as compared with Oswald's small band of heroes) cut to pieces and
dispersed. Having thus freed his country from the one disturbing
element, he applied himself to its regeneration and restoration from
anarchy and desolation to peace and good order. First and foremost,
his object was the re-conversion of his people from the paganism into
which they had lapsed, to Christianity, and to light afresh the lamp
of truth, which had been almost altogether extinguished through the
vigorous zeal of Penda on behalf of his ancestral gods of the north.
With this object in view he sent to Iona for missionaries, to preach
and teach throughout Northumbria, and Aidan was sent at the head
of a body of monks, whose headquarters were fixed on the island of
Lindisfarne, as resembling that of Iona, from whence they came, hoping
to make it, like the latter, a centre of evangelical light to the
mainland of Northumbria. Here they lived under the rule of Columba, the
founder of Iona, in monastic seclusion, when at home, which was but
seldom, as they were constantly on foot, staff in hand, tramping about
through forests and moors and wild places of Oswald's kingdom. The
King created a bishopric, to comprehend the whole of his territories,
and constituted Aidan the first Bishop, who, it is said--such was the
zeal of his subaltern monkish priests--baptised 15,000 converts in
seven days. Besides this, the King caused churches and monasteries to
be erected in various parts of his realm, and completed the church
which King Eadwine had commenced at York, the forerunner of the
magnificent fane which now adorns that city and is one of the most
glorious specimens of Gothic architecture in England. Nor was Oswald
less active in civil and secular matters, and in promoting the welfare
of his people. He governed his kingdom with great wisdom and prudence,
and under his peaceful sceptre the land was rapidly recovering from the
effects of Cadwalla's desolating hand. He was the fifth King of Deira,
ninth of Bernicia, third of Northumbria, and the ninth Bretwalda or
Supreme King of the island, "at which times the whole Iland flourished
both with peace and plenty, and acknowledged their subjection vnto
King Oswald. For, as Bede reporteth, all the nations of Britannie
which spake foure languages, that is to say, Britaines, Red-shankes,
Scots, and Englishmen, became subject vnto him. And yet being aduanced
to so Royall Majesty, he was notwithstanding (which is maruellous to
be reported), lowly to all; gracious to the poore, and bountifull to
strangers."
It was a cold spring day; the sun shone brightly, but imparted little
warmth; the trees were leafless, and the early flowers looked sickly
and languid, the effect of a long continuance of north-easterly
winds, which on this particular day came coursing over the ocean,
and were roystering with boisterous glee and in fearful gusts round
the towers of Bamborough Castle, and through the openings in the
walls which served the purpose of the glazed windows of after-times.
It was Easter-tide, and here King Oswald had come from York, where
he had kept his Court, to celebrate this important festival of the
Church in the ancestral castle of his race. The feast was laid in the
banqueting-room, a tolerably large but gloomy and, to nineteenth
century eyes, a wretchedly appointed apartment, with but few of the
appliances of modern comfort. A fire of wood burnt on the hearth, the
smoke at times passing up the wide chimney, at others driven inward
by a down-current of the wind, and sent in curling wreaths along the
vaulted roof. The room was lighted by means of narrow recessed openings
and arrow slits, useful in times of siege, but inconveniently narrow
for the admission of light, yet wide enough to afford free entrance to
the chilling wind. The walls were of bare stones, and the furniture a
table of rough planks running down the centre, with a smaller cross
table, on a sort of dais. At the latter table were seated King Oswald,
with his Queen Kineburga, daughter of Kingils, the sixth monarch and
first Christian King of the West Saxons, on the one hand, and Bishop
Aidan on the other. Along the other table sat some nobles and thegns,
three or four of the monks of Lindisfarne, and below these the house
carles and outdoor retainers of the King's household. On the cross
table was placed a large silver dish filled with venison, wild boar's
flesh, and other dainties; and distributed down the long table were
earthen dishes containing meat of various kinds, wooden platters and
knives, with drinking horns, and small loaves of barley bread; and on
the table stood flagons of ale that had been brewed specially for the
festival.
At the King's request the Bishop pronounced benediction on the food,
with special reference to Him in whose memory the festival was
celebrated, and who alone could administer the bread of life. He had
scarcely finished, and the guests were beginning to handle their knives
preparatory to an attack on the smoking viands, which gave forth a most
appetising odour, when a sound as of a multitude of persons outside
attracted their notice, and immediately after voices were heard: "In
the name of Him who rose from the tomb this blessed morning, give us
whereof to eat, that we starve not and die by the wayside." The King
sent one of his house carles out to inquire who and what they were,
who presently returned, saying that they were a band of some dozen
mendicants, formerly well-to-do husbandmen, and their families, whose
homes and crops had been destroyed by Cadwalla's followers, and that
they were utterly destitute, deprived of the means of living, and
dependent on charity for food until they could find means to replace
themselves on their farms.
"Unfortunate creatures," exclaimed the King; "a fearful retribution
awaits that so-called Christian prince in that world to which his
crimes have sent him through our instrumentality by God's providence;"
and, taking up the large silver dish, continued, "It is better that
we celebrate not this festival, than that the poor of our realm die
of starvation. Take this, Wilfrid, and portion out its contents among
the famishing crowd, and when they have eaten, cut up the dish and
distribute the fragments, that they may have the wherewithal to procure
food on the morrow." Aidan, the Bishop, who was afterwards canonised,
was struck with admiration at the pious and charitable act of the King,
which he warmly applauded; and taking hold of his right arm, prayed
that that arm and hand which had passed forth the dish might never
become corrupt, but for ever remain fresh, in token and remembrance of
this pious act of self-abnegation; and instead of feasting, this Easter
day was spent by Oswald, his Queen, and the Bishop in fasting and
prayer.
Penda, the pagan King of Mercia, was still living, and still as
inveterately hostile to the new heresy as when he had made his raid
on Northumbria, and trampled it out by the defeat and death of the
Royal convert of Paulinus; and now, when Oswald had been eight years
on the throne; had brought his kingdom, by wisdom and good government,
into a condition of peace and prosperity; and had re-established
Christianity on a sure and firm basis, he heard with some dismay that
the heathen King was muttering threats against him, and gathering his
forces together for another invasion, and a second suppression of the
religion that sought the dethronement of Woden as the god of heaven.
Yet although he heard these tidings with dismay, he felt assured of the
Divine protection, remembering how signally he had defeated Cadwalla
by fighting under the standard of the Cross, despite the disparity
of numbers. He remembered, too, what miseries were inflicted on the
Northumbrians by the marching of hostile bands to and fro, leaving,
as they usually did, a desert behind them strewn with the corpses of
men, women, and children; and he determined that, rather than allow
his people to be subjected again to these sufferings, he would be
beforehand with the enemy and carry the war, with its resultant
ravages, into his own land. He therefore hastily assembled his fighting
men, and again uplifting the standard of the Cross marched into Mercia,
his troops, like those of Cromwell a thousand years afterwards, singing
psalms and anthems as they passed along.
Penda had collected together a large army, and the rival hosts met at
Masserfield, in the modern Shropshire. They rushed towards each other
in mortal conflict, the one with shouts of "Hallelujah!" the other
with cries of "Aid us, great Woden, thou mighty god of battle!" The
fight was long and obstinately contested, and victory seemed to waver
from one side to the other until towards evening, when an arrow struck
Oswald and he fell to the ground, although not mortally wounded; but a
cry arose amongst his followers that he was slain, and, thinking that
their God had deserted them, they were stricken with panic, threw down
their arms, and fled in every direction, hotly pursued by the Mercians,
who mercilessly killed all the fugitives whom they overtook.
Although stricken down and faint from loss of blood, Oswald still
lived, and witnessed with anguish of mind the cowardly and ignominious
flight of his army. The Mercians came over the field, killing those of
the fallen who were merely wounded; but when they came to Oswald they
spared him, whom they had recognised, and brought him, with staggering
steps and downcast heart, into the presence of their chief.
"Thou art he, then," said Penda, addressing him, "who darest to
invade my dominions--the dominions of a descendant of Woden--thou, a
worshipper of false gods!"
"It is even I," replied Oswald, in a weak voice; "I, Oswald, King
of the Northumbrians, successor to the sainted Eadwine, who is now
standing by the throne of the one true God, Jehovah, the God whom
I worship, on whose arm I put my trust, and who, if He, in His
inscrutable providence, hath delivered me up to thy cruel behests,
will save my soul, that portion of me, my real self, which thou cannot
touch, and bring me to dwell with Him for ever, in that heaven which
thou canst never reach, unless thou repentest and abandonest thy false
demon-gods, who can only conduct thee to the flames of hell."
"Blaspheming heretic," cried Penda, "I care not for the heaven thou
speakest of; sufficient for me will be the Halls of Walhalla, where,
amid everlasting banqueting, I will use thy skull as my drinking-cup.
Still, I will give thee one chance of life. Renounce thy false god;
restore the worship of Woden in Northumbria, and thou shalt be replaced
on thy throne as my tributary, whilst I, as monarch of Mercia,
Northumbria, and East Anglia, extending from the Thames to the Forth,
and from sea to sea, shall become the Bretwalda of Britain."
"Never, O King," replied Oswald "will I prove recreant to the truth.
Thou mayest rend my sceptre from my grasp; thou mayest slay my kindred
and massacre my people; thou mayest torture me, and put an end to my
temporal existence; but never will I renounce that faith which affords
me a secure hope of everlasting blessedness, whilst thou, if thou
continuest the instrument of false gods, shalt be weeping and gnashing
thy teeth in the torments of the bottomless pit."
"Then," roared out Penda, "thy death be on thy own head. Soldiers,
hew the blasphemer to pieces!" And immediately he was stricken by
half-a-dozen swords, and fell exclaiming, "Lord Jesus, into thy hands
I commend my soul."
The ferocious pagan, kicking the body with his foot as the last insult,
gave directions for it to be cut into fragments, and scattered abroad
to be devoured by birds of prey and the wild beasts of the forest; and
his behests were at once carried into execution. And the birds and the
beasts gathered together to the horrible carnival, and soon there was
nothing left but the bare bones, saving one arm, which none of them
would touch, and it remained entire and perfect as in life.
Some time after the battle of Masserfield the arm of the King was
found, fresh and undecayed, and was conveyed to Northumbria and
deposited in a magnificent shrine, where it remained uncorrupted
for nine centuries, at first in the chapel of St. Peter, Bamborough
Castle, and afterwards, when the Danes began to ravage the coast, in
the monastery of Peterborough, whither it was removed, as Ingulphus
informs us, for safety. The scattered bones were afterwards collected,
by the pious care of Offryd, Oswald's niece, the daughter of Oswy, the
illegitimate half-brother of Oswald, his successor on the throne of
Northumbria, and slayer of Penda in battle. She had become Queen of
Mercia by her marriage with Ethelred, son and successor of Penda, who,
after his father's death, had embraced Christianity. She placed the
relics in the monastery of Bardney, in Lincolnshire, and his "standard
of gold and purple over the shrine;" but when the Danes became
troublesome in Lindsey they were removed to Gloucester, "and there,
in the north side of the vpper end of the quire of the cathedrall
church, continueth a faire monument of him, with a chappell set betwixt
two pillers in the same church." At all these places--Masserfield,
afterwards called Oswestry, after the martyr; at the place of burial of
the relics; and at the shrines of the uncorrupted arm--throughout those
nine hundred years some most wonderful miracles were performed, which
are duly recorded in the pages of Bede and other writers; even a few
grains of the dust which settled on the shrine of the arm, when mixed
with water and drunk, were a sovereign specific for almost any disease.
Winwick, in Lancashire, disputes with Oswestry the claim of having
been the place of St. Oswald's death, as there is St. Oswald's Well
there; and from an inscription in the church it appears to have been
anciently called Masserfelte; moreover there is a tradition that he
had a palace there, which was within his dominions, although his usual
places of residence were Bamborough and occasionally York.
The village of Oswaldkirk, near Helmsley, derives its name from him,
and there are several churches in Yorkshire and elsewhere dedicated to
him.
The Translation of St. Hilda.
St. Hilda was the nursing-mother of the infant Saxon Church; the
instructress of Bishops; the preceptrix of scholars and learned men;
and the patroness of Cædmon, the first Saxon Christian poet--the Milton
of his age. The Abbey over which she ruled with so much piety and
prudence was, during her life and afterwards, one of the great centres
of civilization and Christian light of the kingdom of Northumbria, and
diffused its rays, beaming with celestial radiance, even beyond the
bounds of that great northern monarchy.
She was a scion of the royal race of Ælla, the founder of the kingdom
of Deira, or Southern Northumbria; the daughter of Hererick (nephew
of Eadwine, King of Northumbria), by his wife the Lady Breguswith;
was born in the year 614, and died in 680. She was converted to
Christianity by the preaching of Paulinus, and was baptised along
with her great-uncle and his court, in 627. Six years afterwards
Eadwine was slain in battle by Penda, the heathen King of Mercia, and
the nascent religion of Christianity stamped out, Paulinus flying for
shelter with the widowed Queen and her children, to the court of her
brother, the King of Kent. What became of Hilda during this period of
anarchy we know not; but it seems evident that the afflictions and
persecutions she underwent served only to deepen her faith and cause
her to cling more closely to the Cross of Christ.
In 647, when she was thirty-three years of age, she resolved upon
devoting her life entirely to the service of God, and with that view
journeyed into East Anglia, where her nephew Heresuid reigned as King,
and where her cousin, the pious Anne, resided. Her intention was to
proceed hence to Chelles, in France, to join her sister, St. Herewide,
who had retired to a nunnery there; but for some reason or other she
lingered for twelve months in East Anglia. At the end of this period
she was granted a plot of land on the Wear, upon which she erected
a small house and resided there, in modest seclusion, for the space
of a year, when the fame of her piety having spread abroad, she was
appointed Abbess of Hartlepool, a nunnery founded by Hein, the first
woman who assumed the nun's habit in Northumbria, and who had now
retired to the nunnery of Calcaceaster (Tadcaster). In her new capacity
she set about her work with devoted zeal, regulating the discipline,
reforming abuses, promulgating new and wholesome rules, and enforcing
a strict attention to religious duties, in which she was aided by
the counsels of her friend Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who, at the
instance of King Oswald, had come from Iona to re-convert his subjects
to the faith which had been trampled out by Penda.
In the year 642, Oswald, the second founder of Christianity in
Northumbria, fell, like his predecessor Eadwine, under the ferocious
sword of Penda, and was succeeded by Oswy in Bernicia, and Oswine in
Deira; but in 650, Oswy caused the king of Deira to be murdered, and
assumed the sceptre of Northumbria, north and south. Five years after
this, Penda, with unabated zeal for his god--Woden--again made an
inroad into Northumbria, with the intent of slaying the third Christian
king of that realm. At first Oswy attempted to buy him off by bribes,
but the Mercian potentate refused his offers, declaring that nothing
would content him but the death of the King, and the utter extirpation
of Christianity. "Then," said Oswy, "if the pagan will not accept
our gifts, we will offer them to one who will--the Lord our God;"
and he prepared for battle, making a vow that if God would vouchsafe
him the victory he would erect a monastery, endow it with twelve
farms, and dedicate his newly-born daughter to holy virginity and His
service. With a comparatively small force, he marched against Penda,
"confiding in the conduct of Christ," met him near Leeds, and, as the
Saxon chronicle says, "Slew King Penda, with thirty men of the Royal
race with him, and some of them were kings, among whom was Ethelhere,
brother of Anne, King of the East Angles; and the Mercians became
Christians."
This great and decisive victory, the last conflict in England between
heathendom and Christianity, was the turning-point in Hilda's career
of eminence. Had Penda again been the victor, Northumbria would again
perhaps have lapsed into paganism, and the future saint never have been
heard of beyond the vicinity of Hartlepool.
As it was, King Oswy, mindful of his vow, erected a monastery at
Streoneshalh, on the bank of the Esk, where it falls into the sea in
Whitby Bay. It was placed on a lofty headland, with a steep ascent from
the little fishing hamlet at its foot and a precipitous escarpment
to the sea. It was formed for both male and female recluses, and
the fame of Hilda for piety and judicious government was such that
she was selected by the King as the most fitting for the government
of the establishment. Under her rule Streoneshalh became not only a
model monastic house, but a great school of secular and theological
learning. During her superintendence, not less than five of her
scholars attained the mitre, all of them illustrious prelates of the
Saxon Church--St. John, of Beverley; St. Wilfrid, of Ripon; and Bosa,
Archbishops of York; Hedda, Bishop of Dorchester; and Oftfor, Bishop
of Worcester. "Thus," says Bede, "this servant of Christ, whom all
that knew her called 'mother,' for her singular piety and grace, was
not only an example of good life to those that lived in her monastery,
but afforded occasion of amendment and salvation to many who lived at
a distance, to whom the fame was brought of her industry and virtue."
Fuller observes, "I behold her as the most learned female before
the Conquest, and may call her the she-Gamaliel at whose feet many
learned men had their education." During her Abbacy, the famous Synod,
convened by King Oswy, was held within the walls of Streoneshalh, to
settle the vexed questions of the time for the celebration of Easter,
and of the tonsure, which were subjects of warm dispute between the
ancient British Church and that of Rome, the Northumbrians adhering
to the former, as inculcated by the missionary monks of Iona, who
had been brought hither by Oswald, and who now occupied the sees of
York and Lindisfarne. The King, who had been educated in Scotland,
and consequently held to the British modes, presided, whilst his son,
Prince Alfred, who had been in Rome, supported the Romanist views.
On the British side were ranged the Abbess Hilda, Colman, Bishop of
Lindisfarne, and the venerable Cedd, Bishop of the East Saxons; on
the Romanist, Agilbert, Bishop of the West Saxons, Wilfrid of Ripon,
then a priest, Romanus, and James the Deacon. The dispute was settled
in favour of the Romish rule, chiefly through the eloquence and force
of argument of Wilfrid, who afterwards made so conspicuous a figure
in the Northumbrian Church; and Colman, with his British clergy
returned to Iona. The Abbess was as famous for miracles as for her
other qualities. On the coast of Whitby are found great numbers of
specimens of the petrified Cornu Ammonis, commonly called snake stones,
resembling as they do coiled-up snakes, without heads. This is how
their origin is accounted for. When the Abbey was first built, the
neighbourhood was infested by snakes, which were a great annoyance to
the brethren and sisters of the monastery, and the Abbess, by means of
prayer, caused them all to be changed into stone.
"And how, of thousand snakes, each one
Was changed into a coil of stone
When holy Hilda prayed:
Themselves, within their holy bound,
Their stony folds had often found,
They told how sea fowls' pinions fail,
As over Whitby's towers they sail,
And, sinking down, with flutterings faint,
They do their homage to the saint."
The Abbess founded some cells in divers places dependant on the Abbey,
one of which was at Hackness, near Scarborough, which she made use of
as a retreat from the bustle and cares of Streoneshalh, where she
could, undisturbed, devote her time more strictly to the exercises
of fasting, prayer, and meditation, returning to her duties at the
Abbey refreshed and invigorated spiritually, and the better enabled
to undergo the distractions incident to her position as head of a
community of differing and often perplexing temperaments. To these
cells also she frequently sent her nuns, to give them an opportunity
for cultivating closer communion with God, for their spiritual
edification.
For the last six years of her life the Abbess suffered greatly from
severe indisposition, which frequently laid her prostrate for weeks
together, "Yet during all this time she never failed to return thanks
to her Maker, or publicly and privately to instruct the flock committed
to her charge, admonishing them to serve God in health, and thank Him
for adversity or bodily infirmity."
Among the nuns under her care was one from Ireland named Bega, who was
most exemplary in her attention to the duties of her religious calling,
eminently endowed with spiritual grace, and conspicuous for her
humility, self-abnegation, and all the virtues which adorn a Christian
life; which qualities endeared her to the venerable Abbess, and they
came to regard each other as mother and daughter rather than as Lady
Superior and ordinary nun of a religious establishment.
During the long illness of the Abbess, Bega was her constant attendant
and nurse, and accompanied her in her occasional retreats at Hackness.
One afternoon they were seated together in the Abbess's private room,
when the invalid seemed to be rallying in health and entering upon
one of her alternate periods of comparative convalescence. Bega had
been reading to her a new paraphrase of a portion of the Bible, the
composition of Cædmon, the cow-boy poet of Streoneshalh. She laid down
the manuscript at the conclusion, expressing a hope that the Abbess
had not been wearied by her imperfect reading, and that in spite of
defective knowledge of the characters on the part of the reader, she
had been enabled to follow the sense and appreciate the beauty of the
rendering.
"Nothing from the pen of Cædmon," said the Abbess, "ever wearies me;
on the contrary, his compositions are so redolent of spiritual beauty
that they seem to refresh my soul, and invigorate my body as well.
Indeed, at this moment I feel so much better in health that if no
relapse occurs in the interval, I propose on the morrow relieving our
good Prioress from the duties which I have delegated upon her during my
sickness."
"Happy am I," replied Bega at hearing this, "and I trust that God,
if he sees fit, may preserve you for many years to come, in the
superintendence and guidance of this holy house. But, mother dear, your
restoration of bodily strength emboldens me to solicit a boon."
"What is it my dear child? Anything that I can grant shall be yours. I
promise this without knowing what you wish, feeling assured that you
will solicit nothing that is inconsistent either with your maidenly
character or with your altar-made vows."
"I pray for nothing unbeseeming my character in such respects;
but, holy mother, of late I fear I have experienced some spiritual
declension, and that I have become more carnally minded than becomes
one whose thoughts should be centred on Christ alone, and I pray you,
mother dear, to permit me to retire into more entire seclusion from the
world, that I may by abstinence, prayer, and close communion with God,
be restored to a more wholesome frame of soul."
"Your boon is granted, my child, gladly; repair at once to Hackness,
and may God shed his blessing upon your pious aspiration for a higher
life of holiness."
The following day Bega was escorted to the cell, where the Abbess,
with an almost Cistercian eye for sylvan beauty, had planted it, that
in the midst of a natural Paradise it might bloom as a spiritual Eden,
and there she at once commenced a season of wholesome asceticism and
religious exercises.