A.D. 704.] BENEDICT BISHOP. thence to the island of Lerins, he received the tonsure, and joined himself to the fraternity of the monks, among whom he underwent the regular discipline for two years; after which he revisited the threshold of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. At •which time, when pope Vitalian sent Theodore into Britain as archbishop of Canterbury, he came over with him, and brought back many relics of the saints. He afterwards attached himself to Egfrid, king of the Northumbrians, who straightway gave him land of sixty families to build a monastery dedicated to Peter the prince of the apostles, at the mouth of the river Were, in the year of grace 674, in the second indiction. Moreover he built another monastery in honour of Paul the teacher of the Gentiles, at Jarrow, not far from the other, which was richly endowed by the aforesaid king with lands of sixty families ; these monasteries he filled with religious monks, setting Ceolfrid over the one, and Easterwin over the other : this he did, that whether he were present or absent, regular inspection might be kept up. The venerable Bede, the teacher of the English, was committed to this servant of God to be educated, and was raised by him to the priestly office ; he is said to have gone to Rome five times, whence he always returned enriched with heavenly things, and took care, both by labour and example, to instruct those that were under him. At length, after a praiseworthy life, Benedict, the conqueror of vice, and most pious confessor of Christ, overcome by the infirmity of the flesh, resigned his spirit to his Creator on the 12th of January. He was succeeded in the labour and honour of his office by Ceolfrid, a holy man, and one of his disciples, under whom Christ's servant, Bede, worthily completed, to the great benefit of the universal church, his labours on the holy scriptures. Division of the diocese of Winchester. In the year of grace 704, died Hedda, bishop of Winchester, successor of Leutherius. In the place where he died, many miracles were wrought by the merit of his sanctity ; for the people of that province used to take away the dust from that spot which they mixed in water, and whoever tasted it, or was sprinkled therewith, experienced a happy cure, whether it was man or beast. On his death, the bishopric was divided into two dioceses, of which, that of