5 °

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

& h a i>. preparing to return to France, in order to escapei. the mortification of preaching the gospel withoutfruit to the infidels. IVlellitus and Justus, whohad been consecrated bishops of London andRochester, had already departed the kingdom 7< ;when Latirentius, before he should entirely aban-don his dignity, made one effort to reclaim theKing. He appeared before that prince ; andthrowing off his vestments , showed his bodyall torn with bruises and stripes , which he hadreceived. Eadbald , wondering that any mailshould have dared to treat in that manner a personof his rank, was told by Laurentius, that he hadreceived this chastisement from St. Peter, theprince of the apostles, who had appeared to himin a vision, and severely reproving him for hisintention to desert his charge, had inflicted onhim these visible marks of his displeasure 77 .Whether Eadbald was struck with the miracle,or influenced by some other motive, he divorcedhimself from his mother-in-law , and returned tothe profession of Christianity " : His whole peoplereturned with him. Eadbald reached not the fameor authority of his father, and died in 640, aftera reign of twenty-five years; leaving two sons,Erminfrid and Ercombert.

Ercombert , though the youngest son , byEmma, a French princess, found means to mount

75 Bede, lib. 2. cap. 5.

77 Ibid. cap. 6. Chron. Sax. p. 26. Higden, lib 5.

’* Brompton, p. 739.