le. Besides the authority and influence of the king, they
were moved by another striking example. Coifi, the high priest, being
converted after a public conference with Paullinus, led the way in
destroying the images which he had so long worshipped, and was forward
in making this atonement for his past idolatry [w].
[FN [s] H. Hunting. lib. 3. [t] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 9. [u] Ibid. W.
Malmes. lib 1. cap. 3. [w] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 13. Brompton, Higden,
lib. 5.]

This able prince perished with his son, Osfrid, in a great battle
which he fought against Penda, King of Mercia, and Caedwalla, King of
the Britons [x]. That event, which happened in the forty-eighth year
of Edwin's age, and seventeenth of his reign [y], divided the monarchy
of Northumberland, which that prince had united in his person.
Eanfrid, the son of Adelfrid, returned with his brothers, Oswald and
Oswy, from Scotland, and took possession of Bernicia, his paternal
kingdom: Osric, Edwin's cousin-german, established himself at Deiri,
the inheritance of his family, but to which the sons of Edwin had a
preferable title. Eanfrid, the elder surviving son, fled to Penda, by
whom he was treacherously slain. The younger son, Vuscfraea, with
Yffi, the grandson of Edwin, by Osfrid, sought protection in Kent, and
not finding themselves in safety there, retired into France to King
Dagobert, where they died [z].
[FN [x] Matth. West. p. 114 Chron. Sax. p. 29. [y] W. Malmes. lib 1.
cap. 3. [z] Bede, lib. 2. cap. 20.]

Osric, King of Deiri, and Eanfrid, of Bernicia, returned to paganism,
and the whole people seem to have returned with them; since Paullinus,
who was the first Archbishop of York, and who had converted them,
thought proper to retire with Ethelburga, the queen dowager, into
Kent. Both these Northumbrian kings perished soon after, the first in
battle against Caedwalla, the Briton; the second by the treachery of
that prince. Oswald, the brother of Eanfrid, of the race of Bernicia,
united again the kingdom of Northumberland in the year 634, and
restored the Christian religion in his dominions. He gained a bloody
and well-disputed battle against Caedwalla; the last vigorous effort
which the Britons made against the Saxons. Oswald is much celebrated
for his sanctity and charity by the monkish historians, and they
pretend that his relics wrought miracles, particularly the curing of a
sick horse, which had approached the place of his interment [a].
[F