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 Life and legends of Saint Chad,^W 
 
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LIFE AND LEGENDS 
 
 kkt (I|k4 
 
 Bishop of lichfield, (669 — 672) 
 
 WITH EXTRACTS FROM UN-EDITED MSS., 
 AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 Rev. R. HYETT WARNER, M. A. 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; CURATE 
 OF WRYDECROFT, THORNEY. 
 
 WISBECH: LEACH & SON; 
 London : BELL & DALDY ; Cambridge : DEIGHTON, BELL & Co. 
 
 All rights are reserved. 
 
■-I iTfi ^ 
 vf 'J V J 
 
 WISBECH ; 
 
 LEACH AND SON, PRINTERS, 
 
 26, HIGH STREET. 
 
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INTRODUCTORY. — Birth-place and parentage of Chad — Studies under Aidan at 
 Lindisfame — Proceeds to Rathmelsigi, in Ireland, and studies with Egbert. Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 LASTINGHAM.— Monastery founded by Cedd, brother of Chad — Cedd dies here and 
 . leaves monastery to Chad — Trumbert and Ovin join Chad here — Wilfrid is appointed 
 to the see of York, but, remaining abroad, Chad is consecrated to the see in his stead- 
 Chad proceeds to Canterbury for consecration, thence to Winchester, where he is 
 consecrated by Wini and two British Bishops — Returns to his diocese — Description of 
 his labors — Is compelled to ride by Archbishop Theodore. Page 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WILFRID returns to England, and Chad is deposed by Archbishop Theodore and 
 
 retires to Lastingham — Is erroneously stated to have assisted at Cuthbert's consecration, 
 
 and to have signed a charter conveying land to his see — Chantry founded at York in 
 
 his honour — Honoured at Durham. ... Page 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHAD'S LIFE at Lastingham — Is made bishop of the Mercians on the death of 
 
 Jarumanus — Proceeds to Repton, whence he removes the episcopal see to Lichfield— 
 
 The Lindisfari added to his diocese — Founds a monastery in Lincolnshire — Review of 
 
 his labours in Mercia — Founds an oratory in Lichfield. .... Page 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 LEGENDS of Saint Chad — Hermit life in the forest — Tames a wild hart — Produces, by 
 his prayers, a well from the earth — Encounters Wulfade and Rufine, sons of Wulpher 
 — Converts them to Christianity — Removes his oratory to Wulpher-chester — Martyrdom 
 of the young princes — Remorse of their father — At Chad's instigation, Wulpher builds 
 Peterborough monastery — Miracle of the sun-beam, and cloak, &c. - - - Page 75 
 
ii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EXAMINATION of foregoing legends — Peterborough version of the martyrdom of the 
 princes — Another version from Cottonian Library — Account in Life of S. Werburga — 
 Quotation from Polyolbion — Its fabulous character exhibited. Page 95 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHAD'S pious custom during a storm — Metrical version of the anecdote — Jeremy 
 Taylor's remarks thereupon — Is warned by angels of his approaching death — Metrical 
 version of story — His edifying piety and happy departure — His brother said to have 
 appeared to him at death— Latin lines written in his honour. Page 111 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE SAINT'S bones removed into new church by Bishop Hedda — Miracles at his 
 tomb — Removed by Bishop Roger into new church — The Translation commemorated 
 in Breviary — Collect for the service — Bishop Langton builds a shrine for his relics — 
 Lines from Polyolbion, and from Marmion — Extract from sermon of Dr. South — Chad's 
 oratory and well — Celebration of Chad's day in Lichfield in mediaeval times — Account 
 of the services — Saint Chad in the Breviaries, Martyrologies, and Calendars — Saint 
 Chad's Gospel described — Extracts from homily for Chad's day. .... Page 127 
 
 NOTES. Page 149 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SAINT CHAD, TANNER MS Frontispiece 
 
 FIGURE FROM CRYPT OF LASTINGHAM 1 9 
 
 CONSECRATION OF CHAD AT WINCHESTER ... opposite 36 
 
 ARCHBISHOP THEODORE COMPELS CHAD TO RIDE opposite 40 
 
 CEDD's well at LASTINGHAM 42 
 
 PORTRAIT OF CHAD FROM YORK MINSTER ... opposite 56 
 
 FIGURE FROM CRYPT OF LASTINGHAM 57 
 
 CROSS FROM LASTINGHAM 74 
 
 FACSIMILE OF LORD's PRAYER FROM CHAD'S GOSPEL 
 
 opposite 1 44 
 
 EVANGELIC SYMBOLS FROM DITTO opposite 1 46 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 44. I am, unfortunately, unable to recall the exact title of the letter referred to. 
 Page 60, for "utarur" read "utatur."' 
 
 for "coryoris'' read "corporis." 
 

 ^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 As the life of a Saxon Bishop of the seventh century is hardly a subject which an 
 unpractised pen might be expected spontaneously to choose for a first effort, a few 
 words seem needed to account for the appearance of the present volume. 
 
 Saint Chad, though better Icnown as Bishop of Lichfield, vifas, for some time, abbat of a 
 monastery supposed to have been situated in the modem parish of Lastingham. This 
 parish, though not populous, is very extensive, comprising several scattered hamlets, in one 
 of which, a scheme has been set on foot for the erection of a District Church. By way of 
 assisting the fund, now being raised for this purpose, the writer was induced, by friends 
 interested in the project, to draw up a short Life of Saint Chad, the patron saint, so 
 to speak, of the parish. His original design did not extend beyond a small tract for local 
 circulation, but as materials accumulated upon his hands, the modest tract has assumed a 
 more ambitious form, in the little volume now, with much diffidence, submitted to the 
 indulgent reader. 
 
 Should the critic ever vouchsafe to notice so small a work, the propriety of a presbyter 
 of the Anglican Communion writing the Life of a Canonized Saint, may, perhaps, be called 
 in question. From an ultramontane point of view, a person canonized by Rome is, so to 
 speak, the exclusive property of the See which enrolled him in the Calendar. Hence, one, 
 who does not acknowledge the authority which declared him to be a saint, may not be 
 thought capable of understanding, much less of pourtraying, those graces, which won for 
 their possessor so glorious a distinction in the Catholic Church. It will, however, be seen, 
 % the following pages, that, while I have endeavoured to do justice to the character of 
 this ancient bishop of our Church, I have only made use of the title of "Saint," given to 
 him by the Bishop of Rome, as a historical .designation, which it would have been 
 inconvenient, if not impossible, to suppress. 
 
 Read in the light of ecclesiastical history, and modem thought, the education of the 
 Teuton monk at the feet of Celtic doctors, his elevation to the Northumbrian see, 
 founded by the missionaries of Gregory, and his consecration by bishops representing 
 converging lines of Apostolic succession, invest Chad with an exceptional interest ; while 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 the deep personal piety, and fervent zeal, he displayed in his two episcopates, shed a 
 beautiful light upon the cradle of the Church he served so well. 
 
 The pen of the biographer has been worthily employed in recording the labours of those 
 brave and pious men, who, at the risk of their lives, have carried the Gospel from England 
 to so many heathen lands ; but, surely, the pioneers of Christianity, among the people 
 who have given to England herself, a name and renown, deserve no less to be held in 
 grateful remembrance. Of these apostolic men. Saint Chad is allowed, on all hands, to 
 have been one of the most earnest and successful, as he certainly has been one of the most 
 honoured of the Anglo-Saxon bishops. 
 
 None the less does the writer feel, that the interest of the present volume mil largely 
 depend upon matters not strictly biographical. In the life of a mediaeval saint this is 
 inevitable. The prayers and legends, which, to one who receives, without doubt or 
 hesitation, whatever may have have obtained the sanction of the Roman Church, belong 
 to the realm of devotion ; for one of a less robust faith, can have, at the most, a deeply 
 human interest, as illustrating the manners and belief of a bygone age. 
 
 A word as to the legends themselves. They must by no means be confounded with 
 authentic history, but yet they are most instructive. The monks, like other men, sailed 
 in quest of the ideal, as Saint Brendan sailed in quest of the Fortunate Isles ; and if they 
 sought it, after their own fashion, in enchanted forests, or thought to find it in the persons 
 of hero-saints, were they less successful than the crowd of poets and philosophers who 
 are ever returning from the same disappointing voyage ? 
 
 With respect to the materials made use of in this book, it is hardly needful to say that 
 Venerable Bede is the chief, and almost only, authority, that learned historian deriving 
 his information from the monks of the monastery of which Chad had been abbot. A life 
 of Saint Chad is said to have been written by Daniel, seventh Bishop of Winchester ; but, 
 as far as I have been able to ascertain. It is not now extant ; otherwise, much additional 
 information would, probably, have been accessible. 
 
 Besides the printed sources of information, I have made use'of a metrical life of Saint 
 Chad, existing in MS., and attributed to Robert of Gloucester. 'As this document, in 
 its original form and orthography, would have been hardly intelligible to the general 
 reader, I have gladly availed myself of a version made from a MS. in Coi-pus Christi 
 College, Cambridge, kindly furnished me by the Rev. W. M. Snell, Fellow of that 
 Society. To the same gentleman I am indebted for a transcript of a mutilated Cottonian 
 MS., of which extracts are given, relating the martyrdom of SS. Wulfade and Rufine, 
 said to have been converted by our saint. 
 
 The pleasant task remains, of acknowledging my obligations to other friends at a 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 distance, who have, in various ways, helped me in my little undertaking. Amongst 
 these I must especially not omit to thank the Rev. R. D. Easlerby, Vicar of Lasting- 
 ham, for some written and printed memoranda, bearing upon the subject, which he 
 collected and kindly placed at my disposal ; nor must I forget to notice the kindness 
 of W. C. Gresley, Esq., who, at the request of the Rev. Canon Lonsdale, has most 
 courteously examined this life of one, in whom some interest still survives amid the 
 scene of his former labours. Though at the risk of unduly extending this preface, I 
 should be, indeed, ungrateful were I to pass over in silence the many valuable suggestions 
 made in the course of the work by my friend and neighbour the Rev. F. Jackson. 
 
 With respect to the illustrations, I can only regret that the circumstances under which 
 the book is published, have not allowed me to do full justice to the drawings generously 
 furnished me by friends. The more fitting it is that I should publicly thank them, for 
 permitting the productions of their pencils to appear in their present humble guise. 
 
 From the foregoing remarks it will have been seen that the work is due to external, 
 rather than internal, causes. I can, however, truly say that its preparation has afforded 
 me real pleasure, and that I part from it mth regret. In committing it to the press, I 
 shall only be too thankful, if, in spite of the infirmity cleaving to all human efforts, it 
 should be the humble instrument of inducing any one in the ancient kingdoms of Mercia 
 and Northumbria, to emulate the gentle spirit and holy zeal of this ancient prelate, or even 
 if it should advance the work of God but a little, in a hamlet where his voice was heard, 
 twelve hundred years ago, but which is still without its village church ! 
 

 CHAPTER I. 
 
 How beautifal your presence, how benign, 
 Servants of God ! who not a thought will share 
 With the vain world ; who outwardly as bare 
 As winter trees, yield no fallacious sign 
 That the firm soul is clothed with frtiit divine ! 
 Such Priest, when service worthy of his care 
 Has called hira forth to breathe the common air, 
 Might seem a saintly Image from its shrine 
 Descended : 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 T was one of the many beautiful conceptions 
 of Greek mythology to place the scroll of 
 History in the hands of the first of the nine sisters 
 of the god of music and poetry. One could almost wish, 
 so that she appeared in Christian guise, that the Muse 
 were still a living personality, rather than a creation of 
 poetic fancy, that she might tell of the divine harmony 
 underlying the discords of the world, and quell with her 
 song the evil spirit which would give up the Universe 
 to the rule of Chance or Fate. 
 
 Trusting to no such blind deities, but in the wisdom of 
 the All-loving Father, Religion dries the tears of sorrow, 
 and solves the dark enigmas of History. The ages, which, 
 in the eyes of those who lived in them, were given over 
 
 B 
 
2 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 to anarchy and chaos, are seen by posterity to have been 
 overshadowed by the darkness which preceded a glorious 
 dawn. 
 
 One of the darkest of these epochs was the seventh 
 century of the Christian era. Like the son of an exiled 
 prince, it was ushered into the world amid sorrow and 
 shame. The future of the human race, save to the eye 
 of faith, was shrouded in deepest gloom. The stupendous 
 fabric of civilization and power which kings and consuls, 
 tribunes and emperors, had built up, and which seemed 
 to offer some guarantee for the tranquillity of mankind, 
 had been dismantled and overthrown, but the mystic 
 power which has since overshadowed the world, was even 
 then rising upon its ruins. 
 
 In the East the splendid genius of Justinian, though 
 aided by the sword of Belisarius, had striven in vain to 
 recall the kingly spirit which had reared the throne of 
 his predecessors. The provinces which still received their 
 rulers from Constantinople were torn by religious dissen- 
 sions. The blood of true believers, mingled with that of 
 heretics in shameful disputes concerning the Person of Him, 
 who said, " By this shall all men know that ye are my 
 disciples, if ye have love one to another." The fury of the 
 contending factions was hardly less injurious to the Church 
 than that of the ferocious hordes who flocked round the 
 banner of the Arabian prophet. 
 
Introductory. 3 
 
 But the Spirit of God was moving upon the face of these 
 troubled waters. From the dreary annals of this age one 
 event stands out in noble relief to the sad tale of its sins 
 and sorrows. This was the conversion of the Northern 
 Nations to Christianity, which, though commenced in pre- 
 vious centuries was mainly accomplished in this. No such 
 accessions to Christ's earthly kingdom take place by chance, 
 but in obedience to natural laws, and to God's providential 
 government. Amid the infinite fluctuations of ancient 
 populations, now so difficult to trace, there was a race 
 silently preparing, like a saint in his solitude, to take a 
 noble part in the future history of mankind. When, to the 
 splendid gifts which the Teuton race had received from 
 nature, were added the costlier gifts of grace, a new and 
 glorious career was opened to the people whose savage 
 virtues overthrew the power of Rome and inherited the 
 mantle of her world-wide dominion. Like those curiously 
 wrought vessels found in pagan tombs, and afterwards by a 
 beautiful ritual consecrated to Christian uses, the unknown 
 tribes which followed the standards of the Gothic leaders 
 only awaited admission into the Catholic Church to turn 
 their swords against its foes, and to lay their gifts upon 
 its altars. Whatever may have been the voice crying in 
 this northern wilderness, " Prepare ye the way of the 
 Lord," no nations have gone out to listen to it in like man- 
 ner since. It has been well observed " that nothing of the 
 
 B 2 
 
4 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 " same kind has happened for more than a thousand years. 
 " The world is still in large proportion heathen. Christianity 
 " is indeed still spreading, but mainly by the spread and 
 " migration of those races whose conversion was completed 
 " then."* 
 
 But it is from that portion of this great family which 
 made Britain its home, that the following piece of bio- 
 graphy will derive its chief interest. The reception of our 
 forefathers into the fold of Christ may be regarded as a 
 very natural, but is certainly the most glorious event in our 
 history. To the light, then kindled, England owes her 
 religion and learning, her literature and fame. From this 
 first great stirring of the hearts of the people has flowed 
 every religious movement, and nearly every political revo- 
 lution which has since taken place in these islands. Upon 
 the foundation, then laid, has been reared the noble fabric 
 of our civil and religious liberty. Yet the pen of the 
 historian seldom lingers upon this noble part of our annals. 
 It hastens on to describe with dramatic effect the wars and 
 pageants of later times. But no tale of mediaeval romance, 
 no record of missionary effort, can surpass in interest the 
 story of our forefathers' conversion to the true religion of 
 humanity. It is full of stirring scenes, dramatic situations, 
 and deeply touching incidents. The Gospel of Christ 
 played then, as it ever will do, upon the noblest and 
 
 • Good Words, August, 1869. 
 
Introductory. 5 
 
 tenderest chords of the human heart, and is woven for 
 ever into the fabric of our national life. 
 
 Like most of the memorable events of history this great 
 religious movement assumes a deeper interest the more it 
 is read in the light of personal character. What manner of 
 men were those who persuaded our pagan forefathers to 
 forego their hopes of Valhalla, with its golden halls, for the 
 Christian paradise ? What was the secret of that elo- 
 quence which threw down the temples of Odin and Thor, 
 and raised in their stead in every village of our land its 
 silent witness to the presence of God ? By what spell was 
 this race of conquerors itself subdued, and they who came 
 hither to set up earthly kingdoms themselves led captive by 
 the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ? The full answer 
 to all this is enshrined in the very bosom of Christianity 
 itself, albeit in the lives of these good men some faint 
 echoes of it may perchance be heard. 
 
 A superficial study of the characters of these early 
 pioneers of Christianity amongst us may give rise to a 
 feeling of disappointment. Few of them have found a 
 place in the philosophy, or left their mark, upon the literature 
 of the world. But God hath ever " chosen the weak things 
 of the world to confound the things which are mighty, 
 and things which are not, to bring to nought the things 
 that are." As our Lord chose the humble fishermen and 
 tax-gatherers of Galilee to lay the foundations of His 
 
6 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 Church, so this great Church and people are the noblest 
 monument of the labours of those who first preached the 
 Gospel to the Teuton conquerors of Britain. 
 
 For what is known of the Apostles of Christianity in 
 Britain, we are mainly indebted to the pen of the Vene- 
 rable Bede. His history furnishes a complete gallery of 
 ecclesiastical portraits, in some cases, perhaps, not more like 
 the originals, than the figures in the Bayeux tapestry are 
 like the knights who fought, and fell, on the field of Hast- 
 ings. Yet the intelligent reader of Bede will value the 
 credulity and ouaintness pervading his work as illustrating 
 the age in which he lived ; the honesty and good nature 
 conspicuous in every page he will welcome as the author's 
 own. With the help of these valuable qualities in the his- 
 torian, and a little thought, a very good notion may be 
 obtained of the eminent persons whose lives he has record- 
 ed. Among them we see newly-converted kings struggling 
 manfully to bring their fierce subjects to the obedience of 
 Christ ; others throw off the unwelcome yoke altogether, and 
 vanish into utter darkness and apostacy. Others, too, are 
 seen weary of the weight of royalty, and 
 
 ' ' Leaving human \Yrongs to right themselves, 
 Care but to pass into the silent life." 
 
 Loud indeed is the historian in his praises of the holy 
 women whom God raised up, to rebuke by their gentle 
 manners and their holy lives, the fierce and licentious spirit 
 
Introductory . 7 
 
 of their age. What Englishman can read without deep 
 interest the story of good Queen Bertha, paving the way in 
 her husband's court by the eloquence of love, for the» 
 preaching of Augustine ? Or of her daughter, Ethelburga 
 the bride of king Edwin, and the fair herald of the 
 Gospel in Northumbria ? 
 
 Stern, too, were the criticism which would tear away 
 the veil from the face of Saint Bega, the first of our 
 English nuns, to disclose the possibly mistaken woman, 
 fleeing from her father's court to dwell among the fishermen 
 of Cumberland ; which could hear no echo of the Gospel 
 in the self-denial which snatched her from the world to 
 present her as a living sacrifice to the Church ; or which 
 could see nothing to revere in her friend Saint Hilda, 
 whose queenly bearing and Christian virtues made her the 
 fitting guardian, and her monastery the happy home, of 
 the daughters of kings ; "whom," says the old legend, "all 
 that knew her called mother, for her singular piety and 
 grace." With which two saints may be fitly linked in holy 
 renown. Saint Ebba, sister of king Oswald. Like them, 
 she laboured long and well among her semi-pagan country- 
 men ; and the light which now quivers over the northern 
 waves, from the headland bearing her name, preserves her 
 memory and is a fitting emblem of her virtues. 
 
 But, as might be expected, in a monastic writer, the 
 mitre and the cowl claim even more attention than the 
 
S Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 virgin's veil. The admiration bestowed by Bede upon some 
 of the ecclesiastics of his time, is as genuine as it was in 
 most instances well deserved. Many of them owe their 
 fame entirely to his pen. As these men pass before us, one 
 by one, in the silent array of history, we wonder at the odd 
 opinions and actions recorded in their lives; but beneath 
 their quaint exterior may be discerned those qualities, which, 
 in every age, have subjugated the minds and wills of other 
 men. Saint Patrick the Apostle of the Irish, Saint Colomba, 
 who evangelized the Scots, Saint Aidan and Saint Cuthbert 
 of Lindisfarne, were men, who, in any age, or in any walk 
 of life, would have towered above their fellows, and won a 
 place in the annals of mankind. 
 
 In the foreground of this picture of saints and virgins 
 and confessors, may be discerned the faint outlines of four 
 brothers, all accounted righteous men in their generation. 
 They all served the Church in the sacred office of the 
 priesthood, and it was fondly noted in the Breviaries 
 that their number was that of the Evangelists. All of 
 the brothers strove, very earnestly, to win the hearts of 
 their pagan countrymen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; but 
 two of them met with such success in their labours, 
 that their names were enrolled in the Calendars of the 
 Catholic Church, and they were venerated in after ages 
 as Saint Chad and Saint Cedd. Upon this similarity 
 in their names, Fuller remarks in his quaint way, " A 
 
Introductory . 9 
 
 " brace of brothers, both bishops, both eminent for learning 
 " and religion, now appeared in the Church, so like in name, 
 " they are often mistaken in authors one for another. Now 
 " though it be pleasant for brethren to live together in 
 " unity yet it is not fit by error they should be jumbled 
 " together in confusion." Of these two brothers, Saint 
 Chad became very dear to the hearts of his countrymen, 
 not only on account of the untiring zeal with which he 
 sought to promote their eternal interests, but also for the 
 humble and gentle manner with which he ever enforced 
 the doctrines he proclaimed, so strongly contrasting with 
 the lordly mein of many who laboured in the same holy 
 cause. Chad played an important part in the religious 
 movements of his time, and, as a popular saint, has found 
 a place in legend and in song, from which he is even better 
 known than from his place in the Calendar. 
 
 The historian does not record the exact date of his birth, 
 but it must have taken place early in the seventh century. 
 Nor does he mention where he was born ; and we are left 
 to infer from several passages in his, and other works that 
 Chad was an Angle by birth and a native of Northumbria. 
 Even this has been a matter of dispute. Thomas Demp- 
 ster, who is described as a learned, but inaccurate writer, 
 who filled the chair of philology at Pisa, in Italy, in James 
 the First's time, wrote in Latin an account of Scottish 
 Saints in a work entitled Menologium Scotorum or Scottish 
 
 c ■ 
 
lO Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 Menology. Amongst these saints he includes Chad, and 
 states, but without naming his authority, that his bones 
 were carried to Dundraim, and there devoutly interred. 
 The orthodoxy and patriotism of this writer may have 
 induced him to make the most of the fact, that, in Anglo- 
 Saxon times, Northumbria included part of Scotland ; or, he 
 may have been misled by the circumstance that Chad ad- 
 hered to the Scottish party in the theological controversies 
 of the time. On the other hand the Irish writers did not* 
 suffer it to be forgotten that the Scoti, like Colomba, once 
 sailed from the green shores of Ireland. The learned Col- 
 gan willing to place a leaf in the saintly crown of Erin, 
 reckons Saint Chad among the pious Irishmen of former 
 days, on the strength, however, of his having spent some 
 years of his youth in Ireland. But there can be no reason- 
 able doubt that the home of Chad was in the land which 
 gave birth to Cuthbert and Bede, to Wilfrid and Coedmon, 
 and many other lights of the Anglo-Saxon Church. 
 
 In prouder, if not happier days, Northumbria extended 
 from the Humber to the Firth of Forth, far beyond the wall 
 which Hadrian had vainly erected as a rampart against the 
 Caledonians. At the royal fortress of Bamborough, over- 
 looking the Northern Sea, its princes maintained a splendid 
 court, and held at bay the ferocious pirates, who were even 
 then becoming the scourge of the eastern coast. More than 
 one of them was invested with the dignity of Bretwalda ; 
 
Northumbria. i r 
 
 between them and the Mercian Kings wavered the balance 
 of power in the heptarchy, until the sceptre passed to the 
 descendants of Cerdic. 
 
 No part of England has changed more in outward ap- 
 pearance, than this ancient kingdom. Could Saint Chad 
 visit once more this scene of his earthly labours, he might 
 well be amazed at the changes which the lapse of ages has 
 brought about. The mighty forests in which he roamed 
 have given place to cultivated fields ; the hamlets, familiar 
 to his childhood, have grown into gigantic towns ; beneath 
 the firm earth whereon he trod toils a race that never heard 
 his voice ; beyond the weird and murky mass of clouds, 
 lurid with the blaze of countless fires, he would hardly 
 obtain even a transient glimpse of the blue Northumbrian 
 sky of his boyhood, nor in the turbid waters which bear our 
 colliers to the sea would he recognise the clear streams in 
 which he baptized the first-fruits of his ministry. 
 
 The population of Northumbria, in his time consisted 
 chiefly of Angles, who, under their renowned leader Ida, 
 had founded this powerful kingdom. They are thought by 
 some to have been more civilized than their Saxon fellow 
 conquerors, in which case Saint Chad shared, and perhaps 
 illustrated, the gentler qualities of his race. 
 
 Of his actual birth, beyond the fact that his parents 
 were Angles, we know nothing. His father was probably 
 of not lower rank than that of thegn, and may well have 
 
 c 2 
 
1 2 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 been one of the converts of Paulinus. A family which fur- 
 nished the Anglo-Saxon Church with four earnest preachers 
 could hardly have been reared in a common home. Un- 
 like, in this respect, some other popular saints, no marvellous 
 stories have been told of the infancy or childhood of Saint 
 Chad. No myth, or legend, or pious fable, survives to tell 
 that the future bishop differed, for good or ill, from other 
 youths of his time. It was not until he had reached man- 
 hood that the rich treasures of an earnest and- devout 
 character, accumulated in youth, became known to the 
 Church. 
 
 We first meet with Chad as a pupil of Saint Aidan. 
 This eminent Christian had been sent by the monks of 
 lona, in obedience to a welcome summons from Oswald 
 king of Northumbria, who had lived among them since the 
 death of his uncle Edwin and the flight of bishop Paulinus. 
 The pious king remembered with gratitude the good men 
 who had instructed and consoled him in adversity, and when 
 God restored him to the throne of his fathers, applied to 
 -them for teachers to instruct his people in the doctrines of 
 Christianity. In due time Aidan arrived, and was joyfully 
 and honourably received by the king. A glorious opening 
 was thus presented to this Apostolic man. The field 
 which the earnest Paulinus had been compelled reluctantly 
 to abandon, was now white with the harvest of souls, 
 waiting to be gathered into the garners of the Church. 
 
Lindisfarne. 1 3 
 
 The new bishop did not return to York as the seat of 
 his bishopric, but, out of affection to the scene of his former 
 labours, made choice of the little island of Lindisfarne upon 
 the coast of Northumberland. From the similarity of its 
 physical aspect and moral influence, this island has been 
 aptly called the lona of Northumbria. It is the last place 
 which a modern bishop would choose for the chief city of 
 his diocese, but it harmonized well with the stern spirit of 
 Celtic asceticism. It would indeed have been difficult to 
 find in the dominions of Oswald a drearier spot than the 
 rocky isle on which Saint Aidan lived and prayed. So 
 narrow was his sea-girt home, that the solemn chants of 
 the pious bishop and his companions must have mingled 
 with the roar of the ocean ever beating upon its shores ; the 
 roof of their humble minster must often have been washed 
 by the spray, as the winds rushed wildly over the Northern 
 sea. Twice a day Lindisfarne ceases to be an island, again, 
 twice a day, the returning tide secludes it from the world : 
 
 " Dry shod, o'er sands, twice every day 
 The pilgrims to the shrine find way : 
 Twice every day the waves efface 
 Of staves, and sandal'd feet, the trace." 
 
 Such was the home of Aidan the Apostle of Northum- 
 bria. It has been said to bear " the impress of melancholy 
 and barrenness." Yet on its forsaken shores was kindled a 
 light which illuminated no small part of England with the 
 blessings of Christianity, It has a story, the interest of 
 
14 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 which can never fade away. Hither were brought the ashes 
 of kings. Here many a Saint watched and prayed. Here, 
 above all, lived the good Saint Cuthbert, and here he 
 rested till the evil days came, and the Danes drove the 
 monks from their island-home ; and not before they had 
 wandered with his coffin, many a weary mile, did they find 
 the Saint a more tranquil and abiding sepulchre : 
 
 " There deep in Durham's gothic shade 
 His relics were in secret laid 
 
 But none may know the place; 
 Save of his holiest servants three, 
 Deep sworn to solemn secrecy, 
 
 Who shared that wondrous grace." 
 
 But though the fame of Cuthbert eclipsed that of his 
 illustrious predecessor, it was Aidan who first made Lindis- 
 farne classic ground. A long line of prelates looked back 
 to him with filial regard, and for ages maintained the 
 influence of the traditions he transplanted from lona. 
 
 Unlike other island saints, Aidan did not live alone 
 at Lindisfame. Soon after his appointment to the 
 bishopric, he gathered round him twelve promising youths, 
 to help and succeed him in the ministry, desiring, even in 
 outward forms, to follow the example of his Divine Master. 
 
 It was one of the many good customs of this excellent 
 bishop to devote the offerings of the rich to the ransom of 
 young men from captivity, whom he afterwards trained for 
 the ministry. Chad was one of his pupils, and may possibly 
 have been thus rescued from a cruel fate to adorn the 
 
Saint Aidan. 15 
 
 Church with his virtues. In any case he was probably one 
 of this band of disciples, who first received christian instruc- 
 tion from the lips of Saint Aidan. He could not 
 have sat at the feet of a better Gamaliel ; and the 
 reader will pardon a brief pause in the life of the pupil, to 
 obtain a passing glimpse of the illustrious preceptor, to whom 
 he owed so much. The marvellous stories related of him 
 by Bede, belong to that dim background of pious legend, 
 without which the life of a Catholic saint would be tame 
 and incomplete ; how he foretold to some mariners a certain 
 storm which was to befall them at sea ; and how they 
 quelled it with some consecrated oil with which he had 
 provided them ; how the flames which were destroying the 
 royal city of Bamborough were turned back at his prayers ; 
 and how the post of the church, on which he was leaning 
 when he died, remained unconsumed by the fire which laid 
 the fabric in ashes. Happily for his fame the historian has 
 chronicled matters far more edifying. Above the turmoil 
 and clamour of that unsettled age, we catch the echo of his 
 voice, as he preached the gospel to his Northumbrian flock 
 in his own Celtic tongue, whilst the king stands at his side 
 to interpret to his people the words of comfort and peace. 
 Well might the servant of Christ bewail the fatal field 
 which robbed the Church of so great an ornament, and 
 himself of so dear a friend. And when, his other royal 
 friend, king Oswin of Deira, fell beneath the assassin's sword, 
 
1 6 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 no marvel, that, worn out with toil and sorrow, he followed 
 within twelve days his benefactor to the tomb. 
 
 But, till death released him from earthly cares, he 
 laboured hard and successfully in his enormous diocese. 
 Chad led no idle life under the eye of Aidan. The bishop 
 required the young men, who studied under him, to devote 
 much of their time to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, 
 and to learning by heart large portions of the Psalter. To 
 these devout and useful studies they doubtless owed much 
 of their future success as missionaries. In the intervals of 
 study, we may imagine these good men coasting along the 
 Northumbrian shore in their convent boat ; or at the ebbing 
 of the tide passing over to the adjacent hamlets, two and 
 two, to preach the gospel, and returning to pour the tale of 
 their successes or reverses into the ears of their father in 
 the faith. 
 
 How long Chad remained at Lindisfarne we cannot tell, 
 but it was probably at the death of his friend, bishop 
 Aidan, in 651, that he proceeded to Ireland where we next 
 meet with him. His object was to devote himself to the 
 study of the Holy Scriptures, and to "a life of continence 
 and prayer." In coming to Ireland he ascended still 
 higher the stream of Celtic learning, and his after life 
 shows how deeply he imbibed the austere spirit of the 
 Celtic Church. Religion and learning had long flourished 
 in this "virgin isle" to an extent unknown in those countries 
 
Lindisfarne. 1 7 
 
 which had been subdued by Roman arms. Whilst the 
 power of the Caesars was crumbling into ruins, Ireland was 
 fulfilling the mission ascribed to the Celtic race,* that of 
 supplying the link between Latin and Teutonic civilization. 
 Her chroniclers tell, with just pride, of the illustrious stran- 
 gers who flocked to her shores, that they might pursue their 
 sacred studies in tranquillity, and sit at the feet of the most 
 renowned sages in Christendom. 
 
 Here Chad enjoyed the friendship of more than one 
 holy man, belonging to what is known in history, as the 
 third order of Irish Saints. This order was not so highly 
 esteemed as the two preceding, for, whereas the first order 
 was most holy, the second very holy, this third was only 
 holy ; and, whereas the first shone like the Sun, the second 
 like the Moon, the third only reflected the pale light of the 
 Stars. But though these saints were held in less esteem 
 than those who had gone before them, they surpassed them 
 in the austerity of their lives. Their mode of living is well 
 described by, and perhaps suggested the well-known lines : 
 
 "No flock^ that roam the valley free 
 
 To slaughter I condemn ; 
 Taught by the power that pities me, 
 
 I learn to pity them. 
 But from the mountain's grassy side 
 
 A guiltless feast I bring ; 
 A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied, 
 
 And water from the spring." 
 
 One of these austere fathers, with whom Chad became 
 
 * Ozanam, Etudes Germaniques. 
 
 D 
 
1 8 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 acquainted, was the celebrated Egbert, who afterwards was 
 Abbot of lona, and won over the stubborn sons of Colomba, 
 to the ritual and discipline of Rome. They are said to 
 have studied together at the monastery of Rathmelsigi, 
 This place has been usually identified with Melfont, in 
 the County of Louth, in which case, the history of Chad 
 is connected with one of the chief monastic glories of 
 Ireland. Here, says the learned Dr. O'Connor, the saint 
 was instructed, not only in grammar, rhetoric, metre, 
 geometry, and sacred learning, but, also, in the Irish 
 language ; an acquirement of the greatest value to those 
 who were to proclaim to their own countrymen the gospel 
 which they received from the lips of Irish teachers. 
 
 As time rolls on, the sad story of Ireland deepens in 
 painful and perplexing interest ; but across the centuries of 
 anarchy and misrule through which she has passed. English- 
 men may well look back with gratitude to those palmy days, 
 when the doctors of Ireland received our youth to their 
 humble homes, and set before them, without stint or hope 
 of recompense, the treasures of their sacred lore. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ' Oh ! hide me hi thy temple, arc serene. 
 
 Where safe upon the swell of this rude sea 
 I might survey the stars, thy towers between. 
 
 And might pray always, not that I would be 
 Uplifted, or would fain not dwell with thee 
 On the rough waters, but in soul within 
 
 I sigh for thy pure calm, serene and free ; 
 I too would prove thy Temple, 'mid the din 
 Of earthly things unstained by care or sin." 
 
 The Cathedral. 
 
 |N the edge of the extensive moor which stretches 
 some thirty miles inland from the Yorkshire coast 
 lies the ancient and picturesque village of 
 Lastingham. It is sheltered on the south by a range of 
 hills forming the northern termination of the elevated table 
 land of Ryedale. The sides of these hills clothed to their 
 summits with fern, and crowned with waving pines, form a 
 bold but not unpleasing back-ground to the little landscape 
 in the fore-ground of which the hoary tower of the old 
 parish Church stands out in clear and well-defined relief. 
 Between the village and the moor, wind several small and 
 shallow springs, to whose " perpetual waters," it is said to 
 owe its name and perhaps its existence. One of these 
 streams is spanned by a small stone bridge, over which a 
 
 D 2 
 
20 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 narrow road leads by a steep ascent to the higher land 
 above, which, coming to an abrupt termination within a few- 
 hundred yards of the village, affords a beautiful prospect 
 of the purple moorland beyond. 
 
 Almost at the very edge of this projecting platform has 
 been placed of late years, a plain stone cross surrounded by 
 a seat inviting the stranger to rest and moralize. And 
 surely the eye is not to be envied which can gaze without 
 delight at the scene here presented to the view, or the 
 mind to which it suggests no food for serious thought. 
 
 Even when the sun is highest in the heavens, the moor 
 is not without an air of sombre but not unpleasing melan- 
 choly, an impression which is rather heightened than 
 diminished by the distant and sullen-looking shaft of the 
 Ironworks erected of late years in the vicinity. But the 
 approach of night recalls many a tragic story of travellers 
 perishing of cold upon its inclement bosom, or meeting a 
 sudden grave in one of the many ravines by which it is 
 intersected. History suggests associations of a still more 
 tragic character. The moor now so calm and peaceful, 
 which echoes back no harsher sound than the distant baying 
 of the sportsman's dog, may once have gleamed with the 
 camp-fires of the cohorts of Agricola ; the purple heather 
 and the yellow gorse with which it is so richly clad, once 
 were dyed with a far sadder hue, when the ruthless Danes, 
 attracted to Lastingham by the hope of spoil, and their 
 
Lastingham. 2 1 
 
 thirst of blood, destroyed this home of ancient piety and 
 put its defenceless inmates to the sword. 
 
 Like many of the villages of our land, Lastingham owes 
 its fame entirely to religion. The Church stands upon the 
 foundation of an old Celtic monastery, and almost within 
 the boundary of the parish may be seen the ruins of the 
 Cistercian priory of Rosedale. The spirit of devotion which 
 once filled the place still hovers round its precincts and in- 
 vests them with the features of a subtle and suggestive 
 beauty. 
 
 Lastingham cannot boast the wild and romantic scenery 
 of earlier monastic sites ; though Bede states that the 
 monastery was built amid lofty and distant mountains, 
 there are no hills here to be compared with the granite 
 peaks which frown upon the home of Colomba. The 
 breakers which fill the Cave of Fingal with their hollow 
 murmur, or which beat upon the shores of Lindisfarne are 
 wanting here. But in sight of that wide expanse of moor- 
 land, one hardly misses the sea. Not less faithfully than 
 the ocean itself, it reflects the shadow of every passing cloud 
 and records each fleeting change in the heavens above ; 
 and though the keenest eye cannot discern the white crests 
 of the distant billows, yet on a calm summer's evening the 
 quick ear can detect the roll of the surge as it washes the 
 strand once trodden by the saintly feet of Hilda. 
 
 This secluded spot was for some years the tranquil home' 
 
22 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 of Chad, from whom it derives its chief interest in ecclesi- 
 astical writings. The story of its foundation by his brother 
 Cedd may be read with interest even now. This prelate 
 had already preached the gospel successfully in the kingdom 
 of Mercia, which had been the last of the Saxon states to 
 embrace Christianity. He was now bishop of the East 
 Saxons, amongst whom he had recovered much of the 
 ground which had been lost in the time of bishop Mellitus, 
 when nearly all the people fell away from the faith. Amid 
 the cares of this enormous diocese it was a welcome 
 relief to the good bishop sometimes to visit his old friends 
 in the North, especially his brother Celin who was living 
 in the household of Ethelwald, king of Deira, son of the 
 famous Oswald, to whom and his family he was wont to 
 administer the word and the sacraments of the faith. This 
 prince, finding Cedd to be a holy and wise man and of a 
 good disposition, desired him to accept some land to build 
 a monastery, to which he himself might frequently resort, 
 to offer his prayers to the Lord, and hear the word and be 
 buried in it when he died. " The bishop complying with the 
 king's desires," continues Bede, "chose himself a place to 
 build a monastery among lofty and distant mountains, which 
 looked more like lurking-places for robbers and retreats for 
 wild beasts, than habitations for men, to the end that accord- 
 ing to the prophecy of Isaiah ' In the habitations where 
 before dragons dwelt might spring up grass with reeds and 
 rushes,' that is, that the fruits of good v^orks should there 
 
Lastingham. 23 
 
 spring up, where before beasts were wont to dwell, or men 
 to live after the manner of beasts." 
 
 But before a beam of the sacred building could be hewn, 
 or even a sod turned for its foundation, many a holy prayer 
 must be offered up, many a solemn litany chanted. Where- 
 fore proceeds our author, "the man of God, desiring first to 
 cleanse the place which he had received for the monastery 
 from the pollution of former crimes, by prayer and fasting, 
 that it might become acceptable to our Lord, and so to lay 
 the foundations of the monastery, requested of the king that 
 he would give him leave to reside there all the approaching 
 time of Lent, to pray. During which days except on the 
 Sunday, he fasted till the evening, according to custom, and 
 then took no other sustenance than a very little bread, one 
 hen's ^^'g, and a little milk mixed with water. This he 
 said was the custom of those from whom he had learned 
 the rule of regular discipline ; first to consecrate to our Lord 
 by prayers and fastings, the places which they had newly 
 received for building a monastery, or a Church. When 
 there were ten days of Lent still remaining, there came one 
 to call him to the king ; and he, that the religious work 
 might not be intermitted on account of the king's affairs 
 entreated his priest Cynebil, who was also his own brother, 
 to complete that which was so piously begun. Cynebil 
 readily complied, and when the time of fasting and prayer 
 was over, he there built the monastery now called Lsest- 
 
24 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 ingaen and established therein religious customs according 
 to the rites of Lindisfarne where they had been educated." 
 
 The monastery which Cedd and Cinebil had been thus 
 instrumental in building was to be their own Lasting- 
 home ; for so some explain the name of Lastingham. 
 
 Bishop Cedd was present at the celebrated synod held 
 at Whitby in the year 664 for the purpose of determining 
 the Easter controversy, on which occasion he acted as inter- 
 preter between the Irish and Saxon prelates. It was in 
 this year he came once more to Lastingham, but it was to 
 die. A deadly pestilence was devastating the west of 
 Europe, to which many persons of all ranks of society 
 had already fallen victims. So grievous was the scourge 
 that crowds of people flocked to the sea-side and threw 
 themselves hand in hand from the cliffs, choosing rather 
 to perish by a speedy death beneath the waves than by 
 the lingering torments of the pestilence. In this frightful 
 visitation perished Cedd and his brother Cinebil and were 
 buried at Lastingham. An affecting story is told in 
 connection with Cedd's death, which though not strictly 
 belonging to the course of our narrative, may not be 
 altogether unwelcome to the reader. " When the brethren 
 who were in his monastery of the East Saxons heard that 
 the bishop was dead in the province of the Northumbrians, 
 about thirty men of that monastery came thither, being 
 desirous either to live near the body of their father, if it 
 
Lasiingham. 25 
 
 should please God, or to die there and be buried." Their 
 pious wishes were soon granted. " Being lovingly received 
 by their brethren at Lastingham, all but one perished of 
 the pestilence" and were buried beneath the same green 
 sod which covered their father and their friend. " How is 
 it possible" asks Montelembert, who relates this story, " not 
 to love those rough Saxons, scarce converted, but moved 
 in the cloister by that passionate self-devotion, by that 
 necessity of giving life for the beloved, which in the 
 midst of their natural fierceness continued the distinctive 
 feature of the Anglo Saxon race ? " 
 
 With his dying breath the bishop committed the care 
 of the sorrowing community to his brother Chad whom 
 we left in Ireland. The circumstances under which he 
 thus became the second Abbot of Lastingham were 
 very depressing, but there was much to encourage an 
 earnest and devout mind to persevere in the work of 
 Christian usefulness. The little brotherhood gathered 
 together at Lastingham was already doing its part 
 towards dispelling the heathen darkness by which it 
 was surrounded. The convent-church in which they 
 prayed was at first built of wood, probably not unlike in 
 appearance the Church still standing at Greenstead, the 
 last of its humble race. The monks' houses would be of 
 the same simple character, for the monks of the Celtic 
 
 E 
 
26 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 Church in no way resembled the lordly churchmen of later 
 times. More than one eminent ecclesiastic of the age was 
 indebted to Lastingham for Christian instruction. It was 
 from the lips of Chad that Trumbert acquired much of 
 that sacred learning he afterwards imparted to the Vener- 
 able Bede, whose grateful pen has rescued the names of 
 both from oblivion. 
 
 Sometimes, too, one from the busy world far beyond the 
 Moors would find his way to this sequestered home, where he 
 thought to end his days in peace, far away from the turmoil 
 of those unquiet times. One day a stranger of courteous 
 mein, but clad in humble garb, and bearing upon his shoulder 
 an axe and mattock, presented himself at the gate of the 
 little Minster praying to be received into the company of 
 the holy brethren. This was Ovin, lately steward of the 
 famous and eccentric Queen, Ethelreda. Following the 
 example of his royal mistress, he had turned his back upon 
 a world he could no longer enjoy, and in this humble 
 guise had sought out the home of Chad. Tradition relates 
 that as he pursued his long and toilsome journey from the 
 Fens which surrounded the abbey of Ethelreda, into York- 
 shire, the pilgrim erected crosses by the road-side to guide 
 any heavy laden souls who might hereafter seek the same 
 blessed haven of rest. Saint Chad took the devout stranger 
 at his word, asking him no unwelcome questions concerning 
 his worldly gear, and after the hospitable fashion of those 
 
Lastingham. 27 
 
 simple times gave him a hearty welcome to their humble 
 home and frugal fare. And while the brethren were 
 engaged in preaching the gospel in the adjacent hamlets, 
 or in devout studies at home, he laboured hard with his 
 hands, ministering with all humility to their necessities. We 
 shall meet with this saint again in the course of this history ; 
 but it may be interesting to note here that there is preserved 
 in Ely Cathedral a very ancient cross, supposed to have 
 been either erected by Ovin in his life time, or in his 
 honour, after his death, and bearing this inscription : 
 
 LVCEM TVAM OVINO 
 
 DA. DEVS. ET. REQVIEM 
 
 AMEN. 
 
 Thus rendered by Doctor Bentham " Grant O God to 
 Ovin Thy light and rest. Amen." 
 
 Many a Christian soul has breathed the prayer sculptured 
 upon that ancient cross. Many have sought an answer to 
 it in the " cloistered cell." Thousands, who think scorn of 
 the monks of other days, are still groping for the light, and 
 are no nearer to rest. Only in the newer life shall men 
 dwell in the pure light of God, and exchange the turmoil of 
 earth for the unruffled tranquility of heaven. 
 
 To return to our Saint. By the side of these lonely 
 Yorkshire Moors, Chad led for a while a tranquil but labor- 
 ious life. 
 
 E 2 
 
28 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 One is tempted to paint in more glowing colours than the 
 reality would warrant the life of holy usefulness pursued at 
 such a place as Lastingham, and to forget that it must have 
 had its darker aspect as well. It is, at least, pleasant to 
 picture the shaven missionaries journeying from village to 
 village and preaching, the gospel, often for the first time, to 
 those Angles of whom Pope Gregory had said they would 
 have been angels if only they had been Christians ; or, by 
 the pale light gleaming across the moor from their sequest- 
 ered minster, to follow their pens as, with some precious 
 relic of early Christianity before them, they transcribe and 
 adorn with many a quaint device and many a holy symbol 
 those superb volumes of Holy Writ, which, long after the 
 fingers that traced them had mouldered in the dust, convey- 
 ed the Water of Life to many a weary soul ; but, over the 
 inner life of these men, their wrestling with the evil within 
 and around them, their fastings and watchings, their vigils 
 and prayers, their spiritual triumphs, and we must needs 
 add their spiritual delusions, Biography reverently draws 
 the veil. 
 
 It has been mentioned that Lastingham was at first a 
 Celtic monastery, though like many others in the north of 
 England, it afterwards embraced the rule of Saint Benedict. 
 The monastic system founded by, or at least reformed by 
 Colomba has often been unfavourably compared with that 
 instituted by Saint Benedict. If the value of such systems 
 
Lastingha-fn. 29 
 
 be measured by. the time during which they lasted, or b}^ the 
 number of distinguished names they have given to the 
 world, then the palm must doubtless be awarded to the 
 milder rule of the monk of Monte Casino. The Benedict- 
 ines need no modern pen to do justice to their merits. 
 History bears ample witness to their influence on civiliza- 
 tion. The libraries of Europe are stored with the treasures 
 which they rescued from antiquity and with the monuments 
 of their own piety and learning. The still higher merit of 
 raising the tone of religion in their age may freely be accord- 
 ed to the earlier disciples of the great monastic lawgiver. 
 Yet if all monastic institutions be regarded as more or less 
 violating the laws of nature ; or, at best, but as a return to 
 a discipline suited only to the childhood of civilization, and 
 to exceptional phases of society, then, perhaps, that system 
 is to be preferred which made the shortest but keenest 
 struggle against the paganism which surrounded it, and 
 having accomplished its mission, perished like a conquering 
 general in the arms of victory. Whether this be a just 
 estimate of the two forms of monasticism or not, there is no 
 doubt that the Celtic monasteries did much for the cause of 
 religion in these islands. They would at least appear to 
 have escaped much of the corruption, which in a later age 
 sealed the doom of their rivals. 
 
 Chad was not long to enjoy the peace and retirement of 
 his secluded cell. The Synod at Whitby which had been 
 
30 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 called for the ostensible purpose of settling. the Easter con- 
 troversy had ended in a great victory for Rome. The tra- 
 ditions of lona were condemned and the Church founded by 
 Saint Aidan boAved down before the chair of Saint Peter. 
 W^ilfrid, to whose eloquence and ambition the result was 
 mainly due, soon reaped his reward. The Atheling Alchfrid 
 who governed the kingdom of Deira subject to his father 
 Oswy had been one of Wilfrid's pupils. The young prince 
 earnestly adopted the views of his preceptor, and like him 
 had been dazzled with the splendour of Roman authority. 
 He had already bestowed upon Wilfrid many substantial 
 marks of his princely favour, and at the breaking up of the 
 Synod, apparently' with his father's consent, committed to 
 him the spiritual oversight of his kingdom. 
 
 With offensive bigotry, Wilfrid refused to be consecrated 
 by his ecclesiastical superior the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 or by any of the English or British prelates, on the ground 
 that he was not satisfied with the position in which they 
 stood to the Holy See. He therefore proceeded to France 
 and was consecrated by his friend Agilbert who had shared 
 with him the triumph at Whitby, and had recently been 
 appointed to the Archbishopric of Paris. His biographers 
 tell with pride of the eleven bishops who assisted at the 
 ceremony, and carried the new bishop upon their shoulders 
 in a golden chair, which none of lower than bishops degree 
 might presume to touch. How little of apostolic simplicity 
 was preserved in this imposing ceremonial ! 
 
Lastingham. 3 1 
 
 Anxious to increase his stores of learning, or perhaps, 
 allured by the fascinations of foreign travel, the neAv prelate 
 seemed to prefer the banks of the Seine to those of the 
 Ouse. But whilst he thus unaccountably deferred his return, 
 the mitre itself was slipping from his grasp. The king 
 began to chafe with barbarian impatience at the uner.p'Ccted 
 delay, and regretted the hasty consent he had given to the 
 views of his son. The thegns who surrounded his throne^ 
 ill-brooked the ambition which would reduce their king to a 
 vassal of Rome. The chorus of discontent was swollen by 
 the voices of those who still believed that the sanction of an 
 Apostle might be claimed for the usages of their Church. 
 At length the patience of Oswy was exhausted altogether. 
 No Wilfrid appeared, and he therefore resolved to pro\'ide 
 the deserted flock with a shepherd. His eyes naturally 
 turned to what in modern politics would be called the Party 
 of the Opposition. The Abbot of Lastingham was already 
 favourably known for his piety and zeal. His brothers 
 Cedd and Celin had enjoyed the confidence and respect of 
 the Northumbrian and Mercian Courts. To him there- 
 fore the vacant bishopric was offered. Chad's conduct in 
 accepting the mitre under these circumstances was severely 
 censured by his Roman contemporaries. " He took posses- 
 sion of another man's bishopric after the manner of a 
 robber," wrote one ; " he had snatched the bride from her 
 living husband," sang another. The king as naturally came in 
 
32 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 for his share of ecclesiastical wrath. He had been deceived, 
 it was said, by persons envious of the decision at Whitby ; 
 nay, he was instigated by the Evil One in the appointment 
 of Chad. Modern writers express similar views. Monte- 
 lembert though describing Chad as "an innocent usurper " 
 and a "holy intruder," attributes to him "a strange forget- 
 fulness of duty " in thus yielding to the wishes of the king. 
 Even the learned writer of the " Lives of the Archbishops" 
 vouchsafes him no higher praise than that " he was a good 
 man, though a fanatic." 
 
 The account of Chad's appointment to York is derived 
 entirely from writers devoted to Rome. But even from 
 their partial testimony it is not difficult to frame a vindica- 
 tion of the part which he took in the matter. In common with 
 many of his countrymen he naturally regarded the appoint- 
 ment of Wilfrid as a trophy of the victory which had sub- 
 verted the independence of his Church. With whom, too, 
 had the new bishop " left those few sheep in the wilderness" 
 whilst he basked in the sunshine of splendour and flattery 
 abroad ? And when the instincts of patriotism and the 
 necessities of a neglected diocese were supported by the 
 urgent representations of his sovereign, the humble-minded 
 Abbot reluctantly accepted the crozier his rival appeared to 
 despise. 
 
 Whether Wilfrid's prolonged absence abroad justified the 
 step taken by the Northumbrian king may be open to doubt, 
 
Canterbury. 33 
 
 but it certainly withdrew from his Court that personal influ- 
 ence to which its recent policy had been due, and furnished 
 the enemies of the absent prelate with a pretext, if not a 
 motive, for their conduct. In any case, though the course 
 pursued by Saint Chad has been condemned as uncanonical, 
 the purity of his motives has never been assailed. 
 
 By the desire of Oswy, Chad left Lastingham for Canter- 
 bury to be consecrated by the metropolitan, taking with 
 him, as his companion in travel, one of his monks named 
 Eadhed. We ma)' well imagine with what deep and 
 reverent interest the travellers approached the city, which, 
 even in their time, had become venerable. There rose the 
 little church of Saint Martin in which good Queen Bertha 
 and her husband Ethelbert had knelt and prayed. They 
 would see too, what must, then, have appeared a stately pile 
 and which grew in later times into the majestic Cathedral 
 of Saint Peter ; where had been heard the voices of Augus- 
 tine and Honorius, and where they slept when their work on 
 earth was done. 
 
 Disappointment awaited the travellers on reaching the 
 city. The pestilence, already so frequently mentioned in 
 these pages, had carried off the primate Deusdedit, to the 
 great grief of the English people, for he was the first Saxon 
 priest that had sat in the chair of Augustine. At his death 
 the kings of Northumbria and Kent had joined in nomina- 
 ting a successor, whom they sent to Rome to receive the 
 
 F 
 
34 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 imposition of hands from the Pope himself. But the plague 
 which had raged in England was not less fatal at Rome, 
 and the English Primate sleeps beneath the shadow of the 
 Eternal City. 
 
 The news of Wighard's death would not appear to have 
 reached Canterbury when Chad arrived ; or, if it had, no 
 successor to the deceased primate had been appointed. 
 From Canterbury, therefore, Chad and his companion turned 
 their steps to Winchester. Under the Roman name of 
 Venta, this place had become one of the most important 
 stations in the island, and, as the capital of the West Saxons, 
 had been chosen as the seat of a bishopric. Birinus, who 
 had been sent by Pope Honorius to preach the gospel to 
 the tribes lying beyond the territories of the Saxons, finding 
 the West Saxons not more enlightened than their British 
 neighbours, took up his abode amongst them and became 
 their first bishop. 
 
 At the time of Chad's visit to Winchester, the see was 
 occupied by the celebrated Wini, whom History afterwards 
 branded with the guilt of being the first to pollute the 
 Saxon Church with the sin of simony. On the death of 
 the Primate Deusdedit, he was held by the extreme 
 romanizing party in the Church to be the only bishop in 
 England canonically ordained, by which thej- meant 
 ordained by bishops in direct communion with the Roman 
 see. It availed naught with these fanatical zealots that 
 
Bishop of York. 35 
 
 the British Prelates who met beneath the shade of 
 Augustine's oak, though urged to submit to Rome, were 
 not required even by that haughty missionary to prove 
 their apostoHc descent. TheiV episcopal character and 
 authority had been virtually acknowledged by Pope Gregory 
 In the letter in which he placed them under the jurisdiction 
 of Augustine as their metropolitan. The presence of 
 British bishops at Nicaea, and at Aries, if not at Ariminum, 
 was alone sufficient to vindicate their Church from the charge 
 of heresy or schism. But for the unhappy accident of 
 Augustine not rising to receive his British colleagues the 
 Prelates of Menevia and Canterbury might have founded,, 
 some generations earlier, the Church in which conquered 
 and conquerors were trained to be brothers in Christ. 
 
 The successors of these bishops, holding fast as they did 
 to the traditions of their fathers, incurred no guilt of schism 
 save what had been fastened upon them by the servile 
 adherents of Rome, and the student of ecclesiastical history 
 has but little doubt that their orders were as valid as those 
 of any bishops in Christendom. 
 
 The consecration of Chad by Bishop W^Inl possesses, on 
 several grounds, more than a mere biographical interest, 
 and strikingly illustrates the different views taken of the 
 position of the British Church. The ceremony Itself took 
 place in the magnificent Church, still fresh from the mason's 
 chisel, which had been commenced by the West Saxon 
 
 F 2 
 
36 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 King, Kinegils, and completed by his successor, Kenwalch. 
 Tradition assigned to the spot a still earlier fabric, said to 
 have been erected by King Lucius, after his conversion, as 
 the first-fruits of his gratitude and zeal. 
 
 Wini, unlike Wilfrid, did not regard the British Bishops 
 as in schism, for he invited two of them to assist at 
 the consecration of Chad, and the three together laid their 
 hands upon the head of the Northumbrian Prelate.* Years 
 were to pass away before a National Church was to arise 
 from the fusion of these rival communions, but its dim out- 
 line had already shaped itself to the minds of thoughtful 
 men, when Briton and Saxon, together, bestowed the 
 episcopal benediction upon a disciple of Saint Aidan. 
 The two lines of ecclesiastical descent, represented by Wini 
 and his coadjutors, thus met in the consecration of Chad, 
 whose priests and deacons might deduce, with pardonable 
 satisfaction, the origin of their Christianity alike from East 
 and West. 
 
 A consecration performed by Bishops of different or 
 rival Churches would, in our time, be regarded as an event 
 highly interesting and auspicious. But it was not so in the 
 seventh century. Rome was already beginning to carry 
 matters with a high hand, and the tendency was towards a 
 
 *■ "Th6 terms upon wliich the Church of Wesscx stood respectively to those of Corn- 
 wall and of Wales in the time of Aldhelm (Epist. ad Geriint. A.D. 705) seem to 
 determine these bishops to ha^■e been Cornish." Iladdan and .Stubbs, Ed. of Wilkins' 
 Concilia, Vol. I. p. 124. 
 
aitmrnaHm-of Qlf|fctJi at edmrfjf^fiT. 
 
Bishop of York. 37 
 
 suppression of the Independence of national Churches by 
 the weight of Roman authority. In the present instance 
 the orthodoxy of Wini, as will be seen later, availed nothing 
 against the alleged schism of his coadjutors. 
 
 In the meantime, wholly unconscious of any defect in his 
 consecration, Chad returned to the North to take charge of 
 his widely scattered flock. In the Breviaries there is an 
 antiphon implying that he was Archbishop of York : — 
 
 @ucin cum toitae snnctttas 
 5Ht lit); Be monfitcabit 
 ffiboraci ctbitaa 
 3[rt6qircaulal)it. 
 
 In a metrical life of the Saint, attributed to Robert of 
 Gloucester, he is also invested with the metropolitan 
 dignity : — 
 
 CJ)t ffiLinji ©stop teas tj)en feing: o£ iI5ort!)um6frIanii, 
 STn lit C!)aSlie i\t jioali man catb goolinese Ije (ountr, 
 3tvc6it6&op of porfe \t tl^oae \m to fie tj)ere, 
 anil sent dim to Canterfiitrp t{)at \i tonisecratei toere. 
 
 Chad however was not Archbishop of York. Paulinus 
 had enjoyed that dignity, but, at his flight into Kent, it had 
 fallen into abeyance, and it was not until the time of Bishop 
 Egbert, that York received once more the treacherous gift 
 of the Roman pallium. But, though no suffragans acknow- 
 ledged Chad as their superior, he had ample scope for the 
 most abundant energy. The population he had to deal 
 
38 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 4 
 
 with was indeed small compared with that of the modern 
 province. If every person in the diocese had been baptized, 
 the population would probably not have equalled that of 
 the single town of Leeds. But, though the subjects of 
 King Oswy were few, they were scattered over an extensive 
 territory. The inhabitants of the towns lying on the great 
 military roads bequeathed by the Romans to their succes- 
 sors, and on the numerous branch roads, were, doubtless, 
 easy of access, but it must have been very difficult 
 to obtain a thorough knowledge of the remoter districts. 
 More than thirty years had now passed away since 
 the British prince, Cadwalla, had dyed his sword in the 
 blood of King Edwin, and though the monks of Lin- 
 disfarne had not been idle in the interval, the new 
 Bishop had almost to recommence the work of evangelizing 
 Northumbria. His difficulties were not lessened by the 
 embarrassing condition of affairs which had led to his 
 appointment. He could not forget that another had been 
 appointed to his bishopric, and the shadow of the absent 
 Wilfrid must sometimes have been thrown across his 
 already troubled path. 
 
 But with all these difficulties Chad grappled with the 
 energy of one of lofty purpose and consecrated will. The 
 ascetic habits in which he had been trained at Lindisfarne 
 and in Ireland, though savouring of superstitition, had 
 taught him to disdain hardships and privations, and thus. 
 
Bishop of York. 39 
 
 eminently qualified him to labour in a sphere wherein much 
 must be endured, if but a little was to be achieved. 
 
 How many clergy acknowledged him as their head, and 
 lightened his toil, we have no means of knowing, but there 
 can be no doubt that if the harvest was plenteous the 
 labourers were but few. 
 
 Bede informs us, in the quaint language of the time, that 
 the new Bishop began immediately to devote himself to 
 ecclesiastical truth and to chastity ; to apply himself to 
 humility, continence and study; to travel about, not on 
 horseback, but after the manner of the Apostles, on foot ; 
 preaching the Gospel in towns, in the open country, in 
 cottages, villages, and castles, for he was one of the 
 disciples of Saint Aidan, and endeavoured to instruct his 
 people by the same actions and behaviour, according to his 
 and his brother Cedd's example. 
 
 His consecration and subsequent labours are even more 
 curiously described in the metrical life already quoted : — 
 
 SCJen tofitlieii \)t totoarUs t{)c ilnrsj) to t!)c •JSieJop S-SEpnc, 
 
 SlSEbn tons tfirn ^tsftop of tijt JHarsIj, to bring t&tfi to a fine, 
 
 ^0 tf)at, bp i^t ^ififjop SLSEpnc, \z toafi tonsetrateii tf)en, 
 
 |)r rfturnttr to pori ffi&en tjbis fitfU toas Sone. 
 
 |)c tnicataourcJ rarncetlp, nigjjt ant Sap, tojicn fjc ftaii t6tt[)cr come, 
 
 STo suarS toell jiolp C-burrl), anS to upftollr Cftrtsttnlrom. 
 
 ^c taent into all j)ia ijieboprtt anH prtatlit full fast, 
 
 ;Plttt& of tftat folft, tbrotiffj) \)& loorli, to ©oil tjjeir bcarts cast, 
 
 illl afoot \t traiJEllrS about, nor feept !)e any state. 
 
40 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 Eitl) man t?)ous:!) l)c toae niale, fit rftfeoncli ti)crr of little. 
 SCjje arc^bieljop of port !)ati not Jtra ttfieU to p 
 do prtat!) aioiit on j)te feet nor nnotI)er none tfte mo, 
 2C()ep riHe upon t[)cjr palfrepe, leet tbcp ejoullr Bpurn t&eir toe, 
 ^nt rtcfeefi anS toorlSlp fitate Ijotj) to [jolp C^urcl) tooe. 
 
 Chad's humility in traversing his vast diocese on foot, 
 rather than on horseback, afterwards attracted the notice of 
 Archbishop Theodore, who endeavoured to dissuade him 
 from such needless austerity. Being unable to prevail upon 
 him to omit the pious labour he loved so well, on one occa- 
 sion the primate induced him to undergo what, to a person 
 unused to the saddle, was probably a still greater austerity ; 
 and by way of silencing all opposition, with his own archie- 
 piscopal hands, lifted the reluctant Bishop on to a steed and 
 dispatched him swiftl)' on his journey, for he thought so 
 hoi)' a man ought not to walk, and therefore obliged him to 
 ride wherever he had need to go. In a homily, drawn up 
 for use on Saint Chad's day, the saint is described as 
 travelling in a wain, the uncomfortable character of which 
 kind of conveyance, gave it but little advantage over 
 pedestrian exercise. 
 
 Beyond this general account of his labours, but few 
 authentic particulars have been preserved, from which to 
 form any vivid notion of the life and character of the man 
 himself. Enough however has been recorded to raise the 
 simple Abbot of Lastingham to the dignit)- of a Missionary, 
 
^f. Mliiitiore tmvpth Qlf;a2i io i-i&^. 
 
Bishop of York. 41 
 
 almost to grace him with the zeal and devotion of an 
 Apostle. When we realize the holy and arduous work of 
 leavening' the North of England with the teaching of Chris- 
 tianity which Chad all but commenced, and which is yet so 
 far from ended, he drops the garb of the semi-mythical 
 saint, in which he is commonly regarded ; he steps down 
 from his place in the Calendar, and mingling with living 
 men, is straightway invested with a deeply human interest. 
 He is in the thickest of the deadly affray, ever raging against 
 the powers of darkness and evil. He bears aloft the torch 
 of gospel truth, received from his predecessors, and transmits 
 it, still beaming, to the age which followed him. Across the 
 gulf of time which separates that generation from ours, we 
 listen to this zealous preacher of the gospel, as he delivers 
 to his countrymen, assembled in some rustic temple, or in 
 the rush-strewn hall of some village thegn, the message of 
 the Eternal to the hearts of men. We follow him from 
 hamlet to hamlet, across wild moorlands and through 
 primeval forests, or along desolate cliffs, the wild haunts 
 of fishermen and wreckers. We mingle with the crowd 
 which gathers round him as he plants his cross in some 
 northern village ; we hear him tell, in that beautiful, old- 
 world tongue, which still gives to our modern speech its 
 greatest charm, the sweet -story of the cross, of its never 
 failing freshness, of its perpetual symbolism, stirring within 
 those rugged, but not wholly corrupted hearts, the pulse of 
 
42 
 
 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 a new and heaven-born life, as he unfolds to them the love 
 of God to man dimly shadowed forth in their own sacred 
 songs of Balder, but only fully revealed to men in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord. And as one, who, finding himself, unawares, 
 on the skirts of a crowd gathered round some earnest 
 preacher of the gospel, stands for a while in unconscious 
 homage, to listen to his words, so a self-indulgent age, like 
 this, may well spare a few moments, from business and 
 pleasure, to ponder upon the life and labours of this almost 
 forgotten saint, by the foolishness of whose preaching so 
 many souls found their way to Christ and peace. 
 
 .* '^f 
 
 JH^ 
 
 "^Vk 
 
 

 
 ^^1^™ -■.... 
 
 S 
 
 S 
 
 S(iwg 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 All worship is prerogative, and a flower 
 
 Of his rich crown, from whom lies no appeal 
 
 At the last hour : 
 Therefore we dare not from his garland steal 
 To make a posy for inferior poAver. 
 
 Although, then, other> court you, if ye know 
 AVhat's done on earth, we shall not fare the worse 
 
 Who do not so ; 
 Since ^\■c are ever ready to disbur-.e, 
 If any one our Master's hand can show. 
 
 George Herbert. 
 
 H E circumstances under which Saint Chad had 
 been appointed to the northern bishopric, made 
 the episcopal chair anything but a bed of roses. 
 Soon after his consecration to the see, Wilfrid, after many 
 adventures, returned from France to find his throne occupied 
 by another. It was a very embarassing position for both 
 prelates. The difficulties of the Church were hardly less 
 than those which beset the State. King Alchfrid had 
 nominated Wilfrid, and his father had appointed Chad ; and 
 the return of the former, to claim his diocese, was an event 
 by no means calculated to throw oil upon the troubled 
 waters of Northumbrian politics. Wilfrid, whether from a 
 feeling that a very natural course had been pursued in his 
 absence, or from a commendable unwillingness to press his 
 
 G 2 
 
44 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 own claim to the see, wisely forebore to disturb the peace 
 of the diocese, and quietly withdrew to his monastery of 
 Ripon, which the munificence of his royal friend had 
 enabled him to found. For a while, Chad was left in 
 undisturbed possession of the see, which, notwithstanding 
 the doubtful character of his appointment, he is universally 
 admitted to have administered with signal ability and 
 success. Wilfrid was not less usefully employed in the see 
 of Canterbury, the affairs of which he directed until the 
 arrival of the primate from Rome. 
 
 But though Chad and Wilfrid are the two most prominent 
 characters in connection with these transactions, a far wider 
 issue than any personal question was involved. The two 
 prelates were but the representatives and exponents of 
 principles, which must, sooner or later, have come into 
 collision. 
 
 When the bishops of Rome began to covet the throne 
 of the Caesars, and to aspire to universal dominion over the 
 Christian Church, their unholy pretensions were speedily 
 confronted by Churches of not less antiquity than their own, 
 and of equally apostolic origin. By slow, but certain, steps, 
 the independence of these Churches crumbled away before 
 the insidious attacks of Rome. These spiritual conquests 
 have been well compared * to the victories, gained by 
 republican and imperial Rome, over those unhappy nations 
 
 * Lelter of Dr. Wordswortli. 
 
Bis flop of York. 45 
 
 whom the sculptor has pourtrayed winding in sorrowful 
 array round the column crowned with the image of the 
 fortunate master of the Roman world. 
 
 The most formidable opponent of Papal authority was 
 the Celtic Church, including within its pale Ireland, a large 
 portion of- Scotland, and the northern shires of England. 
 The learning of its prelates, the unrivalled beauty of the 
 manuscripts produced in its monasteries, the traditions of 
 its martyrs and saints and confessors, and, above all, the 
 zeal and success of its missionaries, gave to this Church a 
 strength and vitality against which Rome strove for long in 
 vain. Long after the other Churches of the West had 
 bowed their necks to her yoke, the Celtic Church alone, like 
 another Mordecai, refused to do homage to the Roman 
 Haman. The features of the struggle, which has been 
 waged ever since, between the principle which would 
 subjugate the Church to a visible head, and the other 
 principle which requires loyalty to her Invisible Head, as 
 the true bond of union, are clearly discernible in the trans- 
 actions in which Chad bore a part. By his appointment 
 the gauntlet had been thrown down to Rome. 
 
 Wilfrid's return, as we have seen, made no immediate 
 alteration in the position of affairs, and the character of 
 saint or politician will be given to him less upon his own 
 merits, than upon the bias of the reader. But if any wrong 
 had been done him, in the elevation of Chad to York, it was 
 
46 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 soon to be set right. The new Archbishop of Canterbury 
 was on his way to England. The kings of Northumbria 
 and Kent had unwittingly played into the hands of Rome, 
 in soliciting from Pope Vitalian the appointment of a 
 Metropolitan in place of the deceased Wighard. 
 
 The Pope's choice fell upon the celebrated Theodore of 
 Tarsus. Nurtured in the bosom of the Eastern Church, 
 and stored with the learning of the West, he seemed 
 eminently qualified, by his character and antecedents, to 
 occupy the difficult and exalted position to which he was 
 called. All classes of society were anxious for a settlement 
 of ecclesiastical affairs, and gave a hearty welcome to this 
 " citizen of no mean city." 
 
 The new primate at once applied himself to remedy 
 various abuses which had sprung up in the Saxon Church, 
 and to reduce both Saxon and Celtic Churches into one 
 communion, subject to the see of Rome. 
 
 One of the first to feel the weight of his crozier was 
 Chad, whose pious and indefatigable labours in the north 
 were now to come to an end. His position as Bishop of 
 York might have been plausibly challenged on the ground 
 that he had been intruded into another bishop's diocese. 
 But the primate, willing, probably, to avoid needless disputes 
 with the Northumbrian king, chose rather to condemn 
 Chad's appointment, on the ground that his consecration 
 had been uncanonical, in consequence of the presence of the 
 
Bishop of York. Af^j 
 
 two British bishops. This was a most unwarrantable 
 stretch of authority. No canons had been violated in the 
 consecration of Chad, unless all the British bishops were to 
 be regarded as no bishops at all. It was one thing for the 
 primate to lay down a rule for his future guidance, but a 
 very different matter to apply such a rule retrospectively. 
 
 But it was plainly Theodore's intention to rule the Church 
 of England as the Pope's representative. Had Chad's con- 
 secration been without a flaw in his eyes, there can be little 
 doubt, that he would have required him to vacate a see to 
 which he had been appointed in defiance of Rome. But 
 Oswy could not confer the pallium, and the absence of this 
 much coveted symbol left Chad within the jurisdiction, if 
 not, at the mercy, of the high-handed metropolitan. 
 
 To overbearing authority, Chad opposed the most truly 
 Christian humility. To be thus called upon to resign a 
 bishopric to which he believed himself rightfull)- appointed, 
 and to divest himself of a rank in the Church, to which, in 
 the judgment of all but Theodore, he had been canonically 
 raised, would have been a great trial to the saintliest and 
 meekest of men. Chad met it nobly. To the reproaches 
 of the Archbishop he replied in the true spirit of the Christ- 
 ian ; " If you are persuaded that I have not duly received 
 episcopal ordination, I willingly resign the office, for I 
 never thought myself worthy of it, but, though unworthy, in 
 obedience to authority submitted to undertake it." 
 
4S Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 Struck with the spectacle of such truly Christian meek- 
 ness, Theodore hastened to assure the good bishop that, 
 though his consecration had been uncanonical, and he must 
 therefore resign the see, yet he would by no means deprive 
 him of his episcopal rank, but would complete his consecra- 
 tion after the canonical manner. There has been some 
 difference of opinion as to what ecclesiastical steps Chad 
 was required to go through, at this time. But it is a needless 
 enquiry. His real offence was not in the manner, but in the 
 fact of his appointment, for which there was no remedy but 
 his deposition. 
 
 The protestant reader may possibly think that Chad 
 should have made a firmer stand against papal encroach- 
 ments and the arbitrary authority of the Primate. But 
 bishops are not prophets. No man at that time could have 
 foreseen the debasing tyranny and corruption under which 
 the Western Churches were to groan for ages. It would 
 have needed a keen eye to pierce the secret recesses of the 
 Vatican, where the papal Vulcan was forging his chains to 
 bind the Christian Prometheus to his rock. Moreover the 
 ecclesiastical polity of England had yet to be settled ; princi- 
 ples had to be tried and experience gained. The confident 
 assertions of Theodore would naturally create doubts in the 
 mind of Chad, and unless he was fully persuaded of the 
 justice of his cause, the meeker, was probably, also, the wiser 
 course. 
 
Bishop of York. 49 
 
 Although the first episcopate of Chad was brief, it is on 
 many accounts deeply interesting-. As the first Saxon 
 bishop of York, and the successor, after a long interval, of 
 the Italian Paulinus, he stands upon the threshold of a 
 new era in the history of British Christianity. 
 
 The church, whose origin tradition fondly traced to the 
 disciple who embalmed our Lord, which had been enriched 
 by the blood of Saint Alban, and defended by king Arthur's 
 sword, had waxed feeble and corrupt beneath the shield of 
 the empire, and was fast vanishing like the Holy Grail itself 
 into the myth of a golden age. The other branch of the 
 Celtic church had borne noble fruit at Lindisfarne, and to 
 the successful zeal of its missionaries was due the conversion 
 of the greater part of the territory conquered by the 
 Angles and Saxons. 
 
 But as the new conquerors embraced Christianity they 
 introduced a fresh ecclesiastical element into the country. 
 Bound by no ties of gratitude to the Church whose priests 
 they had slain, and whose altars they had overthrown, they 
 wavered for a while in their allegiance between lona and 
 Rome. But the return of Wilfrid to England, laden with 
 the traditions, and infected with the spirit of Rome, had a 
 marked influence upon the course of our ecclesiastical his- 
 tory. He was the first of a long line of pilgrims, who 
 have since been led by piety or curiosity to visit the city 
 of the Csesars. From that time the fatal spells of the 
 
 11 
 
50 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 Papacy began to be thrown around the infant churches. 
 Gratitude for spiritual benefits already received, admiration 
 of the superior civilization of Rome, and the desire to be 
 received within the community of nations of which she was 
 the head, eventually brought our forefathers to the chair of 
 Saint Peter, though their spirit was never wholly subdued 
 nor their ecclesiastical independence altogether lost. 
 
 The nomination of Wilfrid and afterwards of Saint Chad 
 to the see of York, founded by Gregory, rather than to that 
 of Lindisfarne, founded by Aidan, plainly shewed the 
 path upon which the Church had entered. 
 
 Saint Chad's elevation to the see occurred at the very 
 time, when the English church, if the designation may be 
 anticipated, was trembling in the balance of its future destiny. 
 Though brought up at the feet of Saint Aidan and versed 
 in all the lore of the Celtic church, he could not resist 
 what many will condemn as Roman influence " and not a 
 few have praised as a Catholic instinct. This apparent 
 want of fidelity to the principles in which he had been 
 educated may deprive him of the sympathy of many who 
 admire his virtues, but it should not be forgotten that he 
 was surrounded by the mental and moral problems belonging 
 to a period of change and transition. A man of sterner 
 character might have protracted, but could not alter the 
 result of, the struggle. His lot was cast at the junction of 
 two impetuous streams, and no one can blame him that 
 he was carried away by their united and foaming torrent. 
 
Bishop of York. 51 
 
 But though Chad accepted the Roman ritual and doctrine, 
 as then ascertained, he was no ultramontane. He never 
 became a Romanist as opposed to a Catholic. The ungodly 
 pretentions of the so-called Holy See had not yet shivered 
 to atoms the glorious unity of the Church, or disturbed the 
 balance of her spiritual power. 
 
 The real value of Saint Chad's episcopate was in the 
 zeal and success with which he instructed his heathen 
 countrymen in the doctrines of the Christian- faith and 
 morals, and in the beautiful commentary which a blameless 
 life afforded to his lofty teaching. The voices of his con- 
 temporaries join in the chorus of his praise even when he 
 was raised to the throne of Wilfrid.* " Admirabilem doc- 
 torem de Hibernia" wrote one of his rival's biographers. In 
 more poetic guise, sang another writerf of the same saint's 
 life: 
 
 ' ' Moribus acclinem, doctrina: robore fortem. " 
 
 Bede, whose information was derived from the monks of 
 Lastingham, describes him as " a holy man, of modest beha- 
 " viour, sufficiently well read in the scriptures and diligently 
 " practising those things which he had learned therein." 
 Subsequent writers confirmed the opinions of their predeces- 
 sors, and described Saint Chad, in language ill-suited to many 
 of the mitred statesmen who followed him, as having ruled 
 his diocese " sublimely." 
 
 * Eddius' Life of Wilfrid, 
 f Fridegod's Life of Wilfrid in Mabillon's Acts of the Benedictines. 
 
 H 2 
 
52 Life^ of Saint Chad, 
 
 On one occasion only we seem to have a glimpse of 
 Saint Chad officiating in the cathedral church of York, but 
 the vision melts away at the first touch of criticism. We learn 
 from an old chronicle * how that Saint Cuthbert, after many 
 refusals, at length yielded to the earnest entreaties of king 
 Egfrid and his subjects and became their bishop ; how 
 amid many tears he quitted his rock-hewn cell in the Island 
 of Fame, and was consecrated at York, by Archbishop 
 Theodore and six bishops, amongst whom were Chad, 
 bishop of Lichfield, and Cedd, bishop of the East Saxons. 
 It would be pleasant to think of the history of two of the 
 most illustrious saints in the Calendar being thus connected, 
 and to believe that their labours were lightened by mutual 
 counsel and help; but at the time of Cuthbert's consecration 
 to the bishopric of Hexham, Chad had long entered upon 
 his rest. 
 
 The same chronicle records that various lands were 
 granted for the endowment of the bishopric, and recites a 
 charter conveying the town of Craik to the new see, and 
 professing to be attested by Chad and Cedd ; but the 
 fingers of the two saintly brothers had long mouldered in 
 the dust, when that pious deed was signed, f 
 
 As is the case with much of Christian work, there are 
 but few outward memorials of Chad's labours in the northern 
 
 * Simeon of Durham in Twysden's Decern Scriptores, Col. 68. Ibid Col. 58. 
 t The deed professes to be executed in the pontificate of Agatho, but Chad was not 
 made bishop of Lichfield until after that pontiff's decease. 
 
Bishop of York. 53 
 
 diocese. No stately fabric records his munificence as an 
 ecclesiastic, or bears silent witness to his genius as an 
 architect. 
 
 Even the basilican Church which had been erected by 
 Paulinus, and which had fallen into a state of great dilapida- 
 tion it was reserved for his successor to restore. The 
 Scottish clergy for the most part had been content to build 
 their churches of wood, and it was one of the features 
 which relieved the Roman proclivities of Wilfrid, that he 
 taught his countrymen to admire and to imitate the worthier 
 architecture which surrounded the Capitol. 
 
 Building at all events was not Chad's forte ; his work 
 was rather with the hearts of living men. The fierce 
 Thegns and Ealdormen, who surrounded the throne of 
 Oswy, found in the humble bishop a will as firm, and a 
 courage of as true a metal as their own. The new 
 evangel which he preached amid the wolds and dales of 
 Deira threw its shield over the virtue of women, and stirred 
 in the heart of the captive thrall the echo of a forgotten 
 brotherhood. The rough Franklin recognised in the holy 
 man who crossed, barefooted, his threshold, in his hand the 
 volume of mysterious lore, a kind and sympathising friend, 
 almost a visitant from a brighter and better world. For 
 such work of love earth can offer no meet reward. But 
 the cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple will 
 one day be remembered. 
 
54 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 The people of the north were not unmindful in later times 
 of the virtues of their ancient Saint, though their admira- 
 tion was tinctured by medieeval superstition. Early in the 
 14th century was founded,* behind the high altar in the 
 glorious minster which their eyes never beheld, a chantry in 
 joint honour of Saint Paulinus and Saint Chad, whose vir- 
 tues were thus blended in the gratitude of posterity. It 
 was founded and endowed with five marks a year by the 
 vicars for the soul of John de Burton, rector of Hugate, 
 and Richard and Alice his parents. In consideration of the 
 sum of 389 marks which he paid to them. An Inventory of 
 gifts dated 1378 which had been laid upon the altar has 
 been preserved, and throws light upon the belief of the age. 
 Amongst other offerings was a missal valued at ^ 4 1 7s. 
 I id. a chalice worth ^4; a vestment of red satin embroid- 
 ered with white roses of silk, appraised at £\ i6s. iid. 
 In a later Inventory, dated 1543, the gifts are far less 
 costly, and mark the decay of faith in the merits of the 
 Saints and liberality to their shrines ; the list concludes 
 with " an old blew westment with nothing belonging to 
 " hit, thre alter clothes upon the alter, one of theyme w'^ a 
 " frontlet ; liij other alter clothes w* one frontlet ; Ij cruets 
 " and old towels ; one clothe abowfe the alter and the other 
 " under the alter ; a pan and a sacrayng bell, a nold laten 
 " candell styck." 
 
 * Vol. of Fabric Rolls published 1 >y Suvtees Society. 
 
Bishop of York. 55 
 
 Notwithstanding the decay and contempt into which they 
 afterwards fell, the Chantries were often founded in faith, 
 and were the expression of a feeling which will ever find 
 an echo in the Christian heart. The wish to revere the 
 memory of the departed is one of the most distinguishing 
 and honourable instincts of humanity ; the belief that the 
 grave does not wholly sever the communion between the 
 living and the dead is one of the most consoling which have 
 been engrafted upon the teaching of the Gospel. The 
 hands that placed the silver chalice and the costly missal 
 upon the altar of Saint Chad, for the peace of a departed 
 soul, may have been guided by a faith as genuine, and a 
 heart as pure, as ever prompted a child to light a taper 
 before the image of the Virgin in some silent tomb, or to 
 grace with its wreath of immortelles the grave of a sister 
 sleeping peacefully beneath the willows of Pere Lachaise. 
 
 Among the many beautiful windows which cast upon the 
 minster floor the quaint forms of departed worthies, limned 
 in " the translucent glass," a place has been found in later 
 times for the first Saxon bishop of the diocese. The silent 
 effigy of the Saint looking down upon us from its stony 
 mullions, will give, at least, as true a notion of what this 
 man was like in the flesh as the curious legfends in which 
 a pious fancy has enshrined his memory. The same age, 
 too, which beheld the towers of " stately York," slowly 
 rising aloft in their queenly beauty, beheld generation after 
 
56 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 generation kneeling upon its rush-strewn, floor, to recite 
 the virtues, and to invoke the intercession of Saint Chad 
 in the language of that wonderful borderland of faith and 
 superstition, the mediaeval Breviary. 
 
 Nor was Chad forgotten in the noble pile with which the 
 fame of Cuthbert is more immediately connected.* In one 
 of the windows of the Galilee of Durham Cathedral is a 
 portrait of the Saint ; i and in the Liber VitcB of their 
 Church his name, amongst those of other northern saints, 
 was written by the monks, as was meet, in letters of gold. 
 
 * Dixon's Fasti Eboiacenses. f Ibid. 
 
 ^^^ 
 
DRAWN ON STONE 8 V J ,W K NOWLL ; 1u,'.r. PHii-vEO d- . ,tWt!«Lu il STEAD , 
 
 J3^ ai2JiD. 
 
 FROM THF NORTH AISLE OF CHOIR. YORK MINSTER. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Within his cell, 
 Round the decaying trunk of human pride, 
 At mom, and eve, and midnight's silent hour, 
 Do penitental cogitations cling ; 
 Like ivy round some ancient elm they twine 
 In grisly folds and strictures serpentine. 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 N resigning the see he had so ably administered, 
 Chad returned to his beloved monastery of 
 Lastingham, dear to him as the scene of many 
 devout and tranquil hours spent within its walls, and as 
 containing the ashes of the brothers he loved so well. The 
 personal interest he took in the welfare of the brethren 
 would not be lost sight of in his official connection with 
 their monastery. To Lastingham and Lindisfarne he 
 would look for candidates for ordination. They were, so 
 to speak, the Oxford and Cambridge of the north, and 
 long continued to supply the Church with earnest and 
 devoted labourers. 
 
 And now that the bishop himself had once more sought 
 its comparative quiet and repose, it would be difficult to set 
 too high a value upon the influence which radiated from 
 that lonely minster. Though Lastingham is now chiefly 
 
 I 
 
58 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 interesting to the antiquary, history assigns to it no mean 
 place in the annals of English civilization. At the time of 
 its erection, there were but two other Celtic monasteries in 
 the north, and for two hundred years, it was one of the most 
 important centres of religion and learning between the 
 H umber and the Tweed. It was the absence of suitable 
 seminaries at home which filled the monasteries of Ireland 
 and Gaul with English scholars, and eventually led to the 
 foundation of a college for their education at Rome, under 
 the eye of the sovereign pontiff himself 
 
 The monastic orders had not, as yet, adorned the land 
 with their majestic sanctuaries, nor enriched them with the 
 offerings of devotion and superstition. No parish churches, 
 in those early days, reared aloft their spires amid the quiet 
 homes of our forefathers, nor had the " parson " as yet 
 taken up his abode amongst the poor, as their teacher and 
 their friend. 
 
 That Theodore and his successors were ever able to divide 
 England into parishes, with a responsible minister of reli- 
 gion assigned to each, was due in no small degree to the 
 previous labours of the few wise master-builders gathered 
 together into the early Celtic and Saxon monasteries, such 
 as Lastingham. For a long time they were but few in 
 number. Lindisfarne was yielding a noble harvest to the 
 labours of Saint Aidan. Saint Hilda had gathered toge- 
 ther her band of high-born maidens, first at Hartlepool, and 
 
Bishop of York. 59 
 
 afterwards at Whitby, where, in later times, on account of 
 her sanctity. 
 
 They told, how sea-fowls' pinions fail 
 As over Whitby's towers they sail, 
 And sinking down, with flutterings faint 
 They do their homage to the Saint. 
 
 At Ripen a noble foundation had been laid, but the monks, 
 unwilling to abandon their Celtic traditions, had been su- 
 perseded by Wilfrid at the head of monks of the Roman 
 party. Further north, amid the winding banks of the 
 Tweed, a succession of devout men was preparing the way 
 for the stately fabric whose " broken arches and shafted 
 oriel " the poet would veil in the dim light of the moon's 
 silvery beams. But the stately aisles of Durham and 
 Hexham had not yet been built, nor did the pale light, at 
 which Bede worked and prayed, as yet, gleam from Yarrow 
 over the rippling waters of the Wear. It would be, proba- 
 bly, not far wrong to say that when Chad returned to 
 Lastingham there were not more than ten centres of religious 
 influence in the whole kingdom of Northumbria. 
 
 The monastic life, here pursued, resembled that at 
 Lindisfarne. It was marked by great bodily austerity, 
 combined with fervent zeal in the preaching of the gospel. 
 Great attention was given to the study of the Scriptures. 
 This would be in one of the Latin versions with which 
 the Western Church had been enriched, as Ccedmon had 
 not yet clothed the thoughts of Apostles and Prophets in 
 
 I 2 
 
6o Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 his own mother tongue. " There," in short, if we may- 
 apply the words of our gifted countrywoman, "learning 
 " trimmed her lamp ; there contemplation plumed her wing, 
 "there the traditions of Art, preserved from age to age 
 "by lonely studious men, kept alive in form and colour 
 " the idea of a beauty beyond that of earth, of a might 
 " beyond that of spear and shield, of a divine sympathy 
 " with suffering humanity." 
 
 Chad's devotion to sacred studies is commemorated in 
 the Breviary : — 
 
 CDlauBtti clattfiufi tartcre Ctlifta monatjiatur 
 5lt Sibtnts liliere toacans \\& iitarur 
 Cttjus fama tiarntt quam pontifttattir 
 Interna qnac latttit nc plus abBcaniatur 
 
 In the same service his meekness and patience under the 
 change of worldly fortune are justly commended : — 
 
 E. |)unc quem raasnura relUit autaritas 
 
 C-eiHara parbum facit j)umtUtas 
 
 C-ui nnnquam lieest teniffnitafi 
 5E. Jl3on attolljt ilium proBptritas 
 
 jQequc frangtt prStB aUberBitafi. 
 
 Nor is it forgotten how the Saint attained in the cloisters 
 of Lastingham to the chiefest of all monastic graces : — 
 
 ^luaSi raltans aloriam 
 Ceiiia liEtltnabtt 
 Corporja laBCiiJtam 
 IDiiin fiffic claiiatrabjt. 
 
Bishop of York. 6i 
 
 Whatever view now may be taken of monastic institu- 
 tions, with their puerile discipline and wearisome round of 
 minute observances, one valuable feature cannot be denied 
 to them ; they afforded an excellent opportunity for obtain- 
 ing seasons of spiritual rest not less needful to the minister 
 of religion than to other men. After his labours in the 
 Northumbrian diocese, Chad doubtless gladly returned to 
 his humble cell. There he rested from one episcopate, and 
 in God's providence prepared to enter upon another. He 
 was a man of far too much ability and character to be 
 passed over in any future episcopal appointments, while the 
 circumstances under which he had resigned the bishopric 
 of York entitled him to the favourable consideration of the 
 Primate. It was not long before an opportunity occurred 
 of shewing a fitting mark of respect to his piety and zeal. 
 The kingdoin of Mercia had embraced Christianity under 
 King Peada, son of Penda. His short reign was followed, 
 on the overthrow of the Northumbrian rule, by that of his 
 brother Wulpher, who, notwithstanding the grievous apos- 
 tacy and murder with which he was afterwards charged, 
 carried out the policy and schemes set on foot by his bro- 
 ther. Since the first establishment of the Mercian see, due 
 amongst others to the labours of Cedd, the brother of our 
 Saint, four bishops had each passed through a brief but 
 toilsome episcopate. 
 
 On the death of Jeruman, the fourth bishop, in the year 
 
62 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 669, Wulpher applied to Theodore to appoint a successor. 
 The Archbishop had not forgotten the humble-minded man 
 who had so meekly stepped down from the episcopal throne 
 of York, and, with the king's consent, offered him the vacant 
 see of the Mercians. His consecration having been already 
 completed, in what was deemed the canonical manner, he 
 did not need to receive again the episcopal rank, and forth- 
 with entered upon the duties of his diocese. His appoint- 
 ment to the see is curiously described in the * Life of St. 
 Werhirga in some verses which the reader may like to see. 
 
 jFurtljErinore, after iretfie of ^trumantts 
 ^pfifil&op of Iptljfeiae, SSEuIfer tf)e isapS ftpnfc 
 ^JesyreJ i\t artPpBsjjop anli ptpntate SC&taJiorus 
 (ZCo graunt tftem a ipsa&op of bolp Iplinse, 
 ^To jioberne tj)e people ij eppvptuall tet^pnge, 
 SCo fi^eto to \\& fittiiectefi Ustt cniiample of bcrtu, 
 ani to pretb anir tctbe t&e fapt!) of Cbrpet %\t&x, 
 
 Ws>i& 6oIp artljfipBfilbop ani primate Cfieolorue 
 3Defipreli §)apnt C-elilia of t{)e fepnf e ®fitop 
 JFor 6is perfccpon anir Ipbpnge bertuoua 
 STo ie remobeJj to tl&e probpnce of ;Plcrtp. 
 llpiia;^ ®J5RttIfer toaii glaU of \\& tompnse trttip, 
 ^\^t BO toere all t&e people of ^\<i realm, 
 Cjiattfepnf e t&erefore X\t ftpnge of ^TeruBalera. 
 
 From this account it will be seen that Wulpher applied 
 to his royal contemporary, rather than to the Primate, as 
 
 * The editor of this curious piece of biography points out the necessity of placing 
 the accent on the last syllable of each line. 
 
Bishop of York. 63 
 
 stated by Bede. The probability is, that their joint consent 
 was needed, as Chad was at that time residing in the terri- 
 tories of Oswy. 
 
 Robert of Gloucester records the same transaction in the 
 metrical life attributed to him. 
 
 after tjie itBjop of tf)c ^areft,* as ®oS it tuilltJi teas Iirali, 
 
 STJje Hms asiolfer of X\)t iHarsli tonfe f)tB «B,+ 
 
 3tnli into JQortJumbErlanU I)is inrjiBenserB &c sent 
 
 ©0 tI)E Eins; ©stop of X\t lanlr, tftat |^c ^t. C-^aiilie %m ffrant, 
 
 Co fie bishop of iitc&fteUi, ant of all tjje JHareD also, 
 
 lio t&at as our lorli jt toilleU tftis ieeii teas iSo. || 
 
 The fame of Chad's piety and zeal had been wafted into 
 Mercia, and no doubt induced the king to desire to have 
 him for the spiritual teacher of his people ; but Wulpher 
 had not forgotten the humble labours of Cedd in the days 
 of his unhappy brother Peada. 
 
 With the invitation so flatteringly expressed, Chad thought 
 it right to comply, and accordingly bade farewell to his 
 beloved home at Lastingham and in company with Ovin, 
 his faithful friend, set out for Repton in Derbyshire, where 
 Diuma, the first bishop of the Mercians, had established the 
 episcopal see. At this time there was a monastery of reli- 
 gious men and women established at Repton, and governed 
 by an abbess. It was a place of some importance in 
 Anglo-Saxon times. Here were buried several of the 
 Mercian Kings and here the famous anchorite Saint Guthlac 
 
 * Mercia. f counsel. || done. 
 
64 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 took shelter when he renounced the world. It is still a 
 place distinguished for learning, and more than one eminent 
 scholar owes his education to the Grammar School of Repton. 
 
 Whether the new bishop desired a more central place for 
 the episcopal see, or was influenced by the wish to do 
 honour to a spot enriched with the blood of martyrs and 
 confessors, Bede does not tell us, but Chad established 
 the Mercian see at a place then called Licetfeld, or the Field 
 of the Dead. Here perished, according to the tradition, in 
 the fiery persecution of Diocletian, a thousand British Christ- 
 ians with Amphibalus at their head. Be that as it may, 
 Chad removed the see to Lichfield, afterwards the site * of 
 "one of the most complete and beautiful, though not 
 "among the largest of those sacred edifices, which were 
 " raised by the pious hands of our forefathers to the honour 
 " and glory of God." 
 
 The early Saxon sees, it should be remembered, were for 
 the most part conterminous with the political kingdoms, 
 owing to the paucity of persons qualified to fill the office 
 of bishop. On this account, the earlier bishops took the 
 titles of their sees from the people to whom they ministered, 
 rather than from the place in which the episcopal chair was 
 established. Thus Chad's correct designation is, bishop of 
 the Mercians, and not bishop of Lichfield. This fact is 
 further illustrated in the varied fortunes of the different 
 
 * Gresley's Siege of Lichfield, p. 1. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 65 
 
 sees. On the death of Chad, for instance, the Mercian 
 bishopric was divided into the five sees of Lichfield, Lei- 
 cester, Worcester, Hereford, and Sidnacliester. In 786 
 the see of Lichfield, thus restricted, was raised, through the 
 ambition of Offa, to the metropolitan dignity, of which, how- 
 ever, it was shorn by the Council of Cloveshoe in 803. In 
 the year 1075 the see was removed, by the bishop, to Chester, 
 and fifteen years later, by his successor, to Coventry, and 
 finally, restored to Lichfield by Bishop Clinton. 
 
 But to return to the first bishop of Lichfield. In ad- 
 dition to the spiritual oversight of the Mercian kingdom, 
 embracing some twelve thousand families, Chad was desired 
 to take under his episcopal charge the Lindisfari, one of the 
 subordinate communities established by the Saxons, and, at 
 that time, subject to the Mercian crown, with a territory said 
 to be equal to 7000 hides, or about 170 square miles.* 
 
 This enormous diocese, comprising no less than seventeen 
 counties, and extending from the banks of the Severn to the 
 shores of the German Ocean, was far beyond the power of 
 one man to administer effectually. In default of anything 
 approaching a parochial system, the bishop could but extend, 
 and guide, as far as possible, the monastic agency. Scattered 
 here and there throughout the country, these communities 
 served as missionary stations, and became the centres of 
 religious life in their respective neighbourhoods. Without 
 
 • Stevenson's Bede, p. 443 in Church Historians of England. 
 
 K 
 
66 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 the preliminary efforts of the monks in breaking up the 
 ground, the parochial system of Theodore would have been 
 premature and useless, nor would a national church have 
 been aught but a dream, if these men had not first gathered 
 its component parts together. 
 
 It was upon such help that Chad had mainly to rely. His 
 royal friend, with this view, gave him an estate, equal to 
 the support of fifty families, at a place called At Barwe, 
 in Lincolnshire. It was a place of some note before the 
 time of the Danish invasions, and Bede speaks of the 
 traces of monastic life, established there by Chad, as 
 existing in his time ; but the site has not been satisfactorily 
 identified.* It was destroyed, with most of the monasteries 
 of East Anglia and Northumbria, by those ruthless 
 marauders, and the site afterwards granted by King Edgar 
 to Thorney Abbey in Cambridgeshire. 
 
 More interesting than the numbers was the nationality of 
 the people, to whom Chad was called to preach the gospel. 
 A great deal has been written about the extermination of 
 the Britons by their Saxon conquerors, but no one can 
 seriously believe that all the Celto- Romano population 
 utterly perished, from out of seventeen counties, even at 
 the edge of the Saxon sword. There can be no doubt that 
 the dominant population of his diocese were the Angles, 
 but subject to them, in a variety of subordinate positions, 
 
 * Barton-on-Humber and Barrow, near Goxhill, have been suggested. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 67 
 
 were the vanquished inhabitants, whose forefathers the 
 legions of Honorius had left to the mercy of succeeding 
 conquerors. The former section of the population spoke 
 the mother-tongue of Saint Chad, and with the latter, his 
 knowledge of the provincial Latin, and of the Celtic tongue 
 acquired in Ireland, enabled him to maintain a precarious, 
 if not satisfactory, communication. The Angles are said 
 to have been less fierce than the Saxons, but the enemies 
 with which the gospel had to contend in Mercia, were 
 formidable enough. It could have been no easy task to 
 persuade the conquered Briton to forget the sea of blood 
 through which the Mercian kings had waded to their throne, 
 and to kneel in the same Church with the haughty con- 
 querors who regarded him as their slave. Ages passed 
 away before these unhappy memories were effaced ; and the 
 two great races, which met on the soil of Britain, yielding 
 to the softening influences of time and religion, sheathed 
 the sword, thenceforth only to draw it against the foes of 
 their common fatherland. 
 
 Yet, looking at the nature of the gospel itself, we may 
 well believe that the embers of provincial Christianity, in 
 Mercia, were not utterly extinguished by the Angles. 
 During the heat of struggle and conquest, the influence from 
 this quarter may have been scarcely appreciable, but it in- 
 sensibly allied itself with the better aspirations of the pagan 
 mind, and helped to prepare the ground upon which the 
 seed, sown by Chad and his successors, afterwards fell. 
 
 K2 
 
68 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 But had the voice of the ancient British Church been for 
 ever hushed, the Teuton myths themselves silently pleaded 
 the cause of the Gospel. Those who have studied them 
 minutely, have discerned many interesting affinities, between 
 these now forgotten fables and the Christian system, which 
 at least facilitated the transition from paganism.* 
 
 Not less powerful than these positive influences on the 
 side of the Celtic Missionary, was one of a negative and 
 destructive character. For ages, a disintegrating process 
 had been acting upon the varied forms of Aryan paganism, 
 before which many of its most ancient beliefs are even now 
 crumbling into ruins. A mighty famine arose in the dim 
 and shadowy realm of the pagan religion, and many a 
 wanderer, weary of the empty husks of debasing supersti- 
 tion, listened, gladly, to a gospel which promised to clothe 
 the penitent sinner with the best robe in his heavenly 
 Father's house. The issue could not long be doubtful 
 between the Edda and Voluspa which gave but a stone, 
 and the gospel that offered the Living Bread which came 
 down from heaven. 
 
 If the reader would measure, with scrupulous accuracy, 
 the value of Chad's personal efforts in the spread of 
 Christianity in England, it must be sought in the moral, 
 rather than in the intellectual sphere of operation. His lot 
 
 • Some interesting remarks on this subject will be found in the preface to Dr. 
 Moberle/s new edition of Bede ; see, also, "the Conversion of the Northern Nations," by 
 Dr. Merivale, who ejdiibits, in a very interesting manner, the moral characteristics of the 
 Teuton race, and the nature of the soil upon which the Gospel seed fell. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 69 
 
 was cast in one of the least enlightened of what have been 
 called the 'ages of faith.' The age which conceived, supplies 
 the antidote to the irony. Knowledge and credulity, alike 
 remote from Christian faith, advance in ever-widening but 
 concentric circles, but the relation between them, being 
 inherent in human nature, does not appreciably vary from 
 generation to generation. Without disparagement, therefore, 
 to the Celtic missionaries, it may be freely admitted that 
 their work was rather to subdue stubborn wills, than to 
 reconcile subtle intellects, to lead warriors, rather than 
 philosophers, to the cross of Christ. From this point of 
 view, the austerities which, to us, seem absurd, were not 
 without a powerful moral effect upon the more sensual 
 aspects of the Teuton character. The prelate who was 
 stript of rank and dignity, without a murmur, set a beautiful 
 example of Christian meekness, to men, with whom anger 
 was a grace, and revenge a virtue. The bishop, and friend 
 of kings, who visited, on foot, the hut of the humblest thrall 
 in his diocese, could not fail to commend and adorn the 
 Gospel he proclaimed. So, at least, his merits were re- 
 garded in later times : — 
 
 C6t6 !)Olp man forteH bintself as \t ebcr art before, 
 
 STo preac& to tfte folfe of %t&Vi& Cftrifiit t^at BonlB kJjouHi not be lout. 
 
 ©n \\& bare feet, as \t iiU before, about l^e taentfeli tjiere, 
 
 Ci)e TOcn, for j)tB bumilitp, tjje more beliebins tocre. 
 
 But however needful and meritorious were Chad's individual 
 exertions, he well knew that he must provide for the future 
 
70 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 instruction of his flock. He therefore gathered together a 
 small college of students in a monastery which he built in 
 Lichfield. One of these succeeded him in the bishopric^ 
 another was Saint Ovin, of whom mention has already beea 
 made. 
 
 Besides the monastery, there was a church dedicated to 
 Saint Mary, which, In the absence of any statement to the 
 contrary, must be presumed to have been already in exist- 
 ence when Chad entered upon the diocese, and If not a relic 
 of early British Christianity, was probably erected by one of 
 his predecessors in the see. 
 
 Hardly less important than the internal administration of 
 his diocese, was Chad's position in relation to the see of 
 Rome. He had been consecrated by a bishop of the 
 Roman communion, deposed from his bishopric by the pri- 
 mate Theodore, and reconsecrated by him according to the 
 Roman ritual. But neither of these transactions necessarily 
 compromised his position as a bishop of the Anglo- 
 Saxon church. Neither the British nor English church, 
 had ever renounced communion with Rome, and conse- 
 quently Chad's consecration, by WinI, could in no way be 
 construed Into an admission of Roman supremacy. Arch- 
 bishop Theodore, it will be remembered, had been commis- 
 sioned to England in compliance with the invitation of the 
 kings of Northumbria and Kent, and it was simply by an 
 abuse of his power as metropolitan, that Chad had beea 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. yr 
 
 deprived of his bishopric. That he submitted to be recon- 
 secrated, was not from any submission to Roman authority 
 or jurisdiction which our forefathers would have spurned, 
 but from a laudable desire to comply with catholic usage. 
 
 Yet it cannot be denied that a deep debt of filial gratitude 
 was due to the see of Rome. Civilization and learning 
 had followed in the train of her missionaries, and numerous 
 seminaries attested their indefatigable zeal. Gathering up, 
 into their own hands, the various elements of civil supre- 
 macy, they paved the way for the union of the petty 
 kingdoms under one political sceptre. But the gospel 
 blessing had not as yet been reversed ; the son had not yet 
 been reduced to the rank of a servant, nor filial gratitude 
 interpreted to mean perpetual bondage. The Bretwalda 
 of the Confederation, had, for a while, acquiesced in the 
 views of Wilfrid and his party, but his subsequent policy 
 in appointing Chad to his see, showed, that the shadow of 
 Roman authority was creeping but slowly over the face of 
 English statesmanship. 
 
 In his first episcopate, Chad represented an ecclesiastical 
 system without the pale of the Roman hierarchy, but by the 
 time he entered upon the bishopric of the Mercians, Roman 
 influence was making rapid strides. The Celtic missionaries, 
 wandering from the green shores of Ireland, had carried 
 the gospel almost to the gates of Rome herself, but were 
 now, in their turn, met at every point by monks of the 
 
72 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 coronal tonsure. The history of Chad's o.wn mission to the 
 Mercian kingdom might seem to identify him entirely with 
 the Roman party, but one or two considerations may 
 serve to correct this impression, and to disclose his real 
 ecclesiastical position. In the first place, Rome was not 
 then, what she has since grown to be. Her claims to 
 universal supremacy, though loudly asserted, had not been 
 recognised by the Churches of the West. The theology 
 of the Vatican differed, but little, from that studied at lona 
 and Lindisfarne. The sword of Infallibility, recently un- 
 sheathed before the dazzled gaze of Christendom, was then 
 resting In Its scabbard. The questions, which have since 
 rent the unity, and disturbed the peace of the western 
 Church, had not arisen. Hence It is plain that Chad, or 
 any other Bishop of his time, might comply with what 
 seemed the more catholic and apostolic usages of Rome, 
 without in the least degree compromising the Independent 
 and local rights of his Church. Saint Chad's predecessors 
 in the Mercian see had been exclusively of the Celtic 
 school, but he himself may fairly be taken to represent that 
 spirit of catholic patriotism, and practical wisdom, which 
 has alternately exposed our Church to the scorn of papists 
 and puritans, but has enabled her to be the dispenser of 
 grace and comfort, to successive generations, and to pre- 
 serve an unbroken continuity, amid the vicissitudes of 
 successive conquests, through the painful process of needful 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 73, 
 
 reformation, and the more violent storms of ungodly revolu- 
 tion, and civil strife. He was actuated by the self-same 
 spirit of wise toleration, which in later times animated the 
 most successful of the Reformers, and conceived the noble 
 Preface to the book of Common Prayer. Hence Saint 
 Chad, in spite of his consecration by Archbishop Theodore, 
 and his subsequent canonization, is to be regarded as the 
 prelate of a church which accepted the friendly offices of,, 
 and maintained filial relations with, the see of Rome, but 
 still retained its independence and administered its own 
 affairs. 
 
 But the questions which have given rise to these reflections 
 were hardly within the scope of the controversies of Chad's 
 time. His own forte was not in arguing about the Gospel, 
 or in contending for earthly rank, but in preaching it to the 
 poor and winning his way into their hearts by humility and 
 charity. Remote in heart, as in place, from the storms which 
 were agitating the diocese he had so humbly quitted, he 
 pursued the quiet and earnest work of the Christian bishop; 
 studying very devoutly and diligently the Scriptures, out of 
 which he was to instruct his flock, and gathering round him 
 earnest spirits to help and succeed him in his Apostolic 
 labours. 
 
 Like all truly devout men, he set little store upon external 
 aids, apart from communion with, and help from God. 
 Knowing the value and need of prayer, he erected for 
 
 L 
 
74 
 
 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 himself a cell, by the side of a fountain, in Lichfield, where 
 he spent many hours alone with God, and so prepared 
 himself to labour for the good of man. Legend has been 
 busy with both fountain and cell ; but, the soberest truth 
 and the humblest faith, trace much of the progress of the 
 Gospel in Britain to the prayers offered in these sequestered 
 oratories. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 So happily she had 
 Rufine and Wulfade sonnes to Wulphere ; for desire 
 They had to embrace the Faith, by their most cruell Sire 
 Were without pitie slaine, long ere to manhood growne, 
 Whose tender bodies had their burying rites at Stone. 
 
 Drayton's Polyolbion. 
 
 N D now for a while we leave the trusty guidance 
 of Venerable Bede, and following only the 
 silken clue afforded by Legend, we track the 
 Saint from his monastery in Lichfield into the dark forests 
 of Mercia, where, after the manner of holy men of his 
 time, he had built a little cell or oratory. Here, we are 
 told, choosing for himself the better part of Mary, and 
 desiring to devote himself to prayer and meditation, he 
 led for a while a hermit's life. His cell was built upon a 
 grassy bank amid the thick foliage of the forest trees, and 
 on the margin of a clear fountain, at whose refreshing 
 waters he was wont to quench his thirst, and with the roots 
 of herbs and the fruits of woodland trees to satisfy his 
 hunger. 
 
 At this time, Wulpher, son of the renouned king, Penda 
 the Strenuous, ruled over the Mercians, and had been 
 hailed as Bretwalda of all the Angles and Saxons. He 
 had espoused the beautiful Ermenilda, a daughter of the 
 
 L 2 
 
76 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 royal house of Kent, and descended from the noblest stock 
 ■of the Franks. Though fair in form and lineage, she was 
 accounted fairer still in faith and sanctity. In due time she 
 bore to the king four fair children ; three sons, Wulfade, 
 Rufine, and Kenred, and one daughter, the beauteous 
 Werburga. The boys are said to have been adorned with 
 all princely graces, and to have excelled in all the manly 
 exercises suited to their rank. The courtesy of their 
 demeanour, the prudence of their conduct, and the wit of 
 their conversation, endeared them to their father's subjects, 
 both rich and poor. But their sister, Werburga, had early 
 been dedicated by the queen, her mother, as a chaste virgin 
 to Christ ; wherefore, says the chronicler, " thinking scorn of 
 her royal wooers, and recoiling from the pompous splendour 
 and pride of all worldly glory, as a violet, she bloomed in 
 the beauty of unsullied youth, and, as a lily, adorned the 
 garden of the Lord in the brightness of her virgin purity." 
 
 Their father. King Wulpher, had been baptized, many 
 years before, by the holy Bishop Finan, of the nation of the 
 Scots ; and at the font, and afterwards when he led his 
 bride to the altar, he made a vow to the Lord that he would 
 utterly destroy the temples of the demons, and root out the 
 idols from his realm, and extend, as far as he should be able, 
 the faith of Jesus Christ. 
 
 But, when he inherited the throne of his fathers, he 
 forgot to perform the vow which he had made, and idolatry 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. "jj 
 
 still lingered in the kingdom of the Mercians. In this 
 wickedness the king was countenanced by one, Werbode, 
 whom he had made his chief councillor and friend, such as 
 Haman the Agagite was to King Ahasuerus. They say 
 that he was an idolater, a man of Belial, a very minister 
 and satellite of Satan ; that he was crafty in heart, wil}- in 
 tongue, wanton in appetite, and arrogant in mind. Not 
 content with the favours which the king had already 
 bestowed upon him, he even dared in his heart to think of 
 wooing the lovely Werburga, well knowing that she was 
 dedicated to Christ, hoping, in his madness, thereby, to 
 succeed to the kingdom. 
 
 The king, not heeding, consented to Werbode's suit, but 
 the queen, Ermenilda, sharply rebuked him for his pre- 
 sumption, and reproached him with his base lineage. And 
 Werburga, herself, as beseemed a maiden who was soon to 
 take the veil, bade him think no more of her as his bride, 
 but rather to seek for God's forgiveness for having conceived 
 such a thought in his heart. Her brothers, the Princes 
 Wulfade and Rufine, in more impetuous mood, threatened 
 him with their sorest vengeance, if ever again he should 
 prefer his low-born suit to their sister. The disdainful 
 words of these royal youths rankled in the evil mind of 
 Werbode, and one day cost them dear, albeit, through the 
 teaching of holy Chad, they were to earn the crown of 
 martyrdom, as the story sheweth. For it fell upon a day, as 
 
78 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 the holy man was engaged in devout prayer and meditation 
 in his cell, a hart of great size, and wide-spreading antlers, 
 burst forth from the forest glades into the open space which 
 surrounded the fountain. His panting breath, and quivering 
 limbs, told that the huntsman was on his track, and, to 
 slake his raging thirst, he began to drink eagerly of the 
 cooling waters. Pitying the distress of the noble animal, 
 and moved with the bowels of compassion towards all the 
 creatures of God, Chad covered him with the boughs and 
 leaves of trees, to refresh him with their coolness, and to 
 conceal him from his foes, for in his inward mind he believed 
 something wonderful would happen by means of the hart. 
 And, when the animal was somewhat recovered, it meekly 
 suffered the holy man to put a cord round its neck, and 
 then it wandered into the forest to crop the grass. 
 
 Hardly had the saint recovered from the surprise 
 occasioned by the appearance of the hart, than the blast of 
 a hunter's horn fell upon his ear, and soon a handsome 
 youth, in gay apparel, reined in his steed in front of the 
 cell, whither the footprints of the hart had guided him. 
 This was no other than Wulfade, the king's eldest son, who 
 had been following the chase — to which, as became one of 
 royal lineage, he was much addicted — and, in the eagerness 
 of his pursuit, had lost sight of his retainers. 
 
 On seeing the holy man, who, at the sound of the horse's 
 footsteps, had come out of his cell, the prince courteously 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 79 
 
 and reverently saluted him, and enquired whether he had 
 seen the hart of which he had been in quest since the early 
 dawn. To whom the saint replied, " Am I the keeper of 
 " the hart ? I do not tend or guard the beasts of the forest, 
 " or the cattle of the field, or the birds of the air, but, through 
 " the ministry of the hart, have become the guide of thy 
 " salvation. For God, who prepared the hart, hath made 
 " known to thee the hidden things of His own sacraments, 
 " that thou mayest believe in His name, and be baptized 
 " for the remission of sins. By a beautiful foreshadowing, 
 " nay, by the witness of a sure prophecy, the hart bathed in 
 " the fountain sets forth and shews to thee beforehand the 
 " laver of wholesome baptism, even as thou mayest learn 
 " the mind of David from the text, ' As the hart panteth 
 " ' after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, 
 " ' O God ; my soul thirsteth for God as the living fountain, 
 " ' when shall I come and appear before God.' " 
 
 Many other things, also, did the saint set forth, shewing 
 him how that by the ministry of irrational animals the 
 Divine Wisdom had deigned to reveal His own mysteries 
 for the salvation of the faithful. By means of a dove, He 
 announced to Noah, after the flood, that the waters, which 
 had covered the earth, were dried up. By the mouth of a 
 lowly ass He restrained the madness of the prophet, and by 
 the ministry of a raven fed the prophet Elijah. And the 
 Lord, Himself, after the custom of the prophets, when He 
 
8o Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 made His entry into Jerusalem, deigned to ride on an ass 
 and her colt, in token of the conversion of two peoples. 
 Nor did he forget to tell him what is read of the blessed 
 Eustachius, how the Lord vouchsafed to appear to him in 
 the form of a stag ; and many miracles of brute animals 
 which have been accomplished, and which are found written 
 in the Acts of the blessed Martin and Jerome. 
 
 The prince is related to have replied in all courtesy to 
 the words of the holy priest " Truly, O reverend father, 
 " these testimonies might well be believed, even if they 
 " rested on your sanctity alone ; but for my part the things 
 " which you tell me would be more likely to work faith in 
 " me, if the animal which I have been pursuing which you 
 " have hidden by the fountain, and have taught to wander 
 " in the forest with a rope round its neck, should appear 
 " forthwith in our presence, in answer to your prayers or in 
 " obedience to your command." 
 
 Straightway the holy priest prostrated himself in prayer. 
 And lo ! the hart aforesaid, bearing the cord upon his neck, 
 burst forth from the forest and stood before them. Then 
 quoth the Saint rising from his knees " Understand now in 
 " truth that all things are possible to him that believeth, and 
 " if any one shall ask the Father anything, in the name of 
 " the Son, it shall be done unto him. Hear therefore O my 
 " son and see ; incline thine ear to obey the faith of Christ, 
 "to receive the grace of baptism, for according to the 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 8r 
 
 " promise of our Saviour, ' he who believeth and is baptized. 
 " shall be saved.' " 
 
 Comforted and strengthened in the faith, Wulfade threw 
 himself at the feet of the man of God, and prayed that he- 
 might forthwith be baptized. The blessed Chad, seeing him 
 thus rooted and grounded in the faith, returned thanks to 
 God, and, as was meet, first began to instruct him in the 
 rudiments of the religion of Christ. Then, having solemnly- 
 blessed the fountain, he baptized him therein in the name of 
 the Holy Trinity, and became, so to speak, his spiritual 
 father. 
 
 And since evening was coming on apace, and day was 
 now fast declining, the holy father made his son spend the 
 night with him, and setting before him such friigal fare as 
 his cell afforded, entertained him with his devout conversa- 
 tion and instruction. At the same time was seen a thing" 
 wonderful to behold ; for just as the holy Chad abode with 
 the prince, so the hart stood by the side of his steed, the 
 wild animal with the tame, and laid down beside him in all 
 gentleness and cropped the green sward. 
 
 At early dawn the holy priest celebrated mass and 
 admitted his youthful disciple to the body and blood of our 
 Lord, as a true and lively member of His church. 
 
 Wulfade, being now entered upon the way of truth, was 
 troubled for the salvation of his brother Rufine, and 
 earnestly besought Saint Chad that he would pray to God 
 
 M 
 
82 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 to incline his heart to embrace the Christian faith. To 
 whom the saint is related, in sterner mood, to have replied, 
 " Why dost thou ask for that to be done by me, which am 
 " of little esteem, which thou mayest obtain from God in a 
 " moment. For thy faith shall bring about thy brother's 
 " salvation, and within the space of three days shall bring 
 " him to the knowledge of the truth ; for He who hath 
 " separated you from your mother's womb, will call you 
 "both, by His grace, to Himself; He will justify you in 
 " Himself, He will glorify you from Himself" 
 
 Upon this, Wulfade bade farewell to the man of God, 
 and saluted him with a holy kiss, and when he had asked, 
 and received, his blessing, departed to his own home strong 
 in the faith? 
 
 On drawing near to his father's house, he met his brother 
 Rufine, who rejoiced greatly to see him, deeming that some 
 evil had befallen him ; to whom he related all that had 
 taken place in the forest with the man of God, and earnestly 
 exhorted him to do the like. Rufine heard these things 
 gladly, declaring that he had long been minded to come to 
 the faith of Christ, concerning Whom he had first heard the 
 words of life from Saint Germanus, bishop of the East 
 Saxons. For that holy bishop had come to those parts 
 with the saintly Ermenilda, and living there a long time, 
 had preached the gospel unto many. 
 
 The two princes, thereupon, resolved to visit, once more, 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 83 
 
 the man of God, and that they might carry out their design 
 more prudently, set out early in the morning, leaving the 
 usual track in order to conceal their purpose from the 
 thegns who rode with them. They had not gone far into 
 the forest, when lo ! the hart which had appeared first to 
 Saint Wulfade, having his neck still girt with the cord, 
 shewed himself to them^ and led the way to the dwelling of 
 the man of God. Rufine followed him, in his flight, by his 
 footprints, but Wulfade, knowing what these acts of the 
 dumb animal betokened, essayed to recall him with the blast 
 of his horn, fearing lest the beast should, unwittingly, be 
 slain. But the other, not hearing or understanding, urged 
 on the chase, and arrived first at the cell of the man of 
 God. 
 
 And then the hart, as aforetime, plunged into the fountain, 
 to the intent that it might be understood by such token as 
 he could, that he would lead the youth to the laver of life- 
 giving baptism. It was said that the most holy Chad, 
 himself, produced that very fountain from the bosom of the 
 earth, by his prayers, which, even to this day, is called 
 Chad's Well, and possesses the power of healing those who 
 are afflicted with divers diseases. 
 
 The man of God, knowing in his mind what was taking 
 place, went forth from his cell into the open air, and with 
 his eyes and hands lifted towards heaven, poured forth his 
 earnest prayers for the salvation of the prince. Whilst the 
 
 M 2 
 
§4 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 bishop was thus devoutly engaged, Rufine drew near, and, 
 at the first glance, was immediately persuaded in his mind 
 that it was no other than the blessed Chad, of whom he 
 had heard Germanus relate so many and so great things. 
 ""Art thou," quoth he, " my lord father Chad, beloved of God 
 and men, whilome the friend of Anna, the most Christian 
 king of the East Saxons, the teacher and guide to salvation 
 •of my brother Wulfade ?" who answering, " I am," he threw 
 Jiimself at his feet, beseeching him most earnestly to admit 
 him, without delay, to Christian baptism. The good bishop, 
 admiring and loving him in his heart, rejoiced greatly that 
 such devotion glowed in the breast of a youth, albeit he 
 seemed to possess the wisdom of old age. 
 
 And when Wulfade presently rode up to them, his face 
 beamed with joy, as he praised the godly desire of 'his 
 brother to receive holy baptism. Then the holy Chad, 
 with exulting tongue, instructed him as was fitting, and 
 afterwards baptized him in the same fountain, Wulfade 
 holding him after the manner taught by holy Church. 
 
 After this, the priest celebrated the sacrament of the 
 Mass, and these newly-made lambs of Christ's flock as- 
 cending, as it were, shorn from the font, he sanctified with 
 the holy washing of the Immaculate Lamb, perceiving from 
 manifold tokens that they would go up to Mount Gilead, 
 that is, to the glory of martyrdom. Nor did the holy man 
 forget to instruct them to keep the commandments of God, 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 85 
 
 or to set forth to them the precepts of the divine discipline, 
 for well he knew they would cleanse their way by taking 
 heed thereto, according to God's law. 
 
 The newly-converted princes, on parting from the pre- 
 sence of the holy bishop, to return to their own home, 
 earnestly besought him that he would deign to take up his 
 abode nearer to the castle of their father, at Wulpher- 
 chester, that they might the more easily profit by his holy 
 counsel and instruction. Their request was pleasing in the 
 eyes of the bishop, and he accordingly removed his cell 
 nearer to the place they desired. 
 
 They, themselves, repaired daily to the man of God, to 
 assist him in his sacred duties, and often lingered in the 
 hallowed precincts, and concealed under the pretence of 
 hunting, the profession of the Christian faith which they 
 had embraced. 
 
 But the evil heart of Werbode, their father's friend and 
 councillor, was full of enmity against the youths for that 
 they had withstood him in his suit to their sister, Werburga. 
 Wherefore, he stealthily spied out all their ways and doings, 
 and watched for every opportunity of inflaming their father's 
 mind with anger against them. And when he found out, 
 for a certainty, that they had become Christians, and were 
 wont to frequent the oratory for divine worship, and to visit 
 the man of God, he made it his business to inform the king 
 thereof, and by dint of setting before him that the spread 
 
86 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 of the faith of Christ in his realm would overthrow the 
 religion of his forefathers, under which Penda, his royal father, 
 had been so prosperous and had gained so many victories ; 
 and that, moreover, his two sons, in embracing this faith, 
 were setting at nought his royal authority, he roused the 
 king to such a pitch of fury that he swore a fearful oath he 
 would be revenged upon them. 
 
 Accordingly, at the earliest dawn on the following day, 
 when the darkness was still upon the earth, the king having 
 girded himself with his sword, set out with this child of 
 the devil towards the place where the man of God dwelt. 
 But, knowing full well that he wotild be unable to restrain 
 the fierceness of his anger, he bade Werbode go in advance 
 to herald his approach to his sons, that if perchance he 
 should find them in the oratory, they might, at least, be so 
 filled with fear as to betake themselves to flight and con- 
 cealment. 
 
 But this son of darkness had no thought of sparing 
 the hapless lads. Approaching the little oratory with stealthy 
 steps, he looked in at the window and saw them prostrate 
 on the ground, earnestly engaged in prayer. And then, 
 without making a sound or uttering a word, he returned 
 secretly to the king, and informed him that his sons con- 
 tinued obstinate in their purpose of adoring Christ, and 
 that so far from displaying any fear, or shewing any respect 
 to his royal authority, they reviled him as a blasphemer and 
 an apostate. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 87 
 
 At these lying words of Werbode, the king turned pale 
 with wrath, and burning with the unnatural desire to shed 
 the blood of his sons, advanced with rapid strides to the 
 precincts of the oratory. The saintly youths, when they 
 heard the thunder of the king's voice, were anxious for the 
 safety of their spiritual father, fearing lest in his wrath he 
 should lay violent hands on the most holy Chad himself, 
 the anointed of the Lord. For well they knew that for 
 themselves their father would have naught but stripes and 
 reproaches, notwithstanding they were eager, and prepared 
 in heart to suffer revilings and terrors and sundry kinds 
 of death for the name of Jesus. 
 
 But the blessed Chad, knowing, as Solomon says, that as 
 the roaring of a lion so is the wrath of a king, at the earnest 
 entreaties of the young princes, fled from the face of 
 Wulpher and hid himself in the remoter parts of the forest. 
 And this he did not that he in any way feared death, which 
 he rather counted as gain, but he foresaw that worthier 
 fruit would issue to many from the life which had been 
 spared, than if he were to rush upon instant death. 
 
 King Wulpher, if, indeed, he could be called a king who 
 was neither able nor willing to govern himself, bursting 
 furiously into the chapel, found his sons before the image of 
 the Saviour, earnestly engaged in prayer. Thereupon, he 
 began to heap upon them all manner of reproaches for that 
 they had broken the laws of his realm, and set at nought 
 
88 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 his authority, and then he fiercely threatened them with his 
 direst vengeance if they did not straightway renounce the 
 faith of Christ, and worship the gods of their fathers. 
 
 Then Wulfade, with all Christian meekness and princely 
 dignity, replied that they were most unwilling to break the 
 laws of the land, but that the king had himself once pro- 
 fessed the faith which now he renounced ; that they earnestly 
 desired to retain his fatherly affection, but that the prospect 
 of no tortures or death could shake their fixed resolve to 
 continue steadfast in the religion of Christ. 
 
 But even whilst the brave young prince was yet speaking, 
 the king, fiercer than any wild beast, drawing his sword, 
 rushed furiously upon him and slew him and cut off his 
 head, and consecrated him, all unconscious, a martyr to 
 Christ. The younger, Rufine, seeing these things, fled, but 
 being pursued by his father, received a mortal wound, 
 whereof he presently expired, and, being made a fellow 
 martyr with his brother, departed to celestial glory. And 
 so it came to pass that those whom nature made one on 
 earth, being united in faith and love, were made one also 
 in heaven. 
 
 When this horrid crime had been wrought, the king and 
 Werbode turned away with hurried steps from the place 
 which was conscious of his crime. But lest the fell deed 
 should come to the knowledge of the queen or of the people, 
 they agreed to destroy the oratory of the man of God 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 89 
 
 during the darkness of the night, and to bury the bodies of 
 the slaughtered princes in some secret place. 
 
 But their evil deeds could not long remain undiscovered. 
 The avenger was at hand. For when the king returned, 
 with his wicked councillor, to the castle, and had repaired 
 alone to his own chamber, an evil spirit, at the very entrance 
 of the royal palace, in the sight of many persons standing 
 by, seized the schemer of the death of the martyred princes 
 as his own familiar and vassal. For he straightway began to 
 tear his hands and arms with his teeth ; and what, at his 
 own wicked instigation, the blood-stained father had wrought 
 upon his sons, he, shouting with unrestrained voice, pro- 
 claimed in the ears of all men. And, for long, the avenging 
 demon ceased not to torment him, until at last he forced 
 him to breathe forth his baleful spirit. 
 
 The report of the horrid deed filled all men with sorrow 
 and amazement, and, when it reached the queen's ears, a 
 sword of unspeakable grief pierced her soul. Repairing to 
 the place of her sons' martyrdom, she took up their bodies 
 and gave them honorable burial in one stone tomb. And, 
 from that time, the queen resolved to forsake the couch of 
 her husband, and with her daughter, Werburga, who had 
 been the unwitting cause of her brothers' death, at length 
 retired to the monastery of Sheppey, and afterwards to that 
 of Ely, where she died, after many deeds of piety, in the 
 odour of sanctity. 
 
 N 
 
90 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 Meanwhile, the king, overwhelmed with unavailing re- 
 morse, took to his bed, and was like to die. To assuage 
 the intolerable anguish of his mind, his friends counselled 
 him to seek solace in hunting, or in falconry, or in instru- 
 ments of music. But the queen and her kinsfolk admonished 
 him, above all things, not to despair of the divine mercy, 
 but rather to take counsel of the holy bishops, Jaruman and 
 Chad, and to do what, in their judgment, should be meet. 
 
 The king yielded to this wiser counsel, and firmly 
 resolved to repair to the holy Chad, and to do whatsoever 
 he should enjoin. Accordingly, one morning he set out 
 with his thegns, as if to follow the chase, hoping to fall in 
 with the man of God by a chance similar to that which had 
 befallen his sons, now, alas ! martyrs. For the blessed 
 Chad, immediately after the murder of the saintly youths, 
 had returned to his former dwelling place, by the fountain, 
 and was leading there a hermit life, without a single com- 
 panion to relieve the dreariness of his solitude. 
 
 When the king had advanced into the thicker parts of 
 the forest, and all his attendants, as God willed, were 
 scattered hither and thither, and he was left alone, he 
 espied the meek hart, so often mentioned, bounding in the 
 distance, and having the cord round its neck as aforetime. 
 At sight whereof, being filled with joy, he followed in his 
 track, until, in sooth, he came to the dwelling of the servant 
 of God, the holy Chad. The hart, as though he had finished 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. g i 
 
 his errand, left the king, and plunged into the fountain, as 
 he was wont, to cool and refresh himself 
 
 The king immediately dismounted from his steed, and, 
 approaching the window of the oratory, saw the man of 
 God, arrayed in his priestly vestments, standing before the 
 altar, and celebrating mass. Being let by a guilty con- 
 science, he stood within the porch, and durst not enter, until 
 he had first been shriven from his sins by the holy bishop. 
 And, when the bishop began the canon, so great a light 
 shone forth from heaven, through the apertures in the wall, 
 that priest and sacrifice, and all that appertained thereto, 
 were covered with the splendour that was shed upon them. 
 The eyes of the king were blinded with the brightness of 
 the light, for, in comparison with this heavenly radiance, the 
 noon-day sun itself seemed poor and mean. And, marvellous 
 to relate, the splendour in no degree waxed dim until the 
 celebration of the holy mass was accomplished, and then the 
 light departed heavenwards, and the natural sun, entering 
 in at windows and door, darted his rays even to the altar. 
 The holy man knew that the king was standing without, and 
 what it was that he desired in his mind, for the heavenly 
 light shone upon him spiritually as well as corporeally. 
 And, when the sacred office was finished, he hastily put off 
 his priestly vestments, and, thinking to lay them upon the 
 place appointed for them by the side of the altar, unwittingly 
 hung them upon a sunbeam, and went to the king, who was 
 
 N 2 
 
92 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 outside the oratory. But the sunbeam upheld the sacred 
 robes, which had been laid upon it, so that they did not fall 
 to the ground, showing, by a manifest miracle, saith the 
 chronicler, that this son of light clave firmly to the Sun of 
 Righteousness by faith and love. 
 
 The saint, on going forth, found the king prostrate upon 
 the earth before the porch of the Church, overwhelmed 
 with confusion, on account of his sin, and oppressed with 
 intolerable anguish of mind. The bishop raised him up, 
 and, after the example of the Good Samaritan, poured into 
 the wounds of his mind the oil of consolation, mingled with 
 the wine of sharp reproof, lest he should fall into the sin of 
 despair. " Oftentimes," quoth he, " since that evil day, 
 have I implored the most merciful Creator of all things that 
 he would vouchsafe to take away thy sin, which thou hast 
 committed against thy sons, at the instigation of the minister 
 of death, who has already become an inhabitant of hell. 
 And the Lord, that he might shew to thee the riches of 
 His goodness, hath granted to thee the opportunity of 
 repentance, in answer to my prayers, if thou art willing to 
 follow my counsels." 
 
 The king replied, with great humility, that he was willing, 
 in all things, to be guided by his advice, and, in accordance 
 therewith, to make amends for the evil deed which he had 
 wrought. 
 
 Wherefore, Saint Chad enjoined upon King Wulpher, 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 93 
 
 under the seal of penance, that he should, with all speed, 
 cause, by a public edict, all the shrines of the demons to be 
 utterly destroyed throughout the realm of the Mercians ; 
 that he should give command to root out idolatry, to build 
 churches, to found monasteries, to ordain clergy, and strictly 
 to observe the ordinances of the Christian religion ; he 
 further admonished him that he should do justice between 
 man and man ; to devote himself to frequent prayers, to 
 make amends for his sins with works of mercy, according to 
 the exhortation of holy Scripture ; to refrain from all corrupt 
 actions, and to be faithful to the marriage bed. 
 
 When the man of God had spoken these, and similar, 
 things, he turned a little on one side, and gave himself to 
 prayer, and motioned to the now penitent king that he also 
 should seek the face of the Lord. And Wulpher, chancing 
 to lift up his eyes, saw the priestly vestments hanging upon 
 the sunbeam not without great wonder. Whereupon, he 
 rose from his knees, and approached nearer, that he might 
 see this great vision, and placed his own gloves and baldric 
 upon the beam, but they immediately fell to the ground. 
 
 Being now a man of deeper insight, he understood that 
 Saint Chad was accounted the fellow and companion of the 
 saints above, and beloved by the Sun of Righteousness, to 
 whom, whilst living on earth, the sun paid such homage. 
 When, after a little space, the holy bishop ceased praying, 
 the king bade him behold the wonderful sight he had seen. 
 
94 Legends of Saint Chad. 
 
 Then the bishop, drawing near, took up his vestments, and, 
 laying them upon the altar, returned devout thanks and 
 worship to Him who lighteth every man that cometh into 
 the world. 
 
 The king, edified, and rejoicing in the Lord, took with 
 him the holy bishop, and returned to his own home and 
 kindred. In short, he laboured diligently to accomplish 
 what he had openly vowed to God, in the presence of His 
 servant. By the advice of the blessed Chad, and with the 
 help of the saintly Ermenilda, within a brief space of time, 
 the king utterly purged his realm from the contamination of 
 idolatry ; and, whatever could be thought contrary to whole- 
 some faith, he made it his care to remove. He built, or 
 caused to be built, churches in suitable places ; he erected 
 many beautiful monasteries, for both sexes, and enriched 
 them with ample revenues ; amongst others, he endowed 
 with many lands and possessions the noble monastery of 
 Medehampstede, which he is said to have founded in order 
 to expiate the crime committed against his sons. In our 
 time, concludes the chronicler, it is- called Peterborough 
 that is, the city of Saint Peter. For the church, which was 
 dedicated in this place in honour of the chief of the 
 Apostles, contains the ashes of many saints, and still sends 
 forth many good men to the holy fellowship of the citizens 
 above ; the most blessed Peter conducting them thither, and 
 opening, for them, the gate of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
^^m 
 
 ^^^Bi22S 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 
 Upon the brook that brawls along this wood : 
 To the which place a poor sequestered stag, 
 That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt. 
 Did come to languish ; 
 
 As You Like It. 
 
 U C H is the famous legend of Saint Chad which 
 has found its way into EngHsh literature. It 
 appears in different writings, under various forms, 
 which demand some consideration, as bearing upon any 
 shadow of a claim to be regarded as historical, which might 
 be set up for it. 
 
 In the foregoing recital, we have mainly followed the 
 Latin version of the story, printed in the Monasticon, from 
 a manuscript preserved in the Cottonian Library, in the 
 British Museum, which differs but slightly from one in the 
 Fitzwiljiam collection, said to have belonged, originally, to 
 the monastery of Peterborough. The writer complains of 
 the barbarous and uncouth language in which the story had 
 hitherto been told, and which had served rather to bring it 
 into contempt, than to tend to edification. He probably 
 refers to the legend as it formerly appeared in the cloister 
 windows of Peterborough minster. The quaint couplets 
 
96 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 of this version are, however, far more interesting than the 
 bombastic latinity which the monkish scribe supposed to 
 be an improvement. Each window contained a picture of 
 one of the personages mentioned in the poem, with an 
 explanatory couplet beneath it, the whole series purporting 
 to be a history of the minster from its foundation to the 
 time of -King Edgar. The cloisters were destroyed by the 
 puritan rabble of Cromwell's time, but the legend has been 
 preserved and printed as follows : — 
 
 feins Peniia, a JPapnim, as totitinff fiept^, 
 ©ate pcfie ftbe tbilSren of C-firisten frptf). 
 
 Cfic nofile feiitf, PEaUa, ip ©oJi'ii srace, 
 ®5Ea6 X\t ftret founliEr ot tjitB plate. 
 
 •§3p ©ttcen ©rmEnplS [)at( Etns SMulferc 
 Cr&fBf tttep eons tjiat pe see \zxt. 
 
 SJHuIfaHe rtHetj), as Je teas toont, 
 STnto tj)f forest tjie Jart to !)nnt. 
 
 iFor all bis men, SSttulfatie is gone, 
 Stntt Buptl), ftimself, tjje J)art alone. 
 
 C&E Ijart ijronsl)t eMttUaSe to a toell 
 2Cj)at toas \t%iat liepnt C-ftaiUpB tell. 
 
 SSSulfaie asfeeB o{ t)epnt C-jjal 
 SUbere is t^f dart tliat me \vA\ leir. 
 
 2C()e liart t^at &tt&er tjee l)at{) ironsftt, 
 3ffi sent bp C'Srtst tjat t&ee jiatj) bouffbt. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 97 
 
 SSlttlfaae prapU C-SaU t&at sftoBtlp leetj) 
 ^\t fait!) of Cftrifit !)tm far to teatft. 
 
 g)«pnt C&al it^t\ti\ SMulfaHe tfte fcptj, 
 3[nli tooriB of iaptwm olier [)im \z deptji. 
 
 Saint Cfiaii Ucboutlp to ilass !)im Bijjt, 
 am boseua SSftttlfale CfirtBtps fenis!)t. 
 
 SUnlfale \m\t\ gicpnt C-SaU tj^at ftap 
 iFnr j&ie irot^cr Euftne to prap. 
 
 SMttlfaJe tola ftis iirotjier Hnftne 
 
 Cftat !)e teas C&riBteneJi bp C&aUJp'B flottrine. 
 
 Httfinc to SSlnlfaiie caia a^ain 
 dD&rifitenea also toottlS % be fain, 
 
 SStttlfaSe Htifine to ijepnt C&aB leaSet?), 
 atntt Cliaa tottft lobe of faitj \m. fceSctft. 
 
 Htifine IB C'&rifitenea of giepnt CftaaUpB, 
 ana SSSttlfaae !)i6 !)rotI)er ftis goafatjer tB. 
 
 aSEerboac, Btetoara to Eing aJEuIfere, 
 ®oia tl^at %\& BonB C-JriBtenea toete. 
 
 SCotoara tje tbappel SJSttlferc fan soc, 
 ■ffip ffttiains of OTterboae, C-ftrtBtpa foe. 
 
 3rnto tje t^appel cntrea tjie feinj 
 ana founa \\& BonB tootBl&ippins. 
 
 QMnlfere in toooaneBB 6iB Btoora out areto 
 ana botd !itB BonB, anon^ \t Bleto. 
 
98 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 Eins SStuIftre tott[) SlStterbolic poo, 
 ^urpinff sabe \\i bohb ttoo. 
 
 SMetioSe (or benffeante \\& oton ^t&\ tare, 
 %\t Stbil {(tin BtratiffleS atiB to |&ell tare. 
 
 SSSttltere for sorroto, anon, toaai eitfe, 
 STn ties be lap a BeaJi man Ufee. 
 
 l)epnt ©rnunpHi, tjat blefiseif ©necn, 
 CounsclUli SSSttlfere to fibrihc Jm tlcen. 
 
 ©Mnlfcre, contrite, Spell bint to CftaH, 
 i^fi ©rmcnpllr J)im tonnBellea iiaJ. 
 
 Cljali iaSe SiMttltcre for \\& Bin 
 ^tbficpB to ijuillr 6t6 realm toitftin. 
 
 SMttlfere in (jastc perforraeJ t{)an 
 ■JSronsJ) tjat JPeaJa \\& firot^er began. 
 
 SSEttlfcre enfiueli tott^ j)ts& Icbotion 
 
 ^l)e ^bbep of -Brottsl) biitg great poBBeBBton. 
 
 W^t tJjirU irntljcr, Eins ©tlielreli, 
 C-onftrmelr bot() jiis bretJren'B UeeJf. 
 
 Sapttif, tl)at Jere first aiibat toas, 
 iFor anfecrps at SC&nrnep maJe a plate. 
 
 after tame Canee anU ^rottsJ brent, 
 _ ana fileto t\z ;PlontpB as tjep ttent. 
 
 jFottrstore pears anS fitj;teen 
 
 StooU ^Srouffl) Uestropelj \^ Danes teen. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 99 
 
 liepnt attfteltooia teas biiaen ip ©nli'fi lore 
 W^t abiep of ^rottg;& asatn to restore. 
 
 §»epnt atftcltoollj to ferns ©Sfar toent 
 SlnlJ prapeJ fiim to |)elp Ijim in \v& intent. 
 
 ffijf ar balie atfieltooHi t&c toorfe ijcfin 
 3tnlJ \m to 6clp Je toonlB not Ipn. 
 
 SCftttB ©Ijar ana It^cltoolS reBtorcU tj^is place, 
 ©oU Babe it anU feeep it for \\& jrace. 
 
 The version of the cloister legend printed by the learned 
 author of the Monasticon contains two or three couplets in 
 addition to the preceding, and exhibits several verbal differ- 
 ences besides. The story, as it appeared in the windows of 
 the minster, was probably of the same date as the cloisters 
 it adorned. The history of the abbey is brought down to 
 the time of Edgar, but no further, and it is not impossible 
 that when the cloisters were erected, the story was rendered 
 into a more modern form and metre, from a still more an- 
 cient version preserved in the abbey. There can, at all 
 events, be little doubt that the legend in its metrical form, is 
 due to some monk belonging to Peterborough, anxious to 
 enhance the ancient glory and the present splendour of his 
 house. But, like most tales, the legend of Chad and Wul- 
 pher's sons has lost nothing in travelling. Among the 
 multifarious treasures rescued by Sir Robert Cotton from 
 the "spoils of time," is an account of the martyrdom of 
 
 o 2 
 
lOO Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 Wulfade and Rufine, furnishing some important particu- 
 lars unknown to the window scribe, and in which Chad's 
 wonder-working powers are more fully developed. From 
 the many references to the Priory of Stone it seems proba- 
 ble that this poem was written by an ecclesiastic of that 
 house, the foundation of which, if the story is to be believed, 
 may be traced to the martyrdom of the Princes. Several of 
 the leaves of this manuscript are defective, but a few lines 
 will give a specimen of the English. The conversion of the 
 princes is thus related: — 
 
 ^i6 brotljere EtifEpn of j^pm ffrcate martotll jialif, 
 
 ana as \t tnente Jptn for to 6tt\t 
 
 %t xazit l&apfitelp tjie {lartc so mepfee 
 
 5r|)at !)ifi brotSerc to H^t fcptj^ laSc, 
 
 ana irousSt also to {lolp Sapnt Cfialc. 
 
 W^ztt \t lounac ftifi brot&Ere §>apnt SiMalfaae 
 
 eCJereof \\& Jarte tjen toafi full slate 
 
 C6e tolBe l)pm all t&cn of tftat tasBc 
 
 5Mj)at totssE l)apnt SMolfaae tristenea teas 
 
 ana or Je h3entc ©oi senae jipm Butj^ grace 
 
 SCjiat or I^E toente !)e toae trifitenea in tjat plate 
 
 ^apnt C&aae tjjriBteneac i)pm Jpe otonc !)anac 
 
 ana fipB irot^crc teas 6p6 goafatjiere tJuB S' unaerBtanac 
 
 §)apnt CSaae toent to maBse i!^t% at Jpa atotere 
 
 ana lotoeeleae t|^eni botj^e t|ere infere. 
 
 A few lines further on we learn that Chad's cell or oratory 
 
 was 
 
Bishop 0/ Lichfield. lOi 
 
 SCfire mpllc tijc Mpnges place fro, 
 
 SC&at ti)c to 5j)ra mptrfit otte cttmtne anJi tfOE ; 
 
 %xi t\)t inStcjjc place t{)ere as !)e male ftia litDellpnae 
 
 SSSas sreate plentp of trees tl)en (!;roh3pnc]; 
 
 atnli of tj)c iurtrenpns of t&e trees tjie tobtcjie tliere teas 
 
 ^orjEcn totonc men callplre t!)at place 
 
 SLnS -JSorstone notoe jiit callpie ps. 
 
 Their father and his court thought the young princes 
 were following the chase : 
 
 ■33ttt tretoelp eljer more t{)ere ^untpna; 
 SMas to serene for a more goilp t&pTtjr ; 
 pt teas all to btsett liapnt (IDfialie 3f tots 
 Co brtnse t&ere sotolle to Iieben blpsse. 
 
 Then we have some additional particulars respecting the 
 queen which had escaped the researches of the earlier nar- 
 rator. When she went to take up the bodies of her mur- 
 dered sons she was comforted by angels from heaven, and 
 
 ST&e angels tofee up tit liolip of Euffpn l&er sone, 
 anB fiare it up in tl)e epre anli baie ^ur after cummr. 
 
 The miracle of the sun-beam, of which nothing is said in 
 the cloister legend, now appears, 
 
 eCIje fepns tottje jrreat rontrecpone Wsd to ^apnt Cljalie 
 JFor to amenlie &pm of dps Ipffe tjat 6e ebpll ^alrc laJrc. 
 SSEften \)t came to tit cjapell t&ereae ijapnt^Cftale toas, 
 severe ftc founlie 6pm tebototlp stonUpinj; at masse ; 
 SI full fetore mprac&le It sae tijrotoc ttomis grace ; 
 SC&e sone lit sjjone tjjrotoe an fioole in t^e same place ; 
 §)ente CJaJrc or It toente to masse lie leplie lis clotfjes Ijim fro 
 Wc)t sone It^mt tretolp ItXHt tltm. from t&e jtrotinUe tla. 
 
 04 
 
I04 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 One more verse, describing the miracle of the sunbeam,, 
 and its effect upon the king, must conclude our extracts from 
 this poem : — 
 
 ®j)en tjc faresapK iinge anl tjie Jjolp tonfeiSBOur 
 SMent to tl&fpr prapere jn tj)c oratorp 
 anl as ^t iipnge lofetU up to our l»abpour 
 ©be sapJ Eiatrat beeturtB \t satoj cbplirntlp 
 ^anspnfc on tjt Bonne beam MI mertacplouelp 
 |)i6 flobes, i)i6 aprlcll tjie fepnge batr upon 
 OHbttJ fiftortlp to srounli falleS aUotone. 
 
 SSSbereip \t petceytoeU i!^t great {loIpnrfiBc 
 ©f ileBBeS ^apnt (JDeaK an! tnterpor actiocpon 
 2DeBprcli jitB praper iaplp toit[) mecineBB^ 
 (to Stlinpsfttp (Soil for &t6 rcmpBBion 
 iFrora tj^ens JepartcB intti) \\& benfipton 
 STopfuIl in I)tB BouU totoarUe {)is place 
 SCbanltpnjfe ®ot! mcfeelp of Ms great grace 
 
 Besides these metrical versions of the legend, there are 
 extant the Latin version already referred to, an abridgement 
 of the same among the Lansdowne MSS.,* and a short 
 account, in the first volume of that marvellous treasure- 
 house of antiquities, Leland's Collectanea. One important 
 variation in the legend must not be overlooked. The 
 hart is sometimes transformed into a milk-white doe, upon 
 whose milk the holy man is said to have lived; but the ori- 
 ginal authority for this interesting particular I have been 
 unable to discover. 
 
 * 435 ff 236. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 105 
 
 Taking the legend as it stands, the question naturally 
 arises, is it altogether a creation of fancy, or has it any basis 
 of historical truth ? Did the Mercian king lay violent 
 hands upon his own sons ? and does the glorious minster, 
 rising above the green meadows of the gently flowing Nene, 
 carry us back in thought to a monarch, prostrate in the 
 presence of a man of God ; and whose guilt-haunted soul 
 cannot be shriven until he has washed away his sin in 
 penitential deeds of charity ? 
 
 The" scornful iconoclasm of modern times, which has 
 plucked away so many flowers from the garden of history, 
 has not spared the legends of the saints. Saint Chad has 
 been dealt with long ago. The accomplished Selden re- 
 buked the ingratitude of the Peterborough monks, who 
 proclaimed their ancient founder to the world as an apostate 
 and a murderer. * Other scholars have torn to shreds the 
 arguments by which the historical character of the story 
 was vindicated, and have triumphantly appealed to the 
 silence of history, in proof of the falsehood of legend. I am 
 by no means ambitious of drawing upon myself the keen 
 shafts of ridicule by disputing conclusions which have been 
 so confidently arrived at. But, were I to do so, I should 
 be In by no means contemptible company. The ingenious 
 author of the Polyolbion, in the lines which gave rise to 
 Selden's criticism, has no suspicion that he is clothing a 
 fable in verse : 
 
 Smith's Bede, App. xvi. 
 
 P 
 
io6 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 Though his unnatural hands succeeding Wulpher stayned 
 
 In his own children's blood whom their dear mother had 
 
 Confirmed in Christ's belief by that most reverent Chad, 
 
 Yet to embrace the faith when after he began, 
 
 (For the unnaturalst deed that ere was was done by man) 
 
 If possible it were to expiate his guilt. 
 
 Here many a goodly house to holy uses built ; 
 
 And shee to purge his crime on her own children done 
 
 A crowned Queen for him, became a veiled Nun. 
 
 *But however contemptously history may treat the Legend 
 of Saint Chad, its dramatic accessories and ethical bearing 
 agree well with the character of those times. The forest 
 life, he is said to have led in Mercia, had been led in the 
 forests of Gaul and Germany by hundreds of saints before 
 him. The monks and anchorites of mediaeval times seem 
 to have inherited the sylvan empire of the Druidical priest- 
 hood. For their stern souls such a life possessed peculiar 
 fascinations. The gloomy shades of the forest were for them 
 haunted with fantastic terrors, and peopled by unhallowed 
 beings with whom faith alone could grapple. With axe in 
 hand, and a firm reliance on God's goodness in their hearts, 
 they advanced boldly into these woodland solitudes, and, 
 with a courage worthy of knight or crusader, braved their 
 real and imaginary dangers. The blue smoke which curled 
 upwards above the loftiest trees to heaven, often rose for the 
 first time from the hermit's cell, built of trees he had himself 
 hewn down, and surrounded by the plot of land he had with 
 his own hands rescued from his forest domain. 
 
 * It is easier for me thankfully to acknowledge than accurately to specify my obligations 
 in the following remarks to Montalembert's interesting work, " The Monks of the West." 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 107 
 
 Surrounded by a tangled maze of almost primeval vegeta- 
 tion, the legend allows us to picture our Saint reciting day- 
 after day, in his lonely cell, the solemn offices of the Catholic 
 Church, amid the murmured responses of waving trees; and, 
 as evening shrouds the forest in yet profounder gloom, 
 chanting his lonely vespers with the distant howling of 
 wolves for a chorus, and the song of many birds for an 
 antiphon. 
 
 That the wandering huntsman in quest of wild boar or stag 
 should have fallen in with the saint, engaged in these solitary 
 devotions, was not improbable. Such encounters form 
 the staple of many a monkish story and the burden of many 
 a song. That the holy man should have succeeded in tam- 
 ing one of the antlered monarchs of the forest, equally agrees 
 with the traditional aspects of hermit life. The monkish 
 chroniclers love to tell of Saint Calais stroking the sleek 
 sides of his gentle buffalo ; of Saint Marculphus sheltering 
 beneath his robe from its pursuers the hare which like our own 
 poet he had taught to regard him as its friend ; of Saint Giles 
 having his outstretched hand pierced with the shaft of the 
 royal huntsman aimed, at the hound he had cherished as the 
 companion of his solitude. The birds of the air, and the 
 fish of the sea, were not behind in shewing respect to the 
 saints. They tell of the otters which licked the frozen toes 
 of Saint Cuthbert after his nocturnal orisons in the sea, and 
 of the fishes which listened devoutly to the exhortations of 
 
 p 2 
 
io8 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 Saint Anthony, and of the ravens which robbed Saint 
 Guthlac of his gloves and parchment but brought them 
 back again in mute homage to his sanctity ! ! 
 
 That a Saxon prince should have apostatized from the 
 Christian faith, and murdered his sons ; and in remorse for 
 his crime have built churches and monasteries would be 
 only too credible, were it not in this particular instance con- 
 tradicted by the well ascertained history of the Mercian 
 king, and of Saint Chad himself. 
 
 The story of the sun-beam belongs, of course, to the 
 realm of pure fable. But myths have an origin as well as 
 a meaning, and it would not be surprising if this same story 
 should hereafter be traced, as many others have been, to 
 the very cradle of Aryan mythology, and the miracle of 
 Saint Chad prove to have been performed by some far more 
 ancient seer at the foot of the Himalayas, or on the banks of 
 the Ganges. At all events Chad had been anticipated in 
 the miracle by other Saints in the Catholic Church, as, for 
 instance, by Saint Goar, of Treves and Saint Aicadrus, of 
 Jumieges ; concerning whose performance the writers of the 
 Lives of English Saints are not ashamed to write "'it is not 
 to be wondered at if a ray of the sun assumed the hardness 
 of wood in obedience to the holy man, since to one who 
 lives in devout intimacy with the Creator, the creature is 
 subjected to the Creator's will!" * 
 
 * Quoted in Wright's Arch<eological Essay. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 109 
 
 So far then, the incidents narrated in the legend may be 
 •considered as in harmony with the notions of the age in 
 which they are said to have occurred. There were such 
 persons as hermits, who forsook the world to dwell alone in 
 forests and in caves and fens. They tamed wild animals 
 and cleared away trees, and, as Montalembert points out, 
 rendered the like service to mediaeval civilization, fo rwhich, 
 future generations will thank the hardy pioneers of the 
 forests in the far west. 
 
 But, when the laborious servant of Christ, whose portrait 
 Bede has so lovingly drawn, is transformed into one of these 
 lonely anchorites, with a gloomy forest for his diocese and 
 its wild denizens for his flock, nothing further is needed to 
 stamp the story with the genuine marks of fiction. 
 
 The monks of Lastingham knew nothing of the hermit 
 life of their former Abbot. Daniel, bishop of Winchester, 
 who wrote a life of Saint Chad, and was a literary corres- 
 pondent of Bede's, gave no hint of it to his illustrious con- 
 temporary. The story of Saint Chad, must accordingly be 
 referred to that large class of compositions, which as pious 
 fables or knightly romances have inculcated moral or 
 religious truth, but must not be confounded with history, 
 though they have borrowed her pen and made use of the 
 names of those who have adorned her brightest pages. 
 
 But, although the legends of Saint Chad cannot be accept- 
 ed as literal fact, we need not suppose that they were writ- 
 
3IO Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 ten with the purpose of deceiving the unlearned. They 
 were rather the chaplet woven hy the hands of posterity 
 round the memory of one to whom Saxon England owed 
 not a little ; the unconscious homage of later times to the 
 softening and elevating influence of the Christian faith over 
 the animal lusts which degrade, and the stormy passions 
 which agitate the hearts of sinful men. 
 
 But far from us be any close analysis of this beautiful 
 story. Like other stories of the kind, it answered its 
 purpose, and as such it should be respectfully treated. 
 To pursue it further would be to pull the rose, leaf by leaf 
 to pieces ; to scatter them to the wind ; to destroy their 
 beauty, and to dispel their fragrance. 
 
CHAPTER VII.. 
 
 Hark ! hark my soul ; Angelic sounds are swelling 
 O'er earth's green fields, and ocean's wave-beat shore, 
 
 How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling. 
 Of that new life when sin shall be no more. 
 
 Angels of Jesus, Angels of light, 
 
 Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night. 
 
 Angels sing on ! your faithful watches keeping ; 
 
 Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above ; 
 Till morning's joy shall end the night of weeping. 
 
 And life's long shadows break in cloudless love. 
 Angels of Jesus, Angels of light, 
 
 Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night. 
 
 Hymns Ancient and Moder.v. 
 
 H E story of a human life has never been com- 
 pletely told. Its curve, to borrow an expression 
 from the mathematicians, has never been com- 
 pletely traced. The development of a man's original 
 mental and moral constitution, • the influence of external 
 events upon it for good and evil, the subtle causes which 
 determine the part he plays in the roll of history are 
 matters which often baffle the keenest scrutiny of the 
 biographer, and the ignorance of which reduces the noblest 
 efforts of his science to splendid fragments, like those 
 mournful columns in churchyards, which tell of a human life 
 cut short in its prime. For, like the fabled stream of 
 
1 1 2 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 Helicon which flowed underground, every life is more or 
 less hidden from the eyes of other men, and not until we 
 enter upon the great hereafter, will its course be known and 
 its secrets revealed. 
 
 For this reason many lives which abound in stirring 
 and eventful incidents are not really more interesting or 
 instructive than others of which but little is recorded. The 
 key is wanting to unlock their secrets. A theory is re- 
 quired to explain their complex phenomena. 
 
 On the other hand the life of many a good man becomes 
 sublime in its very simplicity, and from the grandeur of the 
 principles which it illustrates. When the clouds of legend, 
 which obscure the personality of St. Chad, have all cleared 
 away, and we breathe once more the pure air of authentic 
 history, we are brought face to face with one to whom 
 England owes an almost unacknowledged debt of gratitude, 
 and who contributed not a little to make her what she now 
 is among the nations of the earth. He was not called like 
 Anselm or Becket to a keen struggle with the civil power ; 
 nor yet like Cranmer and Ridley to cleanse the national 
 church of the corruptions of ages ; neither was it his part 
 to fan into a flame, like the Wesleys and Whitfields of 
 modern times, the almost extinguished embers of spiritUcJ 
 life. The task, to which he set himself, was to plant the 
 christian faith among a race of pagans, and upon an almost 
 virgin soil to sow the seed of its imperishable truths. 
 
Bishop 0/ Lichfield. 113 
 
 It is when we regard the Britain of Chad's time as the 
 crucible in which were fused the elements of a mighty 
 nation, and the fire which moulded them together as the 
 gospel of Christ, that the humblest preacher of this world- 
 subduing faith becomes invested with almost a sacred interest ; 
 his face glows in the page of history, like the face of the 
 alchymist at his furnace, with the flame his own zeal has 
 kindled. The simplicity and earnestness of Chad's charac- 
 ter, the magnitude of the work in which he was engaged, 
 the great success which God gave to his efforts, make the 
 brief recital of his life worthy of our attention, and teach a 
 useful lesson, at a time when there is yet a pagan England to 
 be brought to the foot of the Cross. Gladly would we trace 
 the footprints of the Saint, throughout the beautiful kingdom 
 which constituted his bishopric. It would be pleasant to 
 think of him, travelling in his coracle, on the Trent or 
 Severn, to the villages which fringed their banks ; to picture 
 him baptizing crowds of converts in their waters ; or to join 
 the humble cavalade as it wends its way along the deserted 
 streets of Uriconium, or through the dark forests in which 
 tradition has given him a home. More edifying still, would 
 it be, to have some fragments of those discourses, which 
 clothed the dry bones of Teutonic paganism, with the 
 spiritual life of Christianity. But no Luke has recorded his 
 wanderings, or recounted, for the instruction of posterity, 
 his perils and adventures as a christian missionary ; and we 
 
 Q 
 
114 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 are forced to content ourselves with the few particulars 
 concerning their illustrious abbot, which the monks of 
 Lastingham furnished to Venerable Bede. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that Saint Chad built a 
 small oratory at Lichfield, where he was wont to read and 
 pray with his monks, as often as he had any spare time 
 from the labour and ministry of the word. 
 
 §)0 t^at TOOttfe t\\& l)oIp matt as ©oft it toillelj fiecamt, 
 ^tti toitj Bfbftt otfeer firetl[)ren Qe j^abit of raonii toot. 
 S? little JtBtance from Littjfiellr toj&ere teas \\& see, 
 %t JaU maUe for \m a little cell all in pyibitp ; 
 SnlJ toj)cn !)c ()alJ aonc about anS prcat|)eJ( also, 
 3fn tjbat eell \t tooulS remain &is otiiet for to So.* 
 
 It is not easy to say positively whether this little convent 
 was bound by the rule of S. Benedict, so warmly espoused 
 by Wilfrid, or whether it still adhered to the traditions of 
 the grand old Saint of lona. That the result of the 
 Whitby Synod, favourable as it was to Rome, did not 
 involve the Benedictine rule, is plain from the fact that 
 Rome, then, as now, threw the shield of her protection over 
 various monastic orders. The primate Theodore himself 
 is thought to have been of the order of S. Basil. There 
 was besides, the Celtic rule, and that of S. Augustine. On 
 the whole it seems probable that the impress of Lindisfarne 
 was too deep upon the mind of S. Chad, ever to be effaced, 
 
 * To say his Ofiice. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 115 
 
 and there is every reason to believe that he died as he 
 had lived, a faithful disciple of Saint Aidan. 
 
 The question might here suggest itself, how far the strict 
 observance of any monastic rule was compatible with the 
 active work of a missionary bishop. How could one 
 engaged in preaching the gospel throughout an eritensive 
 territory, like the Mercian kingdom, be bound to recite 
 various offices of the Church at certain specified hours ? 
 There can be no doubt, that, in modern times, the superior 
 flexibility of the system devised by Ignatius Loyala, gave 
 his followers a great and admitted advantage, in the mission 
 field, over the Franciscans and Dominicans, and other 
 ancient orders. It is fair to suppose that, in the case of the 
 Celtic missionaries, who united the profession of monk with 
 the office of bishop, the vows of the one were not suffered 
 to impede the work of the other. 
 
 A specimen of Chad's mode of instructing his disciples 
 is preserved in Bede, and places his simple piety in a very 
 interesting light. ' It is no wonder,' says the historian, ' that 
 he joyfully beheld the day of his death, or rather the day 
 of our Lord, which he had always carefully expected till it 
 came ; for notwithstanding his many merits of continence, 
 humility, teaching, prayers, voluntary poverty, and other 
 virtues, he was so full of the fear of God, sc mindful of 
 his last end in all his actions, that, (as I was informed by 
 one of the brethren, who instructed me in the Scriptures, 
 
 Q2 
 
1 1 6 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 and who had been bred in his monastery, and under his 
 direction, whose name was Trumbert) if it happened that 
 there blew a stronger gust of wind than usual, when he 
 was reading or doing any other thing, he immediately called 
 upon God for mercy, and begged it might be extended to 
 all mankind. If the wind grew stronger, he closed his 
 book, and prostrating himself on the ground, prayed still 
 more earnestly. But if it proved a violent storm of wind 
 or rain, or else that the earth and air were terrified with 
 thunder and lightning, he would repair to the church, and 
 devote himself to earnest prayers, and the repeating of 
 psalms, till the weather became calm. Being asked by his 
 followers why he did so, he answered, " Have you not read, 
 The Lord also thundered from the heavens, and the Highest 
 gave forth His voice. Yea He sent out His arrows and 
 scattered them, and He multiplied lightnings and discomfit- 
 ed them. For the Lord moves the air, raises the winds, darts 
 lightning, and thunders from heaven, to excite the inhabi- 
 tants of the earth to fear Him ; to put them in mind of the 
 future judgment ; to dispel their pride, and to vanquish 
 their boldness, by bringing into their thoughts that dreadful 
 time, when the heavens and the earth being in a flame. He 
 will come in the clouds, with great power and majesty, to 
 jndge the quick and the dead." "Wherefore" said he, " it 
 behoves us to answer His heavenly admonition with due 
 fear and love ; that as often as He lifts His hand through 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 1 1 7 
 
 the trembling sky, as it were, to strike, but does not yet let 
 it fall, we may immediately implore His mercy ; and 
 searching the recesses of our hearts, and cleansing away the 
 rubbish of our vices, we may carefully behave ourselves so 
 as never to be struck." 
 
 Bede's interesting recital is faithfully reproduced in the 
 metrical life : — 
 
 S!SEl)en t^ts balp ntitn {tats t()at t^ie toeatj^er toae obertaiit, 
 
 2r Jabe not JearU of any wan t&at bo fiorelp teas ajjiaBt. 
 
 WSJ^fn \X tJiunJrcreU or lisbteneJ \t feneto not tojjere to be, 
 
 ^vA as a man to izt\ Idelp, to ti)e Clittttib l^e tnonID ftee. 
 
 ana ieforc fee j&ai got tj)ere, j)e Uurfit notojjere tarry, 
 
 ana t&ete Je toouIH try on (Soa, tj)at i\t toeatj)Er ratslbt abate. 
 
 gittt!) IreaB \t Safi eac6 time, ot liffjjtning; anS tjttnlier, 
 
 a£i t&at tliey tolio Ubielt near \m, tarn thereof in toonUer. 
 
 3)0 tj^at eome men one trap astieti tol^p it taiere, 
 
 ana tojip, more t&an otjer men, \z Bjonia be in But!) fear. 
 
 •pe foolB,' quotj) H^x^ tioly man, 'little fenoto pe toftat pe Bee {)ere, 
 
 ' J^or real pe not toj^at St. Dabia Batt|) in |)iB pBalter, 
 
 ' %\zX our Lora tjunaers from |)eaben, ana 6c tl&at jjial^cBt is 
 
 ' 0abe tottj^ &iB boice ana Bent about ^i& arrotaiB 3f biiB. 
 
 • SCjie t{)ttnaer is our lori'B ttampet, ana jitB bloto also, 
 
 ' QUIben be tdreatenetj) for to Bmite, bnt toe Itnoto not toben \t aiill ao (so). 
 
 ' LisbtninsB are bis arrotoB t|iat ftp about toiae, 
 
 ' %\^t toonaer it is to^en tjiep ftp (about) t|)at man aare anpto^ere abiae. 
 
 • l^e Benas t^em oft for to Bmite ana for to threaten oft, 
 ' Co dfieaj men ta)I)en \t Bmites t(iat (is bloto is not soft. 
 
 ' ana tjjat men Bjouia {labe in tjeir mina tje raigljtp aap of aoom, 
 
 • JFor \v& bloto toill tjen be Btrong enoto as toe ous&t to preatj) lome.'* 
 
 • Frequently, 
 
ii8 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 WLtW ansP toe einfttl men of mt\ toeatfiet to ftabe Hrealr, 
 @ili)en tliie l^olp man j^aH, tofio teas of entli j^ollr Deelr. 
 
 " If this religious man," writes Jeremy Taylor, with 
 reference to Chad's pious custom, " had seen Tullus 
 Hostilius, the Roman king, and Anastasius, a Christian 
 emperor, but reputed heretic, struck dead with thunderbolts, 
 and their own houses made their urns to keep their ashes 
 in, there would have been no posture humble enough, no 
 prayers devout enough, no place holy enough, nothing 
 sufficiently expressive of his fear and his humility, of his 
 adoration and religion to the Almighty and Infinite power 
 and glorious mercy of God, sending out his emissaries to 
 denounce war with designs of peace." 
 
 But Chad's pious and laborious career was rapidly drawing 
 to a close ; his holy life was to be crowned by a glorious 
 death. His episcopate of York had been cut short, but he 
 was sooner still to be separated from his Mercian flock. 
 But a man's usefulness to the Church cannot be measured 
 by any mere unit of time ; a bishop, who laboured after the 
 fashion of Chad, would do more to spread the Gospel in 
 three years, than the luxurious prelates of later times would 
 in half a century of worldly pomp and luxury. 
 
 " The divine providence so ordaining," says Bede, "there 
 came round a season like that of which Ecclesiastes says, — 
 ' That there is a time to cast stones and a time to gather 
 them,' for there happened a mortality, sent from heaven, 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 119 
 
 which, by means of the death of the flesh, translated the 
 stones of the Church from their earthly places to the 
 heavenly building." Supernatural intimations of his ap- 
 proaching departure are said to have been vouchsafed to 
 the bishop. For, when the hour of his death drew near, it 
 chanced one day he was in the little oratory, which he had 
 built, engaged in study and prayer. Not far off, his faithful 
 friend Ovin, was busily employed out of doors, for the 
 monks of those days thought no scorn of manual labour so 
 that it was for the glory of God. As he laboured, suddenly 
 the sound of voices, of surpassing sweetness, fell upon his 
 ear, as of persons singing and rejoicing, and as though they 
 were descending slowly from heaven to earth. No vision 
 met his gaze, but, as he listened with rapt attention, the 
 celestial music, which, at the first, seemed to come from the 
 south east, now hovered nearer to him, and, at length, 
 passing through the roof of the oratory, where the bishop 
 prayed, for the space of half an hour filled the building 
 with its glorious strains ; then Ovin perceived the sound 
 to grow gradually fainter, as, quitting the earthly building, 
 it floated, heavenwards, away. While he pondered in his. 
 mind what these wondrous sounds might mean, he perceived 
 the window of the oratory to open, and the bishop made a 
 noise with his hand, as he was wont, and beckoned to him 
 to come near, and, when he had obeyed the summons, he 
 said, " Make haste to the Church, and cause the seven 
 
I20 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 " brethren to come hither, and do you come with them." 
 When the brethren were assembled, the bishop, knowing 
 that he was soon to leave them, gave them godly admoni- 
 tions that they should preserve the bond of peace among 
 themselves, and towards all men, and indefatigably practice 
 the rules of regular discipline, which they had been taught 
 by him, or had seen him observe, or had noticed in the 
 words or actions of former fathers. And, in the full per- 
 suasion that the day of his death was at hand, he added : 
 " that amiable guest, who was wont to visit our brethren, 
 " has vouchsafed, also, to come to me this day, and to call 
 " me out of this world. Return, therefore, to the Church, 
 " and speak to the brethren, that they, in their prayers, 
 " recommend my passage to the Lord, and that they be 
 " careful to provide for their own, the hour whereof is 
 " uncertain, by watching and prayer and good works." 
 " When he had spoken thus much and more," continues 
 Bede, " the good man gave them his blessing, and they 
 " went sorrowfully away." 
 
 No mortal ears had drunk in the angels' song, save those 
 of the bishop and his friend. When the brethren had 
 departed, Ovin returned alone, and prostrating himself on 
 the ground, said, " I beseech you father may I be permitted 
 to ask a question ?" " ask what you will " answered the 
 bishop, then he added, " I entreat you to tell me what song of 
 joy was that, which I heard coming upon this oratory, and 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 121 
 
 after some time returning to heaven ? The bishop answered, 
 " If you heard the singing, and know of the coming of the 
 heavenly company, I command you, in the name of our 
 Lord, that you do not tell the same to any before my death. 
 They were angelic spirits, who came to call me to my 
 heavenly reward, which I have always longed for, and they 
 promised they would return seven days hence, and take me 
 away with them." 
 
 The warning of his approaching death, thus marvellously 
 given to him, we are told, was punctually fulfilled, for he 
 was presently seized with a languishing distemper, attended 
 with extreme debility, probably the yellow plague, which had 
 already proved fatal to his brothers. This frightful scourge 
 lasted many years, its fatality no doubt being vastly aggra- 
 vated by the ignorance of sanatory laws, and the complete 
 absence of anything like a knowledge of medicine. 
 
 Having partaken of the Holy Communion, and by 
 prayer and meditation prepared for the inevitable change, 
 Chad gradually sank beneath his malady, and on the 2nd 
 March, 672, his earthly cares were ended, and his soul 
 being delivered from the prison of the body, the angels, as 
 had been promised, attended him, and carried him like 
 another Lazarus to Abraham's bosom. 
 
 The bishop could hardly have been an old man when he 
 died; but the chronology of his life is in many of its 
 particulars obscure, and I have, therefore, reserved for a 
 note some remarks upon the subject. 
 
 R 
 
122 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 With the account of his death, we take our unwilHng 
 leave of his metrical biographer : — * 
 
 St. ClialJlie Jail nnlp one pear anU a ball ficartelp 
 
 •JSeen ^ic^op of litclifieHr, ere ftc Irreto totoarlB fteatj). 
 
 ©ne Sap \t anil brother ffitopn, a monfe, sate alone 
 
 3fn \)V& cell, anil tfte monttEi at C&nrclb toere eacj) one ; 
 
 STJen ftearU ^rg i\t Btoectcst song tjat elicr maBc a sounlr, 
 
 STn Jcaben tjiep tjions^t tjiat it iegan, anJ \X lamc totoarlB tj)c sroonlr. 
 
 an 60ft, liotontoarliB it tame, until it tame bo nig;l) 
 
 Cftat it aliff^teli on tfie tell, upon tje roof on 6i36> 
 
 ani Jalf an 6onr it tarrielr ris&t up upon t&e tell, 
 
 ©f BO nterrp meloip map no tonjue tell. 
 
 3(nli aftertaarBB, totoarlB l&ealien, again t\t toap \X tooft, 
 
 5Mit[) as mtrrp a meloJp aB it tjiitfjtr ftalr come. 
 
 SSEell feneto tften, tjjis 6olp man, Jioin it bJjouIIi toitj j^im fietilie, 
 
 iatterlnarliB all \\% monfes to C-fturtli j)e sent anon. 
 
 I^c preaclieli to t&em to be BtelifaBt in our lorS'B Bcrbitc, 
 
 Sinn to lobe anli feeep tj)eir rule tocll anli t^eir orier in all toapB. 
 
 jFor t^at it teas onr LorJ'B toill after 6im to Ben!, 
 
 3[nlr from tjiem, on t&e Bcbent^ Hap, to fteaben \t must toenU. 
 
 Jor angelB 6ali brought {)im before Butj) tilling 
 
 iFor to fettS Ibim t^e seiientj) tap, anli to \\t iop of Iicataen bring. 
 
 SCJien after a B&ort time i!^\& 6olp man in great sicfeneBB lap, 
 
 atnli liielr, aB \t \viA BaiS, rigftt on tjic sebentj Kap. 
 
 • This poem, which is dated in the MS., 1370, has been attributed to Robert of 
 Gloucester, who flourished about 1300. I take the opportunity of mentioning the 
 opinion of Professor Earle, kindly communicated to me, that this, though possible, is not 
 likely to have been the case ; it being far more probable that the original composition 
 belongs to the twelfth century. It appears, adds Professor Earle, from the poem itself, 
 that it was written whilst the Mercian See was at Chester, that is, before the year 1148, 
 when it was restored to Lichfield by Bishop Roger. See the Preface to this Volume. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 123 
 
 SlSEitj) ansjelB to fttaien \t toent, as t^z^s irous^t l){m before tiJitiff, 
 JBoto ®oIr, for t!)c lobe of \m, to jsutj) j'op ne brina;. 
 
 Thus like the notes of a beautiful symphony passing 
 gently away, closed the useful and honorable life of Chad, 
 bishop of Lichfield, one of the most successful of the early 
 preachers of the gospel in England, and one of the most 
 popular of our national Saints. 
 
 Years rolled on. Chad had long been in the grave, 
 though his virtues were still fresh in the memory of men, 
 when it happened that one Hygbald, abbot of a monastery 
 in Lincolnshire, possibly of that founded by Chad himself, 
 crossed over into Ireland, to visit Egbert, whose acquantance 
 Chad had made at Rathmelsigi. 
 
 The visit of the Lincolnshire abbot to Egbert, who must 
 at this time have been advanced in years, recalled old 
 memories ; and the two ecclesiastics, after the manner of old 
 men, fell to talking of their former friends, and of the holy 
 fathers who had gone before them. Amongst others, 
 mention was made of Chad, the late bishop of Lichfield, 
 and of his happy departure from the world. Whereupon 
 Egbert said, " I know a man in this island, still in the flesh, 
 who when that prelate passed out of this world, saw the 
 soul of his brother Cedd, with a company of angels 
 descending from heaven, who, having taken his soul along 
 with them, returned thither again." ■' Whether," says Bade, 
 he said this of himself or some other, we do not certainly 
 
 R 2 
 
124 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 know, but the same being said by so great a man, there can 
 be no doubt of the truth thereof." 
 
 Gladly would we believe, with the worthy historian, that 
 his brother came to usher the dying saint to a joyful immor- 
 tality. The records of such visions, frequently occur in the 
 Lives of Saints. The death of Saint Hilda, for example, 
 was miraculously made known to her friend Saint Ebba, 
 by the sound of the passing bell, wafted across, from 
 Whitby to Cumberland ; and the vision of Saint Aidan 
 departing to glory, strengthened Saint Cuthbert in the 
 faith. 
 
 Whatever theory modern science might propound to 
 account for the frequent recital of such visions, there can 
 be no doubt of the good faith in which they were originally 
 related by Bede and others, and may, even now, be regarded 
 as a species of posthumous tribute to the piety and worth 
 of those of whom such glorious things were told. 
 
 All the ancient chroniclers are agreed in commending the 
 gentle virtues of Saint Chad, and we may well believe that 
 there must have been something noble and beautiful in the 
 characters of an epistle which was so " known and read of all 
 men." He, indeed, added nothing to the literature of his 
 age, or to the outward splendour of the Church he served 
 so well ; his doctrine and practice may not have perfectly 
 agreed with those of more primitive times ; nevertheless, 
 his simple and earnest piety, the lofty view of his sacred 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 125 
 
 office, which he carried out in practice, and his truly apostolic 
 zeal, left a far deeper impress upon the minds of his country- 
 men, than the more specious qualities of Wilfrid, or the 
 towering ambition of Dunstan. The Anglican Communion 
 may justly count Saint Chad among the worthiest of her 
 ancient prelates ; the Roman communion may, if she will, 
 claim him as one of her canonized saints ; but, happily, he 
 belonged to that wider Communion of Saints whose only 
 head is the Founder of the Church Himself His ground 
 of acceptance with God was the work of the great Atone- 
 ment, consummated In his soul ; his claim upon our gratitude 
 rests upon the fervent and effectual zeal with which he 
 preached the Gospel of the Redeemer to our pagan fore- 
 fathers. 
 
 The vividness of colouring, due to many stirring incidents, 
 has, doubtless, been wanting in the foregoing narrative of 
 Chad's life ; but, just as the colours of the portrait of a saint, 
 in an old illuminated missal, have faded away, while the 
 golden halo remains untouched by age ; so the holy zeal 
 and fervent piety of this ancient bishop remain above the 
 scorn of criticism, and beyond the reach of time ; a burning 
 and shining light to all who are called to serve the same 
 Heavenly Master. 
 
 Later times have not reversed the verdict of his contem- 
 poraries, and we shall close this imperfect sketch of his life, 
 with some lines which were written of him, more than 
 
1,26 Legends of Saint Chad. 
 
 a thousand years after his death, by a foreign ecclesiastic, 
 and which though conceived in the spirit of mediaeval 
 superstition beautifully illustrate the Apostolic commen- 
 dation that his praise was in all the Churches. 
 
 Mira hujus in Deum pietas fecit incertum 
 utrum terrse cujus esset, an cceli : 
 pastor populi fuit, divinis ipse deliciis pastus. 
 Cum sibi commissam accepit Merciorum gentem 
 hoc sibi proposuit 
 ut opulentas coelo merces inferret : 
 in vits cursu semper velificatus est tuto, 
 nam si sonorae circumtonarent procell^ 
 
 lacrymis eas vincebat et gemitu : 
 opponebat ardentia vota fulminibus 
 suspiriis secundas evocabat auras. 
 Adfuerunt ssepe precanti coelites 
 
 musicum morituro concinnerunt melos 
 pro nenia oden, pro epicedio epinicion, 
 inter choreas et lyras efflavit animam 
 eosdem habuit symphoniacos moriens 
 
 quos olim Deus oriens 
 nisi forte significato quaedam fuit 
 non emortualem ilium fuisse diem sed natalium. 
 Tunc maxime prsesenti ope mortalibus adfuit 
 cum ad immortales abiit, 
 mira res ! currebant ad tumulum qui tumulari nolebant 
 vitam suam propagabant illius cinere, 
 devicta semper est mors 
 quoties ejus tumuli decertavit in pulvere. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 UK 
 
 Where'er one Levite in the temple keeps 
 The watch-fires of his midnight prayer, 
 Or issuing thence, the eyes of mourners steeps 
 
 In heavenly balm, fresh gathered there ; 
 Thus saints, that seem to die in earth's rude strife. 
 Only win double life : 
 They have but left our weary ways 
 To live in memory here, in Heaven by love and praise. 
 
 Christian Year. 
 
 H E life of a Canonized Saint would be incomplete, 
 and lose much of its interest, without some 
 account of the posthumous honours paid to his 
 memory by the Roman Church. 
 
 No small portion of this superstitious and ii^aioble cultus 
 fell to the share of Saint Chad, the particulars of which 
 will exhibit a wide discrepancy between the simple mission- 
 ary bishop, and the object of the future adoration of the 
 multitude. 
 
 The earliest tribute of respect was paid to his earthly 
 remains, which were, first of all, interred near the oratory 
 where he had so devoutly prayed. Here he rested for 
 twenty years, when Hedda, who succeeded Saxulf in the 
 bishopric, erected a new church in honour of the Apostle 
 Peter, into which the bones of his predecessor were carried, 
 
1 28 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 with all the reverence and respect shown in that age to the 
 relics of saints. 
 
 In no long time, his ashes were thrown into the alembic 
 of superstition, and pious respect grew into grovelling and 
 abject worship, and the occasion of unblushing imposture. 
 His bones, like those of other saints, were thought to be of 
 miraculous efficacy in the cure of diseases ; as though the 
 crumbling dust were still redolent of the pure spirit once 
 enshrined within it. Crowds of persons, suffering from 
 divers diseases, flocked to his tomb, as did the impotent 
 folk of old to the porches of Bethesda, thinking, if they 
 could but gather a handful of his hallowed dust and mingle 
 it with water, they might be restored to health. Nor were 
 these benefits confined to human beings, but, even dumb 
 animals drinking the same potent draught, were presently 
 relieved from all their pains. The very air of the place in 
 which the saint rested from his labours, was a mighty 
 anodyne to distracted souls ; for one unhappy creature, who 
 had been wandering about the neighbourhood, came, at 
 nightfall, to his tomb, unregarded by the keepers of the 
 place, and, having rested there all night, departed in the 
 morning in his perfect senses, to the surprise and delight of 
 all ; " shewing, thus, plainly," says Bede, " that a cure had 
 been performed on him, through the goodness of God." But, 
 as though these miracles were not sufficient for any man's 
 remains to perform, the touch of Chad's bones is said, in the 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 129 
 
 Breviary, to have recalled departed souls from the gloomy- 
 shades of death : — 
 
 ab jjaienifi mortta mnrttti Jj:titarttnr, 
 iFurioBt, totntuliB ronfractifi, eanantur. 
 
 The first receptacle of Chad's relics was in keeping with 
 his own humble and unpretending character ; being no more 
 than a wooden monument, made like a little house covered 
 in at the top, and having a hole in one side, through which 
 the devout, who frequented the place, put in their hands 
 and drew forth the health-giving dust. 
 
 In this humble shrine, what was supposed to be left of 
 his bones, rested till the time of Bishop Roger, who, before 
 his departure for the Holy Land, restored the episcopal see 
 from Chester to Lichfield, and rebuilt the cathedral church 
 in honour of the Virgin Mary and Saint Chad. 
 
 To this period is probably due the service in the Breviary 
 for the Translation of S. Chad. The Translation of a 
 Catholic Saint, from his earthly resting place, was no 
 summary or irreverent proceeding, but was conducted with 
 much pomp and ceremony. " Our forefathers," writes Dr. 
 Lingard, " in their reverence for departed worth, went even 
 further. Days were set apart, in the Calendar, to com- 
 memorate the auspicious days when their ashes were 
 removed to a worthier resting place." 
 
 Every year, on the Sunday next before Ascension Day, 
 was this tribute of superstitious respect paid to the relics of 
 
 s 
 
130 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 Saint Chad. The prayer which was offered up on this 
 occasion, exhibits a curious blending of superstition and 
 piety : — - 
 
 " O God, who grantest to us to celebrate the Translation 
 " of the blessed Chad, thy Confessor and Bishop; we humbly 
 " beseech Thee, that through his merits and prayers, we 
 " may be translated from vice to virtue, and from our bonds 
 " to the (heavenly) kingdom, through Jesus Christ our 
 " Lord." 
 
 In the year 1296, Walter Langton, a prelate of munificent 
 tastes, was raised to the see of Lichfield. Amongst other 
 benefits conferred by him upon the cathedral and town, he 
 laid the foundation of the exquisite Lady Chapel, whose 
 lofty windows, and beautiful tracery, worthily -adorn the 
 noble pile of which they form a part. In this chapel the 
 bishop placed, at the enormous cost of two thousand pounds, 
 a beautiful shrine, to receive the relics of Saint Chad. Still 
 further honour was done to the memory of the ancient saint 
 by Bishop Galfrld Blythe, who, amongst other gifts to the 
 cathedral, presented silver images of Saint Chad, and Saint 
 Katharine. 
 
 When the dream of mediaeval superstition was over, and 
 the Iconoclasts of an iron age laid violent hands upon 
 ecclesiastical wealth, these costly memorials would have 
 shared the fate of other similar monuments, had not Bishop 
 Lee pleaded hard with Henry VIII. that the chief orna- 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 131 
 
 merit of his church might be saved from the grasp of the 
 spoiler. The king had not forgotten the bishop who had 
 secretly married him to Anne Boleyn, and in gratitude for 
 his bride, the shrine of the saint was spared. 
 
 Tliough now become classic ground, as the birth-place 
 of the author of Rasselas, and as possessing one of the 
 choicest productions of our great sculptor's chisel, it is of 
 the memories and traditions of its saintly bishop that Lich- 
 field is chiefly and justly proud. The streets echo his 
 name. The very brooks seem to murmur it. His gentle 
 spirit would seem still to haunt the quiet precincts of the 
 glorious minster, which, but for him, had never been. One 
 of the most interesting features in the history of this, and 
 many another Christian city, is its silent growth round the 
 shrine of piety and religion, as the walls of ancient cities 
 are fabled to have risen at the strains of the minstrel's lyre. 
 
 Though Chad had passed away ages before it was erected, 
 Lichfield Cathedral is inseparably linked with his name and 
 history. As the pilgrim treads, with reverent foot, the floor 
 of the presbytery, his eyes are arrested by the medallions of 
 incised marble, in which have been traced some of the well- 
 known incidents in the saint's life.* Passing outside, he 
 will see among the " carven saints," which adorn the west 
 front, his statue occupying the place of honour. 
 
 * See illustrations, opposite to pages 36 and 40, from the designs of the Rev. E. R. 
 Pitman, of Rugeley. 
 
 8 2 
 
132 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 Poetry has not been behind sculpture in paying him her 
 tribute of respect. Drayton, with one stroke of his pen, 
 •does honour to Lichfield and its ancient bishop : — 
 
 Lichfield hath those no whit less famcais nor less good, 
 The first of whom is that most reverent Chad, 
 In those religious times for holinesse that had 
 The name above the best tliat lived in those days. 
 That stories have been stuft with his abundant praise, 
 Who on the see of York being formerly instaul'd. 
 Yet when back to that place Saint Wilfrid was recal'd. 
 The seat to that good man he willingly resign'd. 
 And to the quiet close of Lichfield him confin'd. 
 
 As the patron saint of Lichfield, Chad was long supposed 
 to have the city under his especial protection. During the 
 Parliamentary wars, Lord Brooke laid siege to the place, 
 which was held on behalf of the king, on which occasion 
 the beautiful cathedral suffered severely. It was, however, 
 gratefully noted by the royalists that the republican leader 
 was killed by a shot fired from Saint Chad's cathedral, on 
 Saint Chad's day, to which circumstance the author of 
 Marmion refers in the well-known lines : — 
 
 Fitz-Eustace' care 
 A pierced and mangled body bare 
 To moated Lichfield's lofty pile ; 
 And there, beneath the southern aisle, 
 A tomb, with Gothic sculpture fair. 
 Did long Lord Marmion's image bear. 
 Now vainly for its site you look ; 
 'Twas levelled when fanatic Brook 
 The fair cathedral storm'd and took ; 
 But, thanks to heaven and good Saint Chad ! 
 A guerdon meet the spoiler had. 
 
 This curious incident is referred to, in a still more striking 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 133 
 
 manner, by Dr. South, in a sermon on the words, " God 
 loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of 
 Jacob." " Nor," says that learned divine, " is that instance 
 to be passed over of a commander in the parliamentary 
 afmy, who, coming to rifle and deface the Cathedral at 
 Lichfield, solemnly, at the head of his troops, begged of 
 God to shew some remarkable token of his approbation or 
 dislike of the work they were going about. Immediately 
 after which, he was shot in the forehead by a deaf and dumb 
 man ; and this was on Saint Chad's day, the name of which 
 Saint that Church bore, being dedicated to God in memory 
 of the same : where we see that, as he asked of God a sign, 
 so God gave him one in the forehead, and that with such a 
 mark as he is like to be known by all posterity."* 
 
 On the east side of the city is the church of Saint Chad, 
 de Stowe, to the north-west of which was the famous oratory 
 of the bishop, already referred to. "It was the custom, in 
 former times," observes Dr. Stukeley, " to erect churches 
 to the east of the cells of recluses famous for sanctity." 
 The same author mentions that Chad's oratory was only 
 pulled down a few years before the year in which he wrote 
 (1736) ; but this could hardly have been the actual scene of 
 the saint's devotions, and of the wonderful vision described 
 in the preceding chapter. 
 
 • Sermons, vol. I,, p. 185. Dugdale alludes to this, also, in his "View of the late 
 troubles in England," p. 117. 
 
134 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 Close to the cell, was the celebrated well* or fountain 
 which takes its name from the Saint. At the bottom of 
 this cell there is a stone upon which Chad is said to have 
 been in the habit of standing naked to pray. This singular, 
 method of performing his devotions, may have been derived 
 from the Irish monks who often carried their austerities to 
 an absurd extent, but far more probably, the well was used 
 as a baptistery for the immersion of converts. It should, 
 however, be said that the quainter notion has the partial 
 support of the Breviary : — 
 
 CStti Btc fantem frigtBttm nrane intromit, 
 ©t non torptiB taliSa ialneo nutribit. 
 
 t Dr. Plot in his Natural History of Staffordshire, takes 
 notice of this well, and refers to the superstitious practice of 
 the people of adorning the wells on Holy Thursday, with 
 flowers and the boughs of trees, and reading thereat the 
 gospel for the day. This practice, obviously of pagan 
 origin, had never been publicly sanctioned and was con- 
 demned in several provincial councils. 
 
 An entertaining account is given in Hone's Year Book, 
 of a well existing until quite modern times, in London, and 
 called Chad's Well, the water of which was sold to valetu- 
 dinarians at sixpence a glass. For this, or some other 
 reason, Chad has the credit of being the patron saint of 
 
 * Dr. Stukeley made drawings of both Oratory and Fountain, 
 t Quoted in Harwood's Antiquities of Lichfield. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 135 
 
 medicinal springs, but I have not discovered any other 
 ground for the notion than popular tradition. 
 
 A glance at the Constitutions published by successive 
 bishops of Lichfield, will show the estimation in which their 
 illustrious predecessor was held in Roman Catholic times. 
 The treasurer of the Chapter was required to furnish two 
 wax tapers and to keep one lamp perpetually burning before 
 his altar. Bishop Hugo Nonant, assigned, as one of the per- 
 quisites of the Sacristan, all the wax tapers offered in the 
 chapel of Saint Chad at Stow, excepting those placed at 
 the feet of the saint's image. At Chadshunt, in the same 
 county, there was a small oratory containing an image of 
 Saint Chad, and a well bearing his name ; the former of 
 which was served by a priest, who received as much as £\b 
 a year from the pilgrims who resorted thither. In connec- 
 tion with these vested interests created by Saint Chad, may 
 be mentioned, an annual payment called Chad's Pennies* 
 or Farthings, formerly included among the Easter Dues, 
 for the purpose of hallowing the Font for Christenings. 
 
 A blithe day in Lichfield, in those times, was the 2nd of 
 March. On that day the cathedral was gaily festooned 
 with silken banners, and hangings. Many a taper lighted 
 up the altar of the saint, and the notes of the full choral 
 service chanted by the cathedral clergy, resounded through 
 'the long drawn aisles' and beneath the 'fretted roof of 
 the noble minster. 
 
 * Baptism was, in former times, administered only on the Eves of Easter and Pentecost. 
 
136 Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 Welcome, especially, must the advent of this day have 
 been to the resident Canons, for it was ordained, by Bishop 
 Newland, that, whereas, on ordinary days, they were to 
 receive one shilling for their stipend, and, on double festivals, 
 a like increase in their pay, on this auspicious festival, and 
 three others, they were to have ten shillings, for their 
 guerdon. 
 
 The service drawn up for S. Chad's day, occurs in most 
 of the " Uses" or versions of the Breviary. The least ob- 
 jectionable form of the service is contained in the Aberdeen 
 Breviary* consisting of nine lections taken from Bede, with 
 an anthem, and a collect addressed to God, in which the 
 merits of Chad are pleaded, but the saint is not himself 
 invoked : — 
 
 " .0 God, who hast adorned the Universal Church with 
 " the merits of thy Saints, grant, we beseech Thee, that all 
 " who implore the aid of the blessed Chad, may receive an 
 " effectual answer to their healthful supplication." 
 
 A similar service was observed in the diocese of York, 
 where the people naturally held the memory of their first 
 native bishop in just respect. In this and other Breviaries, 
 curiously enough, Lastingham, or Lastingay, is said to be 
 in the island of Lindisfarne. 
 
 A more developed service than either of the preceding 
 is found in the once celebrated " Use" of Sarum, It 
 
 • A beautiful fac-simile edition of this Breviary has been printed by the Bannatyue Chib. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 137 
 
 consists of three lections either founded on, or taken from 
 
 the Latin text of Bede, with psalms, responsories and 
 
 anthems. The Sarum Breviary was that most extensively 
 
 used in the Church of England, but a special rubric allowed 
 
 the Church of Lichfield, to have fuller services of its own in 
 
 honour of its patron saint, which I proceed to describe. 
 
 In virtue of the privileges retained by local churches 
 
 when they accepted the Sarum Breviary, Saint Chad's day 
 
 was celebrated at Lichfield with great pomp and solemnit)-,. 
 
 as one of the principal festivals of the church. Amid the 
 
 fragrance of incense, and the solemn music of the cathedral 
 
 choir, the people were called upon to celebrate the memory 
 
 of their ancient saint. The service commenced at the 
 
 Vespers of the vigil, or eve before, with the following 
 
 anthem : — 
 
 ©ermanornm quatuar tintts est fieatne 
 Celilia, quorum quilijet erat tonisettatuB 
 
 Other anthems and psalms followed, with capitulum re- 
 sponsory, &c. In one of the antiphons which may thus 
 be freely rendered, the Saint, as though he could hear the 
 prayers of the people, is directly invoked : — * 
 
 " O Holy Chad, be thou our advocate with the Lord, 
 " that He may rule and guide us to heavenly mansions, 
 " where with thee, and with the saints, we may for ever 
 " dwell." 
 
 * For a summary of the controversy respecting the Invocation of Saints, see Palmer's 
 Antiquities of the British Ritual. Vol. I. 289—292. 
 
 T 
 
138 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 At an early hour on the following morning commenced 
 the solemnities proper to the Saint's day. This was at the 
 service called in later times Matutini, but formerly known 
 as Nocturns, from the ancient Christians having observed 
 it at night. It was divided into three parts, corresponding 
 to the three canonical hours of which Nocturns formerly 
 consisted, but forming apparently one continuous service. 
 To each of these parts were assigned, on the day in question, 
 three of the nine short lections appropriated to the service 
 and for the most part taken from Bede. Several of the 
 antiphons and responsories from this service have already 
 been given. The following lines present a strange if not 
 beautiful application of Scripture : — 
 
 E. Pocftquam Cclilic Ittj; prescitB rlaulittttr, 
 
 laus qiBtttB a plcbe lanttur, 
 
 J^oBtcfi btncens Jtt nnn Ueijintitttr. 
 5E. Wa unsttentt Siitra ptj;t6 ftanffitttr, 
 
 Cttnttts patet net pins aisconiitttr. 
 
 In this portion of the service, the Scriptures were not 
 altogether neglected. Besides several Psalms, the Parable 
 of the Talents, from the Gospel of S. Matthew, was not in- 
 appropriately introduced, while respect was paid to the 
 writings of the Fathers in the recitation of a homily of 
 Pope Gregory. 
 
 Following upon the Matutini, or Nocturns, was the service 
 held at a later hour called Lauds corresponding to the 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 139 
 
 ancient matins. One of the antiphons at this service is to 
 the following effect : — 
 
 " O pious bishop, Saint Chad, pray the Lord for us, that 
 "we,- who have provoked Him by our sins, may not be 
 " delivered to torments, but may enjoy perpetual bliss in 
 " heaven." 
 
 The return of Vespers completed this long service, and 
 the Festival of Saint Chad ended with the words of solemn, 
 though unenlightened, prayer. 
 
 Reference has been made to the service for the Translation 
 of Saint Chad. The longer form comprised, besides the 
 anthems and collect, a portion of the fifteenth chapter of 
 S. John, an extract from a homily of Saint Augustine, upon 
 the same scripture, and two lections from Bede describing 
 the translation of his relics and the miracles performed at 
 his tomb. For the private use of persons who might have 
 a special devotion to the saint on account of some benefit 
 supposed to have been derived through his intercession, the 
 service last mentioned could be shortened, in which case, 
 the portion belonging to the first Vespers was used. 
 
 The Constitutions of Bishop Hugo ordered that a missa 
 dejejunio should be celebrated in the chapter-house on the 
 festival of S. Chad; in connection with which it may be 
 mentioned that there is in the Sarum Missal, printed by 
 Bembolt, at Paris, in 15 13, a service commemorative of 
 S. Chad, composed of prayers in his especial honour, and 
 
 T 2 
 
140 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 of prayers, &c., suited to the commemoration of any Bishop 
 and Confessor. The prayers composed for this service do 
 not differ in spirit from those contained in the Breviary, and 
 it will not therefore be needful to set them forth in full ; the 
 whole of the services, however, drawn up in honour of 
 S. Chad, fairly illustrate the spirit in which these devotions 
 were conceived and expressed, and which amply justified 
 their banishment from the Reformed Service Books. 
 
 The date of Saint Chad's canonization and of his first 
 appearance in the Calendar and Breviary I have not been 
 able to discover, though further research might possibly 
 clear up the point. Prior to the tenth century, persons 
 eminent for sanctity had been venerated as saints in various 
 local churches, and the mention of Chad's day in the Mar- 
 tyrology, erroneously attributed to Bede, seems to imply 
 that, at a very early period, a day had been set apart in 
 honour of the Saint. The service for his day seems to 
 rest upon the authority of a Provincial Council,* of the date 
 and place of which I find, however, no record. 
 
 Though Chad had no claim to the aureole, his name is 
 inscribed in various martyrologies, and in the Breviaries he 
 is invoked as a Bishop and Confessor. In Whitford's 
 Martyrology printed in London in 1526, he is commemo- 
 rated as " a bysshop and a confessour of synguler vertue, 
 and many myracles;" in the Martyrologies of Wion and 
 
 * MS., Ee-2-2, Cambridge University Library. 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 141 
 
 Wilson, his name is inscribed ; and in the well-known work 
 of John Capgrave, his life is set forth at length from the 
 narrative of Bede. 
 
 Besides the notices which occur of Saint Chad in the 
 volumes of Baronius, Trithemius, Harpsfeld, Mabillon, the 
 Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, and a multitude of 
 ecclesiastical histories, his name is held up to the veneration 
 of the faithful in the Cologne Martyrology, printed in the 
 year 1490, and also in the Roman Martyrology, which 
 quotes the history of Bede as its authority. Even the 
 Lutheran Centuriators* of Madgeburg, did not count our 
 humble English bishop beneath their notice, and seem to 
 express their belief in the miracles, attributed to his relics 
 by Bede. 
 
 In the " Calendar of the Prayer Book," the name of Saint 
 Chad is still retained on the 2nd March, for what reason it 
 is not easy to determine, f In the old Roman Calendar he 
 is a Red-letter Saint, but was shorn of that dignity by the 
 Reformers. In connection with the stormy season of the 
 year, in which Chad was wont to be honoured, may be men- 
 tioned a local rhyme, of a not very flattering character, still 
 heard in the county of Norfolk : — 
 
 First comes David, 
 Then comes Chad, 
 Then comes Win'ald roaring mad. 
 
 * Quoted in Cressy's Church History, f The names of some saints were retained in 
 ihe Reformed Calendar for purely secular reasons. See Wheatley, Blakeney, and others. 
 
142 Legends of Saint Chad, 
 
 This Saint is usually represented in ecclesiastical art, as 
 in the frontispiece to this volume, with a branch as his 
 emblem, the significance of which is, however, uncertain. It 
 may perhaps be a token of his fruitful labours as a mission- 
 ary, or possibly an allusion to the branches with which he is 
 said in the legend, to have covered the hart he had tamed ; 
 on the whole, however, I am disposed to derive the signi- 
 ficance of the emblem from the gospel read for the Transla- 
 tion of Saint Chad, implying that he was a fruitful branch 
 of the Living Vine. This emblem may be seen delineated 
 in a very simple form upon the Clog Almanacs, or Runic 
 Calendars, specimens of which are preserved in the British 
 Museum, and other places. The existence of this memorial 
 of the Saint upon these simple contrivances, contributed 
 largely to his popularity, and long made his name a " house- 
 hold word " in England. 
 
 It is mentioned in that most interesting little work, " The 
 Calendar of the Prayer Book, illustrated" that in a Roman 
 Catholic Church, named in his honour, recently erected " by 
 " Mr. Pugin at Birmingham, he is represented carrying a 
 " Church in his hand, as the founder of the Mother Church 
 "of the diocese." 
 
 In Roman Catholic times, images were frequently made 
 of Saint Chad, which became objects of superstitious 
 reverence. Mention has been made of that at Chadshunt, 
 and of the silver image in Lichfield Cathedral. From the 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 143 
 
 authority last quoted we learn that at the fall of the old 
 Church of Saint Chad, in Shrewsbury, in the year 1788, 
 among the few things which escaped destruction, was an 
 ancient wooden figure of the bishop, which is still preserved 
 in the new Church. The carver has represented him in his 
 pontifical robes and mitre, with a Latin Bible in his right 
 hand, and the crozier or pastoral staff in his left. Gough in 
 his " History of Croyland " mentions that over the door 
 entering from the belfry into that Church, were two wooden 
 statues of Saint David, and Saint Chad, which Dr. Stukeley 
 had conveyed to Stamford, where they continued till they 
 were finally taken to adorn the garden of a member of the 
 Doctor's family at Holbeach. So much for the glory of a 
 Saint ! 
 
 But though Saint Chad is no longer an object of ignorant 
 superstition, his name is not likely to be forgotten, in this 
 country at least. Thirty one churches, dedicated in his 
 name, chiefly within the limits of his ancient diocese, attest 
 the popularity he nobly won and still enjoys. 
 
 The revival of religion and learning, during the Reforma- 
 tion of the Church, justly taught men to reserve their 
 prayers for that Great Being to whom alone they are due. 
 The greater part of the honours paid to our saint, described 
 in the preceding pages, have but little warrant from sound 
 reason, or true piety. But, carrying our thoughts back to 
 the days when pagan darkness brooded over the infant 
 
144 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 Commonwealth of England, it is impossible not to feel 
 interested in the four brothers, who carried the torch of the 
 Gospel through the length and breadth of our land, but 
 whose labours are still but dimly remembered. Our prayers, 
 indeed, we must withhold, but we need not grudge to their 
 memories our grateful recollections. 
 
 No authentic written remains of Saint Chad have sur- 
 vived, but, in the Cathedral Library of Lichfield, an ancient 
 manuscript is preserved, which is known by .the name of 
 " Chad's Gospel." It was presented to the Library by 
 Frances, Duchess of Somerset, and was formerly preserved 
 in a case beneath a portrait of the illustrious donor, the 
 doors of which receptacle bore the following inscription : — 
 
 Sanctiss. Liber 
 
 qui intus reconditur 
 
 sicut in area est coUocatus 
 
 Thesaurus fuit olim et delicise 
 
 lUustrissimse Dominse 
 Domicse Francisca; Devereux 
 
 DucissEE Somersetensis 
 
 Cujus pulclierrimam Imaginem 
 
 Auspice Lector 
 
 et Venerare. 
 
 Hoc Immerito. 
 
 Clavissimi enim heroici 
 
 "Gemmam hanc cui aurum est vile'' 
 
 Una cum prope mille aliis Volumen 
 
 DilectJE sua; et semper memo : 
 
 Ecclesice Cathedral : de Lichfield 
 
 Majorem Dei Gloriam et 
 
 bonai-um Literarum ubertatem 
 
 D. D. F. 
 
ICCDer- HOSOTR qui eS IUCCCJ& 
 
 'tis scipiceaiR nomai xaum 
 ll^&ucxJiar-pepiiim Tuum piccxr 
 iioUiuoxs TucL siaicmicccdb 
 6jiiiceRRx:u pcLuem HOSXRuxn 
 SUpeR sxih suoaujodzm dcaico 
 brs odiG- feeTenirarcr . Robis 
 loebiai: xiosiRxt sicuu ^jkros 
 dimissimus debr<coTii6us uos 
 ~cRjs Qj^G- Hos ludfuoxs 
 iwrcanpxDXi oil em sed ^^eRcc 
 
 
Bishop of Lichfield. 145 
 
 This precious relic of antiquity lias been transferred to 
 the case in which the other manuscripts are kept. It 
 is believed to have been preserved during the Civil War, 
 and the wanton destruction, by the Puritans, of Lichfield 
 Cathedral, and all its ornaments, by the Rev. William 
 Higgins, Precentor of the Cathedral, called by Dugdale, 
 "chief chante of Lichfield." The volume, which contains 
 236 pages, has recently been rebound. 
 
 A minute description of this famous Codex would not 
 come within the scope of the present work, but a few 
 particulars respecting it, derived from various sources, may 
 not be unacceptable, while the printed illustrations* may 
 afford some idea of ancient drawing and calligraphy. 
 
 The text, which is in Latin, is written throughout in the 
 Anglo-Saxon character, and contains the Gospels of S. 
 Matthew, S. Mark, and a portion of S. Luke. The initial 
 letter of each Gospel is intricately formed and beautifully 
 illuminated, and occupies the entire length of the page on 
 which it stands. The Gospels of SS. Mark and Luke are 
 preceded by rude portraits of those Evangelists. The 
 former is represented as holding a book, with both hands 
 upon his breast ; the head is surrounded by a plain yellow 
 nimbus with a white border, over which is extended the 
 symbolical lion, but without the wings which usually accom- 
 pany it, and holding a book in its four paws. S. Luke, who 
 
 * I am indebted to the kindness of W. C. Gresley, Esq., for permission to use these 
 illustrations, 
 
 V 
 
146 Life of Saint Chad, 
 
 appears to be standing in a kind of rostrum, is drawn with 
 long flowing hair, and having his head surrounded by a 
 purple nimbus, decorated with three crosses ; the Avhole 
 figure being surmounted by a winged calf, the emblem of 
 that Evangelist in sacred art. One leaf of the Codex has 
 rude delineations of the Evangelic symbols, and on the 
 reverse side, an elaborate cruciform design, said to be equal 
 in minuteness a,nd accuracy of detail, and in richness of 
 colouring, to the most perfect designs in the Gospel of 
 Lindisfarne. 
 
 The origin of the Codex is very uncertain, but various 
 marginal entries, indicating the use of the volume in judicial 
 proceedings, seem to trace it to the diocese of Llandafif. 
 All scholars, who have examined this evangelistarium, as- 
 cribe to it a high antiquity, while the writer from whom the 
 above description is chiefly taken, thinks it quite possible 
 that it may have been written by Saint Chad himself, and 
 hence its designation. *It is said, however, to be the 
 production of a very indifferent Latin scholar, on which 
 account, in spite of its quaint devices, I am content to leave 
 its authorship in obscurity. 
 
 Though the services in the Breviaries, in their honour, 
 were not likely to have been generally understood, and were, 
 therefore, the less mischievous, the merits of the saints were 
 not suffered to be forgotten, for want of being commemorated 
 
 • Nares MS. Cat. quoted in Botfield's Notes on the Cathedral Libraries. 
 

Bishop of Lichfield. 147 
 
 in the vernacular. Besides the metrical versions of his life, 
 in the old English tongue, which have come down to us, 
 there is preserved, among the Bodleian MSS., an Anglo- 
 Saxon Homily, drawn up for use on Saint Chad's day, in 
 which his virtues are duly set forth, from Bede, for the 
 admiration of the multitude.* 
 
 The history of this interesting relic of antiquity is, I 
 believe, not known ; but it is, no doubt, of very ancient 
 origin. A tone of chaste and archaic simplicity pervades 
 this ancient tribute to departed worth. It adds nothing, 
 indeed, to our knowledge of his life, but that life seems to 
 be invested with a deeper and more abiding interest, when 
 narrated in the homely, but expressive, language in which 
 Chad clothed the message of the Gospel to his Mercian 
 flock. The beginning of it, which has been translated as 
 follows, may serve as a specimen of the form in which these 
 compositions were drawn up ; " Dearly beloved men and 
 " brethren, I will now begin to tell you the life of that 
 " holy man, St. Chad, the bishop : how he did in the 
 " Bishopdom, and ere he came to the Bishopdom ; though 
 " we may not, by any means, reach to all the mighty 
 " wonders of his work : for that it was strongly in him 
 
 * Professor Earle, who has kindly examined this document for me, from a transcript 
 furnished by Mr. G. Parker, of Oxford, observes tlrat ' ' the Saxon is very interesting, 
 "being not the ordinary Anglo-Saxon, but in the Middle-Anglian dialect, a dialect 
 "that stretched from Lichfield to Peterborough. Indeed it may well have been made 
 " (the translation from Bede) at Lichfield itself. The comparison of it with the Anglo- 
 " Saxon version, which is commonly called Alfred's Version, is extremely interesting." 
 
148 _ Life of Saint Chad. 
 
 " not to seek praise from men ; so strongly, that with all his 
 " might and main he would shun the notice of men." 
 
 And with the conclusion of the homily, we may fitly, but 
 unwillingly, take our leave of the saintly bishop : — • 
 
 " Pray we now to the undivided Trinity, that we may be 
 " helped with the prayers of this most holy man, St. Chad, 
 " and that we may earn for ourselves to come to the fellow- 
 " ship of holy bishops and blessed spirits, through the 
 " forgiveness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who 
 " liveth and reigneth with the Father, and with the Holy 
 " Ghost, world without end." 
 
NOTES. 
 
 A. 
 
 I HAVE adhered, throughout the text, to the popular spelling of Chad's name, but 
 it is right to apprise the reader that in ancient authors it varies considerably. The 
 most frequent form in the chroniclers is Ceadda, this, however, is sometimes shortened 
 into Cedda, as in the Breviaries. In early English, the variations Chade and Chadde 
 occur, while the still shorter forms of Cead and Ced are occasionally met with, before the 
 spelling settled down into Chadd, and, lastly, Chad. The most curious variation, how- 
 ever, is exhibited in the cloister legend, where, not without an apparent tinge of irreverent 
 familiarity, we make the acquaintance of Chaddy ! 
 
 B. 
 
 Two popular explanations of the meaning of Lastingham have been referred to in the 
 foregoing pages, but scholars seem to be agreed that the true etymology of Lestingaen is 
 the Water of the Lestings, that is, of the family bearing that name, and Lestingham, 
 their home. The name is spelt in a great variety of ways, nor Js it an easy matter to 
 track the original form through this labyrinth of changes. Bede spells the name 
 Laestingaen. In the Saxon Homily for Saint Chad's day, written in the Mid-Anglian 
 dialect, the spelling is Ljestinga asg. In the Doomsday Record it became Lestingeham ; 
 while Florence of Worcester gives another variation in Lestingaig, Symeon of Durham 
 in Lestingahen, Gervase of Canterbury in Lastingei, and Stubbs in the Acta Pon. Ebor. 
 in Lastyngaen. In the old Parish Registers we find Lastinga. In an ancient will, 
 printed by the Surtees Society, the testator, Ion of Croxton, bequeathes 'to Alise, of 
 Lastyngham, ij. ». and russet cloth to make her a cloke with.' Last of all, I must not 
 omit to notice the spelling which received the sanction of the Church, viz., Lastingay. 
 
 C. 
 
 Throughout this volume I have taken for granted, in common with most writers who 
 have mentioned the place, that Lastingham is the Lestingaen of Bede. The identity, 
 however, has been disputed. In a paper, read before the Yorkshire Archtelogical Society, 
 Mr. Haigh, of Birmingham, seeks to prove that the well-known village of Kirkdale is 
 
 W 
 
1 50 Notes. 
 
 the site of the monastery founded by Cedd, and that our Lastingham was a dependent 
 cell belonging to that house. With much diffidence, I venture to call in question the 
 principal arguments by which this conclusion is supported. 
 
 It is argued, in the first place, that the change of original form of the name, Lestingaen, 
 into Lestingham, was in the last degree unlikely to have taken place after the estate 
 became church land. But the fact that the change, if ever it took place, remained in 
 force with respect to what is admitted to have been church land, deprives this argument 
 of any weight. I believe, however, it would be difficult to disprove that Lestingaen and 
 lastingham were forms of the name used at the same period. 
 
 An argument of a more historical character is based upon an inscription found on a 
 cross built into one of the walls of Kirkdale Church. Mr. Haigh thus deciphers it : — 
 
 To the memory of Oidilvald, Cedd placed this stone. 
 
 Now the king, mentioned in this inscription, in granting an estate to Cedd for the 
 foundation of a monastery, had in view a place of sepulture for himself and family. 
 Hence, it is argued that the inscription indicates his burial place, and, therefore, the 
 position of Bede's Lastingaen. But the interpretation of the inscription, and the history 
 of the cross on which it is found, are obviously too precarious to serve as the foundation 
 of a solid argument. Accordingly, another inscription, over the western door, is appealed 
 to. It is to the effect that one, Orm, the son of Gamal, bought Saint Gregory's minster 
 when it was in ruins, and rebuilt it in honour of Gregory. This, unquestionably, favours 
 the supposition that there had been a monastery in this place, but it proves too much, for 
 we know, from Bede, that the monastery of Lastingham was dedicated to Saint Mary, 
 not to mention that a Celtic monk was not very likely to have buUt a monastery in honour 
 of Pope Gregory. 
 
 But the claim of Lastingham does not rest upon negative arguments. Stephen of 
 Whitby, who wrote an account of the foundation of S. Mary's, York, took refuge, he 
 informs us, in the monastery of Lastingham, formerly celebrated for the number and piety 
 of its monks. Stephen goes on to say that he caused to be built all that was needful for 
 the accommodation of his monks ; a proceeding harmonizing well with the. Lastingham 
 ruined by the Danes, but in no way answering to the condition of Kirkdale, which, in 
 Stephen's time, must have been all but fresh from the mason's chisel. Moreover, there 
 is an unbroken chain of documentary evidence connecting the present Lastingham with 
 the Lastingham of Stephen of Whitby, and the Doomsday Record, in both of which 
 authorities we find Appleton, Spaunton, and Hutton, mentioned in cormection with that 
 place of which they have long constituted townships. Considering, then, that (1) there 
 
Notes. 151 
 
 is no evidence, whatever, of the change in name from Lastingham to Kirkdale ; (2) that 
 the antiquity of Lastingham is beyond question, and its extent as a monastic establish- 
 ment proved from the traces of foundations, which, from time to time, have been laid 
 bare, and (3) the mention of Lastingham, with its townships, in the public records ; I 
 conclude, that if a monastery was subsequently erected at Kirkdale, Lastingham cannot, 
 thereby, be divested of its hallowed associations as the tranquil retreat of Chad and his 
 pious companions. 
 
 D. 
 
 As Lastingham occupies so important a position in the preceeding pages, a short 
 account of its celebrated crypt may not be unacceptable. There is no record of its 
 erection, and, consequently, antiquarians are divided in their opinions as to the date of its 
 architecture. The Rev. W. Eastmead gives the following description: — "From the 
 window, through which the light gleams, giving a view of the whole extent of it, (the 
 east end of the church being on the brow of ii steep hill) the scene is interesting to 
 astonishment. Here you perceive the massy arches, ranged in perspective ; you behold 
 the huge cylindrical pillars, and their variously sculptured capitals — each one differing 
 from the other, all in the real Saxon style ; to this, add the groined roof, and the stairs at 
 the west end, leading up to the church, enveloped in a luminous obscurity from the scanty 
 light admitted by the window in the east. From the account, given by Bede, that the 
 body of Cedd was buried on the right side of the altar, one may suppose that this crypt 
 was made after the erection of the church, though the time cannot be ascertained." 
 
 In a less florid maimer, the late Rev. R. Harrison writes of the church and crypt as 
 follows : — " In itself it is only partially of Saxon character ; but its crypt, which is pure 
 Saxon, is, perhaps, the best specimen in existence of that order of architecture, and 
 commands the attention of every antiquary who visits it." 
 
 In Raine's Antiquities of Durham, a very high antiquity is claimed for the crypt of 
 Lastingham. " I have before me," says that learned writer, " two very interesting prints 
 of the church of Lastingham, in its present state, by Halfpenny of York. The external 
 view carries with it the undoubted proof of high antiquity. The absciss, or semicircular 
 termination, is copied from the heathen basilicse, which were in many instances converted 
 into places of Christian worship, and the internal view of the crypt exhibits manifest 
 proofs of the most early antiquity. The large square pedestal, the short circular column, 
 the rudely sculptured cap, and the absence of ribbed groining, induce me to believe that 
 the church of Lastingham, if not the original building of Cedd, is, at least, the most 
 ancient ecclesiastical structure in the kingdom.'' 
 
152 Notes. 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Brltton considers it to be a specimen of the early Norman 
 style, and to form part of the monastery erected during the rale of Abbot Stephen, since 
 it corresponds with the other known crypts of the Norman age, in the massive character, 
 forms and ornaments of the columns, and the simplicity of the groining and arches. 
 
 With reference to this latter view, it may be observed that Stephen, though he mentions 
 having erected all things needful for the monks, says nothing of so important a building 
 as the Crypt ; while the short time in which his enemies left him in peace, renders it 
 improbable that he could have executed so extensive a work, unless, like the Jews, the 
 monks worked with the sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. On the other hand, 
 Eede expressly mentions a stone church as having been built here, to which period, in 
 the absence of a unanimous professional verdict, it may be allowable to refer the crypt. 
 
 Some interesting Boman and Celtic relics are preserved in the crypt; amongst others, the 
 quaint looking figures represented on pages 19 and 57. Tradition speaks of an underground 
 passage, connecting the crypt of Lastingham with the nunnery of Rosedale ; if such there 
 were, one might truly say 
 
 facilis descensus Averno ; 
 * * « « « 
 
 Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est. 
 
 E. 
 The chronology of Chad's life, and his age at death, can only be approximately determined 
 from the few notes of time furnished by Bede. We learn from that historian, (1), that he 
 studied with Egbert, afterwards Abbat of lona, when they were YOtiiHS togeihek in Ire- 
 land, and that the latter was hom in 639. But as Chad died in 672, he would have been 
 but 33, if no older than Egbert. We must, therefore, suppose the two to have studied 
 together, but without being, strictly speaking, contemporaries. We learn (2), that Chad 
 was a disciple of Saint Aidan, and, in all probability, one of the twelve whom he gathered 
 aroimd him on his arrival at Lindisfame in 635. Assuming hiTn to have been about fifteen 
 at this time, we should have 620 as the date of hia birth, and fifty-two for his age at death 
 by pestilence, in 672.