THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE
The Venerable Bede
The first account of English history, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, was written in 731 A.D. by The Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian Monk. The manuscript chronicled the growth of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England, starting with the Roman invasion of Britain led by Julius Caesar in 55–54 B.C. and ending with its author’s death in the eighth century. Invaluable as a primary source from a period that did not produce a great deal of written documentation, it tells the tales and stories of the kings, bishops, monks, and nuns involved in the very early development of Britain’s religious and political institutions. The three brief excerpts reprinted here give a good idea of the flavor of the work:
1. Book III, Chapter VI: “Of King Oswald’s wonderful piety and religion. (635–642 A.D.)”
2. Book III, Chapter XV: “How Bishop Aidan foretold to certain seamen that a storm would arise, and gave them some holy oil to calm it. (Between 642 and 645 A.D.)”
3. Book IV, Chapter XXI: “How Bishop Theodore made peace between the Kings Egfried and Ethelred. (679 A.D.)”
BOOK III
CHAPTER VI
Of King Oswald’s wonderful piety and religion. [635–642 A.D.]
King Oswald, with the English nation which he governed, being instructed by the teaching of this bishop, not only learned to hope for a heavenly kingdom unknown to his fathers, but also obtained of the one God, Who made heaven and earth, a greater earthly kingdom than any of his ancestors. In brief, he brought under his dominion all the nations and provinces of Britain, which are divided into four languages, to wit, those of the Britons, the Picts, the Scots, and the English. Though raised to that height of regal power, wonderful to relate, he was always humble, kind, and generous to the poor and to strangers.
To give one instance, it is told, that when he was once sitting at dinner, on the holy day of Easter, with the aforesaid bishop, and a silver dish full of royal dainties was set before him, and they were just about to put forth their hands to bless the bread, the servant, whom he had appointed to relieve the needy, came in on a sudden, and told the king, that a great multitude of poor folk from all parts was sitting in the streets begging alms of the king; he immediately ordered the meat set before him to be carried to the poor, and the dish to be broken in pieces and divided among them. At which sight, the bishop who sat by him, greatly rejoicing at such an act of piety, clasped his right hand and said, “May this hand never decay.” This fell out according to his prayer, for his hands with the arms being cut off from his body, when he was slain in battle, remain uncorrupted to this day, and are kept in a silver shrine, as revered relics, in St. Peter’s church in the royal city,1 which has taken its name from Bebba, one of its former queens. Through this king’s exertions the provinces of the Deiri and the Bernicians, which till then had been at variance, were peacefully united and moulded into one people. He was nephew to King Edwin through his sister Acha; and it was fit that so great a predecessor should have in his own family such an one to succeed him in his religion and sovereignty.
CHAPTER XV
How Bishop Aidan foretold to certain seamen that a storm would arise, and gave them some holy oil to calm it. [Between 642 and 645 A.D.]
How great the merits of Aidan were, was made manifest by the Judge of the heart, with the testimony of miracles, whereof it will suffice to mention three, that they may not be forgotten. A certain priest, whose name was Utta, a man of great weight and sincerity, and on that account honoured by all men, even the princes of the world, was sent to Kent, to bring thence, as wife for King Oswy, Eanfled, the daughter of King Edwin, who had been carried thither when her father was killed. Intending to go thither by land, but to return with the maiden by sea, he went to Bishop Aidan, and entreated him to offer up his prayers to the Lord for him and his company, who were then to set out on so long a journey. He, blessing them, and commending them to the Lord, at the same time gave them some holy oil, saying, “I know that when you go on board ship, you will meet with a storm and contrary wind; but be mindful to cast this oil I give you into the sea, and the wind will cease immediately; you will have pleasant calm weather to attend you and send you home by the way that you desire.”
All these things fell out in order, even as the bishop had foretold. For first, the waves of the sea raged, and the sailors endeavoured to ride it out at anchor, but all to no purpose; for the sea sweeping over the ship on all sides and beginning to fill it with water, they all perceived that death was at hand and about to overtake them. The priest at last, remembering the bishop’s words, laid hold of the phial and cast some of the oil into the sea, which at once, as had been foretold, ceased from its uproar. Thus it came to pass that the man of God, by the spirit of prophecy, foretold the storm that was to come to pass, and by virtue of the same spirit, though absent in the body, calmed it when it had arisen. The story of this miracle was not told me by a person of little credit, but by Cynimund, a most faithful priest of our church,2 who declared that it was related to him by Utta, the priest, in whose case and through whom the same was wrought.
CHAPTER XXI
How Bishop Theodore made peace between the kings Egfrid and Ethelred. [679 A.D.]
In the ninth year of the reign of King Egfrid, a great battle3 was fought between him and Ethelred, king of the Mercians, near the river Trent, and Aelfwine, brother to King Egfrid, was slain, a youth about eighteen years of age, and much beloved by both provinces; for King Ethelred had married his sister Osthryth. There was now reason to expect a more bloody war, and more lasting enmity between those kings and their fierce nations; but Theodore, the bishop, beloved of God, relying on the Divine aid, by his wholesome admonitions wholly extinguished the dangerous fire that was breaking out; so that the kings and their people on both sides were appeased, and no man was put to death, but only the due mulct4 paid to the king who was the avenger for the death of his brother; and this peace continued long after between those kings and between their kingdoms.
1 Bamborough (Bebbanburh, Bebburgh, Babbanburch, etc. There are many forms of the name). It is uncertain who the queen was. Nennius says she was the wife of Ethelfrid. His wife, Oswald’s mother, was Acha (v. infra), but he may have been married twice. It was Ida, the first king of Bernicia, who founded Bamborough (Sax. Chron.).
2 The monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow.
3 The Battle of the Trent in 679. It was on the anniversary of Wilfrid’s expulsion; he is said to have foretold a calamity. The place may, perhaps, be identified with Elford-on-Trent, in Staffordshire; it is supposed that the name may be a reminiscence of Aelfwine. By this battle Mercia regained Lindsey, which never again became Northumbrian.
4 The “Wergild,” i.e., pecuniary value set upon every man’s life according to his status (v. Stubbs, “Constitutional History”).