by Bede
“God preserve you in safety, most dear brother!”
CHAP. 9
Quo tempore etiam gens Nordanhymbrorum, hoc est ea natio Anglorum, quae ad Aquilonalem Humbre fluminis plagam habitabat, cum rege suo Aeduino uerbum fidei praedicante Paulino, cuius supra meminimus, suscepit. Cui uidelicet regi, in auspicium suscipiendae fidei et regni caelestis, potestas etiam terreni creuerat imperii;
ita ut, quod nemo Anglorum ante eum, omnes Brittaniae fines, qua uel ipsorum uel Brettonum prouinciae habitabant, sub dicione acciperet.
Quin et Meuanias insulas, sicut et supra docuimus, imperio subiugauit Anglorum; quarum prior, quae ad austrum est, et situ amplior, et frugum prouentu atque ubertate felicior, nongentarum LX familiarum mensuram iuxta aestimationem Anglorum, secunda trecentarum et ultra spatium tenet.
Huic autem genti occasio fuit percipiendae fidei, quod praefatus rex eius cognatione iunctus est regibus Cantuariorum, accepta in coniugem Aedilbergae filia Aedilbercti regis, quae alio nomine Tatae uocabatur. Huius consortium cum primo ipse missis procis a fratre eius Aeodbaldo, qui tunc regno Cantuariorum praeerat, peteret;
responsum est non esse licitum Christianam uirginem pagano in coniugem dari, ne fides et sacramenta caelestis regis consortio profanarentur regis, qui ueri Dei cultus esset prorsus ignarus. Quae cum Aeduino uerba nuntii referrent, promisit se nil omnimodis contrarium Christianae fidei, quam uirgo colebat, esse facturum;
quin potius permissurum, ut fidem cultumque suae religionis cum omnibus, qui secum uenissent, uiris siue feminis, sacerdotibus seu ministris, more Christiano seruaret. Neque abnegauit se etiam eandem subiturum esse religionem; si tamen examinata a prudentibus sanctior ac Deo dignior posset inueniri.
Itaque promittitur uirgo, atque atduino mittitur, et iuxta quod dispositum fuerat, ordinatur episcopus uir Deo dilectus Paulinus, qui cum illa ueniret, eamque et comites eius, ne paganorum possent societate pollui, cotidiana et exhortatione, et sacramentorum caelestium celebratione confirmaret.
Ordinatus est autem Paulinus episcopus a Iusto archiepiscopo, sub die XII Kalendarum Augustarum, anno ab incarnatione Domini DCXXV; et sic cum praefata uirgine ad regem Aeduinum quasi comes copulae carnalis aduenit. Sed ipse potius toto animo intendens, ut gentem, quam adibat, ad agnitionem ueritatis aduocans, iuxta uocem apostoli, uni uero sponso uirginem castam exhiberet Christo. Cumque in prouinciam uenisset, laborauit multum, ut et eos, qui secum uenerant, ne a fide deficerent, Domino adiuuante contineret, et aliquos, si forte posset, de paganis ad fidei gratiam praedicando conuerteret. Sed sicut apostolus ait, quamuis multo tempore illo laborante in uerbo: ‘Deus saeculi huius excaecauit mentes infidelium, ne eis fulgeret inluminatio euangelii gloriae Christi.’
Anno autem sequente uenit in prouinciam quidam sicarius uocabulo Eumer, missus a rege Occidentalium Saxonum nomine Cuichelmo, sperans se regem Aeduinum regno simul et uita priuaturum; qui habebat sicam bicipitem toxicatam; ut si ferri uulnus minus ad mortem regis sufficeret, peste iuuaretur ueneni. Peruenit autem ad regem primo die paschae iuxta amnem Deruuentionem, ubi tunc erat uilla regalis, intrauitque quasi nuntium domini sui referens; et cum simulatam legationem ore astuto uolueret, exsurrexit repente, et, euaginata sub ueste sica, impetum fecit in regem. Quod cum uideret Lilla minister regi amicissimus, non habens scutum ad manum, quo regem a nece defenderet, mox interposuit corpus suum ante ictum pungentis;
sed tanta ui hostis ferrum infixit, ut per corpus militis occisi etiam regem uulneraret. Qui cum mox undique gladiis inpeteretur, in ipso tumultu etiam alium de militibus, cui nomen erat Fordheri, sica nefanda peremit. Eadem autem nocte sacrosancta dominici paschae pepererat regina filiam regi, cui nomen Atanfled. Cumque idem rex, praesente Paulino episcopo, gratias ageret diis suis pro nata sibi filia, e contra episcopus gratias coepit agere Domino Christo, regique adstruere, quod ipse precibus suis apud illum obtinuerit, ut regina sospes et absque dolore graui sobolem procrearet. Cuius uerbis delectatus rex, promisit se, abrenuntiatis idolis, Christo seruiturum, si uitam sibi et uictoriam donaret pugnanti aduersus regem, a quo homicida ille, qui eum uulnerauerat, missus est; et in pignus promissionis inplendae, eandem filiam suam Christo consecrandam Paulino episcopo adsignauit; quae baptizata est die sancto pentecostes prima de gente Nordanhymbrorum, cum XI aliis de familia eius.
Quo tempore curatus a uulnere sibi pridem inflicto, rex collecto exercitu uenit aduersus gentem Occidentalium Saxonum, ac bello inito uniuersos, quos in necem suam conspirasse didicerat, aut occidit, aut in deditionem recepit. Sicque uictor in patriam reuersus, non statim et inconsulte sacramenta fidei Christianae percipere uoluit;
quamuis nec idolis ultra seruiuit, ex quo se Christo seruiturum esse promiserat. Uerum primo diligentius ex tempore, et ab ipso uenerabili uiro Paulino rationem fidei ediscere, et cum suis primatibus, quos sapientiores nouerat, curauit conferre, quid de his agendum arbitrarentur. Sed et ipse, cum esset uir natura sagacissimus, saepe diu solus residens ore quidem tacito, sed in intimis cordis multa secum conloquens, quid sibi esset faciendum, quae religio seruanda tractabat.
Chap. IX.
Of the reign of King Edwin, and how Paulinus, coming to preach the Gospel, first converted his daughter and others to the mysteries of the faith of Christ. [625-626 a.d.]
At this time the nation of the Northumbrians, that is, the English tribe dwelling on the north side of the river Humber, with their king, Edwin, received the Word of faith through the preaching of Paulinus, of whom we have before spoken. This king, as an earnest of his reception of the faith, and his share in the heavenly kingdom, received an increase also of his temporal realm, for he reduced under his dominion all the parts of Britain that were provinces either of the English, or of the Britons, a thing which no English king had ever done before; and he even subjected to the English the Mevanian islands, as has been said above. The more important of these, which is to the southward, is the larger in extent, and more fruitful, containing nine hundred and sixty families, according to the English computation; the other contains above three hundred.
The occasion of this nation’s reception of the faith was the alliance by marriage of their aforesaid king with the kings of Kent, for he had taken to wife Ethelberg, otherwise called Tata, daughter to King Ethelbert. When he first sent ambassadors to ask her in marriage of her brother Eadbald, who then reigned in Kent, he received the answer, “That it was not lawful to give a Christian maiden in marriage to a pagan husband, lest the faith and the mysteries of the heavenly King should be profaned by her union with a king that was altogether a stranger to the worship of the true God.” This answer being brought to Edwin by his messengers, he promised that he would in no manner act in opposition to the Christian faith, which the maiden professed; but would give leave to her, and all that went with her, men and women, bishops and clergy, to follow their faith and worship after the custom of the Christians. Nor did he refuse to accept that religion himself, if, being examined by wise men, it should be found more holy and more worthy of God.
So the maiden was promised, and sent to Edwin, and in accordance with the agreement, Paulinus, a man beloved of God, was ordained bishop, to go with her, and by daily exhortations, and celebrating the heavenly Mysteries, to confirm her and her company, lest they should be corrupted by intercourse with the pagans. Paulinus was ordained bishop by the Archbishop Justus, on the 21st day of July, in the year of our Lord 625, and so came to King Edwin with the aforesaid maiden as an attendant on their union in the flesh. But his mind was wholly bent upon calling the nation to which he was sent to the knowledge of truth; according to the words of the Apostle, “To espouse her to the one true Husband, that he might present her as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Being come into that province, he laboured much, not only to retain those that went with him, by the help of God, that they should not abandon the faith, but, if haply he might, to convert some of the pagans to the grace of the faith by his preaching. But, as the Apostle says, though he laboured long in the Word, “The god of this world blinded the minds of them that believed not, lest the light of the gl
orious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them.”
The next year there came into the province one called Eumer, sent by the king of the West-Saxons, whose name was Cuichelm, to lie in wait for King Edwin, in hopes at once to deprive him of his kingdom and his life. He had a two-edged dagger, dipped in poison, to the end that, if the wound inflicted by the weapon did not avail to kill the king, it might be aided by the deadly venom. He came to the king on the first day of the Easter festival, at the river Derwent, where there was then a royal township, and being admitted as if to deliver a message from his master, whilst unfolding in cunning words his pretended embassy, he started up on a sudden, and unsheathing the dagger under his garment, assaulted the king. When Lilla, the king’s most devoted servant, saw this, having no buckler at hand to protect the king from death, he at once interposed his own body to receive the blow; but the enemy struck home with such force, that he wounded the king through the body of the slaughtered thegn. Being then attacked on all sides with swords, in the confusion he also slew impiously with his dagger another of the thegns, whose name was Forthhere.
On that same holy Easter night, the queen had brought forth to the king a daughter, called Eanfled. The king, in the presence of Bishop Paulinus, gave thanks to his gods for the birth of his daughter; and the bishop, on his part, began to give thanks to Christ, and to tell the king, that by his prayers to Him he had obtained that the queen should bring forth the child in safety, and without grievous pain. The king, delighted with his words, promised, that if God would grant him life and victory over the king by whom the murderer who had wounded him had been sent, he would renounce his idols, and serve Christ; and as a pledge that he would perform his promise, he delivered up that same daughter to Bishop Paulinus, to be consecrated to Christ. She was the first to be baptized of the nation of the Northumbrians, and she received Baptism on the holy day of Pentecost, along with eleven others of her house. At that time, the king, being recovered of the wound which he had received, raised an army and marched against the nation of the West-Saxons; and engaging in war, either slew or received in surrender all those of whom he learned that they had conspired to murder him. So he returned victorious into his own country, but he would not immediately and unadvisedly embrace the mysteries of the Christian faith, though he no longer worshipped idols, ever since he made the promise that he would serve Christ; but first took heed earnestly to be instructed at leisure by the venerable Paulinus, in the knowledge of faith, and to confer with such as he knew to be the wisest of his chief men, inquiring what they thought was fittest to be done in that case. And being a man of great natural sagacity, he often sat alone by himself a long time in silence, deliberating in the depths of his heart how he should proceed, and to which religion he should adhere.
CHAP. 10
Quo tempore exhortatorias ad fidem litteras a pontifice sedis apostolicae Bonifatio accepit, quarum ista est forma:
Exemplar epistulae beatissimi et apostolici papae urbis Romanae ecclesiae Bonifatii directae uiro glorioso Ãduino regi Anglorum. Uiro glorioso Aeduino regi Anglorum, Bonifatius episcopus seruus seruorum Dei.
Licet summae diuinitatis potentia humanae locutionis officiis explanari non ualeat, quippe quae sui magnitudine ita inuisibili atque inuestigabili aeternitate consistit, ut haec nulla ingenii sagacitas, quanta sit, conprendere disserereque sufficiat; quia tamen eius humanitas ad insinuationem sui reseratis cordis ianuis, quae de semet ipsa proferetur secreta humanis mentibus inspiratione clementer infundit; ad adnuntiandam uobis plenitudinem fidei Christianae sacerdotalem curauimus sollicitudinem prorogare, ut perinde Christi euangelium, quod Saluator noster omnibus praecepit gentibus praedicari, uestris quoque sensibus inserentes, salutis uestrae remedia propinentur. Supernae igitur maiestatis clementia, quae cuncta solo uerbo praeceptionis suae condidit et creauit, caelum uidelicet et terram, mare et omnia, quae in eis sunt, dispositis ordinibus, quibus subsisterent, coaeterni Uerbi sui consilio, et Sancti Spiritus unitate dispensans, hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem suam ex limo terrae plasmatum constituit, eique tantam praemii praerogatiuam indulsit, ut eum cunctis pracponeret, atque seruato termino praeceptionis, aeternitatis subsistentia praemuniret. Hunc ergo Deum Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, quod est indiuidua Trinitas, ab ortu solis usque ad occasum, humanum genus, quippe ut creatorem omnium atque factorem suum, salutifera confessione fide ueneratur et colit; cui etiam summitates imperii rerumque potestates submissae sunt, quia eius dispositione omnium praelatio regnorum conceditur. Eius ergo bonitatis misericordia totius creaturae suae dilatandi subdi etiam in extremitate terrae positarum gentium corda frigida, Sancti Spiritus feruore in sui quoque agnitione mirabiliter est dignata succendere.
Quae enim in gloriosi filii nostri Audubaldi regis gentibusque ei subpositis inlustratione, clementia Redemtoris fuerit operata, plenius ex uicinitate locorum uestram gloriam conicimus cognouisse.
Eius ergo mirabile donum et in uobis certa spe, caelesti longanimitate conferri confidimus; cum profecto gloriosam coniugem uestram, quae uestri corporis pars esse dinoscitur, aeternitatis praemio per sacri baptismatis regenerationem inluminatam agnouimus.
Unde praesenti stilo gloriosos uos adhortandos cum omni affectu intimae caritatis curauimus;
quatinus abominatis idolis eorumque cultu, spretisque fanorum fatuitatibus, et auguriorum deceptabilibus blandimentis, credatis in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, eiusque Filium Iesum Christum, et Spiritum Sanctum, ut credentes, a diabolicae captiuitatis nexibus, sanctae et indiuiduae Trinitatis cooperante potentia, absoluti, aeternae uitae possitis esse participes.
Quanta autem reatitudinis culpa teneantur obstricti hi, qui idolatriarum perniciosissimam superstitionem colentes amplectuntur, eorum, quos colunt, exempla perditionis insinuant; unde de eis per psalmistam dicitur: ‘Omnes dii gentium daemonia, Dominus autem caelos fecit.’ Et iterum: ‘Oculos habent, et non uident; aures habent, et non audiunt; nares habent, et non odorabunt; manus habent, et non palpabunt; pedes habent, et non ambulabunt; similes ergo efficiuntur his, qui spem suae confidentiae ponunt in eis.’
Quomodo enim iuuandi quemlibet possunt habere uirtutem hi, qui ex corruptibili materia inferiorum etiam subpositorumque tibi manibus construuntur; quibus uidelicet artificium humanum adcommodans eis inanimatam membrorum similitudinem contulisti; qui, nisi a te moti fuerint, ambulare non poterunt, sed tamquam lapis in uno loco posita, ita constructi nihilque intellegentiae habentes, ipsaque insensibilitate obruti, nullam nequc ledendi neque iuuandi facultatem adepti sunt? Qua ergo mentis deceptione eos deos, quibus uos ipsi imaginem corporis tradidistis, colentes sequimini, iudicio discreto repperire non possumus.
Unde oportet uos, suscepto signo sanctae crucis, per quod humanum genus redemtum est, execrandam diabolicae uersutiae supplantationem, qui diuinae bonitatis operibus inuidus aemulusque consistit, a cordibus uestris abicere, iniectisque manibus hos, quos eatenus materiae conpage uobis deos fabricastis, confringendos diminuendosque summopere procurate. Ipsa enim eorum dissolutio corruptioque, quae numquam uiuentem spiritum habuit, nec sensibilitatem a suis factoribus potuit quolibet modo suscipere, uobis patenter insinuet, quam nihil erat, quod eatenus colebatis;
dum profecto meliores uos, qui spiritum uiuentem a Domino percepistis, eorum constructioni nihilominus existatis; quippe quos Deus omnipotens ex primi hominis, quem plasmauit, cognatione, deductis per saecula innumerabilibus propaginibus, pullulare constituit. Accedite ergo ad agnitionem eius, qui uos creauit, qui in uobis uitae insufflauit spiritum, qui pro uestra redemtione Filium suum unigenitum misit, ut uos ab originali peccato eriperet, et ereptos de potestate nequitiac diabolicae prauitatis caelestibus praemiis muneraret.
Suscipite uerba praedicatorum, et euangelium Dei, quod uobis adnuntiant; quatinus credentes, sicut saepius dictum est, in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, et in Iesum Christum eius Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, et inseparabilem Trinitatem; fugatis daemoniorum sensibus, expulsaque a uobis sollicitatione uenenosi et deceptibilis hostis, per aquam et Spiritum Sanctum renati ei, cui credideritis, in splendore glori
ae sempiternae cohabitare, eius opitulante munificentia ualeatis.
Praeterea benedictionem protectoris uestri beati Petri apostolorum principis uobis direximus, id est camisia cum ornatura in auro una, et lena Anciriana una; quod petimus, ut eo benignitatis animo gloria uestra suscipiat, quo a nobis noscitur destinatum.
Chap. X.
How Pope Boniface, by letter, exhorted the same king to embrace the faith. [Circ. 625 a.d.]
At this time he received a letter from Pope Boniface exhorting him to embrace the faith, which was as follows:
COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE MOST BLESSED AND APOSTOLIC POPE OF THE CHURCH OF THE CITY OF ROME, BONIFACE, ADDRESSED TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS EDWIN, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
“To the illustrious Edwin, king of the English, Bishop Boniface, the servant of the servants of God. Although the power of the Supreme Deity cannot be expressed by the function of human speech, seeing that, by its own greatness, it so consists in invisible and unsearchable eternity, that no keenness of wit can comprehend or express how great it is; yet inasmuch as His Humanity, having opened the doors of the heart to receive Himself, mercifully, by secret inspiration, puts into the minds of men such things as It reveals concerning Itself, we have thought fit to extend our episcopal care so far as to make known to you the fulness of the Christian faith; to the end that, bringing to your knowledge the Gospel of Christ, which our Saviour commanded should be preached to all nations, we might offer to you the cup of the means of salvation.
