Dict. Nat. Biogr.). It is confirmed by the results of the following inquiry.
This Life is mainly drawn from the account of Oda which forms the first section of the anonymous Life of Oswald his nephew, published by Raine (Historians of York, i. 399 ff.) from the Cotton MS., Nero E. 1, in which alone it appears to be preserved.[1]
What, then, do we learn of Archbishop Oda from the biographer of Oswald? First; in order to illustrate his high moral courage, he describes his dealings with the licentious young king Edwy. The king, unfaithful to his wife, had intercourse with another woman. The archbishop rode out with his attendants to the place where this woman was staying, carried her off, and sent her out of the kingdom. The king accepted his admonitions, and he and his whole court submitted humbly to his guidance.[2]
Our author next proceeds to relate three miracles wrought by Oda, one before and one after he became archbishop, the third after his death. 'Bright with the roses of spring, he cast forth sin's monstrous thorns after receiving the sacrament of baptism.' Such are our author's flowers of speech, worth noting at this point, because they reappear in later writers whom he has inspired: we may gather from them that Oda was baptized in boyhood, not in infancy. His frequent attendance at church could not be restrained even by his father's threats: 'Some say', the writer continues, 'his father was one of those Danes who came over in the army of the fleet with Huba and Hinwar.' The youth now forsook father and mother and his lawful inheritance, and attached himself to a pious knight named Æthelhelm, who showed him a father's affection. In his household Oda received instruction from a man of religion, and presently was ordained deacon: not many months afterwards he received the priesthood.[3]
- ↑ See above, p. 11.
- ↑ Hist. of York, i. 403. It would seem as if something had fallen out of the text at this point. For after quotations from Isaiah and the Psalms the writer goes on: 'Explicita apostolica epistola, ad ordinem Christo iuvante redeamus propriae relationis. Quoniam superius beatissimi viri Odonis venerauda memoria facta est', &c.
- ↑ There is no suggestion here of premature ordination. The writer's notes of time are extremely vague and are oddly expressed: Oda lives with Æthelhelm 'perplurimis mensibus'. Then he was ordained deacon. Then, 'after he had passed the time of boyhood and adolescence, and when now the [gap in MS.] of his age was drawing near, he began to glow through the indwelling Holy Spirit shed abroad in him …' Then ‘excursis perpaucis anni mensibus’ he was ordained priest.
