126 ROGER OF "WENDOVER. [A.D . 706. Winchester was given to Daniel, who held it till the time of Bede ; and that of Sherburne was conferred on Aldhelm, who held it four years. There remained to the bishop of Winchester two provinces only, namely Hampshire and Surrey ; while the other had Wilts, Dorset, Berks, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. Now Sherburne is such an insignificant little village, that it seems marvellous that it continued to be a bishop's see for so many ages. Offa, king of the East-Saxons, assumes the monastic habit. In the year of grace 705, Athelred, king of the Mercians, after a vigorous reign of thirty years, became a monk, and died at Bardeney, and was there buried. This king had two sisters, Kinesdrida, and Kineswitha, both of them most holy virgins, dedicated to God from their infancy, and nobly did they keep even unto old age their vow of virginity ; the younger, not content merely with her own salvation, brought Offa also, to whom she was betrothed, to the heavenly kingdom. Now Offa reigned in the kingdom of the East-Saxons, after Sigehard and Seufred for a few years ; he was a youth of a cheerful countenance, in the flower of his age, and dearly loved by his people ; but, by the persuasion of the aforesaid Kineswitha, who had refused to marry him, he was taught to sigh for heavenly love, and going to Bome, he there received the tonsure, and zealously sought the kingdom of heaven. The relics of these holy virgins are held in happy veneration by the people at Medeshamstede, which is now called Peterborough. Alfrid, king of the Northumbrians, died the same year, and was succeeded by his son Osred, who reigned eleven years. Kenred succeeded Athelred in the kingdom of the Mercians, and reigned five years. At the same time John sat in the chair of Rome one year. Sisinnius pope. In the year of grace 706, Sisinnius sat in the Roman chair twenty days. In the same year, the exile Justinian was restored to the empire by the assistance of Trehelbus king of Bulgaria, and reigned six years ; no sooner had he recovered his power, than he put to death all those who had driven him out, and cut the throat of Absimar Tiberius ; moreover he put out the eyes of Gallinicus the patriarch,