Conversion of the Heptarchy

Home , Aldfrith of Northumbria, Bewcastle Cross, Deira, Franks, Heptarchy, Isle of Sheppey

CONVERSION OF THE HEPTARCHY.

SEV EN LECTURES

’ GI VEN AT ST PAUL S .

BY TH E

R B F B W E . D RI V . N T RE . GH . G O , ,

’ BISH OP OF STEPNEY, CA NON. OF ST. PAUL S.

P UB LIS HED UNDER THE D IRECT ION OF T HE TRACT CO MM IT TEE

SOCIET Y FO R PRO M OTIN G C H RISTIAN K NOWLE D GE

O RT H UM BERLA N D A V E NUE w EE T R IA T REET E c. N V IC O S c. N , . ; 43 , Q U , B R : 1 2 O RT H T R EET . IG HT O N 9 , N S N W E O RK : E . B Y 8: CO . Y J. . OUNG 1 8 6 9 .

P RE FA C E .

TH E story of the con v ersion o f the several kingdoms of the Heptarchy has naturally some points common to the history of two or m ore of the k ingdoms . This has made it impossible to avoid repetition in some cases . In one respect the s ubject h as been more

' pleasant than that o f last year s lectures

Com an n s w as (A u gu stin e an d his p io ). There scarcely any intervention o f Rome in the

r pe iod dealt with this winter, and it has thus not been generally necessary to enter upon “ ” O o f controversial matters . ne the church

o f newspapers , in the course an appreciative

’ of review last year s little volume, made a severe remark on the unnecessary raising of

r . cont oversial points But , with one exception , the controversial remarks had a fair connec tion with the subj ect ; and , without any

r n exception , they had eference to obj ectio s m di iculties of h and modern times , about whic PREFACE . and o f I the need meeting them , probably know as much as my kindly critic . h There is anot er side to the question , and ,

to n of . possibly, the meani g my critic The

on Roman aggression , which began the death

n in a of Cardi al Manning , is full pl y ; more full and systematic than persons ordinarily I informed know . am clear that the duty

r of of n wh o of membe s the Church E gland ,

om t have the opportunity , is to p out quite frankly the relative weakness of the Roman

n of position , and the relative stre gth ours , on the main subj ects of the Roman attack

i n upon us . There is a suicidal policy vogue

in some quarters , and perhaps my critic is one

of its victims , which is guided by the mis taken idea that ii we hold our peace on these ” “ - re m to . points, union is ore likely come

’ Re- union on any terms which we can accept and which are not fatal to the structure

o f the Roman claims never can come . The “ ” o nly hope for any sort of re-union is that we should frankly and ﬁrmly expose the f hollowness o the Roman claims . C ON T E NT S

I N RT MBRI A . O H U

I I WESS X . E

II EA T A IA I . S NGL

IV . ME RCIA

V TH E EAST SAXONS .

VI U EX AND ON LU ING EMA K 1 . S SS C C R R S , D . 59

VII TH E B EWCASTLE CROSS AND OTHER . , MONUMENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

V CROSS-SLAB OF OI DI LV A LD

TOMB STO NE or GEDD)

B EWCASTLE ososs SOUTH S I E , D

E Frontis i c B EWCASTLE C ROSS WEST S I D p e e. ,

S UND I A L AT K I RK DALE

RUNI C G RAVESTONE AT THORNHILL

RUNI C G RAVESTONE IN WIRRA L

CROS S -S LA B AT JARROVV

V E I ATION- TONE JA RR V D D C S , O

I O TH E CROSS OF TH E HOLY JAMES ‘

L E C T U R E I .

NORTH UM B R I A

— w in —Rei n S u bj ects o f p reviou s cou rses D eath of Ed . g — - — f i Ch u rch . A idan . D eath o of Oswald . Th e S co t c — — w D eath o f A idan . Co n Osw ald an d accession o f Os y. Wh itb —With d rawal o f th e S co tic Ch u rch fe ren ce at y . , — and estim ate o f its w ork D evelop m en t of bish oprics

in North u m b ria.

TWO - years ago we dealt with the history and condition o f Christianity in these islands 1 before the coming of Augustine . We saw that two hundred years at least before a 6 h ad Augustine c me in 59 , Christianity , a roughly spe king, spread over the whole of the territories which we now call England a and a and W les , the south of Scotl nd ; that f r be o e his time , Christianity had spread over large parts of the island which we call

Ireland ; and that, at one time and another , still before the arrival of the Italian mission a aries in Kent , Christian mission ries , British t and Cel ic , had made their mark in large districts of the territory which we call Scot

1 Th e Ch urch in these I slands be ore A u ustin f g e, I F O CONVERSION O NORTHUMBRIA .

r land north of the Fo th . We saw th at in the r 00 and 6 r had yea s between 4 59 , while the e been progress in m any of the parts of these a h ad far can isl nds , there been , so as we judge , a complete disappearance of Christianity from a th e a all p rts of country we c ll England , excepting the south - west and the north - west a r all w th t is , f om parts in hich the English invaders of the lands of th e Briton s h ad estab lish ed r n o r a themselves , whethe A gles , S xons , r r or Jutes . But I am myself mo e and mo e inclined to think that the Britons were not so nearly extirpated in the English p arts as we

a o f suppose , and th t among the remnants the enslaved Britons there were remnants of the

Christian faith . Last winter we dealt with the restoration o f Christianity in one of the seven kingdoms h ad which the English set up , the kingdom 1 of the Jutes in Kent We saw the little kingdom of Kent pass through the relapse a into or towards paganism , which m rks the

' story in so many of the English kingdoms ; and we considered its ﬁnal establishment in r the faith . With the conve sion of the king

dom of Kent we have nothing more to do .

1 and his Com anions Lectu res I I A ugustine p , , CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA . I I

Augustine and his companions made sure work there . a of We de lt, also , with the introduction a a Christi nity among the East S xons , our 1 i — so Essex and M ddlesex , with their capital — 2 far as they had one in ruined London ; and we saw it expelled by the sturdy p agans o u r 3 not its restora predecessors . We shall see tion till forty years o f darkness have passed ; and even then we shall see yet another relapse into inveterate paganism . We had to glance incidentally at the early existence o f Christianity among the East o u r N ff r Angles , orfolk and Su olk and pa ts o f r Camb idgeshire , and we shall take up the in story that kingdom . In the great midland kingdom of the

Mercians and Middle Angles, in the slowly a of , increasing kingdom the ,West S xons

i. e. all westward from the border of Sussex , and in the isolated kingdom of the South no of Saxons , our Sussex , we had seen signs o f any renewal Christianity, since the ex or o f pulsion of the Christian Britons , their

i . Christianity , by the pagan Engl sh

S o far as I n ow w e h a e i tl in fo rm atio n k , v very l t e abou t th e M iddle ax n 1 S s 1 . o . ee . S pp 4 7 , 55 3 A u u stine and his m i u V o an ons Lect re I . g C p , 1 2 F CONVERSION O NORTHUMBRIA .

a o f N ou r In the gre t kingdom orthumbria , a N Yorkshire , Durh m , orthumberland , and to a Scotland up the Forth , with generally vague western boundary and great masses o f

Britons on the other side of the boundary , we saw th e planting of Christianity from Canter

ur and r . b y by Paulinus , his ve y rapid success And we saw th e whole sw ept clean away by a combination of pagan Middle Angles and Christian Britons ; agreement in political a n h tred uniti g, not for the first or the last o w ho r at time , th se in religion we e complete 1 ff ar a r o . v i nce . At that point we b oke I propose to begin this winter where last off a s r winter we left , t king up fir t the histo y o f Northu mbria at the death of its first Chris . a tian king , Edwin He was killed in b ttle at

' H eathﬁeld a a , prob bly near Donc ster, on the w O r 6 n t elfth of ctober in the yea 33 , ﬁghti g

i an a aga nst rmy of invaders of his kingdom , pagan English and Christian Britons . The period which these lectures are meant

so far as to cover , it can be covered in the 8 u 6 to 66 . time , is, ro ghly speaking, from 33 It is hoped that next year the period 668 to 7 1 0 may be dealt with and then those who

1 r IV . anions S P. Lectu e A ugustine and his Comp , .

I F 4 CONVERSION O NORTHUMBRIA .

O o f sric succeeded right to Deira , while Eanfrid , the oldest son of the dispossessed n r a t ki g of Be nici , succeeded of right to tha

kingdom . Osric had been converted by Eanfrid and Paulinus . The exiled his t a brothers had found shel er mong the Picts, an d t h ere had been conve rted to Christianity

and baptized by the monks of Iona . Thus the Christian Edwin was succeeded on each of

o his thrones by a Christian , the one lo king to ’ r a Augustine s school of Ch isti nity , the other

‘ a to the Scotic school . By Scotic I me n r h of I ish origin , whet er found in Ireland, in 1 a or at . Scotl nd , Iona of r But the overthrow Ch istianity , and the

a a had for triumph of p g nism , been the time so complete , that the two young kings almost a r immediately postatised , and retu ned to T r m p aganism . his did not long prese ve the

for Cadwalla in their kingdoms , , king of the

r s r Christian B itons , pur uing his great victo y r over the English of the no th , slew them both within the year . As Bede tells us , the

1 I t is scarcely n ecessary in th ese days to say th at th e ” I rish w ere th e p eople m ean t by th e w o rd S cots in th e tim es of w h ich w e are s ea in an d th at h o d r p k g, t e m e n “ ” geograph ical u se o f th e w ord S cotlan d o n ly dates from h e I h u t 1t cen t ry . CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA . apostasy of O sric and Ean frid was so much resented by the N orthumbrians of his time h e lived from half a century to a century after the event—that they did not count them n bu t as a ki gs , reckoned the year p rt of their ’

O . O successor swald s reign To swald , pagan , r exile, Christian , king , ma tyr , saint, we must now come . We shall have on other occasions to men tion the relapse of kingdoms and kings into a paganism , as we have already more th n once had to do . But I am not sure that English people realise the fact that for parts of the years 6 6 6 33 . 34 , and 35, two hundred years after r n the ﬁ st comi g of the English as conquerors , and many years after the complete establish ment of all the seven kingdoms of the English , the Britons reconquered the largest kingdom N of all, orthumbria ; and that kingdom was actually ruled over by a Christian British o f king , representing the Christianity the Br itish Church . The ancient race and Church , which the pagan English had hemmed in among the mountain fastnesses of Wales an d Cumbria , had now broken its bonds . Its warriors covered once more the plains o f r an d t of Yo kshire , the hill coun ry Durham N orth u m berlan d and , and the fertile country 1 6 OF CONVERSION NORTHUMBRIA . of L a n the othi ns , where for so lo g the Britons had ﬂourished before th e Angles came and carved out the kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira . A British Christian king was once more seated i n the great n atural fortresses of

u D un u eirn d D nedin and g , E inburgh and Bam r was r bo ough . But he there as a B iton , rather than as a Christian . He had no idea of the conversion of the enemies of his race .

h r u r His aim went no fu t e than their Sla ghte . ’ a Eanfrid s It did not l st long . brother Oswald succeeded to his rights as King of t o . Bernicia , and he determined enforce them In all p robability his Pictish relatives sup plied him with troops , for , as I have elsewhere 1 out Eanfrid pointed , when in exile had married a Pictish princess ; their son Talor Talorc Ainfrit a can , mac in the Irish nnals , w as King of the Picts north of the Forth an d a m as Tay . With his r y , described by Bede a a of sm ll , but strengthened with the f ith a a r o f Christ , as Bede s ys , app rently fo getful the fact that the British foe were hereditarily — Christians Oswald advanced upon the forces lla and r o f Cadwa completely overth ew them , at a place called in the English tongue of that

h H stor . 8 0. Lessons of Early English Ch urc i y, p I CONVERSION O F NORTHUMBRIA . 7

- n . time De ises burna , Denis burn The name 0 0 r was still in use after 1 2 . It is p obably

a 6 . Dilston near Hexh m . This was in 35

O a are i sw ld , we told , on the n ght before h ad the battle , a hole dug in the ground , in a a n which his soldiers ﬁxed l rge woode cross , Oswald himself supporting it while they ﬁlled

" u in the earth . Ro nd this they knelt , and prayed for . deliverance from the pro u d and a an ferocious Briton . Bede does not m ke y ’ reference to Constantine s vision of the Cross in hoe si n o in the heavens , with the legend g “ ” vin ces u , in this sign tho shalt conquer, although it would have been quite in his O h ad an method to do so , if swald had y such

a . me ning I cannot but think , nevertheless , O h ad a that swald this me ning , and that the

- fact was well known . Thirty ﬁ ve years after r this, a very noble cross of stone , o iginally a w as bout seventeen feet high , set up in l North u mbria in memory of a nephe w of O I av swald , to which shall h e to make further reference later on . The insc ription s on this cross are the earliest ex amples w e n a have left of the English la gu ge . The prin

At Bew cas le S ee m Lessons o ﬂ i t . y f E a y Engl sh C hm ch

H istor . and Le tur VI I in y, p 9 9 , c e . th e p resen t ol m v u e . F R CONVERSION O NORTHUMB IA .

cipal inscription begins with the words this “ si been thu n or g , this slender sign token a of victory , with direct reference , I c nnot ’ to O u doubt, swald s triumph , and , I sho ld to suppose , some reference indirectly Con ’

stantine s v . ictory A vision , by the way,

O r p a . swald had , acco ding to Adam n The b to blessed Colum a himself appeared him , h and promised him t e victory . n Oswald found no ecclesiastical orga isation . ’ h ad Paulinus ﬂed , with Edwin s widow and r e child en ; and at Roch ster he remained , wear a n to ing in a m nner most irregular, accordi g a a a the f lse ideas of l ter times , the bel ted pall , m d which reached hi after his ﬂight . The i ea of tw o a a palls in use , one t C nterbury by an arch f a bishop, and one at Rochester by a suf r gan o f Canterbury , is enough to confound all the Roman theories of the importance and mean

’ in of s1nce G g the pall , developed regory s T time . o Paulinus Oswald did not apply

o for help . P litical and ecclesiastical reasons a r made th t impossible . Paulinus rep esented th e r d inte ests of the chil ren of Edwin, on whose kingdoms Oswald had now entered ; ’ an d O a swald s tr ining was entirely Scotic, a u h ad t bad a e Besides , P ulin s lef the ex mpl n h of founding nothi g solid . He could preac , CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA I 9

z . convert , bapti e he could not found There h all was neither c urch , nor altar, nor cross , in ’ : Bernicia, set up by him that is Bede s state f . o ment James , the deacon Paulinus, stayed e st adily at his post , called from him Ake 1 nl burgh , near Catterick . He was the o y sign a left that Bernicia. had been a Christi n land in Anglian times and even he was in Deira . To n the Scotic Church , then , his nursi g

O . mother in the faith , swald applied They

to him one . sent of their bishops He , like all the bishops of the Scotic Church other l to than those in Ire and , was subject the of I on Abbat ona , the ground that Columba, the founder and ruler of their ecclesiastical a province , was priest , not a bishop . This N bishop soon returned from orthumbria, and reported that he could make nothing o f the a English ; they were intractable, h rd , bar barous : j ust what the runaway Italians had f o . d said Kent A council was hel at Iona, to consider what the next step should be . A th e member of council , Aidan , observed that the bishop appeared to have expected to o to much at ﬁrst , have expected to make them nl r n sudde y perfect Ch istia s . It would have

S ee Le ctu re V I I in th is olu m e . v . 2 Called C o rm an b H or B i y ect oeth us. B 2 2 0 CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA

t o been better obey the apostolic precept, “ a a m treat them as inf nts in the f ith , feed the ” with the milk of easier doctrine . We might imagine that the 1 260 years from 635 to 1 895 and d n n were blotted out , Ai a was telli g us h ow to an d to deal , how not deal , with the people in some parts of the east end of

L saw a w as a ondon . The council th t this m an w h o man of discretion , and a had formed h a . a pl n T ey had him consecrated , and sent O n him to swald . Whether because the ki g and the bishop wished to keep clear of the arrangements m ade by Edwin and Paulinus ; ’ or becau se Oswald s hereditary connection w was with Bernicia, not ith Deira, with

N a or orthumberl nd , not with Yorkshire ; so of because Aidan , like many the Scotic missionaries , had a preference for an island ; ’ the bishop s seat was set on the island called

r Medcau t or M ed oed by the B itish g , and by L a a the Angles indisf rne . It lies on the co st N r of orthumbria , in full view of the oyal Bamb oro u h g ; an island at high tide, but at low water separated from the mainland only by sand and a small and shallow stream . The reasons suggested above for the choice o f ’ Lindisfarne as the bishop s seat have been given by one writer and another, and are in

2 2 OF CO NVERSION NORTHUMBRIA .

’ U a O wa an d nder Aidan s te ching , s ld his

kingdom prospered greatly . The king ex tended his dominion over all the three peoples his th e r whom borders touched , B itons , the — h th e t Scots t at is , Irish settled in the wes — of North Britain and the Picts . He won r a Lindsey back from Mercia . More impo t nt

w as to h still , he politic enough weld toget er the people of Deira and the people of Bernicia , so that in his time there was a cessation of a r the old j e lousies , which b oke out again , i . o u t however , in the next reign Bede po nts that he was h appily circumstanced for effecting

u a n r this usef l ch nge , bei g the son of the forme r a Eth elfrith n w king of Be nici , , and the ephe

n a . of the former ki g of Deir , Edwin But inasmuch as there h ad been deadly hostility between the cousin- lines of Ed win and o f

Eth elfrith an d n - S a , the A glo xons of those times generally shewed a complete disregard of the ties of consangu inity when dynastic n t n a co sidera io s pointed to such disreg rd , it m ay be th at Bede assigns to o much impor n a ta ce to this double descent . Cert inly in the previo u s reigns the relationship had a r me nt bloodthi sty feud . It is very tempting to enlarge upon the t O a noble charac er of sw ld, and to tell some 2 CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA . 3

Of the many pleasant stories abo ut him . But it must sufﬁce to say that his piety made an impression on the popul ar mind which never a - died out . Aid n found him a fellow worker o f w an great value , for he kne the Irish l guage wh o well ; and when Aidan , knew but little a English , preached to the military le ders and of O r attendants the king , swald inte preted m 1 H n to the the heavenly word . ow importa t of a part he played in the conversion Wessex , we shall see when we come to deal with that n ki gdom . The news o f the progress o f the Gospel in

Northumbria soon reached the Scotic Church . With that missionary spirit for which they of were remarkable , priests and monks the Scotic Church came in large numbers to N a orthumbri , and covered the land with n e o f Christian teachi g . Thos the Scotic w h o r d missionaries were p iests , Be e specially o f tells us , administered the sacrament Bap

It is o nly am o ng th e cou rtiers th at w e h ear of th is inter r tin Th ere is oo d deal t sai i p e g. a g o b e d n favou r of a wider kn ow ledge o f G aelic am ong th e com m o n p eople in No rth u m bria th an is q u ite con sistent w ith th e su osed o bliterati n o f h i I h s pp o t e B r ton s. n t o e early tim es, th e I rish G aelic an d th e B ritish G aelic h ad n ot falle n so far a art as n ot to be easil intelli ible ea p y g , ch ' in th e o th e Th x r s lan d. e n e t page o r tw o m entio n facts w h ich are n o t eas to ex lain o n an o th er su o sition y p y pp . 2 O F B 4 CONVERSION NORTHUM RIA .

tism r . Churches were built at the va ious n Th e centres o f teachi g . people j oyfully r ﬂocked to hear the wo d of Go d. By the ’ “' king s good o ices property and lands were

given for the establishment of monasteries . n The English , you g and old , were trained in the pri nci ples and practice o f the regular i discipline , for it was espec ally the monks that came over as missionaries . It is worth

l o f r whi e to notice , in View some mode n r m a a gu ents with reg rd to church property , and the relations between churches and a ar t mon steries in the e lies times , and the 1 r a u r h o igin of p rish ch ches , t at Bede in this passage clearly m akes the building of churches quite a separate thing from the establishment a r and n r of mon ste ies , mentio s it as a prima y r Also from a matte of obligation . f nother point w it of vie , is well to notice that if we press ’ a Bede s words liter lly , some at least of the a Scotic missionaries were not monks th t is , at there were , that time , seculars connected 2 with the Scotic Ch u rch .

’ Se e th e argu m en t in Lord S elb orn e s A ncient Facts and

Fi ctions concerni n Ch urches and Ti th es w h ich ten ds to sh ew g , , in correctl as I th in th at th e m on aster ch u rch w as y, k , y

h n m i f th e rish ch rch . e al o . t e o r al o rig n o p a u S e s p . 35 2 Nam m on ach i eran t m axim e q u i ad p rae dican du m E ii i . v n eran t. M on ach u s i se e is o u s A idan u H . . . e p p c p s. 3 B 2 CONVERSION OF NORTHUM RIA . 5

Bede describes for us the manner o f life f u to o Aidan . He lived as he ta ght others l ’ ive . He neither sought nor loved this world s in n to goods , but delighted givi g the poor whom he met whatever the king and the

t o m t great men gave him . He oved abou a the country, in populous and sp rsely peopled parts alike , on foot, not on horseback unless him some real necessity compelled . Whenever saw a r he wayf rers approaching , whethe rich

u or poor, he went p to them at once ; if they l to i were unbe ievers , he begged them rece ve r the faith if they were believe s , he strength ened them in the faith , and urged them by m r word and deed to al s and good wo ks . ’ S o o f unlike the laziness Bede s time , a hundred years later, as Bede tells us , was the ’ o f an d course Aidan s life , that he his com ani p ons , whether tonsured or lay, were bound to read the Scriptures regularly and learn f the psalms . This was the daily duty o all

. O of them , wheresoever they might be n the rare occasions when Aidan was invited to a a b nquet by the king , he took with him one r cle ic , or two , and after a slight meal made a h ste to leave , that he and they might occupy themselves in reading and prayer . By his example, religious men and women were 2 6 F CONVERSION O NORTHUMBRIA .

brought to fast till three in the afternoon o n a da n Wednesd ys and Fri ys , except duri g a did the E ster remission . When rich men

wrong , he never abstained from rebuking them on any ground of respect for their ar position or fe for himself. He never made presents to great men ; only gave them food r i n if they we e h s guests . Any mo ey he got . as from rich people, he gave has been said or to the poor, employed in redeeming such a as had been unj ustly sold s sla ves . Many o f those whom he thus redeemed he took wa an d after rds as his scholars , instructing strengthening them till he brought them up r f to the p iesthood . The instruction o youth r was an important part of his wo k . Indeed it would seem to have been p art of his original plan ; for we read that when ﬁrst he was made bishop he h ad twelve English

a u d boys put under his ch rge , to be instr cte h r a . O a in C ist ne of these , E ta, bec me Abbat of a r a a Melrose , and tr ined Cuthbe t. Ch d lso ’ was one of Aidan s scholars ; but whether one o f these twelve is not sure .

O a i a sw ld re gned only eight years , technic lly a nine , if we reckon to him the ye r of the apostasy ; eight years full of busy Christian work, including the completion of the stone 2 CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA . 7

o f i h ad church St . Peter at York , which Edw n

- left breast high . You can lay your hand

- on w to day the Anglian wall , if you kno where to go in the crypt of York Minster . 6 2 a He was killed in 4 , by the same pag n Penda of Mercia w h o had killed Edwin nine Osw years before . His brother y succeeded , and appointed as the ruler o f Deira one of ’ a O O Edwin s rel tives , swin , son of sric the apostate ; thus , as it would seem , opening the w ay for a renewal o f dissensions between the tw o a of p rts the kingdom . Deira prospered a O a gre tly under swin , and he was gre tly a beloved . But j e lousy between king and sub - king broke out after seven years into w ar sw a open , and O y tre cherously put his ’ - n w as n f sub ki g to death . O swin o e o Aidan s is r a greatest favourites , and ve y highly pr ised Th by Bede for his piety and devotion . e ’ concluding paragraph of Bede s panegyric is “ l . O worth giving in fu l The King swin , more

w as ta a o f e over , comely and ll ; ple sant sp ech , and courteous in m anner ; Open of hand to all , whether noble or not noble . Thus it came about th at all men loved him for his royal a dignity of mind and look and ch racter , and m t r men , even the os noble , ﬂocked to his se vice from other provinces . Among his great qu ali 2 8 OF CONVERSION NORTHUMBRIA .

r ties of valour, and moderation , and peculia ”

o f w as . sweetness , greatest all his humility ’ d Bede s narrative shews , in irectly but clearly, ’ L that though Aidan s seat was at indisfarne , and he worked principally in the kingdom of n a o f Ber icia , he did in f ct cover the whole the N orth u mbrian ground ; working with the sub king in Yorkshire as well as with the chief n u ki g f rther north .

t o When the time came for Aidan die, in 6 1 O 5 , only twelve days after swin , he was at o n r h his w chu ch at B amboroug . It is still ’ c alled St . Aidan s Church . This , with some bits of land adj oining, was the only property l n t o to be ongi g him personally , and he seems have had no residence on the spot . As his e illness develop d , and it became clear that he L a could not be moved to his cell at indisf rne , they made for him a lean - to against the west a w ll of the church , which in that neighbour t hood is the sheltered side . Suppor ing himself o n a a a be m pl ced as a buttress for the church , a a in this rude episcopal p l ce, the prototype of a Auckl nd Castle, he died . The beam , it is sa needless to y, wrought miracles , and resisted the violence of ﬁre. had in m Aidan built churches any places , l L but not, it wou d appear, at indisfarne His

0 OF 3 CONVERSION NORTHUMBRIA . h t ighest impor ance , to which we must refer m of when we deal with the kingdo Mercia , absorbed the attention of Oswy and of l f h 66 1 A ch rit . W a hen Colm n succeeded in , the t question came to the front . A Scot, conver ed to the catholic method o f calculating the va incidence of the Easter festi l , Ronan by a name , a name which appears both in h giology w and in modern ﬁction , argued ith Colman a to and his people , and converted m ny the ’ ’ u : Osw s Eanﬂeda tr e method y Queen , Edwin s a a w on a d ughter , had n turally been al ays th t

Alchfrith - side . the sub king , inﬂuenced by

Wilfrith h ad n o w l , come over so complete y that he had turned out frOm Ripon the Scotic to h e monks whom had given an estate there, a and E ta the abbat, Cuthbert the hospitaller , the rest ; and had put Wilfrith and his monks il r . A be t in their place Bishop g , who had left Wessex because the king there had 1 n subdivided his bishopric , was livi g in N orthumbria ; and he , though he had studied a long in Ireland , was a Frenchm n , with r French consecration, and kept the t uer ’ E n . u a ﬂeda s Easter Roman s , Kentish chap f o on . lain , course was the same side James a of the deacon, a comp nion Paulinus , the only 1 See Lectu re I I . B 1 CONVERSION OF NORTHUM RIA . 3 one o f his party so far as we know who did not run away when Edwin was killed thirty h ad a to years before , he alw ys continued ’ A ilbert s observe the truer Easter . g priest Agatho was another notable person on that side . On the other side was the chief king Osw y, who thought nothing could be better than the Scotic usages of his youth ; Colman L far Cedd of indis ne ; Hilda of Whitby ; and , o u r a wh o n one East S xon bishop , was payi g of his Visits to the north when the matter came to a head . The question was fought o ut in free dis cu ssion at the famous synod or conference of 66 G Whitby in 4 , edd acting as interpreter n between the Scotic and the A glian sides , and Wilfrith r being the principal o ator . The result was that Oswy decided against his ow n ff personal V I ews. The e ects w eI e very far

n u n reachi g . It was the t rni g point in the histOI n ot of N early ecclesiastical y, orth but o f ar umbria only, by far the greatest p t of of the land the English . The parts of England which had been converted by the Scotic Church ceased to hold the position o f insular isolation given to them by Celtic as teachers , and England w no longer divided on of O o wn against itself points usage . ur 2 N OF B 3 CONVERSIO NORTHUM RIA .

G wh o East Saxon Bishop edd , receives high praise from Bede for his skill an d care as a be interpreter between Scot and Angli n , a a tween insul tor and catholic , loy lly con

formed to the catholic use . Colman would and not change his Views or his practice . He L the whole of his Scotic monks left indisfarne , taking with them some thirty English monks n besides . The E glish settled at Mayo in I i ﬁ a r n sbo n . Irel nd , the I ish at They had found it impossible to live together in Ireland : no w for the Irish monks , they were at home d a again , wan ered bout in the summer time w hile the English gathered the harvest ; and then returned for the winter to live on what

. o the English had collected When Bede wr te,

- a about three quarters of a century later, M yo n who was still an Abbey of E glish monks , i a lived by the labour of the r own h nds, in f much continence and singleness of li e . Though the Scotic Church was thus dis of N r possessed its hold on orthumb ia , the d lan received yet another Scotic bishop , It Is here that Bede mentions the interesting e a fact, that the south of Ir land was c tholic ra h in p ctice , unlike the north . The sout was a Ga in direct communic tion with ul , as we t know from o her sources , and to this we may O OF O M C NVERSION N RTHU BRIA . 33 with much probability attribute the less isolated ways o f that part Of th e island.

However that may be , the south of Ireland adopted the catholic reckoning of Easter thirty years before the events o f which we

n 6 . have been speaki g , in 33 A bishop had come over to N orth u mbria from the sou thern o f d province Irelan , Tuda by name , during ’ Colman s tenure of the bishopric and had taught diligently both by precept and by n example . He was presumably A glian by

to h e birth , his name seems indicate that ; h ad been taught and consecrated bishop in 1 south Ireland he had the coronal tonsure , to according the custom of that province , and h eld the catholic use o f Easter . He succeeded

Colman as Bishop of Lindisfarne . The abbacy ’ o f Lindisfarne was given by Colman s request ’ to on e d . Eata , as being Of Ai an s own pupils Eata had been turned o ut o f Ripon by Alchfrith to some time before , for refusing

to n ow conform the catholic use, but he had , it would seem , conformed . He ruled the remnant of the Anglian brotherhood o f Lindis and farne , now that all the Scots were gone h thirty of the English brethren . T ere was

S ee Lectu re II . C . OF M 34 CONV ERSION NORTHU BRIA .

i thus a continuity in the monast c life, though there was a complete and ﬁnal break in the a o f Scotic succession o f monks . This is point

much importance , when we have to consider the deeply interesting question of the school of art L of indisfarne . Thus ended the episode which Bede de ’ scribes as the thirty years episcopacy of the — — in n . Scots that is , the Irish E gland He concludes his account by a highly appreci o f ative description their life and work , of great value as coming from one wh o was in the most determined manner Opposed to thel r

. L usages When they left indisfarne , he tells us , it was found that they had been exceed in l lif g y frugal in their e . There were only j ust dwellings enough for their own actual

had . needs . They n o property but cattle They had no preparation for receiving im portant people for such came only to pray an d o f Go d n hear the word . The ki g himself was wont to come with only ﬁve or six a to attend nts , and leave when his devotions

. I were ended f by chance he needed food , he was content with th e daily fare of the bre thren for a ; and their whole care was the he rt, n ot for the stomach . Thus it was that the religious habit was held in great veneration OF CONVERSION NORTHUMBRIA . 35 in or those times . Whenever a cleric a monk w as w appeared , he received ith j oy by every d on e of G o . , as being the servant If they on met him the way , they ran to him , bent the neck , and joyfully were signed by his a hand or blessed by his voice . C reful atten tion w as given to the exhortations Of the a clergy . On Sundays people ﬂocked e gerly to to the church, or to monasteries , hear the f word o God . I would again call attention to the clear line drawn between the church , as the ﬁrst place , and monasteries as the 1 I to second f a priest came a village, the villagers quickly came together to seek of him o f For the word life . the clergy had no other purpose in Visiting the Villages, than

a S —in to pre ch , baptize , visit the ick , brief,

' r care for souls . They were so free f om the

V of to ice avarice , that they refused receive lands and property for establishing monas teries t , unless some grea layman forced them to do so ; and that practice prevailed in the churches of Northumbria for some time after their departure . w of We know from other ritings Bede , e Ec beIt specially his letter to Archbishop g , 6 OF B 3 CONVERSION NORTHUM RIA . that throughout this description he is drawing a contrast most unfavourable in each respect to r in the p actices of his own times , which a a he found and l mented gre t degeneracy. Verily the epitaph of the Scotic Church in N r orthumbria , d awn by a hand devoted to R a t n to the om n usages , is a estimo y virtues t so valuable , tha one is almost inclined to minimise the enormity of keeping Easter once in a long series of years while others were — n m if . keepi g Pal Sunday, that had been all Our ow n rule for Easter is so far from ideally l f d wh o correct, that the ate Pro essor A ams , to took a great interest in the question , used tell me that he could name a ﬁxed day in April which in the long run would give h of a re a much hig er average accur cy, in a s a o u r l tion to the Pa ch l Moon, than present all variable Easter gives , with its many inconveniences . N o rth u mbria We can now leave , established a in a in the Christian f ith . I hope a l ter i of lecture to say someth ng material remains , o f h still existing, of the which we ave _ time 1 " su n ow been speaking . It must ice to add t hat immediately after th e Synod of Whitby

“

See Lectu re VI I .

OF CONVERSION NORTHUMBRIA . and in early times even giving its name to the 1 a r I 1 Merci n see , made a bishop ic in 54 and Ripon Manchester Liverpool Newcastle and Wakeﬁeld

N a s a ottingh m hire , till lately p rt of the n ow northern province, is embodied in the new see of Southwell and is reckoned n in Canterbury . Sodor and Man had nothi g t N o do with orthumbria . Not even the misconceptions of a contro versial spirit can really question the fact that the Christian Church in Northumbria w as built up by the steady painstaking work of

. c the Scotic Church James , the dea on of a to a P ulinus , had quietly stuck his work ne r z a Ak ebu r h w as C tterick , at g ; but he one h man . The feet of them that publis ed the r Gospel of Peace at la ge were Scotic feet . sh all ‘ see r th e And , as we in other lectu es , great political position of Oswald an d Oswy enabled them to introduce Christianity from r h mbr N o t u ia into other kingdoms of England . to r In this way , and this extent , the g eat bulk of England was brought to the Christian faith mainly through the inﬂuence Of those who had learned all they knew from the

1 See Lectu re IV . 1 2 6 , p 2 ee Le VI I S ctu re . E F CONV RSION O NORTHUMBRIA . 39

r T Scotic Chu ch . o Aidan also we must attribute the introduction o f the ministry of women into the Northumbrian Church . He

H eiu consecrated , the ﬁrst nun , the foundress of Hartlepool . The ﬁgures of Oswald and Aidan and Ceadda (Chad) will sparkle in the great ’ windows of o ur transepts at St. Paul s ; the o ne in the window of the twelve primary r a n Ch isti n kings of English ki gdoms , the other in the window o f the twelve con verting bishops . Edwin and Paulinus will be their companions . L E C T U RE I1 .

WESSEX

th su rem e k in dom —Earl W ssex Wessex becam e e p g . y e . — — — h r l B i n e ils swald C o in w alc e a se. ir n u s. Cy g . O . , p

A i — i i —El th eriu — l f i h t — u b W eu s I s e o . S lbert n . W g . . g

di i io h e Wessex io ces s v s n s of t d e .

TH E kingdom of the West Saxons , Wessex , a 1 w s founded by Cerdic about the year 5 9 . It became e ventually the most important o f w all the kingdoms , for it gradually dre to n a itself all the others , and its ki gs bec me n ki gs of England . Every step of Queen ’ Victoria s descent from Cerdic is as well known as her descent from George III ; and as the descent of Cerdic from the real person a e w as g Woden carefully preserved, the ’ Q ueen s descent from Woden is completely a d known . The s me is true of many thousan s of - da the men and women of to y . The marriages of royal princesses with great in la nobles, in the middle ages , Eng nd and a a more especi lly in Scotland , has given roy l a descent to a very large number of f milies , and with royal descent a share in the records of the successions from Cerdic and from Woden . Ex 1 CONVERSION O F WESS . 4

I o f to n th e time which we are speak , Wessex had n ot attained to the geographical dimensions which it h ad when it became

u supreme . Its so thern boundary was the sea ,

w as h so and therefore unc angeable , except far t as the Isle o f Wight was concerned . A vas

' forest, which hedged in the South Saxons , was a barrier to progress eastward as far a u north as the l titude of Winchester, tho gh at times the King o f Wessex obtained lordship over the South Saxon kingdom . After the to battle of Wimbledon , which added Surrey

n o f Wessex , the ki gdom Kent completed the

. w eastern boundary To the est , the Britons still held their own and barred further pro so of K n C ne ils gress ; that in the time i g y g , o f in whose time the knowledge Christ came , the West S axons h ad probably not passed the To eastern borders of Wilts and Dorset . the h ad O north , they possession of xfordshire t of n m and par s Bucki gha shire, with , it is a i said , even parts of Bedfordshire ; long the r northern border they came in contact with the great central kingdom of Mercia . It is evident that a kingdom thus situated must to a be exposed ﬂuctuations of bound ry . They h ad as militant neighbours all the races then in England, Britons , Saxons , Jutes , and 2 OF WES Ex 4 CONVERSION S .

Angles ; and any political ferment among of any these told promptly upon Wessex . Some of the West Saxon kings had been

most vigorous ﬁghters , and had not conﬁned to th e a U themselves races n med . nder the year 597 the Anglo - Saxon Chronicle tells “ that in that year Ceolw ulf began to reign n amo g the West Saxons . And he fought

n - continually , either with A gle kin, or with ” or Welsh , or with Picts , with Scots . 6 Somewhere about the year 33, when Honorius of the Italian mission was Arch and bishop of Canterbury, Rochester, left without a bishop for six years , had j ust received the fugitive Paulinus as bishop, and there was n o other bishop of the Italian mission in all England besides , only the a u an Burgundian prel te Felix at D nwich, other attempt to bring the island to the r m is true faith was made f o Italy. It usually said that the bishops of Rome had l lost interest in the Eng ish mission, which h ad hung ﬁre for so m any long years ; and ’ Gregory s successors certainly h ad not any ’ m great love for Gregory s S che es . It is very true that the work o f the mission h ad hung ﬁre ; it had done nothing In the way of r r Na p og ess for a long time . y, its work had CONVERSION OF WESSEX . 43

two grievously shrunk ; for the kingdoms , h ad other than Kent, which it for a time Birinu s to converted, were , when came

Wessex , entirely pagan .

At this conj uncture Pope Honorius, bearing the same name as the Archbishop of Canter b a h as ury, fact which led some writers into v of error, received a isit from a man mission

Birinu s Birinu s ary spirit , . declared that he

to wished preach in Britain, beyond the parts n o occupied by the English , parts in which h be teacher had preceded him . Eit er this tokened a curious ignorance of the circu m stances of those parts of Britain which were

Birinu s not occupied by the English , or had acquired from the Scotic monks on the continent some special knowledge o f remote a o f N p rts orth Britain , which it would be 1 u to to very usef l us possess . However

his that might be , Pope Honorius applauded resolve , and told him to obtain consecration as G A bishop at enoa, from sterius the Arch

1 Pope H o n oriu s k new som eth ing abou t th e S cotic h u ch for h e C r , w ro te a letter t o th em ab ou t th eir

o bse r an ce o f Easter B ede II E . ii. B v ( , . ed e d oes n o t su ggest th at h e m ade an y app eal t o th em on th e grou n d o f a su pp o sed foun dation o f th eir Ch u rch by any o f h is redecesso rs p . OF WESSEx 44 CONVERSION .

of bishop Milan , who was then resident at 1 G not to enoa . Why he should tell him look to the Archbishop o f Canterbury for consecration, is a question which raises inter n esting points . We are speaki g of a time j ust about the date o f the relapse of North a umbria into p ganism , and Archbishop had r i Honorius in all p obability , ndeed we m a n ot as y say certainly , yet received the R on pall, which was sent to him from ome 1 1 6 hi June , 34 . T s may possibly have been the reason for passing him over ; but the pall meant less by far in those days than later . It is to be remembered that Archbishop Honorius had himself been consecrated by Paulinus years before Paulinus received his f . o useless pall From another point View, it

11 1 b A t riu s B i h of G en oa B u t B ede sa s . s e s o . y ( 9) y , p n o n am es of bish op s of G en oa app eart o be k n ow n betw een ibe th Pasch asiu s in A . D . 0 an d oh n I w h o su bscr d e , 44 , J , il u n r A a h in 6 0 decrees of th e Rom an C o u n c de g t o 8 .

eriu s a Rom an b birth b ecam e B ish o of M ilan A st , y , p h m 2 8 H e died t G en oa in 6 o r 6 8 . T e state en t in 6 . a 37 3 f f h elli I talia S acra ed . 1 6 2 t . . 1 is a u se u l o Ug ( , 5 , 4, p 9 ) h h o f Pa al claim s A steriu s con exam ple of t e grow t p . ” “ r d B en n u i e B irin u s bish o b order of th e sec ate s ( . . ) p , y w m as le ate in to B ritain Po e h o sen t h i . p , g I t is qu ite p ossible th at A steriu s acted as B ish op o f ’ G enoa as w ell as A rch b ish o of M ilan so th at B ede s , p , m l n der statem ent m ay n ot h ave been a ere b u .

6 O V O OF WESSEx 4 C N ERSI N .

of G es to tribe the ewiss , be known later as the

West Saxons, had landed for the conquest of that part of Britain only about a hundred n d r a twenty yea s before . It lay at the mouth of the on e way through imp assable forests G which led to the open downs of Caer went, r o u Winchester . It was one of the three great Roman fortresses that had guarded the a of southern co st Britain, so long as the

Roman armies held the land . For a hundred r years after they left, the B itons continued to hold it against the piratical b ands Of Jutes and Saxons , and holding it they held the key 1 to the interior . It was not till the years 5 4 m 1 su cient and 5 9, that a force came by sea to drive the Britons out of the mighty R a O h oman w lls . nce past Porc ester , the a G way to C er went was open to them . ar of a r P ts the w lls of Porcheste still remain ,

S ea with the close by , and with an inter esting Norman church within the circuit of l a the wal s , pl ced close to the wall . The Normans were fond of placing their chief w u churches near the walls , hen they sed or rotec ancient walls , built walls , for the p tion of their settlements . Birinu s had come to ﬁnd ' a pagan people beyond the limits of the English . Here he was , CONVERSION OF WESSEX . 47

no among the English , and he found he had need to push through to distant parts of th e island to ﬁnd the material for his work “ All the people there were most pagan . He thought it more useful to preach the Word to to o of to them , than g in search those ” t whom he had come o preach . It is impor tant to notice that there is no hint that he thought it advisable to refer this complete of to R change plan ome ; that is, he did not come under any commission from Rome which needed revision ; nor had Asterius imposed geographical limits upon his exercise f o episcopal functions in this island . I of n the province the pagan West Saxons ,

G . then, he preached the ospel The king was C ne ils o f Ceawlin y g , great nephew (the direct a o f wh o h ad b 60 ncestor the queen), een from 5 to 593 such a scourge to the Britons in the t Ceolw ulf im wes , and Of , who had fought all partially with the races he could ﬁnd . He taught the king the principles o f the i f Chr stian aith ; then , when he was duly a prepared , he c techized him , and baptized 0 c him . It was the c of the chief sponsor to receive the newly - baptized Christian by giving him his hand as he emerged from

of 1 the laver regeneration . This o 06 was 8 OF WESSEx 4 CONVERSION .

performed by the most holy and most vic t i or ous n O wa of N . Ki g s ld , orthumbria Here , r N in a striking fo m , we have the orthumbrian inﬂuence in the conversion of a great Saxon

r a all . kingdom , eventually the g e test of Kent r a to had al e dy dwindled , and was dwindle x still more . In the conversion of Wesse we lay o u r hand upon the Christianising of the m ﬁnally do inant kingdom . And while it was done by a bishop from Italy, it was done in disregard of the original mission from Rome; Not only were there no relation s between Birinu s a i on and the C nterbury m ssion , the o f shewing Bede himself, but also the one w as I home inﬂuence there , n the conversion o f o f Wessex , was that the most devoted n adherent of the Scotic Church . Moder

u Birinus times have suggested, f rther, that is , I r after all, the rish name Byrne with the duly rolled ; and the late Bishop Forbes of Brechin claimed that Kilbirnie in Ayrshire was in named from him . We are not a position to Ir say that he was not an ishman by origin, but the suggestion is a mere guess .

too Along with the king, his people were f washed clean in the fountain o baptism . Steps were immediately taken to establish

of th e . O the Church West Saxons swald, O F CONVERSION WESSEX . 49

an ta r Bede tells us, played impor nt pa t in a t a this arrangement . After c ing as godf ther ’ to n C ne ils ar dau h Ki g y g , he m ried the king s g d a a ter . This is a curious evi ence th t the ple of spiritual kinship w as not then held to be o f th e importance which it assumed l ater . Oswald ’ a a rr d ow n ctu lly ma ied his son s aughter, his r a a a r g andd ughter , in the l ngu ge of spi itual

aﬂinit . ar u y Having become , in ordin y lang age , ’ - in - O a ra as the king s son law , sw ld , st nge it

C ne ils n may sound , joined y g in the donatio a to Birinu s o f a place for his episcopal se t . What could this joint gift of a site in Oxford K of an d N shire , by the ings Wessex orth a ? umbri , mean Bede , who no doubt under n stood what he was writi g about, and was beyond question at least as much alive to the seeming anomaly as we can possibly be , living r a n m as he did in the pe iod of separ te ki gdo s , “ u s two tells clearly that the kings , both ” of Dorcic t o kings , gave the city Bishop B irinu s. In the absence of any hint as to a a a the reason for this lli nce in don tion , we m ay perhaps suppose that the King o f North umbria had acquired o n his marriage some dowry right in Dorchester, the Dorchester ’ a O -in - ne r xford, and that the son law s parti cipation was necessary to validate the dona D 0 5 CONVERSION OF WESSEX.

’ tion . Bede s remark has , I think , a not inconsiderable importance from another point h mbria of View . The fact that a King of N ort u was joined with the King o f Wessex in this

ﬁrst endowment of the Church in Wessex , seems to shew fairly conclusively that the

gift w as a pers onal gift by the two kings . It could not be in any sense a gift corre sponding to what we in parliamentary times

a r t . V c ll a pa liamentary gif Queen ictoria ,

r C n e ils s the direct hei of y g , and not the Hou es a at h of P rliament with the queen their ead , r r ep esents the Wessex side of the donation .

was a . It a royal , not a st te , gift It is a l curious problem , why did they p ace their central seat of Christianity so near to the very extremity of the kingdom . Dorchester nl few o f O is o y a miles south xford , not far from the northern boundary of the G ewissee or West Saxons and the southern boundary r f of thei Anglian ees of Mercia. It lies on o f r the north side the chalk hills , and the e w as then no great road across the several

- head waters that lay between it and Silchester . The only answer I can give is that the King

W s x r o f g se was looking to the futu e ; that his alliance w ith the great king of the north had de veloped his political ambition ; and F 1 CONVERSION O WESSEX . 5 that he intended to extend his kingdom so far northwards that Dorchester sho uld in the end a become central place .

Birinu s Here , then , settled himself as Bishop of the West Saxons . He built and dedicated r chu ches , Bede tells us won many people to the Lord by his pious labours ; died (in r r H dda w as . ae and bu ied at Dorcheste Bishop , 6 6 who succeeded him in 7 , translated his body to o f V the city enta , that is , Winchester, and bu ried him there in the Church of the Blessed r an d Apostles , Pete Paul . I have had more than ar Va and once to rem k that Cardinal ughan , all in the Roman bishops England , in claiming

as . r England dedicated to St Peter, put fo th a solemn statement a year or two ago to the effect that the second church in Canterbu ry was di dedicated to St . Peter , whereas the de cation was to St. Peter and St . Paul . In the same document they m ade the same statement with a r w a reg rd to Wincheste , ith the same bsence of accordance with the well - known fact stated

a - by Bede . It is true th t in the Anglo Saxon ni a Chro cle there is the st tement, under the

ar 6 Cenwahl r ye 44 , that o dered the old

’ church at Winchester be built in St . Peter s “ and 6 8 name , under the year 4 , that the minster which Cenwahl king caused make at D 2 2 OF WESSEx 5 CONVERSION .

Winchester was builded and h allowed in S t . ’ ”

a a a n . Peter s n me . But these are l te dditio s “ ” Th e phrase the old church s hews that the ” addition o f the word old w as m ade after “ ” the year 9 0 0 ; for the new minster was only th e an d begun in tenth century , the two ar a mentions of St . Peter e found ﬁrst in a of m nuscript the twelfth century . The a m n r ou r a e rliest a usc ipt of all , C mbridge MS was a , which written in one h nd down to 8 1 the year 9 , has none of these three

r o inse tions . This gives an awkward col ur to the evidence for the dedication to St . Peter a e w as i lon , if there ntention in it ; but it is probably a sufﬁcient explanation that the “ w as r as name cut short to St . Pete , Bede “ sometimes cuts short the name of S t. Peter ” St a and . P ul at Canterbury . Bede was r perfectly right, and the evidence Of the cha a ar ters leaves no question bout it . A ch ter “ of 6 7 2 describes the church as dedicated in honour of St . Peter , the chief of the ” a t apostles , and to St . Paul ; a ch r er of 737, “ ” “ a a a Peter and P ul ; ch rter of 74 9 , Peter ” “ a a r and P ul l ter in the centu y , in honour o f Tr i an d U an d the blessed in ty the true nity, ” 0 of the Ap o stles Peter and Paul . In 9 4 the “ a phr se occurs , the Monastery of the Church of

o r 54 CONVERSION WESSEX .

r h K ent it ber, on Chu c es in West , , a a 1 0 ppears th t of 4 churches , sixteen were a . and . dedic ted to St Peter St Paul , one to

. V n d . a a St Peter, one to St Peter ad incul , on S e to t. a t Peter and St . John B ptis . In the highly important document which Pope Vitalian sent to King Oswy on the death of Wi h ard r g , Archbishop elect of Canterbu y ,

a . S au the pope associ tes St Peter and t. P l as the joint source of the true traditions ; and he tells Oswy that Wigh ard had been at a buried the threshold of the postles . The ” S ee w as Apostolic the See of the Apostles , not of the Apostle . It is a curious and interesting fact that the most Petrine of all a a English dedic tions , th t which changed the

M edesh am sted P etri Bu r u s name of to g , w as a a Peterborough , in f ct not a dedic tion 6 St al . U a to . Peter one nder the ye r 57, the a r i vI n an Anglo S xon Ch onicle , g g exceedingly l n a e gthy account of the whole proceedings , s ys that th e monastery w as h allowed in the names

o r and . w . f . . a St Pete , St P ul , St Andre King Cynegils died seven years befo re Biri l nu s and Coinw a ch . , was succeeded by his son This man refused to receive the faith and the a l n an d sacraments of the he ven y ki gdom ,

before long he lost his earthly kingdom . His WESSEx CONVERSION O F . 55

o f wife was a sister the powerful pagan Penda , d King of the Mercians ; that Pen a , who on more than one occasion wrought such ruin in

N orth um bria , in concert with the Christian r a to B itons , and eventually llowed his son introduce Christian teachers into Mercia . ’ Co inwalch put away Penda s sister, and took another wife . Penda was not at all a man to n an d stand that sort of thi g ; he declared war , Coin al h drove Coinw alch from his kingdom . w c n o f a A took refuge with the Ki g the E st ngles , as Anna , whom Penda eventually slew, he had slain his Christian predecessors Ecgric and Si b r n a e e t . g A na was a most devoted Christi n , as we shall see when we come to speak of m an East Anglia . Such a did not leave his ’ guest s paganism unassailed ; and in three ’ a Co inw alch a ye rs time bec me a Christian . N n ot lo g after, he was restored to his king f dom . What had been the state o Wessex in Birinu s n the interval , and what had been doi g ,

Bede does not tell us .

a . The king , then, came b ck After a time , he lost his bishop by death , as we have seen ; and a he wished to h ve another . Whence was this wish to be supplied ? It was n o very far

to r r w as cry Cante bury, where Hono ius still archbishop ; and the roads were good enough 6 OF WES Ex 5 CONVERSION S .

r a from the no thern part of his re lm . The a Englishman Itham r was bishop at Rochester , a and there was in E st Anglia , to which king Coin walch a dom owed so much , bishop in con n ti n r ec o with Canterbury . Those we e all the bishops o f the Itah an connection then in Eng l in 6 0 N a and ; that is , the year 5 . In orthumbri , L r the ﬁrst of the Scotic Bishops of indisfa ne , d w as Ai an , still alive , being succeeded in the wh o ar next year by Finan, three ye s later restored o ur East Saxon bishopric by conse as r r crating Gedd . It w f om the Scotic Chu ch that the second line of Bishops of Wessex “ ” a f came . A cert in pontif from Hibernia , “ r Bede tells us , came into the p ovince ; v olu n associated himself with the king , and ” ril r a ta y unde took the ministry of pre ching . A i a His name w as g lbert . He was by n tion a G o f ar an d h ad a aul, P is , he spent no sm ll time in Ireland for the purpose of studying the

Scriptures . The fame of the Irish schools of i was a learn ng at that time great , and m ny persons went from Gaul to study there ; a a a good m ny English too, especially l ter

L as r a on in the century . ismore w p ob bly the principal o f the Irish schools for the purposes o f foreigners ; but the interesting epitaphs still remaining there do not go so far back as OF CONVERSION WESSEX . 7

’ 1 A ilb 00 r n g ert s time by abou t 2 yea s . Bei g L in Waterford , ismore was accessible for per ra sons crossing from Britain . T dition tells us

Aldfrith N orth um bria wh o that of , succeeded Ec frith 6 8 an d a d g in 5, p sse his youth in A ilb r a L s . e t Ireland, was educ ted in i more If g

6 0 and ' 6 0 was there between 4 5 , as seems probable , he would j ust miss the founder Of

S t. Carth ach w as a the school , , who b nished 6 1 and di at from Rahin (Rathain) in 3 , ed L 6 6 a 1 0 ismore in 3 . At R hin he had 7 stu dents attending his teaching. There is a famous verse describing the character of his lectures ; and as his successor is credited with a being equally eloquent, we can im gine the inﬂuence brought to bear upon Agilbert

Lo eth Mech u da i e Carth ach th e iet v ( . . ) p y.

Wo n dr u s e h i tor o f h is h istories o ev ry s y . B efo re h im h ad n o t sh ed an y o n e 2 H alf th at h e sh ed of tears

1 B en dach t for an ar an ble sin or h o n M t , a s g f t e soul f Marti

Abbat Martin died 8 8 ben dach t fo r an m ain Gol en ( , 7 ) g , a blessin or th e soul o Col an Col an a fam ou s ecclesiastic g f f g ( g , , d ied 8 0 ﬁ ' d o D o n n ch ad a ra er or Duncan D on n h ad 5 ) , p y f ( q ’ an d h is cou sin O B ric m on arch -elect o f th e D esi w ere , , assassin ated in th e cath edral S u ibn e III con h u idir , , — S weeny th e son of the p ale hou nd (th is w ell kn own scribe an d an ch o rite A bbat of Lism o re die d , , 2 I h a e to th an m frien r N r a h is v k y d D . o m n Moo re for t in form atio n an d r l i n t ans at o . 8 V OF WESS Ex 5 CON ERSION .

6 0 C th aldu f . a s a o In 4 , St was m ster the school . The other great schools open to Agilbert were

Clo nm acn is Bangor and o . Probably there r we e students also, even at that early date, and at Armagh Clonard . C oinw alch soon saw h ow learned and h o w A ilbert industrious g was , and he begged him to o a a as accept the episc p l se t, and remain

o ff - a a A ilbert p nti to the West S xon r ce . g n a n co sented , and for some ye rs the arra ge d h o . en g w ment held But, in the , the kin , w a kne no language but S xon, got quite a a weary of the b rbarous t lk of his bishop , — r the disrespectful ph ase is not mine , s wh o and brought in another bi hop , spoke a one con se the s me tongue as himself, Wini , to crated in Gaul . He then proceeded divide 1 tw o a the province into dioceses , pl cing Wini at V a a r and ent , th t is , Wincheste , leaving

A ilbert r e sh ow g at Do chest r, of the best a A ilbert w as p rts of his diocese . g very indignant that the king should have done

this , without even consulting him . The proverb about half a loaf w as perhaps not

’ “ 1 B ede s w ord for dioces Pa ochia arish is o f cou rse e . r ﬁp , Th is h as led to m u ch con fu sion an d m isu n derstan din g as to th e date of th e division into parish es in th e m odern h e w rd sen se of t o . O F CONVERSION WESSEX . 59

t current then . He lef Wessex , and after some time returned to France , where he was

a o f is n m de bishop h native city , Paris , dyi g r w as in that bishop ic full of years . It this Agilbert who played indirectly so large a part in at the synod of Whitby, hav g gone from Wessex to live in N orthumbria before his Ga return to ul . ’ Wini s accession to Winchester is dated in ’ 66 2 A ilb ert s a , and on g dep rture he probably exercised supervision over the whole province , though it is to be noted that Bede still calls Agilbert bishop of the West Saxons at the 66 time of the synod of Whitby in 4 . Coin walch did not ﬁnd bishops very easy people

et o f to get on with , and he very soon g rid

Wu lfh ere Wini , who took refuge with , king

- a of the Mercians , over lord of the E st Saxons “ ” . o f L d then The see the city of on on , as a Bede here c lls it , was vacant by the death

G Wu lfh re of edd , and Wini bought it of e ; an d bishop of London he remained for a to f thirteen ye rs , even the end of his li e , r 1 as Bede exp essly says . Meanwhile Coin walch did without a bishop at all for several a ye rs , probably eight or not far short of that,

1 See som e rem ar s o n th is oin t on a es 1 2 0 & c. k p p g , 6 0 OF WE SEx CONVERSION S .

till things began to go wrong with him . His enemies gav e him great trouble and prevailed a t a r ag inst him . At las he beg n to emember r r r that when he disbelieved , in ea lie yea s , he lost his kingdom ; when he believed , he

- - r was restored . A sort of rule o f th ee sum suggested that as he got on badly witho ut a on a bishop, he might get well if he ppoint r a ed one . The eupon he sent to Fr nce and A ilbert A ilbert re begged g to come back . g plied that he w as now bishop of his native city

an d and r r . diocese , the efo e he could not come — But he h ad a nephew nepotism is derived 1 n e os a w— r from p nephe the p iest Eleutherius ,

o and he th ught him worthy of the bishopric. The king accepted the suggestion and sent

for . w as 6 0 Eleutherius This in 7 , and by that time Theodore of Canterbury had already done a good deal towards unity of organisa

a r r r C oin l h tion w ith C nte bu y as a cent e . w a c T ra applied to heodore to consec te his bishop , an d r ra T Theodo e consec ted him . hus of the r ﬁrst fou bishops of Wessex , the only English

- m an was the simoniacal Wini . The two fold arrangement of dioceses seems to h ave dropped ’

il . with Ag bert s retirement. His successor

1 Or, Leu th eriu s

6 2 o r WES Ex CONVERSION S . the West Saxons not long after their success ful attempt on Porchester and their sack o f

V . off r r enta, our Winchester Cut f om fu ther conquests north and west of Winchester by r the st ong defence of the Britons, they spent the years before their great ad vance in the m It as subj ection of the island o the coast . w 6 0 ‘did won in 3 . They not occupy it them selves , but let it fall to the possession of La o n their allies the Jutes . ter , it was held

Wu lfh ere with Wessex ; till , the Mercian

- king , over lord of Wessex , gave it to the South Saxon King on his conversion to the a Christian faith . When we come to spe k of as Sussex we shall see how late that was , 8 a r 6 0 . late as the yea Soon after th t , Ceadwalla , an exiled member of the house o f of Cerdic, seized the kingdom Wessex , h and won back t e Isle of Wight from Sussex . I 6 86 t was at that time , so late as , wholly Ceadw alla given to idolatry , and endeavoured to put an end to this by destroying all the inhabitants and putting subj ects of his own

h d ' v ed in their place . He a o w that if he conquered the island he wo u ld devote a fourth of a part it, and a fourth p rt of the spoil , to the L r a ord . This he perfo med by h nding over a fourth part of the land to Wilfrith of W E Ex 6 CONVERSION o r SS . 3

N wh o w orthumbria, , as we shall see hen we a to spe k of Sussex , happened be working among the South Saxons then . According of to the English manner computation , the a whole isl nd was a land of families , and Wilfrith received in possession a territory ’ of 00 i 3 famil es . He set his sister s son Bernwin to do the work of Christianising the him island , giving as colleague the priest

H iddila. The Isle of Wight does not geographically belong in whole to either of the tw o English d kingdoms, Wessex and Sussex . As Be e

o u t points , it lies opposite the division n between the two . Thus it was counted o w o f r as part of one, now the othe kingdom, a and its ecclesiastical position was uncert in . ow n It never had a bishop of its , nor, in ’ Bede s belief, was it deﬁnitely under the rule ’ of any bishop till Bede s own time , when it was placed under the j urisdiction of Daniel , To bishop of the West Saxons . the diocese of Winchester it still belongs . The descent o f the see of Winchester from the earliest times to the Reformation has been a To accompanied by several complic tions . mention them will be the simplest w ay of shewing the gradual growth of the area of 6 OF WES Ex 4 CONVERSION S .

i a of a Chr sti n Wessex, and its ecclesi stical a a rr ngement .

First of all , as we have seen , it was placed

O r . a at Dorchester , near xfo d This f ct the

- early Anglo Saxon lists disregard . The lists they give are lists of Bishops of the West a as Lo are S xons , the ndon lists Bishops of ar the East Saxons . These lists e found chieﬂy

- a M r in the Anglo S xon SS . presented by A ch a to bishop P rker his College , Corpus Christi ,

Cambridge . They are principally three, one being written late in the tenth century , the others about three qu arters of a century a m w e r on th e e rlier . From the lea n that d a of H aedda e th , the ﬁfth bishop , counting

Birinu s r r W t of Do cheste as the ﬁrst, the es Saxon see was divided into tw o parochiae ar as or p ishes , dioceses we call them , Win r a an chester an d She born . This indic tes

- extension of the kingdom south westwards , a a n fter some hard ﬁghting, and cha ge of View r a s as to the expansion no thwards . D niel w a a r m m de Bishop of Wincheste , and Aldhel 0 Bishop of Sherborn , in 7 5. It w as this Aldhelm wh o brought from L ar a o f r omb dy a beautiful alt r white ma ble , hi adorned with sculptured crosses . And s chasuble was so beautiful that it was pre o r WE Ex 6 CONVERSION SS . 5 served as a work of early art at Malmesbury after the Conquest : its ornaments were peacocks in circles . The opportunity o f this division o f labour was taken to place the Isle of Wight under ’ ’ Daniel s charge , in Bede s time . l Then , j ust before the earlier ists were

d o f compile , the diocese Winchester was

- or itself sub divided into parishes dioceses ,

0 Frith stan— in 9 9 . e whose splendid stole and maniple are now at Durham , with an inscription formed of worsted - work letters i of nserted in the texture woven gold thread , “ Queen ZElflaed caused to be made for the ’ ri6estan - h e n pious Bishop F held Wi chester, and Athelstan held Ramsbury . This indicates m a ovement northwards , Wessex making itself sure of Berkshire as included in its a episcop l oversight . It might be asked why it should not have resumed the seat at the of northern Dorchester, the first home its bishop . The answer is that Dorchester h ad then for some considerable time been reckoned to n L Mercia , and was held j oi tly with ich 1 field .

At this same time , probably later in the

1 See L ctu r I 1 2 1 2 6 e e V . , pp 5, . E 66 r CONVERSION o WESSEX .

a of and s me year, the sees Wells Crediton

a - were est blished , not by sub division , but by n ex an acquisition of territory , shewi g great p

- sion to the west and north west . Thus we have in the early tenth century

the Wessex sees of Winchester, Sherborn,

Ramsbury , Wells , and Crediton . At the

Norman Conquest they were all in existence . of L h ad The bishop Crediton , eofric , moved 1 0 d 1 0 2 to Exeter in 4 9, and he ied in 7 ; O n sber w as . , the next bishop , bishop of Exeter G 1 0 88 iso of Wells died in , and his successor a an John of Tours w s bishop of Bath d Wells . a It so ch nced that the see of Sherborn , which a had lasted three hundred and seventy ye rs , of a and the see Ramsbury, which had l sted an d at a hundred seventy years , were held the b an d Conquest y one the same man , Herman , and he made his home at Old Sarum . Old Sarum was in the cou rse of time deserted for

Salisbury . I 2 r r Finally , in 54 , B istol was e ected into an d 1 8 6 a bishopric , in 3 it was combined l G ou ceSter. with a see of Mercian descent , Thus the original see of the West Sax o ns has e r r i by d g ees g own into the sees of W nchester, a a B th and Wells , Exeter , S lisbury, and half o f Gloucester and Bristol . OF WE Ex 6 CONVERSION SS . 7

Birin us and Cynegils and Coinw alch will appear in o ur transept windows among the primary bishops and primary Christian kings f o the English Heptarchy . L E T R E III C U .

E A ST ANGL I A

Redw — — - ald . Eor w ald S i ebert an d Felix. Du nw ich p . g ’ an d Elm h am - S ch o ols o f East A n lia —Si ebert s . g . g — — deat K in n n a an h i dau h ter Fu rse . h g A d s g s. y Con n ection w ith an terb u r —D in ou t of th e A u u s C y. y g g tin i u — n ra i n f h s - 668 an s ccession . Co sec t o s o bis o p , 59 7 . D escen t o f th e East A n lian see g .

The kingdom of E ast Anglia corresponded in N r k f extent with our o fol and Suf olk, with at least that p art of Cambridgeshire which ’ lies to the e ast of th e great Dyke (the Devil s N w r and a Dyke) at e ma ket, prob bly in early

r h : times mo e t an that . The parishes in this corner of Cambridgeshire were in the East

a o Anglian diocese till ﬁfty or sixty years g , when the archdeaconry of Sudbury was transferred to the see of Ely ; one among many ecclesiastical arrangements which have served to o bh terate old and interesting land T marks . h e fen country up to Peterborough w as probably reckoned with East Anglia at r some periods of time , fo ming a principality

0 OF 7 CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA .

- in - law i o f his brother , the rightful K ng

u s r m r u of . Bernicia , the p g King Dei a Edwin l at of Redwald ﬁna ly took refuge the court , K ing of the East Angles , probably at Rendle ff a — sham in Su olk , little to the north east of

Woodbridge . Exning was a royal seat some

what later than this , but I do not know that we have any knowledge of it before Anna’ s h n . ramlin am a o time F g has been s id , less au th orit to an y, have been early royal residence n Eth elfrith of the East A glian kings . sent to Redwald i messengers , w th great promises f i o money if he would put Edw n to death . n A second and a third time he sent, increasi g h n R d ald is . e w promises and threateni g war , o f Eth elfrith r to in fear , ag eed either kill Edwin or to deliver him up to the third mes

sen ers. g But, suddenly, other counsels pre

' refu sal and vailed . He sent a third , like a wise man he backed it up with an army, so promptly that Eth elfrith had no time to an d w as a make preparations , killed in b ttle

of th e r on the banks Idle , probably nea

R 6 1 Redw ald etford , in 7. lost a son in the r n o f battle , and this loss increased the st e gth the bond of gratitude which bound Edwin r of thenceforwa d to him . The result the battle was that Edwin recovered his kingdom 1 CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA . 7 o f r Deira, and ruled also over the other po tion f r h mbri o N o t u a . , Bernicia

When Edwin became a Christian , he felt that he must do wh at he could to repay the debt he owed to the King of the East Angles . Redwald in 6 1 , indeed, was dead , had died 7 , — after some years w e do not know how a I — o f r m ny, believe powe ful rule and supre E r ld macy . His son o pw a had been reigning t a at leas ten years in his ste d , but without

- now the wider over lordship , which had

w a . fallen to Ed in , whom his f ther had saved To Eorpwald Edwin n o w addressed his per n suasio s towards a change of faith . ’ Redwald s connection with Christianity one I had been a very curious . t is a unique instance in ou r early records of the attempt to tw o a hold opposing f iths at once , or at least to propitiate two opposing superhuman A . t a of powers some e rly period his reign , not otherwise deﬁned by Bede , he had been r a W made a Ch isti n on a visit to Kent . e m ay perh aps assume that this was during ’ - Ethelbert s over lordship . Whenever it was , it was the only case in which we have a hint of an endeavour on the part o f the original Italian mission to touch the Eas t Angle kingdom . When Redwald returned from 2 OF 7 CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA .

z a Kent a bapti ed Christi n , his wife dis approved what he had done ; an d she and certain evil teachers seduced him from his

a to r allegi nce Christ, or, rather, f om the sin ri f t ce ty o his faith . From that time o the day of his death he had in one and the same

an a s a and temple ltar for the Chri ti n sacriﬁce , ff a little altar for the victims o ered to demons . Aldw ulf wh o , became king of the East Angles ’ 66 an d sa in 3 , lived to Bede s time , used to y that the temple thus strangely furnished by

a - to his gre t uncle remained his time , and he had seen it as a boy . Such was the example ’ set to Redwald s Eor wald wh o pagan son p , was now to come under the Christian in f ﬂu ence o Edwin . Edwin persuaded Eorpwald to abandon his s idolatrou superstitions, and with his whole province to receive the faith and sacraments n o f Christ . As Paulinus had certainly bee at the court of Redwald at the great crisis of ’ a no t Edwin s c reer, we may unreasonably ’ suppose that as Edwin s bishop he had some thing to do with this wholesale conversion . of But nothing the kind is suggested by Bede , o r is in any way to be gathered from the N r history . or is Canterbu y or its Archbishop

Honorius in any way referred to . Bede as CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA . 73

’ signs the whole merit to Edwin s personal en action . All that we can say, in the deavou r to assign to the Italian mission some sort of share in this particular conversion of an English kingdom , is , that Edwin owed his an d n Christianity to Canterbury , East A glia owed its Christianity to Edwin . Certainly n o attempt is recorded on the part o f Canter bury to set up a bish oprI c In E ast Anglia when the kingdom had become Christian , nor yet to restore Christianity when the kingdom a a became p gan gain . It is a dominant feature of the work of the Italian mission , that they r - we e not dogged . They were fair weather of people, successful in time success, nowhere o f a in time f ilure . Eor wald w as a Richbert p slain by a pag n , , 1 not long after his conversion , and for three a years the kingdom was in rel pse . Then ’ E r l a happy change came . o pw a d s brother 2 Si ebert g , so Bede describes him , Obtained i r “ the kingdom . This S gebe t was in all ways

1 Bede d oes n ot give u s any n earer in dication of date ’ th an th is Th e A n lo - S axon ch ron icle u ts r l . g p Eo pw a d s ba tism in th e last ear of Edw in 6 2 p y , 3 . 1 Later au th orities m a e h im h alf-broth er a ste son o f k , p Redw ald w h ich seem s a cu riou rel i , s at on sh ip to h ave led to su ccessio to th e h r n n t o e . R OF . 74. CONVE SION EAST ANGLIA

a m r a most Christi n and ost lea ned man . h T at is the concise panegyric of Bede . He ’ h ad been exiled in Gaul during his brother s — life verily o u r early English ancestors were — not remarkable forb roth erly love and there he had been admitted to the Christian Sacra r ments . These privileges he dete mined that his people should enjoy when he came to the

SI nal m throne . He got g help fro a bishop

a r r . who c me f om Bu gundy , Felix by name Whether Sigebert and Felix had m et in — France to use that name in its wider

meaning , not incorrectly by the way , for the Franks had n ow conquered and annexed — d Burgundy w e o not know . It would seem to natural suppose that it was so , and that on this account Felix came to England ; and from its naturalness it h as been asserted th all to have been e fact . But that Bede or r s a any p imary authority tell us is , th t Felix “ came to Honorius the Archbishop and — shewed him his desire wh at the desire was we are not told and Honorius sent him to preach the Word to the aforesaid a n 1 n tion of the A gles . Dr . Hook adds that when Felix and Sigebert determined to es tab

1 Lives o th rchbish o bu i s e A s o Canter r . 1 1 1 t f p f y, 3 ( . F CONVERSION O EAST ANGLIA . 7S

lish a bishopric , Felix applied to Honorius for consecration ; and this is the usu al state

B . ment . ut Bede says nothing of the kind O n the contrary , he says that Felix was born “ ” and ordained in Burgundy ; and ordained is the word which Bede uses to indicate the o f a consecration a bishop ; as , for inst nce , “ Augustine went to Arles and was ordained Archbishop for the English race “ Augus tine while still living h ad ordained Laurentius to the episcopate There is an interesting variation in usage in the case of Archbishop

Honorius himself, of whom Bede remarks ” s d that Paulinus con ecrate him bishop , in o f a place Justus of C nterbury, in the new 3 stone church at Lincoln : th is was curiously enough six years before a p all was sent to a 4 P ulinus . It must be remarked that Dr . O i in Stubbs , the Bishop of xford , ncluded Re istram S acru m A n lican u m O his g g ( xford , 1 8 8 o f 6 0 to 5 ) a consecration Felix in 3 , the u o f see of D nwich , by Honorius Canterbury , giving as the authority for the statement

II I Bede . have quoted above the

1 3 6 P) . 1 2 H E 11 E . 11 1 . H . . . . R . 7. . 4 1 “ “ ii 1 8 B de u ses b oth rd in ed n d c n I n . e o a a o secrated , in one sen ten ce in s ea in o f th is con secration , p k g . 6 OF 7 CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA .

1 o f an d a words Bede , they do not ppear to f j ustify this use o them . But I know better than to treat with any lightness an Opinion f o . Dr Stubbs . “ r Felix had great success , in acco dance ” o f with the sacrament his name , as Bede says : a very unusual and very interesting r application of the word sacrament, fo ecasting w the ans er in our Catechism . The name a a S Felix , h ppy , was the outw rd visible ign of the inward Spiritual grace which marked and ’ l a a blessed his life s work . Bede , p aying g in a upon the name , tells us th t Felix brought the pagans out o f their long subj ugation to e wickedn ss and unhappiness , and led them on to th e o f faith , and works righteousness , and the rewards of perpetual felicity . n Felix, then , became Bishop of East A glia, and his episcopal see was set at the city of D mm a o oc . , th t is , Dunwich Dunwich was Sitom a us o ne few the Roman g , of the Roman a a o n e pl ces in E st Anglia, and the only i r close upon the sea . Here S gebe t constructed a palace for himself and a church fo r his o a bishop , using no d ubt the Roman w lls as

1 Th Latin w ords are as follow s Cu u s S c Si eberti e j ( . g ) tu diis lo rio sissim e favit Felix e iS CO u s u i de B u r s g p p , q ” n dioru m artibu s u bi o rtu s et ordinatus est etc gu p , , .

78 CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA .

o f l a ffo several vi l ges in Su lk , about the m a r a iddle of the tri ngle fo med by H rleston,

a r a . far H leswo th , and Bung y As as we can r r a j udge f om the p ob bilities of the case, Dunwich would be retained as the see of the

h o an d a Sout F lk , Elmh m would be the see

of the North Folk . This consideration would at N a place the see orth Elmh m , not at South T re t Elmham . here a a North Elmham indi

s o f cation former importance , a mound , and and o f a a fosse, remains ncient w lls ; the a or p lace , manor house , was built in a cor an a a ner of a camp . And e rly E st Anglian

au an d princess , d ghter of the next king sister

o f Eth eldreda li and of Ely , ved was buried at a Dereh m , close by , and her well is there 1 r now . The place and neighbou hood were

1 Witb d u h ter f in n n a Th e Th is w as er a a o K A . g , g g ’ th eft of th is lady s b o dy from D ereh am by th e m o n ks “ l u n ted in th e El M S an d m a b e fo u n d o f E is reco . y y , y “ ” h r f Th e Cam o f Refu e n 0 K in n t e sto o . I i y p g 9 7 , g a e to Eth elw old B ish o of in h ester th e Edgar g v , p W c ,

i er h ich h eath en m en h ad bro e n d ow n an d h e m n st s w k , set to w ork t o re air th e m in ster o f El lacin as abb at p y, p g e ri r f in h ester B rith n h Th e in th ere th P o o W c ot . k , g

a e to th e abbe th e tow n o f D ereh am w ith its treasu red g v y , relics o f Witb erga ; bu t th e m on k s d ared n ot carry off

h b od o en l an d th e h ad recou rse to m on astic t e y p y , y h in h ea m et o ds t e y r 9 7 4 . l i r h a in dl Th Rev H . L Arn o d ca o f Dere am h s e . . V , , k y sent m e th e inform ation in h is p ossessi o n I n relation CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA . 79 clearly o f considerable importance in early a are times . But at South Elmh m there S much more remarkable remains . A pace o f a three and half acres, called the minster an d m eat yard , is enclosed within a bank , and contains the ruins of a great church — great in the early times externally 1 00 feet O long , known as the ld Minster, with a square narthex , a nave , and an apse ; as interesting a fragment of pre - conquest eccle

i s i l u s a t ca building as yo can well ﬁnd . It is one o f Flixtons very near the , which take e o N or their nam fr m Felix . The Bishops of wich retained an episcopal residence at South

Elmham down to the time of Henry V III . South Elmham Hall is said to be built on ’ the site o f Bishop Herbert s palace ( 1 0 9 1 and even to contain part of the

’ Witb er a Th in scri ti r to g . e p on on Witbe ga s well is as follow s :

Th e ru ins o f a tom b wh ich con tained th e rem ain s o f “ Witber a ou n est dau h er o f n n as K in h g , y g g t A , g o f t e An les w h i d D East o d e A . 6 Th e abb ot an d m on g , . 54 . k s

of El stole th is reciou s relic an d rem o ed it o l y p , v t E y Cath edral w h ere it w as in terred n ear h er th ree , royal “ i s sters D . , A . I t w as n ot h eath en m en on ly th at bro ke dow n m in sters

m onasteries n der - ( ) . U th e year 1 0 7 0 th e A n glo Saxon Ch ron icle h as a V er sw ee in en tr I n Len t th e in y p g y, k g ” let h arr all th e m n stres th at in En le lan d w ere y y g . 8 0 OF CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA .

1 a a origin l building . The vill ges round about are Elm ham s known as the South , each going by the name of its dedication Saint ; and this of course points to an ecclesiastical centre o f r at a much impo tance South Elmh m . But it I d to is , think , deci edly too near Dunwich h have been the seat of the second bis opric, I N and regretfully give it up, and accept orth

Elmham as the other see . To South Elm ham we may at least assign the dignity of having been the principal ecclesiastical de velo ment o f p the South Folk, rising in impor tance as church work made its way from

Dunwich inland , and as the incursions of the sea and of the Danes threatened the coast

more and more . Indeed it may well have become the ecclesiastical centre in place of Dunwich ; and in that case both North

1 c h E Clure wh t e Re . M Th i nf ation I ow e to v . o s i orm , gives m e also th e in ternal len gth s of th e th ree p arts — ft o th e ch u rch n arth ex s u are 2 6 ft . n a e . f , ( q ) , v 3 7 , h u res for th e len t an breadth of ap se 2 2 ft . T e ﬁg g h d ’ x an d n a e lo o li e m u lti les f 1 ft B isco s n arth e v k k p o 3 . p rr n m u l i l 1 ch u rch at Wearm ou th w as a a ged in t p es of 1 ft. M r M cClu re h as fou n d th at th ere is n o m en tion of th is .

ld Min ster in D om esda o r in th e Taxatio o f Po e O y, p Nicolas an d su ests th at it as alread a ru in at th e , gg w y Th e en tran ce at th e w est is b on e tim e o f th e Con q u est . y cen tral d oor ; from th e n arth ex to th e n ave th ere are

d rs tow ards th e n orth an d sou th . tw o oo , F 8 1 CONVERSION O EAST ANGLIA .

Elmham and South Elmham m ay have been a o f o f a the se ts bishops East Angli , one for the

North Folk and the other for the South Folk . Si ebert As we have seen , Bede describes g a of E st Anglia as very learned . He deter m ined that others should be learned too . During his residence in France he had seen the care bestowed upon schools there and when he came to his throne , he set himself to work to establish similar schools in East n A glia . He set up a school in which the l youth might be instructed in etters . Felix, whom in this place Bede says Sigebert had r as received f om Kent, gave him valuable sistan ce , and provided him with pedagogues and masters after the manner o f the Kentish

do a people . I not remember th t up to this time we have been told o f the existence of schools o f this kind in Kent . Thirty years a a later, or more th n th t , Theodore and Hadrian established th e famous school o f C anterbury ; but we gather from Bede that it was then something new . Bede does not say that Feli x got the mas ters from Kent . It is quite possible that he in r d got them from his home Bu gun y . In that case England richly repaid the debt when Alcuin sent to Charlem agne some of his pupils F ' 8 2 OF CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA . r a r “ f om the gre t school of Yo k , scions of ” a a h e a p r dise, as rather enthusiastic lly de scribed the scholars o f the Cathedral School ; and still more when he went himself to France ’ and became Charlemagne s right -hand m an in all that related to education and erudi tion . In the C ommemoration of Benefactors in U r o f the nive sity Cambridge , we used to trace o u r origin to this Sigebert of East Anglia . We declared that it had been handed down

r Si eb ert . in histo y that first of all g , King of e of r the East Angl s , established a school lea n in r an d ing Camb idge , it was fostered and enlarged by the liberality of succeeding kings . This h ad the happy effect of making us about 24 0 years older than the Uni versity of C x in a ford, which a very similar m nner claims to have been founded by King Alfred . But — now that the historic sense or conscience h as r become more lea ned and more acute , we in Cambridge at least have modified our a statement , confining ourselves to the f ct that Sigebert did set up in our part of the world r hi a school or schools Of learning . G eog ap a a a r or c lly , it has been s id that C mb idge G r antchester was at that time in Mercia, not in East Anglia at all . But Bede says clearly 8 CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA. 3

1 n n that Ely was in East A glia , and that whe it was desired to ﬁnd a cofﬁ n that would serve for - a b _ the resting pl ce of the ody of ’ Eth eldreda Si ebert s , the daughter of g cousin and m successor, the onks rowed up the water to Grantchester 2 and found there a sarcoph a of gus white marble , which they carried in a their boat to Ely . We may f irly claim that

Cambridge was then in East Anglia . Sigebert had during this time had a sub n Ec ric i ki g under him , his kinsman g rul ng h d H o was a part of is king om . w the land subdivided I think we do not know ; but it is reasonable to suppose that the parts which we call Norfolk and Suffolk were the m ain kingdom , and the province of the G rvn r y was the othe part, including Ely 3 “ and Peterborou gh . The scorn of the folk for the people of the “ sheers ” (shires) may conceivably be a relic o f this division . After a few years ’ experience of the labours o f Si ebert a king, g determined to retire , and Ec ric leave g to rule the whole . He had built

1 H E i 1 v . . . 9 . 2 “ Ibid. a dese ed m l iz Th is is : rt city of s a l s e. of cou rse a pow erfu l argum en t again st th e claim o f Cam ’ b rid e to b e th i g e s te of on e o f Sigebert s sch ools. 3 Ibid . iv 6 B ede a . . s ys th at M edesh am sted w as in th e re io n of th e G ii g yrv . OF CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA .

a h for himself a mon stery , and ere he now to went live , receiving the tonsure . But he w as his a not allowed to end d ys in peace . a t The pag n Penda , ubiqui ous in mischief, a a inv ded E st Anglia . The leaders found themselves unable to cope with his forces ; ’ and so great was their belief in Sigebert s skill and inﬂuence, that they brought him , a n o u t and ag i st his will , of his monastery, set him to lead them against the enemy . r They felt su e , we are told , that the people would not dare to run away in his presence .

Si ebert w g refused to be armed , and ent into a battle with a w nd in his hand . He and Ec ric a a g were killed , and the E st Angli n

as r w as army w dest oyed . That the end of n this most Christian a d most learned king . a of Anna , the next king , ﬁrst cousin Si ebert w as as r a g , quite rema k ble for Chris r Si ebert tian g aces as g had been , and his family of dau ghters made a mark upon the Christian work and history of England and

him self killed 6 of France . He was in 54 by ' th at same Penda who had slain his two pre rs N S f decesso . ear Blythburgh in uf olk is a r al Bulcam an d a dist ict c led p Forest, loc l tradition makes that the scene of the defeat Th e and slaughter of Anna . story is probably

8 6 CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA .

’ many of Anna s daughters to the religious life ; the other was the presence I n East

Anglia of the Irish hermit Fu rsey. The oldest of Anna’ s daughters was Sex a Earc nb ert n . w s o berga She wife of , Ki g

o f 6 0 . Kent, whom she married soon after 4 Tw o o Ec bert Hloth ere r of her s ns , g and , we e kings of Kent ; and Wu lfh ere of Mercia mar ’ one h er O ried of daughters . n her husband s d 66 a r of eath in 4 , she founded the mon ste y h and Minster, in the Isle of S eppey, thence ’ Eth eldreda s a went to her sister bbey of Ely , r 6 whe e , in 79 , she succeeded her sister as E rm nhild . u o e abbess Her own da ghter , , Wulf e ’ w h re s wido , succeeded her as Abbess of Ely , an d another daughter Werberga as Abbess of

Sheppey. That brief sketch shews the wide inﬂuence of her life in those e arly days of the establishment of Christianity and the i development of the rel gious life . Eth eldreda was in some respects the great of 6 2 est the daughters . She married , about 5 , an t a r Tonbert Eas Angli n p ince , , who gave her a Ely as a marri ge gift . It was only nominally ’ Tonbert s m a a marriage . On death she rried ’ 660 Ec frith Osw s in g , y son , again a nominal marriage . He became King of North u mbria 6 0 in 7 , and about two years later the king let ‘ 8 CONVERSION O F EAST ANGLIA . 7

o . u her g , and took a real wife Her fo ndation r of the Abbey of Ely is a familiar sto y . r Witber a The othe daughters of Anna were g ,

of an Ely nun , whom we spoke in connection 1 Eth elber a a with Dereham , and g , natural E h lb r a . t e e daughter, Bede says g introduces u s o f to a noteworthy feature those times , a namely , the extent to which English l dies 2 w ent to France to be educated and made a nuns . The princip l schools for this purpose

a s were the Mon sterie of Brie , Chelles near n Eth lber a o . e Paris , and Andelys the Seine g went to Brie , near Meaux , whose foundress Fara (hence the well - known name o f the

arem ou stier . monastery, F ) was still living ’ Eth elber a s So great were g Virtues , that in the course of time she was m ade abbess . The same fortune had previously fallen to th e ’ f - lot o King Anna s step daughter Saethryd. It adds much to our interest in these ladies to ’ know that Anna s brother and successor Ethel ’ H r 3 i h . e u sw t . here married , St Hilda s sister

1 See 8 p . 7 . 2 S ee also Lessons rom Earl En hu ch H ist f y glish C r ory, 8 p . 7 . 3 Th e w riters of Gallia Christiana iii 1 0 0 m a e (v . 7 ) k b oth Saeth r d and Eth elber a dau h f eru swith y g g ters o H , and m ake A n n a m arry H eru sw ith an d b e th e fath e r of Eth elberga : th ey also say th at a French w riter h ad 88 N OF CO VERSION EAST ANGLIA .

The presence of the Irish Saint F ursey in E ast Anglia evidently stirred the interest of a o f Bede . He came of the roy l houses L so einster and Munster, and after a long jou rn and m arvellous visions on the shores of L Corrib ough , he came over to this island w a to and made his y Saxony , that is, East re Anglia . There he settled himself in the mains o f the great Roman fortress of Cn obh ers t burg, whose massive walls , still four een feet t high , and solid round towers fourteen fee in r diameter, move the wonder of the p esent R r generation , much as ichbo ough and Peven B r h s l d . ca t e sey o The place is now called u g .

It is near Lowestoft . Here Fursey had a succession o f visions T such as he had had in Ireland . hey closely Dr th elm N resemble those of y , the orthumbrian , which I have described elsewhere in con nection with the ornamentation o f the stone r and r chu ch of Monkwearmouth , the o igin of ’ the tradition that the north is the devil s side 1 To of a church . these Visions the mediaeval

“ p roved th at n atu ral dau gh ter did n o t m ean w h at in later im e m an t Th e ordin r tatem en t as to t s it e . a y s

H ru s it i h a i en in th e xt Th e earl El e w h s t t g v te . y y h istorian g ives th e sam e accou n t as th e w riter in Gallia

Christiana . 1 L ssons r m E rl En li h hurch H is or . . e f o a y g s C t y, p 45 OF 8 CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA . 9 details of the torturing of souls in the ﬂames

u rse t of hell are in great part due . F y lef East Anglia whe n he realised that troublous times were in store for that land from the

r o f to G . incu sions barbarians , and went aul l There he left a mark which is sti l fresh , at L P r é onn e . u aon, , and St Q entin, and other places in those parts , so well worthy of a 1 e sympathetic pilgrimage . At P ronne his body remained fresh and uncorrupted in the time of William of Malmesbury . The face survived the horrors of the French Revolu

uff n tion , to s er grievous thi gs in the bombard e 1 8 0 ment of P ronne by the Prussians in 7 . It a ﬁre no w was , however, s ved from the , and is r a p iceless relic in careful hands . The Curé o f Peronne informs me that it was found o f under the ruins , with the glass the reliquary m of elted by the action the ﬁre , and in its molten state taking the impression of the 2 face . From the connection between F ursey 1 S ee a er ch arm in b oo b Miss M ar aret S to es v y g k y g k ,

Three M onths in the Forests France G eor e B ell & S o n s 1 8 Qf , g , 9 5 . 2 ’ Th e Cu ré s accou n t is su fﬁ cien tly in tere stin g to b e “ rep ro du ced h e re : La face fu t extraordin airem en t con ’ serves au m ilieu de l in cen die o ccasio nn é p ar lo b om b ardem en t ru ssie n de 1 8 0 Elle fu tro u u m ilieu p 7 . t re vée a

’ ' d es dé co mb res de l E lise recou erte d e l nv lO en g , v e e ppe

' c ristal de so n reli u aire li u é ﬁée sou s l actio n du feu q q , ’ ’ ” et u i a res l a oir ré ser ée en E con serve l em r inte q p v p v p e . 90 CONVERSION OF EAST ANGLIA;

and Felix , it has been suggested in recent times, as a conj ecture, that Felix himself may h ave been one o f the colony of Irish monk s

L u u u assembled at uxe il in B rg ndy . If that is so m a , he was, if the phrase y be allowed as con 1 ru o u s a in . g , a n tive of Ireland born Burgundy a n E st A glia was the one English kingdom , l other than Kent, which ooked in its early days to Canterbury fo r the succession of its 6 bishops . When Felix died , in 4 7, his deacon G rvii t Thomas , of the province of the y , hat is,

- as I suppose , a subj ect of the sub kingdom , was consecrated bishop in his place by Honorius of Canterb ury ; and when Thomas a r died , ﬁve years l ter, Hono ius put in his Berht ils place a Kentish man , g , surnamed as a a Boniface . This w the l st ppointment or consecration by Honorius , who died at a great in 6 age the year after, 53 . Boniface occupies a highly important posi t a ion, as being the l st survivor of the bishops w h o traced their episcopal orders to Augus

t . ine In him the Augustinian succession , never large , died completely out . He died in 66 and a 9 , and Deusdedit Dami n, his only companions in descent from Augustine , had

1 8 Se ls . e a o p 4 . O F 1 CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA . 9

66 Th e a of f in died in 4 . f cts are su ﬁcient terest to be set out in the form of a gen ea th e logical tree . If we count Felix as one of succession, the Augustinian bishops number i ne role so far as thirteen . S p means that to a history tells us , the bishop whose n me it is a xed did not consecrate any bishop ; that is , that no one carried on an episcopal succession from him .

1 A u u stin e an t . g (C .)

l i u L u ren tiu 2 Me l t s . u stu s a s . 3 J 4 .

Lon d an t . Ro h Can t Can t C c . . ( . , ) ( , .) ( ) s l sz i ole inep ro e. ne p .

Rom an u s 6 Pau linu s 5 . .

Roch Y or Roch . ( . ) ( k, ) in s e prole. on oriu s 7 . H

m B ifa 8 . I th a ar 1 0 . on ce

sine p role.

1 1 . D e u sdedit

1 2 D m ian . a

s me p role.

d a It may be ad ed , for the facts are valu ble

r the as well as interesting , that f om coming of T Augustine to the choosing of heodore , that r is , in the ﬁ st seventy years of the existence r of the Church of England , the e were twenty 2 F 9 CONVERSION O EAST ANGLIA . seven consecrations of bishops an d archbishops who performed episcopal functions in the 1 w English kingdoms , hether consecrated specially for that purpose or not . Eleven of these consecrations were performed by Augus tine or those who derived their episcopal orders from him ; four were performed by “ French bishops one by a Lombard bishop “ or archbishop ; one by Wini , in French tw o r r orders , and B itish bishops ; ten we e performed by Scotic or Irish bishops . In this statement of numbers I have n o t reckoned

Felix , who must be counted among the French or the Augustinian consecrations according to the View taken in regard to him . Among the Scotic consecrations I have reckoned the

r a . p edecessor of Aid n Arranged in kingdoms , the consecrations are as follows

A u gu stin ian Oth er S ou rces K en t 7 1 No rth u mbria 1 7 Wessex 0 3 1 East A nglia 2 o M ercia 0 4

East Saxon s I 1

S u ssex 0 0

6 From 55, when Deusdedit consecrated

1 i F lix No t class ng e .

F . O 9 4 CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA . there again we have mention of the election of “ ” “

u . a substit te Bosel, Bede tells us , the ”— Bishop of the Province of the Wiccii our IVorcestershire laboured under s uch in ﬁrmity of body th at he could not perform his r episcopal duties wherefo e , by the judgement o f Oftfor o in all , was elected to the bish pric ’ u his stead, and by the king s order was co se Wilfrith crated by , the Archbishop of Canter bury being dead and no successor as yet ” m a rib appointed . It y be noted that in desc Oftfor ing the election of , Bede remarks that for the vacancy which Bosel ﬁlled when he Tatfrid was made bishop , one had been elected , Wilfrith bu t he died before consecration . When

r N orth umbrian was tu ned out of his see, those who ﬁlled his place are not described as ” elected they were substituted . Th e bishopric of Dunwich came to an end w ith the incursion of the Danes . We have u Wilred j st the name of one successor to , i the ﬁfteenth bishop , whose last s gnature as 8 bishop is found in 45, and then the see of

Dunwich drops out of existence .

The newer see, Elmham, on the other hand ,

a r S . went on f i ly steadily , in pite of the Danes in 1 0 Stigand was bishop here 4 3 , before he was moved to Winchester , and then to F CONVERSION O EAST ANGLIA . 9 5

wh o Canterbury ; it was he crowned Harold , H erfast and after him Edgar the Atheling . , N a n i the ﬁrst orm n bishop of East A gl a , r removed the see f om Elmham , and settled

1 0 0 . was it at Thetford , about 7 Thetford a place of great importance from very early f a . o times Its earthworks, formed ch lk, the a r and natur l soil , are perhaps the la gest n t most important in E gland , a double rampar , twenty feet high and 1 000 feet in circum 1 00 ference , enclosing a mound feet high .

At the time of the Domesday Survey , when n it was the seat of the East A glian bishopric , thirteen churches are named and the number rose to twenty . There are now three . a 1 0 1 a Fin lly , in 9 , or about th t date , the N o f third orman bishop East Anglia, Herbert Losin a wh o is to de g , said have had a resi r dence at South Elmham also , dese ted Thet ’ N ford and set his bishop s seat at orwich . 1 Here he laid the foundation of the great

1 ‘ I t is pleasant to record th at th e D ean of No rw ich is arran gin g a co m m em orative cerem on y for th e 8 o o th an n i ersar o f th e fou n dation on u l 1 1 8 6 A n d it v y , J y , 9 . is very in terestin g to reco rd th at in th e 8o o th year from th e fou n datio of th e cath e ral h u rch art f th e n d c , a p o ’ sh aft of th e r - rm edast e p e No an ch u rch yard cro ss o f S t . V ch u rch h as b een f u n t is th e on l iece o f scu l tu re o d . I y p p of th is ch aracter now n in East An lia s far as I am k g , o 6 OF 9 CONVERSION EAST ANGLIA .

N a ra 1 0 6 arr orman C thed l in 9 . The work c ied out in his time comprised the choir and its

ran . T r aisles , the tower , and the t septs hi teen years after the ﬁrst stone was laid Ely w as m n o f a t An ade a bishopric, taki g parts E s a a r r r gli and p rts of Mercia . Pete bo ough , e ected r 1 1 into a bishop ic in 54 , completes the num ber of the sees which look in any sense to 1 an a a wards E st Angli n origin . ’ a h We h ve had to con sider at St . Paul s w ich Redw ald Eor wald and of the kings , and p

Si ebert S a o ur r g , we h ll place in t ansept window among the primary Christian kings of

’

ar . Redw ald s the Hept chy dual allegiance , to

r and n has hI m a . Ch ist to demo s , cost his pl ce Eorpwald scarcely lived to prove his Chris tianit as n y king , but he was the ki g of the r r a Si ebert ﬁrst conve sion . The honou f lls to g

o f a o of having been the king the restor ti n . a Th e They will both ppear . representative of East Anglia among the twelve primary bishops r is o f cou se Felix .

r I t is of th e t e o f o rn am en tation fou n d i aw a e . yp n D erby an d oth er parts of th e n orth o ccu pie d by D an es ; n d it is th e earliest o st -Rom an relic Norw ich o ssesses a p p . I t h as b een p lace d in th e sp aciou s M u se u m in th e great

rm an ee No k p . 1 S e th e statem en t in B ede H E . iv 6 u oted in e . , , q 8 a n ote on p . 3 .

8 9 CONVERSION OF MERCIA .

sorption by Wu lfh ere of Mercia of nearly the

whole of England south of the Humber .

a - Merci , that is the march land or border a not a land , is cle rly name suitable for as a great central territory . It w properly applied to the north - west part of the broad extent of country to which it e ventually gave its name , the part where the West Angles marched with the Britons of North Wales and the Britons of Cumbria . In the times Of to S which we are peak , it appears from Bede that three subdivisions of the w hole midland country were recognised , namely, N the orth Mercians , the Middle Angles , and 1 the South Mercians . The people throughout Th . e were Angles , not Saxons or Jutes ter ritories of the N orth Mercians were larger a a th n those of the South Merci ns , from which ra T in they were sepa ted by the river rent , r t r the p opor ion of 7 to 5, the fo mer being ’ r a a in Bede s ph ase land of f milies , the latter of This is his ordinary way of

u s w as a a reckoning . Sussex , he tells , l nd o f a and f milies , the Isle of Wight of A land of ten families appears to have been the usual amount for the endow

1 f erci a see 1 2 & c . Forth e m odern eq uivalen ts o M pp . 4, OF CONVERSION MERCIA . 99

Osw d ment of a monastery . King y founde 1 o f twelve such , when he killed that Penda whom we have so much to say to- day ; and Hilda acquired a property of ten families for 2 her famous Abbey of Whitby .

With the exception of Kent, whose con all version came ﬁrst of , and Sussex , whose ma a conversion came last, it y be s id gene rally that the kingdoms o f the Heptarchy passed through the most critical periods o f the establishment o f Christianity in the course 6 6 o f the years between 33 and 55. Those were , as it happens , the limits of the reign of n Penda , Ki g of the Mercians , who lived and died a pagan . He was a determined of enemy his Christian contemporaries , whe ther Angles or Saxons ; but when he found wh o a powerful ally was a Christian , he was quite willing to use his help against a com mon enemy . This was markedly the case in the great alliance between Penda and the r Cadw alla Christian B itons under , when each desired to destroy th e power o f the Northum brian Angles . If success against the enemy was to be taken as a S ign of the favour and of the relative power o f the gods and of

1 11 B H iii 2 I bi ede E d. , . . . 4 . G 2 I OO OF CONVERSION MERCIA .

the test which some of the Italian teach o f n ers the E glish unwisely proposed, then Penda was indeed a favourite of the higher powers ; and he m ay well have argued that paganism was superior in that respect to r Christianity . He began his ca eer by killing ' in r a l a g e t batt e Edwin , the ﬁrst Christian

N . L r king of orthumbria ate on, he killed in another great battle the next Christian

N O . king of orthumbria, swald He drove r Coinwalch f om his kingdom , the ﬁrst Chris

W . tian king of essex He killed , in one battle , Si ebert a A a wh o both the pious g of E st ngli , Ec ric had resigned his crown , and g the reign

ing king . In the next generation he killed a wh o Ec ric k n Ann , succeeded g in the i gdom

of East Anglia . Five important kings killed

- two r all in twenty yea s , all Christians, like n himself descended from Wode , and all Angles , was surely a very large measure of the highest a n kind of success for a p gan A glian king . A Eth elh ere o f n sixth king , , the East A gles , ’ a h King Ann s brot er, was killed in the battle in which Penda himself w as killed ; but he m n u ﬁ ht see s , stra gely eno gh , to have been g ’ ing on Penda s side . ’ Penda s ﬁrst appearance o n the pages of history was in this wise . Edwin of North

10 2 OF CONVERSION MERCIA .

of of a an d Mercia , but the Mercian roy l race ,

: e king from that year . Their unit d forces an d d killed Edwin , estroyed his army, in ’ f Osfrid 6 . O o w 33 ne Ed in s sons , , was killed r Eadfrid in the battle . Anothe , , gave himself a up to Pend , and was by him slain some time after, contrary to his oath . O a Cadwalla not n this occ sion it was ,

Tea ed th e ru of Penda, that p f its victory . Cadw alla it w as wh o put to death the tw o young kings who were set up by the English Cadwalla to succeed Edwin ; and , not Penda , N r a O ruled over orthumb i , till swald put an end to the British occupatio n and to Cad ’ walla s life . Bu t when next we ﬁnd Penda operating n N a agai st orthumbria , it is in his own n me and hi n on s o w account . It was he who O a 6 2 a a slew sw ld , in 4 , and for m ny ye rs ’ r grievously opp essed Oswald s successor Oswy. And here we co me to the curious cross - rela ’ ’ tionships between Oswy s family an d Penda s n h ad which are so puzzli g . Ed win himself married in his you nger days a Mercian 1 r e Cu enbu r a a p inc ss , g , d ughter of King Ceorl ,

1 Ceo rl w as th e kin u su all called Creo da or Crida g y , , ’ ’ Pen da s randfath r Th u Penda w as Edwin s n e h e g e . s p w

- in law . O F 10 CONVERSION MERCIA . 3 and she was the mother of his sons whom we O Cadwalla have mentioned , sric slain by and Eadfrid a a d sl in by Pend . His other chil ren ,

Wu scfrea Eanﬂeda w t and , ere by E helburga

Os Eanﬂeda dau h of Kent . wy married , the g o f w ar to ter Ed in , who had been c ried Kent ’ by Paulinus in his ﬂight after Edwin s death . 6 2 She was born in 7 , and is supposed to have

O 1 B u t to o sw 6 . married y about 5 he, , had m been arried before , and had at least two Wh o children before he married Eanflcda. his first wife was is not known ; b ut it is ’ surmised that she was o f Penda s kin . His ’ a Elfleda a 6 d ughter m rried Penda s son in 53 , tw o years before the final war between the two nations in which Penda at last was killed . His son Alchfrith had some time before ’ C n eber a married y g , Penda s daughter, and as sub - king of Deira he gave his father Oswy o f a n ot much trouble , what n ture we are told by Bede . The inscription on the Bewcastle 1 cross asks a prayer for the high sin of his to soul , and this may have reference the

u tro ble of which Bede speaks . If it had been a a question of postasy , B ede would not have l passed it over in silence . A chfrith was on

1 See Lecture VI I 2 0 , p . 3 . I O OF 4 CONVERSION MERCIA . terms with his father when the Mercian crisis ’ a in 6 h e on ' Osw s S c me 55, for fought y ide ; an d in 664 he and his father were together at to the Synod of Whitby . I am inclined think 6 6 6 0 that after 4 , between that date and 7 , some offence was committed by the Catholic Alchfrith which Bede did not wish to mention, and in connection w ith which he lost his life . Certainly the inscription on the Bewcastle “ ” of 6 0 cross speaks him in 7 as once king , and concludes with bidding prayer for the d high sin of his soul . That he was eeply Mercian in interests m ay be gathered from the fact that on the cross set up to his memory the names of the Mercian princess C n eber a y g his wife , the Mercian king Wulf

- in - here his brother law, and the Mercian queen ’

C n eswith a Wulfh ere s all . C y , wife, appear y ’ n eswitha held Oswy s other son Ecgfrith as a hostage at the time of the ﬁnal battle in Ec frith which Penda fell . If g was the son of Eanﬂeda - Alch , and thus only half brother to tw o frith , he can only have been a year or old at n ot the time , and that is a very likely age a O for hostage . n the other hand , that the hostage was in the queen ’ s hands may not improbably point to a tender age . In any ’ t Osw s tw o s n case , the fac of one of y son bei g

1 06 OF CONVERSION MERCIA .

mission at C anterbury was slowly dying in the person of its latest representative H o n e ﬁr of orin , the st step in the conversion

. Peada Mercia was taken Penda had a son , whom Bede describes as “ an excellent young r of man , completely wo thy the title and f dignity o king . Penda promoted him to

- o f A the sub kingship the Middle ngles , and he Os . w looked about for a queen He came to y , N n a King of the orthumbrian A gles, and sked

Elﬂ d A c for his daughter e a. The life in the ta S an ctoru m makes her the daughter of Ean

ﬂeda - , that is , the grand daughter of Edwin

Eth elber a - - r and g , and great grand daughte of

ra - d u Ethelbert and Bertha , g nd a ghter with “ ” Six greats before it of Clovis and the

a o Christi n princess Clothilde , who won Cl vis k r over to Christianity . That remar able se ies of r a r Ch isti n p incesses , in a line of eight d descents from mother to aughter, whose pagan husbands became Christian kings, Peada Clovis , Ethelbert , Edwin, , almost tempts us to overlook the di culty of dates in the r Eanfl da in last of the fou cases . e was born 6 or about 27, and was married somewhere about 65 1 ; her daughter cannot possibly a 6 h have been marriage ble in 53 . All t at we ’ really know of the date of Eanfieda s marriage V OF 10 CON ERSION MERCIA . 7 is consistent w ith an earlie r date than 651 ; u of or but it is at most a q estion a year two , ’ Elfleda s and she cannot have been mother . We only know that her marriage was in ’ Aidan s lifetime ; and we know it from r wh o . U a very cu ious fact The priest tta , was held in high honour by princes and

of people alike , and was abbat the monastery ’ ” Ga a at the goat s head , that is teshe d, was Osw sent by y to Kent , to bring his promised ’ r Eanﬂ d b ide e a. He asked Aidan s prayers for the j ourney . Aidan told him they would ha ve a tremendous storm on the return a am u lla voy ge , and gave him a vessel ( p ) him a u of blessed oil, bidding c st the oil pon a the w ters when the crisis came . It all fell a out as Aid n said , and the Oil stilled the m nd n . C n e u ragi g of the storm y , a most r of th e o f r t ustworthy priest church Jar ow , U told Bede the story as tta told it to him . Inasmuch as our o wn generation has seen the re- d r n ow iscove y of this method , and oil is ar U it regul ly used as tta used , we can accept ’ the story even without Cyn em u n d s tes ti T mony . w o years ago I gave another example 1 of this mi racle o f the oil upon the waters

1 Th Chu e rch in th ese I slands b ore A u ustine . 1 ef g , p 9 . 1 08 OF M CONVERSION ERCIA .

Elﬂeda a , then , was asked in marri ge by Peada , probably her cousin . Her father

“ Oswy and her brother Alch frith claimed that Peada to r , if he was mar y her , must become a a Christi n , and bring to Christ the people over whom he ruled . Clearly Christianity had made very large strides since the time o f when all that the Frankish King Paris , ’ or whoever made the treaty for Bertha s m r a a a ri ge , could demand , was th t the princess should be allowed to practise her religion ; and since the time when all that Eadbald a i , the Christi n k ng of Kent, could a a obt in , was that Edwin should llow Ethel a of berg the full exercise her religion , and would himself become a Christian if on careful inquiry Christianity was found to be a better religion than his own . Peada at once submitted to a course o f in struction in the Christian faith . When he a the o f le rned promise the heavenly kingdom , th e hope of resurrection and o f immortality r a in the wo ld to come, he declared th t he a or would gl dly become a Christian , wife h ﬂ no wife . The person w o had most in uence with him in this resolve was his brother- in ’ Alchfrith Osw s son law , y , who had married C nebu r his sister y ga.

I I OF O CONVERSION MERCIA .

proportion of Anglian teachers . They shewed a spirit very much the opposite of that with which the Celtic Christians are usually credited . These four competent mi ssi onaries preached to the Middle Angles with great success .

Every day the people came over to them , both

o f nobles and those lower degree , renounced of the vileness idolatry , and were washed clean in the fount of faith . a And , remark bly enough , it was not only ’ among the Middle Angles of Peada s sub n Th m ki gdom that they preached . e urderous old pagan Penda allowed them to preach to his Mercian subjects , if any wished to hear

so them . He had far softened his attitude d towar s Christianity , that all he now de m anded was that if any of his subj ects be a came Christi ns , they must be Christians “ indeed He hated and despised those wh o a professed and called themselves Christi ns ,

did f It h and not she w O the works of faith . They were despicable wretches wh o did not d ” obey the G o in whom they believed . I always have a kindly feeling for this down right old pagan . Tw o a 6 ye rs after this , in the year 55, ’ Penda s oppression of Oswy passed the bounds I I I CONVERSION OF MERCIA .

f o endurance . They were connected by the double tie of inter - marriage ; the son o f each w as husband of a daughter of the other . But nothing of that kind was allowed to stand ’ in Penda s way . Family relationships had n o avail to prevent or mitigate the warlike operations of the Angles or the Saxons ; and it is evidently very doubtful whether in this nineteenth century, or in the early twentieth , such ties will have more avail . Penda de ’ v astated Oswy s province almost to the point of complete destruction . Four years before , he h ad got so far as to besiege the royal of Bam borou h fortress g , and had put in exe cu tion a method for its destruction which those o f us who know the position of that

- noble rock city can appreciate . Being unable to get at the wooden stockade which crowned r ll the precipitous rock, he got together f om a the villages round an enormous collection of r m inflammable mate ial , bea s , planks, wattle , and thatch , whatever else would burn ; piled them up on the land side ; and when the r wind blew f om the land on to the stockade , n he set fire to the mass . Followi g upon Ai ’ a ra Lin d n s p yers , when from his place on disfarn e he saw what was happening, the w wind suddenly changed , and ble the fire and 1 12 V OF CON ERSION MERCIA.

s wh o moke upon the besiegers , ﬂed in con

fu sion . No w 6 of in 55, the audacity and violence ff Penda was greater than ever . Oswy o ered him incredibly large bribes if only he would go home and leave Northumbria in peace .

Penda would not desist, for he had deter ’ to Osw s mined obliterate y nation, leaving v neither young nor old sur iving . If the we pagan will not accept our gifts , will ” f h S o Of er them to One w o will . spake Oswy ; and he vowed to dedicate to perpetual i Elﬂeda Virgin ty his little daughter , scarce old Elﬂeda to a year , a second , and give twelve estates for establishing twelve monas

e. . teric Penda, as we have seen , was slain Elﬂeda God was dedicated to , and after a n o f H eru teu oviciate at the Monastery , the ’ l n ow a - le- Ab Hart s Is e , H rt pool, she died of o f 6 0 in bess Whitby at the age , the year 1 man 7 4 , when Bede was a of nearly ﬁfty . a r The twelve mon steries we e duly founded , six in Deira and six in Bernicia .

Osw o King y took p ssession of Mercia, and

I . a a ruled it n right of conquest Di m , the r a a a s Scotic p iest lre dy n med , was made Bi hop o f Peada the Middle Angles , whom governed , of Osw of and also the Mercians under y, and

OF I I 4. CONVERSION MERCIA .

of W th e ar or of the whole essex , next l gest p n an d tion of E gland ; also of Essex . In this 6 a r a year 55, sixty ye rs after the ﬁ st desp tch l N r a r a of the Ita ian mission , orthumb i , Me ci , a r the East S xon kingdom , and Wessex , we e all ruled by prelates of Irish or of Scotic consecration ; the teaching of Christianity was entirely in the h ands of men o f the pre u rc of A gustine Chu hes these islands , the

Celtic Church and the Scotic Church . And l . C eo lach o f in Mercia this went on , Scotic

Dium a at race and consecration, succeeded Li hﬁ ld 6 8 The ar 6 Ceol c e . in 5 next ye , 59 , to Tru mh ere lach returned Iona, and suc

Tru m h ere d a ceeded . him , as his name in ic tes , was an Englishman ; but Bede specially tells u s that he w as consecrated bishop in the Scotic at Church . The Italians Canterbury and ' — Rochester were left severely perhaps con

m tu l — T u n te p o us y alone . hey had been as m a d successful issionaries in l rger ﬁel s , r when tried . And they we e doubtless ham pered by the fact that th e supremacy under whose auspices they began their career h ad a r m long passed aw y f o Kent, and they and r thei s were politically u nimportant . King Oswy made over to his son - in - law Peada t the government of the Sou h Mercians , F 1 1 CONVERSION O MERCIA . 5

a of ad that is , the Merci ns south Trent , in dition to his original kingdom of the Middle

Bu t r Peada Angles . in the next sp ing was a assassinated in a very nef rious manner, dur in g the Easter festival ; by the tre achery , it i Osw a a . was s d , of his own Angli n wife y, it a t would appe r , ruled , af er that, the whole of the great midland kingdom , sending princes o f r the nature of Viceroys . Three years afte ’ Peada s death , the three chief men of the r Me cians rose against the foreign rule , ex ’ elled Osw s Wu lfh ere p y viceroys , and set up , ’ Of a a son Penda, now reaching man s est te , whom they had up t o that time kept con c al Wu lfh ere e ed. played a large part in the r fa eligious and political af irs of England . He a m an o f n was the gre test his time . His ame o f is on the Bewcastle Cross , on account his i l h i h near relationship by marriage w th A c fr t . Wu lfh ere a to When beg n reign , he found himself without a bishop , by the retirement

Ceollach h ad of ; what made him retire , we are not told . He got his n ew bishop from N Tru mh ere A G n a orthumbria , , bbat of illi g ne r G Richmond , not the illing near Malton ; and h ad a i he him consecr ted in the Seot c Church . Tru mh ere h was only bishop t ree years , and 66 2 in he was succeeded by Jaruman , whose H 2 OF 1 16 CONVERSION MERCIA .

i i n do or g we not know , but he was clearly of

. r 66 2 the Scotic school In this same yea , ,

Wu lfh ere - r of a a , as over lo d the E st S xons , to d sold Wini , Bishop of Wessex un er the

Co inw alch r Lon changeable , the bishop ic of don ; the ﬁrst trans action of the kind of which we hear in our history . Three years later Wu lfh ere pl ayed a very different

L n his part for us ondoners , sendi g bishop Jaruman to effect the ﬁnal turning of the

r o f East Saxons f om the worship idols . And 6 8 1 Eth elwalch a in he persuaded , the pag n to ba king of the pagan South Saxons , be p tiz ed v , and stood godfather to him , recei ing as r th him he emerged f om e font . As over

o f a Eth elwalch lord Wessex, he g ve to , in

S a token of his adoption as his piritu l son , two important provinces , the Isle of Wight , r r and the land of the Mean w a as in Hampshi e . m an of r r an d Clearly he was a g eat powe , a as active in Christi n work . His hand w felt all i r over, and it carr ed Ch istian inﬂuence with it . d 66 n When Jaruman ied , in 7, thi gs had a an a gre tly ch ged in Engl nd . The Council of r Whitby had been held . The wo k of the h ad Scotic Church in England was done . It been noble work, that best of all work which

1 1 8 OF E CONVERSION M RCIA . ter had been vacant as long as Canterbury l r ﬁve to : itse f, nea ly years , and he had ﬁll a that vacancy . He found Putt , an unworldly

‘ recluse and musician , and consecrated him . r Dunwich fell vacant, too , in his ﬁ st year r to he e, and Bisi was found and consecrated F r ' that see . o the Mercian see he had no one

S o a r : ready . short of men was he , th t f om 66 to 6 2 a r two 9 7 , lthough there we e only bishops in all England besides th e tw o whom ar he consecrated in his ﬁrst ye , he only con secrated a one bishop , and th t a Frenchman ’ r sent over f om Paris . To Wulfhere s request for a bishop he replied by asking Oswy to allow Chad to go from North u mbria to Mer ’ a N r cia, and Ch d s vacancy in orthumb ia made room for Wilfrith there . So he tided over the 6 2 to 6 8 dearth of men , and in the years 7 5 inclusive he consecrated seventeen bishops to r a thirteen sees . It is p oposed th t the work of T Wilfrith heodore, and the work of , shall form the s ubj ects of a course of lectures next winter . For the present we can leave the . conversion of Mercia an accomplished fact . ’ Theodore s treatment of Chad was credit l T a ab e to both of them . When heodore m de his progress to the north , on his arrival in n h e E gland, a step which indicates that F A 1 CONVERSION O MERCI . 1 9 knew where the cen tre o f gravity o f im 1 met Ceadda portance was , he with , and upbraided him with the irregularity of his n n dd . Cea a co secratio , with great humility “ If t a replied , hou knowest th t I have not f a rightly received the o ﬁce of bishop , I gl dly

’ withdraw from the o ce. I never thought h an d as a myself wort y of it, only a m tter ” a T r of obedience did I undert ke it . heodo e w as moved by such gentle humility ; declared that Chad must not lay down the episcopal 0 ice ; and him self con summated ane w his consecration in the Catholic manner . It seem s fairly clear fro m the phrase used that the original consecration was not radi ’ a w as T c lly bad ; there , in heodore s Opinion , ﬂaw r some ritual , when the consec ation was te a sted by his Roman st tute , something left u a d ndone which that st tute require , or some thing not rightly don e and this defect Theo l Th e r dore supp ied . p esumption is that it w as r something added by the Roman Chu ch, no t an d of catholic fundamental necessity . We know how Rome h as m ade such addi

on O h o w ti s to the rdinal , and the Romans n Th e ow assert that they are fundamental .

1 h a is Ch ad T t , . 1 2 0 F CONVERSION O MERCIA .

’ Wilfrith s a phrase used by ch plain, Eddi , is very much stronger ; he says that Chad w as re- ordained through all the ecclesiastical de a r grees . We r the expect polemical statements r a in f om that qu rter, and Bede is a better

- r . if re fo mant Besides , Theodore ordained a an d Ch d deacon priest, he would have to re- ordain a great many priests and deacons ; o f and we have no suggestion that . It is a fortunate thing that we know from a far as Bede , incident lly so its connection

t h o w with this episode is concerned , exac ly a a Chad was origin lly consecrated . Wh t the

ﬂaw w as it . Osw a , is not easy to say y p pointed Ceadda to be Bishop of the Church f r o a a . in York , the ﬁrst fte P ulinus This was

66 . Ceadda o t 4 went s u h to be consecrated , but he found that Deusdedit of Canterbury . d and u t was dea , no one was as yet p in his a r pl ce . He went then to the p ovince of the t an d Wes Saxons , was consecrated by Wini, who was of French co nsecration ; the only bishop then in all Britain who was canoni

a a . c lly consecrated , Bede s ys What Bede can m a i at sa e n by th s, it is not all easy to y . We are dealing with a v ery late period of 66 h ad the year 4 , for there been time for Wilfi ith to be chosen bish op after the Con

1 2 2 OF CONVERSION MERCIA . and he called two British bishops to be par r nu - t take s in the consecration, or hodox in their Easter . ﬂaw These were the facts . What was the which Theodore disco vered ? Some suggestions a dda can be made . If Wini consecr ted Cea a of o f W a in his cap city Bishop the est S xons , we must look beyond Wini for the ﬂaw . But if he had had time to buy the bi

sh O ric a . p of the East S xons , he was in a a technical sense a simoni cal bishop , and it is conceivable that even so early as that ordi nations by a simoniacal bishop were regarded a t by some as invalid . It is signiﬁc nt tha when Theodore held the Council of Hertford 6 in 73, he recited in a preamble to the pro ceedings the names of the bishops present or represented by proxies, and no mention is f or a a made o Wini of the E st S xons , though part o f Hertford was actually in that king m a a a T d dom . This y me n th t heodore woul not recognise Wini as bishop , but did not feel r able to depose him , as he did depose Winf id o of Mercia soon after for dis bedience . On m a the other hand , political considerations y have accounted for the absence of the East

Saxon bishop and king . i There rema ns the fact, carefully mentioned O F 1 2 CONVERSION MERCIA . 3

n bu t n o t by Bede , that Wini , not acti g alone, having any canonically consecrated bishops within reach , took to him , as associates in the 1 tw o consecration , bishops of the nation of who 1 the Britons , kept Easter from the 4th to 2o th o f to the the moon , according their custom . We gather from Aldhelm that they were o f the Corn ish and Devon line of Bri r tish bishops . In these days, when , in o der to have a second string to their bow in the ’ attack upon Archbishop Parker s con secra

our tion , Roman friends declare that the soundness of the episcopal orders of cO- con secrators can not validate a consecration where there is a ﬂaw in the orders of the chief consecrator, for that only the chief

a to o consecrator consecr tes , it seems a little much to argue that a ﬂaw on the part of the co - consecrators invalidates a consecration ’ when the chief consecrator s orders are sound . O an t m r again , in these days obj ec ion ight be taken that a consecration of a bishop ought not to take place when there is a vacancy in the metropolitical see ; but any such objection is an anachronism when ap ’ plied to Wini s time . Canterbury made n o

1 “ ” I n so i i 2 c etatem or in ation is B ede i i 8 . d , . 1 2 OF 4 CONVERSION MERCIA .

a as a in such cl im that in those d ys . I am ’ clin ed to think it w as Wini s ritu al rather ’ than his or his colleagues ecclesiastical posi tion that w as in question . If it was the British bishops that invalidated the con se r c ation , then I think we can quote Theodore against the modern Romans in their attack r upon Pa ker . The descent of the n umerous Mercian sees r Lichﬁ eld f om is rather complicated . 6 6 Lichﬁeld In 5 the see of was established, ’ r n Osw s as we have seen , du i g y rule, in the person of Diu m a. For twenty years there ’ was . only one bishop s see in Mercia Then , ’ on Theodore s principle of subdivision, a very n Th great cha ge took place . e Northumbrian king Ecgfrith had for a time won back from

n - L Mercia the lo g disputed province of indsey , u a L it ro ghly spe king , incoln , and was made a separate Northumbrian see under Eadh ed in 6 78 but it counted in early history prac ’ L tically as a Mercian see . The see of indsey disappeared by union with Dorchester about

a 1 0 00 the ye r . The see of Hereford; marking an extension o f r Me cia to the south and west, was formed ar L 6 6 two ye s before that of indsey, in 7 . t l It came about in a curious way . E he red ,

1 2 6 OF CONVERSION MERCIA .

an d so the enlarged see went o n to the a Conquest , when Remigius was m de the ﬁrst

N a a of . orm n bishop, c lled Dorchester He ’ a of L moved his bishop s se t to the hill incoln , L i . in ndsey, where it still remains To pursue the history of this part of the Mercian terri

1 1 0 w as tory , in 9 Ely formed , with part of E ast Anglia and part of Mercia ; and at the Reformation the enormous diocese of Lincoln was reduced in size by the establishment of Peterborough (parts of which h ad in earlier a a 1 1 and times counted as E st Angli ) in 54 , in 1 C o f C sen ey 54 2 . seney became the see O 1 xford in 545.

T r n to Lichﬁeld u ni g now proper, from L w as a a which eicester t ken in 737, see of w as 1 0 Chester formed in 75, and Coventry

1 1 0 Th e a See h as a in 2 . n me of the v ried a Lichﬁ eld considerably, the n me of being at 1 1 times dropped . In 54 , the present inde

o f r and pendent see Chester was fo med, a t r r ssigned o the p ovince of Yo k . h as Southwell , in very recent times, re lieved L fi r an d ich eld of De byshire , the modern L N o ttin h am sh ire r incoln of g , forme ly in the province of York to which the great church n d o f Southwell belo ge . Southwell is a hybrid d see, the early ecclesiastical recor s of the 2 CONVERSION OF MERCIA . I 7

Derbyshire portion being at Lichﬁeld in the

r of p ovince Canterbury, and those of the

N o ttingh am shire por tion at York itself. Wu lfh ere and Diu m a will appear in o ur N transept windows . Chad appears under orth umbria . In Speaking of the ecclesias tical arrange of ments Mercia , it is impossible altogether to omit mention of the curious fact that it was once made an archiepiscopal province . The royal family o f Kent became extinct in the O Off n battle of tford , and a the Mercian ki g assumed royal authority in that kingdom . The Archbishop of Canterbury w as the great in n d est person the ki g om of Kent, and

of indeed , next to kings , in all the land England ; an d Otfa desired that his o wn Bishop of Lichﬁ eld should be at least as

a w as n a gre t . It o doubt nomalous that a sm all and subj ect state should rule ecclesias a l tic l y over his great and Victorious kingdom . He Obtained the consent o f his bishops and H i bert Witenagemot, and declared g arch To bishop . give him rank with Canterbury

to and York, he applied for the pall the “ Th ” . e Pope apostolic see , Matthew of Paris a la “ rem rks in re ting the circumstances , never fails a man who gives plenty of money and 1 2 8 C ONVERS ION O F MERCIA . in this case he says the money given w as “ ” Th inﬁnite . e thing was done about the 8 w as b year 7 7 . The opportunity taken y the a Pope to send pap l legates, who adopted the v airs of supremacy . Canterbury was depri ed of all its prope rty and its suffragans in Mercian n r a territory . We have o contempo ary ccount of a bu t the sees ctually taken away , the state ment of William of Malmesbury seems reason a u ff a a able , th t the only s rag ns left to C nter r L bu y were ondon , Rochester , Winchester,

r S . T th e Sherbo ne , and elsey hose were a bishops of Kent , the East and Middle S xons , h a n t e a n . the West S xo s , and South S xo s The Northern Province and th e Midland Province would thus be all Angles ; the l Southern Province a l Saxons and Jutes . It was on rather scandalo us proceedings that the exercise of papal supremacy in

England w as by degrees built up . The Mercian archbishopric only lasted ab ou t r a sixteen years . All was set st aight ag in in

80 Leo III r 3 , under , who did not sc uple to a undo , as wrongly done and s nctioned , the greatest ecclesiastical ch ange a Pope ever a made or sanctioned in Engl nd . The Council of the English Church held at h O 1 2 86 no Clofes o ( ctober , 3) made scruple

1 0 OF 3 CONVERSION MERCIA .

1 to the fourth o f the acts of this Council of Clofesh o at which the old arrangement w as t n restored , are interes i g as shewing the different styles of descriptio n of bishop ~ n r ff r rics . The two East A glian bishop ics a o d one of the best ill ustrations of this dif r a th e ference , when conside ed in rel tion to a L III a f cts mentioned in ecture . A f csimile

- A n M . a . lo Saxo n SS N 0 . V is given in g P rt I , I of 1 8 8 and (Master the Rolls), 7 the whole is IIL and V . printed by Haddan Stubbs , ol , — E h lh i t e ard i. . pp . 545 7. e s gns ( e attaches the Sign of the cross to th e statement written E o E thelheardu s ratia D ei by the scribe, g g A rchiep iscop u sDorobern en sis civitatis sign u m san ctae cru cis su bscrip si) as Archbishop o f the f D r b ernu m r city o o o (Canterbu y). The other descriptio ns are : Bishop of the Church of Lichﬁ eld ; of the city o f Leicester ; of the

Sidn acester a n city of (pl ce unknown , mea ing the See of Lindsey) ; of the city of Worcester ; of the Church of Hereford ; of the Church of Sherborn ; of the city of Winton (Winchester) ; o f the Church of Elmham ; of the city of D u m m u c (D unwich) ; of the city of London ;

1 Forbidding th e electionof laym en or secu lars as lords of m on asteries a ain t h is ou r m andate an d th at of th e , g s t ” r lo d ap ostolic Pop e . 1 1 C ONVERSION o r M ERCIA . 3 o f the city of Rochester ; of the Church o f

Selsey . “ This act was passed at the well- known a l f h n t place c lled C o es oas. It is o really k - nown where this well known place was. LE RE V CT U .

TH E E A ST SA XONS

—R la s in to a an ism -Si ebert th e Th e bish o ric e e . p . p p g g

d n s —S cotic teach ers o f th e faith sen t G oo a d O wy . — —Yth an to th e East Saxon s. Gedd h is co n secration . — ’ — a ti u d Eth elwald . ester S i ebert s death . L s n a an o . g g - of edd — Secon d artial rela se in to a an D eath G . ( p ) p p g — d ism . D escen t of th e see of Lon on .

IT is natural that we in London sh ould look with special interest to the details of the establishment of Christianity among ou r East

r . o f Saxon ancesto s As a matter fact , we were the most perverse and obstinate pagans f o all the seven kingdoms . The kingdom of the East Saxons w as Er h n in a founded by c e w bout the year 52 7.

O in - a ur bishopric is called , the Anglo S xon 1 lists to which reference has been made , the “ ” “ a n ot bishopric of the E st Saxons , of ” n l London . The principal text of the A g o 6 0 Saxon Chronicle , under the year 4 , says

1 See 6 p . 4.

1 V 34 CON ERSION OF TH E EAS T S AXO NS .

l ear o f y , the sons our ﬁrst Christian king of ’ ’ the East Saxons, Sabert, Ethelbert s sister s so n out , drove Mellitus because he would not a give them the sacramental bread , pag ns as a d n t they were n o baptized . Twelve years of Italian episcopal work had not touched the f younger generation o the royal family . The f G a Italian bishop himsel , Mellitus , ﬂed to ul ,

' re and Christianity was blotted o u t. He it r ar turned , is t ue , in the course of a ye , but at the express command o f the King of Kent . L to ondon refused receive him , preferring the idolatrous priests . He lived at Canterbury for the rest o f his life ; became archbishop in 6 1 9 ; and died third archbishop of the English 6 in 24 .

6 1 6 to 6 no - From 53 , less than thirty seven L d of re years , on on and the kingdom Essex mained pagan . Augustine and his com

- panions , even the long lived Honorius , all L a passed away, and yet we ondoners m in

n u r a a tai ed o p ganism . It was not till a S xon a rchbishop , consecrated by a Saxon bishop , ’ o n L sat Augustine s throne , that ondon was brought once more to the Christian Obedience . The circumstances of its return were in them

i om ani ns r6 u and h s C o . . S ee A ug stihe p , p 3 S 1 CONVERSION O F TH E EAS T S AXON . 35

’ a s selves exceedingly interesting . Th t Bede story is completely authentic we may take as n certain . Bede was born before the ki g who brought about the restoration died ; and his N wh o friend othelm , sent him the account r a w as f om the origin l records , archpresbyter of London . The pagan sons of Sabert were killed in n L battle . Ki g Sigebert the ittle reigned for some considerable time, and was succeeded by

i bert Sigebert surnamed the Good . S ge the

G o Osw N orth u m od was a friend of y, King of

’ r O w b ia , s ald s brother and successor ; the

n wh o a a ki g presided , eleven ye rs fter the v to e ents of which we are about speak , at the o f 6 0 Synod Whitby, dying eventually in 7 when his subject Bede w as a little boy . Sigebert the Good used frequently to visit Osw Osw to r i h im y, and y used a gue w th f about his religion . Bede tells us one o the “ a f m in lines o his argument . Those could not be gods that were made by the hands a of men . A log or stone could not be

for a o f material creating a god , the remn nts

as r o m which were burned ﬁ ewo d , or ade into or vessels for common use , thrown out con tem tu ou sl and r p y trodden into the g ound . God must rather be regarded as inco mprehen 1 6 I OF T H E EA T SA S 3 CONVERS ON S XON .

a m an sible in m jesty , invisible to the eye of , t a a omnipoten , eternal ; Who cre ted the he ven and the earth and the race of m an ; Who ruled d r in and would j u ge the wo ld equity . His eternal seat was not in vile and decaying

to m a . atter , but in the he vens It was rightly be held that all who learned and did His will ” a r would receive from Him etern l rewa ds . Many arguments o f this kind Oswy as a n friend a d a brother urged upon Sigebert . n At le gth his guest believed . He took counsel r a m with his pe sonal attend nts , exhorted the h a t t they likewise should believe , and obtained a their assent . They were all b ptized together L a by the Scotic bishop Finan of indisf rne , at a Northumbrian royal residence near the T a a sea. Roman w ll , twelve miles from the h t r al t l puts it at or nea W bo t e. My own pre e dilection is for B nwell , on account of its Th name . e eastern extremity of the other w l r a r a l , whe e it buts upon the Fi th of Forth

far . not from Abercorn , is Kinnell Bede explains th at in the Pictish tongue it was

Penfah el in Pen u aul called , British g , com a head t a pounds Of the British Pen , , wi h

f Of vallu m a . n form , a w ll Ki nell is the Celtic e u k 0 quivalent, the Celts sing a or hard

b Ceanm ore where the Britons used a p or ,

1 8 N OF TH E EAST A 3 CO VERSION S XONS .

a n —l S xon ki gdom , and Wessex a most the n d whole of E glan except four counties . Sigebert returned to his royal residence a a among the E st S xons , the position of which ar m a we e not told. It y perhaps be safe to it L L suppose that was ondon, but ondon is not mentioned in the story , while two other

l . NO n as p aces are doubt the ki gs then , in a v and l ter times , had se eral residences , moved from one to another as th e local supplies Of t food , collec ed at the royal vill or manse , were

Os exhausted . The king begged wy to send Cedd w as a him Christian teachers . rec lled

North u mbria r a to from the work in Me ci , and w as a sent with another priest , whose n me u r to nfo tunately is not recorded by Bede , preach and baptize among the East Saxons . It is a fact eminently deserving attention that for r and the king sent to the Tyne a p iest, from the Tyne they sent to Lichﬁ eld for the w as man, when all the time there a bishop a at an d n (Itham r) Rochester , he an E glish a at man , and a bishop (Bonif ce) Dunwich . a w as ro a a Honorius of C nterbury p b bly de d , and the remarkable interregnum which fol lowed his death h ad commenced and probably had no t com e to an end ; bu t there were n r certai ly p iests left at , Canterbury, and CONVERS ION OF TH E EAST SAXONS . 1 39

d monks in consi erable numbers . In these da of a it ys r pid communication , does not seem to u s so strange as it actually was in a f a those d ys o l borious travel . But even m an e with us , it is easier to ask a to com a 6 2 from C nterbury , miles , or Rochester, l ’ 2 to S t . a to 3 mi es , preach at P ul s , than him N a 2 2 fetch from ewc stle , 7 miles , especially if he has ﬁrst to travel from Lich ﬁeld to N ew 60 m a l 1 . c st e , making iles more The facts

as to n shew, it seems me , an active co scious

Of l o o to i ness rea pp sition foreign nﬂuences , to an extent which many persons do not re r i cognise . And they throw ve y grave di ’ cu lties r Of , from the histo ian s point view , in the way of those who are now claiming th at the Celtic Churches in Ireland and Scotland

th e t o f were founded by direct ac ion Rome . With oral traditions of an accuracy at least as a as a gre t that of printed books , it is not re lly conceivable that all record of a deep deb t due to Rome should h ave passed clean away ; that practices not those of Rome should have been universal in the Celtic Churches ; and th e sole attitude Of those Churches to Rome should one an be of jealousy and suspicion d dislike . For Rome h ad not meanwhile been Operating fo r t s a d cen urie gainst their indepen ence , and 1 0 C ERS I OF TH E EAST SA 4 ONV ON XONS .

e ffa r r interf ring in their a i s, and impove ishing —Sh e w their people, as had done ith England when we at the Reformation at last treated o ur great debt of gratitude as for the time at

“ least more than cancelled . And there is a curiou sly decided absence of cl aim on the part Of Rome in those days to have founded u either the British or the Irish Ch rch , or to have any right to that gratitude to which help

in the time of infancy would have entitled her . I do not like to suggest that the conspicuous failure of the Canterbury Italians to effect a real lodgement in London had anything to ’ d i b rt s o with S ge e action . There may no doubt have been political reasons for going to n to r a the north and not goi g Canterbu y , re sons connected with the relations existing among the three kingdoms of Essex , Kent , and Northumbria ; but we do not know of really su cient grounds on this side . Friendship with Oswy is scarcely a suﬂicient explanation w for all the trouble taken , hen the other

course seems so easy in itself. The views thus suggested are decidedly conﬁrmed by the fact that immediately after the Northumbrian Church had agreed to adopt the Catholic

Osw of North u mbria Ec bert practices , y and g of Kent consulted together about the succes

1 2 C ERSI OF TH E EAST ‘ A 4 ONV ON S XONS .

since he had returned from France ‘ and been f r told that he was not wanted , they pre er ed ” ff u i a the idolatrous ponti s . The Aug stin n suc

n 'We cession had been e tirely unfruitful . recite the name of Mellitus as ﬁrst of the L English succession of bishops o f ondon . But the bishops of London do not count the suc cession of their orders from him or his ; any more than the archbishops Of Canterbury count the succes sion o f their orders from n f Augustine or a y o his companions . is w orth Another point y of mention . We

see remarks , in partisan histories , on the u a and irreg lar char cter of the Scotic Church , a its uncatholic habits , especially as reg rds

the status and action of bishops . But here

w e - d have , from the Rome loving hand of Be e , n a full declaration . Of carefulness o a point of m extre e importance . It is a point on which Au gustine h ad shewn a disregard of catholic usage and law which would horrify Roman and Anglican alike if any bi shop of the

da t o . present y were copy it Augustine , with a of Gr r the full consent and uthority ego y , that man of such strangely independent mind m when a way out Of a di culty was to be h ad found , Augustine consecrated bishops Gre . u alone He had even , witho t consulting F H E E S S 1 CONVERS ION O T A T SAXON . 43

o wn gory , consecrated his successor to his o wn archiepiscopal see . Finan obeyed the Catholic rule that three bishops at the least mu st be combined in the consecration of a bishop . ’ In another respect Finan s action was not

a a thiS ' in ccord nce with catholic use , and in respect the British and the Scotic Churches alike were from the nature o f the case out of harmony with catholic practice . There a h ad w s no metropolitan . Those churches v not , as most of us belie e, a metropolitical

s . organi ation There may have been a Primus , o f - as in the Scottish Church to day , the bishops forming an Episcopal College ; but w as so no Of if that , we get, I think , hint it in Bede . Finan , so far as we know, acted entirely on his o w n responsibility ; and what business it was Of his to consecrate in North umbrian Lindisfarne a bishop for the East m to . Saxon kingdo , I must leave others say If we did but know what his commission from Iona was , this and other puzzling ques no is tions might puzzle us more . It , of course , no explanation that the see of Canterbury was o f vacant , and there were not any signs its

n for N bei g ﬁlled up , the orthumbrian Church acted for m any years in complete independence 1 OF TH E EAST A S 44 CONVERSION S XON . f r o the Church of Kent . Some write s give ’ 1 6 8 as th e a If 5 date Of Gedd s consecr tion .

w as an r that is correct , then there a chbishop t m l a a an a . Canterbury , a Wessex , not an It i n

r Of a as The law of the Chu ch Engl nd , r V I formulated by Hen y II , is strictly catholic in respect of provincial consecra a a a tions . If there was v c ncy in both r and a archbishop ics , at the s me time a a n r bishopric was v ca t , one of the a ch bishoprics must be ﬁlled before th e con se cration of a bishop to the vacant bishopric a could take place . The most an rchical time the Church in England has ever known in an d G this respect, since Augustine regory , w as the time Of Queen Mary and Cardinal

t w as Pole , when for years here no archbishop a at of C nterbury , as Rome would say, and a i i an and le st no comm ss on from archbishop, bishops were uncanonically intruded into ’ a a sees . At Queen Elizabeth s ccession , sever l o f th e Rom an bishops of English dioceses were not canonically bishops Of the dioceses Th into which they had been intruded . e list usu ally given of expulsions of bishops by Elizabeth has to be considerably discounted

m b n d Ma or B d iii a 2 Lu a e e nd i . y y , , . v , p . 4 4 .

6 ERS I OF TH E EAST SA 1 4 CONV ON XONS .

b s authority he now possessed . He uilt churche s in everal places , and ordained priests and deacons to help him in preaching and bap

tiz in t of g. He formed wo principal centres L AS work, neither Of them in ondon . Aidan a and Finan settled not at inl nd York , from new which place Paulinus had ﬂed, but at a

Is Cedd place on the sea , Holy le, so did not c L hoose ondon, but made his chief centres at Yth ancestir on , the banks Of the river Pente, and Tilabu r at Tilbury , called in his time g, ' Y Ou the banks of the Thames . th ancestir has

been placed near Maldon , but it almost cer tainl y was much nearer to the actual coast . It was an important station in the Roman one h n Ot o a. times , of the coast fortresses , To h ow see nearly allied the names are , we must remember that a y was practically a s t u hor , and I suppose the second 0 in Oth ona was pronounced short . About thirty years ago they were reclaiming land from

n ra N . the sea ear B dwell, at the E . corner of n the De gie Hundred , and they came upon of a r the foundations g eat Roman fortress , 1 l n be with wal s fourteen feet thick , enclosi g

- tween three and four acres , and horse shoe

Th is is th e th ickness of th e solid tow ers at B urgh

castle se . 8 8 . , e p 1 C ONV ERSION OF TH E EAST SAXONS . 47

V towers . ast quantities Of Roman remains of were found , and many coins the third a and fourth centuries . Here , we c nnot doubt, was Ythancestir ; and its nearness to Tilling ham seems to shew that in the times of which we are speaking the centre o f gravity Of im portanc e lay towards that part of the East a n o a Saxon l nd , and had by me ns as yet L settled itsel f at or near ondon . It is of course h quite possible , per aps probable, that the gift Of Tillingh am had not been withdrawn in the confusion Of the relapse . It had cer tainly not been forgotten ; and if it needed i w n S ebert w . rene i g , g would naturally rene it

’ Cedd s choice of a place Of residence may well have been guided by that gift . The name o f l h n the river Pente , curious y enoug , li gers n still , one of the spri gs which form the source ’ o f the Freshw ell being called Pant s Well ; indeed the name Of the Fresh w ell itself is a said to h ve been Pant in former times . ’ The chie f centre of Cedd s episcopal work Yth ancestir I was . t was here in particular that the priests and deacons whom he ordain ed were to help him in the word Of faith and f the ministry o baptizing . It is evident from the phrase em ployed by Bede that his clergy were n o t imported from the north they were K 2 1 8 C ERS I OF TH E EAS T SA S 4 ONV ON XON .

a a f. At n tive East Saxons , tr ined by himsel — Tilbury it seems strange to think Of the banks Of the Thames as the remote place and the banks Of the Pente as the busy populous — h e a l place formed a monastic est b ishment, n gatheri g a ﬂock of servants of Christ , and teaching them to observe the discipline Of la the regu r life , so far as those rude people were as yet ﬁt for it . After some considerable time Sigebert the

Good was murdered by two o f his relatives . They assigned as the sole cause of their act that they were enraged with the king for the excess which he shewed in sparing his ene a mies , and the re diness with which he forgave those who had inj ured him and asked his par I don . t is delightful to hear that his life was r h n so truly Ch istian . He deserves t e ame Of

S i ebert as as g the Martyr, well that of Sige a bert the Good . Bede characteristic lly points out th at his death was in fact a punishment r w for a serious e ror . The story seems to she the diﬂicu lties o f missionaries in those days as a v in these , in a m tter which still gi es rise ar to much discussion in the mission y ﬁeld . O “ ” ne of the assassins , counts Bede calls an a them, had contracted unlawful marri ge ; and inasmuch as the bishop could not pre

1 0 C ERSI OF TH E E A T A S 5 ONV ON S S XON .

The passage by sea and land from Bradwell t o Rendelsham is only ab out forty miles . Gedd continued to pay visits to his north ern E h l l h . t e wa d w o d home , governe the Deiri , ’ O to swald s son , begged him accept a site and

' to build a monastery in Deira , which the king might frequently resort to pray to G o d and

r bu hear His wo d , and where he might be l b e ried . He believed , too , that he wou d much helped by the daily prayers Of those w h o there Should serve G o d . Gedd chose a r place in the recesses Of the hills, near Ki by L i ast n au . Moorside in Yorkshire, called then g t There he buil the monastery, with the help ’ of Eth elwald s a his brother Celin , f vourite

C nebil r chaplain , and Of y , yet another brothe ,

making, with Chad , an interesting group of t four brethren . He appointed provos s , and t r r came himself o soj ou n the e when he could . 1 U a a r tt , as we h ve seen , took the p incess

Elﬂeda sea to N r by from Kent orthumb ia, and we m ay with probability im agi ne that ’ C dd s m e j ourneys were ade by the same way . ’ Th e ship that carried Oswy s bride must it self have p assed very near Bradwell as a i n glance at the map shews , and that l e of

a e 0 P g 1 7 .

1 2 C ER I OF TH E EA T S A 5 ONV S ON S XONS .

n of see , however, the drawing made the t and a let ers when the stone was found , m ny m of the were still legible when th e Rev . a T Daniel H igh worked at the stone . his stone and the one next mentioned are very seri ous warnings against an error which has cost h t o r arc aeology dear . A s one a thousand twel ve hundred years Old is dug out of earth an a a n and of antiseptic ch r cter, its or ament, n a its i scription if it has one , cle r and perfect ; and it is assumed that a stone which has n lasted so lo g will never decay. The stone is exposed to climatic conditions from which it h as for m o f any hundred years been protected , a and it rapidly decays . Another be utiful a sl b was found at the same time , of completely l ff rn men It di erent type of o a t . was covered

with bold and skilful interlacements , of the L indisfarne type, and was without a name k or inscription of any ind , so far as could be

e . e two so r a se n Th se stones are rema k ble ,

indeed , when taken together they are quite t I the on e i n unique, hat ascribe to th s Ki g

Eth elwald to G . , and the other our Bishop edd I do not mean that they were sculptured at the time of their death : it was probably

S e u re 2 o osite. e ﬁg , pp

1 C ERS I OF TH E EA T AX 54 ONV ON S S ONS. this beautiful and intricate description must have been very carefully studied in the Anglian School of Art at Lindisfarne through many o f n f the later years Of that ce tury , be ore the Lindisfarne Gospels could be decorated as they are . There are some difﬁculties about the date dd’ of Ce s death . Bede remarks that he ceased to w h follo the Scottish ways , t at is , he accepted the decision of the Council of

Whitby , at which he was present and acted as interpreter, and thus we East Saxons were at once brought into line with the u su a es Catholic g . And then , Bede adds, he 1 returned to his see . And yet he died at 66 in a . 6 Last g u (on Oct 2 ) in this same year 4 . It seems Very unlikely that he sh ould have made thejourney between Essex and Yorkshire three times in less than half a year . He went r no th for the synod , which certainly took place a for some considerable time after E ster, it was the special difﬁculty of the incidence o f Easter in that year that led to the synod. The king was keeping the Scotic Easter Day while the n queen was keeping the Catholic Palm Su day .

To u n all s mmo the important people , and

“ ” iii 2 6 A sedem su m . d a , . S I OF TH E EAST AX S 1 CONVER ON S ON . 55

l m al ow them ti e for the journey , must have brought the synod well on in the summer . is to h . Then , it seems , he returned see Then a he went north again , caught the pl gue , and d do not h o far ied . I know w it is safe to suggest that his sedes m ay in this case mean L t o his monastery at astingham , which , in that supposition , he retired after the confer l a ence . This di cu ty would dis ppear if we

' t 66 8 Cedd s accepted the da e for death, but m other di culties would take its place . The pestilence that was fatal to Cedd was for a time fatal to his work among the East

t o ur . n Si h r Saxons . It spread o parts Ki g g e e and that par t of the E ast Saxon land which

. an d he ruled , relapsed into idolatry He his i n people , h gh and low , lovi g this life and not desiring or not believing the life that is to come , renewed the deserted shrines and adored images as though they might thus be r preserved f om the pestilence . But Sebbe ,

- n w the joint ki g , ith those over whom he d d the ruled , kept evote ly faith which they h a I n ur d received . v e t e to m ake the sugges tion that here we have a hint which explains the silence of the records as to any work n d Cedd L bei g one by in ondon . I suspect th at not being able to cover all the ground 1 6 C ERS I OF TH E EA T AX 5 ONV ON S S ONS .

he h ad treated London as hopeless in its carelessness about the Christian faith and the and n to future life , co ﬁned himself the eastern parts ; and that S ighere and his people repre e o f L n sent d the irreligion ondon , passi g easily t an d r in o paganism , while Sebbe his dese ted subjects represented the faithful work o f Cedd .

Wulfh ere n n o w , the Mercian ki g , was the

- o f a over lord the East S xons . He sent his n h ad Scotic bishop , Jaruma , who presumably d to conforme , recall to the true faith that part

of the province which w as corrupted . A priest ’ who w as Jarum an s companion on this occa

sion described to Bede , many years after , the energy and discretion with which the bishop m l Jarum an carried o ut his Cll Cll lt commission . The result was that king and people j oined in forsaking or destroying the shrines an d altars they had m ade ; Opened the churches again ;

u n na o f r and joyf lly confessi g the me Ch ist, would rather die in the belief Of the resu rrec t a ion in Him , th n live among idols in the a a vileness of post sy . Thus w as London ﬁnally brought to the a a of true f ith , in or bout the end the year 6 6 t 4 , j ust sixty years af er Mellitus was ﬁrst

sent here by Augustine . There is no other

1 8 C ERS O E 5 ONV ION F TH EAS T SAXONS .

primary bishops of the English kingdoms . And Sabert and Sigebert will appear among

the twelve primary kings . With these w ill

Erk nw ald. be associated King Sebbe and St . e j ' Th e descent o f the diocese Of the East Saxons h as been almost irritating in its Th f contradictions . e Bishop o the East Saxons with his seat at London h as ceased hi as s d . w to have Essex in iocese It given , n ot r a o of r so ve y long g , by one the wo st of

' re - an to many bad arr gements , Rochester ; a a in o wn c and then , g in our recolle tion , to

new r . a . a bishop ic , that of St Alb ns The Bishopric Of London is now concentrated upon

Middlesex . The time seems to be coming near for the original intention of Gregory to b a be carried out, y the est blishment of an r L d a t Sl X Archbishop ic of on on , with at le s

o uf ra I au di cesan s f gans . f the ecclesiastical th orities m ade London north an d south of the a Thames all one , the civil uthorities would u m ﬁ soon follow, and we should see a real cation . LECTU RE V I .

SUSSEX A ND CONCLUD ING REM A RK S . ,

— — — Th S ax n d B osh m Wilfrith . Eth el e ou th S on la . a .

’ l — — lse —Th e wa ch n d ba Wilfrith u ccess. Se . a Eb . s s y S ou th x — h l —Th e b o at Sa on sea T e son s o f A tw a d . y

S else —A reas Of En lan d co ered b th e forei n an d y . g v y g h c i n r l - Th e ritish t e S otic m iss o aries esp ective y. B — Ch u rch Th e celebratio n of th e 13 0 0 th an n iversary of

h b a tism of Eth elbert in its true ro ortion . t e p , p p

WE have now come to the smallest and the latest of the English kingdoms ; latest from o f the Christian point View , but one of the earliest as a matter o f secular history . It of t o was the next in order foundation Kent , the earliest Of all . It took high rank in the n n fElla n beginni g , its founder, Ki g , bei g counted by Bede as the ﬁrst to exercise n supremacy over the E glish in general . The of 1 I is date this supremacy is given as 4 9 . t needless to say that at that early date the territories in actual possession by the English ’ did not afford a very wide area for rElla s supremacy . 1 60 C ER ONV SION OF SussEx.

The Anglo - Saxon Chronicle is brief and ’ pithy on the subj ect o f E lla s proceedings .

“ C m en In 4 77, he and his three sons , y , Wlencin a a g , and Ciss , came to Brit in in

r - Off- S w th ee ships , landed at Cymenes ore , le i . e. many Welsh ( strangers , Britons), and drove some in ﬂight into the wood called Andr l 8 ZEll t edes ea. a a In 4 5, fought ag ins as a Mercredes the Welsh ( before, Britons) ne r

- 0 E l be burnan stede . In 4 9 , l a and Cissa

Andredes- ceaster P Off sieged ( evensey), and t a a not slew all h t there dwelled , so th t one

Bryt survived . Bede puts the land o f the South Saxon s as a land of families, and the Isle of Wight, which was usually connected with it, though

u a occ pied by Jutes not by S xons , as a land of families . Sussex , on the mainland ,

as e a w thus qu l in extent, or in ability to a a r m int in a population , to the no thern portion o f a r i r Merci , Me c a no th of Trent , and the Isle of Wight was of a size or ability to m maintain 1 20 monasteries . The di ensions of S ussex h ave n ot undergone ch ange from A h . S t at time kingdom , diocese , county , it has through all changes from that time to this preserved its identity ; and in this it is n unique in E gland .

16 2 C E ONV RSION OF S USS Ex. a n an gai st unwelcome visitors , and road in y

a as a ordin ry sense there w none . The m rshes which covered the face of Kent on the extreme e ast of the narrow slip of S outh S a a aff rd xon land , may h ve o ed at least some excuse for the curious inactivity of the Kentish Church through more than three

a a e r . SO qu rters of c ntu y Even , the neglect a r seems inexplic ble . And when the wo k w as at a l st done , it was not done by or r f om Kent . w as 6 8 1 w It not till the year , hen Kent

r - r an d had been Ch istian for eighty four yea s , even o u r obstinat e London had been settled a a ar an in the f ith for bout sixteen ye s , that attempt w as made to convert the South a a an d a S xons . How l te in time circumst nce

a w as m a a r ro th t , y perhaps be g the ed f m the a a two f cts , th t the eightieth bishop of Rome t sat S t r an d hen on the seat called of . Pete , that the sixth of the Great Cou ncils of the Church w as cond emning the seventy - ﬁ rst a a bishop of Rome for heresy . It would ppe r that the South Saxon s were not a very in tolerable o r desperate set of pagans for when th e attempt to christianise them was at last

ad r w as a o m e , the e found to be little Sc tic na t r a ad r h r o f mo s e y lre y there , unde the c a ge E 16 C ONVERS ION O F S u ss x . 3

one wh o Dicul , an Irishman , had ﬁve or six at Bo sanh am monks with him . This was , 1 no w a r called Bosham , a pl ce of ext eme interest, with a Roman basilica for the a foundation of its parish church , the det ils of which are shewn at the beginning of the

a a t E cclesia, de B yeux T pes ry, with the label Bos am a a h . It w s at that spot that H rold took ship for the ill - fated voyage which ended in Brittany and led to Normandy . Of D icul and his little party of monks we know nothing more than that they w ere Scotic ; that they served the Lord in humility and poverty ; and that none of the people of that province cared to imitate their life or to hear their preaching . Still , there they were ; the a Scotic Church yet once again , so l te in time , modestly paving the way for men o f another school . 6 8 1 t In the year , then , a successful Chris ian teacher came at last . This was the famous

1 Th e Old pro nu n ciation is clearly retain ed in th e

ti w ~ am I t w th i n i ru s c B a s . as s ro u n ciat on th at accord p , in to th e tale Obtain ed fo r th e craft o dw in th is g , y G “ alu able m an o r. Da mih i basium G i e m e th e iss v , v k

o f h e is re o rted to h a e sai to in Edm u n d ( p v d k g . Do ubi basiu m th e in i said h re li d n w h ich , k g s to ave p e . O G o dw in th an ked h im ex lain in th at h e h ad ask ed fo r , p g

B o sh am an d B o sh in h ad i en . , am th e k g g v L 2 1 6 ERS I Ex 4 CONV ON OF Su ss .

Wilfrith N orthu m bria r , of , whose histo y we are leaving to be treated if all be well next d year . He h a already gone thro ugh m any of a n r a r and the ﬂuctu tio s of his sto my c ree , , ﬁnding himself an unwelcome Visitor in most a parts of the world , and speci lly unwelcome in the northern diocese which he regarded as w as a his own, he free to do nywhere the r missionary wo k he did so well . Fuller S n likened him to the nightingale , which i gs , r Fuller said, ever the sweeter the fu ther it is n a from home . Further from home , in E gl nd , Wilfrith a l h could sc rce y ave been, than in Sussex ; more sweetly and persu asively no one could have preached Christ to the South b a Saxons . Many years efore , he had , in f ct ,

been in Sussex . He was driven on shore a there by a gre t storm , near high tide , on his Ga a way from ul to Kent prob bly , therefore , at some point near the eastern extremity of

Sussex . The barbarou s people shewed them no an d r little unkindness , claiming them thei s ’ Wilfr as booty of the sea . ith s party defended themselves stoutly till the rising tide should a Wilfrith ﬂo t their ship , while and his clerks r o f prayed . The pagan p iest the neighbour hood stood on a mound an d practised enchant ’ ments to bind the wrecked men s hands . A

1 66 E F u E CONV RS ION O S ss x.

ar a Christian king, and as such for nine ye s at a least he ruled a pag n land . His queen ,

a w as a o f Eanfrid Ebb , a d ughter , prince of a n the Wiccas ; roughly spe ki g , the people of

r . as Worcestershi e That province , we have " seen w as su i cien tl r , y advanced in Ch istianity a 6 80 to h ve a bishop of its own in , put there h a by the bis op of the main see of Merci , and Ebba had been baptized in h er own land

m Eth l alch before arrying e w . Wilfrith l Here , then , found the way ful y r r w as a n p epa ed . There a Christi n ki g , a a r Christian queen , and even Ch istian monas

Wu lfh r ter . a e e y I risk the suggestion th t , who had good reason to kn o w an d be grateful r r for the missiona y ability of the Scotic Chu ch , 1 h ad recommended Dicul and his m onks to

Ethelwalch as w r Osw , , t enty yea s before , y h ad r a r a sent fou Scotic te chers to Me ci , to a r a begin the conversion of th t g e t kingdom . Th e king w as delighted to give the new r see him a comer a f ee hand , and to b ptize r r Th the chief gove nors and gene als . e rest

Of a l the people were b ptized , then and ater

1 D icu l w as also th e n am e of o n e o f th e tw o p riests to w h om Fu rsey left th e ch arge o f h is m on astery at e bu r Cn obh er s g . 1 6 C ONVERS ION OF S ussEx . 7 on B , by his four priests , appa, Padda , Burg Eadd helm , and a. Tw o things served to clench the hold which

Wilfrith got upon the people o f Sussex . There had been a terrible drough t for three a a an d ye rs , ccompanied followed by a famine r a n w so se ious , that the st rvi g people ere

r to o d iven suicide . They would g by forty an d i to ﬁfty at a t me some precipice , or to

- - in - the sea shore , and hand hand plunge over a or the precipice and be d shed to pieces, walk n into the sea and be drowned . But o the very day of the great baptizing j ust men tion ed , there fell a quiet and copious rain ; the earth blossomed forth again ; a happy a and abundant se son followed . They cast off their old superstition ; idolatry w as com pletely driven away ; their heart an d their d flesh rej oiced in the living G o . They learned God that He , who is the true , by His hea venly grace endowed them with all good n thi gs , inward and outward . So Bede de scribes the eflect which this coincidence r d p o uced . The other thing which served to strengthen ’ Wilfrith s hold upon them w as o f a difleren t ’ r t a W fri h characte . I w s an example o f il t s practical nature and varied and useful kno w C E O E ONV RS ION F S USS X .

l d e ge . Bede menti ons it after the other. ’ giving precedence to God s intervention ; but it probably belongs to an earlier period in ilfri h . I r W t time n the time of g eat famine , found that the people of the sea- coast did a a not underst nd the art of c tching sea ﬁsh , ar which he , no doubt, had le ned as a boy

at L ar - n indisf ne . They had eel nets , but nothi g

sea r a more , though the and the rive s bounded in ﬁ sh r ar , which is still t ue as reg ds Sussex . ’ The bishop s men borrowed a large number

- r m t of eel nets f o the owners, fastened hem together we must suppose , and cast them in

. SO the sea They were successful , that they quickly caught three hundred ﬁshes , of one a T kind and nother . hese they divided into t three equal par s , whether with any reference to that tripartite . division of tithes which our disendowment friends so unsuccessfully r seek to fasten upon the ea ly English Church , it is for them rather than for me to say . They gave a hundred to thepoor ; a hundred to the owners of the eel - nets ; and a hundred

u they kept for themselves . If yo visit Bosham w h o w a now, you ill see the m rshy land is intersected by little winding creeks , and you w ill realise h o w small a net would su we

e to close the mouth of one of the cre ks, and ,

1 0 C ER I O E 7 ONV S ON F S USS X .

a n it is still c lled . The ki g m ade a complete a all and bsolute gift of the whole , with its

a an d m en Wilfrith possessions , l nds , . Here fo unded th e important monastery u hich re ’ mained to Bede s time Th e priest Bappa ’ r Wilfrith governed it in Wilf ith s absence . performed the function s of bishop among u a the So th Saxons, with this as his tempor ry “ ar s seat , for ﬁve ye s ; que tions of j uris ” a o r oe a do diction , whether loc l cumenic l , not appear to have troubled him or anyone

else in England in those early times . After

ﬁve an d a r Ec frith years, the defeat sl ughte of g of N orthumbria by the Cym ri of Strathclyde 6 86 Opened the w ay for him to return home in . He had found among the inhabitants of

b Eth elw alch Selsey , given to him y , two hundred an d ﬁ fty i m en and women that were an d r ll slaves . He baptized f eed them a . H ad Wilfrith remained in Sussex , there might have been created in his person a South

a s r S . S xon bi hop ic , with Selsey as its eat As S a n it was , the South xo s were episcopally superintended by the West Saxon Bishop of Winchester for more than twenty years after ar r r 0 . as a his dep tu e In the yea 7 9 , it ch nced ’ a Wilfrith s a h a in the ye r of de th , though t t had no connection with the event so far 1 1 C ONVERS ION OF S USSEX . 7 as d a we can see , it was etermined by a synod l decree (of a West Saxon synod apparently) a th t the province of the South Saxons , which up to that time pertained to the diocese of

Winchester, should itself have an episcopal E d ert of i . a b seat and a b shop , the abbat

o f w as n r the monastery Selsey , co sec ated the ﬁrst bishop , and the monastery was the ’ E ll was o a. bishop s seat . He succeeded by ﬁ his 1 Eolla When Bede nished history, in 73 , had been dead some years , and no one had been put in his place ; the bishopric had

a e x p ss d out of e istence . It was revived almost immediately after Bede ceased to

- . tw o write , in 733 There were twenty bishops Of Selsey down to the Norman Con

T - . h e a no t quest twenty third bishop , Stig nd ( the Stigand o f Sherborne an d Canterbury) Chi became Bishop of Chichester , and at chester

’ a the bishop s seat has ever since rem ined . The old buildings of Selsey have long been covered by the encroachments of the sea ; p arts of the old chu rch used to be visible on “ ” th e low and the east side of island at water , “ ’ a a h th e a bo ts still c st anc or in bishop s p rk . Th e tw o well - known ancient stone carvings in Chichester Cathedral are said by tradition to have come from the Cathedral Church of. 1 72 CONVERSION OF Su ssEx.

Selsey and on the whole their style does not

n th e r S O as n de y t adition , far date is co cerned , though it cannot be said w ith conﬁdence to conﬁrm it . ’ When Wilfrith s work had been going on for about fou r years Eth elw alch w as slain . A certain very ambitious scion of the royal of Caedw alla a house Wessex , by n me , had been banished from Wessex . He thereupon came with his force of soldiers upon Ethel a walch of Sussex , defe ted and slew him , and wasted the territory . He was driven out by ’ B erth u n Andh un the king s commanders , and , w h o for some time held the reins of gove

Caedwalla ment . But became King of the a West Saxons the next ye r, and he then completely subdued the province O f Sussex .

o f W He took , also , the Isle ight , the last r a a m g eat stronghold of p g nis , and set himself to slaughter all the inhabitants and ﬁll their of place with emigrants his own race . He C had vowed , though not himself a hristian , r a so Bede unde stood , th t if he conquered the island he would give to G od the fourth part of the land and of the plundef. He fulﬁlled his vow by giving to Wilfrith land of three hun d n a red families, the whole island bei g a l nd Wilfrith d o f twelve hundred families . ha

1 . C ER 74 ONV SION OF S USS EX .

a d wounds received in his invasion of the isl n , and begged that if they must be put to death i r h he m ght ﬁ st convert t em to Christianity . Th hi e m a . king gave le ve He taught them , a tr b ptized them , made them certain of en y to m r the kingdo o f heaven . The executione a an d t o . c me , they joyfully went death These

r ﬁrstfru its G o d we e the to of the Isle of Wight, the latest province of alI England to depart from idolatry . 1 We have seen that Wulfh ere gave to the king of the South Saxons not only the Isle of Wight but als o the district of the Meonw aras

W Th e M ons in essex . e in Hampshire still retain the ancient name in the Villages o f

Meonstoke and Eastm eon . One of the r chu ches in that neighbourhood , Warnford , ’ a V alth am ne r Bishop s V , has an interesting ’ r Wilfrith s inscri reco d of work there , in an p tion about two or three generations later than N a r h the orm n Conquest , setting fo th t at

Adam de Port renewed the church, which Wilfri d 2 r a th h a founded . Hugh de Po t was very large landholder in these p arts at the time of the Domesday Survey .

1 See 6 2 1 6 pp . , 5. 2 Th er are w in ri i n s n e o n th e fron t o f h e e t o sc pt o , o t E 1 CONVERS ION O F S USS X . 75

a t a There is another pretty little story , bou a boy in the monastery at Selsey . Bishop Acc x a a h ad h ad of He h m told it to Bede, and Acc it told to him by most credible brothers of ‘ w a the monastery . The great plague hich m de such h avoc in several of the English kingdoms a a 6 8 2 bout the ye r , the second pestilence with to do which we have had in these lectures , reached at last to the monastery governed by ’ Wilfrith s priest Bappa . Many of the brethren w h o w \V ilfrith died , both of those had come ith and o f those who had been converted on the spot . A fast w as pro claimed . a There was in the mon stery a young boy , H recently called to the faith . e was seized with the plague on the second day of the

a . public fasting and pr yer As he lay alone,

orch th e oth er o n th e n o rth w all Can on B en h am h p , . as kin dly given m e th e exact w o rds ( I ) Frat res orate p rece vestra san ctiﬁ eate Tem p li facto re s sen io res et j u n io res Wil ri f i n m r n f d u n dav t b o u s A da e ovav it . ( 2 ) Adam h ic de Portu solis b en edicat ab o rtu

G en s cru ce si n ata er u e m su m sic ren o a g p q v ta.

1 ) B roth ers ra san ctif w ith ou r ra ( . p y y y p ye r th e b u ilders an d th e re-b u ilders o f th e ch u rch Wil . frith fo u n d ed it th e oo d A dam re u ilt i g b t . ( 2 ) Let th e race th at is sign ed w ith th e S ign o f th e cro ss h ere bless fro m th e risin o f th e su n A dam o f Port g , b w h om I am th u r b i y s e u lt . 1 6 ER E 7 C ONV SION O F S USS X .

there appeared to him the most blessed princes f o . a the apostles They bade him not fe r death , for they were th at day to take him to heaven ; ’ only he must w ait till the m ass w as cele brated i u , that he might receive the V atic m of L ’ B the ord s ody and Blood . And they as sured him that no other in the monastery

for l should die , only he ; the re igious King O a d a a anniver sw ld , of whose e th th t was the

h ad . sary , interceded for them This the boy told to a priest . The priest looked in the a a h a it was c lend r , and found t t really the ’ a O annivers ry of swald s death . He asked what was the appearance Of the two m en that h ad to come him . The boy could never have On imagined men so fair to look upon . ewas sh ow like a clerk ; the other had a long beard . They had told him that the one of them was called Peter , the other Paul ; and that they were ministers o f o u r Lord and a r r S viou Jesus Christ, sent by Him f om heaven to protect the monastery . The boy n died on the same day . It is very interesti g to notice that in each of these little earliest r a English histo ical t les , the conception of a happy ending to the tale was an early Th e lacm Christian death . p g together of r of S t. Peter and St . Paul as the two p inces

I 8 L D I EMA 7 CONC U NG R RKS .

We h ave now run through all th e kingdoms of h ow the English Heptarchy, and have seen O all each was brought to Christ . f the seven d king oms there was only one, namely Kent, which owed its permanent conversion to the O f u d mission A gustine irectly, to pass by , as h I t ink we decidedly must pass by , any work “ ” which the French bishop Lu idh ard m ay ’ have done in the years preceding Augustine s 1 arrival Of all the twenty - six counties of one England there is only , namely Kent, of can which the same be said, that it owed its perman ent c onversio n directly to the mission n d of Augustine . East A glia as a king om , N ff Ow e orfolk and Su olk as counties , their permanent conversion to the labours of an oth er foreigner from France ; and his work a was m de possible by the conversion , in th e n m France , of ki g through who Christianity was restored after the relapse into paganism .

Birinu s i a n , another fore gner, set the b ll rolli g W d in essex , but the work was one there by

Scotic inﬂuence . Sussex , as we have seen ni this mor ng , was converted late in time , years after the close of the period with which these lectures have been concerned , by an

1 P C . K Th ur in thes I slands b re A u ustine S . See e Ch ch e efo g , . 10 p . 0 D 1 C ONCLU ING REMARK S . 79

n L E glishman , brought up in Scotic indisfarne ,

but devotedly attached to the Roman Church . And even there the Scotic Church had taken and at possession was quietly work, before Wilfrith had ever preached in those remote f ’ . An d a s Wil rith s parts ye r before arrival, the king had been converted and baptized in

r to Mercia . There was no Canterbu y mission

Sussex . With these few exceptions England owed its ﬁnal and permanent conversion to the labours Of the Scotic Church . Thus , while Gregory and his mission were undoubt edly the founders of the Christian Church in

n — c s E gland using that word , of our e , to de scribe the English part of the island after it — had ceased to be inh abited by Britons the Of founders; that is , of the Church England , they only laid the foundation in the creation o f the Kentish Church , and on that foundation they did not build . A phrase which I used two years ago still seems to me to describe the position which Gregory of Rome holds in connection with the origin of our Church . “ He touched the Spring that launched the Church Of England Rome had very little

1 See Th e Ch urch in these I slands b ore A u ustine ef g , 1 p . 55 . 1 8 0 I MA CONCL UD NG RE RKS . to do with the e arly navigation and the a gathering w y of the Ship . And it is not right to describe the Scotic Church as stirred up to the conversion of the

English by th e initiative of Gregory . It is quite certain th at the conversion of Oswald and r a r i his b others in Scotl nd , after thei ex le 6 1 6 and in , was carried out by the monks priests from Iona independently of any action r Th Of f om Italy . e conversion the rightful royal family of Bernicia may well have taken a pl ce before their cousin Edwin , rightful king r r h ad in Deira and usu pe in Bernicia, formed

a r u K an d the desire to m r y Ethelb rga of ent, had been brought under the inﬂuence of

Paulinus . It was only the political conditions that prevented the Scotic Church fro m hav ing the ﬁrst hand in Northumbria ; and we have seen how immense their success w as when they did at last get their carefully

a n . h o w prep red inni gs We have seen , too , their work told directly not only upon the whole of the English land north of the Hum a ber, but lso upon the whole of the middle of n a E gl nd down to Wessex , upon the whole of Wessex down to the south coast and across to the south - west as far as the Britons in L Devonshire, and upon ondon with Essex

C ONCLUD ING RE MARKS .

Wini got to help him in the consecration of Chad are the only link we have with the British Church in any of the times of which a n r we have been spe ki g . And there eme ges from this complete absence o f connection a i rather nteresting set of considerations . as r If, the mode n Roman tells us, the or a igin l Christian Church of this island , w as the Church of the Britons , really founded

as G by Rome, the Roman Church ( regory r th e ur a desc ibed Ch ch of his n tion , j ust as he called our Church the English Church) the Roman Church had behaved very badly to i ts child . It had completely deserted it ; — had let it drift no one can suggest how into uncatholic practices ; h ad let it so com

letel o f a p y lose all knowledge its p rentage, that in or before the year 600 it declared in the most contumacious manner th at it would have nothing to do with Rome or its repre

sentatives. It is to me perfectly clear that no claim to have founded the British Church was be lieved n otw ith stan d at Rome in those days, ing the late insertion in the early Chronicles r L l of the sto y of ucius and E eu th erus. When Gregory sent Au gustine to the English with of s out any mention British bishop , or a I 8 C ONCLUD ING REMARKS . 3

e British Church , or a British peopl , it seems impossible that he knew o f the fact that the w British Church , and bishops, and people , ere a highly important factor in the island which he seems to have regarded as pagan . And when Augustine found out that there were British bishops in considerable numbers (in deed their numbers were larger than his own one m succession ever at any ti e attained to), to G incon and wrote regory about them , it is ceivable that Gregory S hould not in reply a have said th t they were children of Rome, if that was the fact . And when Augustine made his elaborate preparations for the inter

w r n o vie with the British bishops, su ely ar gum ent he could use would have been so persuasive as this , that here was the long n in all ff t lost mother, comi g back a ection o

n - r her lo g forgotten child . When the B itons t r rejec ed his advances , they were clea ly as completely ignorant of any ecclesiastical pa a rentage which looked to Italy , as the Itali ns ’ of were of any claim theirs as founder s kin . We may conﬁdently trust the British bards to have kept the story alive , if, up to that h a time , it had ever lived . Even if Rome d — forgotten her good deed a thing not in itself — very likely for any such reasons as that 1 8 C CL D I R EMAR 4 ON U NG KS .

Britain was a sm all and far- off place and h ad ar r r m a Rome l ge conce ns , we y be sure — that to the Briton or shall we say the a — an a Welshm n event of this ch racter , di V ctl affectin V elshm en y g the , would rank very high among the greatest events of th e world . It would not be forgotten upon Cornhill while the Briton was dom inant here ; it would not be forgotten among the hills and the glens of

. r at a Wales At the Confe ence Whitby , ag in , no such suggestion w as m ade as that these r c i islanders , B itish or S ot c , had ever owed a a llegi nce to Rome , as ecclesiastical superior or as Christian founder ; could trace anything at all to Rome ; had any connection with Rome . T it n r n ori his , is u necessary to say , b i gs the ginal Churches of Ireland an d Scotland under a r the s me a gument of independence of Rome , under the same probability that the earliest a Christi nity was not due to Roman missions . The story on both S ides at Whitby w as quite r the other w ay round . Colman and his pa ty h a referred t emsel ves to St . John the Ev nge

li s a Of L r . st, the disciple peci lly beloved the o d Wilfrith rr d r as refe e himself to Rome , whe e , a he s id , the blessed apostles Peter and Paul

ff u lived , taught , su ered , and were b ried ; he declared that in all the world nowhere but

1 86 CONCLUD ING REMARKS . h ad addressed from time to time such superior a w letters , was f ithfully doing the ork that he and his h ad found them selves unable to do . And he must have thought sadly h o w little

Opposition there had been , to account for the a h e little work th t he and his had done . If could have recalled the heroic death of one

n mi ht x erh a s si gle martyr , he g p p have been

' able to say to himself that th ese w ere a dan

d a . gerons , a esper te people But not one n S O far w si gle case had there been , as I kno , o f a a Violent hands l id upon one of the Itali ns , unless we are to regard seriously th e scourging

L . of aurentius And even if we are , there are

diﬂicult n a some questio s to be nswered , as to

ur him « u n der who it was that really sco ged , f : guise o S t. Peter no one suggests that it w as a L an English pag n , and that aurentius AS was to that extent a martyr . far as I can e see there was no excus , no relief, no bright ness , to comfort the soul of the last of the I a a n his a t li ns , as he lay dyi g in isol tion at a r C nterbury . He looked fo th upon the ﬁeld which the great Gregory had intrusted to his predecessors , to his colleagues , nay to him r a pe son lly. He saw it occupied to its widest r a r extent . It was covered with Ch isti n labou r e s. But they were labourers not of his 1 8 CONCLU D ING REMARKS . 7

n n . sendi g, the mi isters Of a Church not his When those of us who are alive in 1897 keep with full thankfulness the thirteen hun dredth anniversary of the baptism Of Ethelbert Of by Augustine Rome , they will keep it with a z eal tempered with knowledge . They will not forget how relatively small a part that

S O a a . fact, great in itself, re lly pl yed They will remember h ow much larger an area was covered in early times by the other great fact, the baptism of Oswald and of Oswy by th e

Scotic monks of Iona . L E C T R I I U E V .

TH E BEWCA STLE CROSS , A ND OTH ER.

M ON UM ENT S .

Th e B ew castle ross i s orn am en tation —Th e K ir dale C t . k , dial — T h i xim i n —I n la su n f M a a u s. ter cem en ts . h e c a r o

A n lian H ib r i t lian L m ar i —Th e n an I a an d o b d c. g , , , e — i Ru n es. Ru n i in i o n n h e e a tl r ss c scr p t s o t B w c s e C o . — Prayer for th e sou l o n A n glian m o n u m en ts Cro ss an d

in cri tio n a a row - Th e D edication -sto n e o f Jar s p t J r . — m ed h — ’ ro w . Person s n a o n t e B ew castle Cro ss. Owin s

m u m — ross f h e h ol m es on en t Th e C o t y Ja .

I F we were asked what princes they were th at m ade the largest mark upon the times with which we have dealt iri this course of 6 66 8 r lectures , say from 33 to ; what p inces they were that h ad most to do with spreading the Christian faith over England in those years an d de veloping the Church of England we should not h ave much doubt about the r answer . Oswald of Northumb i a ; his brother ’ Osw Osw s Alchfrith an d Wu lfhere y y son ; , Th r a . e King of the Me ci ns latest of these ,

Wulfh ere 6 u tw o , died in 75, one tho sand hun dred and t wenty years ago . We have still

1 0 TH E B EW CASTLE CR SS 9 O ,

that Dandie Dinmont was nearly murdered 1 8 by the robbers . Down to the year 30 or thereabouts it was said that only women h were buried in the c urchyard of Bewcastle, n r the men bei g usually hanged in Ca lisle ,

- - an d . for horse stealing , sheep stealing , the like The monument in Bewcastle churchyard I a a s the very noble sh ft of a gre t cross . It is

- a monolith 1 4 5 feet high from its pedestal . There is a socket at the top in which once ’ stood the head Of the cross : In Gough s Camden we read that a slip of paper was ’ found in Camden s own copy of the Bri “ tan nia I received this morning Ar a ston from my lord of undel , sent him

from my lord William . It was the head of a cross at Bu castle This was Lord William “ d Howard , the Belted Will Howar , who dwelt ” L on the border . The ord Arundel was of a Thomas , the ﬁrst baron W rdour, who

u took the T rkish standard with his own hand ,

II 1 . ﬁghting under Rodolph , in 595 The

- 6in . 2ft . cross head stood about high , so that

w as 1 . the monument when complete 7ft high , 1 f and with its pedestal it stood up nearly 2 t . h ad o from the ground . The head letters acr ss

it which Camden could not read. His draw ing Of them shews us that they were runes ;

1 2 E B EWCA TLE CR SS 9 TH S O ,

r r all a a o f It ep esents , in prob bility , the ide T nd are a tree of life . h e animals a the birds

an d a i I s I a peaceful h ppy . Th s n sh rp con trast with similar representations on pre N rm a o n stones of later date . I have found , n ar at by removi g some of the e th the foot , that the great cross in Bakewell Churchyard h as th e m an a bow at bottom of all a with , taking aim at the little creature nibbling the r r in r f uit at the top . At B adbourne De by shire there are the fra gments of a cross equ ally noble with th at at Bakewell ; an d there again on more th an one S ide is a m an at the foot taking aim at the squirrels or x r r a little fo es in the t ee or vine . The g e t cross Sh aft at Shefﬁeld has remarkable exam ples of the same kind . After the Conquest , this j arring note becomes still more conspi T S c uon s . hus on the light columns of the r a at w r L a al po t ls the est f ont of incoln C thedr , you have in alternate circles animals and

ar . Th e men with spe s attacking them . whole

a eace h as in ide of p , perished the idea of

r f r a x . r o o a h . 2 2 . spo t sl ug te See ppendi A, p 3 Th e west S ide is in three divi si ons or

1 a p anels . This face s shewn in illustr tion 4 r U (f ontispiece) . nlike the east side , it has

t w a S a . inscrip ions , of hich I sh ll peak l ter At E 1 A ND OTH ER MONUM NTS . 93 the top is a noble ‘ ﬁgure of a Saint with L a nimbus , carrying a amb with a nimbus ,

. N presumably John Baptist ext below , with a short inscription between , is a still more

Of O L noble ﬁgure ur Blessed ord , with a large nimbus ; the right arm raised in the attitude a of benediction , the hand unfortun tely broken Off ; the feet are treading on the heads of N is inscri swine . ext below the principal p tion of the monument ; and then , lowest of m an o n all , a with hawk left hand , and a ’ t e w wand in h right, ith the hawk s perch ,

a o f . prob bly , occupying part the ﬁeld

The other sides , north and south , are broken

ﬁ ve on up into panels of irregular lengths , f n . o o e each side Five these , three on face , tw o on the other, are occupied by interlacing bands in relief, all perfectly correct in princi

s ple , and at least one of them (the lowe t n r n pa el on the south side , figu e 3) exceedi gly good in design , as good as any similar pat tern in the Lindisfarne Gospels . Four o f the remaining panels are filled with stiff foliage a t in r p t erns , good in detail , but formal gene al ff Two o f n e ect . them are formed with o e stem flowin g from side to side as in the great

r are panel al eady described, two formed with n two stems each , starting at opposite cor ers 1 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS 9 4 O ,

of o f one the base the panel , and in case

crossing , in the other meeting and returning . The one remaining panel (not seen in the n l C illustrations) is nothi g but simp e hequers , perhaps the most di cult thing to explain on to the whole cross , whether as purpose or to a as d te . In the upper of the two foliage panels on l a 1 1 the south side (see i lustration 3 , p ge 9 ) there is the ﬁeld of a sundial . A glance at the illustration will shew that it is contem porary with the sculpturing of the scroll of

a . of on foli ge It is course the south side, and as the shaft stands on the south Side o f the r ar church, the sun st ikes it full and cle . We have a considerable number of Anglo a Saxon sundi ls remaining, some of them with

Anglian inscriptions , in those northern parts . Th e most interesting of all is that at Kirk dale Church , near Kirby Moorside , of which I have spoken 1 as possessing the two remark able sepulchral slabs which I assign to King Eth elwald of Deira and Bishop Cedd of Las tingau and of the E ast Saxons . This Kirk dale dial is so remarkable that I will make a digression to describe it .

1 ee . 1 1 1 2 S pp 5 , 5 .

1 A ND OTH ER MONUMENTS . 95

m The inscription , as will be seen fro illustra as tion 5, opposite , is follows This is dages sol merca act ileum tide 7 haward me w rohte ’ r This is the sun s m ark at ever 7 brand p s. y tim e and H awarth wrou ht m e an d Bran d , g the riest or rovost n ot p ( , possibly , the p ; it is r certain what the abbreviated form p s. means).

' is Bransdale , it may be remarked , still the

o f n ot Off name a dale far , between this and

Stokesley . Then comes a lengthy inscription , of unique interest and val u e : it is placed on tw o one on of di stones , each side the al, j ust as the dedication o f Jarrow Church is in scribed on two stones Orm Gamal suna bohte Scs Gregorius minster donne hit wes eel tobrocan 7 to falan 7 he hit let macan newan from grunde Xre Scs Gregorius in

Eadward da um en in da um g g tosti g eorl " . ’ Orm son o Gam al b ht S t ou . Gre or s , f , g g y Minst r Th n it w r e . e as all b oken and fallen t A m ad o . nd he e bu ild it n ew from the

rou n or Christ a t re o g d f nd S . G g ry in the days of Edward hing in the days of Tostig earl. Orm and Gamal were names fatally connected with the misdeeds o f Tostig and North u mberland to his banishment from , the results o f which the failure of Harold at to d Hastings is be attribute . N 2 1 6 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS 9 O ,

It will be seen that there is a cross incised on the line of shadow which marked the time r I infr for the mo ning service . This s not e a r quent on e rly dials , but the place of the c oss a r is not alw ys the same . At Ki kdale it is one - fourth of the way between sunrise and m an d a . w noon , that is , about 9 at mid inter ,

a at . bout 6 a m . midsummer

To return to the Bewcastle Cross . If we ask where in the world these ornamental pat r at te ns could that time come from , the archaeologist will tell us that the four foliage r patterns are stiff examples Of classical a t . Th e great ﬂowing scroll with the animals and the birds nibbling the fruit is as much the f I opposite of sti f as anything can be . sug r gested , some years ago , that it was ve y di cult to look at the noble ivory chair Of Maximian us so , which they shew you with much proper pride in th e sacristy of the

Of a l Duomo Ravenn , without fee ing that on the uprights on either side of the front of the chair you have the secret o f th e original of this most beautiful side of the Bewcastle a a h ad Cross . Th t ch ir been in existence about a hundred years when the Bewcastle Cross r r a was set up , and eithe it , or the o igin l de sign from which its ornament was in its time

1 8 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS 9 O ,

a rudimen Angli n race , a development from of tary ornament the same character, used b y their European ancestors and cousins , akin to the rudimentary ornament found a among the Burgundi ns and the Franks . But there is more to be said in favour of these patterns also having come from a land o f classical art . We ﬁnd plenty o f examples in Rom e— they have found scores more since I was in Rome eight and a half years ago Of marble screens covered with ornament in relief which looks like the Anglian inter lacing work , and was being done in Rome in the seventh century . But it is entirely ff r ro di erent f om ours in principle , being p du ced by a repetition of a number o f isolated r so o n forms , quat efoils and , linked into one another so as to give the effect of a continuous

u r band forming reticulations . With o early Anglian work that is never the case we proceeded by the convolutions of continuous a lines , not isolated circles and qu trefoils

one . superposed on another It is , generally L speaking, only in ombardy that we get in early work in Italy the continuous endless bands which form the basis o f the beautiful r a r su f ce ornaments of our Anglian ancesto s . There were of course famo u s Irishmen in ER E 1 A ND OTH MONUM NTS . 99

Lombardy ; and it used to be said that they v introduced this ornament there . But in ery recent times the ornamentation o f the tomb o f

. Colu mbanu s V St himself, the ery test case , has been brought out from its obscurity ; and it proves to be an exact counterpart o f that d f foun in Rome , and entirely dif erent in r principle from that found in No thumbria . — Considering the date o f Co lu mban us h e — died at Bohio in 6 1 5 that may be accepted as conclusive proof that it was not the Irish ' wh o Lom men produced , and introduced into bardy and elsewhere , these beautiful endless mazes . I must not wander into the delightful ﬁeld which the Lindisfarne school o f orna ment of Anglian times affords ; nor go now

See . 6 . . 22 to Byzantium appendix C , p Of the figure of our Lord on the west side of the Bewcastle Cross, a figure about three and a a h lf feet high , I can only say that a more dignified simplicity could no t be given to an h ad such a figure in y age . I have it put on glass , and shewn by limelight on

a r of . sc een , the full size life It never fails to impress deeply an audience , of what ever class . Nothing that I have seen of early sculpture in foreign museums has produced the same kind of effect on myself ; and the 2 00 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS O , effort to conceive its being produced in Cum a 1 2 2 b berl nd 5 years ago , whether y native , G or r or by allican , by Roman masons , is me ely " r i u lt to bewilde ing . It is still more di c ima gine its being done at any later date cou sis tent with the Obvious facts . There was j ust at that time in the north o f England a coin cidence of devoted love for the best ecclesi astical ornament Of the centre of the Church of the West, with the presence of artists able r a to design better wo k th n the Romans . It is time now to come to the inscriptions on this remarkable m onument . They are all r d in Runic lette s , ecidedly Anglian Runes , ff i di er ng, in conspicuous respects, from the typically Scandinavian Runes . I do not think that su ﬂicient notice has been taken of this F r f and . o dif erence , of what it must mean l r myse f, I de ive the Runic alphabet from the forms o f Greek letters which prevailed four d r Or ﬁve centuries before Christ . Others e ive r L SO r them f om an early atin alphabet, ea ly r to Gr as to be ve y closely akin the eek , even more closely than the ordinary Latin capital a letters are akin to the ordin ry Attic capitals . In either case the Runic letters are little of ca itals more than variants these early p x altered so as to make them easy to cut on

2 02 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS O ,

in are inscriptions England , of which there w or not t enty more, are in the Angle lands ,

in the Saxon . There is one word in Runes

at a on e . S ndwich , and word at Dover And we have of course the very remarkable late

Runic stone of the time of Canute , dug up ’ a here in St . Paul s Churchy rd, with its Scan dinavian Runes telling us that Kon a caused f set up this stone and Tuki . The rest o the ar n Runic inscriptions e in the orth . On the Bewcastle Cross we ﬁnd the earliest to examples , known be in existence , of

English literature . On the last leaf of our ’ Cambridge manuscript o f Bede s E ccle ’ siastical H istor y, written in Bede s lifetime , r o n of the e is, the back the leaf, in a small band ver probably contemporary, the English ’ o f n sion of the beginning Caedmon s ﬁrst so g, f which in the body o the MS . is given only

L . in atin But that, even if it is contempo 1 rary, is not earlier than 73 , sixty years r later than the date of the Bewcastle C oss .

This fact , that we have here the earliest of r of known specimen Anglian sc ipt , Eng a to lish liter ture , is enough give a unique f position to this great monument o antiquity. 1 Beginning with the west side , there is at

1 Fi u re frontis iece . g 4 , p D T M E 2 0 A N O H ER ONUM NTS . 3

ou t of top , j ust where the blowing the socket of the actual cross head has injured th e edge ” one d K risttu s. of the socket , wor , perhaps L tw o Then , above the head of our ord , in ” Gessu s K risttu s lines , with an initial cross , , J es C ri t u s h s . This at once gives us the y pronunciation of the Anglian g, and shews us that o ur Anglian ancestors pronounced their consonants s and t very sharply and of racti decidedly in the middle a word , p cally doubling them . Then , above the head of the king , if a king it be, comes the main i wh o w as inscription , wh ch tells us it in of memory whom this monument was raised , and who set it up ; and telling us more than that . The runes read as follows This sigbecn thun setton hwaetred wothgar olwfw olth u aft alchfrith u can kii ning eac o swiung gebid heo S inna sow hula . T his thin token Of victory c etred Wothgar Olwfwolthu set up after (in memory ” r k n n of) A lchf ith on ce i g and so of Oswy. Then

P ray for the high sin of his sou l. o f Here, then, we have the monument the sub -king Alchfrith of whom we have heard important things in these lectures ; the son 2 0 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS 4 O ,

of Oswy by a Celtic marriage ; leaning na turally to the Scotic Church ; settling at Ripon a colony of Scotic monks ; then comi ng under the inﬂuence o f Wilfrith ; turning out the Scotic monks because they would not con his n form to new views , and putti g their Wilfrith i adversary in the r place ; ﬁnally , the main mover on the Catholic side o f the Con o f h r Osw ference W itby, whe e his father y

- and he sat as king and sub king . We shall see by th e other inscriptions that the Cross 6 0 was set up in 7 , six years after the Synod Alchfrith Of Whitby , so that was dead by that time . We have already remarked , in speaking of the great p art which Alchfrith

r Peada of a played in the conve sion of Merci , that Bede drops him after Whitby in a very a mysterious m nner , only remarking that he gave his father m u ch trouble . We have from n o historical or traditional source any idea h r o w o . when he died But here , in this a r a imperish ble reco d , we le rn that he was a 6 0 de d in 7 , and that his soul was burdened with some high sin . This may well account for the silence of Bede . I will not venture upon the many suggestions which crowd upon the historic imagination .

One thing must be specially noticed . This

2 0 A ND OTH ER MONUM ENTS . 5

of rl earliest piece English literature, this ea iest n i E gl sh sepulchral inscription , contains a ’ request for prayer for the sin o f Alchfrith s

Alchfrith a . soul , and was de d This is quite in keeping with the other records o f the eo earliest Anglian times , whether English p

- ple of to day like it or not . Here are —At r 1 examples Tho nhill , near Dewsbury , Gilsu ith raised in m em ory of Berhtsu ith

- P ra or the a token at the grave m ou nd . y f K b P r n i alth . sou l. L ra o At ancaster , y f y P r t 2 ra o he sou l. U At Falstone , y f At pton , The t Pra or p eop le set up he m em orial. y f Eth lm e u nd . We must also note the description o f the “ ” r - cross as a token of Victo y . Thirty six ’ Osw s O years before this, y brother swald had

a w - fi ve off set up , at a pl ce about t enty miles as the crows fly , a wooden cross as the S ign under which he determined to fight for h victory . And the Victory in that sign e won . And Bede tells us that up to that 3 time no cross had been erected in Bernicia .

1 S ee u re 6 O o site ﬁg , pp . 1 S ee u re 2 6 ﬁg 7 , p . 0 . 3 Th is w as ex ressl lim ited to B ern icia I n th e tim e p y . o f Edw ard I th ere w r i n i o l . e e st ll sta d n g n ear Easingw d crosses q u o ted in a ch arter as a lan dm ark u n der th e , ’ n am e of Pau linu C ross Th a a in D eir s s es. t w s a. 2 06 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS O ,

It would be to shut o ur eyes wilfully if we failed t o see in this Bewcastle in scription an evident reference to the great victory o f ’ ’ Osw s Alchfrith s the y and race , won under

sign of the cross . There is no doubt a deeper of L reference, to the victory our ord on the

cross . It is this note that is stru ck in the Anglo - Saxon poem of the Dream of the Cross o f r , several stanzas which are insc ibed

in runes on the great Cross at Ruthwell , so of similar to this of Bewcastle . One the lines o f to that poem , not hitherto supposed be on included in the parts inscribed the cross , “ ’ of no declares the cross , This is outcast s I on gallows . have found the head of the “ ” cross the word gallows, and other suitable I r h ad runes ; and believe that the c oss , in the upper parts w here the runes are no longer ’ legible , this stanza about the outcast s gallows .

Indeed , it seems not impossible that this ﬁve upper part, about feet six inches high , th e t was original cross , and the great shaf ,

twelve feet high , was a few years later . In connection with the use of the word ” “ r token , or sign, or beckon, it is wo th while to mention a raised cross of early type on b Ja i a sla at rrow , with an inscr ption in hand c some sunk letters on ea h side of the shaft ,

A ND TH M M T 2 0 O ER ONU EN S . 7 let ters much too handsome and well ou t to be

8 SS -SLA B u nnow . CRO A T .

Th e late . inscription is broken away at the r l a c itical point, as wil be seen by the illustr “ 8 a sin u lar i tion on this p ge . In hoc g [ sig"no redditur —I n this si n alo ne vita mundo , g , or , I n this s ecial u n i u e si n li e is restored p or q g , f

to the world . . 2 2 . See also appendix D , p 9 TH E B EW CASTLE CR SS O ,

We now come to those parts of the inscrip tions which are in some senses th e most import

ant . s The south and north sides , as we have een , a Th are divided into ﬁve p nels each . e panels r have o nament in relief on a sunk ﬁeld , and this leaves a horizontal border between each tw o panels , where the original surface of the

stone is preserved . On these bo rders there are runes inscribed, and all are legible except some of those on the top border of the south r o f side , where the f acture the edge of the

socket has broken away some o f the letters . Beginning at the lowest of the ﬁve borders

on s the outh side (see illustration 3 , at ” 1 1 v : First page 9 ) we ha e Fruman gear, ear K iinin es O y ; on the next border g , f the kin th aees O this realm g next, Rices , f ; i h u Ec Ec fr t rith . and next, g , gf Here , then , date N Alchfrith we have the . ot only but Osw his father y, is dead ; and this monu ’ ment is erected in the ﬁrst year of Oswy s E h a c frit . brother and successor, the w rrior g 6 0 A D . That year is 7 . This is no t o ur only contemporary monu ’ T ment which bears Ecgfrith s name . he

- of o f w dedication stone the Church Jarro , a f to which I h ve already referred , dates itsel 6 8 in 5 by his ﬁfteenth year, as the Bewcastle

A N D ER M M E T 2 0 OTH ONU N S . 9

6 0 his Cross dates itself in 7 by ﬁrst year. 1 L L The inscription is in atin , and in atin

on tw o letters , stones , now placed one below “ the other Dedicatio basilicae sci Pauli V. II II kl mai anno XV c ridi reg Ceolfridi ’ abb eiu sdem q eccles de au ctore co ndito ris anno The dedication of the basilica of S P n s o M a t. au l on the n inth o the Cale d , f f y, in the teen th ear o K in E c rith an d ﬁf y f g gf , the ou rth ear o Ceol rid the A bbat an d f y f f , u n er b o t d God the u ilder f he sam e. To return to the Bewcastle Cross . On the t r north side, beginning wi h the lowest bo der ,

K iinnbu ru n K iineswith a we have g ext , “ Miircna K iin K in o M ercian s next, g , g f ; “ Wulfh ere o f next, ; and , at top all , three

and G essus J esu s. crosses the word ,

' K unnburu C nibu r a The g here named is y g , Alchfrith o f widow of , daughter the famous

of . I pagan King Mercia , Penda t was this marriage that gave Alchfrith so much inﬁu ’ ence w ith Peada - , Penda s son and sub king ; ‘ ’ an inﬂuence which led up to Peada s baptism ’ Osw s to r i at y Court, and thus the conve s on C nib u r a to of Mercia . y g retired eventually h er and native Mercian land , established

1 S ee u re o osite . ﬁg 9 , pp

O 2 10 TH E B EWCASTLE CR SS O ,

a church and monastery near Peterborough . i s u It now Caistor, famo s for its noble church

f i and interesting o its ancient remains . A “ ridge in Caistor Field is still called Lady ’ Cu nn bu rro a i f y w s Way . The dedic t on o the “ ” K nebu r ha is church is to St . y g , and it m said to be unique . It is a good exa ple of a church taking i ts name at ﬁrst from a “ ’ n C nibu r a s livi g person , Queen y g Church then coming to be called in course of time “ ’ The Holy Cynibu rga s Church and when ” L Holy had been put into atin , and the Latin san ctae was put into the more recent “ ” “ English Saint, the Church becomes St . ’ K yn eburgha s. We see e to shall , if we com speak next w as of inter, is proposed , the life and work Wilfrith of of Ripon and York and Hexham , n we shall see how large his possessio s were , rtham tonshir No e. abbeys and so on , in p It is clear that this is to be accounted for by r w Alch frith his g eat inﬂuence ith , and with those relations of his by marriage whose a are es eci n mes on this Bewcastle Cross, p W l h r ally u f e e. The records bear out this induction . ’ e n C neswitha m a The oth r lady s ame , y , y ’ be that of Cyniburga s sister and companion

2 1 2 TH E B EWCASTLE m s os ,

I think we may with some conﬁdence cl aim that looking to the importance in the history of a and the world of the conversion of Engl nd , looking to the importance of these persons in r r n o his the histo y of the conve sion , there is torical monument in these lands to compare w ith the Bewcastle Cross: And even if we w a pass into other lands, I do not kno wh t monument has a like signal importance in

connection with their conversion to the faith . I will only ask you to consider at what a t d te, later than hat assigned by the cross , r this monument can have been erected . Fi st o f a all , it is certainly not a reproduction of r perished cross . The times that cam e afte the a r a an d D nish invasions we e very d rk times , we cannot conceive any o n e setting to work t a a o reproduce g re t work of art like this . 6 0 r Within ﬁfteen years of the date 7 , eve y one a a mentioned , however incident lly , had p ssed a r h ad a aw y , and the inte est in them p ssed r i away to o . N eve from that time to th s has there been an occasion on which such a re production would have had any relation to r or an wa a r cu rent events , been in y y pp o ri t N as an p a e. or can we conceive of it r r a t o iginal monument of late Angli n imes, n partly from the co sideration thus stated , and D ER E 2 1 AN OTH MONUM NTS . 3

Aldfrith partly from other considerations . , wh o Ec frith 6 8 succeeded g in 5, was a natural of Osw o f son y, and a favourer the Scotic of school and church , and a persecutor Wil Al hfri frith . If c th had never left his ﬁrst fo r - love the Scotic Church , his half brother Aldfrith might have set up a memorial of Al hfri h him . But c t was the head and front of the expulsion o f the Scotic monks and priests and their practices . And if it was ’ Aldfrith s l put up in time , why shou d it be dated in the ﬁrst year of Ecgfrith ? Once ’ Aldfrith s get beyond time , to attribute this

to monument, as an original , any date and circumstance that can be mentioned o r con ceived is merely ridiculous .

There remains the idea of forgery . It

l - 00 was a we l known monument 3 years ago . From the Anglian times down to that time there was from the nature of the case n o one in existence who had knowledge enough o f early Anglian runes and early Mercian history even to write the inscriptions . There is yet another monument which may with reasonable conﬁdence be assigned to one o f the actors in the times with which we have a E h l . t e dreda been princip lly concerned , the of daughter King Anna , had married a prince 2 1 TH E B EWCASTLE oaoss 4 ,

G rvii h er of the y , and received Ely as

- marriage gift . Her husband soon died , and

660 a Ec frith i n 6 0 b e in she m rried g , who 7 th m ri came King of N or u b a. She was aecom anied p to the north by her principal o icer, i the a Owin . head of her household , by n me a Twelve years after her second marri ge, she Ec frith a u left g and eventu lly ret rned to Ely , and Owini is said by tradition to have been her steward at the principal manse of Haddenham . a the v l a o Some years ago , the b se of i l ge cr ss d a at Had enh m , which had sunk deep into the to ground , was dug out, and it was found — “ be inscribed with the words Lu cem tuam ” O n et —ive th li ht vi o da Deus requiem, g y g , d re t t Gw n 0 Go an d s o i . in , , There is an teresting account of Owini in the third ’ a t ch pter of Bede s Fourth Book , in connec ion Lichﬁ ld with the death of Chad at e in 6 72 . ’ The date o f Owin i s death we do not actu ally Th i h know . e stone s n o w in t e nave of the

Cathed ral Church of Ely . In the slight mention made in these lectures of persons present at the Synod o r Conference of Whitby , James the Deacon was named as

on . a t the catholic side Bede s ys of him , tha r th e when Paulinus ﬂed f om the north , on n k death of Edwi , he left in his church at Yor

2 1 6 TH E B EW CAS TLE CROSS

1 T E CR OSS S 0 . H OF TH E H OLY JA M E . E 2 1 A ND OTH ER MONUM NTS . 7

1 t 1 82 8 Whitaker , wri ing in , gives a draw in no g of the cross , with a panel but with sign o f u - a an inscription . The local g ide book s ys T h e a positively there is no inscription . p nel is x 2 i h of about 3 1 nc es , and with the exception a possible 0 there is n o appearance remaining of an inscription . By rubbing with a soft

on a er ' som e pencil tissue p p , of the letters ” can be detected , notably the Irish or “ - Anglo Saxon G . A squeeze shews ﬁve r G or six of the letters fai ly clearly , and the R il a . ev . . . W v l quite unmistake bly The C E y ,

Rector of Spennithorne , has lent me a very valuable tracing of a copy he made of the a o inscription thirty years g , when he was ’ H awk esw ell Curate of in Mr . Pattison s ’ time . It agrees with H ubner s inscription u i and with the sq eeze , except in the in tial J acobi I letter of , which it gives as a long . R ev . The late . D . H Haigh published the n A rchaelo ia A elian a 1 8 6 i scription in the g in 5 , r n f om impressio s sent him by Miss Pattison , o f the daughter the then Rector, and he was ’ H iibn er s G informant . ale , knowing nothing . “ H awk sw ell r of the C oss , suggested that Ack

u burgh , between Tunstall and H nton , meant

J acobi bu r u s a to g , and was the pl ce referred

1 H ist of Ri h m n dsh i i 2 . c o re . . , 3 3 2 1 8 TH E B EWCA TLE ORoss S ,

m a m by Bede . Whitaker de erry over this, “ and confuted Gale by stating that Aik bu rgh to meant the burgh of the oak , and that sup ’ port Gale s view it ou ght to be Jak eburg n Mr . Moberley , in his notes on Bede , knowi g

t o f disa no hing the cross , quotes without p ’ pro valo Murray s statement that it is tolerably certain that the ﬁrst syllable of Ak eburg n has o connection with J acobu s. There is no place or village called Ak eburg so between Tunstall and Hunton , and far G h . ale was wrong . But e was not far wrong tw o i on Tunstall is m les from Catterick , the

to Hawk sw ell road which leads , and Hunton

1s four and a half miles from Catterick , on f m a branch o the sa e road . A little more than a mile beyond Hunton is a single farm a a l c lled on the ordnance map Akebar, v rious y Aik bar spelled , and held in the neighbourhood w to take its name from oaks hich grew there . to H awk sw ell r When I got the C oss , and found that the name on the panel re ally does “ ” - G begin with an Anglo Saxon , I remem ’ bered Bede s one word of the Angle langu age E cclesiastical H istor Gae in his y, the which Bishop John of Be verley m ade th e dumb m an u od est lin u a A n loru m verbu m say, q g g ‘ “ ” a irm a ndi et con sentiendi ﬁ , our yea, and

2 2 0 TH E B EWCASTLE ORoss ,

panel, and of the inscription , to the well known arrangement of the earliest Welsh l to stones of this type , wou d seem indicate r a B itish connection of some kind . It may possibly be that we have here a hint of some historical foundation for the account given 1 by Nennius of the baptizing of Edwin and

‘ ' a — if one w t o twelve thous nd men , any ish 2 a Urb en know who b ptized them , Rum map g ” baptized them . This is more than the ordi nary claim of the Briton to have done every n n . It b a enu i e thi g no dou t preserves ﬁ g tradi tion which assigned to a member of the royal a Rh e ed f mily of the British kingdom of g ,

- N orth u mbria on the north west of , a very large share in the original conversion of

N orthu mbria. a T ken literally, it would mean l t that Paulinus was himse f a Briton by bir h , of educated in Rome . Two manuscripts Nen l th d nius , of the g century, bol ly say that r of Paulinus was this son of U ien . Short a th t, it would mean that one of his chief a assistants in the work, conceiv bly James in of r . co ci himself, was British o igin The

1 i 6 i Br t . H st . . 3 2 Or Ru n m a Urb en or R1m in a Urb en accordin , p g , p g , g “ to oth er readings Ru m or Ru n or Rim in

son of Urien . E 2 2 I AND OTH ER MONUM NTS . dence of the name Rum or Rimin (the i being presumably pronounced as u ) with the “ ” a o f latinised form Rom nus , the name the court chaplain present at the Synod o f

Whitby , may probably be accidental . There is something very attractive in the

u em h a idea which this cross thus s ggests, p sised as Nennius h ow it is by the remark of , ever little weight we may be able to give to any British claim made by the writer o f that “ r to histo y . It would be a novel pleasure be able to think that the British Christians

Rh e ed n of g , retaining as they so lo g did their l n independent sovereignty , were wi li g to take the k now1edge of Christianity to their pagan r neighbou s , though the pagans had destroyed f the Briton s o the eastern principalities . This would not be inconsistent with the fact th at six years later the great growth of the power o f Edwin determined another British king to r of attempt the oblite ation the Angles . And it would be a satisfactory explanation of a f to di ﬁcult phenomenon , to be able believe that it was a British prince whose voice — however italianised spoke in their native language to the Britons rem aining in the a a hills , told them of the f ith their f thers an d and their mothers had held , brought 2 TH E B EWCA TLE R E 2 2 S O oss TC . ,

them down to the Glen and the Swale to a be b ptized into the old faith , while Anglian conquerors were being baptized into the faith

that to them was new . a m a What , ex ctly, Bede y have meant when he said that James the Deacon lived to his

sa . times , it is impossible to y He was a 6 2 m a deacon in the year 7, and he y have r been about the age of the centu y . If he

be - ﬁve lived to eighty , Bede would be taken as a boy from Wearm ou th to Jarrow about

T 1 the time of his death . here is no di culty , so far as the style of the monument 1s con

u cerned , in the date thus s ggested .

’ Close to Akebar not more than tw o or ’

d . r three hundre yards away, is St And ew s , now as r n a Church , used the chu ch of Fi g ll , ’

a ff . a a village some dist nce o . St Andrew s t ’

n ew . Gr w as . Rome , St egory s , the home of an d a a Wilfrith Augustine P ulinus , the bode of

m and as w e a a r when in Ro e ; , s id l st yea , il r th r A neither Augustine nor W f i fo got St . n drew in their English dedications . Hawks well Church is dedicated to St . Os wald . Thus the Cross of the Holy James stands d t a amid kin red memories , wor hy of his f ithful life and work .

APPE D X B N I .

1 Page 9 7 .

I have mentioned the ivory chair of Maxi m ianus as a work executed about two gene rations before the artist of the Bewcastle r Cross became a student of a t. There are a m a two shafts , e ch ore th n seven feet high and about a foot squ are at bottom an d ten at to a a inches p , in the Arch eologic l Museum

(at the Brera) in Milan , which it is impossible to disregard in connection with the question of the originals of our great Anglian cross shafts . They are from the long ruined church

A u rona called the Church of , opened up this century in the course of excavations in the t streets of Milan . On w o capitals found among the ruins there is an inscription in

L H ere rests the Lord A rchbisho Theodore atin , p who was n stl on m n d J lian m e u j u y c de e . u ad m e l thu s beau tifu l . These must have been the capi tals of the columns which supported the sarco ha u s o f T n p g Archbishop heodore of Mila , who

1 “ u l s m ci sic u lch ru m I am in clin ed J ianu e fe t p . “ ” to su sp ect a play u p on th e w ords sic p u lch ru m an d s m ep u lch ru . A E D I B 2 2 PP N X . 5

w as u it m rdered in 739 . Thus the church din self, named after his sister, was a buil g o f d and earlier ate than that, these two shafts m ay probably reveal to us the state of Chris tian art in Lombardy in the later part o f

th e a seventh century , bout the time of the on all Bewcastle Cross . These shafts have

e in four sid s ﬂow g scrolls , some double , form n w ing ovals , the others si gle , as at Be castle , with tendrils passing o ff alternately left and a t right . The ovals contain le f ornamen s,

dr - a the ten ils end in vine leaves, gr pes ,

& c. They have not birds and animals in them ; but in one case there is a single bird n at the top , and in the other case a si gle

quadruped . These creatures are very rudely

executed , as rudely as the quadruped on the Bakewell Cross ; but all the rest of the work

is beautiful . One of the sh afts has a socket

hole cut out at the top , and this may have a served to hold a cross , but more prob bly

they were shafts supporting columns , or (more

probable still) an architrave . Anyone who wishes to compare our A n glian work of this character with Roman r can wo k , not do better than examine closely the Roman portal to the Chapel o f St . Aqui

in f L z M . linus the church o S . oren o in ilan 2 2 6 APPE D I 0 N X .

l o f There is the tree of ife, the cornucopiae

character, with spiral tendrils , birds and ni lizards bbling the buds of the tendrils, and amorin i occupying the exterior spaces . In ' a second order there are stiff panels of foliage

scrolls .

APPEND IX C .

Pa e 1 g 99.

IN the ﬁ ve years o f my tenure of the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in Cam on bridge , I lectured the early sculptured stones of England , Scotland , Ireland , Cornwall ,

. I to Wales, and Man If ever have time ﬁve publish the courses of lectures , it will be seen what a very large amount of this early t our in erlacing ornament we have in islands, and h o w unique it is . The longer and further

' I ress p such investigations as I can make , the more I seem to see that we must look to a Greek origin for the outburst o f this

~ beautiful work in its highest perfection in

North u mbrian . England In Rome , in the of Wilfrith Bisco time and Benet p, there was

o f . L none it , speaking roughly In ombardy alone is it found in anything like the same

2 2 8 APPEND IX 0.

L connection of our early art with ombardy . br M There is now in S . Am ogio at ilan , in

the chapel of S . Satiro , a white marble altar which answers the description of Aldhelm ’ s a alt r . When we examine the fragments of inter L lacing work still surviving in ombardy, we see that they are by no means al ways examples of the interlacement of continuous n a r ﬂowi g b nds . They not inf equently, it u may be said us ally, have the defects which the corresponding work in Rome and other L parts of Italy shews . Thus even in ombardy I think that the artists of the pure style were few , and their inﬂuence was brief. As for the British Islands , I more and more incline to think that by a happy accident the artist

Bisco who came over with p , and launched us upon our career of early Christian art, was r one of the few masters of the pu e style , G a reek by training if not by race . The of L most perfect piece work left in ombardy, o f the pure style universal in the British

Islands , is the famous peacock screen which served as a side to the steps u p to an ambo r l n a a . in S . S lv to e at Brescia The inter aci g pattern which forms the border of the screen is the best pattern in Lombardy ; and it D D 2 APPEN IX . 29

s c o f occur s ores times in our islands , both in ’ its simple form as found in the peacock screen and in higher and more beautifu l developments . To attribute to the Angles the skill and imagination that would have been necessary

’ for developing so rapidly their beautiful patterns from such rudimentary work as we

ﬁnd in Merovingian France , and in Scan din av ian and other rude art o f the earlier period , is practically out of the question . As for the “ Irish ” share in this particular kind of ornament at a date clearly prior to

6 0 I a to . 7 , h ve failed trace it

AP PEND I X D .

Pa e 2 0 g 7.

The inscription on the sides of the cross at Jarrow is usually supposed to have been In h oc sin ulari redditu r I n g anno Vita mundo, this rem arkable year life is given back to the w r d o ld . In a paper read at Cambri ge on 1 O 20 1 88 I ctober , 4 , took that view , and my

r . f iend the Rev . W T . Southward , Fellow of ’

. a St C tharine s College , made the ingenious

e in h b i 1 88 - S e Proceed s t e Cam rid e A nt uarian S ociet . g of g q y, 4, 5 2 0 A E D I D 3 PP N X .

i suggestion of s gno for an no . It is a question whether there really is room for the letters i s . g The g is a large letter in this type , as is seen in the word singu lari and the remark able crowding o f the letters does not begin

till a later point of the inscription . ‘ There is a good deal th at is interesting to

n u n be said of the reading a no . It is not reasonable to suppose that there may have been a short inscription above the arms of

the cross , the stone next above these, which r t ca ried the upper par of the cross , being so no longer in existence far as we know . It is conceivable that there m ay have been some indication of the year in which the cross was sculptured , either by reference to or some known event, by actual date as on

- - the dedication stone . The dedication stone of the church states that the dedication was in the ﬁfteenth year of King Ecgfrith and the l A D fourth of Abbat Ceo frith ( . . Th e letters of the inscription are of exactly the

- same size as those on the dedication stone , and of the sixteen letters of the alphabet in the inscription fourteen are found on the dedica t - ion stone and all in the same form , though of A E O tw o three them , , , and , are found in

- forms on the dedication stone . Thus a con

2 2 A I 3 PPEND X D . well known that dedication crosses were u sual from very early times and William of ’ M u a n of almesb ry, spe ki g Aldhelm s dedication of Malmesbury Church a few years after this r to of Jar ow , says that it was usual mark the occasion of a dedication by some hon oriﬁcu m e i r p g amm a. This last fact tells rather in f o f avour the reading signo . It is an interesting fact (or probability) ﬁrst pointed out by Mr . J . R . Boyle , that the stone , Om n iu m two feet square , with the inscription H r k e ad . , ta n from the wall of Jarrow Church and n o w in the Black Gate at New a t to c s le , seems have been placed like an oven n shelf next above the stone under discussio , for it has on its edge the arms of a cross which must at least closely resemble those of the cross whose shaft is on the stone in the

is porch . The gauge almost exactly the same , o n th ugh not quite, and the cable mouldi g observable on the porch stone is carried across the edge of the Roman stone . The arms hewn in my illustration are from this Roman

T are one stone . hey of of the forms which we should expect to ﬁnd at that date in that district .

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