ON ST. OSWIN, KING OF NORTHUMBRIA AND MARTYR,
IN ENGLAND,
In the year 651.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Oswin, king and M., in England (St.)
BY P. D.
§ I. A description of Northumbria; the Saint's kingdom; his genealogy, his biographers, the beginning of his cultus.
The greatness of the empire of the Northumbrians was that which now belongs to the counties of York, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmorland; The most ample kingdom of Northumbria and besides it embraced the remaining part of the county of Lancaster. Moreover this kingdom obtained the name of Northumbria not from umbra (shadow), as a certain drowsy person hallucinated, but because it is situated to the north of the river Humber: for the ancients called it Northanymbrarice, that is, the kingdom situated to the north of the Humber. Thus the writers who saw to the publishing of Bede at Cambridge in the year 1643.
[2] When, and by what founder, this kingdom was established, Bede hands down in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 25. being cut into parts, In the year 547, he says, Ida began to reign, from whom the royal stock of the Northumbrians takes its origin. John of Wallingford in his Chronicles hands down the same beginning of the Northumbrian kingdom; and adds (what Capgrave also in the life of St. Oswin, and the writers cited by Ranulf Higden in the Polychronicon, assert) that the Northumbrian empire, when Ida had yielded to fate, was so cut into parts that one king ruled the Bernicians, another the Deirans. But this division of the kingdom both Alford at the year 559, number 6, and Bolland in volume 11 of February, page 178, defer to later times; whom the Saxon Chronicle favors at the year 560; which is very ancient, as Edmund Gibson shows in the preface, by whom it was published in print.
[3] However that may be, it is established from Bede, book 2, chapter 20, St. Oswin ruled the Deirans; and book 3, chapter 1, that Northumbria obeyed two kings in the year 633, in which St. Edwin departed to the heavenly ones. It is likewise established from book 3, chapter 14, of the same historiographer that St. Oswin presided over those inhabitants of Northumbria who were called Deirans, and whose ancestors had given St. Gregory the Great (as is written in his Life at the XII day of March) occasion for exclaiming, Well are they Deiri, snatched de ira (from wrath) and called to the mercy of Christ; who, being converted to the true faith, had most holy princes of either sex — Edwin, Oswald, Ethelburga, Eanfled, Elfleda, Hilda, Ethelberga, Trumhere, and others celebrated by Bede in various places; who were all joined by blood with St. Oswin, if you except Ethelburga alone, whom he touched by affinity only.
[4] For the rest, upon the holy King's genealogy, otherwise clear enough, whose genealogy most editions of Bede pour darkness, when in book 3, chapter 1, they seem to hand down Ostric or Osric, who was our Saint's father, now as born of Elfric, now of Ethelfrid. Behold for thee the words of the Chifflet edition, with which most others agree: Edwin having been slain in battle, there took the kingdom of the Deirans in his stead … the son of his uncle Elfric, by name Ostric. Certainly it could not be said more clearly that Ostric was begotten of Elfric. Nevertheless another order of birth is presently thus insinuated: The kingdom of the Bernicians … the son of Ethelfrid took, … named Eanfrid. For all the time in which Edwin reigned, the sons of the aforesaid king Ethelfrid … were in exile among the Scots or Picts … who, when, the hostile king being dead, they were permitted to return to their country, the first of them (whom we have mentioned), Osric, took the kingdom of the Deirans; and the second, Eanfrid, the kingdom of the Bernicians. Here Ostric seems to be reckoned among the children of Ethelfrid in no other way than as he is numbered among those exiles who, the hostile king being dead, were permitted to return to their country.
[5] is explained That this contradiction may be removed, it is to be noted that in the Cambridge edition of Bede the text just cited is read otherwise, and is thus had: There took the first, or the elder by birth, of them, whom we have mentioned Eanfrid the kingdom of the Bernicians: which reading is to be preferred to the rest, as the ancient monuments show, which, abridged from purer codices of Bede, constantly affirm that Ostric was born of Elfric. The Saxon Chronicle, of which I made mention above, at the year 634 has thus: In this year Osric took the kingdom of the Deirans, whom Paulinus had before baptized. He was the son of Ælfric, uncle of Edwin. John of Wallingford, in his Chronicles put together about the beginning of the thirteenth century, thus speaks: Edwin being slain, there took the kingdom of the Deirans in his stead … Ostric, the son of his uncle, who was called Ealfric. Ranulf Higden in the tenth century gathered from Bede the following: Edwin being dead, there took the kingdom of the Deirans the son of his uncle Elfric, by name Osric. I omit other writers, since what has been said suffices for us to believe either that the other editions of Bede are interpolated, or at least that they are to be taken in a less obvious and somewhat forced sense.
[6] And hence the way is now also paved for tracing back more widely the genealogy of St. Oswin. and his forefathers are enumerated, Elfric, whom we have shown to be Oswin's grandfather, is everywhere written the uncle of St. Edwin: accordingly Elle or Ælle or Alla, St. Edwin's father, was the brother of Elfric: but concerning Alla the Saxon Chronicle, of which I made mention above, at the year 560 brings forward the following (whether certain enough, let others see). In this year … Ælla took the kingdom of the Northumbrians (Ida being dead), and held it for 30 years. Ælla was the son of Yffi, Yffi of Uscfrea, Uscfrea of Wilgis, Wilgis of Westerfalcna, Westerfalcna of Sæfugl, Sæfugl of Sæbald, Sæbald of Sigegeat, Sigegeat of Swæfdæg, Swæfdæg of Sigegear, Sigear [] of Wægdæg, Wægdæg [] of Woden, from whom (as the chronologist writes at the year 449) all our royal race drew its origin, and likewise that of the South Humbrians. Now let us turn our discourse to those who have written of St. Oswin.
[7] The first to transmit an epitome of his acts to posterity was St. Bede, in book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 14; whose good faith, learning, and integrity are better known than that they need to be proved. the age of the biographers, Nevertheless from the Commentary prefixed to his life at the XXVII day of May, page 718, you may not undeservedly observe two things: the first is that Bede was born in the year 677, that is, only 26 years having elapsed from the death of St. Oswin. The other is that Bede not only drew his first light in Northumbria, but also professed the monastic life there: whence it follows that what pertains to the holy king of Northumbria, earlier by so small a space of time, a man most loving of truth could both know and write exceedingly well.
[8] Besides the Life, Capgrave also narrates the miracles of the same Martyr, and other circumstances of them or rather John of Tynemouth, who flourished in the year 1360, and whom Capgrave plundered: which to have here specially observed will not be beside the purpose, since thence it follows that a firmer credit ought to arise for the truth of the miracles: for although each writer may be equal in good faith and erudition, there are nevertheless things which commend the man of Tynemouth above the other. For John of Tynemouth was sprung from Tynemouth, and was also priest and vicar of the same church, as Bale hands down On the Writers of Britain, page 466. He was also a monk of the order of St. Benedict at St. Albans,
to which monastery the church of Tynemouth was subject, as Pits in his book On the Writers of England testifies with Oudin, in the volume cited, page 1090. Accordingly the man of Tynemouth was able more conveniently than Capgrave to survey all the monuments both of Tynemouth and those which the abbey of St. Albans preserved, and thus to commend to the memory of posterity with the utmost certainty the prodigies which happened almost in these very places; using that diligence and that judgment which very many are doubtless compelled to admire whenever they take his books in hand: diligence, because he everywhere shows that he has read an immense number of good authors; judgment also, because he brings back to the anvil many things rashly written by others, and, so brought back, restores them to light and truth, as Bale, cited, nearly speaks.
[9] The Acts also, the translations, and the cultus of St. Oswin, are weighed and other matters pertaining to his church, an anonymous monk of St. Albans has arranged in chronological order, whose little book is printed in volume 1 of the Monasticon Anglicanum from page 333. That this writer was of good faith and accurate will become plain to one comparing his history with others: concerning his age it is not equally established. Toward the end he thus writes: Robert de Gorham, abbot of St. Albans: nor does he thereafter make mention of later prelates: whence, whether he lived about the times of Robert, who died in the year 1166, let others judge. To this opinion that seems to be favorable, that he calls Gervase, son of Stephen, king of England, abbot of Westminster. For he was no longer abbot before the year 1166; as the continuator of the History of Simeon of Durham insinuates at the year 1154, saying: Laurence … delivered himself to the institutes of the monks at St. Albans; after a few years he was loftily set over the monks of Westminster by king Henry, Abbot Gervase, son of king Stephen, having been removed, who dissipated the goods of that place in youthful fashion. However that may be, we shall not here reprint this chronological History of the monk; because either there is nothing in it pertaining to St. Oswin which is not reported by Bede and by Capgrave, whose narrative we shall give; or, if there be anything, it will be inserted in the Commentary and the annotations.
[10] That Oswin was not straightway after his death honored with sacred honor we learn from Bede, who in book 3, chapters 14 and 24, hands down that prayers were poured out to God for his soul. Some years having elapsed from his death Oswy, he says in chapter 14, slew Oswin, betrayed … in the place which is called Ingetlingum, where afterwards, for the chastisement of this crime, a monastery was built: in which prayers should daily be offered to the Lord for the redemption of the soul of each king (namely both of him who was slain and of him who ordered the slaying). But in chapter 24 he thus speaks: Trumhere … was abbot in the monastery which is called Ingetlingum: this is the place in which king Oswin [] was slain, as we have mentioned above: for queen Eanfled, his kinswoman, in chastisement of his unjust slaying, asked of king Oswy her husband that he would grant there a place for building a monastery to the aforesaid servant of God Trumhere, because he too was a kinsman of the slain king: in which monastery, namely, assiduous prayers should be made for the eternal salvation of each king, that is, both of him who was slain and of him who ordered the slaying.*
[11] St. Oswin Hence Alford at the year 651, number 8, thus warns: When thou hearest that prayer was made for the Martyr, think that his sanctity had not yet been approved, as afterwards, by the glory of miracles and the suffrage of the Church: but at what time precisely the glory of miracles made manifest the sanctity of the blessed King remains uncertain. I would believe that this was not done before Bede put an end to his Ecclesiastical History: for he, among the other praises of the Saint which he celebrates, would not have been silent about miracles wrought, if any had happened; especially since he is not sparing in recounting them where he transmits to posterity the eulogy of other princes whom sanctity commended.
[12] began to grow renowned by miracles Nevertheless that veneration arose, and that most celebrated, long before the middle of the ninth century, the writer of Westminster insinuates in book 1, at the year 1065, thus writing: After the passion of the most illustrious king Oswin … his body was carried to the monastery of the blessed Mother of God Mary, situated at the mouth of the river Tyne to the north, and in it was buried in royal fashion: where, on account of the frequency of his miracles, through innumerable courses of years the place of his burial was held by the people of the region in such reverence that they reckoned the King buried among them their lord and patron on earth and their defender in heaven: whence in process of time, for the greater glory of the Martyr, consecrated virgins from the monastery of St. Hilda the abbess were brought in to his body, and until the Danish persecution, stirred up by the rage of Hinguar and Hubba, they remained in the church of the blessed Mother of God on the highest summit of religion.
[13] and to be venerated Hinguar and Hubba burst into England about the year 866. Since therefore the writer of Westminster asserts that the cultus of B. Oswin was earlier by many circuits of years than this cruel persecution of the Danes, it follows that it began either in the eighth century, or at the beginning of the next following. For the rest, St. Hilda, who departed from the living in the year 680, first presided over the monastery whose name was Hartlepool: then she founded and governed another at Whitby. A third she built at Hackness, but did not rule. Thus Bede, book 4, chapter 24. That the virgins were brought from Whitby to the body of St. Oswin appears more likely: for the nunnery of this place, and no other, do I find called the monastery of Hilda in Harpsfield, ninth century, chapter 14.
[14] chiefly by religious persons But that no one may accuse the writer of Westminster of error, because he attributes the monastery of Tynemouth to religious virgins, which Capgrave and the anonymous monk of St. Albans hand down as inhabited by men, it is to be observed that formerly it was received by a not infrequent usage that men and women should dwell in the same monastery, separated only by their buildings: thus it is lawful to gather both from others and expressly from Bede, who in book 4, chapter 7, says: When the storm of the often-mentioned plague, laying waste all things far and wide, had also invaded that part of this monastery in which the men were held … the solicitous mother of the congregation inquired at what hour also that part of the monastery in which the company of the handmaids of God was separated from the fellowship of the men should be touched by the same plague, etc. Things akin to which are read in book 3, chapter 8, and book 4, chapter 24.
[15] And hence you may most easily reconcile the writer of Westminster with the other writers, of both sexes. by saying that both men and virgins consecrated to God inhabited the same monastery, but not the same part. The writer of Westminster himself seems to indicate this matter: for he says first that the body of St. Oswin was carried to the monastery of the blessed Mother of God: then he subjoins that for the greater glory of the Martyr consecrated virgins were brought in to his body; assuredly insinuating that at the beginning men alone inhabited the monastery of Tynemouth; then that virgins were not substituted for the men, but joined to them: for thus a greater glory of the Martyr arose, if both sexes venerated him; but not if the one was exchanged for the other with the other expelled. And this honor indeed was rendered to St. Oswin in that church which preserved his buried body. That he did not lie devoid of all cultus in the place in which he was slain, Camden testifies in Britannia Sacra, page 593, where, treating of the village of Gilling, he thus writes: That village of Gilling was more sacred by religion than strong by fortification; from the time that in it (which Bede called Getling or Ingetlingum) Oswy or Oswin, king of the Northumbrians, had been slain by the treachery of his host, for the expiating of whose slaughter a monastery had been built, which was held in the highest honor by our ancestors.
Annotations. Perhaps Sigegearus*.
. Perhaps Wægdæus*.
. Otherwise Oswinus*.
§ II. The Saint's cultus extinguished; then renewed and propagated.
The veneration, extinguished by the force of persecution, That the veneration of B. Oswin was then extinguished for many years, the writer of Westminster, cited, writes, to be reborn at length in better times. In this rage of the persecution (of the Danes), he says, that monastery of Tynemouth is believed (nay, is asserted by Harpsfield at the ninth century, chapter 14) to have been demolished with the other monasteries of the region … But after these things, that region having for many times devolved under the power of the unbelieving Danes, the memory of the holy Martyr was utterly blotted out from the minds of the people of the province. At length, the devotion of the faithful gradually returning and the purity of the faith increasing, the bishop of the place appointed in the church of the Mother of God priests and clerics, who might celebrate the divine ministries for the parishioners of the province. Meanwhile the most blessed Martyr lay entombed under a meaner sod until the times of Ægelwin, bishop of Durham, and of Tostig, earl of the Northumbrians, who after Siward obtained the earldom not by hereditary succession but by the gift of king Edward.
[17] It pleased therefore the divine goodness, while the aforesaid pontiff lived, to bring the relics of the blessed Martyr into the light, for the increase of the whole Church, so that the lamp long set under a bushel, being lighted upon a candlestick, might illumine the darkness of unbelief. Now there was a certain sacristan of the aforesaid church, it revives, he himself urging the elevation of his body, in which the body of the blessed Martyr had been buried, by name Edmund, a religious man indeed, and devoted to the blessed Martyr: who, although he was not bound by the title of profession to the body of any monastery, had nevertheless been distinguished with the habit of religion. He on a certain night, when after the nocturnal vigils he had given his limbs to sleep in the church, there stood by him a certain man tall of stature and resplendent with heavenly brightness, who, uttering the man's name, said: Brother Edmund, brother Edmund, I am king Oswin, who lie in this church, unknown to all. Rising therefore, tell bishop Ægelwin to seek my body in the pavement of this oratory, and, when found, not to omit to lay it more becomingly than usual in the same oratory.
[18] which Edmund therefore, being awakened and gladdened by the vision, went at the first dawn to the pontiff, and reverently expressed to him the course of the vision. But the pontiff, hearing these things, exulted with unceasing joy, and coming gladly to the place, found much people gathered there from remote parts, and at the prelate's command, prayer having been made by all, beginning to dig the pavement of the oratory, a great space of the day having passed, they profit nothing by their seeking. Then Edmund, confounded at the injury done to the Saint, taking a mattock, in the place where all had long been digging, boldly struck the earth, and at a repeated blow struck the slab of the burial. And the stone being wrenched away, he joyfully found the precious relics.
[19] miracles illustrate The most holy body is therefore raised by the prelate, and washed by the hands of the same prelate, and wrapped in a clean linen cloth, is honorably placed in a more eminent place of the church. The washing-water also of the most holy body, poured out in a corner of the oratory at the bishop's bidding, afterwards profited to health not only many men but also animals: whose dust, poured into water and drunk, restored those freed from various languors to their former health. And these things were done 414 years from the year of his passion, on the fifth of the Ides of March.
[20] chronological errors St. Oswin suffered in the year 651 of the vulgar era: to which 414 years being added bring us to the year
1065: which note of time, and the substance of the whole matter now narrated, the monk of St. Albans confirms in volume 1 of the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 334. Ægelwin, who raised the sacred bones, entered upon the bishopric in the year 1056; after the year 1069, being twice compelled to flee, he at last died a captive in the year 1071. Thus, from various writers, the author of Britannia Sacra, page 702. Whence Capgrave is convicted of error, who in the Life of St. Oswin writes that in the year of grace 1110 bishop Ægelwin raised the holy body from the earth. The writer of Worcester and Hoveden are silent about the apparition of St. Oswin, but confirm the cultus at the year 1065: The reverend man Ægelwin, bishop of Durham, raised from the tomb the bones of St. Oswin, once king of the Bernicians (nay rather of the Deirans), in the monastery which is situated near the mouth of the river Tyne, 415 years having passed from his burial, and placed them in a shrine with great honor.
[21] are corrected. Into the figures by which the time elapsed from the burial is expressed in these authors an error has crept, and one must read, 414 years having passed from his burial: for otherwise the elevation of the bones would have to be referred to the year 1066, not to 1065; in which nevertheless it is noted by both historiographers to have been done. For the rest, the day of the translation marked by the writer of Worcester our predecessors also observed at the V of the Ides of March, or at the XI day of the same month, in the catalogue of the Prætermissi, thus: The translation of Oswin of Northumbria and Martyr happened on this day, and is inscribed in the English martyrology and the Calendar of Ferrari. His birthday is celebrated on the XX of August.
[22] The renewed cultus of B. Oswin presently increased not moderately. The renewed cultus presently receives a great increase For his remains were thrice translated, and the church of the blessed Mother of God of Tynemouth began also, with an enlarged name, to be called the church of B. Oswin, and monks were brought to the same place to serve God and St. Oswin: all which are dug out from the testimonies now to be recited in chronological order. Simeon of Durham, who flourished about the middle of the twelfth century, in the History of the Church of Durham, book 4, chapter 14, thus speaks: The church of St. Oswin at Tynemouth the monks of St. Cuthbert had long since possessed, the earls of Northumbria granting it, while they were still at Jarrow, whence they had been called to Durham in the year 1083: whence also, transferring the bones of that same Saint to themselves, they had them with them for no small time in the church of St. Paul, which they afterwards brought back to their former place.
[23] The monastery of Gyruum or Ingyruum, formerly so called, now named Jarrow, from a twofold translation, was situated near the mouth of the river Tyne, and was also called the monastery of St. Paul, to whom its church was sacred; as may be seen more fully at the XXIX day of May, page 718, number 19. The diploma by which the church of Tynemouth was granted to the inhabitants of this place the Monasticon Anglicanum exhibits, volume 1, page 42. The reason why the monks were called from Jarrow to Durham was the restoration of divine worship, which lay fallen there in the church of B. Cuthbert, as Simeon, cited, sets forth at greater length in book 4, in various chapters.
[24] The church of Tynemouth remained under the care of the monks of St. Cuthbert until the year 1090, from a monastery joined to the church, in which it passed to the monks of St. Albans with a new increase of the cultus of St. Oswin; concerning which Matthew Paris in his English History, at the cited year, has these things: Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, touched by divine inspiration, wishing to restore the long since desolate church of B. Oswin of Tynemouth, and there to establish monks to serve God and the holy martyr Oswin, by the counsel of his friends approached Paul, abbot of the church of St. Albans, asking earnestly and devoutly that he would deign to send some of his monks thither, promising that he would abundantly supply them with all things necessary for food and clothing. The aforesaid abbot indeed did not fail the petition: for he took care that certain ones should be sent thither from the monks of St. Albans, etc. The same matter the writer of Westminster comprises briefly in book 2, at the year 1091, thus writing: But on the border of this and the past year, touching both, the church of St. Oswin of Tynemouth was restored with monks, and they were formed in the regular life of St. Benedict, under Paul the abbot: of St. Benedict — whose election falls in the year 1077, and his death in 1093, as Matthew Paris noted in the Lives of the Abbots.
[25] Concerning the third translation of the relics the same author in the English History, at the year 1110, thus speaks: from a translation, the third. In the same year Richard, abbot of St. Albans, translated the precious relics of the most blessed king and martyr Oswin, with great dancing of clergy and people, into the new basilica of the Mother of God Mary at Tynemouth, from the ancient oratory of the same Mother of God, in which his most holy body had before been found and placed. And this translation was made on the day of the same martyr's passion, the X [] Kalends of September, according to the chancellor's roll. Of this translation mention is also made by the monk of St. Albans in the Monasticon Anglicanum, volume 1, page 334: but the time is faultily expressed, when it is said to have happened in the thousandth year: in which neither was the church of St. Oswin subject to the monastery of St. Albans, nor had the Saint's body been found; as becomes clear to one reading what the same monk rightly writes on the page cited. For the rest, Richard, by whose agency the translation was made, was elected prelate in the year 1097, and died in 1119, as Paris notes in the Lives of the Abbots; who also affirms in the same place that many possessions were given in his time … to the church of St. Oswin of Tynemouth*.
Annotations*. Perhaps XIII.
§ III. The donations of princes, the title of martyrdom; announcements; the time of his death and reign; miracles.
From the notable That at other times also the liberality of the faithful, and even of princes, shone forth from a pious affection toward St. Oswin, volume I of the Monasticon Anglicanum shows in various places: for on page 42 Waltheof, earl of Northumberland, whose violent death is illustrated in Alford at the year 1075, presupposes many gifts already long since made in honor of St. Oswin. On page 334 William II, who from the year 1087 until 1100 occupied the throne of England, makes mention of the lands, tithes, waters, and customs which Robert (de Mowbray), earl of Northumberland, and his men had given to St. Oswin, before he (in the year 1095) became forfeit or rebel to him, and so was stripped of the dominion of his goods. On page 335 Henry, successor of William in the kingdom, confirms the donations made by the same Robert. On the same page David, king of Scotland, when in the year 1138 he was waging war in Northumbria, gives this testimony of his own and his people's affection toward St. Oswin:
[27] observance of princes, Know ye, he says, that I have granted and given to the church of St. Mary and of St. Oswin the martyr of Tynemouth, and to the brethren of the same place and to their demesne men (that is, to servants and others of like kind who were under the lordship of the brethren of Tynemouth) and to the goods pertaining to the aforesaid church, and to all those men who were in the peace of St. Mary and of the Saint of the same place on the day of St. Barnabas the Apostle in the year 1138 from the Incarnation of the Lord, my peace (or royal protection) in perpetuity, from myself and from all my men, for the soul of my father and my mother, and of king Alexander my brother, who firmly granted the peace of God and his own to the aforesaid church, and for the soul of Matilda queen of England my sister … Henry my son consenting to this peace. Alexander, who is here commemorated, had held the kingdom of Scotland from the year 1107 until 1124. Matilda or Mathildis, married to Henry the First, king of England, in the year 1102, died in 1118. Henry, son of David, was carried off by a premature death in the year 1142, being otherwise the future heir of his father's kingdom.
[28] observance, Finally, on page 336, Edward, king of England, grants a special favor to the monks of St. Albans and to others on account of the special devotion which we bear and have toward the glorious martyrs BB. Alban and Oswin, whose body, that of Oswin, rests in a certain shrine within the church of Tynemouth, and also for the salvation of our soul, and of the soul of Eleanor of famous memory, once queen of England, our consort. This Alianora or Eleanor died in the year 1298; Edward in 1307, alone of the three kings of England who married a wife named Eleanor surviving his consort. Moreover, what was at that time understood by the name of feretrum (shrine), Paris explains in the Lives of the Abbots, saying of Richard the XV abbot: He … made one CASE, which we call a shrine. Further indications of observance toward St. Oswin may be seen on the pages of the Monasticon Anglicanum just cited: although the charter of king John which is brought forward there needs some discussion, since in it king Richard is called John's uncle, who was his brother, and whom he succeeded in the kingdom of England in the year 1199.
[29] After so many and so notable indications of veneration (to which I shall add another below), traced from the year 1065 down to about the beginning of the fourteenth century, and from the announcements of the martyrologies. the author of the Hagenau martyrology deservedly, at nearly the beginning of the fifteenth century, inserted these things in his Calendars: In England, of St. Oswin, king and martyr: deservedly also Greven (whom Molanus some years after transcribed) thus announced at this day: Of Oswin, king of the province of the Deirans and martyr, whose impending death (as Bede writes, book 3, chapter 14) when St. Aidan the bishop foretold, he said: This nation is not worthy to have such a ruler.
[30] But, you will say, why is St. Oswin distinguished with the title of martyr, He is called a Martyr, because a pious cause was the occasion of his death, whom Oswy slew not out of hatred of the faith or of any other Christian virtue, but, as it appears, carried away by the desire of ruling more widely? Alford at the year 651, number 7, answers that he is called a Martyr because he innocently and patiently endured death for justice, for the safety of his citizens and of the commonwealth. And indeed that the blessed King was solely zealous for the safety of his subjects and for preserving peace will be sufficiently plain from the Acts, in which he is said to have presided over the province of the Deirans for seven years in the greatest affluence of all things, beloved by all; but to have undertaken war against Oswy because he could not have peace: whence his death, which was inflicted on him as a fugitive, unarmed, and not resisting, is deservedly judged to have drawn its first origin from a fatherly love toward his subjects; which, being born of a supernatural motive, since it is not only honorable but also an act of Christian virtue, it follows that, if it was for anyone the cause of death, he can no less be numbered among the Martyrs than certain others of whom our predecessors treated in volume 1 of January, pages 391 and 502; likewise in volume III of June, page 938.
[31] The day of St. Oswin's death is fixed by all in the year 651. But to what year the beginning of his reign is to be bound is not clear. the years of his reign The writer of Worcester (the writer of Westminster agrees in substance) at the year 645 thus writes: In this year also king Oswin … began to reign in the province of the Deirans, and for VII years over the same
he presided. But here the error is manifest: for a reign begun in the year 645 and continued through seven years defers our Saint's death to the year 652: whereas the writer of Worcester himself with the writer of Westminster testifies that it was earlier than that. In the editions of Bede themselves also, as they now exist in print, there is a difficulty; in which the holy King is said to have presided over the province of the Deirans SEVEN YEARS in the greatest affluence of all things, and a little after is narrated to have been slain in the NINTH year of his reign. The monk of St. Albans unties the knot in volume 1 of the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 333, saying: Oswin presided over the kingdom of the Deirans for VII years in the greatest affluence of all things … Seven years having been completed in the kingdom, he had two of quiet, and the last ones unquiet: so that accordingly the variety of years noted by Bede regards the varying fortune of the reigning king, and thus every contradiction is removed.
[32] are examined. What if we suspect that the editions of Bede are here corrupted? and that one ought to read: Oswin presided over the province of the Deirans nine (not seven) years in the greatest affluence of all things, and he himself beloved by all. So indeed John of Tynemouth reads, who excerpted from Bede the following: He presided over the province of the Deirans NINE years in the greatest affluence of all things, and he himself beloved by all. One or the other of the answers adduced is to be admitted, lest Bede be set at variance with himself. The author of the Saxon Chronicle indeed at the year 644 thus writes: In this year likewise Oswin took the kingdom … the son of Ostric, and he reigned SEVEN years; not nine. But what if that chronologist either grasped Bede's sense less well than the monk of St. Albans just praised, or lighted upon a transcript more faulty than that which John of Tynemouth used?
[33] An astounding prodigy The miracles or benefits wrought by the patronage of St. Oswin John of Tynemouth subjoins to the Acts: to which I add two others from other writers. Walsingham, in his Richard II, at the year 1384, narrates this prodigy: About these days, that is, on the twentieth day of the month of August, on which day namely is celebrated the passion of St. Oswin, king and martyr, at Newcastle upon Tyne there appeared a new prodigy, unheard of in our days. For two sailors, busying themselves to hew a certain timber for the repairing of their ship, on the aforesaid day, when one of them had struck the said timber with an axe, was astounded that blood suddenly flowed abundantly from the aforesaid timber as from a beast. Struck therefore with great dread at so great a novelty of the thing, he stood long in doubt. At length, remembering the day of St. Oswin, whose solemnity he had violated, he vowed that he would thenceforth do no manual work at all on that day for ever.
[34] is narrated Hearing which, his companion, and making light of the miracle, swears that he will hew the said timber, and on that day will set it in the place appointed beforehand. And when he too had struck the timber, he saw the blood flowing out more abundantly in the part struck. Hardened nevertheless, he turns the timber and presses on with the work on another part of the timber. But neither there was the aforeshown miracle lacking. For there too the blood ran down as from an ox or a cow. The timber is turned to the four sides, on every side it is struck, on every side the gore flows down. Seeing which, he who before had wickedly despised the timber turned himself to devotion, and thenceforward promises that he will cease on that day from every manual work. This miracle, seen by many and approved by those to whom it belonged, renders great testimony to the sanctity and excellence of the aforesaid Martyr.
[36] by a suitable writer, These same things Walsingham repeats in the Hypodigma Neustriæ at the year 1384, where he also adds: The matter is brought before the assembly of the clergy, who all with the laity approve the miracle. The timber is carried to Tynemouth, where the body of the aforesaid Saint rests, in testimony of the miracle shown forth. Moreover this writer, who, on the testimony of Pits, is always held truthful, flourished in the year 1440, that is, 56 years after the prodigies which he narrates occurred: for having ascertained the truth of which the very place in which he dwelt was favorable: for he was a monk in the abbey of St. Albans, to which the church of Tynemouth was both subject and neighboring. From what has been said, therefore, there is gathered what I asserted above, a new indication of celebrated veneration: since from Walsingham's History it follows that the sacred day of B. Oswin had to be celebrated at Tynemouth by cessation from every servile work.
[37] Another benefit bestowed by the help of St. Oswin is reported, another benefit of the Saint is added. though obscurely enough, by the monk of St. Albans in the Monasticon Anglicanum, volume 1, page 334, in these words: Leowric, a boy, in the reign of Stephen a fisherman of the monastery of St. Oswin, was taken while [] fishing at Scarborough, at which time Ranulf, earl of Chester, coming upon them very early on a certain day, broke into the town itself of Scarborough with an armed band, and laid it waste with plunderings, and among the other captives Leowric is led in chains to Malton, etc., so that Leowric was freed by the work of St. Oswin. Stephen reigned in England from the year 1135 until 1154. Ranulf, earl of Chester, in the year 1140 waged war with the same Stephen, and, freed from the prison to which five years later he had been committed, did more evils than he ought, says the author of the Saxon Chronicle*, whom see at pages 241 and 242 of the edition made in the year 1692. It remains that we reprint the Acts of our Saint, first from Bede, then from John of Tynemouth, distinguished by numbers after our custom, and illustrated with notes.
Annotations. Perhaps inter* (among).
THE ACTS
By the holy and venerable Bede,
From book 3, chapter 14, of the Ecclesiastical History of England, published at Paris in the year 1681.
Oswin, king and M., in England (St.)
BHL Number: 6381
St. Oswin, after a most auspicious reign, is challenged to war. Oswald a therefore having been translated to the heavenly kingdoms, his brother b Oswy took the seat of the earthly kingdom in his stead, a young man of about thirty years; and he held it most laboriously for twenty-eight years … Now Oswy had in the first times of his reign a partner of the royal dignity, by name Oswin, of the stock c of king Edwin, that is, the son d of Osric, of whom we have reported above, a man of exceptional piety and religion: who presided over the province of the Deirans seven e years in the greatest affluence of all things, and he himself beloved by all. But neither could that man have peace with him who ruled the remaining part of the Transhumbrian nation from the north, that is, the province of the Bernicians; nay rather, the causes of dissension growing heavier, he destroyed him by a most wretched slaughter.
[2] For indeed, an army having been gathered against one another, when Oswin saw that he could not contend in war with him who had more auxiliaries, Being unequal in strength to his enemy he flees and is slain. he judged it more useful then, the intention of fighting being laid aside, to keep himself for better times. He sent back therefore the army which he had gathered, and ordered each to return home from the place which is called Wilfaresdun, that is, Wilfar's Hill, and it is distant from the village f of Catterick nearly ten thousand paces toward the summer sunset: and he himself turned aside with only one soldier most faithful to him, named Tondhere, to be hidden in the house of the earl Hunwald, whom also he himself supposed most friendly to him. But, alas, O grief! it was far otherwise: for, betrayed by the same earl, h Oswy, through his prefect Ethelwin, slew him with the aforesaid soldier of his by a death detestable to all. Which was done on the thirteenth day of the Kalends of September, in the ninth year of his reign, in the place which is called Ingetlingum; g where afterwards, for the chastisement of this crime, a monastery was built: in which prayers should daily be offered to the Lord for the redemption of the soul of each King (namely both of him who was slain and of him who ordered the slaying).
[3] Among his various virtues Now king Oswin was both comely of aspect and lofty of stature, pleasant in address and courteous in manners, and generous with his hand to all, that is, to noble and ignoble alike: whence it came about that on account of the royal dignity of his mind, of his countenance, and of his merits, he was loved by all, and from every side, from nearly all the provinces, men even of the noblest rank flocked to his service. Of whom, among the other glories of virtue and modesty and (so to speak) of special blessing, the greatest also is said to have been humility, as it will suffice to prove by one example.
[4] there most eminently stands out his lowliness of mind; He had given a most excellent horse to bishop Aidan, on which he, although accustomed to go on foot, might either cross the streams of rivers, or, if any other necessity pressed, might accomplish a journey: and when after a short time a certain poor man met him asking alms, he, leaping down, ordered the horse, just as it was royally caparisoned, to be given to the poor man: for he was very merciful, and a cherisher of the poor, and as it were a father of the wretched. When this had been reported to the King, he said to the bishop, when by chance they were about to go in to dinner: What didst thou mean, lord bishop, to give to a poor man the royal horse which it befitted thee to have? Had we not very many cheaper horses, or other kinds of things, which would suffice for gifts to the poor, though thou gavest them not that horse which I chose for thee specially to possess? To whom straightway the bishop said: What sayest thou, O King? Is that son of a mare dearer to thee than that son of God? Which being said, they went in to dine.
[5] of which a notable example is reported. And the Bishop indeed sat in his place. But the King (for he had come from hunting), standing at the fire, began to warm himself with his servants: and suddenly, while warming himself, recalling the word which the bishop had said to him, he ungirded himself of his sword, and gave it to a servant, and hastening, approaching, fell down before the bishop's feet, asking that he would be appeased toward him. Because never (he said) henceforth will I speak anything of this, nor will I judge what or how much of our money thou shouldst bestow on the sons of God. Seeing which, the bishop was greatly afraid, and rising at once raised him up, promising that he was much appeased toward him, provided that he, sitting down to the banquet, would lay aside his sadness.
[6] St. Aidan prophesies that he will shortly die. And while the King, at the bishop's bidding and asking, resumed his cheerfulness, the bishop on the contrary began to be made sad even to the pouring out of tears. Whom, when his priest in his own native tongue, i which the King and his household did not know, had asked why he wept, he said: I know that the King is not to live for a long time: for never before this have I seen so humble a King. I perceive that he is to be snatched more swiftly from this life. For this nation is not worthy to have such a Ruler. And not long after, the dire presages of the bishop were fulfilled by the sad death of the King, of which we have spoken above. But the bishop Aidan himself also, not more than the twelfth day after the slaying of the King whom he loved, that is, on the day before the Kalends k of September, being taken from the world, received from the Lord the perpetual rewards of his labors.
ANNOTATIONS.
A SECOND SET OF ACTS
from John Capgrave, or rather John of Tynemouth,
In the Legend of England, from folio 256 verso.
Oswin, king and M., in England (St.)
BHL Number: 6385
FROM PRINTED SOURCES.
From exile Blessed Oswin also was sprung of the most illustrious stock of the ancient kings a of the English. For after the death of Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, b his first successors, namely Osric king of the Deirans and Eanfrid [*] of the Bernicians, apostates, c having been destroyed by Cædwalla king of the Britons by the just judgment of God, Oswin, the son of Osric, lest he should be slain by Cædwalla, was for no small time an exile among the West Saxons; d and Oswald, e the nephew of king Edwin, begotten of his sister Acha, f obtained the kingdom of the Deirans and of the Bernicians: and when at last he had been martyred by the pagans, his brother Oswy g succeeded, and reigned laboriously for twenty-eight years.
[2] St. Oswin returning rules piously. Oswin therefore in exile, namely the son of Osric, hearing that, Oswald being dead, Oswy reigned in his brother's stead, having taken counsel with his men, returned to the kingdom of the Deirans, and is joyfully received by all the people: and he is raised to be king, none contradicting, in the year of the Lord six hundred and forty-two, and he presided over the province of the Deirans nine years in the greatest affluence of all things, and he himself beloved by all. For he was an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame, a staff to the trembling, the devout father of orphans and widows and of all the needy. He kindly received the poor and especially strangers, fed the hungry, clothed the naked: and to all who asked his benefits he cheerfully bestowed them.
[3] Compelled to war, While therefore the man of God was at leisure for works of piety, the enemy of human salvation stirred up Oswy, king of the Bernicians, more and more against him, and inflamed him until, their armies being gathered, they met to fight in the place which is called Wilfaresdun. h But the most pious king Oswin, seeing his men, though far fewer, willing to contend with the enemy and ready to fall for their king, said to them: I congratulate you, O princes and faithful soldiers, on your probity and soldiership, and I give thanks to your good will: but far be it from me that for my sake alone you should all incur the hazard of war, you who appointed me — though by right your Lord, yet poor and an exile — your king. I had rather therefore be an exile alone with a few; nay rather I choose to die, than that for my sake alone it should befall you in any way to be endangered: i for he is impious and inhuman who, when he can in no way overturn the judgment of God, tries for his own sake to overturn many. Wherefore, peaceably and not by warring, I gladly embrace the divine sentence upon me: [] especially since through the mouth k of holy Aidan I know [] that I shall pass through the palm of martyrdom to the joys of the heavenly kingdom. In what order and at what time Christ shall have willed to end my temporal life, I do not refuse.
[4] These things being said, he sent the army home, and with only one soldier named Tondhere l betook himself to Gilling m into the house of the earl Hunwald, after his flight he is slain. on whom he had bestowed that village and many estates. But Hunwald brought him into an inner chamber, as though he should lodge there more becomingly, and, the fear of God being set aside, the wicked man made known to the king of the Bernicians that he would deliver king Oswin to him to be slaughtered. For king Oswy, hearing [] this, sent thither Ethelwin, the reeve of his household, and commanded him to slay king Edwin: [] and when he had come thither, and Oswin had been delivered to him by Hunwald, the king said: Since, wickedly betrayed, I am ordered to be slain by you though innocent, I pray you to permit this soldier freely to depart, and not for my sake to make him undergo death. Yet the soldier chose rather to succumb to death than, his lord being dead, to survive him, even if the opportunity were given. And so king Oswin together with his soldier received the sentence of death, and, their blood being poured out, they obtained a perpetual dwelling in heaven, on the thirteenth of the Kalends of September, in the ninth year of his reign.
[5] For king Oswin was both comely of aspect and lofty of stature, Among his other virtues pleasant in address, courteous in manners, and generous with his hand to all, noble and ignoble alike. Whence, on account of the royal dignity of his mind and of his countenance and of his merits, he was loved by all, and from every side, from nearly all the provinces, men even of noble rank flocked to his service. Now king Oswin had given his best horse to bishop Aidan, because he had been accustomed rather to go on foot than to be carried on horseback. Who soon afterwards gave that horse, when he had nothing else at hand, to a certain poor man asking alms. When the king had learned this, greatly indignant he said to bishop Aidan, sitting with him at table: n What hast thou done, lord bishop? Had we not cheaper horses which would suffice for alms? To whom the Bishop said: What sayest thou, lord king? Shall the son of a mare be dearer to thee than the son of Mary? o
[6] Straightway the king, falling at the bishop's feet, asked pardon, he gives a rare example of a humble mind. promising faithfully that he would never gainsay whatever he should bestow of his goods upon the sons of God. While therefore, being reconciled, they sat together at table, the bishop suddenly dissolved into tears. The cause of which thing being asked by the bystanders, the bishop said: That king is not to live for a long time: never before now have I seen a king [so] humble: nor is this wicked nation worthy long to have such a king. Whence it came about that soon after these things he himself was slain, as has been aforesaid, in the year of the Lord six hundred and fifty-one, and the ninth of his reign. But the bishop Aidan himself also survived only twelve days after the king's slaying. In Gedling, now called Gilling, situated not far from the city of Richmond, [p] queen Eanfled, [q] wife of king Oswy and kinswoman of king Oswin, in expiation of his slaying, leave having been obtained from king Oswy, built a monastery: in which assiduous prayers should daily be offered to the Lord for the salvation of the soul of the slain king and of him who ordered the slaying; and she appointed as abbot a certain devout man named Trumhere, an Englishman by nation, ordained and taught by the Scots, a kinsman of the slain king. Who afterwards, being made bishop under Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, in the province of the Mercians and of the Middle Angles, converted a multitude of peoples to the faith. [r]
[7] But the body of the holy King was carried by those who had slain him His body, to the mouth of the river Tyne toward the north, and was buried in the oratory of holy Mary the Virgin, in which place a multitude of religious gathered together [s] continually served God. And that place had grown to such eminence of honor that throughout the whole province, for reverence of the place and of religion, the bodies of the dead were brought thither to be entombed. After these things, many years having elapsed, Ynguar [t] and Hubba, sons of iniquity, princes of the Danes, landing at the mouth of the river Tyne, laid waste that monastery and all the region round about with grievous depopulation: they burned the monks in a certain little church dedicated by holy Cuthbert [u] to the honor of All Saints, and reduced all the buildings of the monastery to a level plain.
[8] at his own urging But in the year of grace one thousand one hundred and ten, [w] when a certain monk named Edmund, the sacristan of the place, on a certain night, after prayers poured forth in the accustomed manner, had been weighed down with sleep, there appeared [x] to him a certain man hoary with age, comely of countenance, tall of stature, and pleasant and kindly in words. Whom when, diligently gazing, he beheld, and dared not ask who he might be, he who appeared to him said: Edmund, brother Edmund. But he, being made more secure, said: Who art thou
lord? I am, he said, king Oswin, who, wickedly betrayed by the earl Hunwald and slain by king Oswy with a detestable death, lie entombed in this church, unknown to all. Arise, and tell bishop Ægelwin [y] that he raise my body and delay not to place it in a more becoming place.
[9] he is raised. And when he had announced this to the bishop, and he had raised the holy body from the earth, so great a fragrance of odor went forth that all kinds of aromatic spices were thought to be diffused, and all who were present were filled with an inestimable sweetness. And thus his sacred body was laid up with honor in the northern part of the oratory. Judith, the wife of the earl Tostig, with great insistence asked from the bishop a portion of the relics of the holy Martyr, and received a part of the hairs of the Saint's head. But she wished to test the hairs by the burning of fire, not that she distrusted in anything the merits of the Saint, but that by this she might everywhere extol the Martyr's merits. And so, a great fire being kindled and the hairs cast in, after the space of one hour the hair remained wholly untouched by the fire and unburnt. [z]
[10] [God] For when a certain vain and slippery priest, a counselor of the earl Tostig, the lodgings round about being occupied, had ordered a bed to be prepared for himself in the church, he caused a harlot to be secretly brought in to him: and when he wished to perpetrate iniquity with her, the whole fabric of the church began, by a sudden movement from top to bottom, as though the walls of the church were driven [] hither and thither by blasts of winds, to be shaken and to threaten its own ruin and the destruction of all. The priest, terrified and understanding his guilt, compelled the harlot to go out of the church, and all that commotion ceased. When fifty ships of king William [aa] put in at Tynemouth, they despoiled the goods of the place, in no way sparing the Saint: and carried off the web of a certain woman. But the woman, entering the church, with tears besought the Saint that he would restore her web to her, and take vengeance on the robbers. But the sailors as they sailed, suddenly striking upon rocks without any whirlwind of winds, as though they lacked a rower, dashed against one another and ran together upon each other with mutual collisions; and the raging waves drowned the sailors, except a few, and cast the spoils upon the shore of the church which they had plundered; [] and all, running together with the old woman, recovered their goods found along the shores.
[11] For [*] St. Oswin healed a woman deprived of the use of all her limbs; his glory by various miracles he restored unharmed a soldier who fell with his horse from a very high rock. The horse, having slipped from crag to crag, is not only saved from the precipice, but is suddenly, while many looked on, marvelously called back. Appearing to a certain man in prison he ordered him to rise swiftly and hasten to Tynemouth. Who, seeing his hands and feet loosed, arose, and lightly shaking off the bar of the door, fulfilled the Martyr's commands with haste. [bb] A wagoner, falling with the oxen yoked to his wagon from the brow of a mountain, is freed from peril. A certain man, seized with infirmity for a dove which he had presumptuously killed in secret, when he promised that he would make satisfaction for the offense, is healed. But when he neglected to fulfill his vow, he died of a returning infirmity.
[12] He gave light to two blind women, cured a paralytic woman, manifests. restored hearing to two deaf men, freed a girl vexed by a demon. A certain woman, vexed by demons for a year, when, being brought to the Martyr's church, she was healed, narrated with tears that at the time of her sleeping innumerable demons surrounded her, terrible of aspect and exceedingly horrible. Of whom seven were greater and more terrible, horned, shaggy, and tailed, having most foul eyes, and standing about her on every side strove to tear her in pieces. And when she had cried out with great cries, a certain one clad in a surplice, having in his face the whiteness of a lily, appearing said: I am, he said, king and martyr Oswin, beneath whose shrine [cc] thou restest; and with the sleeve of his surplice he put to flight the multitude of demons, and with all gentleness, with place and time, distinctly revealed the sins which she had committed and had never confessed, and the transgression of a certain vow: exhorting her to confess her sins and to fulfill her vow, and henceforth not to exercise for gain the trade of innkeeping, [dd] for which, as she asserted, she had been delivered to the power of the demons.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Of Richmond we have spoken in the annotations above, letter g.
q. Eanfled was the daughter of St. Edwin. She is inscribed in the English Martyrology of the year 1608 at the XXIV day of November. Whether she was at any time honored with public cultus will be examined at the same day. Alford gives her eulogy at the year 690, number 15.
r. These same things Bede has, book 3, chapter 24; but the king Wulfhere or Wulferi who is here commemorated died in the year 675, after he had reigned seventeen years; as Bede testifies, book 5, chapter 25.
s. Of the religious gathered there treatment was made in the commentary from number 12.
t. In what year Hinguar and Hubba came into England, and other matters pertaining hither, see in the same place, number 13.
u. Of St. Cuthbert, at the XX day of March, page 93.
w. One must read in the year 1065, as was said in the commentary, number 20.
x. This apparition the writer of Westminster also narrates at the year 1065. I have given the words in the commentary, number 17; where at number 20 the monk of St. Albans also was alleged.
y. Of Ægelwin's episcopate it was said in the same place.
z. This same deed of Judith the writer of Westminster narrates at the year just cited. Now Judith was the daughter of Baldwin, count of Flanders, to whom, being driven from her seat with her husband Tostig, she fled in the year 1065 in the month of November, that is, about eight months after the finding of the body of St. Oswin had elapsed: since that fell on the V of the Ides of March, as was noted in the Commentary, numbers 19 and 21. Of Judith more may be found in Alford at the year 1075, number 13, and at the year 1125, number 25.
aa. Which this was of the several kings of England who bore the name of William, it is not easy to divine.
bb. This same benefit the monk of St. Albans perhaps narrates, whose words the Commentary has at number 37.
cc. That by the name of feretrum a case is understood was said in the same place, number 28.
dd. Pandocinare I believe signifies nothing else than the word pandoxare, which among authors of the middle age meant the same as to keep a tavern, to put ale up for sale and accordingly to brew it, as may be seen in Du Cange's Glossary. These are the things which it seemed good to us to gather concerning St. Oswin.
. Eanfrido*.
. amplector* (I embrace).
. agnosco* (I acknowledge).
. autem* (but).
. Oswinum*.
. Perhaps illico* (straightway).
. impellerentur* (were driven).
. spoliaverant* (they had despoiled).
. etiam* (also).