I. How when Deusdedit died, Wigihard was sent to
Rome to receive the episcopate; but he dying there,
Theodore was ordained archbishop, and sent into Britain
with the Abbot Hadrian. [664-669 A.D.]
BOOK IV
CHAP. I.
How when Deusdedit died, Wigihard was sent to Rome to receive the episcopate;
but he dying there, Theodore was ordained archbishop, and sent into Britain with
the Abbot Hadrian. [664-669 A.D.]
IN the above-mentioned year of the aforesaid eclipse and of the pestilence which
followed it immediately, in which also Bishop Colman, being overcome by the
united effort of the Catholics, returned home, Deusdedit, the sixth bishop of
the church of Canterbury, died on the 14th of July. Earconbert,also, king of
Kent, departed this life the same month and day; leaving his kingdom to his son
Egbert, who held it for nine years. The see then became vacant for no small
time, until, the priest Wighard, a man of great learning in the teaching of the
Church, of the English race, was sent to Rome by King Egbert and Oswy, king of
the Northumbrians, as was briefly mentioned in the foregoing book, with a
request that he might be ordained Archbishop of the Church of England; and at
the same time presents were sent to the Apostolic pope, and many vessels of gold
and silver. Arriving at Rome, where Vitalianpresided at that time over the
Apostolic see, and having made known to the aforesaid Apostolic pope the
occasion of his journey, he was not long after carried off, with almost all his
companions who had come with him, by a pestilence which fell upon them.
But the Apostolic pope having consulted about that matter, made diligent inquiry
for some one to send to be archbishop of the English Churches. There was then in
the monastery of Niridanum, which is not far from Naples in Campania, an abbot
called Hadrian, by nation an African, well versed in Holy Scripture, trained in
monastic and ecclesiastical teaching, and excellently skilled both in the Greek
and Latin tongues. The pope, sending for him, commanded him to accept the
bishopric and go to Britain. He answered, that he was unworthy of so great a
dignity, but said that he could name another, whose learning and age were fitter
for the episcopal office. He proposed to the pope a certain monk named Andrew,
belonging to a neighbouring nunnery and he was by all that knew him judged
worthy of a bishopric; but the weight of bodily infirmity prevented him from
becoming a bishop. Then again Hadrian was urged to accept the episcopate; but he
desired a respite, to see whether in time he could find another to be ordained
bishop.
There was at that time in Rome, a monk, called Theodore, known to Hadrian, born
at Tarsus in Cilicia, a man instructed in secular and Divine writings, as also
in Greek and Latin; of high character and venerable age, being sixty-six years
old. Hadrian proposed him to the pope to be ordained bishop, and prevailed; but
upon the condition that he should himself conduct him into Britain, because he
had already travelled through Gaul twice upon different occasions, and was,
therefore, better acquainted with the way, and was, moreover, sufficiently
provided with men of his own; as also, to the end that, being his fellow
labourer in teaching, he might take special care that Theodore should not,
according to the custom of the Greeks, introduce any thing contrary to the truth
of the faith into the Church where he presided. Theodore, being ordained
subdeacon, waited four months for his hair to grow, that it might be shorn into
the shape of a crown; for he had before the tonsure of St. Paul,the Apostle,
after the manner of the eastern people. He was ordained by Pope Vitalian, in the
year of our Lord 668, on Sunday, the 26th of March, and on the 27th of May was
sent with Hadrian to Britain.
They proceeded together by sea to Marseilles, and thence by land to Arles, and
having there delivered to John, archbishop of that city, Pope Vitalian's letters
of recommendation, were by him detained till Ebroin,the king's mayor of the
palace, gave them leave to go where they pleased. Having received the same,
Theodore went to Agilbert, bishop of Paris, of whom we have spoken above, and
was by him kindly received, and long entertained. But Hadrian went first to
Emma, Bishop of the Senones, and then to Faro, bishop of the Meldi, and lived in
comfort with them a considerable time; for the approach of winter had obliged
them to rest wherever they could. King Egbert, being informed by sure messengers
that the bishop they had asked of the Roman prelate was in the kingdom of the
Franks, sent thither his reeve, Raedfrid, to conduct him. He, having arrived
there, with Ebroin's leave took Theodore and conveyed him to the port called
Quentavic; where, falling sick, he stayed some time, and as soon as he began to
recover, sailed over into Britain. But Ebroin detained Hadrian, suspecting that
he went on some mission from the Emperor to the kings of Britain, to the
prejudice of the kingdom of which he at that time had the chief charge; however,
when he found that in truth he had never had any such commission, he discharged
him, and permitted him to follow Theodore. As soon as he came to him, Theodore
gave him the monastery of the blessed Peter the Apostle, where the archbishops
of Canterbury are wont to be buried, as I have said before; for at his
departure, the Apostolic lord had enjoined upon Theodore that he should provide
for him in his province, and give him a suitable place to live in with his
followers.
