those who
needed it. He heard the last confession of the dying penitent,
pronounced the words of absolution, anointed him with oil,
and lastly administered to him the Eucharist, or viaticum,
to strengthen his soul for the journey which lay before it.
The close fellowship between the parish priest and his
people was unhappily not without its drawbacks. Society
was rude, and the clergy did not always keep
themselves free from contamination. Canons and »"« with his
, . , , ... parishioners.
penitentiaries bear witness that the national vice
of drinking to excess was a snare to not a few of them,
and it was also needful to warn them against hunting,
hawking, and dicing. Yet we may fairly believe that as
324 THE CHURCH AND THE NATION chap.
a body they did live better lives than their neighbours ; they
had a higher standard set before them, were bound by a
stricter law, and their fellowship with their people must have
had a beneficial influence on society.
Not the least satisfactory point in the relations of the
Church and the people is the care which it showed for the poor,
and specially for slaves. That it should have for-
S^church bidden slavery is not to be expected, for the idea
for slaves ^-^at the iustitution of slavery is contrary to the will
and poor. ^^ ^^^ ^.^ ^^^ ^^.^^ ^^^^.^ ^ ^^^ ^^^^^ pcriod. It is
much that the Church should have mitigated the lot of slaves,
and taught men that to give them their freedom was a
Christian act which would not lose its reward. Slaves were of
different sorts. Some were born to absolute slavery ; others
were unfree, yet received wages for their work , others had lost
their freedom because they could not pay the money penalties
they had incurred, and others had sold themselves, or had
been sold by their parents, in times of famine. All alike were
the property of their master, and had no remedy against his
cruelty. The Church protected their lives by declaring that
the man who slew his slave without sentence of law should
be excommunicated, or do penance for two years, and that
the woman who in her rage whipped her female slave to death,
should do penance for seven, or at the least five years, and
be shut out from the Holy Communion, unless she fell sick
before the time of her penance was over. Archbishop
Theodore decreed that a man might not take money which his
slave had earned, and some slaves were consequently able
to buy their freedom and the freedom of their children.
Equally with the freeman, the slave was ordered to rest on
Sundays and Church festivals. If his master forced him to
work, a law of Ine gave him his freedom, though a later law
punished his master with a fine only. The Church strictly
forbade the selling of slaves to heathens, and the kidnapping
of men. If a female slave was taken to wife by a freeman, he
might not afterwards repudiate her, and a law of ^thelbert
of Kent ordered that the marriage of a female slave should be
respected under a " twofold " penalty.
Both by example and precept the Church incited men to
give slaves their freedom, and to relieve the wants of the
XVI SLAVES AND POOR 325
poor. Of the charity of the Church towards the poor, httle
need be said ; it was lavish and constant. All ecclesiastics
of eminence gave largely in charity. The giving
of alms was enjoined as profitable to the soul of m^'^iss"ons.
the giver, and to the souls of the departed for
whose sake they were given, and as a means by which a
penitent could obtain a speedier and fuller remission of sins.
The teaching of the Church on this point is illustrated by the
clauses in wills directing that money should be given to the
poor, by the custom of distributing alms at the commemora-
tions of founders and benefactors of churches, by donations like
that of ^thelvvulf, and by a canon of the council of 747, which
deals at length with the duty of almsgiving. Spiritual benefits
of the same kind were promised to those who for the love of
God gave slaves their freedom. Wilfrith, it will be re-
membered, freed the whole population, two hundred and fifty
persons, on his Selsey estate, after having baptized them,
evidently because he would not keep in slavery those whom
Christ had made free. By the Council of Chelsea, held by
Archbishop Wulfred in 816, it was decreed that on the death
of a bishop, a tenth of all his personal possessions should
be given to the poor, that every bondman of English race
acquired by his Church during his episcopate should be set
free, and that every bishop and abbot should free three men
for the sake of the soul of the departed. While it is unlikely
that this canon was fully obeyed, it was by no means
ineffectual ; for ^Ifwold, Bishop of Crediton, early in the
eleventh century, ordered in his will that every slave on his
estates, whether penal or bought with his money, should be
set free at his death. The influence which the clergy exercised
in this direction is proved by the constant occurrence in
ancient wills of a clause ordering the manumission of slaves.
Deeds of manumission were laid upon the altar, and records
of them were kept in the books of minsters.
Authorities. — For further information on the subjects of this chapter, the
reader is referred to Bp. Stubbs's Constitutional History, vol. i. ; Lingard's
History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, London, 2nd edit.,
1858 ; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils and Eccl. Docs. vol. iii. ; Thorpe's
Ancient Laws atid Institutes, and his Diplomatarium, London, 1865, and
Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MONASTIC REVIVAL
However true it may be that the advance of society, and the
duties which in modern days are incumbent on Christian men,
have rendered monasticism unsuited to the present
^fedktiSsm ^^^^) ttiere can be no question that, during the first
five centuries of the existence of the EngHsh
Church, the spiritual, moral, and intellectual welfare of the
English people depended on the condition of its monasteries.
In the middle of the tenth century the Rule of St. Benedict,
the standard of monasticism in Western Christendom, was,
according to virtually contemporary authority, completely un-
known in England. This will not appear strange if we
consider that it was never very generally or strictly carried
out here, that the Danish invasions had broken the continuity
of monastic life, and that not many years earlier the very
existence of the Rule had been forgotten in not a few
continental monasteries. While there seems no difficulty
in accepting this statement literally, it may be observed
that it would not be disproved even should copies of the
Rule be found to have remained in minster libraries. For
the Benedictine Rule, as it was then understood in certain
reformed monasteries of the continent, and later by the
reformers of Enghsh monasticism, meant something more
than the broad principles laid down by its author ; it had
been made the foundation of an elaborate system. In any
case, Benedictinism had become extinct in England, and with
it, all true monastic hfe seems also to have disappeared.
While a man may properly be styled a monk if he has
CHAP, xvii DECA V OF MONASTICISM 327
taken monastic vows, though he may be a hermit, or Hve
in the society of secular persons, lay or clerical, true mon-
astic life, as understood in the West, implies con- , .
' ' ^ and of true
formity to the conventual system. Now, there were conventual
in England, about the middle of the tenth century
and earlier, many bodies of ecclesiastics who were called
monks, but had no right to the title. There were also,
probably, men who had taken the vows, some of them, no
doubt, with a genuine monastic spirit. Yet there is reason
to believe that true conventual life had ceased to exist. A
Benedictine writer of the time, speaking of the state of things
after monasticism had been restored at Glastonbury and
Abingdon, says that there were no monks in England except
in those two monasteries. His assertion must be taken to
mean that true conventual life did not exist anywhere except
at Glastonbury and Abingdon, where it had lately been
restored. Nor was it far otherwise, probably, with the monas-
teries of women. As men's minsters had fallen into the hands
of the secular clergy, so, doubtless, women's minsters, and
their lands, were held by " nuns " who did not necessarily live
in common, and dressed more or less like secular ladies.
The change which, as we saw, had begun in Christ Church,
Canterbury, by the time of Archbishop Wulfred, had run its
course there, and in the other episcopal churches g^^^j^^
in Southern England once served by monks. They clergy in
were in the first half of the tenth century served ™"'^^"-
by secular clergj^, the clerks of the bishop, while in the North
the church of St. Cuthbert was in the hands of a mixed body
of seculars and regulars. Nor was it otherwise with the
minsters generally. Throughout the Northern and Midland
districts the monasteries lay in ruins. Both there and in
the South, monastic lands had to no small extent passed into
the possession of laymen, while such as remained to the
Church were held by the secular clergy of the minsters.
These clergy were often called monks, and sometimes the
family of the minster ; their head was sometimes styled abbot,
and was appointed by the king, or bishop, or other lord of
the minster. The minster-clergy were generally married, and
therefore did not live a common life ; they did not dwell
w^ithin a cloister, and used neither dormitory nor refectory.
328 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap.
They were, as a rule, better born and richer than the ordinary
parish priests, and some of them are said, by the monks who
took their places, to have been luxurious and immoral.
The immediate successors of Alfred gave many grants to
minsters. So much at least we know, though the amount of
their donations cannot be ascertained, owing partly
Grants to ^q ^j^g untrustwortliy character of several of the
minsters. . •'
charters which purport to record them. These
grants did nothing towards the restoration of monasticism, for
they were made to communities which did not profess the
monastic life. Nor must they lead us to imagine that these
nominally monastic communities were very large landowners.
It is true that the grants to minsters were, as was the usual
custom, secured to the grantees by tremendous verbal sanc-
tions, such as, " If any infringe or nullify this donation, and
far be it from the minds of the faithful, may they have
their portion with those of whom it is said. Depart from Me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire," and such -like anathemas.
Yet lands granted to minsters were often lost, sometimes,
probably, through voluntary, though wrongful, alienation, more
often through being leased and not restored, while in some
cases they were simply seized. At the same time, the lands
still left to the minsters were amply sufficient to keep the
clergy who served them in comfort, specially as they spent
nothing on their churches, and little, probably, in helping the
poor.
What meanwhile was the spiritual, moral, and intellectual
condition of society? On the answer to this question must
depend our estimate of the value of the monastic
STo^day. revival which will be the principal subject of this
Religion and ^^^ |-]^g j^g^t chapter. Religion must have suffered
learning. ^ » . ^ i
severely from the destruction of the minsters
and churches in the districts conquered by the Danes, and
even in Wessex many churches appear to have fallen into a
state of disrepair. The parish clergy were apparently giving
way to the temptations arising from their oneness with their
people, and, as is probable from subsequent events, were not
diligent in preaching. Learning must have sunk to a low ebb
in the North and the Midlands, for the monastic schools had
perished along with the monasteries, and even in the South
XVII CONDITION OF SOCIETY 329
ihe lack of monastic teaching had as yet hindered the efforts
of Alfred from bearing much fruit. The impulse which he gave
to literary work seems to have been spent ; no more books
were translated into English, and after the reign of his son the
national Chronicle becomes meagre and confused. Generally,
it seems evident from the attention given to teaching by the
chief agents in the monastic revival, and from the emphasis
with which their efforts are recorded by their scholars and
biographers, that they were doing a work which had previously
been neglected. In Wessex, the condition of education may
be gathered from the fact that at Glastonbury, in the land
once included in the diocese of Ealdhelm, to whom Irish
scholars used to come for instruction, the work of teaching
was in the early part of the tenth century carried on by Irish-
men.
With regard to public morality the case is clearer. The
signs of laxity in the relations of the sexes are unmistakable.
Unhallowed unions in which the woman was wedded
by the appointment of a dower secured by " weds " or
pledges, without any solemn form of marriage, and without the
blessing of the Church, were common, and had always been re-
cognised as lawful. This custom naturally led to abuses, which
became specially frequent after the general decline in religion
and civilisation consequent on the long period of wars with the
Danes. Among them were the weddings of persons too near
akin, and a habit of regarding the contract as one w^hich might
be rescinded at the mere will of the parties. Unions were
formed which might be perpetual, but might, on the other
hand, be dissolved at the end of a year by the will either of
the man or the woman, the party choosing to retire having a
right to the issue, if any, of the union. These evils were not
confined to the lower class, they were to be found in kings'
houses.
Some change for the better was greatly needed, and could
only be brought about by the introduction of a higher standard
of hfe. This was not to be looked for from the ,,
. Monasticism
secular clergy. As married men, they were not a regenerat-
themselves living in what was then reckoned the '"^ °"'^^"
more perfect v.-ay. The minster-clergy were too like the rich
laity, the parish priests too like their neighbours, to do
330 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap.
anything effectual towards a regeneration of society. The
monastic Hfe, on the other hand, when faithfully carried out,
afforded the clergy and laity of all ranks a striking exhibition
of self-renunciation and continence, voluntarily undertaken
for God's sake. In a revival of monasticism lay the only
hope of a general improvement in religion, morality, and
learning. Already there seem to have been men who desired
to re-awaken a zeal for this life, not, indeed, for the sake of
society, but because they believed it to be specially pleasing
to God. A movement towards a monastic revival was soon
made. This movement seems to have had its origin in the
teaching and influence of ^Ifheah, Bishop of Winchester.
Almost from the first, some of the leaders of this move-
ment recognised that their work would be incomplete unless
they aimed at the attainment of the highest form
Thereyiva ^^ mouastic life. The Benedictine Rule, and the
Benedictinism. ^^^^ approved method of carrying it out, were learnt
abroad and introduced into England. And hence it is that
certain relations between England and foreign lands, already
noticed here, some of them not of immediate ecclesiastical
interest, have an important place in the history of the English
Church. They led the monastic reformers to seek help and
instruction from the monasteries of other lands, and brought
them into connection with the monastic movement on the
continent. For the monastic revival in England must not,
any more than the revolt from Rome and the religious changes
of the sixteenth century, be regarded as a merely insular
affair ; it was part of a widespread movement which had already
made some progress, and was still progressing, in other
countries. In England the revival bore good fruit. Yet the
adoption of the Benedictinism of the reformed monasteries
of the continent, though a necessary completion of the earlier
movement, was accompanied by some drawbacks. The friends
of the new monasticism were not content to allow churches
or lands which had once been monastic to remain in the hands
of secular clergy, and acted harshly and unjustly in depriving
men of property to which they had a prescriptive right.
This chapter will mainly be concerned with the beginnings
of the monastic revival in England, and the next with the
adoption of the new system which had been founded on the
XVII BIRTH OF ST. DUNSTAN 331
Benedictine Rule, and with events more or less closely
related to it. The whole course of the change in both its
stages falls within, and is intimately connected with,
the Hfe of one famous churchman, St. Dunstan, the Subjects of
1 J /- 1 1 -1 11,. ^^° chapters.
leader of the early revival, and thougli by no means
prominent in the Benedictine reform of the minsters, an im-
portant factor in its success.
Dunstan, the son of Heorstan and his wife Cynethryth, was
born in 924 or 925. His parents, who lived near Glaston-
bury, were probably noble, for he had kinsmen at
the court of ^thelstan, and he was related to a ladv Pai^entage of
, , :»-,,, , . •'St. Dunstan.
named Athelflaed, who was ^thelstan's niece. Arch-
bishop Athelm is said to have been his father's brother, and
Bishops ^Ifheah of Winchester and Cynesige of Lichfield
were also related to him. His mother was a godly woman,
and her name may perhaps be discerned under the Keondrud
in the list of those whom Bishop Cynewald caused to be
enrolled in the confraternity of St. Gall.
The boy received his education at Glastonbury. Of the
existence of this monastery in the days of Ine and St. Boni-
face there is historical evidence ; a Hst of its abbots
from Ine's time, drawn up by the beginning of the ^^*°" "'^'
eleventh century, may be considered fairly authoritative, and
some of its many early charters are entitled to considera-
tion. It appears again in genuine narrative as the burial-place
of an ealdorman of Somerset in the reign of ^thelred. No
small part of its later renown, which its monks, and its historian,
William of Malmesbury, sought in the twelfth century to en-
hance by fables and legends, was due to its connection with
Dunstan. Yet its claims to remote antiquity were at least as
early as his time. In his youth he worshipped \x\ its two
churches — the " ancient church " dedicated to St. Mary, which,
even in his days, was believed to have been of earlier date
than the West Saxon conquest, and to have been made by no
mortal hands ; and the stone church of St. Peter, built by the
West Saxon king. It had shared the fate of other English
monasteries. Conventual life had ceased there, its property
had fallen into the hands of secular clergy, who served its
churches, and its abbot was appointed by the crown. At the
same time it was a popular shrine, ^thelstan used to pray
332 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap.
there, and many pilgrims came thither, and specially pilgrims
from Ireland, for it was believed to have been the burial-
place of the younger St. Patrick.
Some of these Irish pilgrims were Dunstan's instructors.
From them, perhaps, he imbibed the ecstatic temperament
which had so strong an influence on his religious
e^ucatfon^ life, and stands in such striking contrast to the
practical side of his character, to his modera-
tion and wisdom as an ecclesiastical reformer and a states-
man. He studied the Scriptures, read the books of his Irish
teachers, and other books also, which shows that, in spite
of changes, books still remained in the library of the house.
He learnt quickly, and even as a boy had an unusual sense of
the Divine presence, for as he read the Scriptures, it seemed
to him as though God was talking with him, and when he
prayed, he felt that he was speaking to God. With the con-
sent of his parents, he received the clerical tonsure in boyhood,
and the child ministered before the Lord in the ancient church
of the Lord's mother.
Dunstan's tonsure and service as an acolyte would not, of
course, have debarred him from entering on a lay career. He
was introduced to ^thelstan, and was admitted
^^amoX^^ among the band of young nobles, some of them his
own kinsmen, who were trained at the court to be the
future war-band and personal attendants of the king, to hunt,
and hawk, and fight. This change in his life did not probably
take him far from Glastonbury, for ^thelstan, and Eadmund,
his brother and successor, evidently resided much in the neigh-
bourhood, possibly at Wedmore, where Alfred seems to have
had a royal residence. The gentle, studious lad met with no
acceptance among the gay young nobles of the court. Ignorant
themselves, they declared that his learning proved that he prac-
tised magical arts, and persuaded the king to dismiss him. On
his departure they laid wait for him, bound him hand and foot,
and rolled him in a muddy pool. While he was still smarting
from his disgrace, his kinsman Bishop ^Ifheah tried to per-
suade him to become a monk — not a mere sharer in monastic
property, but a monk vowed to continence, and wearing the
habit. The youth resisted the appeal, for he hoped some day
to marry ; but he fell dangerously ill, sent for the bishop to
XVII DUNSTAN A T GLASTONBUR V 333
visit him, and accepted his counsels. On his recovery ^Ifheah
consecrated him as a monk, and at a later period admitted
him to the priesthood.
After receiving the monastic habit, Dunstan stayed some
time with ^Ifheah, and acted as his attendant. On one
occasion we are told how he went with the bishop
to the dedication of a church which the pious citizens ^^"^ffheah
of Winchester had built near the west gate of their
city, and how after the ceremony they feasted with the citizens
and their wives. As they were walking home at nightfall,
they came to the church of St. Gregory, and ^Ifheah pro-
posed that they should enter and say compline. After they
had ended their prayers, they confessed each to the other, and
the bishop began to say the words of absolution, when, as they
were leaning one towards the other, a great stone fell just
between their heads, without hurting either of them. This
the biographer, who no doubt heard the story from Dunstan
himself, believed to be one of many unavailing attempts of
Satan against Dunstan's life. I'he citizens had perhaps given
so much to the building of their new church that they had
allowed the roof of St. Gregory's to fall into disrepair.
Dunstan returned to Glastonbury, and seems to have lived
more or less as an anchoret ; there was no conventual life
there in which he could participate. He studied
the Scriptures, and became skilled in the arts ofolastonbury
transcription, painting, and music, playing much
upon the harp, which was his constant companion. It was,
perhaps, at this time that he built himself a little cell, which
was shown in the next century, and is said to have been
no larger than five feet long by two and a half in breadth.
There he lived and worked, and, as he believed, saw visions,
and wrestled with the tempter in bodily shape. His earli-
est biographer records visions which he had on different
occasions. Some were doubtless dreams, others, we may
suppose, the results of a highly strung condition of the
nervous system, fostered by frequent periods of solitude and
ecstatic devotion, combined with a strong belief in the
constant interposition of spiritual agencies in the affairs of
daily life. After his death traditions were rife concerning his
supernatural communications and conflicts. The story of how
334 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap.
he seized the devil by the nose, which is the one thing some
people seem to know about this great man, first appears in a
biography of the eleventh century. It is likely enough that
Dunstan should have assaulted some human tempter in this
way, for he was a bold and vigorous person, with a frame
strengthenea by constant labour, and that the incident, which
he may himself have related, should in time have assumed a
weird and marvellous character.
He was an admirable smith, working in gold and silver
and other metals, and made bells, organs, and other articles
of church furniture. We must not suppose that his
An artist and (j^ys of solltude and his craftsman's occupations
era tsman. ^^j^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^.j^ j-^^^ r^y^^ practice of arts and
crafts was always dear to him, and he probably pursued them
whenever he had leisure for many years, for it was after he
became archbishop that he presented an organ, bells, and a
holy-water stoup of his own making to Malmesbury Abbey.
His strong yet gentle character attracted women to him ; his
kinswoman ^Ethelflaed, whom he dearly loved, entrusted him
at her death with the disposal of her property, and we find
another lady, named ^Ethelwynn, inviting him to her house
that he might draw a design for a stole which she wished to
embroider. King Eadmund, either on the recommendation
of Archbishop Wulf helm, or because he had become acquainted
with him when residing near Glastonbury, summoned him to
his court and made him one of his counsellors.
Among those who stood near Eadmund's throne, and have
therefore a claim to share in the praise due to his policy, was
Oda, to whom, on the death of Wulf helm, in 942, the
Abp. oda Ymg, with the advice of his witan, offered the see of
eury. Q^^^^^y^^^^^ Q^^ j^g^^j ^^X noue but a monk
ought to sit in the chair of St. Augustine, and as he was
evidently dissatisfied with such monasticism as there was in
England, he either went, or sent, to the Abbey of Fleuiy, of
which he had doubtless heard much when on his embassy to
Duke Hugh, to request the convent to grant him the monastic
habit.
The Abbey of Fleury, or Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, near the
modern town of Chateauneuf, was founded early in the
seventh century, and soon became famous, for one of its
XVII THE ABBEY OF FLEURY 335
early abbots brought thither the body of the great St. Bene-
dict from Monte Cassino, which was then exposed to the
attacks of the Lombards. It was a place of ^ ^
, . dreatness
learning and education m the reign of Charle- and decay
magne, it was enriched by Lewis the Pious, and in ° ^"'"^'
the time of Charles the Bald as many as five thousand
scholars are said to have been taught there. In the ninth
century it suffered much from the invasions of the Northmen.
The usual effects followed ; the house became utterly dis-
organised ; the brethren fell away from the strictness of
monastic life, and no longer observed the duties either of
obedience or abstinence. Grieved at the fall of so noble a
monastery, a certain godly count, named Heliziard, obtained a
grant of it from King Rodolf, and invited Odo, the Abbot of
Cluny, to reform it. As the reformation of Fleury may be
said to have led to the reformation of our English monasteries,
the character of Odo's work there is not foreign to our subject.
He restored obedience to the Rule of St. Benedict, and laid
down how that Rule was to be obeyed. Benedict, as we have
seen, dealt more with principles than with details of practice,
and left room for difference of custom in minor matters.
This liberty had its dangers, and in time men anxious for
the welfare of monasticism felt the need of some code of
directions to supplement the Rule.
An attempt to supply this need was m:.de by Benedict of
Aniane, who was appointed visitor of the monasteries of Aqui-
taine by Lewis the Pious. At a monastic council
summoned by Lewis at Aachen, or Aix-la-Chapelle, ^^*f Anianl?^
in 81 7, his code (Codex Regularum) was accepted as
binding on the monasteries of the empire. Benedict's scheme
had two characteristics opposed to the spirit of the greater
Benedict : it allowed no liberty of action, and it subjected
monasteries to monarchical interference ; it aimed at a rigid
uniformity even in the most trifling matters, and it proposed to
secure this uniformity through the agency of imperial inspectors.
His scheme was soon abandoned. Nevertheless, his code had
a profound influence on Western monasticism, for it afforded
a basis on which later monastic rulers and reformers built
constitutions, drawn up to meet the wants of their own times
and of the convents of their own lands. This was so, as we
336 THE MONA S TIC RE VI VA L chap.
shall see, in the Benedictine reformation in England. The
characters of the different essays in Benedictine legislation
may be roughly indicated by saying that the Rule of St.
Benedict of Nursia was suited to saints, the system of Benedict
of Aniane to children, and the work of the later reformers to
men. The first left convents much freedom, the second left
them none, the later reformers gave them rules which met the
requirements of the times, and in some cases the spirit and
habits of their own people.
Of these reformers there was none greater than Odo, the
second Abbot of Cluny, the founder of the Cluniac com-
munity of Benedictines. While he did not bring
Reform of Fieury into that community, and left it independ-
ent of Cluny, his reformation of the house was so
thorough that Fleury quickly became a bright example of the
purest monastic life, and was designated by Leo VI I. as the
head and chief of the monasteries of France. From Fleury
the monasteries of Reims and Saumur, and other French
houses, received the Rule as Odo had taught it. To Fleury
English churchmen now began to look for a pattern of
monasticism, and from it the monasteries of England in a few
years' time received reformation.
After Oda had received the monastic habit he went to
Canterbury, where he found his church in a sad state of
neglect and standing roofless. Eadmund intended
^^^2.^58?' to repair it, but died before he had done so.
Ecclesiastical After his death Oda thoroughly restored it, raised
its walls, and covered it with a new roof. Some
ecclesiastical laws enacted by Eadmund, in a witenagemot
held at London, seem to betoken Oda's influence. Arch-
bishops Oda and Wulfstan and many bishops were present
at the assembly, and, we are told, "meditated concerning
the state of their souls and of those subject to them." It
was decreed that ordained persons, whether men or women,
whose duty it was to set an example to God's people, should
keep chastity under the canonical penalty. If they failed
to make the prescribed amends, they were to forfeit their
possessions, and not receive Christian burial. A like decree
was also made in the case of adulterers and the debauchers
of nuns. Another law concerning the wedding of women
XVII THE CHURCH AND MARRIAGE 337
was evidently aimed at making the union permanent, and
securing the wife her rights. The man was to give a " wed,"
or pledge, that he would keep the woman "according to
God's law as a husband should his wife " ; she was to enter
his family, and he was to declare what he would give her in
case she outlived him. The legal dower, as we may call it,
seems to have been one-third of the husband's goods ; by this
law the bridegroom might make it one-half of his property, and
all if there were children. When these matters were settled, the
woman "might be wedded to wife and to a right life." At
a marriage, or "gifting of the bride," — the ancient ceremony
of giving the woman still survives in the Church's solemnisa-
tion of matrimony, — a mass priest was to be present to bind
the union with God's blessing, and it was to be well looked
to that the parties were not near akin, " lest they be afterwards
sundered that before were wrongly joined."
Oda also spoke in his own name. As synodical action
had fallen into disuse in the Church, the archbishop addressed
a pastoral letter full of Christian zeal to his suffra-
gans. After receiving his pall, he also Published ^^^^u^^^^
constitutions, founded on earlier precepts, which
declared that the Church of God was free from all earthly
tribute, admonished kings and temporal powers, bishops,
priests, clerks, and monks with respect to their several duties,
and declared that kings and earthly rulers should be obedi-
ent to their bishops, forasmuch as they had the keys of
the kingdom of heaven, and forbade all unrighteous union
with nuns or those near of kin. Comparatively little as we
know of Oda's doings as archbishop, for we have no early
biography of him, he may safely be regarded as a champion
of Christian purity at a time when such championship was
sorely needed.
Dunstan, who in later life was to take part in and carry on
Oda's struggle against vice, must have delighted to be in his
society at Eadmund's court. There, too, he
gained the friendship of many lay nobles, and Eadmund's
above all of ^thelstan, the Ealdorman of East ''°"'^-
Anglia, a man of royal descent, and probably a member of
ttie reigning house, who was called the "Half-King" on
account of his great power, ^thelstan was highly esteemed
z
338 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap.
by the king, and his wife v^lfwen was the foster-mother of
Eadgar, the younger of Eadmund's two sons. He was a
godly man, and he and his four sons have a conspicuous
place in the history of the Church as well as of the State.
While, however, Dunstan had powerful friends at court,
he also had enemies. Their enmity against him may prob-
ably have arisen from the germs of the dissension
temporary which a few years later led to the disruption of
disgrace. ^^ kingdom. They brought some false accusa-
tion against him, and the king, who believed their story,
angrily bade him leave the court, and deprived him of his
rank as one of his counsellors. There were then staying
with the king certain men who had come to him from the
" Eastern kingdom " {regni videlicet orientis 7iuncii\ probably
from East Anglia,^ and Dunstan in his distress asked them to
take him back with them. They promised that they would
do so and would provide for him in their country. A day or
two later the king, who was then residing in the neighbour-
hood of Glastonbury, possibly at Wedmore, rode out with his
nobles to hunt, as he was w^ont, in Mendip Forest. His
attendants dispersed in the forest, and the king, alone wuth
his hounds, followed a stag which he had marked out, and
rode with furious speed towards the deep gorge between
Cheddar Cliffs. The hunted beast in its agony dashed
blindly onward, fell over the precipice, and was followed by
the hounds. Eadmund, seeing his danger, tried in vain to
stop his horse. Death seemed near at hand, and, as he
breathed a prayer, he remembered that there was one whom
he had injured, and vowed that if his life were spared he
^ Bishop Stubbs, whose opinion is entitled to the highest respect, thinks
that the " Oriens regnum " of the contemporary Saxon biographer means the
German kingdom ; sqq. Memorials of St. Dimstan, Introd. p. xvii. (Rolls sen).
The fact noted by the bishop that East Anglia is called ' ' regnum " and
' ' Orientale regnum" in the almost contemporary Life of Oswald (see Historians
of York, i. 428, Rolls ser. ) seems to point the other way. The powerful
position of the ealdorman ^thelstan and his sons who succeeded him may
indicate the policy pursued towards East Anglia after its annexation by
Eadward. It had been a separate kingdom, and the king, like his father
Alfred in the case of Mercia, may have made its complete incorporation
gradual by leaving it a certain degree of autonomy. The title or nickname
Half-King, however, no doubt refers to ^thelstan's power in the kingdom
generally. He first appears as ealdorman in 928.
XVII DUNSTAN APPOINTED ABBOT 339
would make amends to Dunstan. His horse stopped on the
very brink of the precipice. He turned and rode back, and
as soon as he reached his palace, he called for Dunstan, and
bade him mount and ride with him and a few of his
followers.
Together the king and the monk straightway rode to Glas-
tonbury, and when they came thither, entered the churches
and prayed. The abbacy was vacant, and when the king
had ended his prayer and wiped the tears from his eyes, for
his deliverance from death had deeply moved him, he called
Dunstan to him, took him by the hand, and after giving him
a kiss of peace, led him to the abbot's throne. Seating him
upon it, he said, " Of this seat be thou the lord and potent
occupant, and of this church the very faithful abbot," and he
promised that of his royal bounty he would give him whatso-
ever he lacked for the improvement of divine worship and for
the monastic life of the house. This story, like much else
which comes from the same source, was doubtless heard by the
biographer from Dunstan's own lips, and there is no reason to
doubt its truth. It probably belongs to the year 943. It
illustrates the position of the monastery, which was part of
the royal estates : the abbacy was vacant, and the appointment
belonged to the king. Eadmund seems to have entrusted the
abbey to Dunstan, that he might restore and reform it. The
abbey was conferred on Dunstan at a later time, after he had
begun to restore it, perhaps at the end of 945. He could
not at that time have been much more than twenty-one. It
was an age of young rulers, and the work of life was under-
taken at an earlier age than it is now.
It was not long after he had received the abbey that, as
he was riding one day with his friend ^thelstan in attend-
ance on the king, he saw something which he
took to be an evil spirit in the form of a black ^P^/*^''^
1111 • 1 ■ Ladmund.
man. After he had shown it to his companion, the
ealdorman told him of a dream that he had had, and Dunstan
interpreted it as signifying that the king's death was near at
hand. Again that day, he believed that he saw the evil
spirit, and yet again three days later ; and on that day. May
26, 946, the festival of St. Augustine of Canterbury, which
was worthily observed among the English, Eadmund was
340 THE MONA S TIC RE VI VA L chap.
slain by a robber as he was feasting with his nobles at
Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. He was buried by Dunstan
at Glastonbury.
With the accession of Eadred, the youngest son of
Eadward, who was crowned by Oda at Kingston on August
1 6, Dunstan's career as a statesman begins. The
Eadred's kinff, who was almost of the same ao;e as the
minister. , ,,.,.,. . °
abbot, made him his chief minister, and gave him
charge of the royal " hoard " or treasure, which Dunstan kept
at Glastonbury. All through his reign Eadred suffered from
an internal disorder which brought him at last to an early
grave, and though, in spite of grievous bodily distress, he
showed much vigour at critical moments, and commanded his
army in person, he must in the daily work of government
have constantly been helped by his intimate advisers. The
v/ise policy vv^hich he pursued may therefore in no small degree
be ascribed to Dunstan's counsels. Besides Dunstan, Eadred's
chief advisers were his mother Eadgifu, an able and religious
woman, who helped him continually, and ^thelstan, the power-
ful Half-King. Both were Dunstan's firm friends, and all
three were of one mind as regards the affairs of the Church,
and, doubtless, of the State also.
In the early years of the reign that crafty and turbulent
prelate Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, again caused trouble in
Archbisho ^^ North. Hoping to secure peace in Northumbria,
wuifstan's Eadrcd in 947 visited the country and summoned
the chief men to swear allegiance to him. The
northern lords came to him with their archbishop, who
appeared as their head, and took the required oaths. The
next year, however, they broke their oaths, and chose Eirik, or
Eric, the son of the Norwegian king Harold Fairhair, as their
king, Wulfstan appears not to have taken any overt part in
this insurrection, but, if we may judge from subsequent events,
he was probably concerned in it. In the course of the
successful campaign which Eadred made against the rebels,
Wilfrith's minster at Ripon was burned. From the ruins of
the church, Oda, who may have accompanied the king, carried
off, or afterwards caused to be carried off, what be believed to
be the body of the great Wilfrith, and placed it in his church
at Canterbury. In memory of this event, Frithegode, the tutor
XVII ARCHBISHOP WULFSTAN'S FALL 341
of his nephew Oswald, composed a Life of Wilfrith in Latin
verse, to which Oda wrote a short preface in amazingly turgid
Latin. When the northern nobles deserted Eric, and chose
in his place Olaf, the son of Sihtric, Wulfstan's old ally, the
archbishop openly joined the rebels.
Eadred finally conquered the North in 954, and Eric
and Olaf having both been driven away, put an end to
the Northumbrian kingdom. He committed the
government of the country to an earl — a bold
and wise measure which one would willingly, and may |)erhaps
rightly, ascribe to the counsels of Dunstan and Oda, the
latter himself of a Danish family, and therefore likely to be
specially consulted on such a matter. Dunstan was certainly
present during one of the northern campaigns, for he saw the
body of St. Cuthbert at Chester -le- Street, and found it, as
he believed, still incorrupt. Wulfstan, against whom many
accusations were made before the king, was at last punished
for his frequent rebellions; he was taken in 952 and im-
prisoned in a fortress called ludanburh, which is generally
supposed to be Jedburgh. That, however, would not seem
a safe place of confinement for the powerful northern prelate,
and it is possible that ludanburh may signify some fortress
in Southern England. Two years later, when Eadred's victory
was complete, he was released, and allowed again to exercise
episcopal functions, not, however, in his own province, but in
the diocese of Dorchester, where he had no political power.
Oscytel of Dorchester ruled over his province. He was not
restored to York, and on December 26, 956, died at Oundle,
where, it will be remembered, his great predecessor Wilfrith had
died. His fate shows that Dunstan, Eadred's chief counsellor,
had no idea of allowing a rebellious bishop to shelter himself
behind his sacred office. He was succeeded at York by
Oscytel, of Dorchester, who was of Danish blood, and a near
kinsman of Archbishop Oda.
Dunstan's attendance on the king did not prevent him
from spending a large, and probably by far the larger, part
of his time at Glastonbury, where he rebuilt the j^^^stan's
Church of Ine, and at once raised new conventual work as
buildings. He caused the members of the "familia"
of his church to dwell together and have their meals in
342 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap.
common. They had a common dormitory and refectory, and
Hved as monks, and not Hke secular clergy. They did not,
however, live according to the Rule of St. Benedict, for
Dunstan did not know the Rule; nor were they all monks
even in name. Many of them were secular clergy ; though the
monastic element among them must have constantly increased,
for the mode of life that Dunstan established would naturally
attract men who had the monastic spirit and had taken, or
were ready to take, the vows. Under his rule the monastery
became a busy school. He taught himself, and many of his
pupils became abbots and bishops, and some archbishops.
His gentleness to his young scholars was a tradition among
boys more than an hundred years later ; we have some
glimpses of his relations with them. On the death of his
brother Wulfric, whom he had made steward of the estates of
the monastery, when all the members of the house went to
fetch the body to bury it, Dunstan, who waited to receive it,
kept one of his boys to stay with him, perhaps to act as his
acolyte at the funeral, and they two walked up and down,
singing psalms together. The child lived to become a bishop,
and told Dunstan's biographer how, as they w^alked, a stone,
which Dunstan beUeved to have been hurled by an evil spirit,
knocked off the abbot's cap. Again, at a later period, when
he was on a visit to the monastery at Bath, he had a vision
of angels receiving the soul of one of his boys who died that
day at Glastonbury. As he sat with his hosts his heart
evidently was full of thoughts of the lad whom he had left
sick. Full as his life w^as of business, he did not lose his
ecstatic and, as we may perhaps call it, hysterical tempera-
ment, and was quick to ascribe ordinary incidents to super-
natural agency.
Nor did Dunstan fail to find time for his favourite manual
occupations, for to this period of his life we may assign the
drawing of himself in the act of adoration before the
His manual gaviour, executcd probably by his own hand, which
occupations. ' .„,,.,., ^^-i- i
still exists m Bodley's Library at Oxford, m a large
volume containing part of a grammar and some other works
used at Glastonbury, ^thelwold, his disciple and afterwards
his prior, w^as a skilful craftsman, and, like Dunstan, made bells
and other church furniture. And we may therefore conclude
XVII ST. ^THELWOLD 343
that along with book-learning, such as the study of the Scrip-
tures and sacred authors, grammar, verse-writing, and the like,
the abbot taught his pupils the arts and crafts in which he
excelled. Eadred and his mother took deep interest in his
work, and on the death of ^thelgar, Bishop of Crediton, in
953, Eadred offered him the bishopric. He refused it on the
ground that he was not yet fit for such a charge ; indeed, he
had not then reached the canonical age. The king asked his
mother to invite the abbot to dinner, and see whether she
could not coax him into an assent. Dunstan, however, re-
mained firm, and a certain ^Ifwold was appointed to the
bishopric on his recommendation.
What Dunstan did for Glastonbury his disciple ^thelwold
did for Abingdon, ^thelwold, a native of Winchester, was
somewhat older than his master. His parentage ^^ ^^i^gi^^i^j
was noble, and when he had reached manhood, at
which, according to English custom, would be at ^^^°" "'^"
sixteen, ^thelstan summoned him to his court and made him
one of his personal following. From a child he had loved
the Scriptures, and the king, who had a regard for him, seeing
the bent of his mind, bade him receive clerical orders from
Bishop yElfheah. He put himself under ^Elfheah's teaching,
and, like Dunstan, no doubt imbibed from him a zeal for
monastic life. In time ^Ifheah ordained him to the priest-
hood, along with Dunstan. The good bishop died on March
12, 951, and was succeeded by ^Ifsige, a man of a very
different stamp, as we shall see later, ^thelwold became
one of Dunstan's disciples at Glastonbury, and received the
monastic habit at his hands. He studied diligently, and, as
has already been said, became a skilful craftsman. To all
the convent he set an example of holiness and asceticism,
being constant in prayer, in fasting, and in exhorting others
to strive after higher things. Dunstan made him the dean, or
prior, of the convent, and in the abbot's absence the discipline
and the direction of the studies of the house must have
devolved on him. In no wise puffed up by office, he used to
labour in the garden, and took pleasure in growing fruit and
herbs for the dinner of the brethren.
In spite of the reformation which Dunstan had effected at
Glastonbury, the life there did not satisfy .^thelwold. He
344 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap.
knew that there were monasteries on the continent more
perfectly ordered, and he desired to go abroad to gain
instruction in monastic matters as well as greater
^bfn^^cbn°^ knowledge of the Scriptures. He was prevented
by Eadgifu, who advised the king not to allow his
kingdom to be deprived of so good a man, and suggested
that he should make him an abbot. Eadred followed her
advice, and gave him the monastery of Abingdon. It was
then a poor little place, and, in spite of a grant from ^thelstan,
only possessed forty hides of land, all the rest of its property
having become crown-land. The twelve cells and oratories
built by the first abbot in Ine's reign were still standing in the
midst of desolation, for the monastery had suffered severely
from the Danish invasion in Alfred's time, and had not recovered
its prosperity. Its last ruler, who is sometimes called abbot,
was a priest named Godescalc, and the family, though its
members were called monks, was evidently composed of secular
clergy. As soon as ^thelwold had taken possession, he was
joined by five members of the Glastonbury fraternity, who are
expressly described as clerks. This illustrates the character
of Dunstan's reform. While he attracted monks to his house,
and gave the habit to those who desired it, he also admitted
secular clergy. Eadred at once granted him all the Abingdon
land which he held as king, and supplied him with money for
the erection of new buildings, and Eadgifu also gave him
gifts. He soon gathered together a band of monks, and
doubtless ordered his convent on the same lines as Glaston-
bury, for he was not yet acquainted with the Benedictine
Rule. His first step, even before he began to build his
church, was to raise conventual buildings ; for without a
cloister, dormitory, and refectory, with its necessary concomi-
tants of kitchen and bakehouse, there could be no conventual
life.
The king took a lively interest in his work, went down
to Abingdon accompanied by several Northumbrian nobles
who were at his court, marked out the foundations
Abfn^don* of the buildings with his own hands, and decided
the height of the walls. The account of his
visit, told by one of yEthelwold's disciples, affords a curious
illustration of the hold which the habit of excessive drink-
XVII JETHELWOLD AT ABINGDON 345
ing had upon the men of the time. Eadred, who was
dehghted with his morning's work, stayed with all his train
to dine with the abbot. He called for plenty of mead,
and bade shut the doors that no man might shirk his
drink. So all day long he and his nobles sat drinking, yet,
we are told, the mead shrank not in the barrel more than one
hand's- breadth, and when evening came the Northumbrian
nobles went back rejoicing, and as "drunk as hogs." Stories
of miracles of this kind were perhaps common at the time, for
we have one told, though without any notice of excess in
drinking, with reference to a visit which ^.thelstan paid to his
niece ^thelflasd. The value of the Abingdon story lies in
the fact that a monk of the house records how Eadred, a
religious king, presided over an orgie in ^thelwold's monas-
tery, telling the story not only without a word of blame, but
with evident gusto, and, what is stranger still, in the belief
that the drink was kept from failing by divine interposition.
The national vice of drunkenness, though liable to ecclesi-
astical punishment in laymen as well as clergy, was evidently
lightly regarded. It was not, however, a light matter in the
eyes of Dunstan, who, when he had the power, sought to
remedy the evil.
The death of Eadred forced ^thelwold to put off the
building of his church. By that time he had taken a step
which enabled him to effect a more perfect reform of
his house than he had at first attempted. How he ^^^^""f
and others gained knowledge of the Benedictine
Rule as it was carried out at Fleury and other great houses,
how the Rule became established in England, and minsters
were taken from the secular clergy and given to Benedictine
monks, will form the main subject of the next chapter.
Authorities. — In addition to general authorities, those for Dunstan's life
are contained in Memorials of St. Dunstan, ed. Bp. Stubbs, Rolls series ; where
the earliest biography is the work of a Saxon, probably a continental Saxon,
priest, who was personally acquainted with Dunstan, and wrote a few years
after his death. Bishop Stubbs's Introduction to the Memorials is full of
interest and learning, and has been much used for this and the following
chapter. Dunstan's career has also been critically discussed by Robertson,
Historical Essays, Edinburgh, 1872, and delightfully sketched in Green's
Conquest of England, London, 1883. ./Ethel wold's life was written in prose
and verse by Wulfstan, one of his disciples, whose works arc in Mabillon, A A.
346 THE MONASTIC REVIVAL chap, xvii
SS. O. S. B. sasc. v. t. vii. 596-622, and again by ^Ifric the abbot in 1005
(see Chron. Monast. de Abingdon, ii. , Rolls ser. ). No earlier Life of Oda is
known than that by Eadmer in Anglia Sacra, ii. , there ascribed to Osbern,
but some biographical notices will be found in the very early Vita S. Oswaldi
in Historians of York, i. , Rolls ser. For ecclesiastical laws see Thorpe's
Ancient Laws and Wilkins's Concilia. For the history of Fleuiy see Gallia
Christiana, iii. ; Mabillon, Annates Benedict, iii. 400, Paris, 1703; and Rocher's
Histoire de V Abb aye de S. Benott-sur-Loire, Orleans, 1865.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE NEW BENEDICTINISM
Although ^thelwold had been prevented from going abroad
to learn the right mode of monastic living, his heart was set
upon reforming his house in accordance with the j. ,• ,
Rule of St. Benedict as it was taught at Fleury. monks at
Accordingly, he sent thither one of his monks named *^"'^'
Osgar, that he might learn the Rule and the observances of
the abbey, and on his return teach them at Abingdon. This
Osgar was one of the five clerks who had come to him from
Glastonbury, and seems to have received the habit from him.
He was probably sent on his mission as soon as the new abbot
had brought his house into order, and we may be sure that on
his return ^thelwold lost no time in reforming it after the
pattern of Fleury. To Fleury, also, went one who was to
be yEthelwold's fellow-worker in the reformation of English
monasticism. This was Oswald, a nephew of Archbishop
Oda, who had brought him up at Canterbury under the tuition
of Frithegode. Oda greatly loved his brother's son, and when
he grew up gave him much money. Oswald used his uncle's
gifts in purchasing the headship of the Old Minster at
Winchester. The minster and its revenues were in the
hands of a body of secular clergy, men of high rank ; they
were rich, and lived in luxury with their wives, and in some
cases with women whom they preferred to their wives.
Oswald himself for a while lived among them like a young
noble, dressed and feasted splendidly, and made himself very
popular, for he was good-natured and agreeable. In time,
however, his conscience became uneasy ; he was led by God
348 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
to desire a higher Hfe, and requested Oda to allow him to go
abroad that he might gain spiritual help. Oda greatly rejoiced
at his request, and advised him to go to Fleury. He went
thither, carrying rich gifts to the convent, and became a monk
of the house, which was then under the rule of Abbot Wulfald,
a wise and holy man, afterwards Bishop of Chartres. At
Fleury, Oswald was distinguished by his asceticism and holi-
ness ; he was constant in reading the Scriptures, in prayer,
and in singing psalms. He learnt the offices by heart, and
his voice, which was at once strong, sweet, and well modulated,
added to the beauty of the conventual services. For some
years he remained at Fleury, and studied and minutely obeyed
the Rule of St. Benedict as it was carried out there.
While Oswald was thus learning the highest form of Bene-
dictinism, events happened which led Dunstan also to make
Death of ^ temporary sojourn in a lately reformed foreign
Eadred, monastery. In the autumn of 95 Sj he received a
Nov. 23, 955. ^ . ^ . . yjoi ^
summons from Eadred to come to him, and brmg
him his treasure, for the king's long sickness had taken a
dangerous turn while he was staying at Frome in Somerset,
and he desired to make grants to his friends before he died.
As Dunstan rode towards Frome with the keepers of the
treasure, his horse fell dead, and he seemed to hear a voice
which told him that even then the king had passed away.
And so it was, for when he reached Frome he found that
Eadred was dead.
The accession of Eadwig, the elder of the two sons of
Eadmund, was followed by the downfall of the party which
had been in power during the reign of the last
intrTue ^^^S" '^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ bouud the country north of
the Thames to Wessex was slight, and there are signs
that the influence of Dunstan, though himself a West Saxon,
had been regarded with dislike by the nobles of Wessex.
Eadwig, a handsome boy of not more than fifteen, was too
young to act independently of others, and was under the
influence of a lady named ^thelgifu, who designed that he
should marry her daughter ^Ifgifu, though she was too near
akin to the king, either by blood, or by a relationship created
by baptism, or by fosterage, for it has been supposed that
^thelgifu may have been the king's foster-mother. In any
XVIII BANISHMENT OF DUNSTAN 349
case the relationship was such as to make the proposed union
unlawful. ^thelgifu aimed at attaining a position such as
had been held by Eadgifu, and her ambition rendered her
useful to the West Saxon party. The political divergence in
the kingdom was expressed at court by a woman's intrigue.
The young king was crowned by Oda at Kingston. Before
the coronation feast was over, Eadwig left the hall to visit
^thelgifu and her daughter. This was a slight
on his assembled nobles which might have had ^oronatfon.
serious consequences. Archbishop Oda proposed
that some of the nobles should fetch him back. None of
them was willing to incur the risk of offending the king
and ^thelgifu, and they asked Dunstan and his kinsman
Bishop Cynesige, whom they knew to be fearless men, to
undertake the mission. Dunstan and the bishop found the
boy amusing himself with the ladies, his crown carelessly
thrown on the ground. Indignant at the effort of ^thel-
gifu to induce the young king to enter into an unlawful
marriage, Dunstan spoke sharply to her, and forced Eadwig to
return to the hall, ^thelgifu was set on revenge, and was
evidently supported by the West Saxon party, for it is said
that some of Dunstan's own disciples took part against him.
Early in the year 956 he was banished from the kingdom,
and all his possessions — including, of course, his abbey — were
confiscated. Some of his friends, and among them
the king's grandmother Eadgifu, were also despoiled ^"^dimW
of their possessions. Dunstan left England and
found shelter in the Abbey of Blandinium, or St. Peter's, at
Ghent. This famous house was founded early in the seventh
century, and, after having been despoiled by Charles Martel,
had been restored to some prosperity by its abbot, Einhard,
the biographer of Charlemagne, who established secular clergy
there. In the ninth century it was more than once pillaged
by the Northmen, and fell into a state of decay. Count
Arnulf, the grandson of Alfred, who during his long reign is
said to have restored eighteen great monasteries in his
dominions, restored Blandinium in 941, turned out the
secular clergy, and gave the house to monks who diligently
observed the Benedictine Rule. The relations between
England and Flanders, which we have already noticed, account
350 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
for Dunstan's choice of a Flemish abbey as a place of refuge,
and as a monastic reformer he was drawn to Blandinium,
where Benedictinism was then actively carried out under the
direction of Abbot Womar, who was distinguished alike for
piety and learning. Nowhere else, probably, could he have
seen a better example of the practical fruits that a faithful
following of the Benedictine Rule was capable of producing.
During his stay in Flanders Count Arnulf treated him as a
personal friend.
In the autumn, apparently, of 957, the people north of the
Thames revolted from Eadwig, and chose as their king his
younger brother Eadgar, a boy of fourteen. Eadgar,
'aJTd'^ or rather his advisers, at once recalled Dunstan, and
consecration. ^^ ^ council, held probably at Brentford, decided that
he should be made a bishop. He was consecrated by Oda
at Canterbury, and received the see of Worcester, which fell
vacant on the death of Cynewald about this time. In 958, or
959, he also received the see of London, which he held along
with that of Worcester, probably because Canterbury was then
vacant, and so there was no archbishop to consecrate a new
bishop in the southern province.
The disruption of the kingdom was a poUtical event, and
was not part of a struggle between a monastic and a secular
party. Oda and the southern bishops, and ^thel-
The revolt^ wold himself and other abbots remained faithful to
a w^. -g^^^-g^ ^,|^^^^ I^Q|.|^ before and during the revolt,
made grants to monasteries, in the hope of gaining political
support. Early biographers and later historians who ante-
date the ecclesiastical struggle have looked at the disruption
in the light of subsequent events. At the same time, it would
be going too far to say that there was no connection between
the political dispute and the monastic revival. The party
which lost power at Eadwig's court was strongly in favour of
monasticism, and their opponents must therefore have regarded
their zeal with dislike, as part of a system which they v/ished to
overthrow. On the other hand, too, the obligations conferred
on Eadgar by the friends of the monks enlisted the power of
the crown on the monastic side in the attack afterwards made
on the seculars. So far, and so far only, we may connect the
two movements. As soon as Dunstan and his friends were
XVIII DUNSTAN ARCHBISHOP 351
driven from court, Eadwig married ^Ifgifu, Oda was not un-
faithful to his principles ; he separated them because they were
too nearly related, and sent ^Ifgifu out of the kingdom. The
revolt in the North had rendered Eadwig powerless to resist
his decree. /Ethelgifu's ambitious designs were thwarted, and
the Church, in the person of the archbishop, successfully
vindicated its right to insist on purity of life even in the most
exalted of its members. The story that ^Elfgifu was put to a
cruel death does not appear till a century and a half later,
and is unworthy of credit.
Soon after this, Oda fell sick and sent to Fleury to bid
Oswald to come to him. Oswald obeyed his summons, but
on his arrival at Dover received news of his uncle's
death. Oda died on June 2, probably in 958, ^J^^^^g^J'xP-
though there is some ground for placing his death
in the following year. His holy life and his efforts to promote
purity caused him to be remembered as " Oda the Good," a
title first given him by Dunstan. Oswald, finding his uncle
dead, took up his abode with his kinsman Oscytel, Arch-
bishop of York. He accompanied Oscytel when he went
to Rome to fetch his pall, paid a short visit to Fleury
on his way back, and left there his attendant, Germanus
of Winchester, who remained for a time in the monastery.
Oscytel introduced Oswald to Dunstan, and they soon
became intimate friends. Meanwhile Eadwig appointed
^Ifsige of Winchester to succeed Oda at Canterbury. It
is said that ^Ifsige insulted his predecessor's memory, and
the story, though it may not be worth much, suggests that he
had been hostile to Oda, and had supported Eadwig. He
died among the snows of the Alps, while on his way to Rome
to fetch his pall. Brithelm, probably Bishop of Wells, was
appointed to succeed him ; his nomination must have been
among the last acts of Eadwig, who died on October i, 959.
On the death of Eadwig the disruption of the kingdom
came to an end, for Eadgar was received as king by the
West Saxons. He at once deprived Brithelm of
the see of Canterbury on the pretext of his inability ^"b"p.'of'
to rule, and sent him back to his former diocese, Canterbury
' 960-988.
and conferred the archbishopric on Dunstan, who,
in 960, went to Rome and received his pall from John XH.
352 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
On his return in the following year, he consecrated ^Ifstan
as Bishop of London, and Oswald as Bishop of Worcester,
the two sees he had hitherto held himself. At Worcester,
Oswald's way of life, which he had learnt and practised at
Fleury, excited peculiar admiration, for his cathedral church
was served by secular clergy. His influence was soon felt,
and many clergy came to him for instruction. He sent to
Fleury for Germanus, made him their teacher, and finally
founded a house for them at Westbury, in Gloucestershire,
and placed Germanus over it, who instructed them in monastic
life. Meanwhile, ^thelwold was going on with his work at
Abingdon, and rebuilt the church there. With his own hands
he made an organ for it, and two bells which he hung along
with two larger ones of Dunstan's making. He also made a
wheel plated with gold and having Httle bells hung upon it,
which he ordered to be pulled round and round on feast days
"to excite the devotion of the people," perhaps the earhest
chiming apparatus on record, and other fine and costly things.
With the exception of Westbury, then in course of forma-
tion, there were, during the first years of Eadgar's reign, only
two monasteries in England, Glastonbury and
impending Abingdou, vci which conventual life was carried out.
reformation. ^ change was near at hand. A few English
monks had gained a knowledge of the monastic rule as
it was observed in the reformed monasteries of France and
Flanders ; they were convinced that this new Benedictinism
was the way of righteousness, and that all who opposed it
were wicked, and they were determined to vindicate the right of
their order to all the monasteries or minsters which had fallen
into the hands of the secular clergy. From the young king,
whose fortunes had been closely connected with those of some
prominent persons in the monastic revival, they would
meet with powerful support. The hour for reformation had
come, and the man was not wanting. They found a leader
in yEthelwold. In tracing the history of the movement it will
be convenient to arrange it, as far as possible, according to the
part played by each of the principal agents in it.
On November 29, the Vigil of St. Andrew, 963, ^thel-
wold was, by the king's order, consecrated by Dunstan to the
see of Winchester. He and Eadgar had, no doubt, already
XVIII /ETHELWOLD AND THE MONKS 353
agreed on a course of action, and he at once obtained leave
from the king to expel the secular clergy from his church
and replace them by monks. Accordingly he sent
for a body of monks from Abingdon, with Osgar at woid attacks
their head, to form a new convent. The clergy of ^^^ ^^^"•^'■s-
the Old Minster, rich and powerful, married men, used to
comfort, and, if their enemies say truly, negligent of their
duties, and some of them of evil lives, would neither accept
the hardships of the monastic life, nor meekly resign their
revenues to a company of poor monks. Eadgar, however,
had sent the bishop one of his chief thegns named Wulfstan
of Dalham, armed with the royal authority, to prevent resist-
ance. When the monks came to the church door, the clergy
within were engaged in divine service. They heard the
clerks singing the antiphon for the day, " Servite domino in
timore," etc. (Psalm ii. 11), and the words " Apprehendite
disciplinam ne pereatis de via justa " seemed of good omen,
for had they not come to take the place of men who despised
the godly discipline of the Benedictine Rule ? " Why do we
stand outside the dcor?" cried Osgar. "Shall we not be
of those of whom it is said, ' Blessed be all they that trust
in Him ' ? " They entered the church, and Wulfstan quickly
brought matters to a point with the clergy. "Make your
choice at once," he said, "either begone, or assume the monastic
habit." Resistance was impossible, and, frightened and angry,
the clergy left the church in the possession of the triumphant
monks, ^.thelvvold ruled the Old Minster as its abbot, and
caused the Rule of St. Benedict to be strictly obeyed there.
He was succeeded at Abingdon by Osgar, who, as we have
seen, had learnt the Rule at Fleury itself.
The expulsion of the seculars from the Old Minster excited
bitter feelings, and one day, while dining with some guests,
^thelwold believed that he was poisoned. He
certainly had a bad pain in his stomach, but we extensive
may acquit the seculars of an attempt to murder °p^''^^'°"s-
him, for after lying down for a short time, he was cured,
as he believed, through an exercise of faith. With the
help of the king's authority he established monks in the New
Minster in the place of clerks, and appointed one of his
disciples named /Ethelgar, afterwards Archbishop of Canter-
2 A
354 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
bury, to be their abbot. He caused the Wincliester nuns,
who seem to have hved a secular hfe under the headship of
a godly lady named ^thelthryth, to dwell together in the
Nunna Minster, and live as mynchens in accordance with the
Rule, and he made ^thelthryth their abbess. Later, with the
king's authority to back him, he carried his w^ork into the
eastern shires, and established monks and appointed abbots at
Ely, Peterborough (as Medeshamstead then began to be called),
Thorney, in Cambridgeshire, and apparently in many other
monasteries both of men and women in East Anglia, as well
as Wessex. For he acted as a kind of visitor-general for the
king, going from one monastery to another and insisting on
strict obedience to the Benedictine Rule. Everywhere the
secular clergy had the same hard choice as the clergy of the
Old Minster at Winchester : Begone, or become monks.
While ^thelw^old, the Father of the monks, as he was called,
severely punished all transgressions, he was good to those who
were submissive to him, he rebuilt the churches of the monas-
teries w^iich he reformed, gave liberal grants to the convents,
and persuaded others to follow his example.
It was by ^thelwold's means that the knowledge of the
Benedictine Rule became widely spread among English
monks. Many of them were too unlearned to read
Concordia it in Latin, and at the request of Eadgar and his
Reguians. ^^^^ ^Ifthryth, he translated it into English, and
received Sudbourne, in Suffolk, from them as reward for his
labour. More minute directions w^ere, however, needed for the
daily life of a monastery, and taking the "Capitula" of Benedict
of Aniane, which w^ere much studied by the reforming part}^,
as a basis for his work, he composed a monastic rule for the
use of the English monks called the " Concordia Regularis "
of the English nation. It was sanctioned by the king in a
council, to which the epithet "synodal" is applied. This council
was held at Winchester, and was probably composed chiefly of
monks. Dunstan appears to have been present, to have
approved the rule, and to have made an addition to it. While
the " Concordia " is chiefly concerned with liturgical matters,
it presents some points of general interest. Although founded
on the " Capitula " of 8 1 7, and on the customs of Fleury and
Ghent, it is an independent production, in \vhich the Gallican
XVIII EADGAR AND THE MONKS 355
model is freely treated with a view to meet the special require-
ments of those for whom it was written. Its preface is
thoroughly national in tone, and the system of monastic
government which it propounds, though breathing the spirit
of Benedict of Aniane, is suited to the circumstances
of the time. The king, who in the tenth century wielded a
power in the affairs of State hitherto unknown, was to be
supreme in monastic government. The elections of abbots
and abbesses, which were to be made according to the Rule,
were to be subject to his assent, the elections of bishops
whose churches were monastic were to follow the same law,
and in all cases of difficulty the superiors of convents were to
appeal to the king and queen.
Eadgar was not less zealous than ^thelwold himself in the
cause of reform. It is asserted that early in life he was dis-
tressed at the sight of the ruined monasteries which
were to be met with in every part of the kingdom, Eadgar and
and vowed to restore them. Be this as it may, his
fortunes had been closely linked with those of the party of the
monastic reformers; he probably owed his crown to them,
and his accession made them powerful. His grandmother
Eadgifu recovered her property, Dunstan became his chief
adviser, and the house of ^thelstan of East Anglia, which
must have been prominent in the revolt from Eadwig, was a
mainstay of his throne. His monastic zeal may well have
arisen from the circumstances of his past history, and was, we
may fairly assume, strengthened by the connection he formed
with the East Anglian house, ^thelstan the Half-King had
become a monk at Glastonbury, probably about the time of
Eadgar's accession. He was succeeded in East Anglia by his
eldest son ^thelwold, who married the beautiful ^Ifthryth,
daughter of Ordgar, afterwards Ealdorman of the West
Saxons. On JEthelwold's death his brother ^thelwine —
afterwards called the *' Friend of God," from his devotion to
the monastic cause — succeeded him as ealdorman, and Eadgar
married ^thel wold's widow in or about 964, the year in which
the king began to turn the clergy out of the monasteries. Eadgar,
however, needed little encouragement in this direction, for he
entered eagerly into Bishop ^thelwold's plans, secured their
success by the exercise of force, is said to have founded, or
356 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
refounded, more than forty monasteries, and was certainly a
liberal benefactor to many religious houses. Though his acts
must have received the approval of the witan, the royal power
was at this time so strong that the national assembly probably
exercised little, if any, direct control over the king's policy.
Both Eadgar and ^thelwold carried on the work of
reformation by violent means, and certainly dealt harshly
with the secular clergy, who, though enjoying monastic lands
and revenues, held them by a sufficiently good title, and had
not been guilty of appropriating them.
Oswald, so far as his personal acts are concerned, seems
to have been less hasty and violent in his proceedings. He
was probably of gentler character, and may have
Oswald and ^gg^ unwilling to annoy yElf here, the powerful ealdor-
the monks. -,r , , , ^ -, \ ■, t-ii
man of Mercia, who, though related both to Ladgar
and ^Ifthryth, was probably then, as he certainly was later,
opposed to the monastic movement. The reform was carried
out in Mercia chiefly under Oswald's direction. Instead of
driving the clerks out of St. Peter's, his cathedral church at
Worcester, he built another minster, dedicated to St. Mary,
in the cathedral burying-ground, attached a monastery to
it, and made it his cathedral church. The people followed
the bishop, and many of the clergy of St. Peter's, finding
their church deserted, accepted the monastic rule, so that a
gradual reform seems to have been effected. His personal
influence was great. Besides the clerks who had learned
from his example and teaching to desire the regular life, and
had been planted by him at Westbury, the number of those
whom he consecrated as monks became so great that he
asked the king to give him a place for them. Eadgar offered
him his choice of St. Albans, Ely, or Benfleet in Essex, all
evidently then in the hands of seculars. His choice was,
however, directed elsewhere.
One of the king's thegns having died during the Easter
meeting of the witan, Eadgar ordered that he should be buried
with public honours. Oswald and ^thelwine met
of^RamJey at the fuueral, and the bishop told ^thelwine that
Abbey, -j^^ would gladly buy a site for a monastery. The
ealdorman said that there was a site well suited for the purpose
which he would freely give him, where three religious men were
XVIII OSWALD AND THE MONKS 357
already settled. This was Ramsey, then an island in the fens
of Huntingdonshire. There the bishop and the ealdorman built
a monastery, over which they placed Germanus as prior, for
they kept the rule of the house in their own hands and visited
it together every year, so that there was no abbot as long as
they lived. Under Oswald's care Ramsey became a place of
education as well as a pattern of monastic life. He also
carried on the reform in his diocese, establishing monks in
churches v/hich had before been served by seculars. One
of these was Winchcomb, whither he sent Germanus from
Ramsey, to be the abbot of the new convent.
On the death of Oswald's kinsman Oscytel, on November
I, 971, the archbishopric of York was conferred on a certain
^thelwold, who is said to have resigned it because q^^,^^^ ^^
he preferred a quiet life. How far this is true it is of York,
impossible to say ; it is not unlikely Eadgar found 572-992-
that the archbishop-elect was not a man after his own heart,
and either superseded him or caused his retirement. He
gave the archbishopric to Oswald, who held it along with
the bishopric of Worcester. Dunstan is said both to have
procured his appointment, and to have arranged that he
should hold the two sees together, for fear that the newly
made monks of Worcester might return to their secular
life. Oswald went to Rome for his pall, which he received
from Benedict VI., and returned home in 973. Little is
known of his work as archbishop; he did not oust the
secular clergy from his cathedral church, nor is there any
evidence that he mtroduced Benedictinism in the North. He
probably resided chiefly at Worcester, and continued his work
of reform in that diocese.
Dunstan's part in the Benedictine reform has so far been
misunderstood, that he has even been represented as carrying
on a relentless war against the married clergy. In
the first place, the reform had nothing to do with ^J^^'^^f'irm.^
the married clergy as such; it simply concerned
the clergy who were living on estates and serving churches
which were claimed for the monks. That these clergy were
generally married was an aggravation of their position as living
on monastic endowments, as was the fact that some of them
led immoral lives. They were not, however, ejected for either
358 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
of these reasons, but because their churches and lands
were wanted for men who conformed to the newly imported
Benedictine system. Again, Dunstan took little or no
active share in the ejection of clerks from the monasteries :
he had not expelled them from his cathedral church of
Worcester, for Oswald had found them there ; nor did he
expel them from Christ Church, Canterbury, for they were
expelled by one of his successors. So far as this matter is
concerned, while Eadgar was in full sympathy with ^thelwold,
Dunstan probably approved of the more prudent action of his
friend Oswald. The line which he followed was no doubt mainly
the result of his moderate temperament, perhaps to some
extent of his occupation in affairs of State, and possibly also
of the influence of the more practical character of Flemish
monasticism, with which he had personally come in contact, as
compared with the severer spirit of Fleury. Oswald, though
a disciple of Fleury, would naturally be inclined to the moder-
ate policy of his uncle's friend. Yet though a distinction
may be drawn between the methods pursued by Eadgar,
^thelwold, Dunstan, and Oswald, all four had the same end
in view, for Dunstan upheld the reform by his counsel and
authority.
The victory of the monks must have been known, and
would, of course, be approved, at Rome. Englishmen were,
however, so much in the habit of managing their
Papal Q^n affairs that it is not surprising to find little, if
approval. . ... -J
any, notice of papal action in the matter. One
letter, indeed, there is of John XIIL, which, if it is genuine, is
an answer to an application from the king and Dunstan with
reference to the Old Minster. In reply, the pope authorises
^thelwold to introduce monks, who were to elect their own
head, and orders that no clerk should for the future be made
ruler of the church of Winchester.
Before attempting to ascertain the effects produced by the
work of the monastic reformers, we must first, for the sake of
, clearness, occupy ourselves with some matters which
ecclesiastical beloug to the period of change. Although in the
reforms, gxpulsion of the scculars Dunstan's figure stands
somewhat in the background, he was busy both in ecclesiasti-
cal and civil matters. The ecclesiastical laws and canons of
XVIII DUN STAN'S REFORMS 359
Eadgar's reign must have been his work. The laws relating
to the Church are concerned with the payment of church-scots,
tithes, and Peter's pence, and with the observance of festivals
and fasts. A decided advance in legislation is apparent in
them, for they lay down the determination of tithes. Generally
all tithes were to be paid to the " old minster " or head church
of the district, that is, the church, or its representative, from
which the Gospel first spread over a district. But the thegn
who had on his estate a church with a burying-ground was by
Eadgar's law to give a third part of his tithe to it ; if the
church had no burying-ground, he was to give his titlie to the
"old minster," and pay the priest out of his own pocket.
The canons of the reign, sixty-seven in number, are con-
cerned with spiritual matters, such as the conduct of priests,
the duties of the laity, the care and reverence due
to churches, and the like. Many are copied from
earlier collections. One, which is worth notice, marks the com-
pleteness of the parochial system. No priest was to deprive
another of what pertained to his "shrift-shire." The duty of
celibacy seems hinted at in the command that no priest should
forsake his church, but hold it as his lawful spouse. Concu-
binage and excess are forbidden to the laity. At church-wakes
men were to pray heartily, and there was to be no drinking
or folly. Priests were specially warned against excess. As a
means of checking drunkenness, Dunstan, it is said, ordered that
drinking-cups should be fitted with pegs, so that when drink-
ing healths each man might be able to see how much he was
taking. No man unfasting was to taste of the housel, unless
in extreme sickness, and a priest was always to have the housel
ready for those who might need it. Specially characteristic
of Dunstan, that lover of education and handicrafts, are the
commands that no priest receive another's scholar without
leave of his earlier teacher ; that every priest, besides book-
learning, should learn a handicraft, that all should teach handi-
crafts to their scholars, and that no learned priest should
despise one less learned, but try to teach him better.
Dunstan's work was not confined to Church matters. As
the king's chief adviser, he must have had a large share in
Eadgar's secular legislation, which assured equal justice to all,
rich and poor alike, and developed and defined the judicial
36o THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
system and the means of securing peace and good order. In
a supplement to his laws, published in a time of plague, Eadgar
says that he and his witan considered that the calam-
^oik'-'' ity was a punishment for the neglect of God's dues.
Wherefore, he continues, "I and the archbishop
command" that tithes and other dues be paid without grudging.
Then follow some ordinances declaring that the Danes should
live under their own laws, and giving equal protection to the
property of English, Danes, and Britons. Considering Dunstan's
place in the State, we may fairly believe that the enlightened
policy which made Eadgar's reign a period of almost unbroken
peace and unprecedented glory was in no small measure due
to his counsel.
The glories of the reign reached their climax in the corona-
tion of the king in the abbey church of Bath, on Whitsunday,
The corona- ^^^ ^/' 973- Eadgar had, probably, put off his
tionof hallowing and coronation as king of the whole
^ ^^' nation until he should reach some point in his
reign which would invest the ceremony with peculiar signifi-
cance. The imperial coronation of Otto the Great, with
whom Eadgar maintained friendly relations, may have excited
the king to some sort of imitation, and he almost certainly
sought the pope's approval of the step. For Oswald's journey to
Rome to fetch his pall was undertaken by the king's command,
and was partly on the king's business ; he brought back to
the king the pope's blessing, and the coronation followed
immediately on his return. The rite, which was performed
with much splendour, is virtually the same as that observed
ever since at the consecration and coronation of English
sovereigns. The coronation oath was administered by Dunstan;
the king promised to protect God's Church and people, to put
down wrong and robbery, and to rule with justice and mercy.
Oswald and other bishops assisted at the ceremony.
A story which connects the long delay in the coronation
with a penance of seven years, imposed by Dunstan on the
king for the seduction of a nun, is untrue, but cer-
^Inaicl!'^ tainly contains elements of truth. In spite of his
zeal for Benedictinism, Eadgar was a man of impure
life. Some verses inserted in the Saxon Chronicle record how
he allowed the Danes and men of other races, who were
XVIII THE ANTI-MONASTIC MO YEMENI 361
attracted to his court by his liberal policy, to infect it with
their immorality. Before his marriage with ^Ifthryth, he had
wedded, probably without marrying, a lady named ^thelflced
the Fair, or " the Duck," as she was called, and by her had
a son named Eadward. She may have died, or Eadgar may
have dissolved the union at the end of the year. Then, it
is said, and there is no reason to doubt the story, that he
formed a connection with a lady named Wulftrud who had
assumed the veil at Wilton, though without taking the vows.
She bore him a daughter in, or about, 962, and at the end of
tlie year left him of her own accord, and went back to Wilton,
taking her child, Eadgyth, with her. She became Abbess of
Wilton, and there brought up her daughter, who took ^^ ^^^.^^^
the vows and was conspicuous for her holiness of life.
Nevertheless, Eadgyth w\is splendid in her attire and dressed
as a king's daughter, ^thelwold reproved her for dressing
in a fashion unbecoming a bride of Christ, and she replied
that her thoughts were as much with God as though she wore
goat's skin, and that her Lord regarded the heart rather than
raiment. Her monastic biographer of the next century ex-
hibits the poverty of his soul by explaining that she wore a
hair-shirt. She died at Wilton on September 16, 984, in her
twenty-third year, and held a place in the calendar as St.
Edith.
It will be seen by the dates that Eadgar's connection with
Wulftrud had nothing to do with the delay of his coronation.
Yet it is probable enough that he did some penance
for it, for Dunstan was not the man to regard a .^^^"^"^^^^^n's^
scandal lightly because the transgressor happened to
be powerful. Adelard of Blandinium, who wrote a Life of
Dunstan about twenty years after he died, tells us that he
excommunicated a noble for forming an unlawful marriage.
The man went to Rome and obtained a letter from the pope
on his behalf, but Dunstan refused to pay any attention to it.
Eadgar died on July 8, 975, and was buried by Dunstan
at Glastonbury. His widow ^Ifthryth attempted to set aside
his elder son Eadward, whom he had by /Ethelflaed ^^^ ^^^.
" the Duck," in favour of his younger brother, her monastic
own son, ^thelred. Her attempt, though supported
by some of the nobles, failed through the opposition of the
362 THE NE W BENEDICTINISM chap.
advisers of the late king, headed by the archbishops, Dunstan
and Oswald. Eadward was elected by the majority of the
witan, and was crowned by Dunstan at Kingston. Eadgar's
death was immediately followed by an anti-monastic reaction,
which, though apparently unconnected with the dispute as to
the succession, had a political and a social as well as an
ecclesiastical bearing. It was a Mercian movement, and was
headed by ^Ifhere, the Mercian ealdorman. It was, doubt-
less, in a measure due to the dislike which some of the nobles
must have felt at the displacement of the well-born and digni-
fied minster -clergy by monks drawn from all classes of the
people. ^Ifhere drove out the monks from the monasteries
of Mercia, and replaced them by the old secular clergy, who
returned with their wives. So Gerrnanus had to leave his
abbey at Winchcomb and went again to Fleury, while his
monks returned to Ramsey, their old home.
The movement found supporters in East Anglia ; but there
the monks had powerful defenders. yEthelwine was the head
, of their party, and by his vigorous action in defence
The struggle. . . . ^ . i^ -,■,•■■, , ,, -r^ •
01 their rights earned his nickname the "Friend
of God." By his side stood his brother ^Ifwold, a man
of fiercer mood, and the East Saxon ealdorman Brihtnoth,
afterwards famous in battle. These nobles raised their troops,
and prepared to defend the East Anglian monasteries by force
of arms. A civil war seemed imminent, and on April 30,
977, an assembly of the witan was held at Kirtlington, in
Oxfordshire,^ to make peace, ^thelwine, ^Ifwold, and
Brihtnoth spoke boldly in defence of the monks ; there was
much opposition, and Sideman, Bishop of Crediton, died
suddenly during the assembly, probably from a fit brought on
by excitement. ^-Elfwold's anger was roused by the speech of a
man who claimed one of the possessions of Peterborough, and
he afterwards caused him to be assassinated. Uneasy at his
violent act, he went to Winchester, and appeared barefoot as
a penitent before ^thelwold, but was received as a champion
^ This assembly is treated in the text as the same as that of which we
have an account in the Vita Osivaldi, p. 446. Florence of Worcester says
that it was held at Kirtling in East Anglia, i.e. in Cambridgeshire. Was he
misled by the preponderance of the East Anglian element in the gemot?
The fact that Sideman was buried at Abingdon confirms the Chfonicle
(MS. B. , ed. Plummer), which places the assembly at Kirtlington.
xvni MURDER OF THE KING 3^3
of the Church. The ealdormen and their party were strong
enough to prevent an attack on Ramsey and the other East
Anghan monasteries. Another meeting of the witan at Calne,
in Wiltshire, also debated the monastic question. It was held
in an upper room, and was interrupted by the giving way of
the floor. All fell to the room below, some being killed and
others injured, except Dunstan, who saved himself by catching
hold of a beam. A third meeting was held at Amesbury.
The murder of the young king, possibly with the cognisance
of his step-mother, ^Ifthryth, on March i8, 978, had no
direct connection with the ecclesiastical struggle. The fact
that Eadward's kinsmen would not avenge his death seems to
point to a conspiracy among the West Saxon nobles, formed,
probably, in order to overthrow the Mercian influence at court.
x\nd, as the ecclesiastical and civil politics of the time were
closely related, the murder no doubt had a bearing on the
monastic struggle, though there is no evidence that it was in
any way directly connected with it. ^Ifhere, the Mercian
ealdorman, translated the king's body from Wareham, where it
had been buried without state, to an honourable resting-place
in the minster of Shaftesbury. It is said that Dunstan joined
^Ifhere in the translation. If this assertion was trustworthy,
it would weigh heavily against the probability that the murder
was the result of political motives. As, however, it rests solely
on a twelfth-century authority, it cannot be held of much
account. The part taken by Dunstan and Oswald at Eadward's
election, and, still more, the retirement of Dunstan, and the
overthrow of his influence on ^thelred's accession, seem
conclusive evidence that the murder had no direct connection
with the ecclesiastical struggle. The men who held power
during the early years of ^thelred's reign were enemies of
the Church. The king's murder may then be attributed to a
West Saxon conspiracy, in which ^Ifthryth, as later historians
believed, may have taken some part in order to forward her
son's accession, though her guilt is not asserted by any known
authority till at least a century after the event. Eadward's
innocence and cruel murder gave him a place which he still
holds in the calendar of our Church. The struggle between
the seculars and regulars went on in the next reign, though
the danger of civil war passed away. The regulars constantly
364 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
gained ground, and the temporary success of the secular clergy,
which was probably confined to Mercia, could scarcely have
lasted beyond the hfetime of ^^Ifhere, who died in 983.
Dunstan crowned ^thelred the Unready (without rede or
counsel) at Kingston, on Sunday, April 14, 978, and, as though
foreseeing the sort of king that the boy would prove
Ste"^da"'s ^^ ^^' e^^orced the usual promises of good govern-
ment which he called upon him to make, by a short
discourse upon them. As archbishop he was bound to give
effect to the election of the witan, but he probably acted with
a heavy heart. His influence at court seems to have been
over ', he retired from politics, and spent the rest of his life in
the discharge of his spiritual duties. As in his earlier days,
he taught all that came to him, making Canterbury a seat of
education and literary activity. He preached constantly, and
crowds gathered to hear him, so that it is said that his light
shone over all the land. His popularity as a preacher was, no
doubt, partly due to the passionate character of his piety ; for,
like St. Cuthbert, he had the gift of tears, which was in those
days regarded as a mark of special unction. Much of his
time was given to prayer both in church and in private. Yet
his days were full of work ; and while ^thelwold may, accord-
ing to the ideas of the time, be regarded as a pattern of
asceticism, Dunstan surely stands for all time as a pattern of
practical holiness.
He set himself to improve the spiritual condition of the
people by building, or restoring, and dedicating churches, and
provided for the interests of his successors by
His daily buildincr houses on the various estates of his see.
life. "-^
The early hours of the morning he devoted to
the correction of the books of the Christ Church library.
Many of the manuscripts on which he worked were doubt-
less service-books, for as a skilled musician he took a lively
interest in the music of his church. Two pieces of church
music were believed to have been dictated to him by angels.
One of them, his canticle Kyrie rex splendens^ said to be
represented by the canticle appointed, according to the use
of Sarum, to be sung on his day, belongs to an earlier, the
other, O rex gentium dominator omnium^ to this later period of
his life. Manifold business occupied his days ; he heard and
XVIII DUNSTAN'S LAST YEARS 365
determined suits, pacified quarrels, upheld the cause of the
widow, the fatherless, and the stranger in their distress, and
as an ecclesiastical judge laboured to promote purity by an-
nulling all unlawful marriages. At night, he loved to visit
secretly the holy places of Canterbury, and offer his i)rayers
and praises to God, where his first predecessor St. Augustine
had preached, and where ^thelbert and Bertha lay at rest.
Some time he found for the practice of the arts and crafts in
which he excelled, and for social intercourse with scholars
and churchmen, monks and clerks, of his own and of other
lands. Many scholars from France and Flanders came to
England in these his last years, and all looked to him as their
patron and director. As he sat with his younger friends and
disciples, the gray-headed archbishop would tell them stories
of his eventful life, of the kings, statesmen, bishops, and holy
ladies with whom he had been associated, or would relate,
never without tears, the death of Eadmund of East Anglia,
as he had heard it when a child, from an aged man who had
been the king's armour-bearer, and had seen him suffer martyr-
dom for Christ's sake.
Once the archbishop's days of quiet labour were disturbed.
The young king, at the suggestion of unworthy favourites, ap-
propriated some lands belonging to the Church. „. , ,
^Ifstan, Bishop of Rochester, appears to have resisted
one of these acts of spoliation, and ^thelred led a force, which
he might have employed more creditably in defending his
kingdom from invasion, to besiege the bishop in Rochester.
He found the city prepared to resist him, and wasted the
lands of the bishopric. Dunstan called upon him to cease
from injuring the Church of St. Andrew, and threatened him
with the anger of the Apostle. yEthelred despised his warn-
ing, and Dunstan, as patron and guardian of the see, sent him
a hundred pounds to buy him off. The unkingly king accepted
the bribe and withdrew his troops. Two years later, in 988,
Dunstan finished his course. On Ascension Day, May 1 7, he
celebrated mass for the last time, and thrice during the service
addressed the people, preaching " as he had never preached
before." He dined with his friends and clergy, and then
rested awhile, as he was wont to do in summer. While he
slept he was seized with illness. Early in the morning of
366 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap.
Saturday, the 19th, he sent for the brethren of his church, and
in their presence received the last sacrament. Then he
thanked God, and said, " He hath made His wonderful works
to be remembered : The Lord is gracious and full of compas-
sion. He hath given meat unto them that fear Him " (Psalm
cxi. 4, 5), and with the last words upon his lips he fell asleep.
The love and gratitude of the English Church and nation kept
his memory fresh and fragrant, and a few years after his death,
men sought his intercession for England in a prayer which
is still extant. He remained the most famous saint of our
Church until the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury
turned the flow of popular devotion in another, though not a
worthier, direction.
Dunstan's successor at Canterbury was ^thelgar, one of
his pupils at Glastonbury, who had gone with ^thelwold to
Abingdon, and had been appointed by him abbot
immediate of the New Miuster at Winchester on the ejection of
successors. ^^ secular clergy. He had been consecrated to
the see of Selsey in 980. He was a learned and a liberal
man, and, though one of ^thelwold's monks, appears to have
approved of Dunstan's more moderate policy, for he did not
expel the seculars from his church either at Selsey or Canter-
bury. He went to Rome for his pall, visiting St. Bertin's
Abbey, both on his way thither and on his return journey.
He died on February 13, 990. The next archbishop was
another of Dunstan's scholars, named Sigeric, whom he caused
to be elected Abbot of St. Augustine's. He was a learned
and pious man, and had been consecrated by Dunstan to the
bishopric of Wiltshire in 985. On his promotion to Canter-
bury, in 990, he obtained his pall from John XV. A curious
record of his journey back from Rome has been preserved :
it tells us how the archbishop visited no fewer than fifteen
churches on the first day of his stay at Rome, and how, after
leaving the city, he had a journey of seventy-nine stages before
he embarked for England. It is said that on his return he
expelled the secular clergy from Christ Church, where they
had been allowed to remain, both by Dunstan and ^thelgar.
He probably decreed their expulsion, but died before he could
carry it out, for his successor is also said to have expelled
them
XVIII DEA TH OF BISHOP ALTHEL WOLD 367
yEthelwold had been called away before Dunstan's death.
He did much educational work in his later years. One of
his Winchester monks tells us that he loved to
teach the young men and boys of his house to ^^\^^<;^;5°Jfj
translate Latin books into English, to instruct
them in grammar and prosody, and to encourage them in
their studies with cheery words. He was also busily com-
pleting his new church, on which, in the true spirit of St.
Benedict, he made his monks work along with the artisans and
labourers. It was dedicated on October 20, 980. That was
a great day. Ten years before, the bishop had translated the
bones of his predecessor St. Swithun, and since that time had
preached the cult of the saint, and had spread abroad the
fame of two other holy bishops of Winchester, Frithestan and
Beornstan, who were also accepted as saints. The crowd of
miracles which followed the translation of St. Swithun excited
universal reverence, and as such events naturally called forth
the Hberality of the faithful, must have materially aided the
bishop in building his church. The dedication was regarded
as an event of no small national importance, ^thelred and
his ealdormen and other great men came from Andover, where
he was holding a witenagemot. Next after the king — so an
eyewitness records — walked Archbishop Dunstan "with his
snowy hair and angelic face " ; then came ^thelwold followed
by eight other bishops, and after them the lay nobles of the
realm, including many of the anti-monastic party of the late
reign, who had become '^ sheep instead of wolves." Much as
^thelwold loved to adorn his church, he once in a time of
terrible famine sold all its ornaments of gold and silver to feed
the poor, saying that men made after the image of God, and
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, were worth more
than bits of metal.
For many years he suffered grievously from ill -health,
which was aggravated by his asceticism, for until his last
illness he would never eat either meat or fowl, save once when
Dunstan with characteristic good sense and kindness of heart
prevailed on him to do so for three months. Four years
after the dedication of his church he died at Bed- ^^. ^ ^
His death.
dmgton in Surrey, on August i, 984. .He was
succeeded by ^Ifheah, or Godwine, better known as St.
368 THE NEW BENEDICTINISM chap, xviii
Elphege, who was destined to be the first martyred Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. ^Ifheah had entered the rehgious Hfe
at Deerhurst in Gloucestershire, where he was distinguished
by his hohness and asceticism. He became Abbot of Bath, and
after some difficuhy reformed the convent and enforced obedi-
ence to the Benedictine Rule. He was consecrated to the
see of Winchester on October 19. The work which St. ^thel-
wold had done at Winchester was safe in his hands.
In November 991, Archbishop Oswald visited Ramsey in
company with his friend and co-founder, the ealdorman
., ^ , , ^thelwine. On the accession of ^thelred he had
Abp. Oswald
and the brouglit Germanus, who had been forced to leave
JTthJiwTnr, his abbey at Winchcomb, back to Ramsey, and
'^' ^^^" had again made him prior. He came this time to
dedicate the church, which had been rebuilt after the cracking
of the central tower, and to bid farewell to his monks, for he
knew that his end was near. He told them that after his
death they were to choose an abbot from their own convent.
He died on February 29, 992, and was buried in St. Mary's,
which he had built to be his cathedral church instead of the
Old Minster, St. Peter's. On his death, Ealdulf, Abbot of
Peterborough, one of y^thelwold's disciples, was chosen to
succeed him at York. The course adopted by Dunstan and
Oswald for a temporary reason was unfortunately made a
precedent, and Ealdulf held the bishopric of Worcester along
with his archbishopric. He probably spent more of his time
among his monks at Worcester than among the secular clergy
at York, and on his death in 1002 he was, like his prede-
cessor, buried at Worcester, ^thelwine did not long survive
his friend Oswald ; he died on April 24 of the same year,
and was buried at Ramsey.
Authorities. — In addition to the general authorities, see the Memorials
of St. Dunstan, Wulfstan's Vita S. ^thelwoldi, the early Vita S. Oswaldi,
the Chron. de Abingdon, Thorpe's Ancient Laws, Kemble's Codex Dipl.,
and Robertson's Historical Essays as in the authorities for last chapter. Also
Historia Aibatice Rainesie7isis, Rolls series, which, though of the twelfth
century, is founded on genuine traditions and probably earlier records, and is
of great value, and Goscelin's Vita S. Eadgithce, ap. Mabillon, AA. SS.
O. S. B. ssec. V. 623. The " Concordia Regularis " is in the new Mofiasticon,
vol. i. ; for its authorship and character, see an able paper by Miss M.
Bateson in English Historical Reviezv (Oct. 1894), ix. 690, on " Rules for
Monks and Canons."
CHAPTER XIX
ENERGY
With the death of ^thelwine the last of the early leaders of
the monastic revival passed away. It may therefore be taken
as a point at which we may pause to review the
character and effects of the movement. Such a Plan of
chapter.
review, together with some notice of the invasions
which weakened the new energy of the Church and ushered in
a period of exhaustion, will be attempted in this chapter.
The revival of monasticism by Dunstan at Glastonbury and
^thelwold at Abingdon had been followed by a reformation
mainly on the lines of the Benedictinism of Fleury. ^, , .
_ "^ . ... . , . •' The claims of
In carrying out this reformation, the monastic party the monastic
claimed the minsters which had in times past been ^^^'^*
served by men of the religious order, and had fallen into the
hands of the secular clergy. At first sight, it would seem that
they claimed no more than their own. There is, however,
something to be said on the other side. It must be remem-
bered that their claims did not stop there, for they deprived
the clergy of possessions which had been granted to the minsters
when in secular hands. Nor was the monasticism of those
who took the place of the seculars the same as that of the
earlier monks. It was different in spirit — it was exclusive, self-
asserting, and apt to arrogate to itself a monopoly of holiness.
And it was different in outward character, for, as has already
been pointed out, with the exception of the convents which for
a short time carried out, more or less strictly, the practices
introduced by Wilfrith and Benedict Biscop, English monks
knew so little of the Benedictine Rule that in time it was
2 B
370 ENERG V chap.
forgotten altogether. A claim can scarcely be held to be
strongly founded which rests on a state of things long gone by,
and overset by the will of the nation, whether expressed by
legislation, or, as in this case, by gradual and progressive
change. On the other hand, the expulsion of the clerks from
the minsters and the establishment of monks in their place
must be regarded as national acts ; they were brought about
by bisliops appointed in the witenagemot and by a king
elected by the nation, and acting with the formal approval
of the national assembly. Much hardship was inflicted on
individuals, and many besides those personally concerned were
opposed to the change. So much, however, may be said of
almost every radical change, and as the monastic party proved
the stronger, the nation must be held to have approved the
monastic claims.
Civilly, the reform of the minsters was a sign of the in-
crease of the power of the crown, and was unpopular among
certain of the great nobles. It injured the dignified
"^afec^^^ clergy, as we may call them, who were, as a class,
probably connected with the nobles, for the benefit
of monks drawn from all classes. It destroyed the power of
the nobles over the minster lands, and, according to the scheme
of Eadgar and ^thelwold, it placed the new monastic land-
owners under the king's special protection and brought them
into intimate relations with him. The anti-monastic move-
ment, headed by ^Ifhere of Mercia, had its origin, there is
reason to believe, rather in social and political, than in ecclesi-
astical or religious, motives. This, however, is a side of the
question which we must leave here to pass on to matters more
closely connected with our subject.
For our purposes, the results of the monastic revival as a
whole may conveniently be arranged according to the influ-
, ence which it exercised (i) on ecclesiastical institu-
1 he results . . , . . ^ ;. , . , . .
ofthemon- tious, {2) ou national morality, (3) on the increase of
asticreviva. jg|jgjQj^^ ^^^ q^ cducatiou, literature, and the inter-
course with foreign churchmen and scholars, and (5) on the
development of the arts as applied to religion.
(i) The monastic revival had an important bearing on the
constitution of many of the cathedral minsters. We have
seen how bishops' churches originally served by monks
XIX MONASTIC CATHEDRALS 371
gradually fell into the hands of tlie bishops' clerks. The
change seemed so monstrous to monks of later days that they
sought to account for it in one case or another by
some special catastrophe. So it was believed that at fy ciesiasticai
„, . „, 111 -1 • ^ . institutions.
Christ Church the seculars gamed possession of the
minster in the time of Archbishop Ceolnoth (833-870), because
a plague carried off all the monks except five, and the arch-
bishop made his clerks and some of the clergy of the town
supply their place. While the story may have a foundation
of fact, it will be remembered that a change in the character
of the Church had begun in the time of Wulfred.
The Benedictine party ousted the seculars from certain
episcopal churches, and made them monastic. This change
went on until about half the cathedral churches of
England were in the hands of monks. By the time ^,^^"3^ 'r
of the Norman Conquest, however, it had not been
carried so far. The metropolitan church of Canterbury was
avowedly monastic, but the new congregation was scattered
almost as soon as it had been formed, and, for sixty years before
the Conquest, Christ Church was, as apparently it had been in
earlier times, a minster of a mixed character. The Old Minster,
at Winchester, and the new cathedral church at Worcester re-
mained wholly monastic, and, in 998, the clerks of the episcopal
church at Crediton were compelled to give place to monks.
In the North, the Church of St. Cuthbert, though retaining
monastic traditions, was in fact before 1066 as much secular
as monastic. In a monastic cathedral the church was served
by monks, and the bishop was the abbot of the cathedral
monastery and was in theory elected by the convent. It was
an institution almost peculiar to this country. The results of
the system were partly good and partly evil. While it checked
the abuse of Church property and oftices arising from family
interests, it led to perpetual quarrels between the bishop and
his monastery, which hindered episcopal usefulness, and were
a fruitful source of appeals to Rome. These matters, how-
ever, belong to a later period of the history of our Church.
The monastic system devised by ^thelwold was modelled
on that of Benedict of Aniane. It made the king the virtual
ruler of the monasteries by providing that in all cases of diffi-
culty the superiors should consult the king, and appear in
372 ENERG Y chap.
person before him or the queen. This system perished at
Eadgar's death. Each convent was left to rule itself, save for
the rights of the diocesan, which, so far at least as the
^thelwold's . , ° r • '^ ^- J i-i. -11
monastic right of visitation was concerned, were often unwiU-
system. .j^g^y admitted, and in some cases evaded. The pro-
vision for the election of the bishops of monastic churches was
apparently also set aside. An election of a bishop by a
monastic chapter seems to have been neither more nor less
effectual than an election by a secular chapter. On the other
hand, in non-cathedral monasteries the election of a superior,
though sometimes directed by royal appointment, seems to
have not infrequently been decided by the votes of the con-
vent, the bishop of the diocese giving his approval by conferring
the benediction according to the Benedictine Rule.
(2) Morally, the effects of the monastic revival were un-
doubtedly good. The efforts of Oda and Dunstan in the
cause of purity, and the examples and teaching of men
who voluntarily embraced, and rigidly followed, a Hfe
of war against the flesh, bore much fruit. This is evident both
in the legislation of ^thelred's reign, and in what we know of
the state of society in the reign of the Confessor. The newly
awakened moral sense of the nation is illustrated by efforts
to put a stop to the marriage of priests, and to induce canons,
as the clergy of the non-monastic minsters are styled in Eng-
land by the end of the tenth century, to live according to
canonical rule. By this was meant the Rule of Bishop Chrode-
gang, of which something has already been said, as enlarged by
a council held at Aix-la-Chapelle by Lewis the Pious in 817.
In the reign of ^thelred vigorous protests were made
against the marriage of priests. By the laws of 1008, "all
the servants of God, bishops and abbots, monks and
^la^'^i^s^ °f mynchens, priests and nuns," were bidden to live
according to their rule ; and, again, in a body of laws
made at Enham, priests were ordered to live chastely, for it was
not lawful for them to have wives. In certain canons written
for Wulfsige, Bishop of Sherborne, by an abbot named ^Ifric,
of whom we shall hear more, great stress is laid on the unlaw-
fulness of priests' marriages. ^Ifric further insists on this point
in a pastoral epistle that he wrote for Wulfstan, who succeeded
Ealdulf as Archbishop of York and Bishop of Worcester in
XIX PREACHING 373
1003. Canons are commanded by the laws of ^thclrcd to
use a common dormitory and refectory. Yet no attempt was
made to enforce celibacy. The only civil penalty attached to a
priest's marriage -was a diminution of his legal status. And the
bishops took no decisive action in the matter, for ^Ifric,
addressing the married priests in Wulfstan's name, says, " We
cannot now forcibly compel you to chastity, but we neverthe-
less admonish you to hold to it." English priests, however,
turned a deaf ear to these admonitions. Nor did canons
generally use a common dormitory and refectory. The
canonical rule was indeed enforced in three episcopal, and two
or three other minsters before the Conquest, but it was soon
more or less abandoned, and all attempts of the same kind
ended in failure.
(3) The new energy imparted to the Church by the mon-
astic revival led to the restoration of minsters and other
churches which had been destroyed, wholly or in
part, by the Danes. East Anglia and the Midlands *" '^'°"*
again received the means of Christian worship. The increase
of spiritual life in the Church generally is illustrated by a
renewal of missionary zeal, a matter which must be deferred
for the present, and by the efforts that were made for the
religious instruction of the people. Dunstan was, as we have
seen, a great preacher. Oswald was also diligent in preaching,
for, as his biographer says, " he loved the common people," and
^thelwold, we are told, preached "everywhere," his popularity
as a preacher being heightened by the interest roused by the
miracles which were believed to have followed the translation of
St. Swithun. In the canons of Eadgar's reign, which may be
attributed to Dunstan's influence, priests are commanded to
preach every Sunday, and their duty in this respect was also
urged upon them by .^Ifric.
They were not left to their own devices in this matter;
books of English homilies were written for their use. We
must not suppose that preaching had altogether been
neglected since the Danish wars. It is probable that 5J°^^fi°s^
English homihes were written in Alfred's time, for
^Ifric says that, when he composed his homilies, there were
several in existence in English, as well as Latin, which contained
error. Yet the later part of the tenth, and the early years of
374 ENERGY chap.
the eleventh century certainly saw a remarkable outburst of
homiletic literature written in the language of the people,
which we may consider, mainly at least, as a fruit of ^thel-
wold's teaching. One extant collection called the " Blickling
Homilies " belongs to an earlier date. It was re-edited in 971,
and one of the sermons contains a reference to the approach-
ing end of the world, which in England, as well as in Western
Christendom generally, was expected at the beginning of the
year 1000. Another collection is the work of a certain Wulf-
stan, who is often, though not for any convincing reason, identi-
fied with Wulfstan, Archbishop of York. It seems to have been
edited more than once, for, though it refers to the expected end
of the world, two extant copies of it are dated later than 1000.
Two books, each containing forty homilies, were written by
Abbot ^Ifric. This prolific writer was trained by ^thelwold
in the Old Minster, where, besides other Hterary work,
hSinles! ^'^^ wrote his homilies between the years 985 and
990, for, in the preface to the first edition of them,
he dedicates them to Archbishop Sigeric. He considered that
forty of his homilies were enough for a year's preaching, but
in the preface to a later edition says that he has added five
more at the request of ^thelweard, the West Saxon ealdorman.
^thelweard, with whom ^Ifric was on terms of friendship,
was a member of the royal house, and the author of an
extant Latin chronicle. ^Ifric's second preface must also
have been written before the year 1000. By that time he
had been appointed Abbot of Cerne, in Dorsetshire, by
Bishop ^Ifheah, at the request of ^thelweard's son ^thel-
mser, who was apparently a kinsman of ^Iflasd, the wife
of Brihtnoth, one of the champions of the monks in East
Anglia. .^thelmaer, who, like his father, was a supporter ol
the monks, founded a monastery at Eynsham, near Oxford,
in 1005. ^Ifric appears to have been the first abbot of
this house, for in some constitutions that he wrote for
the monks of Eynsham he speaks of himself as living among
them.^ His homilies were, he says, compiled from Latin works
^ He has been confused with at least three other churchmen of the same
name — ^Ifric, Abp. of Canterbmy [d. 1005) ; ^Ifric Puttoc, Abp. of York
[d. 1051) ; and an ^Ifric, Abbot of Malmesbury. He probably died Abbot
of Eynsham.
XIX ABBOT .ELFRIC 375
and translated freely into English. In common with other
English expositors, he was much addicted to allegorical inter-
pretation, which from Origen's time prevailed in the Church
generally. In a homily on the " Feeding of the Five
Thousand " he interprets the five loaves as signifying the five
Books of Moses, and the lad who carried them and did not
eat them, as signifying the Jewish people, who read the books,
and knew not their meaning until Christ came and opened
them. At the same time, he is often practical enough, as in
a homily for Advent Sunday, where he says : " We are ever seen
by God without and within, wherefore every one that would
not be condemned should take special care that he transgress
not God's commandments by over-eating and drunkenness. . . .
Drunkenness is a death-bearing thing and the source of
lasciviousness."
One of ^Ifric's homilies, " On the Sacrifice ; for Easter
Day," is famous from the use that has been made of it in
theological controversy. Protestant divines have ^^^
appealed to it as a proof that the " Anglo-Saxon " homily for
Church held a doctrine on the Eucharist opposed ^^''^^^ ^''^"
to that of the Roman Catholic Church, while Roman
Catholics have contended that ^Ifric's words are not in-
consistent with Tridentine dogma.
In this homily ^Ifric says : " Now certain men have often
asked, and yet do ask, how the bread that is prepared from
corn and baked by fire's heat can be changed into ^^^^^^^^^^
Christ's body, or that wine which is wrung from from the
many berries can by blessing be changed into the °°'^^"
Lord's blood. Now we say to such, that some things are said
of Christ through a figure, and others literally. It is a true
and certain thing that Christ was born of a maiden, and of
His own will suffered death. ... He is called bread through
a figure, and lamb, and lion, and what else. . . . But yet,
according to true nature, Christ is neither bread, nor a lamb,
nor a lion. . . . The bread and the wine which are hallowed
through the priests' mass appear one thing to men's under-
standings outwardly, and another to believing minds inwardly.
. . . Great is the difference between the invisible might of the
holy housel, and the visible appearance of its own nature.
By nature it is corruptible bread and corruptible wine, and
376 ENERGY chap.
is by the power of the divine word truly Christ's body and
blood ; not, however, bodily but spiritually. Great is the
difference between the body in which Christ suffered, and
the body which is hallowed for housel. The body soothly
in which Christ suffered was born of Mary's flesh, w^ith blood
and with bones . . . and His ghostly body, which we call
housel, is gathered of many corns, without blood and bones,
limbless and soulless, and therefore nothing therein is to be
understood bodily, but all is to be understood spiritually. . . .
This mystery is a pledge and symbol ; Christ's body is truth.
This pledge we hold mystically until we come to the truth,
and then will this pledge be ended. Soothly it is, as we said
before, Christ's body and blood, not bodily, but spiritually.
Ye are not to ask how it is done, but to hold to your belief
that it is so done." He proceeds to quote two legends, one
taken from the Vitce, Patru77i^ in which two monks saw upon
the altar a child in place of the host — an angel divided the
child's body, and its blood was poured into a chalice ; the other,
a miracle of a like kind.
^Ifric also speaks elsewhere on this subject in the same
strain as in his Easter homily. It is possible to reconcile
his words with the present teaching of Rome ; his
opinions, ^^pressions are loose and unphilosophical, and
therefore capable of being interpreted according to
demand. Yet, it will scarcely be denied that their spirit, and
indeed the obvious interpretation of them, are contrary to the
doctrine of transubstantiation. At the same time, the con-
tention that they represent the teaching of the Church of
England before the Conquest, can scarcely be maintained in the
face of passages to be found in the \vorks of Bede and else-
where. The doctrine of transubstantiation, as it was called
at a later time, was disputed in France both before and after
^Ifric's day, and he appears to have borrowed his ideas on the
subject from a treatise entitled Liber de Corpoi-e et Satiguine
Domini, written by Ratramn, a monk of Corbie, near Amiens,
and addressed to Charles the Bald {d. 877). ^Ifric's
opinions are, surely, of no practical importance now. He also
wrote some Lives of Sai?its, which may be described as a third
series of homilies, intended specially for use in monasteries.
Among them are homilies for the days of St. Alban, St.
XIX LITERARY WORK 377
Swithun, St. ^thelthrytb, and St. Oswald the King. They
were written at the request of ^^thchiiaer and ^thelweard, and
contain many passages in a kind of loose alliterative metre.
(4) Of the efforts of Dunstan and ^thelwold in the cause
of education much has already been said. Their work did
not die with them ; their pupils in their turn be-
came teachers. Two of ^Ifric's many works are and Sbns
school-books — one a Latin grammar, which procured cwE"
him the nickname of Granwiaticus^ the Grammarian ;
the other a reading-book in Latin and English, in the form
of a " Colloquy " between a master and pupil, which contains
a valuable picture of contemporary life. The monastic
reformers were not content with the teaching to be had at
home. Oswald asked the Abbot of Fleury for a teacher for
his monastery at Ramsey, and the abbot sent him the master
of the convent school, a famous scholar named Abbo, who
taught at Ramsey for about two years, and became an
intimate friend both of Oswald and Dunstan. While he was
in England, Abbo, too, wrote a grammar, which he dedicated
to his Ramsey pupils, and, after his return to Fleury, a book
on the " Passion " and miracles of St. Eadmund, dedicated
to Dunstan, from whom he had heard the story of the
king's martyrdom. He became Abbot of Fleury in 988, and
was murdered in 1004, at La Reole in Gascony, while
engaged in reforming abuses in the religious houses which
belonged to his abbey. In addition to homilies, school-
books, and the usual scholastic exercises of verses and
acrostics, the monastic movement produced a literature of
lasting value in the shape of ecclesiastical biography. Nearly
all that we know of the Church history of the period comes
from the virtually contemporary Lives of Dunstan, ^thelwold,
and Oswald. The earliest Life of Dunstan, written about
twelve years after his death, is the work of a Saxon priest
who, for some reason or other, was an exile in England.
Many churchmen of other lands visited England and were
hospitably received by Dunstan, and, as in earlier
times, much English money was sent to foreign •Xl\^o^
churches, and books from England found at least l^^^^^^^l
a temporary home in foreign monasteries. Dun-
stan's old friend, Count Arnulf. corresponded with him,
378 ENERGY chap.
and commended to his good offices the Abbot of Si.
Bertin's, whom he sent to represent him at Eadgar's court,
and the archbishop was asked, certainly not in vain, to
help his former hosts at Blandinium at a time of scarcity in
Flanders. The churches of St. Ouen at Rouen and Ste.
Genevieve at Paris were not restored without appeals to the
well-known liberality of Eadgar. The convent of St. Bertin's
received alms from Archbishop ^thelgar, and hoped that his
successor Sigeric would follow his example ; and Ealdulf,
Archbishop of York, was venerated at Fleury, for his gifts to
the abbey rivalled those of Oswald.
It is interesting to find that the Benedictine reformation,
which in England owed so deep a debt to the monasteries
of other lands, was promoted in Southern Germany by a
monk of English race. One of the principal agents in the
movement in that land, Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon
id. 994), was a disciple of Gregory, Abbot of Einsiedeln.
This Gregory was an Englishman of noble birth who, in
his youth, left his country and all that he had, and went on
a pilgrimage to Rome, where he learnt the Benedictine Rule.
After leaving Rome, he joined a little company of monks who
had settled at Einsiedeln, became their abbot about 958, and
died the head of a large and flourishing convent in 996.
From his example and teaching Wolfgang derived his zeal as
a monastic reformer. Gregory, who must have assumed that
name so dear to Englishmen on taking the vows, and
probably during his visit to Rome, left England before the
Benedictine reformation had begun there. Yet his renuncia-
tion of the world must have been the fruit of the revival
of monasticism under the teaching of ^Ifheah the Bald,
and he may, perhaps, have been a disciple of Dunstan.
The Benedictinism of Einsiedeln, though derived at first
from Rome, was probably fostered by communication with
the English reformers, for the constitutions of the house,
written at the end of the tenth century, bear a remarkable
resemblance to the English " Concordia Regularis."
(5) Both by example and precept Dunstan and ^th el wold
gave a vigorous impetus to the practice of arts and
crafts as applied to religious purposes. From their
time on to the eve of the Norman Conquest, many churches
XIX ARCHITECTURE 379
were built of dificrent sizes, and exhibiting different features ;
some quite small, and with a narrow arch between the nave
and the presbytery ; others larger, and on more elaborate plans.
/Ethelwold's church at Abingdon, probably a restoration of an
earlier building, had an apse at the west, as well as the east
end, like Christ Church, Canterbury, and possibly other
ancient churches, though these two appear to be the only
recorded Saxon examples of that arrangement, and it also had
a round bell-tower, which was an unusual feature. The
larger part of what we are told about the rebuilding of the
Old Minster, at Winchester, seems to apply to the fore-court,
not to the church itself, and our authority's metrical sentences
are so turgid as to render his meaning hopelessly obscure. It
had an eastern apse and a crypt, no aisles, probably transepts,
and, perhaps, a central tower. The central tower, however, is
extremely doubtful, for it is probable that Bishop ^Elfheah, who
added an atriiwi leading into numerous chapels, built a western
tower of five stages over the porch, which, as usual, had four
openings.
To this period, as has already been said,^ belong churches
with two towers. Oswald's church at Ramsey w^as cruciform
and had two towers, the loftier in the centre, the
lower at the west end. Almost as soon as it was cwh
built, the central tower cracked from the top to
the bottom owing to its defective foundation ; it was rebuilt
on a more sohd foundation, and the church was not finished
until nearly the end of Oswald's life. The larger Saxon
church at Deerhurst, rebuilt in the reign of the Confessor,
had also two towers, of which the western still remains,
an apsidal presbytery with a wide arch, and two transepts, the
southern transept having a small eastern apse. Many of the
still-existing western towers of the Saxon type seem to have
been built after the middle of the tenth century. According
to a high architectural authority, in the case of some churches
of this period, and notably at Barton- on -Humber, the tower
itself constituted the nave of the church, and had a presbytery
on its eastern, and a baptistery on its western side.
A demand for church furniture, organs, bells, splendid
shrines, sacred vessels and books, stimulated the industry
1 See pp. 194, 195.
38o ENERGY chap.
of the disciples of Dunstan and /Ethelwold. The "pair of
organs" in the Old Minster must have been a fearful as
well as a wonderful thing. It had, we are told,
Winchester fourteen bellows in a lower and twelve in an upper
organs, j-^j^gg^ which wcre worked with difficulty by the
Strength of seventy men, and supplied four hundred pipes
with wind. At the keyboards two players thumped in
unison, each on his own set of keys, which were distinguished
by letters, and were capable of producing seven notes and
" the lyric semitone," and of making a noise that could be
heard all over the city.
Great labour and skill were applied to the copying and
illumination of books. Among the results of the relations
, . . between Endish and forei2;n churchmen was a
Handwriting , . , ,_ _ .. T^-^i_
and famous changc m the general form of writmg Latm texts.
manuscripts. ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ccntury English scribes gradually
adopted the small letters, or minuscules, used in France from
the time of Charlemagne. The special characteristic of
English minuscule writing is roundness. National peculiari-
ties in the shapes of certain letters soon disappeared, and the
writing became exact and beautiful. The finest example of
this style of writing as practised in England is the Benedic-
tional of St. y^thelwold, the property of the Duke of Devon-
shire, which is splendidly decorated. It was written for the
bishop by a Winchester monk, named Godeman, almost
certainly the Godeman who was appointed Abbot of Thorney,
in Cambridgeshire, by ^thelwold about 970. It contains the
benedictions pronounced by a bishop at the fraction of the
Host on an hundred and sixteen festivals. The volume, which
has an hundred and nineteen leaves, with letters about a quarter
of an inch long, is adorned with thirty miniature pictures and
many highly illuminated pages ; the capital letters are in
gold, together with the beginnings and endings of some of
the benedictions. The drawing generally is good and the
draperies extremely graceful; the decorations are bold with rich
foliage. A monk of Peterborough illuminated a Sacramentary
for Cnut (or Canute), and a Psalter for his queen. Cnut judged
them a fit present for a king to give to an emperor, and gave
them to the Emperor Conrad. They were afterwards brought
back to England and presented to Wulfstan, the holy Bishop of
XIX DANISH INVASIONS 381
Worcester. Again, in the last years of our period, the famous
Benedictional and Missal of Robert, the Norman Archbishop
of Canterbury, now in the pubhc hbrary at Rouen, were
certainly written by English hands. From the monastic
revival the English Church derived an energy which made
itself visible in many different ways. Unhappily, the full
development of this energy was checked by a period of
disastrous wars, which was followed by a general decline in
character, both among ecclesiastics and laymen.
Our survey of the fruits of the monastic revival has carried
us beyond the reign of iEthelred. That wretched time was
mainly filled by a new series of Danish invasions.
With the exception of a few piratical expeditions, .i^amsh
, . . *■ I r- • invasions
these mvasions were made first to gam lands for a
settlement, and later with the design of political conquest. Some
of the invaders were nominally Christians, and others were more
or less affected by the influence of Christianity, which was
making progress in the North. Churches were not as a rule
sacked and burnt, as during the invasions of the ninth century,
and ecclesiastics, though suffering along with the rest of the
people, did not meet with any specially evil treatment.
Terrible as the wars of the reign were, they were not marked
by massacres of unarmed English. An invasion, apparently
of Norwegian vikings, in 991, was met by the East Saxon
ealdorman, Brihtnoth, one of the defenders of the monks in
the east country, at the head of a local force, at Maldon, in
Essex. The English were defeated, and their gallant old
leader was slain, thanking God, according to the famous lay
of the battle, for the good hand-play that He had given him
that day. He was buried in the newly restored minster of
Ely, to which he had been a liberal benefactor, and his widow
^Iflaed, besides granting the convent certain estates from her
dower at the time of his burial, gave the Church a tapestry
representing her husband's noble deeds. In that year
Archbishop Sigeric and the ealdorman ^thelweard, the
friend of Abbot ^Ifric, joined in advising the king to bribe
the invaders to leave Wessex in peace. This was no doubt
intended merely as a temporary expedient, rendered necessary
by a lack of preparation to meet the enemy. Unfortunately,
382 ENERGY
CHAP.
it became a precedent which was repeatedly followed with
fatal consequences.
At one time of special danger the influence of Christianity
brought the English a signal deliverance. In 994, Olaf
Tryggvisson, King of Norway, who is said to have
^°of o'iaf°" been baptized shortly before his invasion, and Swain
of Norway, poj-j^beard, of Denmark, who had been baptized in
his youth, and had renounced Christianity, made a combined
attack upon London. They were foiled by the stout resistance
of the burghers, and by "the mild-heartedness of the Mother
of God," whose help had apparently been specially invoked by
the Londoners. They compelled Sigeric to pay them a heavy
ransom to buy them off from attacking Canterbury, ravaged
in Wessex until the king paid them Danegeld, and then
wintered on the Hampshire coast ready to begin their ravages
again in the spring, ^thelred sent an embassy to Olaf
headed by Bishop ^Ifheah. Olaf hstened to the bishop's
exhortations, repented of the evil which he was bringing on a
Christian land, went with him to meet the king at Andover,
and was there confirmed by the good bishop, ^thelred taking
him as his "son." He promised never to invade England
again, kept his word, and spent the rest of his life in the
evangelisation of his people. Swain, deprived of his ally, soon
afterwards sailed away, and the land had rest for about two
years. Archbishop Sigeric died on October 28, 994, and
was succeeded the next near by yElfric, who had been a monk
of Abingdon, and was therefore one of ^thelwold's disciples ;
he had been made Abbot of St. Albans, and in 990 was
consecrated to the bishopric of Wiltshire. Carrying out,
probably, a design of his predecessor, he turned the secular
clergy out of Christ Church and put monks in their place.
He died on November 16, 1005, and was succeeded before
the end of the year by ^Ifheah, Bishop of Winchester.
Meanwhile the ravages of the Danes, which were not met
with any combined or effective resistance, caused ^thelred to
bethink him of his brother's murder, which had
^theired's raised him to the throne, and of his own evil deeds.
repentance. '
His mother ^Ifthryth, hoping, it is said, to make her
peace with God, founded a monastery for women at Amesbury,
in Wiltshire, and another at Wherwell, near Andover, where
XIX THE SEE OE DURHAM 383
she died shortly after 999. Miracles were believed to be
wrought by Eadward " the Martyr," as he was officially styled,
at his burial-;>lace at Shaftesbury, and ^thelred publicly
acknowledged them, and made a grant to the convent. He
also declared that he repented of the injuries which he had
done to the Church, and restored lands which he had taken
from the Old Minster and the see of Rochester. His repent-
ance was not accompanied by any attempt to do his duty as
a king.
In the North, a scare of invasion in 995 caused the
Bernician bishop, Ealdhun, and his monks and clerks to leave
Chester- le- Street, and carry St. Cuthbert's body
farther inland to Ripon. They soon set out on ^^f^j^^/hTm.
their return, and when they came near the site of
the present Durham, the saint miraculously informed them of
his desire to be borne thither. At Durham, then, Ealdhun
remained, and built his church on high, where its more
magnificent successor still abides in majesty. The saint's
change of resting-place, and the consecration of the new
cathedral church, were followed by a large harvest of donations
to the see. Ealdhun's church was, of course, monastic in
name, but the Benedictine reform had not extended north of
the Humber, and the chapter of Durham included secular
clergy as well as monks. Celibacy was avowedly not practised
by the northern clergy. The "Law of the Northumbrian
Priests " declares, " If a priest forsake a woman and take
another, let him be excommunicate"; a priest might therefore
take a wife and cleave to her without rebuke.
Among the evils attendant on the marriage of priests was
the loss to the Church arising from leases of church-lands,
which were permanently retained by the lessees or
their heirs. Some of the lands of St. Cuthbert ^^^^^Jf^of the
were lost in this way. In order to secure pro-
tection against the Scots, Bishop Ealdhun gave his daughter,
whose name is Latinized as Ecgfrida, and who was born
before his consecration in 990, in marriage to Uhtred, the
son of Waltheof the Northumbrian earl, and with her six
estates of his church, to be held by Uhtred so long as he kept
the lady as his wife. Uhtred, who was made earl in place of
his father in 1006, sent back the bishop's daughter after she
384 ENERG V chap.
had borne him a son named Ealdred, and restored the
estates. He then married a wife who left him, and after that a
daughter of King ^thelred. The bishop's daughter married
another husband, bringing with her this time three of the
estates which formed her first portion, was again repudiated,
returned with her estates to her father, and died a nun at
Durham. Her son Ealdred became earl, and the six estates
of the church of Durham which she brought to Uhtred passed
to one of Ealdred's daughters, and so to her husband Siward,
who slew his wife's uncle Earl Eadwulf, and became Earl of
Northumbria in his place. On his death Archil, a powerful
Northumbrian noble, one of the three husbands of Sigrith, a
granddaughter of the bishop, got possession of the estates.
Such was the way in which the lands of the Church were dealt
with in the North. In 1018, when his church was finished, save
only one tower. Bishop Ealdhun fell sick on hearing that the
forces of the Bernician earldom had been routed by the Scots,
and died a few days later. The bishopric lay vacant for nearly
three years, probably on account of the troubles that followed
the Scottish invasion. The next bishop, Eadmund, who was
consecrated in 1020, was a secular priest, and secular clergy
evidently took part in his election. He assumed the monastic
habit at his consecration.
The massacre of the Danes in 1002 was followed by a
series of invasions which utterly broke the spirit of the people ;
no leader appeared to animate or head a national
CantJrbu °^ rcslstance, men thought only of their own safety, and
no shire would help its neighbour. In September
ion, the Danes besieged Canterbury, and on the twentieth
day of the siege the city was taken, it is said through the
treachery of ^Ifmaer the archdeacon, whose life Archbishop
^Ifheah had saved, probably by paying a ransom for him.
There was, no doubt, much treachery among the chief men of
the country, and the people, demoralised by constant defeat
and lack of leadership, saw treachery everywhere. Christ
Church was sacked and fired, and the inhabitants of the city,
lay folk and ecclesiastics, were made captives. ^Ifmser, the
Abbot of St. Augustine's, was allowed to go free, it is not
known why ; others ransomed themselves — among them
Godwine, Bishop of Rochester, and Leofrun, Abbess of St.
XIX MARTYRDOM OF jELFHEAH 385
Mildred's, who had taken refuge in the city. The archbishop
is said to have promised a ransom ; but, according to our most
trustworthy authority, the Saxon Chronicle, he made no such
promise. He was taken by the Danes to their ships at
Greenwich, where he was kept in captivity for seven months.
During the spring an enormous tribute was exacted from the
country generally, but no ransom was paid by the archbishop.
In his captivity he spoke of Christ to his persecutors, and his
words did not fall unheeded ; they may have been the means
of converting one of the Danish leaders called Thorkettle
or Thurkill, who soon afterwards appears as a Christian, and
joined the English king.
On Saturday, April 19, ^Ifheah, in answer to the demands
of the Danes, declared that he would not cause a ransom to be
raised for him ; he would not increase the burdens
of the poor ; they might do with him as they would, /EithSh's
Christ's love made him not afraid. Drunk with wine martyrdom,
which had been brought to them by ships from the
South, they dragged him to their "busting," or place of
assembly. Thurkill, who saw that they meant mischief, offered
them all that he had, " except his ship," if they would spare the
archbishop. They would not hearken, and pelted ^Ifheah with
the bones and skulls of the oxen on which they had feasted,
and with stones and logs of wood, until one of them named
Thrum, whom he had confirmed the day before, in order to
put an end to his agony, clave his head with his battle-
axe. So died ^Ifheah, laying down his life for the sheep
which God had committed to his care. His murderers,
probably aghast at their own crime, allowed his body to
be carried off, and it was buried in St. Paul's Church. He
was succeeded in 10 13 by Lifing, or ^Ifstan, who had been
a monk of Glastonbury and was consecrated to the see of
Wells in 999 ; he was, we are told, "very wise both for God
and the world," that is, in all causes ecclesiastical and civil.
The exclusively monastic character of Christ Church must
have been brought to a speedy end by the dispersion of the
Canterbury churchmen at the taking of the city, for from that
time until Lanfranc's reform the church seems to have had a
mixed character, partly religious and partly secular.
In the year of Lifing's promotion Swain of Denmark was
2 c
386 ENERGY chap.
acknowledged by the English as their king, and ^thelred
soon afterwards fled to Normandy. Swain died suddenly
at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, on February 3,
cSr^iiest ^014- He seems to have been going about levy-
ing tribute, and had ordered that a large sum
should be paid by Bury St. Edmunds. On the day of his
death he held a council, and at its close, as he was mounting
his horse, he uttered, the legend says, violent threats as to what
he would do to the town and the minster if the money was
not paid, sneering at the reverence in which the martyred
king was held. On a sudden he saw St. Eadmund riding
towards him in full armour. " Help ! help ! " he cried ; " St.
Eadmund comes to slay me." As he spoke, the saint smote
him with his lance; he fell from his horse, and died that
night, ^thelred was restored, and died two years later, in
the midst of a struggle between his gallant son, Eadmund
Ironside, and Swain's son, Cnut. Eadmund succeeded his
father and carried on the war for a few months. He was
finally defeated by Cnut at Ashingdon in Essex, died soon
afterwards on November 30, 1016, and was buried at Glaston-
bury. On his death Cnut became undisputed king.
^thelred's reign was fruitful in ecclesiastical laws, some
of which have already been noticed. They were made in
witenagemots composed of churchmen and laymen,
^fe^isiation^^ and SO Complete was the union between Church
and State that no spiritual matter was held to be
outside the province of the national assembly. For example,
in 1008, the witan decreed a new festival, "that St. Edward's
mass-day shall be celebrated over all England." Again, before
Swain's landing in 10 14, they ordered that a daily mass should
be sung by all convents " against the heathen," and that Psalm
iii. should be added to those sung at each of the canonical hours.
The frequent betrayal of the national cause by certain of the
nobles seems to have led to an insistence on loyalty as a
religious duty. " Let us," the witan say, " zealously venerate
right Christianity, and let us faithfully cherish one royal
lord."
Most of the decrees of the witan at this time read like
efforts to avert calamity by pious resolutions rather than to
overcome it by energy. Of the thirty -five ordinances of
XIX NATIONAL DISORGANISATION 387
1008, only two concern practical measures for the defence
of the kingdom ; of the fifty-three made at Enham, only
four; while those made on the restoration of
^thelred might belong to a time of profound resdudons
peace. The idea that the invasions were a con-
sequence of national sin, and might be averted by national
repentance, is strongly set forth in a sermon, or address, to
the English people, by the homilist Wulfstan, entitled Lupi
Ser?no ad Anglos. Among the evils over which he laments is
the custom, then prevalent among the English, of kidnapping
and selling their own countrymen into slavery. This disgrace-
ful traffic was carried on with the Danes, and Bristol was the
principal port at which the slaves were shipped to the Danish
ports in Ireland. The trade was not finally stopped until, in
the reign of the Conqueror, Wulfstan, the holy Bishop of
Worcester, persuaded the Bristol men to abandon it. Never-
theless, in the reign of ^thelred the Church, as usual, exerted
its influence on behalf of the oppressed, for ecclesiastical
prompting is evident in the ordinances both of 1008 and
those made at Enham against the selling of Christian men
into foreign slavery, specially in a heathen land. No fault,
indeed, could be found with ^thelred's legislation as far as it
goes, did not our knowledge of the feebleness with which the
enemy was met, render its pious resolutions somewhat con-
temptible.
It has been suggested that this feebleness was at least
partly due to a predominance of monks and other ecclesiastics
in public affairs. This is an erroneous idea.
„, ^ , . , , , ^ , The Church
Churchmen were certamly not to blame for the and national
character of the king ; it was formed by men who '^*^^'^"^^-
were enemies of the Church. One of the few heroic figures
of the reign, Brihtnoth, the Ealdorman of Essex, was the friend
and patron of monks, and like him both in piety and valour
was Wulfric, the founder of the Abbey of Burton-on-Trent, who
fell fighting at Ringmere. While it is true that Archbishop
Sigeric cannot wholly be acquitted of having given the king
timid advice, no such advice can, we may be sure, have been
given by the dauntless ^Ifheah, Churchmen did not shrink
from taking an active part in the defence of the kingdom. The
fleet gathered in 992 was under the command of two bishops,
388 ENERGY chap.
^Ifric of Ramsbury and ^scwig of Dorchester, and of two lay
nobles ; it had some success m spite of the desertion of one
of its lay commanders. As had ever been their wont, church-
men hazarded their lives on battle-fields ; they joined the lay
nobles in bringing forces to the host, and remained to say
masses for the combatants. To Ashingdon came Eadnoth,
Bishop of Dorchester, and Wulfsige, who had succeeded him
as Abbot of Ramsey, and many of his monks, in company
with the son of ^thelwine, the founder of their house ; the
two prelates were there to pray, and not to fight, but were
both slain. Churchmen, however, do not seem always to have
been content to use only spiritual arms in their country's
cause, for in the laws of 1014, and in ^Ifric's Pastoral
Epistle^ priests are reminded that it is unlawful for them to
wear arms, or go to battle. Nor did they seek to escape from
contributing their share to the expenses of national defence.
Archbishop ^Ifric's legacies to the king of his best ship,
with helms and coats of mail for sixty men, and of a ship to
the men of Kent and another to Wiltshire, evidently represent
his assessment to the " ship-fyrd " of the kingdom.
The feebleness of the resistance to the Danes is not to be
laid at the door of monks or clergy. It arose from political,
social, and personal causes which do not concern
national US here. It was caused in part by the nature of
weakness. ^^ English institutions, which, originally strong on
the tribal, and weak on the national, side, were fast develop-
ing into a kind of disorganised feudalism, wholly deficient
in concentration, and inimical to combined action. This
source of weakness was aggravated by the mutual jealousies
of the nobles, who had become territorial lords, by the
depression of the class of simple freemen consequent on
the growth of the feudal spirit, and by the despicable
character of ^thelred.
Authorities. — For the results of the monastic revival see Memorials of
St. Dunstan, Wulfstan's Vita S. ^thelwoldi, Historia JRamesiensis, Thorpe's
AncieJit Laws and Diplomatarium, already quoted ; for the change in hand-
writing, Sir E. M. Thompson's Greek and Latin Pahvography, see before ;
and for accounts of the Benedictional of St. .^thelwold, Archceologia, xxiv, ,
2iad PalcBogr. Soc. Publ. ii. pi. 142, London, 1873, sq. For notices of Gregory
of Einsiedeln, Wolfgang, and others, Mabillon, A A. SS. O. S. B. sasc. v. Works
XIX A UTHORITIES 389
of Abbot ^Ifric noticed here, Ecd. Canons, Pastoral Epistle, and Quando
Dividis Chrisma, ap. Thorpe's Ancient Laws, ii. ; Homilies, ^Elfric vSoc. ed.
Thorpe, 2 vols. 1844 ; Lives of the Saints, E. E. T. Soc. No. 76, 1881 ; Lat.
Grammar, ap. Somner's Dictionariuvt, Oxford, 1659 ; Colloquium, ap.
Thor^QS Analecta Anglo-Sax. , 1834 ; B tickling Homilies, E. E. T. Soc. Nos.
58, 63, 73. Wulfstan's Homilies, Sammlung Englischer Denkmaler, Bd. 4,
ed. Napier, 1880. Ratramn's Lihcr de Sanguine, etc., ap. Migne, Patrol.
Lat. cx.xi. For the general history, chiefly the Sax. Chronicle and Florence of
Wore. Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. i. , is useful here. Osbern's Vita S.
Elphegi, ap. Anglia Sacra, ii. , is of the nature of hagiography, and exaggerates
the calamities at the taking of Canterbury, as also does Florence of Wore. ;
the account in the Sax. Chron. is, of course, trustworthy ; and for the arch-
bishop's death, see Thietmar, ap. Pertz, SS. Rcrum Germ. iii. , quoted by
Freeman. The Durham story is from Symeon, Hist. Dunelm. Eccl. and De
Obsessione Dunelm. Abp. .^Ifric's will is in Thorpe's Diplomatarium.
CHAPTER XX
EXHAUSTION
A PERIOD of decline lies before us. The energy imparted to
the Church by the monastic revival grows weaker until, at last,
^the Church, like the nation at laro;e, stands sorely
Character of . ■, r \ • i • i • ■■ , ,
the period m need of the vigour which was imparted to both
1016-66. i-ijj-Qugh the discipline of foreign conquest. It may
be that the ideas of the monastic reformers, largely inspired as
they were from abroad, would, even under favourable condi-
tions, have proved too far in advance of English thoughts and
habits to have retained the full influence which they at first
exercised in the Church. Be this as it may, the atmosphere
which surrounded the Church at the beginning of the eleventh
century was unfavourable to its life. National in spirit and
constitution, it has always been deeply affected by changes in
national character. While it has always been better and
purer than the society round it, there have been times in its
history when it has suffered grievously from its intimate con-
nection with the life of the nation. It was so during the
years between the conquest by the Danes and the conquest
by the Normans. The nation had outgrown its institutions,
and, as they broke down, character declined, and the greedi-
ness and selfishness of the great increased in proportion to
the opportunities for their exercise.
The Church was infected by the general decay. Its offices
were made the rewards of secular services. Its
tife^Church t)ishops wcrc busy in intrigue and greedy for
wealth and power ; they treated their bishoprics like
temporal lordships, were eager for plurality, and when they
CHAP. XX DECLINE OF SPIRITUALITY 391
became incapacitated for their spiritual duties, instead of
resigning their sees, obtained leave to consecrate suffragans.
It is, however, easy to be too sweeping in condemnation.
Chronicles which record the worldly doings of prelates are,
unfortunately, not concerned with the Hves of humbler men.
Yet there are signs that the Church was not wholly unfaithful
to its mission. The godly lives of some great persons, such
as Earl Leofric and his wife, and Earl Odda, show that it was
still a living force. Among the bishops Wulfstan of Worcester
was a shining light. There are others of whom at least we
know no evil, and some, like Archbishop Ealdred, who, though
unduly occupied with worldly affairs, were not wholly un-
worthy of their office. Still, with all necessary reservations,
it must be allowed that the Church partook largely in the
general exhaustion of the nation. Spirituality and learning
decayed, and the prelates are as a rule men of whom our
authorities say little that is to their honour. The special
characteristics of the time are the increase in the employment
of ecclesiastics in secular affairs, and the consequent use of
Church preferment as the reward of their services. Foreigners
were promoted to English sees and abbacies, some because they
were largely employed in administrative offices, and some, too,
in later times, through royal favouritism and political jealousies.
These appointments may to some small extent be excused by
the decline of learning among English ecclesiastics. Lastly,
the exercise of papal authority made a marked advance, which
may be traced to the ideas imported by foreign churchmen,
and to the character and education of Eadward the Con-
fessor.
Though some seeds of evil were implanted in the Church
during the reign of Cnut, the decline in spirituality is not
marked, and it was outwardly a time of prosperity.
Cnut, who had been baptized before his first coming ^^^"chuJdi.
to England in 1013, was probably hallowed as king
by Archbishop Lifing early in 10 17. After he had made his
throne secure by wholesale executions, he set himself to rule
well, and as an English king. The agreement of his witan
that Danes and Englishmen should live under the laws of
King Eadgar finds its ecclesiastical counterpart in his ordi-
nance for the observance of St. Dunstan's mass-day; his
392 EXHAUSTION chap.
government was to be carried on on the lines laid down by
Eadgar and Dunstan in Church and State. In religious
matters he seems to have owed much to Archbishop ^thel-
noth, who, on the death of Lifing, was consecrated to the see
of Canterbury on November 13, 1020, and received his pall at
Rome in 1022. ^thelnoth was originally a monk of Glaston-
bury, and at the time of his election was dean of Christ Church,
Canterbury, an office different from that held by deans of later
days, and, perhaps, importing the control of the church and
its property, in subordination to the archbishop. He was a
pious man, and was, like Oda, called "the Good." His in-
fluence, as well as the religious feelings and conciliatory policy
of the king, may be discerned in the translation of the body
of the martyred ^Ifheah in 1033. Cnut himself, attended by
many bishops and nobles, conveyed the body from St. Paul's
to Southwark, and there delivered it to ^thelnoth to be carried
to Canterbury. His queen, the Norman Emma, the widow of
^thelred, with Harthacnut, her son by her Danish husband,
met the procession at Rochester. After the body had lain in
state for a week, it was buried on June 15, on the north side
of the high altar of Christ Church.
Cnut's ecclesiastical laws, published at Winchester, and
doubtless inspired by ^thelnoth, are generally re-enactments
jj.^ of laws of the reigns of Eadgar and JSthelred. Like
ecclesiastical the laws of ^thelred, they insist on the religious duty
of obedience to the king; "above all things men
are to love and worship one God, unanimously observe one
Christianity, and love King Cnut with strict fidelity." Along
with much wholesome exhortation to Christian conduct, they
repeat the ordinances that all ecclesiastics of both sexes should
live according to rule, that priests should keep chastity, and that
Church dues should be paid regularly. Cnut was not always
in England, for he built up a great Scandinavian empire in
the North, and, while absent or present, seems to have relied
on the English bishops to maintain the peace and order which
made his reign a blessing to the country. In a proclamation
issued about 1018, which bears evident marks of ecclesiastical
influence, he calls on the bishops, equally with the lay officers
of his kingdom, to put down all offences against the law of
God, the secular law, or his own kingship, and orders that the
CNUTS PILGRIMAGE J 393
decisions of the sheriffs in the shire-courts should be given in
accordance with their word.
Impelled, probably, by a mixture of religious feelings and
l)olitical motives, Cnut made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1027.
An eyewitness tells us of the visit he paid to St.
Eertin's Abbey on his journey thither. He entered .,^'1"^'^
•' •' -' pilgrimage.
the minster with downcast eyes and humble mien,
shed tears of penitence at the shrines of the saints, prostrated
himself before the high altar, and with his own hands laid
upon it a magnificent offering. At every altar in the church
he made an offering with a devout kiss. That his actions
were not in all respects such as became a religious man, that
in his policy in the North he showed himself astute and some-
what unscrupulous, is not proof that either his religion or his
emotional manifestations of devotion and repentance were
insincere. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity. Great
as a ruler and crafty as a politician, he had something of the
childlike nature of the barbarian ; his emotions were strong,
and it was not an age when men concealed their feelings.
At Rome he was present at the coronation of the Emperor
Conrad II., and there met also King Rudolf of Burgundy,
and a crowd of magnates, ecclesiastical and lay, who had come
to attend the coronation on Easter Day. From Conrad and
Rudolf he obtained a promise that English and Danes,
whether merchants or pilgrims, who journeyed to Rome,
should be freed from tolls, and from John XIX. that the
English archbishops should not for the future be required
to pay exorbitant sums for their palls.
Before he left Rome he sent a letter to the two arch-
bishops as heads of the kingdom in his absence, the nobles,
and all the Ensjlish people, by Lifinej, then Abbot
c r.. • . y \y 1 \ f 1 His letter.
of lavistock, an able and eloquent man, whom
he had taken with him, doubtless to assist him in the
transaction of business. In this letter, beautiful in its sim-
plicity and evident sincerity, he tells his people how pleased
he was that he had been able to fulfil the vow of pilgrimage
that he had made some years before, and to worship in the
church of the Apostle ; how honourably he had been received
by the pope, the emperor, and the princes assembled at Rome,
and how he had obtained the two concessions for them as to
394 EXHAUSTION chap.
freedom from tolls and the archbishops' palls. Then, as
though stirred to good resolves by the sight of the holy places
of Rome, he says that he had vowed to rule religiously
and well, and to amend the errors of his youth. He com-
mands his officers to administer the law without respect of
persons, and not to oppress any in order to gather money
for him, for, said he, " I have no need to amass money by
unjust exaction." He was going, he continues, to Denmark,
and hoped to return to England before the end of the
summer, and he orders that by that time all Church dues
should be paid without fail, or defaulters should suffer the
penalty of the law. While using the Church to assist him in
his work of government, he took care to protect its temporal
interests. His example gave a fresh impetus to the custom
of pilgrimage, and Englishmen of all ranks again, as in times
past, journeyed to Rome, and so helped to bring the Roman
see into closer relations with their own Church.
Cnut was a liberal benefactor to the Church ; he made
grants to several English minsters, monastic and secular, and,
like Eadgar, did not confine his liberality to his own
the"moSl ^^^^' ^^^^ ^^ '^^ instigation of ^thelnoth, he sent
money to help Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, to build
his cathedral. He seems, so far as his personal feelings were
concerned, to have favoured the monastic cause, doubtless
holding the general belief that the monks were superior in
holiness to the secular clergy. He founded the abbey of St.
Benet at Holm, in Norfolk, and as an atonement for the evil
deeds which his Danish people had done in England, and
specially, no doubt, for the sins and blasphemies of his father,
he rebuilt the ruined minster at Bury St. Edmunds, which was
thenceforward called by the name of the martyred king. On
rebuilding the church, Cnut took it from its clergy and gave it
to monks whom he sent from St. Benet' s. A like desire for
expiation led him to visit Glastonbury, and make a rich offering
at the tomb of his gallant foe Eadmund Ironside. Both minsters
at Winchester were enriched by him and his queen Emma,
who was more lavish than wise in her gifts to churches, and
the cross which he gave to the New Minster was long famous
alike for its beauty, and for the weight of the gold and silver
of which it was composed. The monasteries of East Anglia
XX
THE KING'S CLERKS 395
seem to have specially attracted him. It was his custom to
spend Candlemas every year at Ely. On one of his visits there,
he is said to have made the song which, though the one known
version of it is in later English than his time, may represent
how, as " merry sung the monks of Ely when Cnut King rowed
thereby," he bade his " cnites " row to shore, that he might
hear them singing. Ely was in great glory in his time, for its
abbot, Leofsige, would admit no monk unless he was a good
scholar and a man of high birth who would add to the wealth
of the church and convent.
On the other hand, the church which Cnut built at Ashingdon,
to commemorate his victory over Eadmund, was a secular
foundation, to which he appointed a priest named ^^^^^
Stigand, probably the future Archbishop of Canter- church at
bury. This, however, does not prove that he ^ '"^ °"'
preferred secular to monastic churches, for his church at
Ashingdon was small, and was served only by one priest. It is
specially noted that it was built of stone, for in that well-
wooded district it would have been more usual to employ
timber.
While enriching monastic churches, Cnut effected a change
in the system of administration which led to the promotion of
many secular clerks to the episcopate. Under him
the royal chaplains, or clerks, appear as an organised '^^kS'ks.^'
body, employed in affairs of State, and chiefly, as it
would seem, in the issuing of royal writs, through which the
king acted in person. In the reign of Eadward the Confessor
this body was further organised, and the head of the royal
chapel, the chancellor, held the king's seal, which was then
first brought into use in England. The king's clerks were
rewarded by ecclesiastical preferment, and often by bishoprics,
and in this way many bishoprics came to secular clerks,
men more versed in political than spiritual matters. The
organisation of the king's clerks as an administrative body
was an institution of foreign origin, and the king conse-
quently chose certain foreign clerks as his chaplains because
they were familiar with the business that they had to
transact. Cnut appointed some Lotharingians, and Eadward
the Confessor, besides Lotharingians, largely employed Norman
clerks. Among Cnut's clerks, Eadsige, an Englishman, was
396 EXHAUSTION chap.
in 1035 consecrated as a bishop in Kent, to be a suffragan to
Archbishop ^thelnoth. He had his suffragan see at St,
Martin's, the church of Queen Bertha, and was, by the king's
direction, admitted as a monk by the convent of Folkestone.
Duduc, a Lotharingian, also probably one of Cnut's clerks, was
made Bishop of Wells, and Wythman, another German, received
the abbacy of Ramsey. The royal action becomes peculiarly
prominent in the episcopal appointments of this period.
Though the forms of canonical election and acceptance by the
witan were preserved, the king really appointed the bishop,
and, as has already been said, sent a writ to the archbishop
commanding the consecration of his nominee, after canonical
election by the chapter, and appointment in a witenagemot.
The abuse of the episcopal office as a reward for political
service led to the appointment of v/orldly- minded bishops,
^.r. ., who thirsted for plurality and did not shrink from
/Elfnc, Abp. . ^- ^ ., / ,. ,
of York, Simony. Ihese evils, however, did not appear so
1023-51. iQ^^g as Cnut lived. On the contrary, the unfortunate
precedent created by Oswald and Dunstan was set aside. In
the later years of Wulfstan of York a bishop was appointed
to the see of Worcester, though so long as Wulfstan lived he
was probably merely his suffragan. Wulfstan died in 1023,
and was buried at Ely, where he had perhaps been a monk,
and where he was reverenced as a benefactor. He was
succeeded at York by ^Ifric, called Puttoc, or the Hawk, and
the bishopric of Worcester then seems to have been separated
from York, much to ^Ifric's disgust. He had been provost,
or prior, of the Old Minster, and was a vindictive and greedy
man, though magnificent in his gifts to the abbey of Peter-
borough, and the secular minster of Beverley, where he organ-
ised the clergy of the church as a college with proper officers,
such as a sacristan and precentor.
Before we enter on the signs of decay in spirituality which
appeared in the Church after the death of Cnut, we may dwell
for a moment on a nobler, though more obscure,
missionaries passagc in its history. The spirit of ^Ifheah dwelt
in the North, .j^ the hcarts of not a few of the English clergy, for
while their country was suffering from Scandinavian invasions,
English missionaries were labouring for the evangelisation of
Scandinavian lands. This renewal of missionary effort may.
XX DEATH OF CNUT 397
as was said in the last chapter, be attributed to the increase
of spiritual life consequent on the monastic revival. It is said
that Olaf Tryggvisson of Norway had been baptized by an
English missionary, a bishop named John, before he invaded
England in 994, and that after the king had learnt the faith
more fully from yElfheah, other English missionaries helped him
in his work of evangelising his people. Another Olaf of Norway,
called the Saint, a stern and able king, who sought to abolish
heathenism in his kingdom, also employed bishops and priests
from England. It is said that in Sweden an English mis-
sionary named Wulfred dared to hew in pieces an image of
Thor in the face of the national assembly, and was slain on
the spot. In Denmark, heathenism was still strong at the
accession of Cnut, who, as he used English gold to increase
his powxr in the North, used the zeal of Englishmen to com-
plete the conversion of the Danes. He seems to have designed
to give the see of Canterbury a kind of superiority over the
Church in Denmark somewhat similar to that which his policy
assigned to England with respect to his other dominions, for,
in 1022, he caused ^thelnoth to consecrate three bishops,
apparently of Danish origin, for the dioceses of Scania, Funen,
and Roskilde. This greatly displeased Unwan, the Arch-
bishop of Bremen, who claimed to be metropolitan of the
North ; he caught the new Bishop of Roskilde at sea, forced
him to make a profession of obedience, and wrote to Cnut
complaining of the infringement of his metropolitical rights.
The king promised that he would respect them in the future.
Cnut died in 1035, and was buried in the Old Minster at
Winchester. After his death came evil times. The succession
was disputed. After a short period of uncertainty,
Harold established himself as king, and Godwine, "^"S"^-
the pov/erful Earl of the West Saxons, who had previously
opposed his claim, went over to the winning side, ^thelnoth
is said to have declared that he would hallow no one as king
save one of the sons of ^thelred and Emma ; and, though
the story is doubtful, it is probable that Harold was never
hallowed. Godwine's right-hand man was Lifing, who had
received the see of Crediton as a reward for his services to
Cnut on his pilgrimage. He had been allowed by the king
to hold along with it the Cornish bishopric, which thenceforth
398 EXHA USTION chap.
ceased to have a separate existence until our own day. The
part, whatever it may have been, that Godwine had in the
murder of the setheHng yElfred, or Alfred, the elder of the
two sons of ^thelred and Emma, and the brother of
Eadward, seems to have brought the earl into friendly relations
with Harold. Evidently, as a consequence of his change
of policy, his creature Lifing received a third bishopric, that of
Worcester, which he held in plurality.
The hopes of another greedy ecclesiastic seem to have
been dashed by Harold's successes. Cnut's clerk Stigand,
probably the priest of Ashingdon, who had attached
imony. y^^ggif ^-q Queen Emma, is said to have bought
the see of Elmham, and to have lost it before consecration,
because another priest outbid him. If this was so, the
failure of his simoniacal project must be connected with
the banishment of the queen by Harold in 1037. He
remained one of the royal clerks, and did not gain a
bishopric until the accession of the Confessor. The good
Archbishop ^thelnoth died on October 29, 1038, and
within a week he was followed by ^thelric. Bishop of Selsey,
evidently a man of like mind, for the two were so deeply
attached to each other, that ^thelric is said to have
prayed that he might not long survive his "dearest father
^thelnoth." Eadsige, ^thelnoth's suffragan, succeeded him
at Canterbury, and Grimkettle, who must have been a Dane,
the priest who is said to have outbidden Stigand for Elmham,
though he did not get that see, was consecrated as ^thelric's
successor at Selsey. He is accused of having bought the
see from the king. Harold ended his ungodly life in 1040,
and was buried at AVestminster, where there was an ancient
monastery, then of no great account.
He was succeeded by his equally worthless half-brother
Harthacnut, who was crowned by Archbishop Eadsige. One
of his first acts as king was to send some of his
^evii'Seds'^ chief men to disinter and insult his brother's corpse.
^Ifric, the Archbishop of York, went with them, and
is said to have suggested this shameful proceeding; it may
perhaps be enough to believe that he took part in it. Eadsige
had probably gone to fetch his pall, and ^Ifric may have
been employed, as the highest ecclesiastical authority in
xx E AD WARD THE CONFESSOR 399
England at the moment, to sanction this act of sacrilege. He
had a special reason for wishing to stand well with the king,
for he was anxious to annex the see of Worcester. It was
with this end in view that he was foremost in accusing Earl
Godwine and Bishop Lifing of the murder of Alfred.
Harthacnut at once deprived Lifing of his bishopric and gave
it to ^Ifric. The monks, clergy, and people of Worcester
were not minded that their church should again become an
appendage to York, and refused to receive him. The next
year, the Worcestershire people ha^-'pg made a revolt, and
slain some of the king's guards, or - house-carls," who were
collecting a tax from them, ^Ifric is said to have indulged his
spite by advising the king to punish them severely. Worcester
was burnt, and the shire ravaged. By that time Lifing had,
we may suppose, like his patron Godwine, cleared himself by
oath of the charge made against him, and purchased his peace
with the king; for when matters were settled in Worcester-
shire he was restored to his bishopric. Harthacnut died on
June 8, 1042. He was attending the marriage-feast of his
standard-bearer, Tofig the Proud, and " died as he stood at
his drink." He was buried with his father in the Old Minster.
On one of Tofig's many estates called Leodgaresburh, the
wooded peak afterwards known as Montacute, in Somerset,
there was found in the days of Cnut a wonder-
working rood or crucifix. Its fame was soon noised d^ot^^n.
abroad, and Tofig determined to build a church in
its honour. Guided, of course, by a miracle, he caused it to
be borne to another of his estates, Waltham in Essex, then a
wild and lonely place, where he had a hunting-lodge. There
he built a little church for it, which was served by two priests.
It was not long before dwellings sprung up round the church ;
for, according to the Waltham legend, sixty-six persons who
had been healed by the rood settled there, in order to devote
themselves to its honour. The new devotion gained ground,
a stately minster took the place of Tofig's little church, and
the Holy Rood was used as the war-cry of the heroic band
which fought and fell in England's cause round the founder's
standard.
On the death of Harthacnut, Eadward, the only surviving
son of vEthelred, was chosen king. He was crowned by
400
EXHAUSTION
Eadsige at Winchester on April 3, 1043. Although canonised
as a saint, he was an unworthy king. Religious and pure
in life he certainly was, but he was slothful, incap-
Eadward ^ble, and easily led by favourites. That he treated
his young wife merely as a daughter, was, truly or
falsely, believed shortly after his death, and this behef, together
with such virtues as he had, appealed strongly to monastic
writers. Stories of his sanctity became common. He was
said to have wo' ^ miracles, and among them to have cured
a scrofulous wo '^Ms touch, and in after-times a belief
arose that his Su :,'^i.' . had a like power in virtue of their
office. Brought • ;' Normandy, the last king of the house
of Alfred was a fi .er in his tastes ; he loved the society of
Normans and T :hmen, and gave largely to Norman
monasteries and e ^siastics.
While Eadwarc t foreigners in high places in the State,
he found larger 3ortunities for indulging his partiality for
them ir cclesiastical appointments, which were more
His Church fully yp ;!- ^^g control. As other foreigners besides
appointments. ■> .,,_,. , ^, , ,
Normal were promoted m the English Church, and
owed their promo' m to leaders of the national party, it is
probable that there were not many English churchmen at that
time who were fit for high office. Certainly the ecclesiastics
of Normandy were as a class superior to those of England in
Eadward's time, and his partiality might therefore admit of
some excuse if he had given preferment only to the worthiest
of them. This, however, was not the case. Of actual simony
he may be held innocent, but his Church appointments were
made simply for personal reasons. Abbacies were treated in
the same way as bishoprics ; they were evidently bestowed
according to the royal pleasure, and were in some cases held
in plurality. Leofric, Abbot of Peterborough, the nephew of
Earl Leofric of Mercia, received from the king, for himself
and his convent, the abbeys of Burton and Coventry, and was
further appointed by Eadward, Abbot of Crowland and of
Thorney. Along with foreign bishops and a king of foreign
tastes came continental ideas. The Church was brought into
closer connection with the Roman see ; English envoys
appeared at papal synods, and, for the first time since the
days of Offa, papal legates landed in England.
XX THE GREAT EARLS 401
In consequence of a political change introduced by Cnut,
the government of the country was largely in the hands of a
few powerful " earls." During the first part of ^^^ ^^ ^
Eadward's reign the three chief earls were Godwine, earfs—
Earl of Wessex; Leofric, Earl of Mercia; and <^°^"''"^'
Siward, Earl of Northumbria, Great as Godwine's power had
previously been, it was increased by the accession of Eadward,
who married his daughter Eadgyth, or Edit^. His character
and actions do not concern us here except ^^^- far as they had
an influence on the Church. The best thf ■: can be said of
him is that he was the champion of the f'^tional party, and
opposed the promotion of Normans both irr- Church and State.
At a time when the religion of the great yffi invariably shown
by grants to churches, Godwine, whose wV;'!lth was enormous,
neither founded nor enriched a single cl' irch, and certainly
seized ecclesiastical property for himself. Nor does he seem
to have regarded bishoprics in any oth' ^ light than as a
means of strengthening his party, or re^'^ .tding his friends.
He almost certainly approved the appointr its of Lotharingian
clerks to English sees as a check on the ^ .. A^er of the Norman
party. These German bishops were « ' the secular side,
while Eadward and his Norman friends probably favoured the
monks.
Leofric of Mercia was a man of a different mould \ he and
his wife Godgifu, the lady Godiva of a foolish legend, were noble
and pious people. They rebuilt and endowed the
church of Coventry for an abbot and twenty-five ^^sf^^rcT"'^
monks, and Godgifu, after her husband's death,
caused skilful goldsmiths to fashion all her treasure into orna-
ments for it, so that it was said that the church seemed scarcely
large enough for all the gold and silver which it contained.
The monasteries of Worcester, Evesham, Leominster, and
Wenlock, and the secular churches of Chester and Stow in
Lindsey were restored or otherwise enriched by the bounty of
the earl and his wife. They took a personal interest in all the
good works which they caused to be done, ana valued the
friendship of godly men. Siward of Northumbria, whose wife
was one of the daughters of Earl Ealdred and a descendant
of Bishop Ealdhun, was a Dane by birth, and was chiefly con-
spicuous as a warrior. Though guilty of one of those deeds of
2 D
402 EXHAUSTION chap.
blood that were common in the North, he was not an irrehgious
man. He built a minster at Galmanho, outside the walls of
York, in honour of St. Olaf, which in later days became St.
Mary's Abbey. Another less powerful earl called Odda, though
his baptismal name seems to have been y^thelwine, a kinsman
of the king, was, we are told, a man of pure and noble life, a
lover of churches, and a friend of the poor. He was a bene-
factor to the abbey of Pershore, and founded the monastery
of Deerhurst, which the king afterwards gave to the French
abbey of St. Denys.
As soon as Eadward became king, his mother's friend
Stigand again received the see of Elmham. Emma, however,
fell into disgrace with her son for political reasons,
Episcopal ^j^(j Stisfand, who was probably still unconsecrated,
appointments. & 5 V J J
lost the bishopric for the second time, if the story
of his first disappointment is true. Emma's disgrace became
the basis of a legend which represents her, though she would
then at the least have been fifty-five, as accused of unchastity
with a bishop, and as clearing herself by the ordeal of walking
barefoot over hot ploughshares in Winchester Cathedral.
The story is late and quite unhistorical. Stigand attached
himself to Earl Godwine, was restored to his bishopric, and
received consecration. In 1047 he was appointed Bishop of
Winchester, and managed to secure the see of Elmham for
his brother ^thelmaer. Episcopal appointments had been
sold so openly during the last two reigns that when Arch-
bishop Eadsige, who had fallen into bad health, desired to
have a suffragan coadjutor, he was afraid that the office
might be bought or begged without his concurrence. He
therefore told his wish to the king and Godwine privately,
and by their authority, consecrated Siward, Abbot of Abingdon,
as his suffragan, with the title of Bishop of Upsala. Siward
received a promise of the succession and attested charters as
archbishop. He did not, however, succeed to Canterbury, for
he retired about six years later on account of sickness, and
Eadsige resumed his duties until his death.
Godwine's overwhelming influence in Church matters soon
received a check, for, in 1044, Eadward appointed Robert,
Abbot of Jumi^ges, a friend of his youth, to the see of
London. Robert, who had begun to build the magnificent
XX EPISCOPAL APPOINTMENTS
403
church of his abbey, might, if he had stayed in Normandy,
have left a fair record. In England he showed himself a
mischievous intriguer. He acquired extraordinary
influence over the king, and encouraged him ancrpTny
to fill his court with Normans, and to promote '°"'''^''''''''°"'-
them to high offices, both spiritual and temporal. For a
while, however, the earl was too strong for him, and the next
year the bishopric of Wiltshire was given to one of the king's
Lotharingian clerks named Hermann. Again, on the death
of the pluralist Lifing, in 1046, Leofric, the king's chancellor,
who, though a Cornishman by birth, had been educated in
Lotharingia, received the bishopric of Crediton, which then
included Cornwall. Leofric, with his continental ideas, de-
sired to have his see in a city, and obtained leave to move it to
Exeter. His example was followed by other bishops after the
Norman conquest, when a law was made ordering such removals.
At Exeter he turned out the nuns from the Church of St.
Peter, made it his cathedral church, and organised his clergy
on the Lotharingian plan ; he made his canons live together,
with a common dormitory and refectory. Some traces of this
system survived at Exeter a century later, but the feeling of
the English clergy was so strongly adverse to it that the Rule
of Chrodegang was then no longer strictly obeyed. Lifing's
other see, Worcester, went to Ealdred, like his predecessor an
Abbot of Tavistock ; he was much employed in secular affairs,
attempted to check a Welsh invasion by force of arms, was
sent on embassies to foreign countries, and was a great
traveller.
Godwine's power was probably shaken by the evil conduct
of his eldest son Swain, or Swegen, who seduced the Abbess
of Leominster, and desired leave to marry her.
This, of course, could not be allowed. He left GodW°s
England in anger, joined himself to the king's ^''^^^'
enemies, and was outlawed. He came back, was guilty of a
treacherous murder, and, finally repenting of his sins, died
while returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The convent
at Leominster, which had been enriched by Earl Leofric,
appears to have been suppressed in consequence of the fall of
the abbess. The decay of Godwine's power is probably
marked by the appointment of Ulf, a Norman, and one of the
404
EXHA US TION chap.
royal clerks, to the see of Dorchester; he was notoriously
unfit to be a bishop.
Among the effects of Eadward's Norman training, and of
the influx of Norman and German prelates, was the attendance
of English envoys at papal councils. Bishop Duduc
P^p^.^ and two abbots were sent by the king to the council
which Leo IX. held at Reims in 1049, that they might
bring him word "what should be determined for Christendom."
Again, in 1050, Eadward sent Bishops Hermann and Ealdred
to Rome on an errand of his own. It is alleged that he
desired to be dispensed from a vow of pilgrimage, that the
pope bade him build or restore some monastery, and that he
fulfilled the command by building Westminster Abbey. The
bishops attended the council then sitting at Rome, and must
have joined in the condemnation of Berengar of Tours pro-
cured by Lanfranc, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, who
asserted that Berengar had declared the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper to be a mere figure. Another council was
held later in the year at Vercelli. There Ulf appeared, seeking
confirmation of his appointment to the see of Dorchester, and
doubtless consecration also, for Eadsige was then near his
end. He came with the pastoral staff given him by the king
as the symbol of his investiture with the bishopric. When,
however, he was examined by the bishops specially appointed
for the purpose, he was found, clever as he may have been in
the king's business, to be so ignorant of ecclesiastical matters
as to be unable to perform divine service. The bishops well-
nigh took his staff from him, but he got over all canonical
difficulties by the expenditure of a large sum of money, which,
we may be sure from the character of the pope, was paid
without his knowledge.
Eadsige's death on October 29, 1050, was followed by a
trial of strength between Godwine and Bishop Robert, the
leaders of the national and foreign parties at the
ofSerbuS, court. One of Godwine's kinsmen named ^Ifric, a
and Earl mouk of Christ Church, and a man of much ability
in worldly affairs, was elected and presented to the
king by the chapter, acting, we may suppose, in obedience to
instructions from the earl. For Godwine, as we have seen, had,
in the case of the appointment of the suffragan Siward, appa-
XX A NORMAN ARCHBISHOP 405
rently exercised an authority in ecclesiastical matters little, if at
all, inferior to that of the king. Times, however, were changed.
Eadward set aside the election, and in the spring of 1051
gave the archbishopric to Robert. Still, Norman influence
was not yet omnipotent, for at the same time he appointed
Spearhafoc (Sparrow-hawk), the Abbot of Abingdon, w4io was
evidently one of Godwine's adherents, to succeed Robert as
Bishop of London. Eadward made this appointment from
personal motives. Spearhafoc, who afterwards proved to be a
dishonest man, was a skilful goldsmith, and had won the king's
favour by making a splendid crown for him. His appointment
casts some suspicion on Eadward, but does not prove him
guilty of actual simony. Robert's duty and inclination co-
incided in this matter. When he returned from Rome with his
pall, Spearhafoc came to him " with the king's writ and seal "
commanding his consecration. Robert, however, persistently
refused to consecrate him, saying that the pope had forbidden
it. Spearhafoc, though unconsecrated, took possession of the
bishopric, that is of the temporalities of the see, in virtue of
the king's investiture.
Robert's promotion brought matters to a point between the
two parties in the court and kingdom. The king and Godwine
quarrelled over a political matter ; Robert inflamed
the king's anger against the earl, and a civil war was ^^'^}^P^
^ ^ ^ ' Godwine.
only averted by the mediation of Leofric. In spite
of Stigand's efforts on behalf of his patron, Godwine and his
whole house were outlawed in September 1051, his daughter
the queen being sent for a time to a nunnery. Archbishop
Robert thus became supreme ; Spearhafoc was sent back to
Abingdon, and William, one of the king's Norman clerks, and
a worthy man, was consecrated to the see of London.
Exactly a year later, Godwine returned to England, and
was welcomed by an armed host. While he lay at Southwark
on September 14, 1052, and Stigand was negotiating
between him and the king, the foreigners, Normans
and Frenchmen, fled. Robert and Ulf, with their followers,
rode for their lives through the streets of London, killing
and maiming some as they passed through the hostile
crowd, pressed through the east gate, and made their way to
Walton-on-Naze, where they got on board an unseaworthy
4o6 EXHAUSTION chap.
boat and escaped over sea. Bishop William also seems to
have taken refuge for a time.
Godwine's success was complete. His adherent Stigand
received Robert's archbishopric, and held it in plurality with
the see of Winchester, and more than one abbey.
'maticai Stigand's position was schismatical. So long as
archbishop. ]^Q5gj.j. iiyg(^ ^^^ ^j^ not rcsign his office, there could
be no other canonical Archbishop of Canterbury. And Robert
had no idea of resignation ; he carried his wrongs to the pope,
who gave him a letter ordering that he should be reinstated.
Nevertheless, he did not regain his see or again appear in
England. His wrongs formed one of the grievances which
William the Norman pleaded against England, and Stigand's
schism was probably the determining cause of the help that
Rome gave to the invader. Stigand could not, of course,
obtain a pall, and made his position worse by wearing the pall
which Robert had left behind him in his hasty flight. The
English Church regarded him as a usurper ; there was, the
Abingdon chronicler says, " no archbishop in the land," for
Cynesige, who succeeded ^Ifric at York in 105 1, did not
fetch his pall until 1055. Bishops-elect sought consecration
abroad. One of them, Wulfsige, was consecrated to Dorchester,
the see from which Ulf had been driven, and, as in this case
no complaint is made of usurpation, it is possible that Ulf was
canonically deposed. Bishop William was allowed to keep his
see, for he was beloved in his diocese. Archbishop Cynesige,
who lived with monastic strictness, and is said to have done
something for the religious instruction of his flock, seems,
after receiving his pall, to have taken Stigand's place in public
functions of special importance, and consecrated a Bishop
of Llandaff in 1056. From the reign of Eadgar onwards,
several bishops of Llandaff and some of St. David's are said to
have come to Canterbury for consecration, and in this case
Cynesige officiated on account of Stigand's schismatical posi-
tion. As Archbishop of York, he consecrated two successive
bishops to the see of Glasgow and received their professions
of obedience.
After the death of Godwine in 1053, Harold, his eldest
surviving son, became virtual ruler of the kingdom. With
some of his father's faults, he was a better man, and though
XX EARL HAROLD AND THE CHURCLI 407
his private life was not above reproach, he had at least
much religious feeling. The charges brought against him of
robbins: the Church do not bear investigation, and „ ,„
, r 1 1 -r • -tr 1 • 1 Harold's
he founded a magnmcent mmster. Yet his rule ecclesiastical
was not beneficial to the Church. In the episcopal p"^"^^"
appointments of the last twelve years of the reign he seems
generally to have followed out his father's policy. Leofgar,
Bishop of Hereford, his own clerk or chaplain, scandalised
churchmen by his military tastes. As a priest, he wore
moustaches, and when he was a bishop he forsook, the
chronicler tells us, " his ghostly weapons, his chrism and his
rood, and took to his spear and his sword." He marched
against the Welsh, and was slain, together with the priests
who marched with him, a few weeks after his consecration
in 1056. The indignant words of the chronicler seem to
confirm the opinion that though bishops sometimes directed
military operations, they did not personally engage in combat.
Two Lotharingian clerks received bishoprics ; Walter, Queen
Eadgyth's clerk, succeeded Leofgar at Hereford, and Gisa
succeeded Duduc at Wells. A scandalous story concerning
the death of Walter, which took place in the reign of the
Conqueror, is probably untrue, but it would scarcely have
been told of a man of holy life. Yet one episcopal appoint-
ment sheds some lustre on Harold's ecclesiastical administra-
tion, for Wulfstan of Worcester was his personal friend.
The injury that he did to the Church in keeping in abey-
ance the metropolitan authority of the see of Canterbury can-
not be excused by political reasons, strong as they
undoubtedly were. He recognised the uncanonical ^nJg^^oid
position of Stigand, but was too selfish to depose his
father's creature and to recall his father's enemy. So far, how-
ever, as his policy would allow, he sought to remedy the evil,
for, evidently owing to his intervention, Stigand received a pall
from Benedict X. in 1058, though he did not go to Rome for it.
This pall was probably obtained for him by Harold in person,
for the earl made a pilgrimage to Rome about that time.
Stigand, having obtained a pall, consecrated two bishops ; but
the gift soon rendered his position worse than before, for
Benedict, who was no true pope, was degraded the next year,
and Hildebrand, the future Gregory VH., and the popes
4o8 EXHAUSTION chap.
supported by him, resented this acknowledgment of the
usurper. Stigand was excommunicated by five successive
popes, and his position at home did not improve. Harold's
selfish policy disposed the Roman see, a few years later, to
support the invasion of England, and so brought its own reward.
On the death of Archbishop Cynesige on December 22,
1060, Ealdred of Worcester was appointed to York. While
at Worcester, he rebuilt the church of St. Peter at
Abp. Ealdred Glouccstcr, whcrc, in the reisfn of Cnut, Wulfstan
at Rome. ' ' . ° . ' .
II. of York, who clamied authority over it as a
Northumbrian foundation, had caused the canons to assume
the monastic habit. He had been much employed by the
king, and, besides his mission to Rome, had been on em-
bassies to Bruges and Cologne, and he had also gone on
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his promotion to York, he
again journeyed to Rome to fetch his pall, in company with
Tostig, one of Harold's brothers, who had succeeded Siward
as Earl of Northumbria, and at the same time as Gisa and
Walter, bishops-elect of Wells and Hereford, who went to
Rome to seek consecration, for they would not receive it
from Stigand. Nicolas 11. refused Ealdred his pall, because
he was retaining the see of Worcester along with the arch-
bishopric, and is even said to have declared him degraded
from the episcopal office. Tostig in vain pleaded for him ;
the pope was inexorable, and they set out on their homeward
journey. On their way, they were set upon by brigands, who
robbed them of all that they had with them. They went
back to the pope. The earl reproached him with the dis-
orderly state of his territory, and declared that the English
king would be in the right if he sent no more Peter's pence to
Rome, and that he would tell him the whole affair. Nicolas
made the travellers' losses up to them, and appeased the earl
by granting Ealdred his pall on condition that he resigned
Worcester.
Chiefly in order to ensure the fulfilment of this condition,
the next pope, Alexander II., took a step for which there had
been no precedent in the history of the English
^n^En'laid'' Church since the visit of George and Theophylact
in the days of Offa. He sent two legates to
England in 1062, Ermenfried, Bishop of Sion, and another.
XX WULFSTAN, BISHOP OF WORCESTER 409
The legates went to Worcester, and were lodged by Ealdred
in the monastery, which was then under the care of Wulfstan,
the prior.
Wulfstan was a native of Warwickshire, the son of pious
parents, who both in old age entered religion. Though edu-
cated at monastic schools, first at Evesham and then
at Peterborough, he had no thought of taking orders,
and lived for a while as a layman. He was a pious young
man, and was ordained priest when he was about twenty-six.
He refused a good living which the bishop pressed upon
him, became a monk of Worcester, and was made prior by
Ealdred. He was a pattern of asceticism and holiness to
his fellows-monks, and spent much time outside the walls of
the monastery, so that all who needed his help might find
him readily. Crowds of poor people brought their children
to him to be baptized, for his monastic biographer declares
that the secular clergy would not administer baptism without
a fee. This would, of course, be simony of the rankest sort,
and, if the biographer's assertion is true, the inferior clergy
must have become infected with the sins of the bishops.
Wulfstan had little learning but much wisdom. Many great
people used to go to him for counsel, and Earl Harold was
wont to say that he would at any time cheerfully go thirty
miles out of his way to have a talk with him. The legates
were struck with his holiness, and used their influence at
Worcester to secure his canonical election, in which, it is said,
the clergy and people took part, as well as the monks. They
procured the assent of the kin^ and the witan, and „, „
TTT lr -, 1 T-, , -I ■■ nr Wulfstail, Bd.
Wulfstan was consecrated by Ealdred. In con- of Worcester,
sequence of Stigand's usurpation he delayed his '""^^-^s-
profession of obedience to the see of Canterbury. For a
time Ealdred treated him as though he had merely been his
suffragan, and years passed before he obtained complete
possession of the estates of his church.
While the monks found powerful and liberal supporters,
the reign of the Confessor saw a movement in favour of
secular churches, and the organisation of their
clergy into colleges, more or less conforming to the minsters in
rule of Chrodegang, and with proper officers, such ^h^^^""'^-
as a sacristan, precentor, and chancellor. This movement
4IO EXHAUSTION chap.
may be ascribed to two causes which have already been
noted — the German influence, which was chiefly active in
Southern England, and the efl'ect of the monastic revival
on ecclesiastical life generally. Northumbria was almost un-
touched by the Benedictine movement in any direct way, and
remained the special land of great secular minsters, such as
York, Beverley, Ripon, Hexham, and Southwell, which was
subject to the northern metropolitan. In these minsters it
seems that a system had grown up somewhat analogous to
that of the Culdees of the Scots' Church. The priests of the
minster were married, and handed down their interest in the
minster estates to their sons in an hereditary line of priests.
The higher ideal of clerical life introduced by the monastic
reformers led to a change from this evil system, though not
in the direction of Benedictinism. Ealdred built refectories
at York and Southwell, and completed the dormitory and
refectory begun by his predecessors ^Ifric and Cynesige at
Beverley. The canons of these minsters were, it would seem,
brought under the canonical rule of Chrodegang, and lived in
common. The reform was short-lived. In times after the
Conquest the estates of the secular minsters were divided
into prebends, each held by a canon, and sometimes descend-
ing by hereditary succession, an abuse fraught with evils.
At Durham there was much rivalry between the monks
and the secular clergy of the bishop's church. Eadmund,
who is said to have been an excellent bishop,
Thechurch thou^h hc had himself been a secular clerk be-
of Durham. '-' . -
fore his consecration, became an ardent lover ot
the monastic rule, and tried with some, though only partial,
success to enforce it on the secular clerks of his church.
On his death, in 1040, Harthacnut sold the bishopric to
one of these clerks named Eadred, who died within a year.
Then the monastic party, which had gained strength under
Eadmund, procured the election of ^thelric, a monk whom
Eadmund had brought from Peterborough to help him in
his reforms. The clerks of Durham would not acknowledge
him; he appealed to Earl Siward, and the earl overawed
his opponents and put him in possession of his bishopric by
force. Both he and his brother ^thelwine, who succeeded
him, and was also a monk, are accused of robbing their
XX S ECU LA R MINS TERS 4 1 1
church, but an accusation of that kind often means nothing
more than that a bishop was at feud with his chapter. In
spite of the efforts of the monastic party, the secular clergy
remained strong at Durham until after the Conquest.
In the South, Gisa of Wells followed the example of
Leofric at Exeter by introducing into his church the rule of
Chrodegang, with which he had, like Leofric, been
familiar in Lotharingia. The foreign system was Minster"
abandoned more quickly at Wells than at Exeter,
for it was completely abolished by Gisa's successor. Earl
Harold, probably influenced by the bishops of German race,
the friends of his house, preferred secular clergy to monks.
He built a noble minster at Waltham, in honour of the Holy
Cross, in place of Tofig's little church, and established a
college of secular clergy there. He did not, however, make his
canons live together under the rule of Chrodegang. He desired
that his college should promote education, and appointed as its
chancellor Adelard of Liege, a learned man, to whom he gave
the care of the school. Adelard's son succeeded him as chan-
cellor. He too was, as it happened, a man of zeal and learn-
ing. Yet his succession to his father's office suggests the
evils which generally attended secular foundations. Harold's
church was dedicated by Archbishop Cynesige on May 3,
1060, in the presence of the king and many great persons,
clerical and lay, Stigand, as usual, being set aside. The
earl's care for education is creditable to him, but, though the
character of his foundation may appeal to modern taste, it
was not from secular clergy that England had in time past
received light and leading.
Though Harold favoured the seculars, he was not unfair to
the monks. Hermann, the Bishop of Wiltshire, discontented at
having a poorly endowed bishopric and no cathedral ^. . .
11-1 1-1 1 • • 11-1 Diminution
establishment, set his heart on combining the bishop- of the
ric of Sherborne with that of Wiltshire, and annexing ^p^^^°p^^^'
Malmesbury Abbey in order to make it the church of his see.
Such a change could not be made without the consent of the
witan, and the monks of Malmesbury, fearful of losing their
independence, prayed Harold to help them. The earl pleaded
their cause and saved them from the bishop. Angry at the
defeat of his scheme, Hermann deserted his bishopric and
412 EXHAUSTION chap.
became a monk of the abbey of St. Bertin. Ealdred, then
Bishop of Worcester, to whom office and its emoluments
could never come amiss, undertook the administration of the
deserted bishopric. Hermann's monastic zeal cooled with his
anger. In 1058, after he had been absent for three years, the
see of Sherborne fell vacant by the death of yElfv/old, a bishop
of holy and ascetic life, formerly a monk of the Old Minster
under ^thelwold. Hermann returned to England, resumed
charge of his diocese, obtained the see of Sherborne, and
combined the two bishoprics. During the reign of the Con-
fessor, then, the English episcopate was diminished by the
suppression of two bishoprics. The bishopric of Cornwall
ceased to exist, and the Wiltshire bishopric was united to that
of Sherborne. After the Conquest, Hermann moved the see
of his united bishoprics to "Old Sarum."
While Harold built a minster for secular clerks the king
was engaged in building his abbey. He chose for its site an
island in the Thames to the west of London, called
We^tmmster Thomcy, whcre there was a small and decayed
monastery with only a few monks. The minster had
perhaps been built in very early times, though the legends as
to its foundation are worthless, and it does not appear, so far
as is known, in any genuine record of historical authority
before it was made the burial-place of Cnut's son Harold.
His church, the West Minster, for it stood west of St. Paul's,
was built after the pattern of the great churches of Normandy,
in a style which was recognised as new in England. It was
dedicated to St. Peter on Holy Innocents' Day, December 28,
1065, without the presence of its founder, who was then on
his death-bed.
At Eadward's death on January 3, 1066, Harold was chosen
king, and was crowned by Ealdred, for he would not render
his position doubtful by accepting the ministration
the Norman of thc schismatic Stigaud. William, Duke of the
Conquest. js^Q^^i^ns, to whom his kinsman Eadward had once
promised the succession, and whose claim Harold had sworn
to uphold, determined to invade England, and in order to
strengthen his cause laid his claim before Alexander II.
The duke's ambassador no doubt urged on the pope his
master's pretext, that he sought not so much his own glory as
XX NORMAN CONQUEST 413
the reformation of the EngHsh Church. He must have dwelt
on the usurpation of Stigand, and probably pointed out how
the Church had gone its own way with little regard to Roman
authority. Alexander and his counsellor Hildebrand believed
that they saw an opportunity for increasing the power of the
Roman see in England, and Hildebrand accordingly supported
the ambassador's arguments. The other cardinals protested
that the Church ought not to encourage slaughter. Neverthe-
less Hildebrand's words prevailed, and the pope sent William
his blessing, a ring with a relic of St. Peter, and a consecrated
banner. The invasion was thus invested with something of
the character of a holy war, approved by the pope as a means
of bringing the English Church into more thorough depend-
ence on the Roman see. During the few days that Harold
was in London between his victory at Stamfordbridge and his
march to meet the Norman invader, he visited his church at
Waltham, and it was believed there that as the king prayed
before the holy rood, the image of the Crucified bowed its
head as though in sorrow before him. At the place of battle
the Church bore its part in the struggle with the invaders.
Religious houses sent their tenants to Harold's army, and
some churchmen joined it in person. Leofric, the pluralist
abbot, who had done more for Peterborough "than any did
before or after him," was with the English army, and died
either from wounds or hardships a few days after the battle ;
and ^Ifwig, Abbot of the New Minster, the king's uncle, who
came with twelve of his monks, wearing harness above their
habits, was slain on the field, he and his monks with him.
Englishmen first, and ecclesiastics afterwards ; they will surely
not be judged harshly by their fellow-countrymen for their
breach of the law of the Church and their order.
Ending here, with the overthrow of English independence,
this book leaves the English Church in a dark and stormy
day. National in name, character, and history, it
w^as a powerful factor in the formation of the Eng-
lish nation. It entered into the daily lives of men and women
of all classes, bringing them help, sympathy, and hope, and
it bore a large share in the work of civil government and
administration. Its development was remarkably independent
414 EXHAUSTION chap.
of Roman influence. While it regarded the Roman see with
gratitude and reverence, it seldom either sought, or accepted,
guidance from Rome. Twice only since the coming of
Theodore had legates interfered in its affairs ; the papal decrees
in Wilfrith's case were held of small account ; a papal sentence
was, we are told, summarily set aside by so eminent a church-
man as Dunstan. It chose as saints English men and
women, and appointed the services by which they were to be
commemorated. Though at certain periods of its history it
gave spiritual light and intellectual guidance to continental
peoples, and in its turn received help from abroad, it had, like
the nation, some insularity of character. Yet, on the whole,
this was no great drawback to its progress. If its clergy might
sometimes have been roused to more energy, or have learned a
higher standard of life, by closer relations with other churches,
there were times also when it would have lost much by
following their lead.
Its peculiarly intimate union with the State during the
period which succeeded the Danish invasions of the ninth
century did it some damage; it weakened its spiritual life,
tended to make its ministers worldly, and finally caused it
to share in the national exhaustion and dechne of the last
years of the native monarchy. On the other hand, this
union strengthened its hold on the national life and the affec-
tions of the people. The disaster of St. Calixtus's Day gave
Church and State into the hands of the Conqueror. Was
that disaster to destroy the national character of either Church
or State ? It was to be far otherwise. Both alike had to pass
through a period of discipline, but from that discipline both
alike were to gain new energy and become capable of a more
spacious life. Through the darkest days of their trial the
Church played a part worthy of its national character; it
formed a bond of union between the conquerors and the
conquered, and kept alive the spirit of the nation until the
time came that the conquerors called themselves by no other
name than Englishmen, and were proud of their share in the
heritage of the English people and the English Church.
Authorities. — The chief general authorities are the Sax. Chronicle,
Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum
XX AUTHORITIES 415
and Gesta Poniijicnm, and Thorpe's Aricicnt Laws. For Cnut and the
Church, see Mcnible's Codex Dipl., Hisioria Ramesiensis, Historia Eliensis,
ed, Stewart, Anglia Christiana series, London, 1848, and Bp. Stubbs's Select
Charters, ed. 1S84. Notices of English ecclesiastics in Scandinavian countries
are in Adam of Bremen's Gesta IJatnmaburg. Eccl. Pont., ap. Pertz, Man.
Germ. SS. vii. References to Cnut's pilgrimage are in the Encotyiium Emmcr,
ap. Duchesne, Hist. Norm.. SS., Paris, 1619, and Wipo's Vita Chuonradi,
ap. Pertz, Mon. Germ. SS. xi. ; his letter is given by Florence. An excel-
lent account of the king's clerks and chapel is in Green's Conquest of En gla7id.
For the reign of the Confessor see Lives of Edward the Co?ifessor, Rolls ser. ;
the more important prose Vita is by a strong adherent of the house of Godwine,'
and must be read accordingly. For the Church in the North, see Symeon of
Durham, Llist. Dunelm. Eccl. and Chronicle of the Archbishops, in Historians
of York, ii. The Waltham history is in De Inventione Crucis, ed. Bp. Stubbs,
Oxford, 1861. For the Norman embassy to the pope, see, besides Will, of
Malmesbury, Orderic's Historia Eccles., ed. Prevost, Soci6t6 de I'Histoire de
France, 1852 ; MonuniCTita Gregoriana, ed. Jaff6, Berlin, 1865 ; William of
Poitiers, Gesta Willelmi Conq., ed. Giles, London, 1845, and Wace's
Roman de Rou, ed. Pluquet, Rouen, 1827. For a sketch of the Church on
the eve of the Conquest and in its relations to the nation, see Bp. Stubbs's
Const. History. The best modern authority for the general history of the
period is Freeman's Norman Conquest, i. ii. and iii., where the characters of
Godwine and his adherents are represented in a more favom-able light than
in this chapter. This is due partly to a difference in point of view. With
Freeman, support of the national cause raises a man at once to a high place ;
here a man's conduct in religious or ecclesiastical matters is necessarily the
side on which most stress is laid. The estimate of the men of the time given
in Green's Conquest of England seems on the whole sounder than Freeman's,
though perhaps going too far in the opposite direction.
APPENDIX 1
SOME PRINCIPAL EVENTS
Landing and consecration of Augustine
Mellitus driven from London ; Eadbald of Kent baptized
Baptism of Eadwine of Northumbria
Mission of Felix in East Anglia
Battle of Hatfield ; death of Eadwine
Mission of Birinus in Wessex ....
Mission of Aidan ; baptism of Cynegils of Wessex
Death of Aidan ......
Evangelisation of the Mercians
Conference at Whitby ; plague breaks out
Landing of Archbishop Theodore
Synod of Hertford ; birth of Bede .
Wilfrith's first appeal to Rome
Subdivision of the Mercian bishopric
Synod of Hatfield ; imprisonment of Wilfrith .
Evangelisation of the South Saxons by Wilfrith
Death of Cuthbert
Death of Archbishop Theodore ; Willibrord's mission to Frisia
Council on the Nidd ; division of West Saxon bishopric
consecrated Bishop of Sherborne
Death of Wilfrith ; South Saxon bishopric founded .
Bishop Ecgbert of York receives a pall ; death of Bede
Council of Clovesho for reform ....
Martyrdom of St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz
Legatine Synod at Chelsea ; archbishopric of Lichfield created
Restoration of the rights of Canterbury ; accession of Ecgbert
Agreement at Kingston .....
Pilgrimage of King .^Ethelwulf
Martyrdom of Eadmund of East Anglia .
Accession of Alfred ; Danes attack Wessex
Bishop Eardulf leaves Lindisfarne ; wanderings of St.
Battle of Ethandun ; baptism of Guthorm
Bernician see placed at Chester-le-Street .
Increase of the West Saxon episcopate
Dunstan receives charge of Glastonbury ; monastic revival .
2 E
Cuthbert
Ealdhelm
597
6i6
627
631
633
634
635
651
656
664
669
673
678
about 679
680
681
687
690
begin
705
709
735
747
755
787
802
838
855
870
871
87s
878
883
909
1?) 943
SOME PRINCIPAL EVENTS
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury .....
-Ethehvold consecrated to Winchester ; Benedictine reform begins
Death of Eadgar ; anti-monastic movement ....
Death of Archbishop Dunstan ...-.,.
Confirmation of Olaf of Norway ......
Bernician see fixed at Durham ......
Martyrdom of Archbishop .(Elf heah (St. Elphege)
Pilgrimage of Cnut ........
Death of Cnut ; period of manifest decline begins
Robert cf Jumieges, Archbishop of Canterbury ....
Expulsion of Archbishop Robert ; Stigand schismatical archbishop
Legatine visit ; Wulfstan consecrated to Worcester .
Dedication of Westminster Abbey ; death of Eadward the Confessor
Battle of Hastings
A.D.
960
975
988
991
995
1012
1027
1051
1052
1062
1065
1066
I
ROCHESTER,
for W. Kentish,
f. 604.
f. = founded,
ex. = extinct.
Tlie dates are in some cases
merely approximate.
LICHFIELD,
for ^I^''"CJ^"S f. 656.
ii_: \
El
^^^ed
I
JCHESTER,
Mercian See
9, and soon
merged in
CESTER.
I I I
LEICESTER, WORCESTER, HEREFORD,
for M, Anglians, for Hwiccas, for Hecanas,
f. 680. f. 679 {?). f. 676-688.
709-737.
LEICESTER,
See moved to
DORCHESTER
about 869.
CREDITON^'*'"'
for " Devon j
Dyfnaint, '
909(?); mov^
to Exeter, id. ^'
Ived
CORNWALL,
Bpric. for W, Welsh,
f. 930, ST. GER-
MANS, ST. PE-
TROCK'S. Seeex.
and Bpric. merged
in CREDITOiN
about 1027.
1
I
EXETER, f. i^
LINDISFARNE.
f. 635.
WHITERN.
f- 730.
ex. after 791.
I
LINDISFARNE,
See removed, 875 ;
placed at Chester -le -
Street, 883; removed to
Durham, 995,
I
ABERCORN.
in the Pictish
land, f. 681,
ex. 685.
LONDON.
for E. Saxons, f, 604,
interrupted 616, E.
Saxon Bpric. 654. See
restored to LONDON
APPENDIX II
ENGLISH BISHOPRICS AND SEES, 597-1066.
CANTERBURY, Abpric.
DORCHESTER,
r W. Saxons, f. 634 :
ex. as W. Saxon Sec,
662 (?). W. Saxon See
at WINCHESTER,
= (?)•
LICHFIELD, DORCHESTER, LEICESTER. WORCESTER. HEREFORD,
for Mercians as a Mercian See for M. Anglians. for Hwiccas. for Hecanas.
proper. I. 679. and soon f. 680. f 679 (?). f. 676-688.
DUNWICH,
SHERBORNE,
LICHFIELD.
DORCHESTER
WINCHESTER.
CORNWALL,
Bpric. for W. Welsh,
f. 930, ST. GER-
MANS. ST. PE-
TROCK'S. Seeex.
and Bpric. merged
in CREDITON
iERBORNE. WILTSHIRE, WINCHESTER,
for Dorset, Bpric. or RAMS- for Hants and
iee ex. 1075. BURY, f. 909: Surrey.
See placed at
OLD SARUi\
I07S-
CANTERBURY, Abpric.
YORK,
for Northumbrians, f. f
interrupted 633. rev,
as Bpric. 664-5.
.INDISFARNE.
LINDISFARNE,
placed at Chester-1<
Street, 883: removed 1
Durham, 995.
APPENDIX III
ARCHBISHOPS
OF CANTERBURY
LIST OF
& ■
597-1066.
BISHOPS AND
ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK
Augustine
Laurentius
Mellitus
Justus ,
Honorius
Deusdedit
Theodore
Berctwald
Tatwine
Nothelm
Cuthbert
Bregwine
Jaenbert
^thelheard
Vvulfred
Feologeld
Ceolnoth
^thelred
Plegmund
Athelm
Wulfhelm
Oda .
Succ.
to See.
Vacates.
597
d. 604
604
d. 619
619
d. 624
624
d. 627
627
d. 653
65s
d. 664
668
d. 690
693
d. 731
731
d. 734
735
d. 740
740
d. 758
759
d. 76s
766
d. 790
793
d. 805
805
d. 832
832
d. 832
833
d. 870
870
d. 889
890
d. 914
914
d. 923
923
d. 942
942
d. 958
Paulinus
Wilfrith I. .
Ceadda
Bosa .
John of Beverley
Wilfrith II. .
Archbishops.
Ecgbert, reed, pall
735 •
yEthelbert
I Eanbald I.
I Eanbald II.
Wulfsige
Wigmund
Wulfhere
.'Ethelbald
Rodewald
Wulfstan
Succ.
to See.
625
664
666
678
705
718
734
767
780
796
837
854
900
933
Vacates.
res. 633
ex. 678
dep. 669
d. 70s
res. 718
d. 732
res. 766
d. 780
d. 796
d. 900
d. 930?
dep. 954
424
LIST OF ARCHBISHOPS
CANTERBURY.
Succ.
to See.
Vacates.
YORK.
Succ.
to See.
^Ifsige
Dunstan
958?
960
d. 959?
d. 988
Oscytel
Oswald
972
^thelgar
988
d. 990
Sigeric .
^Ifric .
990
995
d. 994
d. 1005
Ealdwulf .
Wulfstan II.
995
1003
iElfheah
1005
d. 1012
(St. Elphege)
Lifing .
1013
d. 1020
iEthelnoth .
1020
d. 1038
^Ifric .
1023
Eadsige
Robert of Jumieges
Stigand, schismati-
cal .
1038
1051
1052
d. 1050
d. 1070
dep. 1070
Cynesige
Ealdred
1051
1061
Vacates.
d. 971
d. 992
d. 1002
d. 1023
d. 1 05 1
d. 1060
d. 1069
INDEX
Abbo, abbot of Fleury, 377
Abbots and abbesses, how chosen,
165, 177, 187, 245, 256, 372, 400
Abel, patriarch of Jerusalem, 284
Abercorn, English see at, 155-156
Abingdon, monastery at, 168, 187,
308, 344-345. 352 ; story of
Eadred at, 345 ; ^Ethelwold's
church at, 379
Acca, bp. of Hexham, 162, 227-228
Acha, queen of Northumbrians, 54,
72, 90
Adamnan, abbot of lona, 72, 84,
117, 169 ; his book On the Holy
Places, 202
Adelard of Blandinium, biographer
of Dunstan, 361
Adelard of Liege, chancellor of Walt-
ham, 411
Adelgis, king of Frisians, 148-149,
212
Adoptionists, heresy of the, 241
Adulf, count of Boulogne, 304, 308
A^bbe, queen of S. Saxons, 104
^bbe (Ebba), abbess of Coldingham,
119, 153, 179, 183
^Ifgifu, wife of King Eadwig (Edwy),
348, 351
^Ifheah (St. Elphege), abp. of Canter-
bury, 368, 374, 396, 397 ; ap-
pointed abp., 382, 384; martyrdom,
385 ; translation, 392
iElfheah the Bald, bp. of Winchester,
303. 330. 332. 333. 343. 378 ;
death of, 343
iElfhere, ealdorman of Mercia, 356,
362-364
-^Iflaed, abbess of Whitby, 102-103,
159. 163-164, 178-179, 183
.^Iflasd, wife of Brihtnoth, 374, 381
.^Ifmasr, abbot of St. Augustine's,
384
yElfmasr, archdeacon, alleged treach-
ery of, 384
^Ifric, abp. of Canterbury, 374 n.,
382, 388
iElfric, abp. -elect of Canterbury, 404
^Ifric Puttoc, abp. of York, 396,
398-399 ; death of, 406
-^Ifric, abbot, " Grammaticus," 372,
373. 374 ; his homihes, 375 f. ;
other writings of, 377, 388
^Ifsige, abp. -elect of Canterbury, 343,
351
^Ifstan, bp, of London, 352
.^Ifstan, bp. of Rochester, 365
iElfthryth, or Elstrud, daughter of
Alfred, 277 ; wife of Count Bald-
win the Bald, 284, 306
.^Ifthryth, wife of King Eadgar, 354,
356, 361, 363. 382-383
.iElfthryth, abbess of Repton, 229
^Ifwald (Alfwald), king of Northum-
brians, 237, 241-242
^Ifwen, wifeof^^thelstan, the "half-
king," 338
^Ifwine, Northumbrian under-king,
144
^Ifwold L, bp. of Crediton, 343
.^Ifwold II., bp. of Crediton, 325
JEAiwold, bp. of Sherborne, 412
.^Ifwold, a son of ^thelstan, "the
half-king," 362
iEona, chanter, 124
426
INDEX
^scwig, bp. of Dorchester, 388
^scwig, abbot of the New Minster,
Winchester, 413
^sica, a child, 121, 178
^thelbald, king of Mercians, 225,
229-230, 233-234
iEthelbald, king of W. Saxons, 261-
262
iEthelbert, king of Kent, 14, 15,
20-26, 27, 38, 39, 43, 44, 55, 56,
58, 272, 365
^thelbert, king of E. Anglians, 235
-(Ethelbert, king of W. Saxons, 262
iEthelbert, abp. of York, 209, 210,
313
^thelbert (Adalbert), English mis
sionary, 215
.^thelburh (Ethelburga), queen of
Northumbrians, 55, 56, 61, 68-70,
85, 90-91, 179
/Ethelburh, wife of Ine, 172
^thelburh, abbess of Faremoutier, 87,
180
^thelburh, abbess of Barking, 120,
204
^thelfiasd, lady of the Mercians, 266,
290, 291, 299
^thelflasd, kinswoman of Dunstan,
334. 345
iEthelflaed, "the Duck," 361
iEthelfrith, king of Northumbrians,
36, 2,7, 52. 54. 59
^thelgar, abp. of Canterbury, 353,
366, 378 X
^thelgar, bp. of Crediton, 343
-^thelgifu, at Eadwig's court, 348-
349. 351
.^thelgifu, daughter of Alfred, abbess,
277
iiEthelheard, king of W. Saxons, 173,
296
.^thelheard, abp. of Canterbury, 240,
244-245, 248, 251, 252
.(Ethelhere, king of E. Anglians, loi
^thelhild, daughter of Eadward the
Elder, 297
.^thelmaer, bp. of Elmham, 402
.^thelmaer, ealdorman, founder of
Eynsham, 374, 377
iEthelnoth, abp. of Canterbury, 392,
394. 396, 397 . death of, 398
.^thelred, king of Mercians, 89, 141,
159, 161 ; becomes abbot of
Bardney, 163, 183
^thelred, king of Northumbrians,
241-242
-^thelred, king of W. Saxons, 262-263
.^thelred the Unready, king, 361 ;
reign of, 364^, 381/: ; ecclesias-
tical legislation of reign, 372-373,
386-387 ; death, 386 ; character,
364, 36s, 387, 388
.^thelred, abp. of Canterbury, 263,
265, 269, 274, 285, 292
^thelred, ealdorman of Mercians, 266,
271, 290, 291, 299
.^thelric, king of Bernicia, 52
.^thelric, bp. of Selsey, 398
yEthelric, bp. of Durham, 410
.^thelstan, king, 296 ; his reign,
298^^ ; his foreign relations, 2>'^\ff. ;
at Glastonbury, 331 ; receives
Dunstan, 332, and .^thelwold, 343 ;
his death, 309
.^thelstan, bp. of Wiltshire, or
Ramsbury, 295
.^thelstan, the " half -king," ealdor-
man of E. Anglia, 337-338, 339-
340 ; becomes a monk, 355
.^thelthryth {St. Etheldreda), queen
and abbess, 87, 135, 143, 146,
183, 185-186, 187, 203 ; homily
for day, 377
^thelthryth, abbess of the Nunna
Minster, 354
^thelwald, son of Oswald, and king
of Deira, 89-90, 99, loi
.^thelwald, son of ^thelred of
Wessex, 290
.^thelwalh, king of S. Saxons, 104,
124, 154
^thelweard, bp. of Sherborne, 295
^thelweard, son of Alfred, 277, 297
^thelweard, son of Eadward the
Elder, 296, 289
^thelweard, W. Saxon ealdorman,
374. 377. 381
^thelwine, bp. of Durham, 410-41 1
.^thelwine, the "Friend of God,"
ealdorman of E. Anglia, 355 ;
joint founder of Ramsey, 356-357 ;
defends monks, 362 ; death of, 368 ;
his son, 388
.^thelwold, abp. -elect of York, 357
INDEX
42:
^tbelwold, bp. of Winchester, 342,
343 ; skill as a craftsman, 342, 352 ;
abbot of Abingdon, 344 ; sends to
Fleur)', 347; bp. , 352; leader of
Benedictine reform, 352-354, 358 ;
his scheme for monasticgovernment,
354-355. 371 ; as a teacher, 367,
377; teaches crafts, 380; as preacher,
367. 373. 374 ; ^t. Edith's reply
to, 361 ; later days and death, 367;
his church at Winchester, 379 ; its
dedication, 367 ; lives of, 377 ; his
benedictional, 380
.Ethel wold, ealdorman of E. Anglia,
355
.^thehvulf, king of W. Saxons, 253 ;
his reign, 258^ ; his donation, 260,
325 ; revolt from, 261, 313
^thelwulf, a priest, helps Alfred, 275
iEthelwynn, lady-friend of Dunstan,
334
^tla, bp. of Dorchester, 142
African Chiirch and Roman see, 147
Agatho, pope, 149, 151, 162
Agatho, a priest, no
Agde, council of, 182
Agilbert, bp. of W. Saxons, 88, 108,
109, iio-iii, 121, 123; leaves
Wessex, no, 129 ; becomes bp. of
Paris, no, 132
Agilulf, 18
Agricola, a heretic, 3
Agriculture, monastic, 197
Aidan,bp. of Lindisfarne, 76-78, 80-83,
88, 90-93, 179; relics of, 113, 264
Aix-la-Chapelle, or Aachen, council at,
335. 372
Akeburgh, 71
Alan the Great, Breton count, 305
Alan Twisted -Beard, count of Nantes,
305
Alban, St., i, 376
Alban's, St. See St. Alban's
Alchfrith, son of Oswiu, 96, 97, 105,
108-110, 121-122, 143 n.
Alcuin (Ealhwine), 210- 211, 238,
240-245, 256, 313
Aid-. See Eald-
Aldfrith, scholar-king of Northum-
brians, 157, 161, 163, 164, 17T,
201-203 ; his death an epochal
event, 226, 228, 241
Alexander II., pope, 408, 412-413
Alfred, or .Alfred, king, 169, 298 ;
birth of, 259-260 ; early years, 260-
261, 263; accession, 263 ; struggles
and victory, 263-267 ; his work as
ruler, teacher, etc., 268 ff. ; his
own education, 273 - 274 ; his
jewel, 278 ; his translations, 280-
282 ; death, 285 ; effects of work,
286 ; character, 287-288 ; burial-
place, 285, 291
Alfred, or &\{r&(S., son of .(Ethelred the
Unready, murder of, 398
Alfred, or .(Alfred, a rebel, story of, 304
Alleluia victory, the, 3
Aller, 265
Almsgiving inculcated, 324-325
Alubert, bp. and missionary, 235
Alwig, bp. of Lindsey, 231
Ambrose, St., 134
Amesbury, witenagemot at, 363 ;
monastery at, 382
Anatolius, canon ascribed to, 111-112
Anchoret, meaning of term, 174, 229
Andelys, monastery at, 180, 182
Anderida, forest of, 154
Andover, witenagemot at, 367
Andrew, priest and monk, 126
Anglesey, or Mona, 59
Anglians. See East Anglians and
Middle Anglians
'Anna, king of E. Anglians, 85, 87,
102, 180
Annegray (Haute-Saone), 64
Annemund, abp. of Lyons, 107, 108
Antony, St., 81, 174
Appeals to Rome, 141, 147-148, 161-
162, 164, 361, 371, 414
Archdeacon, office of, 319
Archil, Northumbrian noble, 384
Architecture, church, 24-25, 191-196,
379. 412
Arigius, patrician, 19
Aries, 23, 30 ; council of, 2, 29 ;
monastery at, 182
Armorica, 4, 65. See Brittany
/\rngrim, bp. of Langres, his pall,
293
Amulf the Great, count of Flanders,
285, 304, 306, 349-350- 377
Arts and crafts, promoted by church-
men, 191^, 196, 197, 199, 333-
428
INDEX
334. 342-343. 359. 378 ff. See
Architecture, Painting, Writing, etc.
Ashdown, battle of, 263
Ashingdon, battle of, 388 ; Cnut's
church at, 395
Asser, bp. of Sherborne, 267, 276-277,
281, 285, 295
Assisi, church at, 61
Asterius, abp. of Milan, 86
Athanasius, St., 2, 174
Athelm, abp. of Canterbury, 295, 298,
301
Athelney, Alfred in, 265 ; monastery
in, 277-280
Audrey, St. See ^Ethelthryth (St.
Etheldreda)
Augustine, St., abp. of Canterbury,
5, 19-23 ; his churches, 24-26 ; his
questions, 27-30 ; his conferences
with the Britons, 34-38 ; his death
and character, 40-41 ; his burial-
place, 42 ; his memory, 232, 339
Augustine, St. , of Hippo, 239, 280
Aust, 34
Austerfield (Estrefeld), council at, 161
Baithene, abbot of lona, 11
Baldred, king of Kent, 249, 253, 254
Baldwin the Bald, count of Flanders,
284, 306
Baldwin the Forester, count of
Flanders, 262
Balthere, anchoret, 309
Bamborough, 58, 77, 79, 84, 89, 90,
92
Bangor (Irish), monastic school at,
96
Bangor Iscoed, 35, 36, 52
Banwell, 276
Baptism, differences concerning, 6,
36-37 ; special seasons for, 56 ;
saving effect of, 118 ; white gar-
ments and chrism of newly baptized ,
166, 265 ; to be administered when
required, 323 ; fees for, simoniacal,
409
Bardney, monastery at, 89, 163, 182-
183, 263, 291
Barking, monastery at, 120-121, 139,
178, 182, 183 ; learning at, 204
Barrow, monastery at, 134, 141, 148
Barton-on-Humber, church-tower at,
195. 379
Basil, St., his rule, 126, 175; his
monastery, 181
Basilican churches, characteristics of,
24-25, 192-193
Basing, battle of, 263
Bath, monastery at, 143, 182, 256,
306, 342, 368 ; Eadgar's coronation
at, 360
Bathild, queen, 107 n., 108, 180
Beddington, 367
Bede, 37, 53, 82, 84, 118, 136, 187,
189, 190 ; account of life and
death, 205-208 ; a legend of, 208 ;
letter to Bp. Ecgbert, 208-209, 223-
227, 231 ; his works, 209 ; his
fame, 210, 211, 262 ; falsely ac-
cused, 223
Bells, 196, 334, 342, 352
Benedict I., pope, 17
Benedict II., pope, 162
Benedict IV. , pope, 293
Benedict VI. , pope, 357
Benedict X. , anti-pope, 407
Benedict, St. (of Nursia), 79 ; his
body, 335
his rule, 175-177, 179, 335-336 ;
in Kent and E. Anglia, 186 ; intro-
duced into North, 162, 165 ; lax
observance of, 186-187, 247-248 ;
forgotten in England, 326, 342,
369 ; how restored, 308, 330, 336,
345. 347. 352. 369; restored at
Fleury, 335 ; in monasteries of
Flanders, 306, 349-350 ; translated
by Bp. /Ethelwold, 354. See also
Monasticism
Benedict, St., of Aniane, his rule, 335,
336. 354-355. 371
Benedict Biscop, abbot, 107, 127,
132, 136, 144, 150, 178, 186, 187-
190, 369 ; his library, 201, 205 ;
his death, 189
Benedictinism, the new, 369 ; oi
Fleury and Flanders, 358
Benfleet, monastery at, 356
Benignus, St., 81
Beorhtric, king of W. Saxons, 252
Beornege, bp. of Selsey, 296
Beornstan, bp. of Winchester, 302-
303 ; held as a saint, 367
INDEX
429
Beornwulf, king of Mercians, 250,
253
Berctgils (Boniface), bp. of Dunwich,
94, 129, 251
Berengar of Tours, 404
Berkshire, a bp. of, 301
Bernicia, 52 ; Paulinus in, 62 ; Os-
wald's special kingdom, 72, 77 ;
religious condition, 62, 72, 79 ;
rivalry with Deira, tj, 90, 108 ;
separate diocese, 146, 148 ; bpric.
divided, 155
Bernwine, Bp. Wilfrith's nephew, 155
Bertgith, abbess, joins St. Boniface,
218
Bertha, queen of Kent, 15, 20, 22,
27, 43, 44, 91, 365
Bertwald, abp. of Canterbury, 161-
164, 166, 170, 209, 214, 216
Beuno, British abbot, 14
Beverley, minster at, 190, 227, 300,
396, 410
Bewcastle, cross at, 122
Bibles and biblical books, value of,
II, 144, 201-202, 203-204, 207
Bilfrith, anchoret and artist, 228
Birinus, apostle and bp. of W. Saxons,
86-88, 123, 140, 303
Bise, bp. of E. Anglians, 132, 137,
139
Bishoprics, English, their early cnar-
acter, 129 ; as organised by Abp.
Theodore, 139, 317 ; list of in 747,
231
Bishops, how elected, 313-315, 372,
391. 395-396, 398- 409; con-
secrators, 6-7, 29, 122-123, '33 I
writ for consecration, 396, 405 ;
investiture of, 315, 404, 405 ;
their professions, 244 ; how to be
judged, 140- 141; should teach
scholars, 232, hold visitations,
confirm, and examine candidates
for holy orders, 224, 231 ; their
spiritual jurisdiction, 319 ; their
part in national life in peace and
war, 255, 259, 315-318, 387-388,
392-393, 407 ; decline in character,
390 ; legal status of, 320 ; English
compared with Prankish, 317
Bishop's Waltham, monastery at, 218
Blaecca, reeve of Lincoln, 62-63
Blandinium, monastery of, or St.
Peter's at Ghent, 285 ; Dunstan at,
349-350. 378 ; customs of, 354
Bobbio, Columban's monastery at, 42
Boece, Hector, 76
Boethius, 280-281
Boisil, provost of Melrose, 105, 118-
119
Boniface IV. , pope, 42
Boniface v., pope, 49, 56, 58
Boniface, St. , abp. of Mainz, apostle
of Germany, 173, 204, 205; life
of, 215 ; martyrdom of, 219 ; his
correspondence, 217, 228-229,
233 ; his day observed, 233
Boniface, bp. See Berctgils
Boniface, archdeacon of Rome, 107,
152
" Book of Life," 305
Books, transcription and illumination
of, in English monasteries, 144,
200-202, 380-381 ; in monasteries
of Scots, 10 ; by women, 203- 204 ;
importation of, 201 ; highly valued,
157, 201-202 ; libraries, 201, 210,
227 ; scarcity of, 280 ; Glastonbury
volume, 342. See Writing and
Bibles
Bosa, bp. of York, 148, 163, 164,
227
Bosel, first bp. of Worcester, 141,
143
Bosham, monastery at, 154
Boulogne, 43
Bradford-on-Avon, Saxon church at.
168, 194
Bregwine, abp. of Canterbury, 234,
245
Bremen, see of, founded, 220 ; its
dignity, 397
Brentford, council at, 350
Bretwalda, title of, 58, 59, 103
Bridget, St., of Ireland, 181
Brihtnoth, ealdorman of E. Saxons,
362, 374 ; his death, 381, 387
Bristol, 387
Brithelm, abp. -elect of Canterbury,
351
Britons hate Saxons, 14, 37, 68 ;
fugitives, 229 ; their holy places,
144, 167-168; live in peace with
conquerors, 123, 167 ; their Church,
430
INDEX
1-7, 30, rejects Augustine, 34-37,
41, its orders held invalid, 133,
did nothing for English church, i,
38, 74 ; bps. take part in Ceadda's
consecration, 122 ; some accept
Roman Easter, 169-170; their
scholars in S. West, 203
Brittany, fugitives from, 305 - 306.
See Armorica
Brixworth, church at, 195
Bromnis, Wilfrith imprisoned at, 153
Bructeri, English mission to, 214
Brude, Pictish king, 8
Brunanburh, battle of, 308-309
Brunhild, queen of Austrasian Franks,
20, 26
Bruton, 168
Bugge. See Eadburh, abbess of
Minster
Burchard, bp. of Wiirzburg, 218
Burford, battle of, 234
Burgh Castle, monastery at, 66, 85
Burhred, king of Mercians, 264, 283
Burton-on-Trent, abbey at, 387
Bury St. Edmunds (Betrichsworth),
monastery at, 85, 263, 387, 394
Cadvan, king of Gwynedd, 52, 59
Cadwallon, king of Gwynedd, 59 71.
68, 70, 71-72, 84, 88
Caedmon, poet, 184-185, 186, 322
Casdwalla, king of W. Saxons, 154-
155 ; his pilgrimage, 166, 171
Caesarius, abp. of Aries, 182
Calne, 363
Campodunum (Doncaster), 62
Canons {canonici), 239, 257, 372,
373, 403, 409-411
Canterbury, see of, founded, 23 ; its
dignity diminished, 236, 240, re-
stored, 245
Christ Church, Augustine's
church, 24-25, 379 ; restored, 336 ;
constitution of, 39-40, 190, 191,
358, 366, 371, 382, 385 ; becomes
burial-place of abps. , 234 ; sacked,
384
St. Augustine s (St. Peter and
St. Paul's), 26, 39, 42, 65, 132,
136, 168, 235 ; abps. cease to be
buried in, 234, 240
St, Martin's, 15, 22, 28, 396
Canterbury, St. Pancras', 25-26, 193
school of writing at, 202
city, stormed, 259 ; taken, 384
Carlisle (Luel), 156, 264
Carloman, ruler of E. Franks, 217
Cathedral, meaning of term, 38
Cathedrals, monastic, 370-371
Catterick, 62, 71
Ceadda (St. Chad), bp. of Lichfield,
97, 118 ; consecrated bp. of North-
umbrians, 122, 123, 129 ; deposed,
132-133; bp. of Lichfield, 134:
death and character, 135-136; refer-
ences to, 140, 169, 212, 251
Cealchythe. See Chelsea
Cedd, bp. of E. Saxons, 97-101, no,
113, 118, 120, 129, 178
Celestine L, pope, 3
Cenhelm (St. Kenelm), story of, 250
Cenred, king of Mercians, 163
Centwine, king of W. Saxons, 153
Cenwalh, king of W. Saxons, 87, 104,
106, 108, no, 129, 132, 167, 170
Cenwulf, or Kenulf, king of Mercians,
244-245, 248-250
Cenwulf, bp. of Dorchester, 296
Ceolfrith, abbot of Jarrow, 188-189,
205 ; his Bibles, 201
Ceollach, bp. of Mercians, 104
Ceolnoth, abp. of Canterbury, 254,
257, 263, 371
Ceolred, king of Mercians, 165, 228-
230
Ceolwulf, king of Northumbrians,
209, 224, 241
Ceolwulf king of Mercians, 250
Cerne, monastery at, 374
Chalon-sur-Saone, 20, 108
Chancellor, king's, office of, 395, 403
Charlemagne (Charles the Great),
emperor, 210-211, 219, 220-221,
235-238, 240-241, 243, 252, 253,
274, 277
Charles Martel, Frankish ruler, 214,
216, 217, 349
Charles the Bald, emperor, 335
Charles the Simple, king of the
Franks, 306, 308
Charters of donation, 328
Cheddar Cliffs, 338
Chelles, monastery at, 102, 107 a.,
180, 182
INDEX
431
Chelsea (Cealchythe), 152 ; legatine
council at, 238-240, 256, 312 ; pro-
vincial council at, 249, 325
Chertsey, monastery at, 120, 139
Chester -le- Street, Bernician see at,
264, 268, 341 ; see removed to
Durham, 383
Chester, minster at, 401
Chippenham, Danes at, 265
Chrism, the, 166, 265, 323
Christchurch, 290
Chrodegang, bp. of Metz, his rule for
canons, 239, 257, 372-373 ; en-
forced in some churches, 403, 409-
411
Chronicle, the Saxon, 282, 329, 385
Chunihilt, abbess, 218
Church-scots, 359
Church services in Latin, 29, 323
Church, the English, founded, 23 ;
its temporal rights, 39 ; an estab-
lished church, 47 ; passes out of
mission stage, 113 ; becomes
national in fact, 115, 128 ; its
union with the nation, 115, 251-
252, 254, 318/:, 390, 391, 413-
414 ; part in national defence, 387-
388 ; its care for poor and slaves,
324-325
Church-wakes, 32, 322, 359
Clement I., pope, 40
Clement V., pope, 175
Clement, bp. of Alexandria, 80
Clergy, legal status of, 320
of minsters, 321, 327, 328, 329,
330 ; expulsion of, considered,
parochial, how supported, 27,
161, 322 ; ignorance of some, 224,
269-270 ; laxity in dress, etc., 269,
329 ; their daily life and duties,
321^ ; close fellowship with people,
323-324. See Marriage, clerical,
and Tithes
Clerks, the king's, 395
Clonard, school of, 96
Clothar II., king of Franks, 20
Clothar III., king of Franks, 121
Clovesho, 137, 138, 151 ; councils
held at, 170, 225-226, 231-232, 245
Clovis, king of Franks, 107 n.
Cluny, abbey of, 335-336
Cnut or Canute, king, 380, 386, 391^,
401
Coarb, the, 178
Coenwald, a monk, 150
Cogitosus, 181
Coifi, heathen chief-priest, 57-58
Colchester, Saxon church - tower at,
195
Coldingham, monastery at, 119, 153,
182, 183, 232, 264
Colman, bp. of Lindisfarne, 109,
110-113
Cologne, 215, 408
Columba, St., 7-11, 72, tj, 81, 82,
112, 119, 178
Columban, St., 42, 64-65, 180, 182 ;
his rule, 178
Communion, the Holy. 5^<f Eucharist
Compiegne-sur-Oise, 122
Conan, first bp. of English diocese of
Cornwall, 300
Concordia Rcgularis, the, 354-355,
378
Confessio, meaning of term , 24
Confraternity, 305, 307
Congresbury, 276, 293
Conrad II., emperor, 393
Constans II., emperor, 126-128
Constantius, emperor, 2
Cookham, 234, 245
Cor man, 76
Cornwall, 252-253, 258, 276-277,
296 ; bpric. founded, 300-301 ;
extinct, 397
Coronation and unction, 312, 360, 364
Councils and synods of church, 129,
137-139. '^^ Hertford, etc.; cessa-
tion of, 289, 315
Crediton, 167, 216, 252, 371 ; see of,
founded, 296 ; extinct, 403
Cross or Rood, the Holy, of Waltham,
399, 411, 413
the true, relics of, 283, 308
Crowland, monastery at, 229, 263
Culdees, 410
Cuthbert, abp. 01 Canterbury, 217,
230-231, 233-234
Cuthbert, bp. of Lindisfarne, 95, 105-
106, 113, 118, 144-146, 187 ; con-
secration of, 155-156, 157, 314 ;
death, 158 ; his body, 89, 158,
203 ; its wanderings, 264, 341 ;
432
INDEX
legends of, 265, 299 ; territory of,
299 ; church of, 327, 371. See
Chester-le-Street and Durham
Cuthbert, abbot of Jarrow, 207-208
Cuthburh, wife of King Aldfrith, 204
Cutheard, bp. of Chester-le-Street,
299
Cuthred, under-king of W. Saxons,
87-88
Cuthred, under-king of Kent, 248
Cwenthryth (Quenthrythe), abbess,
250-251, 253
Cwichelm, king of W. Saxons, 55, 87
Cynebert, abbot of Redbridge, 155
Cyneburh, wife of Oswald, 86
Cynefrith, a physician, 186
Cynegils, king of W. Saxons, 55,
86-87
Cynehild, a sister of Wimborne, 217,
218
Cynesige, abp. of York, 406, 408, 411
Cynesige, bp. of Lichfield, 331, 349
Cynethryth, mother of Dunstan, 331
Cynewald, bp. of Worcester, 307, 331,
350
Cynewulf, king of W. Saxons, 237
Cynsige, "bp. of Berkshire," 301
Cyprian, St., 40
Dagan, bp. of Ennereilly, 41
Dagobert T., king of the Franks, 85
Dagobert II., king of the Austrasian
Franks, 148-149
Dalfinus, count of Lyons, 107, 108
Dalriada, kingdom of, 7, 8
Damian, bp. of Rochester, 118, 124
Danegeld, 381, 382, 385
Danes, see Vikings ; later invasions
of, 381/:
Daniel, bp. of Winchester, 171, 203,
215, 216, 217
Daniel, bp. of Cornish see, 300
Dead, prayers for the, 92, 208, 241,
305
Deerhvirst, monastery and Saxon
churches at, 194, 368, 379, 402
Deicolus, abbot of Lure, 64
Deira, 17 ; Eadwine's special king-
dom, 52, 58, 59 ; conversion of,
62, 74, 79 ; united to Bernicia, 72 ;
rivalry with Bernicia ; see Ber-
nicia ; separate diocese, 146, 148
Dene, 276
Denewulf, bp. of Winchester, 294
Denisesburn, 72
Denmark, English clergy in, 397
Derry, 8
Deusdedit, abp. of Canterbury, 94,
118
Deutsch, as name of a language, 238 n.
Diarmit, attendant on St. Columba, 11
Dicul, a Scottish abbot, 154
Dinoot, or Dinawd, British hermit, 35
Diocletian, emperor, i
Dionysius Exiguus, his canons, 137
Diuma, bp. of Mercians, 104
Dokkum, 219-220
Dol, church of, 305
Doncaster, 62
Dorchester, W. Saxon see at, 86, 87 ;
ceases to have see, no, 140 ; a
Mercian see, 142 ; bp. of Leicester
removes to, 269
Doulting, 171
Dover, church in castle, 49, 194 ;
port of, 200
Drinking, excessive, English habit of,
223, 229, 233. 322, 323, 345, 359
Duduc, bp. of Wells, 396, 404, 407
Dunbar, 153
Dunn, bp. of Rochester, 231
Dunstan, abp. of Canterbury, 293,
295. 331-334. 337 ; abbot, 339-
342; exiled, 349-350 ; consecrated,
350; abp., 351/: ; his old age, 364-
365, 367 ; his death, 366 ; his cult,
366, 391 ; his portrait, 342 ; as
preacher, 364 ; as reformer of
morals, 359, 361, 372 ; as artist
and craftsman, 334, 341 ; as
musician, 364 ; disregards a papal
letter, 361, 414
Dunwich, see of, 65, 139 ; extmct,
268
Durham, 89, 119, 264, 268 ; St.
Cuthbert's see removed to, 383 ;
constitution of church, 371, 383,
384, 410
Durrow, 8
Dyfnaint, British kingdom of, 167,
252
Eadbald, king of Kent, 44, 47-50,
55. 69
INDEX
433
Eadbert, king of Northumbrians, 209,
211, 241
Eadbert Proen, rebel king of Kent,
244-245. 249, 252
Eadbert, bp. of Lindisfarne, 159, 163
Eadbert, first bp. of S. Saxons, 171
Eadburh, or Bugge, abbess of Minster,
196, 203-205, 217
Eadburh (St. Edburga), daughter of
Eadward the Elder, 297-298
Eadfla^d, daughter of Eadward the
Elder, 297
Eadfrith, bp. of Lindisfarne, 163,
202, 227, 264
Eadfrith, son of Eadwine, 68, 84
Eadgar, king, 338, 350-356, 358,
370 ; coronation of, 359 ; his
inimnrality, 360-361; his liberality,
378, 394 ; "laws of," 391-392
iiadgi:ii, wife of Charles the Simple,
306, 308
Eadgifu, mother of Eadred, 340, 343-
344. 348-349. 355
Eadgj'th, sister at Barking, 121
Eadgyth (St, Edith), daughter of
Eadgar, 361
Eadgyth, wife of Otto the Great, 307
Eadgyth, wife of Eadward the Con-
fessor, 400, 401, 405-407
Eadhaed, bp. of Lindsey, 148
Eadhild, wife of Hugh the Great, 307
Eadmund, king of E. Anglians,
martyred, 263, 365, 386, 394
Eadmund, king, 296, 306 ; his reign,
309. 334. 336, 338-340
Eadmund Ironside, king, 386, 394
Eadmund, bp. of Durham, 384, 410
Eadnoth, bp. of Dorchester, 388
Eadred, k'lng, 296 ; his reign, 340-
341. 343-345. 348
Eadred, bp. of Durham, 410
Eadsige, abp. of Canterbury, 395,
398, 402, 404
Eadward the Elder, king, 277 ; his
reign, 289-298 ; his foreign rela-
tions, 304/:
Eadward the Martyr, king, 361, 363,
382-383, 386
Eadward the Confessor, 395 ; his
accession, 399 ; death, 412
Eadwig (Edwy), king, 3x3 ; reign of,
Eadwine, king of Northumbrians, 52-
61, 67-70
Eadwulf, Earl of Northumbria, 384
Ealdhelm (St. Aldhelm), bp. of Sher-
borne, 162, 168 - 171, 194 ; as
scholar and teacher, 203-204 ; cult
of, 303. 309 ; his English poetry,
169, 322
Ealdhun, bp. of Durliam, 383-384,
401
Ealdred, abp. of York, 391, 403-
404, 412 ; as abp., 408, 409
Ealdred, earl of Northumbria, 384,
401
Ealdulf, abp. of York, 368, 372, 378
Ealdwulf, king of E. Anglians, 43
Ealhmund, king of Kent, 252
Ealhstan, bp. of Sherborne, 252-253,
255. 259, 313
Ealhswith, wife of Alfred, 278
Eanbald I., abp. of York, 210-21 1,
237. 243, 313
Eanbald II., abp. of York, 243-244,
252, 262, 313
Eanflaed, wife of Oswiu, 55, 69, 79,
90-91, 106, 107, 109, 126
Eanfrith, king of Bernicians, 54, 70,
71
Eanfrith, bp. of Elmham, 231
Eanswith, her monastery, 49, 179
Eappa, abbot of Selsey, 155
Earconbert, king of Kent, 107, 118
Earcongota, abbess of Faremoutier,
180
Earconwald (St. Erkenwald), bp. of
London, 120, 139-140, 158, 167
Eardulf, king of Northumbrians, 242-
243
Eardulf, bp. of Dunwich, 231
Eardulf, bp. of Lichfield, 245
Eardulf, bp. of Lindisfarne, 264
Earls Barton, church-tower at, 195
Earpwald, king of E. Anglians, 63
East Anglians, 43 ; conversion of, 63,
65^ ; diocese of, divided, 139
East Saxons, conversion of, 38 ;
relapse, 45, 48 ; re-conversion, 97 ;
partial relapse, 1 19-120
Easter day, date of, 2, 5-6, 35, 37, 42,
64-65, 88, 91, 95, 108-112, 137,
169-170, 237 n.
Eastward position, 24
2 F
434
INDEX
Eata, bp. of Lindisfarne, 105-106,
113, 144, 148, 155 ; bp. of Hex-
ham, 156
Ebroin, Frankish mayor of palace,
107 «., no, 129, 148-149
Elcgbert, king of Kent, 118, 124-125,
128, 314
Ecgbert, king of W. Saxons, 251-
255. 258, 301
Ecgbert, abp. of York, ;^ -210, 217,
223-227, 312 '■'' -
Ecgbert, bp. , 169 ; his missionary
zeal, 212, 215
Ecgferth, son of Offa of ercia, 240,
244
Ecgfrida, Bp. Ealdhun's daughter,
383-384
Ecgfrith, king of Northumbrians, 143,
144, 146, 150, 153, 15^-157. 159.
164, 225
Ecgwulf, bp. of London, 231
Ed-. See Ead-
Eddi (Eddius Stephanus), biographer,
124, 144, 158
Edinburgh, 58
Egraond, English missionaries in, 215
Egric, king of E. Anglians, 85, 102
Einhard, 349
Einsiedeln, abbey of, 378
Elmham, see of, founded, 139 ; be-
comes sole E. Anglian see, 268
Elphege, St. See ^Ifheah, abp.
Ely, monastery at, 182, 185, 187,
263, 356 ; reformed, 354 ; flourish-
ing, 395 : tapestry at, 381
Ember seasons, 232
Emma, wife of ^thelred and Cnut,
392- 394. 398, 402
Enham, laws made at, 372, 387
Eohric, Danish king of E. Anglia,
290
Eormenburh, Northumbrian queen,
146, 150, 153, 156
Eormenhild, queen and abbess of
Ely, 187
Eosterwine, co-abbot of Wearmouth,
189, 197
Eostra, pagan deity, 12, 33
Epternach, monastery at, 214, 220
Eric, king of Northumbrians, 340-
341
Ermenfried, bp. of Sion, legate, 408
Escomb, chtirch at, 194
Esne, bp. of Hereford, 285
Etaples, See Quentavic
Ethandune (Edington?), battle of, 265
Ethel-. See ^thel-
Etheldreda, St. See ^thelthryth
Eucharist, or housel, reservation of,
185, 323, 359 ; to be received
frequently, 226,. 232, 323, and
fasting, 359 ; different doctrines con-
cerning, 275, 375-376, 404
Eugeniusl., pope, 107
Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria, 19,
26
Eumer, assassin, 55
Eustace, abbot of Luxeuil, 6$
Eustochium, 2
Evesham, monastery at, 401
Excommunication, 99, 319, 324
Exeter, 167, 216, 300 ; see of, 403 ;
church of, 403, 411
E_\Tisham, monastery at, 374
Failbhe, abbot of lona, 72
Fara, princess and abbess, 180
Faremoutier, monastery, 170 «., 180,
182
Farndon, 298
Fame island, 82, 90, 145, 158
Fasting, 10, 80, 99, 106, 174. 232
Fehx, apostle and bp. of E. Anglians,
64-66, 69, 79, 85, 87
Felixstowe, 87
Feologeld, or Swithred, abp. of Canter-
bury, 254
Ferrieres, abbey of, 211, 262
Finan, bp. of Lindisfarne, 95-96, 104,
109, 148, 193
Finchale, councils at, 238, 243, 246
Finnian, St., of Clonard, 7
Finnian, St., of Moville, 8
Fleury, abbey of, 308, 334-336, 345-
347-348, 352, 358, 369, 377
Folkestone, monastery at, 49, 179,396
Formosus, pope, 2S3, 286, 292-293
Forthere, bp. of Sherborne, 173, 296
Fosite, heathen deity, 213
Francis, St., of Assisi, 61, 119
Frankfort, council of, 241
Fredegond, Frankish queen, 20
Frisians. English missions to, 148-
149, 162, 212-214, 216, 219-220
INDEX
435
Frithegode, biographer, 340-341, 347
Frithestan, bp. of Winchester, 294,
295 ; held as a saint, 367
Frithogyth, wife of King ^thelheard,
173
Frome, 168, 348
Fulda, monastery at, 219
Fulk, abp. of Reims, 269, 274, 284,
306
Fursey, or Fursa, abbot, 66-67, ^5
Gainsborough, 386
Galmanho, Siward's minster at, 402
Gebmund, bp. of Rochester, 166
Geismar, oak at, 217
Genoa, 86
George, cardinal-bp. , legate, 236-238,
408
Geraint, king of Dyfnaint, 169
Germanus, bp. of Auxerre, 3
Germanus, abbot, 351, 352, 357, 362,
368
Gildas, 4
Gilling, 92 ; monastery at, 104
Gisa, bp. of Wells, 407, 408, 411
Glasgow, bps. of, 406
Glass-making, 188, 197
Glastonbury, 167-168, 193, 217, 329,
331-334; under Dunstan, 339, 341-
343, 348, 352 ; kings buried at,
340, 361, 386, 394
Gloucester, St. Peter's church and
monastery, 143, 182, 256, 408 ;
St. Oswald's, 291
Godeman, writer of Benedictional, 380
Godescalc, abbot of Abingdon, 344
Godgifu (Godiva), wife of Earl Leofric,
391, 401
Godwin, abp. of Lyons, 161
Godwine, bp. of Rochester, 384
Godwine, earl of Wessex, 397-399,
401-404, 406
Goodmanham, temple at, 57
Gottschalk, on predestination, 275
Grately (Greatanlea), witenagemot at,
301, 316
Greek, knowledge of, 136, 201, 203,
206, 210
Greenwich, Danes at, 385
Gregory, abbot of Einsiedeln, 378
Gregory the Great, pope, 13, 16-20,
26-33, 40-41, 42, 64, 69, 71, 114;
his writings, 176, 280-282 ; rever-
ence for, 232
Gregory II., pope, 216
Gregory III., pope, 217, 218, 234
Gregory, bp. of Tours, 64
Grimbald, abbot, 275-276, 277, 291
Grimkettle, bp. of Sclsey, 398
Guthlac, hermit, 229-230
Guthorm I., Danish king of E. Anglia,
264-267, ■'x, 290
Guthorm II., .ish king of E. Anglia,
290
Hadrian I., t /ipe, 220, 235-237, 241,
245
Hadrian, abbot, 126-128, 130, 132,
136, 168
Hcxdde, bp. of Winchester, 140, 167,
170
Halesowen, ^50
Halfdan, viking leader, 264, 267
Harold, Cnnt's son, king, 397-399
Harold, Godwine's son, king, 406-
409, 411, 412, 413
Harold Fairhair, king of Norway, 340
Harthacnut, king, 392, 398, 399, 410
Hartlepool (Hereteu), 102, 179
Hasting, viking leader, 271
Hastings, battle of, 413
Hatfield (Heathfield), synod at, 151,
152
Heahmund, bp, of Sherborne, 263
Healaugh, i8o
Heathfield, battle of, 68
Heavenfield, battle of, 71, 72
Hebrew, knowledge of, 203, 206
Hecanas, bpric. of. See Hereford.
Heidenheim, monastery at, 184, 218
Heiu, abbess, 102, 179-180
Heligoland, mission to, 213
Heliziard, count, 335
Helmstan, bp. of Winchester, 314
Heorstan, father of Dunstan, 295,
331
Heraclius, emperor, 127
Hereferth, bp. -coadjutor to bp. of
Winchester, 252, 254, 258
Hereford, see of, founded, 141, 142
Herefrith, abbot of Lindisfarne, 158
Hereswith, nun at Chelles, 180
Herewald, bp. of Sherborne, 231
Herivcus, abp. of Reims, 306
436
INDEX
Hermann, bp. of Sherborne, 403, 404,
411-412
Hermit, meaning of term, 229
Hertford, synod at, 137-139. 146
Hessii, mission to, 216
Hewalds, the two, martyrdom of, 215
Hexham, 71, 72, minster at, 144,
164, 166, 228, 410 ; see of, 148.
155-156, extinct, 268
Hiddila, a priest, 155
Higbert, abp. of Lichfield, 240, 244,
245
Hilary, St., abp. of Aries, 147
Hilda (Hild), abbess of Whitby, 102-
103, no, 141, 142, 148, 159, 179,
180, 183, 184
Hildebrand (Gregory VH.), arch-
deacon, 407, 413
Hildegard, wife of Charlemagne, 219
Hildelith, abbess of Barking, 204
Kingston Down, battle of, 258, 259
Holy Ghost, double procession of the,
151, 241
Holy Isle. See Lindisfarne
Homilies, books of, 373-377
Honorat, St., 19
Honorius I., pope, 56, 86, 127
Honorius, abp. of Canterbury, 21, 63,
64, 69, 88
Hugh Capet, 307
Hugh the Great, duke of the French,
307-308
Hunbert, bp. of Elmham, slain, 263,
268
Hunferth, bp. of Winchester, 231
Hv/iccas, 34, 67, 87, 104, 143 ; see
of bpric. at Worcester, 141
Hwitta, bp. of Lichfield, 231
Idle, battle of the, 54
Idols, English worship, 13, 25, 97
Image-worship, 240-241
India, Christians of, 264, 283
Ine, king of W. Saxons, 166-168, 170,
172, 253, 272, 295, 304, 308, 324
Investiture of bps. , 315, 404, 405
lona or Hii, monastery on, 8-10, jj-
78, 165; missions from, 73, 76^.,
end of, 113 ; monks accept Roman
Easter, 169 ; sacked by vikings,
257
Ireland, war of Ecgfrith m, 156 ;
viking invasions of, 257. See
Scots (Irish)
Irenaeus, St., i
Isidore, bp. of Seville, 206-207
ludanbvirh, 341
ludeu, 10 1
Ivar, viking leader, 262, 303
Jaenbert, abp. of Canterbury, 234,
236-238, 240
James the Deacon, 63, 70-71, 74, no
Jarrow, monastery at, 144, 187-188,
205-206, 242, 256 ; church of, 194
Jaruman, bp. of Mercians, 104, 120
Jedburgh, 341
Jerome, St., 2, 80, 126
Jerusalem, Alfred sends alms to, 284/.
See Pilgrimages
John, St., his Easter, iio-iii
John VI., pope, 162, 164
John VIII,, pope, 265, 269, 283
John IX., pope, 293
John XL [?], pope, 304
John XII., pope, 351
John XIII., pope, 358
John XV., pope, 366
John XIX., pope, 393
John, abp. of Aries, 128
John of Beverley, bp. of York, 136,
159, 163, 164, 183, 205, 227
John, bp., English missionary, 397
John, abbot of St. Peter and Paul's,
21, 26, 43
John the Old Saxon, abbot of
Athelney, 275, 277-281
John the precentor, 149, 150-151
John the Scot, 275, 280
Jouarre, monastery at, 182
Judith, 
