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MIRACULOUS QUENCHING OF FIRE.

249

to the royal city of Bebbanburgh, which when the king could not take by siege he ordered to be set on fire. As materials for his fire he used the beams and timber work of the villages in the neighbourhood. When the wind was favorable for his purpose, he set the pile he had 5 made on fire. At this time bishop Aedan was in the island of Farne, and when he saw the flame he cried unto God, and the wind changing hurled back the flames on those who had kindled them. Terrified at this sign of the protection of heaven the enemy withdrew from the attack.

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Cuthbert in like manner quenched a fire by his prayers uita Cuthb 14. mirac 12. Alcuin carmen 280 (on Lindisfarne Migne ci 809*) praesulis egregii precibus se flamma retorsit | Aidani quondam Bebban ab urbe procul. See for a like miracle Higd Polychr VI 16.

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22 SECEDERE like retreats of Cuthbert and Eadberct IV 30.

27 MVTATI VENTI Adamn. uit Columb II 46 has several 20 stories of changes of wind procured by the prayers offered to

St Columba.

THE

XVII

'HE death of bishop Aedan took place at the king's country house not far from Bebbanburgh. There was a church and a room 25 adjoining provided for the bishop who used this and similar lodgings in his visits through the province. When he died he was leaning against a wooden prop which adjoined the wall of the church. He was buried in Lindisfarne in the cemetery of the brethren, but his remains were afterwards removed to the right side of the altar of the larger church built 30 there. Finan, also from Hii, was his successor. When a few years after his death the village where he died was burnt down by Penda, the prop against which the bishop had leaned was not consumed. It was also similarly preserved when by accident the village and church were again destroyed by fire. After this the wood was placed within the 35 church for the adoration of the worshippers, and miracles have been wrought both on the spot and by splinters conveyed from this wood.

Beda relates these miracles as a true historian though he cannot praise Aedan for his persistence in the erroneous time of observing

250 ERROR OF AEDAN CONCERNING EASTER. [III

Easter. But yet the bishop was a holy and humble man, and deeply observant of all evangelical, apostolical and prophetical teachings. Nor did he observe Easter on the fourteenth day of the moon on any day of the week, as the Jews observe the passover, but on the Lord's day from the fourteenth unto the twentieth, for he believed that our resurrection will 5 take place on the first day of the week, which we now call the Lord's day. P 49 2 COMPLETIS ANNIS EPISCOPATVS SVI XVI cf 1 14. P 77

1

4 the tenure of his episcopate is 17 years (current). He was brought to England by Oswald p 23 1 2 and died 31 Aug 651 (111 14 end); and between the death of Edwin 12 Oct 633 (11 20) and accession of 10 Oswald the better part of two years elapsed (III 1). Hence the shorter period is the true one.

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4 VRBE P 481 11.

6 AD PRAEDICANDVM CIRCVMQVAQVE compare the missionary tours of Cuthbert p 151 1 19-1521 19.

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epist ad Ecgb 3 pr.

PRIDIE KAL SEPT 31 Aug 651

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15

19 TRANSLATA p 42 1 3 n. p 77 1 26. Disputed translation 20 of Benedict Pagi 664 17-19. See a translation of Augustine Baronius 725 1-9. Pagi 725 1 2.

23 TEMPORE NON PAVCO ten years p 77 1 4 ie 651-661.

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P 50 1 15 ASTVLIS and 1 16 AQVAM P 21 1 7 notes.

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18 seq. cf p 23 1 4, p 69 1 28-p 70 1 5 and what is said of Colman c 26.

20 PASCHAE p 23 1 5 n.

25

21 IN LIBRO DE TEMPORIBVS pp 10-11. p 173 1 20. Beda 30 argues warmly against Victorius and his followers de temporum ratione 50 ('on lunar epacts'), 51 ('how some err in the beginning of the first month'), 59 ('of the fourteenth moon of passover', where he says of one class of his opponents, Migne xc 509 duplici miseria laborant, and of another ib° sunt qui in alteram partem a uia ueritatis, sed non 35 minore labantur errore).

99

22 QUASI VERAX HISTORICVS p 166 1 1–9.

28 FACIENDI ET DOCENDI P 27 1 23 n. With this character cf Wilfrid's in Eddius 11.

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SIGBERCT KING OF THE EAST ANGLES. 251

P 51 7 SVAE GENTIS AVCTORITATE p 69 1 30 of Aedan pascha contra morem eorum qui ipsum miserant facere non potuit. cf ib 1 9.

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QVIDAM among these seems to have been pope John IV as he asserts in his letter to the Scots see lib II 19.

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14 QVALIBET FERIA P 73 17. CVM IVDAEIS ie as they calculate the day of the passover feast.

99 15 A LVNA XIIII VSQVE AD XX 16 VNA SABBATI p 26 1 16. per unam sabbati, id est die dominico.

P 23 16.

Hier c Vigilant 14 (11 397)
Matt 28 Wetstein uia caß-

Bárov from Hebr. In classical Gr and Lat (as in Eng) found only in combination with ordinals Hdt v 89 εἷς καὶ τριήκοστος. Cic Cat mai § 13 uno et octogesimo anno. Gell XII § 5. XIII 13 § 4.

XVIII

BOUT this time Sigberct, brother of Earpuald, was king of the

baptised, and he introduced into his kingdom such schools and teachers as he had seen in his exile. He was assisted in this by bishop Felix. 20 After a time he resigned his kingdom to a kinsman Ecgric and entered a monastery of his own building. He was brought from his retirement to encourage the army when Penda king of Mercia was warring on East Anglia, but both he and Ecgric were slain in the battle, Sigberct having carried no weapon with him. After them Anna became king 25 in East Anglia, and was in the end slain by the same Penda.

P 51 21 EARPVALDVM II 15 the father Reduald had been baptised in Kent, but relapsed into heathenism. Earpuald was induced by Edwin to embrace Christianity with his whole province; which however, after the murder of Earpuald by the pagan Ricberct, remained in error for 30 three years, till Sigberct uir per omnia Christianissimus atque doctissimus (who had lived in Gaul during his brother's reign) became king, and by help of Felix, first bp of Dunwich, won back his province to the faith. Felix was bp 17 years, and was succeeded by Thomas, bp 5 years, and he by Berctgils or Boniface. All three were consecrated 35 by Honorius, who died 30 Sept 653 (III 20). Thus the latest date for Sigberct's accession is 631. See martyrol Angl 27 Sept. martyrol Gall suppl 7 Aug. Pagi 644 6-8.

252

SCHOOLS FOUNDED.

[III

P 51 22 EIVS ie Earpualdi: frater eius ex matre W Malmsb de reg I 5.

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27 SCHOLAM Fuller church hist cent VII § 46 'This Sigebert is generally reputed the founder of the university of Cambridge.' He discusses the point through §§ 46-60, noticing some of the works 5 written in the controversy between the two universities. Cambridge belonged to Mercia, not to East Anglia; otherwise it would not have been included in the Mercian diocese of Lincoln. So Henr Hunt (MHB 714a) regnum Estangle...continet Nordfolc et Sudfolc. Yet Wm Malmesb I § 102 says: reges Orientalium Anglorum dominabantur in 10 pago Grantebrigensi.

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28 FELICE AA SS Mar 1 779. Felix was a Burgundian by nation, see Will. Malms de pontif lib II who says that he had become a friend of Sigberct during his exile. Of the foundations of schools he says; scholas quoque litterarum oportunis locis instituens barbariem gentis 15 sensim comitate Latina informabat.

P 52 I COGNATO the relationship between Ecgric and Sigberct is not more accurately defined.

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2 PARTEM EIVSDEM REGNI P 44 1 19 n. p 113 1 22 subregulis.

3 INTRARET MONASTERIVM so Caedualla p 113 1 24 n. cf p 101 20 17 n. p 175 10. Stevenson 'the liber Eliensis (p 14 ed 1848) tells us that this was Betrichesworth (Bury). It ascribes the death of Sigeberct to 637. See monast Angl 1 285.'

18 de regio geNERE Flor Vigorn app chron in MHB 6360 Anna filius Eni fratris Redwaldi. cuius filia sancta Sexburga Erconberto 25 regi Cantuariorum in coniugio copulata est. altera filia sancia Aethelburga in Gallia in Brigensi monasterio abbatissa facta est. tertia sancta Aetheldritha prius Northumbrorum regina et post Eliensis extitit abbatissa. quarta sancta Withburga eiusdem monasterii sanctimonialis erat femina. Add Milburga nun of Ely and Sæthrytha abbess of Brie. Anna's uncle 30 Redwald (11 15 P 96 20 S) was filius Tytili. cuius pater fuit Vuffa, a quo reges Orientalium Anglorum Vuffingas appellant.

39 19 IN SEQVENTIBVS IV 19.

21 PRAEDECESSOR Sigberct 1 5—15. OCCISVS AD 654 liber Eliensis § 11 p 23 regni 19, which, if current, makes his accession 636, 35 as in Flor Vig (MHB 529°).

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VISIONS OF FURSEUS.

XIX

253

N the reign of king Sigberct Furseus a holy man from Ireland came

the converted much people by his preaching

This man was seized with a great sickness during which he beheld an 5 angelic vision, in consequence of which he made all speed to build a monastery on land given to him by the king. This was at Cnobheresburg. Anna afterwards enriched the monastery by his grants. In the monastery where he lived Furseus was transported from the body and beheld the countenances of the heavenly host. And on his recovery 10 from his trance he told of the songs of the angels. On the third day after he was again taken away in spirit and saw not only the joys of heaven but the torments of the evil spirits. This account is all recorded

in the book of the life of Furseus.

Beda however inserts one part of the story, and this he does because 15 it seems useful. When Furseus was rapt from his body he was bidden to look back on the world, and he saw a dark valley and four fires in the air. What these fires were the angels explained to him; and soon they became joined together into an immense flame. Furseus was terrified as the fire came near to him, but was told by the angel that the 20 fire which he had not kindled would not burn him. The angels could

pass through the flame, and in the midst were demons preparing fiery war against the just. He saw evil spirits and just, and the souls of holy men of his own nation who spake unto him things of wholesome import. When Furseus was near the flame the evil spirits cast against him one 25 whom they were tormenting in the fire, and thereby his shoulder and jaw were burnt. This happened because Furseus had received the gar. ment of this sinner when he died. When Furseus was restored to the body he bore a visible mark of the burning, and when he related his visions, as he was wont for those who asked him to do so by reason of 30 their own troubled consciences, even in the coldest weather, he was as

hot as in the heat of summer. Furseus afterwards became an anchorite and in the end retired to Gaul, where he built a monastery at Latineacum and there he died. His body was kept by Ercunuald the patrician buried in the porch of the church which he was building at Perrona, 35 till after the dedication. Then it was placed in a tomb near the altar. His body was again moved four years after and found to be incorrupt. The full history of Furseus may be found in the book of his life.

P 52 24 DE HIBERNIA VIR in the homily of Aelfric on the greater

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