Cuthbert

ON SAINT CUTHBERT, BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE IN ENGLAND.

THE YEAR 687.

Preliminary Commentary.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

BHL Number: 2028

Section I. The kingdom of the Northumbrians; in it the diocese of Lindisfarne. Other places donated to Saint Cuthbert. His era.

[1] In the first constituted heptarchy of the Anglo-Saxon Empire, the kingdom of the Northumbrians obtained a very great dominion, sometimes subdivided into two kingdoms: one of these was called the kingdom of Deira, the other of Bernicia. The part of Deira closer to the other English, The kingdom of the Northumbrians widely extended on this side of the river Tyne, contained toward the East and the German Sea the widely extended County of York and the Bishopric of Durham, and toward the West, Lancashire, Westmorland, and Cumberland. But the further part of the Bernicians was from the river Tyne to the Scottish Firth, extending to the ancient Caledonians, whom the Anglo-Saxons at that time called Picts. Indeed formerly, as Ammianus Marcellinus attests, the Picts were divided into the Dicaledones and Verturiones, as far as the Picts a trace of the former name some wish to be still retained in the episcopal city of Dunkeld. These Picts were separated from the Northumbrians by the wall erected between the two firths of Edinburgh and Dumbarton, and thus the present County of Northumbria, reckoned to the kingdom of England, belonged to the kingdom of the Bernicians, as did many provinces of present-day Scotland situated between England and the said Scottish Firth. The aforesaid Picts were conquered by the English chiefly in the seventh century of Christ by Oswy, King of the Northumbrians, and Saint Trumwine or Tumma was given as Bishop to the Picts by Ecgfrith, son of Oswy, whose Acts we have given for February 10; by the testimony of which Bishop, below in the Acts of Saint Cuthbert, his adolescence and aversion from boyish games is indicated. Saint Cuthbert also traveled to this land of the Picts, as described below in the Life by Bede, number 19, where he divinely found food prepared for himself and his companion.

[2] Moreover, this entire kingdom of the Northumbrians may be considered the theater of the sacred exercises, Cultivated by Saint Cuthbert virtues, and miracles of Saint Cuthbert; for the interior and mainland territory of this kingdom was not sufficient for his labors, but the neighboring islands, which lie in the German Sea not far from the County of Northumbria, are rendered more illustrious even now by his habitation or visit. as well as the islands First, from the shores of the kingdom of Deira, there lies the island which, as Bede asserts below in number 39, lies before the mouth of the river Coquet, Coquet from which it received its name, and is itself distinguished for its communities of monks. On that island he met Saint Aelfleda, the Abbess, daughter of King Oswy, as she had requested, and during their conversation he predicted the death of King Ecgfrith and the succession of his brother Aldfrith, and that he himself would be compelled to accept the episcopate. We have treated of Saint Aelfleda on February 8. Proceeding further from there, one sees the island of Farne, Farne situated about two miles from the castle of Bamburgh, enclosed by the deep ocean and girt with a crown of rocks -- on which Saint Cuthbert led a solitary life alone, and indeed as the first to do so, for a full nine years before assuming the episcopate, and finally, after leaving the episcopate, completed the last two months and three weeks of his life, dying holily there on this March 20. The third and principal island and Lindisfarne is called Lindisfarne, lying before the river Lindi, and --

as Bede relates below in number 28, when the sea tide recedes, it is returned to the mainland by the bared shore, whence it may also be called a semi-island. It still has a town with a church, formerly adorned with an episcopal See, which Saint Aidan, summoned by the holy King Oswald to announce the Christian faith to the Northumbrians, established, delighting in the solitude and seclusion of the place. On account of the habitation of holy Bishops and Monks, this island is called Holy Island by the English. Holy Island, as it is now called Above all the other Saints, Saint Cuthbert was preeminent, who there both directed the monks as Prior and presided over the diocese as Bishop, and after death, having been buried, he shone forth with an incorrupt body and very many other miracles.

[3] Among the ten writers of English History published at London in the year 1652, there stands at column 67 and of this diocese on this side of the river Tweed a History of Saint Cuthbert and of the commemoration of the places and regions of his ancient possession, in which the boundaries of the diocese of Lindisfarne are placed, divided into three parts as it were. First, since the boundary of present-day England and Scotland is reckoned to be the river Tweed or Tweoda, the part on this side of the river is thus described: "From the river Tweoda as far as Pharnamude, and thence upward to the place where the stream called Pharned rises, near the mountain Hybberndune, and from that mountain as far as the river called Bromic, and thence to the river called Till, and all the land which lies on both sides of the river Bromic as far as the place where it rises." The said rivers Bromic and Till, emptying into the Tweed, are well known in the County of Northumbria. The second part follows, in the nearest territory of Scotland: "And that land beyond the Tweed, and beyond the Tweed from the place where the river Edre rises from the north, as far as the place where it falls into the Tweed, and the other river called Leder toward the west, and all the land which lies on the eastern side of the stream called Leder as far as the place where it falls into the river Tweed toward the south." So far the text. Near the said river Leder, Saint Cuthbert was tending the flocks of his lord with other shepherds when at night he saw the soul of Saint Aidan the Bishop being carried to heaven by Angels; whence, proceeding to the monastery of Melrose near the river Tweed, he was received among the monks and tonsured. The third part is thus described: "And all the land which pertains to the monastery of Saint Balther, which is called Tyninghame, from Lammermuir as far as the river Esk as far as Eskmouth." Saint Balther is venerated on March 6, on which day we have treated of the said Tyninghame and other places. The furthest boundary of the diocese of Lindisfarne toward the North, therefore, was the Eskmouth or the river Esk; the further part beyond, as far as the Picts, seems at that time when Saint Cuthbert lived as Bishop to have pertained to the diocese of Saint Trumwine, Bishop of the Picts as ordained.

[4] Other places situated outside the diocese were bestowed by King Ecgfrith, which are appended immediately in the said History of Saint Cuthbert after the boundaries of the diocese already reported, and in nearly the same words, though somewhat more accurately, in book 1 of the History of the Church of Durham, which we shall below vindicate for Turgot, Prior of Durham, published under the name of Simeon of Durham. certain parts of York donated to Saint Cuthbert In it, chapter 9, these things are related: "King Ecgfrith and Archbishop Theodore gave to Saint Cuthbert in the city of York all the land from the wall of the church of Saint Peter extending a great distance toward the west, and from the wall of the same church to the wall of the city toward the south. They also gave him the village of Creca and three miles surrounding the same village, Creca so that, going to or returning from York, he might have a dwelling where he could rest; where he established a habitation of monks. And because that land was insufficient, he received in addition Lugubalia, which is called Luel, Lugubalia having fifteen miles in circumference; where, having also established a community of nuns, he consecrated the Queen, giving her the habit of religion, and he established schools for the advancement of divine service. Other possessions of lands were also given to him, and other possessions which it would be long and unnecessary to list here: they are written in the charters of the church." So the text, and there is no doubt that he described the foregoing from similar authenticated records of the church. After the said History of the Church of Durham, at column 57, there stands this donation of King Ecgfrith, but badly corrupted. First, it is said to have been made in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 685, when a Synod was assembled beside the river Alne, Donation elsewhere corruptly published in the place called Etetuiford. The river Alne, called by Ptolemy the Alaunus, flows into the German Sea in the middle of the County of Northumbria; at which, in the place that Bede in book 4, chapter 28 calls "At Twifyrdi," that is "at the double ford," in the year a Synod was held in the year 684, to which Saint Cuthbert was unwillingly drawn and compelled to accept the office of the Episcopate. Second, the subscriptions of Bishops who had already long since departed this life are intruded; among these is Saint Cedda, Bishop of the East Saxons, subscription of Bishops who died in the year 664, and his brother Saint Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, who had also departed this life before the year 672. We have given the latter's Life on March 2, and the former's on January 7. Finally it is added: "This donation was made in the time of Pope Agatho, and the time of the Roman Pope in the fortieth year of the age of King Ecgfrith, and the fifteenth of his reign" -- while meanwhile Saint Agatho departed this life in the year 682, as we showed in his Life on January 10. Among the places named and donated to Saint Cuthbert was Creca, which below from Turgot is called "his former village," where Creca is situated that is Saint Cuthbert's, to whose monastery those fleeing in the Danish devastation brought his venerable body, and there, received most kindly by the Abbot Geue, they resided as if in their own place for four months. Creca Castle still exists in the district of Bulmer, and Lugubalia? beyond the forest of Galtres for the people of York. But Lugubalia, or in the Roman form Luguuallum, now Carlisle, is situated in Cumberland toward the Irish Sea, not far from present-day Scotland, called by Camden as though it were the tower or fortification at the wall, namely the Roman wall. In this city, below in the Life by Bede, number 46, Saint Cuthbert consecrated priests, and also blessed the Queen herself, then widowed by the death of King Ecgfrith, whom they call Ermenburga, born of noble stock, giving her the habit of holy conversion; whose sister, as stated in number 44, presided over a monastery built there. So much for the places made famous by Saint Cuthbert's sojourn. Concerning the monastery of Ripon, where he received an Angel in the guise of a pilgrim, we shall treat below, just as we shall speak of his native soil, which some judge to be Ireland, in the following section.

[5] I add a few words on the era of Saint Cuthbert. The Church of Lindisfarne was founded by Saint Oswald, King of the Northumbrians, in the year 635, When Saint Cuthbert was born and the episcopal See was erected there for Saint Aidan -- around which time Saint Cuthbert appears to have been born, or some years later. For in the year 651, he saw the soul of Saint Aidan, who died on August 31, being carried to heaven by Angels, while he himself was keeping night watches and guarding the flocks; soon incited by this vision, the young man entered the monastery of Melrose, became a monk and partly in it, partly in the monastery of Ripon, he lived as a subject until the death of Saint Boisil; then around the year 664, as Prior first of the monastery of Melrose and then of Lindisfarne, he presided over others Prior until the year 676, when he withdrew to the island of Farne to lead an anchoritic life. Meanwhile, in the year 678, when Saint Wilfrid was sent into exile, anchorite Bishops were created: Blessed Bosa in the kingdom of Deira as Bishop of York, and Saint Eata of the Bernicians in the Church of Hexham and Lindisfarne. Three years later, when Saint Eata remained Bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne, Tumbert was ordained for the diocese of Hexham; when he was removed in the year 684, Saint Cuthbert was elected to the Church of Hexham at the Synod of Twyford at the river Alne held before the King, and was unwillingly drawn from the island of Farne to the Synod. Then in the following year 685, Saint Eata, wishing to oblige Saint Cuthbert, withdrew to the See of Hexham, Bishop over which together with Lindisfarne he had previously presided, and then on Easter Day, March 26, at York, by seven Bishops assembled for the purpose, Saint Cuthbert was consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne. Finally, having lived as an anchorite enclosed on the island of Farne for nearly two months after abdicating the episcopate, died in the year 687, a Wednesday, March 20 he then on Wednesday, February 27, began to be ill, and after three weeks, also on a Wednesday, he put off this mortal life on March 20 of the year 687, in which, with the solar cycle 24 and the dominical letter F, both February 27 and March 20 fell on a Wednesday.

Section II. The threefold Acts of Saint Cuthbert: the authors, a monk of Lindisfarne and Saint Bede. What is prefixed in Capgrave, rejected as fabulous. What was his homeland?

[6] Eleven years had elapsed from the death of Saint Cuthbert when the monks of Lindisfarne, by divine inspiration, approached the tomb to elevate the sacred bones from it The body of Saint Cuthbert found incorrupt in the year 698 and deposit them in a more honorable place for preservation, when to their great amazement they found the body entire and, together with all its vestments, completely incorrupt. The year was then 698, and his birthday, March 20, had recurred, and immediately all were excited by that singular miracle into love of God and veneration of Saint Cuthbert: some to implore his help and patronage, to whom cures were granted by divine favor; it excited the minds of the living others to offer their votive gifts and various presents, some of the more illustrious of which will be brought forward below; others to imitate his virtues and his devout rule of life, for which we shall indicate below that he prescribed a rule and institutes of the spiritual life; finally, others resolved to commit his illustrious deeds to writing, to provide for the benefit of those far away and of posterity. Among these writers of his Life, the first may be reckoned an eyewitness from his own household, a monk of Lindisfarne, who arranged his deeds into four books and says in the Prologue, "only the more excellent of those things known to us are noted," then the Life was written by a monk of Lindisfarne, an eyewitness and in book 4, number 16, "many wonders are performed daily in our presence." He everywhere calls Lindisfarne "our island" and the church there "our church," the monastery "our monastery," the community "our family," and says "a regular life was established for us." King Ecgfrith is asserted to be "now reigning in peace," who in the year 705 departed both from life and from his kingdom. This Life appears to have been composed, or at least completed, around the year 700, two years having then elapsed from the elevation -- published for the first time from manuscripts as will shortly be clear from Bede's poem. We give it, hitherto --

hitherto unpublished, from two very ancient manuscript codices, one of which is preserved in the Bertinian or Sithiu monastery in the city of Saint-Omer, the other in the Imperial monastery of Saint Maximinus near Trier.

[7] The second writer is the Venerable Bede, who, born on the right bank of the river Tyne then by Saint Bede -- by which the district of Durham is separated from the County of Northumbria -- not far from the German Sea, flourished at this time in the monastery of Jarrow, there trained in virtue and learning. He, in book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 28, attests that he had written sufficiently of the life and virtues of Saint Cuthbert several years before, both in heroic verse and in plain prose. And in the Prologue to the Life published in prose, number 3, he asserts that he had already some time ago set forth the Life of the same God-beloved Father, first written in heroic verse somewhat more briefly but in the same order, in heroic verse at the request of certain of the Brethren; and in the poem itself, number 24, he praises King Aldfrith, saying: "The venerable pledge of this man, in Tyrian purple, now rightly handles the reins of the scepter given by his father." He seems, moreover, to have had the Life already composed by the monk of Lindisfarne, and to have augmented it at the end with new miracles. That is to say, both note the beginning of the monastic life undertaken in the monastery of Melrose, which is very worthy of note as recorded in the other Life by Bede. We give this Life from our very ancient manuscript codex, from manuscript and the edition of Canisius and have collated it with the one that Henry Canisius published from manuscript parchments of the monastery of Saint Gall in his Ancient Readings, but mutilated here and there; which he then collated with the acephalous Welser parchments, printing at the end of the book variant readings excerpted from them. He asserts, finally, that there exists another codex at Saint Gall. We too could have obtained one from the manuscripts of Dom Nicolas Belfort, but did not judge it worth the effort. This Life in heroic verse composed by Bede is praised by Alcuin in poem 178.

[8] The third Life, by the same Venerable Bede, set forth in plain prose, as he asserts -- to which he prefaces that a certain investigation of the deeds was made and an excessively subtle examination of undoubted witnesses was applied; afterwards by Bede in prose and that what he had written was frequently submitted for reading and review to the most reverend Herefrid, a Priest, and to others who had associated longer with the man of God and knew his life best, and that he had diligently corrected it according to their judgment; and that the booklet itself was finally read for two days before the elders and more learned members collected from certain knowledge of the Congregation of Lindisfarne, weighed and examined in every particular, and it was decreed by common counsel that all should be read without any ambiguity. We publish this from our very ancient manuscript codex and a second from the monastery of Bonne-Fontaine of the Cistercian Order in Gaul and a third from Saint Salvator's at Utrecht, given from manuscripts and the published works though abbreviated, and we have collated it with the Life among the works of the Venerable Bede and published separately by others. He inscribed this Life to Saint Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who survived in that dignity to the year 720; of whom he again makes mention near the end of the Life, number 68, where he treats of the successors in the anchoritic life, Saints Aethilwald and Felgild -- if, however, those passages may not seem to have been added afterwards, since Felgild is said to be "more than seventy years old, awaiting the end of the present life." And in the Life of Saint Cuthbert in the New Legend of England formerly published by John Capgrave, after the cure of paralysis, it is said that "up to this point the Venerable Bede the Priest wrote the Life of Saint Cuthbert." In our manuscript codex, after the Life is fully related, two miracles are added from book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History of the same Bede, where they are found in chapters 31 and 32; Appendix from Bede's history these we also append to the same Life, which we publish first as the more complete, and next to it we add the Life in heroic verse by the same Bede, and in the third place the one which we said was earlier collected by the monk of Lindisfarne -- in which we judge the somewhat rougher style to be less pleasing to readers; indeed, some things seem to have been inserted by later hands.

[9] Behold the fountains from which all who treat of the deeds accomplished by Saint Cuthbert in his life or in the years closest after his death draw their streams; Hence the accounts of others are drawn of whom it is not necessary to compile even a catalogue. The chief are Turgot in the History of the Church of Durham and Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, in a treatise hitherto unpublished on the Saints of England; both of whom wrote in the twelfth century. Only the compiler of the New Legend of the Saints published at London in 1526, whether he was John of Tynemouth or John Capgrave, causes trouble, while at the beginning of the Life he prefixes marvelous tales about the homeland, parents, and education of Saint Cuthbert, In Capgrave, fabulous matter is prefixed and then, having appended an epitome from Bede, adds: "Up to this point Bede wrote." Meanwhile, Colgan reprinted that Life from Capgrave, divided it into chapters or numbers, and attempted with annotations to illustrate and defend it. We propose to examine several points here. Thus the first chapter reads:

"From the royal stock of the Irish, a certain King named Muriardachus, wealthy and powerful, ruling all the Kings of Ireland for several years, as if born in Ireland continually adorned with pious works the Christian faith which he had received. His wife Sabina was celebrated as a Saint for the holiness of her life and her admirable manner of living, and her memory is devoutly observed annually where she rests. It happened that another King of Ireland, envying his felicity and glory, slew the King with his wife and household by nocturnal ambush, with only his sole daughter preserved alive." So much for chapter 1. Muriardachus with grandfather Maiedach is believed to be the celebrated Murchertach, son of Muredach, whom the Four Masters in the Annals of Ireland record as killed in the year 527; the catalogue of Kings in Ussher gives the year 533; therefore a gap of a hundred years must be allowed killed in the year 527 or 533 for him to be considered the grandfather of Saint Cuthbert. Second, no memory of Saint Sabina is known to exist in the ancient Irish records; and so she would be entirely unknown unless Dempster had recently inscribed her in the Scottish Menology, and Ferrarius from him. Third, not only a sole daughter survived, since Domnald and Fergus, her sons, are placed as having died in the year 561, with only the mother surviving and Boetanus, a third son, is said to have died in the year 563 -- so the said Four Masters report. So much for chapter 1; chapter 2 is as follows:

[10] "The wicked King, finally enticed by the beauty of the maiden, since he could move her to illicit consent by no persuasions, violated the virgin. She thereupon conceived and bore a son ... A certain Bishop asked the King for the child to rear, and having baptized him, called him in the native tongue Nulluhoc," born and called Nulluhoc then violated by another King that is, as Colgan interprets, "the wailing one" or "a wailing." Chapter 3 only says the boy predicted the color of a calf not yet born. Then in chapter 4 these things are read: "When the Bishop had died, his mother took him and boarded a ship to sail to Britain. When the Book of Psalms slipped from the boy's hands and fell into the depths of the sea, a sea calf immediately bursting forth swallowed the book with gaping mouth and vanished beneath the waves. carried to Britain When all had disembarked from the ship in port, that sea calf suddenly appearing vomited forth the book entirely unharmed. The mother then came with the boy to Bishop Columba, who first held the See of Dunkeld in Scotland, received by the first Bishop of Dunkeld and was kindly received by him. The holy Bishop's pet blackbird, killed by rivals, the blessed boy restored to life by his prayer." So far that passage. Below, when the translation of the body of Saint Cuthbert, intended to be carried to Ireland because of the Danish incursion, is treated, the story will arise of a Gospel book that fell into the sea and was preserved, which Selden reports is still kept in the Cottonian Library in his observation on the Ten Writers of English History; following the example of which, it pleased some to invent a similar miracle. Second, the well-known city of Dunkeld in present-day Scotland, which then was subject to the Dicaledonian Picts (whence we said above its name seems to have been derived), is noted. An episcopal See was erected there around the year 1140 or later by David, King of Scots. But in the seventh century there was only one single Bishop in the kingdom of the Picts, where the See was erected around the year 1140 whose See was at Abernethy in Strathearn, as Ussher reports from the Scotichronicon in his Antiquities of the British Churches, chapter 15, page 668. But let us hear what is reported in chapter 5: "The mother of the boy had in Scotland two full brothers who were Bishops, namely Meldan and Eatan, with whom she lived for some time, educated by Saints Meldan and Eatan, Bishops who were his maternal uncles and leaving her son in their custody, set out for Rome." So the text, which shows that not the entire family was destroyed except for the mother, since here are two brothers. Saint Medan or Meldan, an Irish Bishop, is venerated on February 7, whose relics, as well as those of Saint Bean, Saint Fursaeus brought to Peronne. In that Life we observed in number 5 that Colgan elsewhere calls Bean by the name Eatan, and that these are the ones treated of here. But then they must necessarily have died before Saint Fursaeus departed for Gaul; but who died in the preceding century indeed they must have been illustrious for miracles, so that their sacred bones would be held in ecclesiastical veneration; whence we judged that they flourished in the sixth century, at February 7. The same Colgan in notes 7 and 8 to this Life of Saint Cuthbert opines that they were from the royal family of Connius or Constantius, and consequently that they could have been grandsons or of the seed of the aforesaid King Murrordach. But this does not suffice for the truth of this history. But let us examine the rest of the Acts. In chapters 6 and 7, he draws a fountain from a rock, and pursuing a demon with a very great club, accused as if he had impregnated the King's daughter compelled it to plunge beyond the summit of a mountain. Then in chapters 8 and the last, he is falsely accused as if he had deceived, violated, and impregnated the King's daughter, at which point, while he prayed, the fornicating accuser was swallowed up by the earth. These immediately collapse from the following chapter, in which, having been delighted solely by the games of little children up to the eighth year of his age, and is asserted to be a little boy he is said, according to Bede, to have more frequently visited from Melrose a woman by whom he had been nourished from his earliest years of boyhood. Certainly Bede would not want these tattered rags sewn onto his illustrious purple work:

"As a sick man's dreams -- vain Shapes are invented, so that neither foot nor head Is fitted to a single form."

[11] Let the Irish keep their wailing Nulluhoc and leave to the Anglo-Saxons Cuthbert, The name Cuthbert is Anglo-Saxon by which name -- whether he is designated as illustrious for skill (as Camden explains such Anglo-Saxon names in his Britannia) or as worthy of God, or as a good prince (as perhaps will seem to others, and especially to those who prefer to read Guthbert) -- Saxon --

is certainly an appellation, like Cuthred, Cuthwine, Eadbert, Sigebert, and other similar ones. If, however, the Irish have from ancient writers other records than those brought forward by Colgan, we would certainly not wish to oppose them. He lived as a boy and youth in that part of the kingdom of the Northumbrians where in present-day Scotland he lived as a youth which is now subject to the kingdom of Scotland. Earlier matters pertaining to his lineage or native soil we say are unclear, if these words of Saint Bede in the proem of his Poem do not indicate an Anglo-Saxon: "No longer content within its own bosom, the shining lamp is spread across the seas, and Britain, sharing in this, brought forth a venerable splendor in our times: in which Cuthbert, leading his life through the golden stars, taught the English to ascend the heights with his own steps."

Section III. The sacred veneration of Saint Cuthbert. The Rule prescribed by him for his own.

[12] We have repeatedly said that our manuscript copy of the Martyrology of Saint Jerome seems to have been brought from England into Belgium in the time of Saint Willibrord. Saint Cuthbert anciently inscribed in the Martyrology of Saint Jerome In it, at the end of this day, March 20, we also read, written in an ancient hand: "And of Saint Cuthbert the Bishop." These words are absent from the Luccan, Blumian, and Corbie manuscripts published at Paris. In the fourth year after the death of Saint Cuthbert, namely 690, Saint Willibrord came from these Northumbrian regions to Frisia; by whom, after being ordained Bishop, a cleric was sent to Lindisfarne, who there, oppressed by a grave infirmity, was suddenly healed at the tomb of Saint Cuthbert in the presence of the monk of Lindisfarne, as the latter reports in book 4, number 16, of the Life of Saint Cuthbert composed by him around the year 700. The said Martyrology could have been transmitted to Saint Willibrord by this returning cleric or on a similar occasion. likewise of Bede In the ancient manuscript Martyrology which we have repeatedly said to be the genuine product of Bede himself, only these words are read: "Of Saint Cuthbert the Bishop." The same words are found in the ancient Martyrology of the monastery of Cassino in the Lombard script, and in the Vatican manuscripts of the Church of Saint Peter, and various manuscripts the Roman one of the Duke of Altaemps, those of Aachen, Laetia, and Cologne at Saint Mary ad Gradus. Likewise in the manuscripts of Barberini, Vallicella, Dachery, Trier, and others, but with the words joined: "In Britain" or "in the Britains, the deposition" or "birthday of Saint Cuthbert the Bishop"; to which in the manuscript of Centula is added "and Confessor, a man of admirable sanctity." These indicate the ancient veneration of Saint Cuthbert throughout the world. Usuard adorned this with the following eulogy: "In Britain, the deposition of Saint Cuthbert, of Usuard who, from an anchorite made Bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne, led his entire life from infancy to old age, illustrious with signs of miracles." of Ado To which in Ado the following is found appended: "Whose body, after remaining buried for eleven years, was afterwards found incorrupt, as if dead at the same hour, together with the vestment with which it was covered. Bede the Priest wrote of his life." of others Equivalent statements are found in Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Mainz; Notker Balbulus, monk of Saint Gall; the author of the printed Bede; Bellinus, Maurolycus, Felicius, Galesinius, Canisius, and others in their printed or handwritten Martyrologies; in some of which the year of death is added, in others the Kings Ecgfrith and Aldfrith, under whom he lastly flourished. In today's Roman Martyrology these words are read: "In Britain, the deposition of Saint Guthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who from boyhood to death shone forth with holy works and signs of miracles." Wandalbert of Prum formerly honored him with these verses:

"The thirteenth, shining with the praise of Cuthbert, Leads the peoples of the English through mystic joys."

[13] The English, Scots, and Irish also celebrate Cuthbert among their Saints, Veneration among the Irish whom Colgan in the Appendix to the Life, chapter 1, says is inscribed in the Irish Martyrologies of Tamlacht, Dungal, Marianus Gorman, and Maguire. Dempster inserted him in his Scottish Menology. In the Breviary of Aberdeen, six Readings taken from Bede are reported to be recited at Matins, the Scots with a proper Collect -- which are plainly the same as printed in the ancient Breviary of Salisbury. He is also celebrated with a long encomium in the English Martyrology. the English In the Breviary according to the Rule of Blessed Isidore, called the Mozarabic, printed at Toledo by order of Archbishop Francis Ximenes in the year 1502, an Office of nine Readings is recited for Saint Cuthbert, Bishop and Confessor. We also found at Naples among the Reverend Theatine Fathers, among the books collected by Father Antonio Caracciola, the Spanish an ancient but acephalous manuscript Patrician Martyrology the Italians in which under March 20 these words are read: "In Italy, the birthday of Saint Cuthbert the Bishop, whose life, full of virtues, Bede the Priest wrote; whose relics we venerate and whose Mass we attend with due honor." If Saint Cuthbert is ascribed to Italy only on account of some relics, the Benedictine Martyrologists have a greater right to augment their calendars with the illustrious memory of so great a wonder-worker, as has been done by Wion, Dorgan, Menard, and the Benedictine monks Bucelin, in their Benedictine Martyrologies or Menologies. Trithemius led the way, who counts him among the illustrious men of the Order of Saint Benedict, book 3, chapter 127, and book 4, chapter 168. Edward Maihew in his Trophies of the English Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict judges that he demonstrates most clearly that Cuthbert lived according to the Rule of Saint Benedict; and he places two foundations for this claim: namely, that the Scottish monks were accustomed to be governed not by any Rule but by customs received from their predecessors. The second is: that no other monastic Rule except Saint Benedict's existed in these centuries in the Latin Church. From which he elicits this assertion: since below in the Life, number 25, the Rule and regular observance are treated of, it is to be understood as the Rule of Saint Benedict, a matter made most clear without any contradiction, and it is unnecessary that so manifest a thing be proved by further arguments. So he says, little versed in monastic antiquity. We illustrated on February 12 the Life of Saint Benedict, Abbot of Aniane and Inde, who flourished under the Emperor Louis the Pious, and was considered, just as Saint Benedict of Cassino was the Proto-Patriarch of the entire Order and monastic Religion throughout the whole world, so this Benedict of Inde was its equal and Master General throughout France and Germany -- as we said was once written by the author of the Catalogue of the Abbots of Inde. The author of the Life of Louis the Pious asserts that this Benedict was appointed Abbot by him to transmit to all monasteries a uniform manner of living according to the Rule of Saint Benedict; and so that those who had professed other Rules might be more easily incited to embrace it, he wrote the Concordance of Rules, illustrated by Menard with learned observations, in which are noted twenty-five authors of other Rules, various ones later in age than Saint Benedict of Cassino, whose Rules seem to have been observed in various monasteries up to that time, when one hundred and thirty years had elapsed from the death of Saint Cuthbert. From these, Luke Holstein published various Rules. Furthermore, Ussher testifies in book 17, page 919, that he found in an ancient codex four Rules written in the old Irish tongue, almost unintelligible in our times, and that the first is called the Rule of Columba of Kil, to which it is fitting to believe all the Columban monasteries, both in Ireland and Scotland and in England itself, were confirmed. This Rule and precepts of Saint Columba, confirmed by heavenly signs, Saint Wilfrid acknowledged in Bede, book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 25, where the profession of this Rule is objected to Saint Colman. We treated of it on February 17 in the Life of Saint Finan, who at that time governed the bishopric of Lindisfarne, when Saint Cuthbert was living as a monk under Saints Boisil and Eata. Saint Colman succeeded Saint Finan, whose Acts we have given for February 18.

[14] Among the ancient writers, Possevinus, Ware, Bale, Saint Cuthbert wrote institutes of the regular life and Dempster, cited by Colgan in the Appendix after his Life, chapter 4, acknowledge Saint Cuthbert. I add John Pitseus, omitted there, who in the seventh age of English writers, number 77, reports that he has hitherto found only these titles: "Ordinances of his Church," the beginning of which is "The First Rule is concerning the Lord"; and a second volume, "On the Monastic Life." But he himself more clearly indicates, while dying with his last admonitions, what he wrote, in the Life in Bede -- in the words of Herefrid, Abbot of Lindisfarne, who was present -- reported thus in number 62: "Strive most diligently to learn and observe the Catholic statutes of the Fathers. Also exercise with care those institutes of the regular life which divine piety has deigned to give you through my ministry." Which Bede thus explains in his poem:

"I pray that you too may serve the lofty laws forever, Which the heavenly Rule of the Fathers has provided for you, Or which I myself have been able to set forth in humble words."

The monk of Lindisfarne, treating in book 3 of the arrival of Saint Cuthbert at the island of Lindisfarne, inserts these words in number 1: "Living there also according to holy Scripture, observed long after his death leading a contemplative life in active pursuits, and composing a regular life for us, he established it, which to this day we observe together with the Rule of Benedict." Whether the last words were inserted afterwards, as various other things seem to have been, we do not dare to determine.

[15] Cuthbert was still a young man in the monastic life when he migrated from the monastery of Melrose under Saint Eata and others to the recently built monastery of Ripon, as a youth he did not hold the Roman manner of Easter observance and received an Angel as a guest -- as Bede narrates below in chapter 3, from which place, as is said in number 14, Eata, with Cuthbert and the others he had brought, was repelled by a sudden storm and returned to Melrose. But in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 20, the reason for the repulsion is clearly given thus: "King Aldfrith had formerly given the place of Ripon for building a monastery there to those who followed the Scots. But since they afterwards, when given the option, preferred to leave the place rather than accept the Catholic Easter and other canonical rites according to the custom of the Roman and Apostolic Church, he gave it to Wilfrid," etc. The controversy about celebrating Easter that was agitated in the year 664, we have deduced in the cited Life of Saint Colman, sections 2 and 3. Among the other canonical rites, Bede understands in book 3, chapter 26, the tonsure of the head, for was it the tonsure of the head? "concerning this too," he says, "there was no small question." Ceolfrid the Abbot also joined both questions in his letter to Naiton, King of the Picts, which Bede, who wrote as a monk under that Abbot, reported in book 5, chapter 22; in that letter, however, it is said that the difference in tonsure does not harm those who have a pure faith toward God and sincere charity toward their neighbor, especially since among the Catholic Fathers no controversy is read to have arisen concerning the difference in tonsure, as there was concerning the diversity of Easter or of the faith. Meanwhile, King Naiton, persuaded by Ceolfrid's letters, around the year 710 introduced the Roman custom of Easter observance and tonsure into the provinces of the Picts subject to him. Indeed, even the monks of Iona, as the same Bede relates in the following chapter 25, together with the monasteries subject to them, with Egbert preaching, in the year --

716, began to celebrate the canonical Easter and adopted Catholic rites, by which the aforesaid tonsure seems to be implied. Since, therefore, Saints Eata, Cuthbert, and others left the monastery of Ripon on account of the Catholic Easter and other rites and returned to Melrose, a scruple arises for us in the Life of Saint Cuthbert by the monk of Lindisfarne, book 2, number 1, concerning these words: "After he had received the yoke of the service of Christ and the form of the tonsure of Peter in the manner of a crown of thorns encircling the head of Christ, with the Lord's help, in the monastery called Hrypum," etc. A scruple arises, I say, whether the words about the tonsure were intruded by later hands, because with them removed the sense holds, and Bede in neither Life nor in the Ecclesiastical History makes mention of it. whether those words about it were later inserted into the Acts Indeed, on the contrary, in the Life, number 13, he asserts that Eata imbued the monastery of Ripon with the same institutes of regular discipline as Melrose before it, and from the History we have already said that they preferred to leave the place rather than accept the Catholic Easter and other rites, namely the tonsure of the head.

LIFE

By the Venerable Bede

From manuscripts collated with the printed Life

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

BHL Number: 2021

BY BEDE

PROLOGUE

To the holy Lord and most blessed Father Eadfrith, Bishop, and also to the entire congregation of Brethren who serve Christ on the island of Lindisfarne, Bede, your faithful fellow-servant, sends greetings.

[1] He writes this Life from the most certain knowledge Since you have commanded, most beloved, that I should prefix some preface to the front of the book which I have composed at your request concerning the life of our Father Cuthbert of blessed memory, so that there might be made clear to all readers both the desire of your will and the fraternal assent of our obedience -- it has seemed good at the beginning of the preface both to recall to your memory, you who know, and to make known to those who do not know and may happen to read these things, that I have not presumed either to write anything about so great a man without a most certain investigation of the deeds, or finally to deliver what I had written for indiscriminate copying to certain people without a most subtle examination of undoubted witnesses. Rather, I first diligently investigated the beginning, progress, and end of his most glorious manner of life from those who knew him, whose names I judged should sometimes be appended in the book itself as a sure sign of ascertained truth; and only then did I begin to put hand to my notes. When the little work was arranged but still retained in notes, I frequently submitted what I had written for reading and review to our most reverend brother Herefrid the Priest when he came here, and to others who had associated longer with the man of God and knew his life best; examined accurately by various persons and I diligently corrected some things according to their judgment, as seemed fitting. And thus, with all the roundabout ways of scruples removed, I took care to commit the certain investigation of truth, set forth in plain words, to parchment, and also to carry it to the presence of your fraternity -- so that by the judgment of your authority whatever was false might be corrected, or whatever was true might be approved. When I was accomplishing this with the Lord's help, and the booklet was being read for two days before the elders and more learned members of your Congregation and was most carefully weighed in every detail at your examination, no word was found whatsoever that needed to be changed; rather, everything that was written was decreed by common counsel to be read without any ambiguity, and to be delivered for copying to those who wished it out of zeal for religion. But you also brought forward many other things, and no less important than those we have written, when you compared with one another in our presence matters concerning the life and virtues of the blessed man, which indeed seemed most worthy of memory -- had it not been clear that inserting new matter into, or adding it upon, a work already deliberated and completed would have been rather unfitting and unseemly.

[2] Next I judged it proper to admonish the crown of your holiness that, he commends himself to the prayers of the Lindisfarne monks just as I did not delay to pay promptly the debt of my obedience which you deigned to command, so may you not be slow to render me the reward of your intercession. Rather, when rereading the book and your spirits are more ardently raised to the desire of the heavenly kingdom by the pious memory of the most holy Father, be mindful also to beseech divine clemency for my littleness, that I may be worthy both now to desire with a pure mind and in the future to see with perfect blessedness the good things of the Lord in the land of the living; that he may be helped by their sacrifice of the Mass after death but also, when I am dead, that you deign to pray and celebrate Masses for the redemption of my soul, as for one of your own household and servants, and to inscribe my name among your own. For you, most holy Bishop, already remember that you promised me this, and as a pledge of future inscription you commanded your devout Brother Gudfrith, the mansionarius, to place my name even now in the Album of your holy congregation.

[3] May your holiness know that the Life of the same God-beloved Father of ours, he wrote this Life also in verse which I have given you in prose, I already some time ago set forth, somewhat more briefly but in the same order, in heroic verse at the request of certain of our Brethren. If it pleases you to have these, you can receive a copy from us. In the preface of that work I promised that I would write more extensively about his life and miracles on another occasion -- which promise I am striving to fulfill in the present little work, as God may grant. May the Lord Almighty deign to keep your blessedness safe and praying for us, most beloved Brothers and my Lords. Amen.

INDEX OF CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER I.

The acts of Saint Cuthbert in boyhood and youth. The patronage of an Angel: the power of prayers.

Chapter 1

[4] The Prophet Jeremiah consecrates the beginning of our writing about the life of Blessed Cuthbert, who, glorifying the state of anchoritic perfection, says: "It is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from his youth. He shall sit alone and be silent, because he has raised himself above himself" Lam. 3:27-28. Kindled indeed by the sweetness of this good, the man of the Lord, Cuthbert, from the beginning of his youth subjected his neck to the yoke of monastic training; and when opportunity favored, having also taken up the anchoritic life, he delighted for no small time in sitting alone and in being silent from human conversations on account of the sweetness of divine contemplation. But in order that he might do these things in maturer age, heavenly grace had gradually incited him to the way of truth from his earliest years of boyhood. For up to the eighth year of his age, which is the first of boyhood after infancy, he knew how to give his mind only to the games and frivolity of little children -- The boy delights in games so that the testimony of Blessed Samuel could then be spoken of him: "Now Cuthbert did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord been revealed to him" 1 Sam. 3:7. This was said to the praise of his boyhood, who, when older in age, was about to know the Lord perfectly and to receive the word of the Lord with the revealed ear of his heart. He delighted, therefore, as we have said, in jests and cries, and, as the order of his age demanded, he desired to be present at the gatherings of little ones and wished to join in the games of those playing. And because he was agile by nature and sharp of mind, he had been accustomed to prevail over his competitors in play more often, to such an extent that when the others were sometimes exhausted, he, still untired, joyfully sought out as if victorious anyone who wished to compete with him further. Whether they exercised in jumping, running, wrestling, or any other bending of the limbs, he boasted that he had surpassed all those of his own age and even some older. For when he was a child, he thought as a child, he reasoned as a child; but afterwards, becoming a man, he most fully put away the things of a child.

[5] And indeed the divine dispensation deigned to restrain the childish elation of his boyish mind with a fitting tutor. For, as Bishop Trumwine of blessed memory testified that Cuthbert himself told him, [admonished by a three-year-old child who predicted his episcopal dignity, he abandons his games] one day, when a not inconsiderable crowd of boys was persisting in their usual wrestling in a certain field, and he himself was present, and most of them, as the levity of players is wont, were bending their limbs in various contortions against the proper state of nature, suddenly one of the little ones, about three years old as it seemed, ran up to him and, with almost elderly constancy, began to urge him not to indulge in jests and idleness but rather to subject both his mind and limbs to stability. When he spurned the admonition, the child fell weeping to the ground, bathing his face with tears. Others ran to console him, but he persisted in his weeping. They asked what sudden trouble he had, why he was afflicted with such great lamentations. At last, crying out to Cuthbert who was comforting him: "What," he said, "most holy Bishop and Priest Cuthbert, do you do these things so contrary to your nature and your rank? It does not become you to play among children, you whom the Lord has consecrated as a teacher of virtue even to those older in years." Hearing this, the boy of good disposition received it with fixed attention, and, soothing the sorrowful infant with gentle caresses, immediately abandoning the charm of play, he returned home; and from that time he began to be more steady of spirit and more mature in mind as a youth -- that same Spirit inwardly teaching his heart within which had resounded in his ears outwardly through the mouth of the infant. Nor should anyone wonder that the frivolity of a little one could be restrained through a little one by the Lord's action -- He who, to prohibit the foolishness of the Prophet, uttered rational words when He wished in the mouth of a dumb beast, and in whose praise it was truly said: "Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise" Matt. 21:16.

Chapter II

[6] But because "to everyone who has, it shall be given, and he shall abound" -- that is, to him who has the purpose and love of virtues, an abundance of these will be given as a gift from above -- since the boy of the Lord, Cuthbert, carefully retained in his heart the encouragements he received through a human being, he was also deemed worthy of angelic --

sight and speech he merited to be comforted by an Angel. For his knee, suddenly seized with pain, with a painful knee, he is made lame began to swell with a sharp tumor, so that with the sinews contracted in the back of the knee, he first carried his foot suspended from the ground, walking with a limp; then, as the affliction grew worse, he was deprived of almost all ability to walk. One day, when he had been carried outside by attendants and was lying in the open air, he suddenly saw a horseman coming from afar, clad in white garments and of honorable countenance, and the horse on which he sat was of incomparable beauty. When he arrived and greeted him with gentle speech, he added, as if in jest, to inquire whether he would be willing to render some service to such a guest. But he said: "Most readily would I stand devoted at your service, if I were not held back by the shackle of this illness, which my faults have required. For it is long since, oppressed by the affliction of a swollen knee, I have been unable to be healed by the skill of any physician." The rider, dismounting from his horse and examining the diseased knee more carefully, said: "Cook wheat flour in milk, and apply this warm preparation to the swelling, and you will be healed." Healed by the Angel's remedy Having said this, he mounted his horse and departed. He, obeying the instructions, was healed after a few days; and he recognized that it had been an Angel who had given him this counsel, sent by Him who once deigned to send the Archangel Raphael to heal the sight of Tobias 2 Macc. 10:29. If anyone thinks it incredible that an Angel appeared on horseback, let him read the history of the Maccabees, in which Angels are recorded as having come on horseback both for the defense of Judas Maccabeus and of the Temple itself.

Chapter III

[7] From this time onward, the boy, devoted to the Lord, as he himself afterwards used to attest to his close companions, when hemmed in by difficulties, often prayed to the Lord and merited to be defended by angelic aid; and even when he supplicated for others placed in peril, because he entreated with kind piety, he was heard by Him who is accustomed to hear the poor man when he cries and to deliver him from all his tribulations. There is, moreover, a monastery situated not far from the mouth of the river Tinus, to the south, at that time indeed of men, but now, the state of affairs having changed as happens through time, distinguished by a noble company of virgins serving Christ. These servants of Christ, while carrying on rafts from afar through the channel of the said river timber suitable for the monastery's needs, the monks' rafts in peril and having come by rowing to the area opposite the same monastery, and trying to bring the rafts to land, behold, a tempestuous wind suddenly rising from the west seized the rafts and began to drag them to the mouth of the river. Seeing this, the Brethren from the monastery launched small boats into the river and tried to help those who were laboring on the rafts; but, overcome by the force of the river and the violence of the winds, they were unable to do so. Whereupon, despairing of human help, they fled to the divine. For leaving the monastery, and while the rafts were being swept into the Ocean, they gathered at the nearest embankment and bent their knees, supplicating the Lord for those whom they saw about to rush into so great a crisis of death. But by divine provision, the prayers of those who had long been supplicating were deferred -- so that it might be made manifest how great was the power of prayer in Cuthbert. For on the other bank of the river stood a considerable crowd of common people, among whom he himself stood; while others mock and when they saw the rafts being carried far out to sea, while the monks looked on in sadness, so that they appeared like about five little birds (for there were five rafts) riding upon the waves, they began to mock the manner of life of the monks, as if they rightly suffered such things -- they who, despising the common laws of mortals, gave new and unknown rules for living. Cuthbert forbade the taunts of the mockers, saying: "What are you doing, Brothers, cursing those whom you see being already dragged to their death? Would it not be better and more humane to pray to the Lord for their safety he restores them to shore by prayer than to rejoice at their peril?" But they, with rustic spirit and mouth, growled against him: "Let no man pray for them; may God have mercy on none of them -- they who have taken away the ancient forms of worship from men, and how the new ones should be observed, no one knows." Receiving this response, he himself bent his knees to pray to the Lord, inclined his head to the earth; and immediately the force of the winds was reversed, and the rafts with those who guided them, rejoicing, were cast whole upon the land and set down in a convenient place near the monastery itself. When the rustics saw this, they blushed at their own unbelief; and from that time they praised the faith of the venerable Cuthbert with deserved praise, and thereafter never ceased to proclaim it -- so much so that a most trustworthy Brother of our monastery, from whose report I learned these things, said that he had often heard them from one of those rustics, a man of rural simplicity and entirely incapable of dissembling, in the presence of many bystanders.

CHAPTER II

The occasion of the religious life. Entry into the monastery of Melrose. Vision of Angels. Food divinely bestowed.

Chapter IV

[8] When Christ's grace, the guide of the life of the faithful, willed that his servant should undertake the virtue of a more rigorous resolution Keeping watch at night over the flock and earn the glory of a higher reward, it happened that he was keeping guard over the flocks entrusted to him in remote mountains. One night, while his companions slept and he himself kept vigil in prayer according to his custom, he suddenly saw a light poured from heaven that had interrupted the darkness in the middle of the night, and in it choirs of the heavenly hosts had descended to earth, and immediately, he saw the soul of Saint Aidan being carried to heaven by Angels having taken with them a soul of extraordinary brightness, they returned to the heavenly homeland. The God-beloved youth was deeply moved by this vision to undertake the grace of spiritual exercise and to earn perennial life and felicity among the men of renown. Immediately rendering praises and acts of thanksgiving to God, and also stirring his companions with fraternal exhortation to praise the Lord: "Alas, wretched ones," he said, "given over to sleep and inertia, we do not merit to see the light of the ever-vigilant ministers of Christ! Behold, while I kept vigil for a brief time of the night in prayer, I beheld such great wonders of God: the gate of heaven was opened and the spirit of a certain Saint was led thither with an angelic escort, who now, while we are caught in the lowest darkness, blessed in perpetuity, beholds the glory of the heavenly mansion and its King, Christ. And indeed I believe him to have been either some holy Bishop or an eminent man from among the faithful, whom I saw carried to heaven with such splendor of light and so many choirs of Angels leading him." Saying these things, the man of the Lord, Cuthbert, kindled not a little the hearts of the shepherds to reverence for divine praise; and he learned in the morning that Aidan, Bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne -- truly a man of great virtue -- had at the time when he had seen the vision been snatched from the body and sought the heavenly kingdoms. And immediately, commending the flocks he was tending to their owners, he resolved to seek the monastery.

Chapter V

[9] While he was now meditating with earnest heart on this new entry into a more continent life, heavenly grace was at hand to strengthen his mind more firmly in his resolution and to teach him by manifest signs that for those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, those things that pertain to the sustenance of the body are added by the benefit of divine provision. For on a certain day, for love of the Passion of Christ he fasts on Friday while on a journey while he was traveling alone, he turned aside at the third hour into a village which he happened to find situated at a distance; and he entered the house of a certain devout matron, wishing to rest there a little while and caring to procure food for the beast on which he rode rather than for himself; for it was the season of the beginning of winter. The woman received him kindly and earnestly asked to be allowed to prepare a meal and refresh him. The man of God refused, saying: "I cannot yet eat, because it is a day of fasting." For it was Friday, on which most of the faithful are accustomed to extend their fast until the ninth hour out of reverence for the Lord's Passion. The woman persisted in her request, devoted in her zeal for hospitality: "Behold," she said, "on the road you are traveling, you will find no little village, no human habitations, and indeed a long journey remains that cannot be completed before sunset; wherefore I pray, before you depart, take food, lest you be compelled to sustain a fast all day or even to postpone it." But he, though the woman urged him greatly, conquering the urgency of the one who asked by his love of religion, took to the road fasting and continued fasting through the day until evening.

[10] When, with evening now at hand, he saw that he could not finish the journey he had planned on the same day and no human lodgings were available nearby where he might stay, behold, suddenly while traveling, he receives food by divine means he saw some shepherds' huts near the road -- huts that had been set up flimsily in summer and now stood open and deserted. Entering here to pass the night, he tied the horse on which he had come to the wall and placed before it a bundle of hay that the wind had torn from the roof for it to eat; he himself began to spend the hour in prayer. But suddenly during his psalm-singing he saw the horse, raising its head upward, pulling at the thatch of the hut, and dragging it down with its mouth; and among the falling hay of the roof a cloth fell down as well, equally wrapped up. Wishing to learn more certainly what it was, he finished his prayer, approached, and found wrapped in the cloth half a warm loaf of bread and meat, which could suffice for a single meal. Singing praise for the heavenly benefits, he said: "Thanks be to God, who has deigned to provide a supper both for me who was fasting for love of him and for my companion." He therefore divided the piece of bread that he found and gave half of it to the horse; the rest he reserved for his own eating. And from that day he became readier to fast, since he clearly understood that the refreshment had been provided for him in the wilderness by the gift of Him who once fed Elijah the solitary with the same kind of food through birds for no small time, when no human being was present to minister -- whose eyes are upon those who fear him and hope in his mercy, that he may deliver their souls from death and feed them in hunger 3 Kings 17; Ps. 32. These things the devout Priest of our monastery, which is at the mouth of the river Wear, named Ingwald, who now by the grace of old age contemplates heavenly things with a pure mind rather than earthly ones with bodily sight, declared that he heard from Cuthbert himself, by then already a Bishop.

Chapter VI

[11] Meanwhile, the venerable servant of the Lord, having left the things of the world, hastened to submit to monastic discipline -- incited as he was by the heavenly vision to seek the joys of perpetual blessedness, received at the monastery of Melrose by Saint Boisil, who foresaw his holiness invited by heavenly feasts to endure temporal hunger and thirst for the Lord. He knew indeed that the Church of Lindisfarne had many holy men by whose teaching and example he could be instructed; but, having been already won over by the fame of Boisil, a monk and priest of sublime virtues, he preferred to seek Melrose. And it happened by chance that when, arriving there, he had dismounted from his horse and, about to enter the church to pray, had given his horse along with the spear he had held in his hand to an attendant (for he had not yet laid aside his secular garb), Boisil himself, standing before the doors of the monastery, saw him first; and foreseeing in the spirit how great the one he beheld would become in his manner of life, he said this one thing to those standing by: "Behold a servant of God!" -- imitating Him who, beholding Nathanael coming to Him, said: "Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile." As the devout and veteran servant of God and Priest, Sigfrid, was accustomed to attest -- he who stood among the others beside Boisil when he spoke these words, then a youth in the same monastery, still being trained in the first rudiments of the monastic life, now in our monastery, that is at Jarrow, living as a perfect man in Christ, and amid the feeble sighs of his last breath joyfully thirsting for the entrance of the other life. And Boisil, saying nothing more, soon received Cuthbert kindly when he came to him, and when Cuthbert explained the reason for his journey -- that he had preferred the monastery to the world -- received him kindly and kept him with himself more kindly still, for he was the Prior of the same monastery.

[12] And after a few days, when the man of blessed memory, Eata, then Priest and Abbot of the same monastery, later Bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne and of the same place, arrived, Boisil told him about Cuthbert and explained that he bore a mind of good resolution, and obtained from him that, having received the tonsure, he should be joined to the fellowship of the Brethren. He is tonsured by Saint Eata and becomes a monk Having entered the monastery, he immediately took care to maintain an observance of the regular life equal to the rest of the Brethren, or even to surpass them in zeal for more rigorous discipline -- being more attentive in reading, working, keeping watch, and praying. Moreover, after the example of the strongest Samson, once a Nazirite, he was careful to abstain from everything that can intoxicate. He was not willing, however, to undergo so great an abstinence from food as to be rendered unfit for necessary works; for he was robust of body and sound in strength, and apt for whatever exercises of labor he wished.

CHAPTER III

Departure to the monastery of Ripon; return to Melrose. An Angel received as a guest. Saint Cuthbert freed from the plague; death of Saint Boisil.

[13] When after some years it pleased King Aldfrith, for the redemption of his soul, to give a certain place of his kingdom called Ripon to the Abbot Eata for building a monastery there, the same Abbot, taking some of the Brethren with him, He lives in the monastery of Ripon among whom was Cuthbert, founded the requested monastery there and imbued it with the same institutes of regular discipline as Melrose before; where the servant of the Lord, Cuthbert, placed in charge of receiving guests and given to proving his devotion, is said to have received an Angel of the Lord as his guest. He receives an Angel as his guest For going out early in the morning from the inner buildings of the monastery to the guesthouse, he found a certain youth sitting there; and thinking him a man, he received him at once with his customary kindness. For he gave him water for washing his hands, washed his feet himself, wiped them with a cloth, humbly placed them in his bosom to be warmed with his hands, and asked him to wait until the third hour of the day to be refreshed also with food, lest if he went fasting he be wearied by hunger and the winter cold alike; for he thought the man had arrived at that early hour to rest, wearied by a nighttime journey and the snowy blasts together. The guest refused and said he would soon be going, because the dwelling to which he was hastening was far away. But Cuthbert, asking long and earnestly, and finally adding an adjuration by the divine name, compelled him to stay. And as soon as the prayers of the third Hour were completed and the time for eating arrived, he set the table, offered food to be taken, and said: "I beg you, Brother, take refreshment while I return bringing hot bread, for I hope that the loaves are now baked." But when he returned, he did not find the guest whom he had left eating. He traced his footsteps to see where he had gone but found none anywhere. Now fresh snow had covered the ground, which would very easily have revealed the path of a traveler and shown which way he had turned. Amazed, therefore, the man of God, and wondering about the matter, put the table back in the inner room; and entering, he immediately met the fragrance of a wonderful odor. Looking around to see whence so great a sweetness of scent had arisen, he finds three loaves left by the Angel he saw placed nearby three warm loaves of unusual whiteness and beauty; and trembling, he spoke thus to himself: "I perceive that the one I received was an Angel of God: he came to feed, not to be fed. Behold, he has brought loaves such as the earth cannot produce, for they surpass lilies in whiteness, roses in fragrance, and honey in taste. Whence it is clear that they were not produced from our soil but brought from the paradise of delight. Nor is it strange that he refused to take human food on earth, he sees Angels frequently and is fed from heaven since he enjoys the bread of eternal life in heaven." And so the man of God, deeply moved by the displayed power of the miracle, bestowed greater care on works of virtue from that time. As his virtues grew, so did heavenly grace. From that time onward, he frequently merited to see and converse with Angels, and even when hungry, to be refreshed with foods specially prepared for him by the Lord as a gift. For since he was usually affable and pleasant in his manner, while he was recounting the deeds of the preceding Fathers as an example of living to those present, he would also humbly interpose what gift of the spiritual kind heavenly piety had bestowed upon himself. And sometimes he would do this openly, sometimes in a veiled manner, as if under the guise of another person. But those who heard understood that he had spoken of himself, after the example of the Teacher of the Gentiles, who sometimes openly recounts his own virtues, sometimes speaks under the pretext of another person, saying: "I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven," and the rest of that passage 2 Cor. 12.

[14] Meanwhile, because the state of the whole world is fragile and as changeable as the tides, he returns to Melrose the aforesaid Abbot Eata, with Cuthbert and the other Brethren he had brought with him, was expelled by a sudden storm, and the place of the monastery he had founded was given to other monks to inhabit. Nor did the said athlete of Christ change his mind from the resolution of heavenly warfare he had once undertaken because of the change of place; rather, most diligently, he is seized by the plague just as he had been accustomed to do before, he attended equally to the words and deeds of Blessed Boisil. At which time, as Herefrid, his intimate friend, Priest and former Abbot of the monastery of Lindisfarne, attests that Cuthbert himself used to relate, he was seized by the pestilential disease from which very many throughout Britain were then widely dying. But the Brethren of that monastery spent the whole night in vigil, praying for his life and health; for all believed, as if he were a holy man, that his presence still in the flesh was necessary for them. When one of them told him of this in the morning healed by prayers poured forth by others (for they had done this, I know not why, without his knowledge), he responded immediately: "And why am I lying here? For it must not be thought that God has disregarded the prayers of so many and such men. Give me my staff and my shoes." And rising at once, he began to try walking, leaning on his staff; and as his strength grew day by day, he recovered his health. But because the swelling that had appeared on his thigh gradually subsided from the surface of his body and sank into the interior of his vitals, for almost the entire time of his life he never ceased to feel a certain pain in his intestines -- evidently so that, according to the Apostle, "virtue might be perfected in infirmity" 2 Cor. 12:9.

[15] When the servant of the Lord, Boisil, perceived that he was restored from his illness, he said: "You see, Brother, that you have been freed from the affliction with which you labored. With Saint Boisil predicting various things And I tell you that you will never be touched by it again, nor will you die at this time. And at the same time I admonish you, since death awaits me near at hand, not to neglect to learn something from me as long as I am able to teach; for there are no more than seven days in which bodily health and the power of my tongue will sustain me for teaching." Cuthbert responded, not hesitating at all about the truth of his words: "And what, I ask, is best for me to read, that can still be completed in a single week?" And Boisil said: "John the Evangelist. I have a codex having seven quires, which we can, with the Lord's help, he learns from the Gospel of Saint John about the love of faith read through one each day, and, as much as is needed, discuss between us." And it was done as he had said. The reason they were able to complete this reading so quickly was that they were treating only the simplicity of faith, which works through love, and not the depths of questions. When the reading was therefore completed --

after the seven days of reading, the man of the Lord, Boisil, was seized by the aforesaid disease and came to his last day; and having passed through it with great exultation, he entered into the joys of perpetual light. They say that in those seven days by him on his deathbed he expounded to Cuthbert all the things that still remained future for him; for he was, as I have said, a man of prophecy and of wondrous sanctity. He had predicted to his Abbot Eata three years before the fierceness of the aforesaid pestilence came, that it would occur, and did not conceal that he himself would be carried off by it; but he forewarned truthfully, as the outcome of events proved, that his Abbot would not die from it but rather from the disease that physicians call dysentery. Moreover, among other things, he intimated to Cuthbert that he would be ordained Bishop. that he would be a Bishop Wherefore the same Cuthbert, afterwards placed in the seclusion of the anchoretic life, wished to tell no one that Boisil had predicted he would become a Bishop; but nevertheless, to Brethren who sometimes visited him, he would protest with much grief: "Even if it were possible for me to hide in a tiny little dwelling on a rock, where the swelling waves of the Ocean surrounding me on every side would shut me off alike from the sight and knowledge of all mortals, not even then do I consider myself free from the snares of the deceiving world, but I fear that even there covetousness might, for whatever reason, tempt and snatch me away."

CHAPTER IV.

The office of Prior of Melrose. The Word of God preached. Food divinely obtained. A fire suppressed.

[16] After the death of the God-beloved Priest Boisil, Cuthbert took up the said office of Prior, Prior of the monastery of Melrose and for several years, exercising himself with spiritual industry as befitted a Saint, he not only provided the monastery itself with both precepts and examples of the regular life, but also took care to convert the common people settled far and wide around he devotes himself to converting people to God from a life of foolish custom to the love of heavenly joys. For many were profaning with wicked works the faith they held; and some even in the time of the mortality, neglecting the sacrament of faith with which they had been imbued, were running to the erratic remedies of idolatry, as if they could restrain the plague sent by God the Creator through incantations, amulets, or any other secrets of demonic art. To correct the error of both, therefore, he himself frequently went out from the monastery, sometimes riding a horse but more often going on foot, coming to the surrounding villages, and preaching the way of truth to those who erred -- which was the very thing Boisil had been accustomed to do in his own time. It was indeed the custom of the English people at that time that when a cleric or priest came to a village, all would flock at his command to hear the word; they would gladly listen to what was said, and more gladly still would follow in practice what they could hear and understand. Moreover, Cuthbert had such skill in teaching, he imposes penance on those who confess their sins such love of persuading what he had begun, such light of his angelic countenance, that none of those present presumed to hide the secrets of their heart from him; all openly brought forth in confession what they had done (since they thought there was no way these same things could be hidden from him), and having confessed, they wiped away their sins with worthy fruits of penance, as he commanded. He was accustomed to travel especially to those places and preach in those hamlets he visits wretched villages that were situated far away in steep and rough mountains, which were a horror for others to visit, and whose poverty and rusticity alike forbade the approach of teachers. Yet he, gladly devoting himself to the pious labor, cultivated them with such industry of teaching that, going out from the monastery, he often would not return home for a whole week, sometimes two or three, and sometimes even a full month, but staying in the mountains, would call the rustic people to heavenly things by the word of preaching and the example of virtue alike.

[17] He gives exhortations at the nuns' monastery of Coldingham When therefore the holy man was growing in virtues and signs in the same monastery, and the fame of his works was spreading on every side, there was a devout woman and mother of the handmaids of Christ, named Ebba, governing a monastery situated in the place they call the city of Coldingham, honorable to all for her religion and nobility equally; for she was the uterine sister of King Oswy. She, sending to the man of God, asked that he would deign to visit her and her monastery with his grace of exhortation. Nor could he refuse what charity had demanded from the heart of the handmaid of God. He came therefore to the place, and remaining there for some days, made manifest to all, by deed and word alike, the way of justice that he preached.

[18] When, according to his custom, while the others rested at night he went out alone to pray, and after long vigils in the dead of night at last returned home as the hour of the communal office approached, one night one of the Brothers of the same monastery, silently seeing him go out, entering the sea up to his neck, he pays praises to God at night secretly followed his footsteps, seeking to discover where he would go and what he would do. But he, going out from the monastery, with the spy following, descended to the sea, upon whose shore the same monastery stood. Entering the depth of the sea until the swelling wave rose to his neck and arms, he spent the wakeful hours of the night in praises amid the sound of the waves. As dawn approached, ascending to land, he again began to pray on the shore with bended knees. While he was doing this, two four-footed creatures from the depths of the sea immediately came, commonly called otters; when he emerged, sea otters served him these, stretched out before him on the sand, began to warm his feet with their breath and labored to dry them with their fur. When their service was completed, having received his blessing, they slipped back beneath their native waves. He himself also soon returned home and completed the canonical hymns with the Brethren at the proper hour. But the Brother who had been watching him from a lookout, stricken with enormous fear, barely reached home with faltering step under the distress pressing upon him. Early the next morning, approaching him, he threw himself on the ground and tearfully begged pardon for the guilt of his foolish daring -- not doubting at all that Cuthbert knew what he himself had done at night and what he was suffering. To whom he said: "What ails you, Brother? What have you done? Have you tried to spy upon and investigate our nighttime journey? he forbids this to be told to others while he lives But on this one condition I forgive your transgression: that you promise never to tell anyone what you have seen before my death." In which precept he followed the example of Him who, showing the glory of His Majesty to His disciples on the mountain, said: "Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead" Matt. 17. He blessed the Brother, therefore, who promised what he commanded, and equally wiped away the guilt and distress that the reckless man had incurred; and he, concealing in silence during his lifetime the virtue he had seen, after Cuthbert's death took care to make it known to many.

[19] Meanwhile, the man of God also began to excel in the spirit of prophecy, he sails to the Niduarian Picts predicting things to come and announcing absent things to those present. For at a certain time, setting out from his monastery for the necessity of an arising occasion, he traveled by ship to the land of the Picts called the Niduari; two Brethren accompanying him, one of whom, afterwards having served the office of the priesthood, made known to many the power of the miracle that the man of the Lord showed there. They arrived there after Christmas Day, hoping that, since the mildness of waves and breezes alike smiled upon them, they would soon return, and therefore did not carry provisions with them, as if about to return quickly. But things turned out far differently than they thought; for as soon as they touched land, a fierce storm arose that blocked every path of returning for them. When for some days they remained there amid the perils of hunger and cold (during which time, however, the man of God did not wish to lead idle hours spoiled by luxury or devote himself to slothful sleep, but strove to persist all night in prayer), the most sacred day of the Lord's Epiphany was at hand. he persists all night in prayer Then he addressed his companions with the gentle speech that was his cheerful and affable manner: "Why, I ask, do we grow numb with such great sluggishness, and not seek a way of salvation by every means? Behold, the earth bristles with snows, the sky with mists; the air rages with adverse blasts, the sea with waves; we ourselves are failing from want, and there is no one to refresh us. Let us therefore beseech the Lord with prayers, who once opened a way through the Red Sea for his people and wondrously fed them in the desert -- praying that he may have mercy on us too in our dangers Exod. 14 and 16. I believe, if our faith does not waver, he does not wish us to remain fasting on this day which he himself took care to make illustrious through so many and such great miracles of his Majesty. I beg, let us go somewhere seeking what feast he may deign to provide us for the joy of his festival." he finds food divinely prepared Saying this, he led them to the bank where he himself had been accustomed to pray through the night in vigil. Arriving there, they found three pieces of dolphin flesh, as if cut by human hands and prepared for cooking; and bending their knees, they gave thanks to the Lord. Cuthbert said: "You see, most beloved, what grace there is in trusting and hoping in the Lord. Behold, he has prepared food for his servants, and by the number three has also shown us how many days we must remain here. Take therefore the gifts that Christ has sent us, and let us go and refresh ourselves and wait undaunted; he predicts calm weather for most certainly after three days clear weather of sky and sea will come to us." It was done as he had said; after the three-day storm --

after a most fierce storm, on the fourth day at last the promised calm followed, which carried them back to their homeland with favorable winds.

[20] On a certain day also, when he was going out from the monastery to preach to the people according to his custom, going forth to teach the people with only one boy as companion, and they had already been wearied by long walking while no small distance of the journey still remained before they would reach the village to which they were heading, he said to the boy, testing him: "Come, tell me, companion, where do you plan to take refreshment today? Do you have anyone along the way, a host to whom you might turn aside?" And the boy answering said: "I have been turning these very thoughts over silently in my heart: because we brought no provisions with us when we set out, nor do we know anyone along the way who might wish to receive us in hospitality; and no small part of the journey still remains, which we cannot complete without difficulty while fasting." To whom the man of God said: "Learn, my little son, always to have faith and hope in the Lord, because he who faithfully serves God never perishes from hunger." And looking upward, seeing an eagle flying on high, he said: "Do you see that eagle flying yonder? in hunger he trusts God Even through the ministry of this bird it is possible for the Lord to refresh us today." While conversing thus, they were making their way alongside a certain river, and behold, suddenly they see an eagle sitting on the bank, and the man of God said: "Do you see where our attendant, whom I foretold, is sitting? Run, I beg you, and see what food she has brought us, the Lord sending it, and bring it quickly." Running up, he brought back a fish of no small size, which the eagle had just caught from the river. But the man of God said: "What have you done, my son? Why did you not give the attendant her share? he receives a fish from an eagle Cut it quickly in half and return to her the portion which she deserves for serving us." He did as he was commanded, and taking the remaining part with him, when the time for refreshment came, they turned aside to a nearby village; and having given the fish to be roasted, they refreshed both themselves and those they visited with a most welcome feast, while Cuthbert preached the word of God and praised His benefits: because blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord, and who has not looked upon vanities and false frenzies. And thus, resuming their journey, they set out to teach those whom they had intended.

[21] At the same time, while he was preaching the word of life to a large gathering assembled in a certain small village, he suddenly foresaw in spirit that the ancient enemy was present the devil stirring up a phantom fire to impede the work of salvation; and he immediately took care to anticipate by teaching the snares which he understood were coming. For among the things he had been discussing, he suddenly inserted admonitions of this kind: "It is fitting, dearest ones, that whenever the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom are preached to you, you should always hear them with attentive heart and most vigilant mind, lest perhaps the devil, who has a thousand arts of harming, should hinder you from hearing about eternal salvation with superfluous cares." And saying this, he again took up the thread of the sermon he had interrupted; and immediately that most wicked enemy, bringing a phantom fire, set ablaze a house situated nearby, so that tongues of fire seemed to fly through the whole village, and with the wind assisting, the roar shook the air. Then nearly the whole crowd he was teaching leaped up, as if to extinguish the fire (for he held back a few with his outstretched hand), and they threw water in competition; yet true water could not extinguish false flames, until, at the prayer of the man of God Cuthbert, the author of deceits was put to flight and carried his fictitious fires away he drives him off with prayers into the empty air. Seeing this, the crowd blushed most profitably, and returning again to the man of God, on bended knees they begged pardon for their unsteady mind, confessing that they understood that the devil does not rest from impeding human salvation even for an hour. And he, strengthening the inconstancy of the frail, again carried out the counsels of life that he had begun.

[22] Nor did he suppress only phantom fire, but also true fire, which many could not extinguish with the cold waters of springs; he himself quenched it with the fervent streams of his tears alone. Indeed, while after the manner of the Apostles he was traversing all places for the grace of saving instruction, he came one day to the house of a certain woman devoted to God, whom he took care to visit frequently, because he knew her to be intent upon good works, and she herself had nurtured him from the early years of his childhood; whence she was customarily called mother by him. She had a house in the western part of the small village. When the man of the Lord Cuthbert entered it to sow the word, suddenly in the eastern quarter of the same village a house, set on fire through negligent carelessness, began to burn fiercely; for a considerable wind rising from the same direction was snatching burning bundles from the hay roof and hurling them far and wide throughout the village. Those present were throwing water, but the stronger flame repelled them he averts a real fire by his prayers and drove them farther away. Then the aforesaid handmaid of God ran hastily to the house in which she had received the man of God, imploring him to help with his prayers before her own house and the whole village should perish together. But he said: "Do not fear, mother; be of good courage, for this flame, however fierce, will not harm you or yours." And immediately going out, he prostrated himself on the ground before the door. While he was still praying, the direction of the winds changed, and blowing from the west, it cast all the danger of so great a fire away from attacking the small village which the man of the Lord had entered.

And so in two miracles he imitated the virtues of two Fathers: in the phantom fires that were dispelled, the virtue of the most reverend and most holy Father Benedict, he imitated Saint Benedict who drove away from the eyes of his disciples by prayer a simulated fire of the ancient enemy, as if the kitchen were burning; and in the true fires equally overcome and driven back, the virtue of the venerable man Marcellinus, and Saint Marcellinus the Bishop Bishop of Ancona, who, when that city was burning, placed himself against the fire and by praying restrained the flames which so great a multitude of citizens had been unable to quench by throwing water. Nor is it to be wondered at that men who are perfect and who faithfully serve God receive such power against the force of flames, men who by daily industry of virtues know how both to subdue the incentives of their own flesh and to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. To them that prophetic saying most fittingly applies: "When you pass through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not burn in you." Isa. 43 But I and those like me, conscious of our own frailty and inertia, are certain indeed that we dare nothing of the sort against material fire, but uncertain whether we may escape immune from that inextinguishable fire of future punishment. But the power and generous mercy of our Savior is able to grant us unworthy ones both now the grace of His protection for extinguishing the fires of our vices, and in the future for escaping the flames of punishments.

CHAPTER V.

The office of Prior of Lindisfarne. Miracles. A demoniac woman set free. Vigils, prayers, clothing.

[23] But since a little above we have set forth how greatly the same venerable Cuthbert prevailed against the deceitful frauds of the devil, let us now also explain he knew by divine insight that Hildmer's wife was possessed by a demon what power he had against his true and open fury. There was a Prefect of King Ecgfrith named Hildmer, a man devoted to religious works with all his household, and therefore especially beloved by Blessed Cuthbert, and frequently visited by him when the proximity of his journey permitted. His wife, though she was intent upon almsgiving and other fruits of virtue, was suddenly seized by a demon and began to be most fiercely tormented, so that by gnashing her teeth, uttering pitiful cries, and flailing her arms and other limbs of her body in every direction, she struck no small horror into all who saw or heard her. And when she lay prostrate and already seemed about to die, her husband mounted his horse and came hastily to the man of God, begging him and saying: "I implore you, because my wife is gravely ill and seems already near death, to send a Priest who may visit her before she dies, administer to her the Sacraments of the Lord's Body and Blood, and also permit her body to be buried here in the holy places." For he was ashamed to confess that she was insane, whom the man of the Lord had always been accustomed to see in her right mind. When Cuthbert turned aside from him briefly to see what Priest he might send with him, he suddenly knew in spirit that it was not from a common illness but from the infestation of a demon that the wife for whom he pleaded was being oppressed. And returning to him he said: "I should not send another, he predicts that she will be freed before his arrival but I myself ought to go with you to visit her." And while they were making the journey, the man began to weep and to betray the grief of his heart by tears flowing down his cheeks; for he feared that when Cuthbert found her possessed by a demon, he would begin to suppose that she had served the Lord not with genuine but with feigned faith. The man of the Lord gently comforted him: "Do not weep," he said, "as if you would find your wife in a state I would not wish; for I myself know, although you are ashamed to say it, that she is tormented by a demon. I know also that before we arrive there, the demon will have fled and she will be freed, and coming to meet us with joy upon our arrival, she will take these very reins in perfectly sound mind, and earnestly begging us to enter more quickly, she will attentively render us the service she was accustomed to give. For not only the wicked are subjected to such torment, but by the hidden judgment of God, sometimes even the innocent in this world are taken captive by the devil, not only in body but also in mind." And while Cuthbert was speaking these and similar words for his consolation and instruction, they approached the house; suddenly the evil spirit fled, he is received kindly by the healed woman unable to endure the coming of the Holy Spirit with whom the man of God was filled. The woman, released from its bonds as from a heavy sleep, immediately rose, and running joyfully to meet the man of God, she held the bridle of the mount on which he sat; and at once, having fully recovered the vigor of both mind and body, she begged him to descend quickly and to enter to bless her house, and offering him devoted service, she testified openly how at the first touch of his bridle she had felt herself freed from all the distress of her former torment.

[24] When therefore the venerable servant of the Lord, spending many years in the monastery of Melrose, was shining forth with many signs of spiritual virtues, the most reverend Eata, his own Abbot, transferred him to the monastery situated on the island of Lindisfarne, so that there also he might teach the Rule of monastic perfection by the authority of the office of Prior and show it by the example of his virtue.

Prior of the Lindisfarne monastery, in which Bishops had lived For the same most reverend Father also governed that place by the right of an Abbot. Nor should anyone wonder that in the same island of Lindisfarne, though it is very small, we have said there was a place both for a Bishop above and now for an Abbot and monks; for in truth it is so. For one and the same dwelling of the servants of God holds both together -- indeed, it holds all as monks. For Aidan, who was the first Bishop of that place, was a monk and was always accustomed to lead the monastic life with all his followers; whence all the prelates of that place down to this day so exercise the episcopal office that, with the Abbot governing the monastery -- whom they themselves have chosen with the counsel of the Brethren -- all the Priests, Deacons, Cantors, Lectors, and other ecclesiastical grades observe the monastic Rule in all things together with the Bishop himself. Blessed Pope Gregory showed that he greatly approved this manner of living when, in reply to Augustine, whom he had sent as the first Bishop to the English nation, who inquired by letter how Bishops should conduct themselves with their Clergy, he responded among other things: "But because your fraternity, trained in monastic rules, ought not to live apart from its Clergy in the Church of the English, which by God's authority has recently been brought to the faith, it ought to establish that manner of life he shines forth with miracles which was among our Fathers at the beginning of the newborn Church, in which none of them said that anything of what they possessed was their own, but all things were common to them." Acts 4 Therefore, the man of the Lord arriving at the church or monastery of Lindisfarne, soon imparted the monastic institutions to the Brethren both by living and teaching alike. But he also kindled the multitude of common people dwelling all around, in his customary manner, by frequent visitation to seek and earn heavenly things. Moreover, made more illustrious by signs, he restored very many who were seized by various illnesses and torments to their former health through the urgency of his prayers; and he cured some from the vexation of unclean spirits, not only when present by touching, praying, commanding, and exorcizing, but also when absent, either merely by praying or certainly by predicting their healing -- among whom was that wife of the Prefect by his patience he overcomes the stubbornness of certain ones about whom we related above.

[25] There were, however, certain Brothers in the monastery who preferred to obey their old custom rather than the regular observance; but he overcame them by the gentle virtue of his patience and by daily exercise gradually converted them to the state of a better purpose. Indeed, while often debating about the Rule in the assembly of the Brethren, when he was wearied by the most bitter insults of those who contradicted him, he would suddenly rise and, going out with a calm countenance and mind, dismiss the meeting; and on the following day, as if he had endured no objection the day before, he would give the same admonitions as before to the same hearers, until he gradually converted them, as we have said, to what he wished. For he was a man preeminent in the virtue of patience and most unconquerable in bravely enduring all things that were brought against him in either mind or body, no less showing a cheerful face amid the sorrows that occurred, so that it was plainly given to understand that by the inward consolation of the Holy Spirit he despised outward afflictions.

[26] devoted to vigils Moreover, he was so zealous for vigils and prayer that he is believed to have sometimes spent three or four continuous nights in vigil, during which time he neither came to his own bed nor had any place outside the dormitory of the Brethren where he might rest. For either he prayed alone in more secluded places, or while chanting the psalms he worked with his hands and drove off the torpor of drowsiness by laboring, or indeed he would go around the island, as a devout inspector inquiring how each and every thing was, and at the same time he lightened for himself the length of psalmody and vigils by walking. Indeed, he was accustomed to rebuke the faintheartedness of the Brethren who took it hard if anyone perchance disturbed them with ill-timed restlessness during the time of their nighttime or midday rest, saying: "No one causes me annoyance by waking me from sleep, but rather he gladdens me who rouses me; for he makes me, having shaken off the torpor of sleep, and to prayer do or think something useful." Moreover, he was so given to compunction, so burning with heavenly desires, that when celebrating the solemnities of the Mass he was entirely unable to complete the office without a profusion of tears; but in a most fitting manner, while celebrating the mysteries of the Lord's Passion, he abounds in the grace of tears he would imitate what he was doing -- that is, offering himself to God in contrition of heart; and he would admonish those standing by to lift up their hearts and give thanks to the Lord our God, himself raising his heart rather than his voice, groaning rather than singing. He was fervent with zeal for justice in rebuking sinners; he was gentle in the spirit of meekness in pardoning the penitent; so that sometimes to those confessing their sins to him, he himself, pitying the wretched, would be the first to shed tears for those who had transgressed, and would show by his own example, he the just man, what the sinner ought to do.

[27] he uses common garments, of the color of undyed wool He used common garments, so temperately conducting himself that he was remarkable for neither the neatness nor the dirtiness of them. Whence to this day it is observed in the same monastery, by his example, that no one should have clothing of varied or costly color, but they should be content especially with that appearance of garments which the natural wool of sheep provides. By these and similar spiritual exercises, the venerable man both stirred the affection of all good people to imitate him and recalled all the wicked and rebellious from the obstinacy of their error to the regular life.

CHAPTER VI.

The solitary life on Farne Island. A field cultivated. Benefits from birds and the Ocean.

[28] But after he had completed many cycles of years in the same monastery, he seeks a desert place at last, greatly rejoicing, he entered upon the long-desired, sought, and petitioned secrets of solitude, accompanied by the grace of his aforesaid Abbot and the Brethren together. For he rejoiced that from the long perfection of the active life he was now deserving to ascend to the leisure of divine contemplation; he was glad to attain to the lot of those about whom it is sung in the Psalm: "The Saints shall walk from virtue to virtue; the God of gods shall be seen in Zion." Ps. 83 And indeed, in the first rudiments of the solitary life, he withdrew to a certain place that appeared more secluded in the outer parts of his cell; but when he had contended there for some time in solitude against the invisible enemy by praying and fasting, at last, presuming greater things, he sought a place of combat more distant and more remote from men. Farne is the name of an island situated in the middle of the sea, and Farne Island which is not, like the region of the inhabitants of Lindisfarne, made an island twice daily by the incoming tide of the Ocean, which the Greeks call "rheuma," and twice restored to connection with the land when the shores are laid bare again by the receding tide; but it is separated from this semi-island some thousands of paces to the east, enclosed on one side by very deep and on the other by boundless Ocean. No one before the servant of the Lord Cuthbert was easily able to inhabit this island alone, he drives demons from it on account of the phantoms of demons dwelling there; but when the soldier of Christ entered it, armed with the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, all the fiery darts of the most wicked one were extinguished, and that most wicked enemy himself was driven far away with all the throng of his minions.

[29] This soldier of Christ, having defeated the army of tyrants, was made monarch of the land to which he had come, and he built a city suited to his rule and erected houses in it equally fitting for the city. The building is nearly round in plan, extending from wall to wall a measure of nearly four or five perches. he constructs buildings The wall itself on the outside is higher than the length of a standing man; for on the inside, by cutting the living rock, he made it much higher, so that the devout inhabitant, in order to restrain the wantonness of his eyes and thoughts and to raise the whole attention of his mind to heavenly desires, could see nothing from his dwelling except the sky. He composed this wall not of cut stone, nor of brick and cement, but of entirely unpolished stones and turf which he had taken by digging from the middle of the place; some of these were of such great size that they seemed scarcely able to be lifted by four men, yet he was found to have brought them there from elsewhere and placed them on the wall with angelic assistance. He had two buildings in the dwelling, namely an oratory and another habitation suited to common uses; the walls of these he made of natural earth, by much digging and cutting all around, both inside and outside; but the roofs he placed on top of unfinished timbers and hay. Furthermore, at the landing-place of the island there was a larger building in which visiting Brethren could be received and rest; and not far from it a spring suitable for their use.

[30] he obtains a spring by his prayers But his own dwelling was lacking in water, since it was built on very hard and nearly rocky ground. The man of the Lord therefore summoned the Brethren (for he had not yet shut himself off from the sight of visitors) and said: "You see that the dwelling I have come to lacks a spring. But let us beseech, I pray, him who turned solid rock into pools of water and flint into springs of water, that, giving glory not to us but to his own name, he may deign to open for us also a vein of a spring from this rocky ground. Let us dig in the middle of my little hut; I believe he will give us to drink from the torrent of his delight." They therefore made a pit, which they found the next day filled with water welling up from within. There was therefore no doubt that this water had been drawn forth from the most arid and hardest rock, previously only earth, by the prayers of the man of God. This water, in a wonderful manner, content with its original level, knew neither how to overflow the pavement by bubbling forth, nor how to fail when drawn; so moderate was the grace of the Giver that it neither exceeded the need of the one receiving, nor was the supply lacking to sustain what was necessary.

[31] When therefore the dwelling and the aforesaid buildings were completed with the help of the Brethren, he washes the feet of those who come the man of the Lord Cuthbert began to dwell alone. And at first indeed he used to go out from his cell to the Brethren who came to him and minister to them. While he devoutly washed their feet with warm water, he was sometimes compelled by them also to take off his own shoes and offer his feet to them for washing. For he had so far lifted his mind from the care of his body and devoted it to the care of his soul alone, that once shod in boots, which he customarily had made of leather, he would continue for entire months without removing them.

for whole months; sometimes indeed, once shod at Easter, he remains continuously shod he is said not to have unshod himself until the following year, when Easter returned, on account of the washing of feet which is customary on the Lord's Supper; whence from the frequent prayers and bendings of the knees which he practiced while shod, he was found to have had a long and not slender callus at the juncture of his feet and shins. Then, as his zeal for perfection increased, he was enclosed in his monastery he lives enclosed and, removed from the sight of men, he learned to lead a solitary life in fasts, prayers, and vigils, having rare conversation with visitors from within, and that through a window; which at first he kept open and rejoiced both to be seen by the Brethren and to see the Brethren whom he addressed. the window closed Afterwards, as time progressed, he closed even this, and did not open it except when the occasion of giving a blessing or some other definite necessity demanded.

[32] And at first he received from them a very small amount of bread on which he lived he lives on bread brought by the brethren and drank from his own spring; but afterwards he considered it more fitting to live by the labor of his own hands, following the example of the Fathers. He therefore asked that tools be brought to him there with which to work the earth, and wheat to sow. But the earth, sown in springtime, produced no fruit until midsummer. Whence, when the Brethren visited him according to custom, the man of God said: he sows wheat "Perhaps either the nature of this soil, or the will of God, does not permit wheat to grow for me in this place. Bring, I beg, barley, if perhaps at least that may bear fruit. But if God does not wish to give increase even to that, it is better for me to return to the monastery than to be sustained here by the labor of others." And when the barley was brought and committed to the earth and when it grew less, barley beyond all time of sowing and beyond all hope of bearing fruit, it soon sprang up abundantly and produced a plentiful crop. But when it began to ripen, birds came and eagerly set about devouring it. The most pious servant of Christ approached them (as he himself afterwards related; for he was accustomed, since he was of cheerful countenance and affable manner, to bring forth in public some things even from what he himself had obtained by believing, to confirm the faith of his hearers) and said: "Why do you touch crops that you did not sow? Or perhaps you have more need of them than I? he repels birds from the crops by his word If, however, you have received permission from God, do what he has permitted; but if not, depart and do not damage others' property any further." He had spoken, and at the first word of his command the entire multitude of birds departed and thereafter entirely restrained themselves from invading that harvest. And here too the venerable servant of Christ followed the deeds of two Fathers in two miracles: namely, in the water drawn from the rock, the deed of the blessed Father Benedict, who is read to have performed almost the same miracle in almost the same way, but more abundantly, because there were more who suffered from lack of water; he imitated Saints Benedict and Antony furthermore, in the birds summoned away from the harvest, he followed the example of the most reverend and most holy Father Antony, who restrained wild asses from damaging the little garden he himself had planted with a single word.

[33] It is pleasing also to narrate a certain miracle of Blessed Cuthbert after the example of the aforesaid Father Benedict, in which the obedience and humility of birds openly condemns human contumacy and pride. he orders noxious crows to depart For there were crows long accustomed to the haunts of that same island. When one day the man of God observed them building nests and tearing apart with their beaks the little guesthouse for the Brethren that I mentioned above, and carrying off in their mouths the straw thatch with which the roof was covered to build their nest, he restrained them with a gentle extension of his right hand and ordered them to cease from damaging the Brethren's property. But when they scorned his command, he said: "In the name of Jesus Christ, depart at once he disciplines them by invoking the name of Jesus Christ and do not presume to remain any longer in the place you are damaging." He had scarcely completed his words when they departed in sorrow. But after three days had passed, one of the two returned and, finding the servant of Christ digging, with wings spread in lamentation and head bowed at his feet and with humbled voice, begged pardon for the offense by whatever signs it could. The venerable Father, understanding, gave permission to return. And having obtained leave to return, it soon departed to bring back its companion. Without delay, both returned and brought worthy gifts with them -- namely, half a piece of pig's lard; which the man of the Lord afterwards often showed to the Brethren who came he accepts the lard brought by them and was accustomed to offer it for greasing boots, attesting to them how great the care of obedience and how great the concern for humility ought to be among men, when a most proud bird hastened to wash away with prayers, laments, and gifts the injury it had done to the man of God. Finally, as an example of correction for men, they remained on that island for many years thereafter, building their nests, and did not dare to cause any annoyance to anyone. Moreover, let no one think it absurd to learn the form of virtue from birds, since Solomon says: "Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom." Prov. 6:6

[34] Not only creatures of the air, but also creatures of the sea -- indeed the sea itself -- [he requests that timber necessary for his little dwelling be brought by the Brethren] just as the air and fire, as we have set forth above, rendered obedience to the venerable man; for it is not to be wondered at that all creation serves the commands and prayers of him who faithfully and with his whole heart serves the Author of all creatures. But we for the most part lose dominion over the creation subject to us because we ourselves neglect to serve the Lord and Creator of all. And the sea itself, I say, rendered prompt service to the servant of Christ wherever he had need. For he planned to build a small hut in his monastery, small but suited to daily necessities; for which, on the side facing the sea where the washing of frequent waters had hollowed out the rock making a very high and not short gap, a base had to be placed underneath, and this, according to the width of the gap, twelve feet long. He therefore asked the Brethren who had come to visit him that when they wished to return, they should bring him a piece of timber twelve feet long to make the base of the little dwelling. They promised most willingly to do what he asked; but when, having received his blessing, they returned home, the Father's request escaped their minds; and returning to him on the appointed day, they did not bring what had been requested. He received them most kindly when they neglected this and, having commended them to the Lord with his customary prayer, said: "Where is the timber I was asking you to bring?" Then they, remembering his request and confessing their forgetfulness, begged pardon for the omission. But the most gentle man consoled them with kind words and ordered them to remain on the island until morning and rest, saying: "I believe he receives it from the tide of the Ocean that God will not forget my will and need." They did as he said, and rising in the morning, they saw that the nighttime tide of the Ocean had brought a piece of timber of the aforementioned length and had moreover deposited it in the very place where it was to be placed upon the building above. Seeing this, they immediately marveled at the holiness of the venerable man, whom even the elements served, and they blamed the slowness of their own minds with due shame, since even an insensible element taught them how much one ought to obey the Saints.

[35] Many came to the man of God, not only from the nearby borders of the Lindisfarne region, but also from the more remote parts of Britain, he provides comfort to all who come drawn indeed by the fame of his virtues; who, declaring either their own sins that they had committed, or the temptations of demons that they were suffering, or indeed the common adversities of mortals by which they were afflicted, hoped to be consoled by a man of such great holiness. Nor did their hope deceive them; for no one went away from him without the joy of consolation, and no grief of mind that had been brought there accompanied anyone on the return. For he knew how to refresh the sorrowful with pious exhortation; he knew how to recall the joys of the heavenly life to the memory of those in distress, and to show that the fragile things of this world, both prosperous and adverse alike, are transitory; he explains the snares of the demons directed against him he had learned to lay open to the tempted the manifold wiles of the ancient enemy, by which a mind that existed stripped of either brotherly or divine love was easily captured; but one who advanced fortified by unshaken faith would, with the Lord's help, pass through the snares of the adversary as if through a spider's web. "How many times," he said, "have they tried to hurl me headlong from a high cliff? How many times they threw stones as if to kill me? But also assailing me with various other phantasmal temptations, they tried to drive me from this place of combat; yet they were in no way able to contaminate either my body with any injury or my mind with fear."

[36] He was also accustomed to intimate this quite frequently to the Brethren: that they should not marvel at his manner of life he prefers the cenobitic life to his own anchoritic one as if it were singularly exalted, because he preferred to live in seclusion, having despised worldly cares. "But rightly," he said, "the life of cenobites is to be admired, who subject themselves in all things to the commands of an Abbot, who regulate all times of watching, praying, fasting, and working at his discretion; of whom I have known many who far surpass my littleness in both purity of mind and the height of prophetic grace. Among these is the venerable servant of Christ, to be named with all honor, Boisil, who once as an old man nurtured me as a youth in the monastery of Melrose, and while nurturing me predicted with prophetic truth all things that were to come to me; and only one thing out of all that he predicted to me still remains, which I wish would never be fulfilled." But he said this because the aforesaid servant of Christ had indicated that he would hold the rank of Bishop, the receiving of which he himself dreaded not a little out of desire for the more secluded life.

CHAPTER VII.

Health restored to Saint Elfleda. A conference granted and various things predicted. The Bishopric of Lindisfarne.

[37] A girdle sent heals Saint Elfleda the Abbess Nor indeed did miracles of healing cease to be performed through the man of God, even though he was placed far from men; for the venerable handmaid of Christ, Elfleda, who amid the joys of virginity administered the care of maternal piety to not a few troops of the handmaids of Christ, and who augmented the lineage of royal nobility with the superior nobility of the highest virtue, always cultivated the man of God with great love. She at that time, as she herself afterwards related to the most reverend Herefrith, Priest of the Church of Lindisfarne, and he to me, was struck by a grave illness and long tormented, and seemed to have reached nearly the point of death. When the physicians could apply nothing to cure her, suddenly, as divine grace healed her from within, she was gradually withdrawn from death, yet was not fully healed; for the pain of her intestines departed,

the vigor of her limbs returned; but the ability to stand or walk was entirely lacking, since she could neither be raised to stand nor walk except on all fours. She therefore began sadly to fear an eternal disability, for all hope of help from physicians had long since been abandoned. When one day, amid the anxieties of sorrowful thoughts, the blessed and peaceful way of life of the most reverend Father Cuthbert came to her mind, she said: "If only I had something belonging to my Cuthbert! I know for certain, and I believe and trust in the Lord, that I would quickly be healed." And not long after, someone arrived who brought her a linen girdle sent by him. She, greatly rejoicing at the gift and understanding that her desire had already been revealed from heaven to the holy man, girded herself with it, and in the morning she was soon able to stand upright, and on the third day she was fully restored to health.

[38] But after a few days, a certain one of the Virgins of her monastery began to be ill with an intolerable headache; and when, as the disease grew worse over the days, she seemed about to die, and another nun her venerable Abbess entered to visit her. When she saw her gravely afflicted, she took the aforementioned girdle of the man of God and took care to bind her head with it; and she was healed on the same day, the pain departing. Taking the girdle, she stored it in her chest. When after some days the Abbess sought it, it could not be found either in the same chest or anywhere at all. This is understood to have been done by divine dispensation, the girdle then taken away namely so that the sanctity of the Father beloved by God might appear to believers through two miracles of healing, and thereafter the occasion of doubting his sanctity might be removed from unbelievers. For if that same girdle were always present, the sick would always want to flock to it; and if perchance one of them did not deserve to be cured of his illness, he would disparage the powerlessness of something that did not save, when he himself was rather unworthy of salvation. Whence, as has been said, by the provident dispensation of heavenly mercy, after the faith of believers was confirmed, all material for the detraction of the faithless through envy was entirely removed.

[39] At another time likewise, the same most reverend Virgin and Mother of the Virgins of Christ, Elfleda, sent and asked the man of God, he addresses Saint Elfleda at the monastery of the Coquet adjuring him in the name of the Lord, that she might deserve to see him and speak with him about necessary matters. He, boarding a ship with the Brethren, came to the island that lies off the mouth of the river Coquet, from which it received its name, and that island too was distinguished by communities of monks; for the aforesaid Abbess had asked him to meet her there. Having obtained his conversation, while she heard many things from him that she inquired about, behold, suddenly in the midst of their talk she threw herself at his feet and adjured him by that terrible and venerable name of the heavenly King and His angels to tell her how long her brother Ecgfrith would live and govern the kingdom of the English. "For I know," she said, "that by the spirit of prophecy in which you excel, you can say this too, if you wish." But he, alarmed at the oath, yet not wishing to reveal openly the secret that was asked, said: "It is strange that you, a wise woman learned in the Holy Scriptures, should wish to call the times of human life long, when the Psalmist says, 'Because our years are spent as a spider's web,' and when Solomon warns: he predicts the death of King Ecgfrith, her brother 'If a man lives many years and is glad in all of them, he ought to remember the dark time and the many days which, when they come, convict the past of vanity.' How much more does he who has only one year of life remaining seem to have lived a short time, when death stands at the door?" Ps. 89; Eccl. 11 Hearing this, she wept with flowing tears, lamenting the dire presages; and wiping her face, she again with feminine boldness adjured him by the Majesty of the supreme Divinity to say who would be the heir of the kingdom, since he lacked sons and brothers. He, after a brief silence, said: "Do not say that he lacks one. and the succession of his brother Aldfrith For he will have a successor whom you will embrace with sisterly affection, just as Ecgfrith himself." But she said: "I beseech you, tell me in what places he is." He said: "Do you see this great and spacious sea, how it abounds with islands? It is easy for God from one of these to provide someone whom He may set over the kingdom of the English." She therefore understood that he was speaking of Aldfrith, who was said to have been a son of his father, and who was then in exile on the islands of the Scots for the sake of studying letters.

[40] She knew, moreover, that Ecgfrith intended to appoint him Bishop, and that he would be compelled to the episcopate and wishing to learn whether the intention would be followed by its effect, she began to inquire thus: "O how varied the intentions by which the hearts of mortals are divided! Some rejoice in the riches they have obtained; others, loving riches, are always in want. You spurn worldly glory, even when it is offered; even if you could attain the episcopate, than which nothing is higher among mortals, you would prefer the enclosure of your desert to this rank." But he said: "I know that I am not worthy of so great a rank; yet I shall nowhere be able to escape the judgment of the heavenly Ruler. If He has disposed that I should be subjected to so great a burden, I believe that after a short time He will set me free, and perhaps after no more than two years He will send me back to the accustomed rest of my solitude. But I command you in the name of our Lord and Savior not to tell anyone what you have heard from me before my death." And when he had expounded to her these and many other things she asked, and had instructed her in what she needed, he returned to his island and monastery and diligently continued the solitary life as he had begun it.

[41] Not long after, a considerable Synod was assembled in the presence of the most pious and God-beloved King Ecgfrith, over which Theodore, Archbishop of blessed memory, presided, and by the unanimous consent of all he was elected to the episcopate of the church of Lindisfarne. he is nominated Bishop in synod When, although many envoys and letters were sent ahead to him, he could by no means be drawn from his place, at last the aforesaid King himself, together with the most holy Bishop Trumwine and also very many other religious and powerful men, sailed to the island. They all bend the knee, they adjure him by the Lord, they shed tears, they beseech, until they draw him out too, full of tears, from his sweet hiding place and drag him to the Synod. When he arrived there, although greatly resisting, he accepts with difficulty; he is ordained he was overcome by the unanimous will of all and compelled to bow his neck to receiving the office of the episcopate. Yet his Ordination was not carried out immediately but only after the winter that was approaching had passed; and so that his prophetic words might be fulfilled in all things, Ecgfrith was slain after a year by the sword of the Picts, and his illegitimate brother Aldfrith was substituted in the kingdom, who for no small time previously had been devoted to reading in the regions of the Scots, suffering voluntary exile there out of love of wisdom.

[42] When therefore the man of the Lord Cuthbert, having been elected to the episcopate, had returned to his island he confers with Bishop Saint Eata and for some time served the Lord in seclusion with his accustomed devotion, his venerable Bishop Eata summoned him and ordered him to come to Melrose for a conference with him. When this conference was completed and he began to return home, a certain Count of King Ecgfrith met him and earnestly asked him to turn aside to his small village and house to give a blessing. When he had arrived there and was received with the grateful service of all, he turns aside to stay with a certain Count the man informed him of the illness of his servant, saying: "Thanks be to God, most holy Father, that you have deigned to see us and to enter our house. And truly we believe that your coming will bestow upon us the greatest benefit of both mind and body. But we have a servant who has been tormented for a long time by the worst illness, and today has been brought to such a degree of pain that he appears more like one dying than one ill. For the outermost part of his body is already dead, and he seems to draw only the slightest breath through his mouth and nostrils." Cuthbert immediately blessed water and gave it to the Count's servant, named Baldhelm, who survives to this day and, holding the rank of Priest in the church of Lindisfarne by office, fulfills it by his conduct; and he finds it sweeter than honey to relate the virtues of the man of God to all who wish to know, and he narrated to me this very miracle that I am relating. he heals one nearly dead from illness with blessed water To him, therefore, the man of God, giving the blessed water, said: "Go and offer it to the sick man to taste." He, obeying the command, brought the water to the sick man. When he poured it into his mouth for the third time, the man, contrary to his usual manner, immediately settled into quiet sleep (for it was already evening), and he passed the night in silence and appeared healthy to his master who visited him in the morning.

[43] The venerable man of the Lord Cuthbert adorned the Order of the episcopate that he had received with works of virtue, he leads by example according to the precepts and examples of the Apostles. For he protected the people committed to him with constant prayers and called them to heavenly things with most salutary admonitions; and (which most helps teachers) he first demonstrated by doing what he taught ought to be done. He delivered the needy from the hand of those stronger than them; he helps the wretched he rescued the destitute and poor from those who plundered them; he took care to console the sorrowful and fainthearted, and to recall those who rejoiced wickedly to the sorrow that is according to God. He was diligent to maintain his accustomed frugality, and amid the throngs of crowds he was glad to carefully observe the rigor of the monastic life. He provided food to the hungry and clothing to the cold, he preserves the monastic life and went forth duly adorned with the other insignia of the pontifical life. To his inner virtues, that is, the virtues of his soul, the signs of miracles by which he shone outwardly also bore testimony. Of these we have taken care to commit some briefly to memory.

having returned to the See of the church of Hexham, to which he had first been ordained to govern, Cuthbert should take up the governance of the church of Lindisfarne. Turgot, book 1, chapter 9, observes that Easter fell on the seventh day before the Kalends of April, in the year 685.

CHAPTER VIII.

The slaughter of King Ecgfrith revealed to the absent Cuthbert. The instruction of the hermit Herbert; his day of death arranged.

[44] When therefore King Ecgfrith with rash daring was leading an army against the Picts and devastating their kingdoms with cruel and fierce savagery, he goes to Carlisle the man of the Lord Cuthbert, knowing that the time had come about which, the previous year, he had predicted to the King's sister when she inquired, namely that he would live no more than one year only, came to the city of Carlisle, which is corruptly called Luel by the English people, to speak with the Queen, who had arranged to await the outcome of the war there in the monastery of her sister. On the following day, as the citizens were leading him about to see the walls of the city and a fountain once built there by the marvelous workmanship of the Romans, he was suddenly disturbed in spirit, and as he stood leaning on his staff, he turned his sorrowful face toward the ground; then raising himself again while absent he perceives the slaughter of King Ecgfrith and lifting his eyes to heaven, he groaned deeply and said in a low voice: "Perhaps just now the crisis of the battle has occurred." But the Priest who stood nearby, understanding about whom he spoke, led by incautious haste, answered and said: "How do you know?" But he, not wishing to reveal further what had been revealed to him, said: "Do you not see how wonderfully the air has changed and been disturbed? And what mortal suffices to investigate the judgments of God?" Nevertheless, he immediately went in to the Queen he advises the Queen and, speaking to her in private (it was a Saturday), said: "See to it that at early dawn on the second day of the week you mount your chariot, because it is not permitted to travel by chariot on the Lord's Day; and go and enter the royal city as quickly as possible, lest perhaps the King has been slain. But I, because I have been asked to come to a nearby monastery tomorrow for the dedication of a church there, will follow you immediately after the dedication is completed."

[45] When the Lord's Day came, as he was preaching the word of God to the Brethren of that same monastery, when the sermon was finished, with all who were present listening attentively, he began again thus: "I beseech you, most beloved, according to the Apostle's admonitions, watch, stand firm in the faith, act courageously, and be strengthened, lest perhaps some temptation of tribulation coming upon you find you unprepared; but rather always be mindful of that precept of the Lord: 'Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.'" 1 Cor. 16:13; Matt. 26:41 They thought, however, that because not long before the ravages of pestilence had laid low both them and many others with widespread slaughter all around, he had been speaking about such a plague about to return. But he, resuming his discourse again, said: "Once, when I was still dwelling alone on my island, he exhorts the monks some of the Brethren came to me on the holy day of the Lord's Nativity and asked that, going out from my hut and dwelling, I would spend with them the solemn and joyful day of so great a feast. Yielding to their devout prayers, I went out and we sat down to the meal. And in the middle of the repast, by chance, I said to them: 'I beseech you, Brethren, let us act carefully and watchfully, lest perhaps through carelessness and security we be led into temptation.' But they answered: 'We beseech you, today let us keep a joyful day, because it is the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And I said: 'Let us do so.' as once amid feasting he exhorts to act cautiously And when after this we had indulged for some time in feasting, merriment, and conversation, I again began to admonish them to be diligent in prayers and vigils and prepared for all onslaughts of temptations. And they said: 'You teach well and excellently; but nevertheless, since days of fasting and prayers and vigils abound, today let us rejoice in the Lord. For the Angel, when the Lord was born, announced to the shepherds great joy that was to be celebrated by all the people.' And I said: 'Good, let us do so.' But when, as we feasted and kept a joyful day, I repeated the words of the same admonition a third time, they understood that I was not suggesting these things so earnestly without reason; and that one must always be vigilant against the wiles of the devil and trembling with fear, they said: 'Let us do as you teach, for great necessity lies upon us, that we should always be spiritually girded and watchful against the snares of the devil and all temptations.' Saying this, I myself did not know, nor did they, that any new temptation would befall us; but I was only moved by an instinct of the mind that the state of the heart must always be fortified against sudden storms of temptation. But when they departed from me and returned in the morning to their own monastery, that is, of Lindisfarne, behold, they found that one of their number had died of the pestilential disease; then before the raging pestilence and as the same destruction grew and raged over days and even months and nearly the whole year, that most noble company of spiritual Fathers and Brethren almost entirely departed to the Lord. And now, therefore, Brothers, be watchful in your prayers, so that if any tribulation should break upon you, it may find you already prepared." While the venerable Bishop Cuthbert was saying these things, they supposed, as I mentioned, that he was speaking about the return of the pestilence; but after one day, one who had fled from the battle arrived and explained the hidden prophecies of the man of God in mournful speech. now because of the slaughter of the King And it was proven that on the very day and at the very hour when it was revealed to the man of God standing beside the well, the King had been struck down by the enemy's sword, with his bodyguards slain around him.

[46] Not long after, the same servant of the Lord Cuthbert came to the same city of Carlisle at the invitation, he converses with Herbert so that there he might consecrate Priests and also bless the Queen herself, having given her the habit of the holy life. There was a Priest of venerable life named Herbert, who had long been bound to the man of God Cuthbert by the bond of spiritual friendship, and who, leading a solitary life on an island in that very great lake from which the sources of the river Derwent burst forth, was accustomed to come to him every year and receive from him the counsels of perpetual salvation. When he heard that Cuthbert was staying in that city, he came as usual, desiring to be more and more inflamed toward heavenly desires by his salutary exhortations. While they were intoxicating one another with the draughts of heavenly wisdom, Cuthbert said among other things: "Remember, brother Herbert, to ask me now whatever you need and to speak with me, because after we have parted from one another, we shall never again see each other in this world with bodily eyes; for I am certain that the time of my dissolution is at hand, he predicts his death to him and swift is the putting off of my tabernacle." Hearing this, Herbert threw himself at his feet and, shedding tears with groaning, said: "I beseech you by the Lord, do not abandon me; but remember your companion and ask the heavenly mercy that, as we have served Him together on earth, so we may pass together to the heavens to behold His glory. For you know that I have always striven to live at the command of your lips, and whatever I have transgressed through ignorance or frailty, I have taken equal care to correct at the judgment of your will." The Bishop applied himself to prayers, and immediately, taught in the spirit that he had obtained from the Lord what he asked, he said: "Rise, my Brother, and do not weep; but rejoice with joy, because heavenly clemency has granted and he obtains that Herbert may die with him what we asked of it." The outcome of events confirmed the truth of this promise and prophecy; for parting from one another, they never again saw each other bodily; and at one and the same moment of time, their spirits departing from the body were immediately joined to one another in blessed vision and together were translated by angelic ministry to the heavenly kingdom. But Herbert was first refined by prolonged illness -- perhaps by the dispensation of the Lord's mercy, so that if he had any less merit than Blessed Cuthbert, the continuous pain of long sickness might supply it; so that, made equal in grace to his intercessor, as he deserved to depart from the body at one and the same time with him, so also he might deserve to be received into one and the same undifferentiated seat of perpetual blessedness.

CHAPTER IX.

Various miracles performed during the time of his episcopate.

[47] He confers the sacrament of Confirmation On a certain day, while going around his diocese, bestowing the counsels of salvation upon all in rural cottages and villages, and also laying his hand upon the recently baptized for the receiving of the grace of the Holy Spirit, he came to the small village of a certain Count, whose wife, being ill, lay as if near death. The Count himself came to meet him as he arrived and, bending his knees, gave thanks to the Lord for his coming, he heals one nearly dying suddenly with blessed water and leading him in, received him with kindly hospitality. When the Bishop had sat down after his hands and feet were washed in the manner of hospitality, the man began to tell him of the illness of his despairing wife, imploring him to bless water for sprinkling upon her: "I believe," he said, "that soon, by God's gift, she will be restored to health; or if she is going to die, she will pass from death to perpetual life, and by dying sooner she will gain a shorter

of so miserable and prolonged a torment." The man of God assented to his entreaty, and blessing the water that was brought, gave it to the Priest, ordering him to sprinkle it upon the sick woman. He, entering the bedchamber in which she lay looking most like one without life, sprinkled her and her bed; and also, opening her mouth, he poured in a taste of the health-giving draught. A wondrous and greatly astonishing thing! As soon as the blessed water touched the languishing woman, who was entirely unaware of what was being done for her, she recovered such full health of mind and body that, immediately coming to her senses, she blessed the Lord and gave thanks to Him who had deigned to send such great guests to visit and cure her. And without delay, rising up, she who was now well rendered service to those very ministers of her healing, and in a beautiful spectacle she herself, the first of the entire household of so great a man, offered the Bishop a cup of refreshment -- she who through his blessing had escaped the cup of death, following the example of the mother-in-law of the Apostle Peter, who, cured of her fevers by the Lord, immediately rising, ministered to Him and His disciples.

[48] Many who were present have testified that a miracle of healing not unlike this one was performed by the venerable Bishop Cuthbert; among them is the devout Priest Ethelwald, then the minister of the man of God, but now Abbot of the monastery of Melrose. with blessed oil he heals a sick woman For while according to his custom he was passing through all places teaching, he came to a certain village in which there were a few nuns who, having fled from their monastery out of fear of a barbarian army, had been given by the man of the Lord shortly before a place to remain there. One of them, who was a kinswoman of the aforesaid Priest Ethelwald, was held down by a most grave illness; for having been tormented for a whole year by an intolerable pain of the head and the whole of one side, she had been utterly despaired of by physicians. When those who had come with him informed the man of God about her and implored him for her healing, he took pity on the wretched woman and anointed her with blessed oil; and from that very hour she began to improve, and after a few days she recovered in full health.

[49] Nor do we think we should pass over in silence a miracle which we have learned was performed by the power of this same venerable man, though he himself was absent. with blessed bread he heals one dangerously ill We mentioned above the Prefect Hildmer, whose wife the man of God had freed from an unclean spirit. This same Prefect afterwards fell into his bed, weighed down by a most grievous illness, so much so that as the affliction increased day by day, he seemed about to die at any moment. Many friends were present who had come to console the sick man; and while they were sitting beside the bed of the one who lay there, suddenly one of them mentioned that he had with him some bread which the man of the Lord Cuthbert had recently given him by way of blessing. "And I believe," he said, "that by tasting this he may receive the remedy of salvation, if only the slowness of our faith does not stand in the way." They were all laymen, but devout. Turning therefore to one another, they confessed individually that they believed without any doubt that through the communion of that blessed bread he could be healed. And filling a cup with water, they put in a tiny bit of that bread and gave it to him to drink. As soon as that taste of the water sanctified through the bread touched his interior, all pain of the intestines fled, all wasting of the outer limbs fled. Without delay, health followed and confirmed the man released from illness, and rightly lifted both him and all who saw or heard of the swiftness of so unexpected a recovery to praise the holiness of the servant of Christ and to admire the power of unfeigned faith.

[50] At a certain time also, while the most holy Pastor of the Lord's flock was going about illuminating his sheepfolds, he came to mountainous and rustic places where many had been gathered from the small villages spread far around, upon whom hands were to be laid; yet no church or suitable place could be found in the mountains that would receive the Bishop with his retinue. while conferring the Sacrament of Confirmation They therefore pitched tents for him on the road, and cutting little branches from the nearby wood, each person set up shelters for themselves to stay in as best they could. While the man of God preached the word to the crowds flocking to him for two days and administered the grace of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands to those recently regenerated in Christ, he drives out disease by prayers and blessing behold, suddenly women appeared, carrying on a stretcher a young man wasted by the bitterness of a long illness, and placing him at the edge of the wood, they sent word to the Bishop, asking that he permit the young man to be brought to him for a blessing. When he saw the young man brought to him being most fiercely tormented, he ordered all to withdraw to a distance, and taking refuge in his customary weapons of prayer, he gave a blessing and drove out the disease which the careful hand of physicians with their compounding of ointments had been unable to cure. Indeed, at that very hour the young man rose, and strengthened by taking food, having rendered thanksgiving to God, he returned to the women who had carried him. And so it happened that he who had been brought there sad and sick by those women returned home healthy and joyful with them as they rejoiced.

[51] At the same time, a pestilence suddenly arising in those parts at the time of a most savage plague settled upon them with the gravest destruction, so that in habitations, estates, and possessions once great and crowded, scarcely any small and sparse remnants remained, and sometimes none at all. Whence the most holy Father Cuthbert, most diligently surveying his diocese, did not cease to bring the ministry of the word and the help of necessary consolation he helps all to those same very small remnants that had survived. Coming to a certain small village, and there providing the help of exhortation to all whom he found, he said to his Priest: "Do you think there is anyone remaining in these places who needs our visit and address, or, having seen all who were ill, may we now pass on to others?" he cures a dying infant The Priest, looking around everywhere, saw a woman standing at a distance who, with one son having died shortly before, was holding his brother, already near death, in her arms, and with tears streaming down her face was testifying to both her past and present misery. When he pointed her out to the man of God, Cuthbert, delaying not at all, went to her, and blessing the boy, gave him a kiss and said to his mother: "Do not fear, do not be sorrowful; for the infant shall be saved and shall live, and no one else from your household shall die from this plague of mortality." The mother herself, living a long time thereafter with her son, bore testimony to the truth of his prophecy.

[52] Meanwhile, while the man of the Lord Cuthbert, foreknowing his own approaching death, had already decided in his mind to lay down the burden of pastoral office and return to the solitary life, so that, having shaken off external anxiety, amid the free pursuits of prayers and psalmody, he might await the day of death or rather the entrance to the heavenly life, about to return to solitude, he visits his subjects and others he wished first not only to go around his own diocese but also, having visited other dwellings of the faithful round about, to strengthen all with the necessary word of exhortation, and so to be refreshed by the joy of his desired solitude. While doing this, asked by the most noble Virgin of Christ Elfleda and most holy Abbess, whom I mentioned above, and Saint Elfleda he came to a possession of her monastery, so that there he might both see and address her and dedicate a church; for that possession too was distinguished by no small number of the servants of Christ. When at the hour of refreshment they sat down at the table, suddenly the venerable Father Cuthbert raised his mind away from fleshly feasting to contemplate spiritual things; whence, as the members of his body grew weary from their duty, the color of his face changed, and with his eyes fixed against their custom as if in amazement, the knife he was holding also fell onto the table. When his Priest, who stood by and waited upon him, observed this, leaning toward the Abbess, he said softly: "Ask the Bishop what he has just seen. For I know that it was not without cause that his trembling hand released the knife and his countenance changed; but he saw something spiritual rapt in ecstasy at table which we others were unable to see." She immediately turned to him and said: "I beseech you, my lord Bishop, tell us what you have just seen; for your wearied right hand did not drop the knife it held for nothing." He, trying to conceal that he had seen something secret, answered in jest: "Surely I could not eat the whole day long? I had to rest at some point." But when she adjured and demanded more insistently that he explain the vision, he said: "I saw the soul of a certain Saint being carried by the hands of Angels to the joys of the heavenly kingdom." She asked again: "From what place was it taken?" He answered: "From your monastery." She pressed to inquire the name. And he said: "You will tell me his name he sees a soul carried to heaven tomorrow when I celebrate Mass." Hearing this, she immediately sent to her larger monastery to see who had lately been taken from the body. But the messenger found everyone there safe and well; and after dawn when he began to return to his Lady, he met those who were carrying the body of a deceased Brother in a cart for burial. Inquiring who he was, he learned that a certain one of the shepherds, a man of good conduct, climbing carelessly into a tree, had fallen down and, his body being crushed, breathed out his spirit at the very hour when the man of the Lord had seen him being led to heaven. then of one who had fallen from a tree When the messenger, returning, reported this to the Abbess, she immediately went in to the Bishop, who was just then dedicating the church, and with feminine amazement, as if about to announce something new and uncertain, she said: "I pray, my lord Bishop, that you would remember at Mass my Hadwald (for this was the man's name), because he died yesterday by falling from a tree." Then it became clearly evident to all that the spirit of manifold prophecy dwelt in the heart of the holy man, who was able both to see in the present the hidden departure of a soul and to foresee what was to be made known to him in the future by others.

[53] From there, having traversed the higher places in order, he came to the monastery of Virgins he visits the Abbess Verca which we have shown above to be situated not far from the mouth of the river Tyne, where he was magnificently received by the devout and most noble handmaid of Christ, the Abbess Verca. After they rose from their midday rest, saying he was thirsty, he asked to drink. They inquired what he wished to drink and asked whether they might bring wine or beer. "Give me water," he said. They drew water from the spring and presented it to him. He, having given a blessing, when he had tasted a little, gave it to his Priest who stood by, who handed it back to the attendant. And the attendant, receiving the cup, said: "Am I permitted to drink from the draught from which the Bishop drank?" He answered: "Certainly. Why should it not be permitted?" This Priest was also of the same monastery. He therefore drank, and the water seemed to him to have been changed into the flavor of wine. Wishing to have a witness of so great a miracle, he passed the cup to the Brother who stood nearest; and when he too drank, by his blessing he changes water into wine it also tasted of wine to his palate instead of water. They looked at one another in wonder, and when they found a free moment to speak, they confessed to one another that they seemed never to have drunk better wine -- as one of them, who afterwards stayed for no small time in our monastery which is at the mouth of the river Wear, and is now buried there in peaceful rest, testified to me by his own account.

CHAPTER X.

The episcopate relinquished; the return of Saint Cuthbert to Farne Island. His last illness. The disposition of his burial.

[54] When therefore two years had been spent in the episcopate, the man of the Lord Cuthbert, knowing in spirit that the day of his passing was approaching, having left the episcopate, he returns to Farne cast off the burden of pastoral care and took measures to return as quickly as possible to the beloved contest of the hermitic life, so that the thorny thickets of worldly anxiety that had grown up in him might be consumed by the freer flame of his former compunction. At that time he frequently went out from his dwelling to the Brethren who visited him and was accustomed to address them in person. It is fitting, however, to relate a certain miracle then performed by him, he exhorts those who visit him by which it may more clearly shine forth how much the saints must be obeyed, even in those things which they seem to command rather carelessly. On a certain day, when some of the Brethren had come and he had gone out to refresh them with an exhortatory discourse, he offers a goose to those departing after completing his admonition he added, saying: "Now it is time for me to return to my dwelling; but since you are planning to depart, first take food, and cook that goose (for a goose was hanging on the wall) and eat it, and so in the name of the Lord board your ship and return home." He said this and, giving a blessing and prayer, entered his dwelling. But they, as he had commanded, took food; yet because they had an abundance of food that they had brought with them, they did not bother to touch the goose about which he had given the command.

[55] But when, having eaten, they wished to board their little boat, a fierce storm suddenly arose and took away from them every possibility of sailing. when they neglected this, he visits them after seven days detained by the storm And it happened that for seven days, shut in by the raging waves, they remained on the island in sadness, yet did not recall to memory the fault of disobedience for which they were suffering this kind of imprisonment. When, diligently returning to the Father's conversation and complaining about the delay of their return, they received from him counsels of patience, on the seventh day at last he himself went out to them, wishing to soothe their sadness by the grace of his visit and with a word of pious consolation. Entering the house in which they were staying, when he saw that the goose had not been eaten, with a calm countenance and rather cheerful speech he rebuked their disobedience, saying: "Is the goose not still hanging uneaten? And what wonder is it that the sea has not let you depart? when the goose is eaten he promises fair weather Send it into the pot at once, cook it and eat it, so that the sea may be able to grow calm and send you home." They immediately did as he commanded, and it happened in a marvelous order that when, at the command of the man of God, the goose began to boil in the pot by the action of the fire, at that same hour the waves in the sea, as the winds ceased, subsided from their own raging. When the meal was completed, followed by the event itself seeing the sea calm, they boarded the ship and with favorable winds returned home with both joy and shame. For they were ashamed of their disobedience and of the slowness of their understanding, by which they feared even amid the Creator's scourges to recognize and amend their fault. But they rejoiced because they understood that God's care for His faithful servant had been so great that He would vindicate contempt of him even through the elements; they also rejoiced because they saw that their Creator's care for them had been so great that He would correct their errors even by a manifest miracle. This miracle that I have related I learned not from some doubtful author, but from the narration of one of those who were present, namely Cynemund, a monk and Priest of that same monastery, a man of venerable life, who is already widely known to many of the faithful for his longevity and his manner of life.

[56] departing, he predicts that his body must be brought back The man of God Cuthbert returned to his island and dwelling immediately after celebrating the solemn day of the Lord's Nativity. And as a crowd of Brethren surrounded him as he was about to board the ship, one of them, a veteran and venerable monk, strong indeed in faith but now made weak in body by the disease of dysentery, asked: "Tell us, Lord Bishop, when we should hope for your return." And he, simply answering the one who simply asked, revealing what he knew to be true, said: "When you bring my body back here." When he had spent about two months in the great exultation of his recovered peace, he spends two months enclosed and was constraining his body and mind with much rigor of his accustomed strictness, he was seized by a sudden illness and by the fire of temporal pain began to be prepared for the joys of perpetual blessedness. It is fitting to describe his death in the words of him from whose account I learned it, namely Herefrith, a Priest of devout piety, who also at that time presided over the monastery of Lindisfarne by the right of an Abbot. "For three continuous weeks," he said, "he was refined by illness and so came to the end. he is ill for three weeks Indeed he began to be ill on a Wednesday, and again on a Wednesday, his illness ended, he departed to the Lord. When I came to him on the first morning of the illness that had begun (for I had come to the island with the Brethren three days before), desiring to receive from him the consolations of his customary blessing and exhortation, when I gave the usual sign that I had arrived, he came to the window and returned a sigh in place of a greeting. I said to him: 'What is the matter, my lord Bishop? Was your illness perhaps upon you this night?' And he said: 'Yes, illness touched me this night.' I thought that he was speaking of his old infirmity, by whose almost daily affliction he was accustomed to be refined, and not of a new and unusual one. Without asking further, I said: 'Give us your blessing, for the time of sailing and returning home is at hand.' He said: 'Do as you say; board the ship and return home safely. But when God has received my soul, he arranges for his burial beside the Cross in his little dwelling bury me in this dwelling beside my oratory on the south side, facing the eastern side of the holy Cross which I erected there. There is on the northern side of the same oratory a sarcophagus hidden beneath a turf of earth, which the venerable Abbot Cudda once gave me; place my body in it, wrapping it in the linen cloth which you will find there. I did not wish to be clothed in it while living, but out of love for the woman beloved of God who sent it to me -- namely the Abbess Verca -- I took care to preserve it for wrapping my body.' Hearing this, I said: 'I beseech you, Father, since I hear that you are ill and about to die, permit some of the Brethren to remain here to minister to you.' But he said: 'Go now; but return at the proper time.' And when, entreating more insistently he dismisses the visitors that he accept an attendant, I was by no means able to prevail, at last I asked when we should return. He said: 'When God wills, and He Himself shows you.' We did as he commanded; and immediately calling all the Brethren together in the church, I ordered prayer to be made without ceasing for him, saying: 'It seems to me, from certain words of his, that the day is approaching on which he will depart to the Lord.'

[57] "I was, however, anxious to return because of his illness, he goes out to the guest house but a storm prevented us from returning for five days. This was divinely arranged, as the outcome of the matter proved; for Almighty God, in order to purify His servant completely from every stain of worldly frailty, and to show his adversaries how little they availed against the power of faith, willed that he be tested for so long a time, separated from men, by the pain of his flesh and by the fiercer combat of the ancient enemy. When calm was restored and we returned to the island, we found him he admits the ministry of Abbot Herefrith having gone out from his monastery and sitting in the house where we usually stayed. And because some necessity required the Brethren who had come with me to sail back to the nearest shore, I myself, remaining on the island, immediately took care to render service to the Father; indeed, warming water, I washed his foot, which by reason of a prolonged swelling already had an ulcer and was oozing discharge and needed care. I also brought warm wine and asked him to taste it; for I could see from his face that he was greatly exhausted both by lack of food and by illness. When the treatment was finished, he rested quietly on his bed; I also sat down beside him. And when he was silent, I said: 'I see, Lord Bishop, that you have been greatly tormented by illness since we departed from you, and it is strange that you did not wish us to leave some of our number here to minister to you when we left.' But he said: 'It was done by the providence and will of God that, deprived of human presence and assistance, he describes his illness I should suffer some adversity. For after you departed from me, my illness immediately began to grow worse; and so, going out from my dwelling, I came in here, so that whichever of you might come to minister to me would be able to find me here and not need to enter my dwelling. Moreover, from the time I entered and settled my limbs in this seat, I have not moved from here, but for these five days and nights I have remained here quietly.' I said: 'And how, [he sustains himself with onions for five days; he overcomes the battles of demons] my lord Bishop, could you live thus? Surely you have not remained without taking food for so long a time?' Then he, pulling back the bedding on which he was sitting, showed five onions hidden there and said: 'This was my food for these five days; for whenever my mouth dried and burned with excessive dryness and thirst, I took care to refresh and revive myself by tasting these.' It appeared, however, that less than half of one of the onions had been bitten into. Moreover he said: 'And my opponents have never in all the time since I began to dwell on this island brought so many persecutions upon me as in these five days.' I did not dare to ask what the temptations were of which he spoke; I only asked that he accept attendants. He agreed and kept some of us with him, he admits two to serve him among whom was Bede the Elder, a Priest who had always been accustomed to be present in familiar attendance upon him, and was therefore an undoubted witness of all his gifts and receipts. He wished him especially to remain with him, so that if he had not responded to anyone's gifts received with fitting recompense, he might recall it by Bede's reminder and restore to each person what was theirs before he died. He also specially designated another one of the Brethren to be present as his attendant, who had indeed been gravely ill with a long flux of the bowels and could not be cured by physicians, but who by the merit of his religious life, prudence, and gravity was a worthy witness of the last words the man of God would say and the manner in which he would depart to the Lord.

[58] "Meanwhile, returning home, I told the Brethren that the venerable Father had ordered that he be buried on his island; and 'it seems to me,' I said, 'much more just and worthy to obtain from him that his body be transferred here and, with due honor, in the church

be permitted to be laid." They were pleased with what I had said, and coming to the Bishop, we asked him, saying: "We did not dare, Lord Bishop, he grants that his body may be buried at Lindisfarne to disregard your command that you be buried here; yet it seemed to us that we should ask that we may deserve to transfer you to us and to have you with us." And he said: "It was my will also to rest here in body, where I fought whatever small fight I fought for the Lord, where I desire to finish my course, and from where I hope to be raised up to the crown of justice by the merciful Judge. But I also consider it more convenient for you that I rest here, on account of the incursion of fugitives or any harmful persons; who, if they should chance to flee to my body (for whatever sort of man I may be, the report has nevertheless gone out concerning me that I am a servant of Christ), you would have to intercede frequently with the powerful of this world on behalf of such persons, and so endure much labor from the presence of my body. in the inner part of the basilica But when we had prayed earnestly for a long time, assuring him that such labor would be welcome and light to us, at last the man of the Lord, speaking with deliberation, said: "If you wish to overcome my arrangement and bring my body back there, it seems best to me that you bury it in the interior of your basilica, so that you yourselves may visit my sepulcher whenever you wish, and it may be in your power whether any of those who come should approach it." We gave thanks for his permission and counsel, kneeling on the ground, and returning home, we did not thereafter cease to visit him more frequently.

c. Until February 27.

CHAPTER XI.

His last counsels. Death; burial; miracles.

[59] He is carried back to his little dwelling When, as his illness increased, he saw that the time of his dissolution was at hand, he ordered that he be carried back to his little dwelling and oratory; it was the third hour of the day. We therefore carried him, since because of the severity of his illness he was unable to walk. When we reached the door, we asked that one of us be allowed to enter with him to minister to him; for no one had entered that place for many years except himself. He looked around at all, saw the Brother whom we mentioned above, sick with the flux of the bowels, and said: "Let Walchstod enter with me" he admits in it a sick man, soon freed from his dysentery by his touch (for this was the Brother's name). When the Brother had remained inside with him until the ninth hour, he came out and called me thus: "The Bishop has ordered you to enter to him; moreover, I can relate to you something new and most wonderful, because from the moment I entered there and touched the Bishop, leading him to the oratory, I immediately felt myself free from all that distress of my long illness." Nor should there be any doubt that this was arranged by the dispensation of heavenly mercy, so that he who had cured many before while still healthy and strong should also cure this man while dying, in order that by this sign also it might be clear how great was the holy man's power in spirit, even when weakened in body. In this cure indeed he followed the example of the most holy and most reverend father Aurelius Augustine the Bishop, who, while lying in bed pressed by the illness from which he also died, was visited by a certain man with his own sick person, asking him to lay his hand upon the sick man so that he might be healed. But Augustine said: "If I had any power in these matters, I would certainly have provided it first for myself." Again the man who had come said: "I was ordered to visit you, for in my sleep I received the instruction: 'Go to Bishop Augustine, that he may lay his hand upon him, and he will be healed.'" Hearing this, Augustine immediately laid his blessing hand upon the sick man; and without delay he sent him home healed.

[60] "I entered to him about the ninth hour of the day and found him reclining in the corner of his oratory beside the altar. on his deathbed he commends peace and charity I too began to sit beside him; he did not speak much, because the weight of his illness had diminished his ability to speak. But when I inquired more insistently what farewell address, what last message he would leave to the Brethren, he began to discourse briefly but forcefully on peace and humility, and on guarding against those who would rather struggle against these than take delight in them. 'Always,' he said, 'preserve peace and divine charity among yourselves, and when necessity demands that you take counsel about your state, see to it most carefully that you are unanimous in your counsels. But also maintain mutual concord with other servants of Christ, hospitality nor hold in contempt those of the household of faith who come to you for the sake of hospitality; but take care to receive, keep, and dismiss such persons in a familiar and kindly manner, by no means considering yourselves better than the rest who share the same faith and life. But with those who err from the unity of Catholic peace, avoidance of schismatics either by celebrating Easter at the wrong time or by living perversely, have no communion. And know and hold in memory that if necessity compels you to choose one of two adverse things, I much prefer that, digging up and taking my bones with you, you depart from these places and remain as inhabitants wherever God provides, rather than that you consent to iniquity for any reason and submit your necks to the yoke of schismatics. Strive to learn and observe most diligently the Catholic statutes of the Fathers. observance of the constitutions of the Fathers and his own Also diligently practice those institutes of the regular life which divine mercy has deigned to give you through my ministry. For I know that although I lived as one despicable to some, yet after my death you will see more clearly what sort of man I was and that my teaching is not to be despised.' The man of God spoke these and similar things at intervals (since the force of his illness, as we said, had taken away his capacity for speaking) and led a quiet day in the expectation of future blessedness until evening, to which he also joined a sleepless night of continued rest in prayers. fortified by the last Sacraments, he dies But when the customary hour of nocturnal prayer arrived, having received the saving Sacraments from me, he fortified his departure, which he knew had now come, with the communion of the Lord's Body and Blood, and raising his eyes to heaven and stretching out his hands on high, he sent forth his soul, intent on heavenly praises, to the joys of the heavenly kingdom."

[61] "But I immediately went out and announced his death to the Brethren, who had themselves also spent the night in watching and praying, and were then perchance singing under the order of the nocturnal office the fifty-ninth Psalm, whose beginning is: 'O God, you have cast us off and destroyed us; [the death is announced to those present there, and by an appointed signal to those at Lindisfarne] you have been angry and have had mercy on us.' Ps. 59 Without delay, one of them running, lit two candles and, holding one in each hand, ascended a more prominent place to show the Brethren who remained in the monastery of Lindisfarne that that holy soul had now departed to the Lord; for they had agreed upon such a signal between themselves for his most holy death. When the Brother who had been watching all night on the lookout of the island of Lindisfarne, far opposite, expectantly awaiting the hour of those events, saw it, he ran quickly to the church where the whole assembled company of Brethren was celebrating the solemnities of the nocturnal psalmody; and it so happened that they too, as he entered, were singing the aforesaid Psalm. the same Psalm read in both places That this was divinely arranged, the outcome of events showed. For after the man of God was buried, such a storm of temptation shook that church that many of the Brethren preferred to yield their place rather than be present amid such dangers. a great disturbance followed Nevertheless, after a year, when Eadberht, a man of great virtues, nobly learned in the Scriptures, and especially devoted to works of almsgiving, was ordained to the episcopate, the storms of perturbation were driven away, and, to speak in the words of Scripture, the Lord built up Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace, and gathered together the dispersed of Israel; He healed the brokenhearted and bound up their wounds. So that it was plainly given to understand what the Psalm sung upon learning of the blessed man's death had signified: after a year it is calmed namely that after his death his people were to be cast off and destroyed, but after the show of threatening wrath, they were to be immediately revived by heavenly compassion. That the rest of the Psalm also agrees with this meaning, whoever rightly considers it will understand. the body is brought to the island of Lindisfarne The venerable body of the Father was then placed on a ship and we brought it to the island of the Lindisfarne people, where it was received by a great throng of those who came to meet it and by choirs singing, and was placed in a stone sarcophagus in the Church of the Blessed Apostle Peter, on the right side of the altar.

[62] But neither could the signs of healings, which the servant of Christ had performed while living, cease after he was dead and buried. A furious demoniac For it happened that a certain boy in the territory of Lindisfarne was tormented by a most atrocious demon, so that, having completely lost the use of reason, he would cry out, wail, and try to tear with his teeth either his own limbs or whatever he could reach. A Priest was sent from the monastery to the demoniac; though he had been accustomed to drive out unclean spirits by the grace of exorcism, he was entirely unable to help this possessed boy. not freed by exorcisms Whence he gave counsel to the boy's father to place the boy on a cart and bring him to the monastery and pray to the Lord for him at the relics of the blessed Martyrs that were there. He did as he had advised; but the holy Martyrs of God did not wish to grant him the healing sought, nor at the relics of the Martyrs in order to show what a high place Cuthbert held among them. When therefore the madman, howling, groaning, and gnashing his teeth, shook all who saw and heard with extreme horror, and there was no one who could think of any kind of remedy, then behold, a certain one of the Priests, taught in the spirit that the boy could be healed through the aid of the blessed Father Cuthbert, came secretly to the place where he knew the water in which his dead body had been washed had been poured out, and taking a small piece of earth, but having drunk water with which Saint Cuthbert's body had been washed he put it into water. Bringing this to the patient, he poured it into his mouth, which was gaping horribly and emitting dreadful and pitiful cries. But as soon as the water touched him, he stopped his clamor, closed his mouth, closed also his eyes which had been open, bloodshot and raging, and reclined his head and whole body in rest. He also passed the night in peaceful sleep, and rising in the morning from sleep and madness together, he recognized that he had been freed from the demon by which he was oppressed through the merits and intercession of Blessed Cuthbert. A wonderful and delightful spectacle for all good people, when you could see the son, safe and sound, going around the holy places with his father, giving thanks with a perfectly sound mind for the help of the Saints -- he who the day before, because of the madness of his mind, could not even recognize who he was or where he was. When he,

with the whole company of Brethren standing by, watching, and congratulating, bent his knees at the relics of the Martyrs and gave praise to God the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, now freed from the enemy's scourge and made firmer in faith than he had been before, he returned to his own home. To this day there is shown the pit into which that memorable washing-water was poured, made in a square pattern, surrounded on all sides with wood, and filled inside with small stones; it is beside the church in which his body rests, on the southern side. And from that time it came to pass many healed in the same place that many works of healing were performed through those stones or that earth, by the Lord's gift.

CHAPTER XII.

The elevation of the incorrupt body. Miracles. Successors.

[63] [After eleven years the body is found completely intact, and the vestments likewise] When the divine dispensation wished to show more widely in what great glory the holy man lived after death -- he whose sublime life before death was also evident from frequent signs of miracles -- after eleven years had passed since his burial, it put into the minds of the Brethren that they should take up his bones (which, in the manner of the dead, they supposed they would find dry, the rest of the body having been consumed and reduced to dust) and, having enclosed them in a light chest, place them in the same spot but above the pavement, for the sake of worthy veneration. When they reported to their Bishop Eadberht, about the middle of Lent, that this had pleased them, he approved their plan and ordered them to remember to do it on the day of his deposition, which is the thirteenth day before the Kalends of April. They did so, and opening the sepulcher, they found the whole body intact, as if it were still alive, with flexible joints of the limbs, much more like one sleeping than one dead. Moreover, all the vestments in which it was clothed appeared not only untouched but also wonderful in their pristine newness and brightness. When the Brethren saw this, they were immediately struck with excessive fear and trembling, so that they scarcely dared to say anything, scarcely dared to look upon the miracle that appeared; they themselves scarcely knew what to do.

[64] Taking part of the outermost of his garments as a sign of incorruption (for they were entirely afraid to touch those that were closest to his flesh), part is brought to Bishop Eadberht they hastened to report to the Bishop what they had found. He happened then to be staying alone in a place more remote from the monastery, surrounded on all sides by the returning sea waves; for he was always accustomed to spend the time of Lent in this place, and the forty days before the Lord's Nativity in great devotion of continence, prayer, and tears; in which also his venerable predecessor Cuthbert, before seeking Farne, had served the Lord in seclusion for some time, as we have also shown above. They brought also part of the garments that had surrounded the holy body. When he both received the gifts gratefully and heard the miracles gladly (for he even kissed those same garments with wonderful affection, as if they still surrounded the Father's body), he said: "Wrap the body in new garments in place of those you have taken, and so place it in the chest you have prepared. For I know most certainly that the place which has been consecrated by such a great power of heavenly miracle will not long remain empty. And greatly blessed is he to whom the Lord, the author and bestower of true blessedness, deigns to grant a seat of rest therein." And he added with wonder the words I once set in verse, and said:

"Who will recount the heavenly gifts of the Lord in words? Or what paradise-born riches the ear receives? While in His mercy, having burst the weight of hostile death, He gives to live forever in the starry citadel; He who now adorns dead limbs with such honor, And provides fair pledges of perpetual aid. How blessed the house that shines beneath so great a guest, Knowing no stain, you gleam joyful with light. Nor is it hard for you, Almighty, to command beneath the soil That greedy decay devour not the dead laid down, You who for three days keep the Prophet in the belly of the whale, Opening the path of light from the mouth of death, for Your own; Who guard innocent limbs in the midst of fires, Lest the Chaldean flame harm the Hebrew splendor; Forty times you renew through the cold the garment of the people Who, fleeing Egypt, keep to the pathless ground; Who form the light dust into living limbs anew, When the world trembles at the angelic trumpets from the sky."

When the Bishop had completed these and many more similar things with many tears and great compunction, his tongue trembling, the Brethren did as he commanded, the body is laid to rest and wrapping the body in a new garment and enclosing it in a light chest, they placed it upon the pavement of the sanctuary.

[65] The body of Bishop Eadberht is joined to it Meanwhile, the God-beloved Bishop Eadberht was seized by a severe illness, and as the burning of his sickness increased day by day and grew much worse, not long after -- that is, on the day before the Nones of May -- he too departed to the Lord, having obtained from Him the gift he had most diligently sought, namely that he might pass from the body not by a sudden death but after being refined by a long illness. Placing his body in the sepulcher of the blessed Father Cuthbert, they set above it the chest he shines with miracles in which they had placed the incorrupt limbs of the same Father; where to this day, if the faith of those who seek demands it, signs of miracles do not cease to be performed. Moreover, the garments which had clothed his most holy body, whether alive or buried, are not lacking in the grace of healing.

[66] Indeed, a certain Cleric arriving from overseas, of the most reverend and most holy Willibrord Clement, Bishop of the Frisian people, while staying there as a guest for some days, people are healed at the sepulcher fell into a most grievous illness, so that as his sickness grew worse over a long time, he now lay in a state of despair. When, overcome by pain, he seemed to himself able neither to die nor to live, having found a salutary plan, he said to his attendant: "I beseech you, bring me today after Mass has been celebrated to worship at the body of the most sacred man of God" (for it was the Lord's Day); "I hope a difficult disease that through the grace of his intercession I may be snatched from these torments, so that either healed I may return to the present life, or dying I may attain the eternal." The attendant did as the sick man requested, and led the ailing man, who leaned on a staff, into the church with no small labor. When he bent his knees at the sepulcher of the most holy and God-beloved Father, lowered his head to the ground, and prayed for his recovery, he immediately felt that his body had received such great strength from the incorrupt body of Cuthbert that without effort he rose from prayer and returned to his lodging without the help of either an attendant leading him or a staff supporting him; and after a few days, his strength fully restored, he completed the journey he had planned.

[67] In a certain monastery not far from there, there was a youth deprived of the use of all his limbs by that illness which the Greeks call paralysis. a paralytic through his footwear Whence his Abbot, knowing that there were most skilled physicians in the monastery of Lindisfarne, sent him there, asking them to provide whatever cure they could for the sick man. Though they attended him diligently at the command of both his own Abbot and the Bishop, and applied whatever medical skill they knew to his case, they could make no progress at all; rather, the disease increased daily and gradually turned worse, so that, except for his mouth, he could move scarcely any limb from its place. When he lay despaired of and abandoned by the bodily physicians, who had labored in vain for a long time, he took refuge in the divine help of the heavenly physician, who, when truly sought, is merciful to all our iniquities and who heals all our diseases. For he asked his attendant to bring him some small portion of the relics of the incorruptible sacred body, because he believed that through their power he would return, by the Lord's bounty, to the grace of health. The attendant, having consulted the Abbot, brought the shoes that had covered the feet of the man of God in the sepulcher and placed them around the feet of the disabled sick man; for the paralysis had first seized him from the feet. He did this at the beginning of the night, when the time for rest was at hand; and immediately the sick man was released into peaceful sleep. As the silence of the dead of night advanced, he began to move his feet alternately, so that the attendants who were watching and observing could plainly perceive that the hoped-for health, bestowed by the healing power through the relics of the holy man, was going to pass from the soles of his feet through the rest of his limbs. When the customary signal for nocturnal prayer sounded in the monastery, roused by the sound, he sat up himself. Without delay, his sinews and all the joints of his limbs having been strengthened by an inner power and his pain having fled, realizing that he was healed, he rose and spent the entire time of the nocturnal and morning psalmody standing in thanksgiving to the Lord. When morning had already come, he went out to the church, and with all watching and congratulating, he went around the holy places praying and offering a sacrifice of praise to his Savior. For it came to pass, by the most beautiful reversal of things, that he who had been brought there in a vehicle with his whole body paralyzed returned home from there on his own, with all his limbs contracted and strengthened, in good health. Whence it is helpful to remember that this is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High, whose memorable wonders from the beginning do not cease to shine forth in the world.

[68] Nor do I think it should be passed over, what miracle of heaven divine mercy also showed through the relics of the most holy oratory in which the venerable Father had been accustomed to serve the Lord as a solitary. Ethelwald, successor of Saint Cuthbert on the solitary island Whether, however, this should be attributed to the merits of the same blessed Father Cuthbert or of his successor Ethelwald, a man equally devoted to God, the internal judge may know. Nor does any reason forbid it to be believed to have been done by the merit of both, accompanied also by the faith of the most reverend Father Felgild, through whom and in whom the very miracle of healing that I am relating was accomplished. He is the third heir of that same place and spiritual warfare, now more than seventy years old, awaiting the end of the present life in great desire for the life to come. When therefore, with the man of God Cuthbert translated to the heavenly kingdoms, Ethelwald had begun to be the inhabitant of that same island and monastery -- he who had himself also been proved for many years before in the monastic life and had duly ascended to the grade of anchoretic sublimity -- he found that the walls of the aforesaid oratory, which had been composed of planks less carefully fitted together, had been loosened by long age, and that the planks, having separated from one another, had provided easy entrance for the storms. But the venerable man, who sought the beauty of the heavenly rather than the earthly edifice, had taken hay or clay or whatever material of that kind he found, and had stuffed the cracks, lest by daily

assaults of rains or winds he might be held back from the urgency of prayer. When therefore Ethelwald, entering the place, had seen these things, he asked the Brethren who frequented him for a little piece of calfskin, and fixing it with nails in that corner where both he and his blessed predecessor Cuthbert had been accustomed to stand or kneel often in prayer, he set it against the violence of storms. But after he too, then Felgild having spent twelve continuous years there, entered the joy of heavenly blessedness, and Felgild, the third, began to inhabit the same place, it pleased the most reverend Bishop Eadfrith of the church of Lindisfarne to restore that oratory, which had been dissolved by age, from its foundations. When the work was completed, and many out of devout religion asked the blessed athlete of Christ Felgild to give them some small particle of the relics of the holy and God-beloved Father Cuthbert or his successor Ethelwald, it seemed fitting to him that the aforesaid piece of skin should be divided into particles and given to those who asked. But before giving it to others, he first experienced in himself what healing power it possessed; for he had a face suffused with unsightly redness and swelling, the signs of which future illness had been apparent even before, when he was still living the common life among the Brethren, to those who looked at his face. But when, secluded in solitude, he applied less care to his body and greater abstinence, cleansed in the face by the covering of the wall of Saint Cuthbert's oratory and, as if enclosed in a long imprisonment, more rarely availed himself of the warmth of the sun or the blowing of the air, the disease grew greater and filled his whole face with swelling heat. Fearing, then, lest perhaps by the greatness of such an illness he might be forced to abandon the solitary life and return to the common way of life, he employed faithful presumption and hoped that he would be cured through the help of those whose dwelling he rejoiced to hold and whose life he rejoiced to imitate. For, putting part of the aforesaid piece of skin into water, he washed his face with that water; and immediately all the swelling that had beset it and the foul scab withdrew -- in accordance with what first a certain devout Priest of this Jarrow monastery reported to me, who said that he knew his face both when it was previously swollen and disfigured, and that he had afterwards touched it with his hand through the window, finding it cleansed; and Felgild himself afterwards reported the same, confirming that the thing had been accomplished just as the Priest had narrated; and that from that time, though he remained enclosed for many cycles of years, he always had a face free from such affliction as before, by the action of the grace of Almighty God, who is accustomed both in the present to heal many and in the future to heal all the diseases of our heart and body, and satisfying our desire with good things, He crowns us forever with His mercy and compassion, world without end. Amen.

APPENDIX

Paralysis removed and a disease of the eye.

From Bede's Ecclesiastical History, book chapters 31 and 32.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

[1] There was in the same monastery a certain Brother named Beadwegen, who had served in the ministry of guests for no small time, and who still survives, having the testimony of all the Brethren and all the guests who came that he was a man of great piety and devotion, and who was obedient to the office laid upon him solely for the sake of the heavenly reward. Paralysis is cured One day, when he had washed the cloaks or blankets that he used in the guesthouse in the sea, as he was returning home he was struck midway by a sudden bodily affliction, so that he fell to the ground, and lying face down for some time, he at last barely rose again. But rising, he felt that half of his body from head to feet was weighed down by the disease of paralysis, and with the greatest labor, leaning on a staff, he reached home. The disease increased gradually, and growing worse as night came on, by the time day returned he could scarcely rise or walk by himself. Afflicted by this trouble, he conceived a useful plan in his mind: that reaching the church by whatever means he could, he would enter to the tomb of the most reverend Father Cuthbert, and there with bended knees, as a suppliant, he would pray to the heavenly mercy that he might either be freed from such illness, if this were profitable for him, or, if he must be chastened for a longer time by such affliction through divine providence, that he might endure the pain inflicted with patience and a calm mind. He therefore did as he had planned in his mind, and supporting his feeble limbs with a staff, he entered the church and, prostrating himself at the body of the man of God, he prayed with pious intention that the Lord might be propitious to him through Cuthbert's aid. And amid his prayers, as if dissolved into sleep, he felt (as he himself was accustomed to relate afterwards) as if a great and broad hand had touched his head on the side where the pain was, and by that same touch had passed through that whole part of his body which had been weighed down by illness, the pain gradually fleeing and health following, all the way down to his feet. This done, he soon awoke in perfect health, and giving thanks again to the Lord for his recovery, he told the Brethren what had happened concerning him; and with all rejoicing together, he returned to the ministry which he had been accustomed to perform with such diligence, as though more chastened by the testing scourge. Moreover, the garments with which the God-dedicated body of Cuthbert had been clothed, both while alive previously and after death, were not lacking in the grace of healing, as whoever reads will find in the book of his Life and virtues.

[2] Nor should what was done three years ago through his relics be passed over in silence, and a disease of the eye which was recently made known to me by the very Brother in whom it was done. It was done in the monastery which, built beside the river Dacre, received from it its name, over which the devout Suidberht then presided by the right of an Abbot. For there was in it a certain youth whose eyelid was disfigured by an unsightly tumor, which, growing day by day, threatened the destruction of the eye. The physicians tried to soften it with applications of medicinal poultices, but could not; some said it should be cut off, but others forbade this for fear of greater danger. When for no small time the aforesaid Brother had suffered from such a trouble, and no human hand could cure the ruin threatening his eye, but rather it grew day by day, it happened that he was suddenly healed by the grace of divine mercy through the relics of the most holy Father Cuthbert. For when the Brethren had found the body of their Brother incorrupt after many years of burial, they took a portion of his hair which they could give or show as relics to friends who requested them, as a sign of the miracle. A particle of these relics was at that time in the possession of a certain one of the Priests of the same monastery named Thridred, who is now Abbot of that monastery. When he had entered the church one day and opened the chest of relics to provide a portion of them to a friend who had asked, it happened that the same youth whose eye was diseased was also then present in the same church. When the Priest had given the friend the portion he wished, he gave the remainder to the youth to put back in its place. But the youth, prompted by a salutary impulse, when he had received the hairs of the holy head, applied them to his diseased eyelid, and for some time he took care to press and soften that troublesome swelling by the application of these. When he had done this, he put the relics back in their chest as he had been directed, believing that his eye would be healed soon by the hairs of the man of God with which it had been touched. Nor indeed did his faith deceive him (for it was, as he was accustomed to relate, about the second hour of the day). But while he was thinking about and doing other things that the day required, as the sixth hour of the same day approached, suddenly touching his eye he found it as healthy, with its eyelid, as if no disfigurement or swelling had ever appeared in it.

ANOTHER LIFE

Written in verse by the same Bede.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

Kind Reader: We had planned to add this Life here, as we intimated above in the preliminary Commentary, chiefly because on March 6, in the Life of Saints Cyneburga, Cyneswitha, and Tibba, section IV, we proved that two Kings named Aldfrith, sons of King Oswy, had reigned among the Northumbrians, producing some verses from this poem. But since the poem exists in printed form and the bulk seems to grow excessively, even in the very Acts, Translations, and miracles of Saint Cuthbert, we are compelled to omit this Life.

THIRD LIFE

By a contemporary monk of Lindisfarne.

From various manuscript codices.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

BHL Number: 2019

PROLOGUE

Would that I could comply with your instructions, holy Bishop Eadfrith, and with the desire of the whole community, as much in ability as in wish. For this work is arduous for me, and the capacity of my understanding is small. But for my part, even if I am overwhelmed by the quantity of the delicate material, I am satisfied that my obedience, such as my ability permits, has not been lacking to your command; which, even if it has by no means fulfilled the ministry enjoined, has certainly discharged the duty owed. And I beseech you that, if anything has turned out otherwise than you wished, weighing fairly my weakness and the burden imposed, the writer excuses his slenderness you may regard the labor of an imperfect work as an act of duty rather than of merit. For the greatest indication of my reverence toward you is that I have wished to expend more upon your commands than I am able. But if I have produced anything worthy of your reading, that will certainly be the gift of God. Moreover your benevolence stirs even the indolent to progress, and it is not doubted that what was undertaken by your exhortation will be completed by your faith; since I too have confidence that I can accomplish what you command, you who enjoin it so confidently. For who does not understand that what you believe should be accomplished even through me has already been presumed by your prayers? For I received the command of your charity with great joy. Indeed it is a great gain and benefit to me, this very act of remembering Saint Cuthbert. For it is indeed the perfect way to virtue to know who he was. Therefore, to say all things briefly which common report has spoken as worthy of relating about him, believe it, and count that you have heard the least of the greatest things; for I do not doubt that you were unable to learn all. Therefore I shall begin to write the Life of Saint Cuthbert, he asserts that he writes what was known to him and how he conducted himself both before the episcopate and in the episcopate, although I have by no means been able to reach all his virtues; for those things of which he alone was conscious in himself are unknown, because, not seeking praise from men, he would have wished, as far as it lay in him, that all his virtues remain hidden. Although even from those things which were known to us, we have omitted many, because we believed it would suffice if only the most excellent things were noted; and at the same time we had to consider the readers, lest an accumulated abundance produce distaste in others. Therefore I beseech those who are going to read this

to give credence to what is said, and not to suppose that I have written anything that is not ascertained and proven; otherwise I would have preferred to remain silent rather than to say false things. But since neither letter nor speech can suffice for the number of all his works, let us approach the things that were done.

BOOK I.

Life before entry into the monastery.

[1] First then we set down what we have learned from the accounts of many that happened in his early age, among whom is Bishop Tuma of holy memory, who learned of the spiritual election of God predestined for Saint Cuthbert by hearing it from Cuthbert himself, and the Priest of our church, Elias, who say the following. While he was a boy of eight years old, surpassing all his contemporaries in agility and playfulness, admonished by an infant with a presage of episcopal dignity so that often, after the others had rested their weary limbs, he would still be triumphing in the place of play as if on a race-course, waiting for someone to play with him. Then on a certain day many youths gathered on a level plain, among whom he was found, and they began to engage in various sports and buffoonery; for some stood naked with their heads turned downward to the ground against nature, and with legs spread apart, their upraised feet projected upward toward the sky; some did this, others did that. Meanwhile there was a certain infant with them, about three years old; he began constantly to say to Cuthbert: "Be steadfast, he abandons vain games and leave the vanity of sport." He also repeated the words of his precept when Cuthbert paid no heed, weeping and crying, so that almost no one could console him. Finally, when he was asked what was wrong, he began to cry out: "O holy Bishop and Priest Cuthbert, these things, which are contrary to your nature and rank, do not befit you on account of your agility." Cuthbert, not yet fully understanding, nevertheless abandoned the vanity of sport and began to console the infant. Returning to his home, he retained the words of prophecy in his mind, just as Holy Mary remembered and preserved in her heart all the words spoken about Jesus. See, brethren, how he, before being recognized by the labor of his works, is shown to have been chosen by the providence of God; as it is said of the Patriarch through the Prophet: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Mal. 1:3 Samuel also and David are both found to have been chosen in infancy. Indeed Jeremiah the Prophet and John the Baptist are read to have been sanctified from the womb of their mother for the service of the Lord. Jer. 15; Luke 1:24 As the teacher of the nations affirmed, saying: "Those whom He predestined, these He also called." Rom. 1:30

[2] At the same age the Lord magnified him by another miracle as predestined for God's election. While he was still a boy, when lame, he is healed by a poultice indicated by an Angel as I said, still a layman, he was held in the grip of a pressing illness. For with a swollen knee and contracted sinews he was limping, not touching the ground with one foot, and was carried outside and lay beside a wall in the heat of the sun. He saw an honorable man of wonderful beauty, sitting on a most richly adorned horse, in white garments, coming to him from afar. Approaching him and greeting him with words of peace, the man asked if he would be willing to minister to such a guest. Cuthbert, with undaunted mind, revealing the infirmity of his body, said: "If God had willed and had not bound me with the chains of illness for my sins, I would not be slow to minister to guests in His honor." Then that man, after these words, dismounting from his horse and examining his knee, which, as he had said before, had been cured by no physicians, commanded him, saying: "You must cook wheat flour together with milk, and anoint and spread it on while warm." The boy, after the man's departure, obeying the instruction, understood him to be an Angel of God. After a few days, healed according to his faith, he gave thanks to God who had mercy on him, who had given complete health, just as He had given it to the blinded Tobit through His healing Angel. And from that time, as he revealed to most trustworthy men, when he implored the Lord in his greatest distresses, he was not deprived of the help of Angels.

[3] At another time also, in his adolescence, while he was still in the secular life, watching by night over the flock when he was pasturing his master's flocks on the mountains beside the river called Leder with other shepherds, keeping vigil through the night, according to his custom, with faithful mind and most abundant prayers, he saw a vision which the Lord revealed to him. That is, with heaven opened -- not by the parting of the elements, but beholding with spiritual eyes (just as the blessed Patriarch Jacob at Luz, he saw the soul of Saint Aidan being carried to heaven by Angels which was called Bethel) -- he saw Angels ascending and descending; and among their hands a holy soul, as if in a globe of fire, being carried up to heaven. He immediately told the vision, so wonderful as he had seen it, to the shepherds whom he roused, also prophesying to them that it was the soul of a most holy Bishop or another great person, as the outcome proved; for after a few days they heard the most celebrated death of our holy Bishop Aidan widely announced at the same hour of the night at which he had seen the vision.

[4] I do not omit yet one more miracle that happened to him in his youth. For as he was journeying from the south to the river called Wir, at the place called Leunckcester, and having forded it, he returned to the spring and summer dwellings on account of rain and storm. he receives food divinely For since at that winter time the dwellings were deserted, he could find no consolation from people there for himself and his wearied horse, on account of the journey and hunger. Pulling his unsaddled horse into a house and tying it to the wall, waiting for fair weather and praying there to the Lord, he saw the horse raise its head up toward the roof of the little house, and, eagerly seizing a portion of the hay thatch, it pulled it to itself; with which immediately a warm loaf of bread with meat, carefully wrapped in a linen cloth, fell separately and was produced. He, his prayer being completed, tested it and perceived that it was food predestined for him by God through the sending of an Angel, who often helped him in his distresses. Giving thanks to God, he blessed and ate; and now satisfied and strengthened by the divine food, glorifying the Lord in His strength, he journeyed prosperously.

[5] The other works of his flourishing youth springing forth I pass over in silence, lest I engender weariness in the reader, eagerly desiring to make known singularly the most ready fruit of his mature age a soldier, he lives frugally from his pay in the virtues of Christ under the service of God. For I omit how, while sitting in camp against the enemy with the army and having small pay there, yet throughout the whole time he was divinely increased, living abundantly; he sees a soul carried to heaven; he puts demons to flight just as Daniel and the three youths, not content with royal food, were wonderfully fattened on servant's food, and that very scanty. Nor do I pass over how he saw the soul of a Prefect being raised to heaven at his death. I am also silent about how wonderfully he put demons to flight and healed the insane by the word of his prayer.

BOOK II.

The monastic life; various things predicted; miracles.

[1] Well disposed, therefore, to break himself by a stricter rule of life in the monastery, returning from the secular life -- he enters the monastery of Melrose yet religious and immaculate and making progress toward better things -- he bore the holy labor patiently, which the long zeal and habit of voluntary servitude in the work of God had turned into nature. Indeed, he was so patient of fasting and vigils that he would overcome incredulity by his strength. He spent the night in prayer very often, sometimes even remaining thus for two or three days, and was only refreshed on the fourth day, remembering the saying of the Apostle Paul: "All discipline indeed in the present seems not to be of joy but of sorrow; but afterwards it yields to those who are trained by it the most peaceful fruit of justice." Heb. 12:11 devoted to the exercises of virtues O Brethren, I do not presume to be worthy of his way of life, nay indeed it cannot be explained by anyone's speech. For he was angelic in appearance, polished in speech, holy in works, whole in body, excellent in talent, great in counsel, Catholic in faith, most patient in hope, expansive in charity; but I shall elucidate the path of his virtues.

[2] There was therefore another miracle, in which the holy man of God Cuthbert was first glorified by the Lord after he had received the yoke of the service of Christ and the form of the tonsure of Peter, in the manner of the crown of thorns encircling the head of Christ, with the Lord's help, in the monastery called Ripon, as our most faithful witnesses, still living, have indicated. For as a neophyte he was immediately chosen by the community to minister to guests who arrived. Among whom indeed on a certain day in the early morning hour, in winter and snowy weather, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the form of a steady man and of perfect age, just as Angels appeared to the Patriarch Abraham in the vale of Mamre in the form of men. Then, having received him according to his custom kindly, he receives an Angel as a guest thinking him still to be a man and not an Angel, he washed his hands and feet, wiped them with cloths, and humbly rubbed and warmed his feet with his hands because of the cold; he very diligently invited him, unwilling and refusing on account of his journey, to wait until the third hour of the day to take food, and at last overcame his refusal by adjuring him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the signal for the third hour of the day was given and prayer was completed, he immediately set the table, with the food he had placed upon it ready; because indeed, by some chance, there was no bread in the guest house, and he merely placed crumbs gathered for blessed bread upon the table. The man also was going, returning to the monastery, seeking bread, he finds three warm loaves left by the Angel and not finding it (for they were still baking bread in the oven), he returned to his guest, whom he had left eating alone, and did not find him there, nor any footprints of his feet; for by now snow was upon the surface of the earth. Astonished at this, he removed the table to the bedchamber, understanding him to be an Angel of God. And at first entering it his nostrils were filled with the sweetest smell of bread, and finding also three warm loaves, he gave thanks to the Lord, because in him was fulfilled the saying of the Lord: "He who receives you receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me." Matt. 20:40 And again: "He who receives a Prophet in the name of a Prophet

shall receive a Prophet's reward." ibid. 41 "And he who receives a just man in the name of a just man shall receive a just man's reward." And from that day on, frequently when he was hungry, the Lord fed him, as he declared to faithful Brethren, not out of boasting, but for the edification of many, as Paul spoke many things about himself.

[3] He visits nuns And I think this should be told, which I learned from the account of many good persons, among whom is Pleculf the Priest. At the time when he was with us in the monastery called Melrose, he was summoned by the nun, widow, and mother of all in Christ, Ebba. Coming therefore, as he was invited, to the monastery called Coldingham, and remaining there for some days, not abandoning the purpose of his rule by relaxing it, he began at night to go around the seaside places, keeping his accustomed habit of singing and watching. When this was discovered by a certain Cleric of the community, he began secretly to follow him at a distance by way of testing, by night he had entered the sea wishing to know how he spent his nocturnal life. That man of God Cuthbert, with resolute mind, approaching the sea, entered it up to the waist, amid the waves; and the sea sometimes swelling and surging up to his armpits, he was dipped in the midst of the waves. But when, ascending from the sea and kneeling on the sandy shore, he prayed, having emerged, he is tended by beasts two small sea creatures immediately came following his footsteps, humbly prostrate on the ground, licking his feet, rolling against them, wiping them with their pelts, and warming them with their breath. After their service and ministry was completed, having received his blessing, they withdrew to the kindred waves of the sea. That man of God, returning at cockcrow to the common prayer, came to the church of God with the Brethren. But the aforesaid Cleric of the community, he forbids this to be told to others while he lives hiding in rocky places, frightened and trembling at what he saw, pressed close to death throughout the whole night in his distress. On the next day, prostrating himself before the feet of the man of God, he begged pardon and indulgence in a tearful voice. To whom the man of God responded with prophetic speech: "My brother, what is the matter with you? Did you perhaps approach closer to me by way of testing than you should have? This, however, is pardoned to you on the condition that you confess and vow never to tell of it as long as I live." The Brother thus making and fulfilling his vow, went forth blessed and saved by him. But after his death, narrating to many Brethren the service of the animals, just as we read that lions served Daniel in the Old Testament, and that Cuthbert had seen with spiritual eyes the one hiding and watching, just as Peter saw Ananias and Sapphira tempting the Holy Spirit, he made it wonderfully known. Dan. 14; Acts 5

[4] At another time also, setting out from the same monastery called Melrose with two Brethren, and sailing to the land of the Picts, he sails to the Picts where they arrived at Mudpieralegis safely. They stayed there for some days in great want, for hunger pressed them and the storm of the sea prevented any possibility of sailing on their journey. That man of God, however, spending the night in prayer by the seashore, came to them in the morning on the day of the Lord's Epiphany; for they had begun their journey after the Lord's Nativity. Persuading them, he said: "Let us go and seek, asking of God according to what He promised, saying: 'Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.'" Matt. 7:7 "For I think that the Lord has given us something by prayers he unexpectedly procures food for himself for celebrating the day on which the Magi worshipped Him with gifts, and on which the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove when He was baptized in the Jordan, and on which He turned water into wine at Cana of Galilee, to confirm the faith of His disciples." Then therefore, rising, they went out. He went before them like a scout, and they reached the sea. And immediately, looking, they found three portions of dolphin flesh, as if cut by a human hand with a knife and washed with water. The man of God therefore, with bended knees, giving thanks to the Lord, said to his companions: "Take them and carry them, and bless the Lord. Behold, three portions suffice for three men for three nights and days; and on the fourth day the sea will be calm for sailing." They therefore carried and cooked them, and tasted the wonderful sweetness of the flesh. Remaining three days in a fierce storm, on the fourth day, according to his word, they sailed in calm weather and safely reached the harbor of salvation, as one of the two Brethren mentioned above, named Tydi, who is a Priest and still living, told us in the presence of many witnesses, glorifying God that the same mercy by which He formerly provided flesh to Elijah in the desert was then given to the man of God; and that imbued with the same spirit, he foresaw the storm and the calm, with which the Apostle Paul also prophesied to those sailing in the Acts of the Apostles.

[5] The aforesaid Priest Tydi also reported another miracle, which is known to many: namely, on a certain day he was journeying beside the river Tees, heading southward, teaching and baptizing country folk among the mountains. Having a boy also walking with him in his company, he said to him: "Do you think anyone has prepared your dinner today?" When the boy replied that he knew no relative on that road, and did not expect any kind of charity from strangers unknown to him, the servant of the Lord said again to him: "Trust, my son, the Lord will provide sustenance for those who hope in Him. He who said: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you.' And that the saying of the Prophet may be fulfilled: 'I was young and now am old, and I have not seen the just man forsaken,' etc." Matt. 6:33; Ps. 36:25; Matt. 20:10 he receives a fish from an eagle "For the laborer is worthy of his hire." Then after other words, looking up to heaven, he saw an eagle flying in the air, and said to his boy: "This is the eagle which the Lord has commanded to minister food to us today." After a little while, as they were making their way, they saw the eagle sitting on the bank of the river. The boy ran also to the eagle at the command of the servant of God, and hesitating, found a large fish; and carrying it whole to him, Cuthbert said to the boy: "Why did you not give a portion for eating to our fisher, who was fasting?" Then the boy, as the man of God had commanded, gave a part of the fish to the eagle; and carrying the other part with them, they roasted it among people and ate, and gave to others also, and having been satisfied, adoring the Lord and giving thanks in the will of God, they journeyed to the mountains, as we said above, teaching and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[6] At that time, while baptizing among the mountains, as we said, in a certain village he diligently taught the word of the Lord according to his custom, and by the prophetic spirit of God he foresaw the devil tempting he puts to flight the devil stirring up a phantom fire and wishing to impede the hearing of the word of the Lord by a deceptive phantasm; and in the midst of his preaching, among other words he said: "O dearest brethren, if any temptation should arise suddenly outside, you nevertheless remain steadfast, and do not run forth and be delayed from hearing the Word of God, prevented by an illusion." After this, again taking up the order of the Gospel and expounding its words, they heard the noise of fire from a house set ablaze, and people shouting. Then the people, except for a few whom he held back by hand, sprang up and ran unsteadily and reached the house as if it were on fire, pulling apart its walls and trying to extinguish the flame. Then immediately, seeing not even traces of smoke, which precedes and follows fire, and recognizing that they had been deceived, according to the prediction of the servant of God, by a phantasm of the devil, they returned to the house from which they had come, falling on their knees before the feet of the Preacher. He, now praying for them who had been deceived by the illusion of Satan, obtained pardon and indulgence, as they confessed that they understood the manifold spiritual seduction of deceptive cunning through visible phantasms. Therefore each one, well corrected and confirmed by his teaching, returned rejoicing to their home.

[7] At the same time the holy man of God was invited by a certain woman called Kenswitha, still living, a nun and widow, who had nurtured him from the age of eight to mature age, he averts a fire by his prayers in which he took up the service of God. For this reason he called her mother, often visiting her. He came one day to the village in which she lived, called Hruringaham, when a house which was situated in the outer part of the village to the east appeared to be burning, and from the same direction, with a very great wind blowing, the fire was stirred up. The mother, alarmed, ran to the house where he was staying, and asked that he deign to seek the help of God, that they might be preserved from the fireballs surrounding their dwellings. He, with undaunted mind, assured the mother of stability, saying: "Do not fear, this flame will not harm you." And falling prostrate on the ground before the door, he prayed in silence; and immediately, even as he was praying, a great wind arose from the west and drove all the greatness of the flame away harmlessly from everyone. And so, seeing plainly that the power of God was in him, they were kept unharmed by His protection; and giving thanks, they blessed the Lord.

[8] There was a certain devout man, especially dear to the man of God, named Hildmer, whose wife was excessively tormented by a demon. She indeed, much ravaged and pressed to the point of death, gnashing her teeth, he knows from afar that she has been made a demoniac was emitting a pitiful groan. The aforesaid husband, having no doubt about her bitter death, set out for our monastery and called to him Saint Cuthbert (for at that time he was Prior of our church) and, telling him that his wife was ill nearly to death, he did not reveal the calamity of her madness; for he was ashamed to reveal that she who had once been devout was being tormented by a demon. He neither knew nor understood that such a temptation frequently happens to Christians; but he only asked that some Priest be sent with him, and requested the rest of burial. Immediately, however, the man of God went out to prepare someone to send with him; and at his first withdrawal, imbued by the Spirit of God, he quickly turned back and, recalling him, said: "This is my ministry indeed, and it is not for another to go with you." Then the man of God prepared himself, he predicts she will be freed and they were all carried on horses; and seeing his companion weeping and crying for two reasons (that is, for his dying wife who would leave him deserted, and for orphans left behind, and especially for the ignominious madness in which he knew she was horribly reduced, shamelessly broken, and defiled with saliva -- she who had once been so chaste and modest -- and whom he knew the man of God would have to witness), he began to console him with the gentlest words, and revealed to him the whole illness, its nature, which he had concealed from him; and finally he added, speaking with a prophetic mouth: "For when we arrive at your dwelling, your wife, whom you think dead, coming to meet me to take the reins of this horse which I now hold in my hands, will be saved by God's help, with the demon put to flight, and will minister to us."

They arrived therefore, just as the man of God had said, at the village, and the woman, as if rising from sleep, came to meet them, he is received by the healed woman and at the first touch of the bridle, with the demon fully expelled, she was restored to her former health (as she herself testified with thanksgiving) and ministered to them.

BOOK III.

The anchoretic life. Benefits received from heaven. Various things predicted.

[1] Well therefore in the aforesaid monastery called Melrose, Saint Cuthbert serving the Lord as Prior, he prescribes the Rule for the people of Lindisfarne and the Lord working many wonderful things through him, which I have endeavored to write for the sake of the faithlessness of the weak, at last, however, fleeing worldly glory, he sailed secretly and covertly to the island. Then, invited and compelled by the venerable and holy Bishop Eata to this our island called Lindisfarne, he came with the help of God's will; he healed demoniacs both present and absent, and cured various other diseases. Living there also according to Holy Scripture, leading the contemplative life in the active, and first composing and establishing the Regular life for us, which we observe to this day along with the Rule of Benedict. Then after many years he sought the island called Farne, he migrates to Farne Island surrounded on all sides by waves in the middle of the sea, desiring the solitary life; where previously almost no one had been able to remain alone for any length of time on account of the various phantasms of demons. He indeed, with undaunted mind, put them to flight, digging down into the very hard and stony rock almost a cubit deep, he made space for the place; and another cubit above he built a wonderful wall, constructed with stones of incredible size (for those unaware of so great a power of God being in him) mixed with earth, he builds small dwellings making there little dwellings from which he could see nothing except the sky above.

[2] There was indeed a stone in the interior part of the island which he ordered the four Brethren who visited him to carry in their vehicle he carried a great stone alone as an aid to his building. They, immediately obeying without delay, came to the stone, which they left in the middle of the road, unable to bring it further lest they break their vehicle or injure themselves. Then the Brethren, sailing back and after not many days visiting him again, came; and they saw and recognized his stone, which had been immovable by them, aptly placed in the structure of the servant of God, praising and glorifying God magnificently, who works wonderful things in His servants, remembering: "God is wonderful in His Saints," etc.

[3] Again on another day, visiting Brethren came to him; to whom he first, according to his custom, preached the word of God; he obtains a spring by his prayers then also after the preaching he began to say: "O dearest brethren, you know that this place is almost uninhabitable because of the scarcity of water; therefore let us pray for the Lord's help, and dig this rocky earth in the middle of the floor of the house, because the Lord God is able to raise water from rocky stone for one who asks; for He once gave water to the thirsting people from the rock when Moses struck it with his rod; He also gave drink to the thirsting Samson from the jawbone of a donkey." The Brethren therefore dug the earth according to his instruction; and as he prayed, they immediately found living waters welling up from the rocky earth to meet him; the great sweetness of which we have tasted with thanksgiving and proved to this very day. That servant of God, the anchorite, also declared, as I learned from the report of the most faithful, that in that water given by God there was for him the sweetness of every liquid.

[4] Another miracle also, which the Lord performed for love of His soldier, I do not pass over in silence. For desiring, he asked from the Brethren who came and visited him a piece of timber twelve feet in length for the foundation of a certain little dwelling. a timber of twelve feet requested For there the sea, breaking through, reached a hollow crag at the outermost part of that place; upon the edge of which crag, adjoining the place, planning to lay a crosswise timber of twelve feet as we said, he also thought to build the structure of a little dwelling on top. But requesting this from the Brethren, it is brought from beyond by the Ocean he would not have obtained it (and may God not impute this to them as a fault) unless, by prayer made to our God Jesus Christ, he had received help; for that same night the sea, surging with waves, in honor of the servant of God, brought a timber of twelve feet floating specially to the mouth of the crag where it was to be placed in the building. The Brethren therefore, waking in the morning, saw it and, giving thanks to God and marveling, understood that the sea, in honor of Christ, had performed what men had not, being more obedient to the anchorite; and even to this day, the house built upon the crosswise timber appears to those who sail past.

[5] Just as the sea served the man of God, so also the birds of heaven obeyed him; for when one day on his island, digging, he was furrowing the earth (for indeed for the first two or three years, he commands crows to depart before he remained shut inside with doors closed, he received daily sustenance by the work of his hands, knowing it was said, "He who does not work, let him not eat"), he saw two crows, which had been there for a long time before, tearing apart the roof of the house for the sailors placed in the harbor, and making a nest for themselves. He forbade them by a gentle movement of the hand from doing this injury to the Brethren by building their nest there. But when they paid no heed, at last with a changed spirit, sternly commanding in the name of Jesus Christ, he banished them from the island. in the name of Jesus Neither rest nor delay for them; they abandoned their homeland according to his command. After three days, one of the two returned before the feet of the man of God who was digging the earth, and sitting upon the furrow with wings spread and head bowed, mourning, begging for pardon and indulgence in a humble voice, began to croak. The servant of God, understanding their repentance, gave permission to return. he grants their return Those crows indeed, at that very hour, peace having been made, both returned to the island with a certain small gift. Holding in its beak about half a portion of pig's fat, it deposited it before his feet. Having now pardoned them this sin, they remain there to this day. This was told to me by the most faithful witnesses who visited him and who were greasing their boots with the fat throughout the whole span of a year, with glorification of God.

[6] Furthermore, the nun, virgin, and royal Abbess Elfleda humbly asked the holy anchorite of God, in the name of the Lord, he predicts to Saint Elfleda the death of King Ecgfrith to sail to meet her at Coquet Island; to whom the handmaid of God, bending her knees, began to ask many things, and at last she confidently adjured him by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the nine Orders of Angels and the persons of all the Saints, asking about the length of life of her brother King Ecgfrith. The man of God himself, gravely adjured and fearing the Lord, began to speak about the brevity of human life in a roundabout way, and added, saying: "O handmaid of God, is it not a short time, even if someone lives twelve months?" She immediately, grasping in her mind what had been said, wept with bitter tears; just as for her and many others after the space of a year, the fall of the royals by the malicious hand of the enemy's sword renewed all bitterness. She added further, saying: "By the same Unity and Trinity mentioned above, I adjure you to say whom he will have as heir." He also, after a brief silence, said: "You should not think him any less a brother to you the succession of Aldfrith than the other." This indeed seemed incredible; yet she inquired more carefully as to where he was. He himself, patiently bearing with her, said: "O handmaid of God, why do you wonder, even if he is on some island upon this sea?" She quickly remembered then that what was said was about Aldfrith, who now reigns peacefully, who was then on the island called Iona. Adding also a question about himself, because she knew the King wished to invite him to the episcopate, if the King's desire should come to pass, and what span of time he would be in the episcopate; he, excusing himself as unworthy, said nevertheless that neither on sea nor on land could he be hidden from such an honor of rank; "and in the short space of two years I shall find rest from labor. And you also, hear what I command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: that as long as I live you shall tell no one of this." And after many prophetic words, all of which without doubt came to pass, he sailed to his place.

[7] Living thus for many years, he persevered as a solitary, separated from the sight of men, he is adorned with every virtue and he maintained an equal balance in all things; for with the same countenance, the same mind, he persevered. At every hour cheerful and joyful, he neither contracted his face in sadness at the remembrance of sin, nor was he puffed up by the great praises of those who acclaimed him. His speech, modest and seasoned with salt, consoled the sorrowful, taught the ignorant, reconciled the angry, persuading all that nothing should be preferred to the love of Christ. He set before the eyes of all the greatness of future goods and unfolded the favors granted: because God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him for the salvation of all.

BOOK IV.

The episcopate of Lindisfarne. Death, burial, Elevation, Miracles before and after death.

[1] After, therefore, he was elected to the episcopate of our church of Lindisfarne at the demand of King Ecgfrith and the Bishops of the Saxons and the whole senate, compelled to accept the episcopate then, when the aforesaid King and Bishop Tuma of holy memory and the most select men from our community came to him, shut up inside, with the counsel of the senate, falling on their knees and adjuring him by our Lord Jesus Christ, he was dragged out unwilling, compelled, weeping, and crying, while the senate still waited along with Archbishop Theodore. Now after a time, having assumed the episcopate, what sort of man he proved himself to be and how great, it is not within our ability to unfold; but nevertheless it is better to set forth some part than to omit the whole. For he persevered most steadfastly as the same man he had been before: the same humility was in his heart, the same cheapness in his clothing; and so, full of authority and grace, he fulfilled the dignity of Bishop, yet without abandoning the purpose of the monk and the virtue of the anchorite. In all things now observing the teaching of the Apostle Paul, speaking to Titus, he remembered: "A Bishop must be without reproach, as the steward of God: not proud, not angry, not given to wine, not violent, not quarrelsome, not pursuing shameful gain; but hospitable, kindly, sober, he excels in every kind of virtue just, holy, continent, embracing that faithful word which is according to doctrine,

so as to be able to exhort in doctrine and to refute those who contradict." Tit. 1:7 For this reason his speech was pure and open, full of gravity and honor, full of sweetness and grace, treating of the ministry of the law, of the doctrine of the faith, of the virtue of continence, of the discipline of justice. He admonished each person with a different exhortation, according to the quality of their character -- namely, so that he might know beforehand what to say, to whom, when, and how. Above all other things his special office was to devote himself to fasts and prayers and vigils, reading the Scriptures. For he had his memory in place of books, going through the canons, imitating the examples of the Saints, fulfilling peace with the Brethren; holding also humility and that surpassing charity without which every virtue is nothing. He bore the care of the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, receiving strangers, redeeming captives, protecting widows and orphans, so that he might deserve to receive the reward of eternal life among the choirs of Angels, with our Lord Jesus Christ.

[2] In the episcopate, therefore, Saint Cuthbert, excelling in virtues, the Lord perfectly and fully increased the dignity and authority of his rank through him in signs and wonders; he shines with miracles because what we read of the Apostles, "Whomever you loose upon earth," and the rest, was fulfilled in him both spiritually and bodily; as his Priests and Deacons who were present indicated to us. Matt. 18:18; Acts 5:12 For, as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people.

[3] Among these is the following: the wife of a certain Count of King Aldfrith, he heals with blessed water the dying wife of a Count named Heunna, dwelling in the region called Henitis, was held by the languor of illness almost to the point of death. Our holy Bishop, going forth and preaching the word of God among the people, arrived at the village of the aforesaid Count. He immediately went out to meet the Bishop, and giving thanks to the Lord for his coming, received him kindly and ministered to them; and having washed his hands and feet, he revealed to the holy Bishop the matter as it was, pitiable and tearful for the whole household -- namely, the despairing life of his wife, as if dead. He asked the Bishop for a blessing of water, believing that if she were destined for death, she would die more easily, or if life were restored, she would be healed more quickly. The holy Bishop, in the presence of all, blessed the water and gave it to his Priest, named Beta, who is still living. He himself, receiving it, carried it to the bedchamber where she lay as if dead, drawing her last breath. Sprinkling it upon her and her bed, and opening her mouth, she tasted a portion of the water. She, immediately grasping her senses and understanding, gave thanks and blessed God, who had sent such guests to restore her health. Rising at once, just as the mother-in-law of Peter, healed, she ministered to them. She indeed was the first of the entire household to give the Bishop a cup of joy, he who was taking away the cup of death from her as she lay dying.

[4] The Priest Ethelwald, who is now Prior of the monastery called Melrose, another woman tormented with pain of head and side related to me another languor of illness healed in his presence. For he said: "One day we came with the holy Bishop to a village called Bedesfeld. There a certain girl, my kinswoman and relative, was ill; for she was suffering such pain of the head and the entire other side for nearly the whole space of a year that no physician could heal her with bodily remedies. Our Bishop therefore, hearing of the illness by which the girl was oppressed, at our entreaty took pity on her, anointing her with chrism consecrated by his blessing, and from that hour she quickly gained strength, and abandoning the pain from day to day, she was restored to her former health."

[5] I have also learned without doubt of another miracle similar to this, from the testimony of many trustworthy men who were present, among whom is Henna, who said: "At a certain time the holy Bishop, setting out from Hexham, was heading for the city a paralytic boy called Vel. A halt was made, however, midway, in the region called Alise. For when the people were gathered from the mountains, laying his hand upon the heads of each, anointing with the consecrated oil which he had blessed, preaching the word of God, he had stayed there two days. Meanwhile, women came carrying a certain youth lying on a stretcher, and they brought him into the wood not far from our tents where the holy Bishop was; and they asked him through a messenger, adjuring in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that together with his other Saints he would bless him and, pouring forth prayer for him to the Lord, would ask God for pardon for his sins, for which he was bound and enduring punishment. The Bishop therefore, seeing the undoubting faith of those women, driving us away from him, prayed to the Lord, blessing the boy, driving out the disease, restoring health; he glorified the Lord Jesus Christ, who helped His servant who hoped in Him; for the boy rose at that hour, eating, and going with the women, giving thanks, he magnified the Lord who works wonders in His servants."

[6] The Priest Tydi, mentioned by me, told me, saying: "Our holy Bishop, in a certain village an infant suffering from the plague called Medilpong, during that mortality which depopulated many regions, preaching the word of God to the remaining people, turned to me and said most gently: 'Is there anyone in this village still sick with this pestilence, that I may go out to him preaching and blessing him?' I pointed out and indicated to him a woman standing not far from us, weeping and crying, because of her son who had recently died, and holding another in her arms half-dead, his whole body swelling and gasping his last breath. He without delay rose, approached her, and blessing the infant, kissed him and said to her: 'O woman, do not weep. This son of yours will be safe and will live, and none of those still living in your whole household will die of the pestilence.' The woman and her son, still leading life together, are witnesses that it was done thus."

[7] Nor do I think it should be passed over in silence what a certain Priest of ours, still living, then a lay servant of a certain Count, a sick servant of the Count related as a work of mercy performed in his presence, saying: "At the time when the holy Bishop began to go among the people preaching the word of God, invited by my lord, named Sibba, a Count of King Ecgfrith, dwelling beside the river also called Opide, he came devoutly to his village with Psalms and Hymns being sung. Having been received kindly, my lord reported to him the desperate and miserable life of a certain servant of his, already weighed down in illness, indeed already gasping his last breath and judged to be dying. The holy Bishop, taking pity, blessed water for him, and commanding me who was attending, said: 'Give the water to the sick servant of your lord, and with God's help, according to our saving faith, may the Lord, pardoning the transgressions of his sins for which he has been afflicted, grant him either life in the present if he is going to live, or rest from labor in the future if he is going to die.' I then immediately obeying the command carried it to him three times; and without delay, the Spirit of God helping (for the Holy Spirit knows no slow undertakings), I saw him brought back to life and restored to his former health. And still living, he was giving thanks to the Lord, blessing the Bishop, and praying without ceasing for him."

[8] At the time when King Ecgfrith was devastating the King of the Picts, yet finally, according to the predestined judgment of God, was to be overcome and killed, our holy Bishop, going to the city of Carlisle, visited the Queen, who was awaiting the outcome there. On a Saturday therefore, while absent he knows of the slaughter of King Ecgfrith as the Priests and Deacons, of whom many still survive, affirmed, at the ninth hour, while they were examining the wall of the city and a fountain in it once wonderfully built by the Romans, according to what Paga, the Prefect of the city, leading them, had revealed, the Bishop, standing beside his staff of support, bowing his head down to the ground, and again raising his eyes to heaven, sighed and said: "O, o, o! For I think the battle has been fought, and judgment has been passed upon our people fighting in battle." Then when they diligently inquired, wishing to know what had happened, he answered, concealing it: "O my little children, consider how wonderful the air is, and reflect how inscrutable are the judgments of God." And so after a few days they heard that a wonderful and lamentable battle had been widely announced, at the same hour and the same day as it was shown to him.

[9] To the same aforesaid city of Carlisle a certain trustworthy anchorite, he decrees that Herbert shall die with him at the same hour named Herbert, from the islands of the western sea, who had previously come to him regularly, now hastened to have a conversation with the Bishop, and according to his custom, after prayer offered between them, he renewed their spiritual conversation. The holy Bishop therefore, after many spiritual words with which he instructed him, said prophetically (for he had said this to many): "O dearest brother, speak, ask what is necessary for you, for from this hour we shall never again be about to see one another in this world, as Paul had promised to the Ephesians." Then the anchorite, falling on his knees before his feet, weeping and crying, said: "I adjure you by Jesus Christ the Son of God, that you ask the Holy Trinity not to leave me in this present world, bereft of you after your death, but to receive me with you into the joy of the eternal kingdom." To whom he immediately prayed and answered while Herbert still lay prostrate: "Rise, and rejoice, for this has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ according to your word, and you shall receive it without doubt." Why should I delay longer in a roundabout way of words? At one time, and one night, and the same hour of the night, the Bishop and the anchorite both died according to the Bishop's promise, reigning together with Christ forever and ever.

[10] The most faithful Abbess Elfleda revealed to me another miracle of spiritual knowledge concerning the holy Bishop. For when on a certain day in his parish, he sees the soul of one who died far from there being carried to heaven called Osingradum, they sat together at a feast, she saw the man of God seized by a wonderful amazement in an ecstasy of mind; and the knife that he had in his hand fell upon the table. She, while the others did not hear, humbly asked what it was that had been shown to him. He answered: "I saw the soul of a servant of God from your community being carried to heaven among the hands of Angels, and placed in the choir of Angels and holy Martyrs." When she asked by what name he was called, he answered: "You will tell me his name tomorrow when I celebrate Mass." Then at that hour the Abbess sent a messenger to her monastery to ask which of the Brethren had recently died; but he found all living there. Finally, however, inquiring diligently, they heard that one of their Brethren in the pastoral dwellings had fallen from the top of a tree and lay dead with his body broken. The messenger, returning the next day to the Abbess, reported

the matter as it had happened. She immediately ran to the holy Bishop, and as he was dedicating a church that day there, and Mass was being sung at the place where is said "Remember, Lord, your servants," she arrived breathlessly in the basilica and indicated the name of the brother, who was called Hadwald; understanding that in him she recognized not only in this the spirit of prophecy, but in all things Apostolic providence, which also clearly predicted his death in many ways.

[11] Therefore after two years of his episcopate, voluntarily leaving behind the worldly honor, imbued with the prophetic spirit of God, foreseeing the end of his life, having returned to Farne he falls ill allured by the love of his former solitary way of life, he returned again to the island from which he had once been dragged away by compulsion; content with the conversation and ministry of Angels, fully grounding his hope and placing his faith in God, with his body already languishing, weighed down by a certain illness, he remained alone.

[12] And so in the last time of his illness, a certain faithful and proven Brother, he drives out dysentery by his touch who is still living and is called Pallistod, sick with the illness of dysentery, he specially commanded to come to him and minister inside his enclosure. He, approaching gladly, at the first touch of Cuthbert (as he is accustomed frequently to relate while remembering, with tears) was fully freed from all the severity of his illness; he who had previously been weighed down, as if condemned to death, feeling himself restored to health and life, reported it to the Brethren with thanksgiving.

[13] After, therefore, Bishop Cuthbert of holy memory, having completed the Communion, raising his eyes and hands to heaven, he dies commending his soul to the Lord, sending forth his spirit and sitting without a groan, departed on the way of the Fathers; carried by sailors to our island, his whole body was washed, his head wrapped in a sudarium, oblations placed upon his holy breast, he is buried at Lindisfarne clothed in priestly vestments, his shoes prepared to meet Christ, wrapped in waxed linen, his soul rejoicing with Christ, his body incorruptible, resting as if sleeping, they honorably laid him in a stone sepulcher in the basilica.

[14] For after eleven years, at the persuasion and instruction of the Holy Spirit, with the counsel of the Deans made and with the permission given by the holy Bishop Eadberht, they proposed to elevate the relics of the bones of Saint Cuthbert the Bishop, he is elevated after eleven years, incorrupt the most proven man of the whole community, from the sepulcher. They found therefore, at the first opening of the sepulcher -- which is wonderful to say -- the whole body as completely intact as when they had laid it down eleven years before; with the skin not withering or aging and the sinews not drying, the body was upright and firm, but the limbs, full of liveliness, rested with movable joints; for they were able to bend the neck of the head and the knees of the legs, as of a living man, raised from the sepulcher, as they wished. Moreover, all the vestments and shoes which adhered to the skin of his body were not worn away. For when they unrolled the sudarium that encircled his head, it preserved the beauty of its pristine whiteness; and the new slippers with which he was shod are held in our basilica among the relics as testimony to this very day.

[15] The Lord therefore, in honor of His holy Martyr, after his death had granted the healings of many people, a demoniac is freed according to their faith. For a certain father of a family was transporting his son, tormented by a demon, screaming and crying, tearing his own body, in a cart to our island, to the relics of the holy Apostles and Martyrs of God; as he had been secretly instructed by the often-mentioned Priest named Tydi, who was unable to heal his son and drive out the demon. Therefore, as we said, when the demoniac was crying out and screaming, horror invaded the ears of many, while many despaired that any remedy of health could be conferred upon the wretched boy. A certain man, however, of good and unshaken faith, placing his hope in God and imploring the help of Saint Cuthbert, moved by compassion, blessed some water and, taking a piece of earth from that pit in which the washing of the body of our holy Bishop had been poured out after his death, he sprinkled it into the water. The boy, having tasted the blessed water, ceased from that chattering voice, and on the next day, with his father, giving thanks to the Lord, he prayed at the relics of the Saints, by whose love he believed he had been healed by God, in the sight of our community; and glorifying the Lord in His Saints, he returned healed to the home from which he had come.

[16] In honor also of the holy Confessor of God and of the incorruptible body, with the Lord God willing to fulfill in him what Christ Jesus, departing, promised concerning John the Evangelist: "I will that he remain thus until I come," one sent by Saint Willibrord is healed many wonderful things are done daily in our presence, by the Lord's granting; among which is what we recently recall having been done. John 21:21 For a certain Brother from the community of Bishop Willibrord, coming across the sea to us, was received into the guest house; and while staying in the guest house, a grave illness seized him. Having been exhausted for a long time, and finally nearly consumed, doubting his present life, he despaired. He said to the attendant of our monastery on the Lord's Day: "Lead me today after the celebrated Mass, if you can by any means, to the place where the body of the Confessor of God rests. For I believe, hoping in God with pure faith and faithful mind, that either for the honor of His servant, from the incorruptible and whole body, He may increase the fullness of health to my limbs that are withering from illness; or may grant me, freed from the bonds of distress, some part of the heavenly glory which his soul possesses." Why should I delay longer with words? Led with difficulty by the attendant, he prostrated himself on his face before the relics and prayed; and when prayer was made, giving thanks to the Lord, he rose healed, and walking by himself without the guidance of another he returned to his lodging, and after a few days he departed in good health by the will of God.

[17] Another miracle similar to this I do not pass over in silence, which was done in the present year. For there was a certain paralytic youth from another monastery, brought in a cart to the learned physicians of our monastery. They indeed began to treat him who lay prostrate, a paralytic nearly all his limbs dead, with every care, and making no progress after long labor, they abandoned him entirely, despairing of curing him. The boy therefore, when he saw himself abandoned by the bodily physicians, weeping and crying, said to his attendant: "This evil of dissolution and mortification began first in my feet and spread through all my limbs. Therefore I ask from the Abbot the shoes that covered the feet of the holy incorruptible Martyr of God." And following his counsel, the shoes were brought; he placed them around his feet that night and rested. Rising at Matins -- which is wonderful to say -- he sang praise to the Lord while standing, he who before could scarcely move any limb except his tongue. On the next day he went around the places of the holy Martyrs, giving thanks to the Lord, because by the merits of the holy Bishop, according to his faith, he was restored to his former health.

[18] Therefore, my brethren, I have dictated a few things, omitting many and innumerable ones, lest someone, surfeited and burdened, should reject all things together. For I am silent about this: how in many places demoniacs, in their sickness, professed that demons had departed solely on account of his future coming and would never again possess them; various other sick persons or again how, when present, he healed others by his word alone. I am also silent about the Brethren who purposed in their hearts, with no one else knowing, to ask for things necessary to themselves; but he, by the prophetic spirit, anticipated them, preparing for them according to the desires of their hearts, before any of them asked him. Concerning which spirit Paul said: "But to us God has revealed them through His Holy Spirit." 1 Cor. 2:20 Nor do I tell what great and wonderful things were done in two places through blessed bread, or through a drink of blessed water; and to another drinking after him, every sweetness of liquid appeared; or how Pinfrid, the Deacon of the holy Bishop, was healed from illness twice by the relics of the aforesaid Confessor of God.

c. Perhaps "Deacons."

TRANSLATION OF THE BODY

To various places and then to Durham.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

Section I. Durham, the Episcopal See. The Diocese, the Patrimony of Saint Cuthbert. The History of Durham vindicated for Turgot. The History of the Translation of Saint Cuthbert.

[1] Among all the provinces of present-day England, Durham alone is the one the province of Durham has hitherto been called the episcopate whose region has derived its name from the episcopate to this day, situated among the Northumbrians in the kingdom of Deira between the rivers Tees and Tyne, emptying themselves into the German Ocean, or, which coincides, between the counties of York and Northumberland toward the said Ocean. This whole region, with other neighboring ones, as Camden also testifies in his account of the Brigantes and the episcopate of Durham, is called in ancient monuments and histories the Land or Patrimony of Saint Cuthbert, because, and the Land or Patrimony of Saint Cuthbert after his sacred body was translated there and endured intact and incorrupt, he was regarded as the tutelary Patron of these regions, even by Kings and Nobles, who therefore bestowed very ample estates and many immunities, as will soon be evident from the ancient histories. The first and chief of these among those published so far is the History of the Church of Durham, which is placed in first position among the English Histories of ten Writers published together from old manuscripts in London in the year 1652, and is attributed to Simeon, a monk of Durham, Turgot wrote the History of Durham when its true and genuine author is Turgot, Prior of Durham, who, in his own words from book 4, chapter 8, exercised the care of Christianity throughout the whole episcopate, called by others the Archdeacon, Vicar, Dean, and Vice-Dominus of the church of Durham; and was afterwards promoted to the episcopate of Saint Andrews in Scotland. His life is described by Simeon of Durham in his History of the Deeds of the Kings of the English (which all acknowledge as truly his offspring) at the year 1074, and he is recorded to have died in the year 1115, on the second day before the Kalends of April, the eighth year of his episcopate having passed, Simeon of Durham on the deeds of the Kings of the English and two months and ten days; therefore he was made Bishop in the year 1107, having strenuously administered the Priorate of Durham before for twenty years less twelve days. Turgot wrote his History in the last years of his Priorate, and nearly sixty years earlier sixty years later than Simeon of Durham published the said history on the deeds of the Kings of the English; whence it is clearly evident that they were different authors.

[2] Ussher, many years before the History of the Church of Durham appeared in London, attributed it to Turgot; to whom John Selden also vindicated the same in his preliminary Commentary to the ten writers of English History, in which, as we said, it was incorrectly printed under the name of Simeon. And first, when in book 1, chapter 10, he had narrated that Saint Cuthbert on his deathbed had permitted his body to be buried in the church of Lindisfarne, Turgot presided over the opening of Saint Cuthbert's tomb in the year 1104

and the Brethren had given thanks for his permission and counsel with knees bent to the ground, he adds: "Let us too give thanks to him, who has granted us to see and handle with our hands his incorrupt body in the four hundred and eighteenth year of his dormition." This occurred in the month of August of the year 1104, which is the 418th year after March 20 of the year 688, on which he departed from this life. Selden incorrectly inferred the following year 1105, but he seems not to have had the Acts of the Translation or Elevation of the body, performed in the said year 1104, which we give below. In these, under the direction of Prior Turgot, nine Brethren are said to have opened the coffin, carried at night to the middle of the choir, on the ninth day before the Kalends of September, and deposited the incorrupt body on the pavement; which again the following night they handled and wrapped in a new pall and finest linen cloth. Finally, on the fourth day before the Kalends of September in the morning, when the solemn Elevation was to be performed, with Prior Turgot leading, before four Abbots and William, later Archbishop of Canterbury, and Count Alexander, later King of Scotland (through whom Turgot was promoted to the episcopate of Saint Andrews), the incorrupt body was publicly shown and its parts handled with various movements. Hence he gave thanks that at the appointed time he had been permitted to see and handle that body with his hands. These things are far removed from the age of Simeon of Durham, who, even if he had written his history of the deeds of the Kings of the English at the age of fifty, would scarcely have been born at this time. To make these things clearer, some things must be repeated about monasticism resumed in the eleventh century in the kingdom of the Northumbrians, joined to Aldwin as we find them related by Turgot, book 3, chapters 21 and 22, and by Simeon at the year 1074, when they occurred. From a monastery in the province of the Mercians, three men driven by zeal for erecting or restoring monasteries -- Aldwin the Prior, Elfwy, and Reinfrid -- came to the province of the Northumbrians, were kindly received by Walcher, Bishop of Durham, and given the village of Jarrow with its dependencies; among others who joined them was Turgot, who, as he says, speaking modestly of himself in the third person, "following Master Aldwin, was always attached to him with inseparable companionship" (and Selden asserts it is added in the Cottonian MS.): he succeeded him as Prior and wrote "It is he who, succeeding his Master, namely Aldwin, today holds in this, that is, the church of Durham, the Priorate long since entrusted to him by Bishop William" -- at least when he was writing after the year 1104, he had held it for seventeen years. And just as Aldwin, having expelled the Clerics from the church of Durham, introduced monks in the year 1083, so his associate Reinfrid withdrew to Streaneshall when Stephen was the first Abbot of York and began to establish a habitation of monks; but these, or many of them, migrating to York after his death, built a monastery in honor of Saint Mary Ever-Virgin, which Abbot Stephen now strenuously governs. Stephen is one of the four Abbots before whom, under the leadership of Prior Turgot, the body of Saint Cuthbert was shown in the year 1104, as we said; from which again the time when this history was written is confirmed.

[3] To this account of Turgot let there be added what Simeon in the History of the Deeds of the Kings of the English says about these three monks at the year 1074. "The first in age and character," he says, "was Aldwin, but Simeon wrote the second Elfwy, the third Reinfrid. From these three, three monasteries were restored in the region of the Northumbrians. One at Durham... another at York in honor of Mary, Mother of God, where from a little church a noble monastery was made, which had as first Abbot Stephen (in whose time Turgot wrote), second Richard, third Geoffrey, when Clement, the fifth Abbot, presided fourth Severin, fifth Clement, who is also the present one. The third, moreover, in the place once called Streaneshall, but now called Whitby. There sat as first Abbot William, second Nicholas, third Benedict, fourth Richard who now survives." So he says there. From these Clement, the fifth Abbot of York, in the year 1162, about the year 1162 on March 8, Friday before Passion Sunday, subscribed to the pacification between the churches of Saint Albans and Lincoln, as found in Ralph de Diceto in his Abbreviations of the Chronicles. But Clement's predecessor and Benedict of Streaneshall attended the consecration of William, Archbishop of York, in the year 1144. Hence it is clear that it is correctly held by Pitsaeus and by others generally that Simeon of Durham flourished in the year 1164, died before the year 1188 and finally died at Durham and was buried under Henry the Second, King of the English. Therefore before the year 1188, in which the King died on July 6. Turgot ends his history of the church of Durham with the death of Bishop William of Durham, who died on Wednesday, January 2, of the year 1096. There is a continuation concerning the four following Bishops -- Ranulf, Geoffrey, William II, and Hugh, he seems to be the author of the continuation to Turgot elected January 31 of the year 1154 -- whose illustrious buildings then erected, and the church enlarged and adorned, he narrates, so that this supplement seems to have been written before his death, about the year 1164, and perhaps by Simeon, so that an occasion for error seems to have been given from that.

[4] With the History of the Church of Durham vindicated for Turgot, it is divided into four books: Turgot's History divided into four books the first begins with the See of Lindisfarne founded in the year 625 and ends with the death of the Venerable Bede in the year 735; it contains what was done concerning Saint Cuthbert in his lifetime and the first finding of the incorrupt body, which we have either brought forth from Bede or have been appended from this source. The second book contains the events from the said year 735 up to 990, and they were initially peaceful, then for about two hundred years clearly violent, during which the church of Lindisfarne was devastated and destroyed, the body of Saint Cuthbert was carried from there and transported to various places. The third book encompasses the peaceful possession, with the body of Saint Cuthbert brought to Durham and the Episcopal See established there, and extends to about the year 1080. The fourth book, smaller than the rest, encompasses the acts of Bishop William, and the Clerics removed and monks introduced to Saint Cuthbert, over whom Prior Aldwin presided, and upon his death the author Turgot himself succeeded; extracted from Bede and other ancient authors and it ends with the said Bishop's death in the year 1096. Moreover, Turgot had before his eyes all the best writers and diplomas of Kings; and indeed in the first book, the Venerable Bede both from the Ecclesiastical History and from the Life of Saint Cuthbert. In the second book, chapter 10, about to deal with the apparition of Saint Cuthbert made to King Alfred of the West Saxons, he says: "Since it is fully written in order elsewhere, it does not seem necessary to repeat it here. Briefly, however, let it be mentioned here that among other admonitions and promises, he pledges the kingdom of Britain to him and his sons: 'I advise you,' he said, 'to love mercy and justice especially,' etc." What ancient monument is indicated, we cannot guess. Pitsaeus and others report that King Alfred wrote various books, and among them one on the Various Fortunes of Kings. But since the matter is unknown, it cannot be judged whether that is the book indicated.

[5] We have obtained and publish from the manuscript codex of Lord Nicolas Belfort a distinguished document about the Translation of the body of Saint Cuthbert from the island of Lindisfarne to various places on account of the Danish devastation, and its deposition in the church of Durham. History of the Translation That this History was written still in the eleventh century of Christ is indicated by these words related below: "Nor should it be passed over in silence how many miracles of this most blessed Father have shone also in our own times"; and first there are narrated of Saint Cuthbert, written in the eleventh century those things which happened during the reign of Saint Edward the King, on the occasion of Earl Tosti, therefore before the year 1066, in which Saint Edward died on January 5, and by his successor Harold, Tosti his brother was expelled from the earldom. In this History is contained the entire account of the vision and apparition of Saint Cuthbert made to King Ecgfrith, and the words cited by Turgot are found to be the same, it contains what Turgot indicated namely "Love mercy and justice especially" and what follows. Furthermore, Turgot in book 3, chapter 11, at the end, writes this: "At which time also that miracle occurred, which is read more fully elsewhere, concerning Barcwid, who, while he wished to break the peace of the Saint, was suddenly struck by vengeance and perished." These are in fact the things which are read below at greater length in this History of the Translation and miracles. The rest that are narrated by that author are found described in almost the same words in Turgot; except the miracle concerning the thief who was punished, which is narrated at the end as having been done after the slaying of Walcher, Bishop of Durham, and most of them are described in the same words perpetrated in the year 1080; which may perhaps have been added afterwards, or omitted by Turgot for another reason. In our copy, which we regret, seven chapters are missing, and two or three leaves seemed to have been cut from the manuscript codex, which we supply from the said History of Turgot concerning the Church of Durham, since the last words of the previous part and the first of the following plainly agree; from these the gap is supplied we do not doubt meanwhile that more things were interjected by Turgot, as was done in other cases. The whole matter can be known from the index of chapters in Turgot; the History of the Translation itself will be divided in our customary manner.

Section II. The solemnity of the Translation inscribed in the sacred calendars. Donations then and previously made at Lindisfarne. The first devastation of Lindisfarne.

[6] The venerable Bishop Aldun, as is said below, solemnly dedicated the church in the third year after he had founded it, Dedication of the church and Translation made in the year 998, September 4 on the day before the Nones of September, and placed the body of the most holy Father Cuthbert, translated to the place he had prepared, with due honor. This is repeated in nearly the same words by Turgot, book 3, chapter 4. The year then passing was the nine hundred and ninety-eighth. And the day indicated, September 4, was held in veneration by posterity on account of this Translation. In the famous monastery of Jumieges in Normandy, on the Seine below Rouen, an ancient Missal for the English churches is preserved, inscribed in an ancient MS. Missal in which the Paschal table prefixed to the Calendar extended from the year one thousand to the ninety-fifth following. From this Missal we excerpted what seemed rarer to us in the Calendar, and at September 4 this: "The Translation of Saint Birinus the Bishop and of Saint Cuthbert the Bishop." Saint Birinus is honored on December 3. Among the older manuscript Martyrologies we have two MS. Martyrologies in which rarer information about the Saints of England is indicated; one is a very ancient parchment in our possession, bearing the name of Bede, augmented by later hands; the other is a copy from a codex of the church of Saint Mary of Utrecht. In both, the Translation of the relics of Saint Cuthbert the Bishop is celebrated. The same things are read in the MS. Martyrology of Saint Gudula of Brussels and the MS. Florarium of the Saints. and printed ones Likewise in various printed Martyrologies, such as the Cologne one of the year 1490, the German of Canisius, the English

of Wilson, the Benedictine of Edward Maihew, the Supplement to Usuard by Hermann Greven and John Molanus of the first edition, and the General Catalogue of Ferrari. Again, in the said Greven at September 20 there is some mention of Saint Cuthbert, but for what reason is unknown, Office of the church of Salisbury nor have we hitherto found mention of his name among others on that day. The Office to be recited on September 4 exists in print in the ancient Breviary of Salisbury.

[7] There is added to the cited chapter 4 in Turgot a narrative of benefits on the occasion of the Translation then made, to be appended here. "There were donations then made at that time very many who brought various gifts for the adornment of the church and for the sufficiency of those ministering there to the holy Confessor, and lands. Among whom one of the nobles, named Styr, son of Ulf, obtained from King Ethelred that he might give Darlington with its dependencies to Saint Cuthbert, and before the King and in the presence of Archbishop Wulfstan and Bishop Aldun of Durham and other principal men who had assembled with the King at York, this gift was confirmed in such a way that whoever should take it from Saint Cuthbert would be condemned with eternal anathema. The aforesaid man also added other lands, which the written page shows described elsewhere. To these gifts, Snaculf, son of Cykell, added other lands to be possessed by eternal right, namely Eriding, Mordon, Sockburn, Gresby, alienated by Counts with sake and soke. There are, however, certain landed possessions which Bishop Aldun lent for a time to the Counts of Northumbria in his day while they were suffering from necessity; but the violence of the Counts who succeeded them alienated almost all of them from the lordship of the Church."

[8] But as we are about to return to Lindisfarne with the following history, what happened there over 138 years we present beforehand from book 2 of the History of the Church of Durham, accomplished after the times of Bede and before the departure of the Lindisfarne people from the island with the body of Saint Cuthbert; donations made to the Lindisfarne people by Saint Ceolwulf in the year 738 and in chapter 1 the account deals with Saint Ceolwulf the King, who became a monk among the Lindisfarne people in the year 738, whose Acts collected from various sources we gave on January 15. But because at that time the History of Turgot had not yet been published, we add here the following: "He entered the monastery of Lindisfarne, bringing with him to Saint Cuthbert royal treasures and lands, that is, Brainshaugh and Wearworth with their dependencies, together with the church which he himself had built there. Also four other villages: Woodchester, Whittingham, Easingham, Eadwulfingham." But in chapter 5, concerning the first destruction of the church of Lindisfarne, the following things are related:

[9] A great calamity inflicted on the church of Lindisfarne in the year 793 "In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 793, and the 107th from the death of Father Cuthbert, the 11th of the pontificate of Higbald, a most wretched devastation, filling the church of Lindisfarne with blood and plunder, destroyed it almost to annihilation... presaging whose disaster and the future slaughter of other Saints also, horrible lightning bolts and dragons vibrating with fiery blasts were seen flying through the air. Soon in the same year, Pagans coming from the northern climate to Britain with a naval force, running here and there, plundering, they killed not only cattle but also priests, Levites, and choirs of monks and nuns. They came on the seventh day before the Ides of June to the church of Lindisfarne, June 7 they devastate everything with wretched plundering, they trample the holy things with polluted footsteps, they dig up the altars, they seize all the treasures of the church. They killed some of the Brethren, they took some away with them in chains, they cast out many, stripped naked and harassed with insults, they drowned some in the sea. But they did not do these things with impunity, the evildoers are divinely punished God avenging more swiftly the injuries they inflicted upon Saint Cuthbert. For in the following year, while devastating the port of King Ecgfrith, that is, Jarrow, and also plundering the monastery at the mouth of the river Don, their leader perished there by a cruel death, and not long after, their ships, struck and shattered by the violence of the storm, were lost. Some of them were swallowed by the waves; others who had been cast alive onto the land by some means the monks remain at the body of Saint Cuthbert were soon killed by the swords of the inhabitants. The church of Lindisfarne having been thus devastated and despoiled of its ornaments, nonetheless the episcopal See remained in it, and those monks who had been able to escape the hands of the barbarians remained for a long time afterward at the sacred body of Blessed Cuthbert."

[10] Higbald presided over these for nine more years; to whom Alcuin writes these things in a letter: "To the children in Christ of the most blessed Father Cuthbert the Bishop, to Bishop Higbald and the whole congregation of the church of Lindisfarne, Alcuin the Deacon sends greetings. The intimacy of your charity used to gladden me greatly, but in turn the calamity of your tribulation, Alcuin writes to them though I am absent, has greatly saddened me, because the Pagans have contaminated the sanctuaries of God and poured out the blood of the Saints around the altar, and have trampled the bodies of the Saints in the temple like dung in the street. What confidence is there for the churches of Britain, if Saint Cuthbert with so great a number of Saints does not defend his own?" etc. And in a letter to King Ethelred: "Behold, the church of Saint Cuthbert, Priest of God, sprinkled with blood, despoiled of all its ornaments, a place more venerable than any other in all Britain, is given over to pagan nations for destruction. And where the Christian religion first took its beginning among the nation of the Northumbrians, after the departure of Saint Paulinus from York, there the beginning of misery and calamity commenced."

[11] But about the year 830, as Turgot continues, "Egred was elevated to the Pontificate, a man noble by birth and vigorous in the effectiveness of his works, the church is endowed by Bishop Egred, created in the year 830 who strove to enrich and honor the church of Father Cuthbert with gifts of property and lands more than his predecessors. For having built a church at Norham and dedicated it in honor of Saints Peter the Apostle and Cuthbert the Bishop, and also of Ceolwulf the King and later monk, he translated there the body of the same God-beloved Ceolwulf, and he bestowed upon the holy Confessor Cuthbert the village itself with two others bearing the same name which he himself had founded, Jedburgh with its dependencies, the church and village also which he had built in the place called Gainford, and whatever belongs to it, from the river Tees to the Wear. He also added two villages, Elton and Wycliffe, and also Billingham in Hartness, of which he himself had been the founder, to the above-mentioned places which he had given to the aforesaid Confessor, to be possessed in perpetuity... In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 854... Eardulf, a man of great merit, it is cultivated by Bishop Eardulf, created in the year 854 took up the governance of the Pontifical Chair, and he bestowed no less care of pastoral solicitude upon the nearest places of the Lindisfarne people and upon those situated far away in his episcopate; of which Carlisle, which is now called Carlisle, had not only been properly the right of Saint Cuthbert, but had also always been attached to the governance of his episcopate from the times of King Ecgfrith. No one, however, of his predecessors or successors to this day labored so much in the presence of the most holy body of Cuthbert; who, fleeing with it from place to place for seven years amid swords raging everywhere, amid the fierce attacks of barbarians, amid the burning of monasteries, amid plunder and the slaughter of men, clung to his service with inseparable love, as will be said in what follows." So he says there. These are followed by what we have from the ancient author collected in the manuscript codex.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION.

From the manuscript codex of Nicolas Belfort, supplemented from the History of Durham by Turgot.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

BHL Number: 2029, 2030, 2031

FROM MSS.

CHAPTER I.

King Alfred, roused by the appearing of Saint Cuthbert who predicts victory.

[1] God Almighty, justly merciful and mercifully just, with the Danes and Frisians devastating England when He disposed to scourge the English nation for its manifold offenses, permitted the savagery of pagan nations, namely the Frisians and the Danes, to rule over them. These nations, under Ubba, leader of the Frisians, and Halfdan, King of the Danes, coming to Britain, which is now called England, divided into three bands, overran the land in three directions. For one of these restored the walls of the city of York, and inhabiting the region round about, settled there; the other two, far fiercer than that one, occupied the kingdom of the Mercians and the land of the South Saxons, destroying everything far and wide by fire, plunder, and murder, things both divine and human. You would then see noble and distinguished priests slaughtered at the very altars at which they had celebrated the most sacred mysteries of the Lord's Body and Blood; virgins seized, the rights of matrons dissolved; infants torn from their mothers' very breasts, some dashed to the ground, others hung by their feet, others ripped apart in barbarous hands; finally neither sex nor age nor any rank was spared by such cruel men. King Alfred escapes Nor could that bestial cruelty be sated unless it also extinguished all those of royal lineage through whom it feared any danger to its power; and Alfred, the father of the first King Edward, alone of all the royal seed, barely escaped. He indeed, lest he be struck by a similar sentence, lay hidden for three years -- the period during which the barbarism was permitted to rage -- in the marshes of Glastonbury with the greatest deprivation.

[2] But when the clemency of God had decreed by His accustomed compassion that the barbaric savagery should now cease, [Saint Cuthbert, in the guise of a pilgrim asking for alms, arranges for half of the food and drink to be given] it happened that the same Alfred, all the others having been sent out to fish, remained at home alone with only his wife and one household servant. In the meantime someone in pilgrim's garb arrived, urgently requesting alms; to whom Alfred himself, with the most joyful countenance and spirit, immediately and without delay ordered food to be given. When he heard from the servant that nothing remained for the day's sustenance except one loaf of bread and a small amount of wine, made happier by this, he said: "Thanks be to God, who deigns to visit me, His poor man, so far removed from the common company of men, through this poor man of His also." And saying this, he cheerfully orders the half of each to be given away, fulfilling in deed the Apostolic saying: "God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Cor. 9:7 When the one who seemed poor had received it, he said: "Do not delay to give thanks more often to your lord for such great compassion; for I hope that this very generosity of his will be more abundantly rewarded by the bountiful heavenly mercy." He had said this to that servant, and then the servant to his lord; and soon the servant, returning to the place, then found untouched found the poor man nowhere, but the bread and wine he found whole, so that it had absolutely no sign of having been cut. Amazed at this to himself, he likewise wished hastily to tell his lord. When the novelty of this miracle was perceived, both he and his wife were struck with no less amazement. And although they searched carefully, they could not discover the road by which the man had come or departed, since especially that place, enclosed by marshy waters, could only be reached by boat.

[3] Meanwhile, at the ninth hour of the day dawning, those who had gone out to fish brought home three boats laden with fish, he is refreshed by an abundant catch of fish asserting that so great an abundance of fishing had not occurred during the entire three years they had been living in those marshes. Gladdened therefore by such great benefits of God,

they passed that day more joyfully than usual. Night came; each one, about to rest after the day's labors, settled himself in his place. While all were overcome by deep sleep, Alfred lay alone on his bed, wide awake, turning over in his sorrowful heart the hardships of his exile, and at the same time wondering about the pilgrim and the unexpected abundance of fish. And behold, a light more splendid than any ray of the sun illuminated the whole bedchamber from heaven; he himself, terrified, forgot all his former cares and gazed stupefied only at the brightness of that light. Then a certain elder in that very light, vested as a bishop, Saint Cuthbert appears at night with black hair but a most handsome face, came forward; and holding out in his right hand a book of the Gospels marvelously adorned with gold and gems, he soothes the stupefied and trembling Alfred with these friendly words: "Let not the splendor of my coming here disturb you, my beloved Alfred; let the fear of barbaric fury trouble you no more; for God, who does not despise the groans of His poor ones, will now at last put an end to your labors, and I shall henceforth be your most ready helper." Immediately strengthened by these words, he earnestly asks who he is and why he has come. Then the elder, smiling, said: "I am the one to whom you ordered food to be given today; he promises an end to the persecution but I was delighted not so much for the bread and wine as for your inward devotion. As for my name, which you ask, know that I am called Cuthbert, servant of God, sent here to you so that through me you may understand more intimately how to be freed from the persecution that has long afflicted you. Therefore I advise you to love mercy and justice especially, and to teach the same to your sons above all things; because, through my intercession and God's gift, the empire of all Britain will be granted to you to govern. and the empire of all England If you prove faithful to God and to me, you will have me hereafter as an unconquerable shield for crushing all the strength of your enemies. Therefore now set aside all the torpor of sadness; and when the dawn first reddens tomorrow, and a gathering of friends sail to the nearest shore, and blow your horn three times with all your might. For as wax melts from the heat of fire, so from this blast, God willing, the pride of your enemies will be dissolved, and the boldness of your friends will be raised. Also about the ninth hour of this day, five hundred of your dearest friends, all well armed, will come to you. and an army And by this sign you may believe that after seven days have passed, at the hill of Assandune, the army of this whole land will assemble, most ready to follow you as their King in both adversity and prosperity; where, having entered battle with the enemy, you will without doubt be the victor." When the Saint had set forth these things, he vanished from the eyes of the wondering man together with the light. Alfred, most certain that all he had heard would be fulfilled, commended himself most attentively to the Saint's patronage.

[4] At the rising of dawn, more agile than usual, reaching the shore, Alfred summons 500 with his horn he carries out the commands. Both enemies and friends alike hear the blast of his horn; and five hundred of the best of his friends, most strongly armed, assemble. To them he, unfolding the order of the vision, said: "Now we have seen what great torments our parents, now dead, endured from the barbarians for their and our offenses by the just judgment of God; and we too are sought out day and night for similar things, and we now have no safe place of refuge. he explains the vision I ask therefore that we obey the admonitions of Saint Cuthbert our defender, that we prove faithful to God, flee vices, and love the exercises of virtues; so indeed we shall experience the patronage of his defense everywhere." Finally the promised army of the whole land assembled with Alfred at the predicted mountain on the predicted day, with the army approaching and no less from the opposite side that deadly barbarism, trusting in its infinite multitude and previous successes, rushed forward. Immediately a clash for battle ensued; he routs the Danes but the outcome for the combatants was unequal. On this side the Christian proves by killing how salutary it is to trust in heavenly aid; on that side the Pagan experiences by falling how detestable it is to presume upon human pride. This battle having been completed without damage to his army, Alfred obtained the empire of all Britain; he receives the empire of England and since he kept in mind at court the precepts of the holy Confessor which he had received in poverty, he always and everywhere prevailed over all the devices of his adversaries.

CHAPTER II.

The Translation of Saint Cuthbert's body to Ireland prevented.

[5] During the times of this same persecution also, an intolerable tribulation, suddenly emerging in the territories of the Northumbrians, severely shook the churches of God. At the time of this desolation Then a certain man of great merit named Eardulf directed the episcopate of the church of Lindisfarne (where the most blessed Confessor of God Cuthbert then rested in body) in a manner praiseworthy before God and men. He, remembering the words of the aforementioned Father, which he had delivered to his followers as his last before departing this life, by Bishop Eardulf of Lindisfarne chose rather to yield the place than to be subjected to the wicked. For among other precepts of peace and love, the Father had then counseled his followers in a paternal manner, saying: "If necessity compels you to choose one of two things, I much prefer that, digging up and taking my bones with you, you depart from this place and remain wherever God provides, rather than consent to iniquity for any reason and submit your necks to the yoke of schismatics." There was also at that time a certain Abbot named Eadred, himself a man of wonderful holiness before God and of no small nobility among men, and Abbot Eadred who always showed the same devotion as the Bishop toward the most blessed Confessor of God. When therefore this tribulation thundered, the two aforesaid men, taking with them certain others of the religious life, carried the incorrupt body of the Venerable Father away from the monastery of Lindisfarne. the body of Saint Cuthbert is carried away When the Saint's people heard this, leaving their homes with all their possessions, with their wives and children they immediately followed. with the inhabitants following For this people (which is called properly his own, because it is preserved by a certain special providence from him, and cannot live anywhere except under him, unlike some nations that know how to live in foreign lands as well as in their own) has such great security of protection in him that it fears almost no injuries of adversities. However, let no one attribute to their own merits the fact that he has so often with such great piety avenged those who flee to him from adversaries -- about which we shall say some things in what follows -- since, apart from a few, all are guilty of wicked deeds; but let each one consider how much the firmness of faith avails in this matter.

[6] a plan is made to transfer him to Ireland Then by the providence of God it happened that, wandering for a long time with the most precious body of the most holy Confessor, they traversed nearly the whole land. The Bishop and the Abbot, at last overcome by excessive weariness from the long labor, discussed at length between themselves the mutual plan to seek an end to their labors and a resting place for the holy body in Ireland, especially since they had no hope of remaining anywhere in this whole land. Having therefore also consulted those who were wiser and more advanced in age, this plan pleased everyone. "Clearly," they said, "we are admonished to seek rest in a foreign land; because unless this were the will of God and of the Saint himself, a place both worthy of his holiness and convenient for us would long since have been provided." So said they; but the incomprehensible wisdom of God disposed otherwise. For when they came to the mouth of the river Derwent (from which a shorter and easier passage to Ireland lies open), a ship is prepared for the crossing, he is placed on the ship the venerable body is placed on board, and a few who knew of the plan enter with the Bishop and Abbot, all the rest being ignorant of what they intended to do. But why do we delay? Having bidden farewell to their companions watching from the shore, they spread their sails with favorable winds and direct their prow on a straight course to Ireland. What sorrow, do you think, then gripped those left behind? What lamentation of the mourning? with others lamenting They fall to the ground, they sprinkle their heads with dust, they tear their garments, they beat their breasts with stones and fists, and at last break out together in words like these: "Woe to us wretches, why were we born in these sad times? You, Father and Patron of ours: behold, like sheep exposed to the teeth of wolves, so we wretches and captives are laid open to raging adversaries." Nor did they say more.

[7] Immediately the winds change, the waves swell, and what was calm sea becomes stormy when a storm arises it is brought back and most dark; and with the ship now tossed here and there without a helmsman, those inside had grown stiff as if dead. Moreover, three waves of wondrous size, coming upon them with a horrifying roar, filled the ship nearly to the middle planks, and by a terrible miracle, unheard of after the plagues of Egypt, they were immediately changed into blood. When, as the ship was turned on its side by this storm, a book of the Gospels, adorned with gold and gems, fell from it with the book of the Gospels having fallen into the sea and was carried into the depths of the sea. Therefore, after recovering their senses a little and recollecting who and where they were, they bend their knees and, prostrate with their whole bodies at the feet of the holy body, beg pardon for their foolish daring. Seizing the rudder, they turn the ship back to the shore and to their companions, and immediately, with winds blowing from behind, they arrive there without any difficulty.

Then those who had previously wept in sorrow now, in a reversal, wept even more for joy. The Bishop with his companions, weeping no less with shame and sorrow alike, prostrated himself with his whole body on the ground and earnestly prayed for forgiveness.

[8] Meanwhile, the people, compelled over a long span of years by labor, the necessity of hunger, with many slipping away and the want of all things, slipped away from the company of the holy body and were scattered through uninhabited places to sustain their life in whatever way they could. For except for the Bishop and the Abbot with their very few followers, all departed, except those seven who, as has been said, were always accustomed to adhere more closely to the service of his body. These indeed were those who, when the monks failed, nurtured and educated by them, as we said above, followed the venerable body of the holy Confessor from the island of Lindisfarne, never to abandon it as long as they lived. it is guarded by fewer Of these, the four who seemed to be the greater of the three others had these names: Hunred, Stithard, Edmund, and Franco; of whose lineage many in the province of the Northumbrians, both clerics and laymen, boast all the more of their descent, the more faithfully their ancestors are said to have served Saint Cuthbert. When therefore, with all departing, they were left alone with so great a treasure, they endured the greatest distress with adverse circumstances on every side, yet could not devise by what plan they might escape or by what consolation they might find relief. "What shall we do?" they said. "Where shall we go, carrying the Father's relics? Fleeing the barbarians for seven years we have traversed the whole province, and now no place of refuge remains in our homeland. That we should not seek rest as pilgrims elsewhere, we have been forbidden by the manifest chastisement of the scourge. On top of all this, a dire famine pressing upon us greatly desolated compels us to seek the sustenance of life wherever we can, but the sword of the Danes raging everywhere does not permit us to pass with this treasure. Furthermore, if, having abandoned it, we provide for ourselves, what shall we answer to his people, who will later inquire where their Pastor and Patron is? Shall we say he was taken from us by theft or violence? Shall we report him transported into exile, or left alone in the wilderness? Surely by their hand we shall immediately perish by a just death, and we shall leave infamy to all future ages, and we shall earn the curses of all."

[9] To those groaning in such great distress of circumstances, the accustomed aid of their most pious Patron at last appeared, with Saint Cuthbert appearing by which he relieved their spirits from sorrow and their bodies from labor, because the Lord became a refuge for the poor, a helper in times of opportunity in tribulation. For standing by in a vision to a certain one of them, namely Hunred, he ordered them, when the tide of the sea had receded, to seek the codex which had fallen from the ship, as was said above, into the midst of the waves; for perhaps, contrary to what they could hope, by God's mercy they might find it. For also concerning the loss of that book, the greatest sorrow had disturbed their minds. To which words he also added these: "You," he said, "rising quickly, the book of the Gospels is recovered the bridle which you will see hanging in a tree, show it to the horse which you will find far from here, and it will immediately run to you of its own accord and you will bridle it; after that, drawing the cart in which my body is carried around, you will be able to follow with lightened labor." Having received these things, immediately awakened from sleep, he narrated the vision he had seen, and soon sent some of his companions to the sea, which was nearby, to seek the book they had lost. For at that time they had come to the place called Candida Casa, commonly Whithorn. And so going to the sea, they saw it had receded much farther than usual, and walking three or more miles, they found the holy book of the Gospels itself, which on the outside preserved its beauty of gems and gold, and on the inside displayed the former beauty of its letters and pages, the bridle is found, then a horse running up of its own accord as if it had been hardly touched by water. This thing filled their anxious minds with no small joy and did not permit the aforementioned man to doubt at all about the other things he had heard. Going therefore, he found the bridle, just as he had learned through the dream, hanging in a tree; then looking around here and there, he spotted a little farther away a horse of reddish color, which how or from where it had reached that solitary place could in no way be known. When, as he had been commanded, he held up the bridle to show it, the horse came running quickly and offered itself to be bridled by his hands. Having brought it to his companions, they thenceforth rejoiced to labor all the more gladly for the presence of Father Cuthbert's body, since they knew for certain that his aid would never fail them in their need. Therefore, yoking the horse to the vehicle that carried that heavenly treasure enclosed in its chest, they followed all the more securely through whatever places, since they were guided by a horse provided to them by God. Moreover, the aforementioned book is preserved to this day in this church, which has merited to have the body of the holy Father himself, in which, as we said, absolutely no sign of damage from water is shown. This is plainly believed to have been done by the merits both of Saint Cuthbert himself and of those who had been the authors of the book itself: namely Bishop Eadfrith of venerable memory, who had written it in honor of Blessed Cuthbert with his own hand; also his venerable successor Ethelwald, who had ordered it to be adorned with gold and gems; and also Saint Bilfrid the anchorite, who, pursuing the wishes of the one who commanded with an artisan's hand, had composed the excellent work. For he was preeminent in the art of goldsmithing. These men, equally burning with love for the Confessor and Bishop beloved of God, left behind this work so that their devotion toward him might be made known to all posterity.

CHAPTER III.

The body of Saint Cuthbert is transferred to Crayke and Chester-le-Street.

[10] With King Halfdan destroyed When therefore he wished both to provide a resting place for his body and to give respite to those serving him from their long seven-year labor, the impious King Halfdan paid the penalty at God's vindication for his cruelty, which he had exercised against the church of the Saint and the other holy places. For an exceedingly grievous torment seized his body together with madness of mind, from which also an intolerable stench emanating made him hateful to his entire army. Despised therefore by all and cast out, the body of Saint Cuthbert rests at Crayke he fled from the Tyne with only three ships, and not long after perished with all his followers. These things having been done thus, they carried the venerable body to the monastery which had once been in his village called Crayke, and there, most kindly received by the Abbot whose name was Geve, they resided as if at home for four months.

[11] Meanwhile, since the army and the surviving natives were wavering without a King, Blessed Cuthbert himself stood by the often-mentioned Abbot Eadred, a man of religious life, in a dream, and now providing for the peace of his followers, with King Guthred established he enjoined upon him the following things to be done: "Go," he said, "to the army of the Danes, and say that I have sent you to them on my mission, so that, namely, the boy whom they had sold to that widow, named Guthred, son of Hardecnut -- let them show you where he is. When he is found and the price of his freedom has been paid to the widow, let him be brought forward before the assembly of the whole army, and by my will and command at Oswiesdune, that is, the hill of Oswin, let him be elected by all, and with a bracelet placed on his right arm, let him be established in the kingdom." The Abbot therefore, waking up, told the matter to his companions, and soon setting out, fulfilled the commands in order. When the youth was brought forth into their midst, both barbarians and natives reverently received the commands of Saint Cuthbert and with unanimous favor established the boy from servitude into the kingdom. When he, with the favor and love of all, obtained the seat of the kingdom, and with the storms of disturbances now calmed, tranquility was restored, the Episcopal See, which we said above was on the island of Lindisfarne, was restored at Chester-le-Street. Therefore, when the incorrupt body of the most blessed Father was transferred there after four months from Crayke, it is brought to Chester-le-Street and at the same time those who would serve God there were established, the distinguished Bishop Eardulf, a man always adhering to Saint Cuthbert in prosperity and adversity everywhere, was the first to ascend the Pontifical Chair there; and King Guthred bestowed no small amount of honor and gifts upon that church, and humbly and devoutly subjected to him who had promoted him from a servant to a King, he faithfully served him thereafter. Whence all that had been commanded for the privileges and liberty of his church and for the sustenance of those ministering to him, the King as a willing minister hastened to fulfill promptly.

[12] Finally, the Saint himself, standing by the aforementioned Abbot in a vision, said: "Tell lands and privileges are granted for possession the King to bestow upon me and those serving in my church all the land between the Wear and the Tyne, by right of perpetual possession, from which the provisions of life may be procured for them lest they suffer want. Command him furthermore to establish my church as a secure place of refuge for fugitives, so that whoever for whatever reason shall flee to my body may have peace for thirty-seven days, never to be broken on any occasion." These things, heard through the faithful intermediary the Abbot, both King Guthred himself and also the most powerful Alfred, who was mentioned above, proclaimed to be declared to the peoples, and with the whole army not only of the English but also of the Danes consenting and approving, they established them to be observed forever. Moreover, those who should presume to violate in any way the peace instituted by the Saint himself, they decreed should be punished with a monetary penalty -- namely, that whatever they would owe to the King of the English for the violation of his peace, they should pay the same to the Saint himself for the violation of his peace, namely at least ninety-six pounds. Also the land which he had commanded between the two aforementioned rivers was soon given to him, and by the common judgment of the aforesaid Kings and the whole people it was decreed that whoever shall have given land to Saint Cuthbert, or land shall have been purchased with his money, no one thereafter shall dare to claim for himself any right of whatever service or custom from it, but the church shall possess it in undisturbed peace and liberty with all customs, and as it is commonly said, with sake and soke and infangthief, in perpetuity. Whoever shall presume by any effort to break these laws and these statutes, they

condemned to be punished with the fires of hell by the unanimous sentence of all.

[13] After some time had passed, the nation of the Scots, assembling an innumerable army, the Scots punished when the earth opened among other crimes of their cruelty savagely invaded and plundered the monastery of Lindisfarne. While King Guthred, strengthened by Saint Cuthbert, stood ready to fight against them, suddenly the earth opening up swallowed all the enemies alive, renewing there the ancient miracle when the earth opened and swallowed Dathan and covered over the assembly of Abiram. How it was done is known to be written elsewhere. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 894, King Guthred, having reigned prosperously for not a few years, dying, left to all Kings, Bishops, and peoples after him, to be preserved forever, the privileges of the Church of Father Cuthbert -- concerning its peace, concerning its liberty, concerning the sanctuary of those fleeing to his sepulcher, never to be violated by anyone -- and other statutes also for the protection of the same church, which are observed to this very day. Indeed no one ever attempted to break them with impunity: as the Scots, as we mentioned, when they had violated his peace, were suddenly swallowed by the gaping earth and disappeared in a moment. What terrible vengeance also struck others in a similar crime of presumption will be told in what follows.

[14] When Guthred died, King Alfred took over the governance of the kingdom of the Northumbrians. Alfred rules Northumbria For after Saint Cuthbert had appeared to him, to his ancestral kingdom, that is, of the West Saxons, he added the province of the East Angles and, after Guthred, that of the Northumbrians. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 899, the same most pious King of the English, Alfred, having completed twenty-eight and a half years in his reign, died, with his son Edward succeeding to his father's kingdom; and Edward who had been most diligently admonished by Alfred himself to hold Saint Cuthbert and his church always in honor, loving them as much as possible, remembering from what great straits and calamities he had rescued his father and restored him to his kingdom, and, having subdued enemies, had increased it more than his ancestors had held. In the same year in which King Alfred died, the often-mentioned Bishop Eardulf, at a good old age, about to receive the rewards of his labors, Bishops Eardulf departed from this life, namely in the nineteenth year after the sacred body of the blessed Father Cuthbert had been translated to Chester-le-Street, and in the forty-sixth year of his episcopate; and Cutheard favor Saint Cuthbert in his place Cutheard, himself also commended by a praiseworthy life before God and men, by the election of all took up the governance of the Episcopal Chair. He, providing with great solicitude a sufficiency of resources for those who would serve God in the presence of the incorrupt body, what and how many villages, purchased with the money of the Saint himself, he added to the earlier gifts of Kings, the charter of the Church, which contains the ancient munificence of Kings and of all devout persons toward the Saint himself, clearly declares.

[15] And so, while Edward was governing the kingdoms not only of the West Saxons but also of the East Angles and of the Northumbrians, and Cutheard was administering the episcopate of Bernicia, a certain pagan King named Ragnald arrived with a great fleet in the territories of the Northumbrians. by him the plunderers of the villages Scula are punished Without delay, having broken into York, he killed or drove out of their homeland all the better natives. He also soon occupied all the land of Saint Cuthbert and distributed its villages to his two soldiers, one of whom was called Scula, the other Onlafbald. Of these, Scula, having obtained dominion from the village called Yoden to Billingham, afflicted the wretched natives with heavy and intolerable tributes; whence to this day the people of York, whenever they are forced to pay the royal tribute, attempt to impose a monetary fine upon that part of the land of Saint Cuthbert which Scula had possessed, for their own relief. They count as law, that is, what the Pagan had done through tyranny, who served not a legitimate King of the English but a foreign barbarian and an enemy of the King of the English. Yet however much they have labored at this, they have not hitherto been able to introduce this wicked custom, with Saint Cuthbert resisting. The other part of the villages Onlafbald occupied, who showed himself far more savage and cruel than his associate, to the ruin of all. and Onlafbald Finally, when he had often molested the Bishop, the congregation, and the people of Saint Cuthbert with many injuries and persistently usurped for himself the estates that rightly belonged to the episcopate, the Bishop, wishing to win him for God, said: "I beg you, lay down the rigor of your obstinate spirit and restrain yourself now from the unlawful seizure of ecclesiastical property. For if you spurn these warnings, do not doubt that the Confessor himself will severely avenge the injuries inflicted upon himself and his people through you." But he, inflated by a diabolical spirit against these words, said: "Why do you daily hurl the threats of this dead man at me? What will the help of this man in whom you hope avail you against me? I call upon the power of my gods as witness that I will henceforth be the fiercest enemy both to this dead man and to all of you." But the Bishop and all the Brethren, prostrate on the ground, implored God and the holy Confessor to annul his proud threats. That wretched man had already reached the door, miserably dead had already placed one foot inside the threshold and the other outside, and there, as if pierced through both feet by nails, he could neither go out nor go back, but remained there utterly immovable; where, tortured for a long time, he openly confessed the sanctity of the most blessed Confessor, and was thus compelled to surrender his impious soul in that very place. By which example all others, terrified, did not presume to seize any longer in any way the lands or anything else that rightfully belonged to the Church.

[16] When Cutheard died, having spent his fifteenth year in the episcopate, a man of good conduct, Tilred, was appointed to the governance of the Church. In the seventh year of his pontificate, when King Edward died, his son Athelstan, having assumed the governance of the kingdom, ruled most gloriously, and was the first of the Kings to obtain the empire of all Britain in every direction, King Athelstan, from his father's admonition with Blessed Cuthbert helping and obtaining this from God, who, once appearing to his grandfather Alfred, had promised: "The kingdom of all Britain," he said, "will be granted to your sons to govern, through my intercession." Indeed, to this Athelstan his father on his deathbed began to recount all the great benefits of piety that Blessed Cuthbert had bestowed upon his own Father, how he had ordered him to come forth from the hiding places to which he had fled from fear of the enemy to do battle against the enemy, and had soon gathered to him the army of all England, and without difficulty, having prostrated the enemy, had added to his ancestral kingdom a very large part of Britain, and had always thereafter been his ready helper: "Therefore," he said, "Son, always show yourself devoted and faithful to so great a Patron and so kind a liberator of ours, remembering what he himself promised to the sons of Alfred if they would practice piety and justice, if they would prove faithful to him." Athelstan, gladly receiving these admonitions of his pious father, more gladly executed them when he obtained the kingdom. he venerates Saint Cuthbert Indeed, no King before him so greatly loved the Church of Saint Cuthbert or adorned it with so many and so various royal gifts. Whence, prevailing everywhere against enemies emerging on all sides, with all of them either killed or reduced to servitude or driven beyond the borders of Britain, always victorious over enemies he reigned with greater glory than any King of the English before him.

[17] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 922, Tilred, having spent thirteen years and four months in the episcopate, died, and in his place Wigred was chosen and consecrated Bishop. In the tenth year of his pontificate, King Athelstan, while heading for Scotland with the army of all Britain, seeking the patronage of Saint Cuthbert, visited his sepulcher, sought his aid, he confers gifts and bestowed upon him many gifts of various kinds for the adornment of the Church, such as would befit a King; which, preserved to this day in this church of Durham, represent the pious devotion of that King himself toward the church of the holy Father Cuthbert and its eternal memorial; what and how great they are, a charter describes them in order. To these gifts of ornaments he added possessions of no fewer than twelve villages for the sufficiency of those serving there; whose names, since they are held written elsewhere, it is not necessary to place here. He also approved the laws and customs of the Saint himself which his grandfather King Alfred and King Guthred had established, and decreed them to be observed forever with inviolable firmness. Moreover, having made his offering, he struck with the anathema of the gravest curse those who should presume to take away any of these things or diminish them in any way -- namely, that on the day of judgment they should be struck with the sentence of damnation along with Judas, the betrayer of the Lord. The army also, by the King's command, honored the sepulcher of the holy Confessor with ninety-six and more pounds of silver. as does his army Having thus commended himself and his followers to the patronage of the holy Confessor, he set out on his arranged journey, strongly entreating his brother Edmund that if anything adverse should befall him in this expedition, he should carry his body back to be buried in the church of Saint Cuthbert. Then, having put to flight Owain, King of the Cumbrians, and Constantine, King of the Scots, he subdued Scotland with both a land and naval army. they defeat the Cumbrians and Scots Four years after this, that is, in the year 937 of the Lord's Nativity, at Brunanburh, which is called by another name Etbrunnanwerch or Brunnanbyrge, he fought against Olaf, son of the former King Guthred, who had arrived with 615 ships, having with him against Athelstan the aid of the aforesaid Kings, namely of the Scots and the Cumbrians. and Olaf the Dane But Athelstan, trusting in the patronage of Saint Cuthbert, having overthrown an infinite multitude, drove those Kings from his kingdom, and bringing back a glorious triumph to his people, fearsome to enemies round about, he was peaceful to his own, and afterwards ended his life in peace, leaving the monarchy of empire to his brother Edmund. In the third year of Edmund's reign, Wigred, having held the episcopate for seventeen years, died and had Uthred as his successor.

[18] Meanwhile King Edmund, himself also heading for Scotland with his army, King Edmund offers gifts turned aside to the sepulcher of Saint Cuthbert to seek his aid, and like his brother Athelstan formerly, honored it with royal gifts, namely gold and palls; he also confirmed its laws as they had been at their best. When Bishop Uthred died, Sexhelm was ordained in his place, but having barely stayed for a few months in the church, he fled, with Saint Cuthbert expelling him. Sexhelm at the command of Saint Cuthbert abandons the episcopate For when, straying from the path of his predecessors, he afflicted the people of the Saint himself and those who served in his church, inflamed by avarice, he was terrified by the Saint who in a dream commanded him to depart as quickly as possible. While he delayed, the second night, rebuking him more vehemently, the Saint ordered him to go away hastily, threatening him with punishment if he tarried. Not even then did he wish to obey. But behold, a third time, much more severe than before, the Saint approached him and ordered him to flee as quickly as possible, and not to presume to carry anything of the property of the Church away with him: if he delayed any longer, he threatened that death would soon be upon him. Awakened from sleep he began to be ill, and lest he immediately incur death, he hastened to depart even though sick. But while fleeing, when he had come near York, he recovered his health; and in his place Aldred ascended the Episcopal Chair.

p. The Chronologist and the cited Durham historian refer this expedition to Scotland to the year 934.

q. The Chronologist describes these things at length and reports they happened in the year 938.

r. The same Chronologist reports that King Athelstan died in the year 941, on the sixth day before the Kalends of November.

CHAPTER IV.

The body of Saint Cuthbert brought to the church of Ripon, thence to Durham.

[19] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 948, when King Edmund died, his brother Eadred ascended the royal throne, a man who cultivated piety and justice, after others, they succeed who also, like his brothers, visited the church of Saint Cuthbert with royal gifts. When Bishop Aldred died, Elfsige took up the governance of that church in his place at Chester-le-Street, ordained at York by Archbishop Oscytel in the time of King Edgar, who had succeeded his brother Eadwig in the kingdom. When twenty-two years had passed in his episcopate, Elfsige died; for whom was elected and consecrated as Bishop a man of outstanding piety, Aldun, King Ethelred and Bishop Aldun in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 990, which is the twelfth year of the reign of King Ethelred, who had obtained the scepter of the kingdom after the death of his brother Edward, killed through the treachery of his stepmother by a lamentable murder. The same Bishop was noble by lineage, but much nobler by a manner of life pleasing to God, a monk praiseworthy both in habit and in conduct, as were all his predecessors. Whose praise of integrity, handed down to them by their forebears, nearly all the natives are accustomed to proclaim as if they saw him today.

[20] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 995, the seventeenth of King Ethelred's reign, this one, by heavenly warning the same Bishop, now beginning the sixth year of the episcopate he had received, was forewarned by a heavenly oracle to flee as quickly as possible with the incorrupt body of the most holy Father and escape the impending fury of pirates. He took it in the 113th year after it had been placed at Chester-le-Street, and transported it with all the people who are called his to Ripon. he transfers the body of Saint Cuthbert to Ripon In this flight the memorable thing is reported that in so great a multitude, no one from the least to the greatest was afflicted by any trouble of illness, but without any labor, without any inconvenience, they completed the journey on foot. Not only human beings but also tender animals, even those recently born, walked safe and sound throughout the whole journey without any difficulty or distress. After three or four months, when peace was restored and they were carrying the Father's body back to the former place, they had already come to the eastern quarter of Durham, to the place called Wardlaw, when the vehicle could not be moved by any means. The Bishop therefore, addressing the people, ordered all to seek by three days of fasting, thence to Durham vigils, and prayers the revelation of the heavenly judgment. When this was done, it was revealed to them to transfer it to Durham and there to prepare a place for it to rest. And so they carried the holy body to Durham, he deposits it in a wicker chapel and having very quickly made a small church of wicker, they placed it there for the time being.

[21] The aforesaid Bishop, coming with the most holy body to Durham, found the place indeed naturally fortified but not easily habitable, since the densest forest occupied it entirely; in the middle, however, there was a not very large plain which they had been accustomed to cultivate by plowing and sowing. That forest therefore, with the help of the whole people and Uthred, Count of the Northumbrians, being entirely uprooted, he made the place habitable in a short time and began a not small church of stone. then for three years in the White Church Meanwhile the holy body, transferred from that wicker church to another called the White Church, rested there for three years while the larger one was being built. The venerable Bishop Aldun solemnly dedicated the church in the third year since he had founded it, afterwards solemnly in the Cathedral church that was made on the day before the Nones of September, and placed the body of the most holy Father Cuthbert, translated to the place he had prepared, with due honor. Thus with the holy body the episcopal See remained in this place to the present day, which had been originally established on the island of Lindisfarne by King Oswald and Bishop Aidan. in place of Lindisfarne From the year therefore in which Bishop Aidan ascended the Episcopal Chair on the island of Lindisfarne to the year in which Aldun ascended the same at Durham, three hundred and sixty-one years are counted; from the death of Saint Cuthbert, three hundred and nine.

[22] When Bishop Aldun died and the church had been vacant of a Pastor for nearly three years, Bishop Edmund Edmund, a devout and vigorous man, was chosen, whom a Priest with a Deacon assisting him at the altar had heard, during the Canon, being designated Bishop by a voice as if issuing from the tomb of the Father. Under this Bishop, in the same church of Durham, there shone a certain Priest who, by pious and religious works, had attained great familiarity with Saint Cuthbert, named Alfred, son of Weston. He was devoted to Saint Cuthbert in all things, by Alfred, a pious Priest a man of great sobriety, devoted to almsgiving, assiduous in the zeal of prayer, fearsome to the wanton and unchaste, venerable to the honest and God-fearing, a most faithful guardian of the church. He had possessed one of the hairs of Saint Cuthbert, which he was accustomed to show to visitors and by it to add to the wonder of those who marveled at his sanctity. a hair of Saint Cuthbert cast into fire is not consumed For he used to fill a censer with burning coals and place the hair itself upon them; and there it could in no way be consumed, but would glow white-hot and gleam like gold in fire, and then, having been removed after a long delay, would gradually return to its own form. This miracle many of his disciples, and also a certain Brother of this monastery, a man of great simplicity and humility named Gamel, who now sleeps in Christ, have testified that they had seen it many times.

[23] Moreover, the aforementioned Priest, while leading an honest and religious life, the relics of Saints Balthere and Bilfrid are transferred to his church commanded by a vision, ran through the ancient places of monasteries and churches in the province of the Northumbrians, lifted from the earth the bones of the Saints which he knew to be buried in them, and left them placed above the ground to be declared to the peoples and venerated -- namely the bones of Balthere and Bilfrid the anchorites, and also of Acca and Alcmund, Bishops of Hexham, and also of King Oswin and the venerable Abbesses Ebba and Ethelgitha. Acca and Alcmund; King Oswin; Ebba and Ethelgitha From the relics of all of whom he carried some portion with him to Durham and placed them with the body of Father Cuthbert. Going also to the monastery of Melrose, admonished by revelation, he transferred the bones of Saint Boisil, Boisil who had once been the master of Blessed Cuthbert in that same monastery, from there to the church of the disciple himself. He also used to come every year to the monastery at Jarrow (where he knew the Doctor Bede had lived, died, and been buried), and Bede when the anniversary of his dormition arrived, and to persist there in prayers and vigils. When on a certain occasion he did this and had spent some days alone in the church praying and keeping vigil, without his companions knowing, at earliest dawn, alone -- which he had not previously been accustomed to do -- he returned to Durham, wishing to have no witness of his secret. For although he lived many years afterward, as if having now obtained what he had desired, he no longer cared to come to the aforesaid monastery. Whence, often asked familiarly by his companions where the bones of the venerable Bede rested, he used to answer: "No one knows this more certainly than I. Hold it firm, O dearest ones, and beyond doubt certain, that the same chest which contains the body of Father Cuthbert also contains the bones of the venerable Doctor Bede. Outside the lodging of this coffin, let no one seek a portion of his relics."

p. Saint Bede is honored on May 27.

CHAPTER V.

The wicked are punished for offenses against Saint Cuthbert; those fleeing to him are aided. The body preserved against the impious.

[24] After the death of Eadmund, with Egelric governing the church of Durham, an unusual event showed the ministers of the altar that without doubt the wrath of God threatened under Bishop Egelric if they presumed to approach the most sacred mystery without chastity. For a certain Priest named Fleoccher, living with a woman, was leading an unworthy life. To him many, both noble and common, gathered on a certain day to hold a court, and asked him to celebrate Mass for them before the court. But he, a concubinary Priest who had slept with his wife that very night, refused to do so; until at last, when they asked once, twice, and three times, human embarrassment overcame divine fear. at Mass, the species of bread and wine in the chalice changed But at the hour when he was about to consume the most sacred mystery, he saw the particle of the Lord's Body which had been placed in the chalice so changed with the Blood into a most hideous appearance that he saw in the chalice the color of pitch rather than of bread and wine. Immediately understanding his guilt, he began to grow pale and to tremble exceedingly, as if about to be immediately handed over to avenging flames. Moreover he was greatly anxious about what he should do with the chalice -- shrinking from consuming it as if it were his own death, yet fearing to pour it on the ground since it was consecrated. Finally with great fear and dread he consumed it; but it was of such bitterness that nothing could have been more bitter. he is amended After Mass was completed, he hastened immediately to the Bishop; prostrate at his feet, he related the matter in order, completed the penance imposed, and according to the command of his Bishop, he lived chastely and religiously from then on.

[25] When Egelwin held the pontificate after Egelric, Judith, daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, wife of Tosti, Count of the Northumbrians, a very honorable and religious woman who loved Saint Cuthbert very greatly, under Bishop Egelwin had conferred various ornaments upon his church and had still promised to give more, together with many possessions of lands, if she might be permitted to enter his church and come to his sepulcher. a maidservant attempting to enter the temple But since she did not dare to attempt so great a thing by herself, she sent ahead one of her maidservants at a more private hour. She was just about to set foot within the cemetery when suddenly, as if by the violence of winds, she began to be repelled and to fail in strength, and barely having returned to her lodging, she fell into bed and at last with that most grievous pain she departed from life. repelled, she shortly after died At this, the Countess, greatly terrified, trembled, and humbly making satisfaction, she and her husband ordered images to be made of the Crucified One, of the Mother of God, and of Saint John the Evangelist, and they clothed them with gold and silver, and offered very many other things for the adornment of the church.

[26] Nor should it be passed over in silence how many miracles of the same most blessed Father shone in our own times also. While the most pious King Edward was recently reigning, under King Edward a miracle occurred similar to the earlier ones, by which, in the destruction of one presumptuous person, many were thereafter corrected from such presumption. For while the most well-known Count Tosti was administering the earldom in the regions of the Northumbrians, a certain man of wicked conduct named Haldanhamal was seized by him and bound most tightly in fetters. by Count Tosti He had done many evils by thefts, robberies, murders, and arsons; he had often offended the Count and could never before be captured. His parents and friends, moved by the feeling of compassion, imprisoned for his crimes offered much to the Count on his behalf that he might not be put to death, and promised more. But because he had provoked him so many times with such great misdeeds, the Count swore he would never consider anything for his life. Then the man, dismayed in spirit, thought that the only remedy for him was if somehow, freed from his chains, he might flee to the monastery of the most blessed Father Cuthbert; for in the very village in which Cuthbert himself rests in body -- that is, in Durham -- he too was then being guarded. Having therefore applied all the efforts of his ingenuity and strength, having implored the patronage of Cuthbert but in vain, since the fear which hung over them from the Count's command pressed the guards to watch him most closely, he groaned, and now, with his conscience tormenting him, fearing the danger to his soul more than to his body, he prayed to the Confessor beloved of God with great contrition of heart. Meanwhile, as he promised amendment of his evil ways if only he might escape, with the fetters spontaneously loosened suddenly he saw the fetters loosened and a free way of departure open. Joyful at this but anxious about how to evade the guards, he committed all confidence of his salvation to the patronage of blessed Father Cuthbert. Without delay, with the guards occupied with other things and suspecting nothing of the sort, he perceived that there was an opportunity for flight, quickly shook off the fetters, he flees to his monastery entered the monastery at top speed, and himself alone barred and locked all the doors. For it had happened by chance that after Prime, when the Brethren had gone out, he, arriving, found no one inside.

[27] When the matter became known among the Count's soldiers (for the Count himself was also then in the same village), immediately a certain man a soldier wishing to break down the doors to extract him named Barwick, who surpassed all others in power at court, pursued him right up to the doors of the monastery. When he noticed that the doors were locked and the man was inside, soon inflamed with enormous fury, he said: "Why do we delay? Why don't we break down the doors? For the peace of this dead man is not to be kept so strictly that thieves and murderers, if they flee here, may insult us by having escaped with impunity." But he had scarcely finished his words when suddenly, he is punished by a horrible death as if an arrow coming from above, he declared that he felt his head transfixed right to his heart. Speaking no more, he fell to the ground, and groaning, howling, and gnashing his teeth, he was carried to his lodging by his men; and not uttering a single word afterward, he survived in the same torments until the same hour of the third day. When he had thus died and been buried, such a great stench exhaled from his tomb for half a year that everyone avoided passing through that place. By this example, the Count himself with the others, to whom these things had become widely known, was terrified and did not presume to seize the man any further; indeed he subsequently began to honor him not a little. All those also who remembered his accomplices offer various gifts having even consented to the man being dragged from the monastery, fearing a similar vengeance, brought a not inconsiderable quantity of gold, silver, and gems upon the sepulcher of the most blessed Confessor, imploring pardon with many tears and swearing they would never presume anything of the sort again. From their offering, a cross of marvelous workmanship and a book of the Gospels of incomparable value were soon adorned with gold and gems, which are preserved in the same monastery as a memorial of this deed to the present day. We have heard not once that these things were done as we write, from the Brethren who saw them and from the very mouth of him who thus escaped.

[28] There was also another man of wicked conduct named Osulf, who one day, awakened from sleep in a field, felt a serpent tightening around his neck. from a wondrous embrace of a serpent He soon seized it and dashed it to the ground; but again and again the serpent embraced his neck, while he kept throwing it off, accomplishing nothing. And so the wretched man was able to throw the serpent into water, into fire, even to cut it into pieces with iron, but how it immediately returned he could not understand. At first indeed it was small, but gradually it grew larger; yet it did no harm to him meanwhile by any infusion of venom. he is freed by remaining three days in the church of Saint Cuthbert Whenever he entered the church, which the presence of the most holy body of Cuthbert illuminates, the serpent immediately released him at the very entrance and did not dare to approach him as long as he remained in the church. But when he went out, the serpent was immediately at his neck; and so for a long time he endured such discomfort, until at last, having adopted a salutary plan, he persisted three continuous days and nights praying in the church; and thus he was afterwards freed from the serpent's embrace.

[29] At the same time, a certain man had come with his lord to the solemn feast of the most holy Confessor; having stolen coins from the offering with his mouth when he saw a multitude of coins from the offerings of the visitors upon the sepulcher, he conceived theft in his mind. He approached therefore and, deceiving those standing by, while he pretended to kiss the sepulcher, he drew four or five coins into his mouth. Without delay his mouth began to burn inside, he is punished by the burning of his mouth so much so that he seemed to carry (as he afterwards confessed) a piece of iron white-hot from the fire in his mouth. He wished to spit out the coins but could not even open his mouth. Tortured with such intolerable agony, he ran here and there through the church, and, while he was thought to be going mad, turned everyone to fear. Finally, bursting through the midst of the people out of the church, he was carried incessantly from place to place, and since he could not with his mouth, he showed by dreadful movements and gestures that he was being grievously tortured. he is freed at the sepulcher At last, coming to himself, he hastily returned to the sepulcher, and with prostrate body sought pardon from the Saint and offered whatever possessions he had. And when, placing his offering on the sepulcher, he kissed it, with that very kiss the coins fell from his mouth onto the sepulcher. Thus freed, he immediately mounted his horse and hastened to depart, and never afterward returned to Durham; for though many things were often offered him by his lord to come there with him, he not only refused to come but never dared even to approach close enough to be able to see the church.

[30] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1069, under William the Conqueror the seventy-fourth from when the body of Blessed Cuthbert was brought to Durham by Aldun, and the third of his reign, William, King of the English, appointed a certain Robert, surnamed Cumin, as Count over the peoples of the Northumbrians. He, coming to Durham with seven hundred men and acting everywhere in the houses in a hostile manner, the people of Durham are freed from military invasion was killed there with all his men, except for one who escaped wounded, on the fifth day before the Kalends of February. Whence the King, offended, sent a certain commander with an army to avenge his death. But when they had come to Allerton and, when morning had come, were about to set out for Durham, such a density of mist arose that they could scarcely see one another, and could by no means find the road. While they were astonished and consulting one another about what they should do, someone was present who said that those men had a certain Saint in their city who was always present as their protector in adversity and would never permit them to be harmed with impunity by anyone. Having heard these things, they returned to their homes.

[31] with his soldiers devastating everything When King William came to York with his army in the same year and was devastating everything all around, Bishop Egelwin and the elders, having taken counsel together, took the incorrupt body of the holy Father,

in the seventy-fifth year since it had been brought from Haldon to Durham, taking it up, they began to flee to the church of Lindisfarne. And on the first night the body of St. Cuthbert remained in the church of the Blessed Paul at Jarrow; on the second at Bedlington; on the third at Tughall: on the fourth day it arrived at the very entrance to the island itself, accompanied by all its people. But since they had come toward evening, at which hour, according to the season, the sea was full on every side: the sea providing a way, while the Bishop and all the chief men groaned together, lest the little children should all perish from the cold of winter, which had set in more harshly than usual, during that night (for it was shortly before the Lord's Nativity), behold, suddenly the sea, brought before December 25, receding in that one place only, permitted them dry passage, while it swelled to its fullest all around. ^i Entering at once, all singing praises to God and to the most blessed Confessor, with dry feet they reached the shore of the island together with the sacred body of their Patron. In this event too, this was exceedingly wonderful: that the waves of the sea continuously followed those who preceded them, so that they neither ran ahead of those going at a slow pace nor lingered too long behind those pressing forward swiftly, as those who then carried the bier there attested. and brought back to Durham on March 25. When Lent drew near, with tranquility restored, they brought the sacred body back to Durham, and having solemnly reconciled the church, ^k on the eighth day before the Kalends of April, they replaced it in its proper location.

^a Edmund the Bishop died in the year 1038 at Gloucester, and was buried at Durham.

^b Egelric, having resigned the bishopric in 1056, lived as a private citizen, and Egelwin his brother succeeded him through the favor and help of Earl Tostig.

^c Judith, daughter of Baldwin V, surnamed the Pious and of Lille.

^d Tostig or Tosticus succeeded Siward, Duke of the Northumbrians, who died in 1055. Earl Tostig. He was the son of Godwin, Earl of Kent, and brother of Harold, who, having succeeded King St. Edward, expelled his brother Tostig in the year 1066. Consult the Life of St. Edward, January 5, chapter 8, section 11.

^e St. Edward reigned from the year 1043 to 1066.

^f Turgot, book 3, chapter 12, where he narrates the same events, concludes thus: "Freed, he set out on a pilgrimage, and was never afterward seen in his homeland."

^g Thus also Turgot, book 3, chapter 15, and the Durham historian under the year 1069. Brompton in William I wrongly assigns it to the year 1068, and writes that they were nine hundred.

^h The Durham historian under the year 1069. They begin the flight on the third day before the Ides of December, a Friday.

^i It was then December 14. The words enclosed in parentheses are absent from the Durham historian.

^k Thus the Durham historian. Turgot, book 3, chapter 15, gives the eighth day before the Ides of April.

CHAPTER VI

Other wicked men against St. Cuthbert are struck with sudden death or other miseries. A crippled woman is healed.

[32] During the aforementioned flight, a certain powerful man beyond the river Tyne, A wicked lord, Gillo-Michael, that is, Boy-of-Michael, so called by way of contrast (since he would more rightly be called Boy-of-the-devil), inflicted many injuries upon the fugitives, impeding their journey, afflicting them, plundering them, an injury done to the ministers of St. Cuthbert, and doing whatever evil he could: but not with impunity. For when the holy body had been placed on the island, a certain cleric of advanced age was being sent home by the Bishop to discover how matters stood around Durham and its church. He had already covered some distance on his way when, as night fell, resting a little in the middle of a field, he fell asleep and saw a clear vision concerning the death of the aforementioned man: which, just as many had frequently heard from that man's own words, I have judged should be written down here in order.

[33] "I was led," he said, "to Durham, as it seemed to me, and stood in the church: Saints Cuthbert and Oswald appearing in a vision, where I saw two men of the highest authority standing before the altar with their faces turned toward the east. One, a man of middle age, solemnly vested in episcopal vestments, of venerable appearance and fearsome countenance, showed himself to be a Pontiff of great reverence. The other, standing at his right, wrapped in a cloak of ruddy color, with a somewhat elongated face, a very thin beard, tall in stature, bore the form of a most handsome youth. After some interval of time, turning their eyes from the altar, they looked through the church. The Bishop, bearing the desolation of the church with great displeasure, said: 'Woe to you, Cospatric, woe to you, ^a Cospatric: who have emptied my church of its possessions a complaint lodged against another Earl, and turned it into a desert.' For this Cospatric had especially given the counsel that the fugitives should abandon the church: and he himself had carried off the greatest part of its ornaments. Meanwhile, though I wished to approach them, I did not dare: the youth, beckoning with his finger, called me by my name in a measured voice and asked whether I knew who that pontifical person was. When I responded that I did not know, he said: 'This is your Lord, namely the holy Bishop Cuthbert.' Immediately I fell at his feet, imploring him to come to the aid of his church and his people in their miseries. After a little while, having reverently bowed their heads toward the altar, they proceeded together from that place with slow and measured step: and when they reached the door, the youth, having gone out first, advanced a little, but the Bishop stopped in the very doorway. Looking back and summoning me, who was following at a distance, he said: 'Tell me, Ernave, do you know who that youth is?' I said to him: 'Lord, I do not know.' And he said: 'This ^b is St. Oswald.' Then, proceeding together a little further toward the southern side of the city, they stopped. I too, summoned by the Bishop, came: and being commanded to look downward, I saw a valley of infinite depth, filled with the souls of men. There also the aforementioned Gillo-Michael was being tortured with most atrocious punishments: for he lay prostrate in the foulest places, shown to be suffering infernal punishments, and pierced through and through by a razor-sharp hay-scythe, he endured intolerable torments. The wretch cried out, miserably emitting dire howlings and plaintive cries without ceasing: and there was no respite of time for the wretch in which he might draw breath even for an hour: and all the rest likewise suffered similar torments. Asked by St. Cuthbert whether I recognized anyone there, I answered that I recognized Gillo. And he said: 'Truly, this is he himself; for he has died, and is consigned to these miseries and pains.' But I said: 'Lord, he is not dead: for in the evening he feasted in his house, healthy and unharmed, and a great banquet awaits him now in such and such places.' But he said: 'I tell you that he is dead: for he and the others whom you saw with him, because they broke my peace and did injuries to me and mine, suffer these torments.'

[34] "Having said these things, I awoke: and immediately urged my companions to hasten with me: they, marveling at so sudden a haste, I disclosed the death of the aforementioned man through the sequence of the vision. They, unwilling to believe it, even mocked me because I had believed. But having completed the journey through the whole night, when morning came we turned aside a little from the road to the nearest church to hear Mass. at the very hour of the night in which he had been suddenly extinguished: Asked what news I brought, I announced the death of the aforementioned man. They said it was false, since they had known him to be well the day before: until certain members of his household arrived and reported that their lord had died that very night. I, however, diligently inquiring into the hour of death before all, discovered that he had died at the very same hour in which, as St. Cuthbert showed me, I beheld him given over to terrible torments. While I related his intolerable torments to Earl Cospatric, together with those things I had heard about him, he trembled: and soon, proceeding barefoot to the island another Earl does penance, where the holy body had been, he sought pardon with prayers and gifts. Nevertheless, he never afterward had the honor he had formerly enjoyed: but ^c expelled from the earldom, for as long as he lived and is deprived of the earldom, he endured the vexations and afflictions of adverse circumstances.

[25] After the body of the most blessed Father had been brought back to Durham (as we have already said), Egelwin, ^d in the fifteenth year of his episcopate, Bishop Egelwin having stolen from the treasury of St. Cuthbert, carrying away part of the treasures of the church, boarded a ship to leave England. But driven back by the wind into Scotland, and afterward captured by the king's men at Ely, he was brought to Abingdon, and there by the king's command was held under diligent custody. Repeatedly warned to return what he had taken from the church, he affirmed with an oath that he had taken nothing from it. But one day, while washing his hands before eating, a bracelet slid from his arm down to his hand in the sight of all, exposing the Bishop's manifest perjury. Therefore, by the king's order, he was thrown into prison: he perishes miserably in prison: where, because he refused to eat from the excessive anguish of his heart, he died of hunger and grief.

[26] In the time of ^e Bishop Walcher, the first Bishop of the Church of Durham from the order of the clergy, King William excepting a certain simoniac who died after a few months, the aforesaid King William, returning from Scotland where he had gone with an army, entered Durham: and diligently inquiring whether the body of Blessed Cuthbert rested there, while all cried out and swore that it was there, he refused to believe. He therefore resolved to investigate the matter by sight, wishing the body to be shown with evil intent, having with him Bishops and Abbots who at his command were to carry this out: for he had already decreed that, if the holy body were not found there, he would order all the nobles and elders to be beheaded. While therefore all were trembling and imploring the mercy of God through the merits of St. Cuthbert, on the very feast of All Saints, while the aforementioned Bishop was celebrating Mass, suddenly burning with heat, he flees: the king, wishing to carry out now what he had conceived in his mind, suddenly began to burn with excessive heat, and to be fatigued by the burning, so that he could scarcely endure such great heat. He therefore hastened out of the church, and leaving the great banquet that had been prepared in abundance, he mounted his horse: and did not cease to ride until he reached the Tees. By this sign he acknowledged that the great Confessor of God, Cuthbert, rested there.

[27] After some time, he sent there a certain man named Ranulf, [St. Cuthbert appearing to Ranulf, who was about to impose a new tribute upon the people of Durham, inflicts a disease upon him.] who was to compel the people of the Saint to pay tribute to the king: which they bore grievously, and implored the customary aid of St. Cuthbert in adversity. Therefore, on the night after the tribute was to be imposed, Blessed Cuthbert, appearing to him in a dream, struck him with the pastoral staff that he carried in his hand, and rebuked him with pontifical authority and threatening countenance, saying that he would not go unpunished for this presumption, and unless he departed, he would suffer worse things. And so, waking from sleep, he was detained by an illness, so that he could by no means rise from his bed. He immediately narrated before all what he had seen and heard, and asked them to intercede for him with the holy Confessor: and sending a cloak to his tomb, he promised to be his faithful and devoted servant: if he would deign to pardon the offense and the punishment for the offense. But as the illness grew worse, he had himself carried about on a litter through various places of the bishopric: he is freed after departure from the diocese: and showed his guilt and the vengeance to all. And as long as he remained in places belonging to the bishopric, he labored under constant illness:

but when, leaving those places, he began to return to his own lands, he immediately recovered from the illness.

[28] After the detestable and universally known ^f murder of Walcher, Bishop of Durham: when the same glorious King William had directed an army to avenge the enormity of so great a crime: all those presumptuous men and murderers immediately after the slaying of Bishop Walcher hid themselves in woods and mountains. All the common people, trusting in their own innocence (as it is written, "The righteous is bold as a lion"), sought the customary and universally proven patronage of the most blessed Confessor in their distress: and according to custom brought their goods into his monastery. Meanwhile, a certain man from among those who were in the castle, of Frankish origin, seeing so many chests there with no one guarding them (for the guardians in the inner parts of the monastery A Frank attended to what pertained to their own ministry, not these things: nor indeed, though plundering elsewhere, did any natives of that region dare to violate the temples of God), driven by a deceiving spirit, simulating nocturnal devotion at St. Cuthbert's tomb, thought he had found a suitable place for stealing. Therefore, having marked a certain night on which he might conveniently do this, he asked the guardians of the monastery that permission to keep vigil there might be granted to him according to the custom of his country, because he had so vowed to God. They, suspecting no evil, granted to his devotion, which he feigned, what is granted to all the devout. Having received permission, when he saw that the guardians were asleep, he carries out the theft: the falsely devout man carried out the theft in deed. A few days later, since there was no suspicion of theft whatsoever (because, as we said, no one there presumes to commit theft in a church), he was seized by a most severe and sudden illness, and was consumed as if by the most burning fire. Turned to madness by the magnitude of this burning, he leapt from his bed, and just as he was in his shirt alone, he rushed at the swiftest pace into the field, then from the most burning illness, driven mad, mounted his horse which was grazing there, and came with great force into the monastery before the Crucifix itself, howling and crying out horribly: "Have mercy, and spare me, St. Cuthbert! But, since you do not wish it, I know that I presumed to steal these and these things (for he named the things he had taken) in the monastery." he runs to St. Cuthbert, reveals the theft, Running about in the monastery here and there and raving, while he cried out without ceasing, he was dragged away unwillingly to the guest house, and bound with strong straps: because whatever he could seize with mouth or hands, he tore to pieces like a dog. And when he had spent three or four nights in such torment, growing more and more mad by the hour, at last (how, I know not) having slipped from his bonds, he burst into the monastery, driven by furies. He also immediately collapsed before the tomb of the Confessor beloved of God: and while the choir was singing the Te Deum laudamus (for the nocturnal praises were being celebrated in the meanwhile), he, howling and crying out horribly, frequently repeated what we have set forth above, adding also certain other things to these. For when he cried, "Have mercy on me, St. Cuthbert," he added: "But since you do not wish it, I know, since you struck me so grievously with your staff." For he confessed that the most holy Confessor had come to him in a nocturnal vision, he confesses that he was struck three times by St. Cuthbert. and with great indignation had inflicted three heavy blows upon him: by the pain of which, now penetrating his heart, he was being tortured unto death. While with frenzied movements and cries he kept repeating these and similar things: he perishes miserably. in that same place, his whole body was immediately contracted, and his wretched soul was torn from him to burn eternally.

[29] ^g Now where he had previously lain, miracles began to shine forth and the sick began to recover their health. For after no small time had passed, a certain woman of the Scottish nation, crippled in her whole body from infancy, had been brought to Durham: and there was no one so inhuman as not to be able to feel compassion for her misery. A crippled woman is healed. For she dragged her feet and legs, twisted behind her back, after her, and thus crawling on her hands she pitiably moved herself from place to place. Now it happened that to the aforesaid place, where the holy body had rested for a few days, that wretched woman dragged herself. There, as her sinews suddenly contorted themselves to their proper function, she began to spring up, and again to fall to the ground, and to disturb everyone with her cries. After a short while, raised up on her own feet, she stood perfectly healthy, and gave thanks to her Savior Christ through the intercession of St. Cuthbert. When this was heard, the whole city hastened to the church, the bells were rung, the clergy sang the Te Deum laudamus, the people joined their voices in praise of God, and proclaimed Cuthbert to be truly great and beloved of God. And she who had been healed traveled through many regions and nations, and made her entire journey on foot. For she went to Rome for the sake of prayer, and returning from there, she proceeded to Ireland, everywhere proclaiming to all through the miracle wrought in her the glory of God and the excellence of sanctity of His beloved Confessor. That this indeed happened just as we have described, we have frequently heard from certain priests who saw it, men religious and of advanced age and entirely straightforward. ^h

^a Cospatric or Gospatric, son of Maldred, son-in-law of Algiva, daughter of King Ethelred, Cospatric. purchased the earldom of the Northumbrians with a great sum of money from King William.

^b St. Oswald, King of the Northumbrians, is venerated on August 5.

^c In the year 1072.

^d In the year 1070. Consult the Durham historian.

^e Walcher or Walcherus, of the nation of the Lotharingians, noble by birth, educated in both divine and human learning, was chosen by the king himself: and was consecrated in the year 1074. Turgot, book 3, chapter 18.

^f The murder of Walcher occurred in the year 1080, on May 14, a Thursday, in vengeance for the slaying of Ligulf, a noble and generous servant.

^g This is added from Turgot, book 3, chapter 3.

^h The donations made by King Canute, Earl Tostig, and William the Conqueror can be seen in Turgot, book 3, chapters 8, 14, and 20.

TRANSLATION OF THE BODY into a new tomb, year 1104.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

FROM MANUSCRIPT.

[1] This translation of the body of St. Cuthbert to the new church was made illustrious The history of the Translation is published from manuscripts. when, in the four hundred and eighteenth year after his death, it was found entirely intact and incorrupt. We give the history of this Translation from the manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloitre near Brussels, collated with the manuscript codex of Dom Nicolas Belfort. We have two other copies of the same Translation, but more condensed. The author is a serious and accurate writer, plainly different from the author of the history of the earlier Translation, although in the Belfort manuscript it is attached to the same. We have shown above that the former lived in the prior eleventh century, the latter in the following century as it approached its midpoint, near the beginning of which the Translation itself was solemnly carried out. Concerning the finding of the incorrupt body, Simeon of Durham, in his account of the deeds of the Kings of the English, under the year 1104, transmits the following: Mention of it in Simeon of Durham, "The body of St. Cuthbert the Bishop, on account of the incredulity of certain Abbots, under the pontificate of Bishop Ranulf, was displayed, and by Ralph, Abbot of Seez, later Bishop of Rochester, and then Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the brethren of the Church of Durham, was found by sure evidence to be incorrupt, and with limbs so flexible that he appeared more like one sleeping than one dead, in the presence of Alexander the Earl, afterwards King of the Scots, and many others, after the four hundred and eighteenth year of his burial, and five months and twelve days, which is the fifth year of King Henry, and the sixth of Bishop Ranulf's episcopate; from the beginning of the world there had elapsed five thousand three hundred and eight years."

Nearly the same account is found in Hoveden's earlier part of the Annals, Hoveden, where the sixth year of King Henry is incorrectly given, for he succeeded his brother William, who was killed on the fourth day before the Nones of August, year 1100, a Thursday, Indiction 8, and had completed only a single month of the fifth year of his reign. Florence of Worcester adds certain details toward the end about Alexander, later King of Scotland. Worcester. "This man," he says, "because he was permitted to be present at so holy a matter, having given very many marks of gold and silver, had a reliquary prepared in which the holy body, clothed in new vestments, was honorably enclosed." and especially Malmesbury. Malmesbury, who nearly reached those times, brings forward certain matters not recounted in the History about to be given, which we thought worth presenting here. He writes thus toward the end of book 3 of the Deeds of the Bishops of the English.

[2] "The elevation of the most blessed Cuthbert's holy body raised the fame of Bishop Ranulf, for he had it lifted from the mausoleum and made visible to all who wished to see. Found with the incorrupt body: Ralph, then Abbot of Seez, later Archbishop of Canterbury, handled it with bold success, and publicly displayed it intact; since some had come to doubt whether the miracle of the body's structural integrity, long celebrated, still endured. All the vestments too were shining with fresh splendor: a chalice upon his breast, the upper part of which was gold, the lower onyx. The face so tightly wrapped in a sudarium that it could not be separated by any effort of the Abbot. The head of King and Martyr Oswald found between his arms. The bones of Saints Bede and Ceolwulf, who was a monk and a saint at Lindisfarne, found in individual linen bags. It was a great spectacle in the cemetery, the sky clear, no thick clouds hanging, all the monks dressed in solemn vestments, the long procession of those going and returning, and the great throng pressing in, since it pleased them to see once, then again and again, what they had seen. It seemed, as is thought, unworthy of the Saint that he should be thus exposed as a spectacle, and a great rain rising unexpectedly drove all inside the church. Nor was it without miracle that the monks' vestments, in so great a flooding storm, were not only unharmed but not even dampened. Hail to your virtue, most holy Bishop, a most remarkable miracle and befitting your sanctity: St. Cuthbert is invoked by Malmesbury, you who not many days before had performed another. For the Translation of the body, all had been prepared in the new church: the monks' choir, the altar, the tomb; only the timbers, which supported the fresh vaulting of the presbytery, needed to be gently removed. But you did not allow, most Blessed One, the holy desire of your people to be prolonged, and you brought everything down in the dead of night. For who else could be the author of so great a deed? among the new miracles. The Prior rushed in, roused by the sound, fearing for the altar and pavement, less concerned about the timber. But not only those things which were feared, but even the timbers you had kept as intact as they had been placed. You are rightly feared by your monks, so that no one conscious of rebellion against the Prior or of grave sin in himself dares to spend the night without confession of his offense. Wherefore I humbly pray you to deign to remember me for good, who, where occasion presented itself, was unwilling to pass over praise of you, however small, O holy Lord and deservedly beloved Father." These things Malmesbury wrote from his most pious affection toward St. Cuthbert. He had expressed a similar or surely greater sentiment in book 2, found in St. Alswold, Bishop of Sherborne, whose Acts, since we give them below on March 25, we refer the reader to that place.

[3] Camden, in the Diocese of Durham, records that the Kings and Nobles of the English believed St. Cuthbert

to have been the tutelary saint of the English against the Scots: Patron of the English against the Scots: which Henry of Knighton, Canon of Leicester, confirms with a notable deed in book 3 of the Events of England, chapter 10, asserting thus under the year of grace 1297: "When it was the purpose of the Scots to direct their army against the Diocese of Durham, God and the glorious Patron of that place, St. Cuthbert, prevented them. For there came a very great storm of hail, snow, and severe frost within the same Octave of Blessed Martin: so that many of the Scots perished from hunger and cold. For their scouts, coming, said that the same Diocese was prepared with arms and well fortified with an immense population; and yet there were not a hundred armed men, and scarcely three thousand chosen foot soldiers. Although many more had previously remained on the border to resist, they were nevertheless at the same time terrified and fled to their own lands. But though the people failed, this glorious Cuthbert did not fail, and, as it is piously believed, the purpose of the Scots was shattered by his holy prayers."

The body incorrupt under Henry VIII, Moreover, how from the Translation of the incorrupt body, made in the year 1104, until the times of King Henry VIII it remained in the same church, and what was then done with it by impious men, is declared by Nicholas Harpsfield in the seventh century of the Ecclesiastical History of England, chapter 34, near the end, in these words: "From that time four hundred and twenty-three years elapsed, when in our times a new proof was again given of the same integrity. For when by the order of King Henry VIII the shrines of the Saints were everywhere being plundered and broken throughout England, and their blessed relics were being cast into ignoble places, the wooden chest of this Blessed one's body was also broken open, which had been covered with white marble. And when the man to whom the task of dismantling and breaking open the sepulchre had been given struck the chest with a heavy blow, the blow was carried into the Blessed body itself and wounded the shin, and soon a manifest mark of the wound appeared in the flesh. When this was seen, together with the integrity of the entire body, except that the tip of the nose was missing, for some unknown reason, the matter was reported to Cuthbert Tunstall, at that time Bishop of Durham: whom they consulted about what should be decided regarding the body: which, at his command, was placed in the ground dug at the spot placed under the ground, where his precious reliquary had previously been located. And not only the body but also the vestments in which it was clothed were entirely intact and free and immune from every blemish and corruption. He had indeed on his finger a golden ring adorned with a sapphire, which I once saw and touched, and as a kind of divine memorial more precious than any treasure, I marvelously embraced and kissed. Present at this spectacle of the sacred body brought to light were, among others, Doctor Whitehead, head of the monastery, with Doctor Sparke and Doctor Todd and William Witham, custodian of the sacred bier. And so it is now sufficiently established that the body of the blessed Cuthbert endured inviolate and uncontaminated for eight hundred and forty years." So far he writes; but we plainly reckon the years elapsed since the death of St. Cuthbert to be eight hundred and fifty, because Henry VIII, captivated by the allurements of his mistress Anne, in the year 1537. repudiated Catherine, his legitimate wife, in the year 1533, and having been censured by the sentence of the Roman Pontiff, he severed himself with his entire kingdom from communion with him in the year 1535, and punished with the supreme penalty Thomas More, John Fisher, and others who recoiled from his nefarious counsels; and in the following years he raged against churches, monasteries, and sacred relics. In the same manner, from the year 1104 to the year 1537, four hundred and thirty-three years should be said to have elapsed, just as from the year 687 to the same year, eight hundred and fifty. He who is asserted above to have been Bishop of Durham at that time, Cuthbert Tunstall, initially favored King Henry regarding the divorce, and afterward, repenting of his deed, most vigorously defended the cause of Queen Catherine; finally, under the reign of Elizabeth, in the year of Christ 1559, he died in prison as a Confessor in defense of the Catholic faith.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE. From various manuscript codices.

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (Saint)

BHL Number: 2029

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

The body of St. Cuthbert exposed and replaced on the nights of August 24 and 25.

[1] ^a Among the works of miracles, not the same opinion was held among all, both concerning the presence of the sacred body of St. Cuthbert [Many doubting either the presence or the incorruption of the body of St. Cuthbert] and concerning its incorruption: for some ^b secretly before this time dreamed with various conjectures that it had been transferred elsewhere, and that the sepulchre, though now lacking such a deposited trust, was not, however, emptied of the glory of miracles, but as a sign of its former inhabitant, even now shone forth brilliantly with miracles. Others, however, said that sacred relics were indeed contained therein, but that the frame of a human body should have remained undissolved through the course of so many centuries exceeded the laws of nature: and although divine power commands all natures whatever it wills and however it wills, this incorruption of this body was not made clear to them by the testimony of anyone who had investigated it by hand or sight: and therefore it was difficult for them to believe, without experience, concerning this body, however holy, what they knew to have been rarely granted to very few bodies of other Saints. While some thus conjectured the removal of the holy body, and others did not admit its incorruption, the faith of the Brethren who affirmed that it was both present and endured incorrupt was being undermined, and therefore a somewhat anxious shame was being caused them. Wherefore the Brethren themselves, turning their minds and prayers to God, prayed that He the monks anxiously implore divine aid: who is wonderful in His Saints would show Himself wonderful through the display of so great a miracle, and by indubitable signs, giving glory to His name, would exclude all doubt. Meanwhile, the church which Bishop William had formerly founded was to a considerable extent completed: and the venerable body of Father Cuthbert was to be transferred into it and, for the sake of due veneration, decently re-interred in the place which the studious hand of craftsmen had prepared.

[2] ^c Therefore, as the fourth day before the Kalends of September approached, that is, the day which had been appointed for the solemn translation, the Brethren entered into counsel: having taken counsel, that (since no one survived who could teach from experience) they themselves, so far as God permitted, should investigate how things were arranged and ordered around the holy body, and with all things duly arranged, and should ^d prepare more promptly whatever seemed fitting and suitable for transporting it on the coming day: lest, namely, when the hour of the festive procession arrived, any difficulty from lack of foresight should cause an impediment, and the delay should thus, through injury unpleasant to the expectation of all who had gathered, hinder the solemn services. Therefore nine Brethren, having been ordered, together with the Prior of the church himself, Turgot by name, Prior Turgot and nine monks on August 24 who had already prepared themselves for this with fasting and supplications, prostrated themselves at the beginning of the night before the venerable sepulchre on the ninth day before the Kalends of September, and with tears poured out and prayers, not without fear and trembling, they put their hands to it, to open it. When at last it had been opened with iron instruments, they found, astonished, a chest which they had carefully covered on every side with hides fastened with iron nails: they open the sepulchre and a chest covered with leather: which chest, by its weight and size, and by certain other indications besides, easily gave to understand that within its enclosure was contained the deposit of another coffin. But while they hesitated for a long time, impeded by fear, to open this, at the two or three-fold command of the above-named Prior, trusting in the virtue of obedience, they resumed the work begun, and having loosened the iron fastenings, they eventually opened the chest. ^e

[3] They saw within a coffin of wood, which a coarser linen cloth of triple weave had everywhere surrounded, long to the measure of a man's stature, they find a coffin covered with cloth, and covered with a board of the same kind. They hesitated long: for it was not sufficiently clear whether this was the very dwelling-place of the Saint's body, or whether it still contained within itself another receptacle holding sacred relics. At length, coming to themselves, mindful of the words of Bede, who describes the body of blessed Cuthbert as having been found incorrupt by the Brethren of the church of Lindisfarne after eleven years of burial, and from the words of Bede, they judge it to contain the body of St. Cuthbert and placed above the pavement for the sake of due veneration. Remembering, I say, these words, they recognized this to be the very same chest that had preserved so great a treasure of heavenly deposit through so many years. Accordingly, falling together to the ground, they prayed humbly that Blessed Cuthbert would by his intercession avert from them the wrath of almighty God, if they had in any way deserved it through presumption. There was in them joy mingled with fear, because although they feared offense from their boldness, yet from the certainty of so great a gift they had conceived immense joy. As joy prevailed, they dissolved into tears: and having rendered thanksgiving to the Lord, they considered their desire satisfied. Whence it seemed a rash act to put hands to the deeper secrets of the sacred body itself, which vengeance, divinely ordained as they supposed, would by no means leave unpunished. and they desist: Therefore, relaxing their intention of inquiring further into anything, they deliberated in turn about how, and with what suitable preparation, the holy body should be carried on the day of the future translation.

[4] Moreover, among the others present there was a certain Brother of great constancy in Christ, who had attained by the effect of grace that charity which he bore in name: by the exhortation of the most pious Leofwin for he was called Leofwin, which in the English language means ^f "dear friend": he truly was a dear friend to God, and God to him: for God showed that He was his father by chastising him with continual infirmity; he demonstrated that he was a son of God by patiently enduring His scourging and always giving thanks: whoever knew the manner of his life did not doubt that the Holy Spirit rested in his breast. When he saw the Brethren trembling at opening the coffin they had found, and at looking into what heavenly grace, what new exultation it might offer them, approaching into their midst and speaking with a more fervent spirit than he was wont, he said: "What are you doing, Brothers? What do you fear? That action will always deserve a good end which, inspired by God as its author, is begun. He who gave us the will to seek gives us hope of finding. And indeed what we have accomplished thus far without difficulty is a sign of what good we ought to hope for regarding what remains to be done. The beginnings would never have gone so prosperously for us if the divine disposition did not wish these things to be carried through to the end: nor will anyone ever be charged by God with rashness for what proceeds from a spirit of devotion. For we do not undertake to investigate his relics from contempt or distrust of his sanctity, but so that the Lord of hosts Himself, the King of glory, may be more devoutly glorified by all, as a greater miracle of His power is demonstrated in these times. Therefore let us see the interior of the sacred dwelling-place, so that, concerning what we shall have seen with our eyes, what we shall have perceived, what our hands shall have touched, they bring it to the middle of the choir. with us bearing constant witness, no argument may be left to detractors by which what we assert might henceforth be doubtful." By this admonition of the man devoted to God, the Brethren, with confidence restored,

carried the venerable body from behind the altar, where it had until then lain, into the middle of the choir, where the wider space of the place allowed them to act more freely as the matter required.

[5] Then, having removed the covering that had draped the coffin, they did not immediately dare to open it, the covering removed but going around with candles, they carefully investigated whether through any small cracks or any other sign they might be able to detect what lay within. But as nothing certain was apparent to them as they did this, and the lid, finally, having removed the lid, though not without fear, they saw a book of the Gospels placed at the head above a board, they find a book of the Gospels and a board covering the interior: and that board itself supported by three small pieces of wood placed crosswise, which, extending to the measure of the coffin in length and breadth, had covered everything that was beneath: moreover, it had two iron rings inserted into it, one at the head and the other at the foot, so that those wishing to lift it might have no difficulty. It was certain that what they sought was at hand, but whether they might handle it, they were uncertain. For there was in them a desire born of love to see and handle what they had loved, but fear arising from consciousness of their sins repelled them from daring: and so, hanging in doubt between these two feelings, they scarcely knew what they more wished.

[6] the board and a linen cloth of sweetest fragrance having been removed, At last, however, wavering thus, strengthened by the command of the Prior and the exhortation of the aforesaid Brother, they eventually lifted the board, and when they had removed the linen cloth that next after the board had covered the sacred relics, they drew in through their nostrils the fragrance of the sweetest odor. And behold, they found the venerable body of the blessed Father, the fruit of their desire: which, lying on its right side, in all its integrity and with the flexibility of its limbs, represented one sleeping rather than dead. At this sight, they see the incorrupt body as of one sleeping, they were struck with no small fear: and withdrawing a little further, they did not dare to gaze upon the miracle that was displayed. They began, frequently bending their knees, to beat their breasts with their fists, and with eyes and hands raised on high, to cry out repeatedly, "Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy." At times they announced to one another what each had seen, as if they had not seen it. prostrate, they recite the Penitential Psalms: Finally prostrate with their whole bodies, with tears flowing abundantly, they supplicated the Lord with the seven Penitential Psalms, that He would not rebuke them in His fury nor chastise them in His wrath. When these were finished, approaching by crawling on knees and hands rather than walking, they beheld there so many relics of Saints that the narrowness of that coffin could scarcely contain them, unless the holy body of the Father, leaning on its side as has been said, had allowed them more ample space to rest with it on this side and that. Which relics indeed, as is read in ancient books, are established to be the head of the glorious King and Martyr Oswald, also the bones of the venerable Confessors of Christ and Priests, the added relics of Saints Oswald, Aidan, and 3 successors, namely Aidan and the successors of that venerable Father Cuthbert: Eadbert, Eadfrith, and Ethelwold. Furthermore, the bones of the Venerable Bede, who had clearly written the Life of St. Cuthbert, had their dwelling place of rest together with his body, and St. Bede, which a linen bag likewise contained. By whom they were translated there from Jarrow, where they had been buried after his death, is described more fully elsewhere. For he who brought the bones of Blessed Boisil himself also conveyed those of the teacher Bede, revealed to him, to the church of Durham, but placed them in different locations in the same church. Very many relics of other Saints were also found there: and of other Saints: therefore they wished to first lay the holy body on its back, which was turned on its side: but since they could not conveniently do this because of the multitude of surrounding relics, it was decided that, having moved the holy body aside a little, they should gather the relics of the Saints together, and having placed these apart, they remove them: the incorrupt body should thenceforth keep its resting place alone. But since they were afraid to touch it with their hands, by the prayer of the aforementioned Brother they regained courage, so as to obey promptly in whatever their superiors commanded.

[7] When therefore two to whom the task had been assigned, one at the head and the other at the feet, The body lifted from the coffin, raised the venerable body from its place of repose, it began to flex through the middle as if still living, and, solid with flesh and bones, to sink downward by natural weight. Immediately a third man ran forward at the command, and embraced the middle with his arms: they lay it on the pavement: and thus they reverently placed it on the pavement upon carpets and cloths that had been spread. What tears of all of them then, which the greatness of joy had poured forth, what voices of congratulation, what praises of exultation, when they now had before their eyes this treasure of heavenly grace, in comparison with which all gold seemed worthless to them! Now they reckoned that nothing would be lacking to them, since in the present they beheld, as if living, the one through whom divine generosity would confer upon them both the supports of the present life and the joys of the life to come. Meanwhile, the other relics having been removed, with the relics of the Saints having been taken away, they replaced the Father's body in its case, intending to arrange it more worthily and fittingly on the coming night, because already then, as the hour of nocturnal praise drew near, the narrowness of time did not permit them to linger longer: wherefore, having sung the Te Deum laudamus in a humble voice, after singing the Te Deum, they return it. they carried the holy body back to the place from which they had moved it, rejoicing in Psalms to the Lord. When moreover, at dawn, in the assembled gathering of the Brethren, they made mention of the wonders of God, those brethren, at first turned into a kind of stupor from the novelty of the matter, afterward attested the joy of their hearts conceived from this more with tears than with words: they tell the monks, who are therefore glad: and bending their knees to the ground, they gave thanks to Jesus Christ, who had deigned to show them of what merit the one they had as Patron was, and to teach them what they might hope for themselves from his merits. But ^g the Bishop, not easily giving credence to these things, judged it entirely incredible that a body, however holy, and to the Bishop, who would not believe: yet human, should have endured without any blemish of corruption for so long a time, that is, for four hundred and eighteen years: to whom those who considered it a crime not to speak the truth even without swearing could scarcely ever satisfy him even with an oath.

[8] [On the night of August 25, they bring the body back to the choir, with its vestments] On the following night, the same Brethren who had been present before, in a spirit of humility and a contrite heart, again brought the venerable body to the middle of the choir and placed it upon cloths and carpets spread upon the pavement, which first a pall of precious fabric, and after this a Dalmatic of purple, then linen cloths had wrapped, all of which, without any stain of corruption, kept their pristine newness intact and white. Moreover, the chasuble which he had had in the tomb for eleven years had already been removed by the Brethren, and is now preserved elsewhere in the church as a sign of incorruption. incorrupt: When therefore they had ascertained for certain, by fully seeing and handling, lifting and setting down, that the body was solid in sinew and incorrupt, and had seen it cared for with solemn preparation, they added to those wrappings in which it had been previously clothed, a pall more precious than any that could be found in the church, and beyond that a very fine linen cloth: adding a pall and linen cloth, they replace it, wrapped in these with great care, they replaced it in the habitation of its peaceful rest with great devotion of prayers and many sweet tears. But they also placed back the other things that had been found with it as they had been, together with the previously found sacred instruments and other items, namely an ivory comb and scissors still retaining the beauty of their newness, and those things befitting a Priest: namely a silver altar, corporals with a paten, also a small chalice, small indeed but precious in material and workmanship: the lower part of which, having the figure of a lion of the purest gold, bears on its back an onyx stone, most beautifully hollowed by art, which by the craftsman's skill so adheres to the lion that it can easily be turned in a circle by hand, yet cannot be removed from it. Moreover, of all the relics that had been found there, they placed only the head of the blessed King Oswald next to the body of the glorious Bishop, just as it had been before. For the remaining relics, as has already been said, having been taken out from there, were solemnly arranged in another manner and are preserved in a prominent place in the church. Therefore, with the body of the blessed Father closed in its case, covered on every side with a cloth of coarser linen which wax had entirely saturated, the case wrapped in waxed cloth. they returned it to the place behind the altar where it had previously rested: blessing the Lord of hosts in His works, who alone does wondrous things, whose great works are sought out in all His purposes.

^a In the Belfort manuscript it was connected with the preceding history. But it is established to be by a different and younger author.

^b The same manuscript: "It had been translated long before this age by some hidden force to another place, they dreamed with vain conjectures."

^c From here the other two copies of ours begin.

^d Belfort manuscript: "whatever was necessary."

^e In the Life, numbers 63 and 64.

^f Thus to all Teutonic peoples "lief" signifies "dear" and "win" signifies "friend," a most common usage among the ancients. In our copies these are contracted, and in one of them he is called Riesfuwinus.

^g Ranulf, from the chaplain of King William, became Bishop of Durham in 1099 and died in the year 1129.

CHAPTER II

The body of St. Cuthbert shown on August 29 with solemn assembly, and carried to the new church.

[9] Meanwhile, the day of the coming Translation having been proclaimed far and wide, a great concourse of peoples came from everywhere to Durham, From those hastening to the Translation of diverse rank and age, as well as of profession, that is, very many persons of both the secular and the spiritual life: who, upon learning of the miracle of the body incorrupt for so long a time, greatly rejoiced in the Lord, and having rendered to Him a voice of praise and thanksgiving, exalted their own times for being visited by the display of so great a miracle. Among these, a certain Abbot from the number of those who had come complained that an injury had been done to him in what had taken place, accusing the Brethren of the Church of rash and improvident daring, in that without consulting or including him they had dared to undertake so great and unusual a work on their own: for he said it was necessary that he, since he was nearby, should have been summoned as a participant in this deed, by whose testimony the truth might be confirmed. For the Brethren, who had not wished to bring in any witness from another church to these secrets, A certain Abbot derogates from the faith of the monks of Durham: he said it was likely that they were not so much telling the truth about what they had done as inventing it: "Whence," he said, "reason seems to demand that the truth of so incredible a matter should be investigated by others as well, so that we may affirm to the people who have gathered in such numbers, on our own testimony, what we ourselves have seen with our own eyes." Repeating these things frequently in the hearing of those who had assembled, he inclined the minds of some to agree with him. Already the appointed day of the translation was at hand, and the Abbot's complaint, brought to the convent of the Brethren, gravely shook the minds of those Brethren

with the scandal that they should be branded with the mark of falsehood, and the revelation of the holy body should be demanded a second time: which they neither dared to permit to outsiders, nor to repeat themselves. A great contention of the parties therefore arose: the Abbot maintaining that the attestation of the Brethren of that Church alone about their own deed should not be admitted, and demands the body be shown to others the Brethren, confused by the suspicion cast upon their faith, and protesting that he was plotting either the desolation of their place or their own expulsion from the place, since, rejecting their sworn testimony as if it were fabricated, he judged them sacrilegious and deserving of universal detestation. "Wherefore, let it be far from us," they said, "that access to view the sacred things should be granted to this man, the monks protesting: by whose doing we have come under suspicion of grave falsehood. For those who yesterday sang with us, exulting, 'Glory to God in the highest,' today, at the Abbot's calumny, regard us as suspect of lying."

[10] As these parties contended bitterly, and no end could be put to the contention, the venerable ^a Ralph, then Abbot of the monastery of Seez, Abbot Ralph becomes mediator but later Archbishop of Canterbury, interposed himself as mediator. Since he was a man of great gentleness and piety, and also nobly learned in the Holy Scriptures, desiring to restore peace between the disputants, he said: "It is true what Scripture says: 'In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand.' How much more, therefore, in the mouth of many, and so credible that no reasoning permits anyone to doubt their testimony? We plainly believe the work of divine power revealed to you in the body of Blessed Cuthbert: we believe, he said, on account of which my mouth speaks the praise of the Lord, and my soul blesses the Lord. and wishes the monks to be believed, Since, however, the evidence of this miracle is so great, perhaps I shall appear rash if I request that the incorruption of the holy body shown to you be shown also to us: and yet in this request I ought not to seem either rash or superfluous: but since perfect love casts out fear, I presume to ask from great love what I request to be presumed from affection.

"Our prayers are also aided by the circumstance that has now occurred: namely, this doubt of our Brother the Abbot, which, unless it is excluded from his heart by the testimony of others as well, will seem to him to have raised just complaints against you, and in the future will attract more who agree with him: for as I see, this doubt has arisen from God's providence, so that, from where you suppose great scandal to come, from there, by God's ordering, more abundant glory may accrue to this place. For with the favor of your grace accompanying our prayers, and the body of Blessed Cuthbert to be shown again, since now, as we have heard, we ourselves too shall see, the calumny of detractors will be silenced all the sooner, as both your testimony and ours shall be strengthened by the same experience: and the glory of God in Blessed Cuthbert will be proclaimed all the more widely, as we who have tested it with our eyes, dispersed through various far-flung regions upon departing hence, shall have insisted on making it known to all."

[11] The Bishop would already have given his assent to the prayers of the venerable Abbot, had it not seemed to the Brethren that he should not be agreed with immediately, since they feared that a grave danger from the judgment of God hung over them, the controversy is resolved, if they inconsiderately permitted the holy body to be shown again to anyone. But swayed by the counsel of prudent friends, at last, though with great difficulty, they consented to this: that with the Abbot removed who had deemed them unworthy of belief, the humble and devout petitioner, together with others who seemed worthy, should be admitted to a new inspection of the miracle. Indeed, they were persuaded by those counseling them to grant also that the very man who, doubting their testimony, had caused others to doubt, should especially be present at this matter: so that he, standing as a contemplator of the miracle, might believe what he had been unwilling to believe when they attested it. The contention thus settled, Prior Turgot leads four Abbots the Prior leading the way, they entered the oratory clothed in white: the aforesaid Abbot of Seez, and Richard, Abbot of the monastery of St. Albans, and ^b Stephen, Abbot of St. Mary at York, and Hugh, Abbot of St. Germain at Selby; after whom ^c Alexander, brother of Edgar, King of the Scots, soon to be the successor of his same brother to the kingdom, and ^d William, then a Clerk of the Bishop of Durham, Alexander, later King of Scotland; William, later Archbishop of Canterbury. but after the oft-mentioned Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury: then other designated men of religious life, both monks and clerics, forty in number, followed: besides these, many Brethren of the same church: for the rest were assisting the Bishop, who was already then dedicating an altar in the church. Therefore, with prayer having first been humbly offered by all, the holy body was brought into the choir, and another 40 approach the coffin: where, with the coffin having been opened by the Brethren who had previously closed it, the Prior, raising his hand, with a grave interdict prohibited anyone from touching either the body or anything that was around it, then brought into the choir except the Abbot of Seez. He commanded the others to stand near and to grasp the truth of the matter by sight rather than by touch: he also commanded the Brethren of the monastery to stand by unceasingly and to watch with ever-vigilant gaze that no one in any way should carry off even a particle of thread from the garments that had wrapped the body. What had been commanded was done.

[12] The aforementioned Abbot, with one Brother of the same church assisting him, The Abbot of Seez moves various parts of the body: unfolding the garments wrapped around the venerable head, with both hands raised it slightly in the sight of all, and bending it in various directions, found it to cohere with the rest of the body with the entire structure of the neck joints intact. Then, applying his hand more firmly, pulling and pushing the ear, and after this exploring other parts of the body with a searching hand, he found the body solid with sinews and bones, together with the softness of flesh. Also shaking it by holding the head, he raised it so high that it almost seemed to sit up in its resting place, and lest any thoroughness of inquiry should be wanting, he endeavored to test the same integrity around the feet and shins also. There were, however, some who, alarmed at beholding this somewhat longer, placing their hands over their eyes, exclaimed that he was pursuing the proof of truth more than the matter required, when he himself had held such evident certainty of it. When therefore the pious inquirer had more than sufficiently investigated the miracle of incorruption, raising his voice into the midst, he exclaimed, saying: "Behold, and openly shows it to be whole and sound: Brothers, this body lies here indeed lifeless, but as sound and whole as on that day when the holy soul, seeking the heavenly places, left it." Then, having carefully arranged everything as it had been before, the Brethren of the monastery were proclaimed by all to be truthful and worthy of faith, and he who previously had judged they should not be believed, together with the others, affirmed what he had previously denied should be believed, whether willingly or unwillingly.

[13] And now, with the Te Deum laudamus having been solemnly sung by all with exultation, and everything that the matter demanded having been the Te Deum having been sung, fittingly arranged, the holy body of the Father was received on the shoulders of those carrying it, and voices of singers resounded far and wide with heavenly hymns in honor of almighty God: with the reliquaries of other Saints going before, when at last the venerable body of Blessed Bishop Cuthbert was being carried out through the door with the pageantry of a more festive observance, the body is carried around in solemn procession: the great crowd which had waited outside, dissolved in tears for joy, all rushed to meet it, so that the bearers of the holy body could scarcely proceed in so great a throng, and the voices of those singing were drowned out by so great a clamor of those praying, exulting, and weeping in their exultation all mingled together. Going around the new church on the outside, they made a station at its eastern side, where, as the Bishop delivered a sermon, there also stood those who proclaimed to all the people who had assembled the Bishop delivers an address in the open air: that they had both seen and touched the miracle of incorruption found, which had endured for four hundred and eighteen years in a human body. They approached with new exultation to give thanks to God, who had deigned to reward the devotion of their minds with so great a manifestation of heavenly grace. Already the day had advanced considerably, and the Bishop, inserting many things that the business at hand did not require, had caused many to tire with the length of his sermon. But though the serenity of the sky was so great that no sign of coming rain appeared in the air, rains began to pour down with such sudden inundation that immediately, the sermon interrupted, the Brethren seized the coffin of the holy body and hastened to bring it quickly into the church: on account of the rain, the body is brought into the church: once it was brought in, the rain immediately ceased, so that here clearly it was given to understand that it was not pleasing to God for the holy body of His servant to be detained outside sacred places for any longer time. But this too must by no means be passed over in silence: that though the outpouring of inundating rain was so great, neither the ornaments of the church, which had all then been displayed, nor the garments of any who then walked in finer attire, suffered any damage to their beauty or usefulness from the rain. A solemn Mass is sung. Finally, with the body of the blessed Bishop placed where it had been fittingly prepared, the church resounding with the praises of God, a solemn Mass was celebrated: and with the sacred mysteries having been performed for the salvation of the faithful, all returned to their homes with joy, glorifying and praising God in all that they had seen and heard.

[14] There had come, moreover, among others, the aforesaid Richard, Abbot of the monastery of St. Albans, a devout minister of the aforementioned translation, who always honored Blessed Cuthbert with great love and had frequently been accustomed to visit his tomb. He had long suffered from a serious ailment of the left hand: The Abbot of St. Albans, suffering from an ailment of the left hand. so that he could neither celebrate Masses nor easily perform any other work without another's assistance: for whom indeed the diligent care of physicians was present, but no one's skill had been able to help. When the community of brethren had been gathered before the hour of the Translation, he humbly prostrated his whole body and asked that the fraternal charity, sympathizing with him, would petition Blessed Cuthbert to obtain for him, through his own intercession, the gift of health from the Savior of all. The ready devotion of the Brethren assented to his request, and having appointed a prayer, they entreated that He would look not upon their sins but upon the faith of the petitioner, the help of St. Cuthbert having been implored, and by the glory of God's name obtain for him the grace of health from God. Both were heard and answered: he through faith (for all things are possible to the believer), they through charity: which, the more it is inclined toward the neighbor, the more it approaches God. Therefore, when the solemn procession had been carried out as described above, the coffin of the incorrupt body was to be raised higher behind the altar upon a stone which, prepared with care by the hand of craftsmen for the sake of sustaining so great a weight, was supported in its height above the ground by nine columns proportionate to its size. in elevating the coffin, The oft-named Prior therefore ascended the stone, and when he needed assistance to receive from the bearers the mass of the sacred body, he turned to the Abbot and said: "Lord Abbot, ascend quickly and help us." He ascended, and forgetting his infirmity, touching the case of the holy body by receiving and placing it, he is healed: he applied himself as a diligent co-worker. When they had

arranged it in its place, then at last the infirm hand came to mind: but he found it so healthy that it was as if it had never suffered any trouble, and he did not cease to display the miracle wrought in him by the easy bending of his fingers, which he could not do before, all day long. By this benefit of God wrought in him, he raised the minds of many to praise God and to marvel at the sanctity of Blessed Cuthbert: he builds an oratory in his honor at his own monastery. and having returned home, immediately building an oratory in honor of the holy Confessor, he thenceforth honored him all the more devoutly, the sooner he had felt his help come to him. This Manifestation or Translation of the incorrupt body was made after four hundred and ^e eighteen years of his burial, and five months and twelve days, that is, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and four, which is the fifth year of the reign of Henry, and the sixth of Bishop Ranulf's episcopate, to the praise of God almighty, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, who lives and reigns forever and ever: Amen.

^a Ralph de Turbine, from Abbot of Seez in Normandy, became Bishop of Rochester in 1108, then Archbishop of Canterbury in 1114, and died in 1122.

^b Richard de Albini, the fifteenth Abbot of the Church of St. Albans in Hertfordshire, from the year 1096 until the year 1119. The Abbreviations of the Chronicles of Ralph de Diceto should be consulted.

^c Alexander reigned from the year 1106 until the year 1124, in which, according to the Durham historian, he is said to have died on the sixth day before the Kalends of May, having reigned 18 years and 3 months. Edgar and Alexander were sons of Malcolm and St. Margaret, who is enrolled among the Saints and venerated on June 10.

^d William de Corbeil, a familiar of St. Anselm, the first from the Clergy to be consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury on February 18 of the year 1122, died on November 26 of the year 1136.

^e That is, from the year 787, in which he died on March 20, to this year 1104 and the day of August 29, there are only 417 years, five months, and nine days. In the Durham History, book 1, chapter 10, the current year 18 is counted, to which months and days are wrongly added.

CHAPTER III.

The miracle of a thief punished and healed.

^a It is read in the Life ^b of the same blessed Confessor Cuthbert that he himself, still a youth in the monastery, The Book of the Gospel of St. John carried by Saints Boisil and Cuthbert: while he was being instructed by the words and examples of Blessed Boisil alike, learned the Gospel of Saint John from that same man when he was sick and about to ascend to the heavenly realm: which he completed in a codex of seven quires over seven days, simply conferring with one another. This codex (which, on the merit of both, namely the teacher and the learner, retains its grace) this church, namely that of Durham, preserves in an honorable place among other sacred relics of veneration. Moreover, the case in which it is placed is like a pouch made of reddened leather, having a cord for hanging made of silk, which age has now dissolved into threads: by which, hung around the necks, as is said, of the Saints, namely the blessed Master and after him his pious disciple and heir, the book was carried suspended. shown to the people at the Translation: When the Bishop, during the sermon which, as has been said, he was delivering to the people at the Translation, held it up for all to see with raised hand, while the bearer meanwhile held the empty pouch somewhat carelessly amid the pressing crowds, a certain one of the Bishop's Officials stole a thread from the cord and hid it between his stockings and shoes: having stolen a thread of the cord, and there, irreverently, he kept such a theft until he went to bed. he is afflicted with severe pain of the leg But on the following night, so severe a pain in the very leg to which that thread had been applied afflicted him that not only did he have no rest in sleeping, but with the leg swelling, he thought the end of this trouble would be nothing other than death. he is afflicted with severe pain of the leg. Trembling therefore and fearful, he had a Priest summoned: to whom, confessing his guilt, he received this counsel: that having made restitution of the holy relics, he should restore the Brethren's favor toward him. He consented: restitution having been made, and supported by a staff and attendants, he was brought to the Prior, and he returned the thread: asking with tears that St. Cuthbert be invoked on his behalf, that by his merit he might deserve both pardon for the rashness he had committed and the grace of health. To whom the Prior said: "Reconcile yourself with him whom you have offended, by placing upon his tomb what you took away." But he did not dare to approach there: he is healed. until at length, with the Brethren accompanying him, he was led: where, with them praying together, all the pain began to abate and the ugly swelling to subside. Not long after, with health fully restored, from where for a time he had been failing in body, from there in spirit he was regaining strength for the true salvation of the soul, holding by experience that saying: "When a fool is punished, the foolish person will become wiser."

^a This miracle is only in the Belfort manuscript, in which the concluding section of the preceding chapter was absent.

^b In the Life by Bede, number 15.