the number of believers increased; but this matter for the present was
passed over.
“These chapters being thus treated of and defined by all, to the end,
that for the future, no scandal of contention might arise from any of
us, or that things be falsely set forth, it was thought fit that every
one of us should, by subscribing his hand, confirm all the particulars
so laid down. Which definitive judgment of ours, I dictated to be
written by Titillus our notary. Done in the month and indiction
aforesaid. Whosoever, therefore, shall presume in any way to oppose or
infringe this decision, confirmed by our consent, and by the
subscription of our hands, according to the decree of the canons, must
take notice, that he is excluded from all sacerdotal functions, and from
our society. May the Divine Grace preserve us in safety, living in the
unity of his holy church.”
THEODORE AND WILFRID (678).
=Source.=—_Life of Wilfrid_, by Eddius Stephanus, written soon after
710. Raine, _Historians of the Church of York_, p. 34. Translated by
W.
For King Ecfrith’s queen, Iurmenburg, was then at the devil’s
instigation moved with jealousy ... and like wicked Jezebel, killing
God’s prophets and persecuting Elijah, she shot poisoned arrows from her
poisonous quiver into the heart of the king with words, eloquently
telling over to him all the worldly glory of S. Wilfrid, his riches, the
multitude of his abbeys, the magnitude of his buildings, and the
innumerable army of his companions, decked with royal garments and arms.
By such darts the king’s heart was wounded: both craftily sought how to
bring into contempt the holy head of the church so as to ruin him, and
boldly to take away from him the gifts made by kings to God; and to aid
their madness they invited, contrary to God’s will, Archbishop Theodore,
by means of gifts, which blind the eyes of even wise men, as Balak
blinded Balaam.
When the archbishop came to them they disclosed to him the measures they
intended against Wilfrid, and he consented, alas! wickedly to condemn
him without their incurring any guilt for the crime. For he alone,
contrary to precedent, and irregularly, ordained three bishops whom he
brought from elsewhere [Bosa, Eata, Eadhaed], who were not of those
subject to his jurisdiction, to the proper positions of Wilfrid’s
bishopric in his absence.
On hearing this, our holy bishop approached the king and the archbishop,
asking what might be the cause why without his having committed any
crime they defrauded him, like robbers, of the substance which kings had
given for God. They replied to our bishop before all the people in these
memorable words, “We do not ascribe to thee any fault of having injured
any man, but for all that we will not change the doom which we have
uttered concerning thee.” But our bishop, not contented with such a
deceitful doom, chose rather, with the advice of his fellow bishops, the
decision of the Apostolic See, as the Apostle Paul, unjustly condemned
by the Jews, appealed to Cæsar. Then our holy bishop turned from the
royal judgment-seat and said to the courtiers who were laughing gaily,
“On the anniversary of this day ye, who now laugh at my condemnation,
which is caused by envy, shall weep bitterly at your own confusion.” And
so, according to the prophecy of the saint, it fell out. For on the
anniversary of that day the body of King Ælfwin, who had been slain, was
brought to York, and all the people, weeping bitterly, tore their
garments and their hair; and his surviving brother reigned till his
death without gaining a single victory.
THE STORY OF CÆDMON (680).
=Source.=—Bede, _Eccl. Hist._, iv. 24. A.D. 731. Translated by J. A.
Giles. Bohn’s Library.
There was in this abbess’s monastery [of Whitby] a certain brother,
particularly remarkable for the grace of God, who was wont to make pious
and religious verses, so that whatever was interpreted to him out of
Scripture, he soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much
sweetness and humility, in English, which was his native language. By
his verses the minds of many were often excited to despise the world,
and to aspire to heaven. Others after him attempted, in the English
nation, to compose religious poems, but none could ever compare with
him, for he did not learn the art of poetry from men, but from God; for
which reason he never could compose any trivial or vain poem, but only
those which relate to religion suited his religious tongue; for having
lived in a secular habit till he was well advanced in years, he had
never learned anything of versifying; for which reason being sometimes
at entertainments, when it was agreed for the sake of mirth that all
present should sing in their turns, when he saw the instrument come
towards him, he rose up from table and returned home.
Having done so at a certain time, and gone out of the house where the
entertainment was, to the stable, where he had to take care of the
horses that night, he there composed himself to rest at the proper time;
a person appeared to him in his sleep, and saluting him by his name,
said, “Cædmon, sing some song to me.” He answered, “I cannot sing; for
that was the reason why I left the entertainment, and retired to this
place, because I could not sing.” The other who talked to him, replied,
“However, you shall sing.”—“What shall I sing?” rejoined he. “Sing the
beginning of created beings,” said the other. Hereupon he presently
began to sing verses to the praise of God, which he had never heard, the
purport whereof was thus:—We are now to praise the Maker of the heavenly
kingdom, the power of the Creator and his counsel, the deeds of the
Father of glory. How He, being the eternal God, became the author of all
miracles, who first, as almighty preserver of the human race, created
heaven for the sons of men as the roof of the house, and next the earth.
This is the sense, but not the words in order as he sang them in his
sleep; for verses, though never so well composed, cannot be literally
translated out of one language into another, without losing much of
their beauty and loftiness. Awaking from his sleep, he remembered all
that he had sung in his dream, and soon added much more to the same
effect in verse worthy of the Deity.
In the morning he came to the steward, his superior, and having
acquainted him with the gift he had received, was conducted to the
abbess, by whom he was ordered, in the presence of many learned men, to
tell his dream, and repeat the verses, that they might all give their
judgment what it was, and whence his verse proceeded. They all
concluded, that heavenly grace had been conferred on him by our Lord.
They expounded to him a passage in holy writ, either historical, or
doctrinal, ordering him, if he could, to put the same into verse. Having
undertaken it, he went away, and returning the next morning, gave it to
them composed in most excellent verse; whereupon the abbess, embracing
the grace of God in the man, instructed him to quit the secular habit,
and take upon him the monastic life; which being accordingly done, she
associated him to the rest of the brethren in her monastery, and ordered
that he should be taught the whole series of sacred history. Thus
Cædmon, keeping in mind all he heard, and as it were chewing the cud,
converted the same into most harmonious verse; and sweetly repeating the
same, made his masters in their turn his hearers. He sang the creation
of the world, the origin of man, and all the history of Genesis: and
made many verses on the departure of the children of Israel out of
Egypt, and their entering into the land of promise, with many other
histories from holy writ.
WILFRID CONVERTS THE SOUTH SAXONS (681).
=Source.=—Bede, _Eccl. Hist._, iv. 13. A.D. 731. Translated by J. A.
Giles. Bohn’s Library.
Being expelled from his bishopric, and having travelled in several
parts, Wilfrid went to Rome. He afterwards returned to Britain; and
though he could not, by reason of the enmity of the aforesaid king, be
received into his own country or diocese, yet he could not be restrained
from preaching the Gospel; for, taking his way into the province of the
South Saxons, which extends from Kent on the west and south, as far as
the West Saxons, and contains land of 7,000 families, who at that time
were still pagans, he administered to them the word of faith, and the
baptism of salvation. Ethelwalch, king of that nation, had been, not
long before, baptised in the province of the Mercians, by the persuasion
of King Wulfhere, who was present, and was also his godfather, and as
such gave him two provinces, viz., the Isle of Wight, and the province
of Meanwara, in the nation of the West Saxons. The bishop, therefore,
with the king’s consent, or rather to his great satisfaction, baptised
the principal generals and soldiers of that country; and the priests,
Eappa, and Padda, and Burghelm, and Eadda, either then, or afterwards,
baptised the rest of the people. The queen, whose name was Ebba, had
been christened in her own island, the province of the Wiccii. She was
the daughter of Eanfrid, the brother of Eanher, who were both
Christians, as were their people; but all the province of the South
Saxons were strangers to the name and faith of God. There was among them
a certain monk of the Scottish nation, whose name was Dicul, who had a
very small monastery, at the place called Bosanham, encompassed with the
sea and woods, and in it five or six brothers, who served our Lord in
poverty and humility; but none of the natives cared either to follow
their course of life, or hear their preaching.
But Bishop Wilfrid, by preaching to them, not only delivered them from
the misery of perpetual damnation, but also from an inexhaustible
calamity of temporal death, for no rain had fallen in that province in
three years before his arrival, whereupon a dreadful famine ensued,
which cruelly destroyed the people. In short, it is reported, that very
often, forty or fifty men, being spent with want, would go together to
some precipice, or to the sea-shore, and there, hand in hand, perish by
the fall, or be swallowed up by the waves. But on the very day on which
the nation received the baptism of faith, there fell a soft but
plentiful rain; the earth revived again, and the verdure being restored
to the fields, the season was pleasant and fruitful.... For the bishop,
when he came into the province, and found so great misery from famine,
taught them to get their food by fishing; for their sea and rivers
abounded in fish, but the people had no skill to take them, except eels
alone. The bishop’s men having gathered eel-nets everywhere, cast them
into the sea, and by the blessing of God took three hundred fishes of
several sorts, which, being divided into three parts, they gave a
hundred to the poor, a hundred to those of whom they had the nets, and
kept a hundred for their own use. By this benefit the bishop gained the
affections of them all, and they began more readily at his preaching to
hope for heavenly goods, seeing that by his help they had received those
which are temporal.
At this time, King Ethelwalch gave to the most reverend prelate,
Wilfrid, land of eighty-seven families, to maintain his company who were
in banishment, which place is called Selsey, that is, the Island of the
Sea-Calf.
ST. CUTHBERT: (1) AS ABBOT, (2) AS ANCHORITE (DIED A.D. 687).
=Source.=—Bede, _Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert_. Translated by J. A.
Giles.
1. After the death of Boisil, Cuthbert took upon himself the duties of
the office before mentioned; and for many years discharged them with the
most pious zeal, as became a saint: for he not only furnished both
precept and example to his brethren of the monastery, but sought to lead
the minds of the neighbouring people to the love of heavenly things.
Many of them, indeed, disgraced the faith which they professed, by
unholy deeds; and some of them, in the time of mortality, neglecting the
sacrament of their creed, had recourse to idolatrous remedies, as if by
charms or amulets, or any other mysteries of the magical art, they were
able to avert a stroke inflicted upon them by the Lord. To correct these
errors, he often went out from the monastery, sometimes on horseback,
sometimes on foot, and preached the way of truth to the neighbouring
villages, as Boisil, his predecessor, had done before him. It was at
this time customary for the English people to flock together when a
clerk or priest entered a village, and listen to what he said, that so
they might learn something from him, and amend their lives. Now Cuthbert
was so skilful in teaching, and so zealous in what he undertook, that
none dared to conceal from him their thoughts, but all acknowledged what
they had done amiss; for they supposed that it was impossible to escape
his notice, and they hoped to merit forgiveness by an honest confession.
He was mostly accustomed to travel to those villages which lay in out of
the way places among the mountains, which by their poverty and natural
horrors deterred other visitors. Yet even here did his devoted mind find
exercise for his powers of teaching, insomuch that he often remained a
week, sometimes two or three, nay, even a whole month, without returning
home; but dwelling among the mountains, taught the poor people, both by
the words of his preaching, and also by his own holy conduct.
* * * * *
2. The building is almost of a round form, from wall to wall about four
to five poles in extent: the wall on the outside is higher than a man,
but within, by excavating the rock, he made it much deeper, to prevent
the eyes and the thoughts from wandering, that the mind might be wholly
bent on heavenly things, and the pious inhabitant might behold nothing
from his residence but the heavens above him. The wall was constructed,
not of hewn stones or of brick and mortar, but of rough stones and turf,
which had been taken out from the ground within. Some of them were so
large that four men could hardly have lifted them, but Cuthbert himself,
with angels helping him, had raised them up and placed them on the wall.
There were two chambers in the house, one an oratory, the other for
domestic purposes. He finished the walls of them by digging round and
cutting away the natural soil within and without, and formed the roof
out of rough poles and straw. Moreover, at the landing-place of the
island he built a large house, in which the brethren who visited him
might be received and rest themselves, and not far from it there was a
fountain of water for their use.
* * * * *
Now when Cuthbert had, with the assistance of the brethren, made for
himself this dwelling with its chambers, he began to live in a more
secluded manner. At first, indeed, when the brethren came to visit him,
he would leave his cell and minister to them. He used to wash their feet
devoutly with warm water, and was sometimes compelled by them to take
off his shoes, that they might wash his feet also. For he had so far
withdrawn his mind from attending to the care of his person, and fixed
it upon the concerns of his soul, that he would often spend whole months
without taking off his leathern gaiters. Sometimes, too, he would keep
his shoes on from one Easter to another, only taking them off on account
of the washing of feet, which then takes place at the Lord’s Supper.
Wherefore, in consequence of his frequent prayers and genuflexions,
which he made with his shoes on, he was discovered to have contracted a
callosity on the junction of his feet and legs. At length, as his zeal
after perfection grew, he shut himself up in his cell away from the
sight of men, and spent his time alone in fasting, watching, and prayer,
rarely having communication with anyone without, and that through the
window, which at first was left open, that he might see and be seen;
but, after a time, he shut that also, and opened it only to give his
blessing, or for any other purpose of absolute necessity.
THE DOOMS OF INE (BETWEEN 688 AND 705).
=Source.=—Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_.
I, Ine, by God’s grace, King of the West Saxons, with the counsel and
with the teaching of Cenred my father, and of Hedde my bishop [of
Winchester], and of Ercenwold my bishop [of London], and of all my
ealdormen, and the oldest witan of my people, and also of a great
assembly of the servants of God, have been considering concerning the
health of our soul, and concerning the stability of our realm; so that
right law and right kingly dooms might be settled and established
throughout our folk. And let no ealdorman nor any of our subjects after
this seek to turn aside any of these our dooms.
* * * * *
3. If a slave work on Sunday by his lord’s command, let him be free; and
let the lord pay 30 shillings as fine. But if the slave work without his
knowledge, let him suffer in his hide or by a fine to save his skin. But
if a freeman work on that day without his lord’s command, let him
forfeit his freedom or 60 shillings; and let a priest be doubly liable.
5. If any one be guilty of death, and he flee to a church, let him have
his life, and make amends as the law may direct him. If any one put his
skin in peril, and flee to a church, let the scourging be forgiven him.
6. ... If any one fight in an ealdorman’s house, or in any other
distinguished counsellor’s, let him make amends with 60 shillings, and
pay a second 60 shillings as fine....
8. If any one demand justice before a sheriff or other judge and cannot
obtain it, and a man will not give him security, let him make amends
with 30 shillings, and within seven days do him justice.
11. If any one sell his own countryman, slave or free, though he be
guilty, over sea, let him pay for him according to his value.
12. If a thief be seized, let him perish by death, or let his life be
redeemed according to his value.
14. He who is accused of brigandage, let him clear himself with 120
hides, or make amends accordingly.
19. A king’s retainer, if his value is 1,200 shillings, may swear for 60
hides if he be a communicant.
20. If a far-coming man, or a stranger, journey through a wood out of
the highway, and neither shout nor blow his horn, he is to be taken for
a thief, either to be slain or held to ransom.
21. If a man demand the value of the slain, he must declare that he slew
him for a thief; not the associates of the slain, nor his lord. But if
he conceal it, and after a time it become known, then he gives
opportunity for the oath for the dead man, that his kindred may
exculpate him.
23. If a foreigner be slain, the king has two parts of the value, a
third part his son or kinsmen. But if he be kinless, half the king, half
the gesith. If, however, it be an abbot or an abbess, let them divide in
the same wise with the king. A Welsh tenant, 120 shillings; his son, 100
shillings; a slave, 60 shillings; some with 50 shillings; a Welshman’s
hide with 12 shillings.
24. If a convicted slave, an Englishman, steal himself away, let him be
hanged, and nothing paid to his lord. If any one slay him, let nothing
be paid to his kindred, if they have not redeemed him within twelve
months.
A Welshman, if he have five hides, he shall be as a 600-shilling man.
25. If a chapman chaffer up among the folk, let him do it before
witnesses. If stolen goods be seized with a chapman, and he have not
bought them before good witnesses, let him prove, according to the fine,
that he was neither witting nor the thief; or let him pay 36 shillings
as fine.
32. If a Welshman have a hide of land, his value shall be 120 shillings;
but if he have half a hide, 80 shillings; if he have none, 60 shillings.
36. Let him who takes a thief, or to whom one taken is given, and he
then lets him go, or conceals the theft, pay for the thief according to
his value. If he be an ealdorman, let him forfeit his shire, unless the
king is willing to be merciful to him.
39. If any one go from his lord without leave, or steal himself away
into another shire, and he be discovered, let him go where he was
before, and pay his lord 60 shillings.
40. A ceorl’s homestead ought to be fenced in, winter and summer. If he
be unfenced, and his neighbour’s beast rush in by the opening which he
has left, he shall receive nothing on account of that beast [_i.e._, for
the damage it did], but must drive it out and bear the loss.
42. If ceorls have a common meadow or other divided land to fence, and
some have fenced their portion, others not, and [stray cattle] eat their
common acres or pasture, then those who are responsible for the opening
shall pay the others who have fenced their portion for the injury that
is done, and take such compensation as is due from [the owners of] the
cattle.
43. When any one burns a tree in a wood, and it be found out who did it,
let him pay the full fine; let him give 60 shillings, since fire is a
thief. If any one fell in a wood a good many trees, and it be afterwards
discovered, let him pay for 3 trees, for each with 30 shillings. He need
not pay for more of them, were there as many of them as might be; for
the axe is a tell-tale, not a thief.
44. But if any one cut down a tree under which 30 swine may stand, and
it be discovered, let him pay 60 shillings.
45. Amends shall be made for the king’s ‘burg-bryce’ [house-breaking],
and a bishop’s, where his jurisdiction is, with 120 shillings; for an
ealdorman’s, with 80 shillings; for a king’s thegn’s, with 60 shillings;
for a land-holding gesith’s, with 35 shillings; and according to this
make the legal denial.
51. If a retainer, owning land, neglect the national army, let him pay
120 shillings and forfeit his land; one not owning land 60 shillings; a
ceorlish man 30 shillings as army-fine.
64. He [the gesith] who has 20 hides shall show 12 hides of cultivated
land, when he wishes to go away.
67. If a man agree for a yard of land or more, at a fixed rent, and
plough it; if the lord desire to raise the land to him to labour and to
rent, he need not take it upon him, if the lord do not give him a
dwelling; and let him not forfeit his fields.
70. With the payment for a two-hundred-shilling man shall be given, as a
fine for slaying him, 30 shillings; with the payment for a
six-hundred-shilling man, 80 shillings; with the payment for a
twelve-hundred-shilling man, 120 shillings. From 10 hides, as
sustenance, [the lord is entitled to] 10 vessels of honey, 300 loaves,
12 ambers of Welsh ale, 30 of clear, 2 full-grown oxen or 10 wethers, 10
geese, 20 hens, 10 cheeses, an amber full of butter, 5 salmon, 20 pounds
weight of fodder and 100 eels.
74. If a Welsh slave slay an Englishman, then shall he who owns him
deliver him up to the lord and the kindred, or give 60 shillings for his
life. But if he will not give that sum for him, then must the lord free
him; afterwards let his kindred pay the value, if he have a free
kindred; if he have not, let his foes take heed to him. The free need
not pay kindred-amends with the slave, unless he be desirous to buy off
from himself the vengeance; nor the slave with the free.
CEOLFRID, ABBOT OF JARROW (DIED 716).
=Source.=—Bede, _Lives of the Holy Abbots_. Translated by J. A. Giles.