How King Edwin and his nation became Christians; and where Paulinus baptized them [627 A.D.]
KING EDWIN, therefore, with all the nobility of the nation, and a
large number of the common sort, received the faith, and the
washing of holy regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign,
which is the year of our Lord 627, and about one hundred
and eighty after the coming of the English into Britain. He was
baptized at York, on the holy day of Easter, being the 12th of
April, in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he himself
had built of timber there in haste, whilst he was a catechumen
receiving instruction in order to be admitted to baptism. In that
city also he bestowed upon his instructor and bishop, Paulinus,
his episcopal see. But as soon as he was baptized, he set about
building, by the direction of Paulinus, in the same place a
larger and nobler church of stone, in the midst whereof the
oratory which he had first erected should be enclosed. Having,
therefore, laid the foundation, he began to build the church
square, encompassing the former oratory. But before the walls
were raised to their full height, the cruel death of the king
left that work to be finished by Oswald his successor. Paulinus,
for the space of six years from this time, that is, till the end
of the king's reign, with his, consent and favour, preached the
Word of God in that country, and as many as were foreordained to
eternal life believed and were baptized. Among them were Osfrid
and Eadfrid, King Edwin's sons who were both born to him, whilst
he was in banishment, of Quenburga, the daughter of Cearl, king
of the Mercians.
Afterwards other children of his, by Queen Ethelberg, were
baptized, Ethelhun and his daughter Ethelthryth, and another,
Wuscfrea, a son; the first two were snatched out of this life
whilst they were still in the white garments of the
newly-baptized, and buried in the church at York. Yffi, the son
of Osfrid, was also baptized, and many other noble and royal
persons. So great was then the fervour of the faith, as is
reported, and the desire for the laver of salvation among the
nation of the Northumbrians, that Paulinus at a certain time
coming with the king and queen to the royal township, which is
called Adgefrin, stayed there with them thirty-six days, fully
occupied in catechizing and baptizing; during which days, from
morning till night, he did nothing else but instruct the people
resorting from all villages and places, in Christ's saving Word;
and when they were instructed, he washed them with the water of
absolution in the river Glen, which is close by. This township,
under the following kings, was abandoned, and another was built
instead of it, at the place called Maelmin.
These things happened in the province of the Bernicians; but in
that of the Deiri also, where he was wont often to be with the
king, he baptized in the river Swale, which runs by the village
of Cataract; for as yet oratories, or baptisteries, could not be
built in the early infancy of the Church in those parts. But in
Campodonum, where there was then a royal township, he built a
church which the pagans, by whom King Edwin was slain, afterwards
burnt, together with all the place. Instead of this royal seat
the later kings built themselves a township in the country called
Loidis. But the altar, being of stone, escaped the fire and is
still preserved in the monastery of the most reverend abbot and
priest, Thrydwulf, which is in the forest of Elmet.