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32 SCOTTISH ANNALS
664
BEDE,HISTORIAECCLESIASTICA,III,26;VOL.I,P. 189, 190-191. 1
. . . Colman seeing that his doctrine was spurned and
his sect despised took with him those who wished to follow
him, that is, those who refused to receive the Catholic Easter
and the tonsure of the crown, (for the question concerning
this also was not the least important,) and returned to
Scotland 2 to discuss with his followers what he should do
regarding these things.
Cedd forsook the way of the Scots and returned to his
see, as having acknowledged the observance of the catholic
Easter. 3
Now this dispute took place in the year of the Lord's
incarnation 664, which was the twenty-second year 4 of King
Oswy ;
and the thirtieth year of the Scottish episcopate,
which they held in the province of the Angles ; for Aidan
held the episcopate for seventeen years, Finan for ten, and
Colman for three. . . .
And over the brethren who preferred to remain in the
church of Lindisfarne when the Scots departed was placed
in the rank of abbot the most meek and reverend man Eata,
who was abbot in the monastery which is called Melrose. 5
1 This chapter also is omitted by the A.S. Vers. Cf. H. of H., 99-100.
S.of D., H.D.E.,i, 24-25.
"
A.S.C.,MSS. A, B, C, E, s.a. 664 : and Colman
with his companions went to his own land."
Eddi, V.W.Ep., in Raine's "
York, i, 16 : But bishop Colman, hearing
what was to be done, through fear of his own land spurned the tonsure and
the manner of Easter, [preferring] to depart and leave his see to be occupied
by one better than himself ; and thus he did." Edm., V.W.Ep., ibid., i,
"
173 : because he refused to prefer to his traditions the traditions of the
church."
2
Here, as above, " Scotland " (i.e. Ireland) includes lona ; see Bede,
H.E., IV, 4, infra.
3 "
Bede, H.E., III, 28 ; i, 195 : And hence it happened that, as catholic
instruction increased daily, all the Scots who dwelt among the Angles either
submitted to [Wilfrid's regulations] or returned to their own land." Cf.
A.S. Vers., i, 246, 248, which expands the passage, because of its omission
of chapters 25 and 26.
So Eata and Cuthbert had left Ripon in 661, supra ; but now they
yielded.
4
Oswy succeeded upon the death of Oswald on the 5th August, 642.
Bede, H.E., III, 9, 14 ; i, 145, 154. The conference took place some time
before the death of Deusdedit, archbishop of Canterbury ; H.E., 28 ; i,
194-195 ; his death took place on the 14th July, 664 ; H.E., IV, 1 ; i, 201.
5 Eata transferred Cuthbert as prior to Lindisfarne, Bede, H.E., IV, 27 ;
i, 270. V.S.C., XVI, E.H.S. ed., ii, 79. Anon. Life of St. C., 23, ibid., 271.
S. of D., H.D.E., i, 25-26. Life of Eata, in Raine's Hexh., i, 213-214.
In 676 Cuthbert became an anchorite on Fame island ; Bede, V.S.C.,
XVII u.s., 83. H.E., IV, 28 ; i, 271. Ann. of Lind., in M.G.H., SS., xix, 504.
He had long desired to have " a very small cottage upon a rock, and to hide