in vanquishing the barbarians, sent to the elders of the A.D. 635. Scots, among whom himself and his followers, when in banishment, had received the sacrament of baptism, desiring they would send him a bishop, by whose instruction and ministry the English nation, which he governed, might be taught the advantages, and receive the sacraments of the Christian faith. Nor were they slow in granting his request; but sent him Bishop Aidan, a man of singular meekness, piety, and moderation; zealous in the cause of God, though not altogether according to knowledge; for he was wont to keep Easter Sunday according to the custom of his country, which we have before so often mentioned, from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon; the northern province of the Scots, and all the nation of the Picts, celebrating Easter then after that manner, and believing that they therein followed the writings of the holy and praiseworthy Father Anatolius; the truth of which every skilful person can discern. But the Scots which dwelt in the South of Ireland had long since, by the admonition of the bishop of the Apostolic See, learned to observe Easter according to the canonical custom.

On the arrival of the bishop, the king appointed him his episcopal see in the isle of Lindisfarne, as he desired. Which place, as the tide flows and ebbs twice a day, is enclosed by the waves of the sea like an island; and again, twice in the day, when the shore is left dry, becomes contiguous to the land. The king also humbly and willingly in all cases giving ear to his admonitions, industriously applied himself to build and extend the church of Christ in his kingdom; wherein, when the bishop, who was not skilful in the English tongue, preached the Gospel, it was most delightful to see the king himself interpreting the word of God to his commanders and ministers, for he had perfectly learned the language of the Scots during his long banishment. From that time many of the Scots came daily into

Anglorum provinciis, quibus regnavit Rex Oswaldus, magna devotione verbum fidei prædicare et credentibus gratiam baptismi, quicunque sacerdotali erant gradu præditi, ministrare. Construebantur ergo ecclesiæ per loca, confluebant ad audiendum verbum Dei populi gaudentes, donabantur munere regio possessiones et territoria ad instituenda monasteria, imbuebantur præceptoribus Scotis parvuli Anglorum, una cum majoribus studiis et observatione disciplinæ regularis.

Nam monachi erant maxime, qui ad prædicandum venerant. Monachus ipse episcopus Aidanus, utpote de insula, quæ vocatur Hii, destinatus; cujus monasterium in cunctis pene septentrionalium Scotorum et omnium Pictorum monasteriis non parvo tempore arcem tenebat, regendisque eorum populis præerat. Quæ videlicet insula ad jus quidem Britanniæ pertinet, non magno ab ea freto discreta, sed donatione Pictorum, qui illas Britanniæ plagas incolunt, jamdudum monachis Scotorum tradita, eo quod, illis prædicantibus, fidem Christi perceperint.

CAP. IV.-QUANDO GENS PICTORUM FIDEM CHRISTI

PERCEPERIT.

IQUIDEM anno incarnationis Dominicæ quingentesimo sexagesimo quinto, quo tempore, gubernaculum Romani imperii post Justinianum Justinus minor accepit, venit de Hibernia presbyter et abbas habitu et vita monachi insignis, nomine

Columba, Britanniam; prædicaturus verbum Dei provinciis septentrionalium Pictorum, hoc est, eis, quæ arduis atque horrentibus montium jugis ab australibus eorum sunt regionibus sequestratæ. Namque ipsi australes Picti, qui intra eosdem montes habent sedes, multo ante tempore, ut perhibent, relicto errore idolola

Britain, and with great devotion preached the word to A.D. 635. those provinces of the English, over which King Oswald reigned, and those among them that had received priest's orders, administered to them the grace of baptism. Churches were built in several places; the people joyfully flocked together to hear the word; money and lands were given of the king's bounty to build monasteries; the English, great and small, were, by their Scottish masters, instructed in the rules and observance of regular discipline; for most of them that came to preach were monks. Bishop Aidan was himself a monk of the island called Hii, whose monastery was for a long time the chief of almost all those of the northern Scots, and all those of the Picts, and had the direction of their people. That island belongs to Britain, being divided from it by a small arm of the sea, but had been long since given by the Picts, who inhabit those parts of Britain, to the Scottish monks, because they had received the faith of Christ through their preaching.

CHAP. IV.

-WHEN THE NATION OF THE PICTS RECEIVED

THE FAITH.

converts the

A.D. 565.

N the year of our Lord 565, when St. Columba
Justin, the younger, the successor Picts.
of Justinian, had the government
of the Roman empire, there came
into Britain a famous priest and
abbot, a monk by habit and life,
whose name was Columba, to preach
the word of God to the provinces

of the northern Picts, who are separated from the
southern parts by steep and rugged mountains; for the
southern Picts, who dwell on this side of those moun-
tains, had long before, as is reported, forsaken the errors
of idolatry, and embraced the truth, by the preaching of

triæ, fidem veritatis acceperant, prædicante eis verbum Ninia episcopo reverendissimo et sanctissimo viro, de natione Britonum, qui erat Romæ regulariter fidem et mysteria veritatis edoctus; cujus sedem episcopalem, (Sancti Martini episcopi nomine et ecclesia insignem, ubi ipse etiam corpore una cum pluribus sanctis requiescit,) jam nunc Anglorum gens obtinet. Qui locus, ad provinciam Berniciorum pertinens, vulgo vocatur "Ad Candidam Casam," eo quod ibi ecclesiam de lapide, insolito Britonibus more, fecerit.

Venit autem Britanniam Columba, regnante Pictis Bridio filio Meilochon, rege potentissimo, nono anno regni ejus, gentemque illam verbo et exemplo ad fidem Christi convertit; unde et præfatam insulam ab eis in possessionem monasterii faciendi accepit. Neque enim magna est, sed quasi familiarum quinque, juxta æstimationem Anglorum; quam successores ejus usque hodie tenent, ubi et ipse sepultus est, cum esset annorum septuaginta septem, post annos circiter triginta et duos ex quo ipse Britanniam prædicaturus adiit. Fecerat autem, priusquam Britanniam veniret, monasterium nobile in Hibernia, quod a copia roborum "Dearmach" lingua Scotorum, hoc est, "Campus Roborum," cognominatur. Ex quo utroque monasterio perplurima exinde monasteria per discipulos ejus et in Britannia et in Hibernia propagata sunt; in quibus omnibus idem monasterium insulanum, in quo ipse requiescit corpore, principatum tenet.

Habere autem solet ipsa insula rectorem semper abbatem presbyterum, cujus juri et omnis provincia, et ipsi etiam episcopi, ordine inusitato, debeant esse subjecti, juxta exemplum primi doctoris illius, qui non episcopus, sed presbyter, exstitit et monachus; de cujus vita et verbis nonnulla a discipulis ejus feruntur scripta haberi. Verum qualiscunque fuerit ipse, nos hoc de illo certum tenemus, quod reliquit successores magna continentia ac divino amore regularique institutione insignes. In tem

Ninias, a most reverend bishop and holy man of the A.D. 565. British nation, who had been regularly instructed at Rome, in the faith and mysteries of the truth; whose episcopal see, named after St. Martin the bishop, and famous for a stately church, (wherein he and many other saints rest in the body,) is still in existence among the English nation. The place belongs to the province of the Bernicians, and is generally called the White House, because he there built a church of stone, which was not usual among the Britons.

Columba came into Britain in the ninth year of the reign of Bridius, who was the son of Meilochon, and the powerful king of the Pictish nation, and he converted that nation to the faith of Christ, by his preaching and example, whereupon he also received of them the aforesaid island for a monastery, for it is not very large, but contains about five families, according to the English computation. His successors hold the island to this day; he was also buried therein, having died at the age of seventy-seven, about thirty-two years after he came into Britain to preach. Before he passed over into Britain, he had built a noble monastery in Ireland, which, from the great number of oaks, is in the Scottish tongue called Dearm-ach-The Field of Oaks. From both which monasteries, many others had their beginning through his disciples, both in Britain and Ireland; but the monastery in the island where his body lies, is the principal of them all.

That island has for its ruler an abbot, who is a priest, to whose direction all the province, and even the bishops, contrary to the usual method, are subject, according to the example of their first teacher, who was not a bishop, but a priest and monk; of whose life and discourses some writings are said to be preserved by his disciples. But whatsoever he was himself, this we know for certain, that he left successors renowned for their continency, their love of God, and observance of monastic rules. It is