he had retired, on which Cadwallo made a sudden sally and slew him. After which, for a whole year he most terribly ravaged the provinces of the Northumbrians, till at length Eanfrid, coming to him unadvisedly with twelve soldiers to sue for peace, met with the like fate. Osieald is consecrated king of the two kingdoms. In the year of grace 635, Oswald assumed the entire dominion of the Northumbrians, which he held for nine years. For the advancement of the faith in his kingdom, he sent into Scotland where he had been an exile, and brought thence bishop Aidan, a man of singular piety ; to whom, on his arrival, king Oswald granted an episcopal see in the island of Lindisfarne. As the faith began to extend, Aidan not having full knowledge of the English tongue, as he preached, the king himself would interpret to his officers and attendants ; for in the long period of his exile he had learned the language of the Scotch perfectly ; the result of which was, that the faith grew so rapidly, that not a single unbeliever was to be met with in that region. Now Oswald was the son of king Athelfrid and brother of Eanfrid, and so he succeeded to two kingdoms, in which he spent a praiseworthy life. In this year also, Penda, king of the Mercians, was sent by Cadwallo, king of the Britons, with an immense force into the region of the Northumbrians, to slay king Oswald. Being attacked by Penda in a place called " Hefenfeld," or Heavenly Field, Oswald with his own hands erected the standard of the life-giving cross, and setting it in a hole he made it firm with sods. He then commanded his fellow soldiers that they should all cry to God with a loud voice,, in these words, " Let us all bend our knees to God, and beseech him together, that he will defend us from the army of the haughty British king, and Penda his wicked general ; for he knows that we undertake a just war for the safety of our nation." They accordingly all did as he had commanded, and so advancing against the enemy they obtained the victory as the reward of their faith ; and the spot in which the king erected the Lord's cross, abounds in miracles and is held in great veneration to this day. The same year, Birinus, by the command of pope Honorius, coming into the country of the West-Saxons, was ordained bishop by Asterius pontiff of