Bede: HISTORIAM ECCLESIASTICAM GENTIS ANGLORUM

[1] ANNO memorato praefatae eclypsis et mox sequentis pestilentiae, quo et Colman episcopus unanima catholicorum intentione superatus ad suos reuersus est, Deusdedit VIus ecclesiae Doruuernensis episcopus obiit pridie Iduum Iuliarum; sed et Erconberct rex Cantuariorum eodem mense ac die defunctus, Ecgbercto filio sedem regni reliquit, quam ille susceptam per VIIII annos tenuit. Tunc cessante non pauco tempore episcopatu, missus est Romam ab ipso simul et a rege Nordanhymbrorum Osuio, ut in praecedente libro paucis diximus, Uighard presbyter, uir in ecclesiasticis disciplinis doctissimus, de genere Anglorum, petentibus hunc ecclesiae Anglorum archiepiscopum ordinari; missis pariter apostolico papae donariis, et aureis atque argenteis uasis non paucis. Qui ubi Romam peruenit, cuius sedi apostolicae tempore illo Uitalianus praeerat, postquam itineris sui causam praefato papae apostolico patefecit, non multo post et ipse, et omnes pene qui cum eo aduenerant socii, pestilentia superueniente deleti sunt.

[1] In the year mentioned of the aforesaid eclipse and the pestilence soon following, in which also Bishop Colman, overcome by the unanimous intention of the Catholics, returned to his own, Deusdedit, the 6th bishop of the church of Dorovernum, died on the day before the Ides of July; and likewise Erconberht, king of the Kentish, deceased on the same month and day, left the seat of the kingdom to his son Ecgberht, which he, once received, held for 9 years. Then, the episcopate ceasing for no small time, there was sent to Rome by him and by Oswiu, king of the Northumbrians, as we said briefly in the preceding book, Wighard the presbyter, a man most learned in ecclesiastical disciplines, of the race of the English, they requesting that this man be ordained archbishop of the church of the English; gifts likewise being sent to the apostolic pope, and not a few vessels of gold and silver. When he reached Rome, whose apostolic see at that time Vitalian presided over, after he laid open the cause of his journey to the aforesaid apostolic pope, not long after both he himself, and almost all the companions who had arrived with him, with a pestilence coming on, were destroyed.

At apostolicus papa habito de his consilio, quaesiuit sedulus, quem ecclesiis Anglorum archiepiscopum mitteret. Erat autem in monasterio Niridano, quod est non longe a Neapoli Campaniae, abbas Hadrianus, uir natione Afir, sacris litteris diligenter inbutus, monasterialibus simul et ecclesiasticis disciplinis institutus, Grecae pariter et Latinae linguae peritissimus. Hunc ad se accitum papa iussit episcopatu accepto Brittaniam uenire.

But the apostolic pope, having held counsel about these things, diligently sought whom he might send as archbishop to the churches of the Angles. Now there was in the monastery of Niridanum, which is not far from Naples of Campania, an abbot, Hadrian, a man by nation an African, diligently imbued with sacred letters, trained in monastic as well as ecclesiastical disciplines, most skilled in the Greek and likewise the Latin tongue. Having summoned him to himself, the pope ordered that, the episcopate having been accepted, he should come to Britain.

Qui indignum se tanto gradui respondens, ostendere posse se dixit alium, cuius magis ad suscipiendum episcopatum et eruditio conueniret, et aetas. Cumque monachum quendam de uicino uirginum monasterio, nomine Andream, pontifici offerret, hic ab omnibus, qui nouere, dignus episcopatu iudicatus est. Uerum pondus corporeae infirmitatis, ne episcopus fieri posset, obstitit.

He, replying that he was unworthy of so great a rank, said that he could point out another, whose erudition and age would more suitably meet the undertaking of the episcopate. And when he offered to the pontiff a certain monk from the neighboring monastery of virgins, by name Andrew, this man was judged by all who knew him to be worthy of the episcopate. However, the weight of bodily infirmity stood in the way, so that he could not become a bishop.

Et rursum Hadrianus ad suscipiendum episcopatum actus est; qui petens indutias, si forte alium, qui episcopus ordinaretur, ex tempore posset inuenire.

And again Hadrian was pressed to undertake the episcopate; he, requesting a respite, in case perchance he might be able to find on the spot another who would be ordained bishop.

Erat ipso tempore Romae monachus Hadriano notus, nomine Theodorus, natus Tarso Ciliciae, uir et saeculari et diuina litteratura, et Grece instructus et Latine, probus moribus, et aetate uenerandus, id est annos habens aetatis LX et VI. Hunc offerens Hadrianus pontifici, ut episcopus ordinaretur, obtinuit; his tamen condicionibus interpositis, ut ipse eum perduceret Brittaniam, eo quod iam bis partes Galliarum diuersis ex causis adisset, et ob id maiorem huius itineris peragendi notitiam haberet, sufficiensque esset in possessione hominum propriorum; et ut ei doctrinae cooperator existens diligenter adtenderet, ne quid ille contrarium ueritati fidei, Grecorum more, in ecclesiam, cui praeesset, introduceret. Qui subdiaconus ordinatus IIII exspectauit menses, donec illi coma cresceret, quo in coronam tondi posset; habuerat enim tonsuram more orientalium sancti apostoli Pauli. Qui ordinatus est a Uitaliano papa anno dominicae incarnationis DCLXVIII, sub die VII.

At that very time at Rome there was a monk known to Hadrian, named Theodore, born at Tarsus of Cilicia, a man in both secular and divine literature, and instructed in Greek and in Latin, upright in morals, and venerable in age, that is, having the age of 66 years. Hadrian, presenting him to the pontiff that he be ordained bishop, obtained this; with these conditions interposed, that he himself would conduct him to Britain, because he had already twice visited the parts of Gaul for diverse causes, and on that account would have greater knowledge for accomplishing this journey, and that he was sufficient in the possession of his own men; and that, existing as a co-operator of his teaching, he should diligently attend, lest he introduce anything contrary to the truth of the faith, after the manner of the Greeks, into the church over which he would preside. He, ordained subdeacon, waited 4 months, until his hair grew, so that it might be shorn into a crown (tonsure); for he had had the tonsure after the custom of the Orientals, of Saint Paul the Apostle. He was ordained by Pope Vitalian in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 668, on the 7th day.

Kalendarum Aprilium, dominica. Et ita una cum Hadriano VI. Kalendas Iunias Brittaniam missus est. Qui cum pariter per mare ad Massiliam, ac deinde per terram Arhelas peruenissent, et tradidissent Iohanni archiepiscopo ciuitatis illius scripta commendaticia Uitaliani pontificis, retenti sunt ab eo, quousque Ebrinus maior domus regiae copiam pergendi, quoquo uellent, tribuit eis.

On the Kalends of April, Sunday. And so, together with Hadrian, on the 6th day before the Kalends of June, he was sent to Britain. When they had together come by sea to Marseilles, and then by land to Arles, and had delivered to John, the archbishop of that city, the commendatory letters of Pope Vitalian, they were detained by him until Ebroin, the mayor of the royal palace, granted them leave to proceed wherever they wished.

Qua accepta Theodorus profectus est ad Agilberctum Parisiorum episcopum, de quo superius diximus, et ab eo benigne susceptus, et multo tempore habitus est. Hadrianus perrexit primum ad Emme Senonum, et postea ad Faronem Meldorum episcopos, et bene sub eis diutius fuit; coegerat enim eos inminens hiems, ut, ubicumque potuissent, quieti manerent. Quod cum nuntii certi narrassent regi Ecgbercto, esse scilicet episcopum, quem petierant a Romano antistite in regno Francorum, misit illo continuo Raedfridum praefectum suum ad adducendum eum; quo cum uenisset, adsumsit Theodorum cum Ebrini licentia, et perduxit eum ad portum, cui nomen est Quentauic; ubi fatigatus infirmitate aliquantisper moratus est, et, cum conualescere coepisset, nauigauit Brittaniam.

On receiving this, Theodore set out to Agilberct, bishop of the Parisians, about whom we have said above, and by him he was kindly received and was kept for a long time. Hadrian went on first to Emmo of the Senones, and afterward to Faro of the Meldi, bishops, and he was well provided for under them for a longer while; for the imminent winter had compelled them to remain at rest wherever they could. When trustworthy messengers had told King Ecgberct that the bishop whom they had asked from the Roman prelate was in the realm of the Franks, he sent there at once Raedfrid, his prefect, to bring him; and when he had come there, with Ebroin’s permission he took up Theodore and conducted him to the port whose name is Quentavic; where, wearied by infirmity, he tarried for a little while, and, when he began to convalesce, he sailed to Britain.

Hadrianum autem Ebrinus retinuit, quoniam suspicabatur eum habere aliquam legationem imperatoris ad Brittaniae reges aduersus regnum, cuius tunc ipse maximam curam gerebat. Sed cum nihil tale illum habere uel habuisse ueraciter conperisset, absoluit eum, et post Theodorum ire permisit. Qui statim ut ad illum uenit, dedit ei monasterium beati Petri apostoli, ubi archiepiscopi Cantiae sepeliri, ut praefatus sum, solent.

But Ebrinus detained Hadrian, because he suspected him to have some imperial legation to the kings of Britain against the kingdom, of which at that time he himself was exercising the greatest care. But when he had truly discovered that he had nothing of the sort, nor had had, he released him, and allowed him to go after Theodore. Who, as soon as he came to him, gave him the monastery of the blessed apostle Peter, where, as I have said above, the archbishops of Kent are accustomed to be buried.

Praeceperat enim Theodoro abeunti domnus apostolicus, ut in diocesi sua prouideret, et daret ei locum, in quo cum suis apte degere potuisset.

For the lord apostolic had instructed Theodore, as he was departing, to provide in his diocese, and to give to him a place in which he could aptly dwell with his own.

[2] PERUENIT autem Theodorus ad ecclesiam suam secundo postquam consecratus est anno, sub die VI. Kalendarum Iuniarum, dominica, et fecit in ea annos XX et unum, menses III, dies XXVI. Moxque peragrata insula tota, quaquauersum Anglorum gentes morabantur, nam et libentissime ab omnibus suscipiebatur, atque audiebatur, rectum uiuendi ordinem, ritum celebrandi paschae canonicum, per omnia comitante et cooperante Hadriano disseminabat. Isque primus erat in archiepiscopis, cui omnis Anglorum ecclesia manus dare consentiret.

[2] Theodorus, however, arrived at his church in the second year after he was consecrated, on the 6. day before the Kalends of June, Sunday, and he completed in it 21 years, 3 months, 26 days. And soon, with the whole island traversed, wherever the nations of the English were dwelling (for he was most gladly received by all and listened to), he disseminated the correct order of living, the canonical rite of celebrating Easter, with Hadrian accompanying and cooperating in all things. And he was the first among archbishops to whom the whole church of the English consented to give the hand.

Et quia litteris sacris simul et saecularibus, ut diximus, abundanter ambo erant instructi, congregata discipulorum caterua, scientiae salutaris cotidie flumina inrigandis eorum cordibus emanabant; ita ut etiam metricae artis, astronomiae, et arithimeticae ecclesiasticae disciplinam inter sacrorum apicum uolumina suis auditoribus contraderent. Indicio est, quod usque hodie supersunt de eorum discipulis, qui Latinam Grecamque linguam aeque ut propriam, in qua nati sunt, norunt. Neque umquam prorsus, ex quo Brittaniam petierunt Angli, feliciora fuere tempora; dum et fortissimos Christianosque habentes reges cunctis barbaris nationibus essent terrori, et omnium uota ad nuper audita caelestis regni gaudia penderent, et quicumque lectionibus sacris cuperent erudiri, haberent in promtu magistros, qui docerent.

And because both, as we have said, were abundantly instructed in sacred and secular letters alike, a throng of disciples having been gathered, rivers of saving science flowed forth daily to irrigate their hearts; so that they even handed down to their hearers, among the volumes of sacred letters, the discipline of the metrical art, of astronomy, and of ecclesiastical arithmetic. A proof is that there survive to this day some of their disciples who know the Latin and the Greek tongue equally as their own, in which they were born. Nor ever at all, since the Angles sought Britain, were there happier times; while, having most valiant and Christian kings, they were a terror to all barbarian nations, and the desires of all hung upon the joys of the heavenly kingdom, newly heard of, and whoever wished to be instructed by sacred readings had teachers at hand to teach.

Sed et sonos cantandi in ecclesia, quos eatenus in Cantia tantum nouerant, ab hoc tempore per omnes Anglorum ecclesias discere coeperunt; primusque, excepto Iacobo, de quo supra diximus, cantandi magister Nordanhymbrorum ecclesiis Aeddi cognomento Stephanus fuit, inuitatus de Cantia a reuerentissimo uiro Uilfrido, qui primus inter episcopos, qui de Anglorum gente essent, catholicum uiuendi morem ecclesiis Anglorum tradere didicit.

But also the tones of chanting in church, which hitherto they had known only in Kent, from this time they began to learn through all the churches of the English; and first, except for James, of whom we said above, the master of chanting for the churches of the Northumbrians was Aeddi, surnamed Stephen, invited from Kent by the most reverend man Wilfrid, who first among the bishops who were of the English people learned to hand down to the churches of the English the catholic manner of living.

Itaque Theodorus perlustrans uniuersa, ordinabat locis oportunis episcopos, et ea, quae minus perfecta repperit, his quoque iuuantibus corrigebat. In quibus et Ceadda episcopum cum argueret non fuisse rite consecratum, respondens ipse uoce humillima: ‘Si me,’ inquit, ‘nosti episcopatum non rite suscepisse, libenter ab officio discedo; quippe qui neque me umquam hoc esse dignum arbitrabar; sed oboedientiae causa iussus subire hoc, quamuis indignus, consensi.’ At ille audiens humilitatem responsi eius, dixit non eum episcopatum dimittere debere; sed ipse ordinationem eius denuo catholica ratione consummauit. Eo autem tempore, quo defuncto Deusdedit Doruuernensi ecclesiae episcopus quaerebatur, ordinabatur, mittebatur, Uilfrid quoque de Brittania Galliam ordinandus est missus; et quoniam ante Theodorum rediit, ipse etiam in Cantia presbyteros et diaconos, usquedum archiepiscopus ad sedem suam perueniret, ordinabat.

Accordingly Theodore, traversing all things, was ordaining bishops in opportune places, and those things which he found less perfect he was correcting, with these men aiding as well. Among which, when he reproved Bishop Ceadda for not having been duly consecrated, he himself, responding in a most humble voice, said: “If you know me not to have duly undertaken the episcopate, I gladly withdraw from the office; for indeed I never judged myself worthy of this; but for the sake of obedience, having been ordered to undergo this, although unworthy, I consented.” But he, hearing the humility of his reply, said that he ought not to relinquish the episcopate; rather he himself consummated his ordination anew in Catholic fashion. Now at that time, when, Deusdedit having died, a bishop of the Dorovernian church was being sought, was ordained, was sent, Wilfrid also was dispatched from Britain to Gaul to be ordained; and since he returned before Theodore, he too in Kent was ordaining presbyters and deacons, until the archbishop should arrive at his see.

At ipse ueniens mox in ciuitate Hrofi, ubi defuncto Damiano episcopatus iam diu cessauerat, ordinauit uirum magis ecclesiasticis disciplinis institutum, et uitae simplicitate contentum, quam in saeculi rebus strenuum cui nomen erat Putta; maxime autem modulandi in ecclesia more Romanorum, quem a discipulis beati papae Gregorii didicerat, peritum.

But he himself, coming soon into the city of Hrof, where, Damian having died, the bishopric had for a long time been vacant, ordained a man more trained in ecclesiastical disciplines and content with simplicity of life than energetic in secular affairs, whose name was Putta; and he was especially skilled in modulating (chanting) in the church after the manner of the Romans, which he had learned from the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory.

[3] EO tempore prouinciae Merciorum rex Uulfheri praefuit, qui, cum mortuo Iarumanno sibi quoque suisque a Theodoro episcopum dari peteret, non eis nouum uoluit ordinare episcopum; sed postulauit a rege Osuio, ut illis episcopus Ceadda daretur, qui tunc in monasterio suo, quod est in Læstingae, quietam uitam agebat, Uilfrido administrante episcopatum Eboracensis ecclesiae, nec non et omnium Nordanhymbrorum, sed et Pictorum, quousque rex Osuiu imperium protendere poterat. Et quia moris erat eidem reuerentissimo antistiti opus euangelii magis ambulando per loca, quam equitando perficere, iussit eum Theodorus, ubicumque longius iter instaret, equitare, multumque renitentem, studio et amore pii laboris, ipse eum manu sua leuauit in equum; quia nimirum sanctum esse uirum conperiit, atque equo uehi, quo esset necesse, conpulit. Susceptum itaque episcopatum gentis Merciorum simul et Lindisfarorum Ceadda, iuxta exempla patrum antiquorum, in magna uitae perfectione administrare curauit; cui etiam rex Uulfheri donauit terram L familiarum ad construendum monasterium in loco, qui dicitur Adbaruae, id est Ad Nemus, in prouincia Lindissi, in quo usque hodie instituta ab ipso regularis uitae uestigia permanent.

[3] At that time King Wulfhere presided over the province of the Mercians, who, when Jaruman had died, asked that a bishop be given by Theodore both to himself and to his people; he did not wish a new bishop to be ordained for them, but requested from King Oswiu that Bishop Chad be given to them, who then in his own monastery, which is at Læstingae, was leading a quiet life, Wilfrid administering the episcopate of the church of York, and likewise of all the Northumbrians, and even of the Picts, as far as King Oswiu could extend his imperium. And because it was the custom of that most reverend prelate to accomplish the work of the gospel more by walking through places than by riding, Theodore ordered him to ride wherever a longer journey pressed, and, as he resisted much, out of zeal and love for pious labor, he himself with his own hand lifted him onto a horse; for he had plainly discovered that the man was holy, and he compelled him to be carried by horse where it was necessary. Therefore, the bishopric of the nation of the Mercians and likewise of the Lindisfaras having been undertaken, Chad took care to administer, according to the examples of the ancient fathers, in great perfection of life; to whom also King Wulfhere granted land of 50 families for building a monastery in the place which is called Adbaruae, that is At the Grove, in the province of Lindsey, in which unto this day the vestiges of the regular life instituted by him remain.

Habuit autem sedem episcopalem in loco, qui uocatur Lyccidfelth, in quo et defunctus ac sepultus est; ubi usque hodie sequentium quoque prouinciae illius episcoporum sedes est. Fecerat uero sibi mansionem non longe ab ecclesia remotiorem; in qua secretius cum paucis, id est VII siue VIII, fratribus, quoties a labore et ministerio uerbi uacabat, orare ac legere solebat. Qui cum in illa prouincia duobus annis ac dimidio ecclesiam gloriosissime rexisset, adfuit superno dispensante iudicio tempus, de quo loquitur Ecclesiastes, quia: ‘Tempus mittendi lapides, et tempus colligendi.’ Superuenit namque clades diuinitus missa, quae per mortem carnis uiuos ecclesiae lapides de terrenis sedibus ad aedificium caeleste transferret.

However, he had his episcopal seat in the place which is called Lyccidfelth, in which he also died and was buried; where up to this day there is also the seat of the subsequent bishops of that province. Indeed, he had made for himself a dwelling not far from the church, more withdrawn; in which, more privately with a few, that is 7 or 8, brothers, whenever he had leisure from the labor and ministry of the word, he was wont to pray and to read. And when in that province for two years and a half he had governed the church most gloriously, there arrived, by the dispensation of the supernal judgment, the time of which Ecclesiastes speaks, namely: ‘A time of sending stones, and a time of collecting.’ For a calamity divinely sent supervened, which, through the death of the flesh, would transfer the living stones of the church from earthly seats to the celestial edifice.

Cumque plurimis de ecclesia eiusdem reuerentissimi antistitis de carne subtractis, ueniret hora ipsius, ut transiret ex hoc mundo ad Dominum, contigit die quadam, ut in praefata mansione forte ipse cum uno tantum fratre, cui uocabulum erat Ouini, commoraretur, ceteris eius sociis pro causa oportuna ad ecclesiam reuersis. Erat autem idem Ouini monachus magni meriti, et pura intentione supernae retributionis mundum derelinquens, dignusque per omnia, cui Dominus specialiter sua reuelaret arcana, dignus, cui fidem narranti audientes accommodarent. Uenerat enim cum regina Aedilthryde de prouincia Orientalium Anglorum, eratque primus ministrorum, et princeps domus eius.

And when, with very many from the church of that same most reverend prelate withdrawn from the flesh, the hour came for himself to pass from this world to the Lord, it befell on a certain day that in the aforementioned residence he happened by chance to be staying with only one brother, whose name was Ouini, the rest of his companions having returned to the church for a fitting cause. Now this same Ouini was a monk of great merit, and, leaving the world with a pure intention of supernal retribution, was in every respect worthy that the Lord should specially reveal to him His secrets—worthy that hearers should lend credence to his report. For he had come with Queen Aedilthryde from the province of the East Angles, and he was the first of her ministri and the chief of her household.

Qui cum crescente fidei feruore saeculo abrenuntiare disponeret, non hoc segniter fecit; sed adeo se mundi rebus exuit, ut relictis omnibus, quae habebat, simplici tantum habitu indutus, et securim atque asciam in manu ferens, ueniret ad monasterium eiusdem reuerentissimi patris, quod uocatur Laestingaeu. Non enim ad otium, ut quidam, sed ad laborem se monasterium intrare signabat. Quod ipsum etiam facto monstrauit; nam quo minus sufficiebat meditationi scripturarum, eo amplius operi manuum studium inpendebat.

And when, with the fervor of faith increasing, he purposed to renounce the world, he did not do this sluggishly; rather, he so stripped himself of the things of the world that, leaving behind all he had, clothed only in a simple habit and carrying an axe and an adze in his hand, he came to the monastery of that same most reverend father, which is called Laestingaeu. For he signified that he was entering the monastery not for leisure, as some do, but for labor. Which very thing he also showed by deed; for in proportion as he was less sufficient for the meditation of the Scriptures, so much the more zeal did he expend upon the work of his hands.

Denique cum episcopo in praefata mansione pro suae reuerentia deuotionis inter fratres habitus, cum illi intus lectioni uacabant, ipse foris, quae opus esse uidebantur, operabatur. Qui cum die quadam tale aliquid foris ageret, digressis ad ecclesiam sociis, ut dicere coeperam, et episcopus solus in oratorio loci lectioni uel orationi operam daret,

Finally, being with the bishop in the aforesaid mansion, held among the brothers for the reverence of his devotion, when those inside were free for reading, he himself was working outside at the things that seemed to be needful. And when on a certain day he was doing such a thing outside, his companions having gone off to the church, as I began to say, and the bishop alone in the oratory of the place was giving his effort to reading or to prayer,

diuit repente, ut postea referebat, uocem suauissimam cantantium atque laetantium de caelo ad terras usque descendere; quam uidelicet uocem ab Euroaustro, id est ab alto brumalis exortus, primo se audisse dicebat, ac deinde paulatim eam sibi adpropiare, donec ad tectum usque oratorii, in quo erat episcopus, perueniret; quod ingressa, totum impleuit, atque in gyro circumdedit. At ille dum sollicitus in ea, quae audiebat, animum intenderet, audiuit denuo, transacto quasi dimidiae horae spatio, ascendere de tecto eiusdem oratorii idem laetitiae canticum, et ipsa, qua uenerat, uia ad caelos usque cum ineffabili dulcedine reuerti. Qui cum aliquantulum horae quasi adtonitus maneret, et, quid haec essent, solerti animo scrutaretur, aperuit episcopus fenestram oratorii, et sonitum manu faciens, ut saepius consueuerat, siqui foris esset, ad se intrare praecepit.

he suddenly declared, as he later recounted, that he heard a most sweet voice of singers and rejoicers descend from heaven right down to the earth; this voice, he said, he first heard from the Euro-auster, that is, from the high point of the brumal rising, and then little by little it drew near to him, until it came up to the roof of the oratory in which the bishop was; which, having entered, filled it entirely and encircled it in a gyro. But while he, anxious, was bending his mind upon what he heard, he heard again, after the space of, as it were, a half-hour having passed, the same song of gladness ascend from the roof of the same oratory, and by the very route by which it had come return to the heavens with ineffable sweetness. And when he remained for somewhat of an hour as if thunder-struck, and with a alert spirit was searching out what these things might be, the bishop opened the window of the oratory, and making a sound with his hand, as he was wont to do very often, commanded that, if anyone were outside, he should come in to him.

Introiuit ille concitus, cui dixit antistes: ‘Uade cito ad ecclesiam, et hos VII fratres huc uenire facito; tu quoque simul adesto.’ Qui cum uenissent, primo admonuit eos, ut uirtutem dilectionis et pacis ad inuicem et ad omnes fideles seruarent; instituta quoque disciplinae regularis, quae uel ab ipso didicissent, et in ipso uidissent, uel in patrum praecedentium factis siue dictis inuenissent, indefessa instantia sequerentur. Deinde subiunxit diem sui obitus iam proxime instare. ‘Namque hospes,’ inquit, ‘ille amabilis, qui fratres nostros uisitare solebat, ad me quoque hodie uenire, meque de saeculo euocare dignatus est.

He entered in haste, to whom the prelate said: ‘Go quickly to the church, and make these 7 brothers come here; you also be present at the same time.’ When they had come, he first admonished them to keep the virtue of love and peace toward one another and toward all the faithful; and to follow with indefatigable diligence the institutions of regular discipline, which they had either learned from himself and seen in him, or had found in the deeds or sayings of the preceding fathers. Then he subjoined that the day of his obit was now imminently at hand. ‘For the amiable guest,’ he said, ‘who was accustomed to visit our brothers, has deigned today to come to me also, and to call me forth from the world.’

Propter quod reuertentes ad ecclesiam dicite fratribus, ut et meum exitum Domino precibus commendent, et suum quoque exitum, cuius hora incerta est, uigiliis, orationibus, bonis operibus praeuenire meminerint.’ Cumque haec et huiusmodi plura loqueretur, atque illi percepta eius benedictione iam multum tristes exissent, rediit ipse solus, qui carmen caeleste audierat, et prosternens se in terram : ‘Obsecro,’ inquit, ‘pater; licet aliquid interrogare?’ ‘Interroga,’ inquit, ‘quod uis.’ At ille: ‘Obsecro,’ inquit, ‘ut dicas, quod erat canticum illud laetantium, quod audiui, uenientium de caelis super oratorium hoc, et post tempus redeuntium ad caelos?’ Respondet ille: ‘Si uocem carminis audisti, et caelestes superuenire coetus cognouisti, praecipio tibi in nomine Domini, ne hoc cuiquam ante meum obitum dicas. Re uera autem angelorum fuere spiritus, qui me ad caelestia, quae semper amabam, ac desiderabam, praemia uocare uenerunt, et post dies VII se redituros, ac me secum adducturos esse promiserunt.’ Quod quidem ita, ut dictum ei erat, opere conpletum est. Nam confestim langore corporis tactus est, et hoc per dies ingrauescente, septimo, ut promissum ei fuerat, die, postquam obitum suum dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione muniuit, soluta ab ergastulo corporis anima sancta, ducentibus, ut credi fas est, angelis comitibus aeterna gaudia petiuit.

‘Wherefore, returning to the church, say to the brothers, that they both commend my departure to the Lord with prayers, and also remember to forestall their own departure, whose hour is uncertain, with vigils, orations, and good works.’ And while he was speaking these and many other things of this kind, and they, having received his blessing, had gone out already very sad, he himself returned alone, the one who had heard the celestial song, and, prostrating himself on the ground: ‘I beseech,’ he said, ‘father; is it permitted to ask something?’ ‘Ask,’ he said, ‘what you wish.’ But he: ‘I beseech,’ he said, ‘that you tell what that chant of the rejoicing ones was, which I heard, coming from the heavens upon this oratory, and after a time returning to the heavens?’ He replies: ‘If you heard the voice of the song, and recognized that heavenly cohorts came upon us, I enjoin you in the name of the Lord, that you tell this to no one before my death. In truth, they were spirits of angels, who came to call me to the celestial rewards which I always loved and desired, and they promised that after 7 days they would return, and would lead me with them.’ And indeed this was fulfilled in deed, as it had been said to him. For at once he was touched by a languor of the body, and as this grew heavier through days, on the seventh day, as it had been promised to him, after he fortified his passing by the reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood, his holy soul, loosed from the prison-house of the body, with angels as companions leading, as it is right to believe, sought the eternal joys.

Non autem mirum, si diem mortis uel potius diem Domini laetus aspexit, quem semper, usquedum ueniret, sollicitus expectare curauit.

Nor, however, is it a marvel if he gladly beheld the day of death, or rather the day of the Lord, which he always, solicitous until it should come, took care to await.

Namque inter plura continentiae, humilitatis, doctrinae, orationum, uoluntariae paupertatis, et ceterarum uirtutum merita, in tantum erat timori Domini subditus, in tantum nouissimorum suorum in omnibus operibus suis memor, ut, sicut mihi frater quidam de his, qui me in scripturis erudiebant, et erat in monasterio ac magisterio illius educatus, uocabulo Trumberct, referre solebat, si forte legente eo uel aliud quid agente, repente flatus uenti maior adsurgeret, continuo misericordiam Domini inuocaret, et eam generi humano propitiari rogaret. Si autem uiolentior aura insisteret, iam clauso codice procideret in faciem, atque obnixius orationi incumberet. At si procella fortior aut nimbus perurgeret, uel etiam corusci ac tonitrua terras et aera terrerent, tunc ueniens ad ecclesiam sollicitus orationibus ac psalmis, donec serenitas aeris rediret, fixa mente uacaret.

For among many merits of continence, humility, doctrine, prayers, voluntary poverty, and the other virtues, he was to such an extent subject to the fear of the Lord, to such an extent mindful of his own last things in all his works, that, as a certain brother of those who were instructing me in the Scriptures—and who had been brought up in his monastery and under his mastership—named Trumberct, was accustomed to report to me, if perchance, while he was reading or doing something else, a greater gust of wind suddenly arose, he would immediately invoke the mercy of the Lord, and ask that it be propitious to the human race. But if a more violent breeze persisted, with his book now closed he would fall upon his face, and apply himself more strenuously to oration. And if a stronger tempest or a rain-cloud pressed hard, or even lightnings and thunders were terrifying the lands and the air, then, coming to the church, solicitous, he would devote himself to prayers and psalms, until the serenity of the air returned, and with a fixed mind he would be free for this.

Cumque interrogaretur a suis, quare hoc faceret, respondebat: ‘Non legistis, quia “intonuit de caelo Dominus, et Altissimus dedit uocem suam; misit sagittas suas, et dissipauit eos, fulgora multiplicauit, et conturbauit eos?” Mouet enim aera Dominus, uentos excitat, iaculatur fulgora, de caelo intonat, ut terrigenas ad timendum se suscitet, ut corda eorum in memoriam futuri iudicii reuocet, ut superbiam eorum dissipet, et conturbet audaciam, reducto ad mentem tremendo illo tempore, quando ipse caelis ac terris ardentibus uenturus est in nubibus, in potestate magna et maiestate, ad iudicandos uiuos et mortuos. Propter quod,’ inquit, ‘oportet nos admonitioni eius caelesti, debito cum timore et amore respondere; ut, quoties aere commoto manum quasi ad feriendum minitans exerit, nec adhuc tamen percutit, mox inploremus eius misericordiam, et discussis penetralibus cordis nostri, atque expurgatis uitiorum ruderibus, solliciti, ne umquam percuti mereamur, agamus.’

And when he was asked by his own why he did this, he would answer: ‘Have you not read, that “the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High gave his voice; he sent his arrows, and scattered them, he multiplied lightnings, and confounded them?” For the Lord moves the air, stirs up the winds, hurls the lightnings, thunders from heaven, so as to rouse the earth-born to fear himself, to call back their hearts into the remembrance of the future judgment, to dissipate their pride, and to trouble their audacity, that dreadful time being recalled to mind, when he himself, with the heavens and the earth burning, is going to come in the clouds, in great power and majesty, to judge the living and the dead. For which reason,’ he says, ‘it behooves us to respond to his celestial admonition with due fear and love; so that, whenever, the air being stirred, he stretches out his hand as if threatening to smite, and yet does not strike as yet, at once we implore his mercy, and, the inner chambers of our heart shaken out and the rubble of vices cleansed away, let us act solicitously, lest we should ever deserve to be smitten.’

Conuenit autem reuelationi et relationi praefati fratris de obitu huius antistitis etiam sermo reuerentissimi patris Ecgbercti, de quo supra diximus, qui dudum cum eodem Ceadda adulescente, et ipse adulescens in Hibernia monachicam in orationibus et continentia, et meditatione diuinarum scripturarum uitam sedulus agebat. Sed illo postmodum patriam reuerso, ipse peregrinus pro Domino usque ad finem uitae permansit. Cum ergo ueniret ad eum longo post tempore gratia uisitationis de Brittania uir sanctissimus et continentissimus, uocabulo Hygbald, qui erat abbas in prouincia Lindissi, et ut sanctos decebat, de uita priorum patrum sermonem facerent, atque hanc aemulari gauderent, interuenit mentio reuerentissimi antistitis Ceadda, dixitque Ecgberct: ‘Scio hominem in hac insula adhuc in carne manentem, qui, cum uir ille de mundo transiret, uidit animam Ceddi fratris ipsius cum agmine angelorum descendere de caelo, et adsumta secum anima eius, ad caelestia regna redire.’ Quod utrum de se an de alio aliquo diceret, nobis manet incertum, dum tamen hoc, quod tantus uir dixit, quia uerum sit, esse non possit incertum.

Moreover, with the revelation and relation of the aforesaid brother concerning the death of this prelate there also agrees the discourse of the most reverend father Ecgberht, of whom we said above, who long ago, when that same Ceadda was a youth, being himself a youth, diligently pursued in Ireland a monastic life in prayers and continence, and in the meditation of the divine scriptures. But when that man afterwards returned to his fatherland, he himself remained a pilgrim for the Lord until the end of his life. When therefore after a long time there came to him, for the grace of a visitation, out of Britain a most holy and most continent man, by the name Hygbald, who was abbot in the province of Lindsey, and, as befitted saints, they were discoursing about the life of the former fathers and rejoiced to emulate it, there entered mention of the most reverend prelate Ceadda, and Ecgberht said: ‘I know a man in this island still remaining in the flesh, who, when that man was passing from the world, saw the soul of Cedd, his brother, with a host of angels, descend from heaven, and, having taken his soul with them, return to the heavenly realms.’ Whether he said this about himself or about some other remains uncertain to us; yet that this which so great a man said is true cannot be uncertain.

Obiit autem Ceadda sexto die Nonarum Martiarum, et sepultus est primo quidem iuxta ecclesiam sanctae Mariae; sed postmodum constructa ibidem ecclesia beatissimi apostolorum principis Petri, in eandem sunt eius ossa translata. In quo utroque loco, ad indicium uirtutis illius, solent crebra sanitatum miracula operari. Denique nuper freneticus quidam, dum per cuncta errando discurreret, deuenit ibi uespere, nescientibus siue non curantibus loci custodibus, et ibi tota nocte requiescens, mane sanato sensu egressus, mirantibus et gaudentibus cunctis, quid ibi sanitatis Domino largiente consequeretur, ostendit.

But Ceadda died on the sixth day before the Nones of March (March 2), and was buried at first indeed beside the church of Saint Mary; but afterwards, when a church of the most blessed prince of the apostles, Peter, had been constructed in the same place, his bones were translated into the same. In both places, as an indication of his virtue, frequent miracles of healings are wont to be wrought. Finally, not long ago a certain frenetic man, while running about wandering through all quarters, came there in the evening, the custodians of the place either not knowing or not caring, and, resting there the whole night, in the morning went out with his mind healed; with all marveling and rejoicing, he showed what health he had obtained there by the Lord’s largess.

Est autem locus idem sepulchri tumba lignea in modum domunculi facta coopertus, habente foramen in pariete, per quod solent hi, qui causa deuotionis illo adueniunt, manum suam inmittere, ac partem pulueris inde adsumere; quam cum in aquas miserint, atque has infirmantibus iumentis siue hominibus gustandas dederint, mox infirmitatis ablata molestia, cupitae sospitatis gaudia redibunt.

Moreover, the same place of the sepulcher is covered by a wooden tomb made in the manner of a little house, having an opening in the wall, through which those who arrive there for the sake of devotion are accustomed to insert their hand and take from there a portion of powder; which, when they have cast into waters and have given these to be tasted by ailing beasts of burden (juments) or by humans, soon, the annoyance of the infirmity being taken away, the joys of the desired soundness (health) will return.

In cuius locum ordinauit Theodorus Uynfridum, uirum bonum ac modestum, qui, sicut prodecessores eius, prouinciis Merciorum et Mediterraneorum Anglorum et Lindisfarorum episcopatus officio praeesset; in quibus cunctis Uulfheri, qui adhuc supererat, sceptrum regni tenebat. Erat autem Uynfrid de clero eius, cui ipse successerat, antistitis, et diaconatus officio sub eo non pauco tempore fungebatur.

In whose place Theodore appointed Uynfrid, a good and modest man, that, as his predecessors, he might preside, by the office of the episcopate, over the provinces of the Mercians and the Middle Angles and the Lindisfaran; in all of which Uulfheri, who was still surviving, held the scepter of the kingdom. Moreover, Uynfrid was of the clergy of that prelate, whom he himself had succeeded, and for no small time he was discharging the office of the diaconate under him.

[4] INTEREA Colmanus, qui de Scottia erat episcopus, relinquens Brittaniam, tulit secum omnes, quos in Lindisfarnensium insula congregauerat Scottos; sed et de gente Anglorum uiros circiter XXX, qui utrique monachicae conuersationis erant studiis inbuti. Et relictis in ecclesia sua fratribus aliquot, primo uenit ad insulam Hii, unde erat ad praedicandum uerbum Anglorum genti destinatus. Deinde secessit ad insulam quandam paruam, quae ad occidentalem plagam ab Hibernia procul secreta, sermone Scottico Inisboufinde, id est insula uitulae albae, nuncupatur.

[4] Meanwhile Colman, who was a bishop from Scotia, leaving Britain, took with him all the Scots whom he had gathered on the island of Lindisfarne; but also from the nation of the Angles about 30 men, who had been imbued with the studies of both monastic ways of life. And leaving some brethren in his church, he first came to the island of Hii, whence he had been appointed to preach the word to the nation of the Angles. Then he withdrew to a certain small island, which, far off, secluded to the western region from Ireland, is called in the Scotic tongue Inisboufinde, that is, the island of the white heifer.

In hanc ergo perueniens, construxit monasterium, et monachos inibi, quos de utraque natione collectos adduxerat, collocauit. Qui cum inuicem concordare non possent, eo quod Scotti tempore aestatis, quo fruges erant colligendae, relicto monasterio per nota sibi loca dispersi uagarentur, at uero hieme succedente redirent, et his, quae Angli praeparauerant, communiter uti desiderarent; quaesiuit Colmanus huic dissensioni remedium, et circuiens omnia prope uel longe, inuenit locum in Hibernia insula aptum monasterio construendo, qui lingua Scottorum Magéo nominatur; emitque partem eius non grandem, ad constituendum ibi monasterium, a comite, ad cuius possessionem pertinebat; ea condicione addita, ut pro ipso etiam, qui eis locum commodaret, consistentes ibi monachi Domino preces offerrent. Et constructo statim monasterio, iuuante etiam comite ac uicinis omnibus, Anglos ibidem locauit, relictis in praefata insula Scottis.

Therefore coming to this, he built a monastery, and settled there the monks whom he had brought, gathered from both nations. As they were not able to agree with one another—because the Scots, in the summertime, when the crops were to be gathered, would leave the monastery and wander dispersed through places known to them, but with winter succeeding would return and desire to use in common those things which the English had prepared—Colman sought a remedy for this dissension; and going around everywhere, near and far, he found a place in the island of Ireland suitable for building a monastery, which in the tongue of the Scots is named Magéo; and he bought a not large part of it, for establishing a monastery there, from the count to whose possession it belonged; with this condition added, that the monks residing there should offer prayers to the Lord on behalf also of the very man who furnished them the place. And at once, the monastery having been built, with the count and all the neighbors also helping, he settled the English there, leaving the Scots in the aforesaid island.

Quod uidelicet monasterium usque hodie ab Anglis tenetur incolis. Ipsum namque est, quod nunc grande de modico effectum, Muigéo consuete uocatur, et conuersis iamdudum ad meliora instituta omnibus, egregium examen continet monachorum, qui de prouincia Anglorum ibidem collecti, ad exemplum uenerabilium patrum sub regula et abbate canonico in magna continentia et sinceritate proprio labore manuum uiuant.

Which monastery, namely, is held up to this day by English inhabitants. For it is that which, now made great from small, is commonly called Muigéo, and, all having long since been converted to better institutes, it contains a distinguished company of monks, who, gathered there from the province of the English, after the example of the venerable fathers, under a rule and a canonical abbot, in great continence and sincerity live by the proper labor of their hands.

[5] ANNO dominicae incarnationis DCLXXmo, qui est annus secundus ex quo Brittaniam uenit Theodorus, Osuiu rex Nordanhymbrorum pressus est infirmitate, qua et mortuus est anno aetatis suae LVIIIo. Qui in tantum eo tempore tenebatur amore Romanae et apostolicae institutionis, ut, si ab infirmitate saluaretur, etiam Romam uenire, ibique ad loca sancta uitam finire disponeret, Uilfridumque episcopum ducem sibi itineris fieri, promissa non parua pecuniarum donatione, rogaret. Qui defunctus die XV Kalendarum Martiarum Ecgfridum filium regni heredem reliquit; cuius anno regni IIIo, Theodorus cogit concilium episcoporum, una cum eis, qui canonica patrum statuta et diligerent, et nossent, magistris ecclesiae pluribus.

[5] IN THE YEAR of the Lord’s Incarnation 670, which is the second year since Theodore came to Britain, Oswiu, king of the Northumbrians, was pressed by an infirmity, by which also he died in the 58th year of his age. So bound was he at that time by love of the Roman and apostolic institution that, if he should be saved from the infirmity, he even purposed to come to Rome and there at the holy places to finish his life, and he asked that Bishop Wilfrid be made his leader for the journey, with a not small donation of monies promised. He died on February 15, and left his son Ecgfrid heir of the kingdom; in the 3rd year of whose reign Theodore convened a council of bishops, together with many masters of the Church who both cherished and knew the canonical statutes of the fathers.

Quibus pariter congregatis, diligenter ea, quae unitati pacis ecclesiasticae congruerent, eo quo pontificem decebat, animo, coepit obseruanda docere. Cuius synodicae actionis huiusmodi textus est:

When these men had been gathered together likewise, he began, with the disposition which befitted a pontiff, diligently to teach the things that would be congruent to the unity of ecclesiastical peace, to be observed. The text of this synodical action is as follows:

In nomine Domini Dei et Saluatoris nostri Iesu Christi, regnante in perpetuum ac gubernante suam ecclesiam eodem Domino Iesu Christo, placuit conuenire nos iuxta morem canonum uenerabilium, tractaturos de necessariis ecclesiae negotiis. Conuenimus autem die XXoIIIIo mensis Septembris, indictione prima, in loco, qui dicitur Herutford; ego quidem Theodorus, quamuis indignus, ab apostolica sede destinatus Doruuernensis ecclesiae episcopus, et consacerdos ac frater noster, reuerentissimus Bisi, Orientalium Anglorum episcopus; quibus etiam frater et consacerdos noster Uilfrid, Nordanhymbrorum gentis episcopus, per proprios legatarios adfuit. Adfuerunt et fratres ac consacerdotes nostri, Putta, episcopus castelli Cantuariorum, quod dicitur Hrofescœstir, Leutherius, episcopus Occidentalium Saxonum, Uynfrid, episcopus prouinciae Merciorum.

In the name of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, with the same Lord Jesus Christ reigning forever and governing his church, it has pleased us to convene according to the custom of the venerable canons, to treat of the necessary business of the church. We met, moreover, on the 24th day of the month of September, in the 1st indiction, in the place which is called Herutford; I indeed, Theodorus, although unworthy, having been dispatched by the apostolic see, bishop of the church of Doruuernensis, and our fellow-priest and brother, the most reverend Bisi, bishop of the East Angles; to which there was also present our brother and fellow-priest Uilfrid, bishop of the nation of the Northumbrians, through his own legates. There were present also our brothers and fellow-priests, Putta, bishop of the fortress of the Cantuarians, which is called Hrofescœstir, Leutherius, bishop of the West Saxons, Uynfrid, bishop of the province of the Mercians.

Cumque in unum conuenientes iuxta ordinem quique suum resedissemus: ‘Rogo,’ inquam, ‘dilectissimi fratres, propter timorem et amorem Redemtoris nostri, ut in commune omnes pro nostra fide tractemus; ut, quaeque decreta ac definita sunt a sanctis ac probabilibus patribus, incorrupte ab omnibus nobis seruentur.’ Haec et alia quamplura, quae ad caritatem pertinebant, unitatemque ecclesiae conseruandam, prosccutus sum. Cumque explessem praelocutionem, interrogaui unumquemque eorum per ordinem, si consentirent ea, quae a patribus canonice sunt antiquitus decreta, custodire. Ad quod omnes consacerdotes nostri respondentes dixerunt: ‘Optime omnibus placet, quaeque definierunt sanctorum canones patrum, nos quoque omnes alacri animo libentissime seruare.’ Quibus statim protuli eundem librum canonum, et ex eodem libro X capitula, quae per loca notaueram, quia maxime nobis necessaria sciebam, illis coram ostendi, et, ut haec diligentius ab omnibus susciperentur, rogaui.

And when, coming together into one, each of us had sat down according to his own order: ‘I ask,’ I said, ‘most beloved brothers, for the fear and love of our Redeemer, that we all in common deliberate concerning our faith; that whatever things have been decreed and defined by the holy and approved fathers be kept incorrupt by all of us.’ These and very many other things, which pertained to charity and to preserving the unity of the church, I pursued. And when I had completed the preface, I asked each one of them in order whether they consented to keep those things which had been canonically decreed of old by the fathers. To which all our fellow-priests, answering, said: ‘It greatly pleases all that whatever the canons of the holy fathers have defined, we also all with eager spirit most gladly keep.’ To them I immediately produced that same book of canons, and from the same book I showed before them 10 chapters, which I had marked in places, because I knew them to be most necessary for us, and I asked that these be more diligently received by all.

Primum capitulum: ‘Ut sanctum diem paschae in commune omnes seruemus dominica post XIIIIam lunam mensis primi.’

First chapter: ‘That we all observe the holy day of Pascha in common, on the Sunday after the 14th moon of the first month.’

Secundum: ‘Ut nullus episcoporum parrochiam alterius inuadat, sed contentus sit gubernatione creditae sibi plebis.’

Second: ‘That none of the bishops invade another’s parish, but let him be content with the governance of the people entrusted to him.’

III: ‘Ut, quaeque monasteria Deo consecrata sunt, nulli episcoporum liceat ea in aliquo inquietare, nec quicquam de eorum rebus uiolenter abstrahere.’

3: ‘That, whichever monasteries are consecrated to God, it be permitted to none of the bishops to disquiet them in any respect, nor to violently take away anything from their property.’

IIII: ‘Ut ipsi monachi non migrent de loco ad locum, hoc est de monasterio ad monasterium, nisi per dimissionem proprii abbatis; sed in ea permaneant oboedientia, quam tempore suae conuersionis promiserunt.’

4: ‘That the monks themselves are not to migrate from place to place, that is, from monastery to monastery, unless by the dismissal of their own abbot; but let them remain in that obedience which at the time of their conversion they promised.’

V: ‘Ut nullus clericorum relinquens proprium episcopum, passim quolibet discurrat, neque alicubi ueniens absque commendaticiis litteris sui praesulis suscipiatur. Quod si semel susceptus noluerit inuitatus redire, et susceptor, et is, qui susceptus est, excommunicationi subiacebit.’

5: ‘That none of the clerics, leaving his own bishop, run about everywhere to any place, nor, coming anywhere, be received without commendatory letters of his prelate. But if, once received, he should refuse, when invited, to return, both the receiver and the one who has been received will be subject to excommunication.’

VI: ‘Ut episcopi atque clerici peregrini contenti sint hospitalitatis munere oblato; nullique eorum liceat ullum officium sacerdotale, absque permissu episcopi, in cuius parrochia esse cognoscitur, agere.’

6: ‘That bishops and clerics who are peregrine be content with the gift of hospitality that is offered; and let it be permitted to none of them to perform any sacerdotal office, without the permission of the bishop in whose parish he is known to be.’

VII: ‘Ut bis in anno synodus congregetur. Sed quia diuersae causae inpediunt, placuit omnibus in commune, ut Kalendis Augustis in loco, qui appellatur Clofeshoch, semel in anno congregemur.’

7: ‘That twice in the year a synod be congregated. But because diverse causes impede, it pleased all in common that on the Kalends of August, in the place which is called Clofeshoch, we should congregate once in the year.’

VIII: ‘Ut nullus episcoporum se praeferat alteri per ambitionem; sed omnes agnoscant tempus et ordinem consecrationis suae.’

8: ‘That none of the bishops put himself before another through ambition; but let all recognize the time and the order of their consecration.’

VIIII capitulum in commune tractatum est: ‘Ut plures episcopi crescente numero fidelium augerentur’; sed de hac re ad praesens siluimus.

Chapter 9 was discussed in common: ‘That more bishops should be added as the number of the faithful increases’; but about this matter for the present we kept silent.

X capitulum pro coniugiis: ‘Ut nulli liceat nisi legitimum habere conubium. Nullus incestum faciat, nullus coniugem propriam, nisi, ut sanctum euangelium docet, fornicationis causa, relinquat. Quod si quisquam propriam expulerit coniugem legitimo sibi matrimonio coniunctam, si Christianus esse recte uoluerit, nulli alteri copuletur; sed ita permaneat, aut propriae reconcilietur coniugi.’

chapter 10 concerning marriages: ‘That it be permitted to no one to have a connubial union except a legitimate one. Let no one commit incest, let no one leave his own spouse unless, as the holy gospel teaches, for the cause of fornication. But if anyone has expelled his own spouse joined to him by a legitimate marriage, if he will have wished to be rightly a Christian, let him be joined to no other; but let him thus remain, or let him be reconciled to his own spouse.’

His itaque capitulis in commune tractatis ac definitis, ut nullum deinceps ab aliquo nostrum oriatur contentionis scandalum, aut alia pro aliis diuulgarentur, placuit, ut, quaeque definita sunt, unusquisque nostrum manus propriae subscriptione confirmaret. Quam sententiam definitionis nostrae Titillo notario scribendam dictaui. Actum in mense et indictione supra scripta.

Therefore, with these chapters having been in common discussed and defined, so that henceforth no scandal of contention may arise from any one of us, nor other things be spread in place of others, it was agreed that each of us should confirm, by the subscription of his own hand, whatever things have been defined. This sentence of our definition I dictated to Titillus the notary to be written. Done in the month and indiction written above.

Quisquis igitur contra hanc sententiam, iuxta decreta canonum, nostra etiam consensione ac subscriptione manus nostrae confirmatam, quoquo modo uenire, eamque infringere temtauerit, nouerit se ab omni officio sacerdotali et nostra societate separatum. Diuina nos gratia in unitate sanctae suae ecclesiae uiuentes custodiat incolumes.

Whoever therefore, contrary to this sentence—confirmed according to the decrees of the canons, and by our consent and the subscription of our hand—shall in any way come against it and attempt to infringe it, let him know himself separated from every sacerdotal office and from our society. May the divine grace keep us unharmed, living in the unity of His holy church.

Facta est autem haec synodus anno ab incarnatione Domini DCLXX tertio, quo anno rex Cantuariorum Ecgberct mense Iulio obierat, succedente in regnum fratre Hlothere, quod ipse annos XI et menses VII tenuit. Bisi autem episcopus Orientalium Anglorum, qui in praefata synodo fuisse perhibetur, ipse erat successor Bonifatii, cuius supra meminimus, uir multae sanctitatis et religionis. Nam Bonifatio post X et VII episcopatus sui annos defuncto, episcopus ipse pro eo, Theodoro ordinante, factus est.

Moreover, this synod was held in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 673, in which year Ecgberht, king of the people of Kent, died in the month of July, his brother Hlothere succeeding to the kingdom, which he held for 11 years and 7 months. But Bisi, bishop of the East Angles, who is reported to have been present at the aforesaid synod, was himself the successor of Boniface, of whom we have made mention above, a man of much sanctity and religion. For, Boniface having died after 17 years of his episcopate, he himself was made bishop in his place, Theodore ordaining.

Quo adhuc superstite, sed grauissima infirmitate ab administrando episcopatu prohibito, duo sunt pro illo, Aecci et Baduuini, electi et consecrati episcopi; ex quo usque hodie prouincia illa duos habere solet episcopos.

While he was still surviving, but, being prohibited by a most grave infirmity from administering the episcopate, two bishops were elected and consecrated in his stead, Aecci and Baduuini; from which time even to this day that province is wont to have two bishops.

[6] NON multo post haec elapso tempore, offensus a Uynfrido Merciorum episcopo per meritum cuiusdam inoboedientiae, Theodorus archiepiscopus deposuit eum de episcopatu post annos accepti episcopatus non multos; et in loco eius ordinauit episcopum Sexuulfum, qui erat constructor et abbas monasterii, quod dicitur Medeshamstedi, in regione Gyruiorum. Depositus uero Uynfrid rediit ad monasterium suum, quod dicitur Adbaruae, ibique in optima uitam conuersatione finiuit.

[6] NOT long after these things, time having elapsed, Theodore the archbishop, offended at Uynfrid, bishop of the Mercians, by reason of a certain disobedience, deposed him from the bishopric after not many years from his having received the bishopric; and in his place he ordained Bishop Sexuulf, who was the builder and abbot of the monastery which is called Medeshamstede, in the region of the Gyruians. But Uynfrid, deposed, returned to his monastery, which is called Adbaruae, and there, in most excellent conduct of life, he finished his life.

Tum etiam Orientalibus Saxonibus, quibus eo tempore praefuerunt Sebbi et Sigheri, quorum supra meminimus, Earconualdum constituit episcopum in ciuitate Lundonia; cuius uidelicet uiri, et in episcopatu, et ante episcopatum, uita et conuersatio fertur fuisse sanctissima, sicut etiam nunc caelestium signa uirtutum indicio sunt. Etenim usque hodie feretrum eius caballarium, quo infirmus uehi solebat, seruatum a discipulis eius, multos febricitantes, uel alio quolibet incommodo fessos, sanare non desistit. Non solum autem subpositi eidem feretro, uel adpositi curantur egroti, sed et astulae de illo abscissae, atque ad infirmos adlatae citam illis solent adferre medellam.

Then also for the East Saxons, over whom at that time Sebbi and Sigheri, whom we have mentioned above, presided, he appointed Earconwald as bishop in the city of London; and the life and conversation of this man, both in the episcopate and before the episcopate, is reported to have been most holy, as even now the signs of heavenly virtues are an indication. For even to this day his caballary bier, by which, when ill, he used to be conveyed, preserved by his disciples, does not cease to heal many who are feverish, or worn out by any other affliction. Not only, moreover, are the sick cured when placed beneath that bier, or laid beside it, but even splinters cut from it and brought to the infirm are wont to bring them swift remedy.

Hic sane priusquam episcopus factus esset, duo praeclara monasteria, unum sibi, alterum sorori suae Aedilburgae construxerat, quod utrumque regularibus disciplinis optime instituerat; sibi quidem in regione Sudergeona, iuxta fluuium Tamensem, in loco, qui uocatur Cerotaesei, id est Ceroti insula; sorori autem in Orientalium Saxonum prouincia, in loco, qui nuncupatur In Berecingum, in quo ipsa Deo deuotarum mater ac nutrix posset existere feminarum. Quae suscepto monasterii regimine, condignam se in omnibus episcopo fratre, et ipsa recte uiuendo, et subiectis regulariter ac pie consulendo praebuit; ut etiam caelestia indicio fuere miracula.

Here indeed, before he had been made bishop, he had built two splendid monasteries, one for himself, the other for his sister Aedilburga, and he had established both most excellently with regular disciplines; for himself indeed in the region of the Sudergeona, near the river Thames, in the place which is called Cerotaesei, that is, Cerot’s island; but for his sister in the province of the East Saxons, in the place which is named In Berecingum, in which she herself might exist as mother and nurse of women devoted to God. She, having undertaken the governance of the monastery, showed herself in all respects worthy of her brother the bishop, both by living rightly herself and by advising those subject to her regularly and piously; so that even heavenly miracles were the indication.

[7] IN hoc etenim monasterio plura uirtutum sunt signa patrata, quae et ad memoriam aedificationemque sequentium ab his, qui nouere, descripta habentur a multis; e quibus et nos aliqua historiae nostrae ecclesiasticae inserere curauimus. Cum tempestas saepe dictae cladis late cuncta depopulans, etiam partem monasterii huius illam, qua uiri tenebantur, inuasisset, et passim cotidie raperentur ad Dominum; sollicita mater congregationis, qua hora etiam eam monasterii partem, qua ancellarum Dei caterua a uirorum erat secreta contubernio, eadem plaga tangeret, crebrius in conuentu sororum perquirere coepit, quo loci in monasterio corpora sua poni, et cymiterium fieri uellent, cum eas eodem, quo ceteros exterminio raptari e mundo contingeret. Cumque nihil certi responsi, tametsi saepius inquirens, a sororibus accepisset, accepit ipsa cum omnibus certissimum supernae prouisionis responsum.

[7] IN this monastery indeed many signs of virtues have been accomplished, which, for the memory and edification of those who come after, are held written down by many of those who knew; of which we also have taken care to insert some into our ecclesiastical history. When the storm of the oft-mentioned calamity, laying waste widely all things, had even invaded that part of this monastery in which the men were held, and on every side daily they were being snatched away to the Lord; the solicitous mother of the congregation, as soon as the same stroke should also touch that part of the monastery in which the crowd of the handmaids of God had been separated from the companionship of men, began more frequently in the assembly of the sisters to inquire in what place in the monastery they would wish their bodies to be placed, and that a cemetery be made, since it might befall them to be carried off from the world by the same extermination as the others. And when, although asking more often, she had received no certain answer from the sisters, she herself, together with all, received a most certain answer of supernal providence.

Cum enim nocte quadam, expletis matutinae laudis psalmodiis, egressae de oratorio famulae Christi, ad sepulchra fratrum, qui eas ex hac luce praecesserant, solitas Domino laudes decantarent, ecce subito lux emissa caelitus, ueluti linteum magnum, uenit super omnes, tantoque eas stupore perculit, ut etiam canticum, quod canebant, tremefactae intermitterent. Ipse autem splendor emissae lucis, in cuius conparatione sol meridianus uideri posset obscurus, non multo post illo eleuatus de loco, in meridianum monasterii, hoc est ad occidentem oratorii, secessit, ibique aliquandiu remoratus, et ea loca operiens, sic uidentibus cunctis ad caeli se alta subduxit; ut nulli esset dubium, quin ipsa lux, quae animas famularum Christi esset ductura uel susceptura in caelis, etiam corporibus earum locum, in quo requietura, et diem resurrectionis essent expectatura, monstraret. Cuius radius lucis tantus extitit, ut quidam de fratribus senior, qui ipsa hora in oratorio eorum cum alio iuniore positus fuerat, referret mane, quod ingressi per rimas ostiorum uel fenestrarum radii lucis, omnem diurni luminis uiderentur superare fulgorem.

For when on a certain night, the psalmodies of the morning lauds having been completed, the handmaids of Christ, having gone out from the oratory, were chanting to the Lord the accustomed praises at the sepulchres of the brothers who had preceded them from this light, behold, suddenly a light sent from heaven, as if a great linen cloth, came over all, and struck them with such amazement that, trembling, they even interrupted the song which they were singing. But the very splendor of the emitted light, in comparison with which the noonday sun could seem dim, not long after, having been lifted up from that place, withdrew to the meridian part of the monastery, that is, to the west of the oratory; and there, lingering for some time and covering those places, thus, with all looking on, it withdrew itself to the heights of heaven; so that there was no doubt to anyone that this very light, which was to lead or receive the souls of the handmaids of Christ in the heavens, also pointed out to their bodies the place in which they would rest and await the day of resurrection. The ray of this light was so great that a certain elder of the brothers, who at that very hour had been stationed in their oratory with another younger, reported in the morning that the rays of light entering through the cracks of the doors or the windows seemed to surpass all the brilliance of daylight.

[8] ERAT in eodem monasterio puer trium circiter non amplius annorum, Aesica nomine, qui propter infantilem adhuc aetatem in uirginum Deo dedicatarum solebat cella nutriri, ibique meditari. Hic praefata pestilentia tactus, ubi ad extrema peruenit, clamauit tertio unam de consecratis Christo uirginibus, proprio eam nomine quasi praesentem alloquens, ‘Eadgyd, Eadgyd, Eadgyd’; et sic terminans temporalem uitam, intrauit aeternam. At uirgo illa, quam moriens uocabat, mox in loco, quo erat, eadem adtacta infirmitate, ipso, quo uocitata est die de hac luce subtracta, et illum, qui se uocauit, ad regnum caeleste secuta est.

[8] There was in the same monastery a boy of about three years, no more, named Aesica, who, on account of his still infantile age, was wont to be nourished in the cell of the virgins dedicated to God, and there to meditate. He, touched by the aforementioned pestilence, when he came to the last extremities, cried out three times to one of the virgins consecrated to Christ, addressing her by her own name as if present, ‘Eadgyd, Eadgyd, Eadgyd’; and thus, ending the temporal life, he entered the eternal. But that virgin, whom he, dying, was calling, soon, in the place where she was, touched by the same infirmity, on the very day on which she was being called by name, was withdrawn from this light, and followed him who called her to the celestial kingdom.

Item quaedam ex eisdem ancellis Dei, cum praefato tacta morbo, atque ad extrema esset perducta, coepit subito circa mediam noctem clamare his, quae sibi ministrabant, petens, ut lucernam, quae inibi accensa erat, extinguerent. Quod cum frequenti uoce repeteret, nec tamen ei aliquis obtemperaret, ad extremum intulit: ‘Scio, quod me haec insana mente loqui arbitramini; sed iam nunc non ita esse cognoscite; nam uere dico uobis, quia domum hanc tanta luce inpletam esse perspicio, ut uestra illa lucerna mihi omnimodis esse uideatur obscura.’ Et cum ne adhuc quidem talia loquenti quisquam responderet, uel adsensum praeberet, iterum dixit: ‘Accendite ergo lucernam illam, quamdiu uultis; attamen scitote, quia non est mea; nam mea lux, incipiente aurora, mihi aduentura est.’ Coepitque narrare, quia apparuerit sibi quidam uir Dei, qui eodem anno fuerat defunctus, dicens, quod adueniente diluculo perennem esset exitura ad lucem. Cuius ueritas uisionis cita circa exortum diei puellae morte probata est.

Likewise, a certain one of the same handmaids of God, when she had been touched by the aforesaid disease and had been brought to the last extremities, began suddenly about the middle of the night to cry out to those who were ministering to her, asking that they extinguish the lamp which had been lit there. When she repeated this with frequent voice, and yet no one obeyed her, at last she added: ‘I know that you suppose me to be speaking these things with an insane mind; but even now recognize that it is not so; for I truly say to you that I perceive this house to be filled with so great a light that that lamp of yours seems to me altogether dark.’ And when not even yet anyone answered to her speaking such things, or offered assent, she said again: ‘Light, then, that lamp as long as you wish; yet know that it is not mine; for my light, with the dawn beginning, is going to come to me.’ And she began to relate that a certain man of God had appeared to her, who in that same year had died, saying that, with daybreak coming, she would be going out to the perennial light. The truth of which vision was quickly proved about the rising of the day by the maiden’s death.

[9] CUM autem et ipsa mater pia Deo deuotae congregationis Aedilburga esset rapienda de mundo, apparuit uisio miranda cuidam de sororibus, cui nomen erat Torctgyd, quae multis iam annis in eodem monasterio commorata, et ipsa semper in omni humilitate ac sinceritate Deo seruire satagebat, et adiutrix disciplinae regularis eidem matri existere, minores docendo uel castigando curabat. Cuius ut uirtus, iuxta apostolum, in infirmitate perficeretur, tacta est repente grauissimo corporis morbo, et per annos VIIII pia Redemtoris nostri prouisione multum fatigata; uidelicet ut, quicquid in ea uitii sordidantis inter uirtutes per ignorantiam uel incuriam resedisset, totum hoc caminus diutinae tribulationis excoqueret. Haec ergo quadam nocte incipiente crepusculo, egressa de cubiculo, quo manebat, uidit manifeste quasi corpus hominis, quod esset sole clarius, sindone inuolutum in sublime ferri, elatum uidelicet de domo, in qua sorores pausare solebant.

[9] But when the mother herself, the pious Aedilburga of the congregation devoted to God, was about to be snatched from the world, a wondrous vision appeared to one of the sisters, whose name was Torctgyd, who, having now for many years dwelt in the same monastery, herself always strove to serve God in all humility and sincerity, and took care to be a helper of the regular discipline to that same mother, by teaching or chastising the juniors. In order that her virtue, according to the apostle, might be perfected in infirmity, she was suddenly touched by a most grievous bodily disease, and for 9 years, by the kindly providence of our Redeemer, was much afflicted; namely, that whatever of the stain of vice, amid her virtues, had remained in her through ignorance or carelessness, the whole of this the furnace of long tribulation might refine away. Therefore one night, with twilight beginning, having gone out from the cubicle where she was staying, she plainly saw, as it were, the body of a man, which was brighter than the sun, wrapped in a shroud, being borne on high, lifted, namely, out of the house in which the sisters were wont to take their rest.

Cumque diligentius intueretur, quo trahente leuaretur sursum haec, quam contemplabatur species corporis gloriosi, uidit, quasi funibus auro clarioribus in superna tolleretur, donec caelis patentibus introducta, amplius ab illa uideri non potuit. Nec dubium remansit cogitanti de uisione, quin aliquis de illa congregatione citius esset moriturus, cuius anima per bona, quae fecisset, opera, quasi per funes aureos leuanda esset ad caelos; quod re uera ita contigit. Nam non multis interpositis diebus, Deo dilecta mater congregationis ipsius, ergastulo carnis educta est; cuius talem fuisse constat uitam, ut nemo, qui eam nouerit, dubitare debeat, quin ei exeunti de hac uita caelestis patriae patuerit ingressus.

And when she more diligently gazed at what was drawing up on high that appearance of a glorious body which she was contemplating, she saw, as it were, that it was being lifted to the heights by ropes brighter than gold, until, the heavens standing open, it was brought within and could no longer be seen by her. No doubt remained, as she pondered the vision, that someone from that congregation would soon die, whose soul, by the good works that he had done, would be lifted to the heavens as if by golden cords; which in very truth so came to pass. For, with not many days interposed, the God‑beloved mother of that same congregation was led forth from the ergastulum of the flesh; whose life is agreed to have been such that no one who knew her ought to doubt that, as she went forth from this life, the entry of the heavenly fatherland stood open to her.

In eodem quoque monasterio quaedam erat femina sanctimonialis, et ad saeculi huius dignitatem nobilis, et in amore futuri saeculi nobilior; quae ita multis iam annis omni corporis fuerat officio destituta, ut ne unum quidem mouere ipsa membrum ualeret. Haec ubi corpus abbatissae uenerabilis in ecclesiam delatum, donec sepulturae daretur, cognouit, postulauit se illo adferri, et in modum orantium ad illud adclinari. Quod dum fieret, quasi uiuentem adlocuta, rogauit, ut apud misericordiam pii Conditoris inpetraret, se a tantis tamque diutinis cruciatibus absolui.

In that same monastery there was also a sanctimonial woman, noble in the dignity of this age, and nobler in the love of the age to come; who for many years had been deprived of every function of the body, such that she was not able herself to move not even one limb. When she learned that the body of the venerable abbess had been borne into the church, until it should be given to burial, she asked that she be brought there, and, in the manner of those praying, be leaned toward it. And as this was being done, as if addressing her as living, she asked that she would obtain from the mercy of the pious Creator to be absolved from such great and so long-continued torments.

Nec multo tardius exaudita est; nam post dies XII et ipsa educta ex carne temporales adflictiones aeterna mercede mutauit.

Not much later was she heard; for after 12 days she too, brought forth from the flesh, exchanged temporal afflictions for an eternal reward.

Cum uero praefata Christi famula Torctgyd tres adhuc annos post obitum dominae in hac uita teneretur, in tantum ea, quam praediximus, infirmitate decocta est, ut uix ossibus hereret; ad ultimum, cum tempus iam resolutionis eius instaret, non solum membrorum ceterorum, sed et linguae motu caruit. Quod dum tribus diebus et totidem noctibus ageretur, subito uisione spiritali recreata, os et oculos aperuit; aspectansque in caelum, sic ad eam, quam intuebatur, uisionem coepit loqui: ‘Gratus mihi est multum aduentus tuus, et bene uenisti.’ Et hoc dicto parumper reticuit, quasi responsum eius, quem uidebat et cui loquebatur, expectans. Rursumque, quasi leuiter indignata, subiunxit: ‘Nequaquam hoc laeta ferre queo.’ Rursumque modicum silens, tertio dixit: ‘Si nullatenus hodie fieri potest, obsecro, ne sit longum spatium in medio.’ Dixit, et, sicut antea, parum silens, ita sermonem conclusit: ‘Si omnimodis ita definitum est, neque hanc sententiam licet inmutari, obsecro, ne amplius quam haec solummodo proxima nox intersit.’ Quibus dictis, interrogata a circumsedentibus, cum quo loqueretur: ‘Cum carissima,’ inquit, ‘mea matre Aedilburge.’ Ex quo intellexere, quod ipsa ei tempus suae transmigrationis proximum nuntiare uenisset.

When indeed the aforesaid handmaid of Christ Torctgyd was still kept in this life for three years after the death of her lady, she was so wasted by that infirmity which we have foretold that she scarcely clung to her bones; at last, when the time of her dissolution was now drawing near, she lacked the motion not only of her other members but even of her tongue. While this was being borne for three days and just so many nights, suddenly, refreshed by a spiritual vision, she opened her mouth and eyes; and gazing into heaven, thus she began to speak to the vision which she was beholding: ‘Your coming is very pleasing to me, and you are welcome.’ And having said this she was silent for a little while, as though awaiting the response of the one whom she saw and to whom she was speaking. And again, as if lightly indignant, she added: ‘By no means can I bear this gladly.’ And again, keeping silence a little, she said a third time: ‘If it can in no wise be done today, I beseech that there not be a long interval in between.’ She spoke, and, as before, being silent a little, thus she concluded her discourse: ‘If in every way it has been thus defined, and it is not permitted that this sentence be altered, I beseech that not more than this next night alone intervene.’ With these things said, when she was asked by those sitting around with whom she was speaking: ‘With my dearest mother Aedilburge,’ she said. From this they understood that she had come to announce to her that the time of her transmigration was at hand.

Nam et ita, ut rogabat, transacta una die et nocte, soluta carnis simul et infirmitatis uinculis ad aeternae gaudia salutis intrauit.

And indeed, just as she was asking, with one day and night having passed, loosed from the bonds of flesh and of infirmity together, she entered into the joys of eternal salvation.

[10] SUCCESSIT autem Aedilburgi in officio abbatissae deuota Deo famula, nomine Hildilid, multisque annis, id est usque ad ultimam senectutem, eidem monasterio strenuissime, et in obseruantia disciplinae regularis, et in earum, quae ad communes usus pertinent, rerum prouidentia praefuit. Cui cum propter angustiam loci, in quo monasterium constructum est, placuisset, ut ossa famulorum famularumque Christi, quae ibidem fuerant tumulata, tollerentur, et transferrentur omnia in ecclesiam beatae Dei genetricis, unoque conderentur in loco; quoties ibi claritas luminis caelestis, quanta saepe flagrantia mirandi apparuerit odoris, quae alia sint signa ostensa, in ipso libro, de quo haec excerpsimus, quisque legerit, inueniet.

[10] There succeeded, moreover, to Aedilburga in the office of abbess a handmaid devoted to God, by name Hildilid; and for many years, that is, up to her utmost old age, she presided most strenuously over the same monastery, both in the observance of regular discipline and in the providence of the things that pertain to common uses. When, on account of the narrowness of the place in which the monastery is constructed, it had pleased her that the bones of the servants and handmaids of Christ, which had been buried there, be taken up, and that all be transferred into the church of the blessed Mother of God, and be laid together in one place, how often there the brightness of celestial light, what great and frequent fragrancy of a wondrous odor has appeared, what other signs have been shown—whoever shall read the very book from which we have excerpted these things will find.

Sane nullatenus praetereundum arbitror miraculum sanitatis, quod ad ipsum cymiterium Deo dicatae congregationis factum idem libellus refert. Erat quippe in proximo comes quidam, cuius uxor ingruente oculis caligine subita, tantum per dies eadem molestia crebrescente grauata est, ut ne minimam quidem lucis alicuius posset particulam uidere. Cui, dum aliquandiu caecitatis huius nocte clausa maneret, repente uenit in mentem, quia, si ad monasterium delata uirginum sanctimonalium, ad reliquias sanctorum peteret, perditam posset recipere lucem.

Truly I judge that the miracle of health is by no means to be passed over, which the same little book reports to have been done at the very cemetery of the God-dedicated congregation. For there was nearby a certain count, whose wife, with a sudden dimness pressing upon her eyes, was so grievously burdened as the same trouble grew more frequent day by day, that she could not see even the smallest particle of any light. While she remained for some time shut in by the night of this blindness, it suddenly came into her mind that, if she were brought to the monastery of the holy virgin sanctimonials and were to petition at the relics of the saints, she might receive back the light she had lost.

Nec distulit, quin continuo, quod mente conceperat, expleret. Perducta namque a puellis suis ad monasterium, quia in proximo erat, ubi fidem suae sanationis integram se habere professa est, introducta est ad cymiterium; et, cum ibidem diutius flexis genibus oraret, nihilo tardius meruit exaudiri. Nam exsurgens ab oratione, priusquam exiret de loco, petitae lucis gratiam recepit; et quae famularum manibus adducta fuerat, ipsa libero pedum incessu domum laeta reuersa est; quasi ad hoc solummodo lucem amitteret temporalem, ut, quanta sanctos Christi lux in caelis, quae gratia uirtutis possideret, sua sanatione demonstraret.

Nor did she delay, but immediately fulfilled what she had conceived in mind. For, conducted by her maidens to the monastery, because it was close by, where she professed that she had an entire faith in her healing, she was introduced to the cemetery; and, when she prayed there longer with knees bent, she merited to be heard no whit more tardily. For, rising from prayer, before she went out from the place, she received the grace of the light she had sought; and she who had been led by the hands of the handmaids, she herself returned home joyful with a free stride of the feet; as though she had lost temporal light for this sole purpose, that by her healing she might demonstrate how great a light the saints of Christ possess in the heavens, what grace of power they possess.

[11] EO tempore praeerat regno Orientalium Saxonum, ut idem etiam libellus docet, uir multum Deo deuotus, nomine Sebbi, cuius supra meminimus. Erat enim religiosis actibus, crebris precibus, piis elimosynarum fructibus plurimum intentus; uitam priuatam et monachicam cunctis regni diuitiis et honoribus praeferens, quam et olim iam, si non obstinatus coniugis animus diuortium negaret, relicto regno subisset. Unde multis uisum et saepe dictum est, quia talis animi uirum, episcopum magis quam regem ordinari deceret.

[11] At that time there presided over the kingdom of the East Saxons, as that same little book also teaches, a man much devoted to God, by name Sebbi, of whom we have made mention above. For he was most intent upon religious acts, frequent prayers, and the pious fruits of alms; preferring the private and monastic life to all the riches and honors of the kingdom, which also long since he would have undertaken, the kingdom left behind, if the obstinate mind of his wife had not forbidden a divorce. Whence it seemed to many and was often said that a man of such a mind ought to be ordained bishop rather than king.

Cumque annos XXX in regno miles regni caelestis exegisset, correptus est corporis infirmitate permaxima, qua et mortuus est; ammonuitque coniugem, ut uel tunc diuino se seruitio pariter manciparent, cum amplius pariter mundum amplecti, uel potius mundo seruire non possent. Quod dum egre inpetraret ab ea, uenit ad antistitem Lundoniae ciuitatis, uocabulo Ualdheri, qui Erconualdo successerat; et per eius benedictionem habitum religionis, quem diu desiderabat, accepit. Attulit autem eidem et summam pecuniae non paruam pauperibus erogandam, nil omnimodis sibi reseruans; sed pauper spiritu magis propter regnum caelorum manere desiderans.

And when he had spent 30 years in the kingdom as a soldier of the heavenly kingdom, he was seized by a very great infirmity of body, by which he also died; and he admonished his spouse that at least then they should together consign themselves to divine service, since any longer they could not together embrace the world, or rather serve the world. While he could scarcely obtain this from her, he came to the bishop of the city of London, by the name Waldhere, who had succeeded Erkenwald; and through his blessing he received the religious habit, which he had long desired. Moreover, he brought to him also a sum of money not small, to be dispensed to the poor, reserving nothing whatsoever for himself; but desiring rather to remain poor in spirit for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

Qui cum ingrauescente praefata egritudine, diem sibi mortis inminere sensisset, timere coepit homo animi regalis, ne ad mortem ueniens tanto adfectus dolore aliquid indignum suae personae uel ore proferret, uel aliorum motu gereret membrorum. Unde accito ad se praefato urbis Lundoniae, in qua tunc ipse manebat, episcopo, rogauit, ne plures eo moriente quam ipse episcopus et duo sui ministri adessent. Quod dum episcopus libentissime se facturum promitteret, non multo post idem uir Dei, dum membra sopori dedisset, uidit uisionem consolatoriam, quae omnem ei anxietatem memoratae sollicitudinis auferret, insuper et, qua die esset hanc uitam terminaturus, ostenderet.

When, as the aforementioned sickness grew more grave, he perceived that the day of death was impending for himself, the man of royal spirit began to fear lest, coming to death and afflicted by so great pain, he might either utter by his mouth something unworthy of his person, or, by the movement of his other members, perform something. Wherefore, having summoned to himself the aforesaid bishop of the city of London, in which he himself was then residing, he asked that, as he was dying, no more should be present than the bishop himself and his two ministers. And when the bishop most gladly promised that he would do this, not long after the same man of God, when he had given his limbs to sleep, saw a consolatory vision, which took away from him all the anxiety of the aforesaid solicitude, and moreover showed on what day he was going to terminate this life.

Uidit enim, ut post ipse referebat, tres ad se uenisse uiros claro indutos habitu; quorum unus residens ante lectulum eius, stantibus his, qui secum aduenerant, comitibus, et interrogantibus de statu eius, quem languentem uisitare uenerant, dixit, quod anima eius, et sine ullo dolore, et cum magno lucis splendore esset egressura de corpore; sed et tertium exinde diem, quo esset moriturus, insinuauit. Quod ita utrumque, ut ex uisione didicit, conpletum est. Nam die dehinc tertio, conpleta hora nona, subito quasi leuiter obdormiens, sine ullo sensu doloris emisit spiritum.

For he saw, as he himself later related, that three men had come to him, clad in bright habit; of whom one, sitting before his little bed, while the companions who had come with him stood, and asking about his condition, whom they had come to visit in his languishing, said that his soul would go forth from the body both without any pain and with a great splendor of light; and he also insinuated the third day from then, on which he would die. And both were thus fulfilled, as he learned from the vision. For on the third day thereafter, the 9th hour having been completed, suddenly, as if lightly falling asleep, without any sensation of pain he sent forth his spirit.

Cuius corpori tumulando praeparauerant sarcofagum lapideum; sed cum huic corpus inponere coepissent, inuenerunt hoc mensura palmi longius esse sarcofago. Dolantes ergo lapidem in quantum ualebant, addiderunt longitudini sarcofagi quasi duorum mensuram digitorum. Sed nec sic quidem corpus capiebat.

For the burial of whose body they had prepared a stone sarcophagus; but when they began to place the body upon it, they found it to be by the measure of a palm longer than the sarcophagus. Grieving, therefore, the stone so far as they were able, they added to the length of the sarcophagus, as it were, the measure of two fingers. But not even thus did the body fit.

Unde facta difficultate tumulandi, cogitabant aut aliud quaerere loculum, aut ipsum corpus, si possent, in genibus inflectendo breuiare, donec ipso loculo caperetur. Sed mira res et non nisi caelitus facta, ne aliquid horum fieri deberet, prohibuit. Nam subito adstante episcopo, et filio regis eiusdem ac monachi Sighardo, qui post illum cum fratre Suefredo regnauit, et turba hominum non modica, inuentum est sarcofagum illud congruae longitudinis ad mensuram corporis, adeo ut a parte capitis etiam ceruical posset interponi; a parte uero pedum mensura IIII digitorum in sarcofago corpus excederet.

Whence, a difficulty of burial having arisen, they were thinking either to seek another coffin, or to shorten the body itself, if they could, by bending it at the knees, until it might be contained by the coffin itself. But a wondrous thing, and not done save from heaven, forbade that any of these should be done. For suddenly, with the bishop standing by, and Sighard, the son of the same king and a monk, who after him reigned with his brother Suefred, and with no small crowd of people, it was found that that sarcophagus was of a congruent length to the measure of the body, to such a degree that on the side of the head even a cervical (pillow) could be interposed; but on the side of the feet there was, in the sarcophagus, an excess beyond the body by a measure of 4 fingers.

Conditus est autem in ecclesia beati doctoris gentium, cuius edoctus monitis caelestia sperare didicerat.

He was interred in the church of the blessed Doctor of the Nations, by whose monitions he had learned to hope for the celestial things.

[12] QUARTUS Occidentalium Saxonum antistes Leutherius fuit. Siquidem primus Birinus, secundus Agilberctus, tertius exstitit Uini. Cumque mortuus esset Coinualch, quo regnante idem Leutherius episcopus factus est, acceperunt subreguli regnum gentis, et diuisum inter se tenuerunt annis circiter X; ipsisque regnantibus defunctus est ille, et episcopatu functus Haeddi pro eo, consecratus a Theodoro in ciuitate Lundonia.

[12] FOURTH the bishop of the West Saxons was Leutherius. Indeed, the first was Birinus, the second Agilberctus, the third was Uini. And when Coinualch, during whose reign that same Leutherius was made bishop, had died, the sub-kings took the kingdom of the nation, and, divided among themselves, held it for about 10 years; and while they were reigning, he died, and Haeddi performed the bishopric in his stead, consecrated by Theodore in the city of London.

Cuius episcopatus tempore deuictis atque amotis subregulis, Caedualla suscepit imperium, et, cum duobus annis hoc tenuisset, tandem superni regni amore conpunctus reliquit, eodem adhuc praesule ecclesiam gubernante; ac Romam abiens, ibi uitam finiuit, ut in sequentibus latius dicendum est.

During whose episcopate, the sub-kings having been conquered and removed, Caedualla took up the imperium, and, when he had held this for two years, at length, pricked by love of the supernal kingdom, he relinquished it, with the same prelate still governing the church; and going to Rome, he ended his life there, as will be said more fully in what follows.

Anno autem dominicae incarnationis DCLXXVI, cum Aedilred rex Merciorum, adducto maligno exercitu, Cantiam uastaret et ecclesias ac monasteria sine respectu pietatis uel diuini timoris fedaret, ciuitatem quoque Hrofi, in qua erat Putta episcopus, quamuis eo tempore absens, communi clade absumsit. Quod ille ubi conperiit, ecclesiam uidelicet suam rebus ablatis omnibus depopulatam, diuertit ad Sexuulfum Merciorum antistitem, et accepta ab eo possessione ecclesiae cuiusdam et agelli non grandis, ibidem in pace uitam finiuit, nil omnino de restaurando episcopatu suo agens; quia, sicut et supra diximus, magis in ecclesiasticis quam in mundanis rebus erat industrius; sed in illa solum ecclesia Deo seruiens, et ubicumque rogabatur, ad docenda ecclesiae carmina diuertens. Pro quo Theodorus in ciuitate Hrofi Cuichelmum consecrauit episcopum.

In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 676, when Æthelred, king of the Mercians, with a malign army brought in, was wasting Kent and defiling churches and monasteries without regard for piety or divine fear, he consumed with common calamity the city also of Hrof, in which was Bishop Putta, although at that time he was absent. When he learned that his church, namely, had been plundered, all its goods carried off, he turned aside to Sexwulf, bishop of the Mercians, and, having received from him the possession of a certain church and a not-large little field, there in peace he finished his life, doing nothing at all about restoring his bishopric; because, as we have said above, he was more industrious in ecclesiastical than in mundane affairs; but serving God in that church alone, and wherever he was asked, turning aside to teach the songs of the church. For him Theodore in the city of Hrof consecrated Cwichelm as bishop.

Sed illo post non multum temporis prae inopia rerum ab episcopatu decedente, atque ad alia loca secedente, Gebmundum pro eo substituit antistitem.

But when he, after not much time, on account of want of resources, was departing from the episcopate and withdrawing to other places, he substituted Gebmund as bishop in his stead.

Anno dominicae incarnationis DCLXXVIII, qui est annus imperii regis Ecgfridi VIII., apparuit mense Augusto stella, quae dicitur cometa; et tribus mensibus permanens, matutinis horis oriebatur, excelsam radiantis flammae quasi columnam praeferens. Quo etiam anno orta inter ipsum regem Ecgfridum et reuerentissimum antistitem Uilfridum dissensione, pulsus est idem antistes a sede sui episcopatus, et duo in locum eius substituti episcopi, qui Nordanhymbrorum genti praeessent; Bosa uidelicet, qui Derorum, et Eata, qui Berniciorum prouinciam gubernaret; hic in ciuitate Eburaci, ille in Hagustaldensi siue in Lindisfarnensi ecclesia cathedram habens episcopalem, ambo de monachorum collegio in episcopatus gradum adsciti. Cum quibus et Eadhaed in prouinciam Lindisfarorum.

In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 678, which is the 8th year of the reign of King Ecgfrid, there appeared in the month of August a star which is called a comet; and remaining for three months, it would rise in the morning hours, bearing before it a lofty, as-it-were column of radiant flame. In that same year also, a dissension having arisen between King Ecgfrid himself and the most reverend bishop Wilfrid, that same prelate was driven from the seat of his episcopate, and two bishops were substituted in his place, to preside over the nation of the Northumbrians; Bosa, namely, to govern the province of the Deirans, and Eata, to govern that of the Bernicians; this man having his episcopal cathedra in the city of Eburacum, that man in the Hagustaldensian or in the Lindisfarne church, both called up from the college of monks into the grade of the episcopate. With whom also Eadhaed to the province of the Lindisfaras.

quam nuperrime rex Ecgfrid, superato in bello et fugato Uulfhere, obtinuerat, ordinatur episcopus. Et hunc primum eadem prouincia proprium accepit praesulem, II Ediluini, III Eadgarum, IIII Cyniberctum, quem in praesenti habet. Habebat enim ante Eadhaedum antistitem Sexuulfum, qui etiam Merciorum et Mediterraneorum Anglorum simul episcopus fuit; unde et expulsus de Lindissi, in illarum prouinciarum regimine permansit.

in which very recently King Ecgfrid, with Wulfhere overcome in war and put to flight, had obtained possession, a bishop is ordained. And this man as the first the same province received as its own prelate; the 2nd, Ediluin; the 3rd, Eadgar; the 4th, Cyniberct, whom it has at present. For before Eadhaed the prelate, it had Sexwulf, who likewise was at the same time bishop of the Mercians and of the Middle Angles; whence also, driven out from Lindissi, he remained in the governance of those provinces.

Ordinati sunt autem Eadhaed, Bosa, et Eata Eboraci ab archiepiscopo Theodoro; qui etiam post tres abscessionis Uilfridi annos, horum numero duos addidit antistites, Tunberctum ad ecclesiam Hagustaldensem, remanente Eata ad Lindisfarnensem, et Trumuini ad prouinciam Pictorum, quae tunc temporis Anglorum erat imperio subiecta. Eadhaedum de Lindissi reuersum, eo quod Aedilred prouinciam recepisset, Hrypensi ecclesiae praefecit.

But Eadhaed, Bosa, and Eata were ordained at Eboracum by Archbishop Theodore; who also, after three years of Uilfrid’s withdrawal, added two bishops to their number, Tunberct to the Hagustaldensian church, Eata remaining at the Lindisfarnensian, and Trumwine to the province of the Picts, which at that time was subject to the empire of the Angles. He set Eadhaed, returned from Lindissi, because Aedilred had received the province, over the Hrypense church.

[13] PULSUS est autem ab episcopatu suo Uilfrid, et multa diu loca peruagatus, Romam adiit, Brittaniam rediit; et si propter inimicitias memorati regis in patria siue parrochia sua recipi non potuit, non tamen ab euangelizandi potuit ministerio cohiberi; siquidem diuertens ad prouinciam Australium Saxonum, quae post Cantuarios ad austrum et ad occidentem usque ad Occidentales Saxones pertingit, habens terram familiarum VII milium, et eo adhuc tempore paganis cultibus seruiebat; huic uerbum fidei et lauacrum salutis ministrabat. Erat autem rex gentis ipsius Aedilualch, non multo ante baptizatus in prouincia Merciorum, praesente ac suggerente rege Uulfhere a quo etiam egressus de fonte, loco filii susceptus est; in cuius signum adoptionis duas illi prouincias donauit, Uectam uidelicet insulam, et Meanuarorum prouinciam in gente Occidentalium Saxonum. Itaque episcopus, concedente, immo multum gaudente rege, primos prouinciae duces ac milites sacrosancto fonte abluebat; uerum presbyteri Eappa, et Padda, et Burghelm, et Oiddi ceteram plebem, uel tunc uel tempore sequente baptizabant.

[13] Wilfrid, however, was driven from his bishopric, and, after wandering through many places for a long time, he went to Rome, he returned to Britain; and although, on account of the enmities of the aforesaid king, he could not be received in his homeland or his parish, nevertheless he could not be restrained from the ministry of evangelizing; indeed, turning aside to the province of the South Saxons, which, next after the Kentish, extends to the south and to the west as far as the West Saxons, having land of 7 thousand families, and at that time still serving pagan cults; to this people he ministered the word of faith and the laver of salvation. Now the king of that nation was Aedilualch, baptized not long before in the province of the Mercians, with King Wulfhere present and prompting, by whom also, when he came forth from the font, he was received in the place of a son; in sign of which adoption he granted to him two provinces, namely the island of Wight, and the province of the Meonware among the nation of the West Saxons. And so the bishop, the king consenting—nay, greatly rejoicing—washed in the most holy font the first leaders and soldiers of the province; but the presbyters Eappa, and Padda, and Burghelm, and Oiddi baptized the rest of the people, either then or in the time following.

Porro regina, nomine Eabae, in sua, id est Huicciorum prouincia fuerat baptizata. Erat autem filia Eanfridi fratris Ænheri, qui ambo cum suo populo Christiani fuere. Ceterum tota prouincia Australium Saxonum diuini nominis et fidei erat ignara.

Moreover, the queen, named Eaba, had been baptized in her own province, that is, in the province of the Huiccii. She was, moreover, the daughter of Eanfrid, brother of Ænher, who both with their people were Christians. But the whole province of the South Saxons was ignorant of the divine name and of the faith.

Erat autem ibi monachus quidam de natione Scottorum, uocabulo Dicul, habens monasteriolum permodicum in loco, qui uocatur Bosanhamm, siluis et mari circumdatum, et in eo fratres V siue VI, in humili et paupere uita Domino famulantes. Sed prouincialium nullus eorum uel uitam aemulari, uel praedicationem curabat audire.

There was moreover there a certain monk of the nation of the Scots, by the name Dicul, having a very small monastery in a place which is called Bosanhamm, surrounded by woods and by the sea, and in it 5 or 6 brothers, serving the Lord in a humble and poor life. But none of the provincials cared either to emulate their life or to hear their preaching.

Euangelizans autem genti episcopus Uilfrid, non solum eam ab erumna perpetuae damnationis, uerum et a clade infanda temporalis interitus eripuit. Siquidem tribus annis ante aduentum eius in prouinciam nulla illis in locis pluuia ceciderat, unde et fames acerbissima plebem inuadens impia nece prostrauit. Denique ferunt, quia saepe XL simul aut L homines inedia macerati procederent ad praecipitium aliquod siue ripam maris, et iunctis misere manibus, pariter omnes aut ruina perituri, aut fluctibus obsorbendi deciderent.

But the bishop Wilfrid, evangelizing the nation, rescued it not only from the misery of perpetual damnation, but also from the unspeakable calamity of temporal destruction. Indeed, for three years before his arrival in the province, no rain had fallen in those parts, and so a most bitter famine, invading the populace, laid them low with impious death. Finally, they report that often 40 or 50 men at once, wasted by starvation, would proceed to some precipice or the shore of the sea, and, with their hands pitiably joined, all together would drop down, destined either to perish by the fall, or to be swallowed by the waves.

Uerum ipso die, quo baptisma fidei gens suscepit illa, descendit pluuia serena, sed copiosa, refloruit terra, rediit uiridantibus aruis annus laetus et frugifer. Sicque abiecta prisca superstitione, exsufflata idolatria, cor omnium et caro omnium exultauerunt in Deum uiuum; intellegentes eum, qui uerus est Deus, et interioribus se bonis et exterioribus caelesti gratia ditasse. Nam et antistes cum uenisset in prouinciam, tantamque ibi famis poenam uideret, docuit eos piscando uictum quaerere.

But on the very day on which that people received the baptism of faith, a serene yet copious rain descended; the earth blossomed again, and to the verdant fields returned a glad and fruitful year. And so, with ancient superstition cast away, idolatry blown away, the heart of all and the flesh of all exulted in the living God; understanding that He, who is the true God, had enriched them with inward goods and, outwardly, by heavenly grace. For even the bishop, when he had come into the province and saw there the so great punishment of famine, taught them to seek sustenance by fishing.

Namque mare et flumina eorum piscibus abundabant; sed piscandi peritia genti nulla nisi ad anguillas tantum inerat. Collectis ergo undecumque retibus anguillaribus, homines antistitis miserunt in mare, et diuina se iuuante gratia, mox cepere pisces diuersi generis CCC. Quibus trifariam diuisis, C pauperibus dederunt, centum his, a quibus retia acceperant, centum in suos usus habebant.

For the sea and their rivers abounded with fish; but to the people there was no expertise of fishing, except only for eels. Therefore, having collected eel-nets from wherever, the bishop’s men sent them into the sea, and, divine grace helping them, soon they took fishes of diverse kinds, 300. These being divided threefold, they gave 100 to the poor, 100 to those from whom the nets they had received, 100 they kept for their own uses.

Quo beneficio multum antistes cor omnium in suum conuertit amorem, et libentius eo praedicante caelestia sperare coeperunt, cuius ministerio temporalia bona sumserunt.

By which benefaction the prelate greatly converted the heart of all into love for himself, and the more willingly, with him preaching, they began to hope for celestial things, by whose ministry they had received temporal goods.

Quo tempore rex Aedilualch donauit reuerentissimo antistiti Uilfrido terram LXXXVII familiarum, ubi suos homines, qui exules uagabantur, recipere posset, uocabulo Selæseu quod dicitur Latine insula uituli marini. Est enim locus undique mari circumdatus praeter ab occidente, unde habet ingressum amplitudinis quasi iactus fundae; qualis locus a Latinis paeninsula, a Grecis solet cherronesos uocari. Hunc ergo locum cum accepisset episcopus Uilfrid, fundauit ibi monasterium, ac regulari uita instituit, maxime ex his, quos secum adduxerat, fratribus; quod usque hodie successores eius tenere noscuntur.

At which time King Aedilualch donated to the most reverend bishop Wilfrid land of 87 families, where he might receive his men, who were wandering in exile, by the name Selæseu, which is called in Latin the island of the sea-calf. For the place is surrounded by the sea on all sides except on the west, whence it has an entrance of a breadth like a sling’s throw; such a place is wont to be called by the Latins a peninsula, by the Greeks a cherronesos. When therefore Bishop Wilfrid had received this place, he founded a monastery there and established a regular life, chiefly from the brothers whom he had brought with him; which up to this day his successors are known to hold.

Nam ipse illis in partibus annos V, hoc est usque ad mortem Ecgfridi regis, merito omnibus honorabilis, officium episcopatus et uerbo exercebat et opere. Et quoniam illi rex cum praefata loci possessione omnes, qui ibidem erant, facultates cum agris et hominibus donauit, omnes fide Christi institutos, unda baptismatis abluit; inter quos, seruos et ancillas ducentos quinquaginta; quos omnes ut baptizando a seruitute daemonica saluauit, etiam libertate donando humanae iugo seruitutis absoluit.

For he himself in those parts for 5 years, that is up to the death of King Ecgfrith, deservedly honorable to all, exercised the office of the episcopate both by word and by work. And since to him the king, along with the aforesaid possession of the place, granted all the faculties (resources) that were there, with fields and people, he washed all, instructed in the faith of Christ, with the wave of baptism; among whom, 250 male and female slaves; all of whom, in that by baptizing he saved from demonic servitude, he also, by bestowing freedom, released from the yoke of human servitude.

[14] IN quo tunc monasterio nonnulla caelestis gratiae dona specialiter ostensa fuisse perhibentur; utpote ubi nuper expulsa diaboli tyrannide Christus iamregnare coeperat; e quibus unum, quod mihi reuerentissimus antistes Acca sepius referre, et a fidelissimis eiusdem monasterii fratribus sibi relatum asserere solebat, memoriae mandare commodum duximus.

[14] IN which monastery at that time certain gifts of heavenly grace are reported to have been shown in a special manner; inasmuch as where, the tyranny of the devil having been recently expelled, Christ had already begun to reign; of which one, which the most reverend bishop Acca was accustomed often to recount to me, and to affirm had been reported to himself by the most faithful brethren of the same monastery, we have deemed it fitting to commit to memory.

Eodem ferme tempore, quo ipsa prouincia nomen Christi susceperat, multas Brittaniae prouincias mortalitas saeua corripiebat. Quae cum praefatum quoque monasterium, cui tunc regendo religiosissimus Christi sacerdos, uocabulo Eappa, praefuit, nutu diuinae dispensationis attingeret; multique siue de his, qui cum antistite illo uenerant, siue de illis, qui de eadem prouincia Saxonum nuper ad fidem fuerant uocati, passim de hac uita raperentur; uisum est fratribus triduanum ieiunium agere, et diuinam suppliciter obsecrare clementiam, ut misericordiam sibi dignaretur inpendere, et siue periclitantes hoc morbo a praesenti morte liberaret, seu raptos e mundo a perpetua animae damnatione seruaret.

At about the same time when the province itself had received the name of Christ, a savage mortality was seizing many provinces of Britain. And when this also, by the nod of divine dispensation, touched the aforesaid monastery, over the rule of which there then presided a most religious priest of Christ, by the name Eappa, and many, both of those who had come with that bishop and of those who from that same province of the Saxons had recently been called to the faith, were being snatched everywhere from this life, it seemed good to the brothers to hold a three-day fast, and to beseech the divine clemency suppliantly, that He would deign to extend mercy to them, and either free those in peril from this disease from present death, or preserve those snatched from the world from the perpetual damnation of the soul.

Erat tunc temporis in eodem monasterio puerulus quidam de natione Saxonum, nuper uocatus ad fidem, qui eadem tactus infirmitate, non pauco tempore recubans in lectulo iacebat. Cum ergo secunda memorati ieiunii ac supplicationum dies ageretur, contigit forte ipsum puerum hora ferme secunda diei in loco, in quo eger iacebat, solum inueniri; cui diuina dispositione subito beatissimi apostolorum principes dignati sunt apparere. Erat enim puer multum simplicis ac mansueti animi, sinceraque deuotione sacramenta fidei, quae susceperat, seruans.

At that time there was in the same monastery a certain little boy of the nation of the Saxons, newly called to the faith, who, touched by the same infirmity, lay recumbent for no small time in his little bed. Therefore, when the second day of the aforesaid fast and supplications was being observed, it chanced that the boy himself, at about the second hour of the day, was found alone in the place where the sick one lay; and by divine disposition the most blessed princes of the apostles suddenly deigned to appear to him. For the boy was of a very simple and gentle spirit, and with sincere devotion was keeping the sacraments of the faith which he had received.

Salutantes ergo illum uerbis piissimis apostoli dicebant: ‘Noli timere, fili, mortem, pro qua sollicitus es; nos enim te hodierna die ad caelestia sumus regna perducturi. Sed primum expectare habes, donec missae celebrentur, ac uiatico dominici corporis ac sanguinis accepto, sic infirmitate simul et morte absolutus, ad aeterna in caelis gaudia subleueris. Clama ergo ad te presbyterum Eappan, et dicito illi, quia Dominus exaudiuit preces uestras, et deuotionem ac ieiunia propitius aspexit; neque aliquis de hoc monasterio siue adiacentibus ei possessiunculis hac clade ultra moriturus est; sed omnes, qui alicubi de uestris hac egritudine laborant, resurrecturi a langore, pristina sunt sospitate recuperandi, praeter te solum qui hodierna es die liberandus a morte, et ad uisionem Domini Christi, cui fideliter seruisti, perducendus in caelum; quod diuina uobis misericordia per intercessionem religiosi ac Deo dilecti regis Osualdi, qui quondam genti Nordanhymbrorum et regni temporalis auctoritate et Christianae pietatis, quae ad regnum perenne ducit, deuotione sublimiter praefuit, conferre dignata est.

Therefore the apostles, greeting him with most pious words, were saying: ‘Do not fear, son, the death about which you are anxious; for we are to lead you this very day to the heavenly kingdoms. But first you have to wait until the Masses are celebrated, and, the viaticum of the Lord’s body and blood having been received, thus, absolved at once from sickness and from death, you shall be lifted up to the eternal joys in the heavens. Therefore call to you the presbyter Eappa, and say to him that the Lord has heard your prayers, and has looked graciously upon your devotion and fasts; nor is anyone of this monastery or of the possessions adjacent to it going to die any longer of this plague; but all who anywhere of yours are laboring under this sickness, rising again from their languor, are to recover their pristine soundness, except you alone, who on this very day are to be freed from death, and to be led into heaven to the vision of the Lord Christ, whom you have faithfully served—something which the divine mercy has deigned to grant to you through the intercession of the religious and God-beloved king Oswald, who once presided loftily over the nation of the Northumbrians both by the authority of the temporal kingdom and by the devotion of Christian piety, which leads to the perpetual kingdom.’

Hac etenim die idem rex ab infidelibus in bello corporaliter extinctus, mox ad sempiterna animarum gaudia adsumtus in caelum, et electorum est sociatus agminibus. Quaerant in suis codicibus, in quibus defunctorum est adnotata depositio, et inuenient illum hac, ut diximus, die raptum esse de saeculo. Celebrent ergo missas per cuncta monasterii oratoria huius, siue pro gratiarum actione exauditae suae deprecationis, siue etiam in memoriam praefati regis Osualdi, qui quondam ipsorum genti praeerat, ideoque pro eis, quasi pro suae gentis aduenis, supplex orabat ad Dominum; et cunctis conuenientibus ad ecclesiam fratribus, communicent omnes sacrificiis caelestibus, et ita soluto ieiunio corpus quoque suis reficiant alimentis.’

For on this very day the same king, by unbelievers in battle bodily slain, was soon assumed into heaven to the everlasting joys of souls, and was joined to the companies of the elect. Let them seek in their codices, in which the deposition of the departed is annotated, and they will find that he, on this day, as we have said, was snatched from the world. Therefore let them celebrate masses through all the oratories of this monastery, whether for a thanksgiving for their supplication having been heard, or also in memory of the aforesaid King Oswald, who once presided over their people, and for that reason for them, as for newcomers of his own people, prayed suppliantly to the Lord; and with all the brethren assembling at the church, let all communicate in the heavenly sacrifices, and thus, the fast being released, let them also refresh the body with its own foods.’

Quae cum omnia uocato ad se presbytero puer uerba narrasset, interrogauit eum sollicitus, quales essent habitu uel specie uiri, qui sibi apparuissent. Respondit: ‘Praeclari omnino habitus, et uultus erant laetissimi ac pulcherrimi, quales numquam ante uideram, neque aliquos hominum tanti decoris ac uenustatis esse posse credebam. Unus quidem adtonsus erat, ut clericus, alius barbam habebat prolixam; dicebantque, quod unus eorum Petrus, alius uocaretur Paulus; et ipsi essent ministri Domini et Saluatoris nostri Iesu Christi, ad tuitionem nostri monasterii missi ab ipso de caelis.’ Credidit ergo uerbis pueri presbyter, ac statim egressus requisiuit in annale suo, et inuenit eadem ipsa die Osualdum regem fuisse peremtum; uocatisque fratribus, parari prandium, missas fieri, atque omnes communicare more solito praecepit; simul et infirmanti puero de eodem sacrificio dominicae oblationis particulam deferri mandauit.

When the boy had told all these words, with the presbyter called to him, he asked him anxiously what sort they were in habit or in appearance, the men who had appeared to him. He replied: ‘Altogether of excellent attire, and their faces were most joyful and most beautiful, such as I had never seen before, nor did I believe any men could be of so great decor and comeliness. One indeed was shaven, like a cleric; the other had a long beard; and they said that the one of them was Peter, the other was called Paul; and that they themselves were ministers of the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, sent by him from the heavens for the protection of our monastery.’ The presbyter therefore believed the boy’s words, and immediately went out and consulted in his annal, and found that on that very same day King Oswald had been slain; and having called the brothers, he ordered the midday meal to be prepared, the masses to be celebrated, and all to communicate after their accustomed manner; and at the same time he ordered that to the ailing boy a portion from that same sacrifice of the Lord’s oblation be carried.

Quibus ita gestis, non multo post eadem ipsa die puer defunctus est, suaque morte probauit uera fuisse uerba, quae ab apostolis Christi audierat. Sed et hoc eius uerbis testimonium perhibuit, quod nemo praeter ipsum tempore illo ex eodem est monasterio raptus de mundo. Ex qua nimirum uisione multi, qui haec audire potuerunt, et ad exorandam in aduersis diuinam clementiam, et ad salutaria ieiuniorum remedia subeunda sunt mirabiliter accensi; et ex eo tempore non solum in eodem monasterio, sed et in plerisque locis aliis, coepit annuatim eiusdem regis ac militis Christi natalicius dies missarum celebratione uenerari.

When these things had thus been done, not long after, on that very same day, the boy died, and by his own death he proved that the words which he had heard from the apostles of Christ were true. But he also bore this testimony for his words, that no one besides himself at that time from that same monastery was taken from the world. From which vision indeed many who were able to hear these things were wondrously inflamed both to entreat, in adversities, the divine clemency, and to undergo the salutary remedies of fastings; and from that time, not only in the same monastery, but also in very many other places, the natal day of that same king and soldier of Christ began to be venerated annually by the celebration of masses.

[15] INTEREA superueniens cum exercitu Caedualla, iuuenis strenuissimus de regio genere Geuissorum, cum exularet a patria sua, interfecit regem Aedilualch, ac prouinciam illam saeua caede ac depopulatione attriuit; sed mox expulsus est a ducibus regis, Bercthuno et Andhuno, qui deinceps regnum prouinciae tenuerunt; quorum prior postea ab eodem Caedualla, cum esset rex Geuissorum, occisus est, et prouincia grauiore seruitio subacta. Sed et Ini, qui post Caeduallan regnauit, simili prouinciam illam adflictione plurimo annorum tempore mancipauit. Quare factum est, ut toto illo tempore episcopum proprium habere nequiret; sed reuocato domum Uilfrido primo suo antistite, ipsi episcopo Geuissorum, id est Occidentalium Saxonum, qui essent in Uenta ciuitate, subiacerent.

[15] Meanwhile, supervening with an army, Cædwalla, a most strenuous youth of the royal stock of the Gewissae, while he was in exile from his fatherland, killed King Æthelwalh, and wore down that province with cruel slaughter and depredation; but soon he was expelled by the king’s dukes, Bercthun and Andhun, who thereafter held the kingship of the province; of whom the former was afterwards slain by that same Cædwalla, when he was king of the Gewissae, and the province was subjugated to a heavier servitude. And Ine, who reigned after Cædwalla, subjected that province to a similar affliction for a very great stretch of years. Wherefore it came about that during all that time it could not have its own bishop; but, Wilfrid, their first prelate, having been called home, they were made subject to the bishop of the Gewissae, that is, of the West Saxons, who were in the city of Venta.

[14] POSTQUAM ergo Caedualla regno potitus est Geuissorum, cepit et insulam Uectam, quae eatenus erat tota idolatriae dedita, ac stragica caede omnes indigenas exterminare, ac suae prouinciae homines pro his substituere contendit, uoto se obligans, quamuis necdum regeneratus, ut ferunt, in Christo, quia, si cepisset insulam, quartam partem eius simul et praedae Domino daret. Quod ita soluit, ut hanc Uilfrido episcopo, qui tunc forte de gente sua superueniens aderat, utendam pro Domino offerret. Est autem mensura eiusdem insulae, iuxta aestimationem Anglorum, mille ducentarum familiarum; unde data est episcopo possessio terrae CCCarum familiarum.

[14] After, therefore, Cædwalla gained the kingdom of the Gewissians, he also took the Isle of Wight, which until then had been wholly given over to idolatry, and he strove, by a slaughter of massacre, to exterminate all the natives and to substitute in their place men of his own province, binding himself by a vow—although, as they say, not yet regenerated in Christ—that, if he took the island, he would give to the Lord the fourth part of it together with the booty. This he thus fulfilled: he offered this to Bishop Wilfrid, who then by chance, coming up from his own people, was present, to be used for the Lord. Now the measure of that same island, according to the estimation of the English, is 1,200 families; whence a possession of land of 300 families was given to the bishop.

At ipse partem, quam accepit, commendauit cuidam de clericis suis, cui nomen Bernuini, et erat filius sororis eius, dans illi presbyterum nomine Hiddila, qui omnibus, qui saluari uellent, uerbum ac lauacrum uitae ministraret.

But he himself entrusted the part which he had received to a certain one of his clerics, whose name was Bernuin, and he was the son of his sister, giving to him a presbyter by the name Hiddila, who would minister the word and the laver of life to all who wished to be saved.

Ubi silentio praetereundum non esse reor, quod in primitias eorum, qui de eadem insula credendo saluati sunt, duo regii pueri fratres uidelicet Arualdi regis insulae, speciali sunt Dei gratia coronati. Siquidem inminentibus insulae hostibus, fuga lapsi sunt de insula, et in proximam Iutorum prouinciam translati; ubi, cum delati in locum, qui uocatur Ad Lapidem, occulendos se a facie regis uictoris credidissent, proditi sunt, atque occidi iussi. Quod cum audisset abbas quidam et presbyter uocabulo Cyniberct, habens non longe ab inde monasterium in loco, qui uocatur Hreutford, id est uadum harundinis, uenit ad regem, qui tunc eisdem in partibus occultus curabatur a uulneribus, quae ei inflicta fuerant proelianti in insula Uecta; postulauitque ab eo, ut, si necesse esset pueros interfici, prius eos liceret fidei Christianae sacramentis inbui.

Where I deem it ought not to be passed over in silence, that among the first-fruits of those who from the same island were saved by believing, two royal boys—brothers, namely, of Arwald, king of the island—were crowned with a special grace of God. For indeed, with enemies threatening the island, they slipped away in flight from the island and were transferred into the nearest province of the Jutes; where, when brought to a place which is called At the Stone, they believed they could hide themselves from the face of the conquering king, but they were betrayed and ordered to be killed. When a certain abbot and presbyter by the name Cyniberct heard this, having not far from there a monastery in the place, which is called Hreutford, that is, the ford of reeds, he came to the king, who then in those same parts, concealed, was being cared for because of the wounds which had been inflicted on him while fighting in the Isle of Wight; and he asked of him that, if it were necessary for the boys to be slain, it might first be permitted that they be imbued with the sacraments of the Christian faith.

Concessit rex, et ipse instructos eos uerbo ueritatis, ac fonte Saluatoris ablutos, de ingressu regni aeterni certos reddidit. Moxque illi instante carnifice mortem laeti subiere temporalem, per quam se ad uitam animae perpetuam non dubitabant esse transituros. Hoc ergo ordine, postquam omnes Brittaniarum prouinciae fidem Christi susceperant, suscepit et insula Uecta, in quam tamen ob erumnam externae subiectionis nemo gradum ministerii ac sedis episcopalis ante Danihelem, qui nunc Occidentalium Saxonum est episcopus, accepit.

The king granted it, and he himself, after instructing them with the word of truth and washing them in the Savior’s font, made them certain of their entry into the eternal kingdom. And soon, as the executioner pressed, they gladly underwent temporal death, through which they did not doubt that they would pass over to the perpetual life of the soul. Therefore, in this order, after all the provinces of Britain had received the faith of Christ, the Isle of Wight also received it; into which, however, on account of the hardship of foreign subjection, no one obtained the rank of the ministry and an episcopal see before Daniel, who is now bishop of the West Saxons.

Sita est autem haec insula contra medium Australium Saxonum et Geuissorum, interposito pelago latitudinis trium milium, quod uocatur Soluente; in quo uidelicet pelago bini aestus oceani, qui circum Brittaniam ex infinito oceano septentrionali erumpunt, sibimet inuicem cotidie conpugnantes occurrunt ultra ostium fluminis Homelea, quod per terras Iutorum, quae ad regionem Geuissorum pertinent, praefatum pelagus intrat; finitoque conflictu in oceanum refusi, unde uenerant, redeunt.

This island, moreover, is situated opposite the midst of the South Saxons and the Gewisse, with a sea-channel of a breadth of three miles interposed, which is called the Solent; in which sea, namely, the twin tides of the ocean, which around Britain burst forth from the infinite northern ocean, meet, contending with one another daily, beyond the mouth of the river Homelea, which through the lands of the Jutes, which pertain to the region of the Gewisse, enters the aforesaid sea; and, the conflict finished, poured back into the ocean whence they had come, they return.

[15] HIS temporibus audiens Theodorus fidem ecclesiae Constantinopoli per heresim Eutychetis multum esse turbatam, et ecclesias Anglorum, quibus praeerat, ab huiusmodi labe inmunes perdurare desiderans, collecto uenerabilium sacerdotum doctorumque plurimorum coetu, cuius essent fidei singuli, sedulus inquirebat, omniumque unianimem in fide catholica repperit consensum; et hunc synodalibus litteris ad instructionem memoriamque sequentium commendare curauit, quarum uidelicet litterarum istud exordium est:

[15] In these times Theodore, hearing that the faith of the church at Constantinople had been much disturbed by the heresy of Eutyches, and desiring that the churches of the English, over which he presided, should continue immune from a stain of this kind, gathered an assembly of very many venerable priests and most learned men, and with diligence inquired of each of what faith he was, and he found the unanimous consent of all in the catholic faith; and he took care to commend this by synodal letters for the instruction and remembrance of those who would follow, of which letters, namely, this is the exordium:

In nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi Saluatoris, imperantibus dominis piissimis nostris Ecgfrido rege Hymbronensium, anno Xo regni eius, sub die XV Kalendas Octobres, indictione VIIIa; et Aedilredo rege Mercinensium, anno sexto regni eius; et Alduulfo rege Estranglorum, anno XVIIo regni eius; et Hlothario rege Cantuariorum, regni eius anno VIIo; praesidente Theodoro, gratia Dei archiepiscopo Brittaniae insulae et ciuitatis Doruuernis; una cum eo sedentibus ceteris episcopis Brittaniae insulae uiris uenerabilibus, praepositis sacrosanctis euangeliis, in loco, qui Saxonico uocabulo Haethfelth nominatur, pariter tractantes, fidem rectam et orthodoxam exposuimus; sicut Dominus noster Iesus Christus incarnatus tradidit discipulis suis, qui praesentialiter uiderunt, et audierunt sermones eius, atque sanctorum patrum tradidit symbolum, et generaliter omnes sancti et uniuersales synodi, et omnis probabilium catholicae ecclesiae doctorum chorus. Hos itaque sequentes, nos pie atque orthodoxe, iuxta diuinitus inspiratam doctrinam eorum professi credimus consonanter, et confitemur secundum sanctos patres, proprie et ueraciter Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum trinitatem in unitate consubstantialem et unitatem in trinitate, hoc est unum Deum in tribus subsistentiis, uel personis consubstantialibus, aequalis gloriae et honoris.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Savior, under the rule of our most pious lords, Ecgfrith king of the Northumbrians, in the 10th year of his reign, on the 15th day before the Kalends of October, indiction 8; and Æthelred king of the Mercians, in the 6th year of his reign; and Aldwulf king of the East Angles, in the 17th year of his reign; and Hlothere king of the Kentish, in the 7th year of his reign; Theodore presiding, by the grace of God archbishop of the island of Britain and of the city of Canterbury; together with him sitting the other bishops of the island of Britain, venerable men, with the sacrosanct Gospels set before them, in the place which in the Saxon tongue is named Haethfelth, deliberating together, we set forth the right and orthodox faith; as our Lord Jesus Christ incarnate delivered to his disciples, who in person saw and heard his words, and as the holy fathers delivered the symbol, that is, the Creed, and in general all the holy and universal synods, and the whole chorus of approved doctors of the Catholic Church. Following these, therefore, we piously and orthodoxly, according to their divinely inspired doctrine, profess, believe in concord, and confess according to the holy fathers, properly and truly, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, a Trinity in Unity consubstantial and Unity in Trinity, that is, one God in three subsistences, or consubstantial persons, of equal glory and honor.

Et post multa huiusmodi, quae ad rectae fidei confessionem pertinebant, haec quoque sancta synodus suis litteris addit:

And after many things of this kind, which pertained to the confession of the right faith, this holy synod also adds the following in its letters:

Suscipimus sanctas et uniuersales quinque synodos beatorum et Deo acceptabilium patrum; id est, qui in Nicaea congregati fuerunt CCCX et VIII contra Arrium impiissimum et eiusdem dogmata; et in Constantinopoli CL contra uesaniam Macedonii et Eudoxii et eorum dogmata; et in Efeso primo ducentorum contra ncquissimum Nestorium et eiusdem dogmata; et in Calcedone DCrum et XXX contra Eutychen, et Nestorium, et eorum dogmata; et iterum in Constantinopoli quinto congregati sunt concilio in tempore Iustiniani minoris contra Theodorum, et Theodoreti et Iba epistulas, et eorum dogmata contra Cyrillum.

We receive the holy and universal five synods of the blessed and God-acceptable fathers; that is: those who in Nicaea were congregated, 318, against the most impious Arius and his dogmas; and in Constantinople, 150, against the madness of Macedonius and Eudoxius and their dogmas; and in Ephesus the first, 200, against the most wicked Nestorius and his dogmas; and in Chalcedon, 630, against Eutyches and Nestorius and their dogmas; and again in Constantinople, at the fifth council, they were congregated in the time of Justinian the Younger, against Theodore, and the letters of Theodoret and Ibas, and their dogmas against Cyril.

Et paulo post:

And a little after:

Et synodum, quae facta est in urbe Roma in tempore Martini papae beatissimi, indictione VIIIa, imperante Constantino piissimo anno nono, suscipimus. Et glorificamus Dominum nostrum Iesum, sicut isti glorificauerunt; nihil addentes uel subtrahentes; et anathematizamus corde et ore, quos anathematizarunt, et quos susceperunt, suscipimus; glorificantes Deum Patrem sine initio, et Filium eius unigenitum ex Patre generatum ante saecula, et Spiritum Sanctum procedentem ex Patre et Filio inenarrabiliter, sicut praedicauerunt hi, quos memorauimus supra, sancti apostoli, et prophetae, et doctores. Et nos omnes subscribimus, qui cum Theodoro archiepiscopo fidem catholicam exposuimus.

And we receive the synod which was held in the city of Rome in the time of the most blessed Pope Martin, in the 8th indiction, under the rule of the most pious Constantine in the 9th year. And we glorify our Lord Jesus, just as these glorified; adding nothing or subtracting; and we anathematize in heart and mouth those whom they anathematized, and those whom they received, we receive; glorifying God the Father without beginning, and his only-begotten Son begotten from the Father before the ages, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son inexpressibly, just as those whom we have mentioned above preached, the holy apostles, and prophets, and doctors. And we all subscribe, we who with Theodore the archbishop set forth the catholic faith.

[16] INTERERAT huic synodo, pariterque catholicae fidei decreta firmabat uir uenerabilis Iohannes archicantator ecclesiae sancti apostoli Petri, et abbas monasterii beati Martini, qui nuper uenerat a Roma per iussionem papae Agathonis, duce reuerentissimo abbate Biscopo cognomine Benedicto, cuius supra meminimus. Cum enim idem Benedictus construxisset monasterium Brittaniae in honorem beatissimi apostolorum principis, iuxta ostium fluminis Uiuri, uenit Romam cum cooperatore ac socio eiusdem operis Ceolfrido, qui post ipsum eiusdem monasterii abbas fuit, quod et ante sepius facere consueuerat, atque honorifice a beatae memoriae papa Agathone susceptus est; petiitque et accepit ab eo, in munimentum libertatis monasterii, quod fecerat, epistulam priuilegii ex auctoritate apostolica firmatam; iuxta quod Ecgfridum regem uoluisse ac licentiam dedisse nouerat, quo concedente et possessionem terrae largiente, ipsum monasterium fecerat.

[16] Present at this synod, and likewise confirming the decrees of the catholic faith, was the venerable man John, archcantor of the church of the holy apostle Peter, and abbot of the monastery of blessed Martin, who had lately come from Rome by the command of Pope Agatho, with the most reverend leader Abbot Biscop surnamed Benedict, of whom we made mention above. For when that same Benedict had built a monastery in Britain in honor of the most blessed prince of the apostles, near the mouth of the river Uiuri, he came to Rome with the co‑worker and associate of the same work, Ceolfrith, who after him was abbot of the same monastery, which he also had been accustomed to do before more than once, and he was honorably received by Pope Agatho of blessed memory; and he sought and received from him, as a muniment of the freedom of the monastery which he had made, a letter of privilege ratified by apostolic authority; according to which he knew that King Ecgfrid had willed and had granted license, by whose conceding and largess of the possession of the land he had made that monastery.

Accepit et praefatum Iohannem abbatem Brittaniam perducendum; quatenus in monasterio suo cursum canendi annuum, sicut ad sanctum Petrum Romae agebatur, edoceret; egitque abba Iohannes, ut iussionem acceperat pontificis, et ordinem uidelicet, ritumque canendi ac legendi uiua uoce praefati monasterii cantores edocendo, et ea, quae totius anni circulus in celebratione dierum festorum poscebat, etiam litteris mandando; quae hactenus in eodem monasterio seruata, et a multis iam sunt circumquaque transscripta. Non solum autem idem Iohannes ipsius monasterii fratres docebat, uerum de omnibus pene eiusdem prouinciae monasteriis ad audiendum eum, qui cantandi erant periti, confluebant. Sed et ipsum per loca, in quibus doceret, multi inuitare curabant.

He also took along the aforesaid Abbot John to be conducted to Britain; to the end that in his monastery he might teach the annual course of chanting, as it was carried on at Saint Peter’s at Rome; and Abbot John did as he had received the pontiff’s injunction, both by instructing viva voce the singers of the aforesaid monastery in the order and rite of singing and reading, and by committing to letters the things which the whole circuit of the year required in the celebration of feast days; which up to the present have been kept in the same monastery, and have already been transcribed on all sides by many. Not only did the same John teach the brothers of that monastery, but from almost all the monasteries of the same province those who were skilled in chanting used to flock together to hear him. And many also took care to invite him himself to the places where he might teach.

Ipse autem excepto cantandi uel legendi munere, et aliud in mandatis ab apostolico papa acceperat, ut, cuius esset fidei Anglorum ecclesia, diligenter edisceret, Romamque rediens referret. Nam et synodum beati papae Martini, centum quinque episcoporum consensu non multo ante Romae celebratam, contra eos maxime, qui unam in Christo operationem et uoluntatem praedicabant, secum ueniens adtulit; atque in praefato religiosissimi abbatis Benedicti monasterio transscribendam commodauit. Tales namque eo tempore fidem Constantinopolitanae ecclesiae multum conturbauerunt; sed Domino donante proditi iam tunc et uicti sunt.

Moreover, he himself, apart from the office of singing or reading, had also received another charge from the apostolic pope: that he should diligently learn of what faith the church of the English was, and, returning to Rome, report it. For he also, on coming, brought with him the synod of blessed Pope Martin, celebrated at Rome not long before with the consensus of one hundred and five bishops, chiefly against those who preached one operation and one will in Christ; and he made it available in the aforesaid monastery of the most religious abbot Benedict to be transcribed. For such men at that time greatly disturbed the faith of the Constantinopolitan church; but, the Lord granting, they had already then been exposed and conquered.

Unde uolens Agatho papa, sicut in aliis prouinciis, ita etiam in Brittania qualis esset status ecclesiae, quam ab hereticorum contagiis castus, ediscere, hoc negotium reuerentissimo abbati Iohanni Brittaniam destinato iniunxit. Quamobrem collecta pro hoc in Brittania synodo, quam diximus. inuenta est in omnibus fides inuiolata catholica; datumque illi exemplar eius Romam perferendum.

Wherefore, wishing, Pope Agatho, as in the other provinces, so also in Britain, to learn what the status of the church was, how chaste from the contagions of heretics, enjoined this business upon the most reverend Abbot John, dispatched to Britain. Wherefore, a synod having been gathered in Britain for this, which we have said. the inviolate Catholic faith was found in all things; and a copy of it was given to him to be carried to Rome.

Uerum ille patriam reuertens, non multo postquam oceanum transiit, arreptus infirmitate ac defunctus est; corpusque eius ab amicis propter amorem sancti Martini, cuius monasterio praeerat, Turonis delatum atque honorifice sepultum est. Nam et benigno ecclesiae illius hospitio, cum Brittaniam iret, exceptus est, rogatusque multum a fratribus, ut Romam reuertens, illo itinere ueniret, atque ad eam diuerteret ecclesiam; denique ibidem adiutores itineris et iniuncti operis accepit. Qui etsi in itinere defunctus est, nihilominus exemplum catholicae fidei Anglorum Romam perlatum est, atque ab apostolico papa omnibusque, qui audiere uel legere, gratantissime susceptum.

But indeed he, returning to his fatherland, not long after he crossed the ocean, was seized by infirmity and died; and his body, by his friends, on account of love for Saint Martin, whose monastery he presided over, was conveyed to Tours and was honorably buried. For also with the benign hospitality of that church, when he was going to Britain, he was received, and much entreated by the brethren that, returning to Rome, he would come by that route, and turn aside to that church; finally, in that same place he received helpers for the journey and for the enjoined work. And although he died on the journey, nonetheless the exemplar of the Catholic faith of the English was borne to Rome, and was most gladly received by the apostolic pope and by all who heard or read it.

[17] ACCEPIT autem rex Ecgfrid coniugem nomine Aedilthrydam, filiam Anna regis Orientalium Anglorum, cuius sepius mentionem fecimus, uiri bene religiosi, ac per omnia mente et opere egregii; quam et alter ante illum uir habuerat uxorem, princeps uidelicet Australium Gyruiorum uocabulo Tondberct. Sed illo post modicum temporis, ex quo eam accepit, defuncto, data est regi praefato; cuius consortio cum XII annis uteretur, perpetua tamen mansit uirginitatis integritate gloriosa; sicut mihimet sciscitanti, cum hoc, an ita esset, quibusdam uenisset in dubium, beatae memoriae Uilfrid episcopus referebat, dicens se testem integritatis eius esse certissimum; adeo ut Ecgfridus promiserit se ei terras ac pecunias multas esse donaturum, si reginae posset persuadere eius uti conubio, quia sciebat illam nullum uirorum plus illo diligere. Nec diffidendum est nostra etiam aetate fieri potuisse, quod aeuo praecedente aliquoties factum fideles historiae narrant; donante uno eodemque Domino, qui se nobiscum usque in finem saeculi manere pollicetur.

[17] Now King Ecgfrid took a wife named Aedilthryth, daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, of whom we have often made mention—a man very religious, and in all respects outstanding in mind and deed; whom also another man before him had had as wife, namely the prince of the South Gyrwans, by the name Tondberct. But he having died a little after he took her, she was given to the aforesaid king; and although she enjoyed his consortship for 12 years, nevertheless she remained glorious in the perpetual integrity of virginity; as Bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory was reporting to me myself inquiring—since this, whether it were so, had come into doubt for some—saying that he was a most certain witness of her integrity; to such a degree that Ecgfrid promised that he would give him lands and much money, if he could persuade the queen to make use of his connubium, because he knew that she loved none of men more than him. Nor is it to be distrusted that in our own age also it could have happened, which in the preceding age faithful histories relate to have been done several times; the one and the same Lord granting, who promises to remain with us even to the end of the age.

Nam etiam signum diuini miraculi, quo eiusdem feminae sepulta caro corrumpi non potuit, indicio est, quia uirili contactu incorrupta durauerit.

For even the sign of a divine miracle, by which the buried flesh of that same woman could not be corrupted, is evidence that she endured incorrupt from male contact.

Quae multum diu regem postulans, ut saeculi curas relinquere, atque in monasterio, tantum uero regi Christo seruire permitteretur; ubi uix aliquando inpetrauit, intrauit monasterium Aebbæ abbatissae, quae erat amita regis Ecgfridi, positum in loco, quem Coludi urbem nominant, accepto uelamine sanctimonialis habitus a praefato antistite Uilfrido. Post annum uero ipsa facta est abbatissa in regione, quae uocatur Elge; ubi constructo monasterio uirginum Deo deuotarum perplurium mater uirgo, et exemplis uitae caelestis esse coepit et monitis. De qua ferunt, quia, ex quo monasterium petiit, numquam lineis, sed solum laneis uestimentis uti uoluerit; raroque in calidis balneis, praeter inminentibus sollemniis maioribus, uerbi gratia paschae, pentecostes, epifaniae, lauari uoluerit; et tunc nouissima omnium, lotis prius suo suarumque ministrarum obsequio ceteris, quae ibi essent, famulis Christi; raro praeter maiora sollemnia, uel artiorem necessitatem, plus quam semel per diem manducauerit; semper, si non infirmitas grauior prohibuisset, ex tempore matutinae synaxeos, usque ad ortum diei, in ecclesia precibus intenta persteterit.

She, after much and long petitioning the king that she might be permitted to relinquish the cares of the age and to serve in a monastery—indeed to serve only Christ the King—when at length she scarcely obtained it, entered the monastery of Abbess Æbbe, who was the aunt of King Ecgfrid, set in the place which they name the city Colud, having received the veil of the sanctimonial habit from the aforesaid bishop Wilfrid. After a year, moreover, she herself was made abbess in the region which is called Ely; where, a monastery having been constructed, as a virgin she became mother of very many virgins devoted to God, and began to be so both by examples and by admonitions of a celestial life. Of her they relate that, from the time she sought the monastery, she never wished to use linen garments, but only woolen; and that she wished to be washed in hot baths rarely, except when greater solemnities were imminent, for example of Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany; and then she was the very last of all, the others who were there, the handmaids of Christ, having first been washed by the service of herself and of her attendants; rarely, apart from the greater solemnities, or a stricter necessity, did she eat more than once per day; always, unless a graver infirmity had forbidden, from the time of the morning synaxis until the rising of the day, she persevered intent in prayers in the church.

Sunt etiam, qui dicant, quia per prophetiae spiritum, et pestilentiam, qua ipsa esset moritura, praedixerit, et numerum quoque eorum, qui de suo monasterio hac essent de mundo rapiendi, palam cunctis praesentibus intimauerit. Rapta est autem ad Dominum in medio suorum, post annos VII, ex quo abbatissae gradum susceperat; et aeque, ut ipsa iusserat, non alibi quam in medio eorum, iuxta ordinem, quo transierat, ligneo in locello sepulta.

There are also those who say that, by the spirit of prophecy, she both foretold the pestilence by which she herself was about to die, and openly made known to all present the number also of those who, from her monastery, by this were to be snatched from the world. Moreover, she was taken to the Lord in the midst of her own, after 7 years from when she had received the rank of abbess; and likewise, as she herself had ordered, she was buried not elsewhere than in their midst, according to the order in which she had passed, in a small wooden coffin.

Cui successit in ministerium abbatissae soror eius Sexburg, quam habuerat in coniugem Earconberct rex Cantuariorum. Et cum sedecim annis esset sepulta, placuit eidem abbatissae leuari ossa eius, et in locello nouo posita in ecclesiam transferri; iussitque quosdam e fratribus quaerere lapidem, de quo locellum in hoc facere possent; qui ascensa naui, ipsa enim regio Elge undique est aquis ac paludibus circumdata, neque lapides maiores habet, uenerunt ad ciuitatulam quandam desolatam, non procul inde sitam, quae lingua Anglorum Grantacaestir uocatur; et mox inuenerunt iuxta muros ciuitatis locellum de marmore albo pulcherrime factum, operculo quoque similis lapidis aptissime tectum. Unde intellegentes a Domino suum iter esse prosperatum, gratias agentes rettulerunt ad monasterium.

To her in the ministry of abbess succeeded her sister Sexburg, whom Earconberht, king of the Kentish people, had had as his wife. And when she had been buried for 16 years, it pleased that same abbess that her bones be raised and, placed in a new little coffin, be transferred into the church; and she ordered certain of the brothers to seek a stone from which they might be able to make a little coffin for this purpose; who, having boarded a ship—for the region of Elge is on all sides surrounded by waters and marshes, and does not have larger stones—came to a certain small desolate town, situated not far from there, which in the language of the English is called Grantacaestir; and at once they found near the walls of the town a little coffin of white marble, most beautifully made, and also most aptly covered with a lid of a similar stone. Whence, understanding that their journey had been prospered by the Lord, giving thanks they carried it back to the monastery.

Cumque corpus sacrae uirginis ac sponsae Christi aperto sepulchro esset prolatum in lucem, ita incorruptum inuentum est, ac si eodem die fuisset defuncta, siue humo condita; sicut et praefatus antistes Uilfrid, et multi alii, qui nouere, testantur; sed certiori notitia medicus Cynifrid, qui et morienti illi, et eleuatae de tumulo adfuit; qui referre erat solitus, quod illa infirmata habuerit tumorem maximum sub maxilla; ‘Iusseruntque me,’ inquit, ‘incidere tumorem illum, ut efflueret noxius umor, qui inerat; quod dum facerem, uidebatur illa per biduum aliquanto leuius habere; ita ut multi putarent, quia sanari posset a langore. Tertia autem die prioribus adgrauata doloribus, et rapta confestim de mundo, dolorem omnem ac mortem perpetua salute ac uita mutauit. Cumque post tot annos eleuanda essent ossa de sepulchro, et extento desuper papilione, omnis congregatio, hinc fratrum, inde sororum, psallens circumstaret; ipsa autem abbatissa intus cum paucis ossa elatura et dilutura intrasset, repente audiuimus abbatissam intus uoce clara proclamare: “Sit gloria nomini Domini.” Nec multo post clamauerunt me intus, reserato ostio papilionis; uidique eleuatum de tumulo, et positum in lectulo corpus sacrae Deo uirginis quasi dormientis simile.

And when the body of the holy virgin and spouse of Christ had been brought into the light with the tomb opened, it was found so incorrupt as if on that same day she had died or had been committed to the soil; as also the aforesaid prelate Wilfrid, and many others who knew, testify; but with more certain knowledge the physician Cynifrid, who was present both to her as she was dying and when she was raised from the tomb; who was wont to report that she, being infirm, had had a very great tumor beneath the jaw; “And they ordered me,” he says, “to incise that tumor, that the noxious humor which was within might flow out; and while I was doing this, she seemed for a space of two days to be somewhat easier; so that many thought that she could be cured of the languor. But on the third day, burdened with pains greater than before, and straightway snatched from the world, she exchanged all pain and death for perpetual salvation and life. And when after so many years the bones were to be raised from the tomb, and, a pavilion having been stretched above, the whole congregation, on this side of the brothers, on that of the sisters, standing around psalm-singing; but the abbess herself had gone inside with a few to lift out and to wash the bones, suddenly we heard the abbess inside proclaim with a clear voice: “Let there be glory to the name of the Lord.” And not long after they called me within, the door of the pavilion having been opened; and I saw the body of the holy virgin to God raised from the tomb and placed upon a little couch, like one sleeping.

Sed et discooperto uultus indumento, monstrauerunt mihi etiam uulnus incisurae, quod feceram, curatum; ita ut mirum in modum pro aperto et hiante uulnere, cum quo sepulta erat, tenuissima tunc cicatricis uestigia parerent. Sed et linteamina omnia, quibus inuolutum erat corpus, integra apparuerunt, et ita noua, ut ipso die uiderentur castis eius membris esse circumdata.’ Ferunt autem, quia, cum praefato tumore ac dolore maxillae siue colli premeretur, multum delectata sit hoc genere infirmitatis, ac solita dicere: ‘Scio certissime, quia merito in collo pondus langoris porto, in quo iuuenculam me memini superuacua moniliorum pondera portare; et credo, quod ideo me superna pietas dolore colli uoluit grauari, ut sic absoluar reatu superuacuae leuitatis; dum mihi nunc pro auro et margaritis, de collo rubor tumoris ardorque promineat.’ Contigit autem tactu indumentorum eorundem et daemonia ab obsessis effugata corporibus, et infirmitates alias aliquoties esse curatas. Sed et loculum, in quo primo sepulta est, nonnullis oculos dolentibus saluti fuisse perhibent; qui cum suum caput eidem loculo adponentes orassent, mox doloris siue caliginis incommodum ab oculis amouerent.

But with the covering of the face uncovered, they showed me also the wound of the incision which I had made, cured; so that, in a wondrous manner, instead of the open and gaping wound with which she had been buried, there then appeared the very slender traces of a cicatrix. But also all the linens with which the body had been wrapped appeared intact, and so new that on that very day they seemed to have been bound around her chaste limbs.’ They report moreover that, when she was pressed by the aforesaid swelling and pain of the jaw or of the neck, she was much delighted with this kind of infirmity, and was wont to say: ‘I know most certainly, that deservedly I carry in the neck the weight of languor, in which, as a young girl, I remember carrying the superfluous weights of necklaces; and I believe that for this reason heavenly piety willed me to be burdened with pain of the neck, that thus I may be absolved from the guilt of superfluous levity; while now, instead of gold and pearls, from my neck there protrudes the redness of the swelling and a burning heat.’ It befell moreover that, at the touch of those same garments, even demons were driven away from bodies of the obsessed, and other infirmities were at times cured. And they also testify that the loculus in which she was first buried was for the health of some suffering pains in their eyes; who, when, laying their head to that same little coffer, they had prayed, straightway removed from their eyes the incommodity of pain or dimness.

Lauerunt igitur uirgines corpus, et nouis indutum uestibus intulerunt in ecclesiam, atque in eo, quod adlatum erat, sarcofago posuerunt, ubi usque hodie in magna ueneratione habetur. Mirum uero in modum ita aptum corpori uirginis sarcofagum inuentum est, ac si ei specialiter praeparatum fuisset; et locus quoque capitis seorsum fabrefactus ad mensuram capitis illius aptissime figuratus apparuit.

Therefore the virgins washed the body, and, clothed with new garments, brought it into the church, and placed it in the sarcophagus that had been brought, where up to this day it is held in great veneration. In a wondrous manner, indeed, the sarcophagus was found so apt to the virgin’s body as if it had been specially prepared for her; and the place also for the head, fabricated separately, appeared most fittingly shaped to the measure of that head.

Est autem Elge in prouincia Orientalium Anglorum regio familiarum circiter sexcentarum, in similitudinem insulae uel paludibus, ut diximus, circumdata uel aquis; unde et a copia anguillarum, quae in eisdem paludibus capiuntur, nomen accepit; ubi monasterium habere desiderauit memorata Christi famula, quoniam de prouincia eorundem Orientalium Anglorum ipsa, ut praefati sumus, carnis originem duxerat.

There is, moreover, Ely in the province of the East Angles, a region of about six hundred families, in the likeness of an island, surrounded, as we have said, by marshes and waters; whence also from the abundance of eels, which are caught in those same marshes, it received its name; where the aforesaid handmaid of Christ desired to have a monastery, since she herself, as we have said, had derived her fleshly origin from the province of those same East Angles.

[18] UIDETUR oportunum huic historiae etiam hymnum uirginitatis inserere, quem ante annos plurimos in laudem ac praeconium eiusdem reginae ac sponsae Christi, et ideo ueraciter reginae, quia sponsae Christi, elegiaco metro conposuimus; et imitari morem sacrae scripturae, cuius historiae carmina plurima indita, et haec metro ac uersibus constat esse conposita.

[18] IT SEEMS opportune to insert into this history also a hymn of virginity, which many years ago we composed in elegiac meter for the praise and proclamation of that same queen and bride of Christ—and therefore truly a queen, because a bride of Christ; and to imitate the custom of Sacred Scripture, into whose history very many poems have been inserted, and that this likewise is composed in meter and verses.

Alma Deus Trinitas, quae saecula cuncta gubernas,
Adnue iam coeptis, alma Deus Trinitas.
Bella Maro resonet, nos pacis dona canamus;
Munera nos Christi, bella Maro resonet.
Carmina casta mihi, fedae non raptus Helenae;
Luxus erit lubricis, carmina casta mihi.

Gracious God Trinity, who govern all the ages,
Assent now to our undertakings, gracious God Trinity.
Let Maro let wars resound; let us sing the gifts of peace;
Let us [sing] the gifts of Christ; let Maro let wars resound.
Chaste songs for me, not the abduction of foul Helen;
Excess will be for the lubricious; chaste songs for me.

Dona superna loquar, miserae non proelia Troiae;
Terra quibus gaudet, dona superna loquar.
En Deus altus adit uenerandae uirginis aluum,
Liberet ut homines, en Deus altus adit.
Femina uirgo parit mundi deuota parentem,
Porta Maria Dei, femina uirgo parit.

I will speak of supernal gifts, not the battles of miserable Troy;
The earth rejoices in these, I will speak of supernal gifts.
Lo, the high God approaches the womb of the venerable virgin,
that he might free human beings, lo, the high God approaches.
A virgin woman, devoted, bears the Parent of the world,
Mary, the Gate of God, a virgin woman bears.

Gaudet amica cohors de uirgine matre tonantis;
Uirginitate micans gaudet amica cohors.
Huius honor genuit casto de germine plures,
Uirgineos flores huius honor genuit.
Ignibus usta feris, uirgo non cessit Agathe,
Eulalia et perfert, ignibus usta feris.

The friendly cohort rejoices over the virgin mother of the Thunderer;
Gleaming with virginity, the friendly cohort rejoices.
The honor of her has begotten many from a chaste seed,
Her honor has begotten virginal flowers.
Scorched by savage fires, the virgin Agatha did not yield,
And Eulalia too endures, scorched by savage fires.

Kasta feras superat mentis pro culmine Tecla,
Eufemia sacras kasta feras superat.
Laeta ridet gladios ferro robustior Agnes,
Caecilia infestos laeta ridet gladios.
Multus in orbe uiget per sobria corda triumphus,
Sobrietatis amor multus in orbe uiget.

Chaste Thecla overcomes feral beasts by the pinnacle of her mind,
Euphemia, chaste, overcomes the sacred beasts.
Joyful, Agnes, more robust than iron, laughs at the swords,
Cecilia, joyful, laughs at the hostile swords.
Much triumph thrives in the world through sober hearts,
Much love of sobriety thrives in the world.

Nostra quoque egregia iam tempora uirgo beauit;
Aedilthryda nitet nostra quoque egregia.
Orta patre eximio, regali et stemmate clara,
Nobilior Domino est, orta patre eximio.
Percipit inde decus reginae, et sceptra sub astris,
Plus super astra manens, percipit inde decus.

Our times too an outstanding virgin has already blessed;
Aedilthryda shines, outstanding in our times as well.
Born of an eminent father, and renowned by regal lineage,
she is nobler in the Lord, born of an eminent father.
Thence she receives the honor of a queen, and scepters beneath the stars,
more, abiding above the stars, she receives honor thence.

Quid petis, alma, uirum, sponso iam dedita summo?
Sponsus adest Christus; quid petis, alma, uirum?
Regis ut aetherei matrem iam credo sequaris,
Tu quoque sis mater regis ut aetherei.

What do you seek, gracious one, a man, you already given to the highest Bridegroom?
The Bridegroom is at hand, Christ; what do you seek, gracious one, a man?
That you may now, I believe, follow the mother of the aetherial King,
that you too may be a mother of the aetherial King.

Sponsa dicata Deo bis sex regnauerat annis,
Inque monasterio est sponsa dicata Deo.
Tota sacrata polo celsis ubi floruit actis,
Reddidit atque animam tota sacrata polo.
Uirginis alma caro est tumulata bis octo Nouembres,
Nec putet in tumulo uirginis alma caro.

The bride dedicated to God had reigned for twice six years,
and in the monastery the bride dedicated to God is.
All consecrated to heaven, where she flourished with lofty deeds,
and, all consecrated to heaven, she rendered up her spirit.
The kindly flesh of the virgin was entombed on the sixteenth of November,
nor does the kindly flesh of the virgin stink in the tomb.

Xriste, tui est operis, quia uestis et ipsa sepulchro
Inuiolata nitet: Xriste, tui est operis.
Ydros et ater abit sacrae pro uestis honore,
Morbi diffugiunt, ydros et ater abit.
Zelus in hoste furit, quondam qui uicerat Euam;
Uirgo triumphat ouans, zelus in hoste furit.

Christ, it is your work, because even the garment itself at the sepulcher
shines inviolate: Christ, it is your work.
Hydra and the black departs for the honor of the sacred garment,
Diseases flee, hydra and the black departs.
Zeal rages in the enemy, he who once had conquered Eve;
The Virgin triumphs exulting, zeal rages in the enemy.

Aspice, nupta Deo, quae sit tibi gloria terris;
Quae maneat caelis, aspice, nupta Deo.
Munera laeta capis, festiuis fulgida taedis,
Ecce uenit sponsus, munera laeta capis.
Et noua dulcisono modularis carmina plectro,
Sponsa hymno exultas et noua dulcisono.

Look, bride wedded to God, what glory is yours on earth;
What awaits in the heavens, look, bride wedded to God.
You take joyful gifts, gleaming with festive torches,
Behold, the bridegroom comes, you take joyful gifts.
And you modulate new songs with the sweet-sounding plectrum,
Bride, you exult in hymn, and anew with the sweet-sounding plectrum.

Nullus ab altithroni comitatu segregat agni,
Quam affectu tulerat nullus ab altithroni.

No one separates from the company of the Lamb of the High Throne,
her whom with affection—no one—had borne from the High Throne.

[19] ANNO regni Ecgfridi nono, conserto graui proelio inter ipsum et Aedilredum regem Merciorum iuxta fluuium Treanta, occisus est Aelfuini frater regis Ecgfridi, iuuenis circiter X et VIII annorum, utrique prouinciae multum amabilis. Nam et sororem eius, quae dicebatur Osthryd, rex Aedilred habebat uxorem. Cumque materies belli acrioris et inimicitiae longioris inter reges populosque feroces uideretur exorta, Theodorus Deo dilectus antistes, diuino functus auxilio, salutifera exhortatione coeptum tanti periculi funditus extinguit incendium; adeo ut, pacatis alterutrum regibus ac populis, nullius anima hominis pro interfecto regis fratre, sed debita solummodo multa pecuniae regi ultori daretur.

[19] In the 9th year of the reign of Ecgfrith, a severe battle having been joined between himself and Æthelred, king of the Mercians, near the river Trent, Ælfwine, brother of king Ecgfrith, a youth of about 18 years, most lovable to both provinces, was slain. For king Æthelred also had to wife his sister, who was called Osthryd. And when material for a sharper war and a longer enmity between the fierce kings and peoples seemed to have arisen, Theodore, a God-beloved bishop, aided by divine help, by a health-bringing exhortation utterly quenched the conflagration of so great a peril once begun; to such an extent that, with the kings and peoples on either side pacified, no man’s life was given for the slain brother of the king, but only the due mulct of money was given to the avenging king.

Cuius foedera pacis multo exinde tempore inter eosdem reges eorumque regna durarunt.

Whose treaties of peace thereafter for a long time endured between those same kings and their realms.

[20] IN praefato autem proelio, quo occisus est rex Aelfuini, memorabile quiddam factum esse constat, quod nequaquam silentio praetereundum arbitror, sed multorum saluti, si referatur, fore proficuum. Occisus est ibi inter alios de militia eius iuuenis, uocabulo Imma; qui cum die illo et nocte sequenti inter cadauera occisorum similis mortuo iaceret, tandem recepto spiritu reuixit, ac residens, sua uulnera, prout potuit, ipse alligauit; dein modicum requietus, leuauit se, et coepit abire, sicubi amicos, qui sui curam agerent, posset inuenire. Quod dum faceret, inuentus est, et captus a uiris hostilis exercitus, et ad dominum ipsorum, comitem uidelicet Aedilredi regis, adductus.

[20] IN the aforesaid battle, in which King Aelfwine was slain, it is agreed that a certain memorable thing was done, which I by no means judge should be passed over in silence, but that, if it be related, it will be profitable for the salvation of many. There was slain there among others of his militia a youth, by name Imma; who, when on that day and the following night he lay among the cadavers of the slain like one dead, at length, the spirit having been recovered, revived, and, sitting up, he himself bound up his wounds as he could; then, having rested a little, he raised himself, and began to go away, if anywhere he might be able to find friends who would take care of him. While he was doing this, he was found and captured by men of the hostile army, and brought to their lord, namely a count of King Aedilred.

A quo interrogatus, qui esset, timuit se militem fuisse confiteri; rusticum se potius et pauperem, atque uxoreo uinculo conligatum fuisse respondit; et propter uictum militibus adferendum in expeditionem se cum sui similibus uenisse testatus est. At ille suscipiens eum, curam uulneribus egit; et ubi sanescere coepit, noctu eum, ne aufugeret, uinciri praecepit. Nec tamen uinciri potuit; nam mox, ut abiere, qui uinxerant, eadem eius sunt uincula soluta.

Questioned by him who he was, he feared to confess that he had been a soldier; rather he replied that he was a rustic and poor, and had been bound by an uxorial bond; and he testified that, for bringing victuals to the soldiers, he had come on the expedition with those like himself. But he, taking him in, took care for his wounds; and when he began to get well, he ordered him to be bound at night, lest he flee. Yet he could not be bound; for soon, as those who had bound him went away, the same bonds of his were loosed.

Habebat enim germanum fratrem, cui nomen erat Tunna, presbyterum et abbatem monasterii in ciuitate, quae hactenus ab eius nomine Tunnacaestir cognominatur; qui cum eum in pugna peremtum audiret, uenit quaerere, si forte corpus eius inuenire posset, inuentumque alium illi per omnia simillimum, putauit ipsum esse; quem ad monasterium suum deferens, honorifice sepeliuit, et pro absolutione animae eius sepius missas facere curauit. Quarum celebratione factum est, quod dixi, ut nullus eum posset uincire, quin continuo solueretur. Interea comes, qui eum tenebat, mirari et interrogare coepit, quare ligari non posset, an forte litteras solutorias, de qualibus fabulae ferunt, apud se haberet, propter quas ligari non posset.

For he had a full brother, whose name was Tunna, a presbyter and abbot of a monastery in the city which to this day is surnamed Tunnacaestir from his name; who, when he heard that he had been slain in battle, came to seek whether perchance he might find his body, and, having found another man in all respects very like him, thought that it was he; carrying him to his monastery, he buried him honorably, and took care to have masses frequently celebrated for the absolution of his soul. By the celebration of which it came about, as I have said, that no one could bind him, but straightway he was loosed. Meanwhile the count who was holding him began to marvel and to ask why he could not be bound, whether perchance he had letters of release, of the kind of which tales tell, upon his person, on account of which he could not be bound.

At ille respondit nil se talium artium nosse; ‘Sed habeo fratrem,’ inquit, ‘presbyterum in mea prouincia, et scio, quia ille me interfectum putans pro me missas crebras facit; et si nunc in alia uita essem, ibi anima mea per intercessiones eius solueretur a poenis.’ Dumque aliquanto tempore apud comitem teneretur, animaduerterunt, qui eum diligentius considerabant, ex uultu et habitu et sermonibus eius, quia non erat de paupere uulgo, ut dixerat, sed de nobilibus. Tune secreto aduocans eum comes, interrogauit eum intentius, unde esset, promittens se nil ei mali facturum pro eo, si simpliciter sibi, quis fuisset, proderet. Quod dum ille faceret, ministrum se regis fuisse manifestans, respondit: ‘Et ego per singula tua responsa cognoueram, quia rusticus non eras, et nunc dignus quidem es morte, quia omnes fratres et cognati mei in illa sunt pugna interemti; nec te tamen occidam, ne fidem mei promissi praeuaricer.’

But he answered that he knew nothing of such arts; ‘But I have a brother,’ he said, ‘a presbyter in my province, and I know that he, thinking me slain, performs frequent Masses for me; and if I were now in the other life, there my soul would be loosed from punishments by his intercessions.’ And while he was kept for some time with the count, those who observed him more closely noticed from his countenance and bearing and his words that he was not of the poor common folk, as he had said, but of the nobles. Then, calling him in secret, the count questioned him more intently, whence he was, promising that he would do him no harm on that account, if he would simply disclose to him who he had been. When he did this, revealing that he had been a minister of the king, he replied: ‘And I, through each of your answers, had come to know that you were not a rustic, and now indeed you are worthy of death, because all my brothers and kinsmen were slain in that battle; yet I will not kill you, lest I violate the faith of my promise.’

Ut ergo conualuit, uendidit eum Lundoniam Freso cuidam; sed nec ab illo, nec cum illuc duceretur, ullatinus potuit alligari. Uerum cum alia atque alia uinculorum ei genera hostes inponerent, cumque uidisset, qui emerat, uinculis eum non potuisse cohiberi, donauit ei facultatem sese redimendi, si posset. A tertia autem hora, quando missae fieri solebant, sepissime uincula soluebantur.

Therefore, when he recovered, he sold him at London to a certain Freso; but neither by that man, nor when he was being led thither, could he in any way be bound. In truth, when the enemies put upon him one kind and then another of bonds, and when the one who had bought him saw that he could not be restrained by bonds, he granted him the faculty of ransoming himself, if he could. But from the third hour, when Masses were wont to be celebrated, very often the bonds were loosed.

At ille dato iure iurando, ut rediret, uel pecuniam illi pro se mitteret, uenit Cantiam ad regem Hlotheri, qui erat filius sororis Aedilthrydae reginae, de qua supra dictum est, quia et ipse quondam eiusdem reginae minister fuerat; petiitque et accepit ab eo pretium suae redemtionis, ac suo domino pro se, ut promiserat, misit.

But he, having given an oath that he would return, or would send him money for himself, came into Kent to King Hlothere, who was the son of the sister of Queen Etheldreda, of whom mention has been made above, for he too had once been a minister of that same queen; and he asked for and received from him the price of his redemption, and sent it to his master on his own behalf, as he had promised.

Qui post haec patriam reuersus, atque ad suum fratrem perueniens, replicauit ex ordine cuncta, quae sibi aduersa, quaeue in aduersis solacia prouenissent; cognouitque, referente eo, illis maxime temporibus sua fuisse uincula soluta, quibus pro se missarum fuerant celebrata sollemnia. Sed et alia, quae periclitanti ei commoda contigissent et prospera, per intercessionem fraternam, et oblationem hostiae salutaris caelitus sibi fuisse donata intellexit. Multique haec a praefato uiro audientes, accensi sunt in fide ac deuotione pietatis ad orandum, uel ad elimosynas faciendas, uel ad offerendas Deo uictimas sacrae oblationis, pro ereptione suorum, qui de saeculo migrauerant; intellexerunt enim, quia sacrificium salutare ad redemtionem ualeret et animae et corporis sempiternam.

Who, after these things, having returned to his homeland and coming to his brother, recounted in order all the things that had been adverse to him, and what consolations had come amid adversities; and he learned, as he related, that his bonds had been loosed most especially at those times when the solemnities of the Masses had been celebrated for him. But also the other benefits and prosperities which had befallen him while he was in peril he understood to have been granted to him from heaven through fraternal intercession, and through the oblation of the salutary victim. And many, hearing these things from the aforesaid man, were inflamed in faith and in the devotion of piety to pray, or to make alms, or to offer to God victims of the sacred oblation for the deliverance of their own who had departed from the world; for they understood that the salutary sacrifice would avail for the everlasting redemption of both soul and body.

Hanc mihi historiam etiam quidam eorum, qui ab ipso uiro, in quo facta est, audiere, narrarunt; unde eam, quia liquido conperi, indubitanter historiae nostrae ecclesiasticae inserendam credidi.

This history also certain of those, who heard from the very man in whom it was done, related to me; whence I, because I learned it plainly, believed it indubitably to be inserted into our ecclesiastical history.

[21] ANNO post hunc sequente, hoc est anno dominicae incarnationis DCLXXX, religiosissima Christi famula Hild, abbatissa monasterii, quod dicitur Strenaeshalc, ut supra rettulimus, post multa, quae fecit in terris, opera caelestia, ad percipienda praemia uitae caelestis de terris ablata transiuit die XV. Kalendarum Decembrium, cum esset annorum LXVI; quibus aequa partione diuisis, XXXIII primos in saeculari habitu nobilissime conuersata conpleuit, et totidem sequentes nobilius in monachica uita Domino consecrauit. Nam et nobilis natu erat, hoc est filia nepotis Eduini regis, uocabulo Hererici; cum quo etiam rege, ad praedicationem beatae memoriae Paulini primi Nordanhymbrorum episcopi, fidem et sacramenta Christi suscepit, atque haec, usquedum ad eius uisionem peruenire meruit, intemerata seruauit.

[21] In the year following this, that is in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 680, the most religious handmaid of Christ Hild, abbess of the monastery which is called Strenaeshalc, as we have related above, after many heavenly works which she did on earth, was taken from the earth and passed over to receive the rewards of heavenly life on November 17, when she was 66 years old; which, divided in equal portion, she completed the first 33 most nobly living in a secular habit, and the following just as many she more nobly consecrated to the Lord in monastic life. For she was also noble by birth, that is, the daughter of the nephew of King Edwin, by name Hereric; and with that king too, at the preaching of Paulinus of blessed memory, the first bishop of the Northumbrians, she received the faith and sacraments of Christ, and these she kept inviolate until she merited to come to His vision.

Quae cum, relicto habitu saeculari, illi soli seruire decreuisset, secessit ad prouinciam Orientalium Anglorum, erat namque propinqua regis illius, desiderans exinde, siquo modo posset, derelicta patria et omnibus, quaecumque habuerat, Galliam peruenire, atque in monasterio Cale peregrinam pro Domino uitam ducere, quo facilius perpetuam in caelis patriam posset mereri. Nam et in eodem monasterio soror ipsius Heresuid, mater Alduulfi regis Orientalium Anglorum, regularibus subdita disciplinis, ipso tempore coronam expectabat aeternam; cuius aemulata exemplum, et ipsa proposito peregrinandi annum totum in praefata prouincia retenta est; deinde ab Aidano episcopo patriam reuocata accepit locum unius familiae ad septentrionalem plagam Uiuri fluminis, ubi aeque anno uno monachicam cum perpaucis sociis uitam agebat.

When she, having left the secular habit, had resolved to serve that One alone, she withdrew to the province of the East Angles—for she was kin to that king—desiring from there, if in any way she could, with her fatherland and all the things she had left behind, to reach Gaul, and to lead a peregrine life for the Lord in the monastery of Cale, that she might the more easily merit a perpetual fatherland in the heavens. For even in that same monastery her sister Hereswith, the mother of Aldwulf, king of the East Angles, subjected to regular disciplines, at that time was awaiting the eternal crown; emulating whose example, she too, with the purpose of peregrinating, was detained for a whole year in the aforesaid province; then, recalled to her fatherland by Bishop Aidan, she received a place for one family on the northern side of the River Wear, where likewise for one year she was living a monastic life with very few companions.

Post haec facta est abbatissa in monasterio, quod uocatur Heruteu; quod uidelicet monasterium factum erat non multo ante a religiosa Christi famula Heiu, quae prima feminarum fertur in prouincia Nordanhymbrorum propositum uestemque sanctimonialis habitus, consecrante Aidano episcopo, suscepisse. Sed illa post non multum tempus facti monasterii secessit ad ciuitatem Calcariam, quae a gente Anglorum Kælcacaestir appellatur, ibique sibi mansionem instituit. Praelata autem regimini monasterii illius famula Christi Hild, mox hoc regulari uita per omnia, prout a doctis uiris discere poterat, ordinare curabat; nam et episcopus Aidan, et quique nouerant eam religiosi, pro insita ei sapientia et amore diuini famulatus, sedulo eam uisitare, obnixe amare, diligenter erudire solebant.

After these things she was made abbess in the monastery which is called Heruteu; which monastery indeed had been founded not long before by the religious handmaid of Christ Heiu, who is reported to have been the first of women in the province of the Northumbrians to receive, Bishop Aidan consecrating, the purpose and the garment of the sanctimonial habit. But she, after not much time from the making of the monastery, withdrew to the city Calcaria, which by the nation of the English is called Kælcacaestir, and there established a dwelling for herself. But the handmaid of Christ Hild, preferred to the governance of that monastery, at once took care to order this regular life in all respects, in so far as she could learn it from learned men; for both Bishop Aidan and all the religious who knew her, on account of the wisdom implanted in her and her love of divine service, were accustomed assiduously to visit her, earnestly to love her, diligently to instruct her.

Cum ergo aliquot annos huic monasterio regularis uitae institutioni multum intenta praeesset, contigit eam suscipere etiam construendum siue ordinandum monasterium in loco, qui uocatur Streaneshalch, quod opus sibi iniunctum non segniter inpleuit. Nam eisdem, quibus prius monasterium, etiam hoc disciplinis uitae regularis instituit; et quidem multam ibi quoque iustitiae, pietatis, et castimoniae, ceterarumque uirtutum, sed maxime pacis et caritatis custodiam docuit; ita ut in exemplum primitiuae ecclesiae nullus ibi diues, nullus esset egens, omnibus essent omnia communia, cum nihil cuiusquam esse uideretur proprium. Tantae autem erat ipsa prudentiae, ut non solum mediocres quique in necessitatibus suis, sed etiam reges ac principes nonnumquam ab ea consilium quaererent, et inuenirent.

Therefore, when for several years she presided over this monastery, very intent on the institution of a regular life, it befell that she also undertook a monastery to be built or ordered in the place which is called Streaneshalch; which task enjoined upon her she did not fulfill sluggishly. For with the same disciplines of the regular life with which she had established the former monastery, she set up this one also; and indeed there too she taught much guardianship of justice, piety, and chastity, and of the other virtues, but especially of peace and charity; so that, after the example of the primitive church, there was no one rich there, no one needy, all things were common to all, since nothing seemed to be anyone’s own property. Moreover, she herself was of such prudence that not only people of the middling sort in their necessities, but even kings and princes, would sometimes seek counsel from her—and find it.

Tantum lectioni diuinarum scripturarum suos uacare subditos, tantum operibus iustitiae se exercere faciebat, ut facillime uiderentur ibidem, qui ecclesiasticum gradum, hoc est altaris officium, apte subirent, plurimi posse repperiri.

She caused her subjects to devote themselves so much to the reading of the divine Scriptures, and to exercise themselves so much in works of justice, that very easily there could be found there very many who seemed apt to ascend to the ecclesiastical grade, that is, the office of the altar.

Denique V ex eodem monasterio postea episcopos uidimus, et hos omnes singularis meriti ac sanctitatis uiros, quorum haec sunt nomina, Bosa, Aetla, Oftfor, Iohannes, et Uilfrid. De primo supra diximus, quod Eboraci fuerit consecratus antistes; de secundo breuiter intimandum, quod in episcopatum Dorciccaestræ fuerit ordinatus; de ultimis infra dicendum est, quod eorum primus Hagustaldensis, secundus Eboracensis ecclesiae sit ordinatus episcopus. De medio nunc dicamus, quia, cum in utroque Hildae abbatissae monasterio lectioni et obseruationi scripturarum operam dedisset, tandem perfectiora desiderans, uenit Cantiam ad archiepiscopum beatae recordationis Theodorum; ubi postquam aliquandiu lectionibus sacris uacauit, etiam Romam adire curauit, quod eo tempore magnae uirtutis aestimabatur; et inde cum rediens Brittaniam adisset, diuertit ad prouinciam Huicciorum, cui tunc rex Osric praefuit; ibique uerbum fidei praedicans, simul et exemplum uiuendi sese uidentibus atque audientibus exhibens, multo tempore mansit.

Finally, we saw 5 bishops from the same monastery thereafter, and all these were men of singular merit and sanctity, whose names are Bosa, Aetla, Oftfor, John, and Wilfrid. Of the first we said above that he was consecrated prelate (bishop) at York; of the second it is briefly to be intimated that he was ordained to the bishopric of Dorchester; of the last two it is to be said below that the first of them was ordained bishop of Hexham, the second of the church of York. Of the middle one let us now speak, because, when in both the monasteries of Abbess Hilda he had applied himself to reading and to the observance of the Scriptures, at length desiring more perfect things, he came to Kent to Archbishop Theodore of blessed memory; where, after he had for some time devoted himself to sacred readings, he also took care to go to Rome, which at that time was esteemed a thing of great virtue; and from there, when on his return he had reached Britain, he turned aside to the province of the Hwicce, over which at that time King Osric presided; and there, preaching the word of faith, and at the same time presenting himself as an example of living to those who saw and heard, he remained for a long time.

Quo tempore antistes prouinciae illius, uocabulo Bosel, tanta erat corporis infirmitate depressus, ut officium episcopatus per se inplere non posset; propter quod omnium iudicio praefatus uir in episcopatum pro eo electus, ac iubente Aedilredo rege per Uilfridum beatae memoriae antistitem, qui tunc temporis Mediterraneorum Anglorum episcopatum gerebat, ordinatus est; pro eo, quod archiepiscopus Theodorus iam defunctus erat, et necdum alius pro eo ordinatus episcopus. In quam uidelicet prouinciam paulo ante, hoc est ante praefatum uirum Dei Boselum, uir strenuissimus ac doctissimus atque excellentis ingenii uocabulo Tatfrid, de eiusdem abbatissae monasterio electus est antistes; sed, priusquam ordinari posset, morte inmatura praereptus est.

At that time the bishop of that province, by the name Bosel, was weighed down by so great a weakness of body that he could not fulfill by himself the office of the episcopate; wherefore, by the judgment of all, the aforesaid man was elected into the episcopate in his stead, and, at the bidding of King Aedilred, through Uilfrid, a prelate of blessed memory, who at that time was holding the episcopate of the Middle Angles, he was ordained; for the reason that Archbishop Theodorus had already died, and no other bishop had yet been ordained in his place. Into which province, namely a little before— that is, before the aforesaid man of God Bosel— a most strenuous and most learned man, and of excellent natural talent, by the name Tatfrid, from the monastery of the same abbess, had been elected bishop; but, before he could be ordained, he was snatched away by untimely death.

Non solum ergo praefata Christi ancella et abbatissa Hild, quam omnes, qui nouerant, ob insigne pietatis et gratiae matrem uocare consuerant, in suo monasterio uitae exemplo praesentibus extitit; sed etiam plurimis longe manentibus, ad quos felix industriae ac uirtutis eius rumor peruenit, occasionem salutis et correctionis ministrauit. Oportebat namque inpleri somnium, quod mater eius Bregusuid in infantia eius uidit. Quae cum uir eius Hereric exularet sub rege Brettonum Cerdice, ubi et ueneno periit, uidit per somnium, quasi subito sublatum eum quaesierit cum omni diligentia, nullumque eius uspiam uestigium apparuerit.

Therefore not only did the aforesaid handmaid of Christ and abbess Hild—whom all who knew her were accustomed to call “mother” on account of her distinguished piety and grace—stand forth in her own monastery as an example of life to those present; but also for very many dwelling far away, to whom the happy rumor of her industry and virtue came, she furnished an occasion of salvation and correction. For it behooved that the dream be fulfilled which her mother Bregusuid saw in her infancy. While her husband Hereric was in exile under Cerdic, king of the Britons—where also he perished by poison—she saw in a dream, as though he had been suddenly snatched away, that she sought him with all diligence, and nowhere did any trace of him appear.

Uerum cum solertissime illum quaesierit, extemplo se repperire sub ueste sua monile pretiosissimum; quod, dum attentius consideraret, tantifulgore luminis refulgere uidebatur, ut omnes Brittaniae fines illius gratia splendoris inpleret. Quod nimirum somnium ueraciter in filia eius, de qua loquimur, expletum est; cuius uita non sibi solummodo, sed multis bene uiuere uolentibus exempla operum lucis praebuit.

But when she had most diligently sought him, straightway she found beneath her garment a most precious necklace; which, as she considered it more attentively, seemed to shine with such a refulgence of light that all the bounds of Britain were filled with the splendor of it. Which dream, surely, was truly fulfilled in her daughter, of whom we speak; whose life furnished examples of works of light not for herself only, but for many who wished to live well.

Uerum illa cum multis annis huic monasterio praeesset, placuit pio prouisori salutis nostrae sanctam eius animam longa etiam infirmitate carnis examinari, ut, iuxta exemplum apostoli, uirtus eius in infirmitate perficeretur. Percussa etenim febribus acri coepit ardore fatigari, et per sex continuos annos eadem molestia laborare non cessabat; in quo toto tempore numquam ipsa uel conditori suo gratias agere, uel commissum sibi gregem et puplice et priuatim docere praetermittebat. Nam suo praedocta exemplo, monebat omnes et in salute accepta corporis Domino obtemperanter seruiendum, et in aduersis rerum siue infirmitatibus membrorum fideliter Domino esse gratias semper agendas.

But she, when for many years she had presided over this monastery, it pleased the pious Provider of our salvation that her holy soul should be examined also by a long infirmity of the flesh, so that, according to the example of the Apostle, her virtue might be perfected in weakness. For, smitten with fevers, she began to be wearied by a sharp burning, and for six continuous years she did not cease to labor under the same affliction; during all which time she never omitted either to give thanks to her Maker, or to teach the flock committed to her both publicly and privately. For, pre-taught by her own example, she admonished all both that, when bodily health was received, the Lord was to be obediently served, and that in adversities of circumstances or in infirmities of the members thanks were always to be faithfully rendered to the Lord.

VIIo ergo suae infirmitatis anno, conuerso ad interanea dolore, ad diem peruenit ultimum, et circa galli cantum, percepto uiatico sacrosanctae communionis, cum arcessitis ancellis Christi, quae erant in eodem monasterio, de seruanda eas inuicem, immo cum omnibus pace euangelica ammoneret; inter uerba exhortationis laeta mortem uidit, immo, ut uerbis Domini loquar, de morte transiuit ad uitam.

In the 7th year of her infirmity, when the pain had turned to the inner parts, she came to her last day; and about cockcrow, having received the viaticum of the most sacrosanct communion, with the handmaids of Christ who were in the same monastery having been summoned, she admonished them about the peace to be kept among themselves—nay, with all—the evangelical peace; and amid words of exhortation she joyfully saw death—nay, to speak in the words of the Lord, she passed from death to life.

Qua uidelicet nocte Dominus omnipotens obitum ipsius in alio longius posito monasterio, quod ipsa eodem anno construxerat, et appellatur Hacanos, manifesta uisione reuelare dignatus est. Erat in ipso monasterio quaedam sanctimonialis femina, nomine Begu, quae XXX et amplius annos dedicata Domino uirginitate, in monachica conuersatione seruiebat. Haec tunc in dormitorio sororum pausans, audiuit subito in aere notum campanae sonum, quo ad orationes excitari uel conuocari solebant, cum quis eorum de saeculo fuisset euocatus; apertisque, ut sibi uidebatur, oculis, aspexit, detecto domus culmine, fusam desuper lucem omnia repleuisse; cui uidelicet luci dum sollicita intenderet, uidit animam praefatae Dei famulae in ipsa luce, comitantibus ac ducentibus angelis, ad caelum ferri.

On that very night the omnipotent Lord deigned by a manifest vision to reveal her decease in another monastery set farther away, which she herself in that same year had built and is called Hacanos. In that monastery there was a certain sanctimonial woman, by name Begu, who for 30 and more years, with virginity dedicated to the Lord, was serving in monastic conversation. She then, resting in the sisters’ dormitory, suddenly heard in the air the familiar sound of a bell, by which they were accustomed to be roused or summoned to prayers when someone of them had been called from the world; and, her eyes opened, as it seemed to her, she beheld, the roof of the house laid bare, a light poured from above fill everything; and while, anxiously, she fixed her attention upon that light, she saw the soul of the aforesaid handmaid of God, in that very light, being borne to heaven, with angels accompanying and leading.

Cumque somno excussa uideret ceteras pausantes circa se sorores, intellexit uel in somnio, uel in uisione mentis ostensum sibi esse, quod uiderat. Statimque exsurgens, nimio timore perterrita, cucurrit ad uirginem, quae tunc monasterio abbatissae uice praefuit, cui nomen erat Frigyd, fletuque ac lacrimis multum perfusa, ac suspiria longa trahens, nuntiauit matrem illarum omnium Hild abbatissam iam migrasse de saeculo, et se aspectante cum luce inmensa, ducibus angelis, ad aeternae limina lucis et supernorum consortia ciuium ascendisse. Quod cum illa audisset, suscitauit cunctas sorores, et in ecclesiam conuocatas orationibus ac psalmis pro anima matris operam dare monuit.

And when, shaken from sleep, she saw the other sisters resting around her, she understood that either in a dream, or in a vision of the mind, what she had seen had been shown to her. And straightway rising, struck with excessive fear, she ran to the virgin who then presided over the monastery in the stead of the abbess, whose name was Frigyd; and, much bathed with weeping and tears, and drawing long sighs, she announced that the mother of them all, Abbess Hild, had now passed from the world, and, as she looked on, with immense light, with angels as guides, had ascended to the thresholds of eternal light and to the society of the citizens on high. When she heard this, she roused all the sisters, and, gathered in the church, urged them to give effort in prayers and psalms for the soul of the mother.

Quod cum residuo noctis tempore diligenter agerent, uenerunt primo diluculo fratres, qui eius obitum nuntiarent, a loco, ubi defuncta est. At illae respondentes dixerunt se prius eadem cognouisse; et, cum exponerent per ordinem, quomodo haec uel quando didicissent, inuentum est, eadem hora transitum eius illis ostensum esse per uisionem, qua illam referebant exisse de mundo. Pulchraque rerum concordia procuratum est diuinitus, ut, cum illi exitum eius de hac uita uiderent, tunc isti introitum eius in perpetuam animarum uitam cognoscerent.

And while they were diligently carrying this on for the remainder of the night, there came at first daybreak the brethren, to announce her death, from the place where she had died. But they, replying, said that they had known the same beforehand; and, as they set forth in order how and when they had learned these things, it was found that at the same hour her transit had been shown to them through a vision, at which they reported that she had gone forth from the world. And by a fair concord of things it was divinely provided that, when those saw her exit from this life, then these should come to know her entrance into the perpetual life of souls.

Distant autem inter se monasteria haec XIII ferme milibus passuum.

But these monasteries are distant from each other by about 13 miles.

Ferunt autem, quod eadem nocte, in ipso quoque monasterio, ubi praefata Dei famula obiit, cuidam uirginum Deo deuotarum, quae illam inmenso amore diligebat, obitus illius in uisione apparuerit, quae animam eius cum angelis ad caelum ire conspexerit, atque hoc ipsa, qua factum est, hora his, quae secum erant, famulis Christi manifeste narrauerit, easque ad orandum pro anima eius, etiam priusquam cetera congregatio eius obitum cognouisset, excitauerit. Quod ita fuisse factum mox congregationi mane facto innotuit. Erat enim haec ipsa hora cum aliis nonnullis Christi ancellis in extremis monasterii locis seorsum posita, ubi nuper uenientes ad conuersationem feminae solebant probari, donec regulariter institutae in societatem congregationis susciperentur.

They report, moreover, that on the same night, in that very monastery also where the aforesaid handmaid of God died, to a certain one of the virgins devoted to God, who loved her with immense love, her death appeared in a vision; she beheld her soul going to heaven with the angels, and she herself, at the very hour at which it happened, plainly narrated this to those handmaids of Christ who were with her, and roused them to pray for her soul, even before the rest of the congregation had learned of her death. That it had so been done soon became known to the congregation when morning came. For at that very hour she was placed apart with some other handmaids of Christ in the outermost places of the monastery, where women who had recently come to the monastic conversation were accustomed to be proved, until, regularly instituted, they were received into the society of the congregation.

[22] IN huius monasterio abbatissae fuit frater quidam diuina gratia specialiter insignis, quia carmina religioni et pietati apta facere solebat; ita ut, quicquid ex diuinis litteris per interpretes disceret, hoc ipse post pusillum uerbis poeticis maxima suauitate et conpunctione conpositis, in sua, id est Anglorum, lingua proferret. Cuius carminibus multorum saepe animi ad contemtum saeculi, et appetitum sunt uitae caelestis accensi. Et quidem et alii post illum in gente Anglorum religiosa poemata facere temtabant; sed nullus eum aequiparare potuit.

[22] IN the monastery of this abbess there was a certain brother specially marked by divine grace, because he was accustomed to make songs apt to religion and piety; such that whatever he learned from the divine letters through interpreters, this he himself, after a little, would put forth in his own tongue, that is, the language of the Angles, in poetic words composed with the greatest sweetness and compunction. By his songs the minds of many were often kindled to contempt of the world and to desire of heavenly life. And indeed others also after him in the nation of the Angles attempted to make religious poems; but no one was able to equal him.

Namque ipse non ab hominibus, neque per hominem institutus, canendi artem didicit, sed diuinitus adiutus gratis canendi donum accepit. Unde nil umquam friuoli et superuacui poematis facere potuit, sed ea tantummodo, quae ad religionem pertinent, religiosam eius linguam decebant. Siquidem in habitu saeculari usque ad tempora prouectioris aetatis constitutus, nil carminum aliquando didicerat.

For he himself was not instructed by men, nor through a man, in the art of singing, but, divinely aided, received the gift of singing by grace. Whence he was never able to compose anything of frivolous and superfluous poetry, but only those things which pertain to religion suited his religious tongue. Indeed, being in a secular habit even until the time of more advanced age, he had at no time learned anything of songs.

Unde nonnumquam in conuiuio, cum esset laetitiae causa decretum, ut omnes per ordinem cantare deberent, ille, ubi adpropinquare sibi citharam cernebat, surgebat a media caena, et egressus ad suam domum repedabat.

Whence sometimes at a banquet, when for a cause of rejoicing it had been decreed that all in order ought to sing, he, when he saw the cithara approaching to him, would rise from the midst of the supper, and, having gone out, would walk back to his own house.

Quod dum tempore quodam faceret, et relicta domu conuiuii egressus esset ad stabula iumentorum, quorum ei custodia nocte illa erat delegata, ibique hora conpetenti membra dedisset sopori, adstitit ei quidam per somnium, eumque salutans, ac suo appellans nomine: ‘Caedmon,’ inquit, ‘canta mihi aliquid.’ At ille respondens: ‘Nescio,’ inquit, ‘cantare; nam et ideo de conuiuio egressus huc secessi, quia cantare non poteram.’ Rursum ille, qui cum eo loquebatur, ‘Attamen,’ ait, ‘mihi cantare habes.’ ‘Quid,’ inquit, ‘debeo cantare?’ Et ille, ‘Canta,’ inquit, ‘principium creaturarum.’ Quo accepto responso, statim ipse coepit cantare in laudem Dei conditoris uersus, quos numquam audierat, quorum iste est sensus: ‘Nunc laudare debemus auctorem regni caelestis, potentiam Creatoris et consilium illius, facta Patris gloriae. Quomodo ille, cum sit aeternus Deus, omnium miraculorum auctor extitit, qui primo filiis hominum caelum pro culmine tecti, dehinc terram custos humani generis omnipotens creauit.’ Hic est sensus, non autem ordo ipse uerborum, quae dormiens ille canebat; neque enim possunt carmina, quamuis optime conposita, ex alia in aliam linguam ad uerbum sine detrimento sui decoris ac dignitatis transferri. Exsurgens autem a somno, cuncta, quae dormiens cantauerat, memoriter retinuit, et eis mox plura in eundem modum uerba Deo digni carminis adiunxit.

When at a certain time he was doing this, and, having left the house, had gone out from the banquet to the stables of the draft-animals, the custody of which on that night had been delegated to him, and there at a fitting hour had given his limbs to sleep, there stood by him someone in a dream, and, greeting him and calling him by his own name: ‘Caedmon,’ he said, ‘sing me something.’ But he, answering, said: ‘I do not know how to sing; for this reason too I went out from the banquet and withdrew hither, because I could not sing.’ Again the one who was speaking with him said, ‘Yet you have to sing to me.’ ‘What,’ he said, ‘ought I to sing?’ And he: ‘Sing the beginning of created things.’ On receiving this answer, at once he himself began to sing, in praise of God the Founder, verses which he had never heard, the sense of which is this: ‘Now we must praise the author of the heavenly kingdom, the might of the Creator and his counsel, the deeds of the Father of glory. How he, since he is the eternal God, has shown himself the author of all miracles—he who first for the sons of men made heaven for the summit of the roof, and then the earth the omnipotent Guardian of the human race created.’ This is the sense, not however the very order of the words which he, while sleeping, was singing; for poems, however most well composed, cannot be transferred word-for-word from one language into another without damage to their own decor and dignity. But rising from sleep, he kept in memory all that he had sung while sleeping, and to these he soon added more words in the same manner, of a song worthy of God.

Ueniensque mane ad uilicum, qui sibi praeerat, quid doni percepisset, indicauit, atque ad abbatissam perductus, iussus est, multis doctioribus uiris praesentibus, indicare somnium, et dicere carmen, ut uniersorum iudicio, quid uel unde esset, quod referebat, probaretur. Uisumque est omnibus caelestem ei a Domino concessam esse gratiam. Exponebantque illi quendam sacrae historiae siue doctrinae sermonem, praecipientes eum, si posset, hunc in modulationem carminis transferre.

And coming in the morning to the steward, who was set over him, he indicated what gift he had received; and being conducted to the abbess, he was ordered, with many more learned men present, to declare the dream and to recite the song, so that by the judgment of all it might be proved what, or whence, was that which he reported. And it seemed to all that a heavenly grace had been granted to him by the Lord. And they were expounding to him a certain discourse of sacred history or doctrine, instructing him, if he could, to transfer this into the modulation of song.

At ille suscepto negotio abiit, et mane rediens, optimo carmine, quod iubebatur, conpositum reddidit. Unde mox abbatissa amplexata gratiam Dei in uiro, saecularem illum habitum relinquere, et monachicum suscipere propositum docuit, susceptumque in monasterium cum omnibus suis fratrum cohorti adsociauit, iussitque illum seriem sacrae historiae doceri. At ipse cuncta, quae audiendo discere poterat, rememorando secum, et quasi mundum animal ruminando, in carmen dulcissimum conuertebat, suauiusque resonando doctores suos uicissim auditores sui faciebat.

But he, the task having been undertaken, went away, and returning in the morning, rendered what was commanded, composed in an excellent song. Whence at once the abbess, embracing the grace of God in the man, instructed him to leave the secular habit and to take up the monastic purpose; and having received him into the monastery with all his own, she associated him with the cohort of the brothers, and ordered that he be taught the series of sacred history. But he himself, all the things which he could learn by hearing, by remembering with himself, and, as a clean animal, ruminating, converted into a most sweet song; and by more sweetly resonating he in turn made his teachers his own hearers.

Canebat autem de creatione mundi, et origine humani generis, et tota genesis historia, de egressu Israel ex Aegypto, et ingressu in terram repromissionis, de aliis plurimis sacrae scripturae historiis, de incarnatione dominica, passione, resurrectione, et ascensione in caelum, de Spiritus Sancti aduentu, et apostolorum doctrina. Item de terrore futuri iudicii, et horrore poenae gehennalis, ac dulcedine regni caelestis multa carmina faciebat; sed et alia perplura de beneficiis et iudiciis diuinis, in quibus cunctis homines ab amore scelerum abstrahere, ad dilectionem uero et solertiam bonae actionis excitare curabat. Erat enim uir multum religiosus, et regularibus disciplinis humiliter subditus; aduersum uero illos, qui aliter facere uolebant, zelo magni feruoris accensus; unde et pulchro uitam suam fine conclusit.

He sang, moreover, of the creation of the world, and the origin of the human race, and the whole Genesis history; of the exodus of Israel from Egypt and the entrance into the land of promise; of very many other histories of Holy Scripture; of the Lord’s Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven; of the Advent of the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the apostles. Likewise, about the terror of the future Judgment and the horror of the Gehenna penalty, and the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom, he made many songs; and also very many others about the benefactions and judgments divine, in all of which he strove to abstract men from the love of crimes, and to rouse them rather to the love and diligence of good action. For he was a man very religious, and humbly subject to regular disciplines; but against those who wished to act otherwise, he was inflamed with a zeal of great fervor; whence also he concluded his life with a beautiful end.

Nam propinquante hora sui decessus, XIIII diebus praeueniente corporea infirmitate pressus est, adeo tamen moderate, ut et loqui toto eo tempore posset, et ingredi. Erat autem in proximo casa, in qua infirmiores et qui prope morituri esse uidebantur, induci solebant. Rogauit ergo ministrum suum uespere incumbente, nocte qua de saeculo erat exiturus, ut in ea sibi locum quiescendi praepararet; qui miratus, cur hoc rogaret, qui nequaquam adhuc moriturus esse uidebatur, fecit tamen, quod dixerat.

For as the hour of his decease was approaching, he was pressed by a corporeal infirmity preceding by 14 days, yet so moderately that he could both speak during all that time and walk. Now there was nearby a house in which the weaker and those who seemed to be near dying were accustomed to be led. Therefore he asked his minister, with evening coming on, on the night on which he was about to depart from the world, to prepare for himself a place of resting in it; who, wondering why he asked this, since he seemed by no means yet about to die, nevertheless did what he had said.

Cumque ibidem positi uicissim aliqua gaudente animo, una cum eis, qui ibidem ante inerant, loquerentur ac iocarentur, et iam mediae noctis tempus esset transcensum, interrogauit, si eucharistiam intus haberent. Respondebant: ‘Quid opus est eucharistia? neque enim mori adhuc habes, qui tam hilariter nobiscum uelut sospes loqueris.’ Rursus ille: ‘Et tamen,’ ait, ‘afferte mihi eucharistiam.’ Qua accepta in manu, interrogauit, si omnes placidum erga se animum, et sine querela controuersiae ac rancoris haberent.

And as, being set there, they were in turn speaking and jesting with a somewhat rejoicing mind, together with those who had previously been there, and now the time of midnight had been crossed, he asked whether they had the eucharist within. They answered: ‘What need is there of the eucharist? for you are not yet going to die, you who speak with us so cheerfully as though safe and sound.’ Again he: ‘And yet,’ he said, ‘bring me the eucharist.’ This received into his hand, he asked whether all had a placid mind toward him, and were without complaint of controversy and rancor.

Respondebant omnes placidissimam se mentem ad illum, et ab omni ira remotam habere, eumque uicissim rogabant placidam erga ipsos mentem habere. Qui confestim respondit: ‘Placidam ego mentem, filioli, erga omnes Dei famulos gero.’ Sicque se caelesti muniens uiatico, uitae alterius ingressui parauit; et interrogauit, quam prope esset hora, qua fratres ad dicendas Domino laudes nocturnas excitari deberent. Respondebant: ‘Non longe est.’ At ille: ‘Bene, ergo exspectemus horam illam.’ Et signans se signo sanctae crucis reclinauit caput ad ceruical, modicumque obdormiens ita cum silentio uitam finiuit.

They replied that they had toward him a most placid mind, removed from all ire, and in turn they asked him to have a placid mind toward them. And he immediately responded: ‘A placid mind, my little sons, I bear toward all the servants of God.’ And so, fortifying himself with the heavenly viaticum, he prepared for the entry of the other life; and he asked how near was the hour at which the brothers ought to be roused to say nocturnal praises to the Lord. They answered: ‘It is not far.’ But he: ‘Good; then let us await that hour.’ And signing himself with the sign of the holy cross, he reclined his head on the pillow, and, sleeping a little, thus with silence finished his life.

Sicque factum est, ut, quomodo simplici ac pura mente tranquillaque deuotione Domino seruierat, ita etiam tranquilla morte mundum relinquens ad eius uisionem ueniret, illaque lingua, quae tot salutaria uerba in laudem Conditoris conposuerat, ultima quoque uerba in laudem ipsius, signando sese, et spiritum suum in manus eius commendando clauderet; qui etiam praescius sui obitus extitisse ex his, quae narrauimus, uidetur.

And so it came to pass that, just as he had served the Lord with a simple and pure mind and with tranquil devotion, so also, leaving the world with a tranquil death, he came to His vision; and that tongue which had composed so many salutary words in praise of the Creator closed its last words too in praise of Him, by signing himself and commending his spirit into His hands; he also seems, from the things we have narrated, to have been prescient of his own obit.

[23] HIS temporibus monasterium uirginum, quod Coludi Urbem cognominant, cuius et supra meminimus, per culpam incuriae flammis absumtum est. Quod tamen a malitia inhabitantium in eo, et praecipue illorum, qui maiores esse uidebantur, contigisse, omnes, qui nouere, facillime potuerunt aduertere. Sed non defuit puniendis admonitio diuinae pietatis, qua correcti per ieiunia, fletus, et preces iram a se, instar Nineuitarum, iusti Iudicis auerterent.

[23] In these times the monastery of virgins, which they cognominate the City of Colud, of which we have made mention above as well, was consumed by flames through the fault of neglect. Yet that this befell from the malice of the inhabitants in it, and especially of those who seemed to be the greater, all who knew it could most easily observe. But there was not lacking, for those to be punished, an admonition of divine piety, whereby, corrected through fasts, tears, and prayers, they might avert from themselves, after the fashion of the Ninevites, the wrath of the just Judge.

Erat namque in eodem monasterio uir de genere Scottorum, Adamnanus uocabulo, ducens uitam in continentia et orationibus multum Deo deuotam, ita ut nil umquam cibi uel potus, excepta die dominica et quinta sabbati, perciperet, saepe autem noctes integras peruigil in oratione transigeret. Quae quidem illi districtio uitae artioris, primo ex necessitate emendandae suae prauitatis obuenerat, sed procedente tempore necessitatem in consuetudinem uerterat.

There was, namely, in the same monastery a man of the stock of the Scots, by name Adamnan, leading a life in continence and in prayers very much devoted to God, such that he would take nothing of food or drink ever, except on the Lord’s Day and on Thursday; and often he would pass whole nights through, wholly wakeful, in prayer. This strictness, indeed, of a tighter way of life had at first come to him from the necessity of amending his own depravity, but as time went on he turned necessity into custom.

Siquidem in adulescentia sua sceleris aliquid commiserat, quod commissum, ubi ad cor suum rediit, grauissime exhorruit, et se pro illo puniendum a districto Iudice timebat. Accedens ergo ad sacerdotem, a quo sibi sperabat iter salutis posse demonstrari, confessus est reatum suum, petiitque, ut consilium sibi daret, quo posset fugere a uentura ira. Qui audito eius commisso dixit: ‘Grande uulnus grandioris curam medellae desiderat; et ideo ieiuniis, psalmis, et orationibus, quantum uales, insiste, quo praeoccupando faciem Domini in confessione propitium eum inuenire merearis.’ At ille, quem nimius reae conscientiae tenebat dolor, et internis peccatorum uinculis, quibus grauabatur, ocius desiderabat absolui: ‘Adulescentior,’ inquit, ‘sum aetate, et uegetus corpore; quicquid mihi inposueris agendum, dummodo saluus fiam in die Domini, totum facile feram, etiam si totam noctem stando in precibus peragere, si integram septimanam iubeas abstinendo transigere.’ Qui dixit: ‘Multum est, ut tota septimana absque alimento corporis perdures; sed biduanum uel triduanum sat est obseruare ieiunium.

Indeed, in his adolescence he had committed some crime which, when he came back to his heart, he shuddered at most grievously, and he feared that he would be punished for it by the strict Judge. Therefore, approaching a priest, by whom he hoped the way of salvation could be shown to him, he confessed his guilt, and asked that he give him counsel by which he might flee from the coming wrath. He, having heard what he had committed, said: ‘A great wound desires the care of a greater medicine; and therefore with fasts, psalms, and prayers, as much as you are able, persist, in order that, by pre-occupying the face of the Lord in confession, you may merit to find Him propitious.’ But he, whom an excessive pain of a guilty conscience held, and who, by the internal chains of sins with which he was burdened, desired to be absolved more swiftly, said: ‘I am younger in age and vigorous in body; whatever you impose on me to do, provided that I may be saved on the day of the Lord, I will easily bear it all, even if to spend the whole night standing in prayers, even if you bid me to pass an entire week by abstaining.’ He said: ‘It is too much that you should endure a whole week without nourishment of the body; but it is enough to observe a fast of two days or three days.’

Hoc facito, donec post modicum tempus rediens ad te, quid facere debeas, et quamdiu paenitentiae insistere tibi plenius ostendam.’ Quibus dictis, et descripta illi mensura paenitendi, abiit sacerdos, et ingruente causa subita secessit Hiberniam, unde originem duxerat, neque ultra ad eum iuxta suum condictum rediit. At ipse memor praecepti eius, simul et promissi sui, totum se lacrimis paenitentiae, uigiliis sanctis, et continentiae mancipauit; ita ut quinta solum sabbati et dominica, sicut praedixi, reficeret, ceteris septimanae diebus ieiunus permaneret. Cumque sacerdotem suum Hiberniam secessisse, ibique defunctum esse audisset, semper ex eo tempore, iuxta condictum eius memoratum, continentiae modum obseruabat; et, quod causa diuini timoris semel ob reatum conpunctus coeperat, iam causa diuini amoris delectatus praemiis indefessus agebat.

“Do this, until after a little time, returning to you, I may show you more fully what you ought to do, and how long you should persist in penitence.” With these things said, and the measure of doing penance set forth for him, the priest departed, and when a sudden cause arose, he withdrew to Ireland, whence he had drawn his origin, nor thereafter did he return to him according to his appointment. But he, mindful of his precept, and likewise of his own promise, devoted himself wholly to the tears of penitence, holy vigils, and continence; so that only on the fifth day of the sabbath and on the Lord’s day, as I have said, he took refreshment, remaining fasting on the other days of the week. And when he heard that his priest had withdrawn to Ireland and had died there, from that time always, according to his aforesaid compact, he observed the measure of continence; and that which he had once begun because of divine fear, smitten on account of his guilt, he now carried on indefatigably because of divine love, delighted by the rewards.

Quod dum multo tempore sedulus exsequeretur, contigit, eum die quadam de monasterio illo longius egressum, comitante secum uno de fratribus, peracto itinere redire. Qui cum monasterio propinquarent, et aedificia illius sublimiter erecta aspicerent, solutus est in lacrimas uir Dei, et tristitiam cordis uultu indice prodebat. Quod intuens comes, quare faceret, inquisiuit.

Which, while he was for a long time sedulously carrying out, it befell that on a certain day, having gone farther out from that monastery, with one of the brothers accompanying him, he returned with the journey completed. And when they were approaching the monastery, and were looking upon its edifices sublimely erected, the man of God was dissolved into tears, and with his face as an index he was betraying the sadness of his heart. Seeing this, his companion inquired why he did so.

At ille: ‘Cuncta,’ inquit, ‘haec, quae cernis, aedificia puplica uel priuata, in proximo est, ut ignis absumens in cinerem conuertat.’ Quod ille audiens, mox ut intrauerunt monasterium, matri congregationis, uocabulo Aebbæ, curauit indicare. At illa merito turbata de tali praesagio uocauit ad se uirum, et diligentius ab eo rem, uel unde hoc ipse nosset, inquirebat. Qui ait: ‘Nuper occupatus noctu uigiliis et psalmis, uidi adstantem mihi subito quendam incogniti uultus; cuius praesentia cum essem exterritus, dixit mihi, ne timerem; et quasi familiari me uoce alloquens, ‘Bene facis,’ inquit, ‘qui tempore isto nocturnae quietis non somno indulgere, sed uigiliis et orationibus insistere maluisti.’ At ego: ‘Noui,’ inquit, ‘multum mihi esse necesse uigiliis salutaribus insistere, et pro meis erratibus sedulo Dominum deprecari.’ Qui adiciens ‘Uerum,’ inquit, ‘dicis, quia et tibi et multis opus est peccata sua bonis operibus redimere, et, cum cessant a laboribus rerum temporalium, tunc pro appetitu aeternorum bonorum liberius laborare; sed hoc tamen paucissimi faciunt.

But he: ‘All,’ he said, ‘these things which you behold, public or private buildings, it is at hand that a consuming fire turn into ash.’ Hearing this, as soon as they had entered the monastery, he took care to make it known to the mother of the congregation, by the name Æbba. But she, rightly troubled at such a presage, called the man to her, and more carefully inquired from him the matter, and whence he himself knew this. He said: ‘Lately, occupied by vigils and psalms in the night, I saw suddenly standing by me someone of an unknown countenance; and when I was terrified at his presence, he told me not to fear; and, as though addressing me with a familiar voice, ‘You do well,’ he said, ‘that at this season of nocturnal rest you have preferred not to indulge sleep, but to apply yourself to vigils and prayers.’ But I: ‘I know,’ said I, ‘that it is very necessary for me to apply myself to salutary vigils, and to beseech the Lord diligently for my errors.’ Who, adding, said, ‘Truly you speak, because both for you and for many it is needful to redeem their sins by good works, and, when they cease from the labors of temporal things, then to labor more freely for the desire of eternal goods; but this, however, very few do.’

Siquidem modo totum hoc monasterium ex ordine perlustrans, singulorum casas ac lectos inspexi, et neminem ex omnibus praeter te erga sanitatem animae suae occupatum repperi; sed omnes prorsus, et uiri et feminae, aut somno torpent inerti, aut ad peccata uigilant. Nam et domunculae, quae ad orandum uel legendum factae erant, nunc in comessationum, potationum, fabulationum, et ceterarum sunt inlecebrarum cubilia conuersae, uirgines quoque Deo dicatae, contemta reuerentia suae professionis, quotiescumque uacant, texendis subtilioribus indumentis operam dant, quibus aut se ipsas ad uicem sponsarum in periculum sui status adornent, aut externorum sibi uirorum amicitiam conparent. Unde merito loco huic et habitatoribus eius grauis de caelo uindicta flammis saeuientibus praeparata est.’ Dixit autem abbatissa: ‘Et quare non citius hoc conpertum mihi reuelare uoluisti?’ Qui respondit: ‘Timui propter reuerentiam tuam, ne forte nimium conturbareris; et tamen hanc consolationem habeas, quod in diebus tuis haec plaga non superueniet.’ Qua diuulgata uisione, aliquantulum loci accolae paucis diebus timere, et se ipsos intermissis facinoribus castigare coeperunt.

Indeed, just now, traversing this whole monastery in order, I inspected the houses and beds of each one, and I found no one among all, except you, occupied concerning the health of his soul; but absolutely all, both men and women, either are benumbed with inert sleep, or keep vigil for sins. For even the little cells, which had been made for praying or reading, are now turned into lairs of feasting, drinking, tale-telling, and other allurements; and the virgins dedicated to God also, the reverence of their profession despised, whenever they have leisure, devote themselves to weaving more delicate garments, with which either they adorn themselves in the guise of brides, to the peril of their estate, or they procure for themselves the friendship of men from outside. Whence deservedly for this place and its inhabitants a grievous vengeance from heaven, with raging flames, has been prepared.’ But the abbess said: ‘And why did you not wish to reveal this, once ascertained, to me more quickly?’ He replied: ‘I feared on account of your reverence, lest perhaps you be overly disturbed; and yet have this consolation, that in your days this plague will not supervene.’ With this vision made public, the inhabitants of the place for a few days began somewhat to fear, and, their crimes intermitted, to chastise themselves.

Uerum post obitum ipsius abbatissae redierunt ad pristinas sordes, immo sceleratiora fecerunt. Et cum dicerent, ‘Pax et securitas,’ extemplo praefatae ultionis sunt poena multati.

But in truth, after the death of the abbess herself, they returned to their former sordidness—nay, they did more criminal things. And while they were saying, ‘Peace and security,’ forthwith they were mulcted with the penalty of the aforesaid vengeance.

Quae mihi cuncta sic esse facta reuerentissimus meus conpresbyter Aedgils referebat, qui tunc in illo monasterio degebat. Postea autem, discedentibus inde ob desolationem plurimis incolarum, in nostro monasterio plurimo tempore conuersatus, ibidemque defunctus est. Haec ideo nostrae historiae inserenda credidimus, ut admoneremus lectorem operum Domini, quam terribilis in consiliis super filios hominum; ne forte nos tempore aliquo carnis inlecebris seruientes, minusque Dei iudicium formidantes, repentina eius ira corripiat, et uel temporalibus damnis iuste saeuiens affligat, uel ad perpetuam perditionem districtius examinans tollat.

All these things my most reverend fellow-presbyter Aedgils was recounting to me to have been done thus, who at that time was dwelling in that monastery. Afterwards, however, when very many of the inhabitants departed thence on account of desolation, he lived for a very long time in our monastery, and there he died. These things therefore we believed should be inserted into our history, to admonish the reader of the works of the Lord, how terrible in counsels over the sons of men; lest perhaps at some time we, serving the allurements of the flesh and less fearing the judgment of God, should be seized by his sudden wrath, and either, raging justly, he afflict us with temporal losses, or, examining more strictly, carry us off to perpetual perdition.

[24] 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.

[24] In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 684, Ecgfrid, king of the Northumbrians, having sent into Ireland an army with the leader Berct, miserably laid waste an innocent people, and one ever most friendly to the nation of the English, such that not even churches or monasteries did the hostile hand spare. But the islanders both, as far as they were able, repelled arms with arms, and, invoking the help of divine piety, petitioned to be vindicated from heaven by continual imprecations for a long time.

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.

And although maledictors cannot possess the kingdom of God, it was nevertheless believed that those who were, by the desert of their impiety, maledicted, would more swiftly, with the Lord as avenger, pay the penalties of their guilt. For indeed, in the year next after this, the same king, when he had rashly led an army to devastate the province of the Picts, with his friends much forbidding him, and especially Cuthbert of blessed memory, who had recently been ordained bishop, was led, the enemies feigning flight, into the straits of inaccessible mountains, and, together with the greatest part of the forces which he had brought with him, was destroyed in the 40th year of his age, and of his reign the 15th, on the 13th day before the Kalends of June.

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.

And indeed, as I said, friends forbade him to enter upon this war; but, since in the preceding year he had been unwilling to heed the most reverend father Ecgberct, that he should not attack Ireland, doing him no harm, it was given to him, as the penalty of that sin, that now he did not listen to those who wished to call him back from destruction.

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.

From which time the hope and the virtue of the kingdom of the English began “to flow, and, having slipped back, to be carried backward.” For both the Picts recovered the land of their possession, which the English had held; and the Scots, who were in Britain; a not‑small part of the Britons also received liberty; which they have even to this day, for about 46 years; where, among very many of the nation of the English, either slain by the sword, or addicted to servitude, or slipping away in flight from the land of the Picts, even the most reverend man of the Lord, Trumuini, who had received the episcopate over them, withdrew with his own, who were in the monastery of Aebbercurnig, placed indeed in the region of the English, but in the neighborhood of the firth which separates the lands of the English and of the Picts; and commending them, wherever he could, to friends throughout the monasteries, he himself, in the oft‑said monastery of the servants and handmaids of God, which is called Streanæshalch, chose a place of dwelling; and there, with a few of his own, in monastic distriction he led a life not useful to himself only, but also to many, for a very great span of years; where also, having died, he was interred in the church of the blessed Apostle Peter, in a manner worthy according to the honor both of his life and of his rank. In charge indeed at that time of the same monastery was the royal virgin Aelbfled, together with her mother Eanfled, of whom we have made mention above. But, with the bishop arriving there, the instructress devout to God found the greatest aid for governing, and at the same time a solace for her life.

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.

Moreover, Aldfrith succeeded Ecgfrith in the kingdom, a man most learned in the scriptures, who was said to be his brother and the son of King Oswiu; and he nobly recovered the shattered state of the kingdom, although within narrower bounds.

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.

In that very year, which is from the Lord’s Incarnation 685, Hlothere, king of the Cantuarians, after his brother Ecgberht, who had reigned 9 years, he himself having reigned 12 years, died on February 6. For he was wounded in a battle of the South Saxons, whom against him Edric, son of Ecgberht, had assembled, and he died while under treatment.

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.

And after him that same Edric reigned for one year and a half; when he died, for some span of time doubtful or foreign kings laid waste that kingdom, until the legitimate king Uictred, that is, the son of Ecgberct, strengthened in the kingdom, by religion together with industry, freed his people from foreign invasion.

[25] 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.

[25] In that same year in which King Ecgfrid received the end of life, he had, as we said, caused to be ordained as bishop for the church of the Lindisfarne people the holy and venerable man Cuthbert, who on a very small island, which is called Farne, and which is far distant from that same church in the Ocean by nearly nine miles, had led a solitary life for many years in great continence of body and mind. He indeed from the first age of boyhood always burned with zeal for a religious life, but from the beginning of adolescence he assumed both the monastic name and the habit. He entered first the monastery of Melrose, which, set on the bank of the river Tweed, was then ruled by Abbot Eata, a man most gentle and most simple of all, who afterwards was made bishop of the church of Hexham or of Lindisfarne, as we have mentioned above; under whom at that time the provost Boisil was a priest of great virtues and of prophetic spirit.

Huius discipulatui Cudberct humiliter subditus, et scientiam ab eo scripturarum, et bonorum operum sumsit exempla.

Cudberct, humbly subject to his discipleship, received from him both the knowledge of the Scriptures and the examples of good works.

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.

After he migrated to the Lord, Cuthbert, made provost of the same monastery, by both the authority of a master and the example of his own conduct was establishing many unto a regular life. Nor did he offer only to that monastery the admonitions of the regular life along with examples, but he also took care to convert the surrounding common folk, far and wide, from a life of foolish custom to the love of heavenly joys. For many profaned the faith which they had by iniquitous works; and some, even at the time of mortality, neglecting the sacraments of the faith with which they had been imbued, ran together to the errant remedies of idolatry; as though they could restrain the plague sent by God the Creator through incantations or phylacteries or any whatever secrets of demonic art.

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.

Therefore, to correct the error of both groups, he himself frequently, going forth from the monastery—at times sitting on a horse, but more often proceeding on foot—would come to the surrounding villas and preach the way of truth to those erring; which same thing Boisil also had been accustomed to do in his time. For it was the custom at that time among the peoples of the English, that when a cleric or presbyter came into a villa, all would flock together at his command to hear the word; they would willingly listen to the things that were said; more willingly, they would follow by doing the things which they could hear and understand. Moreover, in Cuthbert there was such skill of speaking, so great a love of persuading the things he had undertaken, such a light of an angelic countenance, that none of those present would presume to hide from him the hiding-places of his heart; all would openly bring forth, by confessing, the things they had done, because indeed they thought that these same things could in no way lie hidden from him; and, as he commanded, they would wipe away the confessed things with worthy fruits of penance.

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.

He was accustomed, moreover, to traverse especially those places, to preach in those hamlets which, set far off in steep and rugged mountains, were a horror for others to visit, and by their poverty and rusticity alike warded off the access of the learned. Yet he, gladly devoted to pious toil, cultivated them with such industry of skillful doctrine, that, having gone out from the monastery, often for a whole hebdomad, sometimes for two or three, and sometimes even for a full month, he would not return home; but, lingering in the highlands, he would summon the rustic plebs by the word of preaching and likewise by the work of virtue to the things of heaven.

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.

Accordingly, when the venerable servant of the Lord, spending many years in the monastery of Mailros, was shining forth with great signs of virtue, the most reverend abbot of that house, Eata, transferred him to the island of the Lindisfarne, so that there too he might make known to the brethren the guardianship of the regular discipline both by the authority of the provostship and might pre-demonstrate it by his own practice. For that same most reverend father was then governing that place also with abbatial right. Indeed, from ancient times there, both a bishop with his clergy and an abbot used to remain with the monks; who nevertheless, they too, pertained in familiar fashion to the bishop’s care.

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.’

Because indeed Aidan, who was the first bishop of that place, arriving thither with monks, himself a monk, established a monastic conversation in it; just as previously the blessed father Augustine is known to have done in Kent, with the most reverend pope Gregory writing to him, which also we have set above. ‘But because your fraternity,’ he says, ‘trained by the rules of the monastery, ought not to be made separate from your clerics, in the church of the English, which recently, with God as author, has been brought to the faith, it ought to establish this conversation, which at the beginning of the nascent church was with our fathers; among whom none of them said that anything out of the things they possessed was his own, but all things were common to them.’

[26] EXIN Cudberct crescentibus meritis religiosae intentionis, ad anchoriticae quoque contemplationis, quae diximus, silentia secreta peruenit. Uerum quia de uita illius et uirtutibus ante annos plures sufficienter et uersibus heroicis, et simplici oratione conscripsimus, hoc tantum in praesenti commemorare satis sit, quod aditurus insulam protestatus est fratribus, dicens: ‘Si mihi diuina gratia in loco illo donauerit, ut de opere manuum mearum uiuere queam, libens ibi morabor; sin alias, ad uos citissime Deo uolente reuertar.’ Erat autem locus et aquae prorsus et frugis et arboris inops, sed et spirituum malignorum frequentia humanae habitationi minus accommodus; sed ad uotum uiri Dei habitabilis per omnia factus est, siquidem ad aduentum eius spiritus recessere maligni. Cum autem ipse sibi ibidem expulsis hostibus mansionem angustam circumuallante aggere et domus in ea necessarias, iuuante fratrum manu, id est oratorium et habitaculum commune, construxisset, iussit fratres in eiusdem habitaculi pauimento foueam facere; erat autem tellus durissima et saxosa, cui nulla omnino spes uenae fontanae uideretur inesse.

[26] Thereupon Cudberct, with the merits of his religious intention increasing, arrived also at the secret silences of the anchoritic contemplation of which we have spoken. But since concerning his life and virtues years before we have sufficiently composed both in heroic verses and in simple prose, let it be enough for the present to recall only this: that, when he was about to go to the island, he declared to the brothers, saying: ‘If divine grace shall grant me in that place that I may be able to live by the work of my hands, I will willingly dwell there; otherwise, I will return to you right swiftly, God willing.’ Now the place was utterly lacking both in water and in grain and in trees, and, by the frequency of malign spirits, was less suitable for human habitation; but to the desire of the man of God it was made in all respects habitable, since at his coming the malign spirits withdrew. And when he, with the enemies expelled, had there built for himself, with an encircling embankment, a narrow dwelling, and, with the helping hand of the brothers, the necessary houses in it—that is, an oratory and a common habitation—he ordered the brothers to make a pit in the floor of that same dwelling; but the ground was very hard and rocky, in which no hope at all seemed to be that a spring-vein was present.

Quod dum facerent, ad fidem et preces famuli Dei, alio die aqua plena inuenta est, quae usque ad hanc diem sufficientem cunctis illo aduenientibus gratiae suae caelestis copiam ministrat. Sed et ferramenta sibi ruralia cum frumento adferri rogauit, quod dum praeparata terra tempore congruo seminaret, nil omnino, non dico spicarum, sed ne herbae quidem ex eo germinare usque ad aestatis tempora contigit. Unde uisitantibus se ex more fratribus hordeum iussit adferri, si forte uel natura soli illius, uel uoluntas esset superni largitoris, ut illius frugis ibi potius seges oriretur.

While they were doing this, at the faith and prayers of the servant of God, on the next day it was found full of water, which even to this day supplies to all who come there a sufficient abundance of its celestial grace. But he also asked that rural implements be brought to him along with grain; and when, with the ground prepared, he sowed it at a fitting time, it befell that nothing at all sprang from it— I do not say ears, but not even grass— down to the summer season. Wherefore, when the brothers visited him according to custom, he ordered barley to be brought, in case either the nature of that soil, or the will of the supernal Giver, might be that a crop of that grain should arise there rather.

Quod dum sibi adlatum ultra omne tempus serendi, ultra omnem spem fructificandi eodem in agro sereret, mox copiosa seges exorta desideratam proprii laboris uiro Dei refectionem praebebat.

Which, when, though brought to him beyond every season for sowing, beyond all hope of fructifying, he sowed in the same field, soon a copious crop, having sprung up, furnished to the man of God the desired refection of his own labor.

Cum ergo multis ibidem annis Deo solitarius seruiret, (tanta autem erat altitudo aggeris, quo mansio eius erat uallata, ut caelum tantum ex ea, cuius introitum sitiebat, aspicere posset), contigit, ut congregata synodo non parua sub praesentia regis Ecgfridi iuxta fluuium Alne, in loco, qui dicitur Adtuifyrdi, quod significat ‘ad duplex uadum,’ cui beatae memoriae Theodorus archiepiscopus praesidebat, unanimo omnium consensu ad episcopatum ecclesiae Lindisfarnensis eligeretur. Qui cum multis legatariis ac litteris ad se praemissis nequaquam suo monasterio posset erui, tandem rex ipse praefatus, una cum sanctissimo antistite Trumuine, nec non et aliis religiosis ac potentibus uiris insulam nauigauit. Conueniunt et de ipsa insula Lindisfarnensi in hoc ipsum multi de fratribus, genuflectunt omnes, adiurant per Dominum, lacrimas fundunt, obsecrant; donec ipsum quoque lacrimis plenum dulcibus extrahunt latebris, atque ad synodum pertrahunt.

Therefore, when for many years in that place he was serving God as a solitary, (and so great was the height of the rampart with which his dwelling was walled, that from it he could look upon only the heaven, whose entrance he thirsted for), it befell that, a not small synod having been convened under the presence of King Ecgfrid near the river Alne, in a place which is called Adtuifyrdi, which signifies ‘at the double ford,’ over which of blessed memory Archbishop Theodore presided, he was chosen by the unanimous consent of all to the episcopate of the church of Lindisfarne. Although many legates and letters had been sent on ahead to him, he could by no means be extracted from his monastery; at length the aforesaid king himself, together with the most holy prelate Trumwine, and also other religious and powerful men, sailed to the island. And from the island of Lindisfarne itself many of the brothers gather for this very purpose, they all genuflect, adjure by the Lord, pour forth tears, beseech; until they draw him too, full of tears, from his sweet hiding-places, and lead him to the synod.

Quo dum perueniret, quamuis multum renitens, unanima cunctorum uoluntate superatur, atque ad suscipiendum episcopatus officium collum submittere conpellitur; eo maxime uictus sermone, quod famulus Domini Boisil, cum ei mente prophetica cuncta, quae eum essent superuentura, patefaceret, antistitem quoque eum futurum esse praedixerat. Nec tamen statim ordinatio decreta, sed peracta hieme, quae inminebat, in ipsa sollemnitate paschali conpleta est Eboraci sub praesentia praefati regis Ecgfridi, conuenientibus ad consecrationem eius VII episcopis, in quibus beatae memoriae Theodorus primatum tenebat. Electus est autem primo in episcopatum Hagustaldensis ecclesiae pro Tunbercto, qui ab episcopatu fuerat depositus; sed quoniam ipse plus Lindisfarnensi ecclesiae, in qua conuersatus fuerat, dilexit praefici, placuit, ut Eata reuerso ad sedem ecclesiae Hagustaldensis, cui regendae primo fuerat ordinatus, Cudberct ecclesiae Lindisfarnensis gubernacula susciperet.

When he arrived there, although resisting much, he is overcome by the unanimous will of all, and is compelled to submit his neck to undertake the office of the episcopate; conquered especially by this discourse, that the servant of the Lord Boisil, when he disclosed to him with a prophetic mind all the things that were to come upon him, had also foretold that he would be a prelate. Nevertheless the ordination was not decreed at once, but, the winter which was impending having been completed, on the very Paschal solemnity it was accomplished at York under the presence of the aforesaid king Ecgfrid, 7 bishops assembling for his consecration, among whom Theodore of blessed memory held the primacy. He was moreover first elected into the bishopric of the church of Hagustald in place of Tunberct, who had been deposed from the episcopate; but since he preferred rather to be set over the Lindisfarnensian church, in which he had lived, it was agreed that, Eata returning to the see of the church of Hagustald, to the governance of which he had first been ordained, Cudberct should assume the helm of the church of Lindisfarne.

Qui susceptum episcopatus gradum ad imitationem beatorum apostolorum uirtutum ornabat operibus. Commissam namque sibi plebem, et orationibus protegebat adsiduis, et admonitionibus saluberrimis ad caelestia uocabat. Et, quod maxime doctores iuuare solet, ea, quae agenda docebat, ipse prius agendo praemonstrabat.

He adorned the assumed rank of the episcopate with works, in imitation of the virtues of the blessed apostles. For the people committed to him he both protected with assiduous prayers, and called to celestial things with most healthful admonitions. And—what is especially wont to aid teachers—those things which he taught were to be done, he himself first pre-demonstrated by doing.

Erat quippe ante omnia diuinae caritatis igne feruidus, patientiae uirtute modestus, orationum deuotioni solertissime intentus, affabilis omnibus, qui ad se consolationis gratia ueniebant; hoc ipsum quoque orationis loco ducens, si infirmis fratribus opem suae exhortationis tribueret; sciens, quia, qui dixit: ‘Diliges Dominum Deum tuum,’ dixit et: ‘Diliges proximum.’ Erat abstinentiae castigatione insignis, erat gratia conpunctionis semper ad caelestia suspensus. Denique cum sacrificium Deo uictimae salutaris offerret, non eleuata in altum uoce, sed profusis ex imo pectore lacrimis, Domino sua uota commendabat.

He was indeed before all things fervent with the fire of divine charity, modest by the virtue of patience, most diligently intent upon the devotion of prayers, affable to all who came to him for the sake of consolation; counting this very thing also as in the place of prayer, if he granted to infirm brothers the help of his exhortation; knowing that he who said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God,’ said also: ‘You shall love your neighbor.’ He was distinguished by the chastening of abstinence, and by the grace of compunction was always suspended toward heavenly things. Finally, when he offered to God the sacrifice of the saving victim, not with a voice lifted on high, but with tears poured forth from the inmost breast, he commended his vows to the Lord.

[27] DUOBUS autem annis in episcopatu peractis repetiit insulam ac monasterium suum, diuino admonitus oraculo, quia dies sibi mortis, uel uitae magis illius, quae sola uita dicenda est, iam adpropiaret introitus; sicut ipse quoque tempore eodem nonnullis, sed uerbis obscurioribus, quae tamen postmodum manifeste intellegerentur, solita sibi simplicitate pandebat; quibusdam autem hoc idem etiam manifeste reuelabat.

[27] But, with two years having been completed in the episcopate, he revisited his island and his monastery, divinely admonished by an oracle that the day of his death—or rather of that Life which alone is to be called life—was now drawing near in its entry; just as he himself also at the same time was disclosing this to some persons, but in more obscure words, which nevertheless would afterwards be clearly understood, with the simplicity customary to him; and to certain others he even revealed this same thing manifestly.

Erat enim presbyter uitae uenerabilis nomine Hereberct, iamdudum uiro Dei spiritalis amicitiae foedere copulatus; qui, in insula stagni illius pergrandis, de quo Deruuentionis fluuii primordia erumpunt, uitam ducens solitariam, annis singulis eum uisitare, et monita ab eo perpetuae salutis audire solebat. Hic cum audiret eum ad ciuitatem Lugubaliam deuenisse, uenit ex more, cupiens salutaribus eius exhortationibus ad superna desideria magis magisque accendi. Qui dum sese alterutrum caelestis uitae poculis debriarent, dixit inter alia antistes: ‘Memento, frater Heriberct, ut modo, quicquid opus habes, me interroges mecumque loquaris; postquam enim ab inuicem digressi fuerimus, non ultra nos in hoc saeculo carnis obtutibus inuicem aspiciemus.

For there was a presbyter of venerable life named Hereberct, long since joined to the man of God by the bond of spiritual friendship; who, living a solitary life on an island of that very large lake from which the beginnings of the river Derwent burst forth, was accustomed each year to visit him and to hear from him counsels of perpetual salvation. When he heard that he had come to the city of Lugubalia, he came as was his custom, desiring by his salutary exhortations to be inflamed more and more toward heavenly desires. And while they were inebriating one another with the cups of celestial life, the bishop said among other things: ‘Remember, brother Hereberct, that now, whatever you have need of, you should ask me and speak with me; for after we have parted from one another, we shall no longer behold one another in this age with the eyes of the flesh.’

Certus sum namque, quia tempus meae resolutionis instat, et uelox est depositio tabernaculi mei.’ Qui haec audiens prouolutus est eius uestigiis, et fusis cum gemitu lacrimis: ‘Obsecro,’ inquit, ‘per Dominum, ne me deseras, sed tui memor sis fidissimi sodalis, rogesque supernam pietatem, ut, cui simul in terris seruiuimus, ad eius uidendam gratiam simul transeamus ad caelos. Nosti enim, quia ad tui oris imperium semper uiuere studui, et, quicquid ignorantia uel fragilitate deliqui, aeque ad tuae uoluntatis examen mox emendare curaui.’ Incubuit precibus antistes, statimque edoctus in spiritu inpetrasse se, quod petebat a Domino: ‘Surge,’ inquit, ‘frater mi, et noli plorare, sed gaudio gaude, quia, quod rogauimus, superna nobis clementia donauit.’

‘I am certain, for the time of my dissolution is at hand, and the deposition of my tabernacle is swift.’ Hearing this, he fell prostrate at his feet, and, with tears poured forth with groaning: ‘I beseech you,’ he said, ‘by the Lord, do not forsake me, but be mindful of your most faithful companion, and beg the heavenly mercy that we, who have served together on earth, may together pass to the heavens to behold his grace. For you know that at the command of your mouth I have always endeavored to live, and whatever I did amiss through ignorance or frailty, I likewise took care at once to amend according to the standard of your will.’ The bishop pressed himself to prayers, and straightway, taught in the spirit that he had obtained from the Lord what he asked, said: ‘Arise, my brother, and do not weep, but rejoice with joy; for what we asked, the heavenly clemency has granted to us.’

Cuius promissi et prophetiae ueritatem sequens rerum astruxit euentus; quia et digredientes ab inuicem non se ultra corporaliter uiderunt, et uno eodemque die, hoc est XIIIo Kalendarum Aprilium, egredientes e corpore spiritus eorum mox beata inuicem uisione coniuncti sunt, atque angelico ministerio pariter ad regnum caeleste translati. Sed Heriberct diutina prius infirmitate decoquitur; illa, ut credibile est, dispensatione dominicae pietatis, ut, siquid minus haberet meriti a beato Cudbercto, suppleret hoc castigans longae egritudinis dolor; quatinus aequatus gratia suo intercessori, sicut uno eodemque tempore cum eo de corpore egredi, ita etiam una atque indissimili sede perpetuac beatitudinis meruisset recipi.

The outcome of events following proved the truth of his promise and prophecy; for both, going apart from one another, did not thereafter see each other corporeally, and on one and the same day, that is on the 13th day before the Kalends of April, as their spirits went forth from the body they were at once joined to one another in a blessed vision, and by angelic ministry together were translated to the celestial kingdom. But Heriberct was first refined down by a long infirmity; by that, as is credible, dispensation of the Lord’s piety, so that, if he had anything less of merit than blessed Cuthbert, the chastening pain of long sickness might make this up; to the end that, being equaled by grace to his intercessor, just as he might go forth from the body with him at one and the same time, so also he might deserve to be received into the one and not-dissimilar seat of perpetual beatitude.

Obiit autem pater reuerentissimus in insula Farne, multum deprecatus fratres, ut ibi quoque sepeliretur, ubi non paruo tempore pro domino militaret. Attamen tandem eorum precibus uictus assensum dedit, ut ad insulam Lindisfarnensium relatus, in ecclesia deponeretur. Quod dum factum esset, episcopatum ecclesiae illius anno uno seruabat uenerabilis antistes Uilfrid, donec eligeretur, qui pro Cudbercto antistes ordinari deberet.

But the most reverend father died on the island of Farne, having much entreated the brethren that he might also be buried there, where for no small time he had soldiered for the Lord. Nevertheless, at length overcome by their prayers, he gave assent that, being carried back to the island of the Lindisfarne folk, he should be laid in the church. When this had been done, the venerable prelate Wilfrid held the bishopric of that church for one year, until there should be chosen one who ought to be ordained bishop in place of Cuthbert.

Ordinatus est autem post haec Eadberct uir scientia scripturarum diuinarum simul et praeceptorum caelestium obseruantia, ac maxime elimosynarum operatione insignis; ita ut iuxta legem omnibus annis decimam non solum quadrupedum, uerum etiam frugum omnium, atque pomorum, nec non et uestimentorum partem pauperibus daret.

Moreover, after these things Eadberct was ordained, a man distinguished by knowledge of the divine Scriptures together with the observance of the heavenly precepts, and most of all by the operation of almsdeeds; so that, according to the law, every year he gave the tenth not only of quadrupeds, but also of all crops, and of fruits, and likewise even of garments, to the poor.

[28] UOLENS autem latius demonstrare diuina dispensatio, quanta in gloria uir Domini Cudberct post mortem uiueret, cuius ante mortem uita sublimis crebris etiam miraculorum patebat indiciis, transactis sepulturae eius annis XI, inmisit in animo fratrum, ut tollerent ossa illius, quae more mortuorum consumto iam et in puluerem redacto corpore reliquo sicca inuenienda putabant; atque in nouo recondita loculo in eodem quidem loco, sed supra pauimentum dignae uenerationis gratia locarent. Quod dum sibi placuisse Eadbercto antistiti suo referrent, adnuit consilio eorum, iussitque, ut die depositionis eius hoc facere meminissent.’ Fecerunt autem ita, et aperientes sepulchrum, inuenerunt corpus totum, quasi adhuc uiueret, integrum et flexibilibus artuum conpagibus multo dormienti quam mortuo similius; sed et uestimenta omnia, quibus indutum erat, non solum intemerata, uerum etiam prisca nouitate et claritudine miranda parebant. Quod ubi uidere fratres, nimio mox timore perculsi, festinarunt referre antistiti, quae inuenerant.

[28] Yet wishing to demonstrate more broadly the divine dispensation, how greatly in glory the man of the Lord Cuthbert lived after death, whose sublime life before death was also laid open by frequent indications of miracles, when 11 years had passed since his burial, it put into the minds of the brethren to take up his bones, which, in the manner of the dead—since the rest of the body had by now been consumed and reduced to dust—they thought would be found dry; and to place them, laid away in a new coffin, in the same place indeed, but above the pavement for the sake of worthy veneration. And when they reported to their own bishop Eadbert that this had pleased them, he assented to their plan, and ordered that on the day of his deposition they should remember to do this.’ They did so, and opening the sepulcher, they found the whole body, as if he were still living, intact and with the joints of the limbs flexible, much more like one sleeping than dead; and all the garments, with which he was clothed, appeared not only inviolate, but even marvelous with an ancient newness and brightness. When the brethren saw this, immediately struck with excessive fear, they hastened to report to the bishop what they had found.

Qui tum forte in remotiore ab ecclesia loco refluis undique pelagi fluctibus cincto, solitarius manebat. In hoc etenim semper quadragesimae tempus agere, in hoc XL ante dominicum natale dies in magna continentiae, orationis, et lacrimarum deuotione transigere solebat; in quo etiam uenerabilis praedecessor eius Cudberct, priusquam insulam Farne peteret, aliquandiu secretus Domino militabat.

Who then by chance was abiding solitary in a place more remote from the church, encompassed on every side by the sea’s ebbing billows. For in this place he was always wont to pass the time of Lent; in this he used to spend the 40 days before the Lord’s Nativity in great devotion of continence, prayer, and tears; in which also his venerable predecessor Cuthbert, before he sought the island of Farne, for some time, withdrawn, did service as a soldier to the Lord.

A dtulerunt autem ei et partem indumentorum, quae corpus sanctum ambierant, quae cum ille et munera gratanter acciperet, et miracula libenter audiret, nam et ipsa indumenta quasi patris adhuc corpori circumdata miro deosculabatur affectu, ‘Noua,’ inquit, ‘indumenta corpori pro his, quae tulistis, circumdate, et sic reponite in arca, quam parastis. Scio autem certissime, quia non diu uacuus remanebit locus ille, qui tanta miraculi caelestis gratia sacratus est; et quam beatus est, cui in eo facultatem quiescendi Dominus totius beatitudinis auctor atque largitor praestare dignabitur.’ Haec et huiusmodi plura ubi multis cum lacrimis et magna conpunctione antistes lingua etiam tremente conpleuit, fecerunt fratres, ut iusserat; et inuolutum nouo amictu corpus, nouaque in theca reconditum, supra pauimentum sanctuarii posuerunt.

And they also brought to him a part of the garments which had encircled the holy body; and when he both gratefully received the gifts and gladly listened to the miracles—for he even kissed the garments themselves with wondrous affection, as if they were still wrapped around his father’s body—‘Clothe,’ he said, ‘the body with new garments in place of those which you have taken, and so replace it in the chest which you have prepared. But I know most certainly that the place which has been hallowed by so great a grace of a heavenly miracle will not remain empty for long; and how blessed is he to whom the Lord, the author and bestower of all beatitude, will deign to grant the faculty of resting therein.’ When the bishop had completed these things and many others of this kind with many tears and great compunction, his tongue even trembling, the brothers did as he had ordered; and the body, wrapped in a new mantle, and enshrined in a new casket, they placed upon the pavement of the sanctuary.

Nec mora, Deo dilectus antistes Eadberct morbo correptus est acerbo, ac per dies crescente, multumque ingrauescente ardore langoris, non multo post, id est pridie Nonas Maias, etiam ipse migrauit ad Dominum; cuius corpus in sepulchro benedicti patris Cudbercti ponentes, adposuerunt desuper arcam, in qua incorrupta eiusdem patris membra locauerant. In quo etiam loco signa sanitatum aliquoties facta meritis amborum testimonium ferunt, e quibus aliqua in libro uitae illius olim memoriae mandauimus. Sed et in hac historia quaedam, quae nos nuper audisse contigit, superadicere commodum duximus.

Nor was there delay: the God-beloved prelate Eadberct was seized by a bitter sickness, and as it increased through the days, and the burning of languor grew very grievous, not much after, that is, on the day before the Nones of May (May 6), he too migrated to the Lord; placing his body in the sepulchre of the blessed father Cuthbert, they set above it the ark in which they had laid the incorrupt limbs of that same father. In that place also, signs of healings wrought at times bear testimony to the merits of both, some of which we long ago consigned to memory in the book of his Life. But also in this history we have deemed it fitting to superadd certain things which it has lately befallen us to hear.

[29] ERAT in eodem monasterio frater quidam, nomine Badudegn, tempore non pauco hospitum ministerio deseruiens, qui nunc usque superest, testimonium habens ab uniuersis fratribus, cunctisque superuenientibus hospitibus, quod uir esset multae pietatis ac religionis, iniunctoque sibi officio supernae tantum mercedis gratia subditus. Hic cum quadam die lenas siue saga, quibus in hospitale utebatur, in mari lauasset, rediens domum, repentina medio itinere molestia tactus est, ita ut corruens in terram, et aliquandiu pronus iacens, uix tandem resurgeret. Resurgens autem sensit dimidiam corporis sui partem a capite usque ad pedes paralysis langore depressam, et maximo cum labore baculo innitens domum peruenit.

[29] There was in the same monastery a certain brother, by name Badudegn, serving for no small time in the ministry of guests, who even to this day survives, having testimony from all the brothers and from all the guests arriving, that he was a man of much piety and religion, and, to the duty enjoined upon him, subject solely for the sake of heavenly recompense. This man, when on a certain day he had washed laenas or sagas, which he used in the guesthouse, in the sea, and was returning home, was seized by a sudden distress in the midst of the way, so that, falling to the ground and lying face-down for some time, he at length scarcely rose again. Rising, however, he felt one half of his body, from head to feet, weighed down by the languor of paralysis, and with very great toil, leaning on a staff, he reached home.

Crescebat morbus paulatim, et nocte superueniente grauior effectus est, ita ut die redeunte uix ipse per se exsurgere aut incedere ualeret. Quo affectus incommodo, concepit utillimum mente consilium, ut ad ecclesiam, quoquo modo posset, perueniens, intraret ad tumbam reuerentissimi patris Cudbercti, ibique genibus flexis supplex supernam pietatem rogaret, ut uel ab huiuscemodi langore, si hoc sibi utile esset, liberaretur; uel, si se tali molestia diutius castigari diuina prouidente gratia oporteret, patienter dolorem ac placida mente sustineret inlatum. Fecit igitur, ut animo disposuerat, et inbecilles artus baculo sustentans intrauit ecclesiam; ac prosternens se ad corpus uiri Dei, pia intentione per eius auxilium Dominum sibi propitium fieri precabatur; atque inter preces uelut in soporem solutus, sentit, ut ipse postea referre erat solitus, quasi magnam latamque manum caput sibi in parte, qua dolebat, tetigisse, eodemque tactu totam illam, quae langore pressa fuerat, corporis sui partem, paulatim fugiente dolore, ac sanitate subsequente, ad pedes usque pertransisse.

The malady was increasing little by little, and with night supervening it became graver, so that with day returning he could scarcely of himself rise up or walk. Afflicted with this inconvenience, he conceived a most useful counsel in his mind: that, arriving at the church by whatever means he could, he should enter to the tomb of the most reverend father Cuthbert, and there, with knees bent, as a suppliant beseech the supernal piety, that either he might be freed from a languor of this kind, if this were useful for him; or, if by divine providence’s grace it were fitting that he be chastised longer by such a molestation, he might patiently and with a placid mind endure the pain inflicted. Therefore he did as he had disposed in mind, and sustaining his feeble limbs with a staff he entered the church; and, prostrating himself at the body of the man of God, with pious intention he prayed that through his aid the Lord might become propitious to him; and, amid the prayers, as if loosed into a slumber, he feels—as he was afterward wont to report—as though a great and broad hand had touched his head on the part where it pained him, and by that same touch that whole part of his body which had been pressed by languor, the pain gradually fleeing and health following, had passed through even to his feet.

Quo facto, mox euigilans sanissimus surrexit, ac pro sua sanitate Domino gratias denuo referens, quid erga se actum esset, fratribus indicauit; cunctisque congaudentibus, ad ministerium, quod sollicitus exhibere solebat, quasi flagello probante castigatior, rediit.

With this done, soon awakening he arose most sound; and, giving thanks anew to the Lord for his health, he indicated to the brothers what had been done toward him; and with all rejoicing together, he returned to the ministry which he was wont solicitously to render, the more chastened, as if by a proving scourge.

Sed et indumenta, quibus Deo dicatum corpus Cudbercti, uel uiuum antea, uel postea defunctum uestierant, etiam ipsa a gratia curandi non uacarunt, sicut in uolumine uitae et uirtutum eius quisque legerit, inueniet.

But also the garments with which they had clothed the body of Cuthbert dedicated to God, whether previously while living or afterwards deceased, were not without the grace of healing, as anyone who has read the volume of his life and virtues will find.

[30] NEC silentio praetereundum, quod ante triennium per reliquias eius factum, nuper mihi per ipsum, in quo factum est, fratrem innotuit. Est autem factum in monasterio, quod iuxta amnem Dacore constructum ab eo cognomen accepit, cui tunc uir religiosus Suidberct abbatis iure praefuit. Erat in eo quidam adulescens, cui tumor deformis palpebram oculi fedauerat; qui cum per dies crescens oculo interitum minaretur, curabant medici hunc adpositis pigmentorum fomentis emollire, nec ualebant.

[30] Nor must it be passed over in silence, what was done three years earlier through his relics, which has recently become known to me through the very brother upon whom it was wrought. Now it was done in the monastery which, constructed beside the river Dacre, took from him its cognomen; over which at that time the religious man Suidberct presided by the right of abbot. There was in it a certain adolescent, whose eyelid had been defiled by a misshapen swelling; which, increasing day by day and threatening the destruction of the eye, the physicians tried to soften by applying fomentations of ointments, and they were not able.

Quidam abscidendum esse docebant, alii hoc fieri metu maioris periculi uetabant. Cumque tempore non pauco frater praefatus tali incommodo laboraret, neque inminens oculo exitium humana manus curare ualeret, quin per dies augesceret, contigit eum subito diuinae pietatis gratia per sanctissimi patris Cudbercti reliquias sanari. Nam quando fratres sui corpus ipsius post multos sepulturae annos incorruptum reppererunt, tulerunt partem de capillis, quam more reliquiarum rogantibus amicis dare, uel ostendere in signum miraculi possent.

Some were teaching that it ought to be abscised, others forbade this to be done for fear of a greater danger. And when for no small time the aforesaid brother was laboring under such an incommodity, nor could a human hand cure the ruin impending over the eye, but rather day by day it was increasing, it befell that he was suddenly healed by the grace of divine piety through the relics of the most holy father Cuthbert. For when his brothers found his body incorrupt after many years of burial, they took a portion of the hair, which, according to the custom of relics, they might be able to give to friends who asked, or to show as a token of the miracle.

Harum particulam reliquiarum eo tempore habebat penes se quidam de presbyteris eiusdem monasterii nomine Thruidred, qui nunc ipsius monasterii abbas est. Qui cum die quadam ingressus ecclesiam, aperuisset thecam reliquiarum, ut portionem earum roganti amico praestaret, contigit et ipsum adulescentem, cui oculus languebat, in eadem tunc ecclesia adesse. Cumque presbyter portionem, quantam uoluit, amico dedisset, residuum dedit adulescenti, ut suo in loco reponeret.

At that time a certain one of the presbyters of the same monastery, by the name Thruidred, who now is abbot of that monastery, had in his possession a small portion of these relics. When on a certain day he had entered the church and opened the reliquary casket, to furnish a portion of them to a friend who asked, it befell that the adolescent himself, whose eye was ailing, was then present in that same church. And when the presbyter had given to the friend a portion, as much as he wished, he gave the residue to the adolescent, that he might replace it in its own place.

At ille salubri instinctu admonitus, cum accepisset capillos sancti capitis, adposuit palpebrae languenti, et aliquandiu tumorem illum infestum horum adpositione conprimere ac mollire curabat. Quo facto, reliquias, ut iussus erat, sua in theca recondidit, credens suum oculum capillis uiri Dei, quibus adtactus erat, ocius esse sanandum. Neque eum sua fides fefellit.

But he, admonished by a salubrious instinct, when he had received the hairs of the holy head, applied them to the languishing eyelid, and for some time took care to compress and soften that troublesome swelling by the application of these. This done, he laid the relics back in their own case, as he had been ordered, believing that his eye would be healed more swiftly by the hairs of the man of God, with which it had been touched. Nor did his faith deceive him.

Erat enim, ut referre est solitus, tunc hora circiter secunda diei. Sed cum alia, quaeque dies illa exigebat, cogitaret et faceret, inminente hora ipsius diei sexta, repente contingens oculum ita sanum cum palpebra inuenit, ac si nil umquam in eo deformitatis ac tumoris apparuisset.

For it was, as he was accustomed to relate, then about the second hour of the day. But while he was thinking and doing other things which that day required, with the sixth hour of that same day impending, suddenly, touching the eye, he found it, together with the eyelid, so sound as if no deformity or tumor/swelling had ever appeared in it.