either by Chance, or the Divine Providence fo or dering it, that my Head and Hand, which in fal ling, I had clapt to my Head, hit upon that Stone, fo that my Thumb being broken, and my Skull crack'd, I lay, as has been faid, like one dead. It was about the feventh Hour of the Day, and having lain ftill, and as it were dead from that Time till the Evening, I then reviv'd a little, was carry'd home by my Companions, and lay Speechlefs all the Night; but vomited Blood, becaufe fomething was broke within me by the Fal. The Bihop very much griev'd at my Misfortune, and expected Death, for he bore me extraordinary Affection. Nor would he ftay that Night, as he was wont, among his Clergy; but Spent it all in Watching and Prayer alone, imploring the Divine Goodnefs, as I imagine for my Health. Coming to me in the Morning early, and having faid a Prayer over me, he call'd me by my Name, and as it were waking me out of an heavy Sleep, ask'd, Whether I knew who it was that Spoke to me. I opening my Eyes, faid, I do; you are my beloved Bifhop. Can you live, faid he? I anfwer'd, I may through your Prayers, if it shall please our Lord. He laying his Hand on my Head, with the Words of Bleffing, return'd to Prayer; and coming again to fee me in a fbort Time, found me fitting and able to talk; and, being induc'd by Divine Inftinet, as it foon appear'd, began to ask me, whether Iknew for certain that I had been baptiz.d? I anfwer'd, I knew beyond all doubt, that I had been wash'd in the faving Laver to the Remiffion of Sins, and nam'd the Prieft by whom I knew myJelf to have been baptiz'd. He reply'd, If you were baptiz'd by that Prieft, your Baptifm is not perfect; for I know him, and that having been ordain'd Prieft, he could not by reafon of the Dulnefs of his Understanding, learn the Miniftry of catechizing and baptizing; for which reafon, I commanded him altogether to defift from his prefumptuous exercifing of this Ministry, which he could not regularly perform. This faid, he took care to catechize me at that very Time, and it hapned, that he blowing upon my Face, I prefently found myself better. He call'd the Surgeon, and order'd him to clofe and bind up my Skull where it was crack'd, and having then receiv'd his Bleffing, I was fo much better, that mounting on Horfeback the next Day, I travell'd with him to another Place; and being foon after perfectly recover'd, I receiv'd the washing of Life. He continu'd in his See thirty three Years, and then afcending to the Heavenly Kingdom, was bury'd in St. Peter's Porch, in his own Monaftery, call'd Inderawood, Cc 2 b in T b. i. e. In the Wood of the Deiri, it is now call'd Beverly in Yorkshire. This Church of St. John of Beverly was Ja efteem'd in thofe Times, that King Ethelftane gave it valk Priviledges by this Grant, Als free make I thee As Heart can think, or Eye may see. He was bury'd, Bede tells us, in the Porch of his Church, which afterwards took its Name from him. And in the Year 1664, on the 24th of September, upon opening a Grave they found a Vault of Freeftone fifteen Foo long, and two broad; At the Head and at the Feet a Foot and a balf broad; within it a Sheet of Lead four foot long, and in that the Ashes, and fix Beads, (whereof three crumbled to Duft upon touching them,) of the remaining three, two were Juppos'd to be Cornelian's; with three great Brass Pins, and four large Iron Nails. Upon the Sheet was a leaden Plate with this Infcription, + Anno in the Year from the Incarnation of our Lord, 724. For being by his great Age become unable to govern his Bishoprick, having ordain'd Wilfrid, his Prieft, Bishop of the Church of York, he retir'd to the aforefaid Monaftery, and there ended his Days in Holy Converfation. +Anno ab Incarnatione Domini, MCLXXXVIII, combufta fuit hæc Ecclefia in Menfe Septembri, in fequenti Nocte poft feftum Sancti Matthai Apoftoli, & in Ann. MCXCVII, 6. Idus Martii facta fuit Inquifitio reliquiarum beati Johannis in hoc loco & inventa funt hæc Offa in orientalí parte Sepulchri & hic recondita, & pulvis cemento mixtus ibidem inventus eft & reconditus. i. e. In the Tear of our Lord 1188, this Church was burnt in the Month of September, the Night after the Feaft of St. Matthew, the Apoftle, and in the Tear 1197. the 6th of the Ides of March there was a Search made for the Relicks of the bleffed John in this Place, and thefe Bones were found in the Eaft Part of the Sepulchre, and here repinc'd, and Duft mix'd with Cement was replac'd where it as found. Upon it lay a Box of Lead feven Inches long, fix broad, and five high, wherein were feveral Pieces of Bones mix'd with Little Duft, and yielding a sweet Smell, all these were reine terr'd in the middle Ally of the Church. CHAP. CHAP. VII. 1 How Cedwal King of the Weft-Saxons, went to Rome to be baptiz'd; and bow biş Succeffor devoutly repair'd to the fame Church of the Holy Apoftles. IN third of N the third Year of the Reign of Aldfrid, Ceadwal, King of the Weft-Saxons, having moft honourably govern'd his Nation two Years, quitting the Crown for our Lord, and the everlasting Kingdom, went to Rome; being defirous to acquire this peculiar Honour of being baptiz'd in the Church of the Blefled Apoftles, having learnt that in Baptifm alone, the Entrance into Heaven is open'd to Mankind; and hoping at the fame Time, that laying down the Flefh, as foon as baptiz'd, he should immediately pass to the eternal Joys; both which Particulars, according as he conceiv'd in his Mind, by the Bleffing of our Lord, came to pafs. For coming to Rome, at the Time that Sergius was Pope, he was baptiz'd on the Holy Saturday before Eafter Day, in the Year from the Incarnation of our Lord, 689, and being ftill in his white Garments, he fell fick and departed this Life on the 12th of the Kalends of May, and was affociated with the Bleffed in Heaven. At his Baptifm, the aforefaid Pope had given him the Name of Peter, to the end, that he might be alfo united in Name to the moft Bleffed Prince of the Apo CC 4 Ales, ftles, to whose most holy Body a pious Affe&tion had brought him from the utmost Bounds of the Earth. He was likewife bury'd in his Church, and by the Pope's Command an Epitaph written on his Tomb, wherein the Memory of his Devotion might be preferv'd for ever, and the Readers or Hearers might be inflam'd with Religious Defire by the Example of what he had done. The Epitaph was thus: Culmen, opes, fobolem, pollentia regna, triumphos, Sofpes enim veniens fupremo ex urbe Britanni, |