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ealdormen, who held in succession the government of the province. The first of them was afterwards
killed by the same Caedwalla, when he was king of the Gewissae, and the province was reduced
to more grievous slavery: Ini, likewise, who reigned after Caedwalla, oppressed that country with
the like servitude for many years; for which reason, during all that time, they could have no bishop
of their own; but their first bishop, Wilfrid, having been recalled home, they were subject to the
bishop of the Gewissae, that is, the West Saxons, who were in the city of Venta. (Winchester)
CHAP. XVI. How the Isle of Wight received Christian inhabitants, and two royal youths of
that island were killed immediately after Baptism. [686 A. D.]
AFTER Caedwalla had obtained possession of the kingdom of the Gewissae, he took also the
Isle of Wight, which till then was entirely given over to idolatry, and by merciless slaughter
endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and to place in their stead people from his own
province; binding himself by a vow, though it is said that he was not yet regenerated in Christ, to
give the fourth part of the land and of the spoil to the Lord, if he took the island. He fulfilled this
vow by giving the same for the service of the Lord to Bishop Wilfrid, who happened at the time to
have come thither from his own people. The measure of that island, according to the computation
of the English, is of twelve hundred families, wherefore an estate of three hundred families was
given to the Bishop. The part which he received, he committed to one of his clerks called Bernwin,
who was his sister s son, assigning to him a priest, whose name was Hiddila, to administer the
Word and layer of life to all that would be saved.
Here I think it ought not to be omitted that, as the first fruits of those of that island who believed
and were saved, two royal boys, brothers to Arwald, king of the island, were crowned with the
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Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England The Venerable Bede
special grace of God. For when the enemy approached, they made their escape out of the island,
and crossed over into the neighbouring province of the Jutes. Coming to the place called At the
Stone, they thought to be concealed from the victorious king, but they were betrayed and ordered
to be killed. This being made known to a certain abbot and priest, whose name was Cynibert, who
had a monastery not far from there, at a place called Hreutford, (Redbridge) that is, the Ford of
Reeds, he came to the king, who then lay in concealment in those parts to be cured of the wounds
which he had received whilst he was fighting in the Isle of Wight, and begged of him, that if the
boys must needs be killed, he might be allowed first to instruct them in the mysteries of the Christian
faith. The king consented, and the bishop having taught them the Word of truth, and cleansed them
in the font of salvation, assured to them their entrance into the kingdom of Heaven. Then the
executioner came, and they joyfully underwent the temporal death, through which they did not
doubt they were to pass to the life of the soul, which is everlasting. Thus, after this manner, when
all the provinces of Britain had received the faith of Christ, the Isle of Wight also received the
same; yet because it was suffering under the affliction of foreign subjection, no man there received
the office or see of a bishop, before Daniel, who is now bishop of the West Saxons.
The island is situated opposite the borders of the South Saxons and the Gewissae, being separated
from it by a sea, three miles wide, which is called Solvente. (The Solent) In this sea, the two tides
of the ocean, which break upon Britain all round its coasts from the boundless northern ocean, daily
meet in conflict beyond the mouth of the river Homelea, (The Hamble)which runs into the aforesaid
sea, through the lands of the Jutes, belonging to the country of the Gewissae; and after this struggle
of the tides, they fall back and return into the ocean whence they come.
CHAP. XVII. Of the Synod held in the plain of Haethfelth, Archbishop Theodore being
president. [680 A.D.]
ABOUT this time, Theodore being informed that the faith of the Church at Constantinople was
much perplexed by the heresy of Eutyches, and desiring that the Churches of the English, over
which he presided, should remain free from all such taint, convened an assembly of venerable
bishops and many learned men, and diligently inquired into the faith of each. He found them all of
one mind in the Catholic faith, and this he caused to be committed to writing by the authority of
the synod as a memorial, and for the instruction of succeeding generations; the beginning of which
document is as follows:
"In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, under the rule of our most pious lords,
Egfrid, king of of the Northumbrians, in the tenth year of his reign, the seventeenth of September,
the eighth indiction; Ethelred, king of the Mercians, in the sixth year of his reign; Aldwulf king of
the East Angles, in the seventeenth year ofhis reign; and Hlothere, king of Kent, in the seventh year
of his reign, Theodore, by the grace of God, archbishop of the island of Britain, and of the city of
Canterbury, being president, and the other venerable bishops of the island of Britain sitting with
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