Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book IV Chapter XVI
by Venerable Bede
HOW THE ISLE OF WIGHT RECEIVED CHRISTIAN INHABITANTS, AND TWO ROYAL YOUTHS OF THAT
ISLAND WERE KILLED IMMEDIATELY AFTER BAPTISM.
[A.D. 686]
A,FTER Coedwalla had possessed himself of the kingdom of the Gewissae, he also took the
Isle of Wight, which till then was entirely given over to idolatry, and by cruel slaughter
endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and to place in their stead people
from his own province; having bound himself by a vow, though he was not yet, as is
reported, regenerated in Christ, to give the fourth part of the land, and of the booty, to
our Lord, if he took the island, which he performed by giving the same for our Lord to the
use of Bishop Wilfred, who happened at the time to have accidentally come thither out of
his own nation. The measure of that island, according to the computation of the English,
is of twelve hundred families, and accordingly the bishop had given him land of three
hundred families. The part which he received, he committed to one of his clerks called
Bernwin, who was his sister's son, assigning him a priest, whose name was Hiddila, who
might administer the word and baptism of salvation to all that would be saved.
Here I think it ought not to be omitted that the first fruits of the natives of that
island who, by believing, secured their salvation, were two royal youths, brothers to
Atwald, king of the island, who were honoured by the particular grace of God. For when the
enemy approached, they made their escape out of the island, and passed over into the
neighbouring province of the Jutes; where, being conducted to the place called At the
Stone, as they thought to, be concealed from the victorious king, they were betrayed and
ordered to be killed. This being made known to a certain abbot and priest, whose name was
Cynebert, who had a monastery not far from thence, at a place called Reodford, that is,
the Ford of Reeds, he came to the king, who then lay privately in those parts, to be cured
of the wounds which he had received whilst he was fighting in the Isle of Wight, and
begged of him that if the lads must inevitably be killed, he might be allowed first to
instruct them in the mysteries of the faith. The king consented, and the bishop having
taught them the word of truth, and cleansed their souls by baptism, made the entrance into
the kingdom of heaven sure to them. Then the executioner being at hand, they joyfully
underwent the temporal death, through which they did not doubt they were to pass to the
life of the soul, which is everlasting. Thus, after all the provinces of the island of
Britain had embraced the faith of Christ, the Isle of Wight also received the same; yet
being under the affliction of foreign subjection, no man there received the ministry, or
rank of a bishop, before Daniel, who is now bishop of the West Saxons.
The island is situated opposite the division between the South Saxons and the Gewissae,
being separated from it by a sea, three miles over, which is called Solente. In this
narrow sea, the two tides of the ocean, which flow around Britain from the immense
northern ocean, daily meet and oppose one another beyond the mouth of the river Homelea,
which runs into that narrow sea, from the lands of the Jutes, which belong to the country
of the Gewissae; after this meeting and struggling together of the two seas, they return
into the ocean from whence they come.
