Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

46 EASTEE CONTROVERSY.
to Northumbria he entered the household of Prince
Alchfrid, a son of Oswy, King of Northumbria (658).
Soon afterwards he was ordained priest, and it is in
the perfection of his years and mind, a Roman spirit
grafted on the strong Saxon nature, that he comes
before us at the Whitby Conference.
Oswy, a worthy successor of St. Oswald, had inherited
his kingdom, and his friend, St. Aidan. The
traditions of loiia, * that is, of St. Columba, respect-
^**
ing Easter prevailed at court as far as the king wras
concerned, but his queen, Eanfled, was a Kentish
princess, who conformed to the teaching of the
Roman missionaries. So it came to pass that
Easter was kept twice a year at court, and that
whilst the king was rejoicing, the queen and her
party were still fasting. Gorman was Bishop of
Lindisfarne after St. Aidan and St. Finan, who had
both held strenuously to the Celtic tradition. The
Paschal observance, together with other questions of
ecclesiastical discipline, were now seriously considered.
Men feared that through want of this
outward unity they had accepted the Christian name
in vain.1 Oswy, therefore, proposed to hear what
both parties had to say, and to follow that tradition
which most commended itself as the true one.
Three elements wrere distinguishable at the Conference
: the royal, the Columban or Celtic, and the
Roman. " Both Kings came to it," says Bede, that is,
Oswy and Prince Alchfrid; "the bishop, Colman,
1 Hist. Eccles., lib. iii. cap. xxv.