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XIII. Of the Council he held with his chief men concerning
their reception of the faith of Christ, and how the high priest
profaned his own altars. [627 A.D.]
CHAP. XIII.
THE king, hearing these words, answered, that he was both willing and bound to
receive the faith which Paulinus taught; but that he would confer about it with
his chief friends and counsellors, to the end that if they also were of his
opinion, they might all together be consecrated to Christ in the font of life.
Paulinus consenting, the king did as he said; for, holding a council with the
wise men,' he asked of every one in particular what he thought of this doctrine
hitherto unknown to them, and the new worship of God that was preached? The
chief of his own priests, Coifi, immediately answered him, "0 king, consider
what this is which is now preached to us; for I verily declare to you what I
have learnt beyond doubt, that the religion which we have hitherto professed has
no virtue in it and no profit. For none of your people has applied himself more
diligently to the worship of our gods than I; and yet there are many who receive
greater favours from you, and are more preferred than I, and are more prosperous
in all that they undertake to do or to get. Now if the gods were good for any
thing, they would rather forward me, who have been careful to serve them with
greater zeal. It remains, therefore, that if upon examination you find those new
doctrines, which are now preached to us, better and more efficacious, we hasten
to receive them without any delay."
Another of the king's chief men, approving of his wise words and exhortations,
added thereafter: "The present life of man upon earth, O king, seems to me, in
comparison with that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a
sparrow through the house wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your
ealdormen and thegns, while the fire blazes in the midst, and the hall is
warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow,
flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is
safe from the wintry tempest; but after a short space of fair weather, he
immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter into winter again.
So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what
went before we know nothing at all. If, therefore, this new doctrine tells us
something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed." The other
elders and king's counsellors, by Divine prompting, spoke to the same effect.
But Coifi added, that he wished more attentively to hear Paulinus discourse
concerning the God Whom he preached. When he did so, at the king's command,
Coifi, hearing his words, cried out, "This long time I have perceived that what
we worshipped was naught; because the more diligently I sought after truth in
that worship, the less I found it. But now I freely confess, that such truth
evidently appears in this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of
salvation, and of eternal happiness. For which reason my counsel is, O king,
that we instantly give up to ban and fire those temples and altars which we have
consecrated without reaping any benefit from them." In brief, the king openly
assented to the preaching of the Gospel by Paulinus, and renouncing idolatry,
declared that he received the faith of Christ: and when he inquired of the
aforesaid high priest of his religion, who should first desecrate the altars and
temples of their idols, with the precincts that were about them, he answered,
"I; for who can more fittingly than myself destroy those things which I
worshipped in my folly, for an example to all others, through the wisdom which
has been given me by the true God?" Then immediately, in contempt of his vain
superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion, that
he might mount and go forth to destroy the idols; for it was not lawful before
for the high priest either to carry arms, or to ride on anything but a mare.
Having, therefore, girt a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted
the king's stallion, and went his way to the idols. The multitude, beholding it,
thought that he was mad; but as soon as he drew near the temple he did not delay
to desecrate it by casting into it the spear which he held; and rejoicing in the
knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded his companions to tear
down and set on fire the temple, with all its precincts. This place where the
idols once stood is still shown, not far from York, to the eastward, beyond the
river Derwent, and is now called Godmunddingaham, where the high priest, by the
inspiration of the true God, profaned and destroyed the altars which he had
himself consecrated.
