Book I.] ST. ETHELDREDA. 17 



monastery, where she might have more leisure to attend on 

 the duties of her religion. The king, who had always shown 

 the greatest regard and esteem for the queen, at first refused 

 to give her leave, but was at length prevailed upon to give 

 his consent ; accordingly, she soon after went and entered the 

 monastery of Coldingham, where St. Ebba, the king's aunt, 

 then presided as abbess, and received the sacred veil from the 

 hands of Wilfrid, bishop of York. 



The queen's example influenced several other great persons 

 of both sexes in that kingdom to renounce the world about 

 the same time, and to retire into different monasteries ; of 

 which number was that Grand Old Man, Ovin, her prime 

 minister, who had attended her from the Isle of Ely on her 

 marriage, and had continued in her service ever since. " The 

 fervour of his faith now increasing," says Bede, " he deter- 

 mined to bid the world adieu ; and this he did effectually, 

 for divesting himself entirely of worldly concerns, and disposing 

 of his temporal possessions, he put on a mean habit, and zvith 

 only an ax for cutting wood in his hands, he came to the 

 monastery of the Reverend Father St. Chad, at Lastingham 

 in Yorkshire, to whom he signified his intention, not to live 

 in idleness, but to work and labour with his hands : and 

 renounced the world, with a pure intention of obtaining thereby 

 a reward in heaven." This Grand Old Man became so 

 eminent for his piety, that he acquired the reputation of a 

 saint, and his name is inserted in the Roman calendar 

 accordingly. 



Queen Etheldreda had now dedicated herself wholly to 

 religion, and was engaged in the practice of the austerities 

 that attend the monastic state of life, while the king's affection 

 and esteem for her continued the same. He blamed himself 

 for having assented to the separation, and was observed to be 

 very much dissatisfied and uneasy. Those who were imme- 

 diately about his person, soon found out the real cause of his 

 disposition, and advised him to take the queen again by force 

 out of the monastery. And he was without much difficulty 

 persuaded to follow their counsel, for not long afterwards he 

 set forward with a few of his attendants in order to convey 



VOL. I. c 



