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the place called Streanaeshalch, built a monastery there, in which the aforesaid king s daughter
was first trained in the monastic life and afterwards became abbess; till, at the age of fifty-nine, the
blessed virgin departed to be united to her Heavenly Bridegroom. In this monastery, she and her
father, Oswy, her mother, Eanfled, her mother s father, Edwin, and many other noble persons, are
buried in the church of the holy Apostle Peter. King Oswy concluded this war in the district of
Loidis, in the thirteenth year of his reign, on the 15th of November, to the great benefit of both
nations; for he delivered his own people from the hostile depredations of the pagans, and, having
made an end of their heathen chief, converted the Mercians and the adjacent provinces to the grace
of the Christian faith.
Diuma was made the first bishop of the Mercians, as also of Lindsey and the Midland Angles,
as has been said above, and he died and was buried among the Midland Angles. The second was
Ceollach, who, giving up his episcopal office before his death, returned into Scotland. Both these
bishops belonged to the nation of the Scots. The third was Trumhere, an Englishman, but educated
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and ordained by the Scots. He was abbot of the monastery that is called Ingetlingum, and is the
place where King Oswin was killed, as has been said above; for Queen Eanfled, his kinswoman,
in expiation of his unjust death, begged of King Oswy that he would give Trumhere, the aforesaid
servant of God, a place there to build a monastery, because he also was kinsman to the slaughtered
king; in which monastery continual prayers should be offered up for the eternal welfare of the kings,
both of him that was murdered, and of him that commanded the murder. The same King Oswy
governed the Mercians, as also the people of the other southern provinces, three years after he had
slain King Penda; and he likewise subdued the greater part of the Picts to the dominion of the
English.
At this time he gave to the above-mentioned Peada, son to King Penda, because he was his
kinsman, the kingdom of the Southern Mercians, consisting, as is said, of 5,000 families, divided
by the river Trent from the Northern Mercians, whose land contains 7,000 families; but Peada was
foully slain in the following spring, by the treachery, as is said, of his wife, during the very time
of the Easter festival. Three years after the death of King Penda, the Mercian chiefs, Immin, and
Eafa, and Eadbert, rebelled against King Oswy, setting up for their king, Wulfhere, son to the said
Penda, a youth whom they had kept concealed; and expelling the ealdormen of the foreign king,
they bravely recovered at once their liberty and their lands; and being thus free, together with their
king, they rejoiced to serve Christ the true King, for the sake of an everlasting kingdom in heaven.
This king governed the Mercians seventeen years, and had for his first bishop Trumhere, above
spoken of; the second was Jaruman; the third Ceadda; the fourth Wynfrid. All these, succeeding
each other in order under King Wulfhere, discharged episcopal duties to the Mercian nation.
CHAP. XXV. How the question arose about the due time of keeping Easter, with those that
came out of Scotland. [664 A.D.]
IN the meantime, Bishop Aidan being taken away from this life, Finan, who was ordained and
sent by the Scots, succeeded him in the bishopric, and built a church in the Isle of Lindisfarne, fit
for the episcopal see; nevertheless, after the manner of the Scots, he made it, not of stone, but
entirely of hewn oak, and covered it with reeds; and it was afterwards dedicated in honour of the
blessed Peter the Apostle, by the most reverend Archbishop Theodore. Eadbert, also bishop of that
place, took off the thatch, and caused it to be covered entirely, both roof and walls, with plates of
lead.
At this time, a great and frequently debated question arose about the observance of Easter; those
that came from Kent or Gaul affirming, that the Scots celebrated Easter Sunday contrary to the
custom of the universal Church. Among them was a most zealous defender of the true Easter, whose
name was Ronan, a Scot by nation, but instructed in the rule of ecclesiastical truth in Gaul or Italy.
Disputing with Finan, he convinced many, or at least induced them to make a more strict inquiry
after the truth; yet he could not prevail upon Finan, but, on the contrary, embittered him the more
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by reproof, and made him a professed opponent of the truth, for he was of a violent temper. James,
formerly the deacon of the venerable Archbishop Paulinus, as has been said above, observed the
true and Catholic Easter, with all those that he could instruct in the better way. Queen Eanfled and
her followers also observed it as she had seen it practised in Kent, having with her a Kentish priest
who followed the Catholic observance, whose name was Romanus. Thus it is said to have sometimes
happened in those times that Easter was twice celebrated in one year; and that when the king, having
ended his fast, was keeping Easter, the queen and her followers were still fasting, and celebrating
Palm Sunday. Whilst Aidan lived, this difference about the observance of Easter was patiently [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]