Read Online A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons by Geoffrey Hindley - Free Book Online
Authors: Geoffrey Hindley
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Edwin vowed to be baptized if the Christian God gave him victory over Wessex and meanwhile allowed his daughter Eanflæd to be baptized ‘the first of the Northumbrian race’. The king, we are told, went into Wessex ‘with levies’, where he slew ‘five kings’. He prepared to follow his daughter to the font.
Why Edwin should have opened himself to the newreligion from the south is not clear. He was the most powerful king in the north, poised to achieve the Imperium throughout the Anglo-Saxon world. But it was an age when Europe’s kings were aping the style of ‘Roman’rulers, of which the religion based in Rome was an important part; perhaps Edwin decided to adopt it for reasons of modernity and prestige. His ‘southern’marriage was an important political alliance. And it is always worth bearing in mind that there may have been an element of genuine religious sentiment involved. He anticipated objections from his pagan courtiers, but, if we accept Bede’s account, the decisive council meeting went smoothly. First, the pagan high priest, Coifi, readily agreed the proposed overthrow of the kingdom’s traditional religion – and might he be permitted to lead the desecration of the temples with the cast of a spear into the sanctuary? After all, he observed, he had been the most assiduous servant of the pagan pantheon, yet many other men had receivedmore of the king’s bounty than he. Surely if the gods had any real powers he would have been more favoured.
A more thoughtful courtier compared a man’s life on earth to the flight of a sparrow that blunders into the king’s banqueting hall with the fire blazing on a blustery winter’s evening. After a few moments in the warmth and light, it flies out again into the storm. In the same way we pass a few moments in the glow of life from birth to death. But we know nothing of what went before or of what will come after. A religion that can give us information on such matters is surely worth a try. The council agreed and Coifi, riding the king’s stallion, headed for the old temples, spear in hand. The stallion is important, not only because as high priest Coifi was officially permitted to ride only a mare, but also because the horse as such played an important part in the Anglo-Saxons’ pagan religious beliefs.
Edwin was baptized, at York on 12 April 627, in a wooden chapel dedicated to St Peter built specially for the purpose. Apparently Roman ‘Eboracum’ had no Christian church building from the Roman period to match the ruined chapel of St Martin’s at Canterbury. Urged by Paulinus, Edwin ordered the building of a basilica of stone, which enclosed the king’s baptismal chapel.
Mass baptisms followed in what sounds more like a military campaign than the dove-like ministrations of the Holy Spirit. Bede tells us that Paulinus, a tall stooping figure with an aquiline nose set in his gaunt face, and his assistant James the Deacon spent thirty-six days instructing, presumably through an interpreter, and baptizing in the River Glen near the royal palace of Ad-gefrin (no doubt from Brittonic, ‘hill of the goats’), that is Yeavering. Bede accounts for the success by the ‘great desire . . . for baptism among the . . . Northumbrian people’, 5 but presumably the known wishes of the king had something to do with it. Perhaps, also, a number of these many converts were ‘closet’British Christians relieved to ‘come out’, even if the official Roman version of the Faith was not exactly theirs. Paulinus was established as bishop at York with James the Deacon athis side, and they began to preach in the subject kingdom of Lindsey. When, in November 627, Justus of Canterbury died, Paulinus consecrated his successor as archbishop, with papal approval.
On 10 October 633 catastrophe struck. King Edwin was killed at the Battle of Hatfield Chase by the combined forces of Penda, the pagan ruler of Mercia, and Cadwallon, the British/Welsh Christian, king of Gwynedd.
Why Edwin should have opened himself to the newreligion from the south is not clear. He was the most powerful king in the north, poised to achieve the Imperium throughout the Anglo-Saxon world. But it was an age when Europe’s kings were aping the style of ‘Roman’rulers, of which the religion based in Rome was an important part; perhaps Edwin decided to adopt it for reasons of modernity and prestige. His ‘southern’marriage was an important political alliance. And it is always worth bearing in mind that there may have been an element of genuine religious sentiment involved. He anticipated objections from his pagan courtiers, but, if we accept Bede’s account, the decisive council meeting went smoothly. First, the pagan high priest, Coifi, readily agreed the proposed overthrow of the kingdom’s traditional religion – and might he be permitted to lead the desecration of the temples with the cast of a spear into the sanctuary? After all, he observed, he had been the most assiduous servant of the pagan pantheon, yet many other men had receivedmore of the king’s bounty than he. Surely if the gods had any real powers he would have been more favoured.
A more thoughtful courtier compared a man’s life on earth to the flight of a sparrow that blunders into the king’s banqueting hall with the fire blazing on a blustery winter’s evening. After a few moments in the warmth and light, it flies out again into the storm. In the same way we pass a few moments in the glow of life from birth to death. But we know nothing of what went before or of what will come after. A religion that can give us information on such matters is surely worth a try. The council agreed and Coifi, riding the king’s stallion, headed for the old temples, spear in hand. The stallion is important, not only because as high priest Coifi was officially permitted to ride only a mare, but also because the horse as such played an important part in the Anglo-Saxons’ pagan religious beliefs.
Edwin was baptized, at York on 12 April 627, in a wooden chapel dedicated to St Peter built specially for the purpose. Apparently Roman ‘Eboracum’ had no Christian church building from the Roman period to match the ruined chapel of St Martin’s at Canterbury. Urged by Paulinus, Edwin ordered the building of a basilica of stone, which enclosed the king’s baptismal chapel.
Mass baptisms followed in what sounds more like a military campaign than the dove-like ministrations of the Holy Spirit. Bede tells us that Paulinus, a tall stooping figure with an aquiline nose set in his gaunt face, and his assistant James the Deacon spent thirty-six days instructing, presumably through an interpreter, and baptizing in the River Glen near the royal palace of Ad-gefrin (no doubt from Brittonic, ‘hill of the goats’), that is Yeavering. Bede accounts for the success by the ‘great desire . . . for baptism among the . . . Northumbrian people’, 5 but presumably the known wishes of the king had something to do with it. Perhaps, also, a number of these many converts were ‘closet’British Christians relieved to ‘come out’, even if the official Roman version of the Faith was not exactly theirs. Paulinus was established as bishop at York with James the Deacon athis side, and they began to preach in the subject kingdom of Lindsey. When, in November 627, Justus of Canterbury died, Paulinus consecrated his successor as archbishop, with papal approval.
On 10 October 633 catastrophe struck. King Edwin was killed at the Battle of Hatfield Chase by the combined forces of Penda, the pagan ruler of Mercia, and Cadwallon, the British/Welsh Christian, king of Gwynedd.
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