HKB
126 The text of this passage is corrupt, but no very satisfactory emendations have been suggested.
127 The Pallium is a long strip of fine cloth ornamented with crosses. It is made from wool of lambs reared in the convent of St. Agnes at Rome, and is laid for a night on the tomb of St. Peter. It is worn passing over the shoulders, with the ends hanging down in front and behind, somewhat in the form of the letter Y. (The form has varied at different times.) In the east it is called “omophorion:” the bishops wear it during the celebration of the Eucharist. It originally formed part of the imperial habit and was granted by the emperor as a special mark of honour. Afterwards the pope claimed the exclusive right of bestowing it, and its possession became restricted to metropolitans, and was considered necessary for the exercise of their functions.
128 Deut., xxiii, 25.
129 The reference may be to the third General Council held at Ephesus in 431 A.D., at which the rule was laid down “that no bishop may act in any province which has not always been subject to him.”
130 This is Bede’s attempt to reconcile the discrepancy created by his mistake in cc. 24 and 27.
131 Mellitus was consecrated Bishop of London in 604, and succeeded Laurentius in the see of Canterbury in 619. Justus was consecrated Bishop of Rochester in 604, and succeeded Mellitus as Primate in 624 (v. II, 3, foll.). Paulinus was the great missionary bishop of the Northumbrians (v. II, 9, foll.). Rufinianus was the third abbot of St. Augustine’s monastery (SS. Peter and Paul).
132 Cf. c. 27 ad init., note. Gregory’s symmetrical scheme was never carried out, and it was not till 735 that York became a metropolitan see.
133 The date is obviously wrong, as it makes this letter earlier than that in c. 29. The name of the month is omitted in two of the oldest MSS. A satisfactory emendation (v. Plummer, ad loc.) is Augustarum (for Juliarum), the last month in Maurice’s reign (XV Kal. Aug., i.e. 18th July).
134 St. Luke, x, 17-20.
135 The Cathedral: Christchurch, Canterbury; but the original structure was destroyed by fire about 1067. It was rebuilt by Lanfranc, and enlarged under his successor, St. Anselm. Prior Conrad finished and decorated the chancel, and the Church was dedicated in 1130. The choir was again burnt down in 1174, but at once rebuilt. It was completed in 1184. A new nave and transept were built between 1378 and 1410, and the great central tower was carried up to its present height by the end of the fifteenth century.
136 Afterwards called St. Augustine’s Abbey.
137 Cf. c. 27 ad init.
138 Ambleteuse, a small sea-port, about six miles to the north of Boulogne.
139 II, 2, 12; III, 1. He was the grandson of Ida, first king of Bernicia (V, 24, and note). His father, Ethelric, seized Deira on the death of Aelli (II, 1, p. 83), and Ethelfrid ruled over both the Northumbrian kingdoms from 593 to 617.
140 Gen., xlix, 27.
142 Perhaps Dalston, near Carlisle; more probably, on philological grounds, Dawstane Rig in Liddesdale; v. Skene, “Celtic Scotland,” I, p. 162.
143 For a detailed study of St. Gregory, v. “Gregory the Great, his place in History and Thought,” by F. Homes Dudden, B.D. (1905). The oldest biographies are: (1) a Life of Gregory, written by a monk of Whitby, probably about 713 A.D., recently discovered in a MS. belonging to the Monastery of St. Gallen; (2) the Life by Paul the Deacon, written towards the end of the eighth century; (3) the Life by John the Deacon, written about the end of the ninth century.
144 Cf. I, 23. Gregory’s pontificate extended from 590 to 604.
145 1 Cor., ix, 2.