TUS, SOCINIANS, I., § 2.
OSWALD, SAINT: King of Northumbria, 634- 642; b. about 605; slain in battle with Penda, the heathen king of Mercia, at Maserfield (probably Oswestry, 16 m. n.w. of Shrewsbury, Shropshire), Aug. 5, 642. His father, Ethelfrid, fell in battle (617) with Edwin, the great king of Northumbria, who afterward became its first Christian ruler (see Edwin; Paulintjs). Oswald and his brothers, being forced to flee, took refuge in Iona, where he was converted and baptized. He recovered his kingdom in 634, defeating the British King Cadwallon at Heavenfield (near Hexham), and at once introduced Christianity (see Aidan). Although he was a great king and ruled over wider dominions than any of his ancestors, he was devout, humble, gracious, and charitable to the poor, " always wont, while ruling a temporal kingdom, to labor and pray for an eternal one " (Bede, Hist., iii. 12). A mass of legend gathered about his name and miracles were attributed to his relics, which were kept at Gloucester, Bamborough, Lindisfarne, Durham, and other places.
Oswy
O'Toole
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Bibliography: Sources are: Bede, Hist, eccl., ii. 5, 14, 20, iii. 1-3, 5-7, 9-14, 23-24, iv. 14, v. 24; Vita, by Drogo, a monk, in ASB, Aug., ii. 94-103; Vita, by Reginald of Durham, ed. J. Raine for the Surtees Society, 1838, and in Simeon of Durham's historical works, ed. T. Arnold, in Rolls Series, no. 75, i. 326-385, London, 1882. Consult: T. Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, pp. 462—466, London, 1842-46; J. R. Green, Making of England, pp. 274-276, 290-294, ib. 1897; W. Bright, Early English Church History, pp. 149-159, 175-179, Oxford, 1897; DNB, xlii. 321-323; DCB, iv. 163-164.
OSWY: King of Northumbria, 643-671, important in the history of the Christianization of the English; b. about 612; d. Feb. 15, 671. He was a younger son of the Northumbrian King Ethelfrid, and, by his mother, a nephew of Edwin. On the overthrow of his father in 617 (see Edwin), with his brother Oswald (q.v.), he found refuge in Iona, and was baptized and educated there. He succeeded Oswald as king in 643. For several years he was menaced by the alliance between the heathen Saxons and the British, which had overthrown Edwin and Oswald, but in 655 he defeated and slew Penda of Mercia, the great heathen champion, and all except one of the British leaders. A rival king, Oswin, also established himself in Deira; he was murdered in 651 at Oswy's instigation, and the latter afterward gave his queen, Eanfled (daughter of Edwin), land for the foundation of a monastery at the place of the foul deed that prayers might be offered there for both the slayer and the slain. The dispute between the adherents of Roman and Celtic usages in the Church came to a crisis under Oswy, being by him decided against the latter at the Synod of Whitby in 664 (see Whitby, Synod of). His conduct leaves little doubt that he was anxious both to consolidate his kingdom and to bring his church and people into closer connection with Rome and the continent. Another indication of sound political judgment on Oswy's part, as well as of an intelligent desire to promote the best interests of his church and realm was his consultation with Egbert of Kent about 667 with regard to filling the vacant see of Canterbury (see Deusdedit). Finan, Colman, Ceadda, and Wilfrid of York (qq.v.) were all active during Oswy's reign.
Bibliography: Sources are: Bede, Hist, eccl., ii. 5, iii. 14-15, 21-25, 29, iv. 1, 3, 5; the Vita by Reginald of Durham in Simeon of Durham's Historical Works, ed. T. Arnold for Rolls Series, no. 75, 2 vols., 1882-85; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. with Eng. transl., B. Thorpe, in Rolls Series, no. 23, 1861; Henry of Huntington, Historia Anglorum, ed. T. Arnold for Rolls Series, no. 72, 1879. Consult: J. R. Green, Making of England, pp. 295-309, 319-325, London, 1897; J. H. Overton, The Church in England, i. 45, 47, 53-56, 59-63, 70, London, 1897; W. Hunt, The English Church, 697-1066, ib. 1899; DNB, xlii. 333-337; DCB, iv. 166-167.
OTFRID OF WEISSENBURG: German poet of the ninth century. There were two monks of this name in the monastery at Weissenburg in Speyergau during the abbotship of Grimald, but it is entirely doubtful which of them wrote the original of two documents preserved in the Weissenburg copybook, one undated and the other in 851. Both Otfrids, however, must be distinguished from the Otfridus mentioned in a fragmentary Latin poem of Weissenburg dating from the beginning of the tenth century. Knowledge concerning the first High-German poet Otfrid is restricted to the scanty
information afforded in the 7,416 lines of his Liber Evangeliorum and his Latin dedication to Archbishop Liutbert. The South Frankish dialect in which the poem is written was doubtless Otfrid's mother tongue. He accordingly seems to have been born near Weissenburg, but apparently studied for a time at Fulda under Rabanus Maurus and Solomon. This was before 838, for in that year Solomon became bishop of Constance. Otfrid was probably ordained priest after returning to Weissenburg, where he conceived the plan of writing his poempartly to counteract the influence of secular and pagan hymns which were displeasing to certain approved men, obviously of spiritual rank, and partly because he was urged by his brethren and an aged matron named Judith to make a partial translation of the Gospels. This was designed primarily for his fellow monks, being adapted for the laity only in so far as they could have it read to them. From the narrative portions of the Gospel Otfrid chose those passages appointed as lessons by the Church, though in his arrangement he by no means followed the order of the church year. He likewise incorporated material from the Apocrypha, the Church Fathers, and the early medieval theologians, the latter especially in the " mystical," " spiritual," and " moral " interpretations of events recounted in the Bible. He was influenced chiefly by the homilies of Gregory the Great, certain writings of Augustine, the commentaries of Rabanus Maurus, and Paschasius Radbertus on Matthew, of Alcuin on John, and of Bede on Matthew, Luke, and John; drawing this material, in all probability, principally from some compendium of all these sources.
The poem is divided into five books; professedly, for the purification of the five senses. The first book is devoted to the birth and baptism of Christ; the second to his life from the temptation to the healing of the leper after the sermon on the mount; the third to selected miracles until the decision of the high priest to put Christ to death; the fourth to the passion; and the fifth to the resurrection, ascension, and last judgment. All the books are divided into chapters which were not invariably written in their present order. While the work is the earliest extant Old High-German composition in rime, this form of poetry was clearly no innovation. Otfrid's earlier models had derived their riming verse from France; and not only did this system of rimes stand in sharp antithesis to the Germanic alliteration, but the verses had four accents instead of two. Nevertheless, in the older portions of the poem there are clear traces of the old Germanic poetry of two accents with alliteration. The system of four accents doubtless had arisen in Germany, as also Otfrid's strophe, which consists of two lines; each composed of two half-lines corresponding in rime, and with four accents. This structure may be illustrated by the following example (i. 19):
I6seph io thes sinthes er huatta thes kfndes
(uuas thionostman guater), bisiiorgata ouh thia mdater.
After years of toil on the Liber evangeliorum, Otfrid had a clean copy of the poem prepared by two scribes, which he then revised with his own hand and provided at the same time each half-