CHAP. XII.

Haeddi fucceeds Lutherius in the Bishoprick of the West-Saxons; Quinchelm fucceeds Putta in that of the Church of Rochefter, and is himself fucceeded by Gebmund; and who were then Bishops of the Northumbrians.

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EUTHERIUS was the fourth Bishop of the West-Saxons; for Birinus was the first, Agilbercht the second, and Wini the third. When Cenwalh, in whose Reign the said Leutherius was made Bishop, dy'd, his under Rulers took upon them the Kingdom of the People, and dividing it among themfelves, held it ten Years; and during their Rute he dy'd, and Heddi fucceeded him in the Bishoprick, being confecrated by Theodore, in the City of London, during whose Prelacy, Ceadwalla having fubdu'd and remov'd those Rulers, took upon him the Government. When he had held the same two Years, being taken with the Love of the Heavenly Kingdom, he quitted it, the fame Bishop still governing the Church, and going away to Rome, ended his Days there, as shall be faid more fully hereafter.

Ann. 676. In the Year of our Lord's Incarnation 676, when Ethilred, King of the Mercians, ravag'd Kent with a mighty Army, and profan'd Churches and Monafteries, without Regard to Piety, or the Fear of God, he among the rest deftroy'd the City of Rochester, where Putta was Bishop, tho' abfent at that Time, which when he understood, viz. that his Church, all Things being taken away, was ravag'd, he went away to Sexulf, Bishop of the Mercians, and having receiv'd of him the Poffeffion of a certain Church, and a small Spot of Land, ended his Days there in Peace; no Way contriving to restore his Bishoprick, because (as has been faid above,) he was more industrious in Ecclesiastical, than in Worldly Affairs; ferving God only in that Church, and going wheresoever he was defir'd to teach the Church Song. Theodore confecrated Quichelm, Bishop of Rochester in his stead; but he, not long after, departing from his Bishoprick for want of Neceflaries, and withdrawing to other Parts, he substituted Gebmund in his Place.

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In the Year of our Lord's Incarnation, 678, Ann. 678. which is the eighth of the Reign of Ecgfrid, in the Month of Auguft, appear'd a Star, call'd a Comet, and continuing for three Months, rofe in the Morning, darting out, as it were a Pillar of radiant Flame. The fame Year Difcord breaking out between King Ecgfrid, and the most Reverend Prelate Wilfrid, that Bishop was drove from his See, and two Bishops substituted in his stead, to preside over the Nation of the Northumbrians, that is, Bofa to preside over the Nation of the Deiri; and Eata over that of the Bernicians; the latter having his See in the City of York, the former, in the Church of Hagulstad, or Lindisfarn; both of them promoted to the Epifcopal Dignity from the Community of Monks. With them also

waş Edhed ordain'd Bishop in the Province of Lindsey, which King Ecgfrid had but newly subdu'd, having overcome and vanquish'd Wulfhere, and this was the first Bishop of its own that Province had; the second was Edilwin; the third Eadgar; the fourth Cymbercht; who is there at present. Before Edhed, Sexwulf was Bishop as well of that Province, as of the Mercians and Midland Angles; so that being expell'd Lindsey, he continu'd in the Government of those Provinces. Edhed, Bofa, and Eata were ordain'd at York by Archbishop Theodore; who also three Years after the Departure of Wilfrid, added two Bishops to their Number, Trumbercht in the Church of Hagulstad, Eata still continuing in that of Lindisfarn; and Trumwine in the Province of the Pits, which at that Time was subject to the Dominion, of the English. Edhed returning from Lindsey, on account that Ethilred had recover'd that Province, he plac'd him over the Church of a Rhipe.

2 In the Latin, Rhypum, in King Ælfred, bnyprætna cynic, now Rippon in Yorkshire, where Wilfrid Archboshop of York founded a stately Monastery, curious, as Malmsbury obferu'd in his Time, for its arch'd Vaults, fine Pavements and winding Entries, this was burnt by the Danes, and afterwards rebuilt by Odo the Archbishop of Canterbury, where was St. Wilfred's Needle,

CHAP

CHAP. XIII.

How Bishop Wilfrid converted the Province of the South-Saxons to CHRIST.

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ILFRID being expell'd his Bishoprick, and having travell'd in several Parts, went to Rome, and return'd to Britain; and tho' he could not, by reason of the Enmity of the aforesaid King, be receiv'd into his own Country or Diocese, yet he could not be restrain'd from the Ministry of preaching of the Gospel; for taking his Way into the Province of the South-Saxons, which extends from Kent on the West and South, as far as the WestSaxons, containing Land of seven Thousand Families, and still at that Time follow'd the Pagan Worship, he administer'd to them the Word of Faith, and the Lavre of Salvation. Edilwalch, then King of that Nation, had been, not long before, baptiz'd in the Province of the Mercians, in the Presence of and by the Perfwasion of King Wulfhere, who was also his Godfather, and as fuch gave him two Provinces, viz. the Isle of Wight, and the Province of * Meawara, in the Nation of the * HampWest-Saxons. The Bishop therefore, with the shire. King's Consent, or rather to his great Satiffaction, baptiz'd the prime Commander and Soldiers of that Country; and the Priests Eappa, and Padda, and Burghelm, and Eadda, either then, or afterwards baptiz'd the rest of the

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the People. The Queen, whose Name was Ebba, had been christen'd in her own Island, that is, the Province of the Wiccii. She was the Daughter of Eanfrid, the Brother of Eanher, who were both Christians, as were their People; but all the Province of the South-Saxons were Strangers to the Name and Faith of God. There was among them a certain Monk of the Scotish Nation, whose Name was Dicul, having a very smali Monastery, at the Place call'd Bofanham, encompass'd with the Sea and Woods, and in it five or fix Brothers, serving our Lord in a poor and humble Life; but none of the Natives car'd either to follow their Course of Life, nor hear their Preaching. But Bishop Wilfrid preaching to them, did not only deliver them from the Misery of perpetual Damnation, but also from an inexpressible Calamity of Temporal Death; for no Rain had fallen in that Province in three Years before his Arrival, whereupon a dreadful Famine esfuing, cruelly destroy'd the People. short, it is reported, that very often, forty or fifty Men being spent with Want, would go together 'to some Precipice, or the Sea Shore, and there, hand in hand, either perish by the Fall, or be swallow'd up by the Waves. But

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Now call'd Bofcham, in Sussex, this was the Archbishop of Canterbury's, till Earl Godwin taking a Fancy to it, requiring of the Archbilop to give him Bosham, i e. a Kiss, the Archbishop reply'd, I give you Botham, whereupon he took Possession, and by Arms kept it. It was a Place of Retreat to his Son Harold, and from hence he fet out in a PleasureBrat, when the Wind drove him to Normandy, where Duke William oblig'd bim to furrender bis Right to the Crown.

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