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Oswy and Peada in concert begin to build the abbey of Medeshamstede (afterwards Peterborough) "to the glory of God and the honour of St. Peteri."

Oswy unites Deira to Bernicia, on the death of Adelwald,

A.D. 657. Peada of Mercia is killed at Easter. Wulfhere, his brother, succeeds.

A.D. 658. Cenwalch defeats the Britons at Petherton.

A.D. 661. Wulfhere of Mercia ravages Wessex and the isle of Wight. "And Eoppa, the mass-priest (chaplain), by the command of Wilferth and King Wulfhere, first of men brought baptism to the people of Wight." A.D. 664. Egbert succeeds in Kent.

A great pestilence in Britain.

A synod held at Streoneshealh (now Whitby), at which Wilfred advocates the Roman supremacy; Colman, the Scottish bishop, retires.

Wilfred is appointed to the see of York.

A.D. 667. Wigheard, a priest, sent to Rome by Kings Oswy and Egbert, to be consecrated archbishop of Canterbury; he died soon after his arrival, and Theodore of Tarsus was ordained in his stead, March 26, 668.

A.D. 668. Theodore arrives in Britain. He is enthroned at Canterbury, May 27, 669.

A.D. 669. A bishop's see established at Lichfield.

i A very long account of this transaction is to be found in tne Saxon Chronicle; there are also several other notices of Medehamstede, or Burh, and charters are cited, some of which are of very doubtful authority.

Or Wilfred, then abbot of Ripon, afterwards the well-known archbishop of York.

A.D. 670. Death of Oswy of Northumbria, Feb. 15; Egfrid, his son, succeeds.

A.D. 671. Egfrid defeats the Picts; he also takes Lincoln from the Mercians.

A.D. 672. Death of Cenwalch of Wessex; Sexburga, his queen, reigns for a year after him.

A.D. 673. Egbert of Kent dies, in July.

The synod of Hertford held, Sept. 24; a body of canon law then first introduced into England; Winfrid, bishop of Mercia, deposed, and his vast diocese divided. Bishops' sees established at Domnoc (Dunwich) and Elmham, in East Anglia.

A.D. 674. Escwin, a kinsman of Cenwalch, succeeds in Wessex.

A.D. 675. Death of Wulfhere of Mercia; Ethelred succeeds.

A.D. 676. Escwin of Wessex dies; Centwine, son of Cynegils, succeeds.

Ethelred of Mercia ravages Kent.

A bishop's see established at Hereford.

A.D. 678. Wilfred driven from his bishopric1.

I Wilfred, the introducer of the practice of carrying appeals to Rome, born 634, was a page at the court of Northumbria, who, adopting the priestly profession, went to Rome in 654, and on his return became tutor to the son of Oswy; he received from his royal patron the monastery of Ripon, and having at the synod of Whitby powerfully supported the Roman views, he was appointed to the archbishopric of York, which had remained unoccupied since the withdrawal of Paulinus. Considering the communion which the archbishop of Canterbury held with the Scottish teachers as schismatical, he declined to receive consecration at his hands, and, instead, passed over into Gaul, to Ægilbert, bishop of Paris (formerly bishop of the West Saxons); but during his absence Chad was appointed to York, and Wilfred, on his return, after assuming the power to appoint priests and deacons in Kent, in the vacancy of the see of Canterbury before the arrival of Theodore, found himself obliged to retire to Ri

A.D. 679. Battle near the Trent between the Mercians and Northumbrians; Elfwine, brother of Egfrid, is killed. Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, mediates a peace.

A.D. 680. The synod at Heathfield, Sept. 17, against the Monothelites. Bishops' sees established at Lindissem and at Worcester.

A.D. 680 (circa). A code regulating legal proceedings, issued by Lothaire and Edric in Kent".

A.D. 681. The Picts subject to the Northumbrians, and Trumwine appointed their bishop.

Wilfred converts the South Saxons.

A.D. 682. Centwine of Wessex has much success against the Britons.

A.D. 684. The Northumbrians ravage the eastern part of Ireland; "and miserably they plundered and burned the churches of God."

pon. In 667, however, Chad resigned York to him, and Wilfred held it till 678, but having given offence by his pompous style of living, he was then driven out, and his vast diocese, which included the whole Northumbrian kingdom, was divided into the four sees of York, Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Ripon. Wilfred now appealed to Rome, (passing the winter among the pagans of Friesland on his journey), and obtained a papal decree in his favour, but it was disregarded; he then visited the heathen South Saxons, and converted them. At length, in 687, a portion of his diocese was restored, and he was established at Hexham, but was again driven out in 691, and spent several years in missionary labour among the Germans. In 705 he again repaired to Rome, obtained another decree in his favour, and passed the few remaining years of his life as bishop of Hexham ; dying at Oundle, Oct. 12, 709, he was buried in the monastery of Ripon. Being afterwards canonized, he became a popular saint in the north of England, where about thirty churches are still found dedicated to his memory. Probably Stow in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, where a church of Saxon architecture remains.

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n See p. 154.

• The Scots, whether settled in Scotland or Ireland, refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome, and were therefore now looked on as schismatics, although it was to Scottish teachers that the conversion of Northumbria was mainly due. See p. 55.

A.D. 685. Egfrid of Northumbria is killed, May 20, in war against the Picts, who in part recover their lands; Aldfrith, his brother, succeeds.

A.D. 686. Ceadwalla, and his brother Mul of Wessex, ravage Kent.

A.D. 687. Lothaire of Kent is killed, Feb.

Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, dies, March 20P. Mul is burned in Kent, and Ceadwalla again ravages the country.

A.D. 688. Ceadwalla goes to Rome, is baptized by the name of Peter, and dies seven days after, April 20. Ina, a distant kinsman, succeeds in Wessex.

A.D. 690. Theodore of Tarsus dies, Sept. 29. Berht

P Cuthbert, originally a shepherd boy, became a monk of Melrose, and afterwards long led the life of a hermit on an islet on the Northumbrian coast. In 685 he was consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne, but he resigned the see soon after, and again retired to his hermitage, where he died March 20th, 687. His remains were buried at Lindisfarne, whence, in consequence of the ravages of the Northmen, they were removed in 875, and after various wanderings they found a resting-place on the hill where now stands the cathedral of Durham. In 1104 they were solemnly translated to the present edifice, being, it is affirmed, found uncorrupt, and the splendid shrine that was raised over them continued to attract its crowds of pilgrims until its destruction in the year 1537; the body, still unchanged it is said, was after the lapse of five years re-interred on the site of the shrine, and now reposes under a plain blue marble slab in the chapel of the Nine Altars, as was ascertained by an antiquarian examination made in the year 1827. Dry bones only, swathed in a number of richly embroidered garments, were found on the latter occasion, instead of the perfect body said to have been seen by former explorers; the coffin also contained a golden cross and some other articles whose connexion with the saint is uncertain.

St. Cuthbert's festival was celebrated on the 20th of March; he was an exceedingly popular saint in the north of England, and miracles without number were ascribed to him, so that he was commonly known by the name of the Wonder-worker. More than sixty churches exist dedicated to him; he was indeed regarded as the patron of the North, and the banner of St. Cuthbert (of red velvet embroidered with green silk and gold, and inclosing relics,) was borne not only at solemn ceremonials (as the coronation of Richard III. at York) but also to battle at least as late as the battle of Flodden field.

wald succeeds in the see of Canterbury. "Before this the bishops had been Romans, but from this time they were English."

A.D. 692. Two kings, Wihtred and Webheard or Suaebhard, reign in Kent.

A.D. 694. The Kentish men compound with Ina of Wessex for the murder of Mula.

Wihtred becomes sole king in Kent, and at the council of Baccancelde (Beaconsfield) he grants a charter securing many immunities to churches and monasteries.

A.D. 696. Wihtred of Kent forbids idolatry, and labour on the Sunday".

A.D. 697. Ostrith, queen of Ethelred of Mercia, and sister of Egfrid of Northumbria, is slain by the Mercians.

A.D. 699. Benedict Biscop dies, Jan. 12.

The Picts revolt, and kill Beorht, their ealdorman.

The various MSS. of the Saxon Chronicle differ as to the nature and amount of this composition; some say they gave him 30,000 pounds, others that they gave him 30 men or 30,000 men; the money payment seems most probable, from the general tenor of the AngloSaxon laws.

• See p. 155.

8

Benedict, the founder of the celebrated monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, was a Northumbrian noble, who at an early age devoted himself and all his possessions to the service of the Church. He made several journeys abroad, and brought back with him not only books and pictures and relics, but workmen in stone and in glass, so that the edifices that he raised, and over which he presided, surpassed any thing that had before been accomplished in church architecture in Britain. He also brought with him John the Precentor, to instruct his community in the Roman mode of celebrating divine service, and he himself became the tutor of Bede. He was formerly commemorated in the English Church on the 12th of January, and many churches exist dedicated to St. Benedict, but whether Benedict Biscop or Benedict of Nursia is meant, in any particular case, it seems impossible to decide, though we may well believe that so eminent a man as the former was not neglected in his own country.

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