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48 SCOTTISH ANNALS
his nation had been held hitherto in the observance of Easter,
and persuaded himself and all his subjects to celebrate the
catholic time of the Lord's resurrection.
And to accomplish this the more easily and with the greater
authority he sought aid of the nation of the Angles, whom he
knew to have long ago established their religion after the
example of the holy Roman and apostolic church. For he
sent messengers to the venerable man Ceolfrid, abbot of the
monastery of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, at the
mouth of the river Wear and near the river Tyne in the place
which is called Jarrow, which he ruled most gloriously after
l
Benedict, of whom we have spoken above ;
to send him exhortatory letters, with which the more effectively
he might be able to confute those who presumed to observe
Easter not at its time as also ; concerning the manner or
fashion of the tonsure with which it was fitting that clerics
should be marked out : excepting that he was himself also
requesting him
to no small extent skilled in these matters.
And he also asked that architects should be sent to him,
to make a church of stone among his people after the manner
of the Romans, promising to dedicate it in honour of the
blessed prince of the apostles, and also that he himself and all
his subjects would always imitate the custom of the holy
in so far at least as they had
Roman and apostolic church ;
been able to learn it, being so far separated from the speech
and race of the Romans.
And favouring his pious vows and prayers the most reverend
abbot Ceolfrid sent the architects for whom he was asked,
and sent to him also a letter written in this fashion : . . . 2
When this letter had been read in presence of king Nechtan
and of many very learned men, and had been diligently
interpreted by those who were able to understand it into his
3 own tongue, he is said to have rejoiced greatly in its exhor-
1
H.E., IV, 18, i, 241. Benedict Biscop founded the monasteries of
Wearmouth and Jarrow ; ibid. ; cf. the Anon. His. Abb., in Plummer's
Bede, i, 389, 390, 391-392 ; Bede, His. Abb., ibid., i, 364, 367-368, 370.
Benedict and Ceolfrid were teachers of Bede ; H.E., V, 24, i, 357.
2 This letter (Plummer's Bede, i, 333-345) deals at some length with the
usual subjects of the controversy ; it is omitted by the A.S. Vers. It is
really composed by Bede ; cf. Plummer, ii, 332-334.
"
It : begins To the most excellent lord and most glorious king Nechtan,
abbot Ceolfrid sends greeting in the Lord " "
; and ends : May the favour
of the eternal King keep thee safely reigning for a very long time, for the peace
of us all, most beloved son in Christ."
3 With this statement of the Pictish king's ignorance of Latin, compare
W. of M., G.P., Life of St. Aldhelm (bishop of Sherborne, 705-709, ibid., 385,)