browne. the venerable bede, his life and writings. 1919

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Digitized by the Internet Archivein 2011 with funding from

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THE VENERABLE BEDE


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STUDIES IN CHURCH HISTORYTHEVENERABLE BEDE

HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS

BY THERT. REV. G. F. BROWNE, D.D.

FORMERLY BISHOP OF STEPNEY AND OF BRISTOLVICE-PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES

ILLUSTRATED

LONDONSOCIETY FOR PROMOTINGCHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGENEW YORK I THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1919


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239 5


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PREFACEThis book in its original form was an Essay for thedegree of Bachelor in Divinity in the University ofCambridge. It was published in 1879 by the Societyfor the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, in theirseries of "The Fathers for English Readers." It hashad a steady sale and has been reprinted from timeto time. Its main purpose was to deal with the per-sonal and historical parts of Bede's writings.My five years' tenure of the Professorship of Art andArchaeology in the University of Cambridge, 1888-92,resulted from and led to continuous study of thetreasures that still remain to us in various parts ofthese islands from the early ages of Christianity.Several of the books on the History of our Churchwhich I have written since this Essay was publishedhave dealt with some of these treasures and have con-tained illustrations of them. The two delightfulvolumes of Bede's Histories with which the ReverendCharles Plummer of Corpus Christ i College, Oxford, hasenlarged and enriched our knowledge of Bede and histimes appeared in 1896. When a fresh reprint of myEssay was called for in 1918, the stereotype plates hadbeen melted down at the instance of the Government.It seemed right to recast and greatly enlarge the book,including in its survey the other parts of Bede'svoluminous writings, and giving illustrations of someof the interesting objects described in the text. Ihave not observed strict uniformity or scientificaccuracy in the spelling of Anglo-Saxon names.

G. F. BROWNE.2 Campden House Road,Kensington, W. 8.

inn.67


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CONTENTSCHAPTER I

The Personal History of BedePAGEAldhelm, Bede, AlcuinBede's boyhoodBenedict Biscop

Bede's OrdinationJohn of BeverleyA monk's and apriest's lifeDate of Bede's deathThe death sceneBede's summary of his lifeHis list of his writingsTheepithet " Venerable " . . . . . . . i

CHAPTER IIThe Conversion of Northumbria

The seven kingdomsDescent of the kingsDeira and Ber-niciaThe slave youths in RomePope Gregory's arrange-ments for the conversion of EnglandEdwin of DeiraImportance of YorkA Kentish princessLetters fromPope BonifacePaulinusThe Northumbrian House ofLordsCoifi the archpriestThe British kings Cadfan andCadwallaDefeat and death of EdwinApostasyChurches built by PaulinusThe West RidingJames thedeaconLove of music . . . . . 23

CHAPTER IIIThe Restoration of Christianity in Northumbria

Oswald and his brothersVision of ColumbaOrigins of ourCoronation ServiceIona and AidanUnion of Deiraand BerniciaOswald's deathOswin in DeiraAidan'sdeath.......... 49

IX


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x The Venerable BedeCHAPTER IV

Christianity in Northumbria to the Time of BedePAGEKing OswyChristianity in MerciaPenda slainDate of the

Easter FeastThe Conference of WhitbyWilfrithColmanMigration to IrelandAlchfrithHis memorialcross at BewcastleRunic inscriptions . . . .62

CHAPTER VThe British Christians

First introduction of Christianity into BritainTertullian'sevidenceCouncil of AriesOrthodoxy of the BritonsDeparture of the RomansThe Britons and AugustinePicts and ScotsFlight of Roman bishopsThe WelshChurchSummary of conversion of the several kingdoms . 81

CHAPTER VIBede's Writings. The Ecclesiastical History

Bede's PrefaceHis view of the advantage of historyKingAlfred's opinionKing Ceolwulf" Volume," " book,""codex"Sources of the HistoryOrosiusRange of theHistoryThe RomansThe walls in Britain from sea toseaThe Picts and ScotsThe Jutes, Saxons, and AnglesHengist and HorsaThe Cat StaneThe explanation ofthe WallsPelagianismGildasBede's care for accuracyThe British Isles in Bede's timeFive languages in theIslesThe Scots from IrelandThe first arrival of thePicts of Caledonia . . . . . . .96

CHAPTER VIIThe Lives of the Abbats

Benedict BiscopThe tombs of the ApostlesAlchfrithVisit to RomeTheodore of TarsusBiscop at Canter-buryFurther visits to RomeKing EcgfrithFounda-tion of WearmouthVisit to GaulWilfrith's dedicationof the church at RiponRecovery of British holy sites


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Contents xiPAGE

Alchfrith againPictures of SaintsThe Vision of Dry-thelmThe Revelation of St. PeterFoundation of JarrowDedication stonePrivileges from the PopePicturesat JarrowDeath scene of BiscopBede's age at thattimeAbbat EasterwineAbbat CeolfrithThe CodexAmiatinus Alcuin's recollections of WearmouthApretty saying of Bede . . . . . . .112

CHAPTER VIIIThe Life of St. Cuthbert

Stories of miracleMany of these stories not miraculousMelroseand BoisilAlchfrith and RiponPrior of MelroseAbbat of LindisfarneHis rule thereRetirement to asmall islandBishop of LindisfarneAt CarlisleHisdeath and burialRelics of St. CuthbertCoffinPec-toral CrossPortable altarRobesCharlemagne's robes 137

CHAPTER IXCaedmon and Wilfrith

Caedmon His early life InspirationSacred poemsDeath sceneHis Memorial Cross at WhitbyThe Ruth-well CrossThe Dream of the Holy RoodThe QuinisextCouncilOswald's wooden crossBede's Memorial Crossat Rooker PointWilfrith's expulsions and restorationsBede's silence . . . . . . . -171

CHAPTER XThe Epistle to Ecgbert

The Epistle to EcgbertEcgbert's PontificalHis royal des-centMaster of School of YorkAlcuin a pupilAlcuin'spraise of him-Bede's adviceMore bishopricsYork aMetropolitan seeThe PalliumCruel treatment of Leo IIIPaulinus not a metropolitan archbishopIrregular con-secration of Archbishop Honorius of CanterburyCareful-ness in conversationThe Pastoral Care of Gregory ITheLord's Prayer and the Creed in the vulgar tongueSub-division of the diocese of YorkNumber of Bishops' sees


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xii The Venerable BedePAGRToo many monasteriesMonastic endowments for bishop-

ricsResident priests in country placesGreat abuses offalse monasteriesEvil lives . . . . . .185CHAPTER XI

Poetic WritingsList of Bede's poemsThe Controversy on the CuckooAl-

cuin's poem on the CuckooAlcuin's Cuckoo a real personBede's poem on the Apostles Peter and PaulAldhelm'sverses on St. Peter and St. PaulBede's esteem for AldhelmMasses for the Day of St. Peter and St. PaulVisits adlimina ApostolorumEnigmas of Aldhelm and AlcuinAlcuin's combBede's view of the importance of thePsalmsHis Psalter now at CologneHis Song ofDegreesAlcuin's prominent use of the Psalms due toBede ......... 196

CHAPTER XIIThe Scientific Works of Bede

On the reckoning of TimesInterest of the subjectIndica-tion of numbers with the ringersAnno DominiDionysiusTelligraffsOn the Nature of ThingsBede's indebted-ness to IsidoreBede and Isidore in ParadiseIsidore'sindebtedness to othersWhy the sea is saltOn the rain-bowOn Mount iEtnaAgostoliHave stars a soul ?On thunder and thunderings . . . . . 217

CHAPTER XIIIThe Commentaries and Homilies of Bede

His method as a preacherHis method as a commentatorAn example from Acts ii.The Song of SolomonAm-biguities of the Latin languageBede's dedications ofhis commentariesBishop AccaCelibacyAnswers toNothelmThe wood-wormThe lion in the pitTheVirgin MaryThe Two Sacraments/Elfric's homilyBede outside his monasteryAnointing with oilConfes-sionPurgatoryThe vision of DrythelmFigurativeinterpretationsBede sung as a hereticThe parable ofthe Good Samaritan . . . . . . .231


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Contents xiiiCHAPTER XIV

A Sermon by BedePAGE

Collections of HomiliesTwo books of Bede's HomiliesManuscript evidenceThe Text" Whom do men saythat I, the Son of Man, am ? . . . . 255

CHAPTER XVFurther Miracles

The power of faithMiracles wrought on Bede and by hisrelicsGeneral beliefFurther miracles by CuthbertPreservation of his bodyHis coffinIts ornamentationLater miraclesBishop John of HexhamGeneral conclu-sion on miracles ........ 267

CHAPTER XVIThe State of Morals in Bede's Time

EcclesiasticsMonasteriesLay peopleNunsKingsRemains of Paganism . . . . . . .278

CHAPTER XVIIStudy and Missions

Enthusiasm for studyEducationThe School of YorkItsmastersAlcuinMissions, Irish influence EgbertWillibrord BonifaceEnglishmen's influence on therulers of the Franks from Pepin to Charlemagne . . 294

CHAPTER XVIIIAnglo-Saxon Art

Art work in gems and precious metalsSilksPicturesGeography Sculptured stones Classes of objectsChurchyards Classes of surface ornamentation Thehuman figureThe tree of lifeThe interlacementsDragonesque interlacementsIrish examplesCaledonianPictsThe Lindisfarne GospelsComparison with theBook of Kells ........ 304


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ILLUSTRATIONSAT THE END OF THE VOLUME

i. The Tombstone of King Cadvan2. The Cross of the Holy James3. The Dismemberment of Oswald4. The Effigy of King Alchfrith5. The Kirkdale Sundial6. The Dedication Stone of the Church of Jarrow7. St. Cuthbert's Pectoral Cross8. St. Cuthbert's Portable Altar

9, 10. Stole Found on St. Cuthbert's Body11,12. Silk Robes Prepared for his Translation

13. Charlemagne's Elephant Robe14. Elephant Robe of Eighth Century15. The Ruthwell Runes16. The Cross called Ethelwold's

The Bewcastle Vine Scroll17. Panels from Crosses at Kells18. The Bewcastle Cross

19, 20. Illuminations of the Lindisfarne Gospels

GENEALOGICAL TABLES PACK*}Tables of the Kings of Deira, Bernicia, and Mercia . 47, 48


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THE VENERABLE BEDECHAPTER I

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF BEDEAldhelm, Bede, AlcuinBede's boyhoodBenedict BiscopBede'sOrdinationJohn of BeverleyA monk's and a priest's lifeDate of Bede's deathThe death sceneBede's summary of his

lifeHis list of his writingsThe epithet "Venerable."The early years of the Church in England producedthree great scholars, one after the other, Aldhelm,Bede, Alcuin. The first was born in or about 635, thelast died in 804. Bede was born about forty yearsafter Aldhelm, and was a man of thirty-six whenAldhelm died. Alcuin was born in the year in whichBede died. Thus the series of great men may beliterally described as continuous.

While the influence of their writings reached farbeyond their own land, the areas of their personalinfluence differed very widely. Aldhelm was of theroyal race of the West Saxons, his birth nearly coin-ciding with the baptism of the first Christian king ofthe West Saxons, Cynegils. He was Abbat of theimportant monastery of Malmesbury, and on thedivision of the bishopric of the West Saxons he becamebishop of the western part, which he covered with


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2 The Venerable Bedeactive work. He died at the age of seventy-four,leaving a widespread personal mark. Bede was achoir-boy in a newly founded monastery, was ordaineddeacon and priest there, lived, wrote, and died there.In the immediate vicinity of his monastery he wasseen and known and received with much kindness.Of visits to a distance requiring absence from his cellat night we only know of two, on one of which occasionshis personal influence had a large effect. Alcuin alsowas an inmate of a monastic school almost frominfancy. He became Master of the School of Yorkin succession to two archbishops of royal race, andpassed thence into the service and friendship ofCharlemagne, in which position his personal influenceand the influence of his letters may fairly be said tohave covered the whole of Europe. He was ordaineddeacon early, and never proceeded to the priesthood.

Aldhelm's early training was given at Malmesburyby an Irish monk, a fugitive from his native land. Inhis days, English students had to go over to Ireland tofind learned teachers, and against the need for thisAldhelm protested vigorously. His more advancedtraining came from Abbat Hadrian and ArchbishopTheodore. Thus he had Celtic, Latin, and Greekelements in his building up in scholarship. Lanfranccanonised him. Bede was trained by the much-travelledBenedict Biscop in all that appertained to the monasticand the priestly life, and he had access to a well-storedlibrary of manuscripts from Italy and Gaul. Alcuinwas trained by his royal master, Archbishop Ecgbertof York, and later by Ecgbert 's cousin and successorAlbert. These men gathered together a vast libraryof ecclesiastical and secular works, probably as greata library as then existed in the West, and this library


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The Personal History of Bede 3Albert bequeathed to Alcuin, who succeeded him inthe mastership of the School of York. Of Ecgberthis first teacher, William of Malmesbury, who wrotea generation after the Norman Conquest, declaresthat he was an armoury of all the liberal arts, andfounded the most noble Library of York. It is need-less to say that William fully recognises the uniqueimportance of these three great Englishmen, Aldhelm,Bede, Alcuin.Of this unique series of English scholars and church-

men, we are now concerned with the middle term,the Venerable Bede. But we shall bear in mind thefact that he is a middle term, and when occasionserves we shall bring in illustrative matter from himwho went before and from him who came after.The Venerable Bede is one of the most striking figures

in the history of the English Church. A voluminousand learned Christian writer on many subjects, theo-logical, historical, grammatical, and physical, he sprangfrom an immediate ancestry of unlettered pagans.The first preacher of Christianity who visited his fathersarrived in the country only fifty years before Bede'sbirth. Forty years before his birth, the kings of theland were heathens ; one, indeed, was worse than aheathen, for he had been called a Christian and hadabjured the faith of Christ. The progress made in thoseforty years was marvellous. We find kings and peoplevying with one another in paying honour to Christianbishops and priests ; churches rising in one town andvillage after another ; large grants of landgrants tooprofuse, Bede saysfor the foundation of monasteries.At the time when Bede was born, we find a North-umbrian noble building the monastery which after-wards received him, employing workmen and manu-


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4 The Venerable Bedefacturers of glass from Italy, where he studied all thedetails of the monastic life, in order that his churchand all his arrangements might be worthy of his holypurpose. Here, in a monastery built by one whomust have passed his boyhood while the land wasstill pagan, Bede lived and wrote and died but onegeneration later. In these present times of activemissionary enterprise it is difficult to imagine any-thing more encouraging, and more full of hopefulprophecy, than the final conversion of Northumbria,with its speedy outcome in the person of the VenerableBede.The life of Bede was the quiet uneventful life of a

monastic student in time of peace. Very little infor-mation has been put on record respecting him, pro-bably because there was little to record. The mainoutlines of his life are all that we know. There is asingular absence of personal allusion in his writings,even where some reference to himself or to his sur-roundings would have been natural. Thus, to take aninstance, in his sermon on the dedication day of thechurch at Jarrow he makes not the slightest referenceto any detail of the building itself. He gives anaccount of the founder, describes minutely the Templeof Solomon, entering into much curious explanationof the symbolism intended by its dimensions andarrangement, and then raises his hearers at once tothe Temple not made with hands.The Venerable Bede was born in the year of our

Lord 673, or possibly a year earlier. The actual placeof his birth cannot be determined. He tells us thatit was somewhere in the territory assigned about thetime of his birth to Benedict Biscop, who foundedthere the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow.


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The Personal History of Bede 5The former of these, the monastery of St. Peter, onthe north bank of the river Wear, was built in theyear 674, and here Bede was placed at the age ofseven years under the charge of the founder, whoruled the monastery as its abbat. Boys in Saxonmonasteries did not fare badly. We have a colloquyin which a boy is made to describe his daily food inhis monastery. He had worts (i.e. kitchen herbs), fish,cheese, butter, beans, and flesh meats. He drank alewhen he could get it, and water when he could not :wine was too dear.The sister monastery of St. Paul, at Jarrow, on the

south bank of the Tyne, was built by Benedict in theyear 682, and Bede was transferred to that establish-ment under Ceolfrid, its first abbat. Here he re-mained for the rest of his life, occupying himself inthe practical work of the monks, in the priestly office,and in incessant study, literary work, and teaching.

There is a charming account, in the anonymousHistory of the Abbats of Jarrow which Dr. Giles givesin his fifth volume, of the love of the Psalms and ofchanting in which Bede was brought up. He is notmentioned by name, but it is beyond doubt that he isthe unus puerulus, the one little boy, of the story. Wecannot do better than borrow Dr. Plummer's sympa-thetic rendering of the passage. It was the time of aterrible plague.

" In the monastery over which Ceolfrid presided,all who could read or preach or recite the antiphonsand responses were swept away, except the abbothimself and one little lad nourished and taught byhim, who is now a priest of the same monastery, andboth by word of mouth and by writing commends toall who wish to know them the abbot's worthy deeds.


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6 The Venerable BedeAnd the abbot, sad at heart because of this visitation,ordained that, contrary to their former rite, theyshould, except at vespers and matins, recite theirpsalms without antiphons. And when this had beendone with many tears and lamentations on his partfor the space of a week, he could not bear it any longer,but deemed that the psalms, with their antiphons,should be restored according to the order of theregular course ; and all assisting, by means of him-self and the aforesaid boy he carried out with no littlelabour that which he had decreed, until he could eitherhimself train or procure from elsewhere men able totake part in the divine service."

In a striking sermon on the text, " Every one thathath forsaken houses, &c.," preached on the anni-versary of Benedict Biscop's death, a sort of Com-memoration Sermon, Bede gives a summary of thisgood man's useful life. A noble by birth, he gave uphis place and prospects in the king's household, andwent to Rome. There he studied monastic institu-tions, and was tonsured, and there he determined tospend the rest of his life. Pope Vitalian, however,sent him to England again with Theodore, the greatArchbishop of Canterbury whom England owed to thediscrimination of that pontiff. King Ecgfrid gave himsites for two monasteries, not taking themas Bedesignificantly remarksfrom some one else, but givingfrom his own property. Here Benedict built, as hasbeen said, Monk Wearmouth and Jarrow, the latterabout five miles from Wearmouth ; and over these twinestablishments he ruled for many years.

Benedict frequently visited the Continent. Henever came back empty,unlike many of those whohave made a continental tour, as Bede remarks.


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The Personal History of Bede 7He brought over with him at various times all sortsof treasures for his monasteries. Now a supply ofholy books, now the relics of martyrs ; now architectsfor building his church, now glass-makers for fillingand beautifying its windows ; now masters in the artof chanting, keeping them with him a whole year ;now a letter of privileges from the Pope, declaringthe monasteries free from visitation. Pictures, too, hebrought, representing scenes from Scripture ; intend-ing these not only for ornaments in the church, butalso as a means of instruction for those who were notable to read. Indeed, he stored his monasteries soabundantly with things necessary for learning, that theinmates had at hand all the information and assistancethey required in the courses of study open to them.

It was necessary to say so much as this of Benedicthere, in order to show Bede's surroundings and oppor-tunities. We shall see more of him later on.How extensive those studies were may be to someextent gathered from a list of the books and treatiseswhich Bede himself wrote. The list 1 is appended byBede to the Fifth Book of his Ecclesiastical History,and is prefaced by an autobiographical account of thewriter, containing, unfortunately, only eighteen ortwenty lines. It is concluded by a short sentence ofprayerful hope that the Lord Jesus, who had graciouslyallowed him to partake of the words of wisdom andknowledge, would some time or other take him to thefountain of all knowledge, where he might alwaysappear before His face.At the age of nineteen, six years before the then

canonical age, Bede was ordained Deacon. At theage of thirty he was ordained Priest. At the age of1 See pages 16-18.


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8 The Venerable Bedefifty-nine he completed his greatest work, the Ecclesi-astical History of the English Race. Four years laterhe died. In a few brief words he gives a summaryaccount of his life and labours. " I spent all myyears in that monastery, ever intent upon the studyof the Scriptures. In the intervals between the dutiesenjoined by the disciplinary rule and the daily careof chanting in the church, I took sweet pleasure inalways learning, teaching, or writing." The Bishopwho ordained him was John, Bishop of Hexham, whohad been educated under Hilda at Whitby. This Johnis better known as John of Beverley, a pupil of thelearned and wise Archbishop Theodore, and it maywell be that Bede owed to him much of his learning,especially in the Greek tongue. For Theodore, whowas a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, had introduced theknowledge of Greek into England, and fostered it socarefully that in Bede's time there were many whospoke Greek with as much ease as English. The artof chanting Bede learned from a famous adept, John,the Archchanter of St. Peter's at Rome, whom PopeAgatho lent for a year to Benedict Biscop. We aretold that multitudes of people from the country roundcame to Wearmouth to hear John sing.

It is said that Bede declined the office of abbat,not wishing to deprive himself of leisure for study.A glance at the business and necessary occupationsof the inmates of a monastery, as gathered fromBede's writings, will show that even without theonerous duties of the abbat, external and domestic,the ordinary priest-monk could not have had very muchleisure. The brothers occupied themselves in thresh-ing and winnowing their corn ; in giving milk to thelambs and calves ; in baking, gardening, cooking, and


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The Personal History of Bede 9other parts of the less menial work of a large establish-ment. A considerable part of the day was spent inthe observances enjoined by the Rule under whichthe regular monks lived. The priestly office gavecontinual work. " The mass-priest must have hismissal, his singing-book, his reading-book, his psalter,his manual, his penitential, his numeral. He musthave his officiating garments, and must sing fromsunrise, with the nine intervals and the nine readings."So said an Anglo-Saxon law in later times, and tothis considerable amount of work no doubt Bederefers when he speaks of his daily care of chantingin the church. Add to this the preparation anddelivery of frequent sermons. When all these dutieshad been scrupulously performed, then, and onlythen, had Bede leisure for his reading and teaching,and for the voluminous works which proceeded fromhis pen. Even in these present times, with all theirfacilities for literary labour, few lives of fifty-nineyears can render so good an account of themselves.We may reject as undoubtedly erroneous the state-ment that Bede visited Rome. Some of the monksfrom Jarrow visited Rome in 701, a year before Bedewas priested. It is probable that Pope Sergius mayhave invited Bede to visit Rome. Some one in thelater ages invented the story that he was a Professorin the University of Cambridge, one of the least im-probable parts of the story being that the date assignedto his Professorship makes him nine years old at thetime. His house was shown between St John's Collegeand the Round Church (Fuller) ! There is no trust-worthy record of any prolonged absence from hismonastery. In a letter to a fellow priest on the subjectof the vernal equinox, he alludes to a charming visit


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io The Venerable Bedehe had paid to his correspondent. In the same inci-dental way we learn that he had stayed with Ecgbert,at that time Bishop of York. And in a sermon to whichreference has already been made, he reminds hismonastic audience of the experience they all had ontheir occasional visits to the world outside, how everyone welcomed them and Was eager to house and feedthem. We know also that he visited Lindisfarne, toread to the monks his history of the lives of the holyabbats of that monastery. He was afterwards enrolledin their Book of Life.

If we have little or no detailed information as tothe facts of Bede's life, we have at least a full accountof his death, written by an eye-witness, Cuthbert, tohis friend Cuthwine. And the account is so touchinglywritten, it shows us so kind a master, so loving a friend,so true a Christian, that we may well wish we had someaccount of his life from the same hand. We learn fromthis letter that Bede died on Wednesday, the eve ofAscension Day, and he died rather late in the evening,for we have the account of a good deal which happenedafter three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. AscensionDay was held to commence at vespers on the precedingday, and thus Bede lived till Ascension Day, HolyThursday, according to the Church's reckoning, andyet he died on Wednesday according to civil reckoning.The writer of the touching account of Bede's deathsays clearly and formally that Bede lived "up to theday of the Lord's Ascension, that is, the seventh of thecalends of June." The seventh of the calends of Juneis May 26, and thus Ascension Day was May 26. Thiswas the case in 735 a.d., so that the year 735 fulfils thenecessary conditions. If the meaning could be takento be that the date given is the date of the Wednesday


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The Personal History of Bede nbefore Ascension Day, the day on which he was takenill, Ascension Day would be May 27, and that gives751 as the year of death, which is much too late. It is,however, very difficult to get this meaning from thewords.A different indication of date is given by a manu-script at St. Gall which contains the letter fromCuthbert. It is probably of the eighth century, by farthe earliest copy of the letter we possess. It is alsothe only copy that gives this other date, the " seventhof the Ides of May " instead of the " seventh of thekalends of June," May 9 instead of May 26. AscensionDay did not fall on May 9 in any year between 720and 799. But in 742 May 9 was the Wednesday beforeAscension Day, and it has been argued that Cuthbertwas giving the date of the Wednesday, not of theThursday. This is a forced explanation, as has beenpointed out above, and to put the date so late as 742contradicts the definite statement of the Continuatorof the Ecclesiastical History, that Bede died in 735.We know from Bede's letter to Ecgbert, of which weshall see much later on, that in that year Bede was tooill to pay a promised visit to him, and it was probablythis illness that carried him off. Further, he closes hisown list of his works with his fifty-ninth year, and 742would leave ten years without any recorded workof his.

It is a curious and interesting coincidence that alike difficulty of precise date occurs in the statementof the final seizure of another of our three greatestmen, Alcuin. Indeed it is almost more than curious,for in each case not only Ascension Day but also theseventh of the Ides of May plays an important part.On the night of the Ascension (node Ascensionis


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12 The Venerable BedeDomini) he fell fainting on his bed ; on the day ofPentecost he died. The Annals of Pettau, a monasterynear Salzburg, where we may feel sure that Alcuin'sgreatest friend Arno, Archbishop of Salzburg, had allthe facts of Alcuin's last days carefully recorded, tellus that in 804 Alcuin was struck down on the fifthday of the week, the eighth of the Ides of May. Butin that year, 804, Ascension Day fell on May 9, sothat Holy Thursday must have been the seventh ofthe Ides of May, the day which the St. Gall manuscriptgives as the death day of Bede.We can now proceed with a summary of Cuthbert'sdelightful letter.From the very slight medical details which are given,

we gather that his death was due to his sedentaryoccupations, and to the stooping attitude so constantlymaintained by one who wrote many books in thosedays of slow writing. About a fortnight before Easterin the year in which he died, he was greatly troubledwith shortness of breath, but mercifully without muchpain. He lingered on for some weeks. Throughout thewhole of this time, he gave thanks to God every hour,day and night, cheerful and always rejoicing. He dailyread lessons to his disciples, and whatever remained ofthe day he spent in singing psalms. If a short sleepinterrupted these exercises, he no sooner awoke than hegave thanks to God with uplifted hands. " I declarewith truth," the faithful Cuthbert exclaims, " I havenever seen with my eyes, nor heard with my ears, anyone so lovingly earnest in giving thanks to the livingGod."He chose a remarkable sentence to chantremark-able for one whose whole bearing was that of confidenthope" It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of


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The Personal History of Bede 13the living God." But it was rather for his pupils'sake that he chose it, for, using it as a text, he urgedthem to think of their last hour. He also sang someEnglish verses on the same subject, in the North-umbrian dialect, of which the following represents thesense and metre :" As to the journey Ere he goes henceEach must take, What to his spirit,No one is prudent Of good or of evil,More than he should be After the death-dayIn considering Doomed may be."

On one occasion he sang the antiphon, " O Kingof Glory, Lord of all Power, who didst on this dayascend in triumph above all the Heavens, leave usnot desolate, but send to us the promise of theFather, the Spirit of Truth ; Alleluia." At thewords, " Leave us not desolate," he burst into tears,and wept for a long time. Then his pupils and heread together. " By turns we read," Cuthbert tells," and by turns we wept ; nay, we wept always whilewe read. In such joy we passed the days of Lent."He often repeated the words, " God scourgeth everyson whom He receiveth." Besides the lessons to hispupils, and the singing of psalms, he translated intoEnglish, during these weeks of prostration, the Gospelof St. John as far as chapter vi. 9, and also someextracts from Bishop Isidore.On the Tuesday before Ascension Day he was

decidedly worse : a swelling appeared in his feet.Nevertheless he continued to dictate cheerfully, beg-ging his scribe to write quickly, for he did not knowhow long he might last, or when it might please hisMaker to take him. That night he lay awake, giving


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14 The Venerable Bedethanks alway. The next morning he urged thebrethren to finish writing what they had begun, andwhen that was done, at nine o'clock, they walked inprocession with the relics of the Saintsthe originof our " perambulation day "according to thecustom of the time. One stayed with him while theothers were thus engaged, and after a time remindedhim that there was still a chapter to finish,would itweary him to be consulted about it ? " Get out yourpen and ink," was Bede's reply, " and write fast, it isno trouble to me." So time went on till three inthe afternoon. Then the gentle spirit bethought himthat he had some things he would like to give to hisfriends before he died. He bade Cuthbert run quicklyand fetch his fellow-priests, that he might distributethe little gifts with which God had endowed him.What a simple picture of the riches of a faithful monkthe list presents ! "I have in my chest pepper, nap-kins, and incense." No gold and silver had he togive, he told them, but with all love and joy he gavethem what God had given him. Then he told themthat they would see his face no more, and beggedthem to say masses and prayers for him. They wept ;but he turned their weeping into joy by telling themit was time he returned to Him who made him. Hehad lived long ; the time of his departure was at hand ;he had a desire to depart and to be with Christ.Then came the final scene. In the evening his

boy-scribe said to him, " One sentence, dear master,is left unfinished." He bade him write quickly. Soonthe boy announced that it was finished. " True,"the dying man said, " it is finished. Take mine headbetween thy hands and raise me. Full fain would Isit with my face to my holy oratory, where I was ever


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The Personal History of Bede 15wont to pray, that sitting so I may call on my Father.''And so he sat on the floor of his cell, and chanted" Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to theHoly Ghost." And as he breathed the words " theHoly Ghost " he died.

In his fifty-ninth year, a.d. 731, Bede made a com-plete list of his writings, as though he felt that his workwas done. With trifling exceptions, they are all inexistence still. Curiously enough one of the mostimportant of his writings, the Letter to BishopEcgbert, was written three years after the list wascompiled, in the last year of his life.

His preface to the list of writings gives a simplesummary of his quiet, studious, and prayerful life.He gives the preface and the list as an appendix to theEcclesiastical History, but for our purpose it is betterto place it here."Thus much," he says, "of the Church History ofBritain, 1 and especially the English race, so far as Icould gather from ancient writings, or tradition, or ofmy own knowledge, I, Bede, a servant of Christ anda priest of the monastery of the blessed Apostles Peterand Paul at Wearmouth and Jarrow, have, with thehelp of the Lord, set down." Born in the territory of the same monastery, Iwas given at the age of seven to be brought up by themost reverend Abbat Benedict, and afterwards byCeolfrid. Spending all the rest of my life in themonastery, I gave all my care to meditation on theScriptures, and in the intervals of the regular dis-cipline and the daily care of chanting in church, Ifound it sweet to be always learning, or teaching, or

1 Bede uses the plural, Britanniarum, possibly as meaning theBritish Isles.


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16 The Venerable Bedewriting. In the nineteenth year of my life I receiveddeacon's orders, and in my thirtieth year priest'sorders, in each case by the ministry of the mostreverend bishop John, at the request of Abbat Ceolfrid.From the time of my priesthood down to my fifty-ninth year, I have written the following works on HolyScripture and from the works of the Venerable Fatherswith interpretations of their meaning :

Genesis to the birth of Isaac and the rejection ofIshmael, four books.On the Tabernacle and its Vessels, and on thePriests' Vestments, three books.On the first part of Samuel, 1 that is, to the death of

Saul, three books.On the building of the Temple, an allegorical expo-sition, two books.On the book of Kings, a book of thirty questions.On the Proverbs of Solomon, three books.On the Song of Solomon, seven books.Excerpts from St. Jerome, on Isaiah, Daniel, part of

Jeremiah, and the Twelve Prophets.On Ezra and Nehemiah, three books.On the Song of Habakkuk, one book.1 This description is in accordance with the arrangement of theHebrew text ; the Septuagint and the Vulgate call the books ofSamuel the First and Second Books of Kings. A little lower down

in the list of Bede's works, we find mention of thirty questions onthe Book of Kings ; here the four books of Samuel and Kings aremeant ; Nothelm, who asked the thirty questions, having describedthe four books as the Book of Kings, and Bede following him. Inthe treatise on Habakkuk, mentioned lower down, Bede used anolder version than the Vulgate, perhaps because the " very dearsister in Christ," at whose request he wrote the treatise, used theolder version. It seems probable that Bede used one or other versionaccording to the circumstances of each case with which he dealt, asa modern writer uses the Psalter or the Authorized Version in quot-ing the Psalms, according as he prefers the ease of the one or theaccuracy of the other.


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The Personal History of Bede 17On the book of the blessed father Tobit, an alle-

gorical exposition, concerning Christ and the Church.Heads of lections on the Pentateuch of Moses, Joshua,and Judges.On the books of Kings and Chronicles.On the book of the blessed father Job.On the Parables (Proverbs), Ecclesiastes, and the

Song of Solomon.On Isaiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah.On the gospel of Mark, four books.On the gospel of Luke, six books.Two books of Homilies on the Gospel.On the Apostle [i.e. St. Paul], I have carefully

transcribed in order all that I have found in St.Augustine's works.On the Acts of the Apostles, two books.On each of the seven Catholic Epistles, a book.On the Revelation of St. John, three books.Heads of lections on all the New Testament, except

the Gospel.A book of letters to various persons ; one on theSix Ages of the World ; another on the halting placesof the children of Israel ; another on Isaiah's words,* After many days shall they be visited ' ; another onthe reason for Leap-year ; and another on the Equinox,according to Anatolius.The book of the Life and Passion of St. Felix, Confes

sor, translated into prose from Paulinus's metrical life.The book of the Life and Passion of St. Anastasius,

which was ill translated from the Greek, and worseamended by some unskilled person, I have amendedas to the sense.The Life of the holy father, monk, and bishop,

Cuthbert. In heroic verse and also in prose.


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18 The Venerable BedeThe history of the three Abbats of Jarrow wherein I

rejoice to serve divine piety, Benedict, Ceolfrid, andHuetbert, two small books. 1The Ecclesiastical History of our island and race,

five books.A martyrology of the birthdays of the holy martyrs,in which I have carefully noted all the martyrs Icould find, not only on what day they overcame theworld, but also in what manner of conflict and underwhat judge.A book of Hymns, in various metre or rhythm.A book of Epigrams, in heroic or elegiac metre.On the Nature of things and on Times, a book on

each.On Times, a larger book.A book on Orthography, alphabetically arranged.A book on the Art of Metre ; a small book on

Tropes, i.e. on the figures and methods of speech inwhich Holy Scripture is written."He concludes his list with this prayer : "To Thee

I pray, O gentle Jesus, that he to whom Thou hastgranted the enjoyment of draughts of divine know-ledge may some time come to Thee, the fount of allWisdom, and in Thy presence ever be."Some treatises not mentioned in this list are included

among Bede's works. Such are his letter to Herefrid" On Thunder," his Penitential, and a short tract onPhlebotomy, full of the curious superstitions prevalentdown to recent times as to good and bad stages of themoon for bleeding.

It is evident that the description of Bede given by1 It is now one book. Near the middle of the book we come to

the time when Benedict resigned the abbacy. That may have beenthe point of division into two books. It reads quite continuously inits present form.


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The Personal History of Bede 19a well-known writer on the Anglo-Saxons is not anexaggeration : "He was a phenomenon it is easierto praise than to parallel " ; "his works were a kindof cyclopaedia of almost all that was then known."The epithet " Venerable," so constantly applied to

Bede, is found, both in his own writings and else-where, applied to men of holy life who had not beencanonized. Bede frequently calls the founder ofWearmouth and Jarrow " the Venerable Benedict."He is not himself called Venerable in any extantwork of a date earlier than the middle of the tenthcentury. The annalist who continued his EcclesiasticalHistory for thirty years after his death, calls himPresbyter Beda in making the entry of his death.He is most often called Dominus Beda in early manu-scripts of his Homilies, " Sir ' being afterwards thetitle of the priest who had no University degree downto the Reformation, and in some districts consider-ably later than the Reformation. 1 Writers nearlycontemporaneous with him call him Sanctus Beda,Saint Bede, or Holy Bede, and we find Bede himselfapplying that term to Abbat Benedict Biscop. Otherwriters of very early date call him Sacerdos Beda,Priest Bede, and Doctor Eximius, the IllustriousDoctor. The title Venerable, as used by Bede himself,did not imply an advanced age, for he writes of theVenerable Easterwine, and Abbat Easterwine diedat the age of thirty-six. Thus the epithet as appliedto Bede was of comparatively late origin, and hadno more personal meaning than the epithets ' judicious,''admirable,' applied to Hooker and Crichton. Inthe middle ages such titles displaced the actual names

1 The Zuinglian clergy in the Engadine are called " Ser " whenaddressed in the Romauntsch language.


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20 The Venerable Bedeof writers of distinction, and ' the Angelic Doctor,'' the Seraphic Doctor/ were quoted under those namesalone.

Marvellous accounts have been given of the originof the title Venerable, as applied to Bede. They arescarcely worth repeating, except as showing to whatcredulity the inventors of wonders were able toappeal. One of these stories assumes that Bedevisited Rome. When he was there, he saw on aniron gate the letters PPP. SSS. RRR. FFF. A Romanwho observed him standing at the gate examiningthese letters, called out to him, " What are you lookingat, English bull ? ' Bede's reply was, " I am lookingat what you should be ashamed of," and he read offfour Latin lines, the words of which commenced withthe twelve letters on the gate. 1 The Romans were somuch struck by Bede's readiness and ability that theysaluted him as Venerable, a title which the Senateafterwards confirmed ! The letters mean :

Pater Patriae Perditus estSapientia Secum SublataRegnum Romas RuitFerro Flamma Fame.

Dr. Giles Englished this as follows :Fallen is the Father of this FolkLearning Leaves you LikewiseRuined is the Reign of RomeBy War, Waste, Want.

This seems rather childish. But we learn from aletter of Lull, the Malmesbury monk who succeededour greatest Missionary Bishop, Boniface of Crediton,

1 This was written on November 8, 1917, when the Germanforces were over the Tagliamento.


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The Personal History of Bede 21as Archbishop of Mainz in 755, that it was of a typenot uncommon then, when literary men occupied theirleisure time with little tricks of various kinds withletters and words. In Lull's letterwhich contains,by the way, several quotations from Aldhelm, the firstHead of Lull's monastery at Malmesburywe havean enlarged form of the same threat of ills to come,with the explanation :

RRR rex romanorum ruitPPP pater patriae profectus estFFF ferro frigore fameMMM monitum monumentum mortuus estVVV victor vitalis venietAAA aurum a nobis aufert.Yet another form is found in a Wiirzburg codex ofthe same century, containing Homilies of Origen :

Venit Victor Vincens mundumRumpit Regnum RomanorumFert Famem Frangit romamAufert Aurum Argentumque.The victor comes who conquers the world,He destroys the kingdom of the Romans,He brings hunger, he breaks Rome,He carries off gold and silver.

Another story makes Bede become blind before hisdeath. The boy who led him attempted to playa practical joke upon him. He guided him to astony place, and told him that a number of peoplewere there, anxious to hear him preach. Bede ac-cordingly addressed a homily to the stones, andat the end of his discourse the stones cried out," Amen, Venerable Bede." Another version of this


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22 The Venerable Bede:y makes Bede end his sermon with the words,

' Which may God the Father, the Son, and the HolyGhost vouchsafe to grant us " : on which angels wereheard to ssly Amen, \^r.rrable Bede."A third story relates that one of Bede's discipleswas engaged in writing an epitaph on his master,when he stuck fast for a word. He got as far asHac sunt in fossa Bedas . . . ossa, " in this tombare the bones ci . . . Bede," and could get no further.He went to bed to sleep upon the dimculty, and nextmorning he found the gap filled by the word Venerabilis,written no doubt by the hand of an angel, accordiiuthe superstition of the time.Bede 's description of himself would seem to be

' Beda presbyter," for in his Life of St. Cuthbert hementions a n whom he describes as " majorBeda presbyter,"' 'the greater Bede the presbyteras if counting himself as the lesser Bede the presbyter.Th^ re two or three ecclesiastics in later timescalled Beda, a fact which may account for some of theimpossible stories related of the Venerable Bedesuch as the story of his being the teacher of Alcuin.The supposed connection with Alcuin depends upona double coincidence of names. The Venerable Bhad a contemporary called Albinus (a name by which

-s known), and in Charlemagne's time thefamous Alcuin had a contemporary called Beda.this it may be added, that Alcuin was a Northumbrian,famous for his learning, a student and master of theCathedral School od k, which Bede had advisedEcgbert, Alcuin's tea' d found, and that in histime he wrote a letter to the monks of Jarrow, praisingtheir predecessor Bede as a student and a writer, a

:ng them to imitate his good example.


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CHAPTER IITHE CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA

The seven kingdomsDescent of the kings 1Deira and BerniciaThe slave youths in RomePope Gr eg gements 1 or theconversion ,.andEdwin of DeiraImportance of YorkA Kentish princessLetters from Pope BonifacePaulinusThe Northumbrian House of LordsCoin the archpriestTheBritish kings Cadfan and CadwallaDefeat and death of EdwinApostasyChurches built by PaulinusThe West RidingJames the deaconLove of mas

WEmay now proceed, under Bede"s continual guidance,to consider the interesting story of the conversion ofhis own nation to Christianity.The seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptai\\re not all founded at or about the same time. The

several parts of Britain were wrested from the Britishand Romano-British occupants by successive in1sions. Thus Hengist founded the kingdom of Kentin 449 ; JElli that of the South Saxons, Sussex, in 4-" .Cerdic that of the West Saxons in 405 : .Escwine thatof the East Saxons. Essex, in 527 : Wnfia that of EAnglia in 530 ; Creoda that of Mercia, in the Midla:at a date not definitely known (he died in 5 anadvanced age, his grandson Penda. of whom we shall

1 The jTumilnii 1 of the I 5 oi Deira, Mercia. andBernicia. so far as they are represented in these pag - l "-1 befound at the en J of this chapter. "he com-plete and impo: *mdNot: riend the L. S. Searle, published bythe Car.: "university Pro :9.

- :


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24 The Venerable Bedehear much, being born in 575) ; Ida that of Bernicia in547 ; iElle that of Deira in 560, the latest of all. TheMercians, East Anglians, Deirans, and Bernicianswere Angles ; Sussex and Essex were Saxon ; theKentish men were from Jutland.

All of these kings except M\\\ of the South Saxonshad their pedigree from Woden. The pedigrees ofthe Northumbrian Ida and iElle were the longest,thirteen generations in each case. We have in theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle the pedigree of Woden himself,going back so far that if we counted thirty years to ageneration his earliest recorded ancestor would beliving in our Lord's time.

It is easy to laugh at such claims. But it is evidentthat the men themselves believed in them ; and it isquite impossible for us in our time to realise theaccuracy of oral genealogies preserved by scalds andbards, and constantly recited before keen ears atfeasts and drinkings. We have in the recorded historyof the kings of Northumbria one or two hints of thecare with which the genealogies of men of positionwere kept. Thus when King Coenred died in 718, thesixth from Ida, he was succeeded by his fourth cousin,who came from another son of Ida. In the nextgeneration, the last of this new line was succeeded byhis fourth cousin once removed, who came from yetanother son of Ida. With all our accurate manuscriptrecords of the genealogies of the Lady Margaret andEdward IV it is not very easy to keep quite clear atevery point of the claims of York and Lancaster.Edward IV and Henry VII were in the same degreeof relationship, in descent from Edward III, as Osricand Coenred in descent from Ida.We naturally begin our consideration of the growth


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The Conversion of Northumbria 25of Christianity in Bede's Northumbria with the storyof its introduction by Edwin, the king of the wholeland, Deira and Bernicia. Deira may be takenroughly as Yorkshire and Durham, Bernicia asNorthumberland and Scotland up to the Firth ofForth. The boundaries on the west are less easilydescribed. But to begin only with Edwin would be tomiss a claim dear to Northumbrians, the claim thatto their Northumbrian ancestors the introduction ofChristianity to England is due. The story is so wellknown that it seems almost unnecessary to repeat it.Gregory, once the lay Praetor or Praefect of Rome, andas such Head of the Senate, and afterwards one of themost famous of the Bishops of Rome, visiting theslave market, a year or two before he became pope,was struck by the handsome faces and fine forms ofsome boys on sale as slaves. He asked of what racethey were. He was told that they were Angles. Beinginveterately addicted to playing upon words, hereplied that they were fit to be made Angels. Fromwhat province did they come ? From Deira. Thenthey must be freed de irdfrom the wrathof God.Who was their king ? iElla. Then they must betaught to sing Alleluia.The Saxon homily on Pope Gregory's birthdaytells us that the merchants who had the boys forsale were themselves English. The idea of Englishmen taking English boys to Rome to be sold as slavesis at first sight startling, and needs some explanation,which we are fortunately able to give. It should bepremised that the demand for slaves had at one timein the history of Rome been so abundantly met,and more than met, by the scores of thousands ofcaptives taken in war, that a slave cost almost nothing,


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26 The Venerable Bedeat least in the camp. But for long before the timewith which we are dealing, the Roman arms had beenless prosperous, and slaves taken by Roman armieshad ceased to meet the demand. Property of thischaracter was in great request, and a large number ofpeople were concerned in feeding the Roman marketby supplies from various parts of the world. No doubtthere had been a regular slave-route from Britain toRome during the Roman occupation of Britain, whenBritish things and persons were very popular in Rome.That being premised, if we turn to the earliest

history of the occupation of the country north of theHumber by the Angles, we find that Êthelric, the sonof Ida who had founded the kingdom of Bernicia in547, and Êlle who had founded the kingdom of Deirain 560, being ninth cousins, were at war with oneanother. iEthelric invaded Deira in 588, conquered itsfirst king -ZElle, who died at an advanced age, andreigned as king both of Bernicia and of Deira, TElle'schildren escaping to the west. Now Gregory's inter-view with the English slave-masters and slaves wasafter 586, for it was only then that he returned toRome after a long sojourn in Constantinople as therepresentative of the Pope at the court of the Emperor.The presumption is that the boys were captured at theinvasion of Deira and carried off to Rome before thewar had ended in the death of Êlle. It has been shownelsewhere 1 that it is not improbable that Gregory hadheard of some fine specimens of English men asmembers of an embassy to the court of the emperorJustinian at Constantinople, some years before Gregoryhimself resided in that city.

Gregory bought some English youths, whether of1 Augustine and His Companions, S.P.C.K., pp. 16, 17.


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The Conversion of Northumbria 27this group of slaves we do not know, intending to trainthem in Christianity and send them to teach theirpagan fellow-countrymen. As we shall see later, thereappears to be a probability, or at least a possibility,that one of them may have been the first missionarysent to Northumbria. Then, in his enthusiastic zealfor missions to the English, he determined to comehimself to England. He escaped from Rome, to thegrief of the citizens when his departure was discovered.After getting a good distance from the city, he satunder a tree to rest, and began to read. A locustsettled on his manuscript. With his wonted methodof playing on words, and with the then general beliefin omens, he exclaimed, " Locusta ! Loco sta ! Stayat home ! ", and he returned with the messengers sentafter him by the Urban Prsefect.

After he became Bishop of Rome in 590, he sentone of his own trained priests, Candidus, to takecharge of some property of the Roman See at Marseilles.He bade him buy English boys of seventeen or eighteenyears of age, who might be trained in monasteries tothe service of God. And as all who could be foundtherethey were evidently to be bought in Englandwere pagans, a priest was to travel with them, tobaptize any who might seem to be dying. The wholearrangement gives a painfully vivid idea of the tradein human flesh. Then, in 595, he set in operation aspeedier plan, the mission from Rome of a consider-able party of men of position, for the conversion of theEnglish, under Augustine, the prior of the monasteryof St. Andrews which Gregory had himself founded onhis own family property on the Caelian Hill, and hadruled as abbat. Augustine and his band reachedEngland at the end of 596, or beginning of 597, just


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28 The Venerable Bede1320 years ago this year (1917). Although the nativesof Deira were the objects of Gregory's first interest,the Italian mission went to Kent and christianisedthat kingdom. Kent was the most accessible of thekingdoms, and its queen was already a Christian. Itwas not till many years later that an attempt wasmade to preach the Gospel in Deira.We can now return to Edwin, the banished son of thefirst king of Deira, iElle. He had been received at thecourt of Redwald, the king of the East Angles. TheBernician king jÊthelric, who had expelled him fromDeira in 588 and had reigned over Bernicia and Deira,had been succeeded by his son Êthelfrith in thesovereignty of both provinces. iEthelfrith had, curi-ously enough, married Acha, one of Edwin's sisters.After reigning from 593 to 616, he appears to havebecome uneasy about the intentions of Edwin, now astrong man in full middle age. He sent messengers toRedwald, demanding that he should give up his guestEdwin to him. After consideration, Redwald refused,and knowing the character of Êthelfrith, which hascome down to us by tradition in very dark colours,he came upon him with an army before he could gethis forces together, and slew him at the river Idle.iEthelfrith left a number of sons by Acha, who hadbeen married before and had a daughter of whom weshall hear, as we shall of three of her sons by Êthel-frith.Edwin in his turn kept the sons of iEthelfrith out

of the sovereignty of Bernicia, and reigned over bothprovinces with great power. Bede tells us that he wasthe greatest of the seven greatest kings of the English,and had the supremacy over all the kingdoms. Thiswas the overlordship, known by the title Brytenwalda


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The Conversion of Northumbria 29or Bretwalda. 1 Bede does not mention that title ; welearn it from the Saxon Chronicle, which copies Bede'saccount of the seven greatest men in dealing with theyear 827, and out of compliment to King Alfred (872)adds, "' the eighth was Ecgbryht, king of the WestSaxons." Bede's account is as follows : the first whohad this kind of rule was ^Elli, king of the SouthSaxons ; the second, Ceaulin, king of the West Saxons ;the third, Ethelbert, king of Kent ; the fourth, Red-wald, king of the East Angles ; the fifth, Edwin, whowith great power exercised superiority over all theEnglish and British except the kingdom of Kent ; thesixth, Oswald, the most Christian king of the North-umbrians ; the seventh, Oswy his brother. It isconceivable that if Oswy, the third Northumbrian, hadplayed his cards better, and if succeeding kings hadled better lives, the kings of all England might havereigned from York, the seat of the empire of Rome inBritain, the partner of Treves in the honourableposition of the two imperial cities north of the Alps.Edwin was quite conscious of the importance of his

position. His dignity was so great that he had bannerscarried before him, not only in battle but when he wasriding about in peace, visiting cities and vills anddistricts with his attendants ; on such occasions hewas also preceded by a standard-bearer. Even whenwalking about the streets he had carried before him akind of banner which " the English called Tuuf, andthe Romans Tufa," Bede says. TheTufa was one ofthe Roman insignia, formed of globes of feathers.

In the year of our Lord 625, Edwin wished to1 The spellings of the six best manuscripts of the Saxon Chronicle

are : Bretwalda, Brytenwald, Bretenanwalda, Brytenwealda, Bryten-wealda, Brytenweald. Thus all differ except the two whichagree.


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30 The Venerable Bedemarry Ethelburga, otherwise called Tate, the sister ofEadbald, king of Kent. She was a daughter of Ethel-bert, the first Christian king. Her brother was willingthat she should marry the king of Northumbria, buthe was not willing that she should marry a pagan.Edwin gave such assurances respecting religiousmatters as overcame Eadbald 's scruples. He pro-mised that he would show no hostility to the newreligion ; nay, he would give full permission to Ethel-burga to practise the rites of her faith, not only forherself, but for all who came with her, men andwomen, priests and attendants. And he added thatif the new religion proved on careful examination tobe more worthy of God than that which he professed,he was far from saying that he would not adopt it.

Both the king of Kent and his advisers in ecclesi-astical matters must have been forcibly reminded bythis answer of what had occurred in their own landin the preceding generation. On very similar con-ditions, King Ethelbert had married Bertha, adaughter of Charibert, king of the Franks, a Chris-tian. He had allowed her the use of an old Romano-British church which remained near Canterbury, andmay be said still to remain,St. Martin's. He hadalso allowed her to bring with her a bishop, Liudhard.Thus, when Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet,he found in Kent a pagan king with a Christian wife,and no doubt Queen Bertha was an important elementin the conversion of the king and kingdom. " Theunbelieving husband shall be saved by the believingwife." With this example before them, the authoritiesof Kent had good reason for trusting their princessto the Northumbrian king. His conversion wouldprobably be only a matter of time.


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The Conversion of Northumbria 31The Archbishop of Canterbury at this time was

Justus. He had been a companion and suffragan ofAugustine himself, who died twenty years before theevents of which we are speaking. He selected themost suitable man he could find as adviser for theprincess. This was Paulinus, whom he consecratedbishop on July 21, 625 a.d. The personal staff ofthe princess being thus completed, she went north-wards, and was married at once to King Edwin.On Easter Day, 626, the king was residing on thebanks of the Derwent, in his original kingdom ofDeira. Cwichelm, the king of the West Saxons, sentan assassin with a poisoned dagger to kill him. Bedesays distinctly that the king's name was Cwichelm,but we know that Cynegils was king of Wessex atthis date 626, indeed he reigned from 611 to 643. Itis evident, from several notices, that Cwichelm wasjoint king with Cynegils, but there is considerableconfusion as to what his relationship to Cynegils was,brother, or son, or cousin ; indeed, it is not verycertain whose son Cynegils himself was. It hasbeen suggested that Cwichelm 's aim was to restorethe Bretwaldadom to the royal family of the WestSaxons, their king Ceaulin having held it before Red-wald and Edwin. Ceaulin died in 592, thirty-fouryears before the attempt on Edwin.We may more probably look for a less directexplanation. There was some curious connectionbetween the royal families of the West Saxons andthe Welsh Britons. The similarity of name betweenCeadwalla of the West Saxons, who resigned thekingdom and went to Rome, and Cadwaladr the lastof the kings of all the Britons, has led to much con-fusion, as has also the similarity between the name of


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32 The Venerable Bedcthe West Saxon Ceadwalla and the name of Cadwaladr'sfather Cadwallon, Bede's Caedwalla. The most recentbook on the British Saints 1 makes Cadwaladr'sdaughter marry Cocnbert, Cwichelm's cousin, a sub-king of Wessex, and become the mother of the WestSaxon king Ceadualla. Cadwallon had been brought upwith Edwin at the court of his father Cadfan, who waselected king of all the Britons at Chester. Havingbeen friends in youth, in the time of Edwin's exile,they became internecine enemies. Edwin conqueredAnglesey from Cadwallon, and Cadwallon eventuallykilled Edwin in battle, being himself killed in thebattle of Catscaul by Oswald.

It is an interesting fact that we have the memorialstone of Edwin's British host and protector, KingCadfan, or Cadvan, or Cataman. It is in the churchof Llangadwaladr in Anglesey, the church named afterCadfan 's grandson Cadwaladr, who became one of theWelsh saints, having earned as king the nicknameCadomedd, battle-shunner. The inscription on thestone is not very legible ; it is an unusually valuableexample of early lettering, and its Latin spelling iscurious. It is also an apt example of the high esteemin which Welshmen held themselves. It runs thus :

" Catamanus rex sapientisimus opinatisimus omniumregum."

King Cataman, the wisest and most renowned ofall kings. (See Plate I.)

This king Cadvan is not to be taken as the saintof that name. The saint was of a high Armoricanfamily. He led a large number of his fellow-country-men to Wales in the fifth century, probably under

1 Baring-Gould and Fisher, 4 vols., 1908.


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The Conversion of Northumbria 33pressure of the Franks who were establishing theirposition in Gaul under Clovis. St. Cadfan foundedthe church called from him Llangadfan, and is com-memorated at Towyn in the remarkable churchdedicated to him there.The attempt on Edwin's life, whatever its cause and

purpose may have been, very nearly succeeded. Hewas seriously wounded, and was only saved by theinterposition first of his chief and favourite minister,Lulla, and then of a faithful soldier, Forthere, both ofwhom were slain by the assassin's dagger. The samenight a daughter was born to him, the first-fruits of hismarriage with Ethelburga. Paulinus declared thatChristian prayers had obtained a safe and easy deliver-ance for the queen from the great pain and peril ofchildbirth. In gratitude for this and for his owndeliverance, Edwin gave the infant to Paulinus to bemade a Christian, and on the following Whitsunday sheand twelve others of the king's connections werebaptized. She was Eanflsed, and she married Oswy,the king of Bernicia and Deira.Edwin had also promised that if he should succeed

in his war against the king of Wessex, he would cast offhis idols and serve Christ. The hoped-for success came,and the king returned to fulfil his promise. He at onceabandoned the worship of idols, but he hesitated longbefore he would receive the sacraments of the Christianfaith. He went through a course of careful instructionby Paulinus, and he then conferred with the wisest ofhis own advisers. Bede describes him as a man of theutmost sagacity, a character which the facts recordedof him completely justify. He sat often and long alone,debating with himself in silence whether he shouldtake the great step.


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34 The Venerable BedeAt this crisis a letter reached him from Pope Boni-

face. The Pope urged him to become a Christian,and sent him the blessing of his protector Peter, ashirt, with a golden ornament, and a garment ofAncyra. The letter, which Bede has preserved, is apowerful one, stating the case against idols in a vigor-ous manner. Boniface wrote at the same time to Ethel-burga, pressing her to be instant with the king, inseason and out of season. Though a celibate himself,the Pope showed a full appreciation of the power ofthe weapon he thus brought to bear upon the king.He bade her write and tell him of her success, as soonas possible, when an opportunity of sending a letter bymessenger occurred. And he showed some discrimina-tion in the presents he sent to the queen. In additionto the blessing of Peter, he sent her a silver mirror,and an ivory comb inlaid with gold.

Still the king held out ; not, as it would seem, fromany spirit of obstinacy, but because he wished to besure about what he was doing. Such a convert isworth waiting for. Paulinus got a little tired of wait-ing, and determined to make a startling appeal to theking's superstition. Bede says that we may supposethe knowledge which enabled him to make this appealto have been conveyed in a vision. Another explanationwill occur to the reader.Some years before this time, Edwin had been in

exile at the court of Redwald of East Anglia. Messen-gers arrived, as we have seen, from the king who hadexiled him, demanding that he should be given up. AsEdwin sat alone one stormy night, awaiting in theutmost anxiety the decision of Redwald and hisministers, a stranger came to him, a man with a strangeface, clad in a strange garb. He asked Edwin what


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The Conversion of Northumbria 35he would do for one who could promise him safety forthe present, the throne of his kingdom in the future,and, beyond the future, such salvation as neither henor his fathers had dreamed of. Edwin was full ofpromises. He had been wandering, a vagabond, formany years. He would do anything such a man toldhim to do. The stranger then pressed his hand onhis head, and said, " When this sign comes to thee,remember thy promises and perform them."Years rolled on. To Edwin, freed long ago fromhis fears at Redwald's court, king now of Deira andBernicia both, sitting as we left him in constantthought and doubt, Paulinus one day came. Hepressed his hand on the king's head. " Knowestthou that sign ? " Edwin fell at his feet ; declaredthat he must and would become a Christian ; beggedonly for a little time, that he might if possible bringover the great men of the kingdom with him. Tothis Paulinus consented, and a great council washeld. Bede's account of it makes us long for a fullerreport.The king asked each magnate in turn what he

thought of the new doctrines and the new worship.The chief priest, Coifi, was the first to answer. Coifimay be taken as the type of a cunning priest withoutconvictions, one who serves at the altar that the altarmay serve him. " He was anxious that the newdoctrines should be made clearly known to them, forhe had come to the conclusion that there was no realityin that which he had so far professed. No one hadbeen more diligent than he in the worship of the gods,and yet many had more of the king's favour, more ofworldly prosperity, than he with all his care for thegods. Had those same gods been good for anything


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36 The Venerable Bedeat all, they would, of course, have ensured his promotionto a position of pre-eminence. If the king liked thenew religion better, after looking into it, by all meanslet it be adopted." It is only fair to say that Coifiappeared in a much more favourable light in a secondspeech and in eventual action.The next speaker was a man of very different mould.

It would be well if in all councils in this land therewere men with thoughts so just and expressions sohappy. He is a type of the thinking layman. " Whatcame before life, and what comes after, all is mystery.The life of each man, that is all that each man knows."An apt simile occurred to him, beautiful in its simplicity.It may well have been that he drew it at themoment of speaking from an actual event ; for we havebeen told that long time had elapsed since July, 626,and the king and magnates were baptized at Easter,627, so that the council was held in winter. This wasthe simile. " The king and his chief captains andministers are sitting in council on a dark winter's day ;rain and snow without ; within, a bright tire in theirmidst. Suddenly a little bird flies in, a sparrow, in atone door and then out at another. Where it came fromnone can say, nor whither it has gone. So is the lifeof man. Clear enough itself, but before it, and afterthe end thereof, darkness ; it may be, storm. If thenew doctrine will tell us anything of these mysteries,the before and the after, it is the religion that iswanted." Others supported this view.Then Coifi became more worthy of himself. He

begged that Paulinus might be heard. Paulinus washeard, and was listened to attentively. There were fewsuch orators as he, who could convert a township in asermon. And nature had given him a form fit for


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The Conversion of Northumbria 37an orator. A certain abbat of Peartaneu, 1 a man ofsingular veracity, Deda by name, told Bede that hehad talked with an aged man who was baptized byPaulinus in Trent stream, in the presence of KingEdwin. The old man described the eloquent mis-sionary bishop as tall of stature ; stooping slightly ;with black hair, thin face, nose slender and aquiline,aspect reverend and majestic. This was the manwho was brought in to expound before the chiefpriest of the faith he had come to overthrow, theprecepts and the promises of the faith he preached.And this was the result. " I have long known, O king,that there was nothing in our religion ; for the moreI sought for truth in it the less I found it. And hereI freely confess that in this new preaching I findthe truth which there I could not find. It gives uslife, salvation, and happiness eternal. Let us makehaste to abjure and to burn the altars we have con-secrated to such poor purpose." All reason for furtherdelay had now disappeared. The king's decision wasmade. He gave Paulinus licence to preach publicly.He made the announcement that he had himselfabandoned idolatry, and that he accepted the faith ofChrist. Then he asked Coin who should set aboutthe destruction of the idols. This was a more seriousquestion for the king than for Coin. The king hadonce believed, and he trembled. Coin had notbelieved, and he did not tremble. " None so fitas I. I taught the people to worship them. I willdestroy them." So he called for a spear and a stallioncharger, forbidden things both for a pagan priest,and he galloped up Goodmanham 2 lane, and rode

1 Parteney, in Lincolnshire. This was a cell to Bardney.: Near Market Weighton in Yorkshire. Called in Bede's timeGodmundingham.


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38 The Venerable Bedefull tilt at the temple door. The people thought himmad ; but he pierced the door with his spear, andcalled on those with him to finish the work of de-struction. Then they burned the temple, with its idolsand all that was contained within its precincts.The king and his chiefs were baptized at York on

Easter Day, April 12, 627, in the wooden churchwhich Edwin had built in honour of St. Peter. Thespring of water which it enclosed is still in existenceunder the minster, as are considerable portions of thewalls of stone which followed. Though there had beena British bishop of York, this is the first church onrecord of the series which has reached its climax inthe present glorious Minster. The king at once com-menced a church of stone of larger dimensions, enclos-ing the original oratory, but before the church wasfinished he was killed in battle at Hethfeld, 1 by anarmy of Britons and pagan Mercians, a.d. 633. TheChristian Britons were led by Cadwallon (Caedualla),the friend of Edwin's youth and the son of his pro-tector Cadvan. The pagan Mercians were led by theirking Penda, of whom we shall hear more. Edwin'sfirst wife, married when he was in exile, was Quenberga,the daughter of the Mercian king Cearl, Penda 'spredecessor. As in the case of our modern times,dynastic intermarriages did not prevent national wars.In those days they did not save the lives of individualprinces. Edwin was forty-seven years of age at thetime of his death, and had reigned seventeen years,having spent many years in exile.So long as the king lived after his baptism, that is,for six years, the work of conversion went on rapidly.Osfrid and Eadfrid, the sons born to Edwin by Quen-

1 Hatfield, in Yorkshire.


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The Conversion of Northumbria 39berga during his exile, were baptized, and Iffi, theyoung son of Osfrid, and many noble and illustriouspersons. Bede tells us of a visit of thirty-six days, paidby Paulinus to the king and queen at one of theircountry seats, during the whole of which time thebishop catechized and baptized. The people flockedfrom all the neighbouring villages and hamlets to hearhim. As soon as they had heard him, they believed.As soon as they believed, he baptized them in the riverGlen, 1 which ran by. This was in Bernicia. In Deira,we have records of his being often with the king athis seat at Catterick. There, in like manner, hecatechized and baptized, the Swale being his laverof regeneration ; for in the early infancy of the Church,Bede remarks, oratories and fonts could not be made.We may ask, why ? It would seem that Paulinus, inhis great power as a persuasive orator, forgot orneglected the less marked but more useful function ofan organizer and establisher. Had Bede been able tosay that after a time this severe personal work becameless necessary on the part of Paulinus, becauseoratories and fonts were established, and here andthere, in an ever-increasing number of places, priestswere found, each the centre of a body of true believersand acting as a missionary to the pagans around,we should not have had to record the apostasy ofthe land on the death of the king. It is related ofEdwin, that wherever he found a good spring ofwater near a frequented road, he had a post fixed atthe place with a brass dish chained to it for the useof travellers ; and so strict was his administration ofjustice that the dishes remained uninjured. We canbut regret that he did not establish in like manner

1 At Yeverin, in Glendale.


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40 The Venerable Bedesupplies of the water of life for his subjects travellingto another world.Bede does tell us of one church built in Deira byPaulinus. This was in a district recently taken fromthe Romano-Britons of the kingdom of Rheged, atwhose court Taliessin barded and sang. The districtwas called Campodonum, probably in the region ofHuddersfield. The pagans who slew Edwin burnedthe church and all the town (vill) it served. Thechurch was evidently of wood, for the altar, Bede says,was saved because it was of stone. The later kingsreplaced the vill of Campodonum by a residence forthemselves in the region of Loidis (Leeds). The stonealtar of Campodonum was taken to the neighbouringmonastery in Elmet wood, and in Bede's time was stillpreserved there by the very reverend abbat and priestThridwulf . The name of the district Elmete is still in use.

It may be remembered that the people of these tworegions of the old Romano-British kingdom of Rhegedretain two characteristics, one from their Romanorigin, the other from the British. They are correctnon-aspirators, as the Romans were, not putting anh in wrong places, and they sing in parts naturally, asdid the Britons and as do the British-Welsh.

Paulinus had also built a church, and this a beautifulstone church, in a region south of the Humber, afterconverting Blecca, the praefect of the city of Lincoln.The walls of this church stood in Bede's time, but theroof had fallen in. It was in this church that Paulinusperformed a remarkable ceremony in the year 627.Alone, he consecrated Honorius to the archbishopricof Canterbury. There was no other bishop of Englandto join in the consecration. London had long ceasedto have a bishop, and the pagan Londoners did not


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The Conversion of Northumbria 41receive a bishop till some time after this. The Bur-gundian Felix did not come to Dunwich till 630.Besides Canterbury, there was only one see in thatprovince, Rochester, whose bishop Romanus had goneon an embassy to the Pope and was drowned in thissame year 627.

This visit to the province of Lindissi (Lindsey), 1on which Edwin accompanied him, had one happyresult. To it we owe the personal description ofPaulinus given on page 37. The description accordswell with our idea of a fine specimen of a member of aBritish royal family. The Cambrian Annals tell thatthe baptizing in the Swale was done by Run, or Rum,son of Urien or Urbgen, king of the British kingdomof Rheged. As nothing is said of any inability on thepart of Paulinus to make himself understood by theEnglish or by the people of the Yorkshire dales, whomust still have been in considerable part British inspeech, it is worth mentioning as a suggestion thatPaulinus may have been one of the captives carriedoff to Rome and there trained in Christianity, andthat to him British Gaelic was a native and Anglo-Saxon an early acquired language.One thing it appears Paulinus did of an intention-

ally permanent character. He set up crosses atEasingwold, a few miles north of York, which were inexistence in Norman times. The boundaries of an estatethere were then described as running up to the crossesof Paulinus. Dewsbury, also, claims to have somestone memorial from his time; as does Whalley also.We must remember Paulinus 's crosses when we noticea remark of Bede relating to Bernicia.

1 The name of the people of Lindissi was Lindisfaras. This is notinfrequently confused with Lindisfarnenses, the people of Holy Isle.


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42 The Venerable BedeOn the death of Edwin, Cadwalla, king of the

Britons who still made head against the NorthumbrianEnglish from the mountain-fastnesses of the north-west to which they had retired, and Penda, king ofthe Mercians, proceeded to make a great slaughterof the Northumbrians, especially of those who wereChristians. Cadwalla's object was to destroy allthe English, and though a Christian, he was not morelikely to spare the Christian Northumbrians than washis pagan ally. For even in those early times ofChristianity in this island, the odium theologicumraged, and there was hatred between the English, whowere in communion with the Canterbury mission, andthe Britons, who had refused to make terms withAugustine. It will be necessary to speak in moredetail hereafter on this subject (see Chapter V). Forthe present, it is enough to say that the Christiansof Northumbria were not likely to fare better withtheir conqueror on the ground of his being a Chris-tian too. The people abjured Christianity as lightlyas many of them had taken it up. Paulinus fledbefore the storm and returned to Canterbury, takingwith him Ethelburga and some of her children. Hewas made Bishop of Rochester, and there he remainedtill his death. Christianity almost entirely disappearedfrom Northumbria. Osric, Edwin's cousin, succeededto the throne of Deira. He had been converted andbaptized by Paulinus, but he went with the streamand abjured the faith. In Bernicia, the rightful heir,Eanfrid, whom Edwin had deprived, became king. Hehad lived in exile among the Christians in Caledonia,and had been baptized by them ; but he, too, abjuredthe faith when he came to the throne.

It is evident that Paulinus had made two mistakes.


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The Conversion of Northtimbria 43He had promised temporal rewards, prosperity andsuccess against their enemies, to those whom heconverted, and when a tide of misfortune set in, thehollowness of conversion on such terms was shown.And, as has been said, he had established nothing.He left no nucleus from which the light might shineforth again when the storm was past. A day's preach-ing converted hundreds : he baptized them and leftthem. A day's defeat swept them all away.

There is one bright spot in the dark picture. Jamesthe Deacon had been a companion of Augustine.He was the sweet singer of the party when they firstarrived in Kent, when they made so great an impres-sion on the king by the processional chant with whichthey approached him. He had gone to the northwith Paulinus, and he did not fly. He remained forsome time in York, and then went to the neigh-bourhood of Catterick, where the village of Ake-borough 1 took its name from him, as Bede informsus. Here he did what he could by teaching andbaptizing, and he lived to see times of peace restored,when he taught to the new generation of Christiansthe Roman or Canterbury method of singing. Hewas the only sign of an establishment left by Paulinus.Akeborough still exists, and retains its name in theform Aikbar, which the Yorkshire people call Yakbur,as they no doubt pronounced the original Jacobi-burgus, Jacobur, or Jacbur. It is a small farm house,and close by is the little stream in which Jamesbaptized his converts. At Hauxwell, on the higherground in the immediate neighbourhood, there is inthe churchyard an Anglo-Saxon cross with very simpleinterlacing work and a panel which has borne an

1 Jacobi burgus, Jacob's {i.e. James's) town.


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44 The Venerable Bedeinscription, one letter of which, the initial of the nameGacobi or Jacobi, could be read thirty years ago. Fiftyyears before that, the curate of the parish and thethen well known Sister Dora made a tracing of theinscription, which read Hcec est crux sancti Gacobi.(This is the cross of the Holy James.) James probablyhad a well of pure drinking water on this higherground, and the village took its name from James'swell, Yaucswell, with the broad pronunciation of the a.The Irish or Anglo-Saxon G stood for J and was pro-nounced as Y. (See Plate 2.)The condition of the Church in Northumbria wasworse than that of the church which Paulinus hadbuilt in Lincoln, of which Bede tells" Its walls standin our time, but the roof is fallen in." Indeed theaccount given by Stephen Eddi, the biographer ofBishop Wilfrith, of the condition of the fabric of themetropolitan church of York, is as apt a commentaryas could have been written upon the state of thingswhich prevailed after the flight of Paulinus. WhenWilfrith was made bishop, he found the church of theoratory1 in ruins. The timbers of the roof wereperishing, and did not keep out the weather ; thewindows were without protection, the rain pouringin and the birds of the air flying in and out ; thewalls were bare, and denied with all manner of abomina-tions.As Paulinus had so much to do with the beginnings

of Christianity among the races which first drew theattention of Gregory to the English, we must summar-ize his proceedings on the death of Edwin, following, asalways, Bede's faithful record.

1 The first York Minster was so c

browne. the venerable bede, his life and writings. 1919

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