BOOK III

CHAP. I. How King Edwin's next successors lost both the faith of their nation and the kingdom; but the most Christian King Oswald retrieved both. [633 A.D.]

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EDWIN being slain in battle, the kingdom of the Deiri, to which province his family belonged, and where he first began to reign, passed to Osric, the son of his uncle Aelfric, who, through the preaching of Paulinus, had also received the mysteries of the faith. But the kingdom of the Bernicians-for into these two provinces the nation of the Northumbrians was formerly divided '--passed to Eanfrid, the son of Ethelfrid, who derived his origin from the royal family of that province. For all the time that Edwin reigned, the sons of the aforesaid Ethelfrid, who had reigned before him, with many of the younger nobility, lived in banishment among the Scots or Picts, and were there instructed according to the doctrine of the Scots, and were renewed with the grace of Baptism. Upon the death of the king, their enemy, they were allowed to return home, and the aforesaid Eanfrid, as the eldest of them, became king of the Bernicians. Both those kings, as soon as they obtained the government of their earthly kingdoms, abjured and betrayed the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom to which they had been admitted, and again delivered themselves up to defilement and perdition through the abominations of their former idolatry.

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But soon after, the king of the Britons, Caedwalla,' the unrighteous instrument of rightful vengeance, slew them both. First, in the following summer, he put Osric to death; for, being rashly besieged by him in the municipal

1 Cf. II, 1, p. 82, note.

2 I, 34; II, 2, 12.

3 I.e., Osric and Eanfrid.
4 Cf. II, 20, ad init.

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town,' he sallied out on a sudden with all his forces, took him by surprise, and destroyed him and all his army. Then, when he had occupied the provinces of the Northumbrians for a whole year, not ruling them like a victorious king, but ravaging them like a furious tyrant, he at length put an end to Eanfrid, in like manner, when he unadvisedly came to him with only twelve chosen soldiers, to sue for peace. To this day, that year is looked upon as illomened, and hateful to all good men; as well on account of the apostacy of the English kings, who had renounced the mysteries of the faith, as of the outrageous tyranny of the British king. Hence it has been generally agreed, in reckoning the dates of the kings, to abolish the memory of those faithless monarchs, and to assign that year to Divine Right the reign of the following king, Oswald, a man beloved of God. This king, after the death of his brother Eanfrid, advanced with an army, small, indeed, in number, but strengthened with the faith of Christ; and the impious commander of the Britons, in spite of his vast forces, which he boasted nothing could withstand, was slain at a place called in the English tongue Denisesburna, that is, the brook of Denis.'

1 "In oppido municipio." Commentators are agreed that Bede means York. It was a Roman "Colonia," and is called a "municipium" by Aurelius Victor, though whether Bede attaches any definitely Roman meaning to the term seems doubtful. Ducange explains "municipium" as "castrum," "castellum muris cinctum.

From the death of Edwin (October 12th, 633), for Oswald's reign is reckoned as lasting nine years, including the "hateful year," and he was killed August 5th, 642. Cf. infra c. 9.' 3 I.e., probably before the end of 634.

Not identified with any certainty, but probably the Rowley Water or a tributary of it. It cannot be, as has been suggested, the Devil's Water, which is clearly distinguished from it in a charter of the thirteenth century. Caedwalla must have fled southwards for eight or nine miles after the battle (cf. next note).

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CHAP. II. How, among innumerable other miracles of
healing wrought by the wood of the cross, which King
Oswald, being ready to engage against the barbarians,
erected, a certain man had his injured arm healed.
[634 A.D.]

THE place is shown to this day, and held in much venera-
tion, where Oswald, being about to engage in this battle,
erected the symbol of the Holy Cross, and knelt down and
prayed to God that he would send help from Heaven to
his worshippers in their sore need. Then, we are told,
that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in
which it was to be set up, the king himself, in the ardour
of his faith, laid hold of it and held it upright with both
his hands, till the earth was heaped up by the soldiers
and it was fixed. Thereupon, uplifting his voice, he cried
to his whole army, "Let us all kneel, and together beseech
the true and living God Almighty in His mercy to defend
us from the proud and cruel enemy; for He knows that
we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our
nation." All did as he had commanded, and accordingly
advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day,
they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved. In the
place where they prayed very many miracles of healing
are known to have been wrought, as a token and
memorial of the king's faith; for even to this day, many
are wont to cut off small splinters from the wood of the
holy cross, and put them into water, which they give to
sick men or cattle to drink, or they sprinkle them there-
with, and these are presently restored to health.

The place is called in the English tongue Hefenfelth, For the Heavenly Field,' which name it undoubtedly re

1 For another instance of a name with an inner meaning, cf. II, 15. The site of the battle is probably seven or eight miles north of Hexham (v. next note), Oswald having taken up his position on the northern side of the Roman wall between the Tyne and the Solway (ie., the wall attributed to Hadrian, cf. I, 12, p. 25, note). According to tradition the battle was finally won at a place called Halydene (Hallington?), two miles to the east.

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ceived of old as a presage of what was afterwards to V happen, denoting, that the heavenly trophy was to be erected, the heavenly victory begun, and heavenly miracles shown forth to this day. The place is near the wall in the north which the Romans formerly drew across the whole of Britain from sea to sea, to restrain the onslaught of the barbarous nations, as has been said before. Hither also the brothers of the church of Hagustald,' which is not far distant, long ago made it their custom to resort every year, on the day before that on which King Oswald was afterwards slain, to keep vigils there for the health of his soul, and having sung. many psalms of praise, to offer for him in the morning the sacrifice of the Holy Oblation. And since that good custom has spread, they have lately built a church there, which has attached additional sanctity and honour in the eyes of all men to that place; and this with good chand reason; for it appears that there was no symbol of the Christian faith, no church, no altar erected throughout. all the nation of the Bernicians, before that new leader in war, prompted by the zeal of his faith, set up this standard of the Cross as he was going to give battle to his barbarous enemy.

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Nor is it foreign to our purpose to relate one of the many miracles that have been wrought at this cross. One of the brothers of the same church of Hagulstald, whose name is Bothelm, and who is still living, a few years ago, walking carelessly on the ice at night, suddenly fell and broke his arm; he was soon tormented with a most grievous pain in the broken part, so that he could not lift his arm to his mouth for the anguish. Hearing one morning that one of the brothers designed to go d up to the place of the holy cross, he desired him, on his

1 Hexham. Wilfrid built a magnificent church there between the years 672-678 on land given by Ethelthryth, wife of Egfrid, king of Northumbria. It became the see of a bishop in 678 when the great northern diocese was subdivided by Theodore (v. IV, 12). Bede's own monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow was in the diocese of Hexham. The bishopric became extinct in 821.

2 The place is still called St. Oswald's, and a little chapel probably marks the spot.

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return, to bring him a piece of that sacred wood, saying, he believed that with the mercy of God he might thereby be healed. The brother did as he was desired; and returning in the evening, when the brothers were sitting at table, gave him some of the old moss which grew on the surface of the wood. As he sat at table, having no place to bestow the gift which was brought him, he put it into his bosom; and forgetting, when he went to bed, to put it away, left it in his bosom. Awaking in the middle of the night, he felt something cold lying by his side, and putting his hand upon it to feel what it was, he found his arm and hand as sound as if he had never felt any such pain.

CHAP. III. How the same king Oswald, asking a bishop of the Scottish nation, had Aidan sent him, and granted him an episcopal see in the Isle of Lindisfarne. [635 A.D.]

THE same Oswald, as soon as he ascended the throne, being desirous that all the nation under his rule should be endued with the grace of the Christian faith, whereof he had found happy experience in vanquishing the barbarians, sent to the elders of the Scots,' among whom himself and his followers, when in banishment, had received the sacrament of Baptism, desiring that they would send him a bishop, by whose instruction and ministry the English nation, which he governed, might learn the privileges and receive the Sacraments of the faith of our Lord. Nor were they slow in granting his request; for they sent him Bishop Aidan, a man of singular gentleness, piety, and moderation; having a zeal of God, but not fully according to knowledge; for he was wont to keep Easter Sunday according to the custom of his country, which h we have before so often mentioned," from the fourteenth to the twentieth of the moon; the northern province of the Scots, and all the nation of the Picts, at 1 I.e., Irish.

2 Cf. II, 2, note on Paschal Controversy.