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18. BEDE'S FINAL ESTIMATE OF AIDAN

Bk. 3, chap. 17

I have written thus much concerning the person and works of the aforesaid Aidan, in no way commending or approving what he imperfectly understood in relation to the observance of Easter; nay, very much detesting the same, as I have most manifestly proved in the book I have written De Temporibus1; but, like an impartial historian, relating what was done concerning or by him, commending such things as are praiseworthy in his actions, and preserving the memory thereof for the benefit of my readers namely, his love of peace and charity, of continence and humility; his mind superior to anger and avarice, and despising pride and vainglory; his industry in keeping and teaching the heavenly commandments; his diligence in reading and watching; his authority becoming a priest in reproving the haughty and powerful, and at the same time his tenderness in comforting the sick, and relieving or defending the poor. To say all in a few words, as near as I could be informed by those that knew him, he took care to omit none of those things which he found were to be done, according to the Gospels or the apostolical or prophetical writings, but to the utmost of his power endeavored to perform them all.

These things I much love and admire in the aforesaid bishop, because I do not doubt that they were well pleasing to God; but I do not praise or approve his not observing Easter at the proper time, either through ignorance of the canonical time appointed, or, if he knew it, being prevailed on by the authority of his nation not to follow the same. Yet this I approve in him, that in the

1 Rather the De Temporum Ratione.

celebration of his Easter, the object which he had in view in all he believed, worshiped, and preached, was the same as ours, that is, the redemption of mankind through the passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven of the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.1

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19. THE CHOICE OF THEODORE AND HADRIAN (A.D. 667-8)

Bk. 4, chap. 1

There was then in the Niridan monastery, which is not far from the city of Naples in Campania,2 an abbot called Hadrian, by nation an African, well versed in Holy Writ, experienced in monastic and ecclesiastical discipline, and excellently skilled in both the Greek and Latin tongues. The pope, sending for him, commanded him to accept the bishopric, and repair to Britain. He answered that he was unworthy of so great a dignity, but said he could name another, whose learning and age were fitter for the episcopal office. And having proposed to the pope a certain monk belonging to a neighboring monastery of celibates, whose name was Andrew, the latter was by all that knew him judged worthy of the bishopric; but bodily infirmity prevented his being advanced to the episcopal station. Then again Hadrian was pressed to accept the bishopric, but he desired a respite for a time, to see whether he could find another fit to be ordained bishop. There was at that time in Rome a monk called Theodore, well known to Hadrian, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, a man well instructed in secular and sacred literature as well as in Greek and Latin, of excellent character and

11 Tim. 2. 5.

2 It was near the present Monte Cassino.

8 For Hadrian and Theodore, see especially the Dict. Chr. Biog.

venerable age, being sixty-six years old. Hadrian suggested him to the pope to be ordained bishop, and prevailed, but upon these conditions: first, that Hadrian himself should conduct him to Britain, because he had already, for various reasons, twice visited Gaul, and was therefore better acquainted with the way, and was moreover well provided with men of his own; and secondly, that he should serve as his fellow-laborer in teaching, and thus keep careful watch that Theodore should not, after the manner of the Greeks, introduce anything contrary to the true faith1 into the church over which he was to preside. Theodore, being ordained subdeacon, waited four months for his hair to grow, that it might be shorn into the shape of a crown; for hitherto he had had the tonsure of St. Paul the apostle, after the manner of the Orientals. He was ordained by Pope Vitalian in the year of our Lord 668, on Sunday, the 26th of March, and on the 27th of May [668] was sent with Hadrian to Britain.2

20. THE TEACHING OF THEODORE (From A.D. 669) Bk. 4, chap. 2

Theodore arrived at his church the second year after his consecration, on Sunday, the 27th of May, and held the same twenty-one years, three months, and twenty-six days. Soon after, he visited all the island, wherever the tribes of the English inhabited, for he was willingly entertained and heard by all persons; and, everywhere attended and assisted by Hadrian, he taught the right rule of life, and the canonical custom of celebrating Easter. He was the first archbishop whom all the English church obeyed.

1 See Bright, Early Eng. Church Hist., p. 220.

2 Benedict Biscop accompanied them; see Bright, as above, p. 221.

668 AD

And because both of them were, as has been said before, well read both in sacred and secular literature, they gathered a crowd of disciples, and there daily flowed from them rivers of sound learning to water the hearts of their hearers, insomuch that, together with the books of Holy Writ, they taught them the arts of prosody, astronomy, and ecclesiastical arithmetic.1 A testimony of which is that there are still living at this day some of their scholars who are as well versed in the Greek and Latin tongues as in their own, wherein they were born.2 Nor were there ever happier times since the English came to Britain, for since they had kings who were brave men and good Christians, they were a terror to all barbarous nations; the minds of all men were bent upon the joys of the heavenly kingdom of which they had just heard; and all who desired to be instructed in sacred learning had masters at hand to teach them. From that time also they began in all the churches of the English to learn sacred music, which till then had been known only in Kent.

21. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CHAD

Bk. 4, chap. 3

Chad had his episcopal see in the place called Lichfield, in which he also died and was buried, and where the see of the succeeding bishops of that province still continues. He had built himself a dwelling not far from the church, wherein he was wont to pray and read with seven or eight of the brethren, as often as he had any

1 The art of calculating church seasons. Bright says (p. 238): 'This great school became the prototype of the yet more famous school of York in the next century, . . . out of which arose the illustrious Alcuin.'

2 See the interesting note in Mayor and Lumby's edition.

spare time from the labor and ministry of the word. When he had most gloriously governed the church in that province two years and a half, Divine Providence ordained that there should come a season like that of which Ecclesiastes says, 'A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together '1; for there happened a mortality sent from heaven, which, by means of the death of the flesh, transferred the living stones of the church from their earthly places to the heavenly building. And when, after many from the church of that most reverend prelate had been taken out of the flesh, his hour also drew near wherein he was to pass out of this world to the Lord, it happened one day that he was in the aforesaid dwelling with only one brother, called Owin, his other companions having, for some good reason, returned to the church. Now Owin was a monk of great merit, having forsaken the world with the pure intention of obtaining the heavenly reward, worthy in all respects to have the secrets of the Lord revealed to him, and worthy to have credit given by his hearers to what he said. He had come 2 with Queen Æthelthryth from the province of the East Angles, and was chief of her thanes and steward of her household. As the fervor of his faith increased, he resolved to renounce the world, and did not go about it slothfully, but so fully forsook the things of this world that, quitting all that he had, clad only in a plain garment, and carrying an ax and a hatchet in his hand, he came to the monastery of that most reverend prelate, called Lastingham; by this denoting that he did not go to the monastery to live idle, as some do, but to labor. This he also confirmed by his practice, for as he was less capable of

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8 Seven miles N.W. of Pickering, in Yorkshire; it was from this monastery that Chad had come to Lichfield.

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