Bertha, Our First Christian Queen, and Her Times

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868*. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. CONCLUSION. ' Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time: "Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er Life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. ' Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait." Longfellow. IN conclusion, we will observe how Queen Bertha's son and daughters, the objects of her tenderest anxiety and affection, repaid the care bestowed on them by Christian parents. When Eadbald was released from paternal control by the death of his father, he went for a time far astray, allowing himself to be misled by an infidel party who were setting themselves in opposition to everything connected with religion. Eadbald had contracted a marriage agreeable to the laws and customs of his forefathers, but forbidden by the Christian Church; and he received the remonstrances of the Archbishop in an angry and rebellious spirit. We are glad to know that the bishops of the Anglican Church did not yield to the King of Kent, as the bishops of France had yielded to the Merovingian kings.1 Perhaps Eadbald was incited to perverseness by the example of his young relatives, the sons of Sebert, who had jointly succeeded to the throne of Essex, on the death of their father. Those Saxon princes, being pagans at heart, overthrew the Christian religion, and drove the Italian bishop away from London; and the Saxons of Rochester became equally rebellious.2 Both Mellitus and Justus lost hope and courage; they decided that it was better that they should go back to their own country, there to serve God in freedom, than that they should remain among a barbarous peopl...