Luton Church; Historical and Descriptive (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. EARLY ENGLISH TIMES, A.D. 653-919. i. The Introduction of Christianity into the Midlands. Peada, the son of the heathen King Penda of Mercia, and himself still a heathen, having been appointed by his father (a.d. 653) governor or under-king of the Mid-Anglians (Leicestershire, etc.), and seeking in marriage Ealhflaed, daughter of the Christian King Oswy of Northumbria, was acceptedl on condition of embracing Christianity along with the nation he governed. Putting himself under instruction he soon declared that he was ready to become a Christian, even though the damsel were refused him. He was accordingly baptized, at At-Wall near Newcastle, by S. Finan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, together " with all his thanes" and soldiers and their servants who had come with him;" and returning to his dominion with his bride he brought back also four priests3 to instruct his subjects. Three of them, Cedd, Adda, and Betti, were Northumbrian Angles, and the fourth, a Scot or Irishman named Diuma. Of Adda and Betti we hear no more after this, except of their zeal and their success, but Cedd was soon (654) called to work elsewhere and consecrated Bishop of the East Saxons (London); whilst Diuma, after three years of labour among the Mid-Anglians, was " hallowed " as missionary bishop (656) not only for the Mid-Anglians but for the other Mercians to the far west and for the Lindisfaras, or Lincolnshire folk, to the east By these missionaries and their disciples,4 within the course ofthree or four years "the five thousand families of the Mid- Anglians " were led to renounce idolatry and to profess themselves Christians.1 1 Bede, iii. 21; Soames, Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 66. Part IV., The Missionaries of the Mid-Anglians. ' One of these was Saxulf, who became the builder a...