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AT that
time, the West Saxons, formerly called Gewissae,in the reign of
Cynegils,received the faith of Christ, through the preaching of Bishop
Birinus,who came into Britain by the counsel of Pope Honorius ; having promised
in his presence that he would sow the seed of the holy faith in the farthest
inland regions of the English, where no other teacher hadbeen before him.
Hereupon at the bidding of the Pope he received episcopal consecration from
Asterius, bishop of Genoa, but on his arrival in Britain, he first came to the
nation of the Gewissae, and finding all in that place confirmed pagans, he
thought it better to preach the Word there, than to proceed further to seek for
other hearers of his preaching.
Now, as
he was spreading the Gospel in the aforesaid province, it happened that when
the king himself, having received instruction as a catechumen, was being
baptized together with his people, Oswald, the most holy and victorious king of
the Northumbrians, being present, received him as he came forth from baptism,
and by an honourable alliance most acceptable to God, first adopted as his son,
thus born again and dedicated to God, the man whose daughterhe was about to
receive in marriage. The two kings gave to the bishop the city called Dorcic,there
to establish his episcopal see; where having built and consecrated churches,
and by his pious labours called many to the Lord, he departed to the Lord, and
was buried in the same city; but many years after, when Haedde was
bishop," he was translated thence to the city of Venta,and laid in the
church of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.
When the
king died, his son Coinwalch succeeded him on the throne, but refused to
receive the faith and the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom; and not long after
he lost also the dominion of his earthly kingdom; for he put away the sister of
Penda, king of the Mercians, whom he had married, and took another wife;
whereupon a war ensuing, he was by him deprived of his kingdom, and withdrew to
Anna, king of the East Angles, where he lived three years in banishment, and
learned and received the true faith; for the king, with whom he lived in his
banishment, was a good man, and happy in a good and saintly offspring, as we
shall show hereafter.
But when
Coinwalch was restored to his kingdom, there came into that province out of
Ireland, a certain bishop called Agilbert, a native of Gaul, but who
had then lived a long time in Ireland, for the purpose of reading the
Scriptures. He attached himself to the king, and voluntarily undertook the
ministry of preaching. The king, observing his learning and industry, desired
him to accept an episcopal see there and remain as the bishop of his people.
Agilbert complied with the request. And presided over that nation as their
bishop for many years. At length the king, who understood only the language of
the Saxons, weary of his barbarous tongue, privately brought into the province
another bishop, speaking his own language, by name Wini,who had also been
ordained in Gaul; and dividing his province into two dioceses, appointed this
last his episcopal see in the city of Venta, by the Saxons called
Wintancaestir. (Winchester) Agilbert, being highly offended, that the king
should do this without consulting him, returned into Gaul, and being made
bishop of the city of Paris, died there, being old and full of days. Not many
years after his departure out of Britain, Wini was also expelled from his
bishopric by the same king, and took refuge with Wulfhere, king of the
Mercians, of whom he purchased for money the see of the city of London,and
remained bishop thereof till his death. Thus the province of the West Saxons
continued no small time without a bishop.
During
which time, the aforesaid king of that nation, sustaining repeatedly very great
losses in his kingdom from his enemies, at length bethought himself, that as he
had been before expelled from the throne for his unbelief, he had been restored
when he acknowledged the faith of Christ; and he perceived that his kingdom,
being deprived of a bishop, was justly deprived also of the Divine protection.
He, therefore, sent messengers into Gaul to Agilbert, with humble apologies
entreating him to return to the bishopric of his nation. But he excused
himself, and protested that he could not go, because he was bound to the
bishopric of his own city and diocese; notwithstanding, in order to give him
some help in answer to his earnest request, he sent thither in his stead the
priest Leutherius,his nephew, to be ordained as his bishop, if he thought fit,
saying that he thought him worthy of a bishopric. The king and the people
received him honourably, and asked Theodore, then Archbishop of Canterbury, to
consecrate him as their bishop. He was accordingly consecrated in the same
city, and many years diligently governed the whole bishopric of the West Saxons
by synodical authority.
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