Chapter 12

do not imply that Putta, Bishop of Rochester, became Bishop of Hereford. Hereford was not one of the five sees into which Florence tells us that Theodore divided the great Mercian bishopric, but it appears soon after as a separate see for Hecana (Herefordshire). Possibly Putta, who is traditionally reckoned as its first bishop, may have acted as Sexwulf’s deputy there.

542 Cf. II, 20 _ad fin._, note.

543 III, 24, 30. He had probably died two years before Chad’s appointment, _i.e._, in 667, and the see had been vacant in the interval, for Wilfrid, then in retirement at Ripon, is said (by Eddius) to have discharged episcopal functions for the Mercians.

544 Lastingham. Cf. Preface, p. 3; III, 23, 28.

545 Lindsey at this time belonged to Mercia. Cf. c. 12, p. 243, note 5.

546 Smith believed this place to be Barton-on-Humber. It is now generally identified with Barrow in Lincolnshire. For the preposition, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

547 It had not previously been an episcopal see, though Wulfhere had wished to establish Wilfrid there during the vacancy in the Mercian bishopric (p. 218, note 4). When the bishopric of Mercia and Lindsey was subdivided by Theodore in 679, Lichfield remained the see of the bishopric of Mercia proper. In 787, under Offa, King of Mercia, with the consent of Pope Hadrian, it was raised into a separate archbishopric for Mercia and East Anglia, but in 802 Canterbury was re-established as the sole archbishopric for the Southern Province. The popular derivation of the name, Lichfield (“Field of the Dead”) is from _lic_ = a corpse, and the place is traditionally connected with the martyrdom of a great number of British Christians. Another derivation, however (from _leccian_ = to irrigate), points to the meaning “the watered field.”

548 Eccl., iii. 5.

549 A stone which is believed to have formed part of Owini’s tomb was found at the end of the eighteenth century at Haddenham, near Ely, and is now in Ely Cathedral. It bears the inscription, “Lucem tuam Ovino da Deus et requiem. Amen” (Mayor and Lumley).

550 Cf. c. 19.

551 Ps. xviii, 13, 14.

552 III, 4, 27.

553 He is said to have been Abbot of Bardney.

554 In 672. The original Church of St. Mary at Lichfield, said to have been built by Oswy in 656-657, was replaced about 1140 by the new Cathedral, and Ceadda’s relics were soon after removed to it.

555 Cf. III, 24, _ad fin._, note.

556 Cf. III, 26, _ad init._

557 Iona. Cf. III, 3, _ad fin._, note.

558 Innisboffin, off the coast of Mayo. The annals of Ulster give 667 as the date of his retirement to it.

559 Mayo, called from this settlement, “Mayo of the Saxons.” It continued to be an English monastery (_v. infra_), and after awhile adopted those usages, to avoid which Colman had left England. It became an episcopal see, which in 1559 was annexed to the archbishopric of Tuam.

560 Hertford.

561 It seems probable that we ought to read 671; cf. Plummer _ad loc._

562 Oswy is the last king in Bede’s list of those who held an “imperium” (_v._ II, 5). With the rise of Mercia under Wulfhere (III, 24), the supremacy of Northumbria had virtually passed away. After Oswy’s death, the position of Northumbria was an isolated one, and it was by conquests over Britons, not Englishmen, that Egfrid enlarged the bounds of his kingdom.

563 In his youth he had been a hostage at the court of Queen Cynwise, wife of Penda (III, 24, p. 188).

564 This is of supreme importance as the first English provincial Council and the first national assembly of the English. The rule laid down at Nicaea and confirmed by later councils was that provincial synods should meet twice a year to settle all ecclesiastical matters which affected the province as a unity.

565 24th September, 673, falls in the first indiction, whether the Pontifical or the “Caesarean” system is meant (_v._ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 121). Bede himself used the Caesarean indiction, of which we get the first notice in his “De Temporum Ratione.” It began on 24th September. It does not, however, follow that Theodore also used it. The oldest scheme, viz., the Constantinopolitan, began on 1st September; the Roman or Pontifical, on New Year’s Day as received at the time, _i.e._, 25th December, 1st January, or 21st March. For Indictions, _v._ “Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.” They were cycles of fifteen years, a mode of reckoning dates which appeared in the fourth century, based upon the Imperial fiscal system, but which came to be used irrespective of taxation. “1st indiction” stands for “1st year of the indiction.”

566 Of the six suffragans only four were present. Wilfrid was at this time (669-678) in possession of his see; why he did not appear in person is not explained. Possibly his action foreshadows the future troubles between him and Theodore. Wini, Bishop of London, was still alive (_v._ III, 7, and note). If the story of his retirement to Winchester is true, this would account for his absence. For Bisi, _v. infra_. His see was at Dunwich (cf. II, 15). For Putta, _v.s._ c. 2 and note; for Leutherius, _v._ III, 7; for Wynfrid, III, 24; IV, 3, _ad fin._

567 The collection of Canons approved by the Council of Chalcedon, translated into Latin by Dionysius Exiguus (early in the sixth century, cf. V, 21, p. 369, note) and adopted by the Western Church.

568 This place used to be identified with Cliff-at-Hoe near Rochester, but the theory rests mainly on the similarity of name. As in the recorded Councils of Clovesho the supremacy of Mercia is clearly indicated, it is generally assumed that the place must have been either in Mercia or a kingdom subject to it, as Kent was at the time. Except one Council in 716, we find none mentioned as having taken place at Clovesho till seventy years after this time (747), but councils were held at other places.

569 The subdivision of the great bishoprics was an important part of Theodore’s policy, and though at this Council he failed to carry his point, possibly through the opposition of Wilfrid’s representatives, in the succeeding years he effected a great change in the organization of the episcopate, creating dioceses co-extensive with tribal territories.

570 III, 29; IV, 1.

571 Cc. 22, 26.

572 His original name was Bertgils, _v._ III, 20.

573 Theodore availed himself of this opportunity for subdivision. Aecci was appointed to Dunwich and Badwin to the new see of Elmham. Suffolk and Norfolk thus each received a separate bishopric. The Danish invasions broke up this arrangement; Dunwich disappeared as an episcopal see, and the succession to Elmham was interrupted for a time. In 1075 the see of the single East Anglian bishopric was removed to Thetford, and in 1094 to Norwich.

574 It has been conjectured that he resisted the subdivision of his diocese. For his subsequent adventures, _v._ III, 24, p. 192, note 4.

575 This was probably in 675 (Flor. of Wor.). Sexwulf (_v. infra_ c. 12) had been a rich thegn who became a monk and was made first abbot of Medeshamstead.

576 Peterborough, as the town which grew up around the monastery came to be called in the tenth century, the monastery being dedicated to St. Peter. Peada is said to have planned the foundation (_v._ Peterborough additions to the Saxon Chronicle), but the accounts are late and untrustworthy.

577 III, 20, note.

578 C. 3, p. 219, note 2.

579 He succeeded Wini (III, 7) in 675 and died about 693. He was canonized. It was in his house that the reconciliation between Theodore and Wilfrid took place. It is said that as a boy he had heard Mellitus preach in London. He was present at the West Saxon Witenagemot which enacted the “Dooms of Ine” (c. 15 and V, 7), and is spoken of as one of Ine’s bishops, Essex being probably subject to Wessex at that time.

580 In III, 30.

581 Cc. 7-10. She is not to be confused with Ethelberg, daughter of Anna (III, 8), Abbess of Faremoûtier-en-Brie.

582 Chertsey in Surrey. William of Malmesbury tells us that it was a flourishing monastery till it was destroyed by the Danes.

583 Barking in Essex, _v. infra_ cc. 7-10. For the preposition, _v._ II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

584 The plague of 664 has been mentioned in III, 27; IV, 1, 3; but this may have been a later visitation. Barking is generally supposed to have been founded in 666.

585 Two different dates are given for her succession, 664 and 675. If the former is right, the plague (c. 7) must have been that of 664, and Ethelburg probably died of it. It appears from a letter of St. Boniface that Hildilid was alive in 709. She was one of Aldhelm’s numerous women-scholars. He dedicated the prose version of his work in praise of virginity (_v._ V, 18) to her and others of the sisterhood, and speaks highly of their scholarly attainments.

586 Apparently a life of St. Ethelburg not known to exist now.

587 Cf. III, 30; IV, 6.

588 For Earconwald, _v.s._ c. 6. Waldhere is the first of a long list of undistinguished bishops of London given by William of Malmesbury. A letter of his to Archbishop Bertwald survives, and there is a charter in which Swefred (_v._ next note) grants lands at Twickenham to him in 704.

589 Cf. V, 8, note on Suaebhard.

590 St. Paul’s, London. Sebbi’s tomb is believed to have survived till the fire of 1666.

591 For these bishops, cf. III, 7.

_ 592 Ibid._ He died in 672 (Sax. Chron.). Of the sub-kings the most prominent were Aescwine and Centwine, a brother of Coinwalch. The Saxon Chronicle gives a different account. According to it, Coinwalch’s widow, Sexburg, reigned for one year after him and was succeeded by Aescwine, who was succeeded by Centwine.

593 Cf. III, 7, and for his character, V, 18. The Saxon Chronicle says he succeeded in 676 and died in 703. Bede places his death in 705 (V, 18).

594 Cc. 15, 16, and V, 7. He was of Ceaulin’s line (II, 5) and so belonged to a younger branch of the West Saxon royal house. Welsh writers confuse him with the British king, Caedwalla (II, 20), and with his son, Cadwalader.

595 A son of Penda. He succeeded his brother Wulfhere in 675. In 704 he became a monk (V, 24) and afterwards Abbot of Bardney Monastery (cf. III, 11), which he is said to have founded. His invasion of Kent was probably provoked by an attempt on the part of that kingdom, at Wulfhere’s death, to resume a position of independence towards Mercia. In spite of his conduct on this raid, Theodore, Florence of Worcester, and others, speak of the saintliness of his character.

596 Cc. 2 (and note), 5.

597 C. 6, and note, and _infra_, p. 244.

598 The dates of these changes in the episcopate are uncertain. Probably Gebmund was consecrated in 678. For his death, _v._ V, 8 _ad fin._, and note.

599 This was Wilfrid’s first expulsion (_v._ V, 19). Bede’s reticence on the subject is noteworthy. Egfrid’s hostility to his former friend, Wilfrid, was doubtless caused by Wilfrid’s encouragement of Queen Ethelthryth (cc. 19, 20) in her desire to take the veil. It was probably increased by Egfrid’s second wife, Eormenburg, who is said to have resented Wilfrid’s power and magnificence. Theodore, carrying out his policy of subdivision, availed himself of the opportunity afforded by this dissension. He consulted some of his suffragans (we do not know who they were; it was apparently at a mixed council of ecclesiastics and laymen), but did not communicate with Wilfrid, being, no doubt, conscious of the uselessness of trying to get his consent. Wilfrid, after demanding an explanation from the archbishop and the king in a Northumbrian “gemot,” and receiving no satisfaction, appealed to Rome (cf. V, 19, p. 351). For the importance of this step, _v._ Bright, “Early English Church History,” pp. 323-326.

600 Probably the intention was that Wilfrid should keep the larger part of Deira, with his see at York, and that three new dioceses should be formed. But, on his departure to appeal to Rome, it was assumed that he had resigned his bishopric, and Bosa was consecrated Bishop of Deira with his see at York, Eata, Bishop of the Bernicians, with the option of fixing his see either at Lindisfarne or Hagustald (Hexham). These two were “substituted for him.” Lindsey, which at this time belonged to Northumbria, became for the first time a separate diocese. When it passed again to Mercia in 679 it was included in the subdivision of the Mercian bishopric, and Ethelwin (_v. infra_ note 6) became its bishop with his see at Sidnacaestir (generally identified with Stow, but the locality is unknown).

601 He was one of the bishops educated in Hilda’s monastery (_v._ c. 23). Bede speaks highly of him (V, 3, 20), and Alcuin calls him “vir sine fraude bonus.” He retired from York when Wilfrid was restored, but appears to have been reinstated on Wilfrid’s second expulsion.

602 Abbot of Melrose, afterwards of Lindisfarne (III, 26, and note; IV, 27; V, 9).

603 III, 28, and this Chapter, _ad fin._, and note.

604 In 675. Lindsey which had been Northumbrian under Edwin and Oswald, had passed through many vicissitudes. Penda conquered it, Oswy recovered it (in 655), Wulfhere conquered it again, Egfrid recovered it (675). It passed finally to Mercia under Ethelred in 679 (_v. infra_ this Chapter, _ad fin._).

605 III, 11, 27.

606 He was still Bishop of Lindsey in 706, when he signed a charter of Ethelward, “subregulus” of the Hwiccas.

607 Preface, p. 4, and V, 23. Simeon of Durham says that he died in 732.

608 Lindsey was at that time subject to Mercia. Sexwulf was expelled when Egfrid conquered it in 675. When the Mercian diocese was subdivided, he retained his see at Lichfield (_v.s._ c. 3, p. 219, note) as Bishop of the Mercians proper.

609 By Theodore alone. The suffragans did not take part in the consecration.

610 In 681 a fresh subdivision took place. The Bernician diocese was divided, Eata retaining Lindisfarne and giving up Hexham to Tunbert. Afterwards Eata retired from Lindisfarne in favour of Cuthbert and took Hexham (_v. infra_ c. 28). Tunbert had been Abbot of Gilling (In Getlingum, III, 14, 24). He was deposed by Theodore from Hexham three years after his consecration (_v. infra_ c. 28), like Wynfrid, “pro culpa cujusdam inobedientiae” (Vita Eatae in “Miscellanea Biographica,” Surtees Society).

611 His see was not at Whitern among the Picts of Galloway, as has been supposed (Florence of Worcester, Richard of Hexham, and others), but at the monastery of Abercorn on the Forth (I, 12; IV, 26), the Picts north of the Forth being at this time subject to Northumbria. After Egfrid’s disastrous expedition in 685, they freed themselves from Northumbrian rule, the see was abandoned, and Trumwine retired to Whitby (c. 26). We hear of him as one of the deputation to Cuthbert in 684 (c. 28).

612 In 679; _v.s._, p. 243, note 5.

613 Whether Ripon became for a time an episcopal see seems doubtful. In III, 28, Bede says distinctly that Eadhaed became “praesul” of the church there, and it does not seem consistent with his use to understand it as = abbot. Probably there was an attempt to subdivide the diocese of Deira (Eddius mentions it as one of Wilfrid’s grievances), but the scheme was abandoned when Wilfrid was restored in 705. Ripon did not finally become an episcopal see till 1836.

614 For a fuller account, _v._ V, 19, and notes.

615 For the early importance of this kingdom under Aelli, _v._ II, 5. It had become a small insignificant nation, cut off from its neighbours by forests (the “Andredsweald”) and marshes, and though we read (III, 20) that Damian, bishop of Rochester, was of the South Saxon race, it was almost untouched by Christian influences.

616 Cf. _infra_ c. 15.

617 He also brought about the reconversion of the East Saxons by sending Bishop Jaruman to them. Cf. III, 30.

618 Wulfhere had invaded Wessex, probably in 661 (Sax. Chron.), and conquered the Isle of Wight and the district of the Meanware, _i.e._, the district from Southampton Water to the South Downs. The inhabitants were Jutes. The name survives in the hundreds, Meonstoke, and East and West Meon. For the termination “ware” = dwellers, cf. Lindisfari, Cantuarii, Boructuari, etc.

619 Cf. c. 14.

620 Cf. II, 2, p. 84, note 2.

621 They were probably joint kings of the Hwiccas.

622 “Scottish,” as usual, means Irish. There is another Dicul mentioned in III, 19. Stevenson suggests the identification of this Dicul with the Irish monk who wrote a geographical work, the “De Mensura Orbis Terrae,” but he lived in the ninth century.

623 Bosham, near Chichester. It was the favourite South Saxon abode of Harold and Godwine (Freeman, “Norman Conquest”).

624 Selsey, the island of the seal (“sea-calf”), south of Chichester. It was a royal “vill.” It became the episcopal see for the South Saxons at some time about 709 (cf. V, 18, _ad fin._ and note), transferred to Chichester in 1075.

625 Egfrid fell at the battle of Nechtansmere in 685 (_v._ c. 26), and Wilfrid was restored to his bishopric “in the second year of Aldfrid,” Egfrid’s successor (V, 19, p. 353). He was in Wessex with Caedwalla for part of the year 686 (cf. c. 16).

626 III, 13, note.

627 C. 13.

628 This English equivalent for “viaticum” is used by Stapleton in his translation (1565).

629 Calendars to show the proper days for commemorative Masses, cf. _infra_ “chronicle” (“annale”). The burial was generally on the day of death, hence “depositio” of the festival of a saint.

630 It must be remembered that this was a monastery of Northumbrians. But Oswald is said to have held an “imperium” over all England except Kent (II, 5).

631 C. 12, note.

632 The West Saxons, _v._ II, 5 and note. Cf. III, 7.

633 C. 13.

_ 634 v._ V, 7 _ad fin._ Like Caedwalla, a descendant of Ceaulin, “A king who deserves the name of great” (Bright), great both as a conqueror and a legislator. He was probably the first king to introduce written law into Wessex, viz., his famous “Dooms,” enacted by a West Saxon witenagemot in the early years of his reign.

635 Winchester. At this time Haedde was bishop there (c. 12). For the creation of a South Saxon bishopric _v._ V, 18 _ad fin._

636 Eddius says that Caedwalla sent for him and made him his counsellor; Wilfrid had befriended him when in exile.

637 Roger of Wendover calls him a _subregulus_.

638 Cf. I, 15.

639 Stoneham on the Itchen, near Southampton. For the preposition, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

640 Redbridge in Hampshire.

641 Pref., p. 3 and note; V, 18.

642 The Solent.

643 The Hamble.

644 Eutyches was Archimandrite of a monastery near Constantinople. He was condemned by the synod of Constantinople in 448, and by the council of Chalcedon in 451. He was the originator of the Monophysite heresy which denied the existence of the two natures, the Divine and human, in the Incarnate Son. Monothelitism, which was the subject of the controversy alluded to here, arose out of an attempt to reconcile the Monophysites by the assertion of one will and operation (activity, ἐνέργεια) in our Lord. It was condemned in the General Council of Constantinople, 680-681. In anticipation of this council various provincial synods were held, as well as the synod at Rome assembled by Pope Agatho, at which Wilfrid represented the English church (_v._ V. 19).

645 The year was 680 (cf. V, 24), but it falls in the eighth year of Hlothere of Kent, who succeeded in July, 673. For Egfrid, _v.s._ c. 5, _ad init._ Probably he succeeded in 671. Ethelred of Mercia succeeded in 675 (V, 24), so that Sept., 680, might easily fall in his sixth year; Aldwulf, of East Anglia, in 663 or 664 (_v._ II, 15; IV, 23). The eighth indiction, whether Cæsarean or Pontifical (_v.s._ c. 5, note), includes Sept. 17, 680.

646 Generally identified with Hatfield in Hertfordshire, but T. Kerslake (“Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia”) supposes it to be Clovesho (Cliff-at-Hoe); _v.s._ c. 5, and note.

647 The five Oecumenical Councils which had been held before this time, viz., Nicaea, in 325; Constantinople, in 381-382; Ephesus, in 431; Chalcedon, in 451; Constantinople, in 553. For the Arian heresy, _v._ I, 8 (and note), where “madness” (“vesania”) is, as here, the word used to describe it. Macedonius was a “semi-Arian,” Eudoxius an Arian; both were bishops of Constantinople. Nestorius was consecrated Bishop of Constantinople in 428. He popularized the heresy which originated with Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, 392-428. It consisted in emphasizing the human element in our Lord’s Nature to the practical exclusion of the Divine, as a reaction against Apollinarianism which explained away His real Humanity. “The Christ of Nestorius was, after all, simply a deified man, not God incarnate” (Gore, “Bampton Lectures”). Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in Syria (died 457) and Ibas, Bishop of Edessa, 435-457, were disciples of Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, and opponents of Cyril of Alexandria, who is accused of Apollinarianism in the letter of Ibas.

648 Justinian I, 527-565.

649 The first Lateran Council, in 649, against the Monothelites. Martin I, Pope 649-655, died in the Crimea, exiled and imprisoned by the Emperor Constans II in consequence of his resistance to the heresy.

650 Constantine IV, more generally known as Constans II, 641-688.

651 We have here, under the auspices of an Eastern Archbishop, a clear enunciation of the doctrine which afterwards divided the east and west: the Double Procession of the Holy Spirit. The “filioque” clause, which formed no part of the Nicene Creed, nor of its Constantinopolitan recension, had been formally adopted at the Third Council of Toledo in 589 and at subsequent Spanish councils. The English prelates at Hatfield were probably influenced by this precedent.

652 Cf. Bede’s “History of the Abbots,” § 6.

_ 653 I.e._, St. Peter’s at Rome. The Monastery of St. Martin was on the Esquiline. It was founded by Pope Symmachus in honour of SS. Sylvester and Martin.

654 Cf. c. 1, notes. (For his life, v. Bede’s “History of the Abbots,” and the Anon. “History of the Abbots.”) He has not been mentioned before in this history. His ecclesiastical surname was Benedict, “Baducing” was probably his patronymic. He was of noble birth and a thegn of King Oswy, born in 628. He was the companion of Wilfrid on his first journey to Rome (V, 19). In his native province of Northumbria he founded the monasteries of Wearmouth (in 674) and Jarrow (_circ._ 681), where Bede’s life was passed, and enriched them with furniture, vestments, relics, pictures, and a library of valuable books which he brought from the Continent. The rule which he framed for his monasteries was Benedictine, compiled from seventeen different monasteries which he had visited. He died Jan. 12, 689.

655 Cf. V, 21. Bede’s “History of the Abbots,” and Anon. “History of the Abbots.” He added to Benedict’s library. He had been a monk at Ripon under Wilfrid, became Abbot of Jarrow in 681, and of Wearmouth in addition to Jarrow in 688. In 716 he resigned and set out for Rome, but died at Langres in the same year. Bede was trained under him (V, 24) and was probably the little boy left alone with him to recite the offices when the pestilence of 686 swept away the monks. (Anon. Hist. Abb. § 14.)

656 Cf. II, 20, _ad fin._, note.

657 Cf. c. 17, and note.

658 In the Council of Constantinople, 680-681 (_v.s._ c. 17 _ad init._, note.)

659 To St. Martin’s own church at Tours, where, as Abbot of St. Martin’s monastery at Rome, it was specially fitting that he should find burial.

660 Cf. III, 7, note.

661 “Princeps,” A.S. Ealdorman. The county of the Southern Gyrwas was South Cambridgeshire. Cf. III, 20, note.

662 Cf. c. 25. Bede tells us in the “Life of Cuthbert,” that she was a half sister of Oswy’s on the mother’s side. Her name survives in Ebchester on the Derwent, where she founded a nunnery; in St. Abb’s Head, near which she afterwards founded the double monastery of Coldingham; and in St. Ebbe’s, Oxford. She was the friend of Cuthbert, and it was to her exhortations to Egfrid that Wilfrid owed his release from prison.

663 Coldingham in Berwickshire. It was a mixed monastery. Cf. c. 25.

664 Ely. The Isle of Ely was her jointure from her first husband. She received the help and support of Aldwulf, king of East Anglia (II, 15; IV, 17, 23), her cousin (he was the son of Ethelhere and nephew of Anna). The monastery was founded in 673. It was exempted from the jurisdiction of the East Anglian bishop, and subject to Wilfrid.

665 III, 8, cf. III, 7, note. After her husband’s death she acted as regent for a time, then founded a monastery in the Isle of Sheppey, and became abbess of it. Thence she retired to Ely, where, after being a simple nun, she succeeded Ethelthryth as abbess. She was herself succeeded first at Sheppey, and afterwards at Ely, by her daughter Ermingild, widow of Wulfhere of Mercia.

666 Grantchester, near Cambridge.

667 A Roman sarcophagus. A number of fragments of very ancient stone coffins have been found there, built into the wall of the church (Mayor and Lumby).

668 “Audrey” is the popular form of the name Ethelthryth. A “tawdry lace” (_i.e._ St. Audrey lace) is a necklace; cf. “Winter’s Tale,” iv. 3. Hence our word “tawdry,” which possibly only derives its meaning from the cheap necklaces, etc., sold at St. Audrey’s fair at Ely on the saint’s day, October 17 (the day of her translation), but may also be a reminiscence of this anecdote.

669 The poem is (1) alphabetical; _i.e._, the first letters of the hexameter lines form the alphabet, and there are four additional couplets at the end, in which the first letters form the word “Amen”; (2) “serpentine,” reciprocal or echoing; _i.e._, the last half of the pentameter repeats the first two and a half feet of the hexameter. Such verses are common in mediaeval Latin, and are doubtless a development from the occasional instances of echoing lines which occur in the classical poets (_e.g._, Martial VIII, xxi, 1-2; IX, 97; Ovid, Fasti IV, 365-366), as the extreme form of that impulse to give emphasis by iteration which is a marked feature of Latin poetry, particularly of the Ovidian elegiac.

670 Agatha suffered 5th February, 251 A.D., in the Decian persecution, according to her “Acta” (the Diocletian, according to the Martyrology and Aldhelm). Eulalia was burnt to death at the age of twelve in the Diocletian persecution, having denounced herself. The legend tells that a white dove hovered over her ashes till snow fell and covered them. Tecla, the disciple of St. Paul, is said to have been the first virgin martyr. She was miraculously saved from her martyrdom and died in peace long after. Euphemia was torn by wild beasts at Chalcedon in 307 A.D. in the Diocletian persecution. Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, 400 A.D., says that he saw a tablet in the church at Chalcedon depicting her sufferings. We have thus very early evidence for her history. Agnes is said to have been beheaded in 304 A.D., in the Diocletian persecution, at the age of twelve or thirteen. The date of St. Cecilia is very uncertain; Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, says that she died _circ._ 176-180 A.D., but another account places her martyrdom as late as the time of Diocletian. Her connection with music does not appear in the legends, and is probably due to the fact that Pope Paschal endowed the monastery which he built in connection with her church at Rome to provide for musical services at her tomb day and night.

671 She had not been a queen twelve years. The dates are probably these: she was born about 630 at Ermynge (Ixning) in Suffolk, and married to Tondbert in 652. Tondbert died in 655, and she was married to Egfrid (who must then have been only fifteen) in 660. Egfrid succeeded to the throne in 670 or 671, and it must have been in 672 that she retired to Coldingham. She was, therefore, queen for not more than two years, though perhaps we may accept the statement of the Liber Eliensis that Egfrid was sub-king of Deira for some years before his accession.

_ 672 I.e._, she had been buried sixteen years; _v.s._ c. 19.

673 Literally the water snake, ὕδρος, used generally for any serpent, and so = the Devil; _Chelydrus_ is similarly used (_v._ Ducange).

674 The Battle of the Trent in 679 (cf. V, 24). It was on the anniversary of Wilfrid’s expulsion; he is said to have foretold a calamity. The place may, perhaps, be identified with Elford-on-Trent, in Staffordshire; it is supposed that the name may be a reminiscence of Aelfwine. By this battle Mercia regained Lindsey, which never again became Northumbrian (cf. c. 12, _ad fin._).

675 Cf. c. 22, where he is called “King Aelfwine,” as also twice in Eddius. He may have been sub-king of Deira.

676 III, 11; V, 24. When Wilfrid took refuge in Mercia in 681, she and her husband expelled him “pro adulatione Egfridi regis” (Eddius).

677 The “Wergild,” _i.e._, pecuniary value set upon every man’s life according to his status (_v._ Stubbs, “Constitutional History”).

678 “Comes,” A.S. “gesith.” Above, Imma is described as “de militia ejus juvenis,” _i.e._, a young “king’s thegn” (the term applied to him in the A.S. version).

679 Towcester (“Tovecester,” in Domesday Book) in Northamptonshire, Doncaster, and Littleborough have all been suggested, but the place has not been identified. The name indicates that it had been a Roman station.

680 Sexburg. Cf. III, 8; IV, 19, p. 261, and note.

681 Cf. III, 24, 25; IV, 24; V, 24.

_ 682 Ibid._

683 Cf. _infra_, this Chapter. He was the son of Edwin’s elder brother, who died in exile after the invasion of Deira by Ethelric, king of Bernicia, in 589.

684 II, 9, foll.

685 Her sister, Heresuid, had married Ethelhere, brother of Anna, of East Anglia, whom he succeeded. In 647, when Hilda took the veil, Anna was still king.

686 III, 8, note.

687 Cf. II, 15; IV, 17.

688 A small cell, not otherwise known.

689 Hartlepool, _v._ III, 24, p. 190, note.

690 Bede is the sole authority for her life. A fifteenth century gloss on one of the MSS. has led to her being wrongly identified with the Irish Bega, the supposed foundress of St. Bees.

691 A Roman station on the Wharfe, now Tadcaster. Probably the nunnery was at Healaugh (Heiu’s _laeg_ = territory), three miles north of Calcaria. A gravestone bearing Heiu’s name has been found there.

692 Cf. c. 12.

693 His name does not appear in any of the lists of bishops. There is no evidence that a see of Dorchester (cf. III, 7, and note) existed at this time, except from this passage and the statement of Florence of Worcester to the effect that a fivefold division of the Mercian diocese took place in 679, that Dorchester was included in Mercia, and that Aetla was appointed as its bishop. Probably this latter statement is derived from Bede. It has been proposed to identify Aetla with Haedde, Bishop of the West Saxons (III, 7; IV, 12; V, 18), but it seems unlikely that Bede should not have mentioned their identity. The most probable explanation seems to be that a see was established about 679 at Dorchester (which may have been under Mercia at the time) and that Aetla was its bishop, but that it had only a very short existence.

694 Cf. _infra_, notes.

695 John of Beverley, “Inderauuda” (_v._ V, 2). He and Berthun (_ibid._) are said to have founded Beverley. He was consecrated Bishop of Hexham, probably in 687, transferred to York 705, when Wilfrid was restored to Hexham, and died in 721, soon after his retirement to Beverley (V, 6, _ad fin._). As Bishop of Hexham he ordained Bede both deacon and priest (V. 24). He had been a pupil of Archbishop Theodore (cf. V. 3).

696 Wilfrid II, Bishop of York. He succeeded John (V, 6) in 718, and was still Bishop of York in 731 when Bede finished the History (cf. V, 23). In 732 he resigned and was succeeded by Egbert (to whom Bede addressed the Ep. ad Egb., and who in 735 received the pallium as Archbishop of York). Wilfrid died in 745 (_v._ Continuation, 732, 735, and 745). His character is highly praised by Alcuin (De Sanct. Ebor.).

697 Hartlepool and Whitby, both apparently double monasteries.

698 Cf. II, 2, p. 84.

699 Dr. Stubbs suggests that this sub-king of the Hwiccas may possibly be the same as Osric of Northumbria, _v._ V, 23, and note.

700 The see was at Worcester. The foundation of the bishopric is assigned by Florence of Worcester to the year 679, the date of the alleged fivefold division of the Mercian diocese (_v.s._ p. 272, note 2), Bosel being appointed bishop.

701 Cf. c. 12 and note.

702 The consecration of Oftfor is generally placed in 691. It was after Wilfrid’s second expulsion, when he was acting as Bishop of Leicester. Theodore had died in 690, and Bertwald was not consecrated till 693 (_v._ V, 8).

703 So Florence of Worcester.

704 He was king of the Britons of Loidis and Elmet. It was probably to avenge the death of his nephew, Hereric, that Edwin conquered Loidis and drove out Cerdic.

705 Cf. c. 14, note.

706 Hackness, thirteen miles from Whitby and three to the west of Scarborough. It was a cell belonging to Whitby. At the dissolution under Henry VIII, it contained only four monks, of the Benedictine order (Dugdale, “Monasticon”).

707 She has been confused with Heiu and with Bega, _v.s._ p. 271, note 7.

_ 708 I.e._, the Prioress.

709 Obviously ballads, probably of a warlike character, existed before Caedmon, but he is regarded as the father of English sacred poetry. It is a question how far the new impulse arose independently among the Anglo-Saxons, or is to be connected with Old Saxon religious poetry of which the “Heliand” is the only extant specimen (cf. Plummer, _ad loc._). Of the mass of poetry attributed to Caedmon, much must be regarded as not his actual work. The fragment translated here by Bede has been accepted as genuine by most critics. It exists in the Northumbrian dialect at the end of the Moore MS. of Bede, and in a West Saxon form in other MSS., as well as in the Anglo-Saxon translation of Bede’s History, the Northumbrian version being the oldest.

710 “Villicus,” A.S. “tun-gerefa” = town-reeve, _i.e._, headman of the township. Cædmon was apparently a herdsman on a farm belonging to the monastery.

711 Cf. Levit., xi, 3, and Deut., xiv, 6.

712 Apparently reserved and kept in the Infirmary for the Communion of the dying.

713 Matins were sung soon after midnight.

714 Coldingham, _v.s._ c. 19 and note.

715 Not the Abbot of Iona who wrote the the life of St. Columba (V, 15, 21). This Adamnan is found in the Martyrology of Wilson, in Colgan’s “Lives of the Irish Saints,” and in Bollandus, “Acta Sanctorum.”

716 From the Vulgate, Ps. xciv, 2. (xcv in our Psalter.)

717 C. 19 and note.

718 The detached dwellings built round the principal buildings of the community. Irish monasteries were built after this fashion.

719 Wearmouth and Jarrow.

720 For Berct, cf. V, 24 (_sub_ 698), note. The circumstances which led to the invasion are not known.

721 The Picts north of the Forth, cf. c. 12, _ad fin._ Their king at this time was Bruide mac Bili, who was Egfrid’s distant kinsman. In 672 Egfrid had crushed a rising of Picts under the same king.

722 Cf. cc. 27-32. He had a mysterious intimation of the disaster at the hour of the king’s defeat and death, and warned the queen (Eormenburg), who was with him at Carlisle (_v._ Bede’s Life of Cuthbert, and the Anonymous Life). He is also said to have prophesied the king’s death a year before to Elfled, Egfrid’s sister (_v._ III, 24).

723 At Nechtansmere or Dunnechtan, identified with Dunnichen, near Forfar. Egfrid was buried in Iona, where Adamnan, the friend of his successor, was Abbot.

724 Cf. c. 5 _ad init._, note. If he succeeded in February, 670, this would be his sixteenth year.

725 III, 4, 27; IV, 3; V, 9, 10, 22, 24. His English birth and long residence in Ireland fitted him to be a mediator.

726 Vergil, Aen. II, 169.

727 The Dalriadic Scots (Cf. I, 1, note; I, 34) and the Britons of Strathclyde.

728 Cf. c. 12.

729 Abercorn on the Forth, cf. I, 12; IV, 12, and note.

730 III, 24, 25; IV, 23; V, 24.

731 Cf. III, 24, p. 190.

732 III, 24, and note. Elfled succeeded Hilda as abbess, and apparently ruled jointly with her mother.

733 Cf. V, _passim_, and Bede’s two lives of Cuthbert. His mother’s name is said by the Irish authorities to have been Fina. He had lived among the Irish islands (“in insulis Scottorum,” and “in regionibus Scottorum”) for the sake of study, according to Bede, but William of Malmesbury implies that Egfrid may have been responsible for his exile. He was a man of great learning and of scholarly tastes. In Bede’s “History of the Abbots,” we are told that he gave eight hides of land for a MS. which Benedict Biscop had brought from Rome.

734 Cc. 5, 17, 22.

735 Cc. 1, 5.

736 Apparently at one time joint-king with Hlothere. Certain dooms are ascribed to them both. According to Thomas of Elmham, he was killed in war against Caedwalla, king of Wessex, and his brother, Mul, who were at this time encroaching on Kent.

737 Mul seems to have usurped the throne for a time.

738 In 692 we find him reigning as joint-king with Swaebhard (V, 8 _ad fin._). He must have succeeded in 690, if Bede’s dates are correct; cf. V, 23, where it is said that he died on April 23, 725, after a reign of thirty-four and a half years.

_ 739 I.e._, 685.

740 C. 26 and note.

741 Cf. III, 16 and note.

742 As a boy he had been remarkable for his high spirits and love of athletic exercises. The rebuke of a little boy of three is said to have turned his thoughts to a more serious life, and a vision which he saw as he watched his sheep on the Lammermuir Hills on the night of Aidan’s death, led him to form the resolve of entering a monastery. (Bede’s Life of Cuthbert.)

743 Melrose; cf. III, 26 and note.

_ 744 Ibid._ and V, 9.

745 C. 12, p. 243, note 1.

746 C. 28; V, 9. Probably here “sacerdos” = priest, A.S. version: “masse-preost.” But Aelfric calls him bishop. The town of St. Boswells on the Tweed is called after him. For an instance of his prophetic spirit, _v. infra_, c. 28. It was his fame which drew Cuthbert to Melrose. When he saw the youth on his arrival, he exclaimed, “Behold a servant of the Lord!” He is generally supposed to have been carried off by the plague of 664. For an account of his last days spent in reading the Gospel of St. John with Cuthbert, v. Bede’s Prose Life of Cuthbert. The “codex” which they used was extant in Durham in Simeon of Durham’s time.

747 Cf. III, 3, p. 139, note 3.

748 Cf. I, 27 _ad init._

749 Much of the account given here is from the prose life.

750 The synod of Twyford, a mixed assembly of clergy and laity, met in the autumn of 684. The place is “perhaps where the Aln is crossed by two fords near Whittingham” (in Northumberland) (Bright). This is another instance of the preposition prefixed to the name, cf. II, 14, p. 119, note 5.

751 Cc. 12, 26.

752 Cf. c. 27, p. 288.

753 In 685.

754 Cf. c. 12 and note.

_ 755 Ibid._

756 Soon after Christmas, 686. In February, 687, his last illness began.

757 St. Herbert’s Island in Derwentwater. Strictly speaking, the Derwent flows through Derwentwater: it rises in Borrowdale. An indulgence of forty days was granted by Thomas Appleby, Bishop of Carlisle, in 1374 to pilgrims who visited the island.

758 Carlisle, called also Luel by Simeon of Durham.

759 In 687.

760 In St. Peter’s Church. In 875, when the monks fled from Lindisfarne before the Danes, his relics were removed, first to Chester-le-Street, then to Ripon, and eventually to Durham. Simeon of Durham says the body was found to be uncorrupted, when it was placed in the new Cathedral there in 1104.

761 The year in which he administered the bishopric falls between his restoration to York, Hexham, and the monastery of Ripon, and his second expulsion.

762 Cf. III, 25, _ad init._, and _infra_ c. 30. In the life of Cuthbert he is described as a man “magnarum virtutum” (miraculous powers?). Alcuin tells that he calmed the winds by his prayers.

763 698 A.D.

764 The Dacre, a small stream near Penrith. There are the ruins of a castle, and Smith says there is a tradition of a monastery on its banks.

765 Not the missionary in V, 11.

766 “Innumera miracula” are ascribed to him by Florence of Worcester.

767 III, 16, and note; IV, 27-30.

768 Ripon, _v._ III, 25, p. 194; V, 19.

769 Cuthbert and Eadbert (IV, 29, 30). His relics were removed with Cuthbert’s and finally interred at Durham.

770 IV, 26, and V, 18. He reigned from 685 to 705.

771 III, 26; IV, 12, 27, 28. He died in 686.

772 John of Beverley, _v._ IV, 23, p. 273, and note. Wilfrid administered the bishopric during the vacancy between Eata’s death and John’s consecration in 687.

773 Cf. _ibid._

774 Beverley. The present name is said to be derived from a colony of beavers in the Hull river. In 866 the minster was destroyed by the Danes, but it was repaired three years later. In 925 Athelstan restored it and made it collegiate, giving it lands and various privileges. (For the preposition, _v._ II, 14, p. 119, note 5.)

775 Supposed to have been at St. John’s Lee, near Hexham. The old name is Erneshow or Herneshaw. (Richard of Hexham, Folcard.)

776 The reading of the best MSS., “Clymeterium” (_v. ll._ clymiterium, climiterium, clymitorium) seems inexplicable. Smith reads “coemeterium,” probably on the authority of a gloss (“id est cimeterium”) on some of the later MSS., and it has generally been translated “cemetery.” The AS. version has “gebæd hus 7 ciricean” = oratory and church.

777 Acts, iii, 2-8.

778 This was Wilfrid’s second restoration. He recovered Hexham and the monastery of Ripon at the Synod on the Nidd in 705.

779 Bosa (IV, 12, 23) died _circ._ 705.

780 Watton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. (“Hodie Watton, _i.e._, humida villa ex aquis et paludibus quibus septa est.” Smith.) It is called Betendune by Folcard, the biographer of Bishop John.

781 For “studium” = medical treatment, _v._ Plummer, _ad loc._ Under the verb, _studere_, Ducange gives instances of this meaning: “Iussitque rex, ut studeretur a medicis”; Greg. Turon., vi, 32. “Episcopus, adhibito mulomedico, jussit ei (equo) studium impendere, quo scilicet sanari potuisset”; St. Audoënus, lib. 2; Vit. St. Eligii, 44.

782 Bishop John had studied under Theodore. Cf. IV, 23, note.

783 Note the tendency to hereditary succession in monasteries (_v._ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 337-338). Instances are, however, rare in England, though common in Ireland, where the clan system affected ecclesiastical preferments. Eanfled and Elfled at Whitby are not a case in point, as Eanfled did not precede her daughter, but was only associated with her in some way in the government of the monastery.

784 This “vill” was at South Burton (Folcard), now called Bishop Burton, between two and three miles from Beverley.

785 To redeem his fast, as the A.S. version explains.

786 St. Matt., viii, 14-15; St. Mark, i, 30-31; St. Luke, iv, 38-39.

787 At North Burton (Dugdale, “Monasticon”).

788 He lived till 745, according to Simeon of Durham.

789 There were probably two monasteries at Tynemouth, the one mentioned here, and another (_v._ Bede’s “Life of Cuthbert”), which had been a house of monks, but afterwards, when Bede wrote, had become a nunnery.

790 Breathing on the face and catechizing were practised in order to exorcise evil spirits from the hearts of catechumens (Bede, Opp. viii, 106).

791 The Saxon Chronicle is very exact: “Thirty-three years, eight months, and thirteen days.” This would date his episcopate from August, 687, to May, 721, for May 7th was observed as the day of his festival at Beverley.

792 Cf. c. 2.

793 Wilfrid II: _v._ IV, 23, p. 273, and note.

_ 794 I.e._, in 688. For Caedwalla, _v._ IV, 12 (and note), 15, 16.

795 Sergius I, 687-701.

796 Cf. II, 9, 14 and notes.

797 Cf. II, 14 and note.

798 By Benedictus Crispus, Archbishop of Milan. He died in 725.

_ 799 I.e._, Sergius was his godfather (cf. III, 7, where Oswald stands sponsor for Cynegils). The Saxon Chronicle says he also baptized him.

800 Justinian II. He succeeded in 685 and died in 711.

801 Cf. IV, 15, and note. Thus, according to Bede’s reckoning, he reigned from 688 to 725, but the date of his abdication is variously given.

802 Gregory II., 715-731, _v._ Preface, p. 2.

803 He was consecrated 26th March, 668, and died, as Bede says here, on 19th September, 690.

804 The church of SS. Peter and Paul. Cf. II, 3, p. 90.

805 They are elegiacs. Cf. I, 10.

806 Cf. II, 3, and _infra_ 19, 23.

807 The old Roman town Reculver, in Kent. A charter of 679 exists (the oldest original English charter extant) by which King Hlothere of Kent grants land in Thanet to Bertwald and his monastery.

808 Said to be the Inlade.

809 The see was, therefore, vacant for two years, possibly owing to the political troubles of the time, cf. IV, 26, _ad fin._ The further delay of a year between Bertwald’s election and consecration may have been caused by his desire to obtain greater weight as consecrated by the Primate of a neighbouring Church (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 229).

810 For Wictred, _v._ IV, 26, and note. Thomas of Elmham tries to identify Suaebhard with Suefred, son of Sebbi, king of the East Saxons (_v._ IV, 11, _ad fin._), and says that he made himself king of Kent by violence, but this seems very improbable.

811 He was Archbishop of Lyons. The Church of Lyons did not obtain the primacy over other metropolitan churches till the eleventh century, but apparently it held a leading position even before this time.

812 He was trained under Theodore and Hadrian in the School of Canterbury; cf. V, 23, _ad init._ The date of Gebmund’s death and the succession of Tobias cannot be earlier than 696, as Gebmund (_v._ IV, 12) appears to have been present at the Kentish Witenagemot of Bersted in that year. (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 238, 241.) Tobias died in 726.

813 III, 4, 27; IV, 3, 26, and _infra_ cc. 10, 22, 23, 24.

814 The name does not occur in any Celtic literature which we possess. All the evidence seems to show that the Celts have always called the English “Saxons.” “Ellmyn,” for Allemanni, occurs sometimes in Welsh poetry (Rhŷs, “Celtic Britain”).

815 The Frisians at this time occupied the coastland from the Maas to the region beyond the Ems. The Rugini are probably the Rugii (_v._ Tacitus, Germania,