peace of his nation. Of those possessions six were in A.D. 655. the province of the Deiri, and the other six in that of the Bernicians. Each of the said possessions contained ten families, that is, a hundred and twenty in all. The aforesaid daughter of King Oswy, thus dedicated to God, was put into the monastery, called Heruteu, or, "The Island of the Stag," where, at that time, the Abbess Hilda presided, and, two years after, having acquired a possession of ten families, at the place called Streaneshalch, she built a monastery there, in which the aforesaid king's daughter was first a learner, and afterwards a teacher of the monastic life; till, being sixty years of age, the blessed virgin departed to the nuptials and embraces of her heavenly bridegroom. In that same monastery, she and her father, Oswy, her mother, Eanfleda, her mother's father, Edwin, and many other noble persons, are buried in the church of the holy Apostle Peter. King Oswy concluded the aforesaid war in the country of Loidis, in the thirteenth year of his reign, on the 15th of November, to the great benefit of both nations; for he both delivered his own people from the hostile depredations of the pagans, and, having cut off the wicked king's head, 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 Lindisfarne and the Midland Angles, as has been said above, and he died and was buried among the Midland Angles. The second was Ceollach, who, quitting the episcopal office whilst still alive, returned into Scotland, to which nation he belonged as well as Bishop Diuma. The third was Trumhere, an Englishman, but taught and ordained by the Scots, being abbot in the monastery that is called Ingethlingum, and is the place where King Oswin was killed, as has been said above; for Queen Eanfleda, his kinswoman, in satisfaction for his unjust death, begged of King Oswy that he would give the aforesaid servant of God a place there to build a

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pinquus et ipse erat regis occisi; in quo videlicet monasterio orationes assiduæ pro utriusque regis, (id est, et occisi, et ejus, qui occidere jussit,) salute æterna fierent. Idem autem rex Oswius tribus annis post occisionem Pendæ regis, Merciorum genti, necnon et ceteris Australium provinciarum populis, præfuit; qui etiam gentem Pictorum maxima ex parte regno Anglorum subjecit.

Quo tempore donavit præfato Peadæ, filio regis Pendæ, eo quod esset cognatus suus, regnum Australium Merciorum, qui sunt, ut dicunt, familiarum quinque millium, discreti fluvio Treenta ab Aquilonalibus Merciis, quorum terra est familiarum septem millium. Sed idem Peada proximo vere multum nefarie peremtus est, proditione, ut dicunt, conjugis suæ, in ipso tempore festi Paschalis. Completis autem tribus annis post interfectionem Pendæ regis, rebellarunt adversus regem Oswium duces gentis Merciorum Immin, et Eafa, et Eadbert, levato in regem Wulfhere, filio ejusdem Pendæ adolescente, quem occultum servaverant; et, ejectis principibus regis non proprii, fines suos fortiter simul et libertatem receperunt: sicque cum suo rege liberi, Christo vero regi, pro sempiterno in cælis regno, servire gaudebant. Præfuit autem rex idem genti Merciorum annis decem et septem, habuitque primum episcopum Trumhere, de quo supra diximus, secundum Jaruman, tertium Ceaddam, quartum Winfridum. Omnes hi per ordinem sibimet succedentes sub rege Wulfhere, gentis Merciorum episcopatu sunt functi.

monastery, because he also was kinsman to the slaugh- A.D. 655. tered king; in which monastery continual prayers should be offered up for the eternal health of the kings, both of him that had been slain, and of him that caused it to be done. 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 which time he gave to the above-mentioned Peada, son to King Penda, who was his kinsman, the kingdom of the Southern Mercians, consisting, as is reported, of 5,000 families, divided by the river Trent from the Northern Mercians, whose land contained 7,000 families; but that Peada was the next spring very wickedly killed, by the treachery, as is said, of his wife, during the very time of celebrating Easter. Three years after the death of King Penda, Immin, and Eafa, and Eadbert, generals of the Mercians, 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 officers of the foreign king, they at once recovered their liberty and their lands; and being thus free, together with their king, they rejoiced to serve Christ the true King, that they might obtain the everlasting kingdom which is in heaven. This king governed the Mercians seventeen years, and had for his first bishop Trumhere, above spoken of; the second Jaruman; the third Ceadda; the fourth Winfrid. All these, succeeding each other regularly under King Wulfhere, discharged the episcopal duties to the Mercian nation.

CAP. XXV. UT QUESTIO SIT MOTA DE TEMPORE PASCHE ADVERSUS EOS, QUI DE SCOTIA VENERANT.

INTEREA, Aidano episcopo de hac vita sublato, Finanus pro illo gradum episcopatus a Scotis ordinatus ac missus acceperat; qui in insula Lindisfarnensi fecit ecclesiam episcopali sedi congruam, quam tamen, more Scotorum, non de lapide, sed de robore secto, totam composuit atque arundine texit, quam tempore sequenti reverendissimus archiepiscopus Theodorus in honore beati apostoli Petri dedicavit. Sed episcopus loci ipsius Eadbertus, ablata arundine, plumbi laminis eam totam, hoc est, et tectum et ipsos quoque parietes ejus, cooperire curavit.

His temporibus quæstio facta est frequens et magna de observatione Paschæ, confirmantibus eis, qui de Cantia, vel de Galliis, advenerant, quod Scoti Dominicum Paschæ diem contra universalis ecclesiæ morem celebrarent. Erat in his acerrimus veri Paschæ defensor, nomine Ronan, natione quidem Scotus, sed in Galliæ vel Italiæ partibus regulam ecclesiasticæ veritatis edoctus, qui cum Finano confligens multos quidem correxit, vel ad solertiorem veritatis inquisitionem accendit; nequaquam tamen Finanum emendare potuit, quin potius, quod esset homo ferocis animi, acerbiorem castigando et apertum veritatis adversarium reddidit. Observabat autem Jacobus, diaconus quondam (ut supra docuimus) venerabilis archiepiscopi Paulini, verum et Catholicum Pascha, cum omnibus, quos ad correctiorem viam erudire poterat. Observabat et regina Eanfleda cum suis juxta quod in Cantia fieri viderat, habens secum de Cantia presbyterum catholicæ observationis, nomine Romanum; unde nonnunquam contigisse fertur illis temporibus, ut bis in anno uno Pascha celebraretur, et cum rex Pascha Domi

CHAP. XXV. HOW THE CONTROVERSY AROSE ABOUT

THE DUE TIME OF KEEPING EASTER, WITH THOSE THAT
CAME OUT OF SCOTLAND.

Finan.

In the meantime, Bishop Aidan being dead, Finan, Of Bishop who was ordained and sent by the Scots, succeeded him A.D. 652. in the bishopric, and built a church in the Isle of Lindisfarne, the episcopal see; nevertheless, after the manner of the Scots, he made it, not of stone, but of hewn oak, and covered it with reeds; and the same was afterwards dedicated in honour of St. Peter the Apostle, by the reverend Archbishop Theodore. Eadbert, also bishop of that place, took off the thatch, and covered it, both roof and walls, with plates of lead.

At this time, a great and frequent controversy happened about the observance of Easter; those that came from Kent or France affirming, that the Scots kept 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 ecclesiastical truth, either in France or Italy, who, disputing with Finan, 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, made him the more inveterate by reproof, and a professed opposer of the truth, being of a hot and violent temper. James, formerly the deacon of the venerable Archbishop Paulinus, as has been said above, kept the true and Catholic Easter, with all those that he could persuade to adopt the right way. Queen Eanfleda and her followers also observed the same as she had seen practised in Kent, having with her a Kentish priest that followed the Catholic mode, whose name was Romanus. Thus it is said to have happened in those times that Easter was twice kept in one year; and that when the king, having ended the time of fast