Coifi

Role: high priest · First appears: Book II · Chap. XIII

Life events

c. 624 · Coifi renounces his former religion and accepts the truth preached by Paulinus.(Book II · Chap. XIII)
- With: Paulinus
- “This long time I have perceived that what we worshipped was naught; because the more diligently I sought after truth in that worship, the less I found it. But now I freely confess, that such truth evidently appears in this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness.”
c. 624 · Coifi desecrates and destroys the idols’ temple, ordering it burned.(Book II · Chap. XIII · 📍 Godmunddingaham)
- “Then immediately, in contempt of his vain superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion, that he might mount and go forth to destroy the idols;”

mentor: Paulinus (Paulinus teaches Coifi the Christian faith, leading him to conversion.) “But Coifi added, that he wished more attentively to hear Paulinus discourse concerning the God Whom he preached. When he did so, at the king’s command, Coifi, hearing his words, cried out, “This long time I have perceived that what we worshipped was naught; because the more diligently I sought after truth in that worship, the less I found it. But now I freely confess, that such truth evidently appears in this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness.”

Extracted from the original text of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England. Made with Rho MD.