Rochester, saith S. Beda, being vacant, because Romanus who had been Prelat therof had been drownd in passing the Sea towards Rome, whither he was sent by S. Iustus Arch-bishop to consult with Pope Honorius about Ecclesiasticall affairs. S. Paulinus therefore at the invitation of the Arch-bishop Honorius and King Badbald undertook the charge of it: till in his due time he went to heaven there to reap the fruits of his glorious labours. And at his death, he left in the said Church the Pall which he had received from the Pope.
3. We read in the Antiquities of Glaston∣bury, That S. Paulinus, who had been Arch-bishop of York, but then was Bishop of Rochester, the third from S. Iustus who had been consecrated by S. Augustin, came to Glastonbury, where he abode a long time, and made the walls of the old Church to be built from the top to the bottom of timber (wheras anciently they were made of wattles,) and to be coverd with lead. And thus that Holy Oratory remaind in the same plight till the time that the Church was burnt (in the days of King Henry the first.) Such care had that holy Bishop, that without preiudicing the Sanctity of that place, an addition should be made to its beauty. We find mention of this Church thus repaird by S. Paulinus in the Charters granted to it by King Inas in the year of Grace seaven hundred and four, and of King Canu∣••us above three hundred years after Inas: both which Charters are said to have been confirmd and signd in the same woodden Church.
4. Concerning S. Paulinus nothing occurrs in our Ecclesiasticall Records till his death which hapned in the year of Grace six hun∣dred forty four, the sixth day before the Ides of October, saith S. Beda, after he had held the Bishoprick of Rochester nineteen years and one and twenty days. He was buried in the Secretary of S. Andrew the Apostle, which King Ethelbert built from the foundations in the Citty of Ro∣chester.
5. The opinion of his Sanctity was great after his death, and the memory of it re∣maind in that Church many ages: for thus writes the Authour of his Life: When Gun∣dulph was Bishop of Rochester, Lanfranc the Arch-bishop pluck'd quite down the Church of S. An∣drew, and built a new one; at which time he took out of the ground the bones of S. Paulinus, and putt them honourably in a boxe. Now among others then present there was a certain Matron greivously afflicted with an infirmity of body, but much more burdned with a certain crime. She coming to the Sepulcher of S. Paulinus, there with great devotion offred her vow to God, That if by the merits of S. Paulinus she might be freed from her disease, she would never more committ that sin, in which she then lived: and presently she was restord to health. This Translation was on the fourth day before the Ides of Ianuary, on which day his Anniversary solemnity was observ'd in the Church of Rochester. His Me∣mory is celebrated both in the English and Roman Martyrologes on the tenth of October.
In his place Honorius the Arch-bishop of Canter∣bury ordaind Ithamar, descended from a family which was native of Kent, but in learning and piety equal to his Predecessours.
6. As for the Widdow-Queen Ethelburga, after she had dispos'd of her Children, the love to whom was the only worldly affe∣ction remaining in her heart, she determind to shutt it entirely to temporall things, and to employ in a Religious solitude all her thoughts and desires upon heaven and God alone. Which intention of hers being known to her Brother King Eadbald, he piously assi••ted her vow, and assign'd her a place re¦mov'd from the noise of the Court, where she might with much commodity execute her Religious design, and moreover bestowd on her a village calld Liming, where she built a Monastery, and for ought appears was the first Widow among the Saxons which with a Religious veyle (receiv'd from S. Paulinus) consecrated her self to serve our Lord. B. Parker most unskilfully calls her a veyld Vir∣gin: thinking perhaps that none but Virgins might take a Religious Veyle: Whereas S. Hie∣rome expressly says, that both Virgins and Widows, who in scorn of the world had vowd them∣selves to God, did offer their hayr to be cutt off by the Mothers of the Monasteries, and afterward went not, in contradiction to the Apostles ordinan∣ce, with their heads uncoverd, but bound and veyld.
7. Which Sacred veyl was not such an one as woemen ordinarily wear, of a light trans∣parent stuff: but made of a course weal, and ••o thick that mens sights could not peirce it. True, entire and pure Virginal Chastity, saith Tertullian, fears nothing so much as its own self It will not suffer the eyes even of women. It flyes to the veyl on the head as to a helmet, yea as to a sheild to protect its onely good from the darts of Te••tations and scandals, against suspicions and whispers. And concerning this Veyl S. Am∣brose has this expression, Let men lift up the eyes of their minds and bodyes, and consider this congregation of modesty, this assembly of integri∣ty, this Council of Virginity: here are no curious ribbons to adorn the head, but an ignoble veyl, yet enn••bled with the exercise of chastity: here all arts to set forth beauty are abandoned.
8. This excursion may be pardond, being occasiond by this first example in our Saxon Story. But this was an example which pre∣sently after was imitated by thousands: Al∣most every year we shall read of Virgins hastning out of the world to live with Christ, of Monasteries erected, enclosures establish'd, and God most purely and devoutly served: All which continued almost a thousand years in the esteem and gratulation of all Christians, till an Apostate Friar solicited a Professed Virgin for his lust to break her vow of cha∣stity, and by that example the habitations of Piety became exposed to the rapines and lusts of a Sacrilegious generation.
9. This Religious Widow after that by Po∣verty, chastity and subiection of her Will