356

WER-GYLD.

[IV

P 133 2 SOROREM EIVS OSTHRYD p 1701 15. MHB ind 'Osthryd.' Eddius 38 after Wilfrid's release from prison Ethelred's brother's son Beorthvald gave him an estate. deinde uigilante antiqui hostis inuidia Ethelredus rex et regina sua soror Ecgfridi regis, audientes hominem dei de patria expulsum et illic manentem et modicum quis- 5 centem, . . . Beorthvaldo in sua salute interdicunt, ut sub co unius diei spatium esset, pro adulatione Ecgfridi regis.

93

99

4 POPVLOS In.

7 ALTERVTRVM adv=inter se p 156 1 18.

9 MVLTA PECVNIAE Kemble Saxons in England bk 1 c 10 10 P 276. Among the Saxons the wer-gyld or life-price was the basis upon which all peaceful settlement of feud was established. A sum paid either in kind or in money, where money existed, was placed upon the life of every free man according to his rank in the state, his birth or his office. A corresponding sum was settled for every wound 15 that could be inflicted upon his person, for nearly every injury that could be done to his civil rights, his honour or his domestic peace; and further fines were appointed according to the peculiar adventitious circumstances that might appear to aggravate or extenuate the offence. From the operation of this principle no one was exempt, and the king 20 as well as the peasant was protected by the wer-gyld payable to his kinsmen and his people. The difference of the wer-gyld is the principal distinction between different classes: it defined the value of eich man's oath, his protection, the amount of his fines or exactions and it regulated the equivalent for his value.

25

IN

N the aforesaid battle a remarkable occurrence took place. A soldier named Imma was struck down and left for dead. He however revived and was departing from the battle field, when he 30 was discovered and carried a prisoner to one of king Aedilred's earls. He concealed that he was a soldier and pretended to be a rustic. At nights the earl caused him to be bound but his bonds were always marvellously loosed, for he had a brother Tunna abbot of a monastery at Tunnacaestir, who thinking him dead had masses said for his soul 35 at the celebration of which his bonds were straightway loosed. The earl thought he had some charm and questioned him, whereupon he related that his brother by his masses procured his release. He

22]

A PRISONER'S BONDS LOOSED.

357

also revealed his real condition, and the earl, who had promised not to kill him, sold him for a slave, but in that condition his bonds always fell off. At last he gave his oath to his master that he would pay his ransom or return, and so was allowed to go home. His relation of all 5 that had happened to him encouraged those who heard it in the use of masses. Some who had seen this very man Imma narrated the story to Beda.

Alcuin sanct Ebor 785-834 (11 250 Froben). Greg dial IV 57 'de quodam ab hostibus capto, cuius uincula oblationis hora soluebantur ; et 10 de Baraca nauta per salutarem hostiam a naufragio liberato'. id in euang hòm 37 8 (1 1631be Bened). Aelfric II 357 Thorpe. A similar story in uita Ioannis eleemosynarii § 49 (AA SS 23 Jan III 139a ed nou, ex metaphraste). Greg dial II 31 a look of Benedict's loosens the bonds of an innocent man. Eddius 37 no chains could be made to bind 15 Wilfrid. Baronius 603 12 when George the Cappadocian received the chalice, the chains fell from his hands. ibid 612 6 the chains of prisoners, whom Columban designed to baptise, crumbled like rotten wood. Ov met III 699 700 sponte sua patuisse fores lapsasque lacertis | sponte sua fama est nullo soluente catenas. DCass 20 LX 35 § 1 ή αὐτόματος τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ Διὸς ἄνοιξις. cf Ioseph b I vi 5 $ 3 (p 292 41 Dindorf). Greg Tur gl mart 1 184.

25

P 133 13 PRAEFATO C 21. REX AELFVINI so he is called by Eddins cited on p 132 1 30.

P 134 I MOX VT=simul ac.

2 VINCVLA SOLVTA a like effect is related concerning a prisoner who prayed to St Godehard (uit SG p 72 Brower) ex trunco magnae molis et fortitudinis quo conclusus fuerat integro remanente quasi ex liquida re sine laesione pedes reduxit. And in the Myroure of our Ladye' (EETS) p 292 we are told in an account of the mass that 30 “whyle Saynte Basyle said Kyrieleyson the church dores, that were locked ageynste him, opened."

4 HACTENVS to AD 731.

5 TUNNACAESTIR perhaps the Tovecester of the Domes day book 'a city and fortified place on the river Tove' on the north side of 35 which are the ruins of a Saxon tower. The letter n and u are frequently confounded by the decipherers of old MSS (Giles). Now Towcester in Northamptonshire.

6 VENIT QVAERERE inf of purpose p 22 1 19 n.

9 PRO ABSOLVTIONE ANIMAE EIVS MISSAS P 1201 26. p 135

358

MASSES FOR THE DEAD.

[IV

123. v 16 crypta..., in qua super altare pro defunctis honoratis sacrificium solet offerri. Greg dial IV 55 with Bened n. In 762 a benefit club was formed by 44 Frankish prelates at Attigny; when a member died, each of the other members engaged to say in person 30 masses, and procure 100 masses to be said for 5 his soul (Werner Bonif 453). Bugga to Boniface (Bonif ep 16 p 75 end Jaffé) deposco ut sanctarum missarum oblationes offerre digneris pro anima mei propinqui, qui mihi prae ceteris carus erat, cuius nomen erat N. ib ep 112 p 274 (from a vision of the other world) omnes animas in puteis quandoque solubiles esse, uel in die iu- 10 dicii aut ante. et narrabat unam feminam redemptam de aliquo puteo missarum sollemnitatibus. et hoc maximum bonum animabus egredientibus de corpore dixit. ibid ep 10 p 59 a dying monk leaves a request to his brother to emancipate a slave-woman, their joint property, pro anima eius. Greg III to Boniface cir 732 (ib ep 28 p 93) 15 pro obeuntibus quippe consuluisse dinosceris, si liceat oblationes offerre. sancta sic tenet ecclesia, ut quisque pro suis mortuis uere Christianis offerat oblationes atque presbyter eorum faciat memoriam. Rock church of cur fathers 1 71-76. Theodore's penitential II c 5 'de missa defunctorum' (Haddan-Stubbs III 194- 20 195). Some offered such masses for their living enemies, as a fatal spell conc Tolet XVII c 5 ut is, pro quo id ipsum offertur sacrificium, ipsius sacrosancti libaminis interuentu mortis ac perditionis incurrat periculum.

P 134 14 LITTERAS SOLVTORIAS of p 151 1 26. Suidas 'Epéota vpáμ- 25 ματα 'when an Ephesian and Milesian were wrestling, they say that the Milesian was unable to wrestle, because the other had tied “Ephesian letters" about his ancle. When these were untied, the Ephesian is said to have been thrown thirty times' (Smith).

23 DIXERAT p 133 1 26. NOBILIBVS the miles (p 133 1 25) was not a private v II (end) uiro illustri et ad saeculum quoque nobili, qui de milite factus fuerat monachus (Hussey). Sharon Turner AS bk VII C 12.

27 MINISTRVM thane II 9 (p 88 1 20 S) Lilla minister regi amicissimus is presently called miles. Sharon Turner AS 1117 168—174. 185. 202-6.

30

35

22 23]

121.

P 135 8 SORORIS Sexburg wife of Earconberct p 33 1 24. p 128

FRATREM P 134 1 3 and 16.

19 OBLATIONEM HOSTIAE SALVTARIS 1 23. V 10 (p 192 132 S) cotidie sacrificium deo uictimae salutaris offerebant. ha 16 of Ceolfrid cotidie missa cantata salutaris hostiae deo munus IO offerret. cf homil 10 (Migne XCIV 55"). Rock church of our fathers I 15-17.

99 23 24 PRO EREFTIONE SVORVM QVI DE SAECVLO MIGRAVERANT P 134 19 n.

27 HANC HISTORIAM this story forms the substance of a 15 sermon on the efficacy of the holy mass in Aelfric's homilies II 357. There are one or two renderings that are worth recording. The litterae solutoriae are translated witchcraft or runes', and Fresus 'a Frisian'; and miles is throughout rendered 'a thane' see p 133 1 25 n.

20

25

IN

[XXIII]

N the year 680 A D died Hild abbess of Strenaeshalch, at the age of sixty-six, the latter half of which she had spent in monastic life. She was a daughter of Hereric, nephew of king Eduin, and was baptised through the preaching of bishop Paulinus. She first retired to East Anglia, intending to go into the monastery of Cale in Gaul, where her sister Heresuid was already living. Bishop Aidan recalled her to her own country and she for one year lived the monastic life on the north bank of the Wear. After this she was made abbess at Heruteu and no long time after took up her abode at the city of Calcaria where she brought the monastery into strict order 30 and great fame. After this she undertook to set in order a monastery at Strenaeshalch which work she accomplished. She was famed for prudence, so that kings and princes sought her counsel. She made those who were of her monastery spend much of their time in reading the holy scriptures, and from the training of that monastery came 35 forth five holy bishops, Bosa who was made bishop of York, Aetla who was ordained to the bishopric of Dorchester, Oftfor, John and Wilfrid. Of the last two John was made bishop of Hagustald (Hexham)

360

THE ABBESS HILD.

[IV

and Wilfrid of the church of York, Oftfor went into Kent to archbishop Theodore, and afterwards to Rome. On his return to Britain he was elected bishop of the Huiccii and ordained by bishop Wilfrid. For Bosel the prelate of the Huiccii was too infirm to discharge his episcopal duties. Tatfrid, also from Hild's monastery, had been elected 5 bishop in that province before Bosel, but died before consecration.

The fame of Hild's piety extended to a distance, for her mother Bregusuid had dreamed while Hild was young and her husband Hereric in exile that he was suddenly taken from her and while seeking for him she discovered under her robe a most precious neck- 10 lace which appeared to shine with a light that filled all the limits of Britain. This dream was fulfilled in her daughter. This abbess Hild was sick with violent fever for six years, yet she never omitted her thanks to her Maker or the public and private teaching of her flock. In the seventh year of her sickness she came to her end, and I ̧ before her death exhorted the handmaids of Christ to keep peace with one another. On the night of her death God sent a vision indicative thereof to a holy woman named Begu, who lived in another monastery at Hacanos (Hackness), for Begu when resting in the dormitory heard suddenly the sound of the bell which was wont to be 20 rung when one of them died. The roof of the house appeared also to be uncovered and a great light to shine from above. She saw also the soul of Hild borne to heaven by angels. She told her vision at once and said that Hild the mother of them all had just departed from the world. The deputy-abbess who heard this roused all the 2 sisters to prayer and at dawn there came messengers announcing Hild's death. To them they related the account of this vision. Hacanos is thirteen miles distant from Strenaeshalch. It is also said that Hild appeared in a vision on the same night to one of the women of her own monastery, who, judging that the abbess was dead, called on 30 those who were with her to pray for her soul. Hier vit Malchi 7 f.

P 136 2 POST HVNC after the year of the battle on the Trent

17 RELICTO HABITV SAECVLARI AD 647 33 years before her

death 1 8.