Bede: HISTORIAM ECCLESIASTICAM GENTIS ANGLORUM

[1] SUCCESSIT autem uiro Domini Cudbercto in exercenda uita solitaria, quam in insula Farne ante episcopatus sui tempora gerebat, uir uenerabilis Oidiluald, qui multis annis in monasterio, quod dicitur Inhrypum, acceptum presbyteratus officium condignis gradu ipse consecrabat actibus. Cuius ut meritum, uel uita qualis fuerit, certius clarescat, unum eius narro miraculum, quod mihi unus e fratribus, propter quos et in quibus patratum est, ipse narrauit, uidelicet Gudfrid, uenerabilis Christi famulus et presbyter, qui etiam postea fratribus eiusdem ecclesiae Lindisfarnensis, in qua educatus est, abbatis iure praefuit.

[1] And to the man of the Lord Cuthbert there succeeded, in exercising the solitary life which he carried on in the island of Farne before the time of his episcopate, a venerable man, Oidilwald, who for many years in the monastery which is called Inhrypum himself was consecrating the office of the presbyterate which he had received by deeds condign to the rank. That his merit, or of what sort his life was, may shine forth more surely, I relate one of his miracles, which one of the brothers, for whose sake and among whom it was wrought, told me himself—namely Gudfrid, a venerable servant of Christ and presbyter—who also afterwards presided by the right of abbot over the brothers of that same church of Lindisfarne, in which he was brought up.

‘Ueni,’ inquit, ‘cum duobus fratribus aliis ad insulam Farne, loqui desiderans cum reuerentissimo patre Oidilualdo; cumque allocutione eius refecti, et benedictione petita domum rediremus, ecce subito, positis nobis in medio mari, interrupta est serenitas, qua uehebamur, et tanta ingruit tamque fera tempestatis hiems, ut neque uelo neque remigio quicquam proficere, neque aliud quam mortem sperare ualeremus. Cumque diu multum cum uento pelagoque frustra certantes, tandem post terga respiceremus, si forte uel ipsam, de qua egressi eramus, insulam aliquo conamine repetere possemus, inuenimus nos undiqueuersum pari tempestate praeclusos, nullamque spem nobis in nobis restare salutis Ubi autem longius uisum leuauimus, uidimus in ipsa insula Farne egressum de latibulis suis amantissimum Deo patrem Oidilualdum iter nostrum inspicere. Audito etenim fragore procellarum ac feruentis oceani exierat uidere, quid nobis accideret; cumque nos in labore ac desperatione positos cerneret, flectebat genua sua ad patrem Domini nostri Iesu Christi pro nostra uita et salute precaturus.

‘I came,’ he says, ‘with two other brothers to the island of Farne, desiring to speak with the most reverend father Oidiluald; and when, refreshed by his allocution, and his blessing having been sought, we were returning home, behold suddenly, with us set in the midst of the sea, the serenity in which we were being conveyed was interrupted, and so great and so fierce a winter-storm of tempest rushed in, that neither by sail nor by rowing were we able to make any progress, nor to hope for anything other than death. And when for a long time and much we were contending in vain with the wind and the sea, at last we looked back behind, to see whether perhaps we could by some effort make again even the very island from which we had set out, we found ourselves on every side shut in by an equal tempest, and that no hope of safety remained for us in ourselves. But when we lifted our sight farther, we saw on that very island of Farne the father Oidiluald, most devoted to God, gone forth from his retreats to inspect our course. For, the crash of the gales and of the seething ocean having been heard, he had come out to see what was befalling us; and when he perceived us set in toil and desperation, he was bending his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to pray for our life and salvation.

Et cum orationem conpleret, simul tumida aequora placauit; adeo ut, cessante per omnia saeuitia tempestatis, secundi nos uenti ad terram usque per plana maris terga comitarentur. Cumque euadentes ad terram, nauiculam quoque nostram ab undis exportaremus, mox eadem, quae nostri gratia modicum siluerat, tempestas rediit, et toto illo die multum furere non cessauit; ut palam daretur intellegi, quia modica illa, quae prouenerat, intercapedo quietis, ad uiri Dei preces nostrae euasionis gratia caelitus donata est.’

And when he completed the prayer, at once he placated the swelling waters; to such a degree that, the savagery of the tempest ceasing in all things, favorable winds escorted us to land along the level backs of the sea. And when, having made it to land, we also hauled our little boat up out of the waves, forthwith that same tempest, which for our sake had been somewhat silent, returned, and through that whole day did not cease to rage greatly; so that it was made plain to be understood that that small interval of quiet which had arisen had been granted from heaven, for the sake of our escape, by the prayers of the man of God.'

Mansit autem idem uir Dei in insula Farne XII annis, ibidemque defunctus; sed in insula Lindisfarnensi iuxta praefatorum corpora episcoporum in ecclesia beati apostoli Petri sepultus est. Gesta uero sunt haec temporibus Aldfridi regis, qui post fratrem suum Ecgfridum genti Nordanhymbrorum X et VIIII annis praefuit.

But the same man of God remained on the island of Farne for 12 years, and there he died; but on the island of Lindisfarne, next to the bodies of the aforementioned bishops, in the church of the blessed apostle Peter, he was buried. Now these things were done in the times of King Aldfrid, who, after his brother Ecgfrith, presided over the nation of the Northumbrians for 19 years.

[2] CUIUS regni principio defuncto Eata episcopo, Iohannes uir sanctus Hagustaldensis ecclesiae praesulatum suscepit; de quo plura uirtutum miracula, qui eum familiariter nouerunt, dicere solent, et maxime uir reuerentissimus ac ueracissimus Bercthun, diaconus quondam eius, nunc autem abbas monasterii, quod uocatur Inderauuda, id est In silua Derorum; e quibus aliqua memoriae tradere commodum duximus.

[2] At the beginning of whose reign, Bishop Eata having died, John, a holy man, undertook the prelacy of the church of Hagustald (Hexham); about him those who knew him intimately are wont to tell many miracles of divine power, and especially a most reverend and most veracious man, Bercthun, formerly his deacon, but now abbot of the monastery which is called Inderauuda, that is, In the Wood of the Deirans; of which some things we have judged it fitting to hand down to memory.

Est mansio quaedam secretior, nemore raro et uallo circumdata, non longe ab Hagustaldensi ecclesia, id est unius ferme miliarii et dimidii spatio interfluente Tino amne separata, habens clymeterium sancti Michahelis archangeli, in qua uir Dei saepius, ubi oportunitas adridebat temporis, et maxime in quadragesima, manere cum paucis, atque orationibus ac lectioni quietus operam dare consueuerat. Cumque tempore quodam, incipiente quadragesima, ibidem mansurus adueniret, iussit suis quaerere pauperem aliquem maiore infirmitate uel inopia grauatum, quem secum habere illis diebus ad faciendam elimosynam possent; sic enim semper facere solebat.

There is a certain more secluded lodging, surrounded by a sparse grove and a rampart, not far from the Hagustaldensian church, that is, separated by the river Tyne flowing between at a distance of about one mile and a half, having a cemetery of Saint Michael the Archangel, in which the man of God very often, whenever the opportunity of time smiled, and especially in Lent, was accustomed to remain with a few and quietly to devote himself to prayers and to reading. And when at a certain time, Lent beginning, he arrived there to stay, he ordered his men to seek some poor man burdened with greater infirmity or want, whom they might have with him in those days for the making of alms; for thus he was always accustomed to do.

Erat autem in uilla non longe posita quidam adulescens mutus, episcopo notus, nam saepius ante illum percipiendae elimosynae gratia uenire consueuerat, qui ne unum quidem sermonem umquam profari poterat; sed et scabiem tantam ac furfures habebat in capite, ut nil umquam capillorum ei in superiore parte capitis nasci ualeret, tantum in circuitu horridi crines stare uidebantur. Hunc ergo adduci praecipit episcopus, et ei in conseptis eiusdem mansionis paruum tugurium fieri, in quo manens cotidianam ab eis stipem acciperet. Cumque una quadragesimae esset impleta septimana, sequente dominica iussit ad se intrare pauperem, ingresso linguam proferre ex ore, ac sibi ostendere iussit; et adprehendens eum de mento, signum sanctae crucis linguae eius inpressit, quam signatam reuocare in os, et loqui illum praecepit: ‘Dicito,’ inquiens, ‘aliquod uerbum, dicito gae,’ quod est lingua Anglorum uerbum adfirmandi et consentiendi, id est, etiam.

Now there was in a villa set not far away a certain mute adolescent, known to the bishop—for he had often before been accustomed to come to him for the sake of receiving alms—who could not utter even a single word; and he had such scab and scurf on his head that no hairs at all could ever grow for him on the upper part of the head; only around the circumference shaggy hairs were seen to stand. The bishop therefore ordered that this man be brought, and that in the enclosures of the same mansion a small hut be made for him, in which, remaining, he might receive from them a daily dole. And when one week of Lent had been completed, with the following Sunday he ordered the poor man to enter to him; when he had entered, he ordered him to bring forth his tongue from his mouth and show it to him; and taking him by the chin, he impressed the sign of the holy cross upon his tongue, and ordered him, once it was signed, to draw it back into his mouth and to speak: ‘Say,’ he said, ‘some word; say gae,’ which in the tongue of the English is a word of affirming and consenting, that is, yea.

Dixit ille statim, soluto uinculo linguae, quod iussus erat. Addidit episcopus nomina litterarum: ‘Dicito A’; dixit ille A. ‘Dicito B’; dixit ille et hoc. Cumque singula litterarum nomina dicente episcopo responderet, addidit et syllabas ac uerba dicenda illi proponere.

He at once said what he was ordered, the bond of his tongue being loosed. The bishop added the names of the letters: ‘Say A’; he said A. ‘Say B’; he said this too. And when he was answering each of the names of the letters as the bishop said them, he also added to propose to him syllables and words to be spoken.

Et cum in omnibus consequenter responderet, praecepit eum sententias longiores dicere, et fecit; neque ultra cessauit tota die illa et nocte sequente, quantum uigilare potuit, ut ferunt, qui praesentes fuere, loqui aliquid, et arcana suae cogitationis ac uoluntatis, quod numquam antea potuit, aliis ostendere; in similitudinem illius diu claudi, qui curatus ab apostolis Petro et Iohanne, exiliens stetit, et ambulabat; et intrauit cum illis in templum, ambulans, et exiliens, et laudans Dominum; gaudens nimirum uti officio pedum, quo tanto erat tempore destitutus. Cuius sanitati congaudens episcopus praecepit medico etiam sanandae scabredini capitis eius curam adhibere.

And since he was responding consistently in all things, he ordered him to say longer sentences, and he did; nor did he thereafter cease that whole day and the following night, as much as he was able to keep awake, as those who were present relate, to speak something and to disclose to others the secrets of his thought and will, which he had never before been able to do; in the likeness of that man long lame, who, cured by the apostles Peter and John, leaping up stood, and was walking; and he entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising the Lord; rejoicing, to be sure, to use the office of his feet, of which he had been deprived for so long a time. Rejoicing in his health, the bishop ordered the physician also to apply care for healing the scabrousness of his head.

Fecit, ut iusserat, et iuuante benedictione ac precibus antistitis, nata est cum sanitate cutis uenusta species capillorum, factusque est iuuenis limpidus uultu et loquella promtus, capillis pulcherrime crispis, qui ante fuerat deformis, pauper, et mutus. Sicque de percepta laetatus sospitate, offerente etiam ei episcopo, ut in sua familia manendi locum acciperet, magis domum reuersus est.

He did as he had ordered, and, the benediction and the prayers of the bishop helping, along with the healing of the skin there arose a comely appearance of hair; and the young man became clear in countenance and prompt in speech, with hair most beautifully crisped, who before had been deformed, poor, and mute. And thus, rejoicing at the soundness received, the bishop also offering to him that he might receive a place to remain in his household, he rather returned home.

[3] NARRAUIT idem Bercthun et aliud de praefato antistite miraculum: quia cum reuerentissimus uir Uilfrid post longum exilium in episcopatum esset Hagustaldensis ecclesiae receptus, et idem Iohannes, defuncto Bosa uiro multae sanctitatis et humilitatis, episcopus pro eo Eboraci substitutus, uenerit ipse tempore quodam ad monasterium uirginum in loco, qui uocatur Uetadun, cui tunc Heriburg abbatissa praefuit. ‘Ubi cum uenissemus,’ inquit, ‘et magno uniuersorum gaudio suscepti essemus, indicauit nobis abbatissa, quia quaedam de numero uirginum, quae erat filia ipsius carnalis, grauissimo langore teneretur; quia flebotomata est nuper in brachio, et cum esset in studio, tacta est infirmitate repentini doloris, quo mox increscente, magis grauatum est brachium illud uulneratum, ac uersum in tumorem adeo, ut uix duabus manibus circumplecti posset, ipsaque iacens in lecto prae nimietate doloris iam moritura uideretur. Rogauit ergo episcopum abbatissa, ut intrare ad eam, ac benedicere illam dignaretur, quia crederet eam ad benedictionem uel tactum illius mox melius habituram.

[3] The same Bercthun related also another miracle of the aforesaid bishop: that when the most reverend man Wilfrid, after a long exile, had been received back into the episcopate of the Hagustaldensian church, and the same John, Bosa—a man of much sanctity and humility—having died, was substituted as bishop in his place at York, he himself at a certain time came to the monastery of virgins in the place which is called Vetadun, over which at that time the abbess Heriburg presided. ‘When we had come there,’ he says, ‘and had been received with great joy by all, the abbess indicated to us that a certain one of the number of the virgins, who was her daughter according to the flesh, was held by a most grievous languor; for she was recently phlebotomized in the arm, and when she was at study, she was touched by the infirmity of sudden pain, which, quickly increasing, made that wounded arm the more aggravated, and turned into such a swelling that it could scarcely be encompassed by two hands, and she herself, lying in bed, by the excess of pain now seemed about to die. Therefore the abbess asked the bishop to deign to go in to her and to bless her, because she believed that at his blessing or touch she would at once be better.’

Interrogans autem ille, quando flebotomata esset puella, et ut cognouit, quia in luna quarta, dixit: ‘Multum insipienter et indocte fecistis in luna IIII flebotomando. Memini enim beatae memoriae Theodorum archiepiscopum dicere, quia periculosa sit satis illius temporis flebotomia, quando et lumen lunae, et reuma oceani in cremento est. Et quid ego possum puellae, si moritura est, facere?’ At illa instantius obsecrans pro filia, quam oppido diligebat, nam et abbatissam eam pro se facere disposuerat, tandem obtinuit, ut ad languentem intraret.

But he, inquiring when the girl had been phlebotomized, and when he learned that it was on the 4th day of the moon, said: ‘You have done very insipiently and unlearnedly in phlebotomizing in the 4th moon. For I remember Theodore the archbishop of blessed memory to say that the phlebotomy of that time is quite dangerous, when both the light of the moon and the rheum of the ocean are in increase. And what can I do for the girl, if she is going to die?’ But she, more urgently beseeching on behalf of her daughter, whom she loved exceedingly—for she had even determined to make her abbess in her stead—at length obtained that he should enter to the languishing one.

Intrauit ergo me secum adsumto ad uirginem, quae iacebat multo, ut dixi, dolore constricta, et brachio in tantum grossescente, ut nihil prorsus in cubito flexionis haberet; et adstans dixit orationem super illam, ac benedicens egressus est. Cumque post haec hora conpetente consideremus ad mensam, adueniens quidam clamauit me foras, et ait: ‘Postulat Quoenburg’ (hoc enim erat nomen uirginis), ‘ut ocius regrediaris ad eam.’ Quod dum facerem, repperi illam ingrediens uultu hilariorem, et uelut sospiti similem. Et dum adsiderem illi, dixit: ‘Uis petamus bibere?’ At ego: ‘Uolo,’ inquam, ‘et multum delector, si potes.’ Cumque oblato poculo biberemus ambo, coepit mihi dicere, quia ‘ex quo episcopus oratione pro me et benedictione conpleta egressus est, statim melius habere incipio; etsi necdum uires pristinas recepi, dolor tamen omnis et de brachio, ubi ardentior inerat, et de toto meo corpore, uelut ipso episcopo foras eum exportante, funditus ablatus est, tametsi tumor adhuc brachii manere uidetur.’ Abeuntibus autem nobis inde, continuo fugatum dolorem membrorum fuga quoque tumoris horrendi secuta est; et erepta morti ac doloribus uirgo, laudes Domino Saluatori una cum ceteris, qui ibi erant, seruis illius referebat.’

Therefore he entered, taking me with him, to the virgin, who was lying, as I said, constricted by much pain, and with the arm swelling to such an extent that she had no flexion at the elbow at all; and standing by, he said an oration over her, and, giving a benediction, went out. And when after these things, at a fitting hour, we sat down to table, someone came and called me outside, and said: ‘Quoenburg’ (for this was the virgin’s name), ‘asks that you return to her quickly.’ As I did this, on entering I found her with a more cheerful countenance, and as it were like one sound. And as I sat beside her, she said: ‘Do you wish that we ask for a drink?’ But I: ‘I do,’ I said, ‘and I am much delighted, if you can.’ And when, the cup having been brought, we both drank, she began to say to me that ‘from the moment the bishop, his oration for me and his benediction completed, went out, at once I begin to be better; and although I have not yet recovered my former strength, yet all pain both from the arm, where it had been more burning, and from my whole body, as though the bishop himself were carrying it out, has been utterly removed, although the swelling of the arm still seems to remain.’ But as we went away from there, immediately the flight of the dreadful swelling followed upon the banishment of the pain of her limbs; and the virgin, snatched from death and pains, was rendering praises to the Lord Savior together with the other servants of his who were there.’

[4] ALIUD quoque non multum huic dissimile miraculum de praefato antistite narrauit idem abbas, dicens: ‘Uilla erat comitis cuiusdam, qui uocabatur Puch, non longe a monasterio nostro, id est duum ferme milium spatio separata; cuius coniux XL ferme diebus erat acerbissimo langore detenta, ita ut tribus septimanis non posset de cubiculo, in quo iacebat, foras efferri. Contigit autem eo tempore uirum Dei illo ad dedicandam ecclesiam ab eodem comite uocari. Cumque dedicata esset ecclesia, rogauit comes eum ad prandendum in domum suam ingredi.

[4] ANOTHER miracle also not much unlike this concerning the aforesaid bishop was related by the same abbot, saying: ‘There was a villa of a certain count, who was called Puch, not far from our monastery, that is, separated by a space of about two miles; whose wife was detained for almost 40 days by a most bitter languor, so that for three weeks she could not be carried out of the little chamber in which she lay. It befell moreover at that time that the man of God was called there by the same count to dedicate a church. And when the church had been dedicated, the count asked him to enter into his house to take luncheon.’

Rennuit episcopus dicens se ad monasterium, quod proxime erat, debere reuerti. At ille obnixius precibus instans, uouit etiam se elimosynas pauperibus daturum, dummodo ille dignaretur eo die domum suam ingrediens ieiunium soluere. Rogaui et ego una cum illo, promittens etiam me elimosynas in alimoniam inopum dare, dum ille domum comitis pransurus, ac benedictionem daturus intraret.

The bishop refused, saying that he must return to the monastery which was nearby. But he, pressing more strenuously with prayers, even vowed that he would give alms to the poor, provided that he would deign, by entering his house that day, to break the fast. I too entreated along with him, promising likewise that I would give alms for the sustenance of the needy, provided that he would enter the count’s house to take the midday meal and to give a blessing.

Cumque hoc tarde ac difficulter inpetraremus, intrauimus ad reficiendum. Miserat autem episcopus mulieri, quae infirma iacebat, de aqua benedicta, quam in dedicationem ecclesiae consecrauerat, per unum de his, qui mecum uenerant, fratribus; praecipiens, ut gustandam illi daret, et, ubicumque maximum ei dolorem inesse didicisset, de ipsa eam aqua lauaret. Quod ut factum est, surrexit statim mulier sana, et non solum se infirmitate longa carere, sed et perditas dudum uires recepisse sentiens, obtulit poculum episcopo ac nobis; coeptumque ministerium nobis omnibus propinandi usque ad prandium conpletum non omisit; imitata socrum beati Petri, quae cum febrium fuisset ardoribus fatigata, ad tactum manus dominicae surrexit, et sanitate simul ac uirtute recepta ministrabat eis.’

And when at length and with difficulty we obtained this, we entered for refection. Moreover, the bishop had sent to the woman who lay infirm some blessed water, which he had consecrated at the dedication of the church, by one of the brothers who had come with me; instructing that he should give it to her to taste, and that, wherever he learned the greatest pain was present in her, he should wash her with that very water. As this was done, the woman at once rose up sound, and, perceiving not only that she was free from her long infirmity but also that she had recovered the strength long lost, she offered a cup to the bishop and to us; nor did she omit the ministry, once begun, of proffering drink to us all until the luncheon was completed; imitating the mother-in-law of blessed Peter, who, when she had been wearied by the burnings of fevers, at the touch of the Lord’s hand rose up, and, health and strength received together, was ministering to them.

[5] ALIO item tempore uocatus ad dedicandam ecclesiam comitis uocabulo Addi, cum postulatum conplesset ministerium, rogatus est ab eodem comite intrare ad unum de pueris eius, qui acerrima egritudine premebatur, ita ut, deficiente penitus omni membrorum officio, iamiamque moriturus esse uideretur; cui etiam loculus iam tunc erat praeparatus, in quo defunctus condi deberet. Addidit autem uir etiam lacrimas precibus, diligenter obsecrans, ut intraret oraturus pro illo, quia multum necessaria sibi esset uita ipsius; crederet uero, quia, si ille ei manum inponere, atque eum benedicere uoluisset, statim melius haberet. Intrauit ergo illo episcopus, et uidit eum mestis omnibus iam morti proximum, positumque loculum iuxta eum, in quo sepeliendus poni deberet; dixitque orationem, ac benedixit eum, et egrediens dixit solito consolantium sermone: ‘Bene conualescas, et cito.’ Cumque post haec sederent ad mensam, misit puer ad dominum suum, rogans sibi poculum uini mittere, quia sitiret.

[5] At another time likewise, called to dedicate the church of a count by the name Addi, when he had completed the requested ministry, he was asked by that same count to enter to one of his boys, who was pressed by a very acute sickness, to such a degree that, with the function of all his limbs entirely failing, he seemed now at any moment about to die; for whom a coffin had even already then been prepared, in which the deceased ought to be laid. Moreover, the man added tears as well to his prayers, earnestly beseeching that he would enter to pray for him, because the life of that one was very necessary to him; and he believed, indeed, that, if he were willing to lay his hand upon him and bless him, he would at once be better. The bishop therefore entered there, and saw him, with everyone sad, already near to death, and a coffin set beside him, in which the one to be buried ought to be placed; and he said a prayer, and blessed him, and, going out, said with the customary speech of consolers: ‘May you get well, and quickly.’ And when after these things they were sitting at table, the boy sent to his master, asking that a cup of wine be sent to him, because he was thirsty.

Gauisus ille multum, quia bibere posset, misit ei calicem uini benedictum ab episcopo; quem ut bibit, surrexit continuo, et ueterno infirmitatis discusso, induit se ipse uestimentis suis; et egressus inde intrauit, ac salutauit episcopum et conuiuas, dicens, quia ipse quoque delectaretur manducare et bibere cum eis. Iusserunt eum sedere secum ad epulas, multum gaudentes de sospitate illius. Residebat, uescebatur, bibebat, laetabatur, quasi unus e conuiuis agebat; et multis post haec annis uiuens, in eadem, quam acceperat, salute permansit.

He rejoiced greatly, because he was able to drink, and sent to him a chalice of wine blessed by the bishop; which, when he drank it, he rose immediately, and, the torpor of his illness shaken off, he himself put on his own garments; and going out from there he entered and greeted the bishop and the dinner guests, saying that he too took delight to eat and drink with them. They bade him sit with them at the banquet, rejoicing greatly at his health. He sat down, ate, drank, rejoiced, and conducted himself as though one of the dinner guests; and living many years after these things, he remained in the same health which he had received.

Hoc autem miraculum memoratus abbas non se praesente factum, sed ab his, qui praesentes fuere, sibi perhibet esse relatum.

This miracle, however, the aforementioned abbot avers was not done with himself present, but that it was related to him by those who were present.

[6] NEQUE hoc praetereundum silentio, quod famulus Christi Heribald in se ipso ab eo factum solet narrare miraculum, qui tunc quidem in clero illius conuersatus, nunc monasterio, quod est iuxta ostium Tini fluminis, abbatis iure praeest. ‘Uitam,’ inquit, ‘illius, quantum hominibus aestimare fas est, quod praesens optime cognoui, per omnia episcopo dignam esse conperi. Sed et cuius meriti apud internum testem habitus sit, et in multis aliis, et in me ipso maxime expertus sum; quippe quem ab ipso, ut ita dicam, mortis limite reuocans, ad uiam uitae sua oratione ac benedictione reduxit.

[6] Nor must this be passed over in silence, that the servant of Christ Heribald is wont to relate a miracle done by him upon himself—who then indeed had lived among his clergy, but now, over the monastery which is next the mouth of the river Tyne, presides with abbatial right. ‘The life,’ he says, ‘of that man—as far as it is lawful for men to estimate—which I, being present, came to know full well, I found in all respects to be worthy of a bishop. And also of what merit he has been held before the internal witness, I have proved both in many others and most of all in myself; inasmuch as he, recalling me, so to speak, from the boundary of death, by his prayer and benediction led me back to the way of life.’

Nam cum primaeuo adulescentiae tempore in clero illius degerem, legendi quidem canendique studiis traditus, sed non adhuc animum perfecte a iuuenilibus cohibens inlecebris, contigit die quadam nos iter agentes cum illo deuenisse in uiam planam et amplam, aptamque cursui equorum; coeperuntque iuuenes, qui cum ipso erant, maxime laici, postulare episcopum, ut cursu maiore equos suos inuicem probare liceret. At ille primo negauit, otiosum dicens esse, quod desiderabant; sed ad ultimum multorum unanima intentione deuictus: “Facite,” inquit, “si uultis, ita tamen, ut Herebald ab illo se certamine funditus abstineat.” Porro ipse diligentius obsecrans, ut et mihi certandi cum illis copia daretur, (fidebam namque equo, quem mihi ipse optimum donauerat), nequaquam inpetrare potui.

For when, in the time of my earliest adolescence, I was living in his clergy, given over indeed to the studies of reading and singing, but not yet perfectly restraining my spirit from youthful allurements, it befell on a certain day, as we were making a journey with him, that we came upon a level and broad road, fit for the running of horses; and the youths who were with him—especially the laymen—began to request the bishop that it be permitted to test their horses against one another at greater speed. But he at first refused, saying that what they desired was idle; yet at last, overcome by the unanimous intention of many, he said: “Do it, if you wish, provided, however, that Herebald entirely abstain from that contest.” Furthermore, I myself, more earnestly beseeching that permission also be given to me to compete with them (for I trusted in the horse which he himself had given me as the best), by no means was I able to obtain it.

‘At cum saepius huc atque illuc, spectante me et episcopo, concitatis in cursum equis reuerterentur; et ipse lasciuo superatus animo non me potui cohibere, sed, prohibente licet illo, ludentibus me miscui, et simul cursu equi contendere coepi. Quod dum agerem, audiui illum post tergum mihi cum gemitu dicentem: “O quam magnum uae facis mihi sic equitando!” Et ego audiens, nihilominus coeptis institi uetitis. Nec mora, dum feruens equus quoddam itineris concauum ualentiore impetu transiliret, lapsus decidi, et mox uelut emoriens sensum penitus motumque omnem perdidi.

‘But when, more and more often, hither and thither, with the horses urged into a run, they kept returning, with me and the bishop looking on; I too, overcome by a lascivious/frolicsome spirit, could not restrain myself, but, although he forbade it, I mingled myself with those playing, and at the same time began to contend at a horse’s run. While I was doing this, I heard him behind my back saying with a groan: “O how great a woe you make for me by riding thus!” And I, hearing, nonetheless pressed on with my forbidden undertakings. No delay: while the hot-blooded horse was leaping with a stronger impetus over a certain concave of the road, I slipped and fell, and soon, as if dying, I utterly lost sense and all motion.

Erat namque illo in loco lapis terrae aequalis obtectus cespite tenui, neque ullus alter in tota illa campi planitie lapis inueniri poterat; casuque euenit, uel potius diuina prouisione ad puniendam inoboedientiae meae culpam, ut hunc capite ac manu, quam capiti ruens subposueram, tangerem, atque infracto pollice capitis quoque iunctura solueretur; et ego, ut dixi, simillimus mortuo fierem. Et quia moueri non poteram, tetenderunt ibidem papilionem, in quo iacerem. Erat autem hora diei circiter septima, a qua ad uesperam usque quietus et quasi mortuus permanens, tunc paululum reuiuisco, ferorque domum a sociis, ac tacitus tota nocte perduro.

For in that place there was a stone, even with the earth, covered with a thin turf, nor could any other stone be found in that whole plain of the field; and it happened by chance, or rather by divine providence to punish the fault of my disobedience, that I touched this one with my head and with the hand which, as I was falling, I had put under my head, and, my thumb broken, the juncture of the head as well was loosened; and I, as I said, became most like to a dead man. And because I could not be moved, they stretched a pavilion there on the spot, in which I might lie. Now it was about the 7th hour of the day, from which until evening, remaining quiet and as if dead, then I revive a little, and I am borne home by my companions, and I remain silent the whole night.

Uomebam autem sanguinem, eo quod et interanea essent ruendo conuulsa. At episcopus grauissime de casu et interitu meo dolebat, eo quod me speciali diligeret affectu; nec uoluit nocte illa iuxta morem cum clericis suis manere, uerum solus in oratione persistens noctem ducebat peruigilem, pro mea, ut reor, sospitate supernae pietati supplicans. Et mane primo ingressus ad me, ac dicta super me oratione, uocauit me nomine meo, et quasi de somno graui excitatum interrogauit, si nossem, quis esset, qui loqueretur ad me. At ego aperiens oculos aio: “Etiam; tu es antistes meus amatus.” “Potes,” inquit, “uiuere?” Et ego: “Possum,” inquam, “per orationes uestras, si uoluerit Dominus.”

I was vomiting blood, because even the entrails had been convulsed by the fall. But the bishop was grieving most grievously over my fall and my destruction, because he loved me with a special affection; nor did he wish that night, according to custom, to remain with his clerics, but alone, persisting in prayer, he passed a pervigile night, supplicating heavenly piety, as I think, for my safety. And at first light he came in to me, and, with an oration said over me, he called me by my name, and, as though roused from a heavy sleep, asked whether I knew who it was that was speaking to me. But I, opening my eyes, say: “Yes; you are my beloved prelate.” “Can you live?” he says. And I: “I can,” I say, “by your prayers, if the Lord wills.”

‘Qui inponens capiti meo manum, cum uerbis benedictionis, rediit ad orandum; et post pusillum me reuisens, inuenit sedentem, et iam loqui ualentem; coepitque me interrogare, diuino, ut mox patuit, admonitus instinctu, an me esse baptizatum absque scrupulo nossem. Cui ego absque ulla me hoc dubietate scire respondi, quia salutari fonte in remissionem peccatorum essem ablutus; et nomen presbyteri, a quo me baptizatum noueram, dixi. At ille: “Si ab hoc,” inquit, “sacerdote baptizatus es, non es perfecte baptizatus; noui namque eum, et quia cum esset presbyter ordinatus, nullatenus propter ingenii tarditatem potuit cathecizandi uel baptizandi ministerium discere, propter quod et ipse illum ab huius praesumtione ministerii, quod regulariter inplere nequibat, omnimodis cessare praecepi.” Quibus dictis eadem hora me cathecizare ipse curauit; factumque est, ut, exsufflante illo in faciem meam, confestim me melius habere sentirem.

‘Who, laying his hand upon my head, with words of benediction, returned to pray; and after a little while revisiting me, he found me sitting, and now able to speak; and he began to question me, admonished, as soon appeared, by a divine instinct, whether I knew without scruple that I had been baptized. To whom I replied that I knew this without any doubt, because I had been washed in the saving font for the remission of sins; and I said the name of the presbyter by whom I knew that I had been baptized. But he: “If by this,” he says, “priest you have been baptized, you are not perfectly baptized; for I know him, and when he had been ordained presbyter, by no means, on account of tardity of intellect, was he able to learn the ministry of catechizing or baptizing, on account of which I myself by all means commanded him to cease from the presumption of this ministry, which he could not regularly fulfill.” With these things said, at that same hour he himself took care to catechize me; and it came to pass that, as he exsufflated upon my face, straightway I felt myself to be better.

Uocauit autem medicum, et dissolutam mihi emicranii iuncturam conponere atque alligare iussit. Tantumque mox accepta eius benedictione conualui, ut in crastinum ascendens equum cum ipso iter in alium locum facerem; nec multo post plene curatus uitali etiam unda perfusus sum.’

He called, moreover, a physician, and ordered the loosened joint of my hemicranium to be set and bandaged. And so much did I at once recover upon receiving his blessing, that on the morrow, mounting a horse, I made a journey with him to another place; and not long after, fully cured, I was also bathed with the vital wave.’

Mansit autem in episcopatu annis XXXIII, et sic caelestia regna conscendens, sepultus est in porticu sancti Petri in monasterio suo, quod dicitur In silua Derorum, anno ab incarnatione dominica DCCo XXIo. Nam cum prae maiore senectute minus episcopatui administrando sufficeret, ordinato in episcopatum Eboracensis ecclesiae Uilfrido presbytero suo, secessit ad monasterium praefatum, ibique uitam in Deo digna conuersatione conpleuit.

He remained, moreover, in the episcopate for 33 years, and thus, ascending the celestial kingdoms, he was buried in the portico of Saint Peter in his monastery, which is called In the Wood of the Deiri, in the year from the Lord’s Incarnation 721. For when, by reason of very great old age, he was less sufficient for administering the episcopate, with his presbyter Wilfrid ordained to the episcopate of the church of York, he withdrew to the aforesaid monastery, and there completed his life in God with a worthy manner of life.

[7] ANNO autem regni Aldfridi tertio, Caedualla, rex Occidentalium Saxonum, cum genti suae duobus annis strenuissime praeesset, relicto imperio propter Dominum regnumque perpetuum, uenit Romam; hoc sibi gloriae singularis desiderans adipisci, ut ad limina beatorum apostolorum fonte baptismatis ablueretur, in quo solo didicerat generi humano patere uitae caelestis introitum; simul etiam sperans, quia mox baptizatus, carne solutus ad aeterna gaudia iam mundus transiret; quod utrumque, ut mente disposuerat, Domino iuuante conpletum est. Etenim illo perueniens, pontificatum agente Sergio, baptizatus est die sancto sabbati paschalis anno ab incarnatione Domini DCLXXXVIIII; et in albis adhuc positus, langore correptus, XIIo. Kalendarum Maiarum die solutus a carne, et beatorum est regno sociatus in caelis.

[7] Now, in the third year of the reign of Aldfrid, Caedualla, king of the West Saxons, when he had most vigorously presided over his people for two years, leaving his rule for the sake of the Lord and the perpetual kingdom, came to Rome; desiring to obtain for himself this matter of singular glory, that at the thresholds of the blessed apostles he might be washed in the font of baptism, in which alone he had learned that the entrance of heavenly life lay open to the human race; at the same time also hoping that, once baptized, released from the flesh, he, now cleansed, would pass over to eternal joys; both of which, as he had arranged in his mind, were completed with the Lord helping. For indeed, arriving there, with Sergius administering the pontificate, he was baptized on the holy day of the Paschal Sabbath in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 689; and, still in his baptismal whites, seized by illness, on the 12th day before the Kalends of May he was released from the flesh, and was associated with the kingdom of the blessed in the heavens.

Cui etiam tempore baptismatis papa memoratus Petri nomen inposuerat, ut beatissimo apostolorum principi, ad cuius sacratissimum corpus a finibus terrae pio ductus amore uenerat, etiam nominis ipsius consortio iungeretur; qui in eius quoque ecclesia sepultus est; et iubente pontifice epitaphium in eius monumento scriptum, in quo et memoria deuotionis ipsius fixa per saecula maneret, et legentes quoque uel audientes exemplum facti ad studium religionis accenderet. Scriptum est ergo hoc modo:

To whom also, at the time of baptism, the aforesaid pope had given the name Peter, so that to the most blessed prince of the apostles, to whose most sacred body he had come from the ends of the earth, led by pious love, he might be joined even by fellowship of the very name; he too was buried in his church; and, by order of the pontiff, an epitaph was written upon his monument, in which both the memory of his devotion might remain fixed through the ages, and those reading or even hearing might be enkindled to the zeal of religion by the example of the deed. It was written, therefore, in this way:

Culmen, opes, subolem, pollentia regna, triumphos, Exuuias, proceres, moenia, castra, lares;
Quaeque patrum uirtus, et quae congesserat ipse Caedual armipotens, liquit amore Dei;
Ut Petrum, sedemque Petri rex cerneret hospes, Cuius fonte meras sumeret almus aquas,
Splendificumque iubar radianti carperet haustu, Ex quo uiuificus fulgor ubique fluit.
Percipiensque alacer rediuiuae praemia uitae, Barbaricam rabiem, nomen et inde suum
Conuersus conuertit ouans; Petrumque uocari Sergius antistes iussit, ut ipse pater
Fonte renascentis, quem Christi gratia purgans Protinus albatum uexit in arce poli.
Mira fides regis, clementia maxima Christi, Cuius consilium nullus adire potest!

Summit, opulence, offspring, potent kingdoms, triumphs, spoils, magnates, walls, camps, hearths;
And what the virtue of the fathers, and what the armipotent Caedual himself had amassed, he left for love of God;
So that, as a guest, the king might behold Peter and the Seat of Peter, from whose font he might take pure nourishing waters,
And might pluck the splendid beam with a radiant draught, from which vivific effulgence flows everywhere.
And, eager, perceiving the prizes of redivive life, he, turned, turns barbaric rabies, and thence his own name,
Converted, he converts exulting; and that he be called Peter, Sergius the pontiff ordered, since he himself, as father
of the one reborn from the font, cleansing him by Christ’s grace, forthwith bore him, in white, to the citadel of heaven.
Wondrous the faith of the king, the greatest clemency of Christ, whose counsel no one can approach!

Sospes enim ueniens supremo ex orbe Britanni, Per uarias gentes, per freta, perque uias,
Urbem Romuleam uidit, templumque uerendum Aspexit Petri mystica dona gerens.
Candidus inter oues Christi sociabilis ibit; Corpore nam tumulum, mente superna tenet.
Conmutasse magis sceptrorum insignia credas, Quem regnum Christi promeruisse uides.

Safe indeed, coming from the furthest realm of Britain, through various nations, through the straits, and through the ways,
he saw the Romulean city, and he beheld the venerable temple, bearing Peter’s mystic gifts.
White-robed, sociable among the sheep of Christ he will go; for with his body he holds the tomb, with his mind the supernal.
You would rather believe he has exchanged the insignia of scepters, he whom you see to have merited the kingdom of Christ.

Hic depositus est Caedual, qui et Petrus, rex Saxonum, sub die XII Kalendarum Maiarum, indictione II; qui uixit annos plus minus XXX, imperante domno Iustiniano piissimo Augusto, anno eius consulatus IIII, pontificante apostolico uiro domno Sergio papa anno secundo.

Here is laid to rest Caedual, who is also Peter, king of the Saxons, on the 12th day before the Kalends of May, indiction 2; who lived more or less 30 years, with lord Justinian, most pious Augustus, ruling, in the 4th year of his consulship, with the apostolic man, lord Sergius the pope, pontificating, in the 2nd year.

Abeunte autem Romam Caedualla, successit in regnum Ini de stirpe regia; qui cum XXXVII annis imperium tenuisset gentis illius, et ipse relicto regno ac iuuenioribus commendato, ad limina beatorum apostolorum Gregorio pontificatum tenente profectus est, cupiens in uicinia sanctorum locorum ad tempus peregrinari in terris, quo familiarius a sanctis recipi mereretur in caelis; quod his temporibus plures de gente Anglorum, nobiles, ignobiles, laici, clerici, uiri ac feminae certatim facere consuerunt.

But with Caedualla departing to Rome, Ini of royal stock succeeded to the kingdom; who, when he had held the rule of that people for 37 years, he also, the kingdom left and commended to younger men, set out to the thresholds of the blessed apostles, Gregory holding the pontificate, wishing for a time to peregrinate on earth in the vicinity of the holy places, in order that he might more familiarly merit to be received by the saints in the heavens; which in these times many of the English nation, nobles and non-nobles, laity and clergy, men and women, have been accustomed to do, vying with one another.

[8] ANNO autem post hunc, quo Caedualla Romae defunctus est, proximo, id est DCXC incarnationis dominicae, Theodorus beatae memoriae archiepiscopus, senex et plenus dierum, id est annorum LXXXVIII, defunctus est; quem se numerum annorum fuisse habiturum ipse iamdudum somni reuelatione edoctus, suis praedicere solebat. Mansit autem in episcopatu annis XXII, sepultusque est in ecclesia sancti Petri, in qua omnium episcoporum Doruuernensium sunt corpora deposita; de quo una cum consortibus eiusdem sui gradus recte ac ueraciter dici potest, quia ‘corpora ipsorum in pace sepulta sunt, et nomen eorum uiuet in generationes et generationes.’ Ut enim breuiter dicam, tantum profectus spiritalis tempore praesulatus illius Anglorum ecclesiae, quantum numquam antea potuere, ceperunt. Cuius personam, uitam, aetatem, et obitum, epitaphium quoque monumenti ipsius uersibus heroicis XXX et IIII palam ac lucide cunctis illo aduenientibus pandit; quorum primi sunt hi:

[8] IN THE YEAR, moreover, next after this, in which Caedualla died at Rome, that is 690 of the Lord’s incarnation, Theodore, archbishop of blessed memory, an old man and full of days, that is of 88 years, died; and he himself, long since taught by the revelation of a dream, was wont to foretell to his own people that he would have this number of years. Moreover, he remained in the episcopate for 22 years, and was buried in the church of Saint Peter, in which the bodies of all the bishops of Dorovernia (Canterbury) have been laid; of whom, together with his fellows of the same rank, it can be said rightly and truly, because ‘their bodies are buried in peace, and their name will live into generations and generations.’ For, to say briefly, such advances of spiritual progress did the churches of the English take on in the time of his pontificate as they had never before been able to do. His person, life, age, and death the epitaph also of his monument in 34 heroic verses openly and clearly sets forth to all coming there; of which the first are these:

Hic sacer in tumba pausat cum corpore pracsul, Quem nunc Theodorum lingua Pelasga uocat.

Here the sacred prelate rests in the tomb with his body,
Whom now the Pelasgian tongue calls Theodorus.

Princeps pontificum, felix summusque sacerdos Limpida discipulis dogmata disseruit.

The prince of pontiffs, fortunate and supreme priest, Limpid dogmas he expounded to his disciples.

Ultimi autem hi:

However, these are the last:

Namque diem nonamdecimam September habebat, Cum carnis claustra spiritus egreditur.

For indeed September was holding the nineteenth day, When the spirit egresses from the enclosures of flesh.

Alma nouae scandens felix consortia uitae, Ciuibus angelicis iunctus in arce poli.

Kindly, happy, ascending to the fellowship of new life, Joined with the angelic citizens in the citadel of heaven.

Successit autem Theodoro in episcopatum Berctuald, qui erat abbas in monasterio, quod iuxta ostium aquilonale fluminis Genladae positum, Racuulfe nuncupatur; uir et ipse scientia scripturarum inbutus, sed et ecclesiasticis simul ac monasterialibus disciplinis summe instructus, tametsi praedecessori suo minime conparandus; qui electus est quidem in episcopatum anno dominicae incarnationis DCXC secundo, die primo mensis Iulii, regnantibus in Cantia Uictredo et Suæbhardo; ordinatus autem anno sequente tertio die Kalendarum Iuliarum dominica a Goduine metropolitano episcopo Galliarum; et sedit in sede sua pridie Kalendarum Septembrium dominica; qui inter multos, quos ordinauit antistites, etiam Gebmundo Hrofensis ecclesiae praesule defuncto, Tobiam pro illo consecrauit, uirum Latina, Greca, et Saxonica lingua atque eruditione multipliciter instructum.

There succeeded Theodore in the episcopate Berctuald, who was abbot in a monastery which, situated near the north mouth of the river Genlada, is called Racuulfe; a man himself also imbued with knowledge of the Scriptures, and likewise most highly instructed in ecclesiastical and monastic disciplines, although by no means to be compared to his predecessor; who indeed was elected to the episcopate in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 692, on the first day of the month of July, Wihtred and Suæbhard reigning in Kent; but was ordained in the following year, on the third day before the Kalends of July, on a Sunday, by Goduine, metropolitan bishop of the Gauls; and he sat in his see on the day before the Kalends of September, on a Sunday; who, among the many bishops whom he ordained, when Gebmund, prelate of the church of Hrof (Rochester), had died, consecrated Tobias in his place, a man multiply instructed in the Latin, Greek, and Saxon language and erudition.

[9] EO tempore uenerabilis et cum omni honorificentia nominandus famulus Christi et sacerdos Ecgberct, quem in Hibernia insula peregrinam ducere uitam pro adipiscenda in caelis patria retulimus, proposuit animo pluribus prodesse; id est inito opere apostolico, uerbum Dei aliquibus earum, quae nondum audierant, gentibus euangelizando committere; quarum in Germania plurimas nouerat esse nationes, a quibus Angli uel Saxones, qui nunc Brittaniam incolunt, genus et originem duxisse noscuntur; unde hactenus a uicina gente Brettonum corrupte Garmani nuncupantur. Sunt autem Fresones, Rugini, Danai, Hunni, Antiqui Saxones, Boructuari; sunt alii perplures hisdem in partibus populi paganis adhuc ritibus seruientes, ad quos uenire praefatus Christi miles circumnauigata Brittania disposuit, siquos forte ex illis ereptos Satanae ad Christum transferre ualeret; uel, si hoc fieri non posset, Romam uenire ad uidenda atque adoranda beatorum apostolorum ac martyrum Christi limina cogitauit.

[9] At that time the venerable servant of Christ and priest Ecgberct, to be named with all honorificence, whom we reported as leading a peregrine life in the island of Hibernia to gain a fatherland in the heavens, purposed in mind to profit many; that is, by entering upon an apostolic work, to commit the word of God by evangelizing to some of those nations which had not yet heard it; of which in Germania he knew there to be very many peoples, from whom the Angles or Saxons, who now inhabit Britain, are known to have drawn their race and origin; whence to this day by the neighboring nation of the Bretons they are corruptly named “Garmani.” Now there are the Frisians, Rugians, Danes, Huns, Old Saxons, Bructeri; there are many others in those same parts, peoples still serving pagan rites, to whom the aforesaid soldier of Christ resolved to come, having circumnavigated Britain, if perchance he might be able to transfer some of them, snatched from Satan, to Christ; or, if this could not be done, he thought to come to Rome to see and adore the thresholds of the blessed apostles and martyrs of Christ.

Sed ne aliquid horum perficeret, superna illa oracula simul et opera restiterunt. Siquidem electis sociis strenuissimis et ad praedicandum uerbum idoneis, utpote actione simul et eruditione praeclaris, praeparatis omnibus, quae nauigantibus esse necessaria uidebantur, uenit die quadam mane primo ad eum unus de fratribus, discipulus quondam in Brittania et minister Deo dilecti sacerdotis Boisili (cum esset idem Boisil praepositus monasterii Mailrosensis sub abbate Eata, ut supra narrauimus ,referens ei uisionem, quae sibi eadem nocte apparuisset: ‘Cum expletis,’ inquiens, ‘hymnis matutinalibus in lectulo membra posuissem, ac leuis mihi somnus obrepsisset, apparuit magister quondam meus, et nutritor amantissimus Boisil, interrogauitque me, an eum cognoscere possem. Aio: “Etiam; tu es enim Boisil.” At ille: “Ad hoc,” inquit, “ueni, ut responsum Domini Saluatoris Ecgbercto adferam, quod te tamen referente oportet ad illum uenire.

But lest he should accomplish any of these things, those supernal oracles and works together resisted. For, the most strenuous associates having been chosen and apt for preaching the word—namely, illustrious both in action and in erudition—and all things prepared which seemed necessary for those sailing, there came to him one of the brothers early one morning, formerly a disciple in Britain and minister of the priest Boisil, beloved to God (while that same Boisil was provost of the monastery of Melrose under abbot Eata, as we have narrated above), reporting to him a vision which had appeared to him that same night: ‘When,’ says he, ‘after the matutinal hymns were completed I had placed my limbs on the bed, and a light sleep had crept upon me, there appeared my former master and most loving nurturer Boisil, and he asked me whether I could recognize him. I say: “Yes; for you are Boisil.” But he: “For this,” he says, “I have come, to bring the response of the Lord Savior to Ecgberct, which nevertheless must come to him by your relating it.”’

Dic ergo illi, quia non ualet iter, quod proposuit, inplere; Dei enim uoluntatis est, ut ad Columbae monasteria magis docenda pergat.”’ Erat autem Columba primus doctor fidei Christianae transmontanis Pictis ad aquilonem, primusque fundator monasterii, quod in Hii insula multis diu Scottorum Pictorumque populis uenerabile mansit. Qui uidelicet Columba nunc a nonnullis conposito a cella et Columba nomine Columcelli uocatur. Audiens autem uerba uisionis Ecgberct, praecepit fratri, qui retulerat, ne cuiquam haec alteri referret, ne forte inlusoria esset uisio.

Say therefore to him that he is not able to fulfill the journey which he has proposed; for it is of God’s will that he should go rather to the monasteries of Columba for teaching.” Now Columba was the first doctor of the Christian faith to the Picts beyond the mountains to the north, and the first founder of the monastery which on the island Hii remained venerable to many peoples of the Scots and Picts for a long time. This same Columba is now by some, with the name composed from cella and Columba, called Columcelli. But hearing the words of the vision, Ecgberct ordered the brother who had related it not to report these things to any other person, lest perchance the vision should be illusory.

Ipse autem tacitus rem considerans, ueram esse timebat; nec tamen a praeparando itinere, quo ad gentes docendas iret, cessare uolebat.

He himself, however, considering the matter in silence, feared it to be true; yet he was not willing to desist from preparing the journey, by which he would go to the nations for teaching.

At post dies paucos rursum uenit ad eum praefatus frater, dicens, quia et ea nocte sibi post expletos matutinos Boisil per uisum apparuerit, dicens: ‘Quare tam neglegenter ac tepide dixisti Ecgbercto, quae tibi dicenda praecepi? At nunc uade et dic illi, quia, uelit nolit, debet ad monasteria Columbae uenire, quia aratra eorum non recte incedunt; oportet autem eum ad rectum haec tramitem reuocare.’ Qui haec audiens denuo praecepit fratri, ne haec cui patefaceret. Ipse uero, tametsi certus est factus de uisione, nihilominus temtauit iter dispositum cum fratribus memoratis incipere.

But after a few days the aforesaid brother came to him again, saying that that night too, after the matins had been completed, Boisil had appeared to him by a vision, saying: ‘Why did you speak so negligently and tepidly to Ecgberct what I commanded you to say? But now go and tell him that, whether he wills it or not, he ought to come to the monasteries of Columba, because their ploughs do not go straight; moreover it is needful that he recall these to the straight track.’ Hearing these things, he again ordered the brother not to disclose them to anyone. He himself, although he had been made certain about the vision, nonetheless attempted to begin the arranged journey with the aforesaid brothers.

Cumque iam naui inposuissent, quae tanti itineris necessitas poscebat, atque oportunos aliquot dies uentos expectarent, facta est nocte quadam tam saeua tempestas, quae perditis nonnulla ex parte his, quae in naui erant, rebus, ipsam in latus iacentem inter undas relinqueret; saluata sunt tamen omnia, quae erant Ecgbercti et sociorum eius. Tum ipse quasi propheticum illud dicens, quia ‘propter me est tempestas haec,’ subtraxit se illi profectioni, et remanere domi passus est.

And when they had already put aboard the ship the things which the necessity of so great a journey demanded, and were awaiting opportune winds for several days, there arose on a certain night so savage a tempest, which, with some of the things that were on the ship lost in part, left the ship itself lying on its side among the waves; nevertheless all things that were Ecgberct’s and his companions’ were saved. Then he himself, as if saying that prophetic word, ‘because of me is this tempest,’ withdrew himself from that departure, and permitted himself to remain at home.

At uero unus de sociis eius, uocabulo Uictberct, cum esset et ipse contemtu mundi ac doctrinae scientia insignis, (nam multos annos in Hibernia peregrinus anchoreticam in magna perfectione uitam egerat), ascendit nauem, et Fresiam perueniens, duobus annis continuis genti illi ac regi eius Rathbedo uerbum salutis praedicabat, neque aliquem tanti laboris fructum apud barbaros inuenit auditores. Tum reuersus ad dilectae locum peregrinationis, solito in silentio uacare Domino coepit; et quoniam externis prodesse ad fidem non poterat, suis amplius ex uirtutum exemplis prodesse curabat.

But indeed one of his companions, by the name Victberct, since he too was distinguished both by contempt of the world and by knowledge of doctrine (for, a pilgrim, he had for many years in Ireland lived an anchoritic life in great perfection), boarded a ship, and, reaching Frisia, for two continuous years he preached the word of salvation to that people and to its king Rathbed, nor did he find among the barbarian hearers any fruit of so great a labor. Then, returned to the place of his beloved pilgrimage, he began to be free for the Lord in his accustomed silence; and since he could not profit foreigners unto faith, he took care to profit his own the more by examples of virtues.

[10] UT autem uidit uir Domini Ecgberct, quia nec ipse ad praedicandum gentibus uenire permittebatur, retentus ob aliam sanctae ecclesiae utilitatem, de qua oraculo fuerat praemonitus; nec Uictberct illas deueniens in partes quicquam proficiebat, temtauit adhuc in opus uerbi mittere uiros sanctos et industrios, in quibus eximius Uilbrord presbyteri gradu et merito praefulgebat. Qui cum illo aduenissent, erant autem numero XII, diuertentes ad Pippinum ducem Francorum, gratanter ab illo suscepti sunt; et quia nuper citeriorem Fresiam expulso inde Rathbedo rege ceperat, illo eos ad praedicandum misit; ipse quoque imperiali auctoritate iuuans, ne qui praedicantibus quicquam molestiae inferret; multisque eos, qui fidem suscipere uellent, beneficiis adtollens; unde factum est, opitulante gratia diuina, ut multos in breui ab idolatria ad fidem conuerterent Christi.

[10] But when the man of God Ecgberct saw that neither was he himself permitted to come to preach to the nations, being held back on account of another utility of the holy Church, about which he had been forewarned by an oracle; nor was Uictberct, arriving in those parts, accomplishing anything, he attempted still to send into the work of the word holy and industrious men, among whom Uilbrord shone forth in the rank and merit of presbyter. When they had arrived with him—now they were in number 12—turning aside to Pippin, duke of the Franks, they were gladly received by him; and because he had recently taken the nearer Frisia, King Rathbedo having been expelled from there, he sent them to preach; he also, aiding with imperial authority, so that no one should inflict any trouble on the preachers; and by many benefactions elevating those who were willing to receive the faith; whence it came to pass, with divine grace helping, that in a short time they converted many from idolatry to the faith of Christ.

Horum secuti exempla duo quidam presbyteri de natione Anglorum, qui in Hibernia multo tempore pro aeterna patria exulauerant, uenerunt ad prouinciam Antiquorum Saxonum, si forte aliquos ibidem praedicando Christo adquirere possent. Erant autem unius ambo, sicut deuotionis, sic etiam uocabuli; nam uterque eorum appellabatur Heuuald; ea tamen distinctione, ut pro diuersa capillorum specie unus Niger Heuuald, alter Albus Heuuald diceretur; quorum uterque pietate religionis inbutus, sed Niger Heuuald magis sacrarum litterarum erat scientia institutus. Qui uenientes in prouinciam intrauerunt hospitium cuiusdam uilici, petieruntque ab eo, ut transmitterentur ad satrapam, qui super eum erat, eo quod haberent aliquid legationis et causae utilis, quod deberent ad illum perferre.

Following the examples of these, two certain presbyters of the nation of the Angles, who for a long time had lived as exiles in Ireland for the sake of the eternal fatherland, came to the province of the Old Saxons, to see whether perchance they might be able there to acquire some by preaching Christ. Now they were both of one, as in devotion, so also in name; for each of them was called Heuuald; yet with this distinction, that by reason of the different kind of hair the one was called Black Heuuald, the other White Heuuald; each of whom was imbued with the piety of religion, but Black Heuuald was more instructed in the knowledge of sacred letters. Who, on coming into the province, entered the lodging of a certain bailiff, and asked of him that they be sent on to the satrap who was over him, inasmuch as they had something of legation and of useful business which they ought to convey to him.

Non enim habent regem idem Antiqui Saxones, sed satrapas plurimos suae genti praepositos, qui ingruente belli articulo mittunt aequaliter sortes, et, quemcumque sors ostenderit, hunc tempore belli ducem omnes sequuntur, huic obtemperant; peracto autem bello, rursum aequalis potentiae omnes fiunt satrapae. Suscepit ergo eos uilicus, et promittens se mittere eos ad satrapam, qui super se erat, ut petebant, aliquot diebus secum retinuit.

For the same Old Saxons do not have a king, but very many satraps set over their people, who, when the crisis of war presses, cast lots equally; and whomever the lot has shown, this man in time of war they all follow as leader—him they obey; but when the war has been completed, again all the satraps become of equal power. Therefore the steward received them, and, promising to send them to the satrap who was over him, as they requested, kept them with him for several days.

Qui cum cogniti essent a barbaris, quod essent alterius religionis, (nam et psalmis semper atque orationibus uacabant, et cotidie sacrificium Deo uictimae salutaris offerebant, habentes secum uascula sacra et tabulam altaris uice dedicatam), suspecti sunt habiti, quia, si peruenirent ad satrapam, et loquerentur cum illo, auerterent illum a diis suis, et ad nouam Christianae fidei religionem transferrent, sicque paulatim omnis eorum prouincia ueterem cogeretur noua mutare culturam. Itaque rapuerunt eos subito, et interemerunt; Album quidem Heuualdum ueloci occisione gladii, Nigellum autem longo suppliciorum cruciatu, et horrenda membrorum omnium discerptione; quos interemtos in Rheno proiecerunt. Quod cum satrapa ille, quem uidere uolebant, audisset, iratus est ualde, quod ad se uenire uolentes peregrini non permitterentur; et mittens occidit uicanos illos omnes, uicumque incendio consumsit.

When they had been recognized by the barbarians as being of another religion (for they were always occupied with psalms and orations, and every day they were offering to God the sacrifice of the saving victim, having with them sacred vessels and a board dedicated in the stead of an altar), they were held as suspects, because, if they should come to the satrap and speak with him, they would avert him from his gods and transfer him to the new religion of the Christian faith, and thus little by little their whole province would be compelled to change the old cult to the new. And so they suddenly seized them and slew them; White Heuuald indeed by a swift slaughter of the sword, but Black Heuuald by a long cruciating of punishments and a horrid rending of all his members; and the slain they cast into the Rhine. When that satrap, whom they wished to see, heard this, he was very angry that foreigners wishing to come to him were not permitted; and sending men, he killed all those villagers, and consumed the village with fire.

Passi sunt autem praefati sacerdotes et famuli Christi Vo. Nonarum Octobrium die.

But the aforesaid priests and servants of Christ suffered on the 5th day of the Nones of October.

Nec martyrio eorum caelestia defuere miracula. Nam cum peremta eorum corpora amni, ut diximus, a paganis essent iniecta, contigit, ut haec contra impetum fluuii decurrentis, per XL fere milia passuum, ad ea usque loca, ubi illorum erant socii, transferrentur. Sed et radius lucis permaximus, atque ad caelum usque altus, omni nocte supra locum fulgebat illum, ubicumque ea peruenisse contingeret, et hoc etiam paganis, qui eos occiderant, intuentibus.

Nor were celestial miracles lacking to their martyrdom. For when their slain bodies had been, as we said, cast into the river by the pagans, it happened that these, against the impetus of the running river, for nearly 40 miles, were borne along to those very places where their companions were. But also a very great ray of light, reaching up to heaven, shone every night above that place, wherever it happened that they had come, and this also with the pagans who had killed them looking on.

Sed et unus ex eis in uisione nocturna apparuit cuidam de sociis suis, cui nomen erat Tilmon, uiro inlustri, et ad saeculum quoque nobili, qui de milite factus fuerat monachus; indicans, quod eo loci corpora eorum posset inuenire, ubi lucem de caelo terris radiasse conspiceret. Quod ita conpletum est. Inuenta namque eorum corpora iuxta honorem martyribus condignum recondita sunt, et dies passionis uel inuentionis eorum congrua illis in locis ueneratione celebratus.

But also one of them appeared in a nocturnal vision to a certain one of his companions, whose name was Tilmon, an illustrious man and noble even in the saeculum, who from a soldier had become a monk; indicating that he could find their bodies in that place where he should behold a light from heaven have radiated upon the earth. Which was thus fulfilled. For their bodies, having been found, were laid away according to honor condign for martyrs, and the day of their passion or of their invention was celebrated with fitting veneration in those places.

Denique gloriosissimus dux Francorum Pippin, ubi haec conperiit, misit, et adducta ad se eorum corpora condidit cum multa gloria in ecclesia Coloniae ciuitatis iuxta Rhenum. Fertur autem, quia in loco, quo occisi sunt, fons ebullierit, qui in eodem loco usque hodie copiosa fluenti sui dona profundat.

Finally, the most glorious duke of the Franks, Pippin, when he learned these things, sent, and, their bodies having been brought to him, interred them with much glory in the church of the city of Cologne, next to the Rhine. It is reported, moreover, that in the place where they were slain a spring bubbled up, which in that same place even to this day pours forth copious gifts of its flow.

[11] PRIMIS sane temporibus aduentus eorum in Fresiam, mox ut conperiit Uilbrord datam sibi a principe licentiam ibidem praedicandi, accelerauit uenire Romam, cuius sedi apostolicae tunc Sergius papa praeerat, ut cum eius licentia et benedictione desideratum euangelizandi gentibus opus iniret; simul et reliquias beatorum apostolorum ac martyrum Christi ab eo se sperans accipere, ut dum in gente, cui praedicaret, destructis idolis ecclesias institueret, haberet in promtu reliquias sanctorum, quas ibi introduceret; quibusque ibidem depositis, consequenter in eorum honorem, quorum essent illae, singula quaeque loca dedicaret. Sed et alia perplura, quae tanti operis negotium quaerebat, uel ibi discere uel inde accipere cupiebat. In quibus omnibus cum sui uoti compos esset effectus, ad praedicandum rediit.

[11] In the very first times of their arrival into Frisia, as soon as Willibrord learned that license had been given him by the prince to preach there, he hastened to come to Rome, whose apostolic see Pope Sergius then presided over, in order that, with his license and blessing, he might enter upon the desired work of evangelizing the peoples; at the same time also hoping to receive from him relics of the blessed apostles and martyrs of Christ, so that, while among the nation to which he would preach, with the idols destroyed, he might institute churches, he would have relics of the saints at the ready to introduce there; and, these having been deposited in that same place, thereafter he would dedicate each and every place in the honor of those to whom they belonged. But also very many other things which the business of so great a work required, he was eager either to learn there or to receive from there. And in all these matters, when he had obtained the fulfillment of his desire, he returned to preach.

Quo tempore fratres, qui erant in Fresia uerbi ministerio mancipati, elegerunt ex suo numero uirum modestum moribus, et mansuetum corde, Suidberctum, qui eis ordinaretur antistes, quem Brittaniam destinatum ad petitionem eorum ordinauit reuerentissimus Uilfrid episcopus, qui tum forte patria pulsus in Merciorum regionibus exulabat. Non enim eo tempore habebat episcopum Cantia, defuncto quidem Theodoro, sed necdum Berctualdo successore eius, qui trans mare ordinandus ierat, ad sedem episcopatus sui reuerso.

At that time the brothers, who were in Frisia devoted to the ministry of the word, chose from their number a man modest in manners and gentle in heart, Suidberht, to be ordained for them as bishop; and the most reverend Uilfrid, bishop, who then by chance, driven from his homeland, was in exile in the regions of the Mercians, ordained him, designated for Britain at their request. For at that time Kent did not have a bishop, Theodore indeed having died, but Berctwald, his successor, had not yet returned to the seat of his episcopate, he having gone across the sea to be ordained.

Qui uidelicet Suidberct accepto episcopatu, de Brittania regressus, non multo post ad gentem Boructuarorum secessit, ac multos eorum praedicando ad uiam ueritatis perduxit. Sed expugnatis non longo post tempore Boructuaris a gente Antiquorum Saxonum, dispersi sunt quolibet hi, qui uerbum receperant; ipse antistes cum quibusdam Pippinum petiit, qui interpellante Bliththrydae coniuge sua, dedit ei locum mansionis in insula quadam Hreni, quae lingua eorum uocatur In litore; in qua ipse, constructo monasterio, quod hactenus heredes possident eius, aliquandiu continentissimam gessit uitam, ibique diem clausit ultimum.

The aforesaid Suidberct, having received the episcopate, returning from Britain, not long after withdrew to the nation of the Bructuarians, and by preaching led many of them to the way of truth. But when the Bructuarians were subdued not long afterward by the people of the Ancient Saxons, those who had received the word were scattered everywhere; the bishop himself, with certain companions, sought Pippin, who, with his wife Bliththryda interceding, gave him a place of dwelling on a certain island of the Rhine, which in their language is called In litore; in which he himself, having constructed a monastery, which his heirs possess to this day, for some time led a most continent life, and there he closed his last day.

Postquam uero per annos aliquot in Fresia, qui aduenerant, docuerunt, misit Pippin fauente omnium consensu uirum uenerabilem Uilbrordum Romam, cuius adhuc pontificatum Sergius habebat, postulans. ut eidem Fresonum genti archiepiscopus ordinaretur. Quod ita, ut petierat, inpletum est, anno ab incarnatione Domini DCXCVI.

After, indeed, for several years in Frisia those who had arrived taught, Pepin, with the favor of the consensus of all, sent the venerable man Willibrord to Rome—at which time Sergius still held the pontificate—requesting that an archbishop be ordained for that same nation of the Frisians. Which was thus fulfilled as he had requested, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 696.

Ordinatus est autem in ecclesia sanctae martyris Ceciliae, die natalis eius, inposito sibi a papa memorato nomine Clementis; ac mox remissus ad sedem episcopatus sui, id est post dies XIIII, ex quo in urbem uenerat.

He was ordained, moreover, in the church of the holy martyr Cecilia, on her natal day, with the name of Clement imposed upon him by the aforementioned pope; and soon he was sent back to the seat of his episcopate, that is, after 14 days from when he had come into the City.

Donauit autem ei Pippin locum cathedrae episcopalis in castello suo inlustri, quod antiquo gentium illarum uerbo Uiltaburg, id est Oppidum Uiltorum, lingua autem Gallica Traiectum uocatur; in quo aedificata ecclesia, reuerentissimus pontifex longe lateque uerbum fidei praedicans, multosque ab errore reuocans, plures per illas regiones ecclesias, sed et monasteria nonnulla construxit. Nam non multo post alios quoque illis in regionibus ipse constituit antistites ex eorum numero fratrum, qui uel secum, uel post se illo ad praedicandum uenerant; ex quibus aliquanti iam dormierunt in Domino. Ipse autem Uilbrord, cognomento Clemens, adhuc superest, longa iam uenerabilis aetate, utpote tricesimum et sextum in episcopatu habens annum, et post multiplices militiae caelestis agones ad praemia remunerationis supernae tota mente suspirans.

But Pippin granted to him a place for the episcopal cathedra in his illustrious castle, which in the ancient word of those peoples is called Uiltaburg, that is, the Town of the Uilti, but in the Gallic tongue is called Traiectum; in which, a church having been built, the most reverend pontiff, preaching the word of faith far and wide, and calling many back from error, built many churches throughout those regions, and also not a few monasteries. For not long after he himself appointed others also as bishops in those regions from the number of the brothers who either with him, or after him, had come there to preach; of whom some have already fallen asleep in the Lord. But Willibrord, by surname Clement, still survives, now venerable with long age, as one holding the 36th year in the episcopate, and, after manifold agones of the heavenly militia, with his whole mind sighing toward the rewards of supernal remuneration.

[12] HIS temporibus miraculum memorabile et antiquorum simile in Brittania factum est. Namque ad excitationem uiuentium de morte animae, quidam aliquandiu mortuus ad uitam resurrexit corporis, et multa memoratu digna, quae uiderat, narrauit; e quibus hic aliqua breuiter perstringenda esse putaui. Erat ergo pater familias in regione Nordanhymbrorum, quae uocatur Incuneningum, religiosam cum domu sua gerens uitam; qui infirmitate corporis tactus, et hac crescente per dies, ad extrema perductus, primo tempore noctis defunctus est; sed diluculo reuiuiscens, ac repente residens, omnes, qui corpori flentes adsederant, timore inmenso perculsos in fugam conuertit; uxor tantum, quae amplius amabat, quamuis multum tremens et pauida, remansit.

[12] In these times a memorable miracle, similar to those of the ancients, was wrought in Britain. For, for the excitation of the living from the death of the soul, a certain man, dead for some time, rose again to the life of the body, and recounted many things worthy of remembrance which he had seen; of which I have thought that some here should be briefly touched upon. There was therefore a paterfamilias in the region of the Northumbrians, which is called Incuneningum, conducting with his household a religious life; who, touched by infirmity of body, and as this increased day by day, was brought to the last extremity, and at the first time of night died; but at daybreak, reviving and suddenly sitting up, he turned all who had been sitting by the body weeping, smitten with immense fear, into flight; the wife only, who loved more, although much trembling and fearful, remained.

Quam ille consolatus: ‘Noli,’ inquit, ‘timere, quia iam uere surrexi a morte, qua tenebar, et apud homines sum iterum uiuere permissus; non tamen ea mihi, qua ante consueram, conuersatione, sed multum dissimili ex hoc tempore uiuendum est.’ Statimque surgens, abiit ad uillulae oratorium, et usque ad diem in oratione persistens, mox omnem, quam possederat, substantiam in tres diuisit portiones, e quibus unam coniugi, alteram filiis tradidit, tertiam sibi ipse retentans, statim pauperibus distribuit. Nec multo post saeculi curis absolutus ad monasterium Mailros, quod Tuidi fluminis circumflexu maxima ex parte clauditur, peruenit; acceptaque tonsura, locum secretae mansionis, quam praeuiderat abbas, intrauit; et ibi usque ad diem mortis in tanta mentis et corporis contritione durauit, ut multa illum, quae alios laterent, uel horrenda uel desideranda uidisse, etiamsi lingua sileret, uita loqueretur.

He, consoling her, said: ‘Do not fear, for I have now truly risen from the death by which I was held, and I am permitted to live again among men; yet I must live from this time not with the manner of life to which I was before accustomed, but in one very different.’ And straightway rising, he went to the oratory of the little villa, and, persevering in prayer until day, soon divided all the substance he possessed into three portions, of which he gave one to his wife, another to his sons, and the third, retaining it to himself, he immediately distributed to the poor. And not long after, being freed from the cares of the world, he came to the monastery of Mailros, which is for the most part enclosed by the bend of the river Tweed; and, the tonsure received, he entered the place of a secret dwelling, which the abbot had foreseen; and there until the day of his death he endured in such contrition of mind and body, that many things—either dreadful or to be desired—which were hidden from others he had seen, and even if his tongue were silent, his life would speak.

Narrabat autem hoc modo, quod uiderat: ‘Lucidus,’ inquiens, ‘aspectu et clarus erat indumento, qui me ducebat. Incedebamus autem tacentes, ut uidebatur mihi, contra ortum solis solstitialem; cumque ambularemus, deuenimus ad uallem multae latitudinis ac profunditatis, infinitae autem longitudinis; quae ad leuam nobis sita, unum latus flammis feruentibus nimium terribile, alterum furenti grandine ac frigore niuium omnia perflante atque uerrente non minus intolerabile praeferebat. Utrumque autem erat animabus hominum plenum, quae uicissim huc inde uidebantur quasi tempestatis impetu iactari.

He was telling, moreover, in this way what he had seen: ‘Lucid,’ he said, ‘in aspect and clear in his garment was the one who was leading me. We proceeded, however, in silence, as it seemed to me, toward the solstitial rising of the sun; and as we walked, we came to a valley of great breadth and depth, but of infinite length; which, situated on our left, presented one side, with fervent flames, exceedingly terrible, the other, with raging hail and with the cold of snows blowing over and sweeping everything, no less intolerable. Each side, moreover, was full of the souls of men, who in turn were seen to be tossed hither and thither, as by the onrush of a tempest.’

Cum enim uim feruoris inmensi tolerare non possent, prosiliebant miserae in medium rigoris infesti; et cum neque ibi quippiam requiei inuenire ualerent, resiliebant rursus urendae in medium flammarum inextinguibilium. Cumque hac infelici uicissitudine longe lateque, prout aspicere poteram, sine ulla quietis intercapedine innumerabilis spirituum deformium multitudo torqueretur, cogitare coepi, quod hic fortasse esset infernus, de cuius tormentis intolerabilibus narrari saepius audiui. Respondit cogitationi meae ductor, qui me praecedebat: “Non hoc,” inquiens, “suspiceris; non enim hic infernus est ille, quem putas.”

For when they could not endure the force of immense fervor, the wretched would leap forth into the midst of hostile rigor; and when they were able to find no rest even there, they would spring back again, to be burned, into the midst of the inextinguishable flames. And while by this unhappy vicissitude, far and wide, as far as I could look, without any interval of rest, an innumerable multitude of deformed spirits was being tormented, I began to think that perhaps this was Hell, of whose intolerable torments I had often heard told. My guide, who was going before me, answered to my thought: “Do not suspect this,” he said, “for this is not that Hell which you suppose.”

‘At cum me hoc spectaculo tam horrendo perterritum paulatim in ulteriora produceret, uidi subito ante nos obscurari incipere loca, et tenebris omnia repleri. Quas cum intraremus, in tantum paulisper condensatae sunt, ut nihil praeter ipsas aspicerem, excepta dumtaxat specie et ueste eius, qui me ducebat. Et cum progrederemur ‘sola sub nocte per umbras,’ ecce subito apparent ante nos crebri flammarum tetrarum globi, ascendentes quasi de puteo magno, rursumque decidentes in eundem.

‘But when, terrified by this so horrendous spectacle, he was gradually leading me onward into ulterior parts, I suddenly saw the places before us begin to grow dark, and all things be filled with darkness. When we entered these, they were for a while condensed to such a degree that I beheld nothing except them, save only the aspect and vesture of him who was leading me. And as we advanced “alone under night through the shades,” lo, suddenly there appear before us numerous baleful globes of flames, ascending as if from a great well, and then falling back again into the same.

Quo cum perductus essem, repente ductor meus disparuit, ac me solum in medio tenebrarum et horridae uisionis reliquit. At cum idem globi ignium sine intermissione modo alta peterent, modo ima baratri repeterent, cerno omnia, quae ascendebant, fastigia flammarum plena esse spiritibus hominum, qui instar fauillarum cum fumo ascendentium, nunc ad sublimiora proicerentur, nunc retractis ignium uaporibus relaberentur in profunda. Sed et fetor inconparabilis cum eisdem uaporibus ebulliens omnia illa tenebrarum loca replebat.

When I had been conducted to this place, suddenly my guide vanished, and left me alone in the midst of the darkness and of the horrid vision. But while those same globes of fire without intermission now were seeking the heights, now were seeking again the depths of the abyss, I discern that all the crests of the flames that were ascending were full of the spirits of men, who, like embers ascending with smoke, now were cast up to loftier regions, now, the vapors of the fires drawn back, were sliding down into the depths. And an incomparable stench, bubbling up with those same vapors, was filling all those places of darkness.

Et cum diutius ibi pauidus consisterem, utpote incertus, quid agerem, quo uerterem gressum, qui me finis maneret; audio subitum post terga sonitum inmanissimi fletus ac miserrimi, simul et cachinnum crepitantem quasi uulgi indocti captis hostibus insultantis. Ut autem sonitus idem clarior redditus ad me usque peruenit, considero turbam malignorum spirituum, quae quinque animas hominum merentes heiulantesque, ipsa multum exultans et cachinnans, medias illas trahebat in tenebras; e quibus uidelicet hominibus, ut dinoscere potui, quidam erat adtonsus ut clericus, quidam laicus, quaedam femina. Trahentes autem eos maligni spiritus descenderunt in medium baratri illius ardentis; factumque est, ut cum longius subeuntibus eis, fletum hominum et risum daemoniorum clare discernere nequirem, sonum tamen adhuc promiscuum in auribus haberem.

And while I stood there longer, fearful, as one uncertain what I should do, whither I should turn my step, what end awaited me; I hear suddenly behind my back a sound of most immense and most wretched weeping, and at the same time a crackling cachinnation, as of an unlearned rabble insulting captured enemies. But when the same sound, rendered clearer, reached even to me, I behold a crowd of malign spirits, which, much exulting and cachinnating itself, was dragging into the midst of the darkness five souls of men, deserving and wailing; of which persons, as I could discern, one was tonsured like a cleric, one a layman, a certain woman. And the malign spirits dragging them descended into the midst of that burning abyss; and it came to pass that, as they went down farther, I could not clearly distinguish the weeping of the humans and the laughter of the demons, yet I still had the mingled sound in my ears.

Interea ascenderunt quidam spirituum obscurorum de abysso illa flammiuoma, et adcurrentes circumdederunt me, atque oculis flammantibus, et de ore ac naribus ignem putidum efflantes angebant; forcipibus quoque igneis, quos tenebant in manibus, minitabantur me conprehendere, nec tamen me ullatenus contingere, tametsi terrere praesumebant. Qui cum undiqueuersum hostibus et caecitate tenebrarum conclusus, huc illucque oculos circumferrem, si forte alicunde quid auxilii, quo saluarer, adueniret, apparuit retro uia, qua ueneram, quasi fulgor stellae micantis inter tenebras, qui paulatim crescens, et ad me ocius festinans, ubi adpropinquauit, dispersi sunt et aufugerunt omnes, qui me forcipibus rapere quaerebant spiritus infesti.

Meanwhile certain of the obscure spirits ascended from that flame‑vomiting abyss, and running up they surrounded me, and with eyes flaming, and breathing forth a fetid fire from their mouth and nostrils, they were anguishing me; with fiery forceps too, which they were holding in their hands, they menaced to apprehend me, yet they did not touch me at all, although they presumed to terrify me. And since, shut in on every side by enemies and by the blindness of the darkness, I was casting my eyes here and there, in case perchance from somewhere some help might arrive by which I might be saved, there appeared behind the way by which I had come, as the gleam of a star twinkling among the darkness; which, little by little increasing, and hastening more swiftly to me, when it drew near, all the hostile spirits who were seeking to snatch me with forceps were scattered and fled.

‘Ille autem, qui adueniens eos fugauit, erat ipse, qui me ante ducebat; qui mox conuersus ad dextrum iter, quasi contra ortum solis brumalem me ducere coepit. Nec mora, exemtum tenebris in auras me serenae lucis eduxit; cumque me in luce aperta duceret, uidi ante nos murum permaximum, cuius neque longitudini hinc uel inde, neque altitudini ullus esse terminus uideretur. Coepi autem mirari, quare ad murum accederemus, cum in eo nullam ianuam, uel fenestram, uel ascensum alicubi conspicerem.

‘But he, who on arriving put them to flight, was the very one who had been leading me before; who, straightway turned toward the right-hand path, began to lead me as if toward the wintry rising of the sun. Without delay, taken out from the darkness he led me forth into the airs of serene light; and when he was leading me in the open light, I saw before us a wall most exceedingly great, whose length on this side or that, and whose height, seemed to have no terminus. I began, moreover, to marvel why we were approaching the wall, since upon it I could descry nowhere any door, or window, or ascent.

Cum ergo peruenissemus ad murum, statim nescio quo ordine fuimus in summitate eius. Et ecce ibi campus erat latissimus ac laetissimus, tantaque flagrantia uernantium flosculorum plenus, ut omnem mox fetorem tenebrosi fornacis, qui me peruaserat, effugaret admirandi huius suauitas odoris. Tanta autem lux cuncta ea loca perfuderat, ut omni splendore diei siue solis meridiani radiis uideretur esse praeclarior.

When therefore we had come to the wall, at once, I know not by what arrangement, we were upon its summit. And behold, there was there a very broad and most gladsome plain, and so full of the fragrance of vernal little flowers that the sweetness of this marvelous odor straightway drove away all the fetor of the tenebrous furnace which had permeated me. Moreover, such light had suffused all those places that it seemed more excellent than every splendor of day, or than the rays of the meridian sun.

Erantque in hoc campo innumera hominum albatorum conuenticula, sedesque plurimae agminum laetantium. Cumque inter choros felicium incolarum medios me duceret, cogitare coepi, quod hoc fortasse esset regnum caelorum, de quo praedicari saepius audiui. Respondit ille cogitatui meo: “Non,” inquiens, “non hoc est regnum caelorum, quod autumas.”

And there were in this field innumerable conventicles of white‑robed men, and very many seats of rejoicing companies. And as he led me through the midst among the choruses of the happy inhabitants, I began to think that this perhaps was the kingdom of heaven, about which I have often heard preached. He replied to my thought: “No,” saying, “this is not the kingdom of heaven which you suppose.”

‘Cumque procedentes transissemus et has beatorum mansiones spirituum, aspicio ante nos multo maiorem luminis gratiam quam prius; in qua etiam uocem cantantium dulcissimam audiui; sed et odoris flagrantia miri tanta de loco effundebatur, ut is, quem antea degustans quasi maximum rebar, iam permodicus mihi odor uideretur; sicut etiam lux illa campi florentis eximia, in conparatione eius, quae nunc apparuit, lucis, tenuissima prorsus uidebatur, et parua. In cuius amoenitatem loci cum nos intraturos sperarem, repente ductor substitit; nec mora, gressum retorquens ipsa me, qua uenimus, uia reduxit.

‘And when, as we advanced, we had passed even these mansions of the blessed spirits, I behold before us a much greater grace of light than before; in which I also heard the most sweet voice of those singing; but also so great a fragrance of wondrous odor was being poured forth from the place, that that odor which, having previously tasted, I reckoned as almost the greatest, now seemed to me very moderate; just as also that exceptional light of the flowering field, in comparison with the light of that which has now appeared, seemed altogether most tenuous, and small. And when I was hoping that we would enter into the pleasantness of this place, suddenly the guide halted; and without delay, turning my step back, he led me back by the very road by which we had come.’

‘Cumque reuersi perueniremus ad mansiones illas laetas spirituum candidatorum, dixit mihi: “Scis, quae sint ista omnia, quae uidisti?” Respondi ego: “Non.” Et ait: “Uallis illa, quam aspexisti flammis feruentibus et frigoribus horrenda rigidis, ipse est locus, in quo examinandae et castigandae sunt animae illorum, qui differentes confiteri et emendare scelera, quae fecerunt, in ipso tandem mortis articulo ad paenitentiam confugiunt, et sic de corpore exeunt; qui tamen, quia confessionem et paenitentiam uel in morte habuerunt, omnes in die iudicii ad regnum caelorum perueniunt. Multos autem preces uiuentium, et elimosynae, et ieiunia, et maxime celebratio missarum, ut etiam ante diem iudicii liberentur, adiuuant. Porro puteus ille flammiuomus ac putidus, quem uidisti, ipsum est os gehennae, in quo quicumque semel inciderit, numquam inde liberabitur in aeuum.

‘And when, having returned, we came to those joyful mansions of the white-robed spirits, he said to me: “Do you know what all these things are that you have seen?” I replied: “No.” And he said: “That valley, which you beheld dreadful with seething flames and with rigid colds, is the very place where the souls of those are to be examined and chastised who, putting off to confess and amend the crimes they have committed, at last in the very point of death take refuge in penitence, and so go forth from the body; who nevertheless, because they had confession and penitence even at death, all on the Day of Judgment arrive at the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, the prayers of the living, and alms, and fastings, and most of all the celebration of Masses, help many, that they may be freed even before the Day of Judgment. Furthermore, that flame-vomiting and putrid pit which you saw is the very mouth of Gehenna, into which whoever has once fallen will never thence be set free unto eternity.

Locus uero iste florifer, in quo pulcherrimam hanc iuuentutem iucundari ac fulgere conspicis, ipse est, in quo recipiuntur animae eorum, qui in bonis quidem operibus de corpore exeunt; non tamen sunt tantae perfectionis, ut in regnum caelorum statim mereantur introduci; qui tamen omnes in die iudicii ad uisionem Christi, et gaudia regni caelestis intrabunt. Nam quicumque in omni uerbo, et opere, et cogitatione perfecti sunt, mox de corpore egressi ad regnum caeleste perueniunt; ad cuius uicina pertinet locus ille, ubi sonum cantilenae dulcis cum odore suauitatis ac splendore lucis audisti. Tu autem, quia nunc ad corpus reuerti, et rursum inter homines uiuere debes, si actus tuos curiosius discutere, et mores sermonesque tuos in rectitudine ac simplicitate seruare studueris, accipies et ipse post mortem locum mansionis inter haec, quae cernis, agmina laetabunda spirituum beatorum.

But this flowery place, in which you behold this most beautiful youth rejoicing and shining, is itself the place in which the souls are received of those who depart from the body indeed in good works; yet they are not of such perfection that they merit to be introduced into the kingdom of heaven immediately; nevertheless all of these, on the day of judgment, shall enter to the vision of Christ and the joys of the celestial kingdom. For whoever are perfect in every word, and deed, and thought, straightway, having gone forth from the body, attain to the celestial kingdom; to whose vicinity pertains that place where you heard the sound of sweet chant, together with the odor of sweetness and the splendor of light. But you, because now you must return to the body, and live again among men, if you shall more carefully examine your acts, and shall strive to keep your manners and your discourses in rectitude and simplicity, you yourself also after death will receive a place of a mansion among these joyful companies of the blessed spirits which you behold.

Namque ego, cum ad tempus abscessissem a te, ad hoc feci, ut, quid de te fieri deberet, agnoscerem.” Haec mihi cum dixisset, multum detestatus sum reuerti ad corpus, delectatus nimirum suauitate ac decore loci illius, quem intuebar, simul et consortio eorum, quos in illo uidebam. Nec tamen aliquid ductorem meum rogare audebam; sed inter haec nescio quo ordine repente me inter homines uiuere cerno.’

For indeed I, when I had withdrawn from you for a time, did this for this purpose: that I might recognize what ought to be done concerning you.” When he had said these things to me, I greatly loathed to return to the body, being delighted, to be sure, by the suavity and decor of that place which I was beholding, and at the same time by the fellowship of those whom I saw in it. Yet I did not dare to ask my guide anything; but amid these things, I know not how, I suddenly discern myself living among men.’

Haec et alia, quae uiderat, idem uir Domini, non omnibus passim desidiosis ac uitae suae incuriosis referre uolebat, sed illis solummodo, qui uel tormentorum metu perterriti, uel spe gaudiorum perennium delectati, profectum pietatis ex eius uerbis haurire uolebant. Denique in uicinia cellae illius habitabat quidam monachus, nomine Haemgils, presbyteratus etiam, quem bonis actibus adaequabat, gradu praeminens, qui adhuc superest, et in Hibernia insula solitarius ultimam uitae aetatem pane cibario et frigida aqua sustentat. Hic saepius ad eundem uirum ingrediens, audiuit ab eo repetita interrogatione, quae et qualia essent, quae exutus corpore uideret; per cuius relationem ad nostram quoque agnitionem peruenere, quae de his pauca perstrinximus.

These things and others which he had seen, that same man of the Lord did not wish to report indiscriminately to all who were slothful and careless of their life, but only to those who, either terrified by the fear of torments or delighted by the hope of perennial joys, wished to draw the profit of piety from his words. Finally, in the neighborhood of that cell there lived a certain monk, by name Haemgils, also preeminent in the grade of the presbyterate—which he matched with good deeds—who still survives, and in the island of Ireland, as a solitary, sustains the last age of life on coarse bread and cold water. He, going in more often to that same man, heard from him, by repeated questioning, what things and of what sort they were which he saw when stripped of the body; through whose report they also came to our recognition, the few matters which we have lightly sketched concerning these.

Narrabat autem uisiones suas etiam regi Aldfrido, uiro undecumque doctissimo; et tam libenter tamque studiose ab illo auditus est, ut eius rogatu monasterio supra memorato inditus, ac monachica sit tonsura coronatus, atque ad eum audiendum saepissime, cum illas in partes deuenisset, accederet. Cui uidelicet monasterio tempore illo religiosae ac modestae uitae abbas et presbyter Ediluald praeerat, qui nunc episcopalem Lindisfarnensis ecclesiae cathedram condignis gradu actibus seruat.

He would moreover relate his visions also to King Aldfrid, a man most learned from every quarter; and he was listened to by him so willingly and so studiously that, at his request, he was admitted into the above‑mentioned monastery, and was crowned with the monastic tonsure; and he would very often, whenever he came into those parts, come to hear him. At which monastery at that time the abbot and presbyter Ediluald, of religious and modest life, presided, who now with deeds worthy of his rank holds the episcopal cathedra of the church of Lindisfarne.

Accepit autem in eodem monasterio locum mansionis secretiorem, ubi liberius continuis in orationibus famulatui sui conditoris uacaret. Et quia locus ipse super ripam fluminis erat situs, solebat hoc creber ob magnum castigandi corporis affectum ingredi, ac saepius in eo supermeantibus undis inmergi; sicque ibidem quamdiu sustinere posse uidebatur, psalmis uel precibus insistere, fixusque manere, ascendente aqua fluminis usque ad lumbos, aliquando et usque ad collum; atque inde egrediens ad terram, numquam ipsa uestimenta uda atque algida deponere curabat, donec ex suo corpore calefierent et siccarentur. Cumque tempore hiemali defluentibus circa eum semifractarum crustis glacierum, quas et ipse aliquando contriuerat, quo haberet locum standi siue inmergendi in fluuio, dicerent, qui uidebant: ‘Mirum, frater Drycthelme,’ (hoc enim erat uiro nomen), ‘quod tantam frigoris asperitatem ulla ratione tolerare praeuales.’ Respondebat ille simpliciter, erat namque homo simplicis ingenii, ac moderatae naturae: ‘Frigidiora ego uidi.’ Et cum dicerent: ‘Mirum, quod tam austeram tenere continentiam uelis.’ Respondebat: ‘Austeriora ego uidi.’ Sicque usque ad diem suae uocationis infatigabili caelestium bonorum desiderio corpus senile inter cotidiana ieiunia domabat, multisque et uerbo et conuersatione saluti fuit.

Moreover, in the same monastery he received a more secluded place of dwelling, where he might the more freely be at leisure for the service of his Maker with continual prayers. And because that place was set above the bank of a river, he used frequently, out of a great zeal for chastising the body, to enter it, and often to be immersed in it while the waves flowed over; and there, for as long as he seemed able to endure, to persist in psalms and prayers, and to remain fixed, as the water of the river rose up to his loins, sometimes even to his neck; and then, going out to the land, he never cared to put off those same garments, wet and chilly as they were, until they were warmed and dried by his own body. And when in wintertime the half-broken crusts of ice were floating down around him—ice which he too had sometimes crushed, that he might have a place for standing or immersing in the river—those who saw would say: ‘A wonder, brother Drycthelm,’ (for this was the man’s name), ‘that you are able by any means to endure so great a harshness of cold.’ He would answer simply—for he was a man of simple wit and moderated nature: ‘I have seen colder.’ And when they said: ‘A wonder, that you should wish to hold so austere a continence.’ He would answer: ‘I have seen more austere.’ And thus, even to the day of his calling, with an indefatigable desire of heavenly goods, he tamed his aged body amid daily fasts, and was to the salvation of many both by word and by his conversation (way of life).

[13] AT contra fuit quidam in prouincia Merciorum, cuius uisiones ac uerba, non autem et conuersatio, plurimis, sed non sibimet ipsi, profuit. Fuit autem temporibus Coenredi, qui post Aedilredum regnauit, uir in laico habitu atque officio militari positus; sed quantum pro industria exteriori regi placens, tantum pro interna suimet neglegentia displicens. Ammonebat ergo illum sedulo, ut confiteretur, et emendaret, ac relinqueret scelera sua, priusquam subito mortis superuentu tempus omne paenitendi et emendandi perderet.

[13] BUT on the contrary there was a certain man in the province of the Mercians, whose visions and words—but not also his conduct—profited very many, but not himself. He was, moreover, in the times of Coenred, who reigned after Æthelred, a man in lay habit and placed in military office; but inasmuch as he was pleasing to the king for outward industry, so much was he displeasing for the negligence of his inner self. He therefore admonished him assiduously to confess, and to amend, and to relinquish his crimes, before, by the sudden supervention of death, he should lose all time for repenting and amending.

Uerum ille, frequenter licet admonitus, spernebat uerba salutis, seseque tempore sequente paenitentiam acturum esse promittebat. Haec inter tactus infirmitate, decidit in lectum, atque acri coepit dolore torqueri. Ad quem ingressus rex, diligebat enim eum multum, hortabatur, ut uel tunc, antequam moreretur, paenitentiam ageret commissorum.

But he, although frequently admonished, spurned the words of salvation, and promised that in time to follow he would perform penance. Meanwhile, touched by infirmity, he fell into bed and began to be racked with acute pain. To him the king, entering (for he loved him much), urged that even then, before he should die, he do penance for the things committed.

At ille respondit, non se tunc uelle confiteri peccata sua, sed cum ab infirmitate resurgeret; ne exprobrarent sibi sodales, quod timore mortis faceret ea, quae sospes facere noluerat; fortiter quidem, ut sibi uidebatur, locutus, sed miserabiliter, ut post patuit, daemonica fraude seductus.

But he replied that he did not wish then to confess his sins, but when he should rise again from his infirmity; lest his comrades reproach him, because out of fear of death he did those things which, being safe and sound, he had been unwilling to do; brave indeed, as it seemed to himself, in speech, but miserable, as afterward was evident, seduced by demonic fraud.

Cumque morbo ingrauescente, denuo ad eum uisitandum ac docendum rex intraret, clamabat statim miserabili uoce: ‘Quid uis modo? quid huc uenisti? non enim mihi aliquid utilitatis aut salutis potes ultra conferre.’ At ille: ‘Noli,’ inquit, ‘ita loqui, uide ut sanum sapias.’ ‘Non,’ inquit, ‘insanio, sed pessimam mihi scientiam certus prae oculis habeo.’ ‘Et quid,’ inquit, ‘hoc est?’ ‘Paulo ante,’ inquit, ‘intrauerunt domum hanc duo pulcherrimi iuuenes, et resederunt circa me, unus ad caput, et unus ad pedes; protulitque unus libellum perpulchrum, sed uehementer modicum, ac mihi ad legendum dedit; in quo omnia, quae umquam bona feceram, intuens scripta repperi, et haec erant nimium pauca et modica.

And when, the disease growing worse, the king entered again to visit and to teach him, he at once cried out with a miserable voice: ‘What do you want now? why have you come here? for you can no longer confer upon me anything of utility or salvation.’ But he: ‘Do not,’ he says, ‘speak thus; see that you think sanely.’ ‘No,’ he says, ‘I do not rave, but I have the worst knowledge, assured, before my eyes.’ ‘And what,’ he says, ‘is this?’ ‘A little before,’ he says, ‘there entered this house two most beautiful youths, and they sat down around me, one at the head, and one at the feet; and one brought forth a very beautiful little book, but exceedingly small, and gave it to me to read; in it, looking, I found written all the things which I had ever done good, and these were excessively few and small.’

Receperunt codicem, neque aliquid mihi dicebant. Tum subito superuenit exercitus malignorum et horridorum uultu spirituum, domumque hanc et exterius obsedit, et intus maxima ex parte residens impleuit. Tunc ille, qui et obscuritate tenebrosae faciei, et primatu sedis maior esse uidebatur eorum, proferens codicem horrendae uisionis, et magnitudinis enormis, et ponderis pene inportabilis, iussit uni ex satellitibus suis mihi ad legendum deferre.

They took back the codex, and said nothing to me. Then suddenly there supervened an army of malign and grim-visaged spirits, and it both besieged this house from the outside and, sitting within and occupying the greatest part, filled it. Then the one who, both by the obscurity of his shadowy face and by the primacy of his seat, seemed to be greater than the rest, producing a codex of horrendous aspect, of enormous magnitude, and of a weight almost unportable, ordered one of his satellites to bring it to me for reading.

Quem cum legissem, inueni omnia scelera, non solum quae opere uel uerbo, sed etiam quae tenuissima cogitatione peccaui, manifestissime in eo tetricis esse descripta litteris. Dicebatque ad illos, qui mihi adsederant, uiros albatos et praeclaros: “Quid hic sedetis, scientes certissime, quia noster est iste?” Responderunt: “Uerum dicitis: accipite et in cumulum damnationis uestrae ducite.” Quo dicto statim disparuerunt; surgentesque duo nequissimi spiritus, habentes in manibus uomeres, percusserunt me, unus in capite et alius in pede: qui uidelicet modo cum magno tormento inrepunt in interiora corporis mei, moxque ut ad se inuicem perueniunt, moriar, et paratis ad rapiendum me daemonibus in inferni claustra pertrahar.’

When I had read it, I found all the crimes, not only those which I sinned by deed or by word, but even those by the most tenuous thought, to be most plainly described there in grim letters. And he kept saying to those who had sat beside me, white-clad and illustrious men: “Why are you sitting here, knowing most certainly that this man is ours?” They answered: “You speak true: receive him and lead him to the heap of your condemnation.” When this was said, they straightway vanished; and two most wicked spirits, rising up, having ploughshares in their hands, struck me, one on the head and the other on the foot: which, indeed, now with great torment creep into the inner parts of my body, and as soon as they come to one another, I shall die, and, with the demons readied to snatch me, I shall be dragged into the bars of hell.’

Sic loquebatur miser desperans, et non multo post defunctus, paenitentiam, quam ad breue tempus cum fructu ueniae facere supersedit, in aeternum sine fructu poenis subditus facit. De quo constat, quia, sicut beatus papa Gregorius de quibusdam scribit, non pro se ista, cui non profuere, sed pro aliis uiderit, qui eius interitum cognoscentes differre tempus paenitentiae, dum uacat, timerent, ne inprouiso mortis articulo praeuenti, inpaenitentes perirent. Quod autem codices diuersos per bonos siue malos spiritus sibi uidit offerri, ob id superna dispensatione factum est, ut meminerimus facta et cogitationes nostras non in uentum diffluere, sed ad examen summi Iudicis cuncta seruari; et siue per amicos angelos in fine nobis ostendenda, siue per hostes.

Thus the wretch spoke, despairing, and not long after having died, he does penance—which he had deferred to do for a brief time with the fruit of pardon—forever without fruit, subjected to punishments. Concerning him it is evident that, just as the blessed Pope Gregory writes about certain persons, he saw these things not for himself, for whom they did not profit, but for others, who, learning of his end, would fear to defer the time of penance while there is leisure, lest, overtaken by the unforeseen article of death, they perish impenitent. But that he saw diverse codices offered to him by good or by evil spirits was done by heavenly dispensation for this reason: that we may remember our deeds and thoughts do not diffuse into the wind, but that all are preserved for the examination of the supreme Judge; and either to be shown to us at the end by friendly angels, or by enemies.

Quod uero prius candidum codicem protulerunt angeli, deinde atrum daemones; illi perparuum, isti enormem; animaduertendum est, quod in prima aetate bona aliqua fecit, quae tamen uniuersa praue agendo iuuenis obnubilauit. Qui si e contrario errores pueritiae corrigere in adulescentia, ac bene faciendo a Dei oculis abscondere curasset, posset eorum numero sociari, de quibus ait psalmus: ‘Beati, quorum remissae sunt iniquitates, et quorum tecta sunt peccata.’ Hanc historiam, sicut a uenerabili antistite Pecthelmo didici, simpliciter ob salutem legentium siue audientium narrandam esse putaui.

But that the angels first brought forth a white codex, then the demons a black one; the former very small, the latter enormous; it is to be observed that in his first age he did some good things, which, however, as a youth by acting perversely he overcast altogether. If, conversely, he had taken care in adolescence to correct the errors of boyhood, and by doing well to hide them from the eyes of God, he could be joined to the number of those of whom the psalm says: ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are remitted, and whose sins are covered.’ This history, as I learned from the venerable prelate Pecthelm, I have thought should be narrated simply for the salvation of the readers or hearers.

[14] NOUI autem ipse fratrem, quem utinam non nossem, cuius etiam nomen, si hoc aliquid prodesset, dicere possem; positum in monasterio nobili, sed ipsum ignobiliter uiuentem. Corripiebatur quidem sedulo a fratribus ac maioribus loci, atque ad castigatiorem uitam conuerti ammonebatur. Et quamuis eos audire noluisset, tolerabatur tamen ab eis longanimiter ob necessitatem operum ipsius exteriorum; erat enim fabrili arte singularis.

[14] But I myself knew a brother—would that I had not known him—whose very name I could even tell, if this would profit anything; he was placed in a noble monastery, but he himself was living ignobly. He was indeed assiduously rebuked by the brothers and the elders of the place, and was admonished to be converted to a more chastened life. And although he was unwilling to heed them, he was nevertheless borne with by them long-sufferingly on account of the necessity of his external works; for in the fabrile art he was singular.

Seruiebat autem multum ebrietati, et ceteris uitae remissioris inlecebris; magisque in officina sua die noctuque residere, quam ad psallendum atque orandum in ecclesia, audiendumque cum fratribus uerbum uitae concurrere consuerat. Unde accidit illi, quod solent dicere quidam, quia, qui non uult ecclesiae ianuam sponte humiliatus ingredi, necesse habet in ianuam inferni non sponte damnatus introduci. Percussus enim langore, atque ad extrema perductus, uocauit fratres, et multum merens ac damnato similis coepit narrare, quia uideret inferos apertos, et Satanan demersum in profundis tartari, Caiphanque cum ceteris, qui occiderunt Dominum, iuxta eum flammis ultricibus contraditum: ‘in quorum uicinia,’ inquit, ‘heu misero mihi locum despicio aeternae perditionis esse praeparatum.’ Audientes haec fratres coeperunt diligenter exhortari, ut uel tunc positus adhuc in corpore, paenitentiam faceret.

He, moreover, was in bondage much to drunkenness, and to the other allurements of a more remiss life; and he was more accustomed to sit in his workshop day and night, than to hasten to chant psalms and to pray in the church, and to run together with the brothers to hear the word of life. Whence it befell him what certain men are wont to say, namely, that he who does not wish to enter the door of the church, humbled of his own accord, must needs be led into the door of hell, not of his own accord, condemned. For, struck by illness and brought to the last extremity, he called the brothers, and, grieving much and like one condemned, began to relate that he saw the lower regions opened, and Satan sunk in the depths of Tartarus, and Caiaphas with the others who killed the Lord, delivered over beside him to avenging flames: ‘in whose vicinity,’ he says, ‘alas for wretched me, I descry that a place of eternal perdition has been prepared.’ Hearing these things, the brothers began diligently to exhort him that even then, still placed in the body, he should do penance.

Respondebat ille desperans: ‘Non est mihi modo tempus uitam mutandi, cum ipse uiderim iudicium meum iam esse conpletum.’

He answered, despairing: ‘It is not now time for me to change my life, since I myself have seen that my judgment is already completed.’

Talia dicens, sine uiatico salutis obiit, et corpus eius in ultimis est monasterii locis humatum, neque aliquis pro eo uel missas facere, uel psalmos cantare, uel saltim orare praesumebat. O quam grandi distantia diuisit Deus inter lucem et tenebras! Beatus protomartyr Stephanus passurus mortem pro ueritate, uidit caelos apertos, uidit gloriam Dei et Iesum stantem a dextris Dei; et ubi erat futurus ipse post mortem, ibi oculos mentis ante mortem, quo laetior occumberet, misit.

Saying such things, he died without the viaticum of salvation, and his body was interred in the remotest places of the monastery, nor did anyone presume on his behalf either to perform Masses, or to sing psalms, or at least to pray. O how great a distance God has set between light and darkness! The blessed protomartyr Stephen, about to suffer death for truth, saw the heavens opened, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and where he himself was going to be after death, there he sent the eyes of his mind before death, so that he might die the more joyful.

At contra, faber iste tenebrosae mentis et actionis, inminente morte, uidit aperta tartara, uidit damnationem diaboli et sequacium eius; uidit etiam suum infelix inter tales carcerem, quo miserabilius ipse desperata salute periret, sed uiuentibus, qui haec cognouissent, causam salutis sua perditione relinqueret. Factum est hoc nuper in prouincia Berniciorum; ac longe lateque diffamatum, multos ad agendam et non differendam scelerum suorum paenitudinem prouocauit. Quod utinam exhinc etiam nostrarum lectione litterarum fiat!

But on the contrary, that craftsman of dark mind and action, with death imminent, saw Tartarus laid open, saw the damnation of the Devil and of his followers; he saw also—unhappy wretch—his own prison among such, in order that, his salvation despaired of, he might perish the more miserably, but might leave to the living who learned these things a cause of salvation by his perdition. This happened recently in the province of the Bernicians; and being spread far and wide, it provoked many to do, and not to defer, the penitence for their crimes. Would that henceforth this too may come to pass through the reading of our writings!

[15] QUO tempore plurima pars Scottorum in Hibernia, et nonnulla etiam de Brettonibus in Brittania, rationabile et ecclesiasticum paschalis obseruantiae tempus Domino donante suscepit. Siquidem Adamnan, presbyter et abbas monachorum, qui erant in insula Hii, cum legationis gratia missus a sua gente, uenisset ad Aldfridum, regem Anglorum, et aliquandiu in ea prouincia moratus uideret ritus ecclesiae canonicos; sed et a pluribus, qui erant eruditiores, esset solerter admonitus, ne contra uniuersalem ecclesiae morem uel in obseruantia paschali, uel in aliis quibusque decretis cum suis paucissimis et in extremo mundi angulo positis uiuere praesumeret, mutatus mente est; ita ut ea, quae uiderat et audierat in ecclesiis Anglorum, suae suorumque consuetudini libentissime praeferret. Erat enim uir bonus, et sapiens, et scientia scripturarum nobilissime instructus.

[15] At which time the greater part of the Scots in Hibernia, and not a few also of the Britons in Britannia, with the Lord granting, accepted the reasonable and ecclesiastical time of paschal observance. For Adamnan, presbyter and abbot of the monks who were in the island of Hii, when, for the sake of an embassy, sent by his people, he had come to Aldfrith, king of the English, and, having stayed for some time in that province, saw the canonical rites of the church; and also was diligently admonished by many who were more erudite, that he should not presume, against the universal custom of the church—either in the paschal observance or in any other decrees—to live with his very few people set in the corner of the world, was changed in mind; so that he most gladly preferred those things which he had seen and heard in the churches of the English to his and his people’s consuetude. For he was a good man, and wise, and most nobly instructed in the knowledge of the Scriptures.

Qui cum domum redisset, curauit suos, qui erant in Hii, quiue eidem erant subditi monasterio, ad eum, quem cognouerat, quemque ipse toto ex corde susceperat, ueritatis callem perducere, nec ualuit. Nauigauit Hiberniam, et praedicans eis, ac modesta exhortatione declarans legitimum paschae tempus, plurimos eorum, et pene omnes, qui ab Hiensium dominio erant liberi, ab errore auito correctos, ad unitatem reduxit catholicam, ac legitimum paschae tempus obseruare perdocuit. Qui cum celebrato in Hibernia canonico pascha, ad suam insulam reuertisset, suoque monasterio catholicam temporis paschalis obseruantiam instantissime praedicaret, nec tamen perficere, quod conabatur, posset, contigit eum ante expletum anni circulum migrasse de saeculo.

Who, when he had returned home, took care to lead his own people, who were in Hii, and those who were subject to the same monastery, to that path of truth which he had recognized and which he himself had embraced with all his heart, and he was not able. He sailed to Ireland, and by preaching to them and by modest exhortation declaring the legitimate time of Easter, he led back very many of them, and nearly all who were free from the dominion of the men of Hii, corrected from ancestral error, to catholic unity, and he thoroughly taught them to observe the legitimate time of Easter. Who, when, the canonical Easter having been celebrated in Ireland, he had returned to his island, and was most urgently preaching to his monastery the catholic observance of the time of Easter, yet could not bring to completion what he was attempting, it befell that, before the full circuit of the year was completed, he departed from this world.

Diuina utique gratia disponente, ut uir unitatis ac pacis studiosissimus ante ad uitam raperetur aeternam, quam redeunte tempore paschali, grauiorem cum eis, qui eum ad ueritatem sequi nolebant, cogeretur habere discordiam.

Divine grace indeed disposing matters, that the man most studious of unity and peace might be snatched away to eternal life beforehand, rather than, with the Paschal season returning, be compelled to have a graver discord with those who were unwilling to follow him to the truth.

Scripsit idem uir de locis sanctis librum legentibus multis utillimum; cuius auctor erat docendo ac dictando Galliarum episcopus Arcuulfus, qui locorum gratia sanctorum uenerat Hierosolymam, et lustrata omni terra repromissionis, Damascum quoque, Constantinopolim, Alexandriam, multas maris insulas adierat; patriamque nauigio reuertens, ui tempestatis in occidentalia Brittaniae litora delatus est; ac post multa ad memoratum Christi famulum Adamnanum perueniens, ubi doctus in scripturis, sanctorumque locorum gnarus esse conpertus est, libentissime est ab illo susceptus, libentius auditus; adeo ut, quaeque ille se in locis sanctis memoratu digna uidisse testabatur, cuncta mox iste litteris mandare curauerit. Fecitque opus, ut dixi, multis utile, et maxime illis, qui longius ab eis locis, in quibus patriarchae uel apostoli erant, secreti, ea tantum de his, quae lectione didicerint, norunt. Porrexit autem librum hunc Adamnan Aldfrido regi, ac per eius est largitionem etiam minoribus ad legendum contraditus.

The same man wrote a book about the holy places, most useful to many readers; whose author, by teaching and dictating, was Arculf, a bishop of the Gauls, who for the sake of the holy places had come to Jerusalem, and, after the whole land of promise had been traversed, had also gone to Damascus, Constantinople, Alexandria, and many islands of the sea; and, returning to his fatherland by ship, by the force of a storm was driven to the western shores of Britain; and after many wanderings, coming to the aforesaid servant of Christ, Adamnan, where he was found to be learned in the Scriptures and knowledgeable about the holy places, he was most gladly received by him, more gladly listened to; to such a degree that this man at once took care to commit to letters all the things which that man attested he had seen, worthy of remembrance, in the holy places. And he made a work, as I said, useful to many, and especially to those who, farther removed, separated from those places in which the patriarchs or the apostles had been, know only such things about them as they have learned by reading. Moreover, Adamnan presented this book to King Aldfrid, and through his largess it was also handed over to lesser folk for reading.

Scriptor quoque ipse multis ab ea muneribus donatus patriam remissus est. De cuius scriptis aliqua decerpere, ac nostrae huic historiae inserere commodum fore legentibus reor.

The writer himself also, endowed with many gifts by that bounty, was sent back to his fatherland. Of whose writings I deem it advantageous for readers to excerpt some things and to insert them into this our history.

[16] SCRIPSIT ergo de loco dominicae natiuitatis in hunc modum:— Bethleem ciuitas Dauid in dorso sita est angusto ex omni parte uallibus circumdato, ab occidente in orientem mille passibus longa, humili sine turribus muro per extrema plani uerticis instructo; in cuius orientali angulo quasi quoddam naturale semiantrum est, cuius exterior pars natiuitatis dominicae fuisse dicitur locus; interior Praesepe Domini nominatur. Haec spelunca tota interius pretioso marmore tecta supra locum, ubi Dominus natus specialius traditur, sanctas Mariae grandem gestat ecclesiam.

[16] He wrote, then, about the place of the Lord’s nativity in this manner:— Bethlehem, the city of David, is set on a ridge, narrow and on every side surrounded by valleys, a thousand paces long from west to east, with a low wall without towers constructed along the edges of the level summit; in its eastern corner there is, as it were, a certain natural half-cavern, whose outer part is said to have been the place of the Lord’s nativity; the inner is called the Lord’s Manger. This cave, wholly covered within with precious marble, above the place where the Lord is more specifically reported to have been born, bears a great church of Saint Mary.

Scripsit item hoc modo de loco passionis ac resurrectionis illius:— ‘Ingressis a septentrionali parte urbem Hierosolymam, primum de locis sanctis pro condicione platearum diuertendum est ad ecclesiam Constantinianam, quae Martyrium appellatur. Hanc Constantinus imperator, eo quod ibi crux Domini ab Helena matre reperta sit, magnifico et regio cultu construxit. Dehinc ab occasu Golgothana uidetur ecclesia, in qua etiam rupis apparet illa, quae quondam ipsam adfixo Domini corpore crucem pertulit, argenteam modo pergrandem sustinens crucem, pendente magna desuper aerea rota cum lampadibus.

He also wrote in this way about the place of his passion and resurrection:— ‘Upon entering the city Jerusalem from the northern side, first among the holy places, according to the arrangement of the streets, one must turn aside to the Constantinian church, which is called the Martyrium. This Constantine the emperor, for the reason that there the cross of the Lord was found by his mother Helena, built with magnificent and regal adornment. Then from the west the Golgothan church is seen, in which there also appears that very rock which once bore the very cross with the body of the Lord affixed to it, now supporting a very large silver cross, with a great bronze wheel hanging above with lamps.

Infra ipsum uero locum dominicae crucis, excisa in petra crypta est, in qua super altare pro defunctis honoratis sacrificium solet offerri, positis interim in platea corporibus. Huius quoque ad occasum ecclesiae, Anastasis, hoc est resurrectionis dominicae rotunda ecclesia, tribus cincta parietibus, XII columnis sustentatur, inter parietes singulos latum habens spatium uiae, quae tria altaria in tribus locis parietis medii continet, hoc est australi, aquilonali, et occidentali. Haec bis quaternas portas, id est introitus, per tres e regione parietes habet, e quibus IIII ad Uulturnum, et IIII ad Eurum spectant.

Beneath the very place of the Lord’s cross, a crypt has been hewn in the rock, in which upon the altar the sacrifice is wont to be offered for honored departed, with the bodies meanwhile set in the square. To the west of this church likewise, the Anastasis, that is, the round church of the Lord’s Resurrection, is girded by three walls, and is sustained by 12 columns, having between each of the walls a broad passage-space, which contains three altars in three places of the middle wall, that is, the southern, the northern, and the western. This has twice four doors, that is, entrances, distributed across the three walls in facing array, of which 4 look toward Uulturnum, and 4 toward Eurus.

Huius in medio monumentum Domini rotundum petra excisum est, cuius culmen intrinsecus stans homo manu contingere potest, ab oriente habens introitum, cui lapis ille magnus adpositus est; quod intrinsecus ferramentorum uestigia usque in praesens ostendit. Nam extrinsecus usque ad culminis summitatem totum marmore tectum est. Summum uero culmen auro ornatum auream magnam gestat crucem.

In the middle of this, the Lord’s monument, round, is hewn from rock, whose summit a man standing within can touch with his hand, having an entrance from the east, to which that great stone has been set; which on the inside shows, even to the present, the vestiges of iron tools. For on the outside, up to the very top of the summit, it is entirely covered with marble. But the topmost summit, adorned with gold, bears a great golden cross.

In huius ergo monumenti Aquilonali parte sepulchrum Domini in eadem petra excisum, longitudinis VII pedum, trium mensura palmarum pauimento altius eminet; introitum habens a latere meridiano, ubi die noctuque XII lampades ardent, IIII intra sepulchrum, VIII supra in margine dextro. Lapis, qui ad ostium monumenti positus erat, nunc fissus est; cuius pars minor quadratum altare ante ostium nihilominus eiusdem monumenti stat; maior uero in orientali eiusdem ecclesiae loco quadrangulum aliud altare sub linteaminibus exstat. Color autem eiusdsm monumenti et sepulchri albo et rubicundo permixtus uidetur.

Therefore in the northern part of this monument the Lord’s sepulcher, cut in the same rock, of a length of 7 feet, by a measure of three palms stands higher than the pavement; having an entrance on the southern side, where by day and night 12 lamps burn, 4 within the sepulcher, 8 above on the right margin. The stone which had been placed at the door of the monument is now split; the smaller part of it stands, nevertheless, as a square altar before the doorway of that same monument; the larger, however, in the eastern place of that same church stands forth as another quadrangular altar beneath the linens. Moreover, the color of that same monument and sepulcher appears mixed of white and ruddy.

[17] DE loco quoque ascensionis dominicae praefatus auctor hoc modo refert:— Mons Oliuarum altitudine monti Sion par est, sed latitudine et longitudine praestat; exceptis uitibus et oliuis, rarae ferax arboris, frumenti quoque et hordei fertilis. Neque enim brucosa, sed herbosa et florida soli illius est qualitas; in cuius summo uertice, ubi Dominus ad caelos ascendit, ecclesia rotunda grandis, ternas per circuitum cameratas habet porticus desuper tectas. Interior namque domus propter dominici corporis meatum camerari et tegi non potuit; altare ad orientem habens angusto culmine protectum, in cuius medio ultima Domini uestigia, caelo desuper patente, ubi ascendit, uisuntur.

[17] CONCERNING the place also of the Lord’s Ascension the aforesaid author reports in this way:— The Mount of Olives is equal in altitude to Mount Sion, but it surpasses in latitude and longitude; except for vines and olives, it is fertile in few trees, and it is fertile also in wheat and barley. For the quality of that soil is not heathery, but grassy and florid; on whose highest summit, where the Lord ascended to the heavens, a great round church has porticoes, three in number, vaulted around the circuit and roofed from above. For the inner house, on account of the passage of the Lord’s body, could not be vaulted and roofed; having an altar to the east, protected by a narrow roof, in the midst of which the last footprints (vestiges) of the Lord are seen, with the heaven open above, where he ascended.

Quae cum cotidie a credentibus terra tollatur, nihilominus manet, eandemque adhuc speciem ueluti inpressis signata uestigiis seruat. Haec circa aerea rota iacet, usque ad ceruicem alta, ab occasu habens introitum, pendente desuper in trocleis magna lampade, totaque die et nocte lucente. In occidentali eiusdem ecclesiae parte fenestrae octo, totidemque e regione lampades in funibus pendentes usque Hierosolymam per uitrum fulgent; quarum lux corda intuentium cum quadam alacritate et conpunctione pauefacere dicitur.

Which, although the earth is daily taken away by the believers, nonetheless remains, and still preserves the same appearance, as if marked by impressed footprints. Around this there lies a bronze wheel, high up to the neck, having an entrance from the west, with a great lamp hanging above on pulleys, and shining through the whole day and night. In the western part of the same church there are eight windows, and just as many lamps opposite, hanging on cords, shine through the glass as far as Jerusalem; the light of which is said to make the hearts of the beholders tremble with a certain alacrity and compunction.

In die ascensionis dominicas per annos singulos, missa peracta, ualidi flaminis procella desursum uenire consueuit, et omnes, qui in ecclesia adfuerint, terrae prosternere.

On the day of the Lord’s Ascension each year, the Mass having been completed, a squall of mighty wind is wont to come from above, and to prostrate upon the earth all who have been present in the church.

De situ etiam Chebron et monumentis patrum ita scribit:— Chebron quondam ciuitas et metropolis regni Dauid, nunc ruinis tantum, quid tunc fuerit, ostendens. Uno ad orientem stadio speluncam duplicem in ualle habet, ubi sepulchra patriarcharum quadrato muro circumdantur, capitibus uersis ad Aquilonem; et haec singula singulis tecta lapidibus instar basilicae dolatis; trium patriarcharum candidis, Adam obscurioris et uilioris operis, qui haud longe ab illis ad borealem extremamque muri illius partem pausat. Trium quoque feminarum uiliores et minores memoriae cernuntur.

On the site also of Hebron and the monuments of the fathers he writes thus:— Hebron, once a city and metropolis of the kingdom of David, now by ruins only shows what it then was. At one stade to the east it has a double cave in a valley, where the sepulchers of the patriarchs are surrounded by a square wall, with their heads turned toward the North; and these, each individually, are roofed with hewn stones in the likeness of a basilica; those of the three patriarchs with white (stone), Adam’s of darker and cheaper workmanship, who not far from them reposes at the northern and farthest part of that wall. Also of the three women, meaner and smaller memorials are seen.

Mamre collis mille passibus a monumentis his ad Boream, herbosus ualde et floridus, campestrem habens in uertice planitiem; in cuius aquilonali parte quercus Abrahae duorum hominum altitudinis truncus ecclesia circumdata est.

The hill of Mamre, at a thousand paces to the North from these monuments, very grassy and flowery, having on its summit a level plain; in whose northern part the trunk of Abraham’s oak, of the height of two men, is surrounded by a church.

Haec de opusculis excerpta praefati scriptoris ad sensum quidem uerborum illius, sed breuioribus strictisque conprehensa sermonibus, nostris ad utilitatem legentium historiis indere placuit. Plura uoluminis illius, siqui scire delectat, uel in ipso illo uolumine, uel in eo, quod de illo dudum strictim excerpsimus, epitomate requirat.

These things, excerpts from the opuscules of the aforesaid writer, indeed according to the sense of his words, but compressed into briefer and tighter discourses, we have been pleased to insert into our histories for the utility of readers. If anyone takes delight to know more of that volume, let him seek it either in that very volume itself, or in the epitome which we some time ago briefly extracted from it.

[18] ANNO dominicae incarnationis DCCV Aldfrid, rex Nordanhymbrorum, defunctus est, anno regni sui XXo necdum inpleto; cui succedens in imperium filius suus Osred, puer octo circiter annorum, regnauit annis XI. Huius regni principio antistes Occidentalium Saxonum Haeddi caelestem migrauit ad uitam. Bonus quippe erat uir, ac iustus, et episcopalem uitam siue doctrinam magis insito sibi uirtutum amore quam lectionibus institutus exercebat. Denique reuerentissimus antistes Pecthelm, de quo in sequentibus suo loco dicendum est, qui cum successore eius Aldhelmo multo tempore adhuc diaconus siue monachus fuit, referre est solitus, quod in loco, quo defunctus est, ob meritum sanctitatis eius multa sanitatum sint patrata miracula, hominesque prouinciae illius solitos ablatum inde puluerem propter languentes in aquam mittere, atque huius gustum siue aspersionem multis sanitatem egrotis et hominibus et pecoribus conferre; propter quod frequenti ablatione pulueris sacri fossa sit ibidem facta non minima.

[18] In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 705 Aldfrid, king of the Northumbrians, was deceased, in the 20th year of his reign not yet completed; his son Osred, succeeding to the rule, a boy of about eight years, reigned for 11 years. At the beginning of his reign the pontiff of the West Saxons, Haeddi, migrated to the heavenly life. For he was a good and just man, and he practiced the episcopal life and doctrine, trained more by an inborn love of virtues than by readings. Accordingly, the most reverend pontiff Pecthelm—of whom in what follows, in his own place, it is to be said—who was for a long time, with his successor Aldhelm, still a deacon or a monk, was wont to relate that in the place where he died, on account of the merit of his sanctity, many miracles of healings were wrought, and that the men of that province were accustomed to take away dust from there on behalf of the sick, to put it into water, and that the taste or aspersion of this conferred health on many sick—both men and cattle; for which reason, by the frequent removal of the sacred dust, no small pit has been made there.

Quo defuncto, episcopatus prouinciae illius in duas parrochias diuisus est. Una data Daniheli, quam usque hodie regit; altera Aldhelmo, cui annis IIII strenuissime praefuit; ambo et in rebus ecclesiasticis, et in scientia scripturarum sufficienter instructi. Denique Aldhelm, cum adhuc esset presbyter et abbas monasterii, quod ‘Maildufi urbem’ nuncupant, scripsit, iubente synodo suae gentis, librum egregium aduersus errorem Brettonum, quo uel pascha non suo tempore celebrant, uel alia perplura ecclesiasticae castitati et paci contraria gerunt, multosque eorum, qui Occidentalibus Saxonibus subditi erant Brettones, ad catholicam dominici paschae celebrationem huius lectione perduxit.

Upon his death, the episcopate of that province was divided into two dioceses. One was given to Daniel, which he governs to this day; the other to Aldhelm, over which he presided most strenuously for 4 years; both sufficiently instructed both in ecclesiastical affairs and in the knowledge of the Scriptures. Finally, Aldhelm, while he was still a presbyter and abbot of the monastery which they call ‘Maildufi urbem’, wrote, at the bidding of the synod of his people, a distinguished book against the error of the Britons, whereby they either celebrate Pascha not at its proper time, or perform many other things contrary to ecclesiastical chastity and peace; and by the reading of this he led many of those Britons who were subject to the West Saxons to the catholic celebration of the Lord’s Pascha.

Scripsit et de uirginitate librum eximium, quem in exemplum Sedulii geminato opere, et uersibus exametris, et prosa conposuit. Scripsit et alia nonnulla, utpote uir undecumque doctissimus; nam et sermone nitidus, et scripturarum, ut dixi, tam liberalium quam ecclesiasticarum erat eruditione mirandus. Quo defuncto, pontificatum pro eo suscepit Fortheri, qui usque hodie superest; uir et ipse in scripturis sanctis multum eruditus.

He also wrote an exceptional book on virginity, which, after the exemplar of Sedulius, he composed as a twin-work, both in hexameter verses and in prose. He wrote some other things as well, being a man most learned from every side; for he was polished in speech, and, as I said, to be wondered at for erudition in writings both liberal and ecclesiastical. Upon his decease, Fortheri assumed the pontificate in his stead, who survives to this day—a man himself also much erudite in the Holy Scriptures.

Quibus episcopatum administrantibus statutum est synodali decreto, ut prouincia Australium Saxonum, quae eatenus ad ciuitatis Uentanae, cui tunc Danihel praeerat, parrochiam pertinebat, et ipsa sedem episcopalem, ac proprium haberet episcopum; consecratusque est eis primus antistes Eadberct, qui erat abbas monasterii beatae memoriae Uilfridi episcopi, quod dicitur Selæseu; quo defuncto, Eolla suscepit officium pontificatus. Ipso autem ante aliquot annos ex hac luce subtracto, episcopatus usque hodie cessauit.

While they were administering the bishopric, it was established by a synodal decree that the province of the South Saxons, which up to that time had pertained to the diocese of the city of Venta, over which Daniel then presided, should itself also have an episcopal seat and a bishop of its own; and the first prelate was consecrated for them, Eadberct, who was abbot of the monastery of Bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory, which is called Selæseu; upon his death, Eolla took up the office of the pontificate. But he, having been taken away from this light several years before, the bishopric has ceased until today.

[19] ANNO autem imperii Osredi IIIIo, Coinred, qui regno Merciorum nobilissime tempore aliquanto praefuerat, nobilius multo regni sceptra reliquit. Nam uenit Romam, ibique adtonsus, pontificatum habente Constantino, ac monachusfactus, ad limina apostolorum, in precibus, ieiuniis, et elimosynis usque ad diem permansit ultimum; succedente in regnum Ceolredo filio Aedilredi, qui ante ipsum Coinredum idem regnum tenebat. Uenit autem cum illo et filius Sigheri regis Orientalium Saxonum, cuius supra meminimus, uocabulo Offa, iuuenis amantissimae aetatis et uenustatis, totaeque suae genti ad tenenda seruandaque regni sceptra exoptatissimus.

[19] In the 4th year of Osred’s reign, Coenred, who had presided over the kingdom of the Mercians most nobly for some time, left the scepters of the realm much more nobly. For he came to Rome, and there, having been tonsured, with Constantine holding the pontificate, and having been made a monk, at the thresholds of the apostles he remained in prayers, fastings, and alms until his last day; Ceolred, the son of Æthelred, succeeding to the kingdom, who before Coenred himself had held the same kingdom. But there came with him also the son of Sigehere, king of the East Saxons, of whom we made mention above, by the name Offa, a youth of most lovable age and comeliness, and to his whole people most greatly longed-for for holding and guarding the scepters of the kingdom.

Qui pari ductus deuotione mentis, reliquit uxorem, agros, cognatos, et patriam propter Christum, et propter euangelium, ut in hac uita centuplum acciperet, et in saeculo uenturo uitam aeternam. Et ipse ergo, ubi ad loca sancta Romam peruenerunt, adtonsus, et in monachico uitam habitu conplens, ad uisionem beatorum apostolorum in caelis diu desideratam peruenit.

Who, led by an equal devotion of mind, left wife, fields, kinsfolk, and fatherland for Christ and for the evangel, that he might receive a hundredfold in this life, and in the age to come life eternal. And he too, therefore, when they had reached the holy places at Rome, was tonsured, and, completing his life in a monastic habit, attained to the long-desired vision of the blessed apostles in the heavens.

Eodem sane anno, quo hi Brittaniam reliquere, antistes eximius Uilfrid post XL et V annos accepti episcopatus diem clausit extremum in prouincia, quae uocatur Inundalum; corpusque eius loculo inditum, perlatum est in monasterium ipsius, quod dicitur Inhrypum, et iuxta honorem tanto pontifici congruum in ecclesia beati apostoli Petri sepultum. De cuius statu uitae, ut ad priora repedantes, paucis, quae sunt gesta, memoremus, cum esset puer bonae indolis, atque aetatem moribus transiens, ita se modeste et circumspecte in omnibus gereret, ut merito a maioribus quasi unus ex ipsis amaretur, ueneraretur, amplecteretur, ubi XIIIIum aetatis contigit annum, monasticam saeculari uitam praetulit. Quod ubi patrisuo narrauit, iam enim mater obierat, libenter eius uotis ac desideriis caelestibus adnuit, eumque coeptis insistere salutaribus iussit.

In that same year, in which these men left Britain, the most distinguished prelate Wilfrid, after 45 years from the receiving of the episcopate, closed his last day in the province which is called Inundalum; and his body, placed in a coffin, was carried to his own monastery, which is called Inhrypum, and was buried, in a manner congruent to so great a pontiff, in the church of the blessed apostle Peter. Of whose manner of life, returning to earlier matters, let us recall in a few words what was done: when he was a boy of good disposition, and surpassing his age in morals, he so bore himself modestly and circumspectly in all things that he was deservedly loved, venerated, and embraced by his elders as if one of themselves; when the 14th year of his age befell, he preferred the monastic life to the secular. And when he told this to his paternal uncle (for his mother had already died), he readily nodded assent to his heavenly vows and desires, and bade him persist in his salutary undertakings.

Uenit ergo ad insulam Lindisfarnensem, ibique monachorum famulatui se contradens, diligenter ea, quae monasticae castitatis ac pietatis erant, et discere curabat et agere. Et quia acris erat ingenii, didicit citissime psalmos, et aliquot codices; necdum quidem adtonsus, uerum eis, quae tonsura maiores sunt, uirtutibus, humilitatis et oboedientiae, non mediocriter insignitus; propter quod et a senioribus et coaetaneis suis iusto colebatur affectu. In quo uidelicet monasterio cum aliquot annos Deo seruiret, animaduertit paulatim adulescens animi sagacis, minime perfectam esse uirtutis uiam, quae tradebatur a Scottis, proposuitque animo uenire Romam, et qui ad sedem apostolicam ritus ecclesiastici siue monasteriales seruarentur, uidere.

He therefore came to the island of Lindisfarne, and there, handing himself over to the service of the monks, he took care diligently both to learn and to practice the things that pertained to monastic chastity and piety. And because he was of a keen intellect, he learned most swiftly the psalms and several codices; not yet indeed tonsured, but marked not moderately by those virtues which are greater than the tonsure—humility and obedience; for which reason he was honored with just affection by both his elders and his coevals. In that same monastery, as he served God for several years, the youth of shrewd mind gradually observed that the way of virtue which was handed down by the Scots was by no means perfect; and he resolved in his mind to come to Rome, and to see what ecclesiastical or monastic rites were observed at the apostolic see.

Quod cum fratribus referret, laudauerunt eius propositum, eumque id, quod mente disposuerat, perficere suadebant. At ille confestim ueniens ad reginam Eanfledam, quia notus erat ei, eiusque consilio ac suffragiis praefato fuerat monasterio sociatus, indicauit ei desiderium sibi inesse beatorum apostolorum limina uisitandi; quae delectata bono adulescentis proposito, misit eum Cantiam ad regem Erconberctum, qui erat filius auunculi sui, postulans, ut eum honorifice Romam transmitteret. Quo tempore ibi gradum archiepiscopatus Honorius, unus ex discipulis beati papae Gregorii, uir in rebus ecclesiasticis sublimiter institutus seruabat.

When he reported this to the brothers, they praised his purpose and urged him to bring to completion that which he had disposed in mind. But he, coming straightway to Queen Eanfleda—because he was known to her, and by her counsel and suffrages had been associated with the aforesaid monastery—declared to her that there was in him a desire of visiting the thresholds of the blessed apostles; and she, delighted by the good purpose of the adolescent, sent him into Kent to King Erconberht, who was the son of her uncle, requesting that he transmit him honorably to Rome. At which time there Honorius, one of the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, a man highly instituted in ecclesiastical matters, held the rank of the archiepiscopate.

Ubi cum aliquandiu demoratus adulescens animi uiuacis diligenter his, quae inspiciebat, discendis operam daret, superuenit illo alius adulescens, nomine Biscop, cognomento Benedictus, de nobilibus Anglorum, cupiens et ipse Romam uenire; cuius supra meminimus.

Where, when he had delayed for some time, the youth of lively spirit was diligently giving effort to learning those things which he was inspecting, there arrived there another youth, by name Biscop, by cognomen Benedict, of the nobles of the English, desiring he too to come to Rome; of whom we have made mention above.

Huius ergo comitatui rex sociauit Uilfridum, utque illum secum Romam perduceret, iussit. Qui cum Lugdunum peruenissent, Uilfrid a Dalfino ciuitatis episcopo ibi retentus est, Benedictus coeptum iter nauiter Romam usque conpleuit. Delectabatur enim antistes prudentia uerborum iuuenis, gratia uenusti uultus, alacritate actionis, et constantia ac maturitate cogitationis.

Therefore the king associated Wilfrid with this retinue, and ordered that he should conduct him to Rome in his company. When they had reached Lugdunum, Wilfrid was there detained by Dalfinus, the bishop of the city, while Benedict vigorously completed the begun journey all the way to Rome. For the prelate was delighted by the prudence of the young man’s words, the grace of his comely countenance, the alacrity of his action, and the constancy and maturity of his thought.

Unde et omnia, quae necesse habebat, habundanter ipsi cum sociis suis, quamdiu secum erant, donabat; et insuper offerebat, ut, si uellet, partem Galliarum non minimam illi regendam committeret, ac filiam fratris sui uirginem illi coniugem daret, eumque ipse loco adoptiui semper haberet. At ille gratias agens pietati, quam erga eum, cum esset peregrinus, habere dignaretur, respondit propositum se magis alterius conuersationis habere, atque ideo, patria relicta, Romam iter agere coepisse.

Whence also he was abundantly bestowing upon him together with his companions all the things which he had need of, as long as they were with him; and in addition he offered that, if he wished, he would entrust to him no small part of Gaul to be governed, and would give to him as wife the virgin daughter of his brother, and himself would always hold him in the place of an adoptive son. But he, giving thanks for the piety which he deigned to have toward him, when he was a pilgrim, replied that he had rather the purpose of a different manner of life, and therefore, his homeland left behind, he had begun to make a journey to Rome.

Quibus auditis antistes misit eum Romam, dato duce itineris, et cunctis simul, quae necessitas poscebat itineris, largiter subministratis; obsecrans sedulo, ut, cum patriam reuerteretur, per se iter facere meminisset. Ueniens uero Romam, et orationibus ac meditationi rerum ecclesiasticarum, ut animo proposuerat, cotidiana mancipatus instantia, peruenit ad amicitiam uiri sanctissimi ac doctissimi, Bonifatii uidelicet archidiaconi, qui etiam consiliarius erat apostolici papae; cuius magisterio IIII euangeliorum libros ex ordine didicit, computum paschae rationabilem, et alia multa, quae in patria nequiuerat, ecclesiasticis disciplinis accommoda, eodem magistro tradente percepit; et cum menses aliquot ibi studiis occupatus felicibus exegisset, rediit ad Dalfinum in Galliam, et III annos apud eum commoratus, adtonsus est ab eo, et in tanto habitus amore, ut heredem sibi illum facere cogitasset. Sed ne hoc fieri posset, antistes crudeli morte praereptus est, et Uilfrid ad suae potius, hoc est Anglorum, gentis episcopatum reseruatus.

When these things had been heard, the prelate sent him to Rome, with a guide for the journey provided and, at the same time, everything which the necessity of the journey demanded being supplied liberally; earnestly beseeching that, when he returned to his fatherland, he would remember to make the journey back by way of him. Coming to Rome, and, as he had purposed in mind, devoting himself with daily constancy to prayers and to the meditation of ecclesiastical matters, he attained the friendship of a most holy and most learned man, namely Boniface the archdeacon, who was also counselor of the apostolic pope; by whose tutelage he learned in order the 4 books of the Gospels, the rational Paschal computation (computus), and many other things, accommodated to ecclesiastical disciplines, which he had been unable to learn in his homeland, receiving them as the same master imparted them; and when he had spent several months there happily occupied with studies, he returned to Dalfinus in Gaul, and, having stayed with him for 3 years, he was tonsured by him, and was held in such love that he had conceived the plan to make him his heir. But, lest this could come to pass, the prelate was snatched away by a cruel death, and Wilfrid was reserved rather for the episcopate of his own people, that is, of the English.

Namque Baldhild regina missis militibus episcopum iussit interfici; quem ad locum quidem, quo decollandus erat, secutus est Uilfrid clericus illius, desiderans cum eo, tametsi ipso multum prohibente, pariter occumbere. Sed hunc ubi peregrinum atque oriundum de natione Anglorum cognouere carnifices, pepercere illi, neque eum trucidare cum suo uoluere pontifice.

For Queen Baldhild, having sent soldiers, ordered the bishop to be put to death; and Uilfrid, his cleric, followed him to the very place where he was to be beheaded, desiring, although he himself strongly forbade it, to fall together with him. But when the executioners learned that he was a foreigner and originally from the nation of the English, they spared him, and were unwilling to slaughter him together with his bishop.

At ille Brittaniam ueniens, coniunctus est amicitiis Alchfridi regis, qui catholicas ecclesiae regulas sequi semper, et amare didicerat. Unde et ille, quia catholicum eum esse conperiit, mox donauit terram X familiarum in loco, qui dicitur Stanford, et non multo post monasterium XXX familiarum in loco, qui uocatur Inhrypum; quem uidelicet locum dederat pridem ad construendum inibi monasterium his, qui Scottos sequebantur. Uerum quia illi postmodum optione data maluerunt loco cedere, quam pascha catholicum, ceterosque ritus canonicos iuxta Romanae et apostolicae ecclesiae consuetudinem recipere, dedit hoc illi, quem melioribus inbutum disciplinis ac moribus uidit.

But he, coming to Britain, was joined in friendships with King Alchfrid, who had learned always to follow and to love the catholic rules of the church. And so he, because he discovered him to be catholic, soon granted land of 10 households in the place which is called Stanford, and not much later a monastery of 30 households in the place which is called Inhrypum; which place, indeed, he had formerly given to those who followed the Scots, for constructing a monastery there. But because they, when a choice was given, later preferred to yield the place rather than to receive the catholic Pasch (Easter) and the other canonical rites according to the custom of the Roman and apostolic church, he gave this to him, whom he saw imbued with better disciplines and morals.

Quo in tempore, ad iussionem praefati regis presbyter ordinatus est in eodem monasterio ab Agilbercto episcopo Geuissorum, cuius supra meminimus, desiderante rege, ut uir tantae eruditionis ac religionis sibi specialiter indiuiduo comitatu sacerdos esset, ac doctor. Quem non multo post, detecta et eliminata, ut et supra docuimus, Scottorum secta, Galliam mittens, cum consilio atque consensu patris sui Osuiu, episcopum sibi rogauit ordinari, cum esset annorum circiter XXX, eodem Agilbercto tunc episcopatum agente Parisiacae ciuitatis; cum quo et alii XI episcopi ad dedicationem antistitis conuenientes, multum honorifice ministerium impleuerunt. Quo adhuc in transmarinis partibus demorante, consecratus est in episcopatum Eboraci, iubente rege Osuio, Ceadda uir sanctus, ut supra memoratum est, et tribus annis ecclesiam sublimiter regens, dehinc ad monasterii sui, quod est in Læstingæi, curam secessit, accipiente Uilfrido episcopatum totius Nordanhymbrorum prouinciae.

At which time, at the bidding of the aforesaid king, he was ordained presbyter (priest) in the same monastery by Agilberct, bishop of the Gewisse, of whom we have made mention above, the king desiring that a man of such erudition and religion should be to himself specially, with inseparable companionship, as priest and teacher. Whom not long after, the sect of the Scots having been detected and eliminated, as we have also shown above, sending to Gaul, with the counsel and consent of his father Oswiu, he asked to be ordained bishop for himself, when he was about 30 years of age, the same Agilberct at that time holding the episcopate of the city of Paris; with whom also 11 other bishops, assembling for the consecration of the prelate, very honorably fulfilled the ministry. While he was still lingering in transmarine parts, Ceadda, a holy man, was consecrated to the episcopate at York, by command of King Oswiu, as was mentioned above, and, magnificently ruling the church for 3 years, thereafter withdrew to the care of his own monastery, which is at Lastingham, Wilfrid receiving the episcopate of the whole province of the Northumbrians.

Qui deinde regnante Ecgfrido, pulsus est episcopatu, et alii pro illo consecrati antistites, quorum supra meminimus; Romamque iturus, et coram apostolico papa causam dicturus, ubi nauem conscendit, flante Fauonio pulsus est Fresiam, et honorifice susceptus a barbaris ac rege illorum Aldgilso, praedicabat eis Christum, et multa eorum milia uerbo ueritatis instituens, a peccatorum suorum sordibus fonte Saluatoris abluit; et quod postmodum Uilbrord, reuerentissimus Christi pontifex, in magna deuotione conpleuit, ipse primus ibi opus euangelicum coepit. Ibi ergo hiemem cum noua Dei plebe feliciter exigens, sic Romam ueniendi iter repetiit; et ubi causa eius uentilata est, praesente Agathone papa et pluribus episcopis, uniuersorum iudicio absque crimine accusatus fuisse, et episcopatu esse dignus inuentus est.

He then, in the reign of Ecgfrid, was driven from his bishopric, and other bishops were consecrated in his place, of whom we have made mention above; and about to go to Rome and to plead his cause before the apostolic pope, when he embarked on ship, with the Favonius blowing he was driven to Frisia, and, honorably received by the barbarians and their king Aldgisl, he was preaching Christ to them, and instructing many thousands of them by the word of truth, he washed them from the filth of their sins in the font of the Savior; and the work which thereafter Wilbrord, the most reverend pontiff of Christ, fulfilled with great devotion, he himself first began there, the evangelic work. There therefore, happily spending the winter with the new people of God, thus he resumed the journey to come to Rome; and when his case was ventilated, with Pope Agatho and many bishops present, by the judgment of all he was found to have been accused without crime, and to be worthy of the episcopate.

Quo in tempore idem papa Agatho, cum synodum congregaret Romae CXXV episcoporum, aduersus eos, qui unam in Domino Saluatore uoluntatem atque operationem dogmatizabant, uocari iussit et Uilfridum, atque inter episcopos considentem dicere fidem suam, simul et prouinciae siue insulae, de qua uenerat. Cumque catholicus fide cum suis esset inuentus, placuit hoc inter cetera eiusdem synodi gestis inseri, scriptumque est hoc modo: ‘Uilfridus Deo amabilis episcopus Eboracae ciuitatis, apostolicam sedem de sua causa appellans, et ab hac potestate de certis incertisque rebus absolutus, et cum aliis CXXV coepiscopis in synodo in iudicii sede constitutus, et pro omni aquilonali parte Brittaniae et Hiberniae, insulis [que ] quae ab Anglorum, et Brettonum, nec non Scottorum et Pictorum gentibus incoluntur, ueram et catholicam fidem confessus est, et cum subscriptione sua corroborauit.’

At which time the same Pope Agatho, as he was convening at Rome a synod of 125 bishops against those who were dogmatizing one will and one operation in the Lord Savior, ordered that Wilfrid also be called, and, sitting among the bishops, to declare his faith, as also that of the province or island from which he had come. And when he, together with his own, was found to be catholic in faith, it pleased that this be inserted among the other acts of the same synod, and it was written in this manner: ‘Wilfrid, bishop of the city of York, lovable to God, appealing the Apostolic See concerning his own cause, and by this authority absolved from matters certain and uncertain, and, with 125 fellow-bishops, constituted in synod in the seat of judgment, and on behalf of the whole northern part of Britain and Ireland, and the islands [que ] which are inhabited by the peoples of the Angles and the Britons, and also of the Scots and the Picts, confessed the true and catholic faith, and with his subscription corroborated it.’

Post haec reuersus Brittaniam prouinciam Australium Saxonum ab idolatriae ritibus ad Christi fidem conuertit. Uectae quoque insulae uerbi ministros destinauit; et secundo anno Aldfridi, qui post Ecgfridum regnauit, sedem suam et episcopatum ipso rege inuitante recepit. Sed post V annos denuo accusatus, ab eodem ipso rege et plurimis episcopis praesulatu pulsus est; ueniensque Romam, cum praesentibus accusatoribus acciperet locum se defendendi, considentibus episcopis pluribus cum apostolico papa Iohanne, omnium iudicio probatum est accusatores eius non nulla in parte falsas contra eum machinasse calumnias; scriptumque a praefato papa regibus Anglorum Aedilredo et Aldfrido, ut eum in episcopatum suum, eo quod iniuste fuerit condemnatus, facerent recipi.

After these things, returning to Britain, he converted the province of the South Saxons from the rites of idolatry to the faith of Christ. He also dispatched ministers of the word to the Isle of Wight; and in the second year of Aldfrid, who reigned after Ecgfrid, he received his see and bishopric, the king himself inviting. But after 5 years, accused anew, he was driven from the prelacy by that same king and by very many bishops; and coming to Rome, when, with his accusers present, he obtained a chance to defend himself, many bishops sitting with the apostolic pope John, by the judgment of all it was proved that his accusers had in no small part contrived false calumnies against him; and it was written by the aforesaid pope to the kings of the English, Aedilred and Aldfrid, that they should cause him to be received into his bishopric, for the reason that he had been unjustly condemned.

Iuuit autem causam absolutionis eius lectio synodi beatae memoriae papae Agathonis, quae quondam ipso praesente in urbe atque in eodem concilio inter episcopos residente, ut praediximus, acta est. Cum ergo causa exigente synodus eadem coram nobilibus et frequentia populi, iubente apostolico papa, diebus aliquot legeretur, uentum est ad locum, ubi scriptum erat: ‘Uilfridus Deo amabilis episcopus Eboracae ciuitatis, apostolicam sedem de sua causa appellans, et ab hac potestate de certis incertisque rebus absolutus,’ et cetera, quae supra posuimus. Quod ubi lectum est, stupor adprehendit audientes; et silente lectore coeperunt alterutrum requirere, quis esset ille Uilfridus episcopus.

However, the reading of the synod of Pope Agatho of blessed memory aided his cause of absolution, which once, with him himself present in the city and sitting among the bishops in the same council, as we have said before, was transacted. Therefore, when, the case requiring it, that same synod, before the nobles and a throng of the people, by order of the apostolic pope, was read for several days, it came to the place where it was written: ‘Wilfrid, God‑beloved bishop of the city of York, appealing to the apostolic see concerning his cause, and by this authority absolved from matters both certain and uncertain,’ and the rest, which we have set above. When this was read, astonishment seized the hearers; and with the reader silent they began to ask one another who that bishop Wilfrid was.

Tum Bonifatius consiliarius apostolici papae, et alii perplures, qui eum temporibus Agathonis papae ibi uiderant dicebant ipsum esse episcopum, qui nuper Romam accusatus a suis, atque ab apostolica sede iudicandus aduenerit: ‘qui iamdudum,’ inquiunt, ‘aeque accusatus huc adueniens, mox audita ac diiudicata causa et controuersia utriusque partis, a beatae memoriae papa Agathone probatus est contra fas a suo episcopatu repulsus; et tanti apud eum habitus est, ut ipsum in concilio, quod congregarat, episcoporum, quasi uirum incorruptae fidei, et animi probi residere praeciperet.’ Quibus auditis dicebant omnes una cum ipso pontifice, uirum tantae auctoritatis, qui per XL prope annos episcopatu fungebatur, nequaquam damnari debere, sed ad integrum culpis accusationum absolutum patriam cum honore reuerti.

Then Boniface, counselor of the apostolic pope, and very many others who had seen him there in the times of Pope Agatho, said that he was the bishop who had recently come to Rome, accused by his own people and to be judged by the apostolic see: ‘who long ago,’ they say, ‘likewise coming hither under accusation, soon, when the case had been heard and the controversy of both parties adjudicated, was found by Pope Agatho of blessed memory to have been, against right, driven back from his episcopate; and he was held in such esteem by him that he ordered him to sit in the council of the bishops which he had convened, as a man of incorrupt faith and of upright mind.’ When these things were heard, all together with the pontiff said that a man of such authority, who had exercised the episcopate for almost 40 years, ought by no means to be condemned, but to return to his fatherland with honor, fully absolved from the faults of the accusations.

Qui cum Brittaniam remeans in Galliarum partes deuenisset, tactus est infirmitate repentina, et ea crescente adeo pressus, ut neque equo uchi posset, sed manibus ministrorum portaretur in grabato. Sic delatus in Maeldum ciuitatem Galliae IIII diebus ac noctibus quasi mortuus iacebat, halitu tantum pertenui, quia uiueret, demonstrans. Cumque ita sine cibo et potu, sine uoce et auditu, quatriduo perseueraret, quinta demum inlucescente die, quasi de graui experrectus somno, exsurgens resedit; apertisque oculis uidit circa se choros psallentium simul et flentium fratrum; ac modicum suspirans interrogauit, ubi esset Acca presbyter; qui statim uocatus intrauit, et uidens eum melius habentem, ac loqui iam ualentem, flexis genibus gratias egit Deo cum omnibus, qui aderant, fratribus. Et cum parum consedissent, ac de supernis iudiciis trepidi aliqua confabulari coepissent, iussit pontifex ceteros ad horam egredi, et ad Accan presbyterum ita loqui exorsus est:

When, as he was returning to Britain, he had come down into the parts of Gaul, he was touched by a sudden infirmity, and as it increased he was so pressed that he could not ride a horse, but was carried by the hands of his ministrants on a litter. Thus borne into the city of Maeldum in Gaul, for 4 days and nights he lay as though dead, showing that he lived only by a very slight breath. And when he persisted thus without food and drink, without voice and hearing, for four days, at length, as the fifth day was growing light, as if roused from a heavy sleep, he rose and sat up; and his eyes being opened he saw around him choirs of brethren at once singing psalms and weeping; and, sighing a little, he asked where Acca the presbyter was; who, being called at once, entered, and seeing him to be better and already able to speak, with knees bent gave thanks to God with all the brethren who were present. And when they had sat a little, and in awe had begun to converse somewhat about the supernal judgments, the pontiff ordered the others to go out for a while, and began thus to speak to the presbyter Acca:

‘Uisio mihi modo tremenda apparuit, quam te audire ac silentio tegere uolo, donec sciam, quid de me fieri uelit Deus. Adstitit enim mihi quidam candido praeclarus habitu, dicens se Michahelem esse archangelum: “et ob hoc,” inquit, “missus sum, ut te a morte reuocem; donauit enim tibi Dominus uitam per orationes ac lacrimas discipulorum ac fratrum tuorum, et per intercessionem beatae suae genetricis semperque uirginis Mariae. Quapropter dico tibi, quia modo quidem ab infirmitate hac sanaberis; sed paratus esto, quia post quadriennium reuertens uisitabo te; patriam uero perueniens, maximam possessionum tuarum, quae tibi ablatae sunt, portionem recipies, atque in pace tranquilla uitam terminabis”.’ Conualuit igitur episcopus, cunctis gaudentibus, ac Deo gratias agentibus, coeptoque itinere Brittaniam uenit.

‘A tremendous vision has just appeared to me, which I want you to hear and to keep in silence until I know what God wills to be done with me. For someone stood by me, splendid in shining white attire, saying that he was Michael the archangel: “and for this,” he said, “I am sent, to recall you from death; for the Lord has granted you life through the prayers and tears of your disciples and brothers, and through the intercession of his blessed mother, the ever-virgin Mary. Wherefore I tell you that for now you will indeed be healed of this infirmity; but be prepared, for after four years, returning, I will visit you; and when you come to your homeland, you will receive the greatest portion of your possessions that have been taken from you, and you will end your life in tranquil peace.”’ The bishop therefore convalesced, while all rejoiced and gave thanks to God, and with the journey resumed he came to Britain.

Lectis autem epistulis, quas ab apostolico papa aduexerat, Berctuald archiepiscopus, et Aedilred quondam rex, tunc autem abbas, libentissime fauerunt; qui uidelicet Aedilred accitum ad se Coinredum, quem pro se regem fecerat, amicum episcopo fieri petiit, et inpetrauit. Sed Aldfrid Nordanhymbrorum rex eum suscipere contemsit, nec longo tempore superfuit; unde factum est, ut, regnante Osredo filio eius, mox synodo facta iuxta fluuium Nidd, post aliquantum utriusque partis conflictum, tandem cunctis fauentibus in praesulatum sit suae receptus ecclesiae. Sicque IIII annis, id est usque ad diem obitus sui, uitam duxit in pace. Defunctus est autem in monasterio suo, quod habebat in prouincia Undalum sub regimine Cudualdi abbatis; et ministerio fratrum perlatus in primum suum monasterium, quod uocatur Inhrypum, positus est in ecclesia beati apostoli Petri iuxta altare ad Austrum, ut et supra docuimus; et hoc de illo supra epitaphium scriptum:

But when the letters had been read, which he had brought from the apostolic pope, Berctuald the archbishop, and Aedilred once king, but then abbot, very gladly showed favor; and in fact Aedilred, having summoned to himself Coinred, whom he had made king in his place, asked that he become a friend to the bishop, and obtained it. But Aldfrid, king of the Northumbrians, disdained to receive him, nor did he survive for a long time; whence it came about that, Osred his son reigning, soon, a synod having been held near the river Nidd, after some conflict on both sides, at length, with all favoring, he was received into the prelacy of his church. And so for 4 years, that is, up to the day of his death, he led his life in peace. He died moreover in his own monastery, which he had in the province Undalum under the rule of Abbot Cuduald; and, by the ministry of the brethren, having been borne to his first monastery, which is called Inhrypum, he was placed in the church of the blessed apostle Peter next to the altar to the South, as we have taught above; and this was written above about him as an epitaph:

Uilfridus hic magnus requiescit corpore praesul,

Here Wilfrid, the great prelate, rests in the body,

Hanc Domino qui aulam ductus pietatis amore

Who, led by love of piety, this hall to the Lord

Fecit, et eximio sacrauit nomine Petri,

He made it, and consecrated it with the distinguished name of Peter,

Cui claues caeli Christus dedit arbiter orbis;

To whom Christ, the arbiter of the world, gave the keys of heaven;

Atque auro ac Tyrio deuotus uestiit ostro.

And, devoted, he vested it with gold and Tyrian purple.

Quin etiam sublime crucis, radiante metallo,

Nay even the cross sublime, with radiant metal,

Hic posuit tropaeum, nec non et quattuor auro

Here he set up a trophy, and also four in gold

Scribi euangelii praecepit in ordine libros;

He ordered the books of the Gospel to be written in order;

Ac thecam e rutilo his condignam condidit auro;

And he fashioned a case from rutilant gold, condign for these;

Paschalis qui etiam sollemnia tempora cursus

who also the Paschal course of the solemn times

Catholici ad iustum correxit dogma canonis,

He corrected the dogma of the canon of the Catholic Church to what is just,

Quem statuere patres, dubioque errore remoto,

Which the fathers established, and, the dubious error removed,

Certa suae genti ostendit moderamina ritus;

He showed to his own people the fixed governances of the rite;

Inque locis istis monachorum examina crebra

And in those places, frequent swarms of monks

Colligit, ac monitis cauit, quae regula patrum

He collects, and by admonitions took heed, what the rule of the fathers

Sedulus instituit; multisque domique forisque

Sedulously he instituted; and to many both at home and abroad

Iactatus nimium per tempora longa periclis,

Tossed too much through long times by perils,

Quindecies ternos postquam egit episcopus annos,

After the bishop spent forty-five years,

Transiit, et gaudens caelestia regna petiuit.

He passed over, and rejoicing he sought the celestial kingdoms.

Dona, Iesu, ut grex pastoris calle sequatur.

Grant, Jesus, that the flock may follow the pastor’s path.

[20] ANNO post obitum praefati patris proximo, id est quinto Osredi regis, reuerentissimus pater Hadrianus abbas, cooperator in uerbo Dei Theodori beatae memoriae episcopi, defunctus est, et in monasterio suo in ecclesia beatae Dei genetricis sepultus; qui est annus XLmus primus, ex quo a Uitaliano papa directus est cum Theodoro; ex quo autem Brittaniam uenit, XXXIX. Cuius doctrinae simul et Theodori inter alia testimonium perhibet, quod Albinus discipulus eius, qui monasterio ipsius in regimine successit, in tantum studiis scripturarum institutus est, ut Grecam quidem linguam non parua ex parte, Latinam uero non minus quam Anglorum, quae sibi naturalis est, nouerit.

[20] In the year next after the death of the aforesaid father, that is, the fifth of King Osred, the most reverend father Hadrian the abbot, co-operator in the word of God with Theodore, bishop of blessed memory, died, and was buried in his monastery in the church of the blessed Mother of God; which is the 41st year from when he was sent by Pope Vitalian with Theodore; and from when he came to Britain, the 39th. Bearing testimony, among other things, to the doctrine of both him and Theodore is this: that Albinus, his disciple, who succeeded to the governance of his monastery, was trained to such a degree in the studies of the Scriptures that he knew the Greek tongue indeed in no small part, and Latin no less than the English, which was native to him.

Suscepit uero pro Uilfrido episcopatum Hagustaldensis ecclesiae Acca presbyter eius, uir et ipse strenuissimus, et coram Deo et hominibus magnificus; qui et ipsius ecclesiae suae, quae in beati Andreae apostoli honorem consecrata est, aedificium multifario decore ac mirificis ampliauit operibus. Dedit namque operam, quod et hodie facit, ut adquisitis undecumque reliquiis beatorum apostolorum et martyrum Christi, in uenerationem illorum poneret altaria, distinctis porticibus in hoc ipsum intra muros eiusdem ecclesiae, sed et historias passionis eorum, una cum ceteris ecclesiasticis uoluminibus, summa industria congregans, amplissimam ibi ac nobilissimam bibliothecam fecit, nec non et uasa sancta, et luminaria, aliaque huiusmodi, quae ad ornatum domus Dei pertinent, studiosissime parauit. Cantatorem quoque egregium, uocabulo Maban, qui a successoribus discipulorum beati papae Gregorii in Cantia fueral cantandi sonos edoctus, ad se suosque instituendos accersiit, ac per annos XII tenuit; quatinus et, quae illi non nouerant, carmina ecclesiastica doceret; et ea, quae quondam cognita longo usu uel neglegentia inueterare coeperunt, huius doctrina priscum renouarentur in statum.

But in place of Wilfrid, his presbyter Acca took up the bishopric of the church of Hexham, a man himself most strenuous, and magnificent before God and men; who also enlarged the building of his own church, which is consecrated in honor of the blessed apostle Andrew, with manifold decor and wondrous works. For he gave diligence, as he does even today, that, with relics of the blessed apostles and martyrs of Christ acquired from everywhere, he might set up altars in veneration of them, with porticoes partitioned for this very purpose within the walls of that same church; and, gathering with the highest industry the histories of their passion together with the other ecclesiastical volumes, he made there a most ample and most noble library; and he most studiously prepared holy vessels, and lights, and other such things which pertain to the ornament of the house of God. He also summoned to himself for the instruction of himself and his own an outstanding cantor, by the name Maban, who had been taught the tones of chanting by the successors of the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory in Kent, and he kept him for 12 years; so that both he might teach them ecclesiastical songs which they did not know, and that those things which, once known, had begun to grow old through long use or negligence might, by this man’s doctrine, be restored to their ancient state.

Nam et ipse episcopus Acca cantator erat peritissimus, quomodo etiam in litteris sanctis doctissimus, et in catholicae fidei confessione castissimus, in ecclesiasticae quoque institutionis regulis solertissimus exstiterat; et usquedum praemia piae deuotionis accipiat, existere non desistit; utpote qui a pueritia in clero sanctissimi ac Deo dilecti Bosa Eboracensis episcopi nutritus atque eruditus est; deinde ad Uilfridum episcopum spe melioris propositi adueniens, omnem in eius obsequio usque ad obitum illius expleuit aetatem; cum quo etiam Romam ueniens multa illic, quae in patria nequiuerat, ecclesiae sanctae institutis utilia didicit.

For even the bishop Acca was a most skilled cantor, as also most learned in the holy letters, and most chaste in the confession of the catholic faith; and he had shown himself most industrious likewise in the rules of ecclesiastical institution; and, until he may receive the rewards of pious devotion, he does not cease to continue so; inasmuch as from boyhood he was nourished and instructed in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, bishop of York; then, coming to bishop Wilfrid with the hope of a better purpose, he fulfilled his whole life in his service up to that man’s death; with whom also, coming to Rome, he learned there many things, useful for the institutions of the holy church, which he had been unable to do in his own country.

[21] EO tempore Naiton rex Pictorum, qui septentrionales Brittaniae plagas inhabitant, admonitus ecclesiasticarum frequenti meditatione scripturarum, abrenuntiauit errori, quo eatenus in obseruatione paschae cum sua gente tenebatur, et se suosque omnes ad catholicum dominicae resurrectionis tempus celebrandum perduxit. Quod ut facilius et maiore auctoritate perficeret, quaesiuit auxilium de gente Anglorum, quos iamdudum ad exemplum sanctae Romanae et apostolicae ecclesiae suam religionem instituisse cognouit. Siquidem misit legatarios ad uirum uenerabilem Ceolfridum, abbatem monasterii beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, quod est ad ostium Uiuri amnis, et iuxta amnem Tinam, in loco, qui uocatur Ingyruum, cui ipse post Benedictum, de quo supra diximus, gloriosissime praefuit; postulans, ut exhortatorias sibi litteras mitteret, quibus potentius confutare posset eos, qui pascha non suo tempore obseruare praesumerent; simul et de tonsurae modo uel ratione, qua clericos insigniri deceret; excepto, quod etiam ipse in his non parua ex parte esset inbutus.

[21] At that time Naiton, king of the Picts, who inhabit the northern regions of Britain, admonished by frequent meditation upon ecclesiastical Scriptures, renounced the error by which until then he had been held with his people in the observance of the Pasch (Easter), and he brought himself and all his own to celebrate the catholic time of the Lord’s resurrection. And that he might accomplish this more easily and with greater authority, he sought help from the nation of the English, whom he had long since learned to have ordered their religion after the example of the holy Roman and apostolic Church. For he sent envoys to the venerable man Ceolfrid, abbot of the monastery of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, which is at the mouth of the river Wear and near the river Tyne, in the place called Ingyruum (Jarrow), over which he himself, after Benedict, of whom we spoke above, most gloriously presided; requesting that he would send him exhortatory letters, by which he might the more powerfully confute those who presumed to observe the Pasch not in its own time; and likewise concerning the mode or rationale of the tonsure, with which it was fitting that clerics be marked; albeit that he himself also had been imbued with these matters in no small measure.

Sed et architectos sibi mitti petiit, qui iuxta morem Romanorum ecclesiam de lapide in gente ipsius facerent, promittens hanc in honorem beati apostolorum principis dedicandam; se quoque ipsum cum suis omnibus morem sanctae Romanae et apostolicae ecclesiae semper imitaturum, in quantum dumtaxat tam longe a Romanorum loquella et natione segregati hunc ediscere potuissent. Cuius religiosis uotis ac precibus fauens reuerentissimus abba Ceolfrid misit architectos, quos petebatur, misit illi et litteras scriptas in hunc modum:

But he also requested that architects be sent to him, who, according to the custom of the Romans, would make a church of stone among his people, promising that this would be dedicated in honor of the blessed prince of the apostles; and that he himself also, with all his own, would always imitate the custom of the holy Roman and apostolic Church, only in so far as, being so far separated from the speech and nation of the Romans, they could have learned this thoroughly. Favoring his religious vows and prayers, the most reverend Abbot Ceolfrid sent the architects that were requested; he also sent to him letters written in this manner:

‘Domino excellentissimo et gloriosissimo regi Naitano, Ceolfrid abbas in Domino salutem.

‘To the most excellent and most glorious lord King Naitan, Ceolfrid, abbot, greeting in the Lord.

‘Catholicam sancti paschae obseruantiam, quam a nobis, rex Deo deuote, religioso studio quaesisti, promtissime ac libentissime tuo desiderio, iuxta quod ab apostolica sede didicimus, patefacere satagimus. Scimus namque caelitus sanctae ecclesiae donatum, quotiens ipsi rerum domini discendae, docendae, custodiendae ueritati operam inpendunt. Nam et uere omnino dixit quidam saecularium scriptorum, quia felicissimo mundus statu ageretur, si uel reges philosopharentur, uel regnarent philosophi.

‘The Catholic observance of holy Pascha, which from us, O king devoted to God, you have sought with religious zeal, we most promptly and most gladly strive to lay open to your desire, according to what we have learned from the Apostolic See. For we know that it is granted from heaven to the holy Church, whenever the lords of affairs themselves devote effort to the truth to be learned, taught, and guarded. For indeed one of the secular writers spoke altogether truly, that the world would be governed in the most happy state, if either kings philosophized, or philosophers reigned.

Quod si de philosophia huius mundi uere intellegere, de statu huius mundi merito diligere potuit homo huius mundi; quanto magis ciuibus patriae caelestis in hoc mundo peregrinantibus optandum est, et totis animi uiribus supplicandum, ut, quo plus in mundo quique ualent, eo amplius eius, qui super omnia est, Iudicis mandatis auscultarc contendant, atque ad haec obseruanda secum eos quoque, qui sibi commissi sunt, exemplis simul et auctoritate instituant?

If a man of this world could truly understand about the philosophy of this world, and with merit love the state of this world, how much more is it to be desired for the citizens of the heavenly fatherland, peregrinating in this world, and to be entreated with all the forces of the mind, that the more each person prevails in the world, by so much the more they strive to hearken to the mandates of the Judge who is over all, and that for observing these things they also, by examples as well as by authority, instruct along with themselves those who have been entrusted to them?

‘Tres sunt ergo regulae sacris inditae litteris, quibus paschae celebrandi tempus nobis praefinitum, nulla prorsus humana licet auctoritate mutari; e quibus duae in lege Mosi diuinitus statutae, tertia in euangelio per effectum dominicae passionis et resurrectionis adiuncta est. Praecepit enim lex, ut pascha primo mense anni et tertia eiusdem mensis septimana, id est a XVa die usque ad XXIam, fieri deberet; additum est per institutionem apostolicam ex euangelio, ut in ipsa tertia septimana diem dominicam expectare, atque in ea temporis paschalis initium tenere debeamus. Quam uidelicet regulam triformem quisquis rite custodierit, numquam in adnotatione festi paschalis errabit.

‘There are therefore three rules inserted in the sacred Scriptures, by which the time for celebrating the Pasch has been set forth for us, not allowed to be changed by any human authority whatsoever; of which two were divinely established in the law of Moses, the third was adjoined in the Gospel through the effect of the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection. For the law commanded that the Pasch ought to be kept in the first month of the year and in the third week of that same month, that is, from the 15th day up to the 21st; it has been added by apostolic institution from the Gospel that in that very third week we ought to await the Lord’s Day, and on it hold the beginning of Paschal time. Whoever shall duly keep this three-formed rule will never err in the reckoning of the Paschal feast.

Uerum si de his singulis enucleatius ac latius audire desideras, scriptum est in Exodo, ubi liberandus de Aegypto populus Israel primum pascha facere iubetur, quia: “dixerit Dominus ad Mosen et Aaron: Mensis iste uobis principium mensium primus erit in mensibus anni. Loquimini ad uniuersum coetum filiorum Israel et dicite eis: Xa die mensis huius tollat unusquisque agnum per familias et domus suas.” Et paulo post: “Et seruabitis eum usque ad XIIIIam diem mensis huius; immolabitque eum uniuersa multitudo filiorum Israel ad uesperam.” Quibus uerbis manifestissime constat, quod ita in obseruatione paschali mentio fit diei XIIIIae, ut non tamen in ipsa die XIIIIa pascha fieri praecipiatur; sed adueniente tandem uespera diei XIIIIae, id est XVa luna, quae initium tertiae septimanae faciat, in caeli faciem prodeunte, agnus immolari iubeatur; et quod ipsa sit nox XVie lunae, in qua percussis Aegyptiis Israel est a longa seruitute redemtus. “VII,” inquit, “diebus azyma comedetis.” Quibus item uerbis tota tertia septimana eiusdem primi mensis decernitur sollemnis esse debere.

But if you desire to hear more closely and more broadly about these particulars, it is written in Exodus, where the people of Israel, to be freed from Egypt, are first ordered to make the Pascha, because: “the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This month for you is the beginning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year. Speak to the whole assembly of the sons of Israel and say to them: On the 10th day of this month let each one take a lamb according to families and their households.” And a little after: “And you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month; and the whole multitude of the sons of Israel shall immolate it toward evening.” By which words it is most manifest that thus, in the Paschal observance, mention is made of the 14th day, yet the Pascha is not commanded to be held on the 14th day itself; but when at last evening of the 14th day comes on, that is, with the 15th moon—which makes the beginning of the third week—coming forth upon the face of the sky, the lamb is commanded to be immolated; and that this is the night of the 16th moon, on which, the Egyptians having been smitten, Israel was redeemed from long servitude. “For 7,” he says, “days you shall eat unleavened bread.” By which words likewise it is decreed that the whole third week of that same first month ought to be solemn.

Sed ne putaremus easdem VII dies a XIIIIa usque ad XXam esse computandas, continuo subiecit: “In die primo non erit fermentum in domibus uestris. Quicumque comederit fermentum, peribit anima illa de Israel, a die primo usque ad diem septimum,” et cetera, usquedum ait: “In eadem enim ipsa die educam exercitum uestrum de terra Aegypti.”

But lest we should think that the same 7 days are to be reckoned from the 14th up to the 20th, he immediately subjoined: “On the first day there shall not be leaven in your houses. Whoever shall eat leaven, that soul shall perish from Israel, from the first day up to the seventh day,” and so on, until he says: “For on that very same day I will lead out your army from the land of Egypt.”

‘Primum ergo diem azymorum appellat eum, in quo exercitum eorum esset educturus de Aegypto. Constat autem, quia non XIIIIa die, in cuius uespera agnus est immolatus, et quae proprie pascha siue phase dicitur; sed XVa sunt educti ex Aegypto, sicut in libro Numerorum apertissime scribitur: “Profecti igitur de Ramesse XVa die mensis primi, altera die phase, filii Israel in manu excelsa.” VII ergo dies azymorum, in quarum prima eductus est populus Domini ex Aegypto, ab initio, ut diximus, tertiae septimanae, hoc est a XVa die mensis primi usque ad XXIam eiusdem mensis diem conpletam computari oportet. Porro dies XIIIIa extra hunc numerum separatim sub paschae titulo praenotatur, sicut Exodi sequentia patenter edocent; ubi cum dictum esset: “In eadem enim ipsa die educam exercitum uestrum de terra Aegypti;” protinus adiunctum est: “Et custodietis diem istum in generationes uestras ritu perpetuo.

‘Therefore he calls the first day of the Azymes that on which he was about to lead their army out of Egypt. Yet it is evident that it was not on the 14th day, at whose evening the lamb was immolated, and which is properly called Pascha or Phase; but on the 15th they were led out from Egypt, just as it is most openly written in the book of Numbers: “Therefore they set out from Rameses on the 15th day of the first month, on the day after the Phase, the sons of Israel with a high hand.” Therefore the 7 days of the Azymes, on the first of which the people of the Lord was led out from Egypt, from the beginning, as we have said, of the third week—that is, from the 15th day of the first month up to the completed 21st day of the same month—ought to be computed. Moreover, the 14th day, outside this number, is marked beforehand separately under the title of Pascha, just as the following of Exodus plainly teaches; where, when it had been said: “For on this very same day I will lead your army out from the land of Egypt;” straightway it was added: “And you shall keep this day in your generations by a perpetual rite.

Primo mense, XIIIIa die mensis comedetis azyma usque ad diem XXIam eiusdem mensis ad uesperam. VII diebus fermentatum non inuenietur in domibus uestris.” Quis enim non uideat, a XIIIIa usque ad XXIam non VII solummodo, sed octo potius esse dies, si et ipsa XIIIIa adnumeretur? Sin autem, ut diligentius explorata scripturae ueritas docet, a uespera diei XIIIIae usque ad uesperam XXIae computauerimus, uidebimus profecto, quod ita dies XIIIIa uesperam suam in festi paschalis initium prorogat, ut non amplius tota sacra sollemnitas, quam VII tantummodo noctes cum totidem diebus conprehendat; unde uera esse probatur nostra definitio, qua tempus paschale primo mense anni et tertia eius ebdomada celebrandum esse diximus.

In the first month, on the 14th day of the month you shall eat azymes up to the 21st day of the same month at evening. For 7 days fermented (leavened) [thing] shall not be found in your houses.” Who, indeed, does not see that from the 14th up to the 21st there are not only 7, but rather eight days, if the 14th itself be counted? But if, as the truth of Scripture more diligently explored teaches, we shall reckon from the evening of the 14th day up to the evening of the 21st, we shall assuredly see that thus the 14th day extends its own evening into the beginning of the Paschal feast, such that the whole sacred solemnity no longer comprehends more than 7 nights with as many days; whence our definition is proved true, whereby we said that the Paschal time is to be celebrated in the first month of the year and in its third hebdomad.

Ueraciter enim tertia agitur ebdomada, quod a uespera XIIIIae diei incipit, et in uespera XXIae conpletur.

Truly, indeed, the third hebdomad is observed, because it begins from the evening of the 14th day, and is completed at the evening of the 21st.

‘Postquam uero pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus, diemque nobis dominicam, quae apud antiquos una uel prima sabbati siue sabbatorum uocatur, gaudio suae resurrectionis fecit esse sollemnem; ita hanc apostolica traditio festis paschalibus inseruit, ut nil omnimodis de tempore paschae legalis praeoccupandum, nihil minuendum esse decerneret. Quin potius statuit, ut expectaretur iuxta praeceptum legis idem primus anni mensis, expectaretur XIIIIa dies illius, expectaretur uespera eiusdem. Et cum haec dies in sabbatum forte inciderit, tolleret unusquisque agnum per familias et domus suas, et immolaret eum ad uesperam, id est praepararent omnes ecclesiae per orbem, quae unam catholicam faciunt, panem et uinum in mysterium carnis et sanguinis agni inmaculati, qui abstulit peccata mundi; et praecedente congrua lectionum orationum, caerimoniarum paschalium sollemnitate, offerrent haec Domino in spem futurae suae redemtionis.

‘But after indeed Christ, our Pasch, has been immolated, and has made for us the Lord’s Day—which among the ancients is called the one or first of the Sabbath or of the Sabbaths—to be solemn with the joy of his resurrection; thus apostolic Tradition inserted this into the paschal feasts, in such a way that it decreed that nothing at all should be pre‑empted from the time of the legal Pasch, nothing should be diminished. Nay rather, it ordained that there be awaited, according to the precept of the Law, that same first month of the year, that the 14th day of it be awaited, that the evening of the same be awaited. And when this day should by chance fall on the Sabbath, let each one take a lamb by his families and households and immolate it at evening—that is, let all the churches throughout the world, which make the one Catholic [Church], prepare bread and wine into the mystery of the flesh and blood of the immaculate Lamb who took away the sins of the world; and with the fitting solemnity of readings, prayers, and paschal ceremonies going before, let them offer these to the Lord in hope of their future redemption.

Ipsa est enim eadem nox, in qua de Aegypto per sanguinem agni Israelitica plebs erepta est; ipsa, in qua per resurrectionem Christi liberatus est a morte aeterna populus omnis Dei. Mane autem inlucescente die dominica, primam paschalis festi diem celebrarent. Ipsa est enim dies, in qua resurrectionis suae gloriam Dominus multifario piae reuelationis gaudio discipulis patefecit.

For it is that same night, in which from Egypt, through the blood of the lamb, the Israelite people was rescued; the same, in which through the resurrection of Christ the whole people of God was freed from eternal death. And in the morning, as the Lord’s day was dawning, they should celebrate the first day of the Paschal feast. For it is the day on which the Lord laid open to the disciples the glory of his resurrection by the multifarious joy of pious revelation.

Ipsa prima dies azymorum, de qua multum distincte in Leuitico scriptum est: “Mense primo, XIIIIa die mensis ad uesperam phase Domini est, et XVa die mensis huius sollemnitas azymorum Domini est. VII diebus azyma comedetis. Dies primus erit celeberrimus, sanctusque.”

The very first day of Unleavened Bread, about which it is written very distinctly in Leviticus: “In the first month, on the evening of the 14th day of the month is the Lord’s Passover, and on the 15th day of this month is the solemnity of the Lord’s Unleavened Bread. For 7 days you shall eat unleavened bread. The first day shall be most celebrated and holy.”

‘Si ergo fieri posset, ut semper in diem XVum primi mensis, id est in lunam XVam dominica dies incurreret, uno semper eodemque tempore cum antiquo Dei populo, quanquam sacramentorum genere discreto, sicut una eademque fide, pascha celebrare possemus. Quia uero dies septimanae non aequali cum luna tramite procurrit, decreuit apostolica traditio, quac per beatum Petrum Romae praedicata, per Marcum euangelistam et interpretem ipsius Alexandriae confirmata est, ut adueniente primo mense, adueniente in eo uespera diei XIIIIae, expectetur etiam dies dominica, a XVa usque ad XXIam diem eiusdem mensis. In quacumque enim harum inuenta fuerit, merito in ea pascha celebrabitur; quia nimirum haec ad numerum pertinet illarum VII dierum, quibus azyma celebrari iubetur.

‘If therefore it could be done, that the Lord’s day should always fall on the 15th day of the first month, that is on the 15th moon, we could always celebrate the Pascha at one and the same time with the ancient people of God—although differing in the kind of sacraments, just as in one and the same faith. Because, however, the days of the week do not run along an equal course with the moon, the apostolic tradition decreed—which, proclaimed at Rome through blessed Peter, and confirmed at Alexandria through Mark the Evangelist, his interpreter—that, when the first month arrives, when within it the evening of the 14th day arrives, the Lord’s day also be awaited, from the 15th up to the 21st day of the same month. In whichever of these it shall be found, rightly on it the Pascha will be celebrated; because assuredly this pertains to the number of those 7 days in which unleavened bread is ordered to be celebrated.

Itaque fit, ut numquam pascha nostrum a septimana mensis primi tertia in utramuis partem declinet; sed uel totam eam, id est omnes VII legalium azymorum dies, uel certe aliquos de illis teneat. Nam etsi saltim unum ex eis, hoc est ipsum septimum adprehenderit, quem tam excellenter scriptura commendat: “Dies autem,” inquiens, “septimus erit celebrior et sanctior, nullumque seruile opus fiet in eo”; nullus arguere nos poterit, quod non recte dominicum paschae diem, quem de euangelio suscepimus, in ipsa, quam lex statuit, tertia primi mensis ebdomada celebremus.’

Accordingly it comes about that our Pascha never declines from the third week of the first month to either side; but either it keeps the whole of it, that is, all the 7 legal unleaveneds days, or at least some of them. For even if it should lay hold of at least one of these, that is, the very seventh, which Scripture so excellently commends: "But the day," it says, "the seventh will be more celebrated and more holy, and no servile work shall be done on it"; no one will be able to accuse us that we do not rightly celebrate the Lord’s day of Pascha, which we have received from the Gospel, in that very third hebdomad of the first month which the Law has established."

‘Cuius obseruantiae catholica ratione patefacta, patet e contrario error inrationabilis eorum, qui praefixos in lege terminos, nulla cogente necessitate, uel anticipare uel transcendere praesumunt. Namque sine ratione necessitatis alicuius anticipant illi tempus in lege praescriptum, qui dominicum paschae diem a XIIIIa mensis primi usque ad XXam putant lunam esse seruandum. Cum enim a uespera diei XIIIae uigilias sanctae noctis celebrare incipiunt, claret, quod illam in exordio sui paschae diem statuunt, cuius nullam omnino mentionem in decreto legis inueniunt.

‘With the catholic rationale of this observance laid open, the irrational error of those, on the contrary, is evident, who presume, with no necessity compelling, either to anticipate or to transcend the termini prefixed in the Law. For without any rationale of necessity those anticipate the time prescribed in the Law who think the dominical day of pascha ought to be observed on the moon from the 14th of the first month up to the 20th. For when from the evening of the 13th day they begin to celebrate the vigils of the holy night, it is clear that they set that day at the exordium of their pascha, of which they find absolutely no mention in the decree of the Law.’

Et cum XXIa die mensis pascha dominicum celebrare refugiunt, patet profecto, quod illam per omnia diem a sua sollemnitate secernunt, quam lex maiore prae ceteris festiuitate memorabilem saepenumero commendat; sicque diem paschae ordine peruerso, et aliquando in secunda ebdomada totam conpleant, et numquam in ebdomadae tertiae die septima ponant; rursumque, qui a XVIa die mensis saepedicti usque ad XXIIam pascha celebrandum magis autumant, non minore utique errore, tametsi altero latere a recto ueritatis tramite diuertunt, et ueluti naufragia Scyllae fugientes, in Charybdi uoraginem submergendi decidunt. Nam cum a luna XVIa primi mensis oriente, id est a uespera diei XVae pascha incipiendum doceant; nimirum constat, quia XIIIIam diem mensis eiusdem, quam lex primitus et praecipue commendat, a sua prorsus sollemnitate secludunt; ita ut XVae, in qua populus Dei ab Aegyptia seruitute redemtus est, et in qua Dominus suo mundum sanguine a peccatorum tenebris liberauit, in qua etiam sepultus spem nobis post mortem beatae quietis tribuit, uix uesperam tangant.

And when they shrink from celebrating the Lord’s Pascha on the 21st day of the month, it is plainly evident that they in every respect sever from their solemnity that day which the Law, with a festivity greater than the rest, so often commends as memorable; and thus, by a perverted order, they sometimes make the Pascha day fall wholly within the second hebdomad, and never place it on the seventh day of the third hebdomad; and again, those who maintain rather that Pascha is to be celebrated from the 16th day of the aforesaid month up to the 22nd, assuredly with no less an error—though on the other side they turn aside from the right track of truth—like men fleeing the shipwrecks of Scylla, they fall to be submerged in the whirlpool of Charybdis. For since they teach that Pascha is to be begun at the rising of the 16th moon of the first month, that is, from the evening of the 15th day, it is clear that they utterly exclude from their solemnity the 14th day of that same month, which the Law first and chiefly commends; so that they scarcely even touch the evening of the 15th, on which the people of God was redeemed from Egyptian servitude, and on which the Lord by his own blood freed the world from the darkness of sins, on which also, being buried, he bestowed on us, after death, the hope of blessed rest.

‘Idemque poenam erroris sui in semet ipsos recipientcs, cum in XXIIa die mensis paschae diem statuunt dominicum, legitimos utique terminos paschae aperta transgressione uiolant, utpote qui ab illius diei uespera pascha incipiunt, in qua hoc lex consummari et perfici debere decreuit, illam in pascha diem adsignent primam, cuius in lege mentio nulla usquam repperitur, id est quartae primam septimanae. Qui utrique non solum in definitione et computo lunaris aetatis, sed et in mensis primi nonnumquam inuentione falluntur. Quae disputatio maior est, quam epistula hac uel ualeat conprehendi, uel debeat.

‘And the same, receiving the penalty of their error upon themselves, when on the 22nd day of the month they set the Lord’s Paschal day, by an open transgression they violate the legitimate termini of Pascha, inasmuch as they begin Pascha from the evening of that day on which the Law decreed that this ought to be consummated and perfected, and they assign as the first Paschal day that of which no mention at all is anywhere found in the Law, that is, the first of the fourth week. Both these parties not only are deceived in the definition and computation of the lunar age, but also sometimes in the finding of the first month. This disputation is greater than either can be comprehended by, or ought to be contained in, this epistle.

Tantum hoc dicam, quod per aequinoctium uernale semper inerrabiliter possit inueniri, qui mensis iuxta computum lunae primus anni, qui esse debeat ultimus. Aequinoctium autem iuxta sententiam omnium Orientalium et maxime Aegyptiorum, qui prae ceteris doctoribus calculandi palmam tenent, XII Kalendarum Aprilium die prouenire consueuit, ut etiam ipsi horologica inspectione probamus. Quaecumque ergo luna ante aequinoctium plena est, XIIIIa uidelicet uel XVa existens, haec ad praecedentis anni nouissimum pertinet mensem, ideoque paschae celebrando habilis non est.

I will only say this: that by the vernal equinox one can always unerringly discover which month, according to the computation of the moon, is the first of the year, and which ought to be the last. Moreover, the equinox, according to the judgment of all the Orientals and especially the Egyptians, who hold the palm of calculating before the other teachers, is accustomed to fall on the 12th day before the Kalends of April, as we ourselves also prove by horological inspection. Therefore whatever moon is full before the equinox, namely being the 14th or the 15th, pertains to the last month of the preceding year, and is therefore not suitable for celebrating Pascha.

Quae uero post aequinoctium, uel in ipso aequinoctio suum plenilunium habet, in hac absque ulla dubietate, quia primi mensis est, et antiquos pascha celebrare solitos, et nos, ubi dominica dies aduenerit, celebrare debere noscendum est. Quod ita fieri oportere illa nimirum ratio cogit, quia in Genesi scriptum est, quod “fecit Deus duo magna luminaria; luminare maius, ut praeesset diei; et luminare minus, ut praeesset nocti”; uel, sicut alia dicit editio, “luminare maius in inchoationem diei, et luminare minus in inchoationem noctis.” Sicut ergo prius sol a medio procedens orientis, aequinoctium uernale suo praefixit exortu; deinde luna, sole ad uesperam occidente, et ipsa plena a medio secuta est orientis; ita omnibus annis idem primus lunae mensis eodem necesse est ordine seruari, ut non ante aequinoctium, sed uel ipso aequinoctii die, sicut in principio factum est, uel eo transcenso plenilunium habere debeat. At si uno saltim die plenilunium tempus aequinoctii praecesserit, non hanc primo mensi anni incipientis, sed ultimo potius praeteriti lunam esse adscribendam; et ideo festis paschalibus inhabilem memorata ratio probat.

But that moon which has its full moon after the equinox, or on the equinox itself, in this one without any doubt, because it is the first month, both that the ancients were accustomed to celebrate Pascha, and that we, when the Lord’s day shall have arrived, ought to celebrate, must be understood. That this ought so to be done, assuredly that reasoning compels, because it is written in Genesis that “God made two great luminaries; the greater luminary, that it might preside over the day; and the lesser luminary, that it might preside over the night”; or, as another edition says, “the greater luminary for the inception of the day, and the lesser luminary for the inception of the night.” Therefore, just as first the sun, proceeding from the midst of the east, fixed the vernal equinox by its rising set beforehand; then the moon, with the sun setting toward evening, itself full followed from the midst of the east; so in all years the same first month of the moon must of necessity be kept in the same order, so that it should have the full moon not before the equinox, but either on the very day of the equinox, as in the beginning it was done, or with that day passed. But if by even a single day the full moon should precede the time of the equinox, this moon is to be ascribed not to the first month of the year beginning, but rather to the last of the past; and for that reason the aforesaid reasoning proves it unfit for the paschal feasts.

‘Quod si mysticam quoque uos in his rationem audire delectat, primo mense anni, qui ctiam mensis nouorum dictus est, pascha faccre iubemur; quia renouato ad amorem caelestium spiritu mentis nostrae, sacramenta dominicae resurrectionis et ereptionis nostrae celebrare debemus, tertia eiusdem mensis septimana facere praecipimur; quia ante legem et sub lege promissus, tertio tempore saeculi cum gratia uenit ipse, qui pascha nostrum immolaretur Christus; quia tertia post immolationem suae passionis die resurgens a mortuis, hanc dominicam uocari, et in ea nos annuatim paschalia eiusdem resurrectionis uoluit festa celebrare; quia nos quoque ita solum ueraciter eius sollemnia celebramus, si per fidem, spem et caritatem pascha, id est transitum, de hoc mundo ad Patrem, cum illo facere curamus. Post aequinoctium ueris plenilunium mensis praecipimur obseruare paschalis; ut uidelicet primo sol longiorem nocte faciat diem, deinde luna plenum suae lucis orbem mundo praesentet; quia primo quidem sol iustitiae, in cuius pennis est sanitas, id est Dominus Iesus, per resurrectionis suae triumphum cunctas mortis tenebras superauit; ac sic ascendens in caelos, misso desuper Spiritu, ecclesiam suam, quae saepe lunae uocabulo designatur, internae gratiae luce repleuit. Quem uidelicet ordinem nostrae salutis propheta contemplatus aiebat: “Eleuatus est sol, et luna stetit in ordine suo.”

‘But if it also delights you to hear the mystical rationale in these matters, we are commanded to keep Pascha in the first month of the year, which is also called the month of new things; because, the spirit of our mind renewed to the love of celestial things, we ought to celebrate the sacraments of the Lord’s Resurrection and of our deliverance. We are enjoined to keep it in the third week of the same month; because, promised before the Law and under the Law, in the third era of the world he himself came with grace—Christ, who would be immolated as our Pascha; because, rising from the dead on the third day after the immolation of his Passion, he willed that this be called the Lord’s Day, and that on it we annually celebrate the paschal feasts of that same Resurrection; because we also only thus truly celebrate his solemnities, if through faith, hope, and charity we take care to make the Pascha—that is, the transit—from this world to the Father with him. After the vernal equinox we are bidden to observe the full moon of the Paschal month; namely, that first the sun make the day longer than the night, then the moon present to the world the full orb of its light; because first indeed the Sun of righteousness, in whose wings is healing—that is, the Lord Jesus—by the triumph of his Resurrection overcame all the darkness of death; and thus, ascending into the heavens, with the Spirit sent down from above, he filled his Church, which is often designated by the name “moon,” with the light of inward grace. Which order of our salvation, contemplated by the prophet, he was saying: “The sun was elevated, and the moon stood in its order.”

‘Qui ergo plenitudinem lunae paschalis ante aequinoctium prouenire posse contenderit, talis in mysteriorum celebratione maximorum a sanctarum quidem scripturarum doctrina discordat; concordat autem eis, qui sine praeueniente gratia Christi se saluari posse confidunt; qui etsi uera lux tenebras mundi moriendo ac resurgendo numquam uicisset, perfectam se habere posse iustitiam dogmatizare praesumunt. Itaque post aequinoctialem solis exortum, post plenilunium primi mensis hunc ex ordine subsequens, id est post conpletam diem eiusdem mensis XIIIIam, quae cuncta ex lege obseruanda accepimus, expectamus adhuc monente euangelio in ipsa ebdomada tertia tempus diei dominicae, et sic demum uotiua paschae nostri festa celebramus, ut indicemus nos non cum antiquis excussum Aegyptiae seruitutis iugum uenerari, sed redemtionem totius mundi, quae in antiqui Dei populi liberatione praefigurata, in Christi autem resurrectione conpleta est, deuota fide ac dilectione colere, utque resurrectionis etiam nostrae, quam eadem die dominica futuram credimus, spe nos certissima gaudere signemus.

‘Therefore whoever contends that the fullness of the paschal moon can occur before the equinox, such a one, in the celebration of the greatest mysteries, is at variance with the doctrine of the holy Scriptures; but he accords with those who trust that they can be saved without the prevenient grace of Christ, who, even if the true Light had never conquered the darkness of the world by dying and rising again, presume to dogmatize that they can have perfect righteousness. And so, after the equinoctial rising of the sun, after the full moon of the first month, this following in order—that is, after the completion of the 14th day of the same month—which things we have received from the Law to be observed in all respects, we still await, with the Gospel admonishing, in that very third week the time of the Lord’s Day; and thus at last we celebrate the votive feasts of our Pasch, to show that we do not, with the ancients, venerate the yoke of Egyptian servitude shaken off, but with devoted faith and love honor the redemption of the whole world, which was prefigured in the liberation of the ancient people of God, but completed in the resurrection of Christ; and that we also mark that we rejoice with the most certain hope of our own resurrection, which we believe will be on that same Lord’s Day.’

‘Hic autem, quem uobis sequendum monstramus, computus paschae decennouenali circulo continetur; qui dudum quidem, hoc est ipsis apostolorum temporibus, iam seruari in ecclesia coepit, maxime Romae et Aegypti, ut supra iam diximus. Sed per industriam Eusebii, qui a beato martyre Pamphylo cognomen habet, distinctius in ordinem conpositus est; ut quod eatenus per Alexandriae pontificem singulis annis per omnes ecclesias mandari consuerat, iam deinde congesta in ordinem serie lunae XIIIIae facillime posset ab omnibus sciri Cuius computum paschalis Theophilus Alexandriae praesul in centum annorum tempus Theodosio imperatori conposuit. Item successor eius Cy rillus seriem XC et V annorum in quinque decennouenalibus circulis conprehendit; post quem Dionysius Exiguus totidem alios ex ordine pari schemate subnexuit, qui ad nostra usque tempora pertingebant.

‘But this computus of Pascha, which we show you to follow, is contained in the nineteen-year cycle; which long ago, that is, already in the very times of the apostles, began to be observed in the Church, especially at Rome and in Egypt, as we have already said above. But through the industry of Eusebius, who bears the cognomen from the blessed martyr Pamphylus, it was composed more distinctly into an order; so that what up to that point had been accustomed to be sent each year through all the churches by the pontiff of Alexandria, could thereafter, with the series of the 14th moon gathered into order, be most easily known by all. Theophilus, the prelate of Alexandria, compiled its Paschal computus for a period of 100 years for Emperor Theodosius. Likewise his successor Cyril included a series of 95 years in five nineteen-year cycles; after whom Dionysius Exiguus subjoined just as many others in order with an equal schema, which reached even to our own times.

Quibus termino adpropinquantibus, tanta hodie calculatorum exuberat copia, ut etiam in nostris per Brittaniam ecclesiis plures sint, qui mandatis memoriae ueteribus illis Aegyptiorum argumentis, facillime possint in quotlibet spatia temporum paschales protendere circulos, etiamsi ad quingentos usque et XXX duos uoluerint annos; quibus expletis, omnia, quae ad solis et lunae, mensis et septimanae consequentiam spectant, eodem, quo prius, ordine recurrunt. Ideo autem circulos eosdem temporum instantium uobis mittere supersedimus, quia de ratione tantum temporis paschalis instrui quaerentes, ipsos uobis circulos paschae catholicos abundare probastis.

With these termini drawing near, so great today is the exuberant abundance of computists that even in our churches throughout Britain there are many who, having committed to memory those ancient methods of the Egyptians, can most easily extend the paschal cycles into whatever spans of time, even if they should wish up to 532 years; when these are completed, all things that pertain to the sequence of the sun and moon, of month and week, recur in the same order as before. For this reason, moreover, we have refrained from sending to you those same cycles for the times at hand, because you, seeking to be instructed only about the reckoning of paschal time, have shown that you already possess the catholic cycles of Pascha in abundance.

‘Uerum his de pascha succincte, ut petisti, strictimque commemoratis, tonsuram quoque, de qua pariter uobis litteras fieri uoluisti, hortor, ut ecclesiasticam et Christianae fidei congruam habere curetis. Et quidem scimus, quia neque apostoli omnes uno eodemque sunt modo adtonsi, neque nunc ecclesia catholica, sicut una fide, spe, et caritate in Deum consentit, ita etiam una atque indissimili totum per orbem tonsurae sibi forma congruit. Denique, ut superiora, id est patriarcharum, tempora respiciamus, Iob, exemplar patientiae, dum ingruente tribulationum articulo caput totondit, probauit utique, quia tempore felicitatis capillos nutrire consuerat.

‘But these matters about Pascha, succinctly, as you asked, and briefly recounted, I also exhort that you take care to have a tonsure—about which likewise you wished letters to be made for you—that is ecclesiastical and congruent with the Christian faith. And indeed we know that neither were all the apostles shorn in one and the same manner, nor does the catholic church now, just as it agrees in one faith, hope, and charity toward God, so also agree to one and indistinguishable form of tonsure for itself throughout the whole world. Finally, that we may look back to earlier times, that is, of the patriarchs, Job, the exemplar of patience, when, at the crisis of tribulations pressing on, he shaved his head, surely proved that in a time of felicity he was accustomed to nourish his hair.

At Ioseph et ipse castitatis, humilitatis, pietatis, ceterarumque uirtutum exsecutor ac doctor eximius, cum seruitio absoluendus adtonsus esse legitur, patet profecto, quia tempore seruitutis intonsis in carcere crinibus manere solebat. Ecce uterque uir Dei diuersum ab altero uultus habitum foris praemonstrabat, quorum tamen intus conscientia in parili uirtutum sibi gratia concordabat.

But Joseph too—himself an eminent executor and teacher of chastity, humility, piety, and the other virtues—since he is read to have been shorn when he was to be released from servitude, it is manifest that during the time of servitude he used to remain in prison with hair unshorn. Behold, each man of God displayed outwardly a countenance different from the other, yet within their conscience agreed for them in an equal grace of virtues.

‘Uerum, etsi profiteri nobis liberum est, quia tonsurae discrimen non noceat, quibus pura in Deum fides, et caritas in proximum sincera est; maxime cum numquam patribus catholicis sicut de paschae uel fidei diuersitate conflictus, ita etiam de tonsurae differentia legatur aliqua fuisse controuersia; inter omnes tamen, quas uel in ecclesia, uel in uniuerso hominum genere repperimus tonsuras, nullam magis sequendam nobis amplectendamque iure dixerim ea, quam in capite suo gestabat ille, cui se confitenti Dominus ait: “Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferni non praeualebunt aduersus eam; et tibi dabo claues regni caelorum”; nullam magis abominandam detestandamque merito cunctis fidelibus crediderim ea, quam habebat ille, cui gratiam Spiritus Sancti conparare uolenti dicit idem Petrus: “Pecunia tua tecum sit in perditionem, quoniam donum Dei existimasti per pecuniam possideri; non est tibi pars neque sors in sermone hoc.” Neque uero ob id tantum in coronam adtondemur, quia Petrus ita adtonsus est; sed quia Petrus in memoriam dominicae passionis ita adtonsus est, idcirco et nos, qui per eandem passionem saluari desideramus, ipsius passionis signum cum illo in uertice, summa uidelicet corporis nostri parte gestamus. Sicut enim omnis ecclesia, quia per mortem sui uiuificatoris ecclesia facta est, signum sanctae crucis eius in fronte portare consueuit ut crebro uexilli huius munimine a malignorum spirituum defendatur incursibus; crebra huius admonitione doceatur se quoque carnem suam cum uitiis et concupiscentiis crucifigere debere; ita etiam oportet eos, qui uel monachi uotum, uel gradum clericatus habentes, artioribus se necesse habent pro Domino continentiae frenis astringere, formam quoque coronae, quam ipse in passione spineam portauit in capite, ut spinas ac tribulos peccatorum nostrorum portaret, id est exportaret et auferret a nobis, suo quemque in capite per tonsuram praeferre; ut se etiam inrisiones et obprobria pro illo libenter ac promte omnia sufferre ipso etiam frontispicio doceant; ut coronam uitae aeternae, quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se, se semper expectare, proque huius perceptione et aduersa se mundi et prospera contemnere designent. Ceterum tonsuram eam, quam magum ferunt habuisse Simonem, quis, rogo, fidelium non statim cum ipsa magia primo detestetur et merito exsufflet aspectu?

‘Truly, although it is free for us to profess that a distinction of tonsure does not harm those whose faith toward God is pure and whose charity toward the neighbor is sincere—especially since it is never read that the catholic fathers had any controversy about a difference of tonsure, as they had conflicts about the diversity of Pascha or of faith—yet among all the tonsures which we have found either in the church or in the whole race of men, I would say with right that none is more to be followed and embraced by us than that which he wore on his head, to whom, as he confessed him, the Lord says: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven”; and I would think that none is more to be abominated and detested with good reason by all the faithful than that which he had to whom that same Peter says, when he wished to buy the grace of the Holy Spirit: “May your money be with you into perdition, because you supposed the gift of God to be possessed through money; you have no part nor lot in this matter.” Nor indeed for this reason only are we tonsured into a crown, because Peter was so tonsured; but because Peter was thus tonsured in memory of the Lord’s passion, therefore we also, who desire to be saved through the same passion, bear the sign of his passion with him on the crown, namely the highest part of our body. For just as the whole church—because through the death of its life-giver it was made the church—is accustomed to carry the sign of his holy cross on the forehead, that it may be defended frequently by the bulwark of this standard from the assaults of evil spirits, and by the frequent admonition of this may be taught that it too ought to crucify its flesh with vices and concupiscences; so also it behooves those who, having either the vow of monks or the grade of the clerical order, necessarily have to bind themselves for the Lord with the tighter reins of continence, to carry on each one’s own head by the tonsure the form also of the crown which he in his passion bore of thorns on his head, that he might carry the thorns and thistles of our sins—that is, carry them out and remove them from us; that they may teach by their very brow that they too gladly and promptly endure all mockeries and reproaches for him; that they may signify that they always expect the crown of eternal life which God has promised to those loving him, and for the gaining of this despise both the adverse and the prosperous things of the world. But as for that tonsure which they report Simon the Magus to have had, who, I ask, of the faithful would not at once detest it together with the magic itself at first sight and deservedly exsufflate it from his view?

Quae in frontis quidem superficie coronae uidetur speciem praeferre; sed ubi ad ceruicem considerando perueneris, decurtatam eam, quam te uidere putabas, inuenies coronam; ut merito talem simoniacis et non Christianis habitum conuenire cognoscas; qui in praesenti quidem uita a deceptis hominibus putabantur digni perpetuae gloria coronae; sed in ea, quae hanc sequitur uitam, non solum omni spe coronae priuati, sed aeterna insuper sunt poena damnati.

Which on the surface of the brow seems to bear the appearance of a crown; but when, by considering, you come to the nape, you will find the crown, which you thought you were seeing, truncated; so that you may rightly recognize such a habit to befit simoniacs and not Christians; who in the present life were thought by deceived men to be worthy of the crown of perpetual glory; but in that life which follows this life, not only deprived of every hope of a crown, but moreover are condemned to eternal punishment.

‘Neque uero me haec ita prosecutum aestimes, quasi eos, qui hanc tonsuram habent, condemnandos iudicem, si fide et operibus unitati catholicae fauerint; immo confidenter profiteor plurimos ex eis sanctos ac Deo dignos extitisse, ex quibus est Adamnan, abbas et sacerdos Columbiensium egregius, qui cum legatus suae gentis ad Aldfridum regem missus, nostrum quoque monasterium uidere uoluisset, miramque in moribus ac uerbis prudentiam, humilitatem, religionem ostenderet, dixi illi inter alia conloquens: “Obsecro, sancte frater, qui ad coronam te uitae, quae terminum nesciat, tendere credis, quid contrario tuae fidei habitu terminatam in capite coronae imaginem portas? et si beati Petri consortium quaeris, cur eius, quem ille anathematizauit, tonsurae imaginem imitaris? et non potius eius, cum quo in aeternum beatus uiuere cupis, etiam nunc habitum te, quantum potes, diligere monstras?” Respondit ille: “Scias pro certo, frater mi dilecte, quia etsi Simonis tonsuram ex consuetudine patria habeam, simoniacam tamen perfidiam tota mente detestor ac respuo; beatissimi autem apostolorum principis, quantum mea paruitas sufficit, uestigia sequi desidero.” At ego: “Credo,” inquam, “uere, quod ita sit; sed tamen indicio fit, quod ea, quae apostoli Petri sunt, in abdito cordis amplectimini, si quae eius esse nostis, etiam in facie tenetis.

‘Nor indeed should you suppose that I have pursued these things thus as though I judged those who have this tonsure to be condemned, if by faith and works they have favored catholic unity; rather I confidently profess that very many of them have proved holy and worthy of God, of whom is Adamnan, an excellent abbot and priest of the Columbians, who, when sent as a legate of his nation to King Aldfrid, also wished to see our monastery, and displayed wonderful prudence, humility, and religion in manners and in words; speaking with him among other things, I said to him: “I beseech you, holy brother, you who believe that you are tending toward the crown of life that knows no bound, why, with a habit contrary to your faith, do you bear on your head a cut‑off image of a crown? And if you seek the consortium of blessed Peter, why do you imitate the image of the tonsure of him whom he anathematized? And do you not rather show that you love, as far as you can, even now the habit of him with whom you long to live blessed for eternity?” He replied: “Know for certain, my beloved brother, that although I have Simon’s tonsure by the custom of my country, yet the simoniacal perfidy I utterly detest and reject with all my mind; and I desire to follow, so far as my smallness suffices, the footsteps of the most blessed prince of the apostles.” But I: “I believe,” I said, “truly, that it is so; yet it becomes an indication that you embrace, in the hidden place of the heart, the things that are of the apostle Peter, if you also hold upon the face the things you know to be his.

Namque prudentiam tuam facillime diiudicare reor, quod aptius multo sit, eius, quem corde toto abominaris, cuiusque horrendam faciem uidere refugis, habitum uultus a tuo uultu Deo iam dicato separare; et econtra eius, quem apud Deum habere patronum quaeris, sicut facta uel monita cupis sequi, sic etiam morem habitus te imitari condeceat.”

For indeed I deem it most easy to discern your prudence, from this: that it is far more fitting to separate from your countenance, now dedicated to God, the habit of the face of him whom you abominate with all your heart and whose horrendous face you shrink from beholding; and, on the contrary, of him whom you seek to have as a patron with God, just as you desire to follow his deeds or admonitions, so also it is becoming that you imitate the manner of his habit.”

‘Haec tunc Adamnano dixi, qui quidem quantum conspectis ecclesiarum nostrarum statutis profecisset, probauit, cum reuersus ad Scottiam, multas postea gentis eiusdem turbas ad catholicam temporis paschalis obseruantiam sua praedicatione correxit; tametsi eos, qui in Hii insula morabantur, monachos, quibusque speciali rectoris iure praeerat, necdum ad uiam statuti melioris reducere ualebat. Tonsuram quoque, si tantum sibi auctoritatis subesset, emendare meminisset.

‘These things I then said to Adamnan, who indeed proved how much he had profited from the sight of the statutes of our churches, when, having returned to Scotia, he thereafter corrected by his preaching many multitudes of that same nation to the catholic observance of the Paschal time; although those who were dwelling in the island of Hii, the monks over whom he presided with the special right of a rector, he was not yet able to bring back to the way of a better statute. The tonsure also he would have emended, if only so much authority had been at his disposal.

‘Sed et tuam nunc prudentiam, rex, admoneo, ut ea, quae unitati catholicae et apostolicae ecclesiae concinnant, una cum gente, cui te Rex regum et Dominus dominorum praefecit, in omnibus seruare contendas. Sic enim fit, ut post acceptam temporalis regni potentiam ipse beatissimus apostolorum princeps caelestis quoque regni tibi tuisque cum ceteris electis libens pandat introitum. Gratia te Regis aeterni longiori tempore regnantem ad nostram omnium pacem custodiat incolumem, dilectissime in Christo fili.’

‘But I also now admonish your prudence, king, that you strive to observe in all things those things which harmonize with the unity of the catholic and apostolic church, together with the people over whom the King of kings and Lord of lords has set you. For thus it comes about that, after you have received the power of the temporal kingdom, the most blessed prince of the apostles himself may also gladly open wide the entrance of the heavenly kingdom to you and yours, together with the other elect. May the grace of the Eternal King, you reigning for a longer time, keep you unharmed for the peace of us all, most beloved son in Christ.’

Haec epistula cum praesente rege Naitono multisque uiris doctioribus esset lecta, ac diligenter ab his, qui intellegere poterant, in linguam eius propriam interpretata, multum de eius exhortatione gauisus esse perhibetur; ita ut exsurgens de medio optimatum suorum consessu, genua flecteret in terram, Deo gratias agens, quod tale munusculum de terra Anglorum mereretur accipere. ‘Et quidem et antea noui,’ inquit, ‘quia haec erat uera paschae celebratio, sed in tantum modo rationem huius temporis obseruandi cognosco, ut parum mihi omnimodis uidear de his antea intellexisse. Unde palam profiteor uobisque, qui adsidetis, praesentibus protestor, quia hoc obseruare tempus paschae cum uniuersa mea gente perpetuo uolo; hanc accipere debere tonsuram, quam plenam esse rationis audimus, omnes, qui in meo regno sunt, clericos decerno.’ Nec mora, quae dixerat, regia auctoritate perfecit.

This letter, when it had been read with King Naiton present and with many more learned men, and carefully interpreted by those who were able to understand into his own language, is reported to have rejoiced much at its exhortation; such that, rising from the midst of the assembly of his nobles, he bent his knees to the ground, giving thanks to God that he was deemed worthy to receive such a little gift from the land of the English. ‘And indeed even before I knew,’ he said, ‘that this was the true celebration of Easter, but only now do I recognize the rationale of observing this time to such an extent that I seem to myself to have understood little of these things before in all respects. Wherefore I openly profess, and I protest to you who sit here present, that I will to observe this Paschal time perpetually with all my people; I decree that all the clerics who are in my kingdom ought to receive this tonsure, which we hear to be full of reason.’ Without delay, he accomplished by royal authority what he had said.

Statim namque iussu puplico mittebantur ad transcribendum, discendum, obseruandum, per uniuersas Pictorum prouincias circuli paschae decennouenales, oblitteratis per omnia erroneis LXXX et IIII annorum circulis. Adtondebantur omnes in coronam ministri altaris ac monachi; et quasi nouo se discipulatui beatissimi apostolorum principis Petri subditam, eiusque tutandam patrocinio gens correcta gaudebat.

At once, by public command, the nineteen-year Paschal cycles were sent throughout all the provinces of the Picts to be transcribed, learned, and observed, the erroneous eighty-four-year cycles being obliterated in all respects. All the ministers of the altar and the monks were shorn into a corona; and as though subjected to a new discipleship of the most blessed prince of the apostles, Peter, and to be safeguarded by his patronage, the corrected nation rejoiced.

[22] NEC multo post illi quoque, qui insulam Hii incolebant, monachi Scotticae nationis cum his, quae sibi erant subdita, monasteriis ad ritum paschae ac tonsurae canonicum Domino procurante perducti sunt. Siquidem anno ab incarnatione Domini DCCXVI, quo Osredo occiso Coenred gubernacula regni Nordanhymbrorum suscepit, cum uenisset ad eos de Hibernia Deo amabilis, et cum omni honorificentia nominandus pater ac sacerdos, Ecgberct, cuius superius memoriam saepius fecimus, honorifice ab eis et multo cum gaudio susceptus est. Qui quoniam et doctor suauissimus, et eorum, quae agenda docebat, erat exsecutor deuotissimus, libenter auditus ab uniuersis, inmutauit piis ac sedulis exhortationibus inueteratam illam traditionem parentum eorum, de quibus apostolicum illum licet proferre sermonem, quod aemulationem Dei habebant, sed non secundum scientiam; catholicoque illos atque apostolico more celebrationem, ut diximus, praecipuae sollemnitatis sub figura coronae perpetis agere perdocuit.

[22] Not long after, those also who inhabited the island of Hii, monks of the Scottish nation, together with the monasteries that were subject to them, were brought, the Lord procuring, to the canonical rite of Pascha and of the tonsure. Indeed, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 716, in which, Osred having been slain, Coenred took up the helm of the kingdom of the Northumbrians, there came to them from Ireland a man lovable to God and, to be named with all honor, a father and priest, Ecgberct, of whom above we have made mention rather often; he was honorably received by them and with much joy. And since he was a most sweet teacher and a most devoted executor of the things he taught were to be done, being gladly heard by all, he changed by pious and assiduous exhortations that inveterate tradition of their fathers—about whom it is permitted to bring forth that apostolic saying, that they had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge—and he thoroughly taught them to conduct, in catholic and apostolic manner as we have said, the celebration of the chief solemnity, under the figure of the perpetual crown.

Quod mira diuinae constat factum dispensatione pietatis, ut quoniam gens illa, quam nouerat scientiam diuinae cognitionis libenter ac sine inuidia populis Anglorum communicare curauit; ipsa quoque postmodum per gentem Anglorum in eis, quae minus habuerat, ad perfectam uiuendi normam perueniret. Sicut econtra Brettones, qui nolebant Anglis eam, quam habebant, fidei Christianae notitiam pandere, credentibus iam populis Anglorum, et in regula fidei catholicae per omnia instructis, ipsi adhuc inueterati et claudicantes a semitis suis, et capita sine corona praetendunt, et sollemnia Christi sine ecclesiae Christi societate uenerantur.

Which is known to have been done by a wondrous dispensation of divine piety: namely, that, since that nation took care gladly and without envy to communicate to the peoples of the Angles the knowledge of divine cognition which it had known, it itself afterwards, through the nation of the Angles, in those things which it had had less, might attain to the perfect norm of living. Just as, on the contrary, the Britons, who were unwilling to unfold to the Angles the knowledge of the Christian faith which they had, while the peoples of the Angles were already believing and in the rule of the catholic faith in all respects instructed, they themselves still, inveterate and limping from their own paths, both display their heads without a crown, and venerate the solemnities of Christ without the society of the Church of Christ.

Susceperunt autem Hiienses monachi docente Ecgbercto ritus uiuendi catholicos sub abbate Duunchado, post annos circiter LXXX, ex quo ad praedicationem gentis Anglorum Aidanum miserant antistitem. Mansit autem uir Domini Ecgberct annos XIII in praefata insula, quam ipse uelut noua quadam relucente gratia ecclesiasticae societatis et pacis Christo consecrauerat; annoque dominicae incarnationis DCCXXVIIII, quo pascha dominicum octauo Kalendarum Maiarum die celebrabatur, cum missarum sollemnia in memoriam eiusdem dominicae resurrectionis celebrasset, eodem die et ipse migrauit ad Dominum, ac gaudium summae festiuitatis, quod cum fratribus, quos ad unitatis gratiam conuerterat, inchoauit, cum Domino et apostolis, ceterisque caeli ciuibus conpleuit, immo id ipsum celebrare sine fine non desinit. Mira autem diuinae dispensatio prouisionis erat, quod uenerabilis uir non solum in pascha transiuit de hoc mundo ad Patrem; uerum etiam cum eo die pascha celebraretur, quo numquam prius in eis locis celebrari solebat.

Moreover the monks of Hii, with Ecgberct teaching, received catholic rites of living under Abbot Duunchad, after about 80 years from when they had sent Aidan as bishop for the preaching of the nation of the English. And the man of the Lord Ecgberct remained 13 years in the aforesaid island, which he himself, as with a certain new shining grace of ecclesiastical society and peace, had consecrated to Christ; and in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 729, in which the Lord’s Pascha was being celebrated on the eighth day before the Kalends of May, when he had celebrated the solemnities of the masses in memory of that same Lord’s resurrection, on the same day he himself migrated to the Lord, and the joy of the highest festivity, which he had begun with the brothers whom he had converted to the grace of unity, he completed with the Lord and the apostles and the other citizens of heaven; nay rather, he does not cease to celebrate that very thing without end. Moreover it was a wondrous dispensation of divine providence, that the venerable man not only passed over at Pascha from this world to the Father, but also when on that day Pascha was celebrated, on a day on which it had never before been wont to be celebrated in those places.

Gaudebant ergo fratres de agnitione certa et catholica temporis paschalis; laetabantur de patrocinio pergentis ad Dominum patris, per quem fuerant correcti; gratulabatur ille, quod eatenus in carne seruatus est, donec illum in pascha diem suos auditores, quem semper antea uitabant, suscipere ac secum agere uideret. Sicque certus de illorum correctione reuerentissimus pater exsultauit, ut uideret diem Domini; uidit et gauisus est.

Therefore the brethren rejoiced at the sure and catholic recognition of the Paschal time; they were glad at the patronage of the father going on to the Lord, through whom they had been corrected; he rejoiced that he had been preserved thus far in the flesh, until he saw his hearers receive that Paschal day, which they had always before avoided, and celebrate it with him. And thus, assured of their correction, the most reverend father exulted, that he might see the day of the Lord; he saw and rejoiced.

[23] ANNO dominicae incarnationis DCCXXV, qui erat annus septimus Osrici regis Nordanhymbrorum, qui Coenredo successerat, Uictred filius Ecgberecti, rex Cantuariorum, defunctus est nono die Kalendarum Maiarum; et regni, quod per XXXIIII semis annos tenebat, filios tres, Aedilberctum, Eadberctum, et Alricum, reliquit heredes. Anno post quem proximo Tobias Hrofensis ecclesiae praesul defunctus est, uir, ut supra meminimus, doctissimus. Erat enim discipulus beatae memoriae magistrorum Theodori archiepiscopi, et abbatis Hadriani; unde, ut dictum est, cum eruditione litterarum uel ecclesiasticarum uel generalium, ita Grecam quoque cum Latina didicit linguam, ut tam notas ac familiares sibi eas quam natiuitatis suae loquellam haberet.

[23] In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 725, which was the 7th year of Osric, king of the Northumbrians, who had succeeded Cenred, Wihtred, son of Ecgberht, king of the Cantuarians, died on the 9th day before the Kalends of May; and he left as heirs of the kingdom, which he had held for 34½ years, his three sons, Aethelberht, Eadberht, and Alric. In the year next after which Tobias, prelate of the church of Rochester, died—a man, as we have mentioned above, most learned. For he was a disciple of the masters of blessed memory, Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian; whence, as has been said, along with erudition in letters, both ecclesiastical and general, he likewise learned the Greek together with the Latin language, so that he had them as well-known and familiar to himself as the speech of his own birth.

Sepultus uero est in porticu sancti Pauli apostoli, quam intro ecclesiam sancti Andreae sibi ipse in locum sepulchri fecerat. Post quem episcopatus officium Alduulf, Berctualdo archiepiscopo consecrante, suscepit.

He was buried indeed in the portico of Saint Paul the Apostle, which, within the church of Saint Andrew, he himself had made for himself as a place of sepulcher. After him Alduulf took up the episcopal office, Berctuald the archbishop consecrating.

Anno dominicae incarnationis DCCXXVIIII apparuerunt cometae duae circa solem, multum intuentibus terrorem incutientes. Una quippe solem praecedebat, mane orientem; altera uespere sequebatur occidentem, quasi orienti simul et occidenti dirae cladis praesagae; uel certe una diei, altera noctis praecurrebat exortum, ut utroque tempore mala mortalibus inminere signarent. Portabant autem facem ignis contra Aquilonem, quasi ad accendendum adclinem; apparebantque mense Ianuario, et duabus ferme septimanis permanebant.

In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 729 there appeared two comets around the sun, instilling much terror in the beholders. One indeed was preceding the sun, in the morning as it rose; the other in the evening was following as it set in the Occident, as though presaging dire calamity for both the Orient and the Occident alike; or certainly the one was anticipating the rising of day, the other of night, so that at both times they might signify that evils were impending for mortals. Moreover, they were bearing a torch of fire toward Aquilon (the North), as if inclined to kindle; and they appeared in the month of January, and they lasted for nearly two weeks.

Quo tempore grauissima Sarracenorum lues Gallias misera caede uastabat, et ipsi non multo post in eadem prouincia dignas suae perfidiae poenas luebant. Quo anno sanctus uir Domini Ecgberct, ut supra commemorauimus, ipso die paschae migrauit ad Dominum; et mox, peracto pascha, hoc est VIIa Iduum Maiarum die, Osric rex Nordanhymbrorum uita decessit, cum ipse regni, quod XI annis gubernabat, successorem fore Ceoluulfum decreuisset, fratrem illius, qui ante se regnauerat, Coenredi regis, cuius regni et principia et processus tot ac tantis redundauere rerum aduersantium motibus, ut, quid de his scribi debeat, quemue habitura sint finem singula, necdum sciri ualeat.

At which time the most grievous plague of the Saracens was laying waste Gaul with wretched slaughter, and they themselves not long after in the same province were paying penalties worthy of their perfidy. In that year the holy man of the Lord Ecgberct, as we have mentioned above, on the very day of Easter migrated to the Lord; and soon, Easter having been completed, that is on the 7th day before the Ides of May, Osric, king of the Northumbrians, departed from life, since he had decreed that Ceoluulf would be the successor of the kingdom, which he had governed for 11 years—the brother of him, King Coenred, who had reigned before him—whose reign, both its beginnings and its progress, has overflowed with so many and so great motions of adverse affairs that what ought to be written about these, and what end each will have, cannot yet be known.

Anno dominicae incarnationis DCCXXXI, Berctuald archiepiscopus longa consumtus aetate defunctus est die Iduum Ianuariarum; qui sedit annos XXXVII, menses VI, dies XIIII; pro quo anno eodem factus est archiepiscopus, uocabulo Tatuini, de prouincia Merciorum, cum fuisset presbyter in monasterio, quod uocatur Briudun. Consecratus est autem in Doruuerni ciuitate a uiris uenerabilibus Danihele Uentano, et Ingualdo Lundoniensi, et Alduino Lyccitfeldensi, et Alduulfo Hrofensi antistitibus, die decima Iunii mensis, dominica; uir religione et prudentia insignis, sacris quoque litteris nobiliter instructus.

In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 731, Berctuald the archbishop, worn out by long age, was deceased on the day of the Ides of January; who sat 37 years, 6 months, 14 days; in whose place in the same year was made archbishop, by the name Tatwine, from the province of the Mercians, when he had been a presbyter in the monastery which is called Briudun. He was consecrated in the city of Doruuerni by venerable men Daniel of Uenta, and Inguald of London, and Alduin of Lyccitfeld, and Aldwulf of Hrof, bishops, on the tenth day of the month of June, a Sunday; a man distinguished for religion and prudence, and nobly instructed in sacred letters.

Itaque in praesenti ecclesiis Cantuariorum Tatuini et Alduulf episcopi praesunt. Porro prouinciae Orientalium Saxonum Inguald episcopus; prouinciae Orientalium Anglorum Aldberct et Hadulac episcopi; prouinciae Occidentalium Saxonum Danihel et Fortheri episcopi; prouinciae Merciorum Alduini episcopus; et eis populis, qui ultra amnem Sabrinam ad occidentem habitant, Ualchstod episcopus; prouinciae Huicciorum Uilfrid episcopus; prouinciae Lindisfarorum Cyniberct episcopus praeest. Episcopatus Uectae insulae ad Danihelem pertinet episcopum Uentae ciuitatis.

Therefore at present, over the churches of the Cantuarians, the bishops Tatuini and Alduulf preside; moreover, over the province of the East Saxons, Bishop Inguald; over the province of the East Angles, the bishops Aldberct and Hadulac; over the province of the West Saxons, the bishops Danihel and Fortheri; over the province of the Mercians, Bishop Alduini; and for those peoples who dwell beyond the river Sabrina to the west, Bishop Ualchstod; over the province of the Huiccii, Bishop Uilfrid; over the province of the Lindisfaras, Bishop Cyniberct presides. The bishopric of the Isle of Vectis pertains to Danihel, bishop of the city of Venta.

Prouincia Australium Saxonum iam aliquot annis absque episcopo manens ministerium sibi episcopale ab Occidentalium Saxonum antistite quaerit. Et hae omnes prouinciae ceteraeque australes ad confinium usque Hymbrae fluminis cum suis quaeque regibus Merciorum regi Aedilbaldo subiectae sunt.

The province of the South Saxons, remaining for some years now without a bishop, seeks for itself an episcopal ministry from the prelate of the West Saxons. And all these provinces and the other southern ones, up to the boundary of the river Humber, each with their own kings, are subject to Æthelbald, king of the Mercians.

At uero prouinciae Nordanhymbrorum, cui rex Ceoluulf praeest, IIII nunc episcopi praesulatum tenent; Uilfrid in Eburacensi ecclesia, Ediluald in Lindisfaronensi, Acca in Hagustaldensi, Pecthelm in ea, quae Candida Casa uocatur, quae nuper, multiplicatis fidelium plebibus, in sedem pontificatus addita ipsum primum habet antistitem.

But indeed, in the province of the Northumbrians, over which King Ceoluulf presides, 4 bishops now hold the prelacy; Uilfrid in the Eburacensian church, Ediluald in the Lindisfarensian, Acca in the Hagustaldensian, Pecthelm in that which is called the Candida Casa, which recently, with the peoples of the faithful multiplied, having been added as a see of the pontificate, has him as its first prelate.

Pictorum quoque natio tempore hoc et foedus pacis cum gente habet Anglorum, et catholicae pacis ac ueritatis cum uniuersali ecclesia particeps existere gaudet. Scotti, qui Brittaniam incolunt, suis contenti finibus nil contra gentem Anglorum insidiarum moliuntur aut fraudium. Brettones, quamuis et maxima ex parte domestico sibi odio gentem Anglorum, et totius catholicae ecclesiae statum pascha minus recto, moribusque inprobis inpugnent; tamen et diuina sibi et humana prorsus resistente uirtute, in neutro cupitum possunt obtinere propositum; quippe qui quamuis ex parte sui sint iuris, nonnulla tamen ex parte Anglorum sunt seruitio mancipati.

The nation of the Picts also at this time both has a treaty of peace with the people of the English, and rejoices to exist as a participant of Catholic peace and truth with the universal Church. The Scots, who inhabit Britain, content with their own boundaries, contrive nothing of ambushes or frauds against the nation of the English. The Britons, although both for the most part by domestic hatred they impugn the nation of the English, and the state of the whole Catholic Church by a less-correct Pascha and by depraved morals; yet, with both divine and human virtue altogether resisting them, they can obtain the desired purpose in neither; since, although in part they are of their own right, yet in some part they are delivered over to servitude to the English.

Qua adridente pace ac serenitate temporum, plures in gente Nordanhymbrorum, tam nobiles, quam priuati, se suosque liberos, depositis armis, satagunt magis, accepta tonsura, monasterialibus adscribere uotis, quam bellicis exercere studiis. Quae res quem sit habitura finem, posterior aetas uidebit.

With peace smiling and the serenity of the times, many in the nation of the Northumbrians, both nobles and private persons, with arms laid aside, strive rather, the tonsure received, to enroll themselves and their children under monastic vows than to exercise warlike pursuits. What end this affair will have, a later age will see.

Hic est inpraesentiarum uniuersae status Brittaniae, anno aduentus Anglorum in Brittaniam circiter ducentesimo octogesimo quinto, dominicae autem incarnationis anno DCCXXXI; in cuius regno perpetuo exsultet terra, et congratulante in fide eius Brittania, laetentur insulae multae, et confiteantur memoriae sanctitatis eius.

This is at present the status of the whole of Britain, in the year of the advent of the English into Britain about the 285th, but of the Lord’s Incarnation the year 731; in whose kingdom may the earth exult perpetually, and, Britain congratulating in his faith, let many islands rejoice, and confess to the memory of his holiness.

[24] UERUM ea, quae temporum distinctione latius digesta sunt, ob memoriam conseruandam breuiter recapitulari placuit.

[24] However, it has pleased that the things which have been more broadly set forth by a distinction of times be briefly recapitulated, in order that memory may be conserved.

Anno igitur ante incarnationem dominicam sexagesimo Gaius Iulius Caesar primus Romanorum Brittanias bello pulsauit, et uicit, nec tamen ibi regnum potuit obtinere.

Therefore, in the 60th year before the Lord’s Incarnation, Gaius Julius Caesar, the first of the Romans, assailed the Britains with war and conquered, yet nevertheless he was not able to obtain a kingdom there.

Anno ab incarnatione Domini XLVI, Claudius secundus Romanorum Brittanias adiens, plurimam insulae partem in deditionem recepit, et Orcadas quoque insulas Romano adiecit imperio.

In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 46, Claudius, the second of the Romans, going to the Britains, received the greater part of the island into surrender, and added the Orkney islands also to the Roman empire.

Anno incarnationis dominicae CLXVII, Eleuther Romae praesul factus XV annos ecclesiam gloriosissime rexit, cui litteras rex Brittaniae Lucius mittens, ut Christianus efficeretur, petiit et inpetrauit.

In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 167, Eleuther, made prelate at Rome, ruled the church most gloriously for 15 years, to whom King Lucius of Britain, sending letters that he might be made a Christian, asked and obtained it.

Anno ab incarnatione Domini CLXXXVIIII, Seuerus imperator factus XVII annis regnauit, qui Brittaniam uallo a mari usque ad mare praecinxit.

In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 189, Severus, made emperor, reigned for 17 years, who girded Britain with a rampart from sea to sea.

Anno CCCLXXXI, Maximus in Brittania creatus imperator, in Galliam transiit, et Gratianum interfecit.

In the year 381, Maximus, created emperor in Britain, crossed over into Gaul, and killed Gratian.

Anno CCCCVIIII, Roma a Gothis fracta, ex quo tempore Romani in Brittania regnare cessarunt.

In the year 409, Rome was broken by the Goths, from which time the Romans ceased to reign in Britain.

Anno CCCCXXX, Palladius ad Scottos in Christum credentes a Caelestino papa primus mittitur episcopus.

In the year 430, Palladius is sent as the first bishop to the Scots believing in Christ by Pope Celestine.

Anno CCCCXLVIIII, Marcianus cum Ualentiniano imperium suscipiens, VII annis tenuit, quorum tempore Angli a Brettonibus accersiti Brittaniam adierunt.

In the year 449, Marcian, together with Valentinian, taking up the imperial power, held it for 7 years, during which time the Angles, summoned by the Britons, went to Britain.

Anno DXXXVIII, eclypsis solis facta est XIIII. Kalendas Martias, ab hora prima usque ad tertiam.

In the year 538, an eclipse of the sun took place on the 14th Kalends of March, from the first hour until the third.

Anno DXL, eclypsis solis facta XII. Kalendas Iulias, et apparuerunt stellae pene hora dimidia ab hora diei tertia.

In the year 540, an eclipse of the sun occurred on the 12th day before the Kalends of July, and the stars appeared for nearly half an hour from the third hour of the day.

Anno DXLVII, Ida regnare coepit, a quo regalis Nordanhymbrorum prosapia originem tenet, et XII annis in regno permansit.

In the year 547, Ida began to reign, from whom the regal progeny of the Northumbrians holds its origin, and he remained in the kingdom for 12 years.

Anno DLXV, Columba presbyter de Scottia uenit Brittaniam, ad docendos Pictos, et in insula Hii monasterium fecit.

In the year 565, the presbyter Columba from Scotia came to Britain, to teach the Picts, and on the island of Hii he founded a monastery.

Anno DXCVI, Gregorius papa misit Brittaniam Augustinum cum monachis, qui uerbum Dei genti Anglorum euangelizarent.

In the year 596, Pope Gregory sent Augustine to Britain with monks, that they might evangelize the word of God to the nation of the Angles.

Anno DXCVII, uenere Brittaniam praefati doctores, qui fuit annus plus minus CL aduentus Anglorum in Brittaniam.

In the year 597, the aforesaid teachers came to Britain, which was, more or less, the 150th year since the advent of the Angles into Britain.

Anno DCI, misit papa Gregorius pallium Brittaniam Augustino iam facto episcopo, et plures uerbi ministros, in quibus et Paulinum.

In the year 601, Pope Gregory sent to Britain the pallium for Augustine, now made bishop, and several ministers of the word, among whom also Paulinus.

Anno DCIII, pugnatum ad Degsastanæ.

In the year 603, a battle was fought at Degsastan.

Anno DCIIII, Orientales Saxones fidem Christi percipiunt sub rege Sabercto antistite Mellito.

In the year 604, the East Saxons receive the faith of Christ under King Saberct, with Mellitus as bishop.

Anno DCV, Gregorius obiit.

In the year 605, Gregory died.

Anno DCXVI, Aedilberct rex Cantuariorum defunctus est.

In the year 616, King Aethelberht of the Cantuarians died.

Anno DCXXV, Paulinus a Iusto archiepiscopo ordinatur genti Nordanhymbrorum antistes.

In the year 625, Paulinus was ordained by Justus the archbishop as prelate to the nation of the Northumbrians.

Anno DCXXVI, Eanfled, filia Aeduini regis, baptizata cum XII in sabbato pentecostes.

In the year 626, Eanfled, daughter of King Edwin, was baptized with 12 on the Saturday of Pentecost.

Anno DCXXVII, Eduini rex baptizatus cum sua gente in pascha.

In the year 627, King Edwin was baptized with his people at Easter.

Anno DCXXXIII, Eduine rege peremto, Paulinus Cantiam rediit.

In the year 633, with King Edwin slain, Paulinus returned to Kent.

Anno DCXL, Eadbald rex Cantuariorum obiit.

In the year 640, King Eadbald of the Cantuarians died.

Anno DCXLII, Osuald rex occisus.

In the year 642, King Oswald was slain.

Anno DCXLIIII, Paulinus, quondam Eboraci, sed tunc Hrofensis antistes ciuitatis, migrauit ad Dominum.

In the year 644, Paulinus, formerly of York, but then bishop of the city of Rochester, migrated to the Lord.

Anno DCLI, Osuini rex occisus, et Aidan episcopus defunctus est.

In the year 651, King Oswine was slain, and Bishop Aidan died.

Anno DCLIII, Middilangli sub principe Peada fidei mysteriis sunt inbuti.

In the year 653, the Middle Angles, under the prince Peada, were initiated into the mysteries of the faith.

Anno DCLV, Penda periit, et Mercii sunt facti Christiani.

In the year 655, Penda perished, and the Mercians became Christians.

Anno DCLXIIII, eclypsis facta; Earconberct rex Cantuariorum defunctus, et Colman cum Scottis ad suos reuersus est; et pestilentia uenit; et Ceadda ac Uilfrid Nordanhymbrorum ordinantur episcopi.

In the year 664, an eclipse took place; Earconberct, king of the Cantuarians, died, and Colman with the Scots returned to his own people; and a pestilence came; and Ceadda and Uilfrid are ordained bishops of the Northumbrians.

Anno DCLXVIII, Theodorus ordinatur episcopus.

In the year 668, Theodore is ordained bishop.

Anno DCLXX, Osuiu rex Nordanhymbrorum obiit.

In the year 670, Oswiu, king of the Northumbrians, died.

Anno DCLXXIII, Ecgberct rex Cantuariorum obiit; et synodus facta est ad Herutforda, praesente Ecgfrido rege, praesidente archiepiscopo Theodoro, utillima, X capitulorum.

In the year 673, Ecgberct, king of the Cantuarians, died; and a synod was held at Herutforda, with King Ecgfrith present, Archbishop Theodore presiding, most useful, of 10 chapters.

Anno DCLXXV, Uulfheri rex Merciorum, postquam XVII annos regnauerat, defunctus, Aedilredo fratri reliquit imperium.

In the year 675, Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, after he had reigned 17 years, died, and left the dominion to his brother Æthelred.

Anno DCLXXVI, Aedilred uastauit Cantiam.

In the year 676, Æthelred laid waste Kent.

Anno DCLXXVIII, cometa apparuit; Uilfrid episcopus a sede sua pulsus est ab Ecgfrido rege; et pro eo Bosa, Eata, et Eadhaeth consecrati antistites.

In the year 678, a comet appeared; Wilfrid the bishop was driven from his see by King Ecgfrith; and in his stead Bosa, Eata, and Eadhaeth were consecrated as bishops.

Anno DCLXXVIIII, Ælfuini occisus.

In the year 679, Ælfuini was killed.

Anno DCLXXX, synodus facta in campo Haethfeltha de fide catholica, praesidente archiepiscopo Theodoro; in quo adfuit Iohannes abba Romanus. Quo anno Hild abbatissa in Streanæshalæ obiit.

In the year 680, a synod was held in the field of Haethfeltha concerning the catholic faith, with Archbishop Theodore presiding; at which John, a Roman abbot, was present. In the same year Hild, abbess, died at Streanæshalæ.

Anno DCLXXXV, Ecgfrid rex Nordanhymbrorum occisus est. Anno eodem Hlotheri rex Cantuariorum obiit.

In the year 685, Ecgfrid, king of the Northumbrians, was slain. In the same year King Hlothere of the Cantuarians died.

Anno DCLXXXVIII, Caeduald rex Occidentalium Saxonum Romam de Brittania pergit.

In the year 688, Caeduald, king of the West Saxons, goes to Rome from Britain.

Anno DCXC, Theodorus archiepiscopus obiit.

In the year 690, Theodore the archbishop died.

Anno DCXCVII, Osthryd regina a suis, id est Merciorum, primatibus interemta.

In the year 697, Queen Osthryd was slain by her own, that is, by the principal men of the Mercians.

Anno DCXCVIII, Berctred dux regius Nordanhymbrorum a Pictis interfectus.

In the year 698, Berctred, the royal duke of the Northumbrians, was slain by the Picts.

Anno DCCIIII, Aedilred, postquam XXXI annos Merciorum genti praefuit, monachus factus Coenredo regnum dedit.

In the year 704, Aedilred, after he had presided for 31 years over the people of the Mercians, having become a monk, gave the kingdom to Coenred.

Anno DCCV, Aldfrid rex Nordanhymbrorum defunctus est.

In the year 705, Aldfrid, king of the Northumbrians, died.

Anno DCCVIIII, Coenred rex Merciorum, postquam V annos regnauit, Romam pergit.

In the year 709, Coenred, king of the Mercians, after he had reigned 5 years, goes to Rome.

Anno DCCXI, Berctfrid praefectus cum Pictis pugnauit.

In the year 711, Berctfrid the prefect fought with the Picts.

Anno DCCXVI, Osred rex Nordanhymbrorum interfectus, et rex Merciorum Ceolred defunctus; et uir Domini Ecgberct Hienses monachos ad catholicum pascha et ecclesiasticam correxit tonsuram.

In the year 716, Osred, king of the Northumbrians, was slain, and Ceolred, king of the Mercians, died; and the man of the Lord Ecgberht brought the monks of Iona to the Catholic Pasch and the ecclesiastic tonsure.

Anno DCCXXV, Uictred rex Cantuariorum obiit.

In the year 725, Uictred, king of the Kentish, died.

Anno DCCXXVIIII, cometae apparuerunt, sanctus Ecgberct transiit, Osric mortuus est.

In the year 729, comets appeared, Saint Ecgberct passed away, Osric died.

Anno DCCXXXI, Berctuald archiepiscopus obiit. Anno eodem Tatuini consecratus archiepiscopus nonus Doruuernensis ecclesiae, Aedilbaldo rege Merciorum XV. agente annum inperii.

In the year 731, Berctuald the archbishop died. In the same year Tatwin was consecrated the ninth archbishop of the church of Canterbury, Aethelbald king of the Mercians being in the 15th year of his reign.

Haec de historia ecclesiastica Brittaniarum, et maxime gentis Anglorum, prout uel ex litteris antiquorum, uel ex traditione maiorum, uel ex mea ipse cognitione scire potui, Domino adiuuante digessi Baeda famulus Christi, et presbyter monasterii beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, quod est ad Uiuraemuda, et Ingyruum.

These things about the ecclesiastical history of the Britains, and especially of the nation of the English, inasmuch as either from the letters of the ancients, or from the tradition of the elders, or from my own knowledge I was able to know, with the Lord helping, I, Bede, servant of Christ, and presbyter of the monastery of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, have set forth, which is at Wearmouth, and Jarrow.

Qui natus in territorio eiusdem monasterii, cum essem annorum septem, cura propinquorum datus sum educandus reuerentissimo abbati Benedicto, ac deinde Ceolfrido; cunctumque ex eo tempus uitae in eiusdem monasterii habitatione peragens, omnem meditandis scripturis operam dedi; atque inter obseruantiam disciplinae regularis, et cotidianam cantandi in ecclesia curam, semper aut discere, aut docere, aut scribere dulce habui.

Who, born in the territory of the same monastery, when I was seven years old, by the care of my relatives I was given to be educated to the most reverend Abbot Benedict, and then to Ceolfrid; and spending all the time of life thereafter in the habitation of the same monastery, I gave all effort to meditating the Scriptures; and amid the observance of the regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the church, I always held it sweet either to learn, or to teach, or to write.

Nono decimo autem uitae meae anno diaconatum, tricesimo gradum presbyteratus, utrumque per ministerium reuerentissimi episcopi Iohannis, iubente Ceolfrido abbate, suscepi.

In the nineteenth year of my life I received the diaconate, in the thirtieth the grade of presbyterate, both through the ministry of the most reverend Bishop John, at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid.

Ex quo tempore accepti presbyteratus usque ad annum aetatis meae LVIIII, haec in scripturam sanctam meae meorumque necessitati ex opusculis uenerabilium patrum breuiter adnotare, siue etiam ad formam sensus et interpretationis eorum superadicere curaui:

From the time of the presbyterate having been received up to the year of my age 59, I have taken care, for the necessity of myself and of mine, to annotate briefly upon holy scripture from the opuscules of the venerable fathers, or even to superadd according to the form of their sense and interpretation:

‘In principium Genesis, usque ad natiuitatem Isaac et eiectionem Ismahelis, libros IIII.

‘On the beginning of Genesis, up to the nativity of Isaac and the ejection of Ishmael, 4 books.

De tabernaculo et uasis eius, ac uestibus sacerdotum, libros III.

On the tabernacle and its vessels, and the vestments of the priests, books 3.

In primam partem Samuelis, id est usque ad mortem Saulis, libros III.

On the first part of Samuel, that is, up to the death of Saul, 3 books.

De aedificatione templi, allegoricae expositionis, sicut et cetera, libros II.

On the building of the temple, an allegorical exposition, as also the rest, 2 books.

Item, in Regum librum XXX quaestionum.

Likewise, on the Book of Kings, one book of 30 questions.

In Prouerbia Salomonis libros III.

On the Proverbs of Solomon, 3 books.

In Cantica canticorum libros VII.

On the Song of Songs, 7 books.

In Isaiam, Danihelem, XII prophetas, et partem Hieremiae, distinctiones capitulorum ex tractatu beati Hieronimi excerptas.

On Isaiah, Daniel, the 12 prophets, and a part of Jeremiah, the distinctions of chapters excerpted from the tractate of blessed Jerome.

In Ezram et Neemiam libros III.

On Ezra and Nehemiah, 3 books.

In Canticum Habacum librum I.

On the Canticle of Habakkuk, book 1.

In librum beati patris Tobiae explanationis allegoricae de Christo et ecclesia librum I.

On the book of the blessed father Tobias, a book of allegorical explanation about Christ and the Church, book 1.

Item, Capitula lectionum in Pentateucum Mosi, Iosue, Iudicum;

Likewise, Chapters of the readings in the Pentateuch of Moses, Joshua, Judges;

In libros Regum et Uerba dierum;

On the Books of Kings and the Words of the Days;

In librum beati patris Iob;

In the book of the blessed father Job;

In Parabolas, Ecclesiasten, et Cantica canticorum;

On Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticle of Canticles;

In Isaiam prophetam, Ezram quoque et Neemiam.

On the prophet Isaiah, and Ezra as well, and Nehemiah.

In euangelium Marci libros IIII.

On the gospel of Mark, 4 books.

In euangelium Lucae libros VI.

On the Gospel of Luke, 6 books.

Omeliarum euangelii libros II.

Two books of homilies on the Gospel.

In apostolum quaecumque in opusculis sancti Augustini exposita inueni, cuncta per ordinem transscribere curaui.

Whatever I found expounded on the Apostle in the opuscules of Saint Augustine, I took care to transcribe all in order.

In Actus apostolorum libros II.

On the Acts of the apostles, 2 books.

In Epistulas VII catholicas libros singulos.

On the 7 Catholic Epistles, single books.

In Apocalypsin sancti Iohannis libros III.

On the Apocalypse of Saint John, 3 books.

Item, Capitula lectionum in totum nouum testamentum, excepto euangelio.

Likewise, the chapter-headings of the lections for the entire New Testament, except for the Gospel.

Item librum epistularum ad diuersos: quarum de sex aetatibus saeculi una est; de mansionibus filiorum Israel una; una de eo, quod ait Isaias: ‘Et claudentur ibi in carcerem, et post dies multos uisitabantur;’ de ratione bissexti una; de aequinoctio iuxta Anatolium una.

Likewise a book of epistles to diverse recipients: of which one is on the six ages of the world; one on the mansions of the sons of Israel; one on that which Isaiah says: ‘And they will be shut up there in prison, and after many days they were visited;’ one on the rationale of the bissextile; one on the equinox according to Anatolius.

Item de historiis sanctorum: librum uitae et passionis sancti Felicis confessoris de metrico Paulini opere in prosam transtuli; librum uitae et passionis sancti Anastasii, male de Greco translatum, et peius a quodam inperito emendatum, prout potui, ad sensum correxi; uitam sancti patris monachi simul et antistitis Cudbercti, et prius heroico metro et postmodum plano sermone, descripsi.

Likewise concerning the histories of the saints: a book of the life and passion of Saint Felix the confessor I translated into prose from the metrical work of Paulinus; a book of the life and passion of Saint Anastasius, badly translated from the Greek, and worse emended by a certain inexpert man, I corrected, as I could, to the sense; the life of the holy father, both monk and bishop, Cuthbert, I described, first in heroic meter and afterward in plain discourse.

Historiam abbatum monasterii huius, in quo supernae pietati deseruire gaudeo, Benedicti, Ceolfridi, et Huaetbercti in libellis duobus.

The history of the abbots of this monastery, in which I rejoice to render service to supernal piety, Benedict, Ceolfrith, and Huetberht, in two little books.

Historiam ecclesiasticam nostrae insulae ac gentis in libris V.

An ecclesiastical history of our island and people in 5 books.

Martyrologium de nataliciis sanctorum martyrum diebus; in quo omnes, quos inuenire potui, non solum qua die, uerum etiam quo genere certaminis, uel sub quo iudice mundum uicerint, diligenter adnotare studui.

A Martyrology on the natal days of the holy martyrs; in which I have endeavored diligently to annotate all whom I was able to find, not only on what day, but also by what kind of contest, and under which judge they conquered the world.

Librum hymnorum diuerso metro siue rhythmo.

A book of hymns in diverse meter or rhythm.

Librum epigrammatum heroico metro, siue elegiaco.

A book of epigrams in heroic meter, or elegiac.

De natura rerum, et de temporibus libros singulos; item de temporibus librum I maiorem.

On the nature of things, and on the times, single books; likewise on the times 1 larger book.

Librum de orthographia, alfabeti ordine distinctum.

A book on orthography, divided according to the order of the alphabet.

Item librum de metrica arte, et huic adiectum alium de schematibus siue tropis libellum, hoc est de figuris modisque locutionum, quibus scriptura sancta contexta est.’

Likewise a book on the metrical art, and to this is added another little book on schemata or tropes, that is, on the figures and modes of locutions, with which holy scripture is woven together.’

Teque deprecor, bone Iesu, ut cui propitius donasti uerba tuae scientiae dulciter haurire, dones etiam benignus aliquando ad te fontem omnis sapientiae peruenire, et parere semper ante faciem tuam.

And I beseech you, good Jesus, that you—who have propitiously granted to draw in sweetly the words of your knowledge—would also benignly grant at some time to come to you, the fountain of all wisdom, and to obey always before your face.