Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

The St. Gallen MS. (ninth century) has, however, “VII Id. Mai.” Messrs. Mayor and Lumby, adopting this reading, place his death as late as 742, in which year the eve of Ascension Day fell on May 9th. For their argument, v. Mayor and Lumby, pp. 401, 402.

The phrase is the present Bishop of Oxford's in “Studies in the Christian Character.”

Stevenson, “Church Historians,” vol. i.

From Easter to Whitsuntide.

Rogation Wednesday.

King of Northumbria, cf. V, 23. He succeeded Osric, 729 a.d. In a revolt he was forcibly tonsured, 731, but restored. He voluntarily became a monk in Lindisfarne in 737. The fact that Bede submitted the Ecclesiastical History to him for revision bears witness to his piety and learning.

Albinus, the first English abbot of the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul at Canterbury, succeeded Hadrian in 709 or 710. On his scholarship, cf. V, 20.

Theodore, the great archbishop, noted for his organization of the English Church and his services to education, consecrated in 668, at the age of sixty-five, by Pope Vitalian, on the recommendation of Hadrian, who had himself twice declined the office of archbishop. Theodore was a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia, a man of great learning and scholarly attainments. Cf. IV, 1.

Hadrian (v. previous note, cf. IV, 1), an African by birth, sent to England by Pope Vitalian along with Theodore, became Abbot of SS. Peter and Paul, Canterbury. He co-operated with Theodore in his educational work.

A presbyter of London, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, 735. Received the pallium (v. I, 27, p. 54, note) in 736.

Gregory I (the Great), who sent the Roman mission to England.

Gregory II, v. Plummer ad loc. for arguments showing conclusively that Gregory III cannot be meant.

Cf. IV, 16, and V, 18. In V, 23 he is more accurately described as “Ventanus antistes.” He was consecrated Bishop of Winchester when the West Saxon bishopric was divided in 705; and his diocese comprised only the smaller part of Wessex. He was the friend and counsellor of St. Boniface.

Bishop of the East Saxons, cf. III, 21 foll.

St. Chad, Bishop of the Northumbrians, afterwards of Lichfield; brother of Cedd: v. III, 23, 28; IV, 2, 3; V, 19.

Lastingham, near Pickering in Yorkshire N.R., v. III, 23.

Nothing further is known of him.

The district to the north of the Wash.

Bishop of Sidnacester, in the province of Lindsey. He died in 732: v. IV, 12; V, 23.

The saint and hermit who was for two years Bishop of Lindisfarne, 685-687: v. IV, 26-32. Bede wrote his life both in prose and verse.

Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland. Aidan chose it as the place of his see and monastery in 635: v. III, 3.

This total varies in different authors. The first few pages of Bede are to a great extent copied out of Pliny, Solinus, Orosius, and Gildas.

Richborough, Kent.

Boulogne.

Cf. Caes., B.G., passim; Verg., Aen., VIII, 727.

In his Hexameron.

Latin is included as being the ecclesiastical language common to all. Bede does not imply that there was a Latin-speaking race still in the island.

In Caesar's time, the whole district lying along the north-western coast of Gaul, afterwards narrowed down to the modern Brittany. That the Britons (or Brythons) came from Gaul is doubtless a fact. Another branch of the Celtic race, the Goidels or Gaels, appears to have been in possession in Britain before them.

By Scythia Bede means Scandinavia. He only mentions this account as a tradition. The problem of the Picts has not been solved yet. According to one view, they belonged to the pre-Aryan inhabitants of Britain, pushed westward and northward by the Celtic invaders. In Scotland they held their own for a considerable time in a wide tract of country, and they may have to some extent amalgamated with the Celts who dispossessed them (Rhŷs). Others regard them as Celts of the same branch as Welsh, Cornish, and Britons, being probably nearest to Cornish. The absence of all but the scantiest remains of their language makes the question of their origin one of great difficulty.

The legend is an attempt to account for the law of Pictish succession, which was vested in the mother, v. Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain,” pp. 170-171.

“Dal,” a division or part, is common in Irish names. Dalriada was a district in the north-eastern part of Ulster. From there, a tribe of Scots (a Celtic race who settled in Ireland at some unknown period) came to Kintyre and spread along the coasts of Argyll, which took from them the name of Dalriada (probably circ. 500 a.d.). They brought the Christian religion with them. Bede follows that version of the legend which makes Cairbre Riada, the eponymous hero of the Irish Dalriada (circ. 200 a.d.), himself found the colony in Scotland.

Dumbarton; v. infra c. 12, p. 24 and note.

Caesar's invasion took place a.u.c. 699 and 700; b.c. 55 and 54.

Cf. Caes., B.G., V, 11, 18 ff. A powerful British chief. His territory lay north and north-east of the Thames, roughly comprising Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire, but the exact limits are uncertain. His people were the Catuvellauni (the name is Gaulish in form).

Cf. Caes., B.G., V, 20. The Trinovantes occupied Essex and part of Middlesex.

Variations of this name given by ancient authors are Andragius and Androgorius. Caesar calls him Mandubracius.

The position of this place is unknown.

Claudius came to Britain a.u.c. 796, 43 a.d.

He can only have done so in name; it was probably Agricola who first conquered the Orkneys. Cf. Tac., Agric., 10.

Cf. Tac., Agric., 13.

Marcus Antoninus Verus, commonly called Marcus Aurelius, succeeded in 161 a.d. His colleague in the empire was his adopted brother, Lucius Verus, whose full adoptive name was Lucius Aurelius Antoninus Verus Commodus. He died in 169. Eleutherus became Pope between 171 and 177. Bede's chronology is therefore wrong.

Most modern authorities consider the story fabulous. But cf. Bright, “Early English Church History,” pp. 3-5.

Severus succeeded in 193 a.d. He died in 211.

This is the earthwork which runs parallel to the wall of Hadrian, between the Solway and the Tyne, at an interval of from 30 to 1,300 yards from it. Its origin and purpose are doubtful. Ancient authorities afford conflicting evidence with regard to the Roman walls in Britain. Modern research seems to show that Severus built no wall or rampart, though some ancient historians assert that he did (v. Haverfield, quoted by Plummer, ad loc.; cf. infra c. 12 and note).

Bassianus Antoninus, surnamed Caracalla. Geta was murdered by Caracalla.

Diocletian succeeded in 284.

Carausius was a native of Menapia, in Belgium, appointed to command the Roman fleet stationed at Boulogne to guard the coasts. He took the fleet with him when he usurped imperial authority in Britain. Maximian, failing to reduce him, recognized his authority and gave him the title of Augustus. He governed vigorously and prosperously.

Allectus was a follower of Carausius. His revolt was apparently supported by the independent tribes, probably Caledonians.

Asclepiodotus was serving under Constantius Chlorus (one of the reigning Caesars), who sailed to Britain and marched against Allectus.

The statement that the Diocletian persecution extended to Britain rests on no trustworthy evidence at all. Yet though the time assigned is probably wrong, there seems to be no reason to doubt the existence of the British Protomartyr. The story rests upon a local tradition traceable up to the visit of Germanus in 429 a.d., v. infra c. 18.

Venantius Fortunatus, a Christian poet, Bishop of Poitiers, b. 530 a.d. He was the last Latin poet of any note in Gaul.

In the lives of St. Alban (all later than Bede) this clerk is called St. Amphibalus, a name probably invented from his cloak (amphibalus).

The text of this passage is probably corrupt, but all the MSS. agree. I believe the above gives the intended meaning.

There is again probably some confusion in the text.

Now St. Albans in Hertfordshire, on the Watling Street, hence probably the name, Vaeclingacaestir.

The place was afterwards called Holmhurst. The church mentioned by Bede was superseded by the monastery of St. Alban, the foundation of which is attributed to Offa, circ. 793 a.d. Certain extraordinary privileges were granted to it, and its abbot obtained a superiority over all other English abbots (Dugdale, “Monasticon”).

The evidence for their martyrdom is very doubtful.

Caerleon-on-Usk, the headquarters of the Second legion, is here meant (v. Merivale, H.R., vi, 248), though the name was also applied to Chester, seat of the Twentieth legion (cf. II, 2, p. 87, “civitas legionum”).

Constantine the Great. For the legality of the marriage, v. Dict. of Christian Biography, article “Helena.”

The First General Council, 325 a.d. It asserted the doctrine of the ὁμοούσιον against Arius. For a short account of the heresy, v. Gore, Bampton Lectures, pp. 89-92. All the evidence goes to show that this heresy affected Britain much less than Bede, on the authority of Gildas, here implies.

Valens died 378.

Another of the insular usurpers (cf. c. 6). He had served under the elder Theodosius in Britain. He revolted from Rome, successfully repressed incursions of Picts and Scots, then crossed to Gaul, where he maintained himself for four years, but was killed by the Emperor, the younger Theodosius, at Aquileia, in 388.

The real date is 395.

Pelagius, the founder of the heresy known as Pelagianism, was probably born in 370 a.d., and is said to have been a Briton, but the tradition that his real name was Morgan (Marigena, Graecised Πελάγιος), and that he was a native of Bangor, rests on very doubtful authority. His great opponent, St. Augustine, speaks of him as a good and holy man; later slanders are to be attributed to Jerome's abusive language. The cardinal point in his doctrine is his denial of original sin, involving a too great reliance on the human will in achieving holiness, and a limitation of the action of the grace of God.

Julianus of Campania is regarded as the founder of semi-Pelagianism, i.e., an intermediate position between the orthodox view and the heresy of Pelagius. He was Bishop of Eclanum, near Beneventum, and was along with seventeen other Italian bishops deposed in 418 a.d. for refusing to sign the circular letter of Pope Zosimus condemning the heresy.

A native of Aquitaine, born probably about 403 a.d., a strong opponent of the Pelagians. It is uncertain whether he was in Holy Orders or not. He wrote in prose and verse; his longest poem is called “De Ingratis” (i.e., opponents of the grace of God). His best known work is a Chronicle, not to be confused with the shorter chronicle of Prosper Tiro.

Bede includes elegiacs under this term, cf. V, 8.

The date of Honorius is correct, but the invasion of Alaric is put a year too late, if Bede refers to the first siege of Rome, in 408.

The British army, alarmed by the inroads of barbarians, and actuated by a spirit of revolt against Roman authority, set up three local emperors in rapid succession: Marcus, Gratian, and Constantine. The first two they summarily deposed and killed, but Constantine by a great victory made himself master of Gaul and Britain and extorted from the Emperor Honorius a share in the Imperial authority. Meanwhile, the Britons expelled the few remaining Roman officials, and Honorius avenged himself on Constantine for the loss of Britain in the manner described in the text.

A Roman general, afterwards associated with Honorius in the empire for a few months.

Gerontius (Welsh Geraint, akin to Irish Gerat or Gerait, a champion), was a Briton, one of Constantine's generals. Turning against his master, he invited the Germans to invade Gaul and Britain, probably intending to secure Britain for himself. But his own men conspired against him and he died by his own hand.

Rome was taken 1163 a.u.c.; 410 a.d.

Possibly “light-houses.”

Probably Inchkeith in the Forth. The Irish called the Firth of Forth the “Sea of Giudan” (v. Reeves' “Culdees,” p. 124). But Professor Rhŷs is inclined to think that Bede has confused the island Giudi with Urbs Giudi, which may perhaps be identified with the Urbs Iudeu of Nennius, probably either Carriden or Edinburgh (Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain”).

Alcluith is the Welsh name (Ail = a rock). The Goidels called it Dúnbrettan = the fortress of the Britons. Hence its modern name, Dumbarton. The river is, of course, the Clyde.

This is the earthen rampart, about thirty-five miles in length, between the Clyde and the Forth, now attributed to Antoninus Pius. Little is known about it, and it is probable that it was soon abandoned.

Abercorn, a village on the south bank of the Firth of Forth.

The name is probably Celtic (Goidelic), though, if the view which regards the Picts as a non-Celtic people be correct, it may show traces of Pictish influence. It seems to be connected with the Latin term “penna valli” = wing of (i.e., pinnacle or turret at end of) the vallum. Readers of Scott's “Antiquary” will remember the celebrated dispute with regard to this word. The Anglian Penneltun is derived from the Goidelic name.

This probably refers to the wall now attributed to Hadrian (v.s. c. 5 note). It ran for a distance of about eighty-five miles from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend-on-Tyne. Bede's authorities are Orosius and Gildas. The accounts he gives here and in c. 5 are an attempt to explain the difficulties and conflicting evidence with regard to these walls.

In 431 a.d. There is much confusion with regard to the mission of Palladius. According to later accounts, he was an unsuccessful forerunner of St. Patrick, but Bede here, following Prosper of Aquitaine, represents the Irish (Scotti) as in part already Christian. The origin of Irish Christianity is very obscure, and some have even doubted the existence of St. Patrick. Bede only mentions him once, viz., in the “Martyrology,” which has been largely interpolated, and is, perhaps, not his genuine work. St. Patrick's latest biographer, Professor Bury, has, however, clearly established a certain amount of fact underlying much legendary matter. Some later authorities represent Palladius as preaching to the Scots (in the modern sense) and Patrick to the Irish.

The great Roman general who preserved the Western Empire against the invasions of the barbarians for many years. He was assassinated by Valentinian in 454 a.d.

Really two years before, 444 a.d.

Though he is the subject of many legends, Vortigern is doubtless a historical figure, a ruler of south-eastern Britain. Bede's form of the name, Uurtigernus, is right. It is a British word, meaning “supreme lord” (Rhŷs).

The date of Marcian's succession is 450.

Bede only professes to give the date of the invasion approximately: cf. V, 24 (“quorum tempore”), I, 23; II, 14; V, 23 (“circiter”), calculating in round numbers apparently. He refers here to their first settlement, which, of course, does not preclude earlier attacks.

I.e., Vortigern.

Anglia was believed to be derived from Angulus. The country is the modern Schleswig, which the Angles appear to have almost entirely evacuated. For the Continental Saxons, cf. V, 9. It has been supposed that the Jutes came from Jutland, where, at a later period, they mingled with the Danes (ibid.), but this is now regarded as doubtful.

At Aylesford, in Kent. Horsted is the traditional burial-place of Horsa.

I.e., in Thanet.

The most probable view is that he was the last of those Romans who usurped imperial authority in Britain (v.s. cc. 6, 9).

The identification of this place with Badbury, in Dorsetshire (Guest, followed by Freeman and Green) seems to be disproved (W. H. Stevenson, in the “English Historical Review,” xvii, pp. 633, 634). The locality is quite uncertain; Skene actually places it near Linlithgow. According to Bede's reckoning the date of the battle would be 493 approximately. The “Annales Cambriae” give 516. For a full discussion of the question, v. Plummer, ad loc. Cf. also Mr. Stevenson's article.

Nothing more is known of them. Pelagius left Britain in early life and did not himself spread his heresy there.

The life of Germanus was written by Constantius, a priest of Lyons, who is Bede's authority for cc. 17-21. According to him, these bishops were sent to Britain by a Gallican Synod. Prosper of Aquitaine attributes the origin of the mission to Pope Celestine, “acting on the advice of the deacon Palladius” (probably the missionary to the Irish mentioned c. 13). The two statements are not irreconcilable (cf. Bright, p. 18). There are churches dedicated to SS. Germanus and Lupus in Wales and Cornwall. Both had been trained in the school of Lérins, a monastery in the group of islands off the coast at Cannes.

This conference is said to have been held at Verulam.

Bede's authority, Constantius, shows here the first trace of any acquaintance of early historians with the story of St. Alban. The last sentence is somewhat obscure. Probably the idea is that the blood of the martyrs continues to cry aloud for vengeance.

Reading “reserato.” The reading “reservato” is perhaps easier and has some MS. authority.

Reading “castitatis,” from which it is difficult to extract any meaning. The above strains the Latin unduly. Constantius has “castrorum,” which gives a better sense.

Maes-y-Garmon (“The Field of Germanus”), near Mold, in Flintshire, has been fixed upon as the scene of the Hallelujah Victory, and the river in which the army was baptized is said to be the Alyn (Ussher, “Antiqq.”). The story is generally regarded as legendary.

Thirteenth bishop of Trèves. This account sums up nearly all that is known of him.

This second voyage of St. Germanus is supposed to have taken place about eighteen years after the first, i.e., in 447.

The Armoricans had revolted, and Aetius (v.s. c. 13 and note) had enlisted the services of the Alani against them. Germanus, who had at one time been duke of the Armoricans, went to the Imperial Court at Ravenna to intercede for them.

Really the fifth (16th March, 455 a.d.). Romulus Augustulus is usually regarded as the last emperor of the west. He was overthrown in 476 a.d.

The British historian, author of the “De Excidio Liber Querulus,” so called from the historian's denunciations of the sins of the Britons. He himself tells us that he was born in the year of the battle of Badon Hill (Mons Badonicus), and that he wrote his History forty-four years after that date. According to Bede (cf. c. 15, ad init., and c. 16, ad fin.) this would place his birth approximately in the year 493, but see note on c. 16.

Gregory the Great. Cf. Preface. Bede places the date of his accession a year too late as well as that of his death (v., II, 1, ad init., but in the same chapter he rightly places his death in the second year of Phocas, i.e., 604).

Augustine was prior of St. Gregory's Monastery dedicated to St. Andrew in Rome.

Cf. IV, 5, p. 227, note.

This is a mistake. Aetherius was archbishop of Lyons. Vergilius was archbishop of Arles. The letter given here, however, is the letter sent to Aetherius. Similar letters were despatched to other bishops at this time; among them one to Vergilius of Arles.

A presbyter sent into Gaul by Gregory in 595 a.d. to administer the little patrimony of St. Peter in Gaul, to collect its revenues and to invest them in raiment for the poor, or in English slave lads to serve in the monasteries and receive a Christian education.

Ethelbert was the third Bretwalda or dominant king. He had established a practical hegemony over the East Anglians, the Mercians of the Trent Valley, the South Saxons, East Saxons, and even the West Saxons (cf. II, 5, p. 94).

Families, i.e., hides. The hide, probably, was as much land as would support a family, hence the extent must have varied with the different conditions in different parts of the country.

In Bede's time Thanet was divided from the rest of Kent by a broad channel called the Wantsum, now partly represented by the River Stour.

The conjecture that they landed at Ebbsfleet, which is also traditionally regarded as the landing-place of Hengist, has been generally adopted. Other possible landing-places are Stonar and Richborough. For a full discussion of the question, v. “The Mission of St. Augustine,” ed. Rev. A. T. Mason, D.D.

It has been supposed, on the strength of this passage, that the speech of the Franks and the English was still mutually intelligible. This is supported by a statement of Gregory (letter to Theoderic and Theodebert) that he had desired Augustine to take some Frankish priests with him. It is assumed that these priests were the interpreters. On the other hand, in view of the fact that only fifty years later we find the language of the Franks regarded in England as a “barbara loquella” (III, 7), it has been inferred that the interpreters were men who had acquired a knowledge of the dialect of Kent through commerce or otherwise.

Daughter of Charibert, king of Paris.

Said (on doubtful authority) to have been bishop of Senlis. He acted as the queen's private chaplain. There is nothing to show that either he or Bertha attempted to spread their religion in England, though probably their influence may not have been without effect on Ethelbert.

The old Roman town of Doruvernis, which is the name Bede gives to it throughout the History.

St. Martin was regarded with special reverence in Britain and Ireland. Possibly some of the earliest missionaries may have been his disciples, e.g., St. Ninian and St. Patrick. The Roman church of St. Martin at Canterbury has been frequently altered and partly rebuilt, so that “small portions only of the Roman walls remain. Roman bricks are used as old materials in the parts rebuilt” (Parker).

Augustine was not consecrated as archbishop either of London or Canterbury, but by the general title of “Archbishop of the English.” According to Gregory's original scheme, London, not Canterbury, was to have been the seat of the primacy of southern England (cf. c. 29), London and York being doubtless the most important cities of south and north known to him from their history during the Roman occupation. But Christianity was not permanently established in London till it was too late to remove the see from Canterbury, which would obviously commend itself to Augustine as the most suitable place to be the metropolitan city.

For Aetherius read Vergilius (v. c. 24, note). “The occupant of the see of Arles was in some sense primate of France at this time, and, as such, Vergilius received the pallium and the papal vice-gerentship in the kingdom of Childebert” (Dict. Christ. Biog.).

He succeeded Augustine as archbishop. For his history, v. II, 6, 7.

Cf. infra c. 33.

I.e., those in minor orders; all below the subdiaconate.

St. Luke, xi, 41. Quod superest (Vulgate) = πλήν (R.V.,“Howbeit”; A.V., “But rather”), adverbial. Gregory takes it to mean “what is over.”

Augustine must have observed these differences of ritual as he travelled through Gaul. Presumably also he found the Gallic use adopted at St. Martin's, Canterbury, by Liudhard. Dr. Bright summarizes these differences, “Early English Church History,” p. 64.

Reading “fratris et sororis” (for “frater et soror”), as the sense requires, but there is no MS. authority for the change.

The text of this passage is corrupt, but no very satisfactory emendations have been suggested.

The Pallium is a long strip of fine cloth ornamented with crosses. It is made from wool of lambs reared in the convent of St. Agnes at Rome, and is laid for a night on the tomb of St. Peter. It is worn passing over the shoulders, with the ends hanging down in front and behind, somewhat in the form of the letter Y. (The form has varied at different times.) In the east it is called “omophorion:” the bishops wear it during the celebration of the Eucharist. It originally formed part of the imperial habit and was granted by the emperor as a special mark of honour. Afterwards the pope claimed the exclusive right of bestowing it, and its possession became restricted to metropolitans, and was considered necessary for the exercise of their functions.

Deut., xxiii, 25.

The reference may be to the third General Council held at Ephesus in 431 a.d., at which the rule was laid down “that no bishop may act in any province which has not always been subject to him.”

This is Bede's attempt to reconcile the discrepancy created by his mistake in cc. 24 and 27.

Mellitus was consecrated Bishop of London in 604, and succeeded Laurentius in the see of Canterbury in 619. Justus was consecrated Bishop of Rochester in 604, and succeeded Mellitus as Primate in 624 (v. II, 3, foll.). Paulinus was the great missionary bishop of the Northumbrians (v. II, 9, foll.). Rufinianus was the third abbot of St. Augustine's monastery (SS. Peter and Paul).

Cf. c. 27 ad init., note. Gregory's symmetrical scheme was never carried out, and it was not till 735 that York became a metropolitan see.

The date is obviously wrong, as it makes this letter earlier than that in c. 29. The name of the month is omitted in two of the oldest MSS. A satisfactory emendation (v. Plummer, ad loc.) is Augustarum (for Juliarum), the last month in Maurice's reign (XV Kal. Aug., i.e. 18th July).

St. Luke, x, 17-20.

The Cathedral: Christchurch, Canterbury; but the original structure was destroyed by fire about 1067. It was rebuilt by Lanfranc, and enlarged under his successor, St. Anselm. Prior Conrad finished and decorated the chancel, and the Church was dedicated in 1130. The choir was again burnt down in 1174, but at once rebuilt. It was completed in 1184. A new nave and transept were built between 1378 and 1410, and the great central tower was carried up to its present height by the end of the fifteenth century.

Afterwards called St. Augustine's Abbey.

Cf. c. 27 ad init.

Ambleteuse, a small sea-port, about six miles to the north of Boulogne.

II, 2, 12; III, 1. He was the grandson of Ida, first king of Bernicia (V, 24, and note). His father, Ethelric, seized Deira on the death of Aelli (II, 1, p. 83), and Ethelfrid ruled over both the Northumbrian kingdoms from 593 to 617.

Gen., xlix, 27.

I.e., the Dalriadic Scots, v.s. c. 1, and note. For Aedan and his wars, v. Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain,” pp. 157-159.

Perhaps Dalston, near Carlisle; more probably, on philological grounds, Dawstane Rig in Liddesdale; v. Skene, “Celtic Scotland,” I, p. 162.

For a detailed study of St. Gregory, v. “Gregory the Great, his place in History and Thought,” by F. Homes Dudden, B.D. (1905). The oldest biographies are: (1) a Life of Gregory, written by a monk of Whitby, probably about 713 a.d., recently discovered in a MS. belonging to the Monastery of St. Gallen; (2) the Life by Paul the Deacon, written towards the end of the eighth century; (3) the Life by John the Deacon, written about the end of the ninth century.

Cf. I, 23. Gregory's pontificate extended from 590 to 604.

1 Cor., ix, 2.

We cannot be certain which Felix is meant. The choice seems to lie between Felix III, Bishop of Rome, 483-492, and Felix IV, 526-530. Mr. Homes Dudden decides in favour of the latter, on the authority of John the Deacon. In either case, the word atavus cannot be used in its strict sense.

Apocrisiarius, official representative of the see of Rome at the Imperial Court of Constantinople (Latin: responsalis). Ducange explains the word as: “nomen inditum legatis, quod ἀποκρίσεις seu responsa principum deferrent.”

His “Moralia,” a commentary on the Book of Job, expounding it historically, allegorically, and in its practical bearing on morals. His other undoubtedly genuine works are those mentioned in the text: Twenty-two homilies on Ezekiel; forty homilies on the Gospels for the day, preached by himself at various times; the “Liber Regulae Pastoralis,” on the duties and responsibilities of the pastoral office, a very widely studied book; four books of Dialogues, “De vita et miraculis patrum Italicorum et de aeternitate animae,” also one of his most famous works; and fourteen books of letters to various persons on many subjects. There are also some doubtful works. Of these, the “Liber Sacramentorum” (v. infra), the “Liber Antiphonarius” (a collection of Antiphons for Mass), and the Hymns have been generally regarded as genuine, but recent research seems to show that they cannot be attributed to Gregory. That he introduced the “Cantus Gregorianus” can also probably be no longer maintained; v. infra c. 20, ad fin. note.

Patriarch of Constantinople, celebrated as a saint by the Greeks. He was born at Theium in Phrygia, circ. 512 a.d. Towards the end of his life he maintained the above theory in a book on the Resurrection. He was opposed by Gregory, and the book was burnt by order of the Emperor Tiberius, who, however, visited him when he fell ill soon after, and received his blessing. He died on Easter Day, 582, and the “heresy” was suffered to rest. (He is, of course, not to be confused with Eutyches, author of the heresy known as “Eutychianism,” v. IV, 17.)

St. Luke, xxiv, 39.

Tiberius II, emperor of the East, 578-582 a.d.

I, 27.

A Synodical epistle, such as newly-elected bishops were in the habit of sending to other bishops. The subject-matter is the same as that of the “Pastoral Care.”

Heb., xii, 6.

Job, xxix, 11-17.

The quotation is from the Vulgate (Job, xxxi, 16-18). The sentence is finished in v. 22: “Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade....”

John the Deacon attributes to Gregory the “Liber Sacramentorum,” or Gregorian Sacramentary, a revision of the Gelasian Sacramentary. It seems probable, however, that it is of much later date. Only a few alterations in the Liturgy and in the ceremonial of the Mass are proved to have been effected by Gregory. In the Canon of the Mass he introduced two changes, viz.: (1) he inserted the words here quoted; (2) he altered the position of the Lord's Prayer (v. Homes Dudden, pp. 264-271).

I.e., 604 a.d., cf. I, 23; II, 1, ad init., note.

Deira was the southern part of the province of Northumbria, the northern part being Bernicia. Deira was bounded on the south by the Humber; on the north, according to some authorities, by the Tyne, according to others, by the Tees. The discrepancy doubtless arose from the fact that the part between the two latter rivers was a desert subject to no authority. To the west lay the British kingdoms.

The son of Yffi, the first king of Deira. The ancient pedigrees trace the descent of the royal houses of Deira and Bernicia from two sons of Woden.

This pope was either Benedict I (574-578) or Pelagius II (578-590), the immediate predecessor of Gregory. The oldest extant life of Gregory (v.s. p. 75, note) makes him Benedict, and is followed by John the Deacon. If this is right, the incident related in the text must be placed before Gregory's departure to Constantinople in 579. Paul the Deacon places it after his return in 585 or 586, and asserts that the pope was Pelagius II.

The date of the synod is uncertain. It was probably about 602 or 603 a.d., after the arrival of Gregory's “Responsa.” The “nearest province” must mean what we call South Wales, though it is possible that the Britons of Cornwall were also represented. The scene of the conference has been generally supposed to be Aust, on the Severn, opposite Chepstow, and the name may possibly preserve the memory of Augustine, though more probably it is derived from “Trajectus Augusti” (Haddan and Stubbs). Other possible sites are Malmesbury (Green, “Making of England”), and a spot called “the Oak,” near Cricklade, on the Upper Thames, which would be on the borders of the Hwiccas and West Saxons (v. Plummer, ad loc.).

The Hwiccas were in the present Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, north-west of Wessex.

Cf. especially III, 25, and V, 21. (Other references are: II, 4, 19; III, 3, 4, 26, 29; V, 15, 22.)

A full discussion of this involved question is beyond our scope. Readers are referred to Plummer (Excursus on Paschal Controversy), Bright, or Hunt. Here, the point at issue may be briefly stated. It was regarded as essential by the Roman Church that Easter Day should be kept on a Sunday, in the third week of the first month, i.e., the month in which the full moon occurred on or after the vernal equinox. The Celts observed the Feast on Sunday, and were, therefore, not rightly called “Quartodecimans” (the name given to those who observed it on the 14th of the month Nisan, the day of the Jewish Passover, without regard to the day of the week). They differed from the Romans in fixing the vernal equinox at March 25th, instead of March 21st, and in their reckoning of the third week, holding it to be from the 14th to the 20th of the moon inclusive. The Roman Church originally reckoned it from the 16th to the 22nd, but ultimately fixed it from the 15th to the 21st (cf. V, 21, p. 365).

There was a further divergence in the “cycles” adopted to ascertain the day in each year on which the Paschal moon would fall. The Celts retained an old cycle of eighty-four years, while the Romans had finally adopted one of nineteen. It is obvious that these differences must necessarily lead to great divergence in practice and consequently serious inconvenience. The real importance of this and the other points of difference, settled afterwards at the Synod of Whitby, lay in the question whether England was to conform to the practice of the Catholic Church, or to isolate herself from it by local peculiarities (cf. the reply of the British to Augustine: “They would do none of those things nor receive him as their archbishop”).

E.g., Consecration of bishops by a single bishop, certain differences of ritual (Gregory's “Responsa” admit of some latitude in these matters), and the tonsure, which was a more controversial point (cf. III, 26, and V, 21). The Romans shaved only the top of the head, letting the hair grow in the form of a crown. The Celts shaved the whole front of the head from ear to ear, leaving the hair at the back. A third method was the Oriental, which consisted in shaving the whole head (cf. IV, 1).

The place of the second conference is not mentioned. It is generally assumed that it was the same as that of the first. All attempts to determine the names and sees of these bishops rest upon the most uncertain evidence.

Probably Bangor-is-Coed, in Flintshire, from which it appears that North Wales was represented at the second conference. The size and importance of the monastery are inferred by William of Malmesbury, writing in the twelfth century, from the extent of the ruins, which were all that was left of it in his time.

Dunawd, or Dunod; Latin: Donatus (Rhŷs).

It is not known in what way the practice of the British Church differed from that of the Romans in the rite of Baptism. It may have been by the neglect of Confirmation as the completion of Baptism (cf. “compleatis” in the text). Other suggestions are: single immersion (but this was permitted in Spain); the omission of chrism, an omission which was affirmed of the Irish at a later period; some defect in the invocation of the Trinity. This conjecture rests on a canon respecting Baptism established in the English Church from the time of Augustine (quoted by Haddan and Stubbs from a letter of Pope Zacharias to Boniface), which enforces the full invocation.

I, 34.

Chester, the seat of the Twentieth legion. “Legionum civitas, quae nunc simpliciter Cestra vocatur.” (William of Malmesbury.) Cf. note on I, 7, p. 18. The date of the battle cannot be accurately fixed. The “Annales Cambriae” give 613, but it may have been a few years later. Bede only tells us that it was a considerable time after Augustine's death, which was probably in 604 or 605.

Cf. supra p. 86, note 2.

Nothing certain is known of this Welsh prince.

I, 29, and note.

The site is covered by the present cathedral.

Rochester. The new see was closely dependent on Canterbury, and till 1148 the archbishop had the appointment to this bishopric.

Probably in memory of his monastery on the Coelian (cf. I, 23). According to Rochester tradition, Ethelbert gave to the church some land called Priestfield to the south of the city, and other lands to the north. There exists a charter of Ethelbert to the city of Rochester, believed to be genuine.

The year is not given, and is not certainly known. It is generally assumed to have been 604 or 605.

This was in 613, by Laurentius. St. Augustine's body was translated on September 13th. It was moved again in the twelfth century and placed under the high altar.

“Porticus”; variously translated: “porch,” “aisle,” “transept,” and “chapel.” Ducange explains it as “aedis sacrae propylaeum in porticus formam exstructum,” and says it was also used improperly for the sanctuary. Plummer (ad loc.) says it means side chapel, as often. The mention of the altar just below seems to support this meaning (if, indeed, haec refers to the “porticus,” and not to the church itself, as is assumed in the A.S. version).

For Theodore v. Preface, p. 2, note 2; IV, 1; V, 8, et saep.; and for Bertwald, V, 8. Cuthbert (740-758) was the first archbishop buried in Christ Church, Canterbury, instead of at St. Augustine's.

Cf. I, 27, ad init.

Bede thus distinguishes them from the colony in Scotland. Cf. I, 1, and note.

Ireland. Iona may be included, as may be inferred from a comparison of III, 21 (“reversus est ad insulam Hii”) with III, 24 (“ad Scottiam rediit”). But Bede does not use “Scottia” for Scotland.

Bishop of Inver Daeile (Ennereilly) in Wicklow.

The most famous of the great Irish missionaries who laboured on the Continent. He was born in Leinster about 540, went to Gaul about 574, founded three monasteries (Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines), worked for twenty years among the Franks and Burgundians, afterwards among the Suevi and Alemanni, and finally in Italy, where he founded a monastery at Bobbio and died there in 615. He was a vigorous supporter of the Celtic usages and an active opponent of Arianism. He instituted a monastic rule of great severity.

Nothing more is known of this council. The pope was Boniface IV, 608-615.

610 a.d.

To commemorate the dedication the pope introduced into the Western Church the Festival of All Saints, celebrated at first probably on 13th May. The Eastern Church had from early times observed a Festival of All Martyrs, which became later the Festival of All Saints, kept by them on the Sunday after Whitsunday.

As Bretwalda, or paramount sovereign (v. Stubbs, “Constitutional History,” I, pp. 162-163). Aelli and Ceaulin are not elsewhere mentioned in this work. For Redwald, v. infra c. 12; for Edwin, c. 9, foll.; for Oswald, III, 1, foll.; and for Oswy, III, 14, foll.

Anglesea and Man.

This is inaccurate and inconsistent with Bede's own statement in V. 24. Augustine did not arrive in Britain till 597. The dates given above, at the beginning of this chapter, are, however, probably correct, if he means that Ethelbert died twenty-one years after the dispatch of the mission from Rome.

The Witenagemot, the supreme assembly. This is the first recorded instance of its legislative action. The “decisions” are the so-called “dooms.”

“—ing” is a Saxon patronymic.

It was Ethelbert's second wife. Bertha had died before him.

Or Gewissae. The West Saxons, an antiquated term for them. Cf. III, 7: “Occidentalium Saxonum, qui antiquitus Gewissae vocabantur” (cf. “visi” = west, in “Visigoth”).

At Canterbury, to the east of the church of SS. Peter and Paul, to which it was afterwards joined.

619 a.d.

Boniface V.

Their names are said to have been: Severus, Severianus, Victorinus, and Carpophorus (v. addition to Bede's Martyrology at 8th November). They suffered martyrdom at Rome in the Diocletian persecution. A church was erected in their honour on the Coelian, and on its site stands the present church of the Santi Quattro Coronati.

St. Matt., xxviii, 20.

I.e., the reward is bestowed on that gift of faithful and successful service which he might hand on in its results to posterity. But the text is probably corrupt, and it is difficult to extract sense from it.

St. Matt., x, 22.

He means Eadbald.

Ps. xix, 4.

Cf. c. 5, p. 94.

I, 29.

Except Kent. Cf. supra, c. 5.

Ibid.

A term of endearment.

2 Cor., xi, 2.

2 Cor., iv, 4.

Apparently joint king with his father, Cynegils (III, 7). The hegemony which the West-Saxon Ceaulin had possessed (v.s. c. 5) had passed to Northumbria.

I.e., Easter Eve, April 19th, 626.

Supposed to be at Aldby, near Stamford Bridge, but other conjectures have been advanced.

Twelve in some MSS. and in V, 24. The baptism was on the Eve of Whitsunday (cf. V. 24, “in Sabbato Pentecostes”). The Eves of Easter and Whitsunday were usual days for baptisms; the Roman Church tried to limit them to these seasons, but Christmas and Epiphany were also favourite times.

Boniface V, unless, as Dr. Bright suggests, the name is a scribe's error for Honorius, his successor. Boniface V died in October, 625. Paulinus had only been consecrated in the preceding July, so it is impossible that Boniface could have heard of Edwin's delay in receiving the faith; v. following letter (c. 11). But there is a reference in the same letter to Eadbald's conversion, the news of which must have come in the time of Boniface rather than of Honorius. The difficulty is not cleared up.

Reading “profert” for the impossible “proferetur.” The style of this letter is very involved and there seems to be a good deal of corruption in the text.

Adopting the conjecture “propinemus.”

The MSS. reading (“totius creaturae suae dilatandi subdi”) yields no sense here, but no satisfactory conjecture has been made.

From the Vulgate, Ps. xcv, 5 (Ps. xcvi, 5 in our Psalter).

Ps. cxiii, 5-8 (cxv in our Psalter).

Gen., ii, 24; St. Matt., xix, 5; St. Mark, x, 7; Eph., v, 31.

1 Cor., vii, 14, cf. 16.

Reading “conversione.”

I.e., of East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire). Cf. c. 5, ad init.

I, 34, and note.

Cf. Verg. Aen., IV, 2, “caeco carpitur igni.”

A tributary of the Trent. The battle is supposed to have been fought near Retford, in Nottinghamshire, before April 12th, 617. Cf. Bede's statement that Edwin was baptized on April 12th, 627, in the eleventh year of his reign (c. 14).

The Witenagemot.

Goodmanham, near Market Weighton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Cf. Verg. Aen., II. 502.

I.e., Easter Eve. Cf. c. 9, p. 104, note 3.

On the site now covered by York Cathedral. The little wooden oratory was carefully preserved and adorned with gifts. The church has been repeatedly rebuilt, and of the Saxon building nothing remains but the central wall of the crypt.

Cf. infra c. 20.

The newly-baptized wore white garments till the octave of the day of their baptism, and appeared in church daily with lighted tapers and accompanied by their sponsors.

For Wuscfrea and Yffi, v. infra c. 20, p. 132.

Yeavering in Glendale, near Wooler in Northumberland. The name, Adgefrin, is one of those (common in Anglo-Saxon) in which the preposition is prefixed. “Æt” (Latin ad) and “in” are so used. The idiom is preserved in the Latin. Cf. Ad Murum, Ad Caprae Caput (III, 21), Infeppingum (ibid.), et saep.

The stream, in its upper reaches called the Bowmont Water, is still called the Glen at Yeavering. It is a tributary of the Till. Pallinsburn, in the neighbourhood of Coldstream, preserves by its name the memory of similar baptisms by Paulinus.

Perhaps Millfield, near Wooler; but Mindrum and Kirknewton in the same district have also been suggested.

Catterick Bridge (the Roman station Cataractonium, on the Watling Street), near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

Perhaps Doncaster. Other suggestions are Slack, near Huddersfield, and Tanfield, near Ripon. The Anglo-Saxon version has Donafeld.

Leeds. The royal township (villa) is said to have been at Oswinthorp.

Elmet Wood, near Leeds.

Cf. IV, 17, 23. His father was Ethelhere, King of East Anglia (III, 24).

For the patronymic, cf. supra c. 5, p. 95, and note.

Cf. III, 18. He was Earpwald's half-brother, and had been driven into exile by his step-father, Redwald. Besides becoming a Christian, he had acquired a taste for secular learning in the ecclesiastical schools of Gaul.

Cf. III, 18, 20. “An important feature of this mission, as it was of the Kentish, was the combination of education with religion, by means of a school such as Sigbert had seen abroad, and as by this time existed at Canterbury in connection with the house of SS. Peter and Paul” (Bright, p. 143). The name of Felix is preserved in Felixstowe, on the coast of Suffolk, and in Feliskirk, a Yorkshire village.

Infra cc. 16, 18, et saep. He was a disciple of Pope Gregory, “vir in rebus ecclesiasticis sublimiter institutus” (V, 19).

Dunwich, on the coast of Suffolk, once an important town, afterwards partially submerged. The diocese was divided into two by Theodore, and both sees became extinct during the Danish invasions. After various vicissitudes, the seat of the East Anglian bishopric was established at Norwich. Cf. IV, 5, p. 231, note 1.

Lindsey, the largest of the three divisions of Lincolnshire, was at times Mercian, at times Northumbrian. At this time it appears to have been dependent on Northumbria; cf. IV, 12, note.

Cf. infra c. 18, ad init. The church which stands on the probable site of this church is called St. Paul's. The name has been supposed to be a corruption of “Paulinus.”

Partney, in Lincolnshire; afterwards it became a cell of Bardney Abbey.

The place cannot be identified with certainty. Torksey, Southwell, Newark, Fiskerton, and Littleborough have all been suggested.

Cf. infra c. 20, ad fin.

A form of standard adopted from the Romans. It was made of feathers attached to a spear.

Cf. the instructions of Gregory: I, 29.

Bede does not mention the year of his death. The Saxon Chronicle places it in 627, and this is supported by William of Malmesbury. Smith places it in 630.

St. Matt., xi, 28.

St. Matt., xxv, 21.

I.e., the kings of Northumbria and Kent. For similar combined action on the part of a Northumbrian and a Kentish king, cf. III, 29.

I.e., Heracleonas, son of Heraclius and half-brother of Constantine III; associated with them in the Empire.

I.e., Irish. For their error with regard to Easter, v.s. c. 4.

John IV, consecrated December 25th, 640. Severinus was Pope for a few months only. Apparently (cf. infra) the Irish ecclesiastics had consulted him about the Easter question.

Cf. supra c. 2, p. 84, note. On the Paschal question the Council of Nicaea passed no canon, but the understanding was established that “all the brethren in the East, who formerly celebrated Easter with the Jews, will henceforth keep it agreeably with the Romans and ourselves and all who from ancient time have kept Easter as we”; i.e., that they should all keep Easter on the first day of the week, but never on the 14th of the month Nisan, even when it fell on a Sunday. The object of the rule was to avoid the day of the Jewish Passover.

Cf. I, 10, note.

These bishops have been identified as follows: Tomianus is Tomene, Abbot and Bishop of Armagh; Columbanus is Colman, Abbot of Clonard (also a bishop); Cromanus is Cronan, Bishop of Nendrum, or Inishmahee; Dinnaus is probably Dima, Bishop of Connor; Baithanus has not been identified with any certainty. With regard to the priests the proposed identifications are more conjectural. Saranus is a certain Saran Ua Critain. Two vice-gerents of the Papal see are associated with the Pope elect in writing this letter. The arch-presbyter and the “primicerius notariorum,” with the archdeacon, acted as vice-gerents during a vacancy, or in the absence of the Pope (cf. Plummer ad loc.).

This is not fairly stated. The Irish were not “Quartodecimans,” i.e., did not insist on the celebration of Easter being on the fourteenth of the moon. They only included that day as a possible one for Easter (cf. supra c. 2, p. 84, note 3).

Ps. li, 5, in our Psalter. The quotation is partly from the Vulgate, partly from the “Roman” Psalter, i.e., Jerome's revision of the old Italic version.

Or Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd, in North Wales. His father Cadvan, had sheltered Edwin during his exile. Afterwards, when Cadwallon invaded Northumbria, Edwin defeated him and drove him from his kingdom. Having regained it, Cadwallon now allied himself with Penda, king of the Mercians (626- or 627-655) in a successful attempt to shake off the Northumbrian supremacy.

Generally identified with Hatfield Chase, north-east of Doncaster.

C. 14, p. 119.

Ibid.

His body was ultimately buried at Whitby; cf. III, 24, p. 190, and note.

For Eanfled, v.s. c. 9. For Yffi and Wuscfrea, c. 14.

Cf. c. 5.

He was a kinsman. Ethelberg's mother, Bertha, was a daughter of Charibert, King of Paris (cf. I, 25, note). His brother, Chilperic, was Dagobert's grandfather.

Cf. c. 8.

C. 16, and III, 25.

Cf. c. 14. The village cannot be identified. Akeburgh has been suggested, the name being regarded as a corruption of “Jacobsburgh.”

The “Cantus Romanus,” brought to England by the Roman mission; i.e., the style of Church music according to the use of Rome. The theory that Gregory the Great was the founder of Gregorian music, which superseded the old “Cantus Ambrosianus” everywhere in the West except at Milan, must in all probability be abandoned. It seems to be established that no change of any importance was made till nearly a hundred years after Gregory's time, and “the terms ‘Gregorianus,’ ‘Ambrosianus Cantus,’ probably mean nothing more than the style of singing according to the respective uses of Rome and Milan.” (F. Homes Dudden, “Gregory the Great,” I, p. 274.)

Cf. II, 1, p. 82, note.

I, 34; II, 2, 12.

I.e., Osric and Eanfrid.

Cf. II, 20, ad init.

“In oppido municipio.” Commentators are agreed that Bede means York. It was a Roman “Colonia,” and is called a “municipium” by Aurelius Victor, though whether Bede attaches any definitely Roman meaning to the term seems doubtful. Ducange explains “municipium” as “castrum,” “castellum muris cinctum.”

From the death of Edwin (October 12th, 633), for Oswald's reign is reckoned as lasting nine years, including the “hateful year,” and he was killed August 5th, 642. Cf. infra c. 9.

I.e., probably before the end of 634.

Not identified with any certainty, but probably the Rowley Water or a tributary of it. It cannot be, as has been suggested, the Devil's Water, which is clearly distinguished from it in a charter of the thirteenth century. Caedwalla must have fled southwards for eight or nine miles after the battle (cf. next note).

For another instance of a name with an inner meaning, cf. II, 15. The site of the battle is probably seven or eight miles north of Hexham (v. next note), Oswald having taken up his position on the northern side of the Roman wall between the Tyne and the Solway (i.e., the wall attributed to Hadrian, cf. I, 12, p. 25, note). According to tradition the battle was finally won at a place called Halydene (Hallington?), two miles to the east.

Hexham. Wilfrid built a magnificent church there between the years 672-678 on land given by Ethelthryth, wife of Egfrid, king of Northumbria. It became the see of a bishop in 678 when the great northern diocese was subdivided by Theodore (v. IV, 12). Bede's own monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow was in the diocese of Hexham. The bishopric became extinct in 821.

The place is still called St. Oswald's, and a little chapel probably marks the spot.

I.e., Irish.

Cf. II, 2, note on Paschal Controversy.

Bishop of Laodicea, circ. 284 a.d. According to Eusebius, he was the first to arrange the cycle of nineteen years. The Canon quoted by the Celts in support of their observance of Easter is proved to be a forgery, probably of the seventh century and of British origin.

Probably they adopted Catholic customs about 633, after the return of their delegates sent to consult the Roman Church on this question in 631.

Cf. Preface, p. 4, note 3. The Celtic missionaries were generally attracted to remote sites, and this, the first mission station of the Celtic Church in Northumbria, was doubtless chosen for the resemblance of its physical features to Iona. The constitution was also modelled on that of Iona, with this difference, that it was an episcopal see as well as a monastery. It was included in the “province” of the Abbot of Iona. The Bishop and all the clergy were monks, and Aidan himself was Abbot as well as Bishop.

“Sacerdotali,” perhaps (but not necessarily here) = “episcopal,” as often. There may have been a number of the Irish non-diocesan bishops in the mission.

Iona, a name supposed to have arisen from a mistaken reading of Ioua, an adjectival form used by Adamnan (v. infra note 4), feminine, agreeing with insula, formed from the Irish name, I, Ii, Hii, etc. (the forms vary greatly). Then “Iona” was fancifully regarded as the Hebrew equivalent for Columba (= a dove), and this helped to preserve the name.

I.e., Irish.

For St. Columba, v. Dr. Reeves's edition of the life by Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, 679-704 (cf. V, 15, note). Authorities are divided with regard to the date of his coming to Britain. Dr. Reeves and Mr. Skene, following the Annals of Tighernach, decide in favour of 563. For his name, “Columcille,” cf. V, 9, note. He was of Irish birth, connected with the Dalriadic Scots, and of royal descent on both sides of his house. He was ordained priest at Clonard, but was never a bishop. Many ecclesiastical and monastic foundations throughout Ireland and Scotland are attributed to him. He travelled much in both countries, visited Bruide (v. infra) at Inverness, and founded churches all over the north of Scotland. He also worked indefatigably in his own monastery of Iona. In his earlier years his excitable, impatient temperament seems to have involved him in various wars. He is said to have stirred up his kinsmen against the Irish king, Diarmaid; and it has been supposed that his mission to the Picts was undertaken in expiation of the bloodshed for which he was responsible.

There is much that is legendary in the account of St. Ninias, and Bede only professes to give the tradition. He was a Briton, probably a native of Strathclyde. He studied at Rome and received episcopal consecration there; came under the influence of St. Martin of Tours, to whom he afterwards dedicated his church in Galloway, and returned as a missionary to Britain. His preaching led to the conversion of the Picts of Galloway and those to whom Bede alludes here as situated to the south of the Grampians. Irish tradition, difficult to reconcile with Bede's statement that he was buried at Whitern, tells that he spent the last years of his life in Ireland and founded a church at Leinster. He was commemorated there on September 16th, under the name of Moinenn. The traditional date of his death, September 16th, 432, has no authority.

Whitern, on Wigton Bay, so called from the white appearance of the stone church, as compared with the usual wooden buildings. The dedication must have been subsequent to St. Martin's death, circ. 397. The see was revived as an Anglian one in Bede's own time (v. V. 23, p. 381). For the form of the name, “Ad Candidam Casam,” cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

Bruide Mac Maelchon had defeated the Dalriadic Scots in 560 a.d. and driven them back to Cantyre. Northwards his dominion extended as far as the Orkneys and it is probable that it included the eastern lowlands north of the Forth (cf. Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain”). Another tradition (Irish) represents Conall, King of the Dalriadic Scots, as the donor of Iona, but the earliest Irish authority (ninth or tenth century) agrees with Bede.

The year in which he died, as well as the ultimate resting-place of his relics, is uncertain. Dr. Reeves places his death in 597, the year of St. Augustine's landing.

I.e., in Irish. The place is Durrow in Leinster.

There was no diocesan episcopate in the early Irish Church; it was organized on a monastic system. Bishops performed all episcopal functions (ordination, etc.), but they lived in the monastery, subject to the supreme authority of the abbot, who was aided in the government by a council of senior monks. Bishops were also sent out as missionaries. The functions of abbot and bishop might be combined in one man, but the abbot, as such, could discharge no episcopal duties. A great monastery was head of a “provincia” (“diocesis,” “parochia”), and had many monasteries and churches dependent on it.

Cf. c. 27, IV, 3, 26; V, 9, 10, 22, 23, 24. Perhaps “sacerdos” should be translated “bishop” here (v. supra c. 3, note; infra c. 27, note). Early writers allude to him as a bishop, e.g., Alcuin, Ethelwulf. In the life of St. Adalbert, one of Wilbrord's companions (cf. V. 10), he is called “Northumbrorum episcopus.”

I.e., they were not “Quartodecimans” (cf. II, 2, p. 84, note 3).

Phil., iii, 15.

Cf. II, 19. He is probably to be identified with the Segenus mentioned there as one of the priests to whom Pope John's letter was addressed. He was Abbot of Iona, 623-652.

Hector Boethius gives his name as Corman.

Cf. I, 1, p. 6, note 2.

Bamborough (Bebbanburh, Bebburgh, Babbanburch, etc. There are many forms of the name). It is uncertain who the queen was. Nennius says she was the wife of Ethelfrid. His wife, Oswald's mother, was Acha (v. infra), but he may have been married twice. It was Ida, the first king of Bernicia, who founded Bamborough (Sax. Chron.).

Cf. II, 5 ad fin., note.

Cf. note on Cuichelm, II, 9. Cynegils began to reign in 611 and reigned about thirty-one years.

This account tells us substantially all that is known of him. Additional details are either legendary or conjectural. He was made a missionary (“regionary”) bishop, i.e., had no fixed see assigned to him.

II, 17, 18, 19, 20.

He was Archbishop of Milan, residing at Genoa. “Asterius ... like his predecessors from 568, avoided contact with the dominant Arian Lombards by residing within the imperial territory at Genoa” (Bright).

Called Cyneburga by Reginald of Durham (Life of St. Oswald).

Dorchester, about nine miles from Oxford, near the junction of the Thame and the Thames. The Abbey Church of SS. Peter and Paul stands on the traditional site of Cynegil's baptism. The see became extinct on the retirement of Agilbert (v. infra), but there are some grounds for believing that it was revived for a short time as a Mercian see in 679 (v. p. 272, note), after which it again disappeared till, in the ninth century, the Bishop of Leicester moved his see to Dorchester.

IV, 12; V, 18. Haedde became bishop in 676 (Sax. Chron.). His see was at Winchester. He removed the bones of Birinus, because Dorchester had ceased to be an episcopal see. Winchester continued to be the only West Saxon see till the diocese was again divided (v. V, 18), when Daniel was established at Winchester, and Aldhelm at Sherborne.

Winchester; Gwent (Celtic) = a plain. This, the “old Church,” as distinguished from the present Cathedral, was built by Coinwalch on his restoration to his kingdom. There are legends of early British churches on the site, the first founded by “King Lucius” (I, 4), the second dedicated to “St. Amphibalus” (I, 7, p. 15, note).

Cuichelm (v. II, 9, and note) had died before his father, Cynegils.

Bede reverts more than once to the subject of Anna's pious offspring, v. infra cc. 8, 18; IV, 19, 20. He had four daughters: Sexburg (c. 8, IV, 19, 22), Ethelberg (c. 8), Ethelthryth (IV, 19, 20; cf. IV, 3, 22), and Witberg (not mentioned by Bede); two granddaughters, Earcongota (c. 8) and Ermingild, the wife of Wulfhere of Mercia; all of whom entered convents, as did also his step-daughter, Saethryth (c. 8).

Cc. 25, 26, 28; IV, 1; V, 19. The name is a Frankish form of the English “Aethelbert.” He was apparently consecrated in Gaul, but not appointed to any diocese.

Cf. c. 28. It is not known why he was expelled (v. infra). There is a tradition that he spent the last three years of his life at Winchester as a penitent, doubtless for the act of simony related below, but this is inconsistent with Bede's statement that he remained Bishop of London till his death.

Winchester; v.s. pp. 148-9, notes.

London was an East Saxon bishopric, but Wulfhere (v. c. 24, ad fin.) had acquired the supremacy over the East Saxons (v. c. 30).

Hlothere, consecrated 670. Apparently he was appointed by a West Saxon Synod (“ex synodica sanctione”). Dr. Bright thinks the term is used loosely for a Witenagemot.

II, 5-9, 20; V, 24.

Faremoûtier-en-Brie (Farae Monasterium in Brige), founded circ. 617 by Fara, or Burgundofara, a Burgundian lady of noble birth, said to have been dedicated by St. Columba in her infancy. The monastery was a double one, i.e., consisted of monks and nuns (cf. infra, “many of the brethren”).

Chelles, near Paris, founded by Clothilde, wife of Clovis I, restored and enlarged by Bathild, wife of Clovis II (v. V, 19, note).

Andeley-sur-Seine, also founded by Clothilde, wife of Clovis I.

Cf. supra c. 7, note on Anna.

Ibid.

Cf. c. 1.

The place is commonly supposed to be near Oswestry in Shropshire (i.e., Oswald's Tree). There is a legend (related by Reginald) which tells of a tree near the spot, to which a large bird carried the king's right arm from the stake (cf. c. 12 ad fin.). The Welsh name of the place, “Croes Oswallt” (Cross-Oswald), points to the explanation that the “tree” was a wooden cross set up to mark the site.

642, i.e., nine years after the death of Edwin.

Reading stramine subtracto, on the authority of the oldest MSS., in which case we must assume (with Plummer) that stramen is used incorrectly for stragulus in the sense of “saddle,” or “horse-cloth,” from the classical use, sternere equum = to saddle. Cf. “stratus regaliter,” c. 14. Later MSS. read stramine substrato (= “spreading straw under him”).

Wife of Ethelred of Mercia (cf. IV, 21), murdered by her own people in 697 (V, 24).

Bardney, in Lincolnshire. Ethelred became first a monk, afterwards abbot of the monastery.

“Sacrarium.” Probably here = the cemetery. But we find it elsewhere in Bede for the sacristy, and it is also used of the sanctuary.

Cf. c. 27; IV, 12.

Partney: cf. II, 16, and note. This is the only mention of its abbot, Aldwin.

Aen. II, 1. Quotations from Vergil are frequent in Bede. Cf. II, 13, ad fin.; v. 12, p. 327.

I.e., matins (between midnight and 3 a.m.).

It was removed in 875, during the Danish invasions, in the coffin of St. Cuthbert, and finally interred in the same tomb with the body of Cuthbert at Durham, where it was found in 1827. Hence St. Cuthbert is often represented holding St. Oswald's head in his hands.

Bamborough: cf. c. 6, note.

Bishop of Hexham, 709-731: v. V, 20 (cf. also IV, 14; V, 19). He was a much loved friend of Bede, many of whose works were undertaken at his instigation. He was devotedly attached to Wilfrid, whom he succeeded at Hexham. The “Continuation” says that he was expelled from his see in 731, and he probably never regained it.

Cf. V. 19, p. 353. This was probably Wilfrid's third journey to Rome, undertaken in 703-704, for, at the time of his earlier journey (in 678), when he spent the winter in Frisland, Wilbrord was not yet there.

The great missionary archbishop of the Frisians. He was trained as a boy in Wilfrid's abbey at Ripon, studied some time in Ireland, and with eleven companions undertook in 690 the mission to Frisland planned by Egbert: v. V, 10, 11. (For Egbert, v. c. 4, p. 143, and note.)

The third of Ethelfrid's seven sons (v. Sax. Chron.) to succeed to the sovereignty. With his brothers he had spent his youth in banishment among the Picts and Scots (v.s. c. 1).

Cc. 21, 24, 25, 28. The pupil and friend of Wilfrid. He was made sub-king of Deira in place of Ethelwald (v. next note). The date and circumstances of his rebellion are not known. A cross at Bewcastle in Cumberland, erected in 670 or 671, commemorates him and asks prayers for his soul.

Ethelwald, v. cc. 23, 24.

Cf. II, 3.

The first bishop of English birth. For Honorius, v. II, 15, note.

The apostate king of Deira, Osric, son of Aelfric, was first cousin to Edwin (cf. c. 1). Oswald united the two Northumbrian kingdoms, but at his death, Oswin, son of Osric, succeeded to Deira. He was canonised, and his tragic death led him to be regarded as a martyr.

Not identified. The village (“a vico Cataractone”) is probably the one called Cataracta in II, 14 (v. note, ad loc.).

Comes, A.S. gesith.

At Queen Eanfled's request (v. c. 24, p. 191). The place is generally identified with Gilling in the North Riding of Yorkshire. For the form of the name, v. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

In 651 a.d. Cf. V. 24.

Cf. c. 21.

II, 9, 20; III, 24, 25, 29; V, 19.

The monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow. Cf. IV, 18; V, 21 ad init., 24.

Bamborough, v. cc. 6, 12.

The scene of St. Cuthbert's hermit life: v. IV, 27, 28, 29; V, 1. It is called the “House Island,” and is the largest of the Farne group of seventeen islands off the coast of Northumberland, opposite Bamborough, famous in modern times for the rescue of a shipwrecked crew by Grace Darling.

v.l. seventeen. The MS. authority is about equal; but cf. infra, the statement that he died in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, which seems to be correct.

651 a.d.; v.s. c. 14 ad fin.

Cc. 21, 22, 25, 26, 27. For his character, v. c. 25 (though some suppose the reference to be to Ronan). For Hii, v. c. 3, note.

The church and the buttress were evidently both of wood.

He probably refers to the “De Temporum Ratione,” the longer of his two chronological works. It treats the Paschal question at length. But in the “De Temporibus” he also briefly discusses it.

Cf. c. 3.

II, 15, and note.

Cf. ib. The school was probably in the episcopal city of Dunwich, though it has been maintained that it was the origin of Cambridge University. For this there seems to be no authority except a seventeenth century addition to this passage in a twelfth or thirteenth century MS: “Grantebrig schola a Sigberto Rege.”

Cf. c. 7, p. 149, and note.

For a full account of St. Fursa and his brothers, and other companions mentioned in this chapter, v. Miss Margaret Stokes's “Three months in the Forests of France, a pilgrimage in search of vestiges of the Irish Saints in France.” Bede's narrative is taken from an extant ancient Latin life of St. Fursa (or Fursey), the “libellus de vita ejus conscriptus” to which he refers several times (v. infra).

St. Matt., xxv, 13.

Burgh Castle in Suffolk, where there was a Roman fortress, Garianonum.

I.e., Irish.

His monastery on Lough Corrib. It is obvious from the sequel that this vision was prior to his journey to Britain, and is distinct from the vision mentioned above.

Ps. lxxxiv, 7; (lxxxiii, 8, in the Vulgate). The reading is that of the Vulgate and the Gallican Psalter: “Ibunt de virtute in virtutem: videbitur Deus deorum in Sion.”

Ibid.

I.e., Ireland.

The monastery at Burgh Castle.

Fullan, or Foillan, was apparently a bishop (the others are called “presbyteri”). He and Ultan after Fursa's death (circ. 650) went to South Brabant. Ultan founded a monastery at Fosse in the diocese of Liège (then of Maestricht), and Fullan laboured in conjunction with St. Gertrude in the double monastery of Nivelles. Ultan became abbot, first of Fosse and later of Péronne. The name Gobban occurs frequently in Irish Church History, Dicull occasionally. There is a Dicull mentioned in IV, 13.

I.e., the Mercians; v.s. c. 18.

Clovis II, King of Neustria, 638-656. Ercinwald was his Mayor of the Palace.

Lagny on the Marne, near Paris.

Péronne on the Somme. The monastery founded there after his death was called “Perrona Scotorum” from the number of Irish who resorted to it.

Circ. 647. The rapid increase in the number of native bishops may be seen from this chapter. The only one before Thomas was Ithamar (cf. c. 14, p. 164).

The Fen country. The province included part of the counties of Lincoln, Northampton, Huntingdon, and Cambridge.

Such changes of name were frequent: cf. Benedict for Biscop (IV, 18), Boniface for Winfrid (v. “Continuation”), Clement for Wilbrord (V, 11), and cf. infra, “Deusdedit.”

II, 15, note.

The first archbishop of English birth. He died in 664 (v. IV, 1). His original name is said to have been Frithonas; Deusdedit is the Latin form of Theodore. There was a Pope of the same name, 615-618 (v. II, 7). Similar names were common in the African Church, e.g., “Adeodatus,” “Habetdeus,” “Quodvultdeus,” “Deogratias.”

Cf. c. 14, and note.

Cf. IV, 2. It has been supposed that he died of the plague of 664. After his death the see was vacant for several years. It is remarkable that he came of a race which had not yet become Christian. The South Saxons continued to be pagan till Wilfrid evangelized them, 681-686 (IV, 13).

For their origin, v. I, 15. Their country, which was subject to Mercia, was the present Leicestershire. They are probably to be identified with the Southern Mercians; v. c. 24, where we find Peada confirmed by Oswy in the government of that people.

She caused his death by treachery: v. c. 24 ad fin.

C. 14, ad init., and note.

After Alchfrid's death, she took the veil and ruled the monastery of Caistor (? Cyneburgacaster) in Northamptonshire. She was one of the five children of the heathen Penda, who were canonized as saints.

Comitibus ac militibus. A.S. “geferum” (companions) and “king's thegns.”

Cf. c. 22. Variously identified with Walton and Walbottle, both near Newcastle. For the preposition, v. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

For Cedd, v. Preface, and infra cc. 22, 23, 25, 26. The names of Adda and Betti do not occur again. For Diuma: v. infra and c. 24.

III, 15.

Gateshead on the Tyne, opposite Newcastle. For the preposition, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

Penda was killed in 655. Diuma was probably consecrated in 656.

Not identified. Perhaps Repton (Reppington) in Derbyshire, where it is supposed that Diuma had fixed his see. For the form of the name, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

He probably returned at the time of the rebellion of Mercia in 658; v. c. 24, ad fin. For Hii, v.s. c. 3, ad fin.

Abbot of Gilling. He was a kinsman of Oswin: v. c. 24, p. 191.

Cf. II, 5. Since then, the East Saxons had remained pagan.

Sometimes surnamed the “Good.” (He must not be confused with Sigbert, King of the East Angles, II, 15, and III, 18, 19.) Sigbert the Little was the successor of the three young kings who expelled Mellitus (II, 5).

C. 21 and note.

They must have been Celtic bishops, probably of the Irish Church and subject to the authority of Iona. Cedd seems to have had no fixed see. He is not called Bishop of London, like Mellitus.

Dr. Bright regards this organization as a foreshadowing of the parochial system, which, however, was not thoroughly established till long after.

Identified with the Roman military station, Othona, on the Blackwater, formerly called the Pant, in Essex. The town is now submerged.

Tilbury.

Comes. A.S. “gesith.”

He was his brother probably. But the relationships of these East Saxon kings are very difficult to determine.

Rendlesham in Suffolk.

Distinguish from Ethelwald, or Oidilwald, sub-King of Deira (v.s. c. 14, and infra cc. 23, 24). Ethelwald, King of the East Angles, succeeded his brother, Ethelhere, who was the successor of Anna (cf. supra cc. 7, 18, 19), and was killed in the battle of the Winwaed (v. infra c. 24).

Cf. supra c. 14; infra c. 24. Apparently he succeeded Oswin as sub-King of Deira.

Isaiah, xxxv, 7.

Lastingham (v. Preface). Cedd was its first abbot, though it was not in his own diocese.

Doubtless only one at a time. The “Provost” is the prior of later times. The charge of the monastery would devolve upon him while Cedd was absent in his diocese.

Or, as he is commonly called, St. Chad, the greatest of this remarkable group of brothers; v. Preface and infra passim.

Ythancaestir, or Tilbury (v. c. 22).

Oswald; v.s. c. 9.

“Ealdormen,” Green, “Making of England,” p. 301. But they probably included many British chiefs (v. Nennius, and cf. infra “duces regii”).

Oswy's younger son. He succeeded his father in 670 or 671 (v. IV, 5, and for the events of his reign, IV, V, passim).

The wife of Penda.

Cc. 14 and 23. The reason for his conduct is not explained. Probably he had hoped to establish his claims on Northumbria through Penda's assistance, but shrank from actually fighting against his country.

Cf. c. 22, ad fin., note. How he gave occasion for the war is not known.

The river has not been identified, and there is great uncertainty even with regard to the district. Below, Bede says that Oswy concluded the war in the district of “Loidis,” by which he must mean Leeds, as in II, 14, and most commentators adopt this view. In this case, the river may be the Aire, or more probably the Went, a tributary of the Don. Others believe the district to be the Lothians, following the account in Nennius, who describes Oswy as taking refuge before the battle in a city called Iudeu, supposed to be either Edinburgh or Carriden (cf. I, 12, note), and the river has been supposed to be the Avon in Linlithgow.

She is mentioned as joint-abbess with her mother, Eanfled, of the monastery of Whitby (IV, 26). Eddius calls her “sapientissima virgo,” “semper totius provinciae consolatrix optimaque consiliatrix.” Her influence helped to restore Wilfrid to the bishopric. She was the friend of St. Cuthbert, who is said to have wrought a miraculous cure on her behalf. It was to her that he prophesied the death of her brother Egfrid (IV, 26, p. 285, note).

Hartlepool in the county of Durham (cf. IV, 23).

For the main facts of her life, v. IV, 23. She was Abbess of Whitby at the time of the Synod (c. 25).

Whitby. It was a mixed monastery (cf. IV, 23).

The ancient life of Gregory the Great, by a monk of Whitby, tells how Edwin's body was translated thither from the place where he fell. For the fate of his head, cf. II, 20.

In 655: cf. V, 24 (death of Penda).

Cf. c. 21, where, however, Lindsey is not mentioned. For the successive conquests of Lindsey by Northumbria and Mercia, v. IV, 12, p. 243, note. Though it must have passed to Northumbria after Oswy's victory, it was still apparently included in the Mercian diocese.

C. 21, ad fin. and note. “Scottia,” as usual, means Ireland, which includes Iona (cf. II, 4).

Cf. c. 14.

I.e., he confirmed Peada in the government conferred on him by his father, Penda, if we may assume the Southern Mercians to be identical with the Middle Angles: cf. c. 21, p. 180.

Alchfled, Oswy's daughter: v.s. ibid.

He has been already mentioned, cc. 7, 21. He was a vigorous ruler; he freed Mercia from Northumbria, reconquered Lindsey, established his supremacy over the East Saxons (cf. c. 30), and curtailed the power of Wessex. His attempt, however, to extend his power to the north of the Humber ended in 675 in his disastrous defeat by Egfrid, King of Northumbria (IV, 12) and his death followed immediately after. He was the first Christian king of all Mercia, and he was zealous in putting down idolatry (Florence of Worcester).

Cf. supra and c. 21.

He succeeded in 662. Cf. c. 30.

C. 23, p. 187, and note.

IV, 3, 5, 6. He was deposed by Theodore for some act of disobedience not known (IV, 6), and went to the Continent, where, travelling in Neustria, he was mistaken for Wilfrid and cruelly ill-treated by the emissaries of Ebroin (v. V, 19, note), “errore bono unius syllabae seducti,” as Eddius, the biographer of Wilfrid, remarks.

I.e., Ireland.

He succeeded Cuthbert as Bishop of Lindisfarne; v. IV, 29, 30.

Cf. II, 2, p. 84, note 3.

Nothing certain is known of him.

II, 16, 20; IV, 2.

I.e., Iona: cf. IV, 4, ad init. Colman succeeded in 661.

For his life: v. V, 19.

Really Annemundus. He was Archbishop of Lyons. Cf. V, 8, note on Godwin. He is confused with his brother Dalfinus, Count of Lyons: v. V, 19, p. 348, note.

Ripon. For the preposition, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5. The monastery was first given to Eata (v. c. 26), to be organized by him, and among the monks he brought with him from Melrose was Cuthbert (cf. IV, 27). They were forced to retire in 661, but after the Synod of Whitby they conformed to the Catholic rules.

Cf. c. 7, where Bede's summary account obscures the sequence of events. Here he is still called Bishop of the West Saxons. It is probable that he had retired from Wessex by this time, but had not yet gone to Gaul. He did not become Bishop of Paris before 666, for in that year we find his predecessor, Importunus, witnessing a “privilegium” for a nunnery at Soissons.

We hear nothing more of this priest.

C. 24. The etymology is generally considered impossible. But cf. Bright, “Early English Church History,” p. 213.

C. 24. After the Synod it appears that she conformed to the Catholic usages. But she continued to be an opponent of Wilfrid till the end of her life.

Cc. 21, 22, 23.

The practice of the churches of Asia, traditionally derived from St. John, was to disregard the day of the week and observe as Easter Day the 14th of the month Nisan. Therefore the claim to the authority of St. John, advanced by the Celts, was inaccurate and gives some colour to the charge, often brought against them, of being “Quartodecimans.”

Acts, xvi, 3.

Ibid., xxi, 26.

Ibid., xviii, 18.

Ibid., xxi, 20.

Cf. II, 19, note.

Cf. c. 3, note.

St. Matt., xvi, 18-19.

Cf. II, 2, p. 85, note 1.

To Iona; v. IV, 4, ad init.

Fourth Bishop of Lindisfarne and the last of the Irish bishops in that see. He died of the plague in 664: v. c. 27.

Cf. c. 3, p. 139, and note.

I.e., Ireland.

IV, 12, 27, 28; V, 2.

Old Melrose, “Quod Tuidi fluminis circumflexu maxima ex parte clauditur,” V, 12. The more famous monastery is of later date and is to the west of the older site.

Cf. c. 3, ad fin. (where, however, there is only a general allusion to the instruction of English children). It has been suggested that they may have been redeemed from slavery. Cf. c. 5, p. 145.

Really on the 1st.

Called the “Yellow Pest” from the colour of its victims. It was a bubonic plague; it probably came from the East and was the same as that which raged in Europe in Justinian's reign. There were several outbreaks in England in the seventh century, but this was the most virulent. For subsequent visitations, cf. IV, 7, 14, 19.

Cf. c. 26, p. 201.

The Saxon Chronicle has “on Wagele,” which is supposed to be Whalley, on the borders of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, but the name varies greatly in different chroniclers. Smith considers that Bede's form “Paegnalaech” or “Paegnalech” points to Finchale (Wincanheale, in Simeon of Durham, or Pincahala), near Durham.

Cf. c. 4.

Cf. c. 11; IV, 12.

Said, on doubtful authority, to be Melfont, or Mellifont, in County Louth.

“Acceptum sacerdotii gradum,” A.S. “biscophade onfeng” = he received the episcopate. Cf. c. 4, note.

In 664. This was the young “Fainéant” king of Neustria, Clothaire III. Wilfrid was probably sent abroad at his own request. Doubtless he desired to have the canonical number of three bishops at his consecration, and Boniface of Dunwich (c. 20; IV, 5) was the only prelate in England whose orders he would have regarded as entirely satisfactory, for Wini might be considered a usurper, and Cedd and Jaruman had been consecrated by schismatics. Archbishop Deusdedit was dead (III, 20, note) and so probably was Damian of Rochester.

He was Wilfrid's friend: v.s. c. 25, pp. 194-5.

Cf. ibid., note.

Compiègne, a royal “villa.” For the preposition, v. II, 14, note. The ceremony was a specially magnificent one, Wilfrid being carried in a golden chair by twelve bishops in choral procession, according to an ancient custom of the Gallican Church.

Preface, III, 23, et saep. Why Oswy, who had consented to Wilfrid's consecration (v. V, 19) acted in this manner is not clear. Probably it implies that the Celtic party, during Wilfrid's prolonged absence, had to some extent recovered their ascendency; and, if it was at this time that Alchfrid (who is not heard of again) rebelled against his father (v.s. c. 14, ad init.) and was deprived of his kingdom, Wilfrid would have lost his warmest supporter.

He retired to Ripon from Lindsey, of which he was the first separate bishop, when Ethelred recovered that province for Mercia in 679. But cf. IV, 12, ad fin., note, for the statement that he was “Bishop” of Ripon.

King of Northumbria, v.s. c. 24, p. 188, note 3.

It does not appear why Boniface (Bertgils) of Dunwich, Bishop of the East Angles, 652-669 (c. 20, IV, 5), is ignored. Ceadda's consecration was afterwards regarded as of doubtful validity and was completed by Theodore (v. IV, 12). The British (probably Cornish) bishops were schismatical, and Wini's position was irregular. Moreover, the see to which Ceadda was consecrated was not vacant.

IV, 1.

Consecrated in 657—died in 672.

Isaiah, xi, 10.

Ibid., xlix, 1.

Ibid., 6.

Ibid., 7.

Ibid., 8-9.

Ibid., xlii, 6-7. The readings are from the Vulgate.

It has not been stated that Oswy and Egbert asked the Pope to provide an archbishop, failing Wighard. But this seems to be implied in IV, 1: “episcopum, quem petierant.” Or, as is generally supposed, Vitalian may have arbitrarily assumed this to be the intention of their letter.

There were several martyrs of the name of Laurentius, but the best known is the Roman deacon, St. Laurence, who suffered at Rome in 258 a.d. He was buried in the Via Tiburtina, where a church dedicated to him is said to have been founded by Constantine the Great. On the site stands the present Church of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, the older part of which dates from the sixth century at least. One of Aldhelm's foundations (V, 18) was a little church dedicated to St. Laurence at Bradford-on-Avon in 705, probably the small Saxon church which still stands there. There were many martyrs named John and Paul, and more than one Gregory. St. Pancras was a boy-martyr, a Phrygian by birth, who suffered at Rome in 304 a.d., when he was only fourteen years of age. His martyrdom was widely celebrated, and miraculous powers were attributed to his tomb outside the walls of Rome. An old British church at Canterbury, which had been desecrated by the heathen invaders, was restored for Christian use and dedicated to St. Pancras by Augustine.

Eanfled, v.s. c. 15 and note.

St. Matt., vi, 33.

Cf. IV, 6. Sighere was the son, Sebbi the brother, of Sigbert the Little (v.s. c. 22, ad init.).

C. 22, ad fin.

C. 24, ad fin.; IV, 3.

664 a.d.: cf. III, 27, ad init.

Cf. III, 26, ad init.

Cf. III, 20 and note.

Cf. III, 8; V, 19, p. 348.

Cf. III, 29. From Bede's “History of the Abbots” we learn that he was a pupil of Pope Gregory's Roman disciples in Kent.

III, 29.

Ibid., and note.

Cf. Preface, p. 2, note 3.

He was probably chaplain of the nunnery.

Cf. Preface, p. 2, note 2.

Cf. Bright, cc. 252, 253. He sees here an allusion to the Monothelite controversy.

I.e., the Eastern, which consisted in shaving the whole head. This method was supposed to have the authority of St. Paul (an idea derived from Acts, xviii, 18), and of St. James “the Less.” Cf. II, 2, p. 85, note.

They were accompanied by Benedict Biscop (v. c. 18) whom Vitalian had asked to act as their guide and interpreter (“Hist. Abb.,” § 3).

Archbishop of Arles, 658-675.

From this it has been inferred that Arles belonged to Neustria. The king was Clothaire III, king of Neustria. Ebroin had succeeded Ercinwald (v. III, 19, ad fin.) as Mayor of the Palace. He was murdered in 681.

III, 7, 25, 26, 28.

Called also Emmo, or Haymo; Bishop of Sens, 658-675.

Or Burgundofarus, Bishop of Meaux, 626-672. He was brother of Fara, mentioned III, 8.

“Praefectus.”

Etaples in Picardy; “Quentae (or ‘ad Quantiam’) vicus” = the village at the mouth of the Canche. It was an important commercial town and port.

SS. Peter and Paul (St. Augustine's): cf. I, 33. Theodore had placed Benedict Biscop over it while Hadrian was still abroad.

II, 16, 20.

Eddius, the biographer of Wilfrid. He mentions himself (“Life of Wilfrid,” Chapter XIV) as a “cantor.”

Bede can scarcely mean to impeach the orthodoxy of the bishops of native birth prior to Wilfrid. Probably the reference is mainly to the prominent part he took in bringing about the decision at Whitby.

Cf. III, 28, note.

Cf. III, 20, and note.

Cc. 5, 12. Florence of Worcester mentions a Putta, Bishop of Hereford, who died in 688, but it is very doubtful whether he can be identified with the above. Bede's words in Chapter 12 do not imply that Putta, Bishop of Rochester, became Bishop of Hereford. Hereford was not one of the five sees into which Florence tells us that Theodore divided the great Mercian bishopric, but it appears soon after as a separate see for Hecana (Herefordshire). Possibly Putta, who is traditionally reckoned as its first bishop, may have acted as Sexwulf's deputy there.

Cf. II, 20 ad fin., note.

III, 24, 30. He had probably died two years before Chad's appointment, i.e., in 667, and the see had been vacant in the interval, for Wilfrid, then in retirement at Ripon, is said (by Eddius) to have discharged episcopal functions for the Mercians.

Lastingham. Cf. Preface, p. 3; III, 23, 28.

Lindsey at this time belonged to Mercia. Cf. c. 12, p. 243, note 5.

Smith believed this place to be Barton-on-Humber. It is now generally identified with Barrow in Lincolnshire. For the preposition, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

It had not previously been an episcopal see, though Wulfhere had wished to establish Wilfrid there during the vacancy in the Mercian bishopric (p. 218, note 4). When the bishopric of Mercia and Lindsey was subdivided by Theodore in 679, Lichfield remained the see of the bishopric of Mercia proper. In 787, under Offa, King of Mercia, with the consent of Pope Hadrian, it was raised into a separate archbishopric for Mercia and East Anglia, but in 802 Canterbury was re-established as the sole archbishopric for the Southern Province. The popular derivation of the name, Lichfield (“Field of the Dead”) is from lic = a corpse, and the place is traditionally connected with the martyrdom of a great number of British Christians. Another derivation, however (from leccian = to irrigate), points to the meaning “the watered field.”

Eccl., iii. 5.

A stone which is believed to have formed part of Owini's tomb was found at the end of the eighteenth century at Haddenham, near Ely, and is now in Ely Cathedral. It bears the inscription, “Lucem tuam Ovino da Deus et requiem. Amen” (Mayor and Lumley).

Cf. c. 19.

Ps. xviii, 13, 14.

III, 4, 27.

He is said to have been Abbot of Bardney.

In 672. The original Church of St. Mary at Lichfield, said to have been built by Oswy in 656-657, was replaced about 1140 by the new Cathedral, and Ceadda's relics were soon after removed to it.

Cf. III, 24, ad fin., note.

Cf. III, 26, ad init.

Iona. Cf. III, 3, ad fin., note.

Innisboffin, off the coast of Mayo. The annals of Ulster give 667 as the date of his retirement to it.

Mayo, called from this settlement, “Mayo of the Saxons.” It continued to be an English monastery (v. infra), and after awhile adopted those usages, to avoid which Colman had left England. It became an episcopal see, which in 1559 was annexed to the archbishopric of Tuam.

Hertford.

It seems probable that we ought to read 671; cf. Plummer ad loc.

Oswy is the last king in Bede's list of those who held an “imperium” (v. II, 5). With the rise of Mercia under Wulfhere (III, 24), the supremacy of Northumbria had virtually passed away. After Oswy's death, the position of Northumbria was an isolated one, and it was by conquests over Britons, not Englishmen, that Egfrid enlarged the bounds of his kingdom.

In his youth he had been a hostage at the court of Queen Cynwise, wife of Penda (III, 24, p. 188).

This is of supreme importance as the first English provincial Council and the first national assembly of the English. The rule laid down at Nicaea and confirmed by later councils was that provincial synods should meet twice a year to settle all ecclesiastical matters which affected the province as a unity.

24th September, 673, falls in the first indiction, whether the Pontifical or the “Caesarean” system is meant (v. Haddan and Stubbs, III, 121). Bede himself used the Caesarean indiction, of which we get the first notice in his “De Temporum Ratione.” It began on 24th September. It does not, however, follow that Theodore also used it. The oldest scheme, viz., the Constantinopolitan, began on 1st September; the Roman or Pontifical, on New Year's Day as received at the time, i.e., 25th December, 1st January, or 21st March. For Indictions, v. “Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.” They were cycles of fifteen years, a mode of reckoning dates which appeared in the fourth century, based upon the Imperial fiscal system, but which came to be used irrespective of taxation. “1st indiction” stands for “1st year of the indiction.”

Of the six suffragans only four were present. Wilfrid was at this time (669-678) in possession of his see; why he did not appear in person is not explained. Possibly his action foreshadows the future troubles between him and Theodore. Wini, Bishop of London, was still alive (v. III, 7, and note). If the story of his retirement to Winchester is true, this would account for his absence. For Bisi, v. infra. His see was at Dunwich (cf. II, 15). For Putta, v.s. c. 2 and note; for Leutherius, v. III, 7; for Wynfrid, III, 24; IV, 3, ad fin.

The collection of Canons approved by the Council of Chalcedon, translated into Latin by Dionysius Exiguus (early in the sixth century, cf. V, 21, p. 369, note) and adopted by the Western Church.

This place used to be identified with Cliff-at-Hoe near Rochester, but the theory rests mainly on the similarity of name. As in the recorded Councils of Clovesho the supremacy of Mercia is clearly indicated, it is generally assumed that the place must have been either in Mercia or a kingdom subject to it, as Kent was at the time. Except one Council in 716, we find none mentioned as having taken place at Clovesho till seventy years after this time (747), but councils were held at other places.

The subdivision of the great bishoprics was an important part of Theodore's policy, and though at this Council he failed to carry his point, possibly through the opposition of Wilfrid's representatives, in the succeeding years he effected a great change in the organization of the episcopate, creating dioceses co-extensive with tribal territories.

III, 29; IV, 1.

Cc. 22, 26.

His original name was Bertgils, v. III, 20.

Theodore availed himself of this opportunity for subdivision. Aecci was appointed to Dunwich and Badwin to the new see of Elmham. Suffolk and Norfolk thus each received a separate bishopric. The Danish invasions broke up this arrangement; Dunwich disappeared as an episcopal see, and the succession to Elmham was interrupted for a time. In 1075 the see of the single East Anglian bishopric was removed to Thetford, and in 1094 to Norwich.

It has been conjectured that he resisted the subdivision of his diocese. For his subsequent adventures, v. III, 24, p. 192, note 4.

This was probably in 675 (Flor. of Wor.). Sexwulf (v. infra c. 12) had been a rich thegn who became a monk and was made first abbot of Medeshamstead.

Peterborough, as the town which grew up around the monastery came to be called in the tenth century, the monastery being dedicated to St. Peter. Peada is said to have planned the foundation (v. Peterborough additions to the Saxon Chronicle), but the accounts are late and untrustworthy.

III, 20, note.

C. 3, p. 219, note 2.

He succeeded Wini (III, 7) in 675 and died about 693. He was canonized. It was in his house that the reconciliation between Theodore and Wilfrid took place. It is said that as a boy he had heard Mellitus preach in London. He was present at the West Saxon Witenagemot which enacted the “Dooms of Ine” (c. 15 and V, 7), and is spoken of as one of Ine's bishops, Essex being probably subject to Wessex at that time.

In III, 30.

Cc. 7-10. She is not to be confused with Ethelberg, daughter of Anna (III, 8), Abbess of Faremoûtier-en-Brie.

Chertsey in Surrey. William of Malmesbury tells us that it was a flourishing monastery till it was destroyed by the Danes.

Barking in Essex, v. infra cc. 7-10. For the preposition, v. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

The plague of 664 has been mentioned in III, 27; IV, 1, 3; but this may have been a later visitation. Barking is generally supposed to have been founded in 666.

Two different dates are given for her succession, 664 and 675. If the former is right, the plague (c. 7) must have been that of 664, and Ethelburg probably died of it. It appears from a letter of St. Boniface that Hildilid was alive in 709. She was one of Aldhelm's numerous women-scholars. He dedicated the prose version of his work in praise of virginity (v. V, 18) to her and others of the sisterhood, and speaks highly of their scholarly attainments.

Apparently a life of St. Ethelburg not known to exist now.

Cf. III, 30; IV, 6.

For Earconwald, v.s. c. 6. Waldhere is the first of a long list of undistinguished bishops of London given by William of Malmesbury. A letter of his to Archbishop Bertwald survives, and there is a charter in which Swefred (v. next note) grants lands at Twickenham to him in 704.

Cf. V, 8, note on Suaebhard.

St. Paul's, London. Sebbi's tomb is believed to have survived till the fire of 1666.

For these bishops, cf. III, 7.

Ibid. He died in 672 (Sax. Chron.). Of the sub-kings the most prominent were Aescwine and Centwine, a brother of Coinwalch. The Saxon Chronicle gives a different account. According to it, Coinwalch's widow, Sexburg, reigned for one year after him and was succeeded by Aescwine, who was succeeded by Centwine.

Cf. III, 7, and for his character, V, 18. The Saxon Chronicle says he succeeded in 676 and died in 703. Bede places his death in 705 (V, 18).

Cc. 15, 16, and V, 7. He was of Ceaulin's line (II, 5) and so belonged to a younger branch of the West Saxon royal house. Welsh writers confuse him with the British king, Caedwalla (II, 20), and with his son, Cadwalader.

A son of Penda. He succeeded his brother Wulfhere in 675. In 704 he became a monk (V, 24) and afterwards Abbot of Bardney Monastery (cf. III, 11), which he is said to have founded. His invasion of Kent was probably provoked by an attempt on the part of that kingdom, at Wulfhere's death, to resume a position of independence towards Mercia. In spite of his conduct on this raid, Theodore, Florence of Worcester, and others, speak of the saintliness of his character.

Cc. 2 (and note), 5.

C. 6, and note, and infra, p. 244.

The dates of these changes in the episcopate are uncertain. Probably Gebmund was consecrated in 678. For his death, v. V, 8 ad fin., and note.

This was Wilfrid's first expulsion (v. V, 19). Bede's reticence on the subject is noteworthy. Egfrid's hostility to his former friend, Wilfrid, was doubtless caused by Wilfrid's encouragement of Queen Ethelthryth (cc. 19, 20) in her desire to take the veil. It was probably increased by Egfrid's second wife, Eormenburg, who is said to have resented Wilfrid's power and magnificence. Theodore, carrying out his policy of subdivision, availed himself of the opportunity afforded by this dissension. He consulted some of his suffragans (we do not know who they were; it was apparently at a mixed council of ecclesiastics and laymen), but did not communicate with Wilfrid, being, no doubt, conscious of the uselessness of trying to get his consent. Wilfrid, after demanding an explanation from the archbishop and the king in a Northumbrian “gemot,” and receiving no satisfaction, appealed to Rome (cf. V, 19, p. 351). For the importance of this step, v. Bright, “Early English Church History,” pp. 323-326.

Probably the intention was that Wilfrid should keep the larger part of Deira, with his see at York, and that three new dioceses should be formed. But, on his departure to appeal to Rome, it was assumed that he had resigned his bishopric, and Bosa was consecrated Bishop of Deira with his see at York, Eata, Bishop of the Bernicians, with the option of fixing his see either at Lindisfarne or Hagustald (Hexham). These two were “substituted for him.” Lindsey, which at this time belonged to Northumbria, became for the first time a separate diocese. When it passed again to Mercia in 679 it was included in the subdivision of the Mercian bishopric, and Ethelwin (v. infra note 6) became its bishop with his see at Sidnacaestir (generally identified with Stow, but the locality is unknown).

He was one of the bishops educated in Hilda's monastery (v. c. 23). Bede speaks highly of him (V, 3, 20), and Alcuin calls him “vir sine fraude bonus.” He retired from York when Wilfrid was restored, but appears to have been reinstated on Wilfrid's second expulsion.

Abbot of Melrose, afterwards of Lindisfarne (III, 26, and note; IV, 27; V, 9).

III, 28, and this Chapter, ad fin., and note.

In 675. Lindsey which had been Northumbrian under Edwin and Oswald, had passed through many vicissitudes. Penda conquered it, Oswy recovered it (in 655), Wulfhere conquered it again, Egfrid recovered it (675). It passed finally to Mercia under Ethelred in 679 (v. infra this Chapter, ad fin.).

III, 11, 27.

He was still Bishop of Lindsey in 706, when he signed a charter of Ethelward, “subregulus” of the Hwiccas.

Preface, p. 4, and V, 23. Simeon of Durham says that he died in 732.

Lindsey was at that time subject to Mercia. Sexwulf was expelled when Egfrid conquered it in 675. When the Mercian diocese was subdivided, he retained his see at Lichfield (v.s. c. 3, p. 219, note) as Bishop of the Mercians proper.

By Theodore alone. The suffragans did not take part in the consecration.

In 681 a fresh subdivision took place. The Bernician diocese was divided, Eata retaining Lindisfarne and giving up Hexham to Tunbert. Afterwards Eata retired from Lindisfarne in favour of Cuthbert and took Hexham (v. infra c. 28). Tunbert had been Abbot of Gilling (In Getlingum, III, 14, 24). He was deposed by Theodore from Hexham three years after his consecration (v. infra c. 28), like Wynfrid, “pro culpa cujusdam inobedientiae” (Vita Eatae in “Miscellanea Biographica,” Surtees Society).

His see was not at Whitern among the Picts of Galloway, as has been supposed (Florence of Worcester, Richard of Hexham, and others), but at the monastery of Abercorn on the Forth (I, 12; IV, 26), the Picts north of the Forth being at this time subject to Northumbria. After Egfrid's disastrous expedition in 685, they freed themselves from Northumbrian rule, the see was abandoned, and Trumwine retired to Whitby (c. 26). We hear of him as one of the deputation to Cuthbert in 684 (c. 28).

In 679; v.s., p. 243, note 5.

Whether Ripon became for a time an episcopal see seems doubtful. In III, 28, Bede says distinctly that Eadhaed became “praesul” of the church there, and it does not seem consistent with his use to understand it as = abbot. Probably there was an attempt to subdivide the diocese of Deira (Eddius mentions it as one of Wilfrid's grievances), but the scheme was abandoned when Wilfrid was restored in 705. Ripon did not finally become an episcopal see till 1836.

For a fuller account, v. V, 19, and notes.

For the early importance of this kingdom under Aelli, v. II, 5. It had become a small insignificant nation, cut off from its neighbours by forests (the “Andredsweald”) and marshes, and though we read (III, 20) that Damian, bishop of Rochester, was of the South Saxon race, it was almost untouched by Christian influences.

Cf. infra c. 15.

He also brought about the reconversion of the East Saxons by sending Bishop Jaruman to them. Cf. III, 30.

Wulfhere had invaded Wessex, probably in 661 (Sax. Chron.), and conquered the Isle of Wight and the district of the Meanware, i.e., the district from Southampton Water to the South Downs. The inhabitants were Jutes. The name survives in the hundreds, Meonstoke, and East and West Meon. For the termination “ware” = dwellers, cf. Lindisfari, Cantuarii, Boructuari, etc.

Cf. c. 14.

Cf. II, 2, p. 84, note 2.

They were probably joint kings of the Hwiccas.

“Scottish,” as usual, means Irish. There is another Dicul mentioned in III, 19. Stevenson suggests the identification of this Dicul with the Irish monk who wrote a geographical work, the “De Mensura Orbis Terrae,” but he lived in the ninth century.

Bosham, near Chichester. It was the favourite South Saxon abode of Harold and Godwine (Freeman, “Norman Conquest”).

Selsey, the island of the seal (“sea-calf”), south of Chichester. It was a royal “vill.” It became the episcopal see for the South Saxons at some time about 709 (cf. V, 18, ad fin. and note), transferred to Chichester in 1075.

Egfrid fell at the battle of Nechtansmere in 685 (v. c. 26), and Wilfrid was restored to his bishopric “in the second year of Aldfrid,” Egfrid's successor (V, 19, p. 353). He was in Wessex with Caedwalla for part of the year 686 (cf. c. 16).

III, 13, note.

C. 13.

This English equivalent for “viaticum” is used by Stapleton in his translation (1565).

Calendars to show the proper days for commemorative Masses, cf. infra “chronicle” (“annale”). The burial was generally on the day of death, hence “depositio” of the festival of a saint.

It must be remembered that this was a monastery of Northumbrians. But Oswald is said to have held an “imperium” over all England except Kent (II, 5).

C. 12, note.

The West Saxons, v. II, 5 and note. Cf. III, 7.

C. 13.

v. V, 7 ad fin. Like Caedwalla, a descendant of Ceaulin, “A king who deserves the name of great” (Bright), great both as a conqueror and a legislator. He was probably the first king to introduce written law into Wessex, viz., his famous “Dooms,” enacted by a West Saxon witenagemot in the early years of his reign.

Winchester. At this time Haedde was bishop there (c. 12). For the creation of a South Saxon bishopric v. V, 18 ad fin.

Eddius says that Caedwalla sent for him and made him his counsellor; Wilfrid had befriended him when in exile.

Roger of Wendover calls him a subregulus.

Cf. I, 15.

Stoneham on the Itchen, near Southampton. For the preposition, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

Redbridge in Hampshire.

Pref., p. 3 and note; V, 18.

The Solent.

The Hamble.

Eutyches was Archimandrite of a monastery near Constantinople. He was condemned by the synod of Constantinople in 448, and by the council of Chalcedon in 451. He was the originator of the Monophysite heresy which denied the existence of the two natures, the Divine and human, in the Incarnate Son. Monothelitism, which was the subject of the controversy alluded to here, arose out of an attempt to reconcile the Monophysites by the assertion of one will and operation (activity, ἐνέργεια) in our Lord. It was condemned in the General Council of Constantinople, 680-681. In anticipation of this council various provincial synods were held, as well as the synod at Rome assembled by Pope Agatho, at which Wilfrid represented the English church (v. V. 19).

The year was 680 (cf. V, 24), but it falls in the eighth year of Hlothere of Kent, who succeeded in July, 673. For Egfrid, v.s. c. 5, ad init. Probably he succeeded in 671. Ethelred of Mercia succeeded in 675 (V, 24), so that Sept., 680, might easily fall in his sixth year; Aldwulf, of East Anglia, in 663 or 664 (v. II, 15; IV, 23). The eighth indiction, whether Cæsarean or Pontifical (v.s. c. 5, note), includes Sept. 17, 680.

Generally identified with Hatfield in Hertfordshire, but T. Kerslake (“Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia”) supposes it to be Clovesho (Cliff-at-Hoe); v.s. c. 5, and note.

The five Oecumenical Councils which had been held before this time, viz., Nicaea, in 325; Constantinople, in 381-382; Ephesus, in 431; Chalcedon, in 451; Constantinople, in 553. For the Arian heresy, v. I, 8 (and note), where “madness” (“vesania”) is, as here, the word used to describe it. Macedonius was a “semi-Arian,” Eudoxius an Arian; both were bishops of Constantinople. Nestorius was consecrated Bishop of Constantinople in 428. He popularized the heresy which originated with Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, 392-428. It consisted in emphasizing the human element in our Lord's Nature to the practical exclusion of the Divine, as a reaction against Apollinarianism which explained away His real Humanity. “The Christ of Nestorius was, after all, simply a deified man, not God incarnate” (Gore, “Bampton Lectures”). Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in Syria (died 457) and Ibas, Bishop of Edessa, 435-457, were disciples of Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, and opponents of Cyril of Alexandria, who is accused of Apollinarianism in the letter of Ibas.

Justinian I, 527-565.

The first Lateran Council, in 649, against the Monothelites. Martin I, Pope 649-655, died in the Crimea, exiled and imprisoned by the Emperor Constans II in consequence of his resistance to the heresy.

Constantine IV, more generally known as Constans II, 641-688.

We have here, under the auspices of an Eastern Archbishop, a clear enunciation of the doctrine which afterwards divided the east and west: the Double Procession of the Holy Spirit. The “filioque” clause, which formed no part of the Nicene Creed, nor of its Constantinopolitan recension, had been formally adopted at the Third Council of Toledo in 589 and at subsequent Spanish councils. The English prelates at Hatfield were probably influenced by this precedent.

Cf. Bede's “History of the Abbots,” § 6.

I.e., St. Peter's at Rome. The Monastery of St. Martin was on the Esquiline. It was founded by Pope Symmachus in honour of SS. Sylvester and Martin.

Cf. c. 1, notes. (For his life, v. Bede's “History of the Abbots,” and the Anon. “History of the Abbots.”) He has not been mentioned before in this history. His ecclesiastical surname was Benedict, “Baducing” was probably his patronymic. He was of noble birth and a thegn of King Oswy, born in 628. He was the companion of Wilfrid on his first journey to Rome (V, 19). In his native province of Northumbria he founded the monasteries of Wearmouth (in 674) and Jarrow (circ. 681), where Bede's life was passed, and enriched them with furniture, vestments, relics, pictures, and a library of valuable books which he brought from the Continent. The rule which he framed for his monasteries was Benedictine, compiled from seventeen different monasteries which he had visited. He died Jan. 12, 689.

Cf. V, 21. Bede's “History of the Abbots,” and Anon. “History of the Abbots.” He added to Benedict's library. He had been a monk at Ripon under Wilfrid, became Abbot of Jarrow in 681, and of Wearmouth in addition to Jarrow in 688. In 716 he resigned and set out for Rome, but died at Langres in the same year. Bede was trained under him (V, 24) and was probably the little boy left alone with him to recite the offices when the pestilence of 686 swept away the monks. (Anon. Hist. Abb. § 14.)

Cf. II, 20, ad fin., note.

Cf. c. 17, and note.

In the Council of Constantinople, 680-681 (v.s. c. 17 ad init., note.)

To St. Martin's own church at Tours, where, as Abbot of St. Martin's monastery at Rome, it was specially fitting that he should find burial.

Cf. III, 7, note.

“Princeps,” A.S. Ealdorman. The county of the Southern Gyrwas was South Cambridgeshire. Cf. III, 20, note.

Cf. c. 25. Bede tells us in the “Life of Cuthbert,” that she was a half sister of Oswy's on the mother's side. Her name survives in Ebchester on the Derwent, where she founded a nunnery; in St. Abb's Head, near which she afterwards founded the double monastery of Coldingham; and in St. Ebbe's, Oxford. She was the friend of Cuthbert, and it was to her exhortations to Egfrid that Wilfrid owed his release from prison.

Coldingham in Berwickshire. It was a mixed monastery. Cf. c. 25.

Ely. The Isle of Ely was her jointure from her first husband. She received the help and support of Aldwulf, king of East Anglia (II, 15; IV, 17, 23), her cousin (he was the son of Ethelhere and nephew of Anna). The monastery was founded in 673. It was exempted from the jurisdiction of the East Anglian bishop, and subject to Wilfrid.

III, 8, cf. III, 7, note. After her husband's death she acted as regent for a time, then founded a monastery in the Isle of Sheppey, and became abbess of it. Thence she retired to Ely, where, after being a simple nun, she succeeded Ethelthryth as abbess. She was herself succeeded first at Sheppey, and afterwards at Ely, by her daughter Ermingild, widow of Wulfhere of Mercia.

Grantchester, near Cambridge.

A Roman sarcophagus. A number of fragments of very ancient stone coffins have been found there, built into the wall of the church (Mayor and Lumby).

“Audrey” is the popular form of the name Ethelthryth. A “tawdry lace” (i.e. St. Audrey lace) is a necklace; cf. “Winter's Tale,” iv. 3. Hence our word “tawdry,” which possibly only derives its meaning from the cheap necklaces, etc., sold at St. Audrey's fair at Ely on the saint's day, October 17 (the day of her translation), but may also be a reminiscence of this anecdote.

The poem is (1) alphabetical; i.e., the first letters of the hexameter lines form the alphabet, and there are four additional couplets at the end, in which the first letters form the word “Amen”; (2) “serpentine,” reciprocal or echoing; i.e., the last half of the pentameter repeats the first two and a half feet of the hexameter. Such verses are common in mediaeval Latin, and are doubtless a development from the occasional instances of echoing lines which occur in the classical poets (e.g., Martial VIII, xxi, 1-2; IX, 97; Ovid, Fasti IV, 365-366), as the extreme form of that impulse to give emphasis by iteration which is a marked feature of Latin poetry, particularly of the Ovidian elegiac.

Agatha suffered 5th February, 251 a.d., in the Decian persecution, according to her “Acta” (the Diocletian, according to the Martyrology and Aldhelm). Eulalia was burnt to death at the age of twelve in the Diocletian persecution, having denounced herself. The legend tells that a white dove hovered over her ashes till snow fell and covered them. Tecla, the disciple of St. Paul, is said to have been the first virgin martyr. She was miraculously saved from her martyrdom and died in peace long after. Euphemia was torn by wild beasts at Chalcedon in 307 a.d. in the Diocletian persecution. Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, 400 a.d., says that he saw a tablet in the church at Chalcedon depicting her sufferings. We have thus very early evidence for her history. Agnes is said to have been beheaded in 304 a.d., in the Diocletian persecution, at the age of twelve or thirteen. The date of St. Cecilia is very uncertain; Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, says that she died circ. 176-180 a.d., but another account places her martyrdom as late as the time of Diocletian. Her connection with music does not appear in the legends, and is probably due to the fact that Pope Paschal endowed the monastery which he built in connection with her church at Rome to provide for musical services at her tomb day and night.

She had not been a queen twelve years. The dates are probably these: she was born about 630 at Ermynge (Ixning) in Suffolk, and married to Tondbert in 652. Tondbert died in 655, and she was married to Egfrid (who must then have been only fifteen) in 660. Egfrid succeeded to the throne in 670 or 671, and it must have been in 672 that she retired to Coldingham. She was, therefore, queen for not more than two years, though perhaps we may accept the statement of the Liber Eliensis that Egfrid was sub-king of Deira for some years before his accession.

I.e., she had been buried sixteen years; v.s. c. 19.

Literally the water snake, ὕδρος, used generally for any serpent, and so = the Devil; Chelydrus is similarly used (v. Ducange).

The Battle of the Trent in 679 (cf. V, 24). It was on the anniversary of Wilfrid's expulsion; he is said to have foretold a calamity. The place may, perhaps, be identified with Elford-on-Trent, in Staffordshire; it is supposed that the name may be a reminiscence of Aelfwine. By this battle Mercia regained Lindsey, which never again became Northumbrian (cf. c. 12, ad fin.).

Cf. c. 22, where he is called “King Aelfwine,” as also twice in Eddius. He may have been sub-king of Deira.

III, 11; V, 24. When Wilfrid took refuge in Mercia in 681, she and her husband expelled him “pro adulatione Egfridi regis” (Eddius).

The “Wergild,” i.e., pecuniary value set upon every man's life according to his status (v. Stubbs, “Constitutional History”).

“Comes,” A.S. “gesith.” Above, Imma is described as “de militia ejus juvenis,” i.e., a young “king's thegn” (the term applied to him in the A.S. version).

Towcester (“Tovecester,” in Domesday Book) in Northamptonshire, Doncaster, and Littleborough have all been suggested, but the place has not been identified. The name indicates that it had been a Roman station.

Sexburg. Cf. III, 8; IV, 19, p. 261, and note.

Cf. III, 24, 25; IV, 24; V, 24.

Ibid.

Cf. infra, this Chapter. He was the son of Edwin's elder brother, who died in exile after the invasion of Deira by Ethelric, king of Bernicia, in 589.

II, 9, foll.

Her sister, Heresuid, had married Ethelhere, brother of Anna, of East Anglia, whom he succeeded. In 647, when Hilda took the veil, Anna was still king.

III, 8, note.

Cf. II, 15; IV, 17.

A small cell, not otherwise known.

Hartlepool, v. III, 24, p. 190, note.

Bede is the sole authority for her life. A fifteenth century gloss on one of the MSS. has led to her being wrongly identified with the Irish Bega, the supposed foundress of St. Bees.

A Roman station on the Wharfe, now Tadcaster. Probably the nunnery was at Healaugh (Heiu's laeg = territory), three miles north of Calcaria. A gravestone bearing Heiu's name has been found there.

Cf. c. 12.

His name does not appear in any of the lists of bishops. There is no evidence that a see of Dorchester (cf. III, 7, and note) existed at this time, except from this passage and the statement of Florence of Worcester to the effect that a fivefold division of the Mercian diocese took place in 679, that Dorchester was included in Mercia, and that Aetla was appointed as its bishop. Probably this latter statement is derived from Bede. It has been proposed to identify Aetla with Haedde, Bishop of the West Saxons (III, 7; IV, 12; V, 18), but it seems unlikely that Bede should not have mentioned their identity. The most probable explanation seems to be that a see was established about 679 at Dorchester (which may have been under Mercia at the time) and that Aetla was its bishop, but that it had only a very short existence.

Cf. infra, notes.

John of Beverley, “Inderauuda” (v. V, 2). He and Berthun (ibid.) are said to have founded Beverley. He was consecrated Bishop of Hexham, probably in 687, transferred to York 705, when Wilfrid was restored to Hexham, and died in 721, soon after his retirement to Beverley (V, 6, ad fin.). As Bishop of Hexham he ordained Bede both deacon and priest (V. 24). He had been a pupil of Archbishop Theodore (cf. V. 3).

Wilfrid II, Bishop of York. He succeeded John (V, 6) in 718, and was still Bishop of York in 731 when Bede finished the History (cf. V, 23). In 732 he resigned and was succeeded by Egbert (to whom Bede addressed the Ep. ad Egb., and who in 735 received the pallium as Archbishop of York). Wilfrid died in 745 (v. Continuation, 732, 735, and 745). His character is highly praised by Alcuin (De Sanct. Ebor.).

Hartlepool and Whitby, both apparently double monasteries.

Cf. II, 2, p. 84.

Dr. Stubbs suggests that this sub-king of the Hwiccas may possibly be the same as Osric of Northumbria, v. V, 23, and note.

The see was at Worcester. The foundation of the bishopric is assigned by Florence of Worcester to the year 679, the date of the alleged fivefold division of the Mercian diocese (v.s. p. 272, note 2), Bosel being appointed bishop.

Cf. c. 12 and note.

The consecration of Oftfor is generally placed in 691. It was after Wilfrid's second expulsion, when he was acting as Bishop of Leicester. Theodore had died in 690, and Bertwald was not consecrated till 693 (v. V, 8).

So Florence of Worcester.

He was king of the Britons of Loidis and Elmet. It was probably to avenge the death of his nephew, Hereric, that Edwin conquered Loidis and drove out Cerdic.

Cf. c. 14, note.

Hackness, thirteen miles from Whitby and three to the west of Scarborough. It was a cell belonging to Whitby. At the dissolution under Henry VIII, it contained only four monks, of the Benedictine order (Dugdale, “Monasticon”).

She has been confused with Heiu and with Bega, v.s. p. 271, note 7.

I.e., the Prioress.

Obviously ballads, probably of a warlike character, existed before Caedmon, but he is regarded as the father of English sacred poetry. It is a question how far the new impulse arose independently among the Anglo-Saxons, or is to be connected with Old Saxon religious poetry of which the “Heliand” is the only extant specimen (cf. Plummer, ad loc.). Of the mass of poetry attributed to Caedmon, much must be regarded as not his actual work. The fragment translated here by Bede has been accepted as genuine by most critics. It exists in the Northumbrian dialect at the end of the Moore MS. of Bede, and in a West Saxon form in other MSS., as well as in the Anglo-Saxon translation of Bede's History, the Northumbrian version being the oldest.

“Villicus,” A.S. “tun-gerefa” = town-reeve, i.e., headman of the township. Cædmon was apparently a herdsman on a farm belonging to the monastery.

Cf. Levit., xi, 3, and Deut., xiv, 6.

Apparently reserved and kept in the Infirmary for the Communion of the dying.

Matins were sung soon after midnight.

Coldingham, v.s. c. 19 and note.

Not the Abbot of Iona who wrote the the life of St. Columba (V, 15, 21). This Adamnan is found in the Martyrology of Wilson, in Colgan's “Lives of the Irish Saints,” and in Bollandus, “Acta Sanctorum.”

From the Vulgate, Ps. xciv, 2. (xcv in our Psalter.)

C. 19 and note.

The detached dwellings built round the principal buildings of the community. Irish monasteries were built after this fashion.

Wearmouth and Jarrow.

For Berct, cf. V, 24 (sub 698), note. The circumstances which led to the invasion are not known.

The Picts north of the Forth, cf. c. 12, ad fin. Their king at this time was Bruide mac Bili, who was Egfrid's distant kinsman. In 672 Egfrid had crushed a rising of Picts under the same king.

Cf. cc. 27-32. He had a mysterious intimation of the disaster at the hour of the king's defeat and death, and warned the queen (Eormenburg), who was with him at Carlisle (v. Bede's Life of Cuthbert, and the Anonymous Life). He is also said to have prophesied the king's death a year before to Elfled, Egfrid's sister (v. III, 24).

At Nechtansmere or Dunnechtan, identified with Dunnichen, near Forfar. Egfrid was buried in Iona, where Adamnan, the friend of his successor, was Abbot.

Cf. c. 5 ad init., note. If he succeeded in February, 670, this would be his sixteenth year.

III, 4, 27; IV, 3; V, 9, 10, 22, 24. His English birth and long residence in Ireland fitted him to be a mediator.

Vergil, Aen. II, 169.

The Dalriadic Scots (Cf. I, 1, note; I, 34) and the Britons of Strathclyde.

Cf. c. 12.

Abercorn on the Forth, cf. I, 12; IV, 12, and note.

III, 24, 25; IV, 23; V, 24.

Cf. III, 24, p. 190.

III, 24, and note. Elfled succeeded Hilda as abbess, and apparently ruled jointly with her mother.

Cf. V, passim, and Bede's two lives of Cuthbert. His mother's name is said by the Irish authorities to have been Fina. He had lived among the Irish islands (“in insulis Scottorum,” and “in regionibus Scottorum”) for the sake of study, according to Bede, but William of Malmesbury implies that Egfrid may have been responsible for his exile. He was a man of great learning and of scholarly tastes. In Bede's “History of the Abbots,” we are told that he gave eight hides of land for a MS. which Benedict Biscop had brought from Rome.

Cc. 5, 17, 22.

Cc. 1, 5.

Apparently at one time joint-king with Hlothere. Certain dooms are ascribed to them both. According to Thomas of Elmham, he was killed in war against Caedwalla, king of Wessex, and his brother, Mul, who were at this time encroaching on Kent.

Mul seems to have usurped the throne for a time.

In 692 we find him reigning as joint-king with Swaebhard (V, 8 ad fin.). He must have succeeded in 690, if Bede's dates are correct; cf. V, 23, where it is said that he died on April 23, 725, after a reign of thirty-four and a half years.

I.e., 685.

C. 26 and note.

Cf. III, 16 and note.

As a boy he had been remarkable for his high spirits and love of athletic exercises. The rebuke of a little boy of three is said to have turned his thoughts to a more serious life, and a vision which he saw as he watched his sheep on the Lammermuir Hills on the night of Aidan's death, led him to form the resolve of entering a monastery. (Bede's Life of Cuthbert.)

Melrose; cf. III, 26 and note.

Ibid. and V, 9.

C. 12, p. 243, note 1.

C. 28; V, 9. Probably here “sacerdos” = priest, A.S. version: “masse-preost.” But Aelfric calls him bishop. The town of St. Boswells on the Tweed is called after him. For an instance of his prophetic spirit, v. infra, c. 28. It was his fame which drew Cuthbert to Melrose. When he saw the youth on his arrival, he exclaimed, “Behold a servant of the Lord!” He is generally supposed to have been carried off by the plague of 664. For an account of his last days spent in reading the Gospel of St. John with Cuthbert, v. Bede's Prose Life of Cuthbert. The “codex” which they used was extant in Durham in Simeon of Durham's time.

Cf. III, 3, p. 139, note 3.

Cf. I, 27 ad init.

Much of the account given here is from the prose life.

The synod of Twyford, a mixed assembly of clergy and laity, met in the autumn of 684. The place is “perhaps where the Aln is crossed by two fords near Whittingham” (in Northumberland) (Bright). This is another instance of the preposition prefixed to the name, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

Cc. 12, 26.

Cf. c. 27, p. 288.

In 685.

Cf. c. 12 and note.

Ibid.

Soon after Christmas, 686. In February, 687, his last illness began.

St. Herbert's Island in Derwentwater. Strictly speaking, the Derwent flows through Derwentwater: it rises in Borrowdale. An indulgence of forty days was granted by Thomas Appleby, Bishop of Carlisle, in 1374 to pilgrims who visited the island.

Carlisle, called also Luel by Simeon of Durham.

In 687.

In St. Peter's Church. In 875, when the monks fled from Lindisfarne before the Danes, his relics were removed, first to Chester-le-Street, then to Ripon, and eventually to Durham. Simeon of Durham says the body was found to be uncorrupted, when it was placed in the new Cathedral there in 1104.

The year in which he administered the bishopric falls between his restoration to York, Hexham, and the monastery of Ripon, and his second expulsion.

Cf. III, 25, ad init., and infra c. 30. In the life of Cuthbert he is described as a man “magnarum virtutum” (miraculous powers?). Alcuin tells that he calmed the winds by his prayers.

698 a.d.

The Dacre, a small stream near Penrith. There are the ruins of a castle, and Smith says there is a tradition of a monastery on its banks.

Not the missionary in V, 11.

“Innumera miracula” are ascribed to him by Florence of Worcester.

III, 16, and note; IV, 27-30.

Ripon, v. III, 25, p. 194; V, 19.

Cuthbert and Eadbert (IV, 29, 30). His relics were removed with Cuthbert's and finally interred at Durham.

IV, 26, and V, 18. He reigned from 685 to 705.

III, 26; IV, 12, 27, 28. He died in 686.

John of Beverley, v. IV, 23, p. 273, and note. Wilfrid administered the bishopric during the vacancy between Eata's death and John's consecration in 687.

Cf. ibid.

Beverley. The present name is said to be derived from a colony of beavers in the Hull river. In 866 the minster was destroyed by the Danes, but it was repaired three years later. In 925 Athelstan restored it and made it collegiate, giving it lands and various privileges. (For the preposition, v. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.)

Supposed to have been at St. John's Lee, near Hexham. The old name is Erneshow or Herneshaw. (Richard of Hexham, Folcard.)

The reading of the best MSS., “Clymeterium” (v. ll. clymiterium, climiterium, clymitorium) seems inexplicable. Smith reads “coemeterium,” probably on the authority of a gloss (“id est cimeterium”) on some of the later MSS., and it has generally been translated “cemetery.” The AS. version has “gebæd hus 7 ciricean” = oratory and church.

Acts, iii, 2-8.

This was Wilfrid's second restoration. He recovered Hexham and the monastery of Ripon at the Synod on the Nidd in 705.

Bosa (IV, 12, 23) died circ. 705.

Watton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. (“Hodie Watton, i.e., humida villa ex aquis et paludibus quibus septa est.” Smith.) It is called Betendune by Folcard, the biographer of Bishop John.

For “studium” = medical treatment, v. Plummer, ad loc. Under the verb, studere, Ducange gives instances of this meaning: “Iussitque rex, ut studeretur a medicis”; Greg. Turon., vi, 32. “Episcopus, adhibito mulomedico, jussit ei (equo) studium impendere, quo scilicet sanari potuisset”; St. Audoënus, lib. 2; Vit. St. Eligii, 44.

Bishop John had studied under Theodore. Cf. IV, 23, note.

Note the tendency to hereditary succession in monasteries (v. Haddan and Stubbs, III, 337-338). Instances are, however, rare in England, though common in Ireland, where the clan system affected ecclesiastical preferments. Eanfled and Elfled at Whitby are not a case in point, as Eanfled did not precede her daughter, but was only associated with her in some way in the government of the monastery.

This “vill” was at South Burton (Folcard), now called Bishop Burton, between two and three miles from Beverley.

To redeem his fast, as the A.S. version explains.

St. Matt., viii, 14-15; St. Mark, i, 30-31; St. Luke, iv, 38-39.

At North Burton (Dugdale, “Monasticon”).

He lived till 745, according to Simeon of Durham.

There were probably two monasteries at Tynemouth, the one mentioned here, and another (v. Bede's “Life of Cuthbert”), which had been a house of monks, but afterwards, when Bede wrote, had become a nunnery.

Breathing on the face and catechizing were practised in order to exorcise evil spirits from the hearts of catechumens (Bede, Opp. viii, 106).

The Saxon Chronicle is very exact: “Thirty-three years, eight months, and thirteen days.” This would date his episcopate from August, 687, to May, 721, for May 7th was observed as the day of his festival at Beverley.

Cf. c. 2.

Wilfrid II: v. IV, 23, p. 273, and note.

I.e., in 688. For Caedwalla, v. IV, 12 (and note), 15, 16.

Sergius I, 687-701.

Cf. II, 9, 14 and notes.

Cf. II, 14 and note.

By Benedictus Crispus, Archbishop of Milan. He died in 725.

I.e., Sergius was his godfather (cf. III, 7, where Oswald stands sponsor for Cynegils). The Saxon Chronicle says he also baptized him.

Justinian II. He succeeded in 685 and died in 711.

Cf. IV, 15, and note. Thus, according to Bede's reckoning, he reigned from 688 to 725, but the date of his abdication is variously given.

Gregory II., 715-731, v. Preface, p. 2.

He was consecrated 26th March, 668, and died, as Bede says here, on 19th September, 690.

The church of SS. Peter and Paul. Cf. II, 3, p. 90.

They are elegiacs. Cf. I, 10.

Cf. II, 3, and infra 19, 23.

The old Roman town Reculver, in Kent. A charter of 679 exists (the oldest original English charter extant) by which King Hlothere of Kent grants land in Thanet to Bertwald and his monastery.

Said to be the Inlade.

The see was, therefore, vacant for two years, possibly owing to the political troubles of the time, cf. IV, 26, ad fin. The further delay of a year between Bertwald's election and consecration may have been caused by his desire to obtain greater weight as consecrated by the Primate of a neighbouring Church (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 229).

For Wictred, v. IV, 26, and note. Thomas of Elmham tries to identify Suaebhard with Suefred, son of Sebbi, king of the East Saxons (v. IV, 11, ad fin.), and says that he made himself king of Kent by violence, but this seems very improbable.

He was Archbishop of Lyons. The Church of Lyons did not obtain the primacy over other metropolitan churches till the eleventh century, but apparently it held a leading position even before this time.

He was trained under Theodore and Hadrian in the School of Canterbury; cf. V, 23, ad init. The date of Gebmund's death and the succession of Tobias cannot be earlier than 696, as Gebmund (v. IV, 12) appears to have been present at the Kentish Witenagemot of Bersted in that year. (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 238, 241.) Tobias died in 726.

III, 4, 27; IV, 3, 26, and infra cc. 10, 22, 23, 24.

The name does not occur in any Celtic literature which we possess. All the evidence seems to show that the Celts have always called the English “Saxons.” “Ellmyn,” for Allemanni, occurs sometimes in Welsh poetry (Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain”).

The Frisians at this time occupied the coastland from the Maas to the region beyond the Ems. The Rugini are probably the Rugii (v. Tacitus, Germania, Chapter XLIII). They were on the shores of the Baltic, probably about the mouth of the Oder (the name survives in Rügen and Rügenwalde). They are found with other North German tribes in the army of Attila, and afterwards formed a settlement on the Lower Danube. The Danes were mainly in Jutland, Fünen, and the extreme south of Scandinavia. The Huns, who appeared in Europe towards the end of the fourth century and menaced both the Eastern and Western Empires, were, after Attila's death, driven eastwards, and settled near the Pontus, disappearing among the Bulgarians and other kindred tribes. The Old Saxons, or Saxons of the Continent (cf. I, 15), occupied both sides of the Elbe. The name Saxon does not occur in the oldest accounts of the Germans. Probably it was a new name for a union of nations which comprised the Cherusci, Chauci, Angrivarii (and perhaps other tribes) of Tacitus. The Boructuari are the Bructeri in Westphalia (v. Zeuss, “Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme”).

Cf. IV, 27 (note) and 28.

Melrose; cf. III, 26; IV, 27, and infra c. 12.

IV, 27. Cf. III, 26; IV, 12, 28; V, 2.

Cf. III, 3, 4, and notes; i.e., the monasteries which owed their origin to Columba and were included in the “province” of Iona. They are distinguished from those which are mentioned in c. 15 as “ab Hiensium dominio liberi.”

His baptismal name was Colum (columba = a dove). He is said to have acquired the name of Colum-cille, because in his youth he was so constantly in the “cell” or oratory.

Jonah, i, 12.

Nothing more is known of him. Alcuin mentions him in his life of Wilbrord. His name is included in a list of the eleven companions of Wilbrord given in a life of St. Suidbert (v. infra c. 11), but no value is to be attached to it (v. Haddan and Stubbs, III, 225). Bede distinctly says that he retired from missionary efforts after this unsuccessful attempt.

The story is told that at one time Rathbed was about to receive baptism at the hands of St. Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, but drew back on being told that his ancestors were among the lost, refusing to go to Heaven without them. His perpetual wars with the Franks ended in his defeat and expulsion, and he died in 719.

The authority for Wilbrord's life is Alcuin, who wrote it both in prose and verse. Wilbrord was born in 657 or 658 in Northumbria, and was handed over by his mother to the monks at Ripon in his infancy. His father, Wilgils, became a hermit on a promontory at the mouth of the Humber. At the age of twenty he went to Ireland for the sake of study and a stricter life. In 690 he set out for Frisland with eleven others, landed at Katwyk and went to Utrecht, which was afterwards his episcopal see (v. infra c. 11).

They turned aside to Pippin on finding Rathbed obdurate. Pippin of Heristal, Mayor of the Palace of the Austrasian kings, had defeated the Neustrians at Testry in 687 and was now the actual ruler of the Franks, though it was his grandson, Pippin the Short, who first assumed royal power.

Cf. c. 9, p. 319, and note.

Roger of Wendover places their mission in 695. It must have been later than Wilbrord's in 690.

“Satrap,” cf. Stubbs, Constitutional History, i, pp. 41-42. From this passage and similar notices of the Continental Saxons he infers that they had remained free from Roman influences and from any foreign intermixture of blood or institutions. “They had preserved the ancient features of German life in their purest forms.... King Alfred, when he translated Bede had no difficulty in recognizing in the satrap the ealdorman, in the villicus the tungerefa, in the vicus the tunscipe of his own land.”

The year cannot be fixed.

The Church of St. Cunibert, Cologne (Gallican Martyrology, quoted by Smith).

Sergius I: v.s. c. 7.

Alcuin tells how he killed some of the sacred cattle of the god Fosite, a son of Balder, in Heligoland, and baptized three men in his well.

A life of him by Marcellinus (v.s. c. 9, note on Wictbert) is worthless historically. Besides what we learn from Bede, we have the date of his death (713) given by the “Annales Francorum.”

This was after Wilfrid's second expulsion (V, 19). Bertwald was elected in July, 692, and returned from the Continent in August, 693 (v.s. c. 8).

The usual form of the name is Plectrude.

Kaiserwerth on the Rhine, where it is believed that his relics still remain in a silver shrine in the thirteenth-century church. (For the preposition, v. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.)

This was Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. The festival is 22nd November. As to the year, Mr. Plummer considers that an entry in an old calendar belonging to Epternach, near Trèves, Wilbrord's own monastery, giving the date 695, is almost certainly by Wilbrord himself.

Utrecht. A distinction has been drawn between the two places, Wiltaburg, or Wiltenburg, being a village near Utrecht, but the names appear to be interchangeable.

The Church of St. Saviour. He also rebuilt a small church which had been destroyed by the pagans, and consecrated it in honour of St. Martin (Letter of St. Boniface to Pope Stephen). The cathedral stands on the site of this church.

Bede writes in 731. As Alcuin says Wilbrord lived to be eighty-one years of age, he must have died in 738 or 739. Boniface is fairly accurate when he says that he preached for fifty years.

Mr. Skene (“Celtic Scotland,” i., p. 219) has shown that the place cannot be Cunningham in Ayrshire, which was not in Northumbria, but in Strathclyde, and not at that time subject to Northumbria. He suggests Tininghame in East Lothian, which Simeon of Durham calls Intiningaham, and places in the diocese of Lindisfarne (C being a scribe's error for T). Chester-le-Street (Saxon: Cunungaceaster) has also been suggested.

Melrose, v. III, 26; IV, 27; V, 9.

Cf. III, 19. On mediaeval visions, cf. Plummer, ad loc., and Bright, p. 144.

Vergil, Aen. VI, 268.

IV, 26; V. 1.

Cf. c. 23. He began life in the service of St. Cuthbert. He became first Prior, or Provost, then Abbot of Melrose, and succeeded Eadfrid, who died in 721, as Bishop of Lindisfarne. He enriched Lindisfarne with two treasures of art: a beautiful stone cross which he erected there, and a cover of gold and jewels for the Lindisfarne Gospels, written by Eadfrid in honour of St. Cuthbert. The book is now in the British Museum, but the cover is lost.

704-709. Cf. infra, c. 19, pp. 345, 356, and c. 24. He was the son of Wulfhere, but being a boy at the time of his father's death, was passed over in favour of Ethelred, Wulfhere's brother.

Ps. xxxi, 1, in the Vulgate (xxxii in our Psalter).

Bishop of Whitern; v. infra, cc. 18, 23.

Cf. 1 John, v, 16.

Acts, vii, 56.

The northern Irish, and of them only those who were independent of Iona (v. infra). The southern Irish had conformed much earlier; cf. III, 3, and note.

It is not clear whether Bede means that any Britons were converted by Adamnan. If so, they must have been Britons of Strathclyde. The Welsh only conformed 755-777. The reference may be to those of the Cornish Britons, subject to the West Saxons, who were led in 705 by Aldhelm's letter to Geraint to adopt the Catholic Easter (v. infra, c. 18).

Ninth Abbot of Iona, 679-704, the author of the Life of St. Columba.

Of Northumbria. Aldfrid, who had studied in Iona during his exile, was his friend. Adamnan visited the king twice, first, circ. 686, when he obtained the release of the sixty Irish prisoners taken to England by Berct in 684 (v. IV, 26 ad init.) and again two years later (cf. infra c. 21, p. 372, note 2).

The Irish annals mention two voyages to Ireland subsequent to that in 686 with the prisoners, viz., in 692 and 697, after which he probably stayed there till after Easter, 704.

On 23rd September, 704. (The dates are those of Tighernach and the “Annales Cambriae.”)

Adamnan's “De Locis Sanctis,” and Bede's account here, are the only sources of information with regard to this bishop. Adamnan's book is based on the narrative of Arculf compared with other authorities. Bede, again, in his own work on the the same subject, made selections from Adamnan, using also other authorities, e.g. Josephus.

I.e., he had copies made of it.

Nevertheless he quotes his own book rather than Adamnan's.

Cf. Warren and Conder, “Survey of Western Palestine”: “Bethlehem, a well-built stone town, standing on a narrow ridge which runs east and west ... towards the east is the open market place, and, beyond this, the convent in which is the fourth century church of St. Mary, including the Grotto of the Nativity beneath the main apse.”

“Vulturnus” seems to be distinguished from its Greek equivalent, “Eurus.”

The Basilica of the Anastasis was completed by Constantine in 335 a.d., and destroyed in 614 by Chosroes II, King of Persia. Other ancient travellers besides Arculf describe the Holy Places. Eucherius, writing about 427-440, mentions the Martyrium, Golgotha and the Anastasis, and describes their respective sites in similar terms. Theodorus (about 530 a.d.) alludes to the Invention of the Holy Cross by Helena, but the earliest authorities do not connect her with it.

“Brucosa.” The adjective is not found in the dictionaries. But Ducange has the following words from which one may, perhaps, infer an adjective of kindred meaning: “Brua, idem quod supra Brossa, silvula, dumetum,” “Bruarium, ericetum,” and “Broca, ager incultus, dumetum.”

The Basilica of the Ascension, on the summit of Mount Olivet, is mentioned by the Pilgrim of Bordeaux who was in Jerusalem in 333 a.d. No traces of the church have been found. He also speaks of the Anastasis, which was being built at the time.

Saewulf (1102 a.d.) writes: “Below is the place called Golgotha, where Adam is said to have been raised to life by the Blood of our Lord which fell upon him, as is said in the Passion, ‘And many bodies of the saints which slept arose.’ But in the sentences of St. Augustine we read that he was buried in Hebron, where also the three patriarchs were afterwards buried with their wives, Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, and Jacob with Leah, as well as the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel carried with them from Egypt.”

He died at Driffield (supposed to mean the “field of Deira”), in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on 14th December, 705 (Saxon Chronicle).

Bede and the Chronicle do not mention the usurper Eadwulf, who held the sovereignty for eight weeks. With Aldfrid the greatness of Northumbria, which had begun to decline after Egfrid's defeat and death, passed away, except for a brief revival in the time of Eadbert and his brother, Archbishop Egbert. Osred was a tyrannical and lawless boy, and a period of political and ecclesiastical trouble set in (cf. Bede, “Epistola ad Egbertum”; Boniface, Ep. 62, etc.).

III, 7; IV, 12.

Infra c. 23. He has been mentioned, c. 13, ad fin. He studied under Aldhelm at Malmesbury (v. infra).

The greatest scholar of his time and the man of widest influence as a teacher. He was a West Saxon, of royal blood, born about 639; he studied first under Hadrian in the School of Canterbury, then under Maildufus (v. infra), was ordained priest by Bishop Hlothere (Leutherius, v. III, 7), and about the year 675 became Abbot of Malmesbury, which under his rule grew to be a place of importance and attracted crowds of students. On one occasion he went by invitation of Pope Sergius to Rome. He became Bishop of Sherborne, when in 705 the West Saxon diocese was divided (v. infra). He died in 709 in the little church of Doulting in Somerset and was buried in St. Michael's Church at Malmesbury. He greatly strengthened the Church in Wessex by his influence with King Ini and his zeal in building churches and monasteries in various places. His widespread influence, as well as his generous use of it, is shown by his letter to Wilfrid's clergy after the Council of Estrefeld, exhorting them to remain faithful to their bishop (v. Haddan and Stubbs, III, 254).

In 705. The bishopric of the West Saxons was the only one which Theodore did not subdivide. The delay may have been due to the political disturbances of the time, and these had come to an end under the rule of Ini. Haedde's death removed a further difficulty. He seems to have resisted Bertwald's attempt to divide the diocese, for we find in 704 a council threatening the West Saxons with excommunication if the division is not carried out. Hampshire, Surrey, and, for a time, Sussex, were assigned to Winchester; Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire to Sherborne (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 276), but the authorities differ on this point. After the Conquest, the combined bishoprics of Sherborne and Ramsbury (founded in 909 for Wiltshire) had their see established at Old Sarum.

Cf. Preface, p. 3, and note, and IV, 16. In 744 he resigned his see and died in 745. It appears from a letter of Boniface to him that he became blind in his old age.

Malmesbury. It was founded by an Irish monk and scholar, Maildufus (Irish “Maelduib”), as a small settlement living under monastic rule (v.s. note on Aldhelm).

His letter to Geraint or Gerontius, king of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall). A West Saxon synod in 705 appointed Aldhelm to write a book, “quo maligna haeresis Britonum destrueretur” (Faricius, Life of Aldhelm). He appears to have influenced only those Britons who were subject to the West Saxons. Devon and Cornwall did not finally conform to the Catholic Easter till early in the tenth century.

Cf. IV, 10 (note on Hildilid).

A poet of the fifth century (circ. 450), author of a poem called “Carmen Paschale.” He translated it into prose and called it “Opus Paschale.” Aldhelm wrote his prose work first.

His style is turgid and grandiloquent, and, owing to the high estimation in which he was held, his influence in this respect on contemporary writing was harmful.

Cf. infra c. 23. A letter to him from Archbishop Bertwald is extant. We do not know how long he lived. We have his signature to a charter of 739.

Cf. IV, 15. The see was established at Selsey. The date of this event is not known (Matthew of Westminster is the only authority for 711). Bede indicates it very vaguely (“quibus administrantibus”), and does not make it clear to whose administration he alludes. The more obvious reference is surely to Daniel and Aldhelm, the passage about Forthere being parenthetical, but the other view has the authority of Haddan and Stubbs (III, 296), viz., that he means Daniel and Forthere, and that thus the date is fixed to some time after Aldhelm's death (709).

Selsey, cf. IV, 13, 14.

The vacancy was filled in 733 by the appointment of Sigfrid (v. Continuation).

Cf. c. 18, ad init. His fourth year was 709.

C. 13 and infra c. 19 ad fin., and c. 24. For a similar action, cf. Caedwalla and Ini (v.s. c. 7) and (infra) Offa.

Constantine I, 708-715.

709-716. St. Boniface (Letter to Ethelbald) gives Ceolred a very bad character, and says that he died impenitent at a banquet, seized with sudden madness. He alludes to him and Osred of Northumbria as the first kings who tampered with the privileges of the Church.

III, 30, and IV, 6. Sighere reigned jointly with Sebbi. They were succeeded by Sebbi's sons, Sighard and Swefred (IV, 11). Offa probably succeeded them just before this time (709); William of Malmesbury says he reigned for a short time. He was succeeded by Selred (d. 746).

St. Matt., xix, 29; St. Mark, x, 30; St. Luke, xviii, 30.

Oundle in Northamptonshire, where he had a monastery on land given him by Wulfhere of Mercia. For the form of the name, cf. infra, “in provincia Undalum.” Here the preposition is prefixed as often; v. II, 14, note. Wilfrid died on a Thursday in October: there is some uncertainty about the day of the month.

Cf. the epitaph (infra) and c. 24, where Bede places his consecration in 664. This is supported by William of Malmesbury, but Eddius says he was bishop for forty-six years.

Ripon, v. infra, p. 56. In the tenth century, Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, removed certain relics to Canterbury, believing them to be the body of Wilfrid. At Ripon it was maintained that the relics were those of Wilfrid II.

Our main authority for the life of Wilfrid is Eddius (v. IV, 2). Bede's account is remarkable for its omissions, though it gives a few facts which Eddius omits.

His birth must be placed in 634 (cf. infra, his consecration at the age of thirty). His father was a Northumbrian thegn. He is said to have had an unkind stepmother. He was sent by his father to the court of Oswy, thence, by Eanfled (cf. II, 9, 20; III, 15, 24, et saep.) to Lindisfarne, at that time under the rule of Aidan.

III, 8. He was the son of Eadbald (II, 5, 6, 9, et saep.). Eanfled's mother was the sister of Eadbald, the Kentish princess Ethelberg (“Tata”), wife of Edwin (II, 9, 11, 20).

II, 18 et saep.

IV, 18, and note.

Cf. III, 25. Annemundus was the name of the Archbishop. Dalfinus, Count of Lyons, was his brother. Eddius makes the same mistake.

A daughter of the Count.

He presented Wilfrid to the Pope, Eugenius I. A leaden “bulla” with the name of Boniface, Archdeacon, inscribed upon it was found at Whitby not long ago.

I.e., to Annemundus.

This seems to be another mistake in which Bede follows Eddius. It was probably Ebroin (v. IV, 1, note), Mayor of the Palace to her infant son Clothaire III, who put Annemundus to death. Baldhild was, however, regent at the time. Eddius calls her a Jezebel, but all that we know of her shows her to have been a most pious and charitable lady, and she has been canonized by the Church. She was especially active in her efforts to stop the traffic in slaves. She herself, though she is said to have been of noble English birth, had been sold as a slave into Gaul. She was married first to Ercinwald, Mayor of the Palace, the predecessor of Ebroin (v. III, 19), and afterwards to Clovis II, King of Neustria and Burgundy, 638-656. Baldhild ended her life in the monastery of Chelles (v. III, 8, and note).

III, 14, 21, 24, 25, 28. He was a friend of Coinwalch of Wessex, from whom, as Eddius says, he learned to love the Roman rules.

Possibly Stamford, in Lincolnshire; more probably, since the land belonged to Alchfrid, Stamford Bridge, on the Derwent, in Yorkshire.

Cf. III, 25, where the extent is given as forty families, i.e., “hides.”

Cf. III, 7, 25, 28; IV, 1, 12. For the Gewissae, v. II, 5 and note.

At the synod of Whitby, 664 (III, 25).

Tuda (III, 26) had died of the plague of 664. For Wilfrid's consecration, v. III, 28, ad init., and note. Agilbert was not Bishop of Paris till 666 (cf. III, 25, p. 194, note).

Cf. III, 28, and note. Wilfrid did not return to Britain till 666. Bede omits the story of his shipwreck on the coast of Sussex, and says nothing of the three years spent as Abbot of Ripon, whither he retired on finding Ceadda installed in his place. During this time he acted occasionally as Bishop for Mercia, where the see was vacant by the death of Jaruman in 667, and for Kent, during part of the vacancy between the death of Deusdedit in 664 and Theodore's arrival in 669.

The same Witan which elected Wilfrid decided to transfer the Northumbrian see from Lindisfarne back to York, where Paulinus had originally established it.

In 678, v. IV, 12, and note. Bede passes over nine years of ceaseless activity in the diocese. It was during this time that Wilfrid built his great churches.

Eddius says that he went there by his own wish. This is not the occasion referred to in III, 13 (v. note, ad loc.). Ebroin, from motives of private enmity (Wilfrid had helped his enemy, Dagobert II of Austrasia), attempted to bribe Aldgils to kill or surrender Wilfrid, but his offer was indignantly rejected.

Cc. 10, 11; cf. III, 13.

On the way he visited Dagobert II of Austrasia, and Perctarit, king of the Lombards.

At a council of fifty bishops held in the Lateran in 679. Theodore had sent documents stating his side of the case in charge of a monk named Coenwald. For Agatho, v. IV, 18. The decision was that Wilfrid should be reinstated in his bishopric and the intruding bishops removed, but that afterwards he should appoint coadjutors who should be consecrated by the Archbishop.

This council was held in 680 in preparation for the Council at Constantinople in 680-681, against the Monothelites (cf. IV, 17, 18, and notes).

In 680. Here Bede strangely omits important events. On Wilfrid's return to Northumbria he was accused of having procured his acquittal by bribery and was imprisoned for nine months, first at Bromnis (unidentified) and then at Dunbar. Being released at the request of Aebba, Abbess of Coldingham (v. IV, 19, 25), who was Egfrid's aunt, he went first to Mercia and then to Wessex, but was expelled from both provinces. Egfrid's sister Osthryth was the wife of Ethelred of Mercia, and in Wessex the king, Centwine, had married a sister of the Northumbrian queen, Eormenburg.

IV, 13.

IV, 13, 16. His connection with Caedwalla of Wessex is to be placed here (IV, 16).

In 686 he was restored to the bishopric of York and the monastery of Ripon. The diocese over which he was now placed was greatly circumscribed. Lindsey and Abercorn, besides having been detached by the subdivision, had both ceased to belong to Northumbria; Lindisfarne and Hexham were separate bishoprics and were merely administered by Wilfrid till the appointment of Eadbert to Lindisfarne and of John to Hexham. The restoration of Wilfrid was brought about by Theodore who had become reconciled to him and induced Aldfrid to allow him to be reinstated.

This was his second expulsion, in 691. Dissensions had arisen about various matters. The most important were the attempt, resisted by Wilfrid, to form Ripon into a separate see, and the requirement that he should accept the decrees of Theodore of 678. To accept these would have been equivalent to a rejection of the Pope's judgement in his case.

Bede omits here Wilfrid's second sojourn in Mercia (eleven years), when he acted temporarily as Bishop of the Middle English (he alludes to it in IV, 23), and the great Council, representative of the whole English Church, summoned by Aldfrid in 702 and held at a place in Northumbria (unidentified; possibly Austerfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire) called by Eddius “Ouestraefelda” and “Aetswinapathe” (supposed to mean “at the swine's path,” or “Edwinspath”). At this Council Wilfrid was excommunicated and deprived of all his possessions except the monastery of Ripon. He appealed again to the Apostolic see and returned to Mercia. Probably in the following year he set out for Rome, visiting Wilbrord in Frisia by the way (cf. III, 13).

John VI, 701-705. Bertwald had sent envoys to represent Wilfrid's opponents. The investigation took four months, during which seventy sittings of the Council were held.

Bertwald was admonished to hold a synod and come to an agreement with Wilfrid. In the event of failure, both parties were to appear in Rome. The letter is cautious and conciliatory in tone.

Cf. supra, p. 352.

Cf. supra, p. 349.

Meaux, cf. IV, 1 (Meldi).

III, 13, and note; infra c. 20.

Ethelred of Mercia had resigned his throne and was now Abbot of Bardney; cf. III, 11, and IV, 12, p. 241, note.

Cc. 13 and 19, ad init.; cf. c. 24.

Cf. c. 18, ad init. He received his envoys courteously, but refused to alter his decision for any “alleged writings from the Apostolic see.” But Eddius says he repented on his deathbed.

Ibid.

In 705. It was a Northumbrian council, not, like Estrefeld, representative of the whole Church. Bertwald was present and adopted a conciliatory line.

He was restored only to Hexham and to his monastery at Ripon. Bishop John, on the death of Bosa about this time, was transferred to York; v.s. c. 3, ad init.

Oundle, v.s. p. 346, note 4.

Or Cudwald. A Cuthbald succeeded Sexwulf (IV, 6) as Abbot at Medeshamstead. He is, perhaps, identical with the Abbot of Oundle.

Cf. supra, p. 346, and III, 25.

I.e. 710. But Hadrian left Rome in 668 (v. IV, 1), and Bede says he died forty-one years after that event. This would be in 709.

Cf. Preface and IV, 1.

Ibid.

St. Augustine's, Canterbury; cf. IV, 1, ad fin.

Cf. Preface and note.

III, 13, and note.

A.S. version: Mafa. For the Roman style of Church music, cf. II, 20, ad fin.

IV, 12, 23; V, 3.

In 710. Naiton, or Nechtan mac Derili, succeeded in 706. The northern Picts had received Christianity through Columba (III, 4). Naiton is said to have been converted to Roman usages by a missionary named Boniface, who was probably an Irishman, St. Cuiritin. Naiton did not succeed in forcing all his people to adopt them, but in 717 he expelled the Columban clergy who refused to conform.

IV, 18 and note.

Wearmouth (ibid.) and Jarrow, Bede's own monastery (v. infra, c. 24). Though they were some distance apart, Wearmouth and Jarrow formed together one monastery.

IV, 18.

II, 2, p. 85, note.

Wood being the usual material, cf. III, 4, “Candida Casa.” The locality of the church is not known. Rosemarkie, on the Moray Frith, and, more probably, Restennet, near Forfar, have been suggested.

The letter has been supposed to have been written by Bede himself.

Plato, Rep. 473, D.

Exod., xii, 1-3. (The quotations are from the Vulgate.)

Exod., xii, 6.

Ibid., xii, 15.

Exod., xii, 15.

Ibid., xii, 17.

Numbers, xxxiii, 13.

Exod., xii, 17-19.

1 Cor., v, 7.

St. John, i, 29.

Levit., xxiii, 5-7.

Cf. Bede's “Expositio in Marci Evangelium” (Opp. X, 2), where he says that St. Mark founded the Church in Alexandria, and taught the canonical observance of Easter; and Opp. VI, 235 (De Temp. Rat.).

Levit., xxiii, 8.

This was an error of the Latins in the fifth century. The object was to make it possible for Good Friday to fall on the fourteenth of the month Nisan, which they believed to be the actual day of the Crucifixion, and to keep Easter Day entirely clear of the Jewish festival.

I.e. Alexandrians.

Gen., i, 16.

The Itala.

Mal., iv, 2.

Habak., iii, 11 (from the Itala).

The Pelagians; I, 10, and note; cf. I, 17.

The reference must be to p. 364, “the apostolic tradition.” For the nineteen years' cycle, cf. III, 3 (Anatolius).

The celebrated Bishop of Caesarea, called also Eusebius Pamphili, a name which he adopted from devotion to his friend, Pamphilus. How much he had to do with the nineteen years' cycle seems altogether uncertain. He took a leading part in the Council of Nicaea (325 a.d.), but there is no proof that the Council formally adopted the cycle, as has been supposed. It had been in use long before, but it may have received authoritative sanction at Nicaea. Eusebius wrote a treatise on Easter, of which a fragment is extant.

A presbyter of Caesarea, the founder of the famous library in that place. He was martyred in 309 a.d. Eusebius wrote his life, but the work is lost.

Archbishop of Alexandria, 385-412. He made a cycle of 418 years (19 × 22) for Theodosius, and reckoned the days on which Easter would fall for 100 years from the first year of the consulate of Theodosius (380 a.d.).

The great Archbishop of Alexandria, 412-444. He shortened the cycle of Theophilus, making a cycle of ninety-five years (19 × 5), for the sake of convenience. Part of his “Computus Paschalis” remains.

A monk of the Western Church in the sixth century. The surname, “Exiguus,” refers, not to his stature, but to his humbleness of heart. Our method of dating from the Birth of Christ was begun by him. He revived the cycle of Victorius (or Victorinus) of Aquitaine (463 a.d.), hence called Dionysian. It was a cycle of 532 years, i.e. the lunar cycle of 19 × the solar cycle of 28.

Cf. p. 369, note 5.

Job, i, 20.

Gen., xli, 14.

St. Matt., xvi, 18.

Acts, viii, 20 (Vulgate). The origin of this form of tonsure was attributed to Simon Magus.

Gal., v, 24.

St. James, i, 12.

Cf. c. 15 and notes. It is uncertain whether this incident is to be connected with Adamnan's first or second visit to King Aldfrid.

I.e., Ireland; cf. c. 15.

Cf. supra, p. 359, note 1.

Cf. c. 18 and note; cc. 19, 20, 24. He was killed in battle, but neither the locality nor the war is known.

He reigned two years, v. infra c. 23. He belonged to a younger branch of the royal house of Northumbria. His father's name was Cuthwine, and Ceolwulf, who succeeded Osric (c. 23), was his brother.

Or, perhaps, “bishop;” cf. III, 4, note. For the circumstances which led Egbert to undertake his work among the Columban monasteries, v.s. c. 9. As the events narrated there were prior to 690 (Wilbrord's mission to Frisia), we may, perhaps, assume that he had been labouring during this long interval among the Columban monasteries in Ireland. In III, 4, Bede places Egbert's arrival in Iona a year earlier.

Rom., x, 2.

Cf. p. 372. This seems to be the meaning of the somewhat obscure sentence, “... celebrationem, ut diximus, praecipuae solemnitatis sub figura coronae perpetis agere perdocuit.”

For the conversion of the Britons to Roman usages, v. cc. 15 and 18, notes.

This is accurate enough in round numbers. Aidan's mission (v. III, 3) was probably in 635.

I.e., 24th April. According to the Celtic rule, Easter Day could never have been so late, 21st April being the latest possible day, while the Romans might celebrate as late as 25th April.

Osric had succeeded in 718. Simeon of Durham says he was a son of King “Alfrid.” It has been suggested (Dr. Stubbs, in Dict. of Christian Biog.) that this may mean Alchfrid, son of Oswy (III, 14, et saep.), further, that this Osric is to be identified with the Hwiccian sub-king, mentioned in IV, 23, who may have found a refuge in Mercia, when Alchfrid was disinherited. Against this it has been maintained that the statement of Simeon of Durham may, with greater probability, be referred to Aldfrid, the successor of Egfrid and father of Osred.

Cf. IV, 26, and V, 8.

From Bede we should infer that they all succeeded in 725, and the evidence of charters goes to show that Eadbert and Ethelbert began to reign jointly in that year. Florence of Worcester makes Eadbert and Ethelbert reign successively, and William of Malmesbury gives successive reigns of considerable length to all three brothers. This prolongs Alric's life beyond probability, and as his reign rests on no early evidence, Dr. Stubbs is inclined to set it aside altogether.

Cf. c. 8.

Cf. II, 3 and note; III, 14.

Consecrated in 727 (Saxon Chronicle) and died in 739 (Simeon of Durham).

This must refer to the battle of Tours in 732, in which Charles Martel defeated the Saracens. As the Ecclesiastical History was finished in 731, this passage must be regarded as a later insertion. For Bede's view with regard to the Saracens, v. his theological works passim. He believed them to be the descendants of Ishmael.

In 729; v.s. c. 22.

Cf. supra, this chapter, ad init.

Cf. Preface, note 1, and the Continuation.

Cf. c. 22, ad init and note.

I.e., since 29th June, 693; v.s. c. 8, ad fin.

He received the pall in 733 and died in 734; cf. Continuation.

Bredon in Worcestershire.

Cf. Preface; IV, 16; V, 18.

I.e., of the East Saxons. He died in 745; v. Continuation.

Called also Worr. In the Act of the Council of Clovesho in 716 he signs as Bishop of Lichfield (to which at this time Leicester was united) along with his predecessor, Hedda, but the authenticity of the Act is not fully established, and it is generally supposed that he succeeded in 721. At his death in 737 (Simeon of Durham) Leicester was finally separated from Lichfield.

Cf. supra, p. 378.

The following list of the English bishoprics at the time when Bede closed his history [731 a.d.], will enable the reader to recognize those which belonged to each separate kingdom:

KINGDOMS; SEES; PRELATES.
Kent; Canterbury; Tatwine.
  Rochester; Aldwulf.
East Saxons; London; Ingwald.
East Angles; Dunwich; Aldbert.
  Elmham; Hadulac.
West Saxons; Winchester; Daniel.
  Sherborne; Forthere.
Mercia; Lichfield (to which Leicester had been reunited in 705); Aldwin.
  Hereford; Walhstod.
  Worcester; Wilfrid.
  Lindsey (Sidnacester); Cynibert.
South Saxons; Selsey; Vacant.
Northumbria; York; Wilfrid II.
  Lindisfarne; Ethelwald.
  Hexham; Acca.
  Whitern; Pechthelm.

Aldbert was Bishop of Dunwich, Hadulac of Elmham.

Cf. c. 18.

Cf. supra, p. 379, note 6.

I.e., in Herefordshire. It is not certain when the see of Hereford was founded. Besides Putta (v. IV, 2, and note), Florence of Worcester mentions Tyrhtel and Torthere as predecessors of Walhstod.

This is Wilfrid, Bishop of Worcester, contemporary with Wilfrid II of York (v. IV, 23; V, 6). He succeeded St. Egwin, whom Bede strangely omits to mention, the successor of Oftfor (IV, 23). For the Hwiccas, v. II, 2, p. 84, and for the see of Worcester, IV, 23, p. 273, note 7.

Cf. Preface, p. 4, and IV, 12. For Lindsey as a separate bishopric, ibid.

Cf. IV, 16.

Cf. c. 18, ad fin., and notes.

He was a son of Penda's brother, Alweo. He had lived at one time in retirement near the hermitage of St. Guthlac, flying from the enmity of Ceolred, but on the death of the latter in 716, he succeeded to the throne. Though he is not included in Bede's list of Bretwaldas (II, 5), he established the supremacy of Mercia for twenty years over all England south of the Humber, till in 754 Wessex freed itself in the battle of Burford. For his wars with Wessex and Northumbria, v. Continuation, sub 740 and 750. There is a charter of his dated 749 in which he grants certain ecclesiastical privileges, “pro expiatione delictorum suorum.” His oppression of the Church and his private life are rebuked in the letter of Boniface and five German bishops addressed to him (v. Haddan and Stubbs, III, 350).

Wilfrid II, v. IV, 23, and note; cf. V, 6.

Cf. c. 12, p. 331, and note.

III, 13, and note; cf. IV, 14; V, 20.

Cf. cc. 13, 18. For the “White House” (Whitern), v. III, 4, and note. About this time (the exact date is not known) it became an Anglian see, a fact which indicates that in spite of the defeat of Egfrid in 685, which freed the Northern Picts, the Picts of Galloway were still subject to Northumbria. The bishopric came to an end about the close of the century, when the Northumbrian power had fallen into decay.

The Scots of Dalriada (I, 1). They had recovered their liberty after the defeat and death of Egfrid; cf. IV, 26.

Cf. ibid., and p. 376, note 1.

External peace apparently. For the internal state of Northumbria, v.s. p. 378.

For the accuracy of these dates, cf. the notes on the events as they occur in the narrative.

The length of his pontificate is not mentioned in the narrative.

This and the two following entries are not in the narrative.

Ida was the first king of Bernicia, and one of the leaders of the English invasion. He conquered the country about Bamborough, which he is said to have founded (cf. III, 6), and settled his people here. Deira, which was for a time a separate kingdom, was finally united to Bernicia under the strong rule of Oswald, Ida's great grandson (ib. ad fin.), who through his mother, Acha, was descended also from the royal house of Deira.

By Scotland, as usual, Ireland is meant.

Wulfhere's death is not mentioned in the narrative.

This is not in the narrative. For Osthryth cf. III, 11; IV, 21.

Not in the narrative. Berctred is probably to be identified with Berct in IV, 26 ad init. (Ulster Annals: “Brectrid”; Sax. Chron.: “Briht.”)

Above it is said that he succeeded in 675, making his reign twenty-nine years, and this agrees with the Saxon Chronicle. Wilfrid, on his return to England in 705, found him already an abbot. (V, 19.)

Not in the narrative. Bertfrid was Osred's chief ealdorman, and was besieged with him in Bamborough by the usurper Eadwulf; cf. p. 342, note 2. We find him acting as spokesman in the Council on the Nidd (V, 19, p. 356) in demanding to have the Papal letters translated into English.

For Bede's life, v. Introduction.

IV, 18, p. 257, note 3.

Ibid.

Ibid., note 4, cf. V, 21.

John of Beverley, IV, 23; V, 2-6.

For a full account of Bede's works, v. Plummer, vol. I, Introduction, or Dictionary of Christian Biography, s.v. “Beda.” Besides the works mentioned in this list, the following are certainly genuine:

The short “Epistola ad Albinum” (sent with a copy of the Ecclesiastical History).

“Retractationes in Acta.”

“Epistola ad Egberctum.”

“De locis Sanctis” (to which Bede alludes in V. 17). A number of other works, some certainly, others probably spurious, and a few possibly genuine, have been attributed to him.

An answer to questions put to him by Nothelm (v. Preface, p. 2, note 4, and Continuation, sub 735).

“Parabolae” = comparisons. “Parabolae Salomonis” are the first words of the Book of Proverbs in the Vulgate.

I.e., St. Paul.

Isa., xxiv, 22.

III, 3, note; cf. III, 25, p. 198.

A priest of Nola in Campania. He was of Syrian extraction, but born at Nola, and ordained priest circ. 250 a.d. He was persecuted under Decius, and again under Valerian, but escaped. His history is told in the poems of Paulinus, Bishop of Nola (409-431).

This work is not known to exist. Probably the saint is Anastasius the Younger, Patriarch of Antioch, killed in 610 by the Jews in a sedition on 21st December, and in the Roman martyrology honoured on that day as a martyr (v. Butler, “Lives of the Saints”).

Cf. IV, 26-32.

For Benedict and Ceolfrid, v. IV, 18. Huaetbert belonged to the monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow from his earliest childhood, and succeeded Ceolfrid as abbot in 716. He survived Bede. The latter dedicated his commentary on the Apocalypse and the De temp. Rat. to him under his name of Eusebius given him for his piety (v. Bede's Hist. Abb. and Anon., Hist. Abb.).

(Only names which have not occurred in the narrative are annotated; references for those already mentioned will be found in the Index.) The Continuation is by a later hand. But Mr. Plummer considers that the entries under the years 731, 732, 733 and 734, may have been added by Bede himself. They appear in the great Moore MS., and those for 733 and 734 also in another eighth century MS. The entries enclosed in square brackets are found in a fifteenth century MS.

He succeeded Wilfrid II, and two years later became Archbishop of York (v. infra under 735). It was to him that Bede addressed the “Epist. ad Egberctum.”

Bishop of Lindsey.

Bishop of Selsey.

I.e., of York.

Bishop of Hexham.

Bishop of Whitern.

The early authorities differ as to the year, but this is the traditional date, and is usually accepted.

King of Northumbria 737-758 (v. infra); died in 768. He was a son of Eata, called by Nennius, Eata “Glinmaur,” a descendant of Ida, and was the brother of Archbishop Egbert. Under him the Northumbrian power revived for a period.

He was the kinsman and predecessor of Cuthred (v. infra).

Archbishop of Canterbury in succession to Nothelm. The first archbishop not buried in St. Augustine's, v. II, 3, p. 90, note.

Bishop of Lindisfarne in succession to Ethelwald (V, 12, ad fin., note).

Probably a son of that Eadwulf who usurped the throne of Northumbria at Aldfrid's death (V, 18); cf. Simeon of Durham, II, 38 (Rolls Series), “Arwine filius Eadulfi.”

Not known.

Charles Martel.

Pippin the Short. Carloman resigned in 747, and became a monk.

There is a letter of Boniface (v. Haddan and Stubbs III, 358) to a priest, Herefrid, who is supposed to be the man mentioned here.

This seems confused and obscure. The West Saxons under Cuthred threw off the Mercian yoke in the insurrection which culminated in the battle of Burford (v. V. 23, p. 380, note 9). Oengus or Angus (the Brythonic form is Ungust), son of Fergus, was a Pictish king who crushed the Dalriadic Scots, and, in alliance with Eadbert of Northumbria, conquered the Britons of Strathclyde. But this does not explain the strange statement which brings him into connection with Ethelbald of Mercia. Nor is it told who Eanred was. Theudor was a king of the Britons of Strathclyde. Kyle is a district in Ayrshire.

Adopting the emendation “quinto Idus” (Hussey). The date is thus right for the eclipses, but the year is the sixteenth of Eadbert. Probably the numeral (XVI) has fallen out, and the passage ought to run: “anno regni Eadbercti XVI, quinto Id. Ian.”

The great missionary bishop of Germany, a West Saxon by birth. He crossed to the Continent circ. 716, and, supported by Charles Martel and his sons, evangelized Central Europe, became Archbishop of Mainz, and founded sees throughout Germany. Finally he was martyred in Frisland. Lul, a West Saxon, was his successor, not Redger, but it has been suggested that this may be another name for him. The pope is Stephen III.

He is said by William of Malmesbury to have been the murderer of Ethelbald. After a year of anarchy Offa succeeded, and retrieved the position of Mercia.

He was killed in an insurrection in 784. (Sax. Chron.)

St. Matt. xi, 12. After Eadbert, Northumbria fell into a state of anarchy, obscure kings contending for the throne.

Cf. supra, sub 750.

An aetheling killed by Moll, king of Northumbria, at a place called Edwin's Cliff (Sax. Chron.).

Of Northumbria.

Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

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