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had abilities and firmness sufficient to begin the CHA P. delivery of a fictitious message, when suddenly starting up, he clenched his weapon and rushed upon the king. The attack was so sudden that Edwin was off his guard and defenceless; but a thegn to whom he was greatly attached, Lilla, was near him he saw the rising dagger and Edwin's danger; he had no shield; but with the impulse of a generous heart he threw himself before his king, and received in his own body the blow, which it was impossible to avert. So vehement was the stroke that it went through Lilla and slightly wounded the king. The swords of the attendants were instantly drawn upon the murderer; but he stood on his defence, and was not hewn down till he had stabbed another knight with the weapon which he had withdrawn from his first victim's body.

On this same night his queen was delivered of her daughter Eanfleda. The king thanked his idols for her birth; and when Paulinus directed his attention to the Christian Saviour, Edwin, like Clovis, who had established in France the kingdom of the Francs, promised that he would adopt the faith he recommended, if heaven should give victory to his arms against the king, who had sent the assassin to destroy him. As a pledge of his own determination to fulfil this engagement, he consented to the baptism of the new-born babe, Eleven others of the household at the same time received the Christian rite. 13

tion of

EDWIN assembled his forces and advanced Introducagainst Cwichhelm. His expedition was success- ChristiBut on his return from his victory into Nor- anity into

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625.

BOOK thumbria, he delayed to embrace the new reli-
gion. He had become dissatisfied with his idols,
but he was of that class of mind, which requires
Northum- the conviction of its reason before it decides on its
bria. belief. He conferred long and anxiously with
Paulinus on the subject, and with his wisest
nobles. He was seen frequently sitting alone, dis-
cussing with himself what he ought to do, and to
which religion he should adhere. 15 In these deli-
berations a letter reached him from Pope Boniface,
exhorting him to abandon useless and insensible
idols, who of themselves could not even change
their locality; but if not moved by others, must,
like a stone, remain for ever where they were. The
pontiff told him he had a living spirit within him,
of which they were destitute, which would survive
the dissolution of his body; and added, "Come
then to the knowledge of Him who has created
you; who has breathed into you this spirit of life;
and who has sent his Son to redeem you from sin
and every
evil power; and to reward you with all
the blessings of his heavenly world."16

BONIFACE at the same time sent an epistle to his queen, reminding her of the duty of interesting her husband in Christianity; and urging her to soften his prepossessions against it, and to impress upon his senses the excellence of the faith she had adopted, and the admirable nature of its future rewards. 17

THESE letters were received and considered; but Paulinus found that the loftiness of the king's mind, and the natural pride of the Anglo-Saxon nation, could not be easily brought to stoop to

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the humility and gentleness of the Christian pre- CHA P. cepts. 18 In this juncture he appears to have come to the knowledge of the king's dream at the court of Redwald, and he made an ingenious use of it. THE vision at its departure was said to have laid its right hand on the king's head, and to have exclaimed: "When this sign is repeated, remember this conference, and perform your promise of obeying what will then be disclosed to you."

PAULINUS, without appearing to have had any previous knowledge of this dream, one day entered the king's apartment as he was pursuing his meditations on the opposing religions; and advancing with a solemn air, imitated the action of the imaginary figure, and placed his right hand on his sovereign's head, at the same time asking him if he remembered that sign.

THE king's sensibility was instantly affected. His dream and promise rushed upon his mind. He did not pause to consider that Paulinus might, from his queen or his intimate friends, have become acquainted with his own account of his believed vision. All seemed supernatural, and Paulinus to be the actual vision that had addressed him. He threw himself at the bishop's feet, who, pursuing the impression which he had excited, raised him, and exhorted him to lose no time to fulfil his thrice-repeated engagement; and reminded him that this, alone, would deliver him from the eternal evils of disobedience.19

THE king, now seriously affected by the important question, summoned his witena-gemot, that, if they participated in his feelings, all might be baptised together. When they met, he proposed the

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BOOK new worship for the subject of their deliberations, and required each to express his feelings without

III.

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COIFI, the high priest of their idols, as the first in rank, addressed; and unless the coarseness of his mind was that of the country, must have surprised the king. His speech, from the singularity of the criterion by which he governed the faint moral feeling he possessed, deserves a literal translation. "You see, O king! what is now preached to us. I declare to you most truly what I have most certainly experienced, that the religion which we have hitherto professed contains no virtue at all, and as little utility. No one of all your court has been more attentive than I have been to the worship of our gods; and yet many have received far richer benefits, far greater honours, and have prospered more in all that men transact or pursue, than I have. But if these gods had been of any real worth, would they not in preference have assisted me who have never neglected them? If then, on due enquiry, you shall perceive that these new things which are preached to us will be better and more efficacious, let us hasten to adopt them without any delay."

THIS effusion of self-interest would lead one to suspect that the effects of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Romanised and Christianised Britain, and of the civilisation, luxuries, and mental cultivation which it had, to a certain extent, exhibited to the Saxon eye, had already shaken their attachment to the rude superstitions of their ancestors; or the high priest of their national deities would not have, so feelingly, expatiated on his comparative neglect. This circumstance will contribute

to account for the ease with which Christianity CHAP. was established in the island.

THE next speaker discovered a mind unusually enlarged for a people hitherto so unaccustomed to intellectual investigations.

"THE present life of man, O king! seems to me, if compared with that after-period which is so uncertain to us, to resemble a scene at one of your wintry feasts. As you are sitting with your ealdormen and thegns about you, the fire blazing in the center, and the whole hall cheered by its warmth; and while storms of rain and snow are raging without, a little sparrow flies in at one door, roams around our festive meeting, and passes out at some other entrance. While it is among us, it feels not the wintry tempest. It enjoys the short comfort and serenity of its transient stay; but then, plunging into the winter from which it had flown, it disappears from our eyes. Such is here the life of man. It acts and thinks before us; but, as of what preceded its appearance among us we are ignorant, so are we of all that is destined to come afterwards. If, then, on this momentous future, this new doctrine reveals any thing more certain or more reasonable, it is in my opinion entitled to our acquiescence." 20

20 Bede, lib. ii. c. 13. Alfred's translation of this interesting speech presents it to us as near to its original form as we can now obtain it. Thyrlic me is gerepen, Cyning, this andparde lif manna on eopthan, to pithmetenýsse thæse tide the us uncuth is, spa zelic, spa thu æt spærendum sitte mid thinum ealbopmannum J thegnum on pinten tide J sy Fýn onæleb, din heall gepýnmed. I hit fine snipe J stýrine ute. Cume donne an Speappa hɲædlice hur duph fleo J cume duph oppe duru in; duph oppe ut zepite. Ppet he on ða tid de he inne bip, ne bip hrined mid by storme des pintɲes, ac p bip an eagan brỳhtm

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