ON ST. EBBA THE MARTYR, ABBESS WITH MANY COMPANIONS OF THE SAME MARTYRDOM IN THE MONASTERY OF COLDINGHAM IN SCOTLAND,
In the year DCCCLXIX or DCCCLXX.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Ebba, abbess and M. in the monastery of Coldingham in Scotland (St.)
Many companions of the same, MM., in the monastery of Coldingham in Scotland (SS.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
§ I. The distinction of this holy Martyr from another abbess of the same name of the same monastery, the time and manner of the martyrdom.
Arnold Wion wrongly confounds this holy Martyr with another abbess and virgin of the same name, when in book 4 of the Tree of Life, chapter 28, This holy Martyr, whom Wion with us in the second part of that Work, page 516, he thus writes: Holy Ebba, daughter of Ethelfrid king of Northumbria, her father being slain, submitting her neck to the monastic rule in the monastery of Coldingham, which is on the borders of Scotland, so bore herself in it that at length she deserved to be chosen abbess, and, for the repute of her sanctity, about the year DCXXX to be reckoned among the Saints by the Roman See, and to have several churches in that island dedicated to her. She, lest she should fall into the lust of the unbelieving Danes, cut away her nose and upper lip with a knife; which example of hers the remaining nuns bravely follow for the guarding of chaste religion. At length fire cast in by the enemy consumes them all, shut up in the monastery, as unspotted victims.
[2] Wion in this confused eulogy commits many errors with another virgin of the same name he shamefully confounded, which cannot be reconciled or excused among themselves: for first, besides other witnesses of this eulogy, he cites in the same place Bede in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 4, chapter 19, where that holy writer mentions St. Ebba the elder, whose Acts we illustrated above. But how could venerable Bede have made mention of this St. Ebba the younger and martyr, who obtained the palm of martyrdom more than a hundred years after Bede's death? Besides, he alleges Matthew of Westminster, who fixes the martyrdom of this St. Ebba the younger at the year of Christ 870, as we shall see below. How therefore can this year 870 fit St. Ebba the elder? How, finally, does Wion assert that St. Ebba the elder was in the year 630 reckoned among the dwellers in heaven by the Apostolic See on account of the public fame of her sanctity, since at that time she was still young, and drew out her life until the year of Christ 683, as we showed above in the Preliminary Commentary on her Acts?
[3] David Camerarius in the Work On the Fortitude and other virtues of the Scots better distinguishes both these Saints, and whom Camerarius the Scot when there in book 3, at the second day of April, with us page 122, he first thus writes concerning today's Martyr and her companions: Holy Ebba, virgin and martyr, abbess, most celebrated in Scotland for the gift of chastity and of martyrdom; who indeed, with incredible greatness of soul, and with an affection for chastity not unequal, that she might escape the intemperance of the unbelieving Danes, a razor being seized, cut away her nose and lip for herself;
and by her example all the other virgins did the same with steadfast mind: by which deed they were endowed by their heavenly Bridegroom with the twofold laurel of virginity and of martyrdom. The whole matter Matthew of Westminster narrates in the history of England, whose words we shall relate afterwards.
[4] distinguished better from the other, Then Camerarius in the same place, pages 124 and 125, subjoins these things about St. Ebba the elder: There was, I know, another Ebba, virgin and abbess, sprung of Northumbria, sister of the kings Oswald and Oswiu, who among the Scots, idolatry being left, was taught the Catholic faith about the year DCXXIV, concerning whom Boece: "Ebba, the only daughter of Elfred, being captured, escaping her ravisher by divine help, a skiff being seized, was borne out into the sea without human help, and at length, being set on land at the mouths of the Forth at the promontory which from her has borne to us the name of Ebba, the sacred veil being received from the bishop of the place, was numbered among the nuns living there. Being made at length mother and superior of the holy virgins, offering herself as a model of virtues to be imitated by all, she happily persevered with approved manners and a holy institute of living to the end of her life." But of that Ebba, virgin and martyr, commemoration is also made at the XXV day of August. Ferrari too, Menard, Bucelin, and other Menologists commonly distinguish these two Saints of the same name, and announce them on different days, so that this manifest error of Wion needs no further refutation.
[5] by some she is wrongly placed in the eleventh century: But Bucelin fell into a gross parachronism when on the XXIX day of August he concludes the eulogy of St. Ebba the elder, and thus distinguishes her from today's holy Martyr: She passed over to her Bridegroom in the fourth year before the death of holy Cuthbert, namely of Christ DCLXXXIV or LXXXV; whose history some confound with the deeds of holy Ebba II, abbess and martyr of the same monastery, who flourished in the year of Christ MLXX; of whom we treated above on the IX of the Kalends of September. But when on the ninth of the Kalends of September, or the XXIV day of August, we read the eulogy of St. Ebba the younger and martyr, to which Bucelin refers us, we find there twice the same year of Christ 1070 expressly stated. Whether this repeated parachronism is to be imputed to the printer or to the author, we hitherto do not know. But whosesoever that chronological error be, the erring printer or Bucelin was incautiously followed by Antony de Heredia, a Spanish Benedictine, who not only expressed this same year 1070 in Arabic numerals in the margin, but also, in Spanish words set out at length, fixed this martyrdom of St. Ebba and her companions to the year of Christ one thousand and seventy. * But that chronological or typographical error of two hundred years will presently of its own accord strike the eyes, from those things which we shall now relate concerning the more probable year of that martyrdom.
[6] Our Michael Alford in the Annals of the English Church at the year of Christ 869, number 1, gradually investigates the time of this martyrdom in this manner: for in the year of Christ 869, Most authors narrate confusedly, and mix into one year many things which, the circumstances of the matters being accurately weighed, are better distinguished. I am now about to speak of the most illustrious martyrdom of very many, especially of monks and nuns; who, being slain by the pagans for the orthodox faith and for the profession of their institute, are with all merit divided into their classes and order. That this may be made distinct, the traces of the Danes must be explored; where in the year eight hundred and sixty-nine, where in the following, they fixed their foot or their seat. This those men seem not to have observed who referred to the following year many things which cannot stand with the things done in this year. So the men of Worcester and of Westminster seem to err, who, passing over the year DCCCLXIX in a few words, referred almost all the martyrdoms to the year DCCCLXX.
[7] Then in the next number he pursues his matter in these words: or 870 he underwent martyrdom with his companions, But since they confess — which is most true — that the Danes, the territory of Nottingham being left, went on into Northumbria in this year, and there wintered, and remained a whole year; from that we can well take the proofs of their cruelty: for that they did not remain there idle, nor without injury to the provincials, the things which will presently be said will sufficiently show. And so the Dane, being driven in the previous year from the citadel of Nottingham, enters the province of York, and in the following year, which is the eight hundred and sixty-ninth, remained there, until the season for sailing invited him elsewhere for plunder. Then, besides other ancient writers of England favoring his opinion, he alleges for proving this chronology the words of Roger of Howden, who in the Frankfurt edition with us, page 416, narrates these things concerning the Danes: In the year DCCCLXIX the aforesaid army again set out to the nation of the Northumbrians, and there remained a whole year raging and raving, slaying and destroying very many men and women. From these things at length he afterwards concludes that this martyrdom of the nuns of Coldingham is more probably to be bound to the year of Christ 869. Yet others defer that same slaughter of the nuns to the following year. But we, on account of the slight difference of one year, do not wish to dispute longer about this chronological arrangement, and therefore above in the margin at the beginning of this collection we have noted both these years.
[8] Further, Matthew of Westminster in the Flowers of the Histories, the occasion and manner of which printed at Frankfurt in the year 1601, page 161, thus sets forth the occasion and manner of this slaughter: In the year of grace DCCCLXX there landed in Scotland a countless multitude of Danes, whose leaders were Hinguar and Hubba, men of dread perversity and of unheard-of strength; who, endeavoring to bring all the borders of England to destruction, cut the throats of boys and of old men, whoever met them, and gave order that matrons, nuns, or virgins be handed over to mockery. And when so great a monstrousness of the tyrants had been spread through all the borders of the kingdoms, holy Ebba, abbess of the monastery of Coldingham, fearing lest she too, to whom the solicitude of governance and the pastoral care had been committed, together with the virgins subject to her, should be handed over to the mockery of the pagans, so as to lose her virginal chastity, all the sisters being called together into chapter, broke out into this speech, saying: There have lately come (she said) to our parts most wicked pagans, ignorant of all humanity, who, traversing the several places of this region, sparing neither the female sex nor even the age of little children, destroy churches and ecclesiastical persons, and consume nuns and whatever else meets them. And so, if you shall resolve to acquiesce in my counsels, I conceive a sure hope of the divine clemency, that we shall be able both to escape the rage of the barbarians and to guard the chastity of perpetual virginity.
[9] Matthew of Westminster sets forth. And when the whole congregation of virgins had promised with sure pledges that they wished to obey their mother's precepts in all things, that Abbess of admirable spiritedness, openly offering to all the sisters an example of chastity — not only profitable to those nuns but also to be eternally embraced by all virgins who follow and shall follow — a razor being seized, cutting away her own nose with the upper lip as far as the teeth, offered a horrendous spectacle of herself to all who stood by. Which memorable deed, when the whole congregation, seeing it, marveled at, a like deed being perpetrated by each upon herself, they followed their mother's footsteps. And these things being thus done, when the next morning had dawned, the most wicked tyrants came upon them, that they might hand over the holy women devoted to God to mockery, and at the same time might burn the very monastery, despoiled, with fire. But beholding that Abbess and each of the sisters so monstrously mutilated, and wasted in their own blood from the sole of the foot to the crown, they withdrew in haste from that place, since it seemed to them too long to linger there even for a brief space of time. But the aforesaid leaders, withdrawing thence, charged their abominable retainers to set fire to the monastery and burn it with all its buildings and with the nuns themselves. And thus, the execution being completed by the ministers of iniquity, the holy Abbess and all the most holy Virgins with her attained to the glory of martyrdom. Thus far Matthew of Westminster, from whose testimony we gather the immemorial veneration of these Martyrs, or the public fame of their sanctity, which nevertheless we shall confirm in the following paragraph.
AnnotationsIn Spanish, mil y setenta*
§ II. The sanctity of these Martyrs vindicated, their number uncertain, and their nation disputed.
These Virgins are ascribed to the Saints, Whitford in the Martyrology of the church of Salisbury, which was published at London in the year 1526, announces the martyrdom of these nuns in English at the XXV day of August, and adorns them with the title of saints. Ferrari, Wilson, and other more recent Martyrologists commonly follow him. To these add Nicholas Harpsfield, archdeacon of Canterbury and an unconquered defender of the Catholic faith, who in the IX century of the Ecclesiastical History of England, chapter 14, rightly distinguishes two abbesses of the same name of the same monastery, and thus in passing indicates this latter one's stratagem for preserving her virginity: Concerning Ebba, superior of the said monastery of Coldingham, we have already said before; over which there also presided another very memorable Ebba, who with other holy virgins and the whole monastery, fire being set beneath by the Danes, were burned up: concerning whom some hand down a certain stratagem worthy of great admiration, which I leave to be sought from them. Then in the margin he assigns the Flowers of the Histories of Matthew of Westminster, from whom we related this history above. Chiefly in this brief narration we observe that those nuns (doubtless from the old testimony of the historians or from the tradition of their forebears) are called holy by this intrepid defender of the Catholic faith, who under Elizabeth's reign, hard for Catholics, died in prison at London after the twentieth year of his captivity, as may be seen in John Pits in the Work On the illustrious writers of England*, page 781.
[11] Nay rather, the sanctity of those Virgins is so widely published among the Scots and the English who for the sake of preserving their virginity that afterwards even the heterodox writers of those regions looked up to this excellent deed, and, from the pious custom of their forebears, called the Abbess, the leader of this deed, by the name of saint, as Richard Smith, bishop of Chalcedon, in the Flowers of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 3, chapter 5, section 2, under king Ethelred, page 180, testifies in these words: In this king's time too there happened that memorable deed of holy Ebba, abbess of Coldingham, who persuaded her sisters both by word and by deed that, for preserving their chastity from the Danes, they should cut away both their nose and their lips; on account of which they were, together with the monastery, consumed by flames by the Danes; whom Baronius at the year DCCCLXX asserts to have been an incomparable example of Christian fortitude, and to have been received among the martyrs and celebrated by the Church with the cult of martyrs… This deed of holy Ebba, of the Protestants, Baker relates in Ethelred, and Stow at the year DCCCLXX, who calls her SAINT.
[12] Moreover, of the heterodox, William Camden seems to praise this heroic deed of the nuns mutilated themselves, when in his description of Britain, page 686, he thus mentions it in passing: Thence Coldingham is beheld, Bede's city Coldana and the city of Coludi, to Ptolemy perhaps Colania, many ages ago sacred to veiled virgins, whose chastity is recorded in the monuments of letters,
because, together with Ebba who presided, they cut away their noses and lips, taking counsel for their chastity rather than for their beauty against the Danes, who nevertheless wrapped them together with the monastery in those same flames. But another heretical author, in the History of the British Church, which was reprinted at Hanau in the year 1605, with us page 71, keeps deep silence about their care for preserving their virginity, and yet there sets forth the same cruelty of the Danes in these words: In the same year, by the injury of the Danes, the monastery of Coldingham, situated in the southern borders of Scotland, distant six thousand paces from Berwick toward the north, was despoiled. This women inhabited, who all, together with Ebba the abbess of that place, were by the Danes' command given over to burning. Perhaps this heretical writer passed over that memorable fortitude of the Virgins because he was an enemy of virginal chastity, or disapproved that deed of the nuns. But whatever was the cause of silence for this heretic, whose authority we count as nothing, let us rather hear what Catholic teachers judge concerning deeds of this kind.
[13] When the victorious Goths had invaded Rome, and had perpetrated various outrages of lust in the sacking of this city, although St. Augustine on that occasion St. Augustine of Hippo wrote the books On the City of God, and in the first book of that Work through several chapters disputes whether it was lawful for Roman women or virgins to kill themselves in order to avoid and prevent the lust of the enemy. At first the holy doctor seems to hang in doubt, and in chapter 16 of the first book, as though straitened by certain narrows, as he there says, he thus discourses: But since not only what pertains to pain, but also what pertains to lust, can be perpetrated in another's body, whatever such thing shall have been perpetrated, even if it does not shake out the chastity retained with a most constant mind, yet strikes in shame; lest it be believed to have been done also with the will of the mind, which perhaps could not be done without some pleasure of the flesh. And by this also, as for those who killed themselves lest they should suffer anything of this kind, what human feeling would not wish them to be pardoned? And for those who were unwilling to kill themselves, lest by their own crime they should avoid another's outrage, whoever shall lay this to them as a crime, he himself will not be free from the crime of folly.
[14] shows by various arguments, Then the holy bishop proves by various arguments that even when the body has been violated by rape, the chastity of the mind can be kept unharmed, and therefore in chapter 19 of the same first book praises those Christian women who in the sack of Rome suffered violence, and who were unwilling to imitate the example of the gentile Lucretia, in these words: Christian women did not do this, who, having suffered like things, live. Yet neither did they avenge upon themselves another's crime, lest they should add their own to others' wickednesses, if, because the enemy in coveting had committed rapes upon them, they in blushing should commit homicides upon themselves. For indeed they have within the glory of chastity, the testimony of conscience; and they have it before the eyes of their God, and they seek no further where they may do rightly, since they have no more, lest they turn aside from the authority of the divine law, while they ill avoid the offense of human suspicion.
[15] the killing or mutilation of oneself Finally from the following chapters he concludes that the killing of oneself in order to avoid any harm of the body is altogether unlawful, and to a certain specious objection of those who think it lawful in the peril of consenting to others' sins he at length in chapter 25 thus subtly answers: What so evil an error therefore has crept in, that a man should kill himself, either because an enemy has sinned against him, or lest an enemy should sin against him, when he would not dare to kill the enemy himself, whether he has sinned or is about to sin? But indeed, they say, it is to be feared and guarded against lest the body, subjected to the enemy's lust, allure the soul by most enticing pleasure to consent to sin. Accordingly, they say, not now on account of another's, but on account of one's own sin, before anyone commits this, he ought to kill himself. In no way indeed will the mind do this, that it consent to the lust of its own flesh, stirred by another's lust, which is subject rather to God and to his wisdom than to the concupiscence of the body.
[16] is altogether unlawful, Nevertheless, if it is a detestable deed and a damnable wickedness for a man to kill even himself, as manifest truth proclaims, who would be so foolish as to say: Let us now sin, lest perchance we sin afterwards; let us now perpetrate homicide, lest perchance afterwards we fall into adultery? Nay, if iniquity so rules that not innocence but rather sins be chosen, is not an adultery uncertain as to the future better than a homicide certain as to the present? Is it not better to commit an outrage which may be healed by repenting, than such a deed where no place of salutary repentance is left? These things I have said on account of those men or women who think that force is to be brought upon themselves, whereby they may die, for the sake of avoiding not another's but their own sin, lest under another's lust their own also being stirred they perchance consent. But far be it from a Christian mind, which trusts in its God and, its hope being placed in him, relies on his help; far be it, I say, that such a mind should yield to any pleasures of the flesh unto consent to shamefulness. But if that concupiscential disobedience which still dwells in our dying members is moved, as by its own law, beyond the law of our will, how much more is it without fault in the body of one not consenting, if it is without fault in the body of one sleeping? You see that here by the bishop of Hippo those who directly infect or slay themselves are condemned of grave sin, and that every refuge of excuse is closed to them.
[17] Nevertheless St. Augustine in the same place, chapter 26, objects to himself a single case, unless it be done by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and, that being posited, admits an exception from the general precept, in this manner: But certain holy women, they say, in the time of persecution, that they might avoid the assailants of their chastity, cast themselves into a river that would carry them off and kill them, and in that manner died, and their martyrdoms are frequented in the Catholic Church with most celebrated veneration. Concerning these I dare judge nothing rashly: for whether divine authority persuaded the Church by any testimonies worthy of credit so to honor their memory, I know not; and it may be that it is so. For what if they did this not being humanly deceived, but divinely commanded; not erring, but obeying, as concerning Samson it is not lawful for us to believe otherwise? But when God commands, and without any ambiguities makes known that he commands, who would call obedience into crime? Who would accuse the compliance of piety? But not therefore does anyone act without wickedness who shall have resolved to immolate his son to God, because Abraham did this even praiseworthily. For a soldier too, when, obeying the power under which he is lawfully constituted, he kills a man, is by no law of his city guilty of homicide; nay, unless he does it, he is guilty of duty deserted and despised. But if he had done it of his own accord and by his own authority, he would have fallen into the crime of human blood shed. And so, from what cause he is punished if he does it uncommanded, from that same cause he will be punished unless he does it when commanded. But if this is so when the commander commands, how much more when the Creator commands? In that excepted case are today's Martyrs of ours, as will appear from what is to be said below.
[18] Since no one is more master of his own members than of his own life, which our Rader, by the same precept the mutilation of oneself is forbidden, unless it be necessary for the preservation of the whole body. Whence our Rader in the Garden of the Saints, part 2, chapter 5, or page 166, distinguishing lawful mutilation of oneself from unlawful, brings forward that very example of our holy Virgins, and thus discourses on this matter: Origen's deed therefore is condemned, although he deprived himself of manhood for the love of chastity, and the deeds of others who either preceded Origen or followed him; and the interpreters of the sacred Letters agree with the counselors of divine and human law that those sin most gravely who cut off any part of the body for themselves, whether eyes, or hands, or other members, unless it be established that it was done by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, in whose power is life and death, not of one member only but of the whole body. But that is singular and outside the lot of the common law, that he who, being bound, spat his bitten-off tongue into the face of a shameless harlot; as also that which John the Eunuch narrates of a virgin of Alexandria who dug out her own eyes, and James of Vitry concerning a virgin who dared the same deed: as also there was a certain Euphemia, and several others, who cut off their noses; or as blessed Ebba, who with her virgins cut away besides her nose also her lips. All which fall not under the common law, nor are set forth to be imitated generally, although there is a great difference between these women and those men, whom no external force pressed; these a present peril urged; those error, or even heresy, impelled; these the Holy Spirit drew and strengthened, that they might attempt something above their sex.
[19] and the most eminent Baronius attribute to these Martyrs. The most eminent Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 870 relates the martyrdom of St. Ebba and her companions from Matthew of Westminster, and afterwards at number 41 defends those holy Virgins with this apology: There will perhaps be some rather bold man who will dare to brand the holy Virgins, an incomparable example of Christian fortitude, received among the martyrs and celebrated by the Church with the cult of martyrs, because, since no one is master of his own members, they were so prodigal of them. To whom let this now suffice, that it is judged by the Church when anything is done by the impulse of the divine Spirit, or only by human boldness; which has reckoned among the martyrs not only these women who did not spare their own members for the sake of saving their virginity, but others who, whether by a precipice, or by the whirlpools of waters, or even to fires, gave their body for the sake of preserving chastity, whom by one consent both the western and the eastern church honors as martyrs, and the most holy Fathers of both worlds defend and proclaim. That voice in St. Ambrose is still heard crying, of holy Pelagia the virgin of Antioch, constrained by the same necessity, that she should suffer the loss of her virginity: Let us die, forsooth; or if they will not that it be lawful, let us die. God is not offended by a remedy, and faith washes away the deed. She did what she said, and persuaded her sisters to do the same. We forbear to review one by one, in the different churches of the whole world, those women who by like fortitude of soul and by a like deed won for themselves the crown of martyrdom. But although scarcely a few ears may be gathered out of the divers ones, yet out of the fertile field of martyrs, that noble English church, fruitful in martyrs, has itself in so great a swarm obtained an ample harvest of holy Virgins, who then, like bees content with the hive of their monastery, now rejoice in heaven with their bridegroom, marked with a twofold crown. From this reasoning of the most eminent and most learned Cardinal we conclude that these Nuns of Coldingham have from time immemorial been held and celebrated by the Church as true Martyrs.
[20] The number of these Martyrs is unknown, From the narration of Matthew of Westminster and of others we indeed dig out that all the Nuns
of Coldingham bravely imitated the example of St. Ebba their abbess; but from that we do not yet know whether at that time their number was great or small. Nevertheless David Camerarius, book 3 On the Piety of the Scots, in the eulogy of St. Ebba, page 123, contends that that congregation of nuns was then numerous, and strives to prove this opinion of his by this reason: Further, what the multitude of these Virgins and Martyrs was, he says, may be seen from this, that this abbey of Coldingham (which took its name from Coldingham, a most ancient city of Scotland, to Ptolemy Colonia), as it had been sacred to veiled virgins for many ages past, was one of the most ample and greatest in compass of all in the whole of Scotland, which Edgar, the LXXXIX in order of the kings of the Scots, in the seventh year of his reign, though it was already ample enough, royally enlarged and extended. I do not see what Edgar, the eighty-ninth king of the Scots, who in the eleventh century enlarged that monastery, makes here toward proving the multitude of those Nuns long preceding him: for hence it does not follow that that congregation of nuns was very numerous in the ninth century, in which our Virgins underwent martyrdom. Besides, in the seventh century that same monastery burned down by divine vengeance, very many of its inhabitants departing thence on account of the desolation, as venerable Bede in book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 25, testifies, and as we related above in the Life of the other St. Ebba the elder. We therefore frankly confess that the number of these today's Martyrs is unknown to us.
[21] Now another question of lesser moment is raised, namely whether these Martyrs ought to be reckoned to the Scots or to the English. and it is disputed whether they are to be ascribed to the English saints, Our Alford, an Englishman, in the Annals of the English Church at the year of Christ 869, number 4, assigns the site of the monastery of Coldingham, and thus claims these holy Virgins of ours for his own countrymen: I said above that that monastery, set at the city of Coludi (so Bede calls the place), flourished with an illustrious college of sacred virgins. But it is in the outermost parts of the kingdom of Northumbria, and of the province of the March, and it belonged at all times to the princes of Northumbria; it is now reckoned to Scotland. Whence those who have written more recently will have it that the Danes went also into Scotland; but they must be understood to have gone thither because it was then reckoned to the kingdom of Northumbria (for none of the ancients said that the Danes advanced beyond in this year), but now it pertains to the Scots. Which I therefore desire to be noted, so that the most select lilies which shall presently fall by the hand of the Danes may be known to have been sent to heaven in this year from nowhere else than from the garden of the English church: for as above, at the year six hundred and eighty-three, we said without controversy that Ebba, daughter of Ethelfrid king of the Northumbrians, abbess of the monastery of Coldingham, and very many Virgins there consecrated to God, were flowers of the Saxons; so by the same right the other Ebba will be of the English right, who in this year, that she might present a chaste virgin to Christ, blotted out her own beauty with a cruel piety.
[22] or to the Scots. But the praised Camerarius ascribes the same Martyrs to his own Scots, and, after the abridged apology of Baronius which we recited above, in book 3 On the Piety of the Scots, page 124, refutes that most eminent writer in these words: One thing I add, that Baronius was deceived by Westminster's doubtful narration concerning these Virgins, who, in order to persuade the reader that these Virgins were English, writes that those Danes indeed landed in Scotland, but, Scotland being as it were passed by, attacked England, and leveled the monasteries of England to the ground. But he is deceived, since it is established that Constantine II king of the Scots also joined hands a second time with these Danes Hengar and Stubba, and was crowned with martyrdom by the same; and that the abbey of Coldingham also (in which the Virgins were) was always in the March, a province of Scotland, and that traces of the same still remain there.* To us this seems to be a question of time and of name, which it does not please us to investigate with more labor: for if the monastery of Coldingham was always reckoned to Scotland, as Camerarius will have it, these Martyrs will have to be ascribed to the Scots; but if the province of the March then pertained to England, as Alford contends, the same Virgins will be able to be reckoned among the English Saints. Whether therefore you shall call them English or Scots, we shall not gainsay. Would that the whole nation of the Scots and of the English might venerate these holy Virgins and Martyrs (whether they were English or Scots) after the ancient and pious manner of their forebears, and implore their patronage! Since we know nothing further concerning the sacred relics of these Martyrs, and the other things pertaining to their posthumous glory, we now set an end to this collection.
Annotations* that is, the Danes
elsewhere concitante*
elsewhere Hubba*