by Bede
CHAP. 5
Alio item tempore uocatus ad dedicandam ecclesiam comitis uocabulo Addi, cum postulatum conplesset ministerium, rogatus est ab eodem comite intrare ad unum de pueris eius, qui acerrima egritudine premebatur, ita ut, deficiente penitus omni membrorum officio, iamiamque moriturus esse uideretur; cui etiam loculus iam tunc erat praeparatus, in quo defunctus condi deberet. Addidit autem uir etiam lacrimas precibus, diligenter obsecrans, ut intraret oraturus pro illo, quia multum necessaria sibi esset uita ipsius; crederet uero, quia, si ille ei manum inponere, atque eum benedicere uoluisset, statim melius haberet. Intrauit ergo illo episcopus, et uidit eum mestis omnibus iam morti proximum, positumque loculum iuxta eum, in quo sepeliendus poni deberet; dixitque orationem, ac benedixit eum, et egrediens dixit solito consolantium sermone: ‘Bene conualescas, et cito.’ Cumque post haec sederent ad mensam, misit puer ad dominum suum, rogans sibi poculum uini mittere, quia sitiret. Gauisus ille multum, quia bibere posset, misit ei calicem uini benedictum ab episcopo; quem ut bibit, surrexit continuo, et ueterno infirmitatis discusso, induit se ipse uestimentis suis; et egressus inde intrauit, ac salutauit episcopum et conuiuas, dicens, quia ipse quoque delectaretur manducare et bibere cum eis. Iusserunt eum sedere secum ad epulas, multum gaudentes de sospitate illius.
Residebat, uescebatur, bibebat, laetabatur, quasi unus e conuiuis agebat; et multis post haec annis uiuens, in eadem, quam acceperat, salute permansit. Hoc autem miraculum memoratus abbas non se praesente factum, sed ab his, qui praesentes fuere, sibi perhibet esse relatum.
Chap. V.
How he likewise recalled by his prayers a thegn’s servant from death.
At another time also, being called to consecrate the church of a thegn named Addi, when he had performed the required duty, he was entreated by the thegn to go in to one of his servants, who lay dangerously ill, insomuch that having lost all use of his limbs, he seemed to be at the point of death; and moreover the coffin had been made ready wherein to bury him after his death. The thegn urged his entreaties with tears, earnestly beseeching him that he would go in and pray for the servant, because his life was of great moment to him; and he believed that if the bishop would lay his hand upon him and give him his blessing, he would soon mend. So the bishop went in, and saw him very near death, and by his side the coffin in which he was to be laid for his burial, whilst all mourned. He said a prayer and blessed him, and going out, spake the wonted words of comfort, “Good health be yours and that speedily.” Afterwards, when they were sitting at table, the servant sent to his lord, desiring that he would let him have a cup of wine, because he was thirsty. The thegn, rejoicing greatly that he could drink, sent him a cup of wine, blessed by the bishop; and, as soon as he had drunk it, he immediately got up, and, shaking off the heaviness of his infirmity, dressed himself and went forth, and going in to the bishop, saluted him and the other guests, saying that he also would gladly eat and drink with them. They bade him sit down with them at table, greatly rejoicing at his recovery. He sat down, ate and drank and made merry, and behaved himself like the rest of the company; and living many years after, continued in the same health which he had gained. The aforesaid abbot says this miracle was not wrought in his presence, but that he had it from those who were present.
CHAP. 6
Neque hoc praetereundum silentio, quod famulus Christi Heribald in se ipso ab eo factum solet narrare miraculum, qui tunc quidem in clero illius conuersatus, nunc monasterio, quod est iuxta ostium Tini fluminis, abbatis iure praeest. ‘Uitam,’
inquit, ‘illius, quantum hominibus aestimare fas est, quod praesens optime cognoui, per omnia episcopo dignam esse conperi. Sed et cuius meriti apud internum testem habitus sit, et in multis aliis, et in me ipso maxime expertus sum; quippe quem ab ipso, ut ita dicam, mortis limite reuocans, ad uiam uitae sua oratione ac benedictione reduxit. Nam cum primaeuo adulescentiae tempore in clero illius degerem, legendi quidem canendique studiis traditus, sed non adhuc animum perfecte a iuuenilibus cohibens inlecebris, contigit die quadam nos iter agentes cum illo deuenisse in uiam planam et amplam, aptamque cursui equorum; coeperuntque iuuenes, qui cum ipso erant, maxime laici, postulare episcopum, ut cursu maiore equos suos inuicem probare liceret. At ille primo negauit, otiosum dicens esse, quod desiderabant; sed ad ultimum multorum unanima intentione deuictus: “Facite,” inquit, “si uultis, ita tamen, ut Herebald ab illo se certamine funditus abstineat.” Porro ipse diligentius obsecrans, ut et mihi certandi cum illis copia daretur, (fidebam namque equo, quem mihi ipse optimum donauerat), nequaquam inpetrare potui.
‘At cum saepius huc atque illuc, spectante me et episcopo, concitatis in cursum equis reuerterentur; et ipse lasciuo superatus animo non me potui cohibere, sed, prohibente licet illo, ludentibus me miscui, et simul cursu equi contendere coepi. Quod dum agerem, audiui illum post tergum mihi cum gemitu dicentem: “O quam magnum uae facis mihi sic equitando!” Et ego audiens, nihilominus coeptis institi uetitis. Nec mora, dum feruens equus quoddam itineris concauum ualentiore impetu transiliret, lapsus decidi, et mox uelut emoriens sensum penitus motumque omnem perdidi. Erat namque illo in loco lapis terrae aequalis obtectus cespite tenui, neque ullus alter in tota illa campi planitie lapis inueniri poterat; casuque euenit, uel potius diuina prouisione ad puniendam inoboedientiae meae culpam, ut hunc capite ac manu, quam capiti ruens subposueram, tangerem, atque infracto pollice capitis quoque iunctura solueretur;
et ego, ut dixi, simillimus mortuo fierem. Et quia moueri non poteram, tetenderunt ibidem papilionem, in quo iacerem. Erat autem hora diei circiter septima, a qua ad uesperam usque quietus et quasi mortuus permanens, tunc paululum reuiuisco, ferorque domum a sociis, ac tacitus tota nocte perduro. Uomebam autem sanguinem, eo quod et interanea essent ruendo conuulsa. At episcopus grauissime de casu et interitu meo dolebat, eo quod me speciali diligeret affectu; nec uoluit nocte illa iuxta morem cum clericis suis manere, uerum solus in oratione persistens noctem ducebat peruigilem, pro mea, ut reor, sospitate supernae pietati supplicans. Et mane primo ingressus ad me, ac dicta super me oratione, uocauit me nomine meo, et quasi de somno graui excitatum interrogauit, si nossem, quis esset, qui loqueretur ad me. At ego aperiens oculos aio: “Etiam; tu es antistes meus amatus.” “Potes,” inquit, “uiuere?” Et ego: “Possum,”
inquam, “per orationes uestras, si uoluerit Dominus.”
‘Qui inponens capiti meo manum, cum uerbis benedictionis, rediit ad orandum; et post pusillum me reuisens, inuenit sedentem, et iam loqui ualentem; coepitque me interrogare, diuino, ut mox patuit, admonitus instinctu, an me esse baptizatum absque scrupulo nossem. Cui ego absque ulla me hoc dubietate scire respondi, quia salutari fonte in remissionem peccatorum essem ablutus; et nomen presbyteri, a quo me baptizatum noueram, dixi. At ille: “Si ab hoc,”
inquit, “sacerdote baptizatus es, non es perfecte baptizatus; noui namque eum, et quia cum esset presbyter ordinatus, nullatenus propter ingenii tarditatem potuit cathecizandi uel baptizandi ministerium discere, propter quod et ipse illum ab huius praesumtione ministerii, quod regulariter inplere nequibat, omnimodis cessare praecepi.” Quibus dictis eadem hora me cathecizare ipse curauit; factumque est, ut, exsufflante illo in faciem meam, confestim me melius habere sentirem. Uocauit autem medicum, et dissolutam mihi emicranii iuncturam conponere atque alligare iussit.
Tantumque mox accepta eius benedictione conualui, ut in crastinum ascendens equum cum ipso iter in alium locum facerem; nec multo post plene curatus uitali etiam unda perfusus sum.’
Mansit autem in episcopatu annis XXXIII, et sic caelestia regna conscendens, sepultus est in porticu sancti Petri in monasterio suo, quod dicitur In silua Derorum, anno ab incarnatione dominica DCCo XXIo. Nam cum prae maiore senectute minus episcopatui administrando sufficeret, ordinato in episcopatum Eboracensis ecclesiae Uilfrido presbytero suo, secessit ad monasterium praefatum, ibique uitam in Deo digna conuersatione conpleuit.
Chap. VI.
How, both by his prayers and blessing, he recalled from death one of his clerks, who had bruised himself by a fall.
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Nor do I think that this miracle, which Herebald, the servant of Christ, says was wrought upon himself by the bishop, is to be passed over in silence. He was then one of that bishop’s clergy, but now presides as abbot in the monastery at the mouth of the river Tyne. “Living with him,” said he, “and being very well acquainted with his course of life, I found it to be in all points worthy of a bishop, as far as it is lawful for men to judge; but I have known by the experience of others, and more particularly by my own, how great his merit was before Him Who seeth the heart; having been by his prayer and blessing recalled from the threshold of death and brought back to the way of life. For, when in the prime of my youth, I lived among his clergy, applying myself to reading and singing, but not having yet altogether withdrawn my heart from youthful pleasures, it happened one day that, as we were travelling with him, we came into a plain and open road, well fitted for galloping. The young men that were with him, and especially the laymen, began to entreat the bishop to give them leave to gallop, and make trial of their horses one with another. He at first refused, saying that it was an idle request; but at last, overcome by the unanimous desire of so many, ‘Do so,’ said he, ‘if you will, but let Herebald have no part in the trial.’ Then I earnestly prayed that I might have leave to compete with the rest, for I relied on an excellent horse, which he had himself given me, but I could in no wise obtain my request.
“When they had several times galloped backwards and forwards, the bishop and I looking on, my wanton humour prevailed, and I could no longer refrain, but though he forbade me, I struck in among them at their sport, and began to ride with them at full speed; whereat I heard him call after me with a groan, ‘Alas! how much you grieve me by riding after that manner.’ Though I heard him, I went on against his command; but immediately the fiery horse taking a great leap over a hollow place in the way, I fell, and at once lost all sense and motion, like one dying; for there was in that place a stone, level with the ground, covered with only a thin coating of turf, and no other stone was to be found in all that expanse of plain; and it happened by chance, or rather by Divine Providence so ordering it, to punish my disobedience, that my head and my hand, which in falling I had put under my head, struck upon that stone, so that my thumb was broken and my skull fractured, and I became, as I said, like one dead.
“And because I could not move, they stretched a tent there for me to lie in. It was about the seventh hour of the day, and having lain still and as it were dead from that time till the evening, I then revived a little, and was carried home by my companions, and lay speechless all the night, vomiting blood, because something was broken within me by the fall. The bishop was very much grieved at my fall and my misfortune, for he bore me extraordinary affection. Nor would he stay that night, as he was wont, among his clergy; but spent it alone in watching and prayer, imploring the Divine goodness, as I suppose, for my preservation. Coming to me early in the morning, and having said a prayer over me, he called me by my name, and when I awoke as it were out of a heavy sleep, he asked whether I knew who it was that spoke to me? I opened my eyes and said, ‘Yes; you are my beloved bishop.’— ‘Can you live?’ said he. I answered, ‘I can, through your prayers, if the Lord will.’
“He then laid his hand on my head, with the words of blessing, and returned to prayer; when he came again to see me, in a short time, he found me sitting and able to talk; and, being moved by Divine inspiration, as it soon appeared, began to ask me, whether I knew for certain that I had been baptized? I answered that I knew beyond all doubt that I had been washed in the font of salvation, for the remission of sins, and I named the priest by whom I knew that I had been baptized. He replied, ‘If you were baptized by that priest, your baptism is not perfect; for I know him, and that when he was ordained priest, he could in no wise, by reason of the dulness of his understanding, learn the ministry of catechizing and baptizing; for which reason I enjoined upon him altogether to desist from presuming to exercise that ministry, which he could not duly perform.’ This said, he set himself to catechize me that same hour; and it came to pass that when he breathed on my face, straightway I felt better. He called the surgeon and ordered him to set and bind up my skull where it was fractured; and presently having received his blessing, I was so much better that I mounted on horseback the next day, and travelled with him to another place; and being soon after perfectly recovered, I was washed in the water of life.”
He continued in his bishopric thirty-three years, and then ascending to the heavenly kingdom, was buried in St. Peter’s Chapel, in his own monastery, which is called, “In the wood of the Deiri,” in the year of our Lord 721. For having, by his great age, become unable to govern his bishopric, he ordained Wilfrid, his priest, bishop of the church of York, and retired to the aforesaid monastery, and there ended his days in godly conversation.
CHAP. 7
Anno autem regni Aldfridi tertio, Caedualla, rex Occidentalium Saxonum, cum genti suae duobus annis strenuissime praeesset, relicto imperio propter Dominum regnumque perpetuum, uenit Romam; hoc sibi gloriae singularis desiderans adipisci, ut ad limina beatorum apostolorum fonte baptismatis ablueretur, in quo solo didicerat generi humano patere uitae caelestis introitum; simul etiam sperans, quia mox baptizatus, carne solutus ad aeterna gaudia iam mundus transiret; quod utrumque, ut mente disposuerat, Domino iuuante conpletum est. Etenim illo perueniens, pontificatum agente Sergio, baptizatus est die sancto sabbati paschalis anno ab incarnatione Domini DCLXXXVIIII; et in albis adhuc positus, langore correptus, XIIo. Kalendarum Maiarum die solutus a carne, et beatorum est regno sociatus in caelis. Cui etiam tempore baptismatis papa memoratus Petri nomen inposuerat, ut beatissimo apostolorum principi, ad cuius sacratissimum corpus a finibus terrae pio ductus amore uenerat, etiam nominis ipsius consortio iungeretur; qui in eius quoque ecclesia sepultus est; et iubente pontifice epitaphium in eius monumento scriptum, in quo et memoria deuotionis ipsius fixa per saecula maneret, et legentes quoque uel audientes exemplum facti ad studium religionis accenderet. Scriptum est ergo hoc modo:
Culmen, opes, subolem, pollentia regna, triumphos, Exuuias, proceres, moenia, castra, lares; Quaeque patrum uirtus, et quae congesserat ipse Caedual armipotens, liquit amore Dei;
Ut Petrum, sedemque Petri rex cerneret hospes, Cuius fonte meras sumeret almus aquas, Splendificumque iubar radianti carperet haustu, Ex quo uiuificus fulgor ubique fluit.
Percipiensque alacer rediuiuae praemia uitae, Barbaricam rabiem, nomen et inde suum Conuersus conuertit ouans; Petrumque uocari Sergius antistes iussit, ut ipse pater Fonte renascentis, quem Christi gratia purgans Protinus albatum uexit in arce poli.
Mira fides regis, clementia maxima Christi, Cuius consilium nullus adire potest!
Sospes enim ueniens supremo ex orbe Britanni, Per uarias gentes, per freta, perque uias, Urbem Romuleam uidit, templumque uerendum Aspexit Petri mystica dona gerens.
Candidus inter oues Christi sociabilis ibit; Corpore nam tumulum, mente superna tenet.
Conmutasse magis sceptrorum insignia credas, Quem regnum Christi promeruisse uides.
Hic depositus est Caedual, qui et Petrus, rex Saxonum, sub die XII Kalendarum Maiarum, indictione II; qui uixit annos plus minus XXX, imperante domno Iustiniano piissimo Augusto, anno eius consulatus IIII, pontificante apostolico uiro domno Sergio papa anno secundo.
Abeunte autem Romam Caedualla, successit in regnum Ini de stirpe regia; qui cum XXXVII annis imperium tenuisset gentis illius, et ipse relicto regno ac iuuenioribus commendato, ad limina beatorum apostolorum Gregorio pontificatum tenente profectus est, cupiens in uicinia sanctorum locorum ad tempus peregrinari in terris, quo familiarius a sanctis recipi mereretur in caelis; quod his temporibus plures de gente Anglorum, nobiles, ignobiles, laici, clerici, uiri ac feminae certatim facere consuerunt.
Chap. VII.
How Caedwalla, king of the West Saxons, went to Rome to be baptized; and his successor Ini, also devoutly journeyed to the same threshold of the holy Apostles. [688 a.d.]
In the third y
ear of the reign of Aldfrid, Caedwalla, king of the West Saxons, having most vigorously governed his nation for two years, quitted his crown for the sake of the Lord and an everlasting kingdom, and went to Rome, being desirous to obtain the peculiar honour of being cleansed in the baptismal font at the threshold of the blessed Apostles, for he had learned that in Baptism alone the entrance into the heavenly life is opened to mankind; and he hoped at the same time, that being made clean by Baptism, he should soon be freed from the bonds of the flesh and pass to the eternal joys of Heaven; both which things, by the help of the Lord, came to pass according as he had conceived in his mind. For coming to Rome, at the time that Sergius was pope, he was baptized on the Holy Saturday before Easter Day, in the year of our Lord 689, and being still in his white garments, he fell sick, and was set free from the bonds of the flesh on the 20th of April, and obtained an entrance into the kingdom of the blessed in Heaven. At his baptism, the aforesaid pope had given him the name of Peter, to the end, that he might be also united in name to the most blessed chief of the Apostles, to whose most holy body his pious love had led him from the utmost bounds of the earth. He was likewise buried in his church, and by the pope’s command an epitaph was written on his tomb, wherein the memory of his devotion might be preserved for ever, and the readers or hearers thereof might be stirred up to give themselves to religion by the example of what he had done.