[ Baeda's Ecclesiastical History ]

Nearly thirty years after Augustine's landing in Kent, Edwin was head of the northern Angle kingdom of Northumbria and in that year (626) he formally adopted Christianity as the religion of his kingdom.

THE CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA

The king, hearing these words, answered, that he was both willing and bound to receive the faith which he taught; but that he would confer about it with his principal friends and counsellors, to the end that if they were of his opinion they might altogether be cleansed in Christ the Fountain of Life. Paulinus consenting, the king did as he said; for, holding a council with the wise men, he asked of every one in particular what he thought of the new doctrine, and the new worship that was preached. To which the chief of his priests, Coifi, immediately answered, "O king, consider what this is which is now preached to us; for I verily declare to you, that the religion which we have hitherto professed has so far as I can learn no virtue in it. For none of your people has applied himself more diligently to the worship of our gods than I; and yet there are many who receive greater favours from you, and are more preferred than I, and more prosperous in all their undertakings. Now if the gods were good for anything, they would rather forward me, who have been more careful to serve them. It remains, therefore, that if upon examination you find these new doctrines, which are now preached to us, better and more efficacious, we immediately receive them without any delay. "

Another of the king's chief men, approving of his words and exhortations, presently added: "The present life of man, 0 king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of the sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and mist prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within is safe from the wintry storm but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short time, but of what went before, or of what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant . If, therefore, this new doctrine contains some-thing more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed." The other elders and king's counsellors, by Divine inspiration, spoke to the same effect.

But Coifi added that he wished more attentively to hear Paulinus discourse concerning the God whom he preached; which Paulinus having by the king's command performed, Coifi, hearing his word, cried out, "I have long since been sensible that there was nothing in that which we worshipped because the more diligently I sought after truth in that worship, the less I found it. But now I freely confess, that such truth evidently appears in this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness. For which reason I advise, O king, that we instantly abjure and set fire to those temples arid altars which we have consecrated without reaping any benefits from them." In short, the king publicly gave his licence to Paulinus to preach the Gospel, and, renouncing idolatry, declared that he received the faith of Christ ; and when he enquired of the high priest who should first profane the altars and temples of their idols, with the enclosures that were about them, he answered, "1; for who can more properly than myself destroy those things which I have worshipped through ignorance, for an example to all others, through the wisdom which has been given me by the true God ?" Then immediately, in contempt of his former superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion ; and mounting the same, he set out to destroy the idols for it was not lawful before for the high priest either to carry arms, or to ride on any but a mare. Having, therefore, girt a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted the king's stallion and proceeded to the idols. The multitude, beholding it, concluded he was distracted; but he lost no time, for as soon as he drew near the temple he profaned the same, casting into it the spear which he held; and rejoicing in the knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded his companions to destroy the temple with all its enclosures, by fire. This place where the idols were is still shown, not far from York, to the eastward, beyond the river Derwent, and is now called Godmundingham, where the high priest, by the inspiration of the true God, profaned and destroyed the altars which he had himself consecrated.