.D. 711.] THE BISHOPS OF SELSET. 129 tinuing there in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, till the day he was called away. He was succeeded in the kingdom by Ceolred, son of Athelred, who held that kingdom before Kenred. Now Offa, king of the East-Saxons, of whom we have spoken before, came to Eome with Kenred ; with the like devotedness of mind he left wife, lands, kindred, and country for Christ's sake, that he might receive in this life a hundredfold, and in the world to come eternal life. He was succeeded iu the kingdom by Selred, son of Sebert the good, who reigned thirty-eight years. Of the first bishop of Selsey. In the year of grace 711, it was determined by a synodal decree in the province of the South-Saxons, that the people who hitherto belonged to the diocese of the city of Winchester, over which Daniel at that time presided, should have · an episcopal see and bishop of their own. Accordingly Eadbert abbat of the monastery of bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory, which was called Selsey, was consecrated to be their first prelate. There that servant of God passed an exile of five years, and obtained from the king of that province land of eighty families, that he might there receive his companions in exile, and supply them with the necessaries of life. The place was surrounded by the sea except on the western side, where it was approached by an isthmus about the cast of a sling in width. Having obtained a grant of this place, Wilfrid founded there a monastery, which his successors held for a long season ; it was composed principally of the brethren he had brought with him, living with regular discipline ; and as the aforesaid king Athelwold had given him such possessions with lands and people, he baptized all whom he found there in the water of regeneration, and made them stedfast in the faith of Christ. Among whom were about two hundred and fifty men and women slaves, all of whom he not only rescued from the servitude of the devil, but granted them their liberty, and exempted them from human servitude. When Wilfrid was recalled to the province of the Northumbrians, Cedwalla king of the West-Saxons first, and after him Ine, his successor, held that kingdom, having subdued and slain the kings of that province ; whence it came to pass, that for the whole of that time, that nation had no VOL. I. Κ