A.D. 616.

ETHELBERT, KING OF KENT, DIES.

285

any

A.D. 614. Godgave was elected pope, and occupied the Roman chair for three years and twenty days, and the see was vacant one month and six days. He made a rule, that if men or women in any way received their sons from the sacred fountain, they should be separated. And if any woman had married her godfather, they should be separated, and that the woman should receive back her dowry and might marry another husband at the expiration of a year, if she pleased. The same year, Kinigilf, king of the West Saxons, took Quichelin, his son, to be partner in his kingdom.

A.D. 615. When Clodesvida of Mathe was fleeing from her betrothed husband, a veil for her head was sent to her from God, by an angel, and she dedicated herself and all her sessions to God.

pos

A.D. 616. Ethelbert, king of Kent, after a temporal reign of fifty-six years, distinguished by great glory, mounted up to the eternal joys of the kingdom of heaven. He died twenty-one years after he had received the faith, and was buried in the porch of Saint Martin, within the church of the apostles Peter and Paul, which he himself had founded. The same year that Ethelbert died, his son Eadbald succeeded to the kingdom, and was a great injury to the tender growth of the church; since he not only would not receive the faith of Christ, but was polluted with such fornication, that he was mad enough to marry his father's wife. And this irregularity caused a great storm, which was increased by the death of Sebert, king of the East Saxons, who, seeking the eternal realms of heaven, left three sons heirs of his temporal kingdom, who all remained pagans. And they soon began to become open slaves to idolatry, which, while their father was alive, they appeared to have somewhat interrupted, and they gave the nations which were subject to them free license to worship idols. And when they saw the pontiff, having first celebrated the solemnities of the mass in the church, administer the eucharist to the people, they, inflated with barbarous folly, said to him, "Why do you not give us the white bread which you used to give to our father Sebert, and which, to this day, you do not cease to give the people in church?" And Mellitus himself replied to them, "If you are willing to be washed in the fountain of salvation in which your father was washed, you may become partakers of the holy bread, but if not, you cannot receive the bread of life." And they answered, "If you will not

assent to our requests in a case that is so easy, you shall not be allowed to remain in our kingdom." Accordingly Mellitus was expelled, and came into Kent, intending to discuss with Laurence and Justus, his brother bishops, as to what ought to be done. And they determined, by their joint counsel, that it would be better for them all to return to their own country, and serve God with free minds, than to remain among rebels to the faith without doing any good.

Accordingly, Mellitus and Justus, in the first place, departed into Gaul, intending there to await the result of the business. But not long afterwards, the king, who had expelled the messengers of truth, went forth to battle against the people of the Gewisei, and were all, in accordance with the divine judgment, slain with their whole armies. But when Laurence, the archbishop, was about to follow Mellitus and Justus, and to abandon Britain, the night before his departure he ordered a bed to be prepared for him in the church of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. And when, after having poured forth many prayers and tears to God for the condition of the church, he had laid down his limbs to rest there, and had fallen asleep, there appeared to him the most blessed prince of the apostles, and scourged him for a long period in the secret silence of the night with a severe whip, and asked him, with apostolical severity, why he was forsaking the flock which he himself had committed to him, or to what shepherd, now that he himself was fleeing, he was entrusting the sheep of Christ who were placed in the midst of wolves? "Are you," said the vision, "forgetful of my example, who, for the little ones of Christ whom he recommended to me as a proof of his affection for me, endured chains, and stripes, and imprisonment, and affliction, and at last, even the death of the cross at the hands of infidels, in order to be hereafter crowned with Christ?" So Laurence, the servant of Christ, being animated by the scourging and simultaneous exhortation of the blessed Apostle, came at early dawn to the king, and lifting up his garments, showed him with what severe stripes he had been scourged. And the king marvelled greatly, and asked who in his kingdom had dared to inflict such blows on so excellent a man. At length, when he heard that it was for the sake of his safety that the bishop had suffered such wounds and torments from the Apostle of Christ, he feared greatly, and having anathematized all idola

A.D. 618.

COSDROA LAYS WASTE JERUSALEM.

287

trous worship, and renounced his illegal marriage, he received the faith of Christ and was baptized; and endeavoured with all his might, in all matters, to consult and favour the interests of the church. And he himself, with all his nation, from the time that he was converted to the Lord, studied to submit himself to the laws of God. He also sent into Gaul and recalled the bishops Mellitus and Justus, and desired them to return fearlessly to their churches; and so, after seeing this miracle, he returned to the unity of the church.

war.

A.D. 617. The bishops Mellitus and Justus returned to Britain, and were received with due honour by king Eadbald and all his nation. The same year, Redwald, king of the East Angles, provoked Ethelred, king of Northumberland, to Therefore, the armies of these two monarchs met in the district of the Jutes, on the eastern bank of the river which is called the Idle. From which circumstance, the proverb arose, which remains in force to the present day, "The Idle river was foul with Anglian blood." Therefore, Ethelred, being fierce and indignant, and greatly marvelling that any one should dare to fight with him, rushed boldly, but in no kind of order, upon the enemy, although the army of Redwald, being arranged with great skill, caused no slight alarm to those who beheld it. But the king of Northumberland, as if he had found a prey, suddenly rushed upon the close battalions and overthrew Reiner, the captain of the host of Redwald, with all his army, and sent them in haste to hell. But Redwald, being not at all alarmed at the great slaughter, but only animated to seek revenge, gloriously pierced the battalions of Ethelred, and having shed a great deal of the blood of the enemy, slew that haughty king. Then pursuing the enemy, without any mercy, he routed all their army, and utterly crushed them. In this battle the prowess of Edwin was particularly eminent, who, having been expelled from that kingdom, had lived in exile with Redwald for seventeen years. Therefore, Edwin, the son of Ella, reigned over the two kingdoms of the Deiri and the Bernicians; and afterwards becoming a Christian, he reduced all the kings, both of the Angles and of the Welch, to submission to him.

A.D. 618. Cosdroa, king of Persia, took Damascus, and laid waste Jerusalem, and burnt all the sacred places in that city, and took prisoners an immense multitude of the people,

and slew ninety thousand of them, and expelled Zachariah, the patriarch of the city, and carried off the precious wood of the cross with him into Persia. But he was not permitted to violate the sepulchre of the Lord, fenced round as it was with divine virtue. About the same time, he occupied all Egypt, and Alexandria, and Libya, and Carthage, in hopes by this means to provoke Heraclius to battle; and Heraclius sent messengers to him, requesting him to desist from his attempts; but he disdained to do so, and treated the ambassadors of the emperor with insult.

A.D. 619. Heraclius, the emperor, invested his son Constantine with the kingly diadem, and gave him the title of Augustus.

A.D. 620. Heraclius, the emperor, in the tenth year of his reign, having collected a numerous army, marched against Cosdroa, bearing with him the likeness of the Holy Mother of God, which is at Byzantium, and which was painted not by the hand of man, but by a divine miracle. And when he had arrived on the borders of the city of Gozorem, Cosdroa took to flight, and ravaged with fire all the lands which he passed through, and then appointed a great many generals to command his army, and to subdue Heraclius, while he himself kept fleeing from place to place, from the face of the emperor. But Heraclius, supported by the aid of the picture of the Mother of God, slew all his enemies in battle, or else put them to flight disgracefully, and at last, Cosdroa was taken prisoner in his flight, and thrown into prison, and at last died the death of wicked men. The emperor having gained the victory, gave his soldiers rewards, such as were deserved by their labours; and having reunited his forces a little, he brought back to Jerusalem the wood of the cross of the Lord, giving much thanks to God for so signal a triumph, and shedding devout tears.

A.D. 621. Boniface the Sixth, pope of the Roman church, was in the fourth year of his power, and he reigned five years and fourteen days, and the see was vacant six months. About the same time, Laurence, the second archbishop of Canterbury, died, and was succeeded by Mellitus, bishop of London, who occupied the archiepiscopal see five years. Mellitus was succeeded by Justus, who survived the same period of time. After Mellitus, the church of London was vacant for many

A.D. 622.

MAHOMET DELUDES CADIJAH.

289

years. But Justus was succeeded in the church of Rochester by Romanus.

CH. XI.-FROM A.D. 622 To A.D. 676.

The heresy of the Monothelites-The Saracens attack the Roman Empire-Mahomet-His wife Cadijah-Pope Honorius-King Edwin becomes a Christian-Heraclius becomes a Monothelite-Cadwallan, king of Wales-Oswald, king of Northumberland-Oswy-The heresy of the Monothelites is condemned-King Louis violates the tomb of Saint Denis -Cadwallan dies.

A.D. 622. Cyrus, bishop of Alexandria, and Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, preached the heresy of the Monothelites. About this time also, the Saracens, who are also called Turks, under the leadership of Mahomet, a false prophet, went forth from their own country, and began terribly to ravage the empire of Heraclius. Now this Mahomet, the chief of the Saracens and Arabs, was of the race of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, who, having been in his early life a merchant, used often to go with his camels into Egypt and Palestine, and have intercourse with both Jews and Christians, from whom he learnt both the Old and New Testament, but was only made a most impious magician by them. And as he was travelling to and fro, it happened that he entered the province of Corozonia, of which Cadijah was said to be mistress. And as she was admiring the various beautiful things which Mahomet had brought with him, having obtained them by theft or pillage, she began gradually to attach herself more intimately to him. And after Mahomet had acquired a hold over her with his incantations, he began cunningly to lead her by degrees into error, saying that he himself was the Messiah, whom the Jews were still expecting to come. And not only that powerful woman was deluded into embracing this opinion, but all the Jews, which his fanaticism reached, flocked to him in crowds, together with the Saracens, influenced by the great novelty of the event. And then he began to make new laws, and to deliver them to these people, fortifying them with testimonies out of both the Old and New Testament. These laws the Ishmaelites call theirs, and claim him for their lawgiver.

And the woman, whom I have already spoken of, seeing the man surrounded by an indiscriminate company of Jews and Saracens, thought that a divine power was concealed in

VOL. I.

U