used to worship were neither able to help them at need, nor could give them everlasting life in heaven as the Christian's God could. Then the temples were pulled down and the idols burnt, and the king and most of his people baptized. Long after, Bæda the historian, who tells of these things, met a man who could remember the tall thin form, dark hair, piercing eyes, and roman nose of Paullinus as he stood over him in the water of the river christening him. Penda and the 3. But the Marchmen were still heathen, and their king, Penda the Strong, the greatest warrior of his age, banded himself with Cadwalla the Welsh kings of Northking, "a Christian indeed, but worse than any umberland, 626heathen in his rage against the English Church;" and they fell upon Eadwine and slew him and many noblemen with him at Heathfield in the north (633). 654 "With many a rill of gentle blood red reeked Heathfield that day." They also laid waste the land so fearfully that the people, from wretchedness forsook the New Faith for a time. Penda then went to his own land, but Cadwalla reigned at York for a year ("the accursed year" it was called long afterwards), till Oswald Æthelfrith's son came against him with a small army, setting up the cross as his standard with his own. hands, and overthrew him, near the Wall, in 634. "The corses of Cadwalla's men choked up the Dennisburn." Oswald had lived in exile with the Scottish monks at Iona, and now that he was king he sent there for teachers to bring back his people to Christendom and preach the Gospel to the other heathen kingdoms. They sent him Aidan "the mildhearted," in whom was both "the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove;” Finan, “the follower of the apostles," and others, by whose help and zeal not only was Northumberland made Christian again, but the West Saxons, East English, and at last the Marchmen were brought to the New Faith. For though Penda revenged Cadwalla's death on Oswald and slew the "gentle king" at Maserfield, near Oswestry, in 642, this was his last victory. "O God, have pity on their souls:' prayed Oswald as he fell On Maserfield, that long was white with martyrs' bleaching bones." Oswiu, the next King of Northumberland, offered to pay Penda a heavy tribute if he would but make peace with him; but Penda refused, and marched against him with a great host led by thirty kings' sons. Then Oswiu said, "If this heathen will not take our gifts let us offer them to the Lord, who will not turn from us;” and vowed to give up his daughter to serve God for ever as a nun, and to settle twelve estates on the monasteries, if he won the day. And Penda fled before him and perished with all his host, more being drowned in their flight across the swollen river Winwede than were slain by the sword. "The deaths of five kings were avenged beside the Winwede then.”’ With Penda heathendom passed away. His son was a Christian, and the whole of the Marchland gladly listened to the Irish and Scottish missionaries Oswiu sent among them. So that, save Sussex and the Isle of Wight, which Wilfrith the archbishop converted a few years later, all England was now christened. Settlement of the English Church, c. 670. 4. When Oswiu found that the Scottish and Roman missionaries could not agree in many matters of church-teaching he called a meeting of bishops and priests at Streoneshalch (Whitby) in 664, and bade them choose which form they would follow, for it was needful that the English Church should be of one mind in all things. They agreed to keep the Roman way, accordingly Oswiu sent a priest to the Pope to be made Archbishop of Canterbury and set the Church in order; but he died at Rome, so the Pope chose Theodore of Tarsus and sent him to England. Theodore made rules for government of the Church, marked out the bishops' sees, set priests in every village as far as he could, and looked after the training of priests and the good order of the church in every way, so that it is on his foundations that the Church of England has built ever since. 5. The last Northumbrian overlord was Oswiu's son Ecgfrith, who, not content with conquering the Welsh of Cumbria and ravaging the Irish coast, 684, at last crossed the Forth into Fife to fight against his cousin Brude, the King of the Picts, in spite of the warning of his bishop, S. Cuthbert. But being drawn into an ambush at Dunnichen or Nectan's Fort, north of Tay, he and his men were cut off and slain. The enemies of Northumberland now rose against her, and she was never able to hold the overlordship again, the March kings seizing and holding it for nearly a century, though there were several powerful West Saxon kings during that time. Such was Ine the Wise, who conquered Essex, built Taunton as a border fort against the Cornish king, and at last, like many other kings of this age, bethought him that all worldly glory must pass, and so, seeking a kingdom that Overlordship of Marchland kings in the eighth century. should be everlasting, gave up the crown he had worn thirtyseven years, and went with his wife to Rome, where they died. Offa the Mighty (757-796), the last great king of the Marchmen, was the most powerful ruler yet seen in England. He made all the under-kings obey him, built the Great Dyke (called after him) from Chester to Chepstow, forcing the Welsh to keep behind it. He was also à lawgiver and a friend of learned men. It was he that sent Alcwine and other teachers to Charles the Great, for England was now famous for learning; and the poet Cynewulf, whose sweet verses we have still, lived in his time. He made friends with the Pope, and promised him Peter's pence or Rome-scot, obtaining from him leave to have an archbishop of his own at Lichfield (as the other two great kingdoms, Northumberland and Wessex, had theirs at York and Canterbury), because Jaenberht of Canterbury had tried to bring in an army of Franks to overthrow him. Only one Archbishop of Lichfield ever sat, however, for Offa's son made peace with Canterbury and gave up his father's plan. It was Offa that built the first Abbey of S. Albans. After Offa's death his kingdom grew weak and left place for the rising power of Wessex. England. 6. In the seventh and eighth centuries there were many great Churchmen in England. Cuthbert,the single- The first great hearted bishop and hermit, who preached peace Churchmen of and watchfulness and humility; Chad, never weary in labouring for the Lord; Benedict, founder and builder of churches and schools, parts of which are still standing; Hilda the princess, abbess of Whitby, where dwelt Cadmon, the poor monk who was said to have received the gift of poetry from an angel, and sung the Bible history in poems, parts of which have come down to us; and many other holy men and women of all ranks, kings and queens and slaves alike, who laboured for the Church and the poor, some in their places in the world, others in the more peaceful labours of the minsters. Nor were the English, any more than the Irish, content, now that they themselves were Christians, till they had spread the Gospel abroad in lands still heathen, especially among their kinsmen on the mainland. Famous among their missionaries are Wilfrith, sometime Archbishop of York, who being wrecked on his way to Rome to appeal to the Pope on a dispute between him and Theodore of Tarsus, preached the Gospel to the Frisians among whom he was cast, as he also did in England to the men of Wight and Sussex, whose apostle he was; Willebrord, missionary arch. bishop of the old Saxons; and above all Boniface (whose English name was Winfrith): he took up in Middle and South Germany the work S. Gall and his Irish had begun, and by the help of the Franks and the Pope, who loved and honoured him exceedingly, evangelized great part of those lands and was made Archbishop of Mainz. He died a martyr in Friesland, 733. 7. In becoming Christians under one great church system Results of the the English were brought together more than change of faith. they had ever been before, for the Church paid no respect to persons, and a Mercian might be made archbishop in Kent, or a West Saxon become monk in Northumberland; so that all Englishmen began to look upon themselves as of one great nation, though the separate kingdoms still existed. The bishops also did their best to keep these different kingdoms at peace with one another, and even with the Scots and Welsh, so that we hear of no more massacres like those at Heathfield and Chester; and when a piece of country was now won from the Welsh, the conquered people were suffered to dwell beside their conquerors and protected by law, not as before, slain or thrust down into slavery to till the lands their fathers had owned and dwelt upon. The clergy became a great power among the English, for by the side of every lay officer or magistrate there was a clerical one. Besides the head-kings, the archbishops; by the folk-kings, the folk-bishops or diocesans; and in the village moot, the parish priest. These clergymen took part in all courts and moots, had were-gilds like laymen, and received fines and gave punishments for spiritual offences, such as evil-living, breach of church rules, and the like. The monasteries, large establishments to which men retired under vows to live strictly for the love of God, were numerous and rich; and the monks did a great deal of good, caring for the poor, tending the sick and helpless, guesting travellers on their way through the country, tilling the waste lands in which their minsters stood, often reading, writing and copying books, and keeping schools. In their gardens were first grown many useful shrubs and plants never before seen in England, and in their libraries books were preserved and stored which otherwise would have perished. Life in a wellordered monastery was not idle: poorly and thinly clad and faring badly, the monk was obliged to attend the church offices, which came at frequent intervals throughout the day and night, and to sit in the chapter meeting, where were settled the business, discipline, and order of the house, and to do his share of the common work, however menial it might be, submitting without a murmur to the absolute rule of the abbot, however harshly exercised. 8. Now that the English belonged to a Church which prevailed over West Europe, they naturally mixed Learning in Engmore with other neighbouring nations, especially land. Bæda. the Franks of Gaul and Germany, and so came to learn many fresh arts, such as glass-making and masonry, and much knowledge, such as the Roman alphabet, which soon took the place of their old Rune-Row. Writing was now used for books, and Englishmen learned Latin and Greek and set books out of these tongues into their own. They also began to write books themselves, chiefly sermons, Bible comments, histories, geographies, and calendars, just such kind of works as are most read in England now. The greatest writer of these days was the Venerable Bæda (died 742), a monk of Jarrow. He fixed the year of the Lord by which we all reckon now, and wrote the famous History of the English Church, which though in Latin is the first history-book made in England, and tells us most of what is known of our early forefathers. He also Englished the Gospel of John, wrote a life of S. Cuthbert, and many more pious and learned works. His English hymns, one of which he sung on his deathbed, were popular long after his days. CHAPTER V. The West Saxon Kings and the Danes. Rise of Wessex. 1. The Northumbrian head-kings had spread Christianity and learning through England and broken the power of the Welsh; the Marchland head-kings had crushed the smaller kingdoms and bound them under their rule, both thus making smooth the way for the West Saxon head-kings, from whose house the sceptre was never to depart, and under whom England at last became really one kingdom under one king. Up to this time the West Saxon kings had been chiefly taken up with fighting the Welsh, colonizing the land so won, subduing the smaller neighbouring kingdoms, Wight, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, and seeing to the government of their own kingdom, which was better ruled and ordered than any other. When they once won the head-kingship they were able to keep it, not only because they were helped by the English Church and befriended by the Frankish kings, |