Chapter XLIII

). They were on the shores of the Baltic, probably about the mouth of the Oder (the name survives in Rügen and Rügenwalde). They are found with other North German tribes in the army of Attila, and afterwards formed a settlement on the Lower Danube. The Danes were mainly in Jutland, Fünen, and the extreme south of Scandinavia. The Huns, who appeared in Europe towards the end of the fourth century and menaced both the Eastern and Western Empires, were, after Attila’s death, driven eastwards, and settled near the Pontus, disappearing among the Bulgarians and other kindred tribes. The Old Saxons, or Saxons of the Continent (cf. I, 15), occupied both sides of the Elbe. The name Saxon does not occur in the oldest accounts of the Germans. Probably it was a new name for a union of nations which comprised the Cherusci, Chauci, Angrivarii (and perhaps other tribes) of Tacitus. The Boructuari are the Bructeri in Westphalia (_v._ Zeuss, “Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme”).

816 Cf. IV, 27 (note) and 28.

817 Melrose; cf. III, 26; IV, 27, and _infra_ c. 12.

818 IV, 27. Cf. III, 26; IV, 12, 28; V, 2.

819 Cf. III, 3, 4, and notes; _i.e._, the monasteries which owed their origin to Columba and were included in the “province” of Iona. They are distinguished from those which are mentioned in c. 15 as “ab Hiensium dominio liberi.”

820 His baptismal name was Colum (_columba_ = a dove). He is said to have acquired the name of Colum-cille, because in his youth he was so constantly in the “cell” or oratory.

821 Jonah, i, 12.

822 Nothing more is known of him. Alcuin mentions him in his life of Wilbrord. His name is included in a list of the eleven companions of Wilbrord given in a life of St. Suidbert (_v. infra_ c. 11), but no value is to be attached to it (_v._ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 225). Bede distinctly says that he retired from missionary efforts after this unsuccessful attempt.

823 The story is told that at one time Rathbed was about to receive baptism at the hands of St. Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, but drew back on being told that his ancestors were among the lost, refusing to go to Heaven without them. His perpetual wars with the Franks ended in his defeat and expulsion, and he died in 719.

824 The authority for Wilbrord’s life is Alcuin, who wrote it both in prose and verse. Wilbrord was born in 657 or 658 in Northumbria, and was handed over by his mother to the monks at Ripon in his infancy. His father, Wilgils, became a hermit on a promontory at the mouth of the Humber. At the age of twenty he went to Ireland for the sake of study and a stricter life. In 690 he set out for Frisland with eleven others, landed at Katwyk and went to Utrecht, which was afterwards his episcopal see (_v. infra_ c. 11).

825 They turned aside to Pippin on finding Rathbed obdurate. Pippin of Heristal, Mayor of the Palace of the Austrasian kings, had defeated the Neustrians at Testry in 687 and was now the actual ruler of the Franks, though it was his grandson, Pippin the Short, who first assumed royal power.

826 Cf. c. 9, p. 319, and note.

827 Roger of Wendover places their mission in 695. It must have been later than Wilbrord’s in 690.

828 “Satrap,” cf. Stubbs, Constitutional History, i, pp. 41-42. From this passage and similar notices of the Continental Saxons he infers that they had remained free from Roman influences and from any foreign intermixture of blood or institutions. “They had preserved the ancient features of German life in their purest forms.... King Alfred, when he translated Bede had no difficulty in recognizing in the satrap the ealdorman, in the villicus the _tungerefa_, in the vicus the _tunscipe_ of his own land.”

829 The year cannot be fixed.

830 The Church of St. Cunibert, Cologne (Gallican Martyrology, quoted by Smith).

831 Sergius I: _v.s._ c. 7.

832 Alcuin tells how he killed some of the sacred cattle of the god Fosite, a son of Balder, in Heligoland, and baptized three men in his well.

833 A life of him by Marcellinus (_v.s._ c. 9, note on Wictbert) is worthless historically. Besides what we learn from Bede, we have the date of his death (713) given by the “Annales Francorum.”

834 This was after Wilfrid’s second expulsion (V, 19). Bertwald was elected in July, 692, and returned from the Continent in August, 693 (_v.s._ c. 8).

835 The usual form of the name is Plectrude.

836 Kaiserwerth on the Rhine, where it is believed that his relics still remain in a silver shrine in the thirteenth-century church. (For the preposition, _v._ II, 14, p. 119, note 5.)

837 This was Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. The festival is 22nd November. As to the year, Mr. Plummer considers that an entry in an old calendar belonging to Epternach, near Trèves, Wilbrord’s own monastery, giving the date 695, is almost certainly by Wilbrord himself.

838 Utrecht. A distinction has been drawn between the two places, Wiltaburg, or Wiltenburg, being a village near Utrecht, but the names appear to be interchangeable.

839 The Church of St. Saviour. He also rebuilt a small church which had been destroyed by the pagans, and consecrated it in honour of St. Martin (Letter of St. Boniface to Pope Stephen). The cathedral stands on the site of this church.

840 Bede writes in 731. As Alcuin says Wilbrord lived to be eighty-one years of age, he must have died in 738 or 739. Boniface is fairly accurate when he says that he preached for fifty years.

841 Mr. Skene (“Celtic Scotland,” i., p. 219) has shown that the place cannot be Cunningham in Ayrshire, which was not in Northumbria, but in Strathclyde, and not at that time subject to Northumbria. He suggests Tininghame in East Lothian, which Simeon of Durham calls Intiningaham, and places in the diocese of Lindisfarne (C being a scribe’s error for T). Chester-le-Street (Saxon: Cunungaceaster) has also been suggested.

842 Melrose, _v._ III, 26; IV, 27; V, 9.

843 Cf. III, 19. On mediaeval visions, cf. Plummer, _ad loc._, and Bright, p. 144.

844 Vergil, Aen. VI, 268.

845 IV, 26; V. 1.

846 Cf. c. 23. He began life in the service of St. Cuthbert. He became first Prior, or Provost, then Abbot of Melrose, and succeeded Eadfrid, who died in 721, as Bishop of Lindisfarne. He enriched Lindisfarne with two treasures of art: a beautiful stone cross which he erected there, and a cover of gold and jewels for the Lindisfarne Gospels, written by Eadfrid in honour of St. Cuthbert. The book is now in the British Museum, but the cover is lost.

847 704-709. Cf. _infra_, c. 19, pp. 345, 356, and c. 24. He was the son of Wulfhere, but being a boy at the time of his father’s death, was passed over in favour of Ethelred, Wulfhere’s brother.

848 Ps. xxxi, 1, in the Vulgate (xxxii in our Psalter).

849 Bishop of Whitern; _v. infra_, cc. 18, 23.

850 Cf. 1 John, v, 16.

851 Acts, vii, 56.

852 The northern Irish, and of them only those who were independent of Iona (_v. infra_). The southern Irish had conformed much earlier; cf. III, 3, and note.

853 It is not clear whether Bede means that any Britons were converted by Adamnan. If so, they must have been Britons of Strathclyde. The Welsh only conformed 755-777. The reference may be to those of the Cornish Britons, subject to the West Saxons, who were led in 705 by Aldhelm’s letter to Geraint to adopt the Catholic Easter (_v. infra_, c. 18).

854 Ninth Abbot of Iona, 679-704, the author of the Life of St. Columba.

855 Of Northumbria. Aldfrid, who had studied in Iona during his exile, was his friend. Adamnan visited the king twice, first, circ. 686, when he obtained the release of the sixty Irish prisoners taken to England by Berct in 684 (_v._ IV, 26 _ad init._) and again two years later (cf. _infra_ c. 21, p. 372, note 2).

856 The Irish annals mention two voyages to Ireland subsequent to that in 686 with the prisoners, viz., in 692 and 697, after which he probably stayed there till after Easter, 704.

857 On 23rd September, 704. (The dates are those of Tighernach and the “Annales Cambriae.”)

858 Adamnan’s “De Locis Sanctis,” and Bede’s account here, are the only sources of information with regard to this bishop. Adamnan’s book is based on the narrative of Arculf compared with other authorities. Bede, again, in his own work on the the same subject, made selections from Adamnan, using also other authorities, _e.g._ Josephus.

_ 859 I.e._, he had copies made of it.

860 Nevertheless he quotes his own book rather than Adamnan’s.

861 Cf. Warren and Conder, “Survey of Western Palestine”: “Bethlehem, a well-built stone town, standing on a narrow ridge which runs east and west ... towards the east is the open market place, and, beyond this, the convent in which is the fourth century church of St. Mary, including the Grotto of the Nativity beneath the main apse.”

862 “Vulturnus” seems to be distinguished from its Greek equivalent, “Eurus.”

863 The Basilica of the Anastasis was completed by Constantine in 335 A.D., and destroyed in 614 by Chosroes II, King of Persia. Other ancient travellers besides Arculf describe the Holy Places. Eucherius, writing about 427-440, mentions the Martyrium, Golgotha and the Anastasis, and describes their respective sites in similar terms. Theodorus (about 530 A.D.) alludes to the Invention of the Holy Cross by Helena, but the earliest authorities do not connect her with it.

864 “Brucosa.” The adjective is not found in the dictionaries. But Ducange has the following words from which one may, perhaps, infer an adjective of kindred meaning: “_Brua_, idem quod supra _Brossa_, silvula, dumetum,” “_Bruarium_, ericetum,” and “_Broca_, ager incultus, dumetum.”

865 The Basilica of the Ascension, on the summit of Mount Olivet, is mentioned by the Pilgrim of Bordeaux who was in Jerusalem in 333 A.D. No traces of the church have been found. He also speaks of the Anastasis, which was being built at the time.

866 Saewulf (1102 A.D.) writes: “Below is the place called Golgotha, where Adam is said to have been raised to life by the Blood of our Lord which fell upon him, as is said in the Passion, ‘And many bodies of the saints which slept arose.’ But in the sentences of St. Augustine we read that he was buried in Hebron, where also the three patriarchs were afterwards buried with their wives, Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, and Jacob with Leah, as well as the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel carried with them from Egypt.”

867 He died at Driffield (supposed to mean the “field of Deira”), in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on 14th December, 705 (Saxon Chronicle).

868 Bede and the Chronicle do not mention the usurper Eadwulf, who held the sovereignty for eight weeks. With Aldfrid the greatness of Northumbria, which had begun to decline after Egfrid’s defeat and death, passed away, except for a brief revival in the time of Eadbert and his brother, Archbishop Egbert. Osred was a tyrannical and lawless boy, and a period of political and ecclesiastical trouble set in (cf. Bede, “Epistola ad Egbertum”; Boniface, Ep. 62, etc.).

869 III, 7; IV, 12.

_ 870 Infra_ c. 23. He has been mentioned, c. 13, _ad fin._ He studied under Aldhelm at Malmesbury (_v. infra_).

871 The greatest scholar of his time and the man of widest influence as a teacher. He was a West Saxon, of royal blood, born about 639; he studied first under Hadrian in the School of Canterbury, then under Maildufus (_v. infra_), was ordained priest by Bishop Hlothere (Leutherius, _v._ III, 7), and about the year 675 became Abbot of Malmesbury, which under his rule grew to be a place of importance and attracted crowds of students. On one occasion he went by invitation of Pope Sergius to Rome. He became Bishop of Sherborne, when in 705 the West Saxon diocese was divided (_v. infra_). He died in 709 in the little church of Doulting in Somerset and was buried in St. Michael’s Church at Malmesbury. He greatly strengthened the Church in Wessex by his influence with King Ini and his zeal in building churches and monasteries in various places. His widespread influence, as well as his generous use of it, is shown by his letter to Wilfrid’s clergy after the Council of Estrefeld, exhorting them to remain faithful to their bishop (v. Haddan and Stubbs, III, 254).

872 In 705. The bishopric of the West Saxons was the only one which Theodore did not subdivide. The delay may have been due to the political disturbances of the time, and these had come to an end under the rule of Ini. Haedde’s death removed a further difficulty. He seems to have resisted Bertwald’s attempt to divide the diocese, for we find in 704 a council threatening the West Saxons with excommunication if the division is not carried out. Hampshire, Surrey, and, for a time, Sussex, were assigned to Winchester; Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire to Sherborne (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 276), but the authorities differ on this point. After the Conquest, the combined bishoprics of Sherborne and Ramsbury (founded in 909 for Wiltshire) had their see established at Old Sarum.

873 Cf. Preface, p. 3, and note, and IV, 16. In 744 he resigned his see and died in 745. It appears from a letter of Boniface to him that he became blind in his old age.

874 Malmesbury. It was founded by an Irish monk and scholar, Maildufus (Irish “Maelduib”), as a small settlement living under monastic rule (_v.s._ note on Aldhelm).

875 His letter to Geraint or Gerontius, king of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall). A West Saxon synod in 705 appointed Aldhelm to write a book, “quo maligna haeresis Britonum destrueretur” (Faricius, Life of Aldhelm). He appears to have influenced only those Britons who were subject to the West Saxons. Devon and Cornwall did not finally conform to the Catholic Easter till early in the tenth century.

876 Cf. IV, 10 (note on Hildilid).

877 A poet of the fifth century (circ. 450), author of a poem called “Carmen Paschale.” He translated it into prose and called it “Opus Paschale.” Aldhelm wrote his prose work first.

878 His style is turgid and grandiloquent, and, owing to the high estimation in which he was held, his influence in this respect on contemporary writing was harmful.

879 Cf. _infra_ c. 23. A letter to him from Archbishop Bertwald is extant. We do not know how long he lived. We have his signature to a charter of 739.

880 Cf. IV, 15. The see was established at Selsey. The date of this event is not known (Matthew of Westminster is the only authority for 711). Bede indicates it very vaguely (“quibus administrantibus”), and does not make it clear to whose administration he alludes. The more obvious reference is surely to Daniel and Aldhelm, the passage about Forthere being parenthetical, but the other view has the authority of Haddan and Stubbs (III, 296), viz., that he means Daniel and Forthere, and that thus the date is fixed to some time after Aldhelm’s death (709).

881 Selsey, cf. IV, 13, 14.

882 The vacancy was filled in 733 by the appointment of Sigfrid (_v._ Continuation).

883 Cf. c. 18, _ad init._ His fourth year was 709.

884 C. 13 and _infra_ c. 19 _ad fin._, and c. 24. For a similar action, cf. Caedwalla and Ini (_v.s._ c. 7) and (_infra_) Offa.

885 Constantine I, 708-715.

886 709-716. St. Boniface (Letter to Ethelbald) gives Ceolred a very bad character, and says that he died impenitent at a banquet, seized with sudden madness. He alludes to him and Osred of Northumbria as the first kings who tampered with the privileges of the Church.

887 III, 30, and IV, 6. Sighere reigned jointly with Sebbi. They were succeeded by Sebbi’s sons, Sighard and Swefred (IV, 11). Offa probably succeeded them just before this time (709); William of Malmesbury says he reigned for a short time. He was succeeded by Selred (d. 746).

888 St. Matt., xix, 29; St. Mark, x, 30; St. Luke, xviii, 30.

889 Oundle in Northamptonshire, where he had a monastery on land given him by Wulfhere of Mercia. For the form of the name, cf. _infra_, “in provincia Undalum.” Here the preposition is prefixed as often; _v._ II, 14, note. Wilfrid died on a Thursday in October: there is some uncertainty about the day of the month.

890 Cf. the epitaph (_infra_) and c. 24, where Bede places his consecration in 664. This is supported by William of Malmesbury, but Eddius says he was bishop for forty-six years.

891 Ripon, _v. infra_, p. 56. In the tenth century, Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, removed certain relics to Canterbury, believing them to be the body of Wilfrid. At Ripon it was maintained that the relics were those of Wilfrid II.

892 Our main authority for the life of Wilfrid is Eddius (_v._ IV, 2). Bede’s account is remarkable for its omissions, though it gives a few facts which Eddius omits.

893 His birth must be placed in 634 (cf. _infra_, his consecration at the age of thirty). His father was a Northumbrian thegn. He is said to have had an unkind stepmother. He was sent by his father to the court of Oswy, thence, by Eanfled (cf. II, 9, 20; III, 15, 24, _et saep._) to Lindisfarne, at that time under the rule of Aidan.

894 III, 8. He was the son of Eadbald (II, 5, 6, 9, _et saep._). Eanfled’s mother was the sister of Eadbald, the Kentish princess Ethelberg (“Tata”), wife of Edwin (II, 9, 11, 20).

895 II, 18 _et saep._

896 IV, 18, and note.

897 Cf. III, 25. Annemundus was the name of the Archbishop. Dalfinus, Count of Lyons, was his brother. Eddius makes the same mistake.

898 A daughter of the Count.

899 He presented Wilfrid to the Pope, Eugenius I. A leaden “bulla” with the name of Boniface, Archdeacon, inscribed upon it was found at Whitby not long ago.

_ 900 I.e._, to Annemundus.

901 This seems to be another mistake in which Bede follows Eddius. It was probably Ebroin (_v._ IV, 1, note), Mayor of the Palace to her infant son Clothaire III, who put Annemundus to death. Baldhild was, however, regent at the time. Eddius calls her a Jezebel, but all that we know of her shows her to have been a most pious and charitable lady, and she has been canonized by the Church. She was especially active in her efforts to stop the traffic in slaves. She herself, though she is said to have been of noble English birth, had been sold as a slave into Gaul. She was married first to Ercinwald, Mayor of the Palace, the predecessor of Ebroin (_v._ III, 19), and afterwards to Clovis II, King of Neustria and Burgundy, 638-656. Baldhild ended her life in the monastery of Chelles (_v._ III, 8, and note).

902 III, 14, 21, 24, 25, 28. He was a friend of Coinwalch of Wessex, from whom, as Eddius says, he learned to love the Roman rules.

903 Possibly Stamford, in Lincolnshire; more probably, since the land belonged to Alchfrid, Stamford Bridge, on the Derwent, in Yorkshire.

904 Cf. III, 25, where the extent is given as forty families, _i.e._, “hides.”

905 Cf. III, 7, 25, 28; IV, 1, 12. For the Gewissae, _v._ II, 5 and note.

906 At the synod of Whitby, 664 (III, 25).

907 Tuda (III, 26) had died of the plague of 664. For Wilfrid’s consecration, _v._ III, 28, _ad init._, and note. Agilbert was not Bishop of Paris till 666 (cf. III, 25, p. 194, note).

908 Cf. III, 28, and note. Wilfrid did not return to Britain till 666. Bede omits the story of his shipwreck on the coast of Sussex, and says nothing of the three years spent as Abbot of Ripon, whither he retired on finding Ceadda installed in his place. During this time he acted occasionally as Bishop for Mercia, where the see was vacant by the death of Jaruman in 667, and for Kent, during part of the vacancy between the death of Deusdedit in 664 and Theodore’s arrival in 669.

909 The same Witan which elected Wilfrid decided to transfer the Northumbrian see from Lindisfarne back to York, where Paulinus had originally established it.

910 In 678, _v._ IV, 12, and note. Bede passes over nine years of ceaseless activity in the diocese. It was during this time that Wilfrid built his great churches.

911 Eddius says that he went there by his own wish. This is not the occasion referred to in III, 13 (_v._ note, _ad loc._). Ebroin, from motives of private enmity (Wilfrid had helped his enemy, Dagobert II of Austrasia), attempted to bribe Aldgils to kill or surrender Wilfrid, but his offer was indignantly rejected.

912 Cc. 10, 11; cf. III, 13.

913 On the way he visited Dagobert II of Austrasia, and Perctarit, king of the Lombards.

914 At a council of fifty bishops held in the Lateran in 679. Theodore had sent documents stating his side of the case in charge of a monk named Coenwald. For Agatho, _v._ IV, 18. The decision was that Wilfrid should be reinstated in his bishopric and the intruding bishops removed, but that afterwards he should appoint coadjutors who should be consecrated by the Archbishop.

915 This council was held in 680 in preparation for the Council at Constantinople in 680-681, against the Monothelites (cf. IV, 17, 18, and notes).

916 In 680. Here Bede strangely omits important events. On Wilfrid’s return to Northumbria he was accused of having procured his acquittal by bribery and was imprisoned for nine months, first at Bromnis (unidentified) and then at Dunbar. Being released at the request of Aebba, Abbess of Coldingham (_v._ IV, 19, 25), who was Egfrid’s aunt, he went first to Mercia and then to Wessex, but was expelled from both provinces. Egfrid’s sister Osthryth was the wife of Ethelred of Mercia, and in Wessex the king, Centwine, had married a sister of the Northumbrian queen, Eormenburg.

917 IV, 13.

918 IV, 13, 16. His connection with Caedwalla of Wessex is to be placed here (IV, 16).

919 In 686 he was restored to the bishopric of York and the monastery of Ripon. The diocese over which he was now placed was greatly circumscribed. Lindsey and Abercorn, besides having been detached by the subdivision, had both ceased to belong to Northumbria; Lindisfarne and Hexham were separate bishoprics and were merely administered by Wilfrid till the appointment of Eadbert to Lindisfarne and of John to Hexham. The restoration of Wilfrid was brought about by Theodore who had become reconciled to him and induced Aldfrid to allow him to be reinstated.

920 This was his second expulsion, in 691. Dissensions had arisen about various matters. The most important were the attempt, resisted by Wilfrid, to form Ripon into a separate see, and the requirement that he should accept the decrees of Theodore of 678. To accept these would have been equivalent to a rejection of the Pope’s judgement in his case.

921 Bede omits here Wilfrid’s second sojourn in Mercia (eleven years), when he acted temporarily as Bishop of the Middle English (he alludes to it in IV, 23), and the great Council, representative of the whole English Church, summoned by Aldfrid in 702 and held at a place in Northumbria (unidentified; possibly Austerfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire) called by Eddius “Ouestraefelda” and “Aetswinapathe” (supposed to mean “at the swine’s path,” or “Edwinspath”). At this Council Wilfrid was excommunicated and deprived of all his possessions except the monastery of Ripon. He appealed again to the Apostolic see and returned to Mercia. Probably in the following year he set out for Rome, visiting Wilbrord in Frisia by the way (cf. III, 13).

922 John VI, 701-705. Bertwald had sent envoys to represent Wilfrid’s opponents. The investigation took four months, during which seventy sittings of the Council were held.

923 Bertwald was admonished to hold a synod and come to an agreement with Wilfrid. In the event of failure, both parties were to appear in Rome. The letter is cautious and conciliatory in tone.

924 Cf. _supra_, p. 352.

925 Cf. _supra_, p. 349.

926 Meaux, cf. IV, 1 (Meldi).

927 III, 13, and note; _infra_ c. 20.

928 Ethelred of Mercia had resigned his throne and was now Abbot of Bardney; cf. III, 11, and IV, 12, p. 241, note.

929 Cc. 13 and 19, _ad init._; cf. c. 24.

930 Cf. c. 18, _ad init._ He received his envoys courteously, but refused to alter his decision for any “alleged writings from the Apostolic see.” But Eddius says he repented on his deathbed.

_ 931 Ibid._

932 In 705. It was a Northumbrian council, not, like Estrefeld, representative of the whole Church. Bertwald was present and adopted a conciliatory line.

933 He was restored only to Hexham and to his monastery at Ripon. Bishop John, on the death of Bosa about this time, was transferred to York; _v.s._ c. 3, _ad init._

934 Oundle, _v.s._ p. 346, note 4.

935 Or Cudwald. A Cuthbald succeeded Sexwulf (IV, 6) as Abbot at Medeshamstead. He is, perhaps, identical with the Abbot of Oundle.

936 Cf. _supra_, p. 346, and III, 25.

_ 937 I.e._ 710. But Hadrian left Rome in 668 (_v._ IV, 1), and Bede says he died forty-one years after that event. This would be in 709.

938 Cf. Preface and IV, 1.

_ 939 Ibid._

940 St. Augustine’s, Canterbury; cf. IV, 1, _ad fin._

941 Cf. Preface and note.

942 III, 13, and note.

943 A.S. version: Mafa. For the Roman style of Church music, cf. II, 20, _ad fin._

944 IV, 12, 23; V, 3.

945 In 710. Naiton, or Nechtan mac Derili, succeeded in 706. The northern Picts had received Christianity through Columba (III, 4). Naiton is said to have been converted to Roman usages by a missionary named Boniface, who was probably an Irishman, St. Cuiritin. Naiton did not succeed in forcing all his people to adopt them, but in 717 he expelled the Columban clergy who refused to conform.

946 IV, 18 and note.

947 Wearmouth (_ibid._) and Jarrow, Bede’s own monastery (_v. infra_, c. 24). Though they were some distance apart, Wearmouth and Jarrow formed together one monastery.

948 IV, 18.

949 II, 2, p. 85, note.

950 Wood being the usual material, cf. III, 4, “Candida Casa.” The locality of the church is not known. Rosemarkie, on the Moray Frith, and, more probably, Restennet, near Forfar, have been suggested.

951 The letter has been supposed to have been written by Bede himself.

952 Plato, Rep. 473, D.

953 Exod., xii, 1-3. (The quotations are from the Vulgate.)

954 Exod., xii, 6.

_ 955 Ibid._, xii, 15.

956 Exod., xii, 15.

_ 957 Ibid._, xii, 17.

958 Numbers, xxxiii, 13.

959 Exod., xii, 17-19.

960 1 Cor., v, 7.

961 St. John, i, 29.

962 Levit., xxiii, 5-7.

963 Cf. Bede’s “Expositio in Marci Evangelium” (Opp. X, 2), where he says that St. Mark founded the Church in Alexandria, and taught the canonical observance of Easter; and Opp. VI, 235 (De Temp. Rat.).

964 Levit., xxiii, 8.

965 This was an error of the Latins in the fifth century. The object was to make it possible for Good Friday to fall on the fourteenth of the month Nisan, which they believed to be the actual day of the Crucifixion, and to keep Easter Day entirely clear of the Jewish festival.

_ 966 I.e._ Alexandrians.

967 Gen., i, 16.

968 The Itala.

969 Mal., iv, 2.

970 Habak., iii, 11 (from the Itala).

971 The Pelagians; I, 10, and note; cf. I, 17.

972 The reference must be to p. 364, “the apostolic tradition.” For the nineteen years’ cycle, cf. III, 3 (Anatolius).

973 The celebrated Bishop of Caesarea, called also Eusebius Pamphili, a name which he adopted from devotion to his friend, Pamphilus. How much he had to do with the nineteen years’ cycle seems altogether uncertain. He took a leading part in the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), but there is no proof that the Council formally adopted the cycle, as has been supposed. It had been in use long before, but it may have received authoritative sanction at Nicaea. Eusebius wrote a treatise on Easter, of which a fragment is extant.

974 A presbyter of Caesarea, the founder of the famous library in that place. He was martyred in 309 A.D. Eusebius wrote his life, but the work is lost.

975 Archbishop of Alexandria, 385-412. He made a cycle of 418 years (19 × 22) for Theodosius, and reckoned the days on which Easter would fall for 100 years from the first year of the consulate of Theodosius (380 A.D.).

976 The great Archbishop of Alexandria, 412-444. He shortened the cycle of Theophilus, making a cycle of ninety-five years (19 × 5), for the sake of convenience. Part of his “Computus Paschalis” remains.

977 A monk of the Western Church in the sixth century. The surname, “Exiguus,” refers, not to his stature, but to his humbleness of heart. Our method of dating from the Birth of Christ was begun by him. He revived the cycle of Victorius (or Victorinus) of Aquitaine (463 A.D.), hence called Dionysian. It was a cycle of 532 years, _i.e._ the lunar cycle of 19 × the solar cycle of 28.

978 Cf. p. 369, note 5.

979 Job, i, 20.

980 Gen., xli, 14.

981 St. Matt., xvi, 18.

982 Acts, viii, 20 (Vulgate). The origin of this form of tonsure was attributed to Simon Magus.

983 Gal., v, 24.

984 St. James, i, 12.

985 Cf. c. 15 and notes. It is uncertain whether this incident is to be connected with Adamnan’s first or second visit to King Aldfrid.

_ 986 I.e._, Ireland; cf. c. 15.

987 Cf. _supra_, p. 359, note 1.

988 Cf. c. 18 and note; cc. 19, 20, 24. He was killed in battle, but neither the locality nor the war is known.

989 He reigned two years, _v. infra_ c. 23. He belonged to a younger branch of the royal house of Northumbria. His father’s name was Cuthwine, and Ceolwulf, who succeeded Osric (c. 23), was his brother.

990 Or, perhaps, “bishop;” cf. III, 4, note. For the circumstances which led Egbert to undertake his work among the Columban monasteries, _v.s._ c. 9. As the events narrated there were prior to 690 (Wilbrord’s mission to Frisia), we may, perhaps, assume that he had been labouring during this long interval among the Columban monasteries in Ireland. In III, 4, Bede places Egbert’s arrival in Iona a year earlier.

991 Rom., x, 2.

992 Cf. p. 372. This seems to be the meaning of the somewhat obscure sentence, “... celebrationem, ut diximus, praecipuae solemnitatis sub figura coronae perpetis agere perdocuit.”

993 For the conversion of the Britons to Roman usages, _v._ cc. 15 and 18, notes.

994 This is accurate enough in round numbers. Aidan’s mission (_v._ III, 3) was probably in 635.

_ 995 I.e._, 24th April. According to the Celtic rule, Easter Day could never have been so late, 21st April being the latest possible day, while the Romans might celebrate as late as 25th April.

996 Osric had succeeded in 718. Simeon of Durham says he was a son of King “Alfrid.” It has been suggested (Dr. Stubbs, in Dict. of Christian Biog.) that this may mean Alchfrid, son of Oswy (III, 14, _et saep._), further, that this Osric is to be identified with the Hwiccian sub-king, mentioned in IV, 23, who may have found a refuge in Mercia, when Alchfrid was disinherited. Against this it has been maintained that the statement of Simeon of Durham may, with greater probability, be referred to Aldfrid, the successor of Egfrid and father of Osred.

997 Cf. IV, 26, and V, 8.

998 From Bede we should infer that they all succeeded in 725, and the evidence of charters goes to show that Eadbert and Ethelbert began to reign jointly in that year. Florence of Worcester makes Eadbert and Ethelbert reign successively, and William of Malmesbury gives successive reigns of considerable length to all three brothers. This prolongs Alric’s life beyond probability, and as his reign rests on no early evidence, Dr. Stubbs is inclined to set it aside altogether.

999 Cf. c. 8.

1000 Cf. II, 3 and note; III, 14.

1001 Consecrated in 727 (Saxon Chronicle) and died in 739 (Simeon of Durham).

1002 This must refer to the battle of Tours in 732, in which Charles Martel defeated the Saracens. As the Ecclesiastical History was finished in 731, this passage must be regarded as a later insertion. For Bede’s view with regard to the Saracens, _v._ his theological works _passim_. He believed them to be the descendants of Ishmael.

1003 In 729; _v.s._ c. 22.

1004 Cf. _supra_, this chapter, _ad init._

1005 Cf. Preface, note 1, and the Continuation.

1006 Cf. c. 22, _ad init_ and note.

_ 1007 I.e._, since 29th June, 693; _v.s._ c. 8, _ad fin._

1008 He received the pall in 733 and died in 734; cf. Continuation.

1009 Bredon in Worcestershire.

1010 Cf. Preface; IV, 16; V, 18.

_ 1011 I.e._, of the East Saxons. He died in 745; _v._ Continuation.

1012 Called also Worr. In the Act of the Council of Clovesho in 716 he signs as Bishop of Lichfield (to which at this time Leicester was united) along with his predecessor, Hedda, but the authenticity of the Act is not fully established, and it is generally supposed that he succeeded in 721. At his death in 737 (Simeon of Durham) Leicester was finally separated from Lichfield.

1013 Cf. _supra_, p. 378.

1014 The following list of the English bishoprics at the time when Bede closed his history [731 A.D.], will enable the reader to recognize those which belonged to each separate kingdom:

KINGDOMS; SEES; PRELATES. Kent; Canterbury; Tatwine. Rochester; Aldwulf. East Saxons; London; Ingwald. East Angles; Dunwich; Aldbert. Elmham; Hadulac. West Saxons; Winchester; Daniel. Sherborne; Forthere. Mercia; Lichfield (to which Leicester had been reunited in 705); Aldwin. Hereford; Walhstod. Worcester; Wilfrid. Lindsey (Sidnacester); Cynibert. South Saxons; Selsey; Vacant. Northumbria; York; Wilfrid II. Lindisfarne; Ethelwald. Hexham; Acca. Whitern; Pechthelm.

1015 Aldbert was Bishop of Dunwich, Hadulac of Elmham.

1016 Cf. c. 18.

1017 Cf. _supra_, p. 379, note 6.

_ 1018 I.e._, in Herefordshire. It is not certain when the see of Hereford was founded. Besides Putta (_v._ IV, 2, and note), Florence of Worcester mentions Tyrhtel and Torthere as predecessors of Walhstod.

1019 This is Wilfrid, Bishop of Worcester, contemporary with Wilfrid II of York (_v._ IV, 23; V, 6). He succeeded St. Egwin, whom Bede strangely omits to mention, the successor of Oftfor (IV, 23). For the Hwiccas, _v._ II, 2, p. 84, and for the see of Worcester, IV, 23, p. 273, note 7.

1020 Cf. Preface, p. 4, and IV, 12. For Lindsey as a separate bishopric, _ibid._

1021 Cf. IV, 16.

1022 Cf. c. 18, _ad fin._, and notes.

1023 He was a son of Penda’s brother, Alweo. He had lived at one time in retirement near the hermitage of St. Guthlac, flying from the enmity of Ceolred, but on the death of the latter in 716, he succeeded to the throne. Though he is not included in Bede’s list of Bretwaldas (II, 5), he established the supremacy of Mercia for twenty years over all England south of the Humber, till in 754 Wessex freed itself in the battle of Burford. For his wars with Wessex and Northumbria, _v._ Continuation, _sub_ 740 and 750. There is a charter of his dated 749 in which he grants certain ecclesiastical privileges, “pro expiatione delictorum suorum.” His oppression of the Church and his private life are rebuked in the letter of Boniface and five German bishops addressed to him (_v._ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 350).

1024 Wilfrid II, _v._ IV, 23, and note; cf. V, 6.

1025 Cf. c. 12, p. 331, and note.

1026 III, 13, and note; cf. IV, 14; V, 20.

1027 Cf. cc. 13, 18. For the “White House” (Whitern), _v._ III, 4, and note. About this time (the exact date is not known) it became an Anglian see, a fact which indicates that in spite of the defeat of Egfrid in 685, which freed the Northern Picts, the Picts of Galloway were still subject to Northumbria. The bishopric came to an end about the close of the century, when the Northumbrian power had fallen into decay.

1028 The Scots of Dalriada (I, 1). They had recovered their liberty after the defeat and death of Egfrid; cf. IV, 26.

1029 Cf. _ibid._, and p. 376, note 1.

1030 External peace apparently. For the internal state of Northumbria, _v.s._ p. 378.

1031 For the accuracy of these dates, cf. the notes on the events as they occur in the narrative.

1032 The length of his pontificate is not mentioned in the narrative.

1033 This and the two following entries are not in the narrative.

1034 Ida was the first king of Bernicia, and one of the leaders of the English invasion. He conquered the country about Bamborough, which he is said to have founded (cf. III, 6), and settled his people here. Deira, which was for a time a separate kingdom, was finally united to Bernicia under the strong rule of Oswald, Ida’s great grandson (_ib. ad fin._), who through his mother, Acha, was descended also from the royal house of Deira.

1035 By Scotland, as usual, Ireland is meant.

1036 Wulfhere’s death is not mentioned in the narrative.

1037 This is not in the narrative. For Osthryth cf. III, 11; IV, 21.

1038 Not in the narrative. Berctred is probably to be identified with Berct in IV, 26 _ad init_. (Ulster Annals: “Brectrid”; Sax. Chron.: “Briht.”)

1039 Above it is said that he succeeded in 675, making his reign twenty-nine years, and this agrees with the Saxon Chronicle. Wilfrid, on his return to England in 705, found him already an abbot. (V, 19.)

1040 Not in the narrative. Bertfrid was Osred’s chief ealdorman, and was besieged with him in Bamborough by the usurper Eadwulf; cf. p. 342, note 2. We find him acting as spokesman in the Council on the Nidd (V, 19, p. 356) in demanding to have the Papal letters translated into English.

1041 For Bede’s life, _v._ Introduction.

1042 IV, 18, p. 257, note 3.

_ 1043 Ibid._

_ 1044 Ibid._, note 4, cf. V, 21.

1045 John of Beverley, IV, 23; V, 2-6.

1046 For a full account of Bede’s works, _v._ Plummer, vol. I, Introduction, or Dictionary of Christian Biography, _s.v._ “Beda.” Besides the works mentioned in this list, the following are certainly genuine:

The short “Epistola ad Albinum” (sent with a copy of the Ecclesiastical History).

“Retractationes in Acta.”

“Epistola ad Egberctum.”

“De locis Sanctis” (to which Bede alludes in V. 17). A number of other works, some certainly, others probably spurious, and a few possibly genuine, have been attributed to him.

1047 An answer to questions put to him by Nothelm (_v._ Preface, p. 2, note 4, and Continuation, _sub_ 735).

1048 “Parabolae” = comparisons. “Parabolae Salomonis” are the first words of the Book of Proverbs in the Vulgate.

_ 1049 I.e._, St. Paul.

1050 Isa., xxiv, 22.

1051 III, 3, note; cf. III, 25, p. 198.

1052 A priest of Nola in Campania. He was of Syrian extraction, but born at Nola, and ordained priest _circ._ 250 A.D. He was persecuted under Decius, and again under Valerian, but escaped. His history is told in the poems of Paulinus, Bishop of Nola (409-431).

1053 This work is not known to exist. Probably the saint is Anastasius the Younger, Patriarch of Antioch, killed in 610 by the Jews in a sedition on 21st December, and in the Roman martyrology honoured on that day as a martyr (_v._ Butler, “Lives of the Saints”).

1054 Cf. IV, 26-32.

1055 For Benedict and Ceolfrid, _v._ IV, 18. Huaetbert belonged to the monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow from his earliest childhood, and succeeded Ceolfrid as abbot in 716. He survived Bede. The latter dedicated his commentary on the Apocalypse and the De temp. Rat. to him under his name of Eusebius given him for his piety (_v._ Bede’s Hist. Abb. and Anon., Hist. Abb.).

1056 (Only names which have not occurred in the narrative are annotated; references for those already mentioned will be found in the Index.) The Continuation is by a later hand. But Mr. Plummer considers that the entries under the years 731, 732, 733 and 734, may have been added by Bede himself. They appear in the great Moore MS., and those for 733 and 734 also in another eighth century MS. The entries enclosed in square brackets are found in a fifteenth century MS.

1057 He succeeded Wilfrid II, and two years later became Archbishop of York (_v. infra_ under 735). It was to him that Bede addressed the “Epist. ad Egberctum.”

1058 Bishop of Lindsey.

1059 Bishop of Selsey.

_ 1060 I.e._, of York.

1061 Bishop of Hexham.

1062 Bishop of Whitern.

1063 The early authorities differ as to the year, but this is the traditional date, and is usually accepted.

1064 King of Northumbria 737-758 (_v. infra_); died in 768. He was a son of Eata, called by Nennius, Eata “Glinmaur,” a descendant of Ida, and was the brother of Archbishop Egbert. Under him the Northumbrian power revived for a period.

1065 He was the kinsman and predecessor of Cuthred (_v. infra_).

1066 Archbishop of Canterbury in succession to Nothelm. The first archbishop not buried in St. Augustine’s, _v._ II, 3, p. 90, note.

1067 Bishop of Lindisfarne in succession to Ethelwald (V, 12, _ad fin._, note).

1068 Probably a son of that Eadwulf who usurped the throne of Northumbria at Aldfrid’s death (V, 18); cf. Simeon of Durham, II, 38 (Rolls Series), “Arwine filius Eadulfi.”

1069 Not known.

1070 Charles Martel.

1071 Pippin the Short. Carloman resigned in 747, and became a monk.

1072 There is a letter of Boniface (_v._ Haddan and Stubbs III, 358) to a priest, Herefrid, who is supposed to be the man mentioned here.

1073 This seems confused and obscure. The West Saxons under Cuthred threw off the Mercian yoke in the insurrection which culminated in the battle of Burford (_v._ V. 23, p. 380, note 9). Oengus or Angus (the Brythonic form is Ungust), son of Fergus, was a Pictish king who crushed the Dalriadic Scots, and, in alliance with Eadbert of Northumbria, conquered the Britons of Strathclyde. But this does not explain the strange statement which brings him into connection with Ethelbald of Mercia. Nor is it told who Eanred was. Theudor was a king of the Britons of Strathclyde. Kyle is a district in Ayrshire.

1074 Adopting the emendation “quinto Idus” (Hussey). The date is thus right for the eclipses, but the year is the sixteenth of Eadbert. Probably the numeral (XVI) has fallen out, and the passage ought to run: “anno regni Eadbercti XVI, quinto Id. Ian.”

1075 The great missionary bishop of Germany, a West Saxon by birth. He crossed to the Continent _circ._ 716, and, supported by Charles Martel and his sons, evangelized Central Europe, became Archbishop of Mainz, and founded sees throughout Germany. Finally he was martyred in Frisland. Lul, a West Saxon, was his successor, not Redger, but it has been suggested that this may be another name for him. The pope is Stephen III.

1076 He is said by William of Malmesbury to have been the murderer of Ethelbald. After a year of anarchy Offa succeeded, and retrieved the position of Mercia.

1077 He was killed in an insurrection in 784. (Sax. Chron.)

1078 St. Matt. xi, 12. After Eadbert, Northumbria fell into a state of anarchy, obscure kings contending for the throne.

1079 Cf. _supra, sub_ 750.

1080 An aetheling killed by Moll, king of Northumbria, at a place called Edwin’s Cliff (Sax. Chron.).

1081 Of Northumbria.