IX. How the holy man, Egbert, would have gone into
Germany to preach, but could not; and how Wictbert
went, but because he availed nothing, returned into Ireland,
whence he came. [Circ. 688 A.D.]
CHAP. VIII.
How, when Archbishop Theodore died, Bertwald succeeded him as archbishop, and,
among many others whom he ordained, he made the learned Tobias bishop of the
church of Rochester. [690 A.D.]
THE year after that in which Caedwalla died at Rome, that is, 690 after the
Incarnation of our Lord, Archbishop Theodore, of blessed memory, departed this
life, being old and full of days, for he was eighty-eight years of age; which
number of years he had been wont long before to foretell to his friends that he
should live, the same having been revealed to him in a dream. He held the
bishopric twenty-two years, and was buried in St. Peter's church, where all the
bodies of the bishops of Canterbury are buried. Of whom, as well as of his
fellows of the same degree, it may rightly and truly be said, that their bodies
are buried in peace, and their names shall live to all generations. For to say
all in few words, the English Churches gained more spiritual increase while he
was archbishop, than ever before. His character, life, age, and death, are
plainly and manifestly described to all that resort thither, by the epitaph on
his tomb, in thirty-four heroic verses. The first whereof are these:
"Here in the tomb rests the body of the holy prelate, called now in the Greek
tongue Theodore. Chief pontiff, blest high priest, pure doctrine he set forth to
his disciples."
The last are as follows:
"For September had reached its nineteenth day, when his spirit went forth from
the prison-bars of the flesh. Mounting in bliss to the gracious fellowship of
the new life, he was united to the angelic citizens in the heights of Heaven."
Bertwald succeeded Theodore in the archbishopric, being abbot of the monastery
called Racuulfe, which stands at the northern mouth of the river Genlade. He was
a man learned in the Scriptures, and perfectly instructed in ecclesiastical and
monastic teaching, yet in no wise to be compared to his predecessor. He was
chosen bishop in the year of our Lord 692, on the first day of July, when
Wictred and Suaebhard were kings in Kent; but he was ordained the next year, on
Sunday the 29th of June, by Godwin, metropolitan bishop of Gaul, and was
enthroned on Sunday the 31st of August. Among the many bishops whom he ordained
was Tobias, a man instructed in the Latin, Greek, and Saxon tongues, and
otherwise of manifold learning, whom he consecrated in the stead of Gedmund,
bishop of the Church of Rochester, who had died.
CHAP. IX.
How the holy man, Egbert, would have gone into Germany to preach, but could not;
and how Wictbert went, but because he availed nothing, returned into Ireland,
whence he came. [Circ. 688 A.D.]
AT that time the venerable servant of Christ, and priest, Egbert, who is to be
named with all honour, and who, as was said before, lived as a stranger and
pilgrim in Ireland to obtain hereafter a country in heaven, purposed in his mind
to profit many, taking upon him the work of an apostle, and, by preaching the
Gospel, to bring the Word of God to some of those nations that had not yet heard
it; many of which tribes he knew to be in Germany, from whom the Angles or
Saxons, who now inhabit Britain, are known to have derived their race and
origin; for which reason they are still corruptly called "Garmans" by the
neighbouring nation of the Britons. Such are the Frisians, the Rugini, the
Danes, the Huns, the Old Saxons, and the Boructuari. There are also in the same
parts many other peoples still enslaved to pagan rites, to whom the aforesaid
soldier of Christ determined to go, sailing round Britain, if haply he could
deliver any of them from Satan, and bring them to Christ; or if this might not
be, he was minded to go to Rome, to see and adore the thresholds of the holy
Apostles and martyrs of Christ.
But a revelation from Heaven and the working of God prevented him from achieving
either of these enterprises; for when he had made choice of most courageous
companions, fit to preach the Word, inasmuch as they were renowned for their
good deeds and their learning, and when all things necessary were provided for
the voyage, there came to him on a certain day early in the morning one of the
brethren, who had been a disciple of the priest, Boisil, beloved of God, and had
ministered to him in Britain, when the said Boisil was provost of the monastery
of Mailros, under the Abbot Eata, as has been said above. This brother told him
a vision which he had seen that night. "When after matins," said he, "I had laid
me down in my bed, and was fallen into a light slumber, Boisil, that was
sometime my master and brought me up in all love, appeared to me, and asked,
whether I knew him? I said, 'Yes, you are Boisil.' He answered, 'I am come to
bring Egbert a message from our Lord and Saviour, which must nevertheless be
delivered to him by you. Tell him, therefore, that he cannot perform the journey
he has undertaken; for it is the will of God that he should rather go to teach
the monasteries of Columba.' Now Columba was the first teacher of the Christian
faith to the Picts beyond the mountains northward, and the first founder of the
monastery in the island of Hii, which was for a long time much honoured by many
tribes of the Scots and Picts. The said Columba is now by some called
Columcille, the name being compounded from "Columba" and "Cella." Egbert, having
heard the words of the vision, charged the brother that had told it him, not to
tell it to any other, lest haply it should be a lying vision. But when he
considered the matter secretly with himself, he apprehended that it was true,
yet would not desist from preparing for his voyage which he purposed to make to
teach those nations.
A few days after the aforesaid brother came again to him, saying that Boisil had
that night again appeared to him in a vision after matins, and said, "Why did
you tell Egbert so negligently and after so lukewarm a manner that which I
enjoined upon you to say? Yet, go now and tell him, that whether he will or no,
he must go to Columba's monasteries, because their ploughs are not driven
straight; and he must bring them back into the right way." Hearing this, Egbert
again charged the brother not to reveal the same to any man. Though now assured
of the vision, he nevertheless attempted to set forth upon his intended voyage
with the brethren. When they had put aboard all that was requisite for so long a
voyage, and had waited some days for fair winds, there arose one night so
violent a storm, that part of what was on board was lost, and the ship itself
was left lying on its side in the sea. Nevertheless, all that belonged to Egbert
and his companions was saved. Then he, saying, in the words of the prophet, "For
my sake this great tempest is upon you,"' withdrew himself from that undertaking
and was content to remain at home.
But one of his companions, called Wictbert, notable for his contempt of the
world and for his learning and knowledge, for he had lived many years as a
stranger and pilgrim in Ireland, leading a hermit's life in great perfection,
took ship, and arriving in Frisland, preached the Word of salvation for the
space of two whole years to that nation and to its king, Rathbed; but reaped no
fruit of all his great labour among his barbarous hearers. Returning then to the
chosen place of his pilgrimage, he gave himself up to the Lord in his wonted
life of silence, and since he could not be profitable to strangers by teaching
them the faith, he took care to be the more profitable to his own people by the
example of his virtue.
