But it is ever the darkest hour that precedes the dawn. It was impossible that England should lose her faith and fall back under the rule of a mere heathen conqueror. After the "thoughtful Edwin, mightiest of all the kings of the isle of Britain," as he has been called (he was, by the way, the founder of Edinburgh), there arose another champion of the new light in the person of Oswald, Edwin's nephew. Oswald's history connects him with Columba the Irishman, and "Apostle of Scotland," to whose splendid work the nation owed its first real religious advance. About 563, when in his forty-second year, and accompanied by twelve companions, Columba found a resting-place on the little island of Hy or Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, whence he set himself to the great work of his life—the conversion of the Pictish tribes beyond the Grampians. At Iona Oswald had sheltered during the home troubles, and many valuable lessons he must have learned for the strenuous life that lay in front of him. Called to lead his countrymen against their oppressors, Oswald literally fought his way to the throne. On a rising ground, a few miles from Hexham, near the Roman Wall, he gathered in 634 a small force, which pledged itself to become Christian if it conquered in the engagement. Causing a cross of wood to be hastily made, and digging a hole for it in the earth, he supported it with his own hands while his men hedged up the soil around it. Then, like Bruce at Bannockburn years afterwards, he bade his soldiers kneel with him and entreat the true and living God to defend their cause, which he knew to be just, from the fierce and boastful foe. This done they joined battle, and attacked Cadwallon's far superior forces. The charge was irresistible. The Welsh army fled down the slope towards the Deniseburn,—a brook near Dilston which has been identified with the Rowley Burn,—and Cadwallon himself, the hero of fourteen battles and sixty skirmishes, was caught and slain. This was the battle of Hefenfelt, or Heaven's Field, as after-times called it. Not only was the last hero of the old British races utterly routed, but Oswald, King of once more reunited Bernicia and Deira, proved himself to the Christian cause all that Edwin had been, and more, a prince in the prime of life, and fitted by his many good qualities to attract a general enthusiasm of admiration, reverence, and love. Resolved to restore the national Christianity, and to realize the ambitions of his exile life, he turned naturally to Iona and to the teachers of his youth for missionaries who would accomplish the holy task. At his request, Aidan, one of the fittest of the Columban band, was sent to carry on the work of evangelization in Northumbria, which happy event may be reckoned as the first permanent planting of the Gospel in the Eastern Border. The light which he kindled was never afterwards quenched. And as Columba had chosen Iona, so for Aidan there was one spot to which his heart went out above all others. This was the island-peninsula of Lindisfarne, off the Northumbrian coast, so called from the little river Lindis, which here enters the sea, and the Celtic fahren, "a recess." Bede has a fine passage which is worth quoting:—"On the arrival of the Bishop (Aidan) King Oswald appointed him his episcopal see in the isle of Lindisfarne, as he desired. Which place as the tide flows and ebbs twice a day, is enclosed by the waves of the sea like an island; and again, twice in the day, when the shore is left dry, becomes contiguous to the land. The King also humbly and willingly in all cases giving ear to his admonitions, industriously applied himself to build and extend the church of Christ in his kingdom; wherein, when the Bishop, who was not skilful in the English tongue, preached the gospel, it was most delightful to see the King himself interpreting the Word of God to his commanders and ministers, for he had perfectly learned the language of the Scots during his long banishment. From that time many of the Scots came daily into Britain, and with great devotion preached the word to those provinces of the English over which King Oswald reigned, and those among them that had received priest's orders, administered to them the grace of baptism. Churches were built in several places; the people joyfully flocked together to hear the Word; money and lands were given of the King's bounty to build monasteries; the English, great and small, were, by their Scottish masters, instructed in the rules and observance of regular discipline; for most of them that came to preach were monks." (Eccl. Hist. Bk. iii., c. 2). Than Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, as it came to be called, there is no more sacred spot in Northumbria—in England even. Its history is coeval with that of the nation, and it was from that hallowed centre of Christian activity that the gospelizing of both sides of the Border was planned and prayed over many an anxious hour and day. Aidan's missionaries went forth planting churches in various places. One of the best known of these settlements was Old Melrose, the original shrine by the beautiful bend of the Tweed, a mile or two down the river from the second and more celebrated Melrose. Here Eata, "a man much revered and meek;" and Boisil, who gave his name to the neighbouring St. Boswells; and Cuthbert, the most illustrious of them all, served God with gladness. Of the latter, certainly the most conspicuous Borderer of his day, something more must be said. Three kingdoms claim his birthplace. The Irish Life of the Saint alleges him to be sprung of her own blood royal; he is affirmed also to have come of noble Northumbrian descent; whilst the Scottish tradition makes him the child of humble parents, born and reared in Lauderdale, one of the sweetest valleys of the Border. It is a fact, at any rate, that when the light of record first falls upon him the youthful Cuthbert is seen as a shepherd lad by the Leader; he is religiously inclined, and whilst his comrades sleep, he spends whole nights in prayer and meditation. One day he hears voices from out the unseen calling to him. Another night it is a vision of angels that he fancies he beholds bearing the soul of the sainted Aidan to the skies. Such was Cuthbert, a kind of mystic, a dreamer of strange dreams, destined apostle and Bishop, and next to Augustine himself the most illustrious figure in the annals of English monasticism. The church of Channelkirk (anciently Childeschirche) dedicated to the Saint, probably indicates his birth-spot. The Leader valley is full of legends of his boyhood, the whole west of Berwickshire, indeed, being haunted ground for Cuthbert's sake. Other great names in the history of early Border Christianity are those of Benedict Biscop, the founder of the monasteries of Jarrow and Monk Wearmouth; Wilfrid, the founder of Hexham; and the Venerable Bede—the "father of English learning"—whose "Church History of the English People" is the greatest of the forty-five works that bear his name.
By far the most flourishing epoch in the religious development of the Border was the founding of the great Abbeys under David I.—"St. David"—as he is often called, though he was never canonized. Whilst still a Prince, he founded a monastery at Selkirk, and after his accession to the throne, there arose the four stately fanes of Kelso (1128), Melrose (1146), Jedburgh (1147), and Dryburgh (1150)—those rich and peaceful homes of art and intellectual culture whose ruins now strike us with marvel and regret. There is probably no other country district equally small in area that can boast a group of ruins at once so grand and interesting as those that lie within a few miles of each other along the banks of the Tweed and Jed. Founded almost contemporaneously, they were destroyed about the same time, by the same ruthless hands. The story of each is the story of all—burned and rebuilt, then spoiled and restored again, time after time, until finally at the dismal Hertford Invasion, in 1545, they all received their death-stroke. Other religious centres on the Scottish side were Coldingham in Berwickshire, founded in 1098 by King Edgar, son of Canmore and St. Margaret; Dundrennan, in Kirkcudbrightshire, founded in 1142 by Fergus, Lord of Galloway; and Sweetheart or New Abbey, founded in 1275 by Devorgoil, great-great-granddaughter of David the First. On the English side, the Church had a less vigorous growth, having no such munificent patron as King David, but there, too, it could boast of Carlisle Cathedral, the Abbey of Alnwick, the Priories of Lanercost, and Hexham, and the still more renowned and classic Lindisfarne. The history of the latter began, as we saw, with the year 635, when Saint Aidan accepted the invitation of King Oswald to teach the new faith to the Northumbrians. Aidan's church, built of wood, and thatched with the coarse bents of the links, could not long withstand the storms or the brands of the wild sea-rovers. And of the stone sanctuary reared under the rule of succeeding bishops no portion of the present ruin can be considered as forming a part. Sir Walter Scott has thrown the spell of his genius around the picturesque ruins, but the tragical story of Constance of Beverley has no foundation in fact.