In the year 740, Ethelwald, bishop of Lindisfarne, departed to the Lord, and Kinewulph was appointed to that see. In the same year of sacred memory, bishop Acca was removed to the realms of the living, after having held the bishopric of Hagustald twenty-four years, at the east side of which church his body was honorably interred: afterwards, when more than three hundred years had elapsed from his burial, in consequence of a divine revelation, he was removed by a certain priest, and placed in a coffin within the church, with due honor, where to the present day he is held in great veneration; as a merited proof of his sanctity before all men, the chasuble, tunic, and sudarium,1 which had been deposited in the earth with his most hallowed corpse, preserve even unto this day, not only their original appearance, but even their original strength of texture.

In the same year in which the holy bishop Acca departed to the realms of heaven, Arwin, the son of Eadulph, was slain, on the ninth day before the calends of January, being the sixth day of the week. In the same year, Cuthbert received the archbishopric of Canterbury, being the eleventh archbishop; and, in succession to Adulph, Dun became bishop of Rochester.

In the year 741, the monastery in the city of York was burnt, on the ninth day before the calends of May, being the first day of the week.

In the year 744, a battle was fought between the Picts and the Britons; and in the following year, fiery strokes were beheld in the air, such as no men of that generation had ever seen before, and were visible throughout almost all the night of the calends of January. In the same year also, according to some accounts, the second Wilfrid, bishop of York, departed to the Lord on the third day before the calends of May; but it is my opinion, that before Bede had completed his history, this Wilfrid had been already translated to the realms of heaven. In these days died Inguald, bishop of London, and at this time flourished Saint Guthlac.

In the year 749, died Elfwald, 15 king of East Anglia, upon which Hunbenna and Albert divided the kingdom between them. In the following year, that is to say, in 750, king Eadbert

14 This may either mean a peculiar head-dress worn by the priesthood, or the "fanon" or "mappula," a small handkerchief, a napkin, worn over the left wrist. 15 Called Athelwold by Roger of Wendover.

brought bishop Kinewulph prisoner to the city of Bebba, and caused the church of St. Peter, in Lindisfarne, to be besieged." Offo, the son of Alfred, was unthinkingly running with all haste towards the relics of Saint Cuthbert, the bishop, when he was dragged out of the church, without his weapons, and almost famished with hunger.

In the same year, bishop Allwich died, and Ardulf, a deacon, was ordained to the bishopric.17* Cuthred, the king of the West Saxons, rose against Ethelbald, king of Mercia.

In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 752, on the day before the calends of August, an eclipse of the moon took place. In the year 753, Boniface the archbishop, who was also called Winfrid, with fifty-three others, was crowned with the martyrdom of the Franks. In the following year, Cuthred, king of the West Saxons, died, the sceptre of whose kingdom was received by Sigebert.

In the year 756, being the fifteenth 18 year of his reign, king Eadbert, with Unnust, king of the Picts, led an army to the cities of Alclutit, 19 and there received the Britons of that neighbourhood under their subjection, on the first day of August; but, on the tenth day of the same month, almost the whole of the army which he led from Deouama, 19* was destroyed at Niwambirg, that is at the new city. In the same year Baltere, the anchorite, attained the life of the righteous, and departed unto the Lord. On the eighth day before the calends of December, the moon, on her fifteenth day, being about her full, appeared to be covered with the colour of blood, and then, the darkness decreasing, she returned to her usual brightness; but, in a wondrous manner, a bright star followed the moon, and, passing across her, preceded her when shining, at the same distance at which it had followed her before she was darkened.

In the year 757, Ethelbald, king of Mercia, was treacherously slain by his own allies.20 In the same year a civil war 16 Now Bamborough, in Northumberland.

17 "Basilicam" here is probably a wrong reading for "basilicâ ;" if so, the meaning will be, that Eadbert ordered Kinewulph to be confined in the church of St. Peter, at Lindisfarne, which agrees with the account given by Roger of Wendover. 17* Of Sidnancaster, or Lindesey.

13 V. r. Eighteenth.

19 Supposed to be Dumbarton, in Scotland. 19* Holinshed calls this place Ouan. Probably the reading in his MS. "De Ouania," instead of "Deouma," as in the printed copy.

was

20 This is probably said in reference to Cuthred, king of the West

arose among the Mercians, and Beornred being put to flight, king Offa was victorious.

In the year 758, king Eadbert voluntarily resigned the kingdom, which he had received from God, to his son Osulph, who held it but one year and then lost it, having been treacherously slain by his own servants near Mechilwongton, on the ninth day before the calends of August.

In the following year, Ethelwald, who was also called Moll, began to reign on the nones of August. At the beginning of the third year of his reign a most severe battle was fought, near Edwin's Cliff, on the seventh day before the ides of August, in which, after a fight of three days, Oswin was slain, and thus king Ethelwald gained the victory. This took place on the first day of the week. In the same year, Unnust, king of the Picts, departed this life.

In the year 762 king Ethelwald took Etheldreda for his queen, on the calends of November, at Cataract.21 In the third year from this, that is to say in 764, there was a great snow with intense frost, not to be compared with any in former ages. It covered the earth from the beginning of winter almost until the middle of spring, and through its rigour the trees and vegetables mostly withered away, and many marine animals were found dead. In the same year, likewise, Ceolwulph, formerly king, and afterwards a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ and a monk, departed this life.

It was to this king that the truthful Bede wrote the epistle which begins thus: "To the most glorious king, Ceolwulph, Bede, servant of Christ, and priest. I formerly, at your request, most readily transmitted to you the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which I had newly published, for you to read and give it your approbation; and I now send it again to be transcribed, and more fully considered at your leisure." The king himself, after renouncing the world, became a monk in the church of Lindisfarne, and there struggled for a heavenly kingdom. His body being afterwards brought to the

Saxons, who, having made a treaty of peace with Ethelbald, attacked and slew him at Seekington; or it may allude to the version of the story that he was slain by his own subjects, headed by the rebel Beornred. Lambarde reconciles the two versions by suggesting that Cuthred, king of Wessex, invaded Mercia, and conspired with some of Ethelbald's subjects, of whom Beornred was chief. 21 Catterick, in Yorkshire.

church at Norham, according to the accounts given by the inhabitants of that place, became famous for working many miracles. Through the influence of this king, after he had become a monk, licence was granted to the monks of the church of Lindisfarne to drink wine or ale; for before, they were in the habit of drinking only milk or water, according to the ancient rule prescribed by Saint Aidan, the first bishop of that church, and that of the monks who, coming with him from Scotland, had received there a settlement by the munificence of king Oswald, and rejoiced to live in great austerity, with a view to a future life.

In the same year, many cities, monasteries, and towns, in various places, and even kingdoms, were laid waste by sudden conflagrations; such, for instance, as the city of Sterburgwenta, 22 Homunic, the city of London, the city of York, and Doncaster; many other places also, the same calamity overtook.

23

In the same year died Frehelm the priest and abbat, and Tocca,24 bishop of the Mercians, on which Eadbert was ordained bishop in his room. At this period, also, Frithwold, bishop of Whitherne, departed from this world, and Pechtwin was appointed in his stead. 25

22 This is most probably an error, the name of two places being made into one. Lambarde in his Dictionary, quoting from Simeon of Durham, mentions in place of this name, Stretbourgh and Winton, and adds, "by which order of speech it seemeth that he took it for a great town; howbeit, I have not hitherto found it." Holinshed (whether quoting from Roger de Hoveden, or Simeon of Durham, does not appear,) mentions here Stretehu and Geivento, places, not improbably, as imaginary as the Sterburgwenta of our text.

23 It is not clear what place is meant by this name. tions it as Alnwick.

24 V. r. Totta.

Holinshed men

25 In the text, "Candida Casa," or "the White House." The bishopric of Whitherne was also called that of the Picts, Abercorn, or Galloway. Its establishment is thus related by Bede, Eccles. Hist. B. iii. c. 4. "In year of our Lord 565, when Justin the younger, the successor of Justinian, had the government of the Roman empire, there came into Britain a famous priest and abbot, a monk by habit and life, whose name was Columba, to preach the word of God to the province of the northern Picts, who are separated from the southern parts by steep and rugged mountains; for the southern Picts, who dwell on the side of those mountains, had long before, as is reported, forsaken the errors of idolatry, and embraced the truth, by the preaching of Ninias, a most reverend bishop and holy man of the British nation, who had been regularly instructed at

26

In the year 765, fiery strokes were seen in the air, such as formerly appeared on the night of the calends of January, as I have already mentioned. In the same year Ethelwald lost 27 the kingdom of Northumbia at Wincanheale, 28 on the third day before the calends of November, and was succeeded in the kingdom by Alcred, who was a descendant, as some say, of king Ida. Hemeli, bishop of the Mercians, also departed this life. Cuthred was ordained bishop of Lichfield; and at the same period archbishop Bregwin died, and had Lambert for his successor; bishop Aldulph also dying, Ceolwulph succeeded him in the diocese of Lindesey.

In the year 766, Egbert, archbishop of York, rested in the peace of Christ, on the thirteenth day before the calends of December, it being the thirty-fourth year of his episcopate; and in the same year Saint Frithebert, bishop of Hagustald, departed this life.

30

29

In the year 767, Albert was consecrated bishop of York, and Alcmund bishop of Hexham, on the eighth day before the calends of May. In the same year Albert was ordained bishop of the East Saxons, and Ceolwulph was consecrated bishop of Lindesey. In this year also, Etha, the anchorite, died happily at Cric, a place distant about ten miles from the city of York. In the year 768, being the tenth year after the abdication of his kingdom, Eadbert happily breathed forth his spirit, being a member of the priesthood, and devoted to the service of God. In the same year died Pepin, king of the Franks, and Hadwin was ordained bishop at Macuhi.31

31

Rome, in the faith and mysteries of the truth; whose episcopal see, named after St. Martin the bishop, and famous for a stately church (wherein he and many other saints rest in the body), is still in existence among the British nation. The place belongs to the province of the Bernicians, and is generally called the 'White House,' because he there built a church of stone, which was not usual among the Britons." 26 Under the year 745.

27 This seems to imply that he was deprived of it by treachery or violence. Holinshed says, "After that Moll had reigned six years, he resigned his kingdom. But others write that he reigned eleven years, and was in the end slain by treason of his successor Altred."

28 Probably Finchale, in Durham; though Lambarde suggests that Wighal, near Thorpehares, in Yorkshire, is the place here spoken of. 29 Hexham. 30 Probably Crecca, or Crake, near York. 31 Probably Saint Mesmin de Mici, in the province of Orleans, in France.