but what have you to do with him, since you do not even keep his decrees? For he in his Easter, following indeed the rule of truth, laid down a cycle of nineteen years, which you either are ignorant of, or, though it is acknowledged and kept by the whole Church of Christ, you contemn as nothing. He so reckoned the fourteenth moon in the Lord's Easter that he professed this, on that very day, after the manner of the Egyptians, to be the fifteenth moon towards evening. So likewise he marked the twentieth on the Lord's day of Easter, so that he believed this, the same day being passed, to be the twenty-first. That you were ignorant of the rule of this distinction is proved by the fact that you sometimes keep Easter most manifestly before the full moon, that is, on the thirteenth moon.
But concerning your father Columba and his followers, whose holiness you profess to imitate, and whose rule and precepts confirmed by heavenly signs you claim to follow, I could reply: that, since to many saying to the Lord in judgment that they had prophesied in His name, and cast out demons, and done many mighty works, the Lord will reply that He never knew them. But far be it that I should say this of your fathers, since it is much more just to believe good of the unknown than evil. Whence I do not deny that those too were servants of God and beloved of God, who with rustic simplicity, but with pious intention, loved God.
Nor do I think such an observance of Easter much harmed them, so long as no one had come who might show them the decrees of a more perfect institution which they should follow; whom indeed I believe, if any catholic reckoner had then come to them, they would have followed his admonitions in such a way as they are proved to have followed the commandments of God which they knew and had learned. But you and your companions, if, having heard the decrees of the Apostolic See, nay of the universal Church, and these confirmed by the sacred Scriptures, you contemn to follow them, without any doubt you sin. For even if your fathers were holy, is their fewness, out of one corner of the remotest island, to be preferred to the universal Church of Christ, which is throughout the world?
And if that Columba of yours — nay, ours also, if he was Christ's — was holy and powerful in virtues, could he be preferred to the most blessed prince of the apostles, to whom the Lord said: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven"?' When Wilfrid had pleaded thus, the king said: 'Is it true, Colman, that these things were said to that Peter by the Lord?' He said: 'It is true, O king.' Then the other: 'Have you,' said he, 'anything to produce of such great power given to your Columba?' And he said: 'Nothing.' Again the king: 'Do you both,' said he, 'agree in this without any controversy, that these things were principally said to Peter, and that the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given to him by the Lord?'
They answered: 'Yes, both of us.' Then he thus concluded: 'And I say to you, that this is that doorkeeper whom I am unwilling to contradict; but, as far as I know or am able, I desire in all things to obey his statutes; lest perchance, when I come to the doors of the kingdom of heaven, there be none to open, he being turned away who is proved to hold the keys.' When the king said this, all who sat by or stood near, both greater and middling, gave their approval, and, the less perfect institution being abandoned, hastened to transfer themselves to those things which they had recognized to be better. [26] And the conflict being ended, and the assembly dissolved, Agilberct returned home.
Colman, seeing his doctrine spurned and his party despised, taking with him those who chose to follow him — that is, those who were unwilling to receive the catholic Easter and the tonsure of the crown (for concerning this too there was no small question) — returned to Ireland, to take counsel with his own people as to what he ought to do about these matters. Cedd, leaving the footsteps of the Irish, returned to his own see, the observance of the catholic Easter being now acknowledged. Now this question was raised in the year of the Lord's incarnation 664, which was the twenty-second year of King Oswiu, and the thirtieth year of the episcopate of the Irish, which they exercised in the province of the English; for Aidan held the bishopric seventeen years, Finan ten, Colman three.
Now Colman having returned to his country, Tuda, a servant of Christ, received in his stead the pontificate of the Northumbrians; he had been educated and ordained bishop among the southern Irish, having, according to the manner of that province, the crown of the ecclesiastical tonsure, and observing the catholic rule of the paschal time; a man indeed good and religious, but ruling the Church for a very short time. He had come from Ireland while Colman still held the pontificate, and diligently taught all, both by word and by deed, those things which pertain to the faith and the truth.
Now over the brethren who, when the Scots departed, chose rather to remain in the church of Lindisfarne, there was set, with the authority of an abbot, the most reverend and gentle man Eata, who was abbot in the monastery that is called Melrose. They say that Colman, when about to depart, asked and obtained this from King Oswiu, because this same Eata was one of the twelve English boys whom Aidan, in the earliest time of his episcopate, received to be instructed in Christ. For the king greatly loved this same bishop Colman on account of his innate prudence. This is the Eata who not long afterward was made bishop of that same church of Lindisfarne. But Colman, on departing for home, took with him a portion of the bones of the most reverend father Aidan;
but a portion he left in the church over which he had presided, and ordered it to be laid up in its sacristy. Of how great frugality and of what continence both he and his predecessors were, that very place which they governed bore witness; for when they had departed, apart from the church, very few buildings were found there—that is, only those without which the life of a community could in no way be carried on. They had no money apart from cattle; for if they received any money from the rich, they straightway gave it to the poor. For there was no need either to gather money or to provide houses for the reception of the powerful of the world, since these never came to the church except only to pray and to hear the word of God.
The king himself, when occasion required, came with only five or six attendants, and after prayer had been finished in the church, departed. But if it chanced that they were refreshed there, they were content with only the simple, daily food of the brethren, and sought nothing beyond. For at that time the whole concern of those teachers was to serve God, not the world; the whole care was to cultivate the heart, not the belly. Hence at that time the habit of religion was held in great veneration, so that wheresoever any cleric or monk came, he was joyfully received by all as a servant of God. And even if he were found going on a journey, they ran to meet him, and bowing the neck rejoiced to be signed by his hand or blessed by his mouth;
and they diligently lent their ear to the exhortatory words of these men. Moreover on the Lord's days they flocked eagerly to the church or to the monasteries, not for the refreshment of the body, but to hear the word of God; and if any of the priests chanced to come into a village, the villagers, soon gathered into one place, took care to seek from him the word of life. For neither was there any cause for the priests or clerics themselves to come to the villages other than preaching, baptizing, visiting the sick, and—to put it briefly—caring for souls; and they were so far purged from all the plague of avarice that none would accept territories and possessions for the building of monasteries unless compelled by the powers of the world.
This custom was for some considerable time after this preserved throughout in the churches of the Northumbrians. But of these things enough has been said. [27] Now in this same year of the Lord's incarnation 664, there occurred an eclipse of the sun on the third day of the month of May, about the tenth hour of the day; in which year also a sudden pestilential plague, having first laid waste the southern regions of Britain, seizing likewise the province of the Northumbrians and raging far and wide with bitter slaughter for a long while, laid low a great multitude of men. By this plague the aforesaid priest of the Lord, Tuda, was snatched from the world, and was honourably buried in the monastery that is called Pægnalaech. This plague also pressed the island of Ireland with equal slaughter.
There were at that time in that island many of the English nation, both of noble and of middling rank, who in the time of bishops Finan and Colman, having left their native island, had withdrawn thither either for the sake of divine reading or of a more continent life. And some indeed soon faithfully gave themselves to the monastic manner of living, while others rejoiced rather to give themselves to reading by going round the cells of the masters; all of whom the Scots most willingly received, and took care to furnish them with daily sustenance without charge, with books also to read, and with free instruction.
Among these were two young men of great natural gifts, of the nobility of the English, Æthelhun and Egbert; of whom the former was the brother of Æthelwine, a man equally beloved of God, who himself also in a later age went to Ireland for the sake of reading, and well instructed returned to his homeland, and being made bishop in the province of Lindsey, governed the church most nobly for a long time. These two, then, when they were in the monastery which in the tongue of the Scots is called Rathmelsigi, and all their companions had either been snatched from the world by the mortal sickness or scattered through other places, were both seized by the malady of that same mortal sickness, and most grievously afflicted;
of whom Egbert—as a certain most truthful presbyter of venerable grey hairs related to me, who declared that he had heard these things from the man himself—when he reckoned that he was about to die, went out at the time of morning from the chamber in which the sick were resting, and sitting alone in a convenient place, began earnestly to ponder upon his deeds, and pricked with the memory of his sins, washed his face with tears, and from his inmost heart prayed God that he might not yet have to die before he had more perfectly, from that time on, chastised the past negligences which he had committed in boyhood or infancy, or had exercised himself more abundantly in good works.
He also vowed a vow that he would live so much a pilgrim that he would never return to the island in which he was born, that is, Britain; that, besides the solemn psalmody of the canonical hours, unless bodily health should hinder, he would daily chant the whole Psalter in memory of the divine praise; that in every week he would pass one day with its night fasting. And when, his tears, prayers, and vows being finished, he returned home, he found his comrade asleep; and he too, mounting his little couch, began to relax his limbs in rest. And when he had been quiet a little while, his comrade, awaking, looked at him and said: 'O brother Egbert, oh what have you done? I was hoping that we should enter together into eternal life.'
'Nevertheless know this, that the things you have asked, you shall receive.' For he had learned by a vision both what the other had asked, and that he had obtained what he asked. Why say more? Æthelhun himself died the next night; but Egbert, the trouble of his sickness shaken off, recovered, and living for a long time afterward, and adorning with worthy deeds the rank of priesthood he had received, after many good things of the virtues, as he himself desired, recently—that is, in the year of the Lord's incarnation 729, when he was himself ninety years of age—departed to the heavenly kingdoms. But he led his life in great perfection of humility, gentleness, continence, simplicity, and righteousness.
Hence both to his own nation and to those among whom he sojourned, the nations of the Scots or the Picts, he greatly profited by his example of living, by his diligence in teaching, by his authority in rebuking, and by his piety in bestowing of those things which he had received from the rich. He added also to the vows which we have mentioned, that always in Lent he would take refreshment not more than once a day, nothing other than bread and very thin milk, and would taste even this with measure; which milk, namely, he was wont to set out fresh in a bowl the day before, and after the night, the thicker surface being removed, he himself drank what remained with a little bread, as we have said. The same measure of continence he always took care to observe also for the forty days before the Lord's nativity, and for as many after the solemnity of Pentecost had been completed, that is, the Quinquagesima.
[28] Meanwhile King Alhfrith sent Wilfrid the presbyter to the king of the Gauls, that he might have him consecrated bishop for himself and his people. But he sent him to be ordained by Agilbert, of whom we spoke above, who, having left Britain, had been made bishop of the city of Paris; and he was consecrated with great honour by him, very many bishops assembling in the royal village that is called Compiègne.
While he was still tarrying in the parts beyond the sea on account of his ordination, King Oswiu, imitating the diligence of his son, sent to Kent a holy man, modest in conduct, sufficiently instructed in the reading of the Scriptures, and one who carefully carried out in his works the things which he had learned in the Scriptures were to be done, that he might be ordained bishop of the church of York. He was a presbyter by name Chad, brother of the most reverend prelate Cedd, whom we have often mentioned, and abbot of that monastery which is called Lastingham. And the king sent with him his own presbyter by name Eadhæd, who afterward, in the reign of Ecgfrith, was made prelate of the church of Ripon.
But when they arrived in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit had already departed from the world, and that as yet no other pontiff had been appointed in his place. Whereupon they turned aside to the province of the West Saxons, where Wine was bishop; and by him the aforesaid man was consecrated prelate, two bishops of the British nation being taken into the fellowship of the ordination—men who celebrate the Lord's day of Easter, as has often been said, contrary to canonical custom, from the fourteenth to the twentieth of the moon. For there was at that time no bishop in all Britain canonically ordained, except that Wine. Chad therefore, being consecrated bishop, soon began to bestow the utmost care upon ecclesiastical truth and chastity;
to give attention to humility, continence, and reading; to go round towns, country districts, cottages, villages, and strongholds for the sake of evangelizing, not riding but travelling on foot after the manner of the apostles. For he was of the disciples of Aidan, and with the same deeds and manners he took care to instruct his hearers according to his example and that of his brother Cedd. Wilfrid too, now made bishop, on coming to Britain himself also conferred by his teaching very many rules of catholic observance upon the churches of the English. Whence it came to pass that, as the catholic institution grew day by day, all the Scots who lingered among the English either submitted to these or returned to their own homeland.
[29] In these times the most noble kings of the English, Oswiu of the province of the Northumbrians, and Egbert of the Kentish men, having held a council between themselves as to what was to be done concerning the state of the church of the English—for Oswiu had truly understood, although brought up by the Scots, that the Roman was the catholic and apostolic church—took up, with the choice and consent of the holy church of the English nation, a good man and fit for the episcopate, a presbyter by name Wigheard, of the clergy of Bishop Deusdedit, and sent him to Rome to be ordained prelate; so that, having himself received the rank of archbishop, he might be able to ordain catholic prelates for the churches of the English throughout all Britain.
But Wigheard, arriving at Rome, before he could be consecrated to the episcopate, was snatched away by death, and letters of this kind were sent back to King Oswiu in Britain: 'To the excellent lord, his son Oswiu, king of the Saxons, Bishop Vitalian, servant of the servants of God. We have received the desirable letters of your excellence; reading which over, we have come to know his most pious devotion and most fervent love, which he has for the sake of the blessed life; and that, by the right hand of the Lord protecting, he has been converted to the true and apostolic faith, hoping that, as he reigns in his own nation, so also he may reign together with Christ in the future. Blessed therefore is the nation which has deserved to have so wise a king and worshipper of God;
because not only has he himself proved a worshipper of God, but he also meditates day and night to convert all his subjects to the catholic and apostolic faith, for the redemption of his own soul. For who, hearing these sweet things, would not rejoice? Who would not exult and be glad in these pious works? Because your nation also has believed in Christ, the omnipotent God, according to the voices of the divine prophets, as it is written in Isaiah: 'In that day the root of Jesse, who stands for an ensign of the peoples—him shall the nations beseech.' And again: 'Hear, O islands, and hearken, ye peoples from afar.' And a little after: 'It is a small thing,' he says, 'that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to convert the dregs of Israel.'
'I have given thee for a light of the nations, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.' And again: 'Kings shall see, and princes shall arise, and shall adore.' And after a little: 'I have given thee for a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and possess the scattered inheritances, and that thou mightest say to them that are bound: Come forth; and to them that are in darkness: Be ye revealed.' And again: 'I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and have taken thy hand, and have kept thee, and given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations: that thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring out from confinement the bound one, and from the house of prison those that sit in darkness.'
'Behold, most excellent son, how it is clearer than light that it was prophesied not only concerning you, but also concerning all the nations, that they should believe in Christ, the Maker of all. Wherefore it behoves your highness, being a member of Christ, in all things perpetually to follow the pious rule of the prince of the apostles—whether in the celebrating of Easter, or in all things which the holy apostles Peter and Paul handed down, who, as the two luminaries of heaven enlighten the world, so their doctrine daily illumines the hearts of believing men.' And after some passages, in which he speaks of celebrating one true Easter throughout the whole world:
'A man, indeed,' he says, 'teachable and in all things adorned as a prelate, according to the tenor of your writings, we have by no means been able now to find, on account of the length of the journey. Assuredly, when such a fit and suitable person shall have been found, we will send him, instructed, to your homeland, that he himself, both by living voice and by the divine oracles, may by divine assent root out all the tares of the enemy from your whole island. The little gifts directed by your highness to the blessed prince of the apostles, for his eternal memory, we have received, and we give him thanks, and we continually beseech God with the clergy of Christ for his safety.'
'And so he who offered these gifts has been taken away from this light, and laid at the thresholds of the apostles, on whose account we have been greatly saddened, since he had died here. Nevertheless to your envoys, the bearers of these our letters, we have caused to be given both the benefits of the saints—that is, relics of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of the holy martyrs Lawrence, John, and Paul, and Gregory, and Pancras—all assuredly to be handed over to your excellence. For to your consort also, our spiritual daughter, we have directed by the aforesaid bearers a cross having a golden key, made from the most sacred chains of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul;
'of whose pious zeal taking knowledge, the whole apostolic see, together with us, rejoices so much, in proportion as her pious works are fragrant and flourish before God. Let your highness therefore hasten, we beseech, as we desire, to dedicate your whole island to God in Christ. For assuredly it has a protector, our Lord Jesus Christ, the redeemer of the human race, who will impart to it all prosperous things, that it may gather together a new people of Christ, establishing there the catholic and apostolic faith. For it is written: Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. For without doubt it both seeks and shall obtain, and all the peoples of its island, as we desire, shall be made subject to it.'
'Greeting therefore your excellence with fatherly affection, we continually pray the divine clemency, that it may vouchsafe to aid you and all yours in all good works, that you may reign with Christ in the age to come. May the supernal grace keep your excellence in safety.' Who indeed was found and consecrated prelate in place of Wigheard shall be more conveniently told in the following book. [30] At the same time, over the province of the East Saxons, after Swithhelm, of whom we spoke above, ruled the kings Sighere and Sebbi, although themselves subject to Wulfhere king of the Mercians.
Now when this province was pressed by the aforesaid plague of mortality, Sighere, with his part of the people, having forsaken the sacraments of the Christian faith, was turned to apostasy. For both the king himself and very many of the common folk and of the nobles, loving this life and not seeking the future—or even not believing it to exist—began to restore the shrines which had been abandoned, and to adore idols, as though by these they might be defended from mortality. But his colleague and co-heir of the same kingdom, Sebbi, preserved with great devotion, together with all his people, the faith he had received, and—as we shall tell in what follows—completed a faithful life in great felicity.
When King Wulfhere learned of this—namely that the faith of the province had been in part profaned—he sent to correct the error and to recall the province to the faith of truth Bishop Jaruman, who was the successor of Trumhere. He, acting with much skill—according to what a presbyter related to me, who had been the companion of his journey and fellow-worker of the word, for he was a religious and good man—wandering far and wide through all places, brought back both the people and the aforesaid king to the way of righteousness; so that, the shrines and altars which they had made being forsaken or destroyed, they opened the churches, and rejoiced to confess the name of Christ which they had denied, desiring rather to die in him with the faith of the resurrection, than to live amid idols in the filth of perfidy.