Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Michael Lapidge
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- PART ONE ALTER ORBIS
- PART TWO TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY
- 5 The Initiation of a Mission
- 6 The Journey to England
- 7 Gregory's English Correspondence
- 8 Bede's Account of the Mission
- 9 The First Archbishops of Canterbury
- 10 Paulinus in Northumbria
- 11 ‘Celtic’ and ‘Roman’ Missionaries
- PART THREE THE GROWTH OF MONASTICISM
- PART FOUR LEARNING, TEACHING AND WRITING
- Select Bibliography
- Index
10 - Paulinus in Northumbria
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Michael Lapidge
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- PART ONE ALTER ORBIS
- PART TWO TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY
- 5 The Initiation of a Mission
- 6 The Journey to England
- 7 Gregory's English Correspondence
- 8 Bede's Account of the Mission
- 9 The First Archbishops of Canterbury
- 10 Paulinus in Northumbria
- 11 ‘Celtic’ and ‘Roman’ Missionaries
- PART THREE THE GROWTH OF MONASTICISM
- PART FOUR LEARNING, TEACHING AND WRITING
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The conversion of Eadbald, king of Kent, was followed a few years later by the extension of the Roman mission to Northumbria. Bede's account of this northern mission is told in six consecutive chapters of the second Book of the History and in it he used two papal letters written by Pope Boniface V (619–25). One was addressed to Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, and the other to Æthelberg, styled queen. In view of the disaster which overtook the church in Northumbria after Edwin's death, it seems very unlikely that Bede would have got these letters from Northumbrian sources, whether as originals or copies, and more probable that they were among the other papal letters of which Nothhelm brought him copies from Rome. In the letter to Edwin, concerned mostly with spiritual exhortation, Boniface says that he presumes that Edwin will have heard of the conversion of Eadbald (king of Kent) and expresses the hope that he too will shortly receive the gift of enlightenment which his consort has already received. In the letter to Æthelberg, Boniface said that those who had brought him news of King Eadbald's conversion had also informed him of her own continuing good works, but when he had asked about her husband he had learnt that he still worshipped idols and would not listen to preachers.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The World of Bede , pp. 89 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990