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Paulinus of York
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Early life
In 601 Paulinus was a monk from Rome when Pope Gregory I sent him with Mellitus and other monks in the second group of missionaries sent to England to join the Gregorian mission. The missionaries arrived in Kent by 604, and little is known of Paulinus' further activities until he went to Northumbria.
Paulinus remained in Kent until 625, when he was consecrated as bishop by Justus, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 21 July. He then accompanied Ęthelburg, the sister of King Eadbald of Kent, to Northumbria where she was to marry King Edwin.
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Early life
In 601 Paulinus was a monk from Rome when Pope Gregory I sent him with Mellitus and other monks in the second group of missionaries sent to England to join the Gregorian mission. The missionaries arrived in Kent by 604, and little is known of Paulinus' further activities until he went to Northumbria.
Paulinus remained in Kent until 625, when he was consecrated as bishop by Justus, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 21 July. He then accompanied Ęthelburg, the sister of King Eadbald of Kent, to Northumbria where she was to marry King Edwin. Edwin had promised that he would allow Ęthelburg to remain a Christian and to continue to worshp. The medieval writer Bede reports that Paulinus was anxious to convert the Northumbrians. There is some difficulty with Bede's chronology on the date of Ęthelburg's marriage, as surviving papal letters to Edwin urging his conversion imply that Ealdbald had just recently been converted, which conflicts with Bede's chronology. The historian D. P. Kirby argues that because of this, Paulinus and Ęthelburg went to Northumbria earlier than 624, and that Paulinus went north not as a bishop, but as a priest, returning later to be consecrated. The historian Henry Mayr-Harting agrees with Kirby's reasoning. Another historian, Peter Hunter Blair, argued that Ęthelburg and Edwin were married prior to 625, but that she did not go to Northumbria until 625. If Kirby's arguments about dating are accepted, the date of Paulinus' consecration needs to be set back a year, to 21 July 626.
Bede describes Paulinus as "a man tall of stature, a little stooping, with black hair and a thin face, a hooked and thin nose, his aspect both venerable and awe-inspiring". Bede probably got this description from James the Deacon, who was still living in Bede's lifetime and had been an associate of Paulinus.
Bishop of York
Bede relates that Paulinus told Edwin that the birth of his and Ęthelburg's daughter, which took place at the same time as a foiled assasination attempt on the king by some West Saxons from Wessex, at Easter 626 was due to Paulinus' prayers. Edwin promised to convert if he won a victory over Wessex, and allowed his new daughter, Eanflęd to be baptized. When Edwin was victorious over the West Saxons, he did not convert immediately, only doing so after the Paulinus revealed details of a dream that Edwin had before he took the throne while he was in exile at the court of King Rędwald of East Anglia. In this dream, according to Bede, a stranger told Edwin that power would be his in the future, when someone laid a hand on his head. When Paulinus revealed the dream to Edwin, he laid his hand on the king's head, which sign was the proof Edwin needed to convert. A late 7th century haigiography of Pope Gregory I claims that the stranger in the vision was actually Paulinus. If this tale is true, it might be possible that Paulinus spent some time at Rędwald's court, but Bede does not mention any such visit by Paulinus.
However, it's unlikely that it was solely supernatural affairs and Paulinus' persuasion that caused Edwin to convert. The Northumbrian nobles seem to have been willing, and the king also received letters from Pope Boniface V urging his conversion. Paulinus eventually convinced Edwin to convert to Christianity, baptizing him and many of his followers at York in 627. He also worked in Lindsey converting the inhabitants, and built a church in Lincoln. Among those consecrated by Paulinus was Hilda, later the abbess of Whitby Abbey, as well as Hilda's successor Eanflęd, the daughter of Edwin. One story relates that during a stay with Edwin and Ęthelburg at their palace in Yeavering, Paulinus spent 36 days baptizing new converts.
Pope Gregory's plan had been that York would be England's second metropolitan see, so accordingly Paulinus established his church there. His church at York was constructed of stone, but no trace of it has been found. Paulinus also built a number of churches on royal estates. The church in Lincoln which he built has been identified with the earliest building phase of the church of St Paul in the Bail in Lincoln.
As the only Roman bishop in England, it was Paulinus that consecrated Honorius, another Gregorian missionary, as Archbishop of Canterbury when Justus died. This occured sometime between 628 and 631.
Bishop of Rochester
Edwin died in the Battle of Hatfield Chase on a date that is traditionally given as 12 October 633. One problem with the dating of the battle is that Pope Honorius I wrote in June 634 to Paulinus and Archbishop Honorius of Canterbury, telling them both that he was sending a pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority, to both of them. The pope's letter shows no hint that news of Edwin's death had reached Rome, almost nine months after the traditional date of the battle. The historian D. P. Kirby argues that this lack of awareness makes it more likely that the battle occured in 634.
Edwin's death caused his kingdom to fragment into at least two parts. Because there was a backlash against Christianity, Edwin's widow decided to return to Kent. Paulinus went with her, and took Edwin and Ęthelburg's son and daughter, as well as a grandson of Edwin's. The two boys went to the continent for safety, residing at the court of King Dagobert I. Ęthelburg, Eanflęd, and Paulinus remained in Kent, where Paulinus was offered the see of Rochester, which he held until his death. Because the pallium did not reach Paulinus until after he had left York, he was unable to use it. Edwin's defeat led immediately to a sharp decline of Christianity in Northumbria. Although Paulinus' deacon, James, remained in the North and struggled to rebuild the Roman mission, the immediate sucessors to Edwin returned to paganism.
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