Cedd — Acta Sanctorum

ON ST. CEDD OR CEDDUS, BISHOP OF LONDON

Preface

Cedd or Ceddus, Bishop of London in England (St.)

Year of Christ 664.

[1] In London, the metropolis of Britain, there had long been Bishops, or even Archbishops, before the irruption of the Angles; this dignity was retained in name by the Britons driven into Wales for several centuries, as we shall say on February 4 in the life of St. Liphardus. But after the Angles embraced the Christian religion, The birthday of St. Cedd, Bishop of London. the first Bishop of London was Mellitus, whose life we shall give on April 24; the second was St. Ceddus or Cedd, although it is not entirely certain that he had his see at London — he was certainly Bishop of the East Saxons, whose capital was London; and William of Malmesbury expressly calls him Bishop of London. John Capgrave testifies in his Legend of the Saints of England that he found nowhere the day of his death. Florence of Worcester expressly writes that he died on October 26, 664; but since the English Martyrology records him on this day January 7, we shall follow that. His brother was St. Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, of whom we shall treat on March 2; although the London bishop is sometimes called Cedda and Ceada, while the other is more often called Ceddus, Cedd, Ceaddus by Bede and Capgrave. His distinguished deeds are recounted by the Venerable Bede in Book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Chapters 21, 22, 23, and by others after him.

LIFE

From Bede, Book 3, Chapters 21 ff.

Cedd or Ceddus, Bishop of London in England (St.)

From Bede.

CHAPTER I.

St. Cedd, one of the first Apostles of the Mediterranean Angles.

[1] In those times the Middle Angles, that is, the Mediterranean Angles, under Prince Penda, son of King Pendan, Peada or Penda, the King, is converted. received the faith and sacraments of the truth. For he was an excellent young man, and most worthy of the name and rank of King, and was set by his father over the kingdom of that people. He came to Oswiu, King of the Northumbrians, asking that his daughter Alchfleda be given to him in marriage; but he could not obtain what he asked unless he and the people over whom he ruled accepted the faith of Christ and baptism. When he heard the preaching of the truth and the promise of the heavenly kingdom, and the hope of the resurrection and future immortality, he willingly professed that he wished to become ^a Christian, even if he should not receive the maiden — persuaded chiefly to receive the faith by the son of King Oswiu, named Alchfrid, who was his kinsman and friend, having his sister as wife, named Cyneburga, daughter of King Penda.

[2] He was therefore baptized by Bishop Finan, together with all who had come with him, [Having been baptized, he arranges for his people to be instructed through St. Cedd and others.] his Counts, soldiers, and all their servants, in ^a famous royal estate called "At the Wall." And having accepted four Priests who seemed suited by learning and life to teach and baptize his people, he returned with great joy. The Priests were Cedd, Adda, Betti, and Diuma, the last of whom was ^a Scot by birth, while the rest were Angles. Adda was the brother of the illustrious Priest Uttan, Abbot of the monastery called "At Goat's Head." Coming therefore into the province with the Prince, the aforesaid Priests preached the word and were gladly heard; and many both of the nobles and of the lowly were daily washed in the font of faith, having renounced the filth of idolatry. Nor did King Penda forbid the word to be preached even in his own, that is the Mercian, nation, to any who wished to hear it. Indeed, he rather hated and despised those whom he found imbued with the faith of Christ but lacking the works of faith, saying that those who scorned to obey their God, in whom they believed, were to be despised and pitied.

[3] These things began two years before the death of King Penda. When he himself was slain, and Oswiu, the most Christian King, received his kingdom, Diuma, one of the aforesaid four Priests, was made Bishop The first Bishops there. of the Mediterranean Angles and likewise of the Mercians, ordained by Bishop Finan. For the scarcity of priests compelled one Bishop to be placed over two peoples. When in ^a short time he had gained no small flock for the Lord, he died among the Mediterranean Angles, in the region called "In Feppingum." Ceollach succeeded him in the episcopate, himself also of the Scottish nation, who not long after left the episcopate and returned to the island of Iona, where the Scots had the head and citadel of very many monasteries. Trumhere succeeded him in the episcopate, ^a devout man trained in the monastic life, an Angle by birth but ordained Bishop by the Scots, which happened in the time of King Wulfhere.

Notes

CHAPTER II.

St. Cedd, Apostle and second Bishop of the East Saxons.

[4] At that time also the East Saxons received the faith, which they had formerly rejected when they expelled Bishop Mellitus, through the urgency of King Oswiu. For the King of that same people was Sigebert, who reigned after Sigebert surnamed the Small, and was ^a friend of the same King Oswiu. King Oswiu converts Sigebert, King of the East Saxons. Since he frequently came to visit him in the province of the Northumbrians, Oswiu was accustomed to urge him to understand that things made by the hands of men could not be gods; that ^a living thing could not be the material for creating ^a god out of wood or stone, the shavings of which were either consumed by fire, or fashioned into vessels for human use, or at any rate, held in contempt, were thrown outside and trampled underfoot and turned back to earth. That God ought rather to be understood as one incomprehensible in majesty, invisible to human eyes, almighty and eternal, who had created heaven and earth and the human race, who governed and would judge the world in equity, whose throne is eternal; and rightly to be understood that all who should learn and do the will of him by whom they were created would receive eternal rewards from him. When King Oswiu had often urged King Sigebert with these and similar things in friendly and as it were brotherly counsel, at length, with the supporting agreement of his friends, he believed; and having taken counsel with his people, with all favoring and assenting to the faith with their encouragement, he was baptized with them by Bishop Finan at the royal estate that we mentioned above, called "At the Wall," for it is near the wall with which the Romans once girded the island of Britain, twelve miles from the eastern sea.

[5] St. Cedd is sent to his people. King Sigebert, therefore, now made ^a citizen of the eternal kingdom, returned to the seat of his temporal kingdom, asking King Oswiu to provide him with some teachers who might convert his people to the faith of Christ and wash them in the saving font. Oswiu, sending to the province of the Mediterranean Angles, summoned the man of God, Cedd, and giving him another Priest as companion, sent them to preach the word to the people of the East Saxons. When, traveling through all parts, they had gathered ^a great Church for the Lord, He converts many. it happened one time that the same Cedd returned home and came to the church of Lindisfarne for conference with Bishop Finan, who, when he learned that the work of the Gospel had prospered with him, He is made Bishop. made him Bishop among the people of the East Saxons, calling to himself two other Bishops for the ministry of ordination. Having received the rank of Bishop, he returned to the province and, carrying out with greater authority the work he had begun, built churches in various places, ordained Priests and Deacons to assist him in the word of faith and the ministry of baptizing, especially in the city called in the Saxon tongue Ithancestir, and also in the one called Tilbury. He builds monasteries. The former place is on the bank of the river Pente, the second on the bank of the Thames; in which, having gathered ^a community of servants of Christ, he taught them to be trained in the discipline of the regular life, as far as those still untutored could receive it.

[6] The wicked murder of Sigebert the Good: When for no short time in the aforesaid province, with the King rejoicing and all the people rejoicing with him, the instruction of the heavenly life was receiving daily increase, it happened that the King himself, at the instigation of the enemy of all good, was killed by the hand of his own kinsmen. There were two brothers of one family who perpetrated this crime; and when they were asked why they had done it, they could answer nothing else except that they had been angry and hostile to the King because he was too accustomed to spare his enemies, and would readily forgive with ^a placid mind the injuries they had inflicted, when they begged his pardon. Such was the fault of the King for which he was killed: that he devoutly observed the precepts of the Gospel. Yet in this his innocent death, according to the prediction of the man of God, his true fault was punished. For one of those Counts who had killed him had contracted an unlawful marriage, which the Bishop, being unable to prohibit and correct, had excommunicated him and commanded all who would listen to him not to enter his house nor accept food from him. The King disregarded this command predicted by St. Cedd and, invited by the Count, entered his house to feast. When he had gone there, the Bishop met him on the way; and the King, seeing him, immediately trembling, leapt from his horse and fell before his feet, begging pardon for his offense. For the Bishop likewise dismounted, for he too had been sitting on ^a horse. Being angry, however, he touched the prostrate King with the staff he held in his hand and, testifying with pontifical authority, said: "I tell you, because you were unwilling to restrain yourself from the house of that lost and damned man, you shall die in that very house." But it should be believed that such ^a death of the pious man not only washed away such ^a fault but even increased his merit, since it occurred on account of the cause of piety and the observance of the commandments of Christ.

[7] Cedd baptizes King Suidhelinus. Suidhelinus, son of Sexbald, succeeded Sigebert in the kingdom, and was baptized by Cedd himself in the province of the East Angles, in the royal estate called Rendlesham, that is, the mansion of Rendil; and Ethelwald, King of that same people of the East Angles, brother of King Anna, received him as he ascended from the holy font.

Notes

CHAPTER III.

Other deeds, abstinence, and death of Cedd.

[8] A place for building ^a monastery is offered to him. The same man of the Lord, while he was exercising the office of Bishop among the East Saxons, was also accustomed to revisit frequently his own province, that is, the Northumbrians, for the purpose of exhortation. When Ethelwald, son of King Oswald, who held the kingdom in the region of the Deirans, saw him to be ^a holy, wise, and upright man in his conduct, he asked him to accept from him ^a grant of land for building ^a monastery, in which the King himself might more frequently come to pray and hear the Word of the Lord, and in which his dead might be buried. For the King faithfully believed that the daily prayers of those who served the Lord in that place would greatly benefit him. The same King had previously had with him the brother of the same Bishop, named Celin, ^a man equally devoted to God, who was accustomed to minister the Word and the Sacraments of the faith to him and his household (for he was ^a Priest), through whose acquaintance he had chiefly come to love and know the Bishop.

[9] He builds it in ^a remote place. Granting the King's wishes, the Bishop chose for himself ^a site for building ^a monastery in steep and remote mountains, where there seemed to have been more the lurking places of robbers and lairs of wild beasts than habitations of men, so that, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, in the dens where dragons had formerly dwelt, there might spring up the green of reed and rush — that is, the fruit of good works might be born where previously either beasts had dwelt or men had been accustomed to live like beasts. Isaiah 35:7 The man of God, however, being eager to purify the accepted site of the monastery first by prayers and fasts from its former filth of wickedness, and then to lay the foundations of the monastery in it, asked the King to grant him permission and leave to stay there for the purpose of prayer throughout the whole approaching time of Lent. He first sanctifies the place with fasts and prayers. During all those days, except Sundays, prolonging his fast until evening as was the custom, he then took only ^a very small portion of bread and one hen's egg with ^a little milk mixed with water. He said that this was the custom of those from whom he had learned the standard of the regular discipline: to first consecrate to the Lord with prayers and fasts places recently received for building ^a monastery or church. When ten days of Lent remained, someone came to summon him to the King. But he, lest the religious work be interrupted on account of royal business, asked his Priest Cymbel, who was also his own brother, to complete the pious undertaking. When Cymbel willingly agreed, after the practice of fasting and prayer was completed, he built for himself ^a monastery which is now called Lastingham, and established it with religious observances according to the rite of Lindisfarne, where he had been educated.

[10] He dies of the plague. When for many years he had both administered the bishopric in the aforesaid province and also managed the care of this monastery through appointed superiors, it happened by chance that he came to the monastery at the time of ^a plague, and being struck there by bodily illness, he died. He was first buried outside, but in the course of time ^a stone church was built in the monastery in honor of the Blessed Mother of God, and his body was laid to rest in it to the right of the altar. The Bishop entrusted the governance of the monastery after himself to his brother Chad, who later became ^a Bishop. Indeed, the four brothers we mentioned His brothers — Cedd, Cymbel, Celin, and Chad — (which is rarely found) were all illustrious Priests of the Lord, and two of them attained even to the rank of the highest priesthood.

[11] When therefore it was heard in the province of the Northumbrians that the Bishop had died and been buried, brothers who were in his monastery in the province of the East Saxons 29 monks die at his sepulcher — about thirty men — came from their monastery, desiring either to live near the body of their Father (if it so pleased God) or to die and be buried there. They were gladly received by their brothers and fellow soldiers, but all of them died there when the aforesaid plague struck, except one small boy who is known to have been preserved from death by the prayers of his Father. One is saved by his merits. For when he had lived long after these events and had devoted himself to reading the Scriptures, he at last learned that he had not been regenerated by the water of baptism, and he was immediately washed in the font of saving baptism and was afterwards promoted to the order of the Priesthood, and he was useful to many in the Church. Concerning him, I should not think it doubtful that by the intercession (as I said) of his Father, to whose body he had come out of love for him, he was held back from the point of death, so that he might both himself escape eternal death and also offer to other brothers the ministry of life and salvation by his teaching.

Notes

CHAPTER IV.

Other deeds and miracles of Cedd.

[12] Cedd attends the Synod of Streaneshealch. At that time, when the monks of Iona and all the northern Scots disagreed with the Roman Church in the celebration of Easter and certain other rites, ^a Synod was held in England in the monastery of St. Hilda (of which we shall treat in her life on November 17) primarily on that question, in the year of Christ 664, the twenty-second year of the reign of King Oswiu, as Bede reports in Book 3, Chapter 25. In this Synod was also present the venerable Bishop Cedd, who had long since been ordained by the Scots, and who served as ^a most vigilant interpreter for both parties in that Council. After the Scottish observance was refuted there, Cedd, as the same Bede says in Chapter 26, abandoning the practices of the Scots, returned to his see, having acknowledged the observance of the Catholic Easter. But there will be another place to speak of that whole question. In the meantime, the commentary of our Aegidius Bucherius on the Paschal Canon of Victorius, Chapter 10, may be consulted. The Worcester writer mentions this Council under the same year.

[13] He carries the soul of his brother Chad to heaven. The same Bede, Book 4, Chapter 3, reports that when St. Chad was departing from this world, ^a certain holy man saw the soul of his brother Cedd descending from heaven with ^a host of Angels and, having taken his soul, returning to the heavenly kingdoms. This was reported by St. Higbald the Abbot, of whom we shall treat on September 22. John Capgrave has ^a life of St. Cedd drawn from this. Harpsfield also treats of him in Century 7, Chapters 13, 22, etc. Florence of Worcester in his Chronicle, especially under the year 653. Ranulf of Chester, Book 5, Chapters 15 and 16. Matthew of Westminster under the year 649, and elsewhere. William of Malmesbury, Book 1 of On the Kings of England, Chapter 6, and Book 2 of On the Bishops of England. Polydore Vergil, Book 4 of the History of England, and innumerable others.

Notes

a. That is, about the year 653, as will be said in number 3.

b. Others call him Peada; Ranulf of Chester calls him Weda, son of Penda or, as he is called here, Pendan, the most cruel King of the Mercians. After Penda was killed on November 15, 655, Oswiu came into possession of the Mercian kingdom and gave to Peada, his son-in-law, the kingdom of the southern Mercians. But Peada was wickedly murdered in 657, on Easter, by the treachery, as is reported, of his own wife.

c. He succeeded his brother St. Oswald in the kingdom in the year 642 and died on March 1, 670.

d. Harpsfield calls her Aluchfreda; the Chester writer calls her Elfleda. She was the sister of St. Elfleda, of whom we treat on February 8.

e. He succeeded his brother Ecgfrith, who was killed by the Picts on May 20, 685, a Saturday; he died on December 14, 705. His wife is called Cyneburga by the Chester writer and others, of whom we treat on September 15.

f. We shall treat of St. Finan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, on February 17.

g. The immense wall of turf and stakes, first built by Hadrian, then by Severus (others made other fortifications against the Caledonians), was drawn as a boundary of the Roman province from the German Sea to the Irish, or from the estuary of the river Tyne to the inlet of the Ituna. It is excellently described by Camden, who says it is called by the Britons Gual-sever, Gal-sever, Mur-sever; by the Scots Sottiswaith; by the English and local inhabitants "The Picts' Wall" or "Pehits-wall," that is, the Pictish Wall, "The Keep-wall," that is, the wall of custody, and by excellence "The Wall"; by the ancients "the Barbaric Rampart," "the Frontier," "the Barrier"; by Dio, diateichisma; by Herodian, choma (χῶμα); by Antoninus, Cassiodorus, and others, "the rampart"; by Bede, "the wall." This rampart is mentioned very frequently. Camden considers this royal estate called "At the Wall" to be the one now called Waltown, which is distant from the Ocean by 12 miles.

h. David Camerarius assigns his birthday to January 17, as we shall say on that day. But I do not see why he should list him among the Scots, since Bede expressly testifies he was an Angle.

i. The same Camerarius lists him among the Scottish Saints on February 11 and calls him Betta, with the Worcester writer, and admits that he is venerated by others on another day; but on which, we have not discovered.

k. Camerarius rightly, with Bede's agreement, claims him for the Scots, and assigns him to August 1, and reports that he is called Diuna, Diuma, Duima, Dina, Diurna. Godwin calls him Dwina.

l. Therefore in the year 653, since, as we said, Penda was killed in the year 655.

m. Harpsfield calls him Cellacus; Malmesbury calls him Cellach; others Coellachus; Camerarius also Colathus, Ceolachus, Colachus. The same Camerarius says he is venerated on June 2, as does a certain MS. Calendar of Saints of the Order of St. Benedict.

n. Iona, or Hu, also called Iona, a small island of Scotland, but most celebrated as the training ground of the most holy ascetics Columba and his followers, commonly called Columkill. See the life of St. Columba on June 9 and elsewhere.

o. He, son of Penda and brother and successor of Peada, rebelled against Oswiu in the year 659 and claimed the kingdom of the Mercians for himself; he died in 675. He was the father of St. Werburga, of whom we shall treat on February 3.

a. One of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain was that of the East Saxons, whose capital was London, at the very borders of Kent.

b. After the death of the Christian King Sebert, his three sons, Sexred, Siward, and Sebert, restored the worship of idols in the year 616, and expelled Bishop Mellitus.

c. Sigebert surnamed the Small, son of Siward, after his father and uncles were killed by Cynegils, King of the West Saxons, and his son Cwichelm, received the kingdom in the year of Christ 623.

d. The Westminster writer narrates the same things somewhat more briefly under the year 648; the Worcester writer under 653.

e. Lindisfarne, commonly called Holy Island, an island opposite the coast of Northumbria, formerly the seat of many Saints.

f. The Westminster writer calls it Ithancestria and says it is situated on the bank of the river Pente. Camden, writing of the Trinovantes, says this river is called Blackwater by the locals, formerly the Pant. Of Ithancestria he writes thus: "Further north along the coast there flourished a city of ancient memory, which our ancestors called Ithancester. For Ralph Niger writes from Bede: Bishop Ceada baptized the East Saxons near Maldon in the city of Ithancester, which was on the bank of the river Pant, which runs past Maldon in the province of Dengie, but now that city is submerged in the river Pant. I cannot point to the exact spot, but I have no doubt that the river today called Froshwell was formerly named the Pante, since one of its sources is called Pantswell; and the monks of Coggeshall said the same. There are those who assert that this Ithancester was situated on the promontory at the end of the Dengie Hundred, where today stands St. Peter's on the Wall, that is, at the embankment. For along this coast the inhabitants can barely protect their fields from the rushing Ocean with embankments. Moreover, I somewhat believe this Ithancester was Othona, where a detachment of the Fortenses with their commander, during the decline of the Roman Empire, maintained a garrison under the Count of the Saxon Shore against the piratical depredations of the Saxons. For the deflection from Othona to Ithana is not too harsh, and the situation on an inlet into which several rivers discharge was most convenient for this purpose." Thus he writes with great diligence. John Speed, in Book 1 of his *Theatre of Britain*, Chapter 16, displays all these things to the eye and judges that Ithancestria was where the village of St. Peter's at the Wall now stands.

g. The Westminster writer calls it Tilbury; today it is called Tilbury and consists of a few cottages on the left bank of the Thames. Camden says that Ceada had his seat here when around the year 630 he was incorporating the East Saxons into the Church of Christ through baptism. But how can we say this happened around the year 630, when Oswiu, on whose advice Sigebert the Good, son of Sigebald, accepted the faith, did not begin to reign until the year 642?

h. This place is in Suffolk on the left bank of the river Deben. Camden treats of it among the Iceni.

i. From this it can be conjectured approximately when Suidhelinus was baptized, or, as Harpsfield writes, Swithelm, Swidhelm according to Camden: for in the year 655, when Ethelhere was killed along with Penda, Ethelwald or Aethelwald became King of the East Angles; he died in the year 664, by which time Sigehere, the successor of Suidhelinus, was already ruling the East Saxons.

k. Anna, that most pious King, was killed by Penda in the year 654.

a. Ethelwald, called Aethelwald by the Worcester writer, Oidwald by the Westminster writer, succeeded St. Oswin (of whom we shall treat on August 20) in the kingdom of the Deirans in the year 651, with the permission of his uncle Oswiu. After his death, the kingdom was given to Alchfrid, son of Oswiu.

b. St. Oswald is venerated on August 5.

c. Northumbria was divided into the Bernicians and the Deirans; the latter were more southerly.

d. There seems to be a word missing, such as "accept" or something similar.

e. Isaiah Chapter 35, verse 7 reads thus: "In the dens where dragons had formerly dwelt, there shall spring up the green of reed and rush." And I think that Bede certainly wrote "there might spring up the green of reed," etc.

f. During Lent, the use of eggs and dairy products is indeed forbidden, unless Bishops allow it somewhere on account of a scarcity of fish. But it is plausible either that Cedd needed this food because of the weakness of his stomach, or certainly that among the Scots that law or custom of ecclesiastical abstinence had not yet been received. And although St. Gregory had long since written in reply to St. Augustine's questions on this matter, the Scots, among whom Cedd had been educated, had not accepted it, and perhaps had not even heard of it. On this salutary abstinence, Stephanus Fagundez of our Society discourses admirably in his work *On the Precepts of the Church*, and especially in his apologetic treatise on this very question.

g. Bede, Book 3, Chapter 27, testifies that in the year 664, a sudden plague first ravaged the southern parts of Britain, then also the territory of the Northumbrians, and Ireland. St. Cedd was therefore carried off by this plague, as the Worcester writer reports under that same year.