21, 22] EAST SAXONS RETURN TO CHRISTIANITY. 261

uilla regia 12 miles from the east coast). According to Smith, Walbottle near Newcastle, Stubbs suggests Walton. The number of names compounded with Wal is great in that locality.

ΙΟ

15

20

23 MORTEM PENDAN 15 Nov III 24. PENDAN this is the Saxon genitive form of masculine nouns of the weak declension.

24 IN SEQVENTIBVS III 24.

27 ORDINATVS 656 Anglia sacra 1 424. DCB 1 864.

99 31 INFEPPINGVM the locality is uncertain. Smith suggests Reppington in Derbyshire. See also Camden Brit col 491. The Saxon

version has On Feppingum.

32 CEOLLACH p 67 1 22. Anglia sacra I 425. ET IPSE

3 TRVMHERI P 67 1 24-31.

6 SEQVENTIBVS IV 24 end.

IO SIGBERCT the second Sigberct the proselyte is distinguished as Sigberct bonus (Smith).

20 INVISIBILEM the whole passage reads like an extract from or paraphrase of a creed.

XXII

AT

the entreaty of king Osuiu the East Saxons returned to the Christian faith. Sigberct their king was a friend of Osuiu and 25 was often admonished and instructed by that monarch when he came to visit the province of the Northumbrians. Osuiu spake to him of the nature of God, of his government of the world, and of the future happiness of those who serve him. At last Sigberct consented to be baptised, and his friends were baptised with him at Ad Murum. At 30 his earnest request Cedd was called from the province of the middle Angles and along with him another priest was sent to preach to the East Saxons. Cedd's labours being attended with success he was ordained bishop of the East Saxons by Finan. When Cedd returned he built many churches and ordained clergy. He also established 35 monastic institutions among the Christians.

In the midst of all this progress king Sigberct was murdered by two brothers his relatives, who were aggrieved at the too merciful

262

DEATH OF SIGBERCT.

[III

tendency of his character. But Sigberct had been guilty of a great fault for which he was punished by his death. He had gone to a feast with one of those earls who murdered him though the man was living in unlawful wedlock. Cedd foretold that he should die in that earl's house.

Suidhelm son of Sexbald succeeded Sigberct. He was baptised by bishop Cedd and Aediluald king of the East Angles and brother of Anna was his sponsor.

P 61 2 SVPRA P 59 1 5.

5

23 YTHANCAESTIR called Othona by the Romans. It was

24 TILABVRG Tilbury in Essex on the Thames.

near Dengie in Essex.

25 PENTAE now the Freshwell one of the two springs of

which is still called Pant's well (Camden).

for.'

27 REGVLARIS P 64 1 32.

15

P 62 18 NAM refers to ANTE PEDES 17, 'at his feet, I say, 20

22 MORI HABES glossary 'habeo.'

23 MORS 1 1-7.

28 CEDDE there were thus two bishops of the East Angles. Perhaps Boniface represented the church in connexion with Rome, 25 and Cedd the independent church.

127.

12.

99 29 RENDLAESHAM Rendlesham is on the Deben in Suffolk.

30 SVSCEPIT so Oswald was godfather of Cynigils p 30

31 ORIENTALIVM ANGLORVM in the diocese of Boniface p 58 30

XXIII

B

ISHOP Cedd often visited his own province of Northumbria, and during one such visit king Oidiluald asked him to accept in his kingdom of Deira a site for a monastery. The king wished it to 35 be an oratory and afterwards a burial-place for himself, and believed that he would be helped by the daily prayers in such a religious house.

23]

BISHOP CEDD.

263

Cedd chose a situation amid lofty and remote mountains, a place fit for the haunt of robbers and wild beasts. By long prayers and fasting he purified the place, intending to fast during the whole of Lent except on Sundays till the evening and then to take but very little food. 5 After ten days Cedd was summoned by the king, and his brother and presbyter Cynibill continued the fast. The monastery was at a place called Laestingaeu. Cedd after many years of episcopal labour died there in a time of great mortality. He was first buried outside, but when a new church was built, his remains were laid on the right side 10 of the altar. He had made his brother Ceadda who afterwards was also a bishop head of the monastery. All four brothers were eminent priests, and two of them bishops. When the East Saxons heard of Cedd's death, about thirty monks came thence to Laestingaeu to live near the body of their father, but all save one died in the same 15 pestilence. The survivor, a little boy, was saved through the prayers of the father. This child had not been baptised, and the supplications of Cedd saved him from perdition, and he afterwards being baptised became a presbyter and a minister of life to others.

P 63 6 REGNVM p 31 1 1 n. p 44 1 8. II 5 (p 83 1 40 S) for 20 some time the dominions of Osuiu were almost coextensive with those of Oswald.

99

8 POSSESSIONEM p 53 1 11 n.

12 ORATIONIBVS Lingard II 49 'numerous benefactions were made to religious establishments, on the express condition that the 25 donor after death might obtain a burial-place in the church, or in the cemetery of the brethren.' He cites the example of Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex, who defeated the Danes at Maldon, and was buried at Ely.

20 REMOTIS with the same view it was that St Guthlac chose 30 Crowland. 'No man could ever inhabit it before he came thither, on account of the dwelling of the accursed spirits there.' Goodwin p 23. 22 ISAIAE XXXV 7.

25 BESTIALITER Eddius 19 (end) calls the Picts bestiales. P 64 2 IEIVNIVM p 27 1 27 n.

35 c 6 end.

8

Ussher religion of the anc Irish

IEIVNIIS fasting was usual with those who chose such a life. St Guthlac determined that each day from the time that he began to dwell in the wilderness that he would never taste aught but barley bread and water, and that he did not take till the sun was set p 27.

264

OSWY'S VOW.

P64 17 PRAEFATA Essex p 63 1 2.

[III

18 STATVTIS PROPOSITIS the Saxon version says and there

he placed a provost and aldermen.

TEMPORE MORTALITATIS AD 664 p 65 1 4. P 79 1 3. Ussher ant 491. Pagi 664 8 9. The Sax chron mentions that there was an eclipse of the sun that year.

6

4 n.

24 RECONDITVм p 571 21 n. Greg dial IV 50 (cf n ed Bened)

5

' an prosit animabus, si mortuorum corpora in ecclesia fuerint sepulta'. 10

WHEN king Osuiu could not induce the Mercian king Penda by

WH

25

any offers, to cease from ravaging his kingdom, he resolved to seek the help of God and to offer the gifts, which the pagan king had 20 rejected, unto the Lord. He vowed therefore that his daughter should be dedicated to the life of a nun, and that he would bestow twelve possessions on the church for monastic uses. The enemy had an army thirty times larger than his own, but Osuiu trusted in Christ. One of his sons Ecgfrid was at the time a hostage in the hands of the Mercians, while Oidiluald, his nephew, was a leader among the enemy's forces, though when the time of the engagement came, he stood apart and merely watched what would be the issue of the conflict. The pagans were routed and nearly all their leaders slain. The battle took place near the river Vinuaed, and owing to an inundation many of the 30 fleeing enemy perished in the water. The king fulfilled his vow. His daughter Aelfleda, little more than one year old, was devoted to a virgin life, and of the twelve possessions, six were given in Deira and six in Bernicia. Aelfleda entered the monastery of Heruteu where Hild was abbess. Shortly afterwards the monastery at Streanæshalch 35 was founded and the young princess was first a scholar there, and afterwards a teacher and died at the age of fifty-nine. Osuiu and other

24]

DEDICATION OF CHILDREN.

265

members of his family are buried in that monastery. This victory led to the conversion of the Mercians, among whom Diuma was made first bishop. The second was Cellach. These were both Scots, but the third Trumheri was an Angle, who had been abbot at Ingetlingum. 5 That was the place where Osuin was murdered, and the monastery was built that prayers might be kept up for the murderer and the murdered king alike.

The dominion of Osuiu was extended over the Mercians and over a great part of the Picts. He made Peada, son of Penda, king of the 10 South Mercians, but he was killed in the next year. Then followed a rebellion of the Mercian leaders, by which Osuiu was driven away and Vulfhere a son of Penda set up as king, who ruled seventeen years, Trumheri continued to be bishop, and was succeeded in turn by Iaruman, Ceadda, and Vynfrid. These were all bishops of Mercia 15 under king Vulfhere.

20

Alcuin sanct Ebor 517-565. Will Malmesb I § 50.

P 65 19 QVI FRATREM EIVS OCCIDERAT c 9 pr.

29 VOVIT cf Jephtha's vow and the oblation of Samuel (Lingard

1 193. II 241) conc Aurel v (549) c 19).

P 66 2 POSSESSIONES P 53 1 11 n.

IO CYNVISE or Kyneswide (Tho Eliensis 7), wife of Penda. Will Malmesb 1 § 74, who names their sons Weda (Peada of Beda), Wulfer, Ethelred, Merewald, Mercelin; and daughters (both nuns) Kineburga and Kineswitha. The confusion between Weda and Peada 25 which is continued in Higden's Polychronicon v arose from the similarity between P and the Saxon W (p).

24 VOVERAT P 65 1 29 n. conc Tolet IV (A D 633) © 49 (=48 Hinschius decr pseudo-Isid 1863 P 370). X (AD 656 c 6) if parents have given to a little child the tonsure or a religious habit, or if children 30 without their parents' knowledge have assumed the one or the other and the parents, on observing it, have not at once raised an objection, then these children are bound to the religious life. However it is only children under ten years of age that parents may devote to the church. If they are older, they may devote themselves to the 35 religious life voluntarily, either by their parents' will or from their own piety'. Eddius c 18 Wilfrid restored a boy to life, and charged the mother to devote him to God in his 7th year. She hid him, but he was brought back and died a monk of Ripon. ib 21 many nobles sent their sons to Wilfrid for instruction, ut aut deo seruirent, si eligerent, aut