BOOK II Contents
I. On the Death of the Blessed Pope Gregory. [A.D. 605]
II. Augustine admonished the bishops of the Britons to Catholic peace and unity, and to
that effect wrought a heavenly miracle in their presence; and of the vengeance that
pursued them for their contempt. [A.D. 603]
III. How St. Augustine made Mellitus and Justus bishops; and of his death [A.D. 604]
IV. Laurentius and his bishops admonish the Scots to observe the unity of the holy
Church, particularly in keeping of Easter; Mellitus goes to Rome. [A.D. 605.]
V. How, after the death of the kings Ethelbert and Sabert, their successors restored
idolatry; for which reason, both Millitus and Justus departed out of Britain. [A.D. 616]
VI. Laurentius, being reproved by the apostle, converts King Eadbald to Christ;
Mellitus and Justus are recalled. [A.D. 616]
VII. Bishop Mellitus by prayer quenches a file in his city. [A.D. 619]
VIII. Pope Boniface sends the pall and an epistle to Justus, successor to Millitus.
[A.D. 624]
IX. The reign of King Edwin, and how Paulinus, coming to preach the Gospel, first
converted his daughter and others to the faith of Christ. [A.D. 625]
X. Pope Boniface, by letter, exhorts the same king to embrace the Faith. [A.D. 625]
XI. Pope Boniface advises Queen Ethelberga to use her best endeavours for the salvation
of her consort, King Edwin. [A.D. 625]
XII. King Edwin is persuaded to believe by a vision which he had seen when he was in
exile. [Before A.D. 625]
XIII. Of the council he held with his chief men about embracing the faith of Christ,
and how the high priest profaned his own alters. [A.D. 627]
XIV. King Edwin and his nation become Christians; Paulinus baptizes them. [A.D. 627]
XV. The province of the East Angles receives the faith of Christ. [A.D. 627]
XVI. How Paulinus preached in the province of Lindsey; and of the reign of Edwin. [A.D.
628]
XVII. Edwin receives letters of exhortation from Pope Honorius, who also sends Paulinus
the pall. [A.D. 634]
XVIII. Honorius who succeeded Justus in the bishopric of Canterbury, receives the pall
and letters from Pope Honorius. [A.D. 634]
XIX. How the aforesaid Honorius first, and afterwards John, wrote letters to the nation
of the Scots, concerning the observance of Easter, and the Pelagian heresy. [A.D. 634]
XX. Edwin being slain, Paulinus returns into Kent, and has the bishopric of Rochester
conferred upon him. [A.D. 633]
CHAPTER I
ON THE DEATH OF THE BLESSED POPE GREGORY. [A.D. 605]
AT this time, that is, in the year of our Lord 605, the blessed Pope Gregory, after
having most gloriously governed the Roman apostolic see thirteen years, six months, and
ten days, died, and was translated to the eternal see of the heavenly kingdom. Of whom, in
regard that he by his zeal converted our nation, the English, from the power of Satan to
the faith of Christ, it behooves us to discourse more at large in our Ecclesiastical
History, for we may and ought rightly to call him our apostle; because, whereas he bore
the pontifical power over all the world, and was placed over the churches already reduced
to the faith of truth, he made our nation, till then given up to idols, tbe church of
Christ, so that we may be allowed thus to attribute to him the character of an apostle;
for though he is not an apostle to others, yet he is so to us; for we are the seal of his
apostleship in our Lord.
He was by nation a Roman, son of Gordian, deducing his race from ancestors that were
not only noble, but religious. And Felix, once bishop of the same apostolical see, a man
of great honour in Christ and his church, was his great-grandfather. Nor did he exercise
the nobility of religion with less virtue of devotion than his parents and kindred. But
that worldly nobility which he seemed to have, by the help of the Divine Grace, he
entirely used to gain the honour of eternal dignity; for soon quitting his secular habit,
he repaired to a monastery, wherein he began to behave himself with so much grace of
perfection that (as he was afterwards wont with tears to testify) his mind was above all
transitory things; that he despised all that is subject to change; that he used to think
of nothing but what was heavenly; that whilst detained by the body, he by contemplation
broke through the bonds of flesh; and that he loved death, which is a terror to almost all
men, as the entrance into life, and the reward of his labours. This he said of himself,
not to boast of his progress in virtue, but rather to bewail the decay, which, as he was
wont to declare, he imagined he sustained through the pastoral care. In short, when he
was, one day, in private, discoursing with Peter, his deacon, after having enumerated the
former virtues of his mind, he with grief added, "But now, on account of the pastoral
care, it is entangled with the affairs of laymen, and, after so beautiful an appearance of
repose, is defiled with the dust of earthly action. And after having wasted itself by
condescending to many things that are without, when it desires the inward things, it
returns to them less qualified to enjoy them. I therefore consider what I endure, I
consider what I have lost, and when I behold that loss, what I bear appears the more
grievous.
This the holy man said out of the excess of his humility. But it becomes us to believe
that he lost nothing of his monastic perfection by his pastoral care, but rather that he
improved the more through the labour of converting many, than by the former repose of his
conversation, and chiefly because, whilst exercising the pontifical function, he provided
to have his house made a monastery. And when first drawn from the monastery, ordained to
the ministry of the altar, and sent as respondent to Constantinople from the apostolic
see, though he now mixed with the people of the palace, yet he intermitted not his former
heavenly life; for some of the brethren of his monastery, having out of brotherly charity
followed him to the royal city, he kept them for the better following of regular
observances, viz. that at all times, by their example, as he writes himself, he might be
held fast to the calm shore of prayer, as it were with the cable of an anchor, whilst he
should he tossed up and down by the continual waves of worldly affairs; and daily among
them, by the intercourse of studious reading, strengthen his mind whilst it was shaken
with temporal concerns. By their company he was not only guarded against earthly assaults,
but more and more inflamed in the exercises of a heavenly life.
For they persuaded him to give a mystical exposition of the book of holy Job, which is
involved in great obscurity; nor could he refuse to undertake that work, which brotherly
affection imposed on him for the future benefit of many; but in a wonderful manner, in
five and thirty books of exposition, taught how that same book is to be understood
literally; how to be referred to the mysteries of Christ and the church; and in what sense
it is to be adapted to every one of the faithful. This work he began when legate in the
royal city, but finished it at Rome after being made pope. Whilst he was still in the
royal city, he, by the assistance of the Divine grace of Catholic truth, crushed in its
first rise a heresy newly started, concerning the state of our resurrection. For
Eutychius, bishop of that city, taught, that our body, in that glory of resurrection,
would be impalpable, and more subtile than the wind and air; which he hearing, proved by
force of truth, and by the instance of the resurrection of our Lord, that this doctrine
was every way opposite to the Christian faith. For the Catholic faith is that our body,
sublimed by the glory of immortality, is rendered subtle by the effect of the spiritual
power, but palpable by the reality of nature; according to the example of our Lord's body,
of which, when risen from the dead, He Himself says to his disciples, "Touch me and
see, for a spirit bath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." In asserting which
faith, the venerable Father Gregory so earnestly laboured against the rising heresy, and
by the assistance of the most pious emperor, Tiberius Constantine, so fully suppressed it,
that none has been since found to revive it.
He likewise composed another notable book, called "Liber Pastoralis," wherein
he manifestly showed what sort of persons ought to be preferred to govern the church; how
such rulers ought to live; with how much discretion to instruct every one of their
hearers, and how seriously to reflect every day on their own frailty. He also wrote forty
homilies on the Gospel, which he equally divided. into two volumes; and composed four
books of dialogues, into which, at the request of Peter, his deacon, he collected the
miracles of the saints whom he either knew, or had heard to be most renowned in Italy, for
an example to posterity to lead their lives; to the end that, as he taught in his books of
Expositions, what virtues ought to be laboured for, so by describing the miracles of
saints, he might make known the glory of those virtues. He further, in twenty-two
homilies, discovered how much light there is concealed in the first and last parts of the
prophet Ezekiel, which seemed the most obscure. Besides which he wrote the "Book of
Answers," to the questions of Augustine, the first bishop of the English nation, as
we have shown above, inserting the same book entire in this history; besides the useful
little "Synodical Book," which he composed with the bishops of Italy on the
necessary affairs of the church; and also familiar letters to certain persons. And it is
the more wonderful that he could write so many and such large volumes, in regard that
almost all the time of his youth, to use his own words, he was often tormented with pains
in his bowels, and a weakness of his stomach, whilst he was continually suffering from
slow fever. But whereas at the same time he carefully reflected that, as the Scripture
testifies, "Every son that is received is scourged," the more he laboured and
was depressed under those present evils, the more he assured himself of his eternal
salvation.
Thus much may be said of his immortal genius, which could not he restrained by such
severe bodily pains; for other popes applied themselves to building, or adorning of
churches with gold and silver, but Gregory was entirely intent upon gaining souls.
Whatsoever money he had, he diligently took care to distribute and give to the poor, that
his righteousness might endure for ever, and his horn be exalted with honour; so that what
blessed Job said might be truly said of him, "When the ear heard me, then it blessed
me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that
cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was
ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on
righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and diadem. I was the eye to
the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was father to the poor; and the cause which I
knew not, I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of
his teeth." And a little after: "If I have withheld," says he, "the
poor from their desire; or have caused the eye of the widow to fail; or have eaten my
morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof. For of my youth compassion
grew up with me, and from my mother's womb it came forth with me."
To these works of piety and righteousness this also may be added, that he saved our
nation, by the preachers he sent hither, from the teeth of the old enemy, and made it
partaker of eternal liberty; in whose faith and salvation rejoicing, and worthily
commending the same, he in his exposition on holy Job, says, "Behold, a tongue of
Britain, which only knew how to utter barbarous language, has long since begun to resound
the Hebrew Hallelujah! Behold, the once swelling ocean now serves prostrate at the feet of
the saints; and its barbarous motions, which earthly princes could not subdue with the
sword, are now, through the fear of God, bound by the mouths of priests with words only;
and he that when an infidel stood not in awe of fighting troops, now a believer, fears the
tongues of the humble! For by reason that the virtue of the Divine knowledge is infused
into it by precepts, heavenly words, and conspicuous miracles, it is curbed by the dread
of the same Divinity, so as to fear to act wickedly, and bends all its desires to arrive
at eternal glory." In which words holy Gregory declares this also, that St. Augustine
and his companions brought the English to receive the truth, not only by the preaching of
words, but also by showing of heavenly signs. The holy Pope Gregory, among other things,
caused masses to be celebrated in the churches of the apostles, Peter and Paul, over their
bodies. And in the celebration of masses, he added three phrases full of great goodness
and perfection: "And dispose our days in thy peace, and preserve us from eternal
damnation, and rank us in the number of thy elect, through Christ our Lord."
He governed the church in the days of the Emperors Mauritius and Phocas, but passing
out of this life in the second year of the same Phocas, he departed to the true life which
is in heaven. His body was buried in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, before the
sacristy, on the 4th day of March, to rise one day in the same body in glory with the rest
of the holy pastors of the church. On his tomb was written this epitaph -
Earth I take that body which at first you gave,
Till God again shall raise it from the grave.
His soul amidst the stars finds heavenly day;
In vain the gates of darkness make essay
On him whose death but leads to life the way.
To the dark tomb, this prelate, though decreed,
Lives in all places by his pious deed.
Before his bounteous board pale Hunger fled;
To warm the poor he fleecy garments spread;
And to secure their souls from Satan's power,
He taught by sacred precepts every hour.
Nor only taught; but first th' example led,
Lived o'er his rules, and acted what he said.
To English Saxons Christian truth he taught,
And a believing flock to heaven he brought.
This was thy work and study, this thy care,
Offerings to thy Redeemer to prepare.
For these to heavenly honours raised on high,
Where thy reward of labours ne'er shall die.
Nor is the account of St. Gregory, which has been handed down to us by the tradition of
our ancestors, to be passed by in silence, in relation to his motives for taking such
interest in the salvation of our nation. It is reported, that some merchants, having just
arrived at Rome on a certain day, exposed many things for sale in the marketplace, and
abundance of people resorted thither to buy: Gregory himself went with the rest, and,
among other things, some boys were set to sale, their bodies white, their countenances
beautiful, and their hair very fine. Having viewed them, he asked, as is said, from what
country or nation they were brought? and was told, from the island of Britain, whose
inhabitants were of such personal appearance. He again inquired whether those islanders
were Christians, or still involved in the errors of paganism? and was informed that they
were pagans. Then fetching a deep sigh from the bottom of his heart, "Alas! what
pity," said he, "that the author of darkness is possessed of men of such fair
countenances; and that being remarkable for such graceful aspects, their minds should be
void of inward grace." He therefore again asked, what was the name of that nation?
and was answered, that they were called Angles. "Right," said he, for they have
an Angelic face, and it becomes such to be co-heirs with the Angels in heaven. What is the
name," proceeded he, "of the province from which they are brought?" It was
replied, that the natives of that province were called Deiri. "Truly are they De
ira," said he, "withdrawn from wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ. How
is the king of that province called?" They told him his name was Ælla: and he,
alluding to the name said, "Hallelujah, the praise of God the Creator must be sung in
those parts."
Then repairing to the bishop of the Roman apostolical see (for he was not himself then
made pope), he entreated him to send some ministers of the word into Britain to the nation
of the English, by whom it might be converted to Christ; declaring himself ready to
undertake that work, by the assistance of God, if the apostolic pope should think fit to
have it so done. Which not being then able to perform, because, though the pope was
willing to grant his request, yet the citizens of Rome could not be brought to consent
that so noble, so renowned, and so learned a man should depart the city; as soon as he was
himself made pope, he perfected the long-desired work, sending other preachers, but
himself by his prayers and exhortations assisting the preaching, that it might be
successful. This account, as we have received it from the ancients, we have thought fit to
insert in our Ecclesiastical History.
CHAPTER II
AUGUSTINE ADMONISHED THE BISHOPS OF THE BRITONS TO CATHOLIC PEACE AND UNITY, AND TO
THAT EFFECT WROUGHT A HEAVENLY MIRACLE IN THEIR PRESENCE; AND OF THE VENGEANCE THAT
PURSUED THEM FOR THEIR CONTEMPT. [A.D. 603.]
IN the meantime, Augustine, with the assistance of King Ethelbert, drew together to a
conference the bishops, or doctors, of the next province of the Britons, at a place which
is to this day called Augustine's Ac, that is, Augustine's Oak, on the borders of the
Wiccii and West Saxons; and began by brotherly admonitions to persuade them, that
preserving Catholic unity with him, they should undertake the common labour of preaching
the Gospel to the Gentiles. For they did not keep Easter Sunday at the proper time, but
from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon; which computation is contained in a revolution
of eighty-four years. Besides, they did several other things which were against the unity
of the church. When, after long disputation, they did not comply with the entreaties,
exhortations, or rebukes of Augustine and his companions, but, preferred their own
traditions before all the churches in the world, which in Christ agree among themselves,
the holy father, Augustine, put an end to this troublesome and tedious contention, saying,
"Let us beg of God, who causes those who are of one mind to live in his Father's
house, that He will vouchsafe, by his heavenly tokens, to declare to us, which tradition
is to be followed; and by what means we are to find our way to his heavenly kingdom. Let
some infirm person be brought, and let the faith and practice of those, by whose prayers
he shall be healed, be looked - upon as acceptable to God, and be adopted by all."
The adverse party unwillingly consenting, a blind man of the English race was brought, who
having been presented to the priests of the Britons, found no benefit or cure from their
ministry; at length, Augustine, compelled by real necessity, bowed his knees to the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying that the lost sight might be restored to the blind man,
and by the corporeal enlightening of one man, the light of spiritual grace might be
kindled in the hearts of many of the faithful. Immediately the blind man received sight,
and Augustine was by all declared the preacher of the Divine truth. The Britons then
confessed, that it was the true way of righteousness which Augustine taught; but that they
could not depart from their ancient customs without the consent and leave of their people.
They therefore desired that a second synod might be appointed, at which more of their
number would be present.
This being decreed, there came (as is asserted) seven bishops of the Britons, and many
most learned men, particularly from their most noble monastery, which, in the English
tongue, is called Bancornburg, over which the Abbot Dinooth is said to have presided at
that time. They that were to go to the aforesaid council, repaired first to a certain holy
and discreet man, who was wont to lead an eremitical life among them, advising with him,
whether they ought, at the preaching of Augustine, to forsake their traditions. He
answered, "If he is a man of God, follow him." - "How shall we know
that?" said they. He replied, "Our Lord saith, Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart if therefore, Augustine is meek and lowly of
heart, it to be believed that he has taken upon him the yoke of Christ; and offers the
same to you to take upon you. But if he is stern and haughty, it appears that he is not of
God, nor are we to regard his words." They insisted again, "And how shall we
discern even this?" - "Do you contrive," said the anchorite, "that he
may first arrive with his company at the place where the synod is to be held; and if at
your approach he shall rise up to you, hear him submissively, being assured that he is the
servant of Christ; but if he shall despise you, and not rise up to you, whereas you are
more in number, let him also be despised by you."
They did as he directed; and it happened that when they came, Augustine was sitting on
a chair, which they observing, were in a passion, and charging him with pride, endeavoured
to contradict all he said. He said to them, "You act in many particulars contrary to
our custom, or rather the custom of the universal church, and yet, if you will comply with
me in these three points, viz. to keep Easter at the due time; to administer baptism, by
which we are again born to God, according to the custom of the holy Roman Apostolic
Church; and jointly with us to preach the word of God to the English nation, we will
readily tolerate all the other things you do, though contrary to our customs." They
answered they would do none of those things, nor receive him as their archbishop; for they
alleged among themselves, that "if he would not now rise up to us, how much more will
he contemn us, as of no worth, if we shall begin to be under his subjection?" To whom
the man of God, Augustine, is said, in a threatening manner, to have foretold, that in
case they would not join in unity with their brethren, they should be warred upon by their
enemies; and, if they would not preach the way of life to the English nation, they should
at their hands undergo the vengeance of death. All which, through the dispensation of the
Divine judgment, fell out exactly as he had predicted.
For afterwards the warlike king of the English, Ethelfrid, of whom we have already
spoken, having raised a mighty army, made a very great slaughter of that perfidious
nation, at the City of Legions, which by the English is called Legacestir, but by the
Britons more rightly Carlegion. Being about to give battle, he observed their priests, who
were come together to offer up their prayers to God for the soldiers, standing apart in a
place of more safety; he inquired who they were? or what they came together to do in that
place? Most of them were of the monastery of Bangor, in which, it is reported, there was
so great a number of monks, that the monastery being divided into seven parts, with a
ruler over each, none of those parts contained less than three hundred men, who all lived
by the labour of their hands. Many of these, having observed a fast of three days,
resorted among others to pray at the aforesaid battle, having one Brocmail appointed for
their protector, to defend them whilst they were intent upon their prayers, against the
swords of the barbarians. King Ethelfrid being informed of the occasion of their coming,
said, "If then they cry to their God against us, in truth, though they do not bear
arms, yet they fight against us, because they oppose us by their prayers." He,
therefore, commanded them to be attacked first, and then destroyed the rest of the impious
army, not without considerable loss of his own forces. About twelve hundred of those that
came to pray are said to have been killed, and only fifty to have escaped by flight.
Brocmail turning his back with his men, at the first approach of the enemy, left those
whom he ought to have defended, unarmed and exposed to the swords of the enemies. Thus was
fulfilled the prediction of the holy Bishop Augustine, though he himself had been long
before taken up into the heavenly kingdom; that those perfidious men should feel the
vengeance of temporal death also, because they had despised the offer of eternal
salvation.
CHAPTER III
HOW ST. AUGUSTINE MADE MELLITUS AND JUSTUS BISHOPS; AND OF HIS DEATH. [A.D. 604.]
IN the year of our Lord 604, Augustine, archbishop of Britain, ordained two bishops,
viz. Mellitus and Justus; Mellitus to preach to the province of the East-Saxons, who are
divided from Kent by the river Thames, and border on the Eastern sea. Their metropolis is
the city of London, which is situated on the banks of the aforesaid river, and is the mart
of many nations resorting to it by sea and land. At that time, Sabert, nephew to Ethelbert
by his sister Ricula, reigned over the nation, though he was under subjection to
Ethelbert, who, as has been said above, had command over all the nations of the English as
far as the river Humber. But when this province also received the word of truth, by the
preaching of Mellitus, King Ethelbert built the church of St. Paul, in the city of London,
where he and his successors should have their episcopal see. As for Justus, Augustine
ordained him bishop in Kent, at the city which the English nation named Rhofescestir, from
one that was formerly the chief man of it, called Rhof. It was almost twenty-four miles
distant from the city of Canterbury to the westward, and contains a church dedicated to
St. Andrew, the apostle. King Ethelbert, who built it, bestowed many gifts on the bishops
of both those churches, as well as on that of Canterbury, adding lands and possessions for
the use of those who were with the bishops.
After this, the beloved of God; Father Augustine, died, and his body was deposited
without, close by the church of the apostles, Peter and Paul, above spoken of, by reason
that the same was not yet finished, nor consecrated, but as soon as it was dedicated, the
body was brought in, and decently buried in the north porch thereof; wherein also were
interred the bodies of all the succeeding archbishops, except two only, Theodorus and
Berthwald, whose bodies are within that church, because the aforesaid porch could contain
no more. Almost in the midst of this church is an altar dedicated in honour of the blessed
Pope Gregory, at which every Saturday their service is solemnly performed by the priest of
that place. On the tomb of the said Augustine is written this epitaph -
"Here rests the Lord Augustine, first archbishop of Canterbury, who, being
formerly sent hither by the blessed Gregory, bishop of the city of Rome, and by God's
assistance supported with miracles, reduced King Ethelbert and his nation from the worship
of idols to the faith of Christ, and having ended the days of his office in peace, died
the 26th day of May, in the reign of the same king."
CHAPTER IV
LAURENTIUS AND HIS BISHOPS ADMONISH THE SCOTS TO OBSERVE THE UNITY OF THE HOLY CHURCH,
PARTICULARLY IN KEEPING OF EASTER; MELLITUS GOES TO ROME. [A.D. 605.]
LAURENTIUS succeeded Augustine in the bishopric, having been ordained thereto by the
latter, in his lifetime, lest, upon his death, the state of the church, as yet unsettled,
might begin to falter, if it should be destitute of a pastor, though but for one hour.
Wherein he also followed the example of the first pastor of the church, that is, of the
most blessed prince of the apostles, Peter, who, having founded the church of Christ at
Rome, is said to have consecrated Clement his assistant in preaching the Gospel, and at
the same time his successor. Laurentius, being advanced to the degree of an archbishop,
laboured indefatigably, both by frequent exhortations and examples of piety, to raise to
perfection the foundations of the church, which had been so nobly laid. In short, he not
only took care of the new church formed among the English, but endeavoured also to employ
his pastoral solicitude among the ancient inhabitants of Britain, as also the Scots, who
inhabit the island of Ireland, which is next to Britain. For when he understood that the
course of life and profession of the Scots in their aforesaid country, as well as of the
Britons in Britain, was not truly ecclesiastical, especially that they did not celebrate
the solemnity of Easter at the due time, but thought that the day of the resurrection of
our Lord was, as has been said above, to be celebrated between the 14th and 20th of the
moon; he wrote, jointly with his fellow bishops, an exhortatory epistle, entreating and
conjuring them to observe unity of peace, and conformity with the church of Christ spread
throughout the world. The beginning of which epistle is as follows -
"To our most dear brothers, the lords bishops and abbots throughout Scotland,
Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus, servants of the servants of God. When the apostolic
see, according to the universal custom which has followed elsewhere, sent us to these
western parts to preach to pagan nations, we came into this island, which is called
Britain, without possessing any previous know ledge of its inhabitants. We held both the
Britons and Scots in great esteem for sanctity, believing that they had proceeded
according to the custom of the universal church; but coming acquainted with the errors of
the Britons, we thought the Scots had been better; but we have been informed by Bishop
Dagan, coming into this aforesaid island, and the Abbot Columbanus in France, that the
Scots in no way differ from the Britons in their behaviour; for Bishop Dagan coming to us,
not only refused to eat with us, but even to take his repast in the same house where we
were entertained."
The same Laurentius and his fellow bishops wrote a letter to the priests of the
Britons, suitable to his rank, by which he endeavoured to confirm them in Catholic unity;
but what he gained by so doing the present times still declare.
About this time, Mellitus, bishop of London, went to Rome, to confer with Pope Boniface
about the necessary affairs of the English church. And the same most reverend pope,
assembling a synod of the bishops of Italy, to prescribe orders for the life and peace of
the monks, Mellitus also sat among them, in the eighth year of the reign of the Emperor
Phocas, the thirteenth indiction, on the 27th of February, to the end that he also by his
authority might confirm such things as should be regularly decreed, and at his return into
Britain might carry the same to the churches of the English, to be prescribed and
observed; together with letters which the same pope sent to the beloved of God, Archbishop
Laurentius, and to all the clergy; as likewise to King Ethelbert and the English nation.
This pope was Boniface, who came fourth after Pope Gregory, and who obtained of the
Emperor Phocas that the temple called by the ancients Pantheon, as representing all the
gods, should be given to the Church of Christ; wherein he, having purified it from
contamination, dedicated a church to the holy mother of God, and to all Christ's martyrs,
to the end that, the devils being excluded, the blessed company of the saints might have
therein a perpetual memorial.
CHAPTER V
HOW, AFTER THE DEATH OF THE KINGS ETHELBERT AND SABERT, THEIR SUCCESSORS RESTORED
IDOLATRY; FOR WHICH REASON, BOTH MELLITUS AND JUSTUS DEPARTED OUT OF BRITAIN. [A.D. 616.]
IN the year of our Lord's incarnation 616, which is the twenty-first year after
Augustine and his companions were sent to preach to the English nation, Ethelbert, king of
Kent, having most gloriously governed his temporal kingdom fifty-six years, entered into
the eternal joys of the kingdom which is heavenly. He was the third of the English kings
that had the sovereignty of all the southern provinces that are divided from the northern
by the river Humber, and the borders contiguous to the same; but the first of the kings
that ascended to the heavenly kingdom. The first who had the like Sovereignty was Elli,
king or the South-Saxons; the second, Celin, king of the West-Saxons, who, in their own
language, is called Ceaulin; the third, as has been said, was Ethelbert, king of Kent; the
fourth was Redwald, king of the East-Angles, who, whilst Ethelbert lived, had been
subservient to him. The fifth was Edwin, king of the nation of the Northumbrians, that is,
of those who live on the north side of the river Humber, who, with great power, commanded
all the nations, as well of the English as of the Britons who inhabit Britain, except only
the people of Kent, and he reduced also under the dominion of the English, the Mevanian
Islands of the Britons, lying between Ireland and Britain; the sixth was Oswald, the most
Christian king of the Northumbrians, who also had the same extent under his command; the
seventh, Oswy, brother to the former, held the same dominions for some time, and for the
most part subdued and made tributary the nations of the Picts and Scots, which possess the
northern parts of Britain: but of these hereafter.
King Ethelbert died on the 24th day of the month of February, twenty-one years after he
had received the faith, and was buried in St. Martin's porch within the church of the
blessed apostles Peter and Paul, where also lies his queen, Bertha. Among other benefits
which he conferred upon the nation, he also, by the advice of wise persons, introduced
judicial decrees, after the Roman model; which, being written in English, are still kept
and observed by them. Among which, he in the first place set down what satisfaction should
be given by those who should steal anything belonging to the church, the bishop, or the
other clergy, resolving to give protection to those whose doctrine be had embraced.
This Ethelbert was the son of Irminric, whose father was Octa, whose father was Orric,
surnamed Oisc, from whom the kings of Kent are wont to be called Oiscings. His father was
Hengist, who, being invited by Vortigern, first came into Britain, with his son Oisc, as
has been said above.
But after the death of Ethelbert, the accession of his son Eadbald proved very
prejudicial to the new church; for he not only refused to embrace the faith of Christ, but
was also defiled with such a sort of fornication, as the apostle testifies, was not heard
of, even among the Gentiles; for he kept his father's wife. By both which crimes he gave
occasion to those to return to their former uncleanness, who, under his father, had,
either for favour, or through fear of the king, submitted to the laws of faith and
chastity. Nor did the perfidious king escape without Divine punishment and correction; for
he was troubled with frequent fits of madness, and possessed by an evil spirit. This
confusion was increased by the death of Sabert, king of the East-Saxons, who departing to
the heavenly kingdom, left three sons, still pagans, to inherit his temporal crown. They
immediately began to profess idolatry, which, during their father's reign, they had seemed
a little to abandon, and they granted free liberty to the people under their government to
serve idols. And when they saw the bishop, whilst celebrating mass in the church, give the
eucharist to the people, they, puffed up with barbarous folly, were wont, as it is
reported, to say to him, "Why do you not give us also that white bread, which you
used to give to our father Saba (for so they used to call him), and which you still
continue to give to the people in the church?" To whom he answered, "If you will
be washed in that laver of salvation, in which our father was washed, you may also partake
of the holy bread of which he partook; but if you despise the laver of life, you may not
receive the bread of life." They replied, "We will not enter into that laver,
because we do not know that we stand in need of it, and yet we will eat of that
bread." And being often earnestly admonished by him, that the same could not be done,
nor any one admitted to partake of the sacred oblation without the holy cleansing, at
last, they said in anger, "If you will not comply with us in so small a matter as
that is which we require, you shall not stay in our province." And accordingly they
obliged him and his followers to depart from their kingdom. Being forced from thence, he
came into Kent, to advise with his fellow bishops, Laurentius and Justus, what was to be
done in that case; and it was unanimously agreed, that it was better for them all to
return to their own country, where they might serve God in freedom, than to continue
without any advantage among those barbarians, who had revolted from the faith. Mellitus
and Justus accordingly went away first, and withdrew into France, designing there to await
the event of things. But the kings, who had driven from them the preacher of the truth,
did not continue long unpunished in their heathenish worship. For marching out to battle
against the nation of the Gewissie, they were all slain with their army. However, the
people, having been once turned to wickedness, though the authors of it were destroyed,
would not be corrected, nor return to the unity of faith and charity which is in Christ.
CHAPTER VI
LAURENTIUS, BEING REPROVED BY THE APOSTLE, CONVERT, RING EADBALD TO CHRIST; MELLITUS
AND JUSTUS ARE RECALLED. [A.D. 616.]
LAURENTIUS, being about to follow Mellitus and Justus, and to quit Britain, ordered his
bed to be laid the night before in the church of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul,
which has been often mentioned before; wherein having laid himself to take some rest,
after he had poured out many prayers and tears to God for the state of the church, be fell
asleep; in the dead of night, the blessed prince of the apostles appeared to him, and
scourging him a long time with apostolical severity, asked of him, "Why he would
forsake the flock which he had committed to him? or to what shepherds he would commit
Christ's sheep that were in the midst of wolves? Have you," said he, "forgotten
my example, who, for the sake of those little ones, whom Christ recommended to me in token
of his affection, underwent at the hands of infidels and enemies of Christ, bonds,
stripes, imprisonment, afflictions, and lastly, the death of the cross, that I might at
last be crowned with him?" Laurentius, the servant of Christ, being excited by these
words and stripes, the very next morning repaired to the king, and taking off his garment,
showed the scars of the stripes which he had received. The king, astonished, asked,
"Who had presumed to give such stripes to so great a man?" And was much
frightened when he heard that the bishop had suffered so much at the hands of the apostle
of Christ for his salvation. Then abjuring the worship of idols, and renouncing his
unlawful marriage, he embraced the faith of Christ, and being baptized, promoted the
affairs of the church to the utmost of his power.
He also sent over into France, and recalled Mellitus and Justus, and commanded them
freely to return to govern their churches, which they accordingly did, one year after
their departure. Justus, indeed, returned to the city of Lochester, where he had before
presided; but the Londoners would not receive Bishop Mellitus, choosing rather to be under
their idolatrous high priests; for King Eadbald had not so much authority in the kingdom
as his father, nor was he able to restore the bishop to his church against the will and
consent of the pagans. But he and his nation, after his conversion to our Lord, diligently
followed the Divine precepts. Lastly, he built the church of the holy Mother of God, in
the monastery of the most blessed prince of the apostles, which was afterwards consecrated
by Archbishop Mellitus.
CHAPTER VII
BISHOP MELLITUS BY PRAYER QUENCHES A FIRE IN HIS CITY. [A.D. 619.]
IN this king's reign, the holy Archbishop Laurentius was taken up to the heavenly
kingdom: he was buried in the church and monastery of the holy Apostle Peter, close by his
predecessor Augustine, on the 2nd day of the month of February. Mellitus, who was bishop
of London, was the third archbishop of Canterbury from Augustine; Justus, who was still
living, governed the church of Rochester. These ruled the church of the English with much
industry and labour, and received letters of exhortation from Boniface, bishop of the
Roman apostolic see who presided over the church after Deusdedit, in the year of our Lord
619. Mellitus laboured under an infirmity of body, that is, the gout; but his mind was
sound, cheerfully passing over all earthly things, and always aspiring to love, seek, and
attain to those which are celestial. He was noble by birth, but much nobler in mind.
In short, that I may give one testimony of his virtue, by which the rest may be guessed
at, it happened once that the City of Canterbury, being by carelessness set on fire, was
in danger of being consumed by the spreading conflagration; water was thrown over the fire
in vain; a considerable part of the city was already destroyed, and the fierce flame
advancing towards the bishop, when he, confiding in the Divine assistance, where human
failed ordered himself to be carried towards the raging fire, that was spreading on every
side. The church of the four crowned Martyrs was in the place where the fire raged most.
The bishop being carried thither by his servants; the sick man averted the danger by
prayer, which a number of strong men had not been able to perform by much labour.
Immediately, the wind, which blowing from the south had spread the conflagration
throughout the city, turning to the north, prevented the destruction of those places that
had lain in its way, and then ceasing entirely, the flames were immediately extinguished.
And thus the man of God, whose mind was inflamed with the fire of Divine charity, and who
was wont to drive away the powers of the air by his frequent prayers, from doing harm to
himself, or his people, was deservedly allowed to prevail over the worldly winds and
flames, and to obtain that they should not injure him or his.
This archbishop also, having ruled the church five years, departed to heaven in the
reign of King Eadbald, and was buried with his predecessors in the monastery and church,
which we have so often mentioned, of the most blessed prince of the apostles, in the year
of our Lord's incarnation 624, on the 24th day of April.
CHAPTER VIII
POPE BONIFACE SENDS THE PALL AND AN EPISTLE TO JUSTUS, SUCCESSOR TO MELLITUS. [A.D.
624.]
JUSTUS, bishop of Rochester, immediately succeeded Mellitus in the archbishopric. He
consecrated Romanus bishop of that see in his own stead, having obtained leave of
ordaining bishops from Pope Boniface, whom we mentioned above to have been successor to
Deusdedit: of which licence this is the form-
Boniface, to his most beloved brother Justus. Not only the contents of your
letter, but the perfection which your work has obtained, has informed us how devoutly and
diligently you have laboured, my brother, for the Gospel of Christ; for Almighty God has
not forsaken either the mystery of his name, or the fruit of your labours, having Himself
faithfully promised to the preachers of the Gospel, 'Lo! I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world;' which promise his mercy has particularly manifested in this
ministry of yours, opening the hearts of nations to receive the mystery of your preaching.
For He has enlightened the acceptable course of your endeavours, by the approbation of his
grace; granting a plentiful increase to your faithful management of the talents committed
to you, and which you may secure for many generations. This is by that reward conferred on
you, who, constantly adhering to the ministry enjoined you, with laudable patience await
the redemption of that nation, whose salvation is set on foot that they may profit by your
merits, our Lord Himself saying, He that perseveres to the end shall be saved.' You are,
therefore, saved by the hope of patience, and the virtue of endurance, to the end that the
hearts of infidels, being cleansed from their natural and superstitious disease, might
obtain to mercy of their Redeemer: for having received the letters of our son Ethelwald,
we perceive with how much knowledge of the sacred word your mind, my brother, has brought
over his mind to the belief in real conversion and the true faith. Therefore, firmly
confiding in the long-suffering of the Divine clemency, we believe there will, through the
ministry of your preaching, ensue most full salvation not only of the nations subject to
him, but also of those that neighbour round about; to the end, that as it is written, the
reward of a perfect work may be conferred on you by our Lord, the giver of all good
things; and that the universal confession of all nations, having received the mystery of
the Christian faith, may declare, that their 'Sound went into all the earth, and their
words unto the ends of the world.'
"We have also, my brother, encouraged by zeal for what is good, sent you by the
bearer of these, the pall, which we have only given leave to use in the celebration of the
sacred mysteries; granting you likewise to ordain bishops when there shall be occasion,
through the mercy of our Lord; that so the Gospel of Christ, by the preaching of many, may
be spread abroad in all the nations that are not yet converted. You must, therefore,
endeavour, my brother, to preserve with unblemished sincerity of mind that which you have
received through the favour of the Apostolic See, as an emblem whereof you have obtained
so principal an ornament to be borne on your shoulders. And make it your business,
imploring the Divine goodness, so to behave yourself, that you may present before the
tribunal of the Supreme Judge that is to come, the rewards of the favour granted you, not
with guiltiness, but with the benefit of souls.
"God preserve you in safety, most dear brother!"
CHAPTER IX
THE REIGN OF KING EDWIN, AND HOW PAULINUS, COMING TO PREACH THE GOSPEL, FIRST CONVERTED
HIS DAUGHTER AND OTHERS TO THE FAITH OF CHRIST. [A.D. 625.]
AT this time the nation of the Northumbrians, that is, the nation of the Angles that
live on the north side of the river Humber, with their king, Edwin, received the faith
through the preaching of Paulinus, above mentioned. This Edwin, as a reward of his
receiving the faith, and as an earnest of his share in the heavenly kingdom, received an
increase of that which he enjoyed on earth, for he reduced under his dominion all the
borders of Britain that were provinces either of the aforesaid nation, or of the Britons,
a thing which no British king had ever done before; and he in like manner subjected to the
English the Mevanian islands, as has been said above. The first whereof, which is to the
southward, is the largest in extent, and most fruitful, containing nine hundred and sixty
families, according to the English computation; the other above three hundred.
The occasion of this nation's embracing the faith was, their aforesaid king, being
allied to the kings of Kent, having taken to wife Ethelberga, otherwise called Tate,
daughter to King Ethelbert. He having by his ambassadors asked her in marriage of her
brother Eadbald, who then reigned in Kent, was answered, "That it was not lawful to
marry a Christian virgin to a pagan husband, lest the faith and the mysteries of the
heavenly King should be profaned by her cohabiting with a king that was altogether a
stranger to the worship of the true God." This answer being brought to Edwin by his
messengers, he promised in no manner to act in opposition to the Christian faith, which
the virgin professed; but would give leave to her, and all that went with her, men or
women, priests or ministers, to follow their faith and worship after the custom of the
Christians. Nor did he deny, but that he would embrace the same religion, if, being
examined by wise persons, it should be found more holy and more worthy of God.
Hereupon the virgin was promised, and sent to Edwin, and pursuant to what had been
agreed on, Paulinus, a man beloved of God, was ordained bishop, to go with her, and by
daily exhortations, and celebrating the heavenly mysteries, to confirm her and her
company, lest they should be corrupted by the company of the pagans. Paulinus was ordained
bishop by the Archbishop Justus, on the 21st day of July, in the year of our Lord 625, and
so he came to King Edwin with the aforesaid virgin as a companion of their union in the
flesh. But his mind was wholly bent upon reducing the nation to which he was sent to the
knowledge of truth; according to the words of the apostle, "To espouse her to one
husband, that he might present her as a chaste virgin to Christ." Being come into
that province, he laboured much, not only to retain those that went with him, by the help
of God, that they should not revolt from the faith, but, if he could, to convert some of
the pagans to a state of grace by his preaching. But, as the apostle says, though he
laboured long in the word, "The god of this world blinded the minds of them that
believed not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto
them."
The next year there came into the province a certain assassin, called Eumer, sent by
the king of the West-Saxons, whose name was Cuichelm, in hopes at once to deprive King
Edwin of his kingdom and his life. He had a two-edged dagger, dipped in poison, to the
end, that if the wound were not sufficient to kill the king, it might be performed by the
venom. He came to the king on the first day of Easter, at the river Derwent, where then
stood the regal city, and heing admitted as if to deliver a message from his master,
whilst he was in an artful manner delivering his pretended embassy, he started on a
sudden, and drawing the dagger from under his garment, assaulted the king; which Lilla,
the king's beloved minister, observing, having no buckler at hand to secure the king from
death, interposed his own body to receive the stroke; but the wretch struck so home, that
he wounded the king through the knight's body. Being then attacked on all sides with
swords, he in that confusion also slew another soldier, whose name was Forthhere.
On that same holy night of Easter Sunday, the queen had brought forth to the king a
daughter, called Eanfled. The king, in the presence of Bishop Paulinus, gave thanks to his
gods for the birth of his daughter; and the bishop, on the other hand, returned thanks to
Christ, and endeavoured to persuade the king, that by his prayers to Him he had obtained
that the queen should bring forth the child in safety, and without much pain. The king,
delighted with his words, promised, that in case God would grant him life and victory over
the king by whom the assassin had been sent, he would cast off his idols, and serve
Christ; and as a pledge that he would perform his promise, he delivered up that same
daughter to Paulinus, to be consecrated to Christ. She was the first baptized of the
nation of the Northunibrians, on Whitsunday, with twelve others of her family. At that
time, the king, being recovered of the wound which he had received, marched with his army
against the nation of the West-Saxons; and having begun the war, either slew or subdued
all those that he had been informed had conspired to murder him. Returning thus victorious
unto his own country, he would not immediately and unadvisedly embrace the mysteries of
the Christian faith, though he no longer worshipped idols, ever since he made the promise
that he would serve Christ; but thought fit first at leisure to be instructed, by the
venerable Paulinus, in the knowledge of faith, and to confer with such as he knew to be
the wisest of his prime men, to advise what they thought was fittest to be done in that
case. And being a man of extraordinary sagacity, he often sat alone by himself a long
time, silent as to his tongue, but deliberating in his heart how he should proceed, and
which religion he should adhere to.
CHAPTER X
POPE BONIFACE, BY LETTER, EXHORTS THE SAME KING TO EMBRACE THE FAITH. [A.D. 625.]
AT this time he received letters from Pope Boniface [IV.] exhorting him to embrace the
faith, which were as follows-
COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE HOLY AND APOSTOLIC POPE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME, BONIFACE, TO
THE GLORIOUS EDWIN, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
"To the illustrious Edwin, king of the English, Bishop Boniface, the servant of
the servants of God. Although the power of the Supreme Deity cannot be expressed by
human speech, as consisting in its own greatness, and in invisible and unsearchable
eternity, so that no sharpness of wit can comprehend or express it; yet in regard that the
goodness of God, to give some notion of itself, having opened the doors of the heart, has
mercifully, by secret inspiration, infused into the minds of men such things as He is
willing shall be declared concerning Himself, we have thought fit to extend our priestly
care to make known to you the fulness of the Christian faith; to the end that, informing
you of the Gospel of Christ, which our Saviour commanded should be preached to all
nations, they might offer to you the cup of life and salvation.
"Thus the goodness of the Supreme Majesty, which, by the word of his command, made
and created all things, the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, disposing
the order by which they should subsist, hath, with the counsel of his co-eternal Word, and
the unity of the Holy Spirit, formed man after his own likeness, out of the slime of the
earth; and granted him such super-eminent prerogative, as to place him above all others;
so that, observing the command which was given him, his continuance should be to eternity.
This God,-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which is an undivided Trinity,- mankind, from the
east unto the west, by confession of faith to the saving of their souls, do worship and
adore as the Creator of all things, and their own Maker; to whom also the heights of
empire, and the powers of the world, are subject, because the bestowal of all kingdoms is
granted by his disposition. It hath pleased Him, therefore, of his great mercy, and for
the greater benefit of all his creatures, by his Holy Spirit wonderfully to kindle the
cold hearts also of the nations seated at the extremities of the earth in the knowledge of
Himself.
"For we suppose your excellency has, from the country lying so near, fully
understood what the clemency of our Redeemer has effected in the enlightening of our
glorious son, King Eadbald, and the nations under his subjection; we therefore trust, with
assured confidence of celestial hope, that his wonderful gift will be also conferred on
you; since we understand that your illustrious consort, which is known to be a part of
your body, is illuminated with the reward of eternity, through the regeneration of holy
baptism. We have, therefore, taken care by these presents, with all possible affection, to
exhort your illustrious selves, that, abhorring idols and their worship, and contemning
the follies of temples, and the deceitful flatteries of auguries, you believe in God the
Father Almighty, and his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, to the end that, being
discharged from the bonds of captivity to the Devil, by believing you may, through the
co-operating power of the holy and undivided Trinity, be partaker of the eternal life.
"How great guilt they lie under, who adhere to the pernicious superstitions and
worship of idolatry, appears by the examples of the perdition of those whom they worship.
Wherefore it is said of them by the Psalmist, 'All the gods of the Gentiles are devils,
but the Lord made the heavens.' And again, 'they have eyes and do not see, they have ears
and do not hear, they have noses and do not smell, they have hands and do not feel, they
have feet and do not walk. Therefore they are like those that confide in them.' For how
can they have any power to yield assistance, that are made for you out of corruptible
matter, by the hands of your inferiors and subjects, to wit, on whom you have by human art
bestowed an inanimate similitude of members? Who, unless they be moved by you, will not be
able to walk; but, like a stone fixed in one place, being so formed, and having no
understanding, but absorbed in insensibility, have no power of doing harm or good. We
cannot, therefore, upon mature deliberation, find out how you come to be so deceived as to
follow and worship those gods, to whom you yourselves have given the likeness of a body.
"It behooves you, therefore, by taking upon you the sign of the holy cross, by
which the human race is redeemed, to root out of your hearts all those arts and cunning of
the Devil, who is ever jealous of the works of the Divine goodness, and to lay hold and
break in pieces those which you have hitherto made your material gods. For the very
destruction and abolition of these, which could never receive life or sense from their
makers, may plainly demonstrate to you how worthless they were which you till then had
worshipped, when you yourselves, who have received life from the Lord, are certainly
better than they, as-Almighty God has appointed you to be descended after many ages and
through many generations, from the first man whom He formed. Draw near, then, to the
knowledge of Him who created you, who breathed the breath of life into you, who sent his
only-begotten Son for your redemption, to cleanse you from original sin, that being
delivered from the power of the Devil's wickedness, He might bestow on you a heavenly
reward.
Hear the words of the preachers, and the Gospel of God, which they declare to you, to
the end that, believing, as has been said, in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ
his Son, and the Holy Ghost, and the indivisible Trinity, having put to flight the
sensualities of devils, and driven from you the suggestions of the venomous and deceitful
enemy, and being born again by water and the Holy Ghost, you may, through his assistance
and bounty, dwell in the brightness of eternal glory with Him in whom you shall believe.
We have, moreover, sent you the blessing of your protector, the blessed Peter, prince of
the apostles, that is, a shirt, with one gold ornament, and one garment of Ancyra, which
we pray your highness to accept with the same goodwill as it is friendly intended by
us."
CHAPTER XI
POPE BONIFACE ADVISES QUEEN ETHELBERGA TO USE HER BEST ENDEAVOURS FOR THE SALVATION OF
HER CONSORT, KING EDWIN. [A.D. 625.]
THE same pope also wrote to King Edwin's Consort, Ethelberga, to this effect
THE COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE MOST BLESSED AND APOSTOLIC BONIFACE, POPE OF THE CITY OF
ROME, TO ETHELBERGA, KING EDWIN'S QUEEN.
"To the illustrious lady his daughter, Queen Ethelberga, Boniface, bishop,
servant of the servants of God: The goodness of our Redeemer has with much providence
offered the means of salvation to the human race; which He rescued, by the shedding of his
precious blood, from the bonds of captivity to the Devil; so that making his name known in
divers ways to the Gentiles, they might acknowledge their Creator by embracing the mystery
of the Christian faith, which thing, the mystical purification of your regeneration
plainly shows to have been bestowed upon the mind of your highness by God's bounty. Our
mind, therefore, has been much rejoiced in the benefit of our Lord's goodness, for that He
has vouchsafed, in your conversion, to kindle a spark of the orthodox religion, by which
He might the more easily inflame in his love the understanding, not only of your glorious
consort, but also of all the nation that is subject to you.
"For we have been informed by those, who came to acquaint us with the laudable
conversion of our illustrious son, King Eadbald, that your highness, also, having received
the wonderful sacrament of the Christian faith, continually excels in the performance of
works pious and acceptable to God. That you likewise carefully refrain from the worship of
idols, and the deceits of temples and auguries, and having changed your devotion, are so
wholly taken up with the love of your Redeemer, as never to cease lending your assistance
for the propagation of the Christian faith. And our fatherly charity having earnestly
inquired concerning your illustrious husband, we were given to understand that he still
served abominable idols, and would not yield obedience or give ear to the voice of the
preachers. This occasioned us no small grief, for that part of your body still remained a
stranger to the knowledge of the supreme and undivided Trinity. Whereupon we, in our
fatherly care, did not delay to admonish your Christian highness, exhorting you, that,
with the help of the Divine inspiration, you will not defer to do that which, both in
season and out of season, is required of us; that with the co-operating power of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, your husband also may be added to the number of Christians; to
the end that you may thereby enjoy the rights of marriage in the bond of a holy and
unblemished union. For it is written, 'They two shall be in one flesh How can it be said,
that there is unity between you, if he continues a stranger to the brightness of your
faith, by the interposition of dark and detestable error?
"Wherefore, applying yourself continually to prayer, do not cease to beg of the
Divine Mercy the benefit of his illumination; to the end, that those whom the union of
carnal affection has made in a manner but one body, may, after death, continue in
perpetual union, by the bond of faith. Persist, therefore, illustrious daughter, and to
the utmost of your power endeavour to soften the hardness of his heart by insinuating the
Divine precepts; making him sensible how noble the mystery is which you have received by
believing, and how wonderful is the reward which, by the new birth, you have merited to
obtain. Inflame the coldness of his heart by the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, that by the
abolition of the cold and pernicious worship of paganism, the heat of Divine faith may
enlighten his understanding through your frequent exhortations; that the testimony of the
holy Scripture may appear the more conspicuous, fulfilled by you, 'The unbelieving husband
shall be saved by the believing wife.' For to this effect you have obtained the mercy of
our Lord's goodness. that you may return with increase the fruit of faith, and the
benefits entrusted in your hands; for through the assistance of his mercy we do not cease
with frequent prayers to beg that you may be able to perform the same.
Having premised thus much, in pursuance of the duty of our fatherly affection, we
exhort you, that when the opportunity of a bearer shall offer, you will as soon as
possible acquaint us with the success which the Divine Power shall grant by your means in
the conversion of your consort, and of the nation subject to you; to the end, that our
solicitude, which earnestly expects what appertains to the salvation of you and yours,
may, by hearing from you, be set at rest; and that we, discerning more fully the
brightness of the Divine propitiation diffused in you, may with a joyful confession
abundantly return due thank to God, the Giver of all good things, and to St. Peter the
prince of apostles. We have, moreover, sent you the blessing of your protector, St. Peter,
the prince of the apostles, that is, a silver looking-glass, and a gilt ivory comb, which
we entreat your glory will receive with the same kind affection as it is known to be sent
by us."
CHAPTER XII
KING EDWIN IS PERSUADED TO BELIEVE BY A VISION WHICH HE HAD SEEN WHEN HE WAS IN EXILE.
[BEFORE A.D. 625.]
THUS the aforesaid Pope Boniface wrote for the salvation of King Edwin and his nation.
But a heavenly vision, which the Divine Mercy was pleased once to reveal to this king,
when he was in banishment at the court of Redwald, king of the Angles, was of no little
use in urging him to embrace and understand the doctrines of salvation. Paulinus,
therefore, perceiving that it was a very difficult task to incline the king's lofty mind
to the humility of the way of salvation, and to embrace the mystery of the cross of life,
and at the same time using both exhortation with men, and prayer to God, for his and his
subjects' salvation; at length, as we may suppose, it was shown him in spirit what was the
vision that had been formerly revealed to the king. Nor did he lose any time, but
immediately admonished the king to perform the vow which he made, when he received the
oracle, promising to put the same in execution, if he was delivered from the trouble he
was at that time under, and should be advanced to the throne.
The vision was this. When Ethelfrid, his predecessor, was persecuting him, he for many
years wandered in a private manner through several places and kingdoms, and at last came
to Redwald, beseeching him to give him protection against the snares of his powerful
persecutor. Redwald willingly admitted him, and promised to perform what he requested. But
when Ethelfrid understood that he had appeared in that province, and that he and his
companions were hospitably entertained by Redwald, he sent messengers to offer that king a
great sum of money to murder him, but without effect. He sent a second and a third time,
bidding more and more each time, and threatening to make war on him if he refused.
Redwald, either terrified by his threats, or gained by his gifts, complied with his
request, and promised either to kill Edwin, or to deliver him up to the ambassadors. This
being observed by a trusty friend of his, he went into his chamber, where he was going to
bed, for it was the first hour of the night; and calling him out, discovered what the king
had promised to do with him, adding, "If, therefore, you for you good will, yet I
cannot do what you propose, province, and lead you to a place where neither Redwald nor
Ethelfrid shall ever find you." He answered, "I thank you think fit, I will this
very hour conduct you out of this or be guilty of breaking the compact I have made with so
great a king, when he has done me no harm, nor offered me any injury; but, on the
contrary, if I must die, let it rather be by his hand than by that of any meaner person.
For whither shall I now fly, when I have for so many years been a vagabond through all the
provinces of Britain, to escape the hands of my enemies?" His friend being gone,
Edwin remained alone without, and sitting with a heavy heart before the palace, began to
be overwhelmed with many thoughts, not knowing what to do, or which way to turn himself.
When he had remained a long time in silence, brooding over his misfortunes in anguish
of mind, he, on a sudden, in the dead of night, saw approaching a person, whose face and
habit were equally strange, at which unexpected sight he was not a little frightened. The
stranger coming close up, saluted him, and asked him, "Why he sat there alone and
melancholy on a stone at that time, when all others were taking their rest, and were fast
asleep?" Edwin, in his turn, asked, "What it was to him, whether he spent the
night within doors or abroad?" The stranger, in reply, said, "Do not think that
I am ignorant of the cause of your grief, your watching, and sitting alone without. For I
know who you are, and why you grieve, and the evils which you fear will fall upon you. But
tell me, what reward you will give the man that shall deliver you out of this anguish, and
persuade Redwald neither to do you any harm himself, nor to deliver you up to be murdered
by your enemies. Edwin replied, "That he would give that person all that he was able
for so singular a favour." The other further added, "What if I also assure you,
that you shall overcome your enemies, and surpass in power, not Only all your own
progenitors, but even all that have reigned before you over the English nation?"
Edwin, encouraged by these questions, did not hesitate to promise that he would make a
suitable return to him who should so highly oblige him. Then said the other, "But if
he who foretells so much good as is to befall you, can also give you better advice for
your life and salvation than any of your progenitors or kindred ever heard of, do you
consent to submit to him, and to follow his wholesome counsel?" Edwin did not
hesitate to promise that he would in all things follow the directions of that man who
should deliver him from so many calamities, and raise him to a throne.
Having received this answer, the person that talked to him laid his hand on his head
saying, "When this sign shall he given you, remember this present discourse that has
passed between us, and do not delay the performance of what you now promise." Having
uttered these words, he is said to have immediately vanished, that the king might
understand it was not a man, but a spirit, that had appeared to him.
Whilst the royal youth still sat there alone, glad of the comfort he had received, but
seriously considering who he was, or whence he came, that had so talked to him, his
above-mentioned friend came to him, and saluting him with a pleasant countenance,
"Rise," said he, "go in and compose yourself to sleep without fear; for the
king's resolution is altered, and he designs to do you no harm, but rather to perform the
promise which he made you; fr when he had privately acquainted the queen with his
intention of doing what I told you before, she dissuaded him from it, declaring it was
unworthy of so great a king to sell his good friend in such distress for gold, and to
sacrifice his honour, which is more valuable than all other ornaments, for the lucre of
money." In short, the king did as he was advised, and not only refused to deliver up
the banished man to his enemy's messengers, but assisted him to recover his kingdom. For
as soon as the ambassadors were returned home, he raised a mighty army to make war on
Ethelfrid; who, meeting him with much inferior forces (for Redwald had not given him time
to gather all his power), was slain on the borders of the kingdom of Mercia, on the east
side of the river that is called Idle. In this battle, Redwald's son, called Regnhere, was
killed; and thus Edwin, pursuant to the oracle he had received, not only escaped the
danger from the king his enemy, but, by his death, succeeded him in the throne.
King Edwin, therefore, delaying to receive the word of God at the preaching of
Paulinus, and using for some time, as has been said, to sit several hours alone, and
seriously to ponder with himself what he was to do, and what religion he was to follow,
the man of God came to him, laid his right hand on his head, and asked, "Whether he
knew that sign?" The king in a trembling condition, was ready to fall down at his
feet, but he raised him up, and in a familiar manner said to him, "Behold, by the
help of God you have escaped the hands of the enemies whom you feared. Behold you have of
his gift obtained the kingdom which you desired. Take heed not to delay that which you
promised to perform; embrace the faith, and keep the precepts of Him who, delivering you
from temporal adversity, has raised you to the honour of a temporal kingdom; and if, from
this time forward, you shall be obedient to his will, which through me He signifies to
you, He will not only deliver you from the everlasting torments of the wicked, but also
make you partaker with Him of his eternal kingdom in heaven."
CHAPTER XIII
OF THE COUNCIL HE HELD WITH HIS CHIEF MEN ABOUT EMBRACING THE FAITH OF CHRIST, AND HOW
THE HIGH PRIEST PROFANED HIS OWN ALTARS. [A.D. 627.]
THE king, hearing these words, answered, that he was both willing and bound to receive
the faith which he taught; but that he would confer about it with his principal friends
and counsellers, to the end that if they also were of his opinion, they might all.
together be cleansed in Christ the Fountain of Life. Paulinus consenting, the king did as
he said; for, holding a council with the wise men, he asked of every one in particular
what he thought of the new doctrine, and the new worship that was preached? To which the
chief of. his own priests, Coifi, immediately answered, "O king, consider what this
is which is now preached to us; for I verily declare to you, that the religion which we
have hitherto professed has, as far as I can learn, no virtue in it. For none of your
people has applied himself more diligently to the worship of our gods than I; and yet
there are many who receive greater favours from you, and are more preferred than I, and
are more prosperous in all their undertakings. Now if the gods were good for any thing,
they would rather forward me, who have been more careful to serve them. It remains,
therefore, that if upon examination you find those new doctrines, which are now preached
to us, better and more efficacious, we immediately receive them without any delay."
Another of the king's chief men, approving of his words and exhortations, presently
added: "The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time
which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you
sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst,
whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one
door, and immediately out at another, whilst he. is within, is safe from the wintry storm;
but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into
the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space,
but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore,
this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be
followed." The other elders and king's councillors, by Divine inspiration, spoke to
the same effect.
But Coifi added, that he wished more attentively to bear Paulinus discourse concerning
the God whom he preached; which he having by the king's command performed, Coifi, hearing
his words, cried out, "I have long since been sensible that there was nothing in that
which we worshipped; because the more diligently I sought after truth in that worship, the
less I found it. But now I freely confess, that such truth evidently appears in this
preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness.
For which reason I advise, O king, that we instantly abjure and set fire to those temples
and altars which we have consecrated without reaping any benefit from them." In
short, the king publicly gave his licence to Paulinus to preach the Gospel, and renouncing
idolatry, declared that he received the faith of Christ: and then he inquired of the high
priest who should first profane the altars and temples of their idols, with the enclosures
that were about them, he answered, "I; for who can more properly than myself destroy
those things which I worshipped through ignorance, for an example to all others, through
the wisdom which has been given me by the true God?" Then immediately, in contempt of
his former superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion; and
mounting the same, he set out to destroy the idols; for it was not lawful before for the
high priest either to carry arms, or to ride on any but a mare. Having, therefore, girt a
sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted the king's stallion and proceeded to
the idols. The multitude, beholding it, concluded he was distracted; but he lost no time,
for as soon as he drew near the temple he profaned the same, casting into it the spear
which he held; and rejoicing in the knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded
his companions to destroy the temple, with all its enclosures, by fire. This place where
the idols were is still shown, not far from York, to the eastward, beyond the river
Derwent, and is now called Godmundinghan, where the high priest, by the inspiration of the
true God, profaned and destroyed the altars which he had himself consecrated.
CHAPTER XIV
KING EDWIN AND HIS NATION BECOME CHRISTIANS; PAULINUS BAPTIZES THEM. [A.D. 627.]
KING EDWIN, therefore, with all the nobility of the nation, and a large number of the
common sort, received the faith, and the washing of regeneration, in the eleventh year of
his reign, which is the year of the incarnation of our Lord 627, and about one hundred and
eighty after the coming of the English into Britain. He was baptized at York, on the holy
day of Easter, being the 12th of April, in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he
himself had built of timber, whilst he was catechising and instructing In order to receive
baptism. In that city also he appointed the see of the bishopric of his instructor and
bishop, Paulinus. But as soon as he was baptized, he took care, by the direction of the
same Paulinus, to build in the same place a larger and nobler church of stone, in the
midst whereof that same oratory which he had first erected should be enclosed. Having
therefore laid the foundation, he began to build the church square, encompassing the
former oratory. But before the whole was raised to the proper height, the wicked
assassination of the king left that work to be finished by Oswald his sucessor. Paulinus,
for the space of six years from that time, that is, till the end of the reign of that
king, by his consent and favour, preached the word of God in that Country, and all that
were preordained to eternal life believed and were baptized. Among whom were Osfrid and
Eadfrid, King Edwin's sons, who were both born to him, whilst he was in banishment, of
Quenberga, the daughter of Ceari, king of the Mercians.
Afterwards other children of his by Queen Ethelberga were baptized, viz. Ethelhun and
his daughter Etheidrith, and another, Wuscfrea, a son; the first two of which were
snatched out of this life whilst they were still in their white garments, and buried in
the church at York. Ifli, the son of Osfrid, was also baptized, and many more noble and
illustrious persons. So great was then the fervour of the faith, as is reported, and the
desire of the washing of salvation among the nation of the Northumbrians, that Paulinus at
a certain time coming with the king and queen the royal country-seat, which is called
Adgefrin, stayed there with them thirty-six days, fully occupied in catechising and
baptizing; during which days, from morning till night, he did nothing else but instruct
the people resorting from all villages and places, in Christ's saving word; and when
instructed, he washed them with the water of absolution in the river Glen, which is close
by. This town, under the following kings, was abandoned, and another was built intead of
it, at the place called Melmin.
These things happened in the province of the Bernicians; but in that of the Deiri also,
where he was wont often to be with the king, he baptized in the river Swale, which runs by
the village of Cataract; for as yet oratories, or fonts, could not be made in the early
infancy of the church in those parts. But he built a church in Campodonum, which
afterwards the pagans, by whom King Edwin was slain, burnt, together with all the town. In
the place of which the later kings built themselves a country-seat in the Country called
Loidis. But the altar, being of stone, escaped the fire and is still preserved in the
monastery of the most reverend abbot and priest, Thridwulf, which is in Elsiete wood.
CHAPTER XV
THE PROVINCE OF THE EAST ANGLES RECEIVES THE FAITH OF CHRIST. [A.D. 627.]
EDWIN was so zealous for the worship of truth, that he likewise persuaded Eorpwald,
king of the East Saxons, and son of Redwald, to abandon his idolatrous superstitions, and
with his whole province to receive the faith and sacraments of Christ. And indeed his
father Redwald had long before been admitted to the sacrament of the Christian faith in
Kent, but in vain; for on his return home, he was seduced by his wife and certain perverse
teachers, and turned back from the sincerity of the faith; and thus his latter state was
worse than the former; so that, like the ancient Samaritans, he seemed at the same time to
serve Christ and the gods whom he had served before; and in the same temple he had an
altar to sacrifice to Christ, and another small one to offer victims to devils; which
temple, Aldwulf, king of that same province, who lived in our time testifies had stood
until his time, and that he had seen it when he was a boy. The aforesaid King Redwald was
noble by birth, though ignoble in his actions, being the son of Tytilus, whose father was
Uuffa, from whom the kings of the East Angles are called Uuffings.
Eorpwald was, not long after he had embraced the Christian faith, slain by one
Richbert, a pagan; and from the time the province was under error for three years, till
the crown came into the possession of Sigebert, brother to the same Eorpwald, a most
Christian and learned man, who was banished, and went to live in France during his
brother's life, and was there admitted to the sacraments of the faith, whereof he made it
his business to cause all his province to partake as soon as he came to the throne. His
exertions were much promoted by the Bishop Felix, who coming to Honorius, the archbishop,
from Burgundy, where he had been born and ordained, and having told him what he desired,
he sent him to preach the word of life to the aforesaid nation of the Angles. Nor were his
good wishes in vain; for the pious husbandman reaped therein a large harvest of believers,
delivering all that province (according to the signification of his name, Felix) from long
iniquity and infelicity, and bringing it to the faith and works of righteousness, and the
gifts of everlasting happiness. He had the see of his bishopric appointed him in the city
Dommoc, and having presided over the same province with pontifical authority seventeen
years, he ended his days there in peace.
CHAPTER XVI
HOW PAULINUS PREACHED IN THE PROVINCE OF LINDSEY; AND OF THE REIGN OF EDWIN. [A.D.
628.]
PAULINUS also preached the word to the province of Lindsey, which is the first on the
south side of the river Humber, stretching out as far as the sea; and he first converted
the governor of the city of Lincoln, whose name was Blecca, with his whole family. He
likewise built, in that city, a stone church of beautiful workmanship; the roof of which
having either fallen through age, or been thrown down by enemies, the walls are still to
be seen standing, and every year some miraculous cures are wrought in that place, for the
benefit of those who have faith to seek the same. In that church, Justus having departed
to Christ, Paulinus consecrated Honorius bishop in his stead, as will be hereafter
mentioned in its proper place. A certain abbot and priest of the monastery of Peartaneu, a
man of singular veracity, whose name was Deda, in relation to the faith of this province
told me that one of the oldest persons had informed him, that he himself had been baptized
at noon-day, by the Bishop Paulinus, in the presence of King Edwin, with a great number of
the people, in the river Trent, near the city, which in the English tongue is called
Tiovulfingacestir; and he was also wont to describe the person of the same Paulinus, that
he was tall of stature, a little stooping, his hair black, his visage meagre, his nose
slender and aquiline, his aspect both venerable and majestic. He had also with him in the
ministry, James, the deacon, a man of zeal and great fame in Christ's church, who lived
even to our days.
It is reported that there was then such perfect peace in Britain, wheresoever the
dominion of King Edwin extended, that, as is still proverbially said, a woman with her
newborn babe might walk throughout the island, from sea to sea, without receiving any
harm. That king took such care for the good of his nation, that in several places where he
had seen clear springs near the highways he caused stakes to be fixed, with brass dishes
hanging at them, for the conveniency of travellers; nor durst any man touch them for any
other purpose than that for which they were designed, either through the dread they had of
the king, or for the affection which they bore him. His dignity was so great throughout
his dominions, that his banners were not only borne before him in battle, but even in time
of peace, when he rode about his cities, towns, or provinces, with his officers, the
standard-bearer was wont to go before him. Also, when he walked along the streets, that
sort of banner which the Romans call Tufa, and the English, Tuuf, was in like manner borne
before him.
CHAPTER XVII
EDWIN RECEIVES LETTERS OF EXHORTATION FROM POPE HONORIUS, WHO ALSO SENDS PAULINUS THE
PALL. [A.D. 634]
AT that time Honorius, successor to Boniface, was prelate of the apostolic see, who,
when he understood that the nation of the Northumbrians, with their king, had been, the
preaching of Paulinus, converted to the faith and confession of Christ, sent the pall to
the said Paulinus, and with it letters of exhortation to King Edwin, exciting him, with
fatherly charity, that his people should persist in the faith of truth, which they had
received. The contents of which letter were as follow-
"To his most noble son, and excellent lord, Edwin king of the Angles, Bishop
Honorius, servant of the servants of God, greeting: The integrity of your Christian
character, in the worship of your Creator, is so much inflamed with the fire of faith,
that it shines out far and near, and, being reported throughout the world, brings forth
plentiful fruit of your labours. For your conduct as a king is based upon the knowledge
which by orthodox preaching you have obtained of your God and Creator, whereby you believe
and worship Him, and as far as man is able, pay Him the sincere devotion of your mind. For
what else are we able to offer to our God, but in endeavouring to worship, and to pay Him
our vows, persisting in good actions, and confessing Him the Creator of mankind? And,
therefore, most excellent son, we exhort you with such fatherly charity as is requisite,
that you with careful mind, and constant prayers, every way labour to preserve this gift,
that the Divine Mercy has vouchsafed to call you to his grace; to the end, that He, who
has been pleased to deliver you from all errors, and bring you to the knowledge of his
name, may likewise prepare you mansions in the heavenly country. Employing yourselves,
therefore, in reading the works of my Lord Gregory, your preacher, of apostolical memory,
represent before yourself the tenderness of his doctrine, which he zealously employed for
the sake of your souls; that his prayers may increase your kingdom and people, and present
you blameless before Almighty God. We are preparing with a willing mind immediately to
grant those things which you hoped would be by us ordained for your priests, which we do
on account of the sincerity of your faith, which has been often made known to us in terms
of praise by the bearers of these presents. We have sent two pails to the two
metropolitans, Honorius and Paulinus; to the intent, that when either of them shall be
called out of this world to his creator, the other may, by this authority of ours,
substitute another bishop in his place; which privilege we are induced to grant, as well
in regard to your charitable affection, as of the large and extensive provinces which lie
between us and you; that we may in all things afford our concurrence to your devotion,
according to your desires. May God's grace preserve your excellency in safety!
CHAPTER XVIII
HONORIUS, WHO SUCCEEDED JUSTUS IN THE BISHOPRIC OF CANTERBURY, RECEIVES THE PALL AND
LETTERS FROM POPE HONORIUS. [A.D. 634.]
IN the meantime, Archbishop Justus was taken up to the heavenly kingdom, on the 10th of
November, and Honorius, who was elected to the see in his stead, came to Paulinus to be
ordained, and meeting him at Lincoln was there consecrated the fifth prelate of the Church
of Canterbury from Augustine. To him also the aforesaid Pope Honorius sent the pall, and a
letter, wherein he ordains the same that he had before established in his epistle to King
Edwin, viz. that when either of the bishops of Canterbury or of York shall depart this
life, the survivor of the same degree shall have power to ordain a priest in the room of
him that is departed; that it might not be necessary always to travel to Rome, at so great
a distance by sea and land, to ordain an archbishop. Which letter we have also thought fit
to insert in this our history-
"Hononus to his most beloved brother Honorius: Among the many good gifts
which the mercy of our Redeemer is pleased to bestow on his servants, the munificent
bounty of love is never more conspicuous than when He permits us by brotherly intercourse,
as it were face to face, to exhibit our mutual love. For which gift we continually return
thanks to his majesty; and we humbly beseech Him, that He will ever confirm your piety in
preaching the Gospel, and bringing forth fruit, and following the rule of your master and
head, his holy servant, St. Gregory; and that, for the advancement of his church, He may
by your means add further increase; to the end, that the souls already won by you and your
predecessors, beginning with our Lord Gregory, may grow strong and be further extended by
faith and works in the fear of God and charity; that so the promises of the word of God
may hereafter be brought to pass in you; and that this voice may call you away to the
everlasting happiness. 'Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.' And again, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord.' And we, most beloved brothers, offering you these words of exhortation,
out of our abundant charity, do not hesitate further to grant those things which we
perceive may be suitable for the privileges of your churches.
"Wherefore, pursuant to your request, and to that of the kings our sons, we do by
these presents, in the name of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, grant you authority,
that when the Divine Grace shall call either of you to Himself, the survivor shall ordain
a bishop in the room of him that is deceased. To which effect also we have sent a pall to
each of you, for celebrating the said ordination; that by the authority of our precept,
you may make an ordination acceptable to God; because the long distance of sea and land
that lies between us and you, has obliged us to grant you this, that no loss may happen to
your church in any way, on account of any pretence whatever, but that the devotion of the
people committed to you may be more fully extended. God preserve you in safety, most dear
brother! Given the 11th day of June, in the twenty- fourth year of the reign of our most
pious emperor, Heraclius, and the twenty-third after his consulship; and in the
twenty-third of his son Constantine, and the third after his consulship; and in the third
year of the most illustrious Caesar, his son Heraclius, the seventh indiction; that is, in
the year of the incarnation of our Lord, 634."
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE AFORESAID HONORIUS FIRST, AND AFTERWARDS JOHN, WROTE LETTERS TO THE NATION OF
THE SCOTS, CONCERNING THE OBSERVANCE OF EASTER, AND THE PELAGIAN HERESY. [A.D. 634.]
THE same Pope Honorius also wrote to the Scots [Irish], whom he had found to err in the
observance of Easter, as has been shown above, earnestly exhorting them not to think their
stnall number, placed in the utmost borders of the earth, wiser than all the ancient and
modern churches of Christ, throughout the world; and not to celebrate a different Easter,
contrary to the Paschal calculation, and the synodical decrees of all the bishops upon
earth. Likewise John, who succeeded Severinus, successor to the same Honorius, being yet
but pope elect, sent to them letters of great authority and erudition for correcting the
same error; evidently showing, that Easter Sunday is to be found between the fifteenth
moon and the twenty-first, as was proved in the Council of Nice. He also in the same
epistle admonished them to be careful to crush the Pelagian heresy, which he had been
informed was reviving among them. The beginning of the epistle was as follows-
"To our most beloved and most holy Tomianus, Columbanus, Cromanus, Dimanus, and
Baithanus, bishops; to Cromanus, Hernianus, Laistranus, Scellanus, and Segenus priests; to
Saranus and the rest of the Scottish doctors, or abbots, health from Hilarius, the
arch-priest, and keeper of the place of the holy Apostolic See; John, the deacon, and
elect in the name of God; from John, the chief secretary and keeper of the place of the
holy Apostolic See, and from John, the servant of God, and counsellor of the same
Apostolic See. The writings which were brought by the bearers to Pope Severinus, of
holy memory, were left, at his death, without an answer to the things contained in them.
Lest such intricate questions should remain unresolved, we opened the same, and found that
some of your province, endeavouring to revive a new heresy out of an old one, contrary to
the orthodox faith, do through ignorance reject our Easter, when Christ was sacrificed;
and contend that the same should be kept on the fourteenth moon with the Hebrews."
By this beginning of the epistle it evidently appears that this heresy sprang up among
them of very late times, and that not all their nation, but only some of them, had fallen
into the same.
After having laid down the manner of keeping Easter, they add this concerning the
Pelagians in the same epistle.
"And we have also understood that the poison of the Pelagian heresy again springs
up among you; we, therefore, exhort you, that you put away from your thoughts all such
venomous and superstitious wickedness. For you cannot be ignorant how that execrable
heresy has been condemned; for it has not only been abolished these two hundred years, but
it is also daily anathematised for ever by us; and we exhort you, now that the weapons of
their controversy have been burnt, not to rake up the ashes. For who will not detest that
insolent and impious proposition, 'That man can live without sin of his own free will, and
not through God's grace? And in the first place, it is the folly of blasphemy to say that
man is without sin, which none can be, but only the Mediator of God and man, the man
Christ Jesus, who was conceived and born without sin; for all other men, being born in
original sin, are known to bear the mark of Adam's prevarication, even whilst they are
without actual sin, according to the saying of the prophet, 'For behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
CHAPTER XX
EDWIN BEING SLAIN, PAULINUS RETURNS INTO KENT, AND HAS THE BISHOPRIC OF ROCHESTER
CONFERRED UPON HIM. [A.D. 633.]
EDWIN reigned most gloriously seventeen years over the nations of the English and the
Britons, six whereof, as has been said, he also was a servant in the kingdom of Christ.
Cadwalla; king of the Britons, rebelled against him, being supported by Penda, a most
warlike man of the royal race of the Mercians, and who from that time governed that nation
twenty-two years with various success. A great battle being fought in the plain that is
called Heathfield, Edwin was killed on the 12th of October, in the year of our Lord 633,
being then forty-seven years of age, and all his army was either slain or dispersed. In
the same war also, before him, fell Osfrid, one of his sons, a warlike youth; Eanfrid,
another of them, compelled by necessity, went over to King Penda, and was by him
afterwards, in the reign of Oswald, slain, contrary to his oath. At this time a great
slaughter was made in the church or nation of the Northumbrians; and the more so because
one of the commanders, by whom it was made, was a pagan, and the other a barbarian, more
cruel than a pagan; for Penda, with all the nation of the Mercians, was an idolater, and a
stranger to the name of Christ; but Cadwalla, though he bore the name and professed
himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition and behaviour, that he neither
spared the female sex, nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty put them
to tormenting deaths, ravaging all their country for a long time, and resolving to cut off
all the race of the English within the borders of Britain. Nor did he pay any respect to
the Christian religion which had newly taken root among them; it being to this day the
custom of the Britons not to pay any respect to the faith and religion of the English, nor
to correspond with them any more than with pagans. King Edwin's head was brought to York,
and afterwards into the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he had begun, but which his
successor Oswald finished, as has been said before. It was deposited in the porch of St.
Gregory, Pope, from whose disciples he had received the word of life.
The affairs of the Northumbrians being in confusion, by reason of this disaster,
without any prospect of safety except in flight, Paulinus, taking with him Queen
Ethelberga, whom he had before brought thither, returned into Kent by sea, and was
honourably received by the Archbishop Honorius and King Eadbald. He came thither under the
conduct of Bassus, a most valiant soldier of King Edwin, having with him Eanfleda, the
daughter; and Wuscfrea, the son of Edwin, as also Iffi, the son of Osfrid, his son, whom
afterwards the mother, for fear of Eadbald and Oswald, sent over into France to be bred up
by King Dagobert, who was her friend; and there they both died in infancy, and were buried
in the church with the honour due to royal children and to innocents of Christ. He also
brought with him many rich goods of King Edwin, among which were a large gold cross, and a
golden chalice, dedicated to the use of the altar, which are still preserved, and shown in
the church of Canterbury.
At that time the church of Rochester had no bishop, for Romanus, the prelate thereof,
being sent to Pope Honorius, by Archbishop Justus, as his legate, was drowned in the
Italian Sea; and thereupon Paulinus, at the request of Archbishop Honorius, and King
Eadbald, took upon him the charge of the same, and held it until he departed to heaven,
with the glorious fruits of his labours; and, dying in that church, he left there the pall
which he had received from the pope of Rome. He had left behind him in his church at York,
James, the deacon, a holy ecclesiastic, who continuing long after in that church, by
teaching and baptizing, rescued much prey from the power of the old enemy of mankind; from
whom the village, where he mostly resided, near Cataract, has its name to this day. He was
extraordinarily skillful in singing, and when the province was afterwards restored to
peace, and the number of the faithful increased, he began to teach many of the church to
sing, according to the custom of the Romans, or of the Cantuarians. And being old and full
of days, as the Scripture says, he went the way of his forefathers.
