tual good from one from whom they derived temporal benefits. King Ethelwalch had granted him an island containing 87 families called Selsey, or the island of the SeaCalf. It is surrounded on all sides by the sea, except the space of a sling's-cast towards the west. Such a place is called by the Latins a peninsula, by the Greeks a chersonesus. Here Wilfrid founded a church and monastery, where he lived for five years, that is, until the death of King Egfrid; having converted and given freedom to 250 men and women slaves who were attached to the land'.

2

[A.D. 685.] Meanwhile, Ceadwalla, a young man of the royal race of the Gewissæ, being banished from his country, invaded Sussex and slew King Ethelwalch; but he was soon afterwards expelled by the king's commanders, Berthun and Andhun, who before held the government [of that province]. When, however, Ceadwalla became king of the Gewissæ, he put Berthun to death, and both he and his successors grievously ravaged that province; so that during the whole period, Wilfrid having been recalled home, it was without a bishop of its own, and was subject to the Bishop of Winchester.

Ceadwalla likewise, when he became king, conquered the Isle of Wight, the inhabitants of which were still idolaters, and in fulfilment of a vow granted the fourth part of the island to Bishop Wilfrid, who happened to be there on a visit from his own nation. The island is of the measurement belonging to 1200 families, so that the possession given to the bishop included 300. The two sons of Atwald, the king of the island who had been already slain, being also about to be put to death, the Abbot of Retford, that is "the Ford of Reeds," obtained leave from King Ceadwalla to baptize them first. Thus the Isle of Wight was the last district of Britain which was converted;

This church and monastery, shortly afterwards, in 711, were made the seat of the first bishop of the South-Saxons. In 1070 Bishop Stigand translated it to Chichester. There are no vestiges remaining of the former cathedral, Selsey Island itself having entirely disappeared, from the gradual encroachments of the sea on the Sussex coast.

2 Bede says "afterwards," which seems a better reading than Henry of Huntingdon's.

Bede, book iv. c. 16.

4 Redbridge, at the head of the Southampton Water.

and when all the provinces of Britain had received the Christian faith, the Archbishop Theodore, that he might confirm the faith both of the old and new converts, held a council of the bishops of Britain to expound the Catholic belief; and what they declared was committed to writing for a perpetual memorial. Which synodal letter I have judged it right to prefix to the beginning of the following Book, in which is purposed a continuation of the acts of the Christian kings of the English to the time of the arrival and wars of the Danes; all the divisions of this present Book being now completed in the order I proposed.

BOOK IV.1

"IN the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: in the reigns of our most pious lords, Egfrid, king of the Humbrians, his tenth year; Centwine, king of Wessex, the fifth year of his reign; Ethelred, king of the Mercians, the sixth year of his reign; Aldulf, king of the EastAngles, the seventeenth year of his reign; and Lothaire, king of Kent, the seventh year of his reign; on the 17th day of [the kalends of] October, the seventh indiction; Theodore, by the grace of God Archbishop of Canterbury and of the whole island of Britain, presiding, and the other bishops of the British Island, venerable men, sitting with him at the place which in the Saxon tongue is called Hethfeld2; the holy gospels being placed before them.

66

Having consulted together, we have set forth the true and orthodox belief, as our Lord Jesus Christ, when incarnate, delivered it to his disciples who saw him present and heard his words, and as it has been handed down to us by the creed of the holy Fathers, and, in general, by all the holy and universal councils, and with one voice by all the

1 1 Henry of Huntingdon, in this Fourth Book, returns to the general history of the English kings and people, the thread of which he had broken, to introduce in his Third Book an account of their conversion, and of ecclesiastical affairs generally, to the time when the last of the kings of the Heptarchy embraced the Christian faith; the period ranging from the arrival of St. Augustine and the conversion of Ethelbert and the kingdom of Kent, A.D. 597, to that of the South-Saxons, A.D. 681. Henry of Huntingdon, however, commences this Fourth Book by inserting a document, the synodal letter of the Council held at Hatfield [A.D. 680], which properly belongs to the subject of the Third Book; and as it would have formed a fitter conclusion to that part of his history, one does not see why it was reserved for the commencement of this. Henry of Huntingdon still follows Bede, as his main authority, to the point where Bede's History ends, in 731; making also occasional use of the Saxon Chronicle.

2 This Council was held A.D. 680, at Bishop's-Hatfield, in Hertfordshire.

approved doctors of the Catholic Church. We, therefore, following them religiously and orthodoxly, in conformity with their divinely-inspired doctrine, do profess that we firmly believe and confess, according to the holy Fathers, properly and truly, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, a Trinity consubstantial in unity, and unity in trinity; that is, one God subsisting in three consubstantial persons of equal glory and honour."

66

And after more of this sort appertaining to the profession of the true faith, the holy Council added this to its synodal letter: We accept the five holy and general councils of the blessed Fathers acceptable to God; viz., that of Nice, where 318 bishops were assembled against the heretic Arius and his most impious doctrines; that of Constantinople, composed of 150 bishops, against the insane tenets of Macedonius and Eudoxius; the first council of Ephesus, of 200 bishops, against the wicked subtlety of Nestorius and his doctrines, that of Chalcedon, composed of 430 bishops against Eutyches and Nestorius and their tenets; and the fifth council which was again assembled at Constantinople in the reign of Justinian the younger, against Theodore and Theodoret, as well as the epistles of Iba and their controversies with Cyril." And a little afterwards: "We receive also the council held at Rome, when the most holy Martin was Pope, the first indiction, and in the ninth year of the most pious Emperor Constantine: and we glorify our Lord Jesus Christ as the holy Fathers glorified Him, neither adding nor diminishing anything; and we anathematize with heart and mouth those whom they anathematized, and whom they received we receive, giving glory to God the Father, who was without beginning, and to his only-begotten Son, begotten by the Father before all ages, and to the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son in an ineffable manner, as they taught who have been already mentioned, the holy apostles, prophets, and doctors. We also, who with Theodore, archbishop, have thus set forth the Catholic faith, have subscribed our names thereto."

There were present at this synod, John, the precentor of the church of St. Peter at Rome, and abbot of the monastery of St. Martin, who had lately come from Rome by order of Pope Agatho, as also the venerable Abbot Bene

dict who had founded a monastery dedicated to St. Peter near the mouth of the river Were1. He had gone to Rome to obtain a confirmation of the privileges granted to that monastery by King Egbert, and now returned in company with the said John the precentor. Benedict was succeeded by Abbot Ceolfrid, under whom Bede lived. John taught them to sing in this monastery after the Roman practice. He also left there a copy of the decrees of the council held by Pope Martin, at which he was present. As he was returning to Rome, carrying with him the testimony of the conformity of the faith of the English bishops, he died on the way at Tours, where he was buried 2.

:

Having now treated of these [ecclesiastical] affairs, I return to a continuation of the history of the English kings, from which we broke off at the end of the Second Book and the sequel of our narrative must be connected with that context, that it may now proceed in regular order. [A.D. 686.] After the death of Kentwin, king of the West-Saxons, Ceadwall, who succeeded him, with the aid of his brother Mul, obtained by force possession of the Isle of Wight. This Mul, his brother, was a man of courteous and pleasing manners, of prodigious strength, and of noble aspect, so that he was generally esteemed, and his renown was very great. These two brothers made an irruption into the province of Kent for the sake of exhibiting their prowess and augmenting their glory. They were not yet baptized, though their predecessors, and the whole nation, had become Christians. They met with no opposition in their invasion of Kent, and plundered the whole kingdom. For, at this time, the throne was vacant by the death of Lothaire, king of Kent. This enterprising king had been wounded in a battle with the East-Saxons, against whom he had marched in concert with Edric, son of Egbert, and so severe were his wounds, that he died in the hands of those who endeavoured to heal them. After him Edric reigned

Now Monk-Wearmouth, where Venerable Bede passed the early part of his monastic life.

2 Bede's Eccles. Hist., book iv. cc. 17, 18.

Book II. concludes with the year 681, the period of the conversion of the last of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and with a summary of the reigns of all the kings of the Heptarchy to that time. See p. 63.