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Fruits of the Irish Apostolate in England
there, to be instructed in Christ; for the king much loved
Bishop Colman on account of his singular discretion.
This is the same Eata who not long after was made bishop
of the same church of Lindisfarne. Colman carried home
with him part of the bones of the most reverend father
Aidan and left part of them in the church where he pre-
1
sided, ordering them to be interred in the sacristy.
The place which Bishop Colman governed, Bede goes
on to say, showed how frugal he and his predecessors
were: there were very few houses besides the church
found at their departure; indeed no more than was barely
sufficient for their daily residence; they had also no
money, but cattle; for if they received any money from
rich persons they immediately gave it to the poor; there
being no need to gather money or provide houses for the
entertainment of the great men of the world, for such
never resorted to the church, except to pray and to hear
the word of God. The king himself, when opportunity
offered, came only with five or six servants and, having
performed his devotions in the church, departed. But
if they happened to take a repast there they were satis-
fied with only the plain and daily food of the brethren
and required no more; for the whole care of those teach-
ers of God was to serve God, not the world, to feed the
soul, not the body.
In all which observations of Bede we seem to feel an
undercurrent of reflection and reproach on the manners
of the times in which he lived as compared to that earlier
period when the personal influence of these bishops and
teachers was paramount in the land.2
iHist. Eccl. Ill, XXV.
2 Hist. Eccl. Ill, XXVI. Bede, like Alcuin, exhibits a chronic pessimism
in respect to the English natives. In the commentary on St. Luke, written
between 709 and 716, he expresses his fear lest the sins of the natives bring
upon them yet sorer punishment (Peiora iamiamque superuentura formidamus
Opp. xi, 253). His letter to Egbert, written in the last year of his life
(735), is one long lament over the evils of his time. His works abound
in expressions of his gloom in the midst of the aboriginal chaos.
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