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increase to your labours in the faithful management of the talents committed to you, and bestowing
it on that which you might confirm to many generations. This is conferred on you by that recompense
whereby, constantly persevering in the ministry imposed upon you, you have awaited with
praiseworthy patience the redemption of that nation, and that they might profit by your merits,
salvation has been bestowed on them. For our Lord Himself says, 'He that endureth to the end shall
be saved.'' You are, therefore, saved by the hope of patience, and the virtue of endurance, to the
end that the hearts of unbelievers, being cleansed from their natural disease of superstition, might
obtain the mercy of their Saviour: for having received letters from our son Adulwald, we perceive
with how much knowledge of the Sacred Word you, my brother, have brought his mind to the belief
in true conversion and the certainty of the faith. Therefore, firmly confiding in the long-suffering
of the Divine clemency, we believe that, through the ministry of your preaching, there will ensue
most full salvation not only of the nations subject to him, but also of their neighbours; to the end,
that as it is written, the recompense of a perfect work may be conferred on you by the Lord, the
Rewarder of all the just; and that the universal confession of all nations, having received the mystery
of the Christian faith, may declare, that in truth 'Their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their
words unto the end of the world.'
"We have also, my brother, moved by the warmth of our goodwill, sent you by the bearer of these
presents, the pall, giving you authority to use it only in the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries;
granting to you likewise to ordain bishops when there shall be occasion, through the Lord's mercy;
that so the Gospel of Christ, by the preaching of many, may be spread abroad in all the nations that
are not yet converted. You must, therefore, endeavour, my brother, to preserve with unblemished
sincerity of mind that which you have received through the kindness of the Apostolic see, bearing
in mind what it is that is represented by the honourable vestment which you have obtained to be
borne on your shoulders. And imploring the Divine mercy, study to show yourself such that you
may present before the tribunal of the Supreme Judge that is to come, the rewards of the favour
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Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England The Venerable Bede
granted to you, not with guiltiness, but with the benefit of souls. "God preserve you in safety, most
dear brother!"
CHAP. IX.
AT this time the nation of the Northumbrians, that is, the English tribe dwelling on the north
side of the river Humber, with their king, Edwin, received the Word of faith through the preaching
of Paulinus, of whom we have before spoken. This king, as an earnest of his reception of the faith,
and his share in the heavenly kingdom, received an increase also of his temporal realm, for he
reduced under his dominion all the parts of Britain that were provinces either of the English, or of
the Britons, a thing which no English king had ever done before; and he even subjected to the
English the Mevanian islands, as has been said above. The more important of these, which is to the
southward, is the larger in extent, and more fruitful, containing nine hundred and sixty families,
according to the English computation; the other contains above three hundred.
The occasion of this nation's reception of the faith was the alliance by marriage of their aforesaid
king with the kings of Kent, for he had taken to wife Ethelberg, otherwise called Tata, (a term of
endearment) daughter to King Ethelbert. When he first sent ambassadors to ask her in marriage of
her brother Eadbald, who then reigned in Kent, he received the answer, "That it was not lawful to
give a Christian maiden in marriage to a pagan husband, lest the faith and the mysteries of the
heavenly King should be profaned by her union with a king that was altogether a stranger to the
worship of the true God." This answer being brought to Edwin by his messengers, he promised that
he would in no manner act in opposition to the Christian faith, which the maiden professed; but
would give leave to her, and all that went with her, men and women, bishops and clergy, to follow
their faith and worship after the custom of the Christians. Nor did he refuse to accept that religion
himself, if, being examined by wise men, it should be found more holy and more worthy of God.
So the maiden was promised, and sent to Edwin, and in accordance with the agreement, Paulinus,
a man beloved of God, was ordained bishop, to go with her, and by daily exhortations, and
celebrating the heavenly Mysteries, to confirm her, and her company, lest they should be corrupted
by intercourse with the pagans. Paulinus was ordained bishop by the Archbishop Justus, on the
21st day of July, in the year of our Lord 625, and so came to King Edwin with the aforesaid maiden
as an attendant on their union in the flesh. But his mind was wholly bent upon calling the nation
to which he was sent to the knowledge of truth; according to the words of the Apostle, "To espouse
her to the one true Husband, that he might present her as a chaste virgin to Christ."' Being come
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