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90
Läsebok. iS:o 94.
said about their religion, or anything else) by Augustine, a
monk from Rome. King Ethelbert, of Kent, was soon
converted ; and the moment he said he was a Christian, his
courtiers all said they were Christians; after which ten thousand
of his subjects said they were Christians too. Augustine
built a little church, close to this king’s palace, on the ground
now occupied by the beautiful cathedral of Canterbury. Sebert,
the king’s nephew, built on a muddy, marshy place near
London, where there had been a temple to Apollo, a church
dedicated to Saint Peter, which is now Westminster Abbey.
And, in London itself, on the foundation of a temple to
Diana, he built another little church, which has risen up,
since that old time, to be Saint Paul’s.
After the death of Ethelbert, Edwin, King of
North-umbria, who was such a good king that it was said a woman
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or child might openly carry a purse of gold, in his reign,
without fear, allowed his child to be baptized, and held a
great council to consider whether he and his people should
all be Christians or not. It was decided that they should
be. Coifi, the chief priest of the old religion, made a great
speech on the occasion. In this discourse, he told the people
that he had found out the old gods to be impostors. »I am
quite satisfied of it», he said. »Look at me! I have been
serving them all my life, and they have done nothing for
me, whereas, if they had been really powerful, they could
not have decently done less, in return for all I have done
for them, than make inv fortune. As they have never made
my fortune, I am quite convinced they are impostors» When
this singular priest had finished speaking, he hastily armed
himself with sword and lance, mounted a war-horse, röde at
a furious gallop in sight of all the people to the temple, and
filing his lance against it as an insult. From that time, the
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Christian religion spread itself among the Saxons, and became
their faith. The next very famous prince was Egbert. He
lived about a hundred and fifty years afterwards, and claimed
to have a better right to the throne of Wessex than
Beor-tric, another Saxon prince who was at the head of that
kingdom, and who married Edburga, the daughter of Offa,
king of another of the seven kingdoms. This queen Edburga
was a handsome murderess, who poisoned people when they
olfended her. One day, she mixed a cup of poison for a
certain noble belonging to the court; but her husband drank
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of it too, by mistake, and died. LTpon this, the people
revolted, in great crowds; and running to the palace, and
thundering at the gates, cried, »Down with the wicked queen, who
poisons men!» They drove her out of the country, and
abolished the title she had disgraced. When years had passed
away, some travellers came home from Italy, and said that
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