A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



the present county of Durham from end to end in the tour which he made 

 through Northumbria to Edwin's northern capital at Yeavering.* The nobles 

 of that kingdom had embraced Christianity in the early stages of the mission 

 of Paulinus/ and in the thirty-six days of constant baptizing in Glendale the 

 rest of the people presented themselves in vast numbers. This successful 

 evangelization was much helped by the proverbial peace of the reign of Edwin.* 

 But no church or baptistery was built as yet, Bede tells us ; and he is careful 

 to hint that no permanent organization of the Church was made in the 

 northern parts of Northumbria during the mission of Paulinus.^ The results 

 of that mission were soon severely shaken by the death of Edwin and the 

 pagan excesses of Penda, yet it was not overthrown.' After a stormy interval 

 of tyranny and disorder Oswald restored peace and unity to the distracted 

 kingdom of Northumbria, following on his victory near the Roman wall. 



It is with Oswald that we get the historical beginning of the Church in 

 Durham, as Simeon points out.* The sympathies of Oswald were ^° more 

 particularly with the Bernicians, and Bamburgh became his capital rather 

 than York. He placed Aidan at Lindisfarne, and from this island a wide 

 mission was directed. Fresh missionaries from Scottish regions joined him in 

 his work, and churches were built and lands given, the whole life and disci- 

 pline being constructed on the basis of Celtic monasticism." One of the 

 monasteries so built we are able to identify by name at Hartlepool, and its 

 erection is the first really definite event of Durham history to which we can 

 point. '^ Here Aidan placed Heiu, the first Northumbrian nun to take the 

 veil.^' The establishment of this convent is assigned to about the year 640. 

 About that time Aidan summoned Hild, a great-niece of Edwin, to a similar 

 but unnamed institution, which has been identified with St. Hilda's, South 

 Shields.'* In 649 Hild was transferred to Hartlepool, where she succeeded 

 Heiu." Under her gentle rule of eight years the house at Hartlepool now 

 became a centre of great fame and activity, to which Aidan and the other 

 Celtic religious constantly resorted. 



This peaceful beginning of the church in Durham was disturbed in 651 

 by the death of its apostle St. Aidan, and also by the defeat and death of 

 Oswin, the successor of Oswald. The new king Oswy, after the final over- 

 throw of the Mercian Penda at Wingfield in 655, proved a good patron of 

 the Church, and placed his baby daughter Aelflede under Hild's care at 

 Hartlepool. This action was taken in devout recognition of his success. 

 Various members of his family were eventually buried at Hartlepool. 



So far, the missionary influence throughout Northumbria since the 

 departure of Paulinus was entirely Celtic. Wilfrid is usually credited with 

 being the first to introduce the Roman type into Northumbria. So far as 



' Bede, Hilt. EccL \\, 14. ' Ibid. * Ibid. ' Ibid. ; cf. iii, 2, nee immento — statueret. 



* Ibid. ; cf. ii, 20, Turbatis itaque rebus Nordanhymbrorum. ' Sim. Dur. Opera (Rolls Ser.), ad init. 



'" The family connexion of the two Northumbrian royal lines is explained, Arch. Ael. xix, 50. 



" This important passage runs as follows : — ' Construebantur ergo ecclesiae per loca, confluebant ad audi- 

 endum populi gaudentes, donabantur munere regio possessiones et territoria ad instituenda monasteria ' ; Bede, 

 Hist. EccL iii, 3. 



'■ Ibid, iv, 23 ; Ebchester is, on insufficient authority, said to have been another; cf. Hodgson Hinde, Hist. 

 of 'Northumbria, I 30. 



" Bede, loc. cit. " See an instructive p.iper in Arch. Ael. xix, 47, by Canon Savage. 



" A further transference of Hild to Whitby in 657 was probably due to the emergence of the paschal 

 controversy, afterwards decided at Whitby in 664. 



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