Open [38.2 MB]

Ireland and the Making
of Britain
of Bede who wrote nearly a century after the arrival of
Aidan: "His course of life was so different from the
slothfulness of our times that all those who bore him
company, whether monks or laymen, were employed in
meditation, that is, either in reading the scriptures, or
learning psalms." This was the daily employment of
Aidan himself and of all that were with him wheresoever
they went. Study, work, and prayer were the main occu-
pations and happiness of their lives, and if it happened,
which was but seldom, that Aidan was invited to eat with
the king the bishop "went accompanied with one or two
clerks, and having taken a small repast, made haste to
be gone again with them either to read or write." 1
In words such as these we sense the consuming passion
that flamed in the breast of this great Irish pontiff who, in
the course of sixteen years, by unflagging work and plan-
ning, effected the regeneration of the English people.
His personality singularly affected the English tribes, so
that the brightest amongst them thought they could do
nothing better than do whatever he did or told them to
do, difficult though it might be. "At that time many
religious men and women, stirred up by his example,
adopted the custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fri-
days, till the ninth hour, throughout the year, except
during the fifty days after Easter."2
Bede goes on to tell us that Aidan never bestowed gifts
of money on the powerful men of the world, but only
meat, if he happened to entertain them ; and, on the con-
trary, whatsoever gifts of money he received from the
rich, he either distributed among the poor,
or used in
ransoming such as had been wrongfully sold for slaves.
Enslaving each other and selling their younger or weaker
iHist. EccL III, V.
2 Ibid. Ill, V.
210