See the original of this speech in Bede.—The Conversion of
Edwin, as related by him, is highly interesting—and the breaking
up of this Council accompanied with an event so striking and
characteristic, that I am tempted to give it at length in a translation.
‘Who, exclaimed the King, when the Council was ended,
shall first desecrate the altars and the temples? I, answered the
Chief Priest; for who more fit than myself, through the wisdom
which the true God hath given me, to destroy, for the good
example of others, what in foolishness I worshipped? Immediately,
casting away vain superstition, he besought the King to
grant him what the laws did not allow to a priest, arms and a
courser (equum emissarium); which mounting, and furnished
with a sword and lance, he proceeded to destroy the Idols. The
crowd, seeing this, thought him mad—he however, halted not,
but, approaching, he profaned the temple, casting against it the
lance which he had held in his hand, and, exulting in acknowledgment
of the worship of the true God, he ordered his companions
to pull down the temple, with all its enclosures. The
place is shown where those idols formerly stood, not far from
York, at the source of the river Derwent, and is at this day
called Germund Gaham, ubi pontifex ille, inspirante Deo vero,
polluit ac destruxit eas, quas ipse sacraverat aras.’ The last
expression is a pleasing proof that the venerable monk of Wear-mouth
was familiar with the poetry of Virgil.
mighty King!