Aidan acted as bishop, abbot, and teacher of divinity; and from his seminary many preachers were sent forth as missionaries into several of the neighbouring provinces. Aidan died A. D. 652, having exercised his ministry seventeen years in Northumberland. Finan succeeded Aidan as bishop for ten years, exhibiting much of the excellent spirit of his worthy predecessor, and entering into all his labours for the salvation of souls. 66 "Aidan himself," says Milner, was a shining example of godliness. He laboured to convert infidels and to strengthen the faithful. He gave to the poor whatever presents he received from the great; and employed himself with his associates in the Scriptures continually. He strictly avoided every thing luxurious, and every appearance of secular avarice or ambition. He redeemed captives with the money which was given him by the rich: he instructed them afterwards, and fitted them for the ministry."- "The character of this missionary would have done honour to the purest times. We may more confidently depend on the account given of him, because he belonged not to the Roman communion, to which Bede was superstitiously devoted, but was a schismatic in the observance of Easter, as all the Christians in the British isles were, except the Saxons. To him Bede applies the expression, that "he had a zeal for God, though not fully according to knowledge." Oswald, whom early education had rather prejudiced in favour of the same schism, gave him an episcopal see in the isle of Lindisfarn. But there was a great difficulty which attended his ministry. Aidan spoke English very imperfectly. Oswald himself therefore, who thoroughly understood Irish, acted as his interpreter. The zeal of this monarch was indeed extraordinary, to induce him to take such pains. Encouraged by his protection, more Irish ministers came into the North of England; and churches were erected, the gospel was preached, and Northumberland, by the zeal and piety of the new missionaries, recovered the ground which it had lost by the expulsion of Paulinus. Even to the year 716, the principles of evangelical piety flourished in the Irish school; at which time this people were reduced to the Roman communion *," "and Roman superstitions +." "In all respects this northern missionary presented a pleasing contrast to Augustin and his companions. The king was not inferior to the prelate in his endeavours to promote godliness. Uncorrupt and humble in the midst of prosperity, he showed himself the benefactor of the poor and needy; and cheerfully encouraged every attempt to spread the knowledge and practice of godliness among men t." Oswald, notwithstanding-such are the unsearchable ways of Providencefell in battle, at Masserfield in Shropshire, A. D. 642, with Penda, the barbarous king of Mercia; and Oswy, his brother, succeeded him in that part of the kingdom called Bernicia. About this period Birinus, a priest of Rome, by the advice of Pope Honorius, undertook a mission to Britain, to convert the nations yet remaining in Pagan darkness. He was consecrated bishop, and landed on the western coast, where he instructed the West Saxons, and baptized Cinigisil their king, and his brother Quicelm. Birinus was greatly indebted for his success to the arrival of Oswald the Northumbrian, at the court of Cinigisil, A. D. 635, to marry that prince's daughter: for not only the king, but by Oswald's persuasion, many of his subjects, embraced the Christian faith. Multitudes followed the royal example; and Birinus continued fourteen years, edifying his converts by his wise discourses, until he died at Dorchester, near Oxford, where he had built a church, and fixed his episcopal see. There is reason to fear that this division of the heptarchy enjoyed but a small degree of evangelical light, though several bishops are mentioned by name as eminent in their office. Agilbert and his nephew Eleutherius were amongst the most famous; but being Frenchmen, they were but imperfectly acquainted with the language of the English, and consequently little qualified to promote their spiritual edification. Forthere, bishop of Sherborne, is commended by Bede as familiar with the Scriptures: from * Church History, vol. iii, p. 106, 107. + Ibid. Tract Society's edition, vol. iii, p. 76. 1 him therefore we may hope, that the people were taught the essential truths of the gospel, along with the accustomed and superstitious ceremonies of religion. Divine Providence was preparing the way for the propaga tion of Christianity through the whole heptarchy. Penda, king of Mercia, was a haughty and cruel tyrant; but his son, whom he had appointed king of Leicester, desiring in marriage Alfeda, daughter of Oswy, brother and successor to Oswald, the condition proposed was his reception of Christianity. The young prince, we are informed, having heard the doctrines of a heavenly kingdom — the resurrection—and a future immortality-declared that he would become a Christian, even if they denied him the princess. Young Penda and all his attendants were baptized; and he married the princess two years before the death of his father. He promoted Christianity in the province of Leicester, which was committed to his government; and, having brought from Northumberland four preachers, Cedda, Adda, Beti, and Diuma, he was delighted in witnessing their evangelical successes. But old Penda renewed hostilities against Oswy, by whom he was slain in a battle near Leeds. Oswy thus becoming master of Mercia and Northumberland, applied himself to advance Christianity among his new subjects *. Sigebert the Good, king of Essex, frequently visited Oswy, through whose influence and instructions he patronized the ministry of the gospel among his people; and thus the East Saxons, who had revolted from the profession of Christ for fifty years, again embraced his religion. Cedd was eminently devoted to his ministry, as bishop of London, and abbot of Lestingham. He was raised to the episcopal dignity A. D. 653, and died A. D. 664. Jaruman and Erkenwald are mentioned as his most worthy successors; but Wina, who had been driven from his bishopric of Winchester, is infamous, as being guilty of simony, purchasing the see of London from King Wulpher +. Monasteries, in which single men lived in seclusion, pro * Bede, book ii, c. 22, 23. + Rapin, vol. i, p. 76. fessing a life of piety and study, had long been common throughout all countries professing Christianity; and now, in the latter part of the seventh century, similar establishments for women became numerous. Bega, an Irish virgin, famous as St. Bega, is esteemed the first founder of a nunnery in Britain. Her establishment was situated at the mouth of the river Wear, in Durham. Lady Hilda, niece of King Edwin, was still more celebrated. She was baptized with her uncle, at York, when she was only thirteen years of age; and her conversion to Christianity appears to have been sincere. Aidan became her religious instructor; and at the age of thirty-three, A. D. 660, she took the veil, with his entire approbation. Under his direction, she established a nunnery in the vicinity of South Shields; where a church still stands, dedicated to St. Hilda. She afterwards removed to the nunnery of Hega, supposed to be the first British female who assumed the veil. Lady Hilda was greatly supported in her character of abbess, by the unwarranted zeal of King Oswy; for, when his province was invaded by Penda the elder, with an army thirty times superior to his own, he made a vow, like Jephtha, to devote his daughter as a holy virgin to the Lord, if he should bless him with victory. Providence favoured him, as we have related; and Elfleda, his infant daughter, was committed to the care of the lady abbess. With this princess, many others of noble birth were entrusted to her charge; and she became the founder of the most celebrated nunnery in Britain, situated at Whitby, in Yorkshire. gives an extraordinary account of this famous abbess *; and from all that appears, she was a person of eminent piety. Of the rules of her establishment, we have but little information: still there is reason for believing, that she possessed a considerable measure of scriptural knowledge. * Ecclesiastical History, book iv, c. 23. Bede CHAPTER XI. ESTABLISHMENT OF ROMAN UNIFORMITY IN THE ENGLISH CHURCHES. - Synod concerning Easter-State of the Controversy Debates at Whitby - Roman Uniformity determined- Colman and the Scots Clergy retire to their Country Oswy sends Wighart for Consecration at Rome - Theodore sent by Pope Vitalian -The Archbishop brings the English Churches to Conformity Councils →→ Theodore promotes learning-Wilfrid, Archbishop of York - His haughtiness – He is banished-He converts the South Saxons- Death of Theodore. KING OSWY summoned a memorable synod, A.D. 664, at the abbey of Whitby, to settle an ecclesiastical controversy. This dispute had been renewed by Wilfrid, the tutor of Prince Alfred, and it was supported by the queen. Here it should be observed, that the Christians of Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, observed the religious customs which they had received from their first instructors, and during a period of about two hundred years they had little intercourse with the continent, principally on account of the Saxon wars. In the mean time the bishop of Rome had made extraordinary advances in authority and greatness, and had established the observance of a multitude of new rites and ceremonies, unknown to the British churches. The Romish missionaries, and their churches among the Saxons, kept Easter on the first Sunday after the fourteenth, and before the twenty-second day of the first moon after the vernal equinox; and those churches planted by the Scottish missionaries kept that festival on the first Sunday after the thirteenth, and before the twenty-first day of the same moon. Therefore, when the fourteenth day of that moon happened to be on a Sunday, those of the Scottish communion celebrated the Easter festival on that day, whereas those of the Romish, did not observe theirs till the following Sunday. The Italian clergy, animated with that haughty intolerance which always distinguished their church, not content with observing their own customs in peace, laboured to impose them upon the Britons, Scots, Picts, and northern English, whom they denounced as schismatics, but who were equally tenacious of their own customs. As long as Aidan and Finan lived, the Romanists, according to Bede, on account of the veneration |