[83] Cod. Dip., No. CCXVII.
[84] C. D., No. LXXVIII.
[85] There is some difference of this statement among the six texts. Some include London, and some do not.
[86] Cod. Dip., No. MXXXIV.
[87] De Ant. Brit. Eccl., ed. Drake., p. 81.
[88] C.D., vol. I., Int. p. cvii.
[89] Lib. IV., ch. 15.
[90] Looking at this again, a fresh and interesting association arises. This must have been at or close to “Redbridge,” at the head of the Southampton estuary. Beda is telling the story of the two young pagan Jutish princes, from the Isle of Wight, being baptised, preparatory to their martyrdom, by Cyniberet abbot of Hreutford. Close to Redbridge is Nutshalling, the monastery to which the young Winfred, afterwards St. Bonifatius, passed from Exeter to the care of the abbot “Wynbert.” There can be no doubt that Beda’s monastery of Hrentford is identical with the Nutschalling of the biographers of Winfred; and that Beda’s “Cyniberet” is the same as their “Wynbert.”
If this identification, both of a place and a person, that have both been known by different names for above a thousand years, should be justified; it will be all the more remarkable, because Beda’s text has been in English keeping; whilst that of the biographers of Bonifatius has been chiefly in foreign literary custody.
[91] Cod. Dip., No. CXXXII.