much less than he had apprehended. Ethelbert, already well disposed
towards the Christian faith, assigned him a habitation in the Isle
of Thanet, and soon after admitted him to a conference. Apprehensive,
however, lest spells or enchantments might be employed against him by
priests, who brought an unknown worship from a distant country, he had
the precaution to receive them in the open air, where, he believed,
the force of their magic would be more easily dissipated,[****] Here
Augustine, by means of his interpreters, delivered to him the tenets of
the Christian faith, and promised him eternal joys above, and a kingdom
in heaven without end, if he would be persuaded to receive that salutary
doctrine.
[* Bede, lib. i. cap. 23.]
[** Greg. Epist. lib. ix. epist. 56. Spell. Concil.
p. 82.]
[*** Higden Polychron. lib. v. Chron. Sax. p. 23.]
[**** Bede, lib. i. cap. 25. H. Hunting, lib. iii.
Brompton, p. 729 Parker, Antiq. Brit. Eccel. p 61.]
“Our words and promises,”[*] replied Ethelbert, “are fair; but because
they are new and uncertain, I cannot entirely yield to them, and
relinquish the principles which I and my ancestors have so long
maintained. You are welcome, however, to remain here in peace; and as
you have undertaken so long a journey, solely, as it appears, for
what you believe to be for our advantage, I will supply you with
all necessaries, and permit you to deliver your doctrine to my
subjects.”[**]
Augustine, encouraged by this favorable reception, and seeing now a
prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel
to the Kentish Saxons. He attracted their attention by the austerity of
his manners, by the severe penances to which he subjected himself, by
the abstinence find self-denial which he practised; and having excited
then wonder by a course of life which appeared so contrary to nature, he
procured more easily their belief of miracles, which, it was pretended,
he wrought for their conversion. Influenced by these motives, and
by the declared favor of the court, numbers of the Kentish men were
baptized; and the king himself was persuaded to submit to that rite of
Christianity. His example had great influence with his subjects; but
he employed no force to bring them over to the new doctrine. Augustine
thought proper, in the commencement of his mission, to assume the
appearance of the greatest lenity; he told Ethelbert, that the service
of Christ must be entirely voluntary, and that no violence ought ever to
be used in propagating so salutary a doctrine.[****]
The intelligence received of these spiritual conquests afforded great
joy to the Romans, who now exulted as much in those peaceful trophies as
their ancestors had ever done in their most sanguinary triumphs and most
splendid victories. Gregory wrote a letter to Ethelbert, in which, after
informing him that the end of the world was approaching, he exhorted him
to display his zeal in the conversion of his subjects, to exert rigor
against the worship of idols, and to build up the good work of
holiness by every expedient of exhortation, terror, blandishment, or
correction;[*****] a doctrine more suitable to that age, and to the
usual papal maxims, than the tolerating principles which Augustine had
thought it prudent to inculcate.
[* Bede, lib. i. cap. 25. Chron. W. Thorn, p.
1759.]
[** Bede, lib. i. cap. 25. H. Hunting, lib. iii.
Brompton, p. 729]
[*** Bede, lib. i. cap. 26.]
[**** Bede, cap 26. H. Hunting, lib. iii.]
[***** Bede, lib. i. cap. 32. Brompton, p. 732 Spell.
Concil, 785]
The pontiff also answered some questions, which the missionary had
put concerning the government of the new church of Kent. Besides other
queries, which it is not material here to relate, Augustine asked,
“Whether cousins-german might be allowed to marry.” Gregory answered,
that that liberty had indeed been formerly granted by the Roman law;
but that experience had shown that no issue could ever come from such
marriages; and he therefore prohibited them. Augustine asked, “Whether
a woman pregnant might be baptized.” Gregory answered, that he saw no
objection. “How soon after the birth the child might receive baptism.”
It was answered, immediately, if necessary. “How soon a husband might
have commerce with his wife after her delivery.” Not till she had given
suck to her child; a practice to which Gregory exhorts all women. “How;
soon a man might enter the church, or receive the sacrament, after
having had commerce with his wife.” It was replied, that, unless he had
approached her without desire, merely for the sake of propagating his
species, he was not without sin; but in all cases it was requisite for
him, before he entered the church, or communicated, to purge himself
by prayer and ablution; and he ought not, even after using these
precautions, to participate immediately of the sacred duties.[*] There
are some other questions and replies still more indecent and more
ridiculous.[**] And on the whole it appears that Gregory and his
missionary, if sympathy of manners have any influence, were better
calculated than men of more refined understandings, for making a
progress with the ignorant and barbarous Saxons.
The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity, Gregory enjoined
Augustine to remove the idols from the heathen altars, but not to
destroy the altars themselves; because the people, he said, would be
allured to frequent the Christian worship, when they found it celebrated
in a place which they were accustomed to revere.
[* Bede, lib. i. cap. 27. Spell. Concil. p. 97,
98, 99, &c.]
[** Augustine asks, “Si mulier menstrua
consuetudine tenetur, an ecclesiam intrare et licet, aut
sacræ communionis sacramenta percipere?” Gregory answers,
“Santæ communionis mysterium in eisdem diebus percipere non
debet prohiberi. Si autem ex veneratione magna percipere non
præsumitur, laudanda est.” Augustine asks, “Si post
illusionem, quae par somnum solet accidere, vel corpus
Domini quilibet accipere valeat; vel, si sacerdos sit, sacra
mysteria celebrare?” Gregory answers this learned question
by many learned distinctions.]
And as the pagans practised sacrifices, and feasted with the priests on
their offerings, he also exhorted the missionary to persuade them, on
Christian festivals, to kill their cattle in the neighborhood of the
church, and to indulge themselves in those cheerful entertainments to
which they had been habituated.[*] These political compliances
show that, notwithstanding his ignorance and prejudices, he was
not unacquainted with the arts of governing mankind. Augustine was
consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory with
authority over all the British churches, and received the pall, a badge
of ecclesiastical honor, from Rome.[**] Gregory also advised him not
to be too much elated with his gift of working miracles;[***] and as
Augustine, proud of the success of his mission, seemed to think himself
entitled to extend his authority over the bishops of Gaul, the
pope informed him that they lay entirely without the bounds of his
jurisdiction.[****]
The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, and, much more his embracing
Christianity, begat a connection of his subjects with the French,
Italians, and other nations on the continent, and tended to reclaim them
from that gross ignorance and barbarity, in which all the Saxon tribes
had been hitherto involved.[*****] Ethelbert also enacted,[******] with
the consent of the states of his kingdom, a body of laws, the first
written laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; and his
reign was in every respect glorious to himself and beneficial to his
people. He governed the kingdom of Kent fifty years; and dying in 616,
left the succession to his son, Eadbald. This prince, seduced by a
passion for his mother-in-law, deserted, for some time, the Christian
faith, which permitted not these incestuous marriages: his whole people
immediately returned with him to idolatry. Laurentius, the successor of
Augustine found the Christian worship wholly abandoned, and was prepared
to return to France, in order to escape the mortification of preaching
the gospel without fruit to the infidels.
[* Bede lib. i. cap. 30. Spell. Concil. p. 89.
Greg. Epist. lib. ix. epist. 71.]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 23,24.]
[*** H. Hunting, lib. iii. Spell. Concil. p. 83.
Bede, lib. i. Greg Epist. lib. ix. epist. 60.]
[**** Bede, lib. i. cap. 27.]
[***** W. Malms, p. 10.]
[****** Wilkins, Leges Sax. p. 13.]
Mellitus and Justus, who had been consecrated bishops of London and
Rochester, had already departed the kingdom,[*] when Laurentius, before
he should entirely abandon his dignity, made one effort to reclaim the
king. He appeared before that prince, and, throwing off his vestments,
showed his body all torn with bruises and stripes which he had received.
Eadbald, wondering that any man should have dared to treat in that
manner a person of his rank, was told by Laurentius, that he had
received this chastisement from St. Peter, the prince of the apostles,
who had appeared to him in a vision, and severely reproving him for his
intention to desert his charge, had inflicted on him these visible marks
of his displeasure.[**] Whether Eadbald was struck with the miracle,
or influenced by some other motive, he divorced himself from his
mother-in-law, and returned to the profession of Christianity:[***]
his whole people returned with him. Eadbald reached not the fame or
authority of his father, and died in 640, after a reign of twenty-five
years, leaving two sons, Erminfrid and Ercombert.
[* Bede, lib. ii. cap 5.]
[** Bede, lib. ii cap. 2. Chron. Sax. p. 26.
Higden, lib. v]
[*** Brompton, p 739.]
Ercombert, though the younger son, by Emma, a French princess,
found means to mount the throne. He is celebrated by Bede for two
exploits--for establishing the fast of Lent in his kingdom, and for
utterly extirpating idolatry, which, notwithstanding the prevalence of
Christianity, had hitherto been tolerated by the two preceding monarchs.
He reigned twenty-four years, and left the crown to Egbert, his son,
who reigned nine years. This prince is renowned for his encouragement of
learning; but infamous for putting to death his two cousins-german, sons
of Erminfrid, his uncle. The ecclesiastical writers praise him for his
bestowing on his sister, Domnona, some lands in the Isle of Thanet,
where she founded a monastery.
The bloody precaution of Egbert could not fix the crown on the head of
his son Edric. Lothaire, brother of the deceased prince, took possession
of the kingdom; and in order to secure the power in his family, he
associated with him Richard, his son, in the administration of the
government. Edric, the dispossessed prince, had recourse to Edilwach,
king of Sussex, for assistance; and being supported by that prince,
fought a battle with his uncle, who was defeated and slain. Richard fled
into Germany, and afterwards died in Lucca, a city of Tuscany. William
of Malmsbury ascribes Lothaire’s bad fortune to two crimes--his
concurrence in the murder of his cousins, and his contempt for
relics.[*]
Lothaire reigned eleven years; Edric, his successor, only two. Upon the
death of the latter, which happened in 686 Widred, his brother, obtained
possession of the crown. But as the succession had been of late so much
disjointed by revolutions and usurpations, faction began to prevail
among the nobility; which invited Cedwalla, king of Wessex, with his
brother Mollo, to attack the kingdom. These invaders committed great
devastations in Kent; but the death of Mollo, who was slain in a
skirmish,[**] gave a short breathing time to that kingdom. Widred
restored the affairs of Kent, and, after a reign of thirty-two
years,[***] left the crown to his posterity. Eadbert, Ethelbert, and
Alric, his descendants, successively mounted the throne. After the
death of the last, which happened in 794, the royal family of Kent was
extinguished; and every factious leader, who could entertain hopes of
ascending the throne, threw the state into confusion.[****] Egbert, who
first succeeded, reigned but two years; Cuthred, brother to the king of
Mercia, six years; Baldred, an illegitimate branch of the royal family,
eighteen; and after a troublesome and precarious reign, he was, in the
year 823, expelled by Egbert, king of Wessex, who dissolved the Saxon
Heptarchy, and united the several kingdoms under his dominion.
[* W. Malms, p. 11.]
[** Higden, lib. v.]
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 52.]
[**** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 1, p.11.]
THE KINGDOM OF NORTHUMBERLAND
Adelfrid, king of Bernicia, having married Acca, the daughter of Ælla,
king of Deïri, and expelled her infant brother, Edwin, had united all
the counties north of Humber into one monarchy, and acquired a great
ascendant in the Heptarchy. He also spread the terror of the Saxon
arms to the neighboring people; and by his victories over the Scots
and Picts, as well as Welsh, extended on all sides the bounds of his
dominions. Having laid siege to Chester, the Britons marched out with
all their forces to engage him; and they were attended by a body of
twelve hundred and fifty monks from the monastery of Bangor, who stood
at a small distance from the field of battle, in order to encourage the
combatants by their presence and exhortations. Adelfrid, inquiring into
the purpose of this unusual appearance, was told that these priests had
come to pray against him: “Then are they as much our enemies,” said he,
“as those who intend to fight against us;”[*] and he immediately sent a
detachment, who fell upon them, and did such execution, that only fifty
escaped with their lives.[**] The Britons, astonished at this event,
received a total defeat: Chester was obliged to surrender; and Adelfrid,
pursuing his victory, made himself master of Bangor, and entirely
demolished the monastery, a building so extensive, that there was a
mile’s distance from one gate of it to another; and it contained two
thousand one hundred monks, who are said to have been there maintained
by their own labor.[***] Notwithstanding Adelfrid’s success in war,
he lived in inquietude on account of young Edwin, whom he had unjustly
dispossessed of the crown of Deïri. This prince, now grown to man’s
estate, wandered from place to place, in continual danger from the
attempts of Adelfrid; and received at last protection in the court
of Redwald, king of the East Angles; where his engaging and gallant
deportment procured him general esteem and affection. Redwald, however,
was strongly solicited, by the king of Northumberland, to kill or
deliver up his guest: rich presents were promised him if he would
comply, and war denounced against him in case of his refusal. After
rejecting several messages of this kind, his generosity began to yield
to the motives of interest; and he retained the last ambassador, till
he should come to a resolution in a case of such importance. Edwin,
informed of his friend’s perplexity, was yet determined at all hazards
to remain in East Anglia; and thought, that if the protection of that
court failed him, it were better to die than prolong a life so much
exposed to the persecutions of his powerful rival. This confidence in
Redwald’s honor and friendship, with his other accomplishments, engaged
the queen on his side; and she effectually represented to her husband
the infamy of delivering up to certain destruction their royal guest,
who had fled to them for protection against his cruel and jealous
enemies.[****] Redwald, embracing more generous resolutions, thought
it safest to prevent Adelfrid, before that prince was aware of his
intention, and to attack him while he was yet unprepared for defence.
[* Brompton, p. 779.]
[** Trivet, apud Spell. Concil. p. 111.]
[*** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 2. W. Malms, lib. i. cap.
3.]
[**** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 3. H. Hunting, lib.
iii. Bede.]
He marched suddenly with an army into the kingdom of Northumberland, and
fought a battle with Adelfrid; in which that monarch was defeated
and killed, after revenging himself by the death of Regner, son of
Redwald.[*] His own sons, Eanfrid. Oswald, and Oswy, yet infants, were
carried into Scotland; and Edwin obtained possession of the crown of
Northumberland.
Edwin was the greatest prince of the Heptarchy in that age,
and distinguished himself, both by his influence over the other
kingdoms,[**] and by the strict execution of justice in his own
dominions. He reclaimed his subjects from the licentious life to which
they had been accustomed; and it was a common saying, that during his
reign a woman or child might openly carry every where a purse of
gold, without any danger of violence or robbery. There is a remarkable
instance, transmitted to us, of the affection borne him by his servants.
Cuichelme, king of Wessex, was his enemy; but finding himself unable
to maintain open war against so gallant and powerful a prince, he
determined to use treachery against him, and he employed one Eumer for
that criminal purpose, The assassin, having obtained admittance, by
pretending to deliver a message from Cuichelme, drew his dagger, and
rushed upon the king. Lilla, an officer of his army, seeing his master’s
danger, and having no other means of defence, interposed with his own
body between the king and Burner’s dagger, which was pushed with such
violence, that, after piercing Lilla, it even wounded Edwin; but before
the assassin could renew his blow, he was despatched by the king’s
attendants.
The East Angles conspired against Redwald, their king; and having put
him to death, they offered their crown to Edwin, of whose valor and
capacity they had had experience, while he resided among them. But
Edwin, from a sense o£ gratitude towards his benefactor, obliged them
to submit to Earpwold, the son of Redwald; and that prince preserved his
authority, though on a precarious footing, under the protection of the
Northumbrian monarch.[***]
[* Bede, lib. ii. cap. 12. Bromton, p. 781.]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 27.]
[*** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 3]
Edwin, after his accession to the crown, married Ethelburga, the
daughter of Ethelbert, king of Kent. This princess, emulating the glory
of her mother, Bertha, who had been the instrument for converting her
husband and his people to Christianity, carried Paullinus, a learned
bishop, along with her;[*] and besides stipulating a toleration for the
exercise of her own religion, which was readily granted her, she used
every reason to persuade the king to embrace it. Edwin, like a
prudent prince, hesitated on the proposal, but promised to examine
the foundations of that doctrine, and declared that, if he found them
satisfactory, he was willing to be converted.[**] Accordingly he held
several conferences with Paullinus; canvassed the arguments propounded
with the wisest of his counsellors; retired frequently from company, in
order to revolve alone that important question; and, after a serious
and long inquiry, declared in favor of the Christian religion;[***]
the people soon after imitated his example. Besides the authority and
influence of the king, they were moved by another striking example.
Coifi, the high priest, being converted after a public conference with
Paullinus, led the way in destroying the images, which he had so long
worshipped, and was forward in making this atonement for his past
idolatry.[****]
This able prince perished with his son Osfrid, in a great battle which
he fought against Penda, king of Mercia, and Caedwalla, king of the
Britons.[*****] That event, which happened in the forty-eighth year of
Edwin’s age and seventeenth of his reign,[******] divided the monarchy
of Northumberland, which that prince had united in his person. Eanfrid,
the son of Adelfrid, returned with his brothers, Oswald and Oswy, from
Scotland, and took possession of Bernicia, his paternal kingdom; Osric,
Edwin’s cousin-german, established himself in Deïri, the inheritance
of his family, but to which the sons of Edwin had a preferable title.
Eanfrid, the elder surviving son, fled to Penda, by whom he was
treacherously slain. The younger son, Vuscfraea, with Yffi, the
grandson of Edwin, by Osfrid, sought protection in Kent, and not finding
themselves in safety there, retired into France to King Dagobert, where
they died.[*******]
[* H. Hunting, lib. iii.]
[** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 9.]
[*** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 9. W. Malms, lib. i. cap.
3.]
[**** Bede, lib. ii. cap. 13. Brompton, Higden,
lib. v.]
[***** M. West. p. 114. Chron. Sax. p. 29.]
[****** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 3.]
[******* Bede, lib. ii, cap. 29.]
Osric, king of Deïri and Eanfrid of Bernicia, returned to paganism; and
the whole people seem to have returned with them; since Paullinus, who
was the first archbishop of York; and who had converted them, thought
proper to retire with Ethelburga, the queen dowager, into Kent. Both
these Northumbrian kings perished soon after, the first in battle
against Caedwalla, the Briton; the second by the treachery of that
prince. Oswald, the brother of Eanfrid, of the race of Bernicia, united
again the kingdom of Northumberland in the year 634, and restored
the Christian religion in his dominions. He gained a bloody and
well-disputed battle against Caedwalla; the last vigorous effort which
the Britons made against the Saxons. Oswald is much celebrated for his
sanctity and charity by the monkish historians; and they pretend that
his relics wrought miracles, particularly the curing of a sick horse,
which had approached the place of his interment.[*]
[* Bede, lib. iii. cap. 9.]
He died in battle against Penda, king of Mercia, and was succeeded by
his brother Oswy, who established himself in the government of the whole
Northumbrian kingdom, by putting to death Oswin, the son of Osric,
the last king of the race of Deïri. His son Egfrid succeeded him; who
perishing in battle against the Picts, without leaving any children,
because Adelthrid, his wife, refused to violate her vow of chastity,
Alfred, his natural brother, acquired possession of the kingdom, which
he governed for nineteen years; and he left it to Osred, his son, a boy
of eight years of age. This prince, after a reign of eleven years, was
murdered by Kenred, his kinsman, who, after enjoying the crown only a
year, perished by a like fate. Osric, and after him Celwulph, the son
of Kenred, next mounted the throne, which the latter relinquished in
the year 738, in favor of Eadbert, his cousin-german, who, imitating
his predecessor, abdicated the crown, and retired into a monastery.
Oswolf, son of Eadbert, was slain in a sedition, a year after his
accession to the crown; and Mollo, who was not of the royal family,
seized the crown. He perished by the treachery of Ailred, a prince of
the blood; and Ailred, having succeeded in his design upon the throne,
was soon after expelled by his subjects. Ethelred, his successor, the
son of Mollo, underwent a like fate. Celwold, the next king, the brother
of Ailred, was deposed and slain by the people; and his place was filled
by Osred, his nephew, who, after a short reign of a year, made way for
Ethelbert, another son of Mollo whose death was equally tragical
with that of almost all his predecessors. After Ethelbert’s death, a
universal anarchy prevailed in Northumberland; and the people having, by
so many fatal revolutions, lost all attachment to their government and
princes, were well prepared for subjection to a foreign yoke; which
Egbert, king of Wessex, finally imposed upon them.
THE KINGDOM OF EAST ANGLIA
The history of this kingdom contains nothing memorable except the
conversion of Earpwold, the fourth king, and great-grandson of Una, the
founder of the monarchy. The authority of Edwin, king of Northumberland,
on whom that prince entirety depended, engaged him to take this step;
but soon after, his wife, who was an idolatress, brought him back to her
religion; and he was found unable to resist those allurements which have
seduced the wisest of mankind. After his death, which was violent,
like that of most of the Saxon princes that did not early retire into
monasteries, Sigebert, his successor and half-brother, who had been
educated in France, restored Christianity, and introduced learning
among the East Angles. Some pretend that he founded the university
of Cambridge, or rather some schools in that place. It is almost
impossible, and quite needless, to be more particular in relating the
transactions of the East Angles. What instruction or entertainment can
it give the reader, to hear a long bead-roll of barbarous names,
Egric, Annas, Ethelbert, Ethelwald, Aldulf, Elfwald, Beorne, Ethelred,
Ethelbert, who successively murdered, expelled, or inherited from each
other, and obscurely filled the throne of that kingdom? Ethelbert,
the last of these princes, was treacherously murdered by Offa, king of
Mercia, in the year 792, and his state was thenceforth [*mited] with
that of Offa, as we shall relate presently.
THE KINGDOM OF MERCIA
Mercia, the largest, if not the most powerful, kingdom of the Heptarchy,
comprehended all the middle counties of England; and as its frontiers
extended to those of all the other kingdoms, as well as to Wales,
it received its name from that circumstance. Wibba, the son of Crida,
founder of the monarchy, being placed on the throne by Ethelbert, king
of Kent, governed his paternal dominions by a precarious authority;
and after his death, Ceorl, his kinsman, was, by the influence of the
Kentish monarch, preferred to his son Penda, whose turbulent character
appeared dangerous to that prince. Penda was thus fifty years of age
before he mounted the throne; and his temerity and restless disposition
were found nowise abated by time, experience, or reflection. He engaged
in continual hostilities against all the neighboring states; and, by
his injustice and violence, rendered himself equally odious to his own
subjects and to strangers. Sigebert, Egric, and Annas, three kings of
East Anglia, perished successively in battle against him; as did
also Edwin and Oswald, the two greatest princes that had reigned over
Northumberland. At last Oswy, brother to Oswald, having defeated and
slain him in a decisive battle, freed the world from this sanguinary
tyrant. Peada, his son, mounted the throne of Mercia in 655, and lived
under the protection of Oswy, whose daughter he had espoused. This
princess was educated in the Christian faith, and she employed her
influence, with success, in converting her husband and his subjects to
that religion. Thus the fair sex have had the merit of introducing the
Christian doctrine into all the most considerable kingdoms of the Saxon
Heptarchy. Peada died a violent death.[*] His son Wolfhere succeeded to
the government; and, after having reduced to dependence the kingdoms of
Essex and East Anglia, he left the crown to his brother Ethelred,
who, though a lover of peace, showed himself not unfit for military
enterprises. Besides making a successful expedition into Kent, he
repulsed Egfrid, king of Northumberland, who had invaded his dominions;
and he slew in battle Elswin, the brother of that prince. Desirous,
however, of composing all animosities with Egfrid, he paid him a sum of
money as a compensation for the loss of his brother. After a prosperous
reign of thirty years, he resigned the crown to Kendred, son of
Wolfhere, and retired into the monastery of Bardney.[**]
[* Hugo Candidas (p. 4) says, that he was
treacherously murdered by his queen, by whose persuasion he
had embraced Christianity; but this account of the matter is
found in that historian alone.]
[** Bede, lib. v.]
Kendred returned the present of the crown to Ceolred, the son of
Ethelred; and making a pilgrimage to Rome, passed his life there in
penance and devotion. The place of Ceolred was supplied by Ethelbald,
great-grand-nephew to Penda, by Alwy, his brother; and this prince,
being slain in a mutiny, was succeeded by Offa, who was a degree more
remote from Penda, by Eawa, another brother.
This prince, who mounted the throne in 755,[*] had some great qualities,
and was successful in his warlike enterprises against Lothaire, king of
Kent, and Kenwulph, king of Wessex, He defeated the former in a bloody
battle, at Otford upon the Darent, and reduced his kingdom to a state
of dependence; he gained a victory over the latter at Bensington, in
Oxfordshire; and conquering that county, together with that of
Glocester, annexed both to his dominions. But all these successes were
stained by his treacherous murder of Ethelbert, king of the East Angles,
and his violent seizing of that kingdom. This young prince, who is said
to have possessed great merit, had paid his addresses to Elfrida, the
daughter of Offa, and was invited with all his retinue to Hereford, in
order to solemnize the nuptials: amidst the joy and festivity of these
entertainments, he was seized by Offa, and secretly beheaded; and though
Elfrida, who abhorred her father’s treachery, had time to give warning
to the East Anglian nobility, who escaped into their own country,
Offa, having extinguished the royal family, succeeded in his design
of subduing that kingdom.[**] The perfidious prince, desirous of
reestablishing his character in the world, and perhaps of appeasing
the remorses of his own conscience, paid great court to the clergy, and
practised all the monkish devotion so much esteemed in that ignorant and
superstitious age. He gave the tenth of his goods to the church;[***]
bestowed rich donations on the cathedral of Hereford, and even made a
pilgrimage to Rome, where his great power and riches could not fail of
procuring him the papal absolution. The better to ingratiate himself
with the sovereign pontiff, he engaged to pay him a yearly donation for
the support of an English college at Rome,[****] and in order to raise
the sum, he imposed a tax of a penny on each house possessed of thirty
pence a year. This imposition, being afterwards levied on all England,
was commonly denominated _Peter’s pence_;[*****] and though
conferred at first as a gift, was afterwards claimed as a tribute by the
Roman pontiff.
[* Chron. Sax. p. 59.]
[** Brompton, p. 750, 751, 752.]
[*** Spell. Concil. p 308. Brompton, p. 776.]
[**** Spell. Concil. p. 230, 310, 312.]
[***** Higden, lib. v.]
Carrying his hypocrisy still further, Offa, feigning to be directed by
a vision from heaven, discovered at Verulam the relics of St Alban, the
martyr, and endowed a magnificent monastery in that place.[*] Moved by
al these acts of piety, Malmsbury, one of the best of the old English
historians, declares himself at a loss to determine[**] whether the
merits or crimes of this prince preponderated. Offa died, after a reign
of thirty-nine years, in 794.[***]
This prince was become so considerable in the Heptarchy, that the
emperor Charlemagne entered into an alliance and friendship with him;
a circumstance which did honor to Offa; as distant princes at that time
had usually little communication with each other. That emperor being a
great lover of learning and learned men, in an age very barren of that
ornament, Offa, at his desire, sent him over Alcuin, a clergyman
much celebrated for his knowledge, who received great honors from
Charlemagne, and even became his preceptor in the sciences. The chief
reason why he had at first desired the company of Alcuin, was that he
might oppose his learning to the heresy of Felix, bishop of Urgel, in
Catalonia; who maintained that Jesus Christ, considered in his human
nature, could more properly be denominated the adoptive than the natural
son of God.[****] This heresy was condemned in the council of Francfort,
held in 794, and consisting of three hundred bishops. Such were the
questions which were agitated in that age, and which employed the
attention not only of cloistered scholars, but of the wisest and
greatest princes.[*****]
Egfrith succeeded to his father Offa, but survived him only five
months;[******] when he made way for Kenulph, a descendant of the royal
family. This prince waged war against Kent, and taking Egbert, the king,
prisoner, he cut off his hands, and put out his eyes; leaving Cuthred,
his own brother, in possession of the crown of that kingdom. Kenulph
was killed in an insurrection of the East Anglians, whose crown his
predecessor, Offa, had usurped. He left his son Kenelm, a minor; who was
murdered the same year by his sister Quendrade, who had entertained the
ambitious views of assuming the government.[*******]
[* Ingulph. p. 5. W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 4.]
[** Lib. i. cap. 4.]
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 65.]
[**** Dupin, cent. viii. chap. 4].
[***** Offa, in order to protect his country from
Wales, drew a rampart or ditch of a hundred miles in length,
from Basinwerke in Flintshire to the south sea near Bristol.
See Speed’s Description of Wales.]
[****** Ingulph. p. 6]
[******* Ingulph, p. 7. Brompton, p. 776.]
But she was supplanted by her uncle Ceolulf; who, two years after, was
dethroned by Beornulf The reign of this usurper, who was not of the
royal family, was short and unfortunate; he was defeated by the West
Saxons, and killed by his own subjects, the East Angles.[*] Ludican, his
successor, underwent the same fate;[**] and Wiglaff, who mounted this
unstable throne, and found everything in the utmost confusion, could not
withstand the fortune of Egbert, who united all the Saxon kingdoms into
one great monarchy.
[* Ingulph. p. 7.]
[** Alured. Beverl. p. 87.]
THE KINGDOM OF ESSEX.
This kingdom made no great figure in the Heptarchy; and the history
of it is very imperfect. Sleda succeeded to his father, Erkinwin, the
founder of the monarchy; and made way for his son Sebert, who, being
nephew to Ethelbert, king of Kent, was persuaded by that prince to
embrace the Christian faith.[***] His sons and conjunct successors,
Sexted and Seward, relapsed into idolatry, and were soon after slain in
a battle against the West Saxons. To show the rude manner of living
in that age, Bede tells us,[****] that these two kings expressed great
desire to eat the white bread, distributed by Mellitus, the bishop, at
the communion.[*****] But on his refusing them, unless they would submit
to be baptized, they expelled him their dominions. The names of the
other princes, who reigned successively in Essex, are Sigebert the
little, Sigebert the good, who restored Christianity, Swithelm, Sigheri,
Offa. This last prince, having made a vow of chastity, notwithstanding
his marriage with Keneswitha, a Mercian princess, daughter to Penda,
went in pilgrimage to Rome, and shut himself up during the rest of his
life in a cloister. Selred, his successor, reigned thirty-eight years;
and was the last of the royal line; the failure of which threw the
kingdom into great confusion, and reduced it to dependence under
Mercia.[******] Switherd first acquired the crown, by the concession of
the Mercian princes; and his death made way for Sigeric, who ended his
life in a pilgrimage to Rome. His successor. Sigered, unable to defend
his kingdom, submitted to the victorious arms of Egbert.
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 24].
[**** Lib. ii. cap. 5.]
[***** H. Hunting, lib. iii. Brompton, p. 738,
743. Bede.]
[****** W Malms, lib. i. cap. 6.]
THE KINGDOM OF SUSSEX.
The history of this kingdom, the smallest in the Heptarchy, is still more
imperfect than that of Essex. Ælla, the founder of the monarchy, left
the crown to his son Cissa, who is chiefly remarkable for his long reign
of seventy-six years. During his time, the South Saxons fell almost into
a total dependence on the kingdom of Wessex; and we scarcely know the
names of the princes who were possessed of this titular sovereignty.
Adelwalch, the last of them, was subdued in battle by Ceadwalla, king
of Wessex, and was slain in the action; leaving two infant sons, who,
falling into the hand of the conqueror, were murdered by him. The abbot
of Bedford opposed the order for this execution; but could only prevail
on Ceadwalla to suspend it till they should be baptized. Bercthun and
Audhum, two noblemen of character, resisted some time the violence
of the West Saxons; but their opposition served only to prolong the
miseries of their country; and the subduing of this kingdom was the
first step which the West Saxons made towards acquiring the sole
monarchy of England.[*]
[* Brompton, p. 800.]
THE KINGDOM OF WESSEX.
The kingdom of Wessex, which finally swallowed up all the other Saxon
states, met with great resistance on its first establishment; and
the Britons, who were now inured to arms, yielded not tamely their
possessions to those invaders. Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, and
his son Kenric, fought many successful, and some unsuccessful battles,
against the natives; and the martial spirit, common to all the Saxons,
was, by means of these hostilities, carried to the greatest height among
this tribe. Ceaulin, who was the son and successor of Kenric, and who
began his reign in 560, was still, more ambitious and enterprising than
his predecessors; and by waging continual war against the Britons, he
added a great part of the counties of Devon and Somerset to his other
dominions. Carried along by the tide of success, he invaded the other
Saxon states in his neighborhood, and becoming terrible to all, he
provoked a general confederacy against him. This alliance proved
successful under the conduct of Ethelbert, king of Kent; and Ceaulin,
who had lost the affections of his own subjects by his violent
disposition, and had now fallen into contempt from his misfortunes, was
expelled the throne,[**]and died in exile and misery. Cuichelme, and
Cuthwin, his sons, governed jointly the kingdom, till the expulsion
of the latter in 591, and the death of the former in 593, made way
for Cealric, to whom succeeded Ceobaîd in 593, by whose death, which
happened in 611, Kynegils inherited the crown.
[** Chron. Sax. p. 22.]
This prince embraced Christianity,[*] through the persuasion of Oswald,
king of Northumberland, who had married his daughter, and who had
Attained a great ascendant in the Heptarchy. Kenwalch next succeeded to
the monarchy, and dying in 672, left the succession so much disputed,
that Sexburga, his widow, a woman of spirit,[**] kept possession of the
government till her death, which happened two years after. Escwin then
peaceably acquired the crown; and, after a short reign of two years,
made way for Kentwin, who governed nine years. Ceodwalla, his successor,
mounted not the throne without opposition; but proved a great prince,
according to the ideas of those times; that is, he was enterprising,
warlike, and successful. He entirely subdued the kingdom of Sussex, and
annexed it to his own dominions He made inroads into Kent; but met with
resistance from Widred, the king, who proved successful against Mollo,
brother to Ceodwalla, and slew him in a skirmish. Ceodwalla at last,
tired with wars and bloodshed, was seized with a fit of devotion;
bestowed several endowments on the church; and made a pilgrimage to
Rome, where he received baptism, and died in 689. Ina, his successor,
inherited the military virtues of Ceodwalla, and added to them the more
valuable ones of justice, policy, and prudence. He made war upon the
Britons in Somerset; and, having finally subdued that province, he
treated the vanquished with a humanity hitherto unknown to the Saxon
conquerors. He allowed the proprietors to retain possession of their
lands, encouraged marriages and alliances between them and his ancient
subjects, and gave them the privilege of being governed by the same
laws. These laws he augmented and ascertained; and though he was
disturbed by some insurrections at home, his long reign of thirty-seven
years may be regarded as one of the most glorious and most prosperous of
the Heptarchy. In the decline of his age he made a pilgrimage to Rome;
and after his return, shut himself up in a cloister, where he died.
[* Higden, lib. v. Chron. Sax. p. 15. Alured
Beverl p. 94.]
[** Bede, lib. iv. cap., 12. Chron. Sax. p. 41.]
Though the kings of Wessex had always been princes of the blood,
descended from Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, the order of
succession had been far from exact; and a more remote prince had often
found means to mount the throne, in preference to one descended from a
nearer branch of the royal family. Ina, therefore, having no children
of his own and lying much under the influence of Ethelburga, his queen,
left by will the succession to Adelard, her brother, who was his
remote kinsman; but this destination did not take place without some
difficulty. Oswald, a prince more nearly allied to the crown, took arms
against Adelard; but he being suppressed, and dying soon after, the
title of Adelard was not any further disputed; and in the year 741,
he was succeeded by his cousin Cudred. The reign of this prince was
distinguished by a great victory, which he obtained by means of Edelhun,
his general, over Ethelbald, king of Mercia. His death made way for
Sigebert, his kinsman, who governed so ill, that his people rose in
an insurrection, and dethroned him, crowning Cenulph in his stead. The
exiled prince found a refuge with Duke Cumbran, governor of Hampshire;
who, that he might add new obligations to Sigebert, gave him many
salutary counsels for his future conduct, accompanied with some
reprehensions for the past. But these were so much resented by the
ungrateful prince, that he conspired against the life of his protector,
and treacherously murdered him. After this infamous action, he was
forsaken by all the world; and skulking about in the wilds and forests,
was at last discovered by a servant of Cumbran’s, who instantly took
revenge upon him for the murder of his master.[*]
Cenulph, who had obtained the crown on the expulsion of Sigebert, was
fortunate in many expeditions against the Britons of Cornwall; but
afterwards lost some reputation by his ill success against Offa, king
of Mercia.[**] Kynehard also, brother to the deposed Sigebert, gave
him disturbance; and though expelled the kingdom, he hovered on the
frontiers, and watched an opportunity for attacking his rival. The king
had an intrigue with a young woman, who lived at Merton, in Surrey,
whither having secretly retired, he was on a sudden environed, in the
night time, by Kynehard and his followers, and after making a vigorous
resistance, was murdered, with all his attendants. The nobility and
people of the neighborhood, rising next day in arms, took revenge on
Kynehard for the slaughter of their king, and put every one to the sword
who had been engaged in that criminal enterprise. This event happened in
784.
[* Higden, lib. v. W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 2.]
[** W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 2.]
Brthric next obtained possession of the government, though remotely
descended from the royal family; but he enjoyed not that dignity without
inquietude. Eoppa, nephew to King Ina, by his brother Ingild, who died
before that prince, had begot Eata, father to Alchmond, from whom sprung
Egbert,[*] a young man of the most promising hopes, who gave great
jealousy to Brithric, the reigning prince, both because he seemed by his
birth better entitled to the crown, and because he had acquired, to an
eminent degree, the affections of the people. Egbert, sensible of
his danger from the suspicions of Brithric, secretly withdrew into
France;[**] where he was well received by Charlemagne. By living in the
court, and serving in the armies of that prince, the most able and most
generous that had appeared in Europe during several ages, he acquired
those accomplishments which afterwards enabled him to make such a
shining figure on the throne. And familiarizing himself to the manners
of the French, who, as Malmsbury observes,[***] were eminent both for
valor and civility above all the western nations, he learned to polish
the rudeness and barbarity of the Saxon character: his early misfortunes
thus proved of singular advantage to him.
It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying his natural
and acquired talents. Brithric, king of Wessex, had married Eadburga,
natural daughter of Offa, king of Mercia, a profligate woman, equally
infamous for cruelty and for incontinence. Having great influence over
her husband, she often instigated him to destroy such of the nobility as
were obnoxious to her; and where this expedient failed, she scrupled not
being herself active in traitorous attempts against them. She had mixed
a cup of poison for a young nobleman, who had acquired her husband’s
friendship, and had on that account become the object of her jealousy;
but unfortunately the king drank of the fatal cup along with his
favorite, and soon after expired.[****] This tragical incident, joined
to her other crimes, rendered Eadburga so odious, that she was obliged
to fly into France; whence Egbert was at the same time recalled by the
nobility, in order to ascend the throne of his ancestors.[*****] He
attained that dignity in the last year of the eighth century.
[* Chron. Sax. p. 16.]
[** H. Hunting. lib. iv.]
[*** Lib. ii. cap. 11.]
[**** Higden, lib. v. M West. p. 152. Asser. in
vita Alfiredi, p, 3. ex edit, Camdeni.]
[***** Chron. Sax. A.D. 800. Brompton, p. 801]
In the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, an exact rule of succession was either
unknown or not strictly observed; and thence the reigning prince was
continually agitated with jealousy against all the princes of the blood,
whom he still considered as rivals, and whose death alone could give him
entire security in his possession of the throne. From this fatal cause,
together with the admiration of the monastic life, and the opinion of
merit attending the preservation of chastity even in a married state,
the royal families had been entirely extinguished in all the kingdoms
except that of Wessex; and the emulations, suspicions, and conspiracies,
which had formerly been confined to the princes of the blood alone, were
now diffused among all the nobility in the several Saxon states. Egbert
was the sole descendant of those first conquerors who subdued Britain,
and who enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, the
supreme divinity of their ancestors. But that prince, though invited by
this favorable circumstance to make attempts on the neighboring Saxons,
gave them for some time no disturbance, and rather chose to turn his
arms against the Britons in Cornwall, whom he defeated in several
battles.[*] He was recalled from the conquest of that country by an
invasion made upon his dominions by Bernulf, king of Mercia.
The Mercians, before the accession of Egbert, had very nearly attained
the absolute sovereignty in the Heptarchy: they had reduced the East
Angles under subjection, and established tributary princes in the
kingdoms of Kent and Essex. Northumberland was involved in anarchy; and
no state of any consequence remained but that of Wessex, which,
much inferior in extent to Mercia, was supported solely by the great
qualities of its sovereign. Egbert led his army against the invaders;
and encountering them at Ellandun, in Wiltshire, obtained a complete
victory, and by the great slaughter which he made of them in their
flight, gave a mortal blow to the power of the Mercians. Whilst he
himself, In prosecution of his victory, entered their country on the
side of Oxfordshire, and threatened the heart of their dominions, he
sent an army into Kent, commanded by Ethelwolph, his eldest son,[**]
and, expelling Baldred. The tributary king, soon made himself master of
that county.
[* Chron. Sax. p. 69.]
[** Ethelwerd, lib iii. cap. 2.]
The kingdom of Essex was conquered with equal facility; and the East
Angles, from their hatred to the Mercian gov ernment, which had been
established over them by treachery and violence, and probably exercised
with tyranny, immediately rose in arms, and craved the protection of
Egbert.[*] Bernulf, the Mercian king, who marched against them, was
feated and siain; and two years after, Ludican, his successor, met
with the same fate. These insurrections and calamities facilitated
the enterprises of Egbert, who advanced into the centre of the Mercian
territories, and made easy conquests over a dispirited and divided
people. In order to engage them more easily to submission, he allowed
Wiglef, their countryman, to retain the title of king, whilst he
himself exercised the real powers of sovereignty.[**] The anarchy which
prevailed in Northumberland tempted him to carry still farther his
victorious arms; and the inhabitants, unable to resist his power,
and desirous of possessing some established form of government, were
forward, on his first appearance, to send deputies, who submitted to
his authority, and swore allegiance to him as their sovereign. Egbert,
however, still allowed to Northumberland, as he had done to Mercia, and
East Anglia, the power of electing a king, who paid him tribute, and was
dependent on him.
Thus were united all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy in one great state,
near four hundred years after the first arrival of the Saxons in
Britain; and the fortunate arms and prudent policy of Egbert at
last effected what had been so often attempted in vain by so many
princes.[***] Kent, Northumberland, and Mercia, which had successively
aspired to general dominion, were now incorporated in his empire; and
the other subordinate kingdoms seemed willingly to share the same fate.
His territories were nearly of the same extent with what is now
properly called England; and a favorable prospect was afforded to
the Anglo-Saxons of establishing a civilized monarchy, possessed of
tranquillity within itself, and secure against foreign invasion. This
great event happened in the year 827.[****]
[* Ethelwerd, lib. iii. cap. 2.]
[** Ingulph. p. 7, 8, 19.]
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 71.]
[**** Chron. Sax. p. 71.]
The Saxons, though they had been so long settled in the island, seem not
as yet to have been much improved beyond their German ancestors, either
hi arts, civility, knowledge, humanity, justice, or obedience to the
laws. Even Christianity, though it opened the way to connections between
their and the more polished states of Europe, had not hitherto been very
effectual in banishing their ignorance, or softening their barbarous
manners. As they received that doctrine through the corrupted channels
of Rome, it carried along with it a great mixture of credulity and
superstition, equally destructive to the understanding and to morals.
The reverence towards saints and relics seems to have almost supplanted
the idoration of the Supreme Being; monastic observances were esteemed
more meritorious than the active virtues; the knowledge of natural
causes was neglected, from the universal belief of miraculous
interpositions and judgments; bounty to the church atoned for every
violence against society; and the remorses for cruelty, murder,
treachery, assassination, and the more robust vices, were appeased, not
by amendment of life, but by penances, servility to the monks, and an
abject and illiberal devotion.[*] The reverence for the clergy had
been carried to such a height, that, wherever a person appeared in a
sacerdotal habit, though on the highway, the people flocked around him,
and, showing him all marks of profound respect, received every word he
uttered as the most sacred oracle.[**] Even the military virtues,
so inherent in all the Saxon tribes, began to be neglected; and the
nobility, preferring the security and sloth of the cloister to the
tumults and glory of war, valued themselves chiefly on endowing
monasteries, of which they assumed the government.[***] The several
kings too, being extremely impoverished by continual benefactions to the
church, to which the states of their kingdoms had weakly assented, could
bestow no rewards on valor or military services, and retained not even
sufficient influence to support their government.[****]
[* These abuses were common to all the European
churches; but the priests in Italy, Spain, and Gaul, made
some atonement for them by other advantages which they
rendered society. For several ages, they were almost all
Romans, or, in other words, the ancient natives; and they
preserved the Roman language and laws, with some remains of
the former civility. But the priests in the Heptarchy, after
the first missionaries, were wholly Saxons, and almost as
ignorant and Barbarous as the laity. They contributed,
therefore, little to no improvement of society in knowledge
or the arts.]
[** Bede, lib. iii. cap. 26.]
[*** Bede, lib. v. cap. 23. Bedae Epist. ad
Egbert.]
[**** Bedse Epist. ad Egbert.]
Another inconvenience which attended this corrupt species of
Christianity, was the superstitious attachment to Rome, and the gradual
subjection of the kingdom to a foreign jurisdiction. The Britons, having
never acknowledged any subordination to the Roman pontiff, had conducted
all ecclesiastical government by their domestic synods and councils;[*]
but the Saxons, receiving their religion from Roman monks, were taught
at the same time a profound reverence for that see, and were naturally
led to regard it as the capital of their religion. Pilgrimages to Rome
were represented as the most meritorious acts of devotion. Not only
noblemen and ladies of rank undertook this tedious journey,[**] but
kings themselves, abdicating their crowns, sought for a secure passport
to heaven at the feet of the Roman pontiff. New relics, perpetually sent
from that endless mint of superstition, and magnified by lying miracles,
invented in convents, operated on the astonished minds of the multitude.
And every prince has attained the eulogies of the monks, the only
historians of those ages, not in proportion to his civil and military
virtues, but to his devoted attachment towards their order, and his
superstitious reverence for Rome.
The sovereign pontiff, encouraged by this blindness and submissive
disposition of the people, advanced every day in his encroachments
on the independence of the English churches. Wilfrid, bishop of
Lindisferne, the sole prelate of the Northumbrian kingdom, increased
this subjection in the eighth century, by his making an appeal to
Rome against the decisions of an English synod, which had abridged his
diocese by the erection of some new bishoprics.[***] Agatho, the pope,
readily embraced this precedent of an appeal to his court; and Wilfrid,
though the haughtiest and most luxurious prelate of his age,[****]
having obtained with the people the character of sanctity, was thus able
to lay the foundation of this papal pretension.
[* Append, to Bede, numb. 10, ex edit. 1722.
Spehn. Concil p.108, 109.]
[** Bede. lib. v. cap. 7.]
[*** See Appendix to Bede, numb. 19. Higden, lib.
v.]
[**** Eddius, vita Vilfr. sect. 24, 60]
The great topic by which Wilfrid confounded the imaginations of men,
was, that St. Peter, to whos custody the keys of heaven were intrusted,
would certainly refuse admittance to every one who should be wanting
in respect to his successor, This conceit, well suited to vulgar
conceptions, made great impression on the people during several
ages, and has act even at present lost all influence in the Catholic
countries. Had this abject superstition produced general peace and
tranquillity, it had made some atonement for the ills attending it;
but besides the usual avidity of men for power and riches, frivolous
controversies in theology were engendered by it, which were so much
the more fatal, as they admitted not, like the others, of any final
determination from established possession. The disputes, excited in
Britain, were of the most ridiculous kind, and entirely worthy of those
ignorant and barbarous ages. There were some intricacies, observed by
all the Christian churches, in adjusting the day of keeping Easter;
which depended on a complicated consideration of the course of the sun
and moon; and it happened that the missionaries, who had converted the
Scots and Britons, had followed a different calendar from that which was
observed at Rome, in the age when Augustine converted the Saxons. The
priests also of all the Christian churches were accustomed to shave part
of their head; but the form given to this tonsure was different in the
former from what was practised in the latter. The Scots and Britons
pleaded the antiquity of _their_ usages; the Romans and their
disciples, the Saxons, insisted on the universality of _theirs_.
That Easter must necessarily be kept by a rule, which comprehended both
the day of the year and age of the moon, was agreed by all; that the
tonsure of a priest could not be omitted without the utmost impiety, was
a point undisputed; but the Romans and Saxons called their antagonists
schismatics, because they celebrated Easter on the very day of the full
moon in March, if that day fell on a Sunday, instead of waiting till the
Sunday following; and because they shaved the fore part of their head
from ear to ear, instead of making that tonsure on the crown of the
head, and in a circular form. In order to render their antagonists
odious, they affirmed that, once in seven years, they concurred with the
Jews in the time of celebrating that festival;[*] and that they might
recommend their own form of tonsure, they maintained, that it imitated
symbolically the crown of thorns worn by Christ in his passion; whereas
the other form was invented by Simon Magus, without any regard to that
representation.[**]
[* Bede, lib. ii. cap. 19.]
[** Bede, lib. v. cap. 21. Eddius, sect. 24]
These controversies had, from the beginning, excited such animosity
between the British and Romish priests that, instead of concurring
in their endeavors to convert the idolatrous Saxons, they refused all
communion together, and each regarded his opponent as no better than
a pagan.[*] The dispute lasted more than a century; and was at last
finished, not by men’s discovering the folly of it, which would have
been too great an effort for human reason to accomplish, but by the
entire prevalence of the Romish ritual over the Scotch and British.[**]
Wilfrid, bishop of Lindisferne, acquired great merit, both with the
court of Rome and with all the southern Saxons, by expelling the
quartodeciman schism, as it was called, from the Northumbrian kingdom,
into which the neighborhood of the Scots had formerly introduced
it.[***]
Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, called, in the year 680, a synod
at Hatfield, consisting of all the bishops in Britain,[****] where was
accepted and ratified the decree of the Lateran council, summoned by
Martin, against the heresy of the Monothelites. The council and synod
maintained, in opposition to these heretics, that, though the divine
and human nature in Christ made but one person, yet had they different
inclinations, wills, acts, and sentiments, and that the unity of the
person implied not any unity in the consciousness.[*****] This opinion
it seems somewhat difficult to comprehend; and no one, unacquainted with
the ecclesiastical history of those ages, could imagine the height of
zeal and violence with which it was then inculcated. The decree of
the Lateran council calls the Monothelites impious, execrable, wicked,
abominable, and even diabolical; and curses and anathematizes them to
all eternity.[******]
[* Bede, lib. ii. cap. 2, 4, 20. Eddius, sect.
12.]
[** Bede, lib. v. cap. 16, 22.]
[*** Bede, lib. iii. cap. 25. Eddius, sect. 12.]
[**** Spell. Concil. vol. i. p. 168.]
[***** Spell. Concil. vol. i. p. 171.]
[****** Spell. Concil. vol. i. p. 172, 173, 174.]