Complete Works of Bede

by Bede

  At this time, the monastery of virgins, called the city of Coludi, above-mentioned, was burned down, through carelessness; and yet all that knew it might have been aware that it happened by reason of the wickedness of those who dwelt in it, and chiefly of those who seemed to be the greatest. But there wanted not a warning of the approaching punishment from the Divine mercy whereby they might have been led to amend their ways, and by fasting and tears and prayers, like the Ninevites, have averted the anger of the just Judge.

  For there was in that monastery a man of the Scottish race, called Adamnan, leading a life entirely devoted to God in continence and prayer, insomuch that he never took any food or drink, except only on Sundays and Thursdays; and often spent whole nights in watching and prayer. This strictness in austerity of life he had first adopted from the necessity of correcting the evil that was in him; but in process of time the necessity became a custom.

  For in his youth he had been guilty of some sin for which, when he came to himself, he conceived a great horror, and dreaded lest he should be punished for the same by the righteous Judge. Betaking himself, therefore, to a priest, who, he hoped, might show him the way of salvation, he confessed his guilt, and desired to be advised how he might escape the wrath to come. The priest having heard his offence, said, “A great wound requires greater care in the healing thereof; wherefore give yourself as far as you are able to fasting and psalms, and prayer, to the end that thus coming before the presence of the Lord in confession,” you may find Him merciful. But he, being oppressed with great grief by reason of his guilty conscience, and desiring to be the sooner loosed from the inward fetters of sin, which lay heavy upon him, answered, “I am still young in years and strong of body, and shall, therefore, easily bear all whatsoever you shall enjoin me to do, if so be that I may be saved in the day of the Lord, even though you should bid me spend the whole night standing in prayer, and pass the whole week in abstinence.” The priest replied, “It is much for you to continue for a whole week without bodily sustenance; it is enough to observe a fast for two or three days; do this till I come again to you in a short time, when I will more fully show you what you ought to do, and how long to persevere in your penance.” Having so said, and prescribed the measure of his penance, the priest went away, and upon some sudden occasion passed over into Ireland, which was his native country, and returned no more to him, as he had appointed. But the man remembering this injunction and his own promise, gave himself up entirely to tears of penitence, holy vigils and continence; so that he only took food on Thursdays and Sundays, as has been said; and continued fasting all the other days of the week. When he heard that his priest had gone to Ireland, and had died there, he ever after observed this manner of abstinence, which had been appointed for him as we have said; and as he had begun that course through the fear of God, in penitence for his guilt, so he still continued the same unremittingly for the love of God, and through delight in its rewards.

  Having practised this carefully for a long time, it happened that he had gone on a certain day to a distance from the monastery, accompanied by one the brothers; and as they were returning from this journey, when they drew near to the monastery, and beheld its lofty buildings, the man of God burst into tears, and his countenance discovered the trouble of his heart. His companion, perceiving it, asked what was the reason, to which he answered: “The time is at hand when a devouring fire shall reduce to ashes all the buildings which you here behold, both public and private.” The other, hearing these words, when they presently came into the monastery, told them to Aebba, the mother of the community. She with good cause being much troubled at that prediction, called the man to her, and straitly questioned him concerning the matter and how he came to know it. He answered, “Being engaged one night lately in watching and singing psalms, on a sudden I saw one standing by me whose countenance I did not know, and I was startled at his presence, but he bade me not to fear, and speaking to me like a friend he said, ‘You do well in that you have chosen rather at this time of rest not to give yourself up to sleep, but to continue in watching and prayer.’ I answered, ‘I know I have great need to continue in wholesome watching and earnest prayer to the Lord to pardon my transgressions.’ He replied, ‘You speak truly, for you and many more have need to redeem their sins by good works, and when they cease from temporal labours, then to labour the more eagerly for desire of eternal blessings; but this very few do; for I, having now gone through all this monastery in order, have looked into the huts and beds of all, and found none of them except yourself busy about the health of his soul; but all of them, both men and women, are either sunk in slothful sleep, or are awake in order to commit sin; for even the cells that were built for prayer or reading, are now converted into places of feasting, drinking, talking, and other delights; the very virgins dedicated to God, laying aside the respect due to their profession, whensoever they are at leisure, apply themselves to weaving fine garments, wherewith to adorn themselves like brides, to the danger of their state, or to gain the friendship of strange men; for which reason, as is meet, a heavy judgement from Heaven with raging fire is ready to fall on this place and those that dwell therein.’ ” The abbess said, “Why did you not sooner reveal to me what you knew?” He answered, “I was afraid to do it, out of respect to you, lest you should be too much afflicted; yet you may have this comfort, that the blow will not fall in your days.” This vision being made known, the inhabitants of that place were for a few days in some little fear, and leaving off their sins, began to do penance; but after the death of the abbess they returned to their former defilement, nay, they committed worse sins; and when they said “Peace and safety,” the doom of the aforesaid judgement came suddenly upon them.

  That all this fell out after this manner, was told me by my most reverend fellow-priest, Aedgils, who then lived in that monastery. Afterwards, when many of the inhabitants had departed thence, on account of the destruction, he lived a long time in our monastery, and died there. We have thought fit to insert this in our History, to admonish the reader of the works of the Lord, how terrible He is in His doing toward the children of men, lest haply we should at some time or other yield to the snares of the flesh, and dreading too little the judgement of God, fall under His sudden wrath, and either in His righteous anger be brought low with temporal losses, or else be more strictly tried and snatched away to eternal perdition.

  CHAP. 26

  Anno dominicae incarnationis DCLXXXIIII. Ecgfrid rex Nordanhymbrorum, misso Hiberniam cum exercitu duce Bercto, uastauit misere gentem innoxiam, et nationi Anglorum semper amicissimam, ita ut ne ecclesiis quidem aut monasteriis manus parceret hostilis. At insulani et, quantum ualuere, armis arma repellebant, et inuocantes diuinae auxilium pietatis, caelitus se uindicari continuis diu inprecationibus postulabant. Et quamuis maledici regnum Dei possidere non possint, creditum est tamen, quod hi, qui merito impietatis suae maledicebantur, ocius Domino uindice poenas sui reatus luerent. Siquidem anno post hunc proximo idem rex, cum temere exercitum ad uastandam Pictorum prouinciam duxisset, multum prohibentibus amicis, et maxime beatae memoriae Cudbercto, qui nuper fuerat ordinatus episcopus, introductus est, simulantibus fugam hostibus, in angustias inaccessorum montium, et cum maxima parte copiarum, quas secum adduxerat, extinctus anno aetatis suae XL.,

  regni autem XV., die XIII. Kalendarum Iuniarum. Et quidem, ut dixi, prohibuerunt amici, ne hoc bellum iniret; sed, quoniam anno praecedente noluerat audire reuerentissimum patrem Ecgberctum, ne Scottiam nil se ledentem inpugnaret, datum est illi ex poena peccati illius, ne nunc eos, qui ipsum ab interitu reuocare cupiebant, audiret.

  Ex quo tempore spes coepit et uirtus regni Anglorum ‘fluere ac retro sublapsa referri.’ Nam et Picti terram possessionis suae, quam tenuerunt Angli; et Scotti, qui erant in Brittania; Brettonum quoque pars nonnulla libertatem receperunt; quam et hactenus habent per annos circiter XLVI; ubi inter plurimos gentis Anglorum, uel interemtos gladio, uel seruitio addictos, uel de terra Pictorum fuga lapsos, etiam reuerentissimus
uir Domini Trumuini, qui in eos episcopatum acceperat, recessit cum suis, qui erant in monasterio Aebbercurnig, posito quidem in regione Anglorum, sed in uicinia freti, quod Anglorum terras Pictorumque disterminat; eosque, ubicumque poterat, amicis per monasteria commendans, ipse in saepedicto famulorum famularumque Dei monasterio, quod uocatur Streanæshalch, locum mansionis elegit; ibique cum paucis suorum in monachica districtione uitam non sibi solummodo, sed et multis utilem, plurimo annorum tempore duxit; ubi etiam defunctus, in ecclesia beati Petri apostoli iuxta honorem et uita et gradu eius condignum conditus est. Praeerat quidem tunc eidem monasterio regia uirgo Aelbfled, una cum matre Eanflede, quarum supra fecimus mentionem. Sed, adueniente illuc episcopo, maximum regendi auxilium, simul et suae uitae solacium deuota Deo doctrix inuenit. Successit autem Ecgfrido in regnum Aldfrid, uir in scripturis doctissimus, qui frater eius et filius Osuiu regis esse dicebatur; destructumque regni statum, quamuis intra fines angustiores, nobiliter recuperauit.

  Quo uidelicet anno, qui est ab incarnatione dominica DCLXXXV.,

  Hlotheri Cantuariorum rex, cum post Ecgberctum fratrem suum, qui VIIII annis regnauerat, ipse XII annis regnasset, mortuus erat VIII.

  Idus Februarias. Uulneratus namque est in pugna Australium Saxonum, quos contra eum Edric filius Ecgbercti adgregarat, et inter medendum defunctus. Ac post eum idem Edric anno uno ac dimidio regnauit; quo defuncto, regnum illud aliquod temporis spatium reges dubii uel externi disperdiderunt; donec legitimus rex Uictred, id est filius Ecgbercti, confortatus in regno, religione simul et industria gentem suam ab extranea inuasione liberaret.

  Chap. XXVI.

  Of the death of the Kings Egfrid and Hlothere. [684-685 a.d.]

  In the year of our Lord 684, Egfrid, king of the Northumbrians, sending his general, Berct, with an army into Ireland, miserably laid waste that unoffending nation, which had always been most friendly to the English; insomuch that the invading force spared not even the churches or monasteries. But the islanders, while to the utmost of their power they repelled force with force, implored the assistance of the Divine mercy, and with constant imprecations invoked the vengeance of Heaven; and though such as curse cannot inherit the kingdom of God, yet it was believed, that those who were justly cursed on account of their impiety, soon suffered the penalty of their guilt at the avenging hand of God. For the very next year, when that same king had rashly led his army to ravage the province of the Picts, greatly against the advice of his friends, and particularly of Cuthbert, of blessed memory, who had been lately ordained bishop, the enemy made a feigned retreat, and the king was drawn into a narrow pass among remote mountains, and slain, with the greater part of the forces he had led thither, on the 20th of May, in the fortieth year of his age, and the fifteenth of his reign. His friends, as has been said, advised him not to engage in this war; but since he had the year before refused to listen to the most reverend father, Egbert, advising him not to attack the Scots, who were doing him no harm, it was laid upon him as a punishment for his sin, that he should now not listen to those who would have prevented his death.

  From that time the hopes and strength of the Anglian kingdom “began to ebb and fall away;” for the Picts recovered their own lands, which had been held by the English, and so did also the Scots that were in Britain; and some of the Britons regained their liberty, which they have now enjoyed for about forty-six years. Among the many English that then either fell by the sword, or were made slaves, or escaped by flight out of the country of the Picts, the most reverend man of God, Trumwine, who had been made bishop over them, withdrew with his people that were in the monastery of Aebbercurnig, in the country of the English, but close by the arm of the sea which is the boundary between the lands of the English and the Picts. Having commended his followers, wheresoever he could, to his friends in the monasteries, he chose his own place of abode in the monastery, which we have so often mentioned, of servants and handmaids of God, at Streanaeshalch; and there for many years, with a few of his own brethren, he led a life in all monastic austerity, not only to his own benefit, but to the benefit of many others, and dying there, he was buried in the church of the blessed Peter the Apostle, with the honour due to his life and rank. The royal virgin, Elfled, with her mother, Eanfled, whom we have mentioned before, then presided over that monastery; but when the bishop came thither, that devout teacher found in him the greatest help in governing, and comfort in her private life. Aldfrid succeeded Egfrid in the throne, being a man most learned in the Scriptures, said to be brother to Egfrid, and son to King Oswy; he nobly retrieved the ruined state of the kingdom, though within narrower bounds.

  The same year, being the 685th from the Incarnation of our Lord, Hlothere, king of Kent, died on the 6th of February, when he had reigned twelve years after his brother Egbert, who had reigned nine years: he was wounded in battle with the South Saxons, whom Edric, the son of Egbert, had raised against him, and died whilst his wound was being dressed. After him, this same Edric reigned a year and a half. On his death, kings of doubtful title, or of foreign origin, for some time wasted the kingdom, till the lawful king, Wictred, the son of Egbert, being settled in the throne, by his piety and zeal delivered his nation from foreign invasion.

  CHAP. 27

  Ipso etiam anno, quo finem uitae accepit rex Ecgfrid, episcopum, ut diximus, fecerat ordinari Lindisfarnensium ecclesiae uirum sanctum et uenerabilem Cudberctum, qui in insula permodica, quae appellatur Farne, et ab eadem ecclesia nouem ferme milibus passuum in Oceano procul abest, uitam solitariam per annos plures in magna corporis et mentis continentia duxerat. Qui quidem a prima aetate pueritiae studio religiosae uitae semper ardebat, sed ab ineunte adulescentia monachicum et nomen adsumsit, et habitum.

  Intrauit autem primo monasterium Mailros, quod in ripa Tuidi fluminis positum tunc abbas Eata, uir omnium mansuetissimus ac simplicissimus, regebat, qui postea episcopus Hagustaldensis siue Lindisfarnensis ecclesiae factus est, ut supra memorauimus; cui tempore illo propositus Boisil magnarum uirtutum et prophetici spiritus sacerdos fuit. Huius discipulatui Cudberct humiliter subditus, et scientiam ab eo scripturarum, et bonorum operum sumsit exempla.

  Qui postquam migrauit ad Dominum, Cudberct eidem monasterio factus propositus, plures et auctoritate magistri, et exemplo suae actionis regularem instituebat ad uitam. Nec solum ipsi monasterio regularis uitae monita, simul et exempla praebebat, sed et uulgus circumpositum longe lateque a uita stultae consuetudinis ad caelestium gaudiorum conuertere curabat amorem. Nam et multi fidem, quam habebant, iniquis profanabant operibus; et aliqui etiam tempore mortalitatis, neglectis fidei sacramentis, quibus erant inbuti, ad erratica idolatriae medicamina concurrebant; quasi missam a Deo conditore plagam per incantationes uel fylacteria uel alia quaelibet daemonicae artis arcana cohibere ualerent. Ad utrorumque ergo corrigendum errorem, crebro ipse de monasterio egressus, aliquoties equo sedens, sed saepius pedes incedens, circumpositas ueniebat ad uillas, et uiam ueritatis praedicabat errantibus; quod ipsum etiam Boisil suo tempore facere consueuerat. Erat quippe moris eo tempore populis Anglorum, ut ueniente in uillam clerico uel presbytero, cuncti ad eius imperium uerbum audituri confluerent; libenter ea, quae dicerentur, audirent; libentius, quae audire et intellegere poterant, operando sequerentur. Porro Cudbercto tanta erat dicendi peritia, tantus amor persuadendi, quae coeperat, tale uultus angelici lumen, ut nullus praesentium latebras ei sui cordis celare praesumeret; omnes palam, quae gesserant, confitendo proferrent, quia nimirum haec eadem illum latere nullo modo putabant; et confessa dignis, ut imperabat, poenitentiae fructibus abstergerent.

  Solebat autem ea maxime loca peragrare, illis praedicare in uiculis, qui in arduis asperisque montibus procul positi aliis horrori erant ad uisendum, et paupertate pariter ac rusticitate sua doctorum arcebant accessum. Quos tamen ille pio libenter mancipatus labori, tanta doctrinae solertis excolebat industria, ut de monasterio egressus, saepe ebdomade integra, aliquando duabus uel tribus, nonnumquam etiam mense pleno domum non rediret; sed demoratus in montanis, plebem rusticam uerbo praedicationis simul
et opere uirtutis ad caelestia uocaret.

  Cum ergo uenerabilis Domini famulus multos in Mailronensi monasterio degens annos magnis uirtutum signis effulgeret, transtulit eum reuerentissimus abbas ipsius Eata ad insulam Lindisfarnensium, ut ibi quoque fratribus custodiam disciplinae regularis et auctoritate propositi intimaret et propria actione praemonstraret. Nam et ipsum locum tunc idem reuerentissimus pater abbatis iure regebat. Siquidem a temporibus ibidem antiquis, et episcopus cum clero, et abbas solebat manere cum monachis; qui tamen et ipsi ad curam episcopi familiariter pertinerent. Quia nimirum Aidan, qui primus eius loci episcopus fuit, cum monachis illuc et ipse monachus adueniens monachicam in eo conuersationem instituit; quomodo et prius beatus pater Augustinus in Cantia fecisse noscitur, scribente ei reuerentissimo papa Gregorio, quod et supra posuimus. ‘Sed quia tua fraternitas,’ inquit, ‘monasterii regulis erudita seorsum fieri non debet a clericis suis, in ecclesia Anglorum, quae nuper auctore Deo ad fidem perducta est, hanc debet conuersationem instituere, quae initio nascentis ecclesiae fuit patribus nostris; in quibus nullus eorum ex his, quae possidebant, aliquid suum esse dicebat, sed erant eis omnia communia.’

  Chap. XXVII.

  How Cuthbert, a man of God, was made bishop; and how he lived and taught whilst still in the monastic life. [685 a.d.]

  In the same year in which King Egfrid departed this life, he, as has been said, caused the holy and venerable Cuthbert to be ordained bishop of the church of Lindisfarne. He had for many years led a solitary life, in great continence of body and mind, in a very small island, called Farne, in the ocean about nine miles distant from that same church. From his earliest childhood he had always been inflamed with the desire of a religious life; and he adopted the name and habit of a monk when he was quite a young man: he first entered the monastery of Mailros, which is on the bank of the river Tweed, and was then governed by the Abbot Eata, a man of great gentleness and simplicity, who was afterward made bishop of the church of Hagustald or Lindisfarne, as has been said above. The provost of the monastery at that time was Boisil, a priest of great virtue and of a prophetic spirit. Cuthbert, humbly submitting himself to this man’s direction, from him received both a knowledge of the Scriptures, and an example of good works.