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From here you can:
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Yeavering Saxon Royal Palace: Religion
The wooden theatre is one of the most interesting buildings at Yeavering. Often referred to as the "cuneus", Latin
for a theatre, it consisted of raised wooden benches facing a stage. The stage was designed to focus
all attention on the person occupying it, with screens behind and to either side of it.
Was it built for King Edwin to command an audience? Or could it have been built for Paulinus, to help him preach his
religion to gathering crowds, before leading them down to the River Glen where they were to be baptised? This
reconstruction assumes that it was designed for Paulinus and you can watch a movie and hear him recite the Lord's
Prayer in Old English here.
Paulinus was originally sent to England from Rome by Pope Gregory the Great in 601. He stayed in Kent, where he was
asked to accompany Ethelburga, the Christian sister of Edbald, king of Kent, to Northumbria, where she would marry
King Edwin. However her marriage was conditional on being allowed to practice her own religion and a promise that
King Edwin would consider converting to Christianity too. Paulinus was her chaplain and he was to spread the
Christian gospel throughout the north.
Bede, writing later in the 7th century, tells us that Paulinus preached at Ad Gefrin (Yeavering) for 36 days
baptising the masses in the River Glen nearby. Bede described Paulinus as a "tall man with a slight stoop, who had
black hair, a thin face and a narrow aquiline nose, his presence being venerable and awe-inspiring".
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