ON ST. PAULINUS OF YORK, ARCHBISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN ENGLAND,
IN THE YEAR 644.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Paulinus, archbishop of York, confessor, in England. (S.)
BY J. B. F.
§ I. Account of the diocese over which the Saint presided: his memory in various Martyrologies: ancient cult: translation of his body: his deeds to be related chiefly from Bede.
York, in Latin Eboracum, the second metropolis of England, The Saint, who at York, the second metropolis of England, stands in the county of its own name, of which it is the head. This county, or the territory of York, in English York-Shire, which is by far the largest province of all England (the words are Camden's in his Description of it), is reckoned of a temperate fertility. If here there is a stony or sandy barrenness, there is a most joyful fruitfulness of the fields; if here it is bare of woods, there it is shaded with very dense groves; nature so providently tempering things that the region itself seems the more pleasing and joyful even by its variety. In the said principal city of this province, about which the curious reader will be able to see more in the cited Camden, St. Paulinus, after he had been consecrated bishop by St. Justus, archbishop of the church of Canterbury, placed his see, obtaining as his cathedral the church dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle, whose beginnings and growth William Dugdale relates in volume 3 of the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 128, in the following words: In the second year after the coming of Paulinus, King Edwin, having gained a glorious victory over Guichelm, king of the West Saxons (as is read more fully in the History of the English), at the urging of Paulinus was baptized in a wooden house which he had erected for this reason, in the 11th year of his reign, which is the year of the Incarnation 627, and the 180th year of the coming of the English into Britain. In which place afterwards, built square of mortar and stone, he gave the episcopal see to his teacher Paulinus.
[2] King Edwin, therefore, first of all the kings of the Northumbrians, was baptized on the holy day of Easter, and many with him, in the church of St. Peter at York, had his see, and by martyrologists, both classical which he himself had built of wood for the episcopal see; but soon he began a greater one of stone, which the holy king Oswald afterwards completed. The memory of Paulinus, first archbishop of the church of York, is celebrated everywhere in all the Martyrologies published after his death. The Venerable Bede, in his genuine Martyrology: And in Britain, of Paulinus, bishop of York; which Rabanus borrowed from him in as many words. Usuard commemorates the Saint thus: In Britain, of St. Paulinus, bishop and confessor. The eulogy of Ado, abridged by Notker, has: In Britain, of St. Paulinus, bishop of York, who, ordained bishop by blessed Justus, who had been consecrated bishop by St. Augustine, whom blessed Gregory had sent to preach to the nation of the English, converted the nation of the Northumbrians, that is, that nation of the English which dwelt to the north of the river Humber, together with their king Edwin, by preaching the Word of faith. And, illustrious in life and miracles, he rested in peace on the sixth day before the Ides of October. To these is added our manuscript Florarium Sanctorum, written in the year 1486, in which the Saint's death-year is rightly added in these words: In Greater Britain, of St. Paulinus, bishop of York … and, illustrious in life and doctrine and miracles, he rested in peace in the year of Salvation 644.
[3] as by more recent ones, and especially by Bucelinus In the Roman Martyrology also the following announcement is read on this day: At York in England, of St. Paulinus, bishop, disciple of blessed Pope Gregory, who, having been sent by him with others to preach the Gospel there, King Edwin and his people
converted to the faith of Christ. Molanus agrees in his Auctaria to Usuard. John Wilson likewise records him in his English Martyrology, in the edition of the year 1640, at the aforesaid day, with an English eulogy, which I subjoin here in Latin: At Rochester in Kent, the deposition of St. Paulinus, bishop and confessor, who, having entered England with St. Augustine and his Companions, converted the kingdom of the Northumbrians together with Edwin, king of that province, and so became their apostle. He had been created first archbishop of York; but after the death of King Edwin, being expelled from there, he returned into Kent, and there directed the province of Rochester in divine worship: where, in great holiness of life, he at length rested in the Lord about the year of Christ 644. His body was buried with great solemnity at Rochester in the cathedral church of St. Andrew, and there preserved with due veneration. To Wilson I add the Benedictines who have ascribed the same holy Archbishop to their Order, the martyrologists Wion, Ménard and Bucelinus, of whom the first, in the Lignum Vitae, book 3, and the second, in his Martyrology, have thus: At York in Britain, of St. Paulinus, bishop, disciple of blessed Pope Gregory, who, having been sent there by him with others to preach the Gospel, converted Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, and his people to the faith of Christ.
[4] The third, namely Gabriel Bucelinus, celebrates Paulinus in his Menology in more words, He is celebrated in a notable eulogy transcribed here. which I subjoin: At York in England, of St. Paulinus, bishop, disciple of blessed Pope Gregory, who, having been sent there by him with others to preach the Gospel, converted King Edwin and his people to the faith of Christ. Paulinus, a second Paul of his age, mighty in word and example, sent from the celebrated monastery of St. Andrew in the city of Rome to apostolic labours in England, deserved those kingdoms by truly very great merits, and he himself, first archbishop of the people of York, founded and inaugurated a by far most distinguished see with admirable holiness of life. Moreover, besides King Edwin and his sons, the princes Osfrid and Eadfrid, born of Quenburga, daughter of Cearl, king of the Mercians; and, not long after, Edilhin and Buscfrea and Ediltrid, born of Queen Edilburga; and afterwards also Issi, son of Osfrid, and having gained very many of the nobles for Christ, he furthermore baptized an innumerable multitude of the people at the rivers Glen and Swale, preaching the kingdom of God and penance with unremitting labour, in the most ample provinces of the Bernicians and the Deirans. Nor did the zeal, labour and merit of so great an Apostle confine itself to these ample boundaries alone; but it extended itself even to the East Angles, whose king Carpwald, with King Edwin especially striving together with him, he brought likewise with great merit into the bosom of the Church: furthermore, he carried the light of faith even to the outer English, and preached the Word of God to the province of Lindsey, which is the first reaching from the southern bank of the river Humber as far as the sea, where he imbued with the faith of Christ both others and Bleita, the prefect of Lincoln, and his household; in which city he built and dedicated a very notable church, which, although it afterwards fell down through the injury of time, was nevertheless made illustrious among its very ruins by very many miracles, many there receiving prodigiously the benefits of the health they desired. He likewise instituted the most celebrated bishopric of Lindisfarne, and first distinguished its see with Honorius, a Pontiff of outstanding holiness. When King Edwin had been slain, Paulinus fled into Kent, in which province, being substituted for Romanus, bishop of Rochester, who had been drowned in the waters on a journey, he deserved excellently of that place also, and there at length commended his soul to God and his body to the earth in the year of Christ 644, being buried in the church of St. Andrew there built by King Ethelbert, glorious afterwards by many prodigies; whose sacred body, long afterwards, our St. Lanfranc, elevating it, laid to rest far more honourably.
[5] Thus Bucelinus, of whose statements some are certain from St. Bede, His cult is proved from the solemnity others doubtful, or said only from probable conjectures. Mayhew also celebrates St. Paulinus with a notable eulogy in the Benedictine Trophies of England, volume 2; for indeed the number of hagiologists who have inscribed Paulinus, first bishop of York and then of Rochester, in the Sacred Fasti prepared by them is not small; and although from each and all of those who have done so the ancient cult of the Saint cannot be inferred, yet it is specially proved by the History of his translation related in the Life of Gundulf, bishop of Rochester, which, composed by a monk of Rochester and contemporary of Gundulf, Henry Wharton made public in Anglia Sacra, part 2, page 273. That translation, performed not without solemnity and a prodigy, I set before the reader here to be read from the cited author.
[6] made about the year 1080, when his relics into the new church Ernost, bishop of the church of Rochester, having died, Gundulf, a man truly most worthy of the episcopate, is ordained by Lanfranc, bishop of Canterbury, in the church of Canterbury on the twelfth day before the Kalends of April, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand and seventy-seven, and the eleventh of the coming of the Normans into England under Count William, afterwards most noble king of the English. And having been consecrated, he goes according to custom to visit his own see; he enters the city of Rochester amid exulting crowds, is led in and enthroned in the pontifical seat, and from that time is held as prelate with all veneration. Certain possessions of the church of Rochester are also at length restored to him, which Lanfranc had held in his own jurisdiction while his predecessors were prelates. They are restored, however, on this condition, that monks be placed in the church of Rochester, as both prelates had already decided… A short time therefore having elapsed, the old church being destroyed, a new church is begun; the circuit of the offices is suitably disposed; the whole work is completed within a few years, Lanfranc supplying much money… Having held counsel with wise men, the same venerable father (Gundulf), having gathered an assembly of monks and clerics and also a copious multitude of the people, approached with great solemnity the sepulchre of the most holy confessor Paulinus, who had been laid in the old church, and caused the treasure of his holy relics to be transferred into the new one and placed in a spot prepared for this.
[7] were transferred to Rochester not without a prodigy; Meanwhile there was there a certain matron held by a grave infirmity of mind and body, who, having made a promise that she would never again repeat a certain sin by which she was shamefully oppressed, if she might recover her health, was restored to health by the merits of Blessed Paulinus; but she by no means kept the promised pact. For as soon as the health of her body returned, the perversity of the repeated sin followed all too quickly in her life. At length, at a following time, she went to the Saint of God with her offering to seek the help of his aid for certain necessities by which her husband had been hindered. But she, whom a shameful conscience defiled within, being repulsed by a certain force of divine indignation as if by a violent blast, returned home, her gift spurned, much ashamed; and not long after, struck with a grave sickness, she was unhappily awaiting her last day. But the loving Lord, who spurns none and excludes none from his mercy, inspired his grace in her; and having called to her the venerable bishop Gundulf, she laid open the shamefulness of her guilt by a humble confession, and from great contrition of heart promised an entire perseverance in amendment in her life. What more? Upon this promise the sick sheep is received by the loving pontiff; the remedy of salutary penance is applied, and so at last, having recovered perfect health, she humbly presented herself with her offering to Paulinus the saint of God, and her mind having been changed by newness to cleanness of life, she was not repulsed with her gift by the Saint; but, the joy of her health remaining, she returned eagerly to her house, giving thanks to God and to the pontiff Gundulf, by whose counsel she had been freed from so great a danger.
[8] John Capgrave, in the Catalogue of the Saints of England, page 265, which translation is said to have been celebrated every year. where he makes mention of this translation, relates that this solemnity was performed not by Gundulf, to whom it is ascribed by the anonymous monk in the words already given, but by Lanfranc, at that time archbishop of the church of Dorobernia or, as we now say, of Canterbury, in this manner: But after a long time had elapsed, while Gundulf was pontiff there (in the church of Rochester), Archbishop Lanfranc destroyed from its foundations the old church of blessed Andrew (the cathedral of the diocese of Rochester) and rebuilt a new basilica, raised the bones of St. Paulinus from the earth and placed them honourably in a shrine. But we must stand by the anonymous monk, who is both older than Capgrave and has Godwin, bishop of Llandaff, agreeing with him in his De Praesulibus Angliae. Nor, even if it were otherwise, would this harm us here, since Capgrave and the anonymous monk at any rate agree that the bones of Paulinus were transferred while Gundulf occupied the see of Rochester. Further, that this translation of the Saint used to be celebrated in the church of Rochester with an annual feast on the 10th of January, we learn from the English History of Harpsfield, in which that writer, in the Seventh Century, chapter XI, completes the Saint's eulogy with these words: Many years after his death his body was translated to a more honourable place, on account of the frequent miracles wrought through him. Which translation was made on the fourth day before the Ides of January. On which day his annual memory is celebrated in the church of Rochester with a fixed solemnity. And so there is surely no doubting the ancient cult of St. Paulinus; and although I cannot state for certain from what time it began, it seems nevertheless to be not more recent than the Venerable Bede, who died in the year 735, since the name of Paulinus is found both in his metrical Martyrology in d'Achery, volume 10 of the Spicilegium, and in the other, which was published before volume 2 of March of our Work.
[9] The illustrious deeds of the Saint, which commend him very greatly, [He is extolled with great praises by various writers and by name by Bede, from whom we give his Acts as excerpted.] the Venerable Bede handed down to posterity in the Ecclesiastical History of the English nation. Florence of Worcester, a monk, William of Malmesbury, and likewise Henry of Huntingdon have mentioned St. Paulinus. John Capgrave, who was still alive in the year 1464, compiled a Life of St. Paulinus in the Legenda Sanctorum Angliae partly from Bede, partly from elsewhere, adding some things about his wonderful miracles, which Matthew of Westminster, older than Capgrave by almost a whole century, had recorded in the Flores Historiarum, which no one will fail to judge do not merit the same credence as Bede's History. It would be long to enumerate all the more recent writers who have treated of the Saint. Among these stand out Polydore Vergil, Nicholas Harpsfield, Baronius in the Annals, volume 8, Edward Mayhew in the Trophies of the Saints of the English Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, and Aloysius Lipomanus, bishop of Verona, who have adorned the Saint with a notable eulogy, his virtues being excerpted from Bede. And that eulogy, or rather the Acts of the Saint, which Laurence Surius inserted on this day in his collection of the Acts of the Saints as copied from the Venerable Bede, I shall subjoin to this Commentary; but other things which other writers record about him I shall cite in the course of this Commentary, where the matter shall require it.
§ II. The private life of St. Paulinus: his mission into Britain and apostolic life under St. Augustine: the Saint's ordination by St. Justus: the nation of the Northumbrians with its king is baptized at the preaching of Paulinus.
The Saint was a monk, The Venerable Bede, book 1, chapter 29, relates that St.
Pope Gregory I in the year 601 sent to St. Augustine, apostle of the English, several fellow-workers and ministers of the word with St. Laurence, whom St. Augustine, after he had already converted Æthelberht, king of the people of Kent, with many of his subjects, had requested from the said Roman Pontiff as labourers in so plentiful a harvest. Among those apostolic Men there were chiefly, as Bede says in the same place, Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, Rufinianus etc., all of whom the same holy Pontiff names Monks in his Letter of commendation, directed in the year of the Incarnate Word 601 to Menna of Toulouse and many other bishops throughout Gaul: Since, therefore, by the cooperating grace of our Redeemer, so great a multitude of the nation of the English is being converted to the grace of the Christian faith that our most reverend common brother and fellow-bishop Augustine asserts that those who have followed him cannot suffice for carrying out this work in various places, we have provided for some monks to be sent to him with our most beloved and common sons, Laurence the priest and Mellitus the abbot.
[11] and sent by Pope St. Gregory into Britain From these words of St. Gregory, then, it becomes manifest that St. Paulinus was a monk by profession; but what rule he followed in the exercise of the monastic life, and in what monastery he lived, is entirely hidden from us. Gabriel Bucelinus relates in his Menology that he was a monk of the monastery of St. Andrew in the city of Rome and a disciple of Pope St. Gregory (on which matter the older writers are silent), and hence that he was a monk by profession under the rule which St. Gregory followed, whether that of St. Equitius, as Cardinal Baronius held, or that of St. Benedict, as others believe; on which matter the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of the same holy Pontiff, given in our Work at the 12th day of March, and the other Commentary to the Acts of St. Augustine of Canterbury on the 26th day of May, num. 2, may be consulted. Mabillon, meanwhile, in the 2nd Benedictine Century, placed Paulinus only among those Passed Over, without the asterisk which, as he premised in the same place, designates those who seem to be genuine Benedictines. However that may be, St. Paulinus was certainly one of the Roman monks whom Pope St. Gregory I gave to St. Augustine as helpers for bringing the nation of the English in Britain from idolatry to the true worship of God, with truly happy success. Further, he sent into Britain a twofold band of apostolic men for this sacred expedition, which before entering on the pontificate he himself had most ardently desired to undertake.
[12] First, namely, he dispatched there in the year 596 the servant of God Augustine and several other monks with him, sent in the year 601, fearing the Lord, to preach the Word of God to the nation of the English; as Bede says, book 1, chapter 23, adding that St. Augustine was then set over the same monks as abbot by Pope St. Gregory I, to be ordained bishop if he were received by the English. But when Augustine had already brought Æthelberht, king of the people of Kent, with many subject to him, to the Christian faith, he requested from the said Roman Pontiff a greater number of labourers in so plentiful a harvest, and he, in the year of restored Salvation 601, directed to him several fellow-workers and ministers of the word, as the same Venerable Bede relates, book 1, chapter 29. That Paulinus was of this second class of labourers, which landed in England in the year 601, the holy historian of the English expresses in plain words, book 1, chapter 29: Moreover, the same Pope Gregory sent to Bishop Augustine (since he had suggested to him that the harvest was indeed great, but the labourers few), with the aforesaid envoys, several fellow-workers and ministers of the Word, among whom the first and chief were Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, Rufinianus etc.
[13] Of his deeds before the episcopate, which I have read handed down by no one, observed the manner of living set out here, one may conjecture from those things which the Venerable Bede, in the Ecclesiastical History of the English nation, chapter 26, handed down to posterity concerning St. Augustine and his Companions, when they had landed in Britain and been humanely received by King Æthelberht. But when, he says, they had entered the dwelling given to them, they began to imitate the apostolic life of the primitive church; that is, serving with assiduous prayers, vigils and fasts, preaching the Word of life to whom they could, despising all things of this world as foreign to them, receiving from those whom they taught only those things which seemed necessary for sustenance, themselves living in all things according to what they taught, and having a mind prepared to suffer all adversities, or even to die, for the truth which they preached. Why delay? Some believed and were baptized, wondering at the simplicity of their innocent life and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine… But when he too (King Æthelberht), among others delighted by the most pure life of the Saints and by their most sweet promises, which they had also confirmed to be true by the showing of many miracles, believed and was baptized, more began to flock together to hear the Word, and, abandoning the rite of heathenism, to associate themselves by believing with the unity of the holy Church of Christ.
[14] These things, if not all, yet in great part pertain also to St. Paulinus, and announced the Gospel to the English. although he came into Britain not with the first band, of which this holy historian of the English makes mention here, but with the second. Certainly I do not at all doubt that St. Paulinus and his Companions, as soon as they landed in Britain, following closely in the footsteps of Blessed Augustine, apostle of the English, embraced his praised manner of living. It is established from the Venerable Bede that our Saint, from the year of the Incarnate Word 601, at which time he landed among the English, toiled strenuously and manfully at the preaching of the divine Word and the conversion of the English in Kent and the neighbouring provinces until the year 25 of the seventh century, in which, having been ordained by St. Justus, archbishop of Canterbury, he set out for York to Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, with Edilburga, daughter of King Ethelbert, whom Edwin had asked for in marriage.
[15] Ordained bishop by St. Justus The ordination of St. Paulinus by St. Justus, archbishop of Canterbury, whose deeds will be illustrated at the 10th day of November, and his departure to Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, the Venerable Bede recounts in this manner, book 2, chapter 9: Now the occasion for this nation (of the Northumbrians) to receive the faith was that its aforesaid king (Edwin) was joined in kinship with the kings of the people of Kent, having taken in marriage Edelburga, daughter of King Edelberht, who by another name was called Tate. When he sought union with her, sending suitors to her brother Eadbald, who then ruled the kingdom of the people of Kent, the answer was given that it was not lawful for a Christian virgin to be given in marriage to a pagan, lest the faith and sacraments of the heavenly King be profaned by union with a king who was wholly ignorant of the worship of the true God. When the messengers reported these words to Edwin, he promised that he would do nothing at all contrary to the Christian faith which the virgin practised; but rather that he would permit her to keep the faith and worship of her religion after the Christian manner, with all who had come with her, men or women, priests or ministers. Nor did he refuse that he too would embrace the same religion, if, being examined by prudent men, it could be found holier and more worthy of God. And so the virgin is promised and sent to Edwin, and, according to what had been arranged, Paulinus, a man beloved of God, is ordained bishop, to come with her and to strengthen her and her companions, lest they might be polluted by the society of pagans, by daily exhortation and the celebration of the heavenly sacraments. And Paulinus was ordained bishop by Archbishop Justus on the twelfth day before the Kalends of August, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred and twenty-five.
[16] King Edwin's daughter Then the Venerable one adds: And when he (Paulinus) had come into the province (of the Northumbrians), he laboured much that he might, with the Lord's help, keep those who had come with him from departing from the faith, and that he might convert some (if perchance he could) of the pagans to the grace of the faith by preaching. But, as the Apostle says, although he laboured in the Word for a long time, the God of this world blinded the minds of the unbelievers, lest the illumination of the glory of Christ should shine upon them. Somewhat happier for the holy Bishop was the following year, or 626, in which King Edwin permitted his daughter, newly born to him of Edelburga, to be baptized with twelve of his household, which Bede relates in the same chapter: And when the same king (Edwin), in the presence of Bishop Paulinus, was giving thanks to his gods for the daughter born to him (whose name was Eanfled), the Bishop on the contrary began to give thanks to the Lord Christ, and to assure the king that he himself had obtained by his prayers with Him that the queen should bring forth her offspring safely and without grave pain. Delighted by his words, the king promised that, having renounced idols, he would serve Christ, if He would grant him life and victory as he fought against the king (of the West Saxons, named Cuichelm) by whom that murderer who had wounded him had been sent; and as a pledge of fulfilling his promise he assigned that same daughter of his to Bishop Paulinus to be consecrated to Christ: who was baptized on the holy day of Pentecost, the first of the nation of the Northumbrians, with twelve others of her household.
[17] But when Cuichelm, king of the West Saxons, had been defeated, although he washed the king himself in the sacred font. Edwin, returning home victorious, ceased to sacrifice to idols, as he had pledged to St. Paulinus, and began to learn the reason of the faith from the venerable Bishop; at length, in the year of restored Salvation 627, on the 12th day of April, the king himself and the nobles of the kingdom are washed in the sacred font, as is read in chapter 14: King Edwin, therefore, with all the nobles of his nation and a very great number of the common people, received the faith and the laver of holy regeneration in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the six hundred and twenty-seventh year of the Lord's Incarnation, and about the hundred and eightieth year from the coming of the English into Britain. And he was baptized at York on the holy day of Easter, the day before the Ides of April, in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he himself had built there of wood in hasty work while he was being catechized and instructed for receiving baptism. In which city also he gave the episcopal see to Paulinus himself, his teacher and bishop. But soon, as he had obtained baptism, he took care, at the instruction of the same Paulinus, to build in that very place a greater and more august basilica of stone, in the midst of which that oratory which he had made before should be enclosed.
§ III. The Saint's care in propagating the faith: the ordination of St. Honorius by the Saint: the pallium and a faculty granted to him by Pope Honorius I: when persecution arose he fled into Kent and became bishop of Rochester: his death and burial.
The Saint, King Edwin having already been converted to the faith, Christ That, King Edwin having by God's favour already been converted to Christ, St. Paulinus did not lack daily occasion to exercise his apostolic zeal, and that King Edwin himself, kindled with the fervour of faith, laboured strenuously to bring the pagans from idols to the true worship of Christ, the holy historian of the English relates thus, book 2, chapter 15: Now Edwin had (as it is said) such devotion towards the worship of the truth that he even persuaded Carpwald, king of the East Angles, son of King Æthelwald, that, having abandoned the idols'
superstitions, he should receive the faith and sacraments of Christ with his province. But that our Saint applied himself untiringly to propagating the faith, these words of the Venerable Bede clearly prove: Now so great is said to have been the fervour of faith at that time, and the desire for the saving laver, among the nation of the Northumbrians, that on one occasion Paulinus, coming with the king and queen to the royal township which is called Adregin, stayed there with them for thirty-six days, given up to the office of catechizing and baptizing: in all which days, from morning until evening, he did nothing else than instruct in the Word of Salvation of Christ the people who flocked there from all the villages and places, and, when they were instructed, wash them with the laver of remission in the river Glen, which was nearby.
[19] [he preaches also in the city of Lincoln, in the place of the deceased archbishop of Canterbury,] Not only in the province of York, but also in that of Lincoln, he endeavoured to bring the worshippers of empty gods over to the worship of Christ the Lord and true God; in the principal city of which county, Lincoln, he purified with baptism Blecca, the prefect of the said city, recalled from the worship of false deities with his whole household. This done, the Saint built at Lincoln a church of excellent workmanship, and consecrated St. Honorius (of whom we have treated in our Work at the 30th day of September) in the place of the deceased St. Justus, archbishop of Canterbury. Which the Venerable Bede relates in these words: Paulinus also preached the Word to the province of Lindsey, which is the first on the southern bank of the river Humber, reaching as far as the sea: and he first converted to the Lord, with his house, the prefect of the city of Lincoln, whose name was Blecca; in which city, namely, he also made a church of stone of excellent workmanship, whose roof having been thrown down either by long neglect or by an enemy's hand, the walls are seen standing to this day: and every year some miracles of healing are wont to be shown in that same place for the benefit of those who faithfully believe. In which church Paulinus, Justus passing to Christ, consecrated Honorius bishop in his place.
[20] having obtained from the Roman Pontiff a faculty for this, he ordains Honorius That the consent of Pope Honorius was sought and obtained for this consecration of St. Honorius as prelate of the church of Canterbury is sufficiently gathered from the letters of the same Roman Pontiff presently to be recited, in which he granted to each metropolitan of England, namely Honorius and Paulinus, that, when one should depart from this life, the other who survived might consecrate another in the place of the deceased without any other permission sought from the Roman Pontiff. And he added the following reason: Which indeed we have been invited to grant both by reason of the affection of your charity and by reason of the great distances of such provinces as are known to lie between us and you, so that in all things we might offer our concurrence to your devotion and according to your desires etc. To obtain this consent of the Roman See, St. Honorius, and St. Paulinus who ordained him, gave letters to the supreme Pontiff Honorius I, to which two Christian kings of the English, Eadbald of the people of Kent and Edwin of the Northumbrians, also added theirs. The letters of the kings and bishops I have not found as yet, but the answer of Pope Honorius, which runs thus, Bede has recorded, book 2, chapter 17.
[21] [and together with this he is presented with the pallium, as the letters adduced here teach.] To the most excellent lord and most eminent son Edwin, king of the English, Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, greeting. So kindled with the ardour of faith is the integrity of your Christianity concerning the worship of its Creator that it shines far and wide, and, being proclaimed in all the world, brings back the fruit of your work manifold… But as for those things which you have hoped for in the ordaining of your bishops, these, on account of the sincerity of your faith, which has been laudably made known to us by manifold report through the bearers of the present letters, we have provided to grant them with a free mind without any delay, and we have directed two palliums for the two metropolitans, that is, for Honorius and Paulinus, so that, when either of them shall have been summoned from this world to his Author, the other ought by this our authority to substitute a bishop in his place. Which indeed we have been invited to grant both by reason of the affection of your charity and by reason of the great distances of such provinces as are known to lie between us and you, so that in all things we might offer our concurrence to your devotion and according to your desires. May the heavenly Grace keep your excellency safe.
[22] Although this letter, directed to King Edwin when the death of the king, killed, according to Bede's words to be cited below, in the year 633, had not yet been announced at Rome, lacks every note of time, These were written in the year 634, yet from the subscription added to the letter of the same Pontiff sent to St. Honorius we clearly learn the date of the above-mentioned letter of Pope Honorius to King Edwin; for both were written and sent into Britain at the same time, as is plain enough to one comparing them; and the said subscription, namely as it is shown, correctly restored by Chifflet (see Pagi in the Critica at the year 633, num. 20 and the two following), in the new edition of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English nation which appeared in the year 1681, has thus in the same place, book 2, chapter 18: Given on the third day before the Ides of June, in the reign of our most pious lords the emperors, Heraclius in the twenty-fourth year, in the twenty-third year after his consulship; and Constantine his son in the twenty-third year, and in the third year of his consulship; and also of Heraclius the most happy caesar, likewise his son, in the third year, in the seventh Indiction, that is, in the six hundred and thirty-fourth year of the Lord's Incarnation. Accordingly the letter to King Edwin was directed by Honorius, the Roman Pontiff, in the same year (namely 634) in which the letters of the same supreme Pontiff were sent to St. Honorius, archbishop of the church of Canterbury.
[23] But when this was done, the face of things in England had already been greatly changed. when, King Edwin having already been slain in battle For while King Edwin, in concert with St. Paulinus, was straining every nerve to bring the inhabitants of his whole kingdom to the faith of Christ, and the things which conduce both to the propagation of religion and to the happiness of the kingdom were flowing prosperously among the English, the English church had suffered in the year 633 a very great loss in the slaying of King Edwin, and affairs in it had been thrown into very great disorder, so that St. Paulinus had been compelled to abandon the see of York and flee into Kent. Bede narrates the sad history in this manner, book 2, chapter 20: But when Edwin had ruled most gloriously over the nation of the English and of the Britons together for seventeen years, of which he himself also, as we have said, served for six in the kingdom of Christ, Cædwalla, king of the Britons, rebelled against him, Penda, a most vigorous man of the royal race of the Mercians, giving him help, who himself also at that time ruled the kingdom of the same nation for twenty-two years with varying fortune. And a grave battle having been joined in the field which is called Hethfelth, Edwin was slain on the fourth day before the Ides of October, in the six hundred and thirty-third year of the Lord's Incarnation, when he was forty-eight years old, and his whole army was either slain or dispersed etc.
[24] At which time a very great slaughter was made in the Church or nation of the Northumbrians; and, persecution having arisen, Paulinus had fled into Kent, chiefly because one of the leaders by whom it was carried out was a pagan, the other, because he was a barbarian, more savage than a pagan. For Penda, with the whole nation of the Mercians, was given to idols and ignorant of the Christian name. But Cædwalla, although he had the name and profession of a Christian, was nevertheless so barbarous in mind and manners that he did not spare even the female sex or the innocent age of little children, but with bestial cruelty delivered them all to death through tortures, for a long time ranging through all their provinces in his fury, and resolving that he would wipe out the whole race of the English from the borders of Britain. Thus he paid no honour either to the Christian religion which had arisen among them… Affairs of the Northumbrians having therefore been thrown into confusion at the moment of this disaster, since there seemed to be no safety anywhere except in flight, Paulinus, taking with him Queen Edelberga, whom he had formerly brought, returned into Kent by ship, and was honourably received by Archbishop Honorius and King Eatbald (Edelberga's brother).
[25] where not long after, set over the church of Rochester, Now let us see what happened to Paulinus, now a fugitive in Kent. The Saint, having lost his see of York, had not been staying very long at Canterbury when St. Honorius, archbishop of the church of Canterbury, set him over the bishopric of the church of Rochester, at that time vacant by the death of Bishop Romanus. Roffa, now called in the vernacular Rochester, and which Bede writes was surnamed Rhofescestre from a former chief man of it who was called Rhof, is a city of the province of Kent, situated between Canterbury and London, to which St. Augustine, apostle of the English, once gave its first bishop, St. Justus, who afterwards presided over the metropolitan see of Canterbury. But let us hear the Venerable Bede as he continues. At which time the church of Rochester had no pastor at all, because Romanus, its prelate, sent as envoy to Pope Honorius by Archbishop Justus (of Canterbury), had been swallowed up by the waves of the Italian sea: and on this account the aforesaid Paulinus, at the invitation of the prelate Honorius and of King Eadbald, undertook and held the care of it, until he too in his own time ascended to the heavenly kingdom with the fruit of glorious labour.
[26] [he dies in the same year 634 and is buried at Rochester in the church of St. Andrew.] Since, Bede and other ancients being silent, I have nothing more about the deeds of the same Saint, it remains that I subjoin his death from Bede: In the six hundred and forty-fourth year from the Incarnation the most reverend father Paulinus, once indeed of York, but at that time bishop of the city of Rochester, passed to the Lord on the sixth day before the Ides of October: who held the episcopate nineteen years and two months and twenty-one days; and he was buried in the sacristy of the blessed apostle Andrew, which King Edilbert built from the foundations in the city of Rochester. In whose place Archbishop Honorius (of Canterbury) ordained Ithamar, sprung indeed from the nation of the people of Kent, but to be made equal to his predecessors in life and learning. The body of St. Paulinus lay there until about the year of restored Salvation 1080, in which, as I noted in §1, it was solemnly translated by Gundulf, bishop of Rochester, into the new church. In which church it remained until the defection of England from the Catholic religion, since which time what has been done with these holy pledges is altogether unknown to me.
ACTS,
By the Venerable Bede,
From the fourth Trimester of Laurence Surius.
Paulinus, archbishop of York, confessor, in England. (S.)
BHL Number: 0000
By the Ven. Bede.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint, ordained bishop of the nation of the Northumbrians, preaches the faith of Christ and baptizes Edwin's daughter: he bids Edwin, who had once pledged that he would embrace the law of Christ, fulfil his promises.
Of the nation of the Northumbrians The nation of the Northumbrians, that is, that nation of the English which dwelt in the northern region of the river Humber, with king
Edwin, first received the word of faith at the preaching of Paulinus (a disciple of blessed Gregory a). For, as an augury that the king would receive the faith and the heavenly kingdom, the power of his earthly dominion had also grown, so that (what no one of the English before him had done) he received under his sway all the borders of Britain, wherever provinces either of the English themselves or of the Britons were inhabited. Moreover he also subjected to the dominion of the English the Mevanian b islands, as we have also shown above. Of which the former, which lies to the south, both larger in extent and happier in the yield and abundance of its crops, holds a measure of nine hundred and sixty miles c according to the reckoning of the English: the second holds an extent of three hundred and more.
[2] Now the occasion for this nation to receive the faith The Saint, ordained bishop was that its aforesaid king was joined in kinship with the king of the people of Kent, having taken in marriage Edelburga d, daughter of King Edelbert e, who by another name was called Tate. When he first sought union with her, sending suitors to her brother Eadbald f, who then ruled the kingdom of the people of Kent, the answer was given that it was not lawful for a Christian virgin to be given in marriage to a pagan, lest the faith and sacraments of the heavenly King be profaned by union with a king who was wholly ignorant of true worship. When the messengers reported these words to Edwin, he promised that he would do nothing whatever contrary to the Christian faith which the virgin practised: but rather that he would permit her to keep the faith and worship of her religion after the Christian manner, with all who had come with her, men or women, priests or ministers. Nor did he refuse that he too would embrace the same religion, if, being examined by prudent men, it could be found holier and more worthy of God. And so she is promised and sent to Edwin, and, according to what had been arranged, Paulinus, a man beloved of God, is ordained bishop, to come with her and to strengthen her and her companions, lest they might be polluted by the society of pagans, by daily exhortation and the celebration of the heavenly sacraments.
[3] preaches the faith of Christ in the year 621, And Paulinus was ordained bishop by Archbishop Justus g on the twelfth day before the Kalends of August, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred and twenty-five. And so he came with the aforesaid virgin to King Edwin as if a companion of the carnal union. But he rather, intending with his whole mind that, calling the nation to which he was going to the knowledge of the truth, he might, according to the word of the Apostle h, present a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ: and when he had come into the province, he laboured much both that he might, with the Lord's help, keep those who had come with him from falling away from the faith, and that he might convert some, if perchance he could, of the pagans to the grace of the faith by preaching. But, as the Apostle says i, although he laboured in the Word for a long time, the God of this world blinded the minds of the unbelievers, lest the illumination of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should shine upon them.
[4] [and in the following year, when King Edwin had almost been killed by an assassin,] Now in the following year there came into the province a certain assassin, by name Eumer, sent by the king of the West Saxons, named Cuichelm, hoping that he would deprive King Edwin of his kingdom and his life together; he had a two-edged poisoned dagger, so that, if the wound of the steel should be insufficient for the king's death, it might be helped by the plague of poison. He came to the king on the first day of Easter beside the river Derwent k, where there was then a royal township. And he entered as if delivering a message from his lord, and while he was unfolding his feigned embassy with crafty mouth, he suddenly rose up and, drawing the dagger from under his garment, made an attack upon the king. When Lilla, the king's most devoted thegn, saw this, not having a shield at hand with which to defend the king from death, he at once interposed his own body before the stroke of the stabber. But the enemy drove in the steel with such force that he wounded the king also through the body of the slain soldier. And when he was at once attacked with swords, in the very tumult he slew with the accursed dagger also another of the soldiers, whose name was Fordheri.
[5] he baptizes his daughter, Now on that same most holy night of the Lord's Easter the queen had borne the king a daughter, whose name was Eanfled: and when the same king, in the presence of Bishop Paulinus, was giving thanks to his gods for the daughter born to him, the Bishop on the contrary began to give thanks to the Lord, and to assure the king that he himself had obtained by his prayers with Him that the queen should bring forth her offspring safely and without grave pain. Delighted by his words, the king promised that, having renounced idols, he would serve Christ, if He would grant him life and victory as he fought against the king by whom that murderer who had wounded him had been sent: and as a pledge of fulfilling his promise he assigned that same daughter of his to Bishop Paulinus to be consecrated to Christ; who was baptized on the holy day of Pentecost, the first of the nation of the Northumbrians, with twelve others of her household. At which time the king, cured of the wound formerly inflicted on him, gathered an army and came against the king of the West Saxons, and, battle having been joined, either slew or received into surrender all whom he had learned had conspired for his death. And so, returning victorious to his country, he would not receive the sacraments of the Christian faith at once and inconsiderately, although he no longer served idols from the time he had promised that he would serve Christ. But first, from that time, he took care to learn the reason of the faith more diligently, both from the venerable man Paulinus himself, and to confer with his chief men, whom he knew to be wiser, as to what they thought should be done about these things. And he himself also, being a man most sagacious by nature, often sitting alone for a long time, silent indeed with his mouth but conversing much with himself in the depths of his heart, considered what he ought to do and what religion was to be kept.
[6] At which time Edwin received letters exhorting him to the faith from Boniface, Pontiff of the Apostolic See l. and Edwin, that the vow But the heavenly oracle which the divine goodness had deigned to reveal to Edwin once when he was in exile with Redwald, king of the English *, aided his understanding not a little towards receiving and understanding the admonitions of saving doctrine. When, therefore, Paulinus saw that the loftiness of the royal mind could with difficulty be inclined to the humility of the way of salvation and to receiving the mystery of the life-giving Cross, and was pleading for the salvation both of him and at the same time of the nation over which he ruled, both with the word of exhortation among men and with the word of supplication before the divine goodness, at length, as seems likely, he learned in the spirit what or of what kind the oracle was that had once been shown to the king from heaven. Nor did he thereafter delay, but at once admonished the king to fulfil the vow which, in the oracle shown to him, he had promised that he would perform, if, delivered from the troubles of that time, he should come to the summit of the kingdom. Now the oracle was of this kind.
[7] When, Edelfrid m, who reigned before him, persecuting him, which once, exposed to danger of life, he wandered in hiding through various places, or as a fugitive for a long space of years, he came at length to King Redwald, beseeching him to preserve his life by guarding it from the snares of so great a persecutor. He, receiving him willingly, promised that he would do what he asked. But after Edelfred learned that he had appeared in this province and was living familiarly with his companions at the court of its king, he sent messengers to offer Redwald much money for his death; and he gained nothing. He sent a second time, he sent a third time, offering even more copious gifts of silver, and declaring war upon him if he were spurned. He, either broken by threats or corrupted by gifts, yielded to the request, and promised either to kill Edwin or to hand him over to the envoys. When a certain most faithful friend of his noticed this, he entered the chamber in which he was preparing to sleep (it was the first hour of the night), and, having called him outside, informed him what the king had promised to do to him, and added moreover: If therefore you wish, this very hour I will lead you out of this province, and bring you into those places where neither Redwald nor Edelfrid will ever be able to find you. He said: I thank you indeed for your goodwill; yet I cannot do this which you suggest, that I myself should be the first to make void the compact which I have entered into with so great a king, when he has done me no evil and has as yet shown me no enmity; but rather, if I am to die, let him deliver me to death rather than some meaner man; for whither shall I now flee, I who, wandering through all the provinces of Britain for the courses of so many years and seasons, have been avoiding the snares of my enemies?
[8] His friend therefore having departed, Edwin remained alone outside, he had uttered in a vision offered to him and sitting sorrowful before the palace he began to be agitated by many surgings of thoughts, not knowing what to do or whither to turn his foot. And when he had long been consumed by the silent anguish of his mind and by a hidden fire, he suddenly saw, in the silence of the dead of night, a man approaching him of unknown countenance and attire: seeing whom, as unknown and unexpected, he was not a little frightened. But he, coming up, greeted him and asked why at that hour, when the rest were at rest and sunk in deep sleep, he alone sat sorrowful and wakeful upon a stone. But he in his turn asked what it concerned him whether he spent the night within or without. He, answering, said: Do not think that I do not know the cause of your sorrow and sleeplessness and of your sitting outside and alone. For I know most certainly who you are, and why you grieve, and why you dread evils that are coming upon you in the near future. But tell me, what reward would you be willing to give to him who should release you from these sorrows and persuade Redwald neither to do you any evil himself nor to deliver you to your enemies to be slain? When he answered that he would give all that he could to such a one as a reward for the benefit, he added: What if he should also promise in truth that you will be king, your enemies being destroyed, so that you will surpass in power not only all your forefathers but also all who have been kings before in the nation of the English? But Edwin, made more confident by the questioning, did not hesitate to promise that he would respond with worthy thanksgivings to him who should bestow such great benefits upon him. Then he said a third time: But if he who shall have truly foretold to you that such great and other gifts are to come should also be able to show you a counsel for your salvation and life better and more useful than any of your parents or kinsmen ever heard, do you consent to obey him and to receive his saving admonitions? Nor did Edwin delay, but at once promised that he would follow in all things the teaching of him who should rescue him from so many and so great calamities and raise him to the summit of the kingdom. On receiving this answer, he who was speaking with him at once laid his right hand on his head, saying: When therefore this sign shall come to you, remember this time and our conversation, and do not delay then to fulfil the things which you promise. And having said these things, as is related, he suddenly vanished, so that he might understand that it was not a man who had appeared to him, but a spirit. And while the royal youth was still sitting there alone, rejoicing
indeed at the pious and kindly consolation bestowed on him, but very anxious, and pondering with careful mind who he might be, or whence he came, who spoke these things to him.
[9] and was delaying to fulfil, Then the aforesaid friend of his came and, greeting him with a joyful countenance, said: Rise, come in; and, laying to rest and leaving behind the anxieties of your cares, compose your limbs and your mind alike to rest: for the king's heart has been changed, and he intends to do you no harm, but rather to keep the faith he promised. For after he revealed in secret to the queen that intention of his of which I told you before, she recalled him from that purpose, warning him that it was in no way fitting for so great a king to sell for gold his best friend, placed in necessity, nor to lose his faith, which is more precious than all ornaments, for the love of money. What more? The king did as was said, and not only did not hand the exile over to the hostile messengers, but also helped him to come into the kingdom. For as soon as the messengers had returned home, he gathered a copious army to subdue Edelfrid: and he slew him, as he met him with an army very unequal (for he had not given him space in which to gather and unite his whole army), on the borders of the nation of the Mercians n, on the eastern side of the river which is called Idle o. In which battle Redwald's son also, by name Regenheri, was killed. And thus Edwin, according to the oracle which he had received, not only escaped the snares of the king hostile to him, but also, that king having been slain, succeeded him in the glory of the kingdom.
[10] When, therefore, while Paulinus was preaching the word of God, he urges him with most weighty words to fulfil it without delay. the king delayed to believe, and for some time, as we have said, sat solitary at suitable hours, and had been accustomed carefully to search within himself what he ought to do and what religion he ought to follow, the Man of God, coming in to him one day, laid his right hand on his head and asked whether he recognized this sign. And when he, trembling, wished to fall at his feet, he raised him up and, addressing him as if with a familiar voice, said: Behold, by the gift of the Lord you have escaped the hands of the enemies whom you feared. Behold, by His bounty you have received the kingdom which you desired. Remember not to delay to do the third thing which you promised, by receiving the faith and keeping the precepts of Him who rescued you from temporal adversities and raised you to the honour of a temporal kingdom. And if henceforth you will comply with His will, which He preaches to you through me, He will also free you from the perpetual torments of the wicked and make you a sharer with Himself of the eternal kingdom in heaven.
ANNOTATA.
* add Orientalium
CHAPTER II.
King Edwin, having been baptized, builds a church, in which many are purified in the sacred font by Paulinus: the Saint, King Carpwald having been converted to the faith, preaches Christ to the people of Lincoln. The likeness of the Saint.
Edwin with his own people counsel Having heard these things, the king answered that he was both willing and bound to receive the faith which he taught; but he said that he would still confer about this with his friends, princes and counsellors, so that, if they too were willing to think the same as he, all might together be consecrated to Christ in the font of life. And with Paulinus's assent he did as he had said. For, having held counsel with wise men, he asked of them all how this doctrine, hitherto unheard of, and the new worship of the divinity which was preached, seemed to them. To whom Coifi, the first of his priests, at once replied: See you, O king, what sort of thing this is which is preached to us: I most truly profess to you what I have learned for certain, that the religion which we have held until now has no virtue at all, and no usefulness. For none of your people has applied himself more zealously than I to the worship of our gods, and nevertheless there are many who receive from you more ample benefits than I, and greater dignities, and are more prosperous in all that they plan to do or acquire. But if the gods were worth anything, they would rather wish to help me, who have taken care to serve them more devotedly. Whence it remains that, if on examination you perceive that these things which are now preached to us as new are better and stronger, we should hasten to receive them without any hesitation. Another of the nobles, giving his assent to his persuasion and prudent words, at once added:
[12] enters upon counsel about receiving the faith, Such, he said, O king, seems to me the present life of men on earth, in comparison with that time which is uncertain to us, as when, while you sit at supper with your captains and thegns in wintertime, a fire indeed kindled in the midst and the hall warm, but the storms of wintry rains or snows raging everywhere outside, a sparrow, coming in, flies very swiftly through the house: which, entering by one door, soon goes out by another; during the very time that it is within, it is indeed not touched by the winter's storm: but yet, having run through a very small moment of calm a, returning soon from winter into winter, it slips from your eyes. So this life of men appears for a little while: but what follows, or what has gone before, we are wholly ignorant. Whence, if this new doctrine has brought something more certain, it seems that it deserves to be followed. The other elders and counsellors of the king, divinely admonished, went on to say things like these.
[13] And Coifi added that he wished to hear Paulinus himself more attentively, discoursing about the God and this having been received, whom he preached. When, at the king's command, he did so, Coifi, having heard his discourses, cried out, saying: I had long since understood that what we worshipped was nothing: because, namely, the more zealously I sought truth in that worship, the less I found it. But now I openly profess that in this preaching is given the truth which is able to bestow on us the gifts of life, salvation and eternal beatitude. Whence I suggest, O king, that we very quickly give over to anathema and to fire the temples and altars which we have consecrated without fruit of any usefulness. What more? The king openly gave his assent to blessed Paulinus's evangelizing, and, idolatry having been renounced, confessed that he received the faith of Christ.
[14] And when he asked the aforesaid chief priest of his sacred rites and the idols having been destroyed, who should be the first to profane the altars and shrines of the idols with the enclosures by which they were surrounded, he answered: I. For who more fittingly than I myself, as an example to all, can destroy those things which I worshipped through folly, through the wisdom given me by the true God? And at once, casting off the superstition of vanity, he asked the king to give him arms and a stallion, mounting which he might come to destroy the idols. For it had not been lawful for the chief priest of the sacred rites either to bear arms or to sit upon a horse. Girded therefore with a sword, he took a lance in his hand, and mounting the king's stallion, proceeded to the idols. The common people, seeing this, thought that he was mad. Nor did he delay, as soon as he drew near to the shrine, to profane it, casting into it the lance which he held, and, rejoicing greatly at the knowledge of the worship of the true God, he ordered his companions to destroy and set fire to the shrine with all its enclosures. And that place, once of the idols, is shown not far from York, to the east beyond the river Derwent, and is called today Gotmundin Gahan: where that priest, by the inspiration of the true God, defiled and destroyed the altars which he himself had consecrated.
[15] King Edwin, therefore, with all the nobles of his nation and a very great number of the common people, received the faith and the laver of holy regeneration, is baptized by St. Paulinus, in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the six hundred and twenty-seventh year of the Lord's Incarnation, and about the hundred and eightieth year from the coming of the English into Britain. And he was baptized at York on the holy day of Easter, the day before the Ides of April, in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he himself had built of wood in hasty work while he was being catechized and instructed for receiving Baptism. In which city also he gave the episcopal see to Paulinus himself, his teacher and bishop.
[16] But soon, as he had obtained Baptism, he took care, he builds a church immediately afterwards, at the instruction of the same Paulinus, to build in that very place a greater and more august basilica of stone, in the midst of which that oratory which he had made before should be enclosed. Foundations therefore having been prepared round about the former oratory, he began to build the basilica square. But before the height of the wall was completed, the king himself, slain by an impious death, left that same work to be finished by his successor Oswald.
[17] and meanwhile very many to St. Paulinus Paulinus therefore, from that time, for six continuous years, that is, until the end of that king's reign, preached the Word of God in that province with his assent and favour; and as many as were preordained to eternal life b believed and were baptized. Among whom were Osfrid c and
Eadfrid, sons of King Edwin, both of whom were born to him in exile of Quenburga, daughter of Cearl, king of the Mercians. At a following time other children of his, born of Queen Edelburga, were also baptized: Edilhim and a daughter Ediltrid, and another son Buscfrea; of whom the first, while still in their white garments, were snatched from this life and buried in the church at York. Issi also, son of Osfrid, was baptized, and also not a few other noble and distinguished men.
[18] purifying with sacred waters, Now so great is said to have been the fervour of faith at that time, and the desire for the saving laver, among the nation of the Northumbrians, that on one occasion Paulinus, coming with the king and queen to the royal township which is called Adregin d, stayed there with them for thirty-six days, given up to the office of catechizing and baptizing: in all which days, from morning until evening, he did nothing else than instruct in the word of salvation of Christ the people who flocked there from all the villages and places, and, when they were instructed, wash them with the laver of remission in the river Glen e, which was nearby. This township was deserted in the time of the following kings, and another was made in its stead in the place which is called Melmin f. These things indeed in the province of the Bernicians g: but in the province of the Deirans h also, where he was wont more often to stay with the king, he baptized in the river Swale i, which flows past the village k near Cataracta. For oratories or baptisteries could not yet be built there in the very beginning of the newborn church. Nevertheless at Campodonum l, where there was then also a royal township, he made a basilica, which afterwards the pagans by whom King Edwin was killed burned together with the same township. In its stead the later kings made themselves a township in the region which is called Loidis m. But the altar escaped the fire, because it was of stone, and it is preserved still in the monastery of the most reverend abbot and priest Trunwulsus, which is in the forest of Elmet n.
[19] he persuades Carpwald also, king of the East Angles, to conversion to the faith: Now Edwin had such devotion towards the worship of the truth that he even persuaded Carpwald, king of the East Angles, son of Redwald, that, having abandoned the superstitions of idols, he should receive the faith and Sacraments of Christ with his province. And indeed his father Redwald had long before been initiated in Kent into the sacraments of the Christian faith, but in vain. For, returning home, he was seduced by his wife and certain perverse teachers, and, perverted from the sincerity of the faith, his last state was worse than his first: so that, after the manner of the ancient Samaritans, he seemed to serve both Christ and the gods whom he served before, and in the same temple had both an altar for the sacrifice of Christ and a little altar for victims to demons. Which temple, namely, Aldulf, king of the same province (who lived in our own age), testifies lasted until his own time and that he saw it in his boyhood.
[20] these, when he had been slain, Bishop Felix brought to Christ, Now the aforesaid king Redwald was noble by birth, however ignoble in deed, the son of Tytil, whose father was Wuffa, from whom the kings of the East Angles call * themselves Wuffings. But Carpwald, not long after he received the faith, was killed by a heathen man named Richbert, and thereafter for three years the province was involved in error, until the brother of the same Carpwald, Sibert, a man in all things most learned and most Christian, received the kingdom. He, while his brother was still living, being in exile in Gaul, was initiated into the sacraments of the faith. Of which, as soon as he began to reign, he took care to make his whole province a sharer. His endeavours were most gloriously favoured by Bishop Felix o, who, having come from the parts of the Burgundians, where he had been born and ordained, to Archbishop Honorius, and having made known to him his desire, was sent by him to preach the word of life to the aforesaid nation of the English. Nor did his wishes fall in vain: but rather the pious cultivator of the spiritual field found in it manifold fruit of believing peoples. For indeed, according to the mystery of his name, he brought that whole province, freed from long iniquity and unhappiness, to the faith and works of justice and to the gifts of perpetual happiness. And he received the episcopal see in the city of Dummock [p], and, having ruled the same province in pontifical government for seventeen years, ended his life there in peace.
[21] Now Paulinus preached the word also to the province of Lindsey, Paulinus preached also to the people of Lincoln; which is the first on the southern bank of the river Humber, reaching as far as the sea, and he first converted to the Lord, with his house, the prefect of the city of Lincoln, whose name was Blecca. In which city, namely, he also made a church of stone of excellent workmanship, whose roof having been thrown down either by long neglect or by an enemy's hand, the walls are seen standing to this day, and every year some miracles of healing are wont to be shown in that same place for the benefit of those who faithfully seek. In which church Paulinus, Justus passing to Christ, consecrated Honorius bishop in his place, as we shall say in its place in what follows.
[22] Of the faith of this province a certain priest and abbot, what his appearance was is set forth here. a most truthful man, of the monastery of Peartan [q], by name Deda, told me that one of the elders had related to him that he had been baptized at midday by Bishop Paulinus, in the presence of King Edwin, together with a great crowd of people, in the river Trent near the city which in the language of the English is called Trovulfinga Cestir. He was also wont to describe * the appearance of the same Paulinus: that he was of tall stature, a little bent, with black hair, a lean face, a hooked and very thin nose, venerable and at the same time awe-inspiring in aspect. He also had with him in the ministry James the Deacon, a man assuredly industrious and noble in Christ and in the church, who survived even to our times.
ANNOTATA.
p. The city of Dumwich, which Bede after the Saxon fashion calls Dummock, is a maritime town of the province of Suffolk.
q. Peartan: in this noble monastery King Oswald was buried; which monastery, as Peter of Blois writes, having once been burned by the madness of the Danes, the devout earl of Lincoln, Gilbert de Gaunt, restored, and assigned to it many possessions.
* read appellantur
* read esset
CHAPTER III.
The happy rule of Edwin, to whom Pope Honorius sends a letter, and to St. Paulinus the pallium. Edwin dies, and, persecution having arisen, the Saint flees into Kent, and there, after he had ruled the church of Rochester, dies.
The happy rule of Edwin. Now so great a peace is said to have existed at that time in Britain, wherever the dominion of King Edwin had reached, that (as is said in a proverb to this day) even if one woman with a newborn infant wished to walk through the whole island from sea to sea, she could do so with no one harming her. The same king also so greatly consulted the benefit of his nation that in very many places where he saw clear springs beside the public highways, he ordered posts to be erected there and brass cups a to be hung on them for the refreshment of travellers: and no one either dared, for the greatness of the fear of him, or wished, for the greatness of the love of him, to touch these except for necessary use. And he had so much excellence in the kingdom that not only were banners borne before him in battle, but also in time of peace, as he rode among his cities, or townships, or provinces with his thegns, a standard-bearer was always wont to go before; and also, whenever he walked anywhere through the streets, that kind of banner which the Romans call Tufa and the English Thuuf was wont to be carried before him.
[24] At which time Honorius, the successor of Boniface, held the prelacy of the Apostolic See: Pope Honorius to St. Paulinus who, when he learned that the nation of the Northumbrians with its king had been converted to the faith and confession of Christ by the evangelizing of Paulinus, sent the pallium to the same Paulinus, and sent also to King Edwin letters of exhortation, kindling him with fatherly charity to take care always to persist and to advance in the faith of truth which he had received. Of which letters this is the tenor: "To the most excellent lord and most eminent son Edwin, king of the English, Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, greeting. So kindled with the ardour of faith is the integrity of your Christianity concerning the worship of its Creator that it shines far and wide, and, being proclaimed in all the world, brings back the fruit of your
work manifold. For thus you know yourselves to be kings, while, instructed by orthodox preaching about your King and Creator, you worship God by venerating him, and render to him, so far as the human condition is able, the sincere devotion of your mind. What else shall we be able to offer to our God, than that, persisting in good deeds and confessing him the Author of the human race, we hasten to worship him and to pay our vows to him? And therefore, most excellent son, we exhort you with fatherly charity, as is fitting, that you hasten in every way to preserve, with careful intent and assiduous prayers, this, that the divine mercy has deigned to call you to its grace: so that He who has deigned in the present world to lead you, freed from every error, to the knowledge of his name, may also prepare for you a dwelling in the heavenly fatherland.
[25] he sends the pallium. Being therefore frequently occupied in the reading of your preacher, my lord Gregory of Apostolic memory, have before your eyes the affection of his teaching, which he willingly exercised for your souls: so that his prayer may both increase your kingdom and people, and present you blameless to Almighty God. But as for those things which you have hoped from us in the ordaining of your bishops, these, on account of the sincerity of your faith, which has been laudably made known to us by manifold report through the bearers of the present letters, we have provided to grant them with a free mind without any delay, and we have directed two palliums to the two metropolitans, that is, to Honorius and Paulinus, so that, when either of them shall have been summoned from this world to his Author, the other ought by this our authority to substitute another bishop in his place. Which indeed we have been invited to grant both by reason of the affection of your charity and by reason of the great distances of such provinces as are known to lie between us and you, so that in all things we might offer our concurrence to your devotion and to your just desires. May the heavenly grace keep your excellency safe."
[26] Edwin having died and Now when Edwin had ruled most gloriously over the nation of the English and of the Britons together for seventeen years, of which he himself also, as we have said, served for six in the kingdom of Christ, Carduella* king of the Britons rebelled against him, Penda, a most vigorous man of the royal race of the Mercians, giving him help, who himself also from that time ruled the kingdom of the same nation for twenty-two years with varying fortune. And a grave battle having been joined in the field which is called Hethfelth, Edwin was slain on the fourth day before the Ides of October, in the six hundred and thirty-third year of the Lord's Incarnation, when he was forty-eight years old, and his whole army was either slain or dispersed. In which war also, before him, one of his sons, Osfrid, a warlike youth, fell; the other, Edfrid, compelled by necessity, fled over to King Penda, and was afterwards, in the reign of Oswald, slain by him against the faith of an oath.
[27] persecution having arisen, At which time a very great slaughter was made in the church or nation of the Northumbrians, chiefly because one of the leaders (by whom it was carried out) was a pagan, the other, because he was a barbarian, more savage than a pagan. For Penda, with the whole nation of the Mercians, was given to idols and ignorant of the Christian name. But Carduella, although he had the name and profession of a Christian, was nevertheless so barbarous in mind and manners that he did not spare even the female sex or the innocent age of little children, but with bestial cruelty delivered them all to death through tortures, for a long time ranging through all their provinces in his fury, and resolving that he would wipe out the whole race of the English from the borders of Britain. But neither did he pay any honour to the Christian religion which had arisen among them: since indeed to this day it is the custom of the Britons to hold the faith and religion of the English as nothing, and to have no more communion with them in anything than with pagans. And the head of King Edwin was brought to York, and afterwards brought into the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, which he himself began, but which his successor Oswald completed, as we have shown above. And it was placed in the porch of the holy Pope Gregory, from whose disciples b he himself had received the word of life.
[28] Affairs of the Northumbrians having therefore been thrown into confusion at the moment of this disaster, the Saint flees into Kent, since there seemed to be no safety anywhere except in flight, Paulinus, taking with him Queen Edelburga, whom he had formerly brought, returned into Kent by ship, and was very honourably received by Archbishop Honorius and King Edulbald . And he came there under the guidance of Baassus, a most valiant soldier of King Edwin, having with him Heanfreda, the daughter, and Vulcfrea, the son of Edwin, and also Iffi, son of Osfrid his son: whom afterwards their mother, for fear of the kings Edbold and Oswald, sent into Gaul to be brought up by King Decbert : and there both died in infancy, and were buried in the church with the honour befitting either royal children or innocents of Christ. She also brought with her very many precious vessels of King Edwin, among which were a great golden cross and a golden chalice, consecrated for the ministry of the altar: which are shown preserved to this day in the church of Kent.
[29] At which time the church of Rochester c had no pastor at all, he becomes bishop of Rochester, because Romanus d, its prelate, sent as envoy to Pope Honorius by Archbishop Justus, had been swallowed up by the waves of the Italian sea; and on this account the aforesaid Paulinus, at the invitation of the prelate Honorius and of King Eadbald, undertook its care, and held it until he too in his own time ascended to the heavenly kingdom with the fruit of glorious labour. In which church, dying, he also left the pallium which he had received from the Roman Pope. But he had left in his church at York James the deacon, a man assuredly ecclesiastical and holy, who, remaining in the church for a long time thereafter, snatched great spoils from the ancient enemy by teaching and baptizing. By whose name the village in which he chiefly used to live, near Cataracta, is surnamed to this day. He, since he was most skilled in singing in church, when peace had afterwards been recovered in the province and the number of the faithful was growing, also began to be to many a master of ecclesiastical chant after the manner of the Romans or of the people of Kent. And he himself, old and full of days, according to the Scriptures, followed the way of the fathers.
[30] and dies there. Now in the six hundred and forty-fourth year from the Incarnation of the Lord the most reverend father Paulinus, once indeed of York, but then bishop of the city of Rochester, passed to the Lord on the sixth day before the Ides of October, who held the episcopate nineteen years and twenty-one days, and was buried in the sacristy of the blessed Apostle Andrew, which King Edilbert built from the foundations in the same city of Rochester. In whose place Archbishop Honorius ordained Ithamar e, sprung indeed from the nation of the people of Kent, but to be made equal to his predecessors in life and learning.
ANNOTATA.
* read Cedualla
* Eadbaldo
* read Dagoberto