DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0195
MELROSE ABBEY. 183
brethren of Iona exclaimed, “ Aidan is worthy of the epis-
copate 1” And accordingly he was confecrated by the laying
on of the hands of the elders, and fent forth.
“ From Lindisfarn,” fays Bede, “ Aidan travelled all around
to fpread the gofpel. He was wont to traverfe both town and
country on foot. The king gave him a fine horfe,—he foon gave
it to a man in great need of one.” Such is the teftimony of
Bede to a teacher of doctrines oppofed to his own. One of the
firft churches planted muft have been Melrofe; for Aidan only
arrived in Northumberland in 635, and fixteen years afterwards
there was a religious houfe there. The Iona apoftles con-
tinued bifhops of Lindisfarn till 664, during which time
Finan and Colman had fucceeded Aidan. In Colman’s time
popery had reared a determined and fuccefsful champion in
Wilfrid, Archbifhop of York, who was favoured by Ofwy,
who had now fucceeded King Ofwald. In that year (664) a
grand conference was held at Whitby on the fubjefit of the
differences of the two churches. On the one fide flood
Colman, with the bifhops and elders of the Britons ; on the
other Bifhops Wilfrid and Agilbert, with many other priefts
and abbots, Hilda, abbefs of Whitby, and Cedder, an Englifh
bifhop who had gone over to Rome. The decifion was
adverfe to the Iona creed, and rather than renounce it Colman
and his brethren returned to Iona. The queftion was not
merely regarding the keeping of Eafter and the peculiar fhape
of the tonfure, but the fupremacy of Rome, which the Irifh
clergy would not admit.
At this time we find that Eata,—one of twelve boys whom
Aidan had feledted from the Englifh, and had educated for
clergymen,— was Abbot of Melrofe. He was willing to conform,
and was appointed to fucceed Colman as Bifhop of Lindisfarn.
The Abbey of Melrofe thus fell under Roman rule, but it
brethren of Iona exclaimed, “ Aidan is worthy of the epis-
copate 1” And accordingly he was confecrated by the laying
on of the hands of the elders, and fent forth.
“ From Lindisfarn,” fays Bede, “ Aidan travelled all around
to fpread the gofpel. He was wont to traverfe both town and
country on foot. The king gave him a fine horfe,—he foon gave
it to a man in great need of one.” Such is the teftimony of
Bede to a teacher of doctrines oppofed to his own. One of the
firft churches planted muft have been Melrofe; for Aidan only
arrived in Northumberland in 635, and fixteen years afterwards
there was a religious houfe there. The Iona apoftles con-
tinued bifhops of Lindisfarn till 664, during which time
Finan and Colman had fucceeded Aidan. In Colman’s time
popery had reared a determined and fuccefsful champion in
Wilfrid, Archbifhop of York, who was favoured by Ofwy,
who had now fucceeded King Ofwald. In that year (664) a
grand conference was held at Whitby on the fubjefit of the
differences of the two churches. On the one fide flood
Colman, with the bifhops and elders of the Britons ; on the
other Bifhops Wilfrid and Agilbert, with many other priefts
and abbots, Hilda, abbefs of Whitby, and Cedder, an Englifh
bifhop who had gone over to Rome. The decifion was
adverfe to the Iona creed, and rather than renounce it Colman
and his brethren returned to Iona. The queftion was not
merely regarding the keeping of Eafter and the peculiar fhape
of the tonfure, but the fupremacy of Rome, which the Irifh
clergy would not admit.
At this time we find that Eata,—one of twelve boys whom
Aidan had feledted from the Englifh, and had educated for
clergymen,— was Abbot of Melrofe. He was willing to conform,
and was appointed to fucceed Colman as Bifhop of Lindisfarn.
The Abbey of Melrofe thus fell under Roman rule, but it