Of the Council he held with his chief men concerning their reception of the faith of Christ, and how the high priest profaned his own altars. [627 A.D.]">
THE king, hearing these words, answered, that he was both willing
and bound to receive the faith which Paulinus taught; but that he
would confer about it with his chief friends and counsellors, to
the end that if they also were of his opinion, they might all
together be consecrated to Christ in the font 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 this doctrine hitherto unknown to them, and the new
worship of God that was preached? The chief of his own priests,
Coifi, immediately answered him, "0 king, consider what this
is which is now preached to us; for I verily declare to you what
I have learnt beyond doubt, that the religion which we have
hitherto professed has no virtue in it and no profit. 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 are more
prosperous in all that they undertake to do or to get. Now if the
gods were good for any thing, they would rather forward me, who
have been careful to serve them with greater zeal. It remains,
therefore, that if upon examination you find those new doctrines,
which are now preached to us, better and more efficacious, we
hasten to receive them without any delay."
Another of the king's chief men, approving of his wise words and
exhortations, added thereafter: "The present life of man
upon earth, O king, seems to me, in comparison with that time
which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow
through the house wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your
ealdormen and thegns, while the fire blazes in the midst, and the
hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging
abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at
another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest;
but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes
out of your sight, passing from winter into winter again. So this
life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow
or what went before we know nothing at all. If, therefore, this
new doctrine tells us something more certain, it seems justly to
deserve to be followed." The other elders and king's
counsellors, by Divine prompting, spoke to the same effect.
But Coifi added, that he wished more attentively to hear Paulinus
discourse concerning the God Whom he preached. When he did so, at
the king's command, Coifi, hearing his words, cried out,
"This long time I have perceived that what we worshipped was
naught; 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 my counsel is, O king, that we instantly give up to ban
and fire those temples and altars which we have consecrated
without reaping any benefit from them." In brief, the king
openly assented to the preaching of the Gospel by Paulinus, and
renouncing idolatry, declared that he received the faith of
Christ: and when he inquired of the aforesaid high priest of his
religion, who should first desecrate the altars and temples of
their idols, with the precincts that were about them, he
answered, "I; for who can more fittingly than myself destroy
those things which I worshipped in my folly, for an example to
all others, through the wisdom which has been given me by the
true God?" Then immediately, in contempt of his vain
superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a
stallion, that he might mount and go forth to destroy the idols;
for it was not lawful before for the high priest either to carry
arms, or to ride on anything but a mare. Having, therefore, girt
a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted the
king's stallion, and went his way to the idols. The multitude,
beholding it, thought that he was mad; but as soon as he drew
near the temple he did not delay to desecrate it by 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 tear down
and set on fire the temple, with all its precincts. This place
where the idols once stood is still shown, not far from York, to
the eastward, beyond the river Derwent, and is now called
Godmunddingaham, where the high priest, by the inspiration of the
true God, profaned and destroyed the altars which he had himself
consecrated.