Edwin

ON ST. EDWIN, OR EDUIN, KING OF NORTHUMBRIA, IN ENGLAND,

IN THE YEAR 633.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Edwin or Eduin, king of Northumbria, in England. (S.)

BY C. B.

§ I. Public cult, the time of his birth, his lawful possession of the kingdom of Northumbria.

The Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century and following erected, in the principal part of Ancient Britain which they had occupied, seven kingdoms, of Northumbria, notice of which is given here, usually distinguished therefore by posterity with the name of the English Heptarchy. Among these, not the lowest place was held by that which, because it was situated to the North of the river Humber, obtained the name of Northumbria, and which for the same reason was called by the ancients also Northanymbrarice, this word, no differently from the word Northumberland, by which that region is still distinguished today by the English and the Belgians, signifying the region or kingdom situated to the North of the Humber, as the writers who saw to the edition of Bede at Cambridge in the year 1643 testify. It, situated between the German Ocean to the East, Scotland to the North, the Irish sea to the West, and the kingdom of the Mercians in the English Heptarchy to the South, embraced in its circuit, as Alford teaches at the year 547, number 3 — from whom our predecessors at the 20th day of March, in the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, number 1, do not much differ — the people of Durham, of Lancaster, of York, the Northumbrians, the Cumbrians, the people of Westmorland, also Lothian and the province of the Picts; and, subdivided into two parts or smaller kingdoms, of which it comprised the one, Deira or the Deiri, extending from the river Humber to the Pictish wall and the river Tyne, and the other, Bernicia or the Bernicians, extending from there to the Scottish firth, it stretched from the river Humber to the river Tweed.

[2] Of the kings who were proper to the Northumbrians and held that whole kingdom, king Eduin, who, as not from Breviaries or other ecclesiastical books, the first to embrace the faith of Christ was Edwin or Eduin, called Saint and Martyr by our Forefathers, as Alford says at the year 633, number 13, because, fighting against the barbarians, he defended the Church and the faith which he had learned. He, already referred in our Work among the Passed Over at the 4th day of October, on which he is recorded by Wilson in the English Martyrology, was deferred from there to the present day of the same month, on which, from what is to be said, he was slain and is announced elsewhere, so that he might be inserted in our Work here if his cult were established. Seeing this, I held nothing more important than to examine carefully whether Edwin enjoyed ecclesiastical cult anywhere

or not. To this end, therefore, I carefully searched through all the Breviaries, and especially the English ones, extant with us. But I lost my oil and my labour; for neither in these nor in the other ecclesiastical books, likewise searched through by me, which either contain Offices proper to certain Saints or serve in any manner for the recitation of the canonical Hours, did I find anywhere any trace of public cult which either is rendered or was ever rendered to Eduin. I then turned with equal zeal to the Martyrologies usually called Classical, because the very inscription of Servants of God in these is for the most part held as cult; but of Hagiologies so ancient I was likewise unable to find a single one in which the name of Eduin stands inscribed anywhere.

[3] but from Speed's Catalogue, recounting a church erected under his name Butler indeed, in the Life of our Saint composed by him and inserted at the 4th day of October among other Lives of other Saints likewise composed by him, indicates not obscurely that the Saint is recorded with the title of Martyr in the Martyrology of Florus and in all the Calendars of England; but I know neither a Martyrology of Florus nor any Calendar of England which makes any mention at all of Eduin. Considering these things, I very nearly thought it altogether useless to think any further of proving the Saint's cult. Nor could the English Martyrology of Wilson, already recorded above, which is noted as printed in the year 1608, at once bring it about that I should be of another mind; for although in it it is expressly asserted that at London near Newgate Market a church, which had been erected and dedicated in honour of St. Eduin, survived until the age of Henry VIII, king of England, it can nevertheless be called into doubt whether a church of this kind ever existed at London, since no mention of it at all is made in the later edition of the same Martyrology, which came out in the year 1640. Nor does Speed's Catalogue, displaying the patrons and founders of all the monasteries and other sacred buildings in England and Wales which Henry VIII, king of England, either overthrew or left intact, or which others afterwards erected, take away my cause for doubting.

[4] is proved, he enjoyed sacred cult, For although perhaps a copy of that Catalogue in which this was truly done lit the way for Butler, who says in the place cited above that in it an ancient church dedicated to St. Eduin is placed at London, yet no mention anywhere of a church of this kind existing at London occurs in the said Catalogue as it is displayed here at the end of the History of the English Church by Harpsfield. But although this is so, and therefore it continues to appear very doubtful to me whether a church that venerated St. Eduin as patron truly ever existed at London, the same Catalogue of Speed nevertheless comes opportunely to our aid here, or, if you prefer, its copy added at the end of the History just mentioned. For it records a church which had Eduin as patron, or was dedicated to God under his name, not at London but at Bearwe in the county of Somerset, Butler too openly agreeing in the place cited above, although meanwhile the copy of the same Catalogue which he praises for himself was perhaps different, from what has been said, from the copy just recorded. Wherefore, since everyone acknowledges that the cult of Servants of God is most rightly inferred from sacred buildings dedicated to God under their name, and such persons claim a place for themselves in our Work as Saints or Blessed, there is surely no reason why we should still hesitate in doubt whether Eduin enjoyed sacred cult, or whether he is to be inserted in our Work, as our predecessors promised in more than one place would be done.

[5] And this indeed, it seems to me, ought to have been done on this day rather than on the 4th day of October, and better announced today than on the 4th day of October, even if, at the time when Eduin was counted among the Passed Over of this latter day, his cult had been established; for I most vehemently suspect that it came about only through error that Eduin is announced in the English Martyrology of Wilson on the 4th day of October; for since he was slain on the 4th day before the Ides of October, that is, on the 12th day of this month, as Bede writes in the History of the English People, book 2, chapter 20, it is truly very much to be feared that, since in one or more of the manuscripts marking the day on which he was killed by the chronological notes just adduced, IV Id. or Idus Octobris, the word Id. or Idus had either been omitted through the carelessness of copyists or eaten away by age, through the error arising from this the two remaining words alone, IV Octobris, crept into other manuscripts transcribed from those earlier manuscripts, and at length into the said Martyrology itself. However it may be, today indeed Eduin is announced in the English Martyrology printed at London in the year 1526 by Richard Whitford, who composed it, of which a manuscript copy is extant with us; and that this was better done by him then than on the 4th day of October by Wilson, Castellanus also seems to have judged, inasmuch as he likewise celebrates the Saint today and not on the 4th day of October. The words with which he does so, lest I display to the reader no announcement at all of Eduin from the sacred Fasti, I transcribe here. Turned by me from French into Latin they run thus: In the county of Northumbria in England, of St. Eduin, first Christian king of that tract, unjustly slain in the seventeenth year of his reign.

[6] Let us now turn our discourse to the Acts of the Saint. These Bede has comprised in writing in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 2, chapter 9 and some following: he obtained Bede as biographer, but although they were written in the best faith, I am not going to subjoin them to this Commentary. For since they also concern St. Paulinus, bishop of York, who converted Eduin to the faith of Christ, or at least have woven into them very many things concerning that Saint, and are already with us at the 10th day of October, on which he is venerated, brought into the fifth volume of the same month from page 108 to 114, it is by no means necessary that they be reprinted here so that they may conveniently be read by the studious reader. Yet, since it is usually not unwelcome to him that things which have often been set out or narrated about the Saints in a more prolix discourse should be displayed to him as under one view in as few words as can be done, I shall set before his eyes, in two following §§ of this present Commentary itself, those Acts, or rather what they contain concerning St. Eduin and not concerning St. Paulinus alone, contracted into a compendium in as few words as I can — into which I shall also weave some things taken from elsewhere when I judge it opportune — and illustrated with Annotations inserted by me from time to time, meanwhile transcribing here now and then in it, when it seems expedient, the very words too which Bede supplies either in the book of the History of the English People just cited or elsewhere; and then in another § I shall examine what is to be thought of the vision which Bede reports was offered to Eduin in the most afflicted state of his affairs, and whether either this writer in what he records of it can rightly be charged with excessive credulity, or Eduin with arrogance and immoderate ambition. But before I perform either the one or the other, it will help to have premised some further things here.

[7] he was born in the year 583 of Alla, Bede, in book 2 of the History of the English People, chapter 20, writes thus: Eduin was slain on the fourth day of the Ides of October, in the six hundred and thirty-third year of the Lord's Incarnation, when he was forty-eight years old; since the 48 years which Eduin lived, computed in retrograde order from the year 633, in which he is here asserted by Bede to have been slain, lead down to the year 585, it follows that Eduin was born in this last year. Altogether certain, too, is that the father of Eduin was Ælla or Alla, king of the Northumbrians, or, as others will have it, of the Deiri only. For Capgrave, or rather John of Tynemouth, who flourished about the year 1360, in the Life of our Saint composed by him from the book of Bede praised above, with only a few things of no very great moment changed, and brought into the New Legend of the Saints of England, which came out at London in the year 1516, writes thus near the beginning of Elle or Alla: He begot the holy Edwin, king and martyr, and Acca his sister; and thus he surely teaches most clearly that the father of St. Eduin was Ella or Alla; and the same is done also at the year 617 by the Saxon Chronicle, which is praised as an ancient and most authentic Work in the Trévoux Journal of the year 1708, page 1879, and came out in type at Oxford in the year 1692. Nor have I been able to find anywhere any Writing, either recent or ancient, which attributes to Eduin a father distinct from Alla.

[8] who, although the son of Ida, first king of the Northumbrians, But, that the discourse may be turned in due order a little later from here to the right by which Alla and his son Eduin possessed the kingdom of Northumbria, was Alla, the father of Eduin from what has been said, who, as the Saxon Chronicle which I have just mentioned teaches, succeeded in the kingdom of the Northumbrians, or at any rate, as others will have it, in Deira, its principal part, next after Ida, who was taken from the living about the year 559, perhaps the son of this first king of the Northumbrians, or did he at least draw his origin from him? Capgrave, praised above, or rather John of Tynemouth, in the Life of St. Oswald, king of the Northanhumbrians, already given with us at the 5th day of August, on which he is venerated, written by him and brought into the New Legend of the Saints of England which I have mentioned above, writes thus near the beginning: Ida having died, Elle succeeded in the kingdom of the Deiri; but Adda, the son of Ida, received only the kingdom of the Bernicians. This Elle, however, did not descend from the seed of Ida; but yet from Woden, from whom Ida came, Elle too drew his origin. So he, surely relating most clearly that Ella or Alla was not the son of Ida; and with him agree Florence of Worcester and Wallingford in their Chronicles, written by the former in the twelfth century and by the latter about the beginning of the thirteenth. For neither of them, when they enumerate the sons of Ida at the year 547, counts Alla among them. Moreover, the Saxon Chronicle, already praised more than once above, expressly affirms at the year 560 that Ælla was the son not of Ida but of Yffi, the Worcester writer at the year 559 also most clearly agreeing with it; so that, since besides nothing occurs either in Bede or in another ancient writer from which you may gather that Ella was the son of Ida, there is surely reason, on account of what has been said, why Alla should be believed not to have been in actual fact the son of that first king of the Northumbrians.

[9] Nor ought Bede, just praised, and other ancient writers prevent this from being done, [does not seem to have been, not on that account however the kingdom of Northumbria] who, as with us at the 20th of August

day, in the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Oswin, king of the Northumbrians, may be seen, constantly call Elfric or Ethelric, son of Ida, the paternal uncle of St. Eduin, and thus thrust upon us Alla, Eduin's father, and the said Ethelric or Elfric as brothers. For what if the mother of Alla, when Yffi his father, who had been joined to her in marriage, had died, entered into a second marriage with Ida and bore him a son Elfric or Ethelric? So certainly this man and Alla would have been brothers, not indeed from the same father but from the same mother. And this, as it can have been done, so also it is to be believed to have been done in fact, so that Bede and the writers just praised, who make Ethelric, son of Ida, the paternal uncle of Eduin, and yet nowhere indicate that Alla, Eduin's father, was the son of Ida, may be brought into agreement with the Saxon chronographer and the other writers likewise just praised, who either expressly relate that Yffi was the father of Alla, or do not count him among the sons of Ida when they enumerate them, and thus reveal that he truly was not the son of that first king of the Northumbrians. But, someone will perhaps say, if Alla was not the son of Ida, it will follow that neither he nor his son Eduin drew his origin from Ida, unless perhaps, contrary to what appears, the latter had been born of a daughter or granddaughter of Ida; and yet Bede writes, in the History of the English People, book 5, chapter 25, that the royal stock of the Northumbrians holds its origin from Ida.

[10] I confess it is so; but Bede in that place speaks of the stock of the Northumbrians either he himself or Eduin his son possessed unjustly. which occupied the kingdom of Northumbria at the beginning of the eighth century, or in his own age, and not of that which occupied it before this, as will become manifest to anyone who has weighed even the words of that writer alone. Nor would anyone better contend that Alla was the son of Ida from the fact that otherwise it seems impossible to declare by what right or by what title he succeeded Ida, who left behind him several sons whom he had begotten, in the kingdom of Northumbria, or at least in its principal part, Deira. For this can have come about either from the contract of the marriage entered into by Alla's mother with Ida, or from the immoderate affection of the latter for his wife, who earnestly demanded that her son Alla be raised to the throne, or finally from any other cause whatever, perhaps even (for I have not sufficiently ascertained by what right or by what order, in the individual kingdoms of the Heptarchy, some succeeded others immediately from the very beginning at which these had been erected) either really or at least apparently just, which antiquity has allowed us not to know. The writers already praised, who, although they either relate that Alla was not the son of Ida or at least indicate it by what they write, nevertheless record that he succeeded him, add nothing at all from which you may gather that this was not done by right; but in whatever manner it at length came about that Alla succeeded Ida, nothing at any rate can be inferred from this against Eduin, his son; for he possessed the kingdom of Northumbria by the best right, since he received it from Redwald, king of the East Angles in the Heptarchy, by whom it had been wrested from Ethelfrid by the lot of a most just war, as will become clear from the compendium of his Life, taken from Bede and elsewhere, and to be displayed here now in the two following §§.

§ II. The Saint is banished by Ethelfrid, his sister's husband, is refreshed in his straits by a heavenly vision, obtains the kingdom of Northumbria and supreme power in the Heptarchy, is wounded by a hostile king, promises that he will serve Christ if he conquers him, and at length is converted and baptized by St. Paulinus.

[Eduin, his father Alla having been taken from the living in the year 588, by his sister's husband, who had seized the kingdom,] When Alla, the father of Eduin — who, after he had previously reigned in Deira only, if Alford at the year 547 and the year 559 is to be believed, had in the year 559 succeeded in the kingdom of all Northumbria to Ida, then dead, and that in such a way that, retaining for himself the supreme power both over Bernicia and over Deira, he meanwhile permitted Adda, son of Ida, and others after him to reign in Bernicia, and had held it for nearly thirty years — had been taken from the living in the year 588, Ethelric, or Elfric, Eduin's paternal uncle from what has been said above, who, on the testimony of the Worcester writer at the year 559, had already reigned two years in Bernicia, seized the kingdom of all Northumbria, Deira being joined to Bernicia, and, dying after five years, transmitted it to his son Ethelfrid, already joined in marriage with Acca, Eduin's sister. Eduin was then still, inasmuch as he was born only in the year 585, as I have taught above, a boy of only about eight years, and since he was therefore unequal to guiding the reins of the kingdom, he seems to have stayed in Northumbria during the first years of Ethelfrid's reign there, sinister suspicions about him having not yet arisen in the latter's mind, without any fear fit to disturb the tranquillity which he loved.

[12] [he is banished by her husband Ethelfrid, and, having wandered for many years through various places, to Redwald,] But when afterwards, having become more advanced in age, he had taken to wife Quenburga (see Bede, book 2 of the English People, chapter 14), daughter of Cearl, king of the Mercians, and pleased everyone everywhere both by the elegance of his manners and by the rare gifts of nature in which he excelled, Ethelfrid, who, as it appears, could not without reason be in doubt whether his own or Eduin's right to the kingdom of Northumbria prevailed, and above all feared lest he should at length be expelled from Northumbria by the Deiri and Bernicians, adjudging it to Eduin, now grown up, whom they bore in their eyes, so that they might raise the same Eduin to its throne, driven by the goads of envy and the blind lust for dominion, rose up against him, although, from what has been said, his wife's brother, and it was little short of his laying violent hands on a Man beloved by all; but thinking that this could not be done by him safely, he drives him into exile, accused on sought-out and feigned charges, being resolved there, by snares laid, when the opportunity was given of doing so without danger, to kill the rival while he lived he judged he would not be safe on the throne. Eduin therefore, driven out from the court and from all Northumbria, and nonetheless, though now an exile, attacked by snares at Ethelfrid's instigation, was compelled frequently to change his abodes in order to avoid them, to move from one kingdom of the Heptarchy to another, and to disguise his person under a false name, and dragged out his life most wretchedly through various places amid constant straits.

[13] In this miserable state of his affairs he at length betook himself to Redwald, [king of the East Angles, he takes refuge. By him he is first endangered, and yet afterwards,] king of the East Angles, and when he had requested of him that he would protect his life and that of his companions against the snares of Ethelfrid, the king, receiving the suppliant kindly, promised that he would perform this and the other things which he desired. Hence Eduin, having now obtained a place where he could stay without fear, hoped that he would henceforth enjoy better fortune, his calamities being driven away; but Ethelfrid, who was intent on every occasion of destroying him, being informed of the matter, sent, says Bede, book 2, chapter 12, messengers to offer Redwald much money for his death, and achieved nothing. He sent a second time, he sent a third time, offering even more abundant gifts of gold and silver, and moreover declaring war on him if he were scorned. So Redwald, either broken by threats or corrupted by gifts, yielded to the one entreating him, and showed himself ready either to kill Eduin himself or to hand him over to Ethelfrid's legates to be put to death. But a certain most faithful friend of his, namely of Eduin's, observing this, entered the chamber in which he was preparing to sleep … and, calling him out of doors, informed him what the king had promised to do concerning him, and moreover added: "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 Edilfrid will ever be able to find you." Having heard these things, Eduin, as Bede proceeds, says: "I thank you indeed for your goodwill; yet I cannot do what you suggest, that I myself should be the first to make void the pact which I entered into with so great a king, when he has done me no evil and has as yet shown no enmity. Rather, if I am to die, let him deliver me to death rather than some meaner man. For whither shall I now flee, who through all the provinces of Britain, a wanderer through the courses of so many years and seasons, was avoiding the snares of my enemies?"

[14] There now follows here the vision offered to Eduin from heaven, meanwhile the prosperous things which, by heaven, concerning which, because judgment is to be passed on it here below, I transcribe here the very words in which it is expressed in Bede in the place cited, although they are somewhat prolix. The friend therefore going away, says Bede, Eduin remained alone out of doors, and, sitting sad before the palace, began to be affected by many surges 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 bearing; seeing whom, as unknown and unexpected, he was not a little afraid. But he, approaching, greeted him and asked why at that hour, when the others were resting and sunk in deep sleep, he alone sat sad and wakeful on a stone. But he in turn asked what concern it was of his whether he himself passed the night within or out of doors. He, answering, said: "Do not think that I do not know the cause of your sadness and sleeplessness, and of your sitting out of doors and alone; for I know most certainly who you are, and why you grieve, and what evils you fear are coming upon you soon.

[15] the things that will befall him are indicated; refreshed by the vision, "But tell me, what reward would you be willing to give to him, if there be any such, who should free you from these griefs and persuade Redwald neither himself to do you any evil nor to deliver you to your enemies to be killed?" When he answered that he would give everything he could to such a one as the reward for such a benefit, the other 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 were kings before you in the nation of the English?" And Eduin, made more steadfast 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 a third time: "But if," he said, "he who shall have foretold to you that such great gifts will truly come to you should also be able to show you 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 salutary admonitions?" Nor did Eduin delay to promise at once that he would follow in all things the teaching of him who, rescuing him from so many and such great calamities, should raise him to the summit of the kingdom. Having received this answer, at once he who was speaking with him laid his right hand upon his head

saying: "When therefore this sign shall come to you, remember this time and our conversation, and do not delay to fulfil the things which you now promise." And having said these things, as they report, he suddenly vanished, so that he understood that it was not a man who had appeared to him, but a spirit.

[16] [he is presented with the kingdom of Northumbria in the year 617, Ethelfrid having been defeated and slain,] Such was the vision of which I spoke; and when immediately after it Eduin was indeed rejoicing in the consolation it had brought him, but was still doubtful, and was turning over with anxious mind who he was or whence he had come who had appeared to him, suddenly his friend recorded above is present, and announces with a joyful countenance that the king, at the persuasion of the queen, has changed his mind and has resolved to keep whatever he had promised him. Nor indeed was the hope which he thus gave to Eduin vain. For Redwald not only did not either himself kill Eduin or deliver him to his enemies to be put to death, but also, advancing at once with a numerous army against Ethelfrid, who had demanded that one or the other be granted him, declaring war too if it were not done, without allowing him the space of time to gather forces not inferior, slew him when he met him with an army greatly unequal on the borders of the Mercians, battle having been joined in the territory of Nottingham on the Eastern side of the river which is called the Idle; and presently, occupying the kingdom of Northumbria by a war surely most just, inasmuch as it was undertaken to forestall Ethelfrid, who had unjustly declared war on him, he granted the whole of it, which had previously belonged to his father Alla, to his son Eduin; so that he, as seemed to have been foretold by the vision recorded above, not only avoided the snares of a king hostile to him, but also succeeded the same in the glory of the kingdom. And that this indeed happened in the year 617 becomes clear from the fact that Eduin, as we saw above, was slain in the year 633, after he had reigned seventeen years; but it is not so plain at what time all and each of the other things happened which Eduin, already made king of the Northumbrians, must have done in order that everything foretold by the same vision related above might come to pass.

[17] That these were great and extraordinary Bede most clearly reveals, [he then does many splendid things, the time meanwhile at which some of them happened being uncertain,] writing thus of Eduin in book 2 of the History of the English People, chapter 9: To the king, as an omen of his receiving the faith and the heavenly kingdom, the power of his earthly dominion had also increased, so that, what no one of the English before him had done, he received under his sway all the borders of Britain, wherever the provinces either of the English themselves or of the Britons dwell. Nay, he also subjected the Mevanian islands (as we have also taught above) to the empire of the English. If credence is to be given to Alford at the year 620, the first expedition of Eduin, having now obtained the kingdom of the Northumbrians, was undertaken against Cadwan, king of the Britons, the towns being wrested from him together with the region containing them which he had acquired among the Brigantes and in the territory of York, Ethelfrid having been driven out, in the year 613; but since the praised Alford, speaking at the said year 620 of Ceretic, king of the Britons, and of the said Cadwan, who succeeded him in the monarchy of the Britons, himself confesses that the time and Acts of these kings and of the kingdom, nay everything, are uncertain, it may with reason be called into doubt whether what he writes about the war waged by Eduin against Cadwan accords with the truth, as also whether Eduin, fighting in the year 621 against the Scots and Picts, added Galloway and Lothian to his kingdom, as the same Alford relates at that year. Nor do I know whether the same Alford writes rightly at the said year 622 either that what Bede writes in the place just cited about the Mevanian, or rather Menavian, islands subdued by Eduin happened in the year 622, or that the islands, which Bede, speaking also in book 2, chapter 5, of the same being subjugated by Eduin, calls islands not of the Scots but of the Britons, were wrested by Eduin from the Scots.

[18] However it may be, it is certain from Bede that those islands were indeed subjected by Eduin to the empire of the English. he enters into a second marriage with Ethelburga, daughter of the king of Kent, Nor is it to be doubted that Eduin held Lothian under his sway (there may be doubt about Galloway), since that province then belonged to the kingdom of Northumbria, of the whole of which he was king. I now proceed to other things, the epoch of nearly all of which can be determined more certainly. Eduin, Quenburga, daughter of Cearl, king of the Mercians, whom he had taken to wife, having now been dead some years, turned his mind to a second marriage about the beginning of the year 625; and having cast his eyes on Ethelburga, by another name called Tate, daughter of Ethelbert, first Christian king of Kent, whom perhaps he had seen while, fleeing Ethelfrid, he wandered through the various kingdoms of the Heptarchy, he sent legates to ask for her to Eadbald her brother, who then ruled over the kingdom of Kent. But since the matter soon met with difficulty, because Eduin was still a pagan while the royal virgin whom he asked for was a Christian, this difficulty being removed, the marriage was at length entered upon on this condition: that Ethelburga and all who accompanied her on her departure into Northumbria might enjoy the free exercise of the Christian religion and have with them Paulinus, who was to be ordained bishop, to use as minister of the sacred rites.

[19] [aspiring to supreme power over the Heptarchy, he is wounded by a rival through an assassin,] Ethelburga therefore, when Paulinus, as Bede says in book 2, chapter 9, had been ordained bishop on the twelfth day before the Kalends of August, in the six hundred and twenty-fifth year from the Incarnation of the Lord, departed from Kent into Northumbria together with him and other companions joined to her; and when she had come to king Eduin, her husband, it happened not so long afterwards, as it appears, if not even somewhat before, that Redwald, already praised above, by whose agency, as we have seen, Eduin had obtained the kingdom of Northumbria, king of the East Angles, departed from the living. And to his father indeed his son Erpenwald soon succeeded in the kingdom of the East Angles without any trouble, as it appears; but Redwald had been raised to supreme power over all the kings of the Heptarchy, as one may gather from what Bede writes in book 2, chapter 5; and since Eduin, as it appears, and Cuichelm or Quinchelm, king of the West Saxons, aspired to this prerogative of dignity, the latter conceived a huge hatred against the former, drawing its origin most probably from this (for no apter cause of it seems able to be assigned), and let himself be carried away by it to the point that, desiring to remove the rival of his empire from the midst, he sent an assassin into Northumbria to do it. Certainly Bede clearly relates in book 2, chapter 9, that in the year which next followed the ordination of Paulinus, and therefore in 626, an assassin named Eumer, armed with a two-edged poisoned dagger, was sent into Northumbria by Cuichelm, king of the West Saxons, to kill king Eduin, presently adding that he came to the king on the first day of Easter, and when he had been admitted to him, who was then staying in a country estate near the city, putting forward an embassy committed to him by his lord, he hurled the dagger, unsheathed, which he was hiding under his garment, against the king with such force that, although Lilla, the most faithful of his ministers, received the blow in the middle of his body, he nevertheless wounded the king through the body of the man thus run through.

[20] [and leading an army against him, he promises Paulinus that he will serve Christ if he conquers the enemy,] Easter, from what has been said, was being kept while this was happening; and since, on the night preceding it, queen Ethelburga had borne the king a daughter whom they called Eanfled, and the king was giving thanks to his gods in the presence of bishop Paulinus for her birth, the bishop on the contrary began to give thanks to Christ the Lord and to assert to the king that he had obtained from Him by his prayers that the queen should bring forth offspring safe and without grievous pain. Nor was the bishop in vain here. For the king, delighted with his words, promised Paulinus that he would serve Christ, having repudiated idols, if He would grant him life and victory when he fought against the king by whom the assassin who had wounded him had been sent; and as a pledge of fulfilling the promise he gave the servant of God leave to consecrate to Christ by Baptism the daughter born to him. She was therefore then washed in the sacred laver, and indeed, as Bede says in the place last cited, on the holy day of Pentecost; and when then, the wound which had been inflicted on him being healed, Eduin had gathered an army, he moved against Quichelm, king of the West Angles, to avenge the injury perfidiously inflicted on him by him, and, battle being joined, he either slew or received in surrender all those whom he had learned had conspired for his death.

[21] Some contend, contrary to what appears to be concluded from these words of Bede, [But while, having obtained the victory and increased also with supreme power over the Heptarchy,] that Quichelm was not either slain or captured in that battle; but whatever may be the case in that matter, it is certain that Eduin at any rate won a signal victory over that king of the West Angles; and by this, as it appears, it came about that he obtained supreme empire over the Heptarchy, no one any longer opposing its being done. Certainly Bede clearly teaches in book 2 of the English People, chapter 5, that Eduin had such an empire over the Heptarchy; for when he there enumerates the kings of the English who ruled over all their Southern provinces, which are separated from the Northern by the river Humber and the boundaries contiguous to it, he names in the fifth place among them Eduin, king of the Northanhymbrians, who, as he adds, with greater power ruled over all the peoples who inhabit Britain, English and Britons alike; and that Eduin obtained the said power over the kings of the Heptarchy in the year 626 I think for this reason, that Redwald, to whom, as Bede indicates in the place last cited, he succeeded in it, departed from the living either about the end of the year 625 or at any rate not much earlier, as is easy to gather from what has been said above; and because Bede, near the beginning of book 2, chapter 9, reveals not obscurely that Eduin, who, as I shall teach below, embraced the faith of Christ only in the year 627, had been raised to that dignity before he did so.

[22] Further, since at that time likewise, as Bede also indicates in the same place, he does not yet, however, embrace the Christian rites, Eduin had supreme power over the Britons, whether conquered by him about the beginning of his reign, as some will have it, or compelled to pay him tribute after the defeat of Quichelm, as others contend, all the things which the man of unknown countenance had indicated in the vision related above would befall him had now been fulfilled. But although this was so, and moreover Eduin, having promised that he would serve Christ if he should defeat Quichelm, had become bound by his vow now that this king was conquered, he could not yet, however, be bent to embrace the Christian rites, freeing his pledge. He had nonetheless already been urged to do so by letters written by Boniface, the Roman Pontiff, as soon as he had learned of his marriage with Ethelburga, a Christian princess, in the year 625, and indeed before the 22nd day of October, since on that day this Pontiff died, and by Bede, book 2,

History, chapter 10, recited, he had been aroused in greater measure; he had been impelled to it also by the frequent admonitions both of queen Ethelburga, who had omitted nothing at all to draw her Husband to the faith, and of St. Paulinus; but although indeed from the time at which he had won the victory over Cuichelm he no longer served idols, he nevertheless judged that the faith of Christ was not to be embraced before he had accurately learned from Paulinus what kind it was, and had carefully examined with his nobles, whom he knew to be the wiser, whether it would be to his advantage to receive it; and since, as Bede says in book 2, chapter 9, he was a man by nature most sagacious, often sitting long alone, with silent mouth indeed but conversing much with himself in the inmost parts of his heart, he considered what he ought to do, what religion was to be kept. Nor on this account, as it appears, was he to be censured.

[23] he is spurred by Paulinus to do so by the vision once offered to him, But since he seemed to be studiously weaving delays and impediments so as not to free the pledge given to Paulinus, this holy prelate, judging from this that the loftiness of the royal mind could not easily be bent to the humility of the way of salvation and to receiving the mystery of the life-giving Cross, decided to use an incitement which he judged would be more powerful for bending it. Since, therefore, he had learned, either by divine revelation or from elsewhere, the vision related above, by which Eduin had formerly understood that prosperous things would befall him, and had promised that he would follow the teaching of him who should have conferred these things on him, having also received the command to do this without delay when it should happen that a hand was laid upon his head, entering one day to the king, while he, sitting alone, was anxiously weighing what he ought to do, he laid, says Bede in the book last cited, chapter 12, his right hand upon his head, and asked whether he recognized this sign; and when he, trembling, wished to fall at the feet of the one asking it, he, raising him up and addressing him with a voice as of a familiar, 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, rescuing you from temporal adversities, has exalted you to the honour of a temporal kingdom, and, if henceforth you will comply with His will, which He preaches to you through me, will also free you from the everlasting torments of the wicked and make you a sharer with Himself of the eternal kingdom in heaven."

[24] [and recognizing that he had been forewarned by this by God to embrace the faith, he is at length converted and baptized.] The king, having heard these things, recognized that he had formerly been forewarned by God through the vision related above to embrace the faith which Paulinus preached, and answered that he therefore both wished and ought to receive it. Meanwhile, greatly desiring that the princes and counsellors of his kingdom, if they were willing to think the same as he, should likewise be consecrated to Christ in the font of Life, he called them into council, and inquired of each what they thought of the doctrine of Paulinus, hitherto unheard of, and of the new worship of the divinity which he preached; and when all, and above all Coifi himself, the chief priest of the idols, having heard Paulinus again before, had judged that these were to be broken in pieces or burnt, and the faith of Christ embraced, Eduin, as Bede narrates in book 2, chapter 14, with all the nobles of his nation and very many 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, 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 haste while he was being catechized and instructed to receive Baptism.

§ III. He labours to propagate the faith on every side, obtains a signal privilege for the see of York from the Roman Pontiff, is attacked in war by the kings of the Britons and the Mercians, and, conquered in an unhappy battle, is slain.

he has a greater church of stone built at York, King Eduin, in the same city of York in which, as has been said, he was washed in the sacred laver, gave the see of the bishopric to the prelate Paulinus, his master in the faith. So Bede, in book 2 of the History of the English People, chapter 14, presently adding that immediately after receiving Baptism the same king, at Paulinus's admonition, took care that in that very place, where he had built a church of wood in haste when he was being instructed to receive Baptism, a greater and more august one should be built of stone, in the middle of which that former wooden one should be enclosed; and although Eduin, slain in war, as we shall see below, in the sixth year after it had been begun, did not complete that sacred building (for it was first brought to the middle, as Bede testifies in the place cited, by Oswald, Eduin's successor), he was nevertheless, even at the time when it had not yet been brought to its summit, most solicitous that the divine Office should be performed with the highest decorum, and to this end, as it appears, he had caused a golden Cross, although meanwhile this perhaps also served another use to be recorded below, and a golden chalice to be made. Certainly Bede makes it clear that Eduin had already then ordered a great golden Cross and a golden chalice for the ministry of the altar to be fashioned, when he writes thus in book 2, chapter 20, of Paulinus returning from Northumbria into Kent after Eduin had been defeated and slain in the year 633, as we shall see below, bringing away with him from there Eduin's wife Ethelburga, his daughter Eanfled, his son Vuscfrea and his grandson Iffi: He also brought with him very many precious vessels of king Eduin, among which were both 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.

[26] But how sincerely Eduin, having abjured idolatry, had embraced the Christian faith, he labours to propagate the faith, he manifested by nothing more than by his ardour in propagating it. Before he was baptized he had most vehemently desired, from what has been said above, that all the princes and counsellors of his kingdom, having embraced the Christian faith, should be washed in the sacred laver with him; and after he had been baptized he not only most ardently desired that the faith, propagated far and wide, should be received everywhere by all, but also helped this to be done by pious efforts, admonitions and counsel. For he knew, says Alford at the year 628, number 2, that the purple becomes the shoulders of a king when he is devoted to God and religion; and that it belongs to princes not to dictate or teach the faith, but to protect it, as dictated by the Church and taught by others, by deed, by example, and, where it conduces to the dignity of the Godhead, by their presence. Bede, as soon as he has related, in book 2, chapter 14, the conversion to the faith and holy regeneration through the sacred waters of Baptism of Eduin and of his sons Osfrid and Eadfrid, both of whom had been born to him as an exile of Quemburga, daughter of Cearl, king of the Mercians, and of not a few other noble and distinguished men, subjoins: So great is said to have been then the fervour of faith and desire for the saving laver in the nation of the Northanhymbrians, that at one time Paulinus, coming with the king and queen to the royal estate which is called Adgefrin, stayed there with them thirty-six days, given up to the office of catechizing and baptizing: on all which days, from morning until evening, he did nothing else than instruct with the word of salvation the people of Christ flowing together thither from all the villages and places, and, when they were instructed, wash them in the laver of remission in the river Glen, which was nearest.

[27] [the extraordinary ardour with which he burned that it should be received by the Bernicians and Deiri] This estate was deserted in the time of the following kings, and another was made in its place, in the place which is called Melmun. Alford, having likewise recited these words of Bede at the year 627, presently subjoins: Hence it can be gathered that the harvest of the faith under king Edwin was great, which, extending from the territory of York beyond the Pictish wall to the extremities of the North and the Scots themselves, appeared most joyful. So he, and rightly indeed; for, as he adds, Adgefrin, now Yeverin — in place of the former of which words, in the text of Bede that lit his way, already given, Adragim had been wrongly written, as he proves — lies in the farthest parts of Northumbria. And that there was then, or, as we shall teach below, in the year 627, a huge harvest of the faith not only in Bernicia, of which alone Bede, as he himself presently indicates, speaks in the words transcribed here just now, but also in Deira, is persuaded by these other following words which Bede presently subjoins to those: But also in the province of the Deiri, where Paulinus was often wont to stay with the king, he baptized in the river Sualica, or rather (for so, as Alford testifies in the place cited, all the manuscripts have it) Swala, which flows past the village near the cataract (that this village is none other than the one which is today called Catterick, Butler, praised above, observes in his notes subjoined to the Life of St. Edwin); and since Paulinus, while he baptized among the Deiri in the river Swala and among the Bernicians in the river Glen, was in both places with king Eduin, as the two texts of Bede just transcribed here attest, it appears surely in no way foreign to the appearance of truth that the king contributed not a little, by pious efforts, admonitions and whatever other means he at length could, to the number of those running to the holy prelate, in order to be instructed by him in the faith and then washed in the sacred waters, increasing daily.

[28] he gives proof, Surely at least at that time it appears to me to be believed that Eduin not seldom stood by Paulinus as he baptized in the two rivers already mentioned the multitude of people flowing together to him from all sides — namely, as I think, to bring about by his presence that the things performed by Paulinus should not lack majesty too, and to draw more to Baptism — if only from the fact that Bede, speaking in book 2, chapter 16, of St. Paulinus having proceeded from Northumbria southward on this side of the Humber to the province of the region of Lindsey, situated in the kingdom of the Mercians, in order to preach the faith there, about the year 628, as we shall see below, writes in the following manner: Concerning the faith of this province (namely Lindsey) a certain presbyter and abbot, a most truthful man of the monastery of Peartanu, Deda by name, told me that a certain older man had related to him that he had been baptized at midday by bishop Paulinus, king Eduin being present, together with a great crowd of the people, in the river Trehenta; for since king Eduin, as Bede reveals in these words that the abbot and presbyter, who was a most truthful man, had related to him from an eyewitness of the matter, was present with Paulinus as he washed a huge crowd of people in the sacred waters of Baptism in the Trent, a river of the province of the Mercians, why should we not believe that Eduin likewise, and indeed not seldom, stood by the same Paulinus as he baptized in the rivers of Northumbria named above crowds of people succeeding one another on different days? Certainly no reason solid enough occurs to me why we should not do so; and truly, therefore, Paulinus, in the aforementioned rivers of Bernicia

and Deira, I hold myself persuaded that Eduin frequently stood by him, and that even thus — since he most probably did this both to add a certain majesty and authority to the apostolic labour of Paulinus in baptizing, and to entice by his presence whatever Bernicians and Deiri subject to him he could to embrace the Christian faith and receive Baptism — he gave proof that he burned with a plainly extraordinary ardour for propagating the faith on every side in his kingdom of Northumbria.

[29] Nor did the holy King contain this ardour within the boundaries of Northumbria, over which he presided, [and extending it to the East Angles, he induces their king Carpwald, slain a little afterwards,] but extended it also to the kingdom of the East Angles, from whose king Redwald he had obtained, as we have seen above, Ethelfrid having been slain, the kingdom of Northumbria previously possessed by his father Alla, as Bede most clearly teaches in book 2, chapter 15, writing in the following manner: Such devotion, as it is reported, did Eduin have towards the worship of the truth, that he also persuaded the king of the East Angles, Carpwald, son of Redwald, to forsake the superstitions of idols and receive the faith and Sacraments of Christ with his province. There was surely reason why Eduin, who, from what has been said, burned with the greatest ardour for propagating the faith, should rejoice in greater measure over so happy a success, recorded here by Bede, by which he had converted to it Carpwald and the kingdom of the East Angles subject to him. But, as Bede says after the words recited just now, some other things being premised which do not concern our purpose here, Carpwald, not long after he received the faith, was slain by a heathen man named Richbert. This, which is asserted by some, who therefore hold Carpwald as a martyr, to have been done out of hatred of the faith, and indeed at the instigation of Penda, king of the Mercians, a most hostile enemy of the Christians, and which Bede here says happened not long after Carpwald had embraced the faith of Christ, will have to be said to have happened either in the year 632 or at any rate not long after, if we are to stand here by the Worcester writer, the Westminster writer, the Anglo-Saxon chronologer edited at Cambridge by the labour and zeal of Abraham Wheloc, and others, who expressly attach the Baptism or conversion of Carpwald to the faith to the year 632.

[30] But that the calculations of those writers are faulty, and that Carpwald was brought to the faith of Christ by Eduin about the year 627, and not long afterwards, to embrace the faith of Christ about the year 627; and therefore most probably not later than the beginning of the year 628, was slain by a heathen man, is clearly proved by what is brought forward with us at the 30th day of September in the Historical Commentary on St. Honorius, bishop of Canterbury, number 37 and the three following; and hence, since Bede, who relates the conversion to the faith and the slaying of Carpwald in book 2, chapter 15, speaks in the chapter immediately preceding it, or 14, of the Bernicians and Deiri baptized by Paulinus in the rivers named above, and is not to be judged to narrate things in reversed order, it now follows that what he says in the said chapter about the Bernicians and Deiri baptized by Paulinus in the rivers happened in the very year in which Eduin was baptized, 627, a little before the conversion of Carpwald, and that what he then narrates in chapter 16 about Paulinus having proceeded, accompanied by Eduin, on this side of the Humber into Lindsey, the Mercian province of the region of Lindsey, and the faith of Christ preached there by the holy prelate, happened after the conversion, nay also the slaying, of Carpwald, which from what has been said was perpetrated not later than in the year 628. But how long after the slaying of Carpwald, and whether perhaps in the very year in which it was perpetrated, 628, is the preaching of Paulinus in the province of Lindsey to be placed? The Westminster writer expressly affirms that the province of the region of Lindsey was converted to the faith of Christ by Paulinus in the year 628; and this assertion of his, which also found favour with our predecessors in the Commentary on St. Honorius, bishop of Canterbury, praised above, number 33, I think is to be followed in preference to other assertions of others which place the preaching of Paulinus in the province of Lindsey earlier.

[31] [and meanwhile, after the faith had been preached also in the province of Lindsey, the highest peace] Further, after, Eduin and the peoples subject to him having already embraced the Christian faith, it had also penetrated, by the preaching of Paulinus, into Lindsey, a province of the kingdom of the Mercians, and therefore, on account of what has been said, in the year 628, or at any rate in the next one following it, there followed so great a peace, and such concord of the citizens and of all orders, that nothing more could be desired in a well-ordered and flourishing commonwealth; and this not only in Northumbria, but wherever and to whatever extent the empire of Eduin reached. So, namely, Bede not obscurely, as it appears, reveals in book 2 of the History of the English People, chapter 16; for there, having spoken of the faith preached by Paulinus in Lindsey, a province of the Mercians, and of the old man whom he, as that historian of the English narrates, baptized there in the river Trehenta, king Eduin being present, he presently subjoins: So great is said to have been the peace at that time in Britain, wherever the empire of king Eduin had reached, that, as is said in a proverb to this day, even if a woman with a newly born little child wished to walk through the whole island from sea to sea, she could do so with no one harming her. The king also took such thought for the advantage of his nation that in very many places, where he had seen clear springs beside the public passages of the roads, he ordered stakes to be erected there for the refreshment of travellers and bronze cups to be hung on them; nor did anyone dare to touch these, except for necessary use, for the greatness of his fear of him, or wish to, for the greatness of his love.

[32] William of Malmesbury speaks in the following manner, in book 1 of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, of the highest peace which Northumbria enjoyed obtaining place everywhere in the kingdom of Northumbria. in the reign of Eduin: Meanwhile the serene favour of the Godhead smiled also on the royal devotion (namely of Eduin, who had already embraced the faith of Christ); so that not only the nations of Britain, English, Scots, Picts, but also the islands of the Orkneys and the Mevanians, which we now call Anglesey, that is, the islands of the English, both feared his arms and adored his power. There was then no public robber, no domestic thief; the plotter against conjugal chastity was far away, the plunderer of another's inheritance an exile — a great thing in his praises, and splendid in our age. Thus the increases of his empire were carried to such limits that justice and peace ran willingly into the mutual embraces of kisses, offering grace with grateful exchange; and the commonwealth of the English could then have proceeded happily, had not an untimely death, the stepmother of temporal happiness, by a base play of fortune, taken away the Man from his fatherland. So he; but before I begin to speak of the death of Eduin, of which he also speaks here at the end, some other things which preceded it must be recorded here. The highest peace which, from what has been said, Northumbria enjoyed after the faith of Christ had been introduced both into it and into the province of Lindsey by the conversion of Eduin, had already lasted some years, and meanwhile the stone walls of the church which, as has been said, Eduin had ordered to be built at York as soon as he had been baptized had begun to rise on high.

[33] But although these had not yet been brought to the middle, he obtains a signal privilege for the see of York from the Roman Pontiff, he was already from that time most solicitous for the happiness, splendour and advantage of the future church, and especially of the see which he had established at York; and hence, since it would be very inconvenient, on account of the long and dangerous journeys, to have recourse to Rome to obtain the consent of the Apostolic See as often as a new metropolitan was to be consecrated there, he desired that a general faculty be granted by the Roman Pontiff by which, when the prelate of York died, a new one might be ordained in the place of the deceased. Eadbald, king of Kent, brother of Ethelburga, Eduin's wife, desired this very thing also for the see of Dorobernia or Canterbury, which was situated in his kingdom. Both kings, therefore, having communicated their counsels with each other, requested of Pope Honorius I, who had succeeded Boniface in the Roman Chair of St. Peter in the year 625, by letters written to him in the year 633, or at any rate, as one may gather if only from the fact that the letters by which Eduin was answered from Rome were, from what is to be said below, penned only in the year 634, not earlier than in the year 632, that, sending the pallium both to Paulinus of York and to Honorius, bishop of Dorobernia, he would grant to each of those metropolitans of the Heptarchy that, when one of them died, the other who remained surviving among the living might consecrate another in the place of the deceased without other faculty sought from the Roman Pontiff. To the letters of the kings Honorius and Paulinus also added their own, in which they asked the same thing. The letters of these and of Eduin and Eadbald are nowhere found; but two, of which Pope Honorius, assenting to the requests of the bishops and kings, answered the one to Eduin and the other to Honorius of Dorobernia, Bede recounts entire in book 2, chapter 17 and following. That both of these, which I have already recorded, were written, as we learn, in the year 634 when it had advanced to the 11th day of June, is clearly proved by what has been adduced with us in the Commentary on St. Honorius, bishop of Dorobernia, praised further above, number 48 and following. But before they were brought into Britain, nay even before they were written at Rome, a huge reversal of affairs had taken place in Northumbria, as you will understand from what is now to be said.

[34] [and having enjoyed favourable fortune until the year 633, in this very year, contrary to what the Westminster writer writes,] Eduin, after he had embraced the faith of Christ in the year 627, as has been said, had enjoyed favourable fortune until the year 633, nay in this very year he still fought most successfully against the Britons, if we are willing to believe Matthew of Westminster in the Flores Historiarum at the said year 633. For there he writes thus: There arose … discord between king Edwin and Cadwallin, king of the Britons. They came together for battle, and, the engagement having been made, Cadwallin lost many thousands of his men and was turned to flight. Eduin therefore, having obtained the victory, led his army through the provinces of the Britons and their three kingdoms, namely of Demetia, Venedotia and Mœnevia, and, the cities having been burnt and the settlers destroyed, received all their provinces under his jurisdiction. But besides the fact that he does not assign the place of the battle here recorded, which certainly no other writer that I have seen mentions, he relates that after it Cadwallin, king of the Britons, whom Bede calls Ceadwalla, fled into Ireland and thence to Salomon, king of Lesser Britain or Armorica, while it is established that no prince of that name reigned there at that time. Moreover, he invents, or at any rate obtrudes as already fabricated before by the credulous common people (for he is known to none of the other writers worthy of credit), an astrologer named Pellitus, who, having discovered by his magic arts the things which Cadwallin was planning to do in war, revealed all these things to Eduin and thus brought it about that they came to nothing; and he relates at the same year 633 so many other things most like fables that, since he saw that all could not have been done within the space of this year alone, the unhappy

battle which, as he will have it, followed, in which Eduin was slain, he threw back into the year 634, contrary to what Bede does. Disregarding, therefore, the narration of Matthew, with which moreover Bede, inasmuch as he indicates that Ceadwalla rebelled against Eduin in the very year in which the latter perished, does not seem able to be harmonized aptly enough, I think, impelled by the authority of Bede, that Eduin in the year 633, after he had enjoyed favourable fortune up to that time, fought only with adverse fortune of war.

[35] [he is conquered and slain by the kings of the Britons and Mercians, battle having been joined.] For Bede, making no mention whatever of any victory, even the least, which Eduin won in that year over Ceadwalla or the Britons, writes thus in book 2, chapter 20: But when Eduin had most gloriously ruled over the nation of the English and of the Britons together for seventeen years, in six of which he himself also, as we have said, served as a soldier in the kingdom of Christ, Ceadwalla, 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 over the kingdom of the same nation for twenty-two years with varying fortune; and a grievous battle having been joined in the plain which is called Hethfelth, Eduin was slain on the fourth day of the Ides of October, in the six hundred and thirty-third year of the Lord's Incarnation, when he was thirty-eight years old, and his whole army was either slain or dispersed. Of the two kings who are here narrated to have conquered and slain Eduin, the one, namely Penda, was a pagan and wholly given to the worship of idols, the greatest enemy of the Christian name; but the other, namely Ceadwalla, although he had been washed in Baptism, yet having nothing else of a Christian man, was crueller than a pagan, as is understood from what Bede writes of him in the place last cited. The former had taken up arms against Eduin either out of hatred of the faith or out of the base envy, letting himself be carried away by which, he looked upon Eduin's glory with hostile eyes; the latter, in order to shake off the burden of the annual tribute which he had bound himself to pay to Eduin when Eduin had routed Quichelm, king of the West Saxons; and since therefore neither did so from a just cause, hence it came about that, since Eduin was esteemed to have been unjustly slain, he was called both Martyr and Saint by posterity; but although this is so, and Eduin at length, from what has been said above, enjoyed public cult of some kind, yet by no means did either he himself — whose head meanwhile, brought to York and afterwards carried into the church of Blessed Peter the Apostle, which had been begun to be built there by him, was deposited in the porch of St. Gregory the Pope, as Bede teaches in the place last cited — or his wife Ethelburga, who after the disaster of her Husband returned into Kent to her brother Eadbald with Paulinus, bishop of York, and there, veiled as a widow in the monastery of Lyminge, died holily, obtain this honour immediately upon departing from the living.

§ IV. What is to be thought of the vision which Bede reports was offered to Eduin, and whether either Bede, in what he narrates about it, is rightly charged with excessive credulity, or Eduin, when already a Christian, with ambition and arrogance.

The vision offered to Eduin, wrongly either as a stratagem The most recent History of the kingdom of England, which is brought down to the year 1748, written in English by Smollett and rendered into French by Targe, in volume 2, page 8, at its lowest margin, censures the vision which Bede, in the words transcribed here above at number 14 and following, reports was offered to Eduin, with this following observation, which I turn from French into Latin: The story of the apparition which Eduin is narrated to have had in the garden is either a ridiculous legend adopted by the credulity of Bede and the other writers by whom it is reported, or, if someone truly appeared to Eduin, he was undoubtedly a Christian, who had ascertained what Redwald had decided to do in Eduin's favour, and who, in making this prince solemnly promise that he would do everything according to his counsel, used that stratagem to win great authority for himself with him. But Eduin promised that he would follow the counsels and teaching, not of him who appeared to him, but of another, of whom the latter, questioning Eduin, was speaking, if by him he should be rescued from his calamities and raised to the summit of the kingdom. It can indeed be replied that he who appeared to Eduin spoke of himself through the third person of whom he seems to have spoken in questioning him; but Eduin understood by that third person not him who appeared to him, but, as is plain from what he answered him, another, different from him; and since he promised that he would follow the counsels and teaching of this other, if he should rescue him from his calamities and raise him to the summit of the kingdom, and not of him who appeared to him, the latter certainly did not induce that prince solemnly to promise that he would follow the counsels and teaching which he was going to suggest to him.

[37] used by a Christian, or as a ridiculous legend Wherefore, since he did not do this, nay did not even, as it appears, attempt to do it, there truly seems to be no reason why the apparition or vision which Bede narrates was offered to Eduin should be judged without doubt to have been a stratagem which some Christian used to win great authority for himself with this prince. Nor is there reason either why it should be rejected as a ridiculous legend or as certainly fictitious. I would indeed think a different judgment should be made if either the things which it seems to have presaged had not come to pass, or it had conduced to nothing at all. But everyone who has turned over what I have related above will discover that all and each of the things which, although not distinctly and clearly, yet obscurely, as is usual in prophecies, were indicated through it as about to befall Eduin did in actual fact afterwards befall him. Nor was it useless, or did it conduce to nothing, as is plain if only from the fact that, recalled to Eduin's memory by St. Paulinus, it contributed not a little to his embracing the Christian faith and its saving dogmas, as Bede teaches in book 2, chapter 12 and following; and since these things are so, why, I ask, should we either hold that vision as certainly fictitious or a ridiculous legend, or charge Bede too, who adopted it and transmitted it to posterity, with excessive credulity?

[38] is traduced by Smollett, and this writer, who, because Bede adopted it, That I surely do not see, since moreover in the narration in which it is set forth by that writer nothing at all occurs which is, I will not say incredible, but even difficult to believe. Moreover Bede, his narration nearly finished, in which he relates that someone unknown appeared to Eduin through the said vision, adds that he suddenly vanished from his eyes, so that Eduin understood that it was not a man who had appeared to him, but a spirit; and since he does this using the formula of speech which is usual with those who doubt, as they report, he thus not obscurely reveals that he received this last circumstance of the vision offered to Eduin not from a document of undoubted credit, but only either from popular tradition or from the untrustworthy rumour of the common people; on the contrary, since in narrating the other circumstances of the same vision preceding this last, he nowhere uses either the same or a similar formula of speech, this is truly no wholly invalid argument that he drew these, and therefore the vision itself, with the sole exception of this last circumstance which I have just recorded, from a source better than popular tradition and the untrustworthy rumour of the common people. From this now, and from the other things said above, let the studious reader consider whether, as Smollett will have it, the apparition by which Eduin, placed in straits, is narrated to have been refreshed is to be rejected either as a deceit used by a Christian to win great authority for himself with Eduin, or as a legend certainly fictitious and ridiculous, and consequently whether Bede, by whom it was adopted and consigned to writing, is to be charged with excessive credulity.

[39] Certainly I judge that in that matter one must not agree with the heterodox Smollett, unjustly charges with excessive credulity, not rightly also Eduin, but embrace the opinion of Baronius and other soundly orthodox writers, who call that apparition either a vision sent from heaven or, after Bede's example, an oracle shown from heaven. Nor do I know whether Smollett himself would have opposed it, unless, as is customary with the heterodox, he had judged, against the authority of the sacred letters, that miracles and everything that savours of miracle or prodigy are to be rejected on that ground alone, that they are prodigies or prodigious. Further, this writer, who, as we have already seen, wrongly affirms that Bede was too credulous in adopting and committing to writing the vision offered to Eduin from heaven, rashly asserts, in the volume of the English History cited above, page 14, that Eduin, even at the time when he had already embraced the Christian faith, was puffed up beyond measure with arrogance and pride. The words in which he does this there, speaking of Eduin when he had already embraced the faith, turned from the English language into French by Targe and from this into Latin by me, sound thus: Regarding the manner of acting which Eduin followed, it would never have come into anyone's mind that humility is taught by the religion which he had embraced; for he became daily more arrogant and more imperious, and on solemn days he ordered a globe to be carried before him to signify the conjunction or union of the Heptarchy under his supreme empire.

[40] It is so: Eduin ordered, or at any rate permitted, a globe, or rather a standard, when he had already been converted to the faith, affirms that he was arrogant, on which, from what is to be alleged below, a globe with a cross placed upon it was imprinted, to be carried before him, and this not only on solemn days but also on any others whatever, while he proceeded from place to place, as one may gather from the words bearing on this which Bede supplies in book 2, chapter 16, writing thus of Eduin there towards the end: So much excellence did he have in the kingdom that not only were standards carried before him in battle, but also in time of peace, when he rode among his cities or estates or provinces with his ministers, a standard-bearer had always been accustomed to go before him; and also, when he walked anywhere through the streets, that kind of standard which the Romans call Tufa, but the English Thwf, was wont to be carried before him; but I find no writer or ancient monument anywhere from which it could be proved in any way whatever that Eduin, already imbued with the faith of Christ, was made more and more arrogant and imperious day by day; nor does the globe or standard which Eduin wished to be carried before him on solemn days indeed, as Smollett says, but also, on Bede's testimony from what has been said, on any other days whatever — or at any rate, regarding the words of this writer which I have just given, permitted — in any way prove, contrary to what Smollett will have, that he then became such, or rendered himself guilty of ambition.

[41] That it may become clear how true this last point is, it will help first to have heard here in the Annals of the Anglo-Saxon church at the year 629 and this assertion of his, neither from the Tufa, concerning which, from Alford,

numbers IV and V, Alford, who, a little after transcribing the words of Bede, likewise given by us just now, in which we are taught that the Tufa or standard was usually carried before Eduin, reasons in the following manner there about that Tufa or standard: If I inquire a little more curiously what that standard was which the Romans (as Bede, namely, says in the words recited) called Tusa, I shall do nothing foreign to the dignity of Edwin. Vegetius once called that ensign Rufa; but Justus Lipsius from this place of Bede rightly corrects him and restores Tusa; and says that it was a ball, which Augustus was accustomed to use as a symbol of monarchy. I think that that standard, whatever it was in the end, was adorned after the manner of Christian princes. And they, imitating Constantine, imprinted crosses on their standards, especially at this time, when the emperor Heraclius by a signal victory had restored the cross to the Church. For in that year, namely 627, in which Edwin is baptized, Chosroes, king of the Persians, having been slain, since the cross of Christ had passed by the right of postliminium to the Christians, it was commonly reckoned among the ensigns and titles of princes.

[42] some things are discussed here, So Baronius, in that year, set out for the reader's inspection the images of the Heraclii, father, I say, and son, illustrious with various crosses, where the Tusa, the symbol of monarchy, is fortified with a cross. The most pious Edwin therefore, in order to imitate Constantine and Heraclius, commanded a cross to be carried before him, perhaps placed upon a tufa or globe. So he, who, setting before the reader's eyes here the cross placed upon the tufa or globe on a coin of Heraclius which he displays engraved in bronze, presently proceeds thus: Indeed the great golden cross of king Edwin, which, the king being dead, queen Edilburga carried into Kent, sufficiently shows that the cross was his delight. Certainly it is established of Paulinus, Edwin's teacher, that he erected many crosses in the kingdom of Northumbria. And at Duisburg, a town of the territory of York, on the river Calder … Camden testifies that there was formerly a cross with this inscription: "Paulinus preached and celebrated here." For the rest, it was afterwards familiar to the Roman emperors to carry a tusa before them, by which they professed themselves both Christians and lords of the world. For after Christ triumphed over the world by the cross and as by a new right acquired dominion over it, faithful princes, using that Hieroglyph, succeeded to a participation in the same right.

[43] [carried before the Saint at that time to signify his supreme dominion over the Heptarchy] But also the confirmation of written deeds, by which dominion over lands and other things was conferred, "until the times of Edward the confessor were made firm by the subscriptions of the faithful present, with golden crosses and other sacred seals," says Ingulf; and Selden adds: "Nor perhaps rashly did they mark the chirographic instruments, by which the dominion over estates was transferred from one to another, with the form of that most sacred sign, since princes and lords of the world were accustomed to carry staurophorous globes as testimonies of supreme right. For so Suidas of Justinian: In his left hand he carries a globe, with a cross fixed on it, signifying that through faith in the Cross he was made lord of the earth." Edwin therefore by the same counsel ordered a tufa, or staurophorous globe, to be carried before him, signifying undoubtedly that through faith in the Cross he had extended his empire, and truly held dominion under Christ. Such is the reasoning which Alford supplies in the Annals of the Anglo-Saxon church, and which I judged should be transcribed here entire; and although in the whole of it, long as it is, it is not solidly proved from any ancient and credible writer or monument that a cross was fixed on the tusa or globe — with which symbol of monarchy or supreme dominion it appears beyond doubt that the standard usually carried before Eduin, as Bede testifies, was adorned, and hence distinguished by the name of tusa — yet that that globe was in actual fact fortified with this Sign of our salvation appears to me most probable, if only from the fact that, as Alford rightly observes, Eduin, before whom it was to be carried, embraced the faith of Christ at the very time at which Christian princes, imitating Constantine the Great, commonly imprinted crosses on their standards.

[44] Wherefore, since the standard distinguished by the name of tufa, usually carried before him to signify, which, from what has been said, Eduin either wished or permitted to be carried before him, was adorned not only with a globe, or, as it is called above in Alford by Justus Lipsius, a ball, but most probably also with a cross fixed upon it, I truly do not see why Eduin should be charged with arrogance and ambition, as Smollett will have it, from the fact that he either ordered or permitted a standard of this kind to be carried before him. Thus indeed he most probably signified not only that he was a Christian, but also, as it appears, that through faith in the cross — which, as we have seen above, he had promised he would embrace if he returned victor over Quichelm, king of the West Angles, his enemy — he had won the victory over him and so had obtained, and further held, supreme dominion over the Heptarchy; but since likewise the Roman emperors professed themselves not only Christians but also lords of the world through the tufa, or ball, or staurophorous globe — in Latin, if one may so speak, crucigerous — which they wished formerly to be carried before them on a standard (see the words of Alford just now recited), and yet are not on that account traduced by anyone as arrogant and swollen, why, I ask, should we charge Eduin with arrogance and ambition because, through the tufa, or ball, or globe distinguished in Greek, because a cross was fixed on it, by the name of staurophorous, and in Latin of crucigerous, which he either wished or permitted to be carried before him on a standard, he professed himself not only a Christian but also supreme lord of the Heptarchy?

[45] Smollett indeed adds, immediately after his words transcribed here just now, that Eduin, already converted to the faith, by this very arrogance and ambition, nor from the fact that Penda, of the Mercians, namely the one which he displayed by the standard usually carried before him to signify his supreme dominion over the Heptarchy, stirred up the minds of all the Anglo-Saxon kings against himself, and that hence it came about that Penda, king of the Mercians, who, being impatient of the yoke, had long since sought to withdraw himself from the empire of the king of Northumbria, made a treaty with Ceadwalla, king of the Britons, who desired to free himself from the tribute which he was bound to pay to Eduin since he had been conquered by him, and that both, with joined arms and counsels, brought upon the holy King the war in which he was slain. But who would persuade himself of that which is found handed down to memory by absolutely no ancient writer, on the sole authority of that more recent writer, and, so to speak, merely of yesterday, of whom one may not without reason suspect that, out of his hatred of the orthodox faith, he wrote not a few things foreign to the truth about Eduin, who first brought it into Northumbria, in order to harm the fame of this prince? Since Eduin had stood by Paulinus as he announced the faith in the province of Lindsey also, and, as the things said above reveal, had laboured by his authority to propagate it in the kingdom of the Mercians too, in which that province was situated, and most probably continued further to do so, it appears to me far more like the truth that Penda, their king, who was immoderately addicted to idols and was a most hostile enemy of the Christians, being greatly offended on this account, took up arms against him; so that consequently whatever Eduin suffered from Penda he most probably endured entirely from the hatred with which the latter was inflamed against the faith, and not from the arrogance or ambition by which he might have stirred Penda up against himself.

[46] and Ceadwalla, kings of the Britons, rose up against him, he gives proof. As regards now Ceadwalla, Eduin did indeed subject him and the Britons obeying him and compelled them to pay him tribute; but this Eduin did, contrary to what Smollett, although meanwhile he wrote the contrary above, seems to indicate here, not after but before he had been converted to the faith. This is plain, as I have already indicated above, from what Bede writes in book 2, chapter 9; for since, as this writer teaches there, the power of his earthly empire increased so greatly for Eduin as an omen of his receiving the faith that he subjected even the Britons to himself, it must be that he accomplished this, lest Bede be otherwise said to have strayed from the truth here, before he had received the faith of Christ; and since this is so, it follows that Eduin neither subjugated the Britons nor compelled them to pay him tribute out of an arrogance or ambition with which he was puffed up although already a Christian. Moreover, since he seems to have done this even at the time when he had not yet been converted to the faith for no other end than to break the strength of the Britons, who more than once, joined with the Scots and Picts, had burst into Northumbria and worn it down with great disasters, and to compel them to keep peace with his kingdom, the tribute to which he had forced the Britons and their king Ceadwalla was surely owed to him by right, and he is therefore to be judged to have exacted it from them, when already a Christian, not out of arrogance but by title of justice. Since this is so, the war also which Ceadwalla brought upon Eduin in order to free himself from the burden of paying it was most probably, nay undoubtedly, as Bede too sufficiently indicates when he writes in book 2, chapter 20, that Ceadwalla then rebelled against Eduin, unjust; and Eduin, who lost his life in it, is therefore commonly and rightly asserted by writers to have been unjustly slain.