Eata

ON ST. EATA, ABBOT OF LINDISFARNE AND BISHOP OF HEXHAM IN ENGLAND,

IN THE YEAR 685.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Eata, confessor and bishop, at Lindisfarne and Hexham. (S.)

BY J. V. H.

§ I. The cult of the Saint established; his Life; his education at Lindisfarne under St. Aidan; his rule of the monasteries of Melrose, Lindisfarne and Ripon.

Although the principal Martyrologies, those of Ado, Usuard, The cult of St. Eata, the Roman, and their Auctaria, are wholly silent on the name of St. Eata, abbot of Lindisfarne and bishop of Hexham, there is nevertheless no reason for us to doubt his sanctity and cult. For we have first of all the splendid testimonies of the Venerable Bede, which abundantly make up for a silence of that kind; and next the translation once attempted by the people of York, in order that they might possess in their church at least one holy body. These things, explained more fully below, will show that there can be no doubt concerning the sanctity and cult of our prelate. For the rest, Johannes Trithemius in book IV of On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 169, mentions our Saint in these words: "Eata, abbot of Melrose, under whom Cuthbert was made a monk, and afterwards bishop of Hexham or Lindisfarne before John, the most simple and gentle of all men, none the less governed the Church vigorously by life and teaching. He was renowned in the year of the Lord 670." The John here spoken of is John of Beverley, whose Acts ours published at the VII day of May Acta SS., vol. II of May, p. 166..

[2] it is confirmed by various documents: Various hagiographers also recall the memory of our Saint: as Dempster in the Scottish Menology at the VII day of May Ibid., p. 133.: Claude Chalemot, wrongly indeed, among the Cistercian saints at the VI day of June Ibid., vol. I of June, p. 618.; the Antwerp manuscript Calendar at the XI of September, on which account our forebears promised at that day that they would treat of St. Eata at the XXVI day of October, and we discharge their pledge. Moreover Hugues Ménard celebrates the memory of the Saint in the Martyrology of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict: "At Hexham," he says, "in England, St. Eatta, bishop of the same city and Confessor." And in the Observations on this XXVI day of October he repeats almost the same things that we have related above from Trithemius. Ferrari, however, in his Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Martyrology, calls the holy prelate Hetba, probably by a fault of the typesetter, for in the Notes appended he calls him Hetha: but in whatever way Ferrari read the name of the Saint, he certainly indicated ours by citing Bede, Trithemius, and Rosweyde, who in the Fasti of the Saints nowhere mentions either Hetba or Hetha, but Eatha at the XXVI of October. Finally Simon de Peyronet in the Catalogue of Saints recalls the same man, writing that he is called Eata, Eatta and Eatha.

[3] His Life is written in the XII century; The author of the Life to be published below gives no indication who he was, and at what time he wrote. This is certain, that he wrote after the XII century had already begun, seeing that at number 7 he relates the translation attempted by Thomas II, archbishop of York, who held the see from the year 1109 to 1114 Monast. Anglic., vol. VIII, p. 1172., and at number 4 he says that there are now regular canons in the Church of Hexham, who we know were put in place there instead of the monks by the same Thomas on the kalends of November of the year 1113, as Jean Mabillon relates, in the book of the Miracles of St. Wilfrid or of the Saints of the Church of Hexham Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened., sæc. III, part I, p. 216.. Since, however, he makes mention of that change, I believe that the biographer wrote in the course of the XII century: for if he had written later, there would now appear no usefulness in recalling the memory of a fact already old. Further, we do not know that any other more ancient writer wrote a Life of Eata. Certainly he who recently published the Catalogue of Chronicles and other instruments pertaining to the History of England, Thomas Duffus Hardy, public keeper of the Records (Keeper of the public records), enumerates the Lives of the Saints as the richest sources of the History of more ancient times [Duffus Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of materials relating to the History of Great Britain, vol. I, p. 292.]. Among them, however, there occurs one single Life of St. Eata, so far as it exists written by hand in the various libraries of England and printed in Capgrave: for in all the codices it begins in altogether the same words and ends in almost the same words, as in our exemplar, which we have copied from the monastery of Red Valley and which agrees with Capgrave's legend, departing a little from the York codex, which the Surtee Society followed in the Biographical Miscellanies in the year 1834. The said Duffus Hardy says that the Life of St. Eata was probably written by Ailred, monk of Rievaulx, who flourished in the year 1166; Rob. Walt., Bibl. Brit., under Ailred. but the argument on which he relies does not satisfy me. For the rest, whoever the author of this Life was and at whatever time he lived, it will become manifest from what is to be said below that he brought forth nothing from his own store, that he drew faithfully from more ancient monuments. I shall add one thing, namely that an error has crept into the lexicon of the Saints, compiled with the greatest care and immense labour by the Rev. Lord Johann Stadler, dean of the Church of Augsburg in Bavaria, inasmuch as he sets down two bishops of the same name, as though one had been bishop of the Church of Hexham and the other of that of Lindisfarne Heiligen-Lexicon, under Eata.; whereas there was only one bishop of both Churches; which indeed we know not only from the Martyrologies, as the Lexicon of Hagiography has it Diction. Hagiograph., under Eate., but also from his Life, written by the Anonymous, who, as we have already said, drew his narrative from the History of Bede. The Saint, by Bl. Aidan

[4] We read in the Life to be published, at number 2, that St. Aidan took twelve boys of the English nation to be instructed in Christ; among whom was Eata, a boy of good character; just as Bede the priest testifies to us in his History, book III, chapter 26 Migne, Patrol., vol. XCV, col. 164., saying that Eata was one of the twelve boys of Aidan, whom in the first period of his episcopate he took of the English nation to be instructed in Christ. Ours, in the Acts of St. Aidan at the XXXI of August, showed that the ordination of St. Aidan as bishop falls in the year of Christ 634 or 635 Acta SS., vol. VI of August, p. 689.: and since St. Eata, as yet a boy, was taken on as a disciple of St. Aidan, he was probably ten years old; whence we can fix his birthday at about the year of Christ 625, and so, since he died in the year 685, that he reached the age of 60 years. The words cited also indicate his origin, namely from the nation of the English, for whose conversion St. Gregory the Great sent SS. Augustine and his companions into Britain. Nevertheless King Oswald, who, says Bede in the Eccl. Hist., book III, chapter 3 Migne, Patrol., vol. XCV, col. 119., while living in exile among the Scots had obtained the sacraments of baptism, with the soldiers who were with him, asked of the elders of the Scots that a prelate be sent to him, by whose teaching and ministry the nation of the English which he ruled might learn the gifts of the Lord's faith and receive its sacraments. And hence it came about that the nation of the English in Northumbria adhered for some time to the Scottish rites.

[5] educated at Lindisfarne from boyhood, St. Aidan established the episcopal see on the island of Lindisfarne, which place, says Bede in book III of the History, chapter 3 Ibid., col. 120., as the tide (that is, the flow and ebb) comes in and goes out, is twice a day washed round by the waves of the sea like an island, and twice, the shore being laid bare again, is made contiguous to the land. This island or peninsula, its name being afterwards changed because of the dwelling and burial there of many bishops and monks who obtained the fame of sanctity and the public cult of the Church, was called Holy Island, Holy-Island, and is so called to this day Camden. Britan., vol. III, p. 744.. On that island there were clerics under a bishop and monks under an abbot, as was shown in the Acts of St. Vitalis, bishop, at the XX of October Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 919.: but the island having afterwards been destroyed by the Danes at the beginning of the IX century, the episcopal see was moved elsewhere. For the establishment of the see seemed to depend on the place in which the body of St. Cuthbert had been laid, the most celebrated of all the bishops of Lindisfarne, whose Acts our forebears gave at the XX of March Acta SS., vol. III of March, p. 93.. When therefore in the year 793, as the Chronicle of Melrose has it Gale, Rer. Anglic. scriptt., vol. I, p. 139., the Danes, having destroyed the monastery of Lindisfarne, had slain the monks, they nevertheless did not touch the body of the Saint. But in the year 875, when the army of the Danes was occupying Northumbria, Bishop Eardulf and Abbot Edred, taking the body of St. Cuthbert from Lindisfarne, began to wander for seven years Ibid., p. 144.; until in the year 883 the see which had before been in Lindisfarne was re-established in Cuncastri * Ibid, p. 145..

[6] St. Cuthbert Finally in the year 995, or one hundred and two years after the foundation at Chester, Bishop Aldun translated the body of St. Cuthbert from Chester to Dunelm * Ibid., p. 152.. Which Simeon also confirms in the History of the Church of Durham: "The venerable prelate Aldhun," he says Twysden, Hist. Anglic. scriptt., vol. I, col. 29., "solemnly dedicated the church …, and amid the rejoicing of all and their praise of God, he placed with due honour the incorrupt body of the most holy father Cuthbert, translated into the place which he had prepared. Thus until the present time, with the holy body, the episcopal see has remained in this place, which had first been established by King Oswald of old and by Bishop Aidan on the island of Lindisfarne." It becomes clear enough that the fortunes, so to speak, of the Church of Lindisfarne were in every way joined with the body of St. Cuthbert: and we have set out these things somewhat more fully, because the monastery of Lindisfarne is the place in which St. Eata drew his first lessons. But now we pass on to illustrating the rest of the Acts of the Saint.

[7] he had as a disciple in the monastery of Melrose, After imbibing the instruction of the monastic life under the discipline of St. Aidan, St. Eata was set over the monastery of Melrose. Now Mailros or, as our biographer also has it, Menros, today Melrose, is a place in present-day Scotland, situated in the county of Roxburgh on the river Tweed, which even now is called Old Melrose, as the geographical Lexicon of Scotland teaches us Carlisle, Topogr. Diction. of Scotland, under Melros., and consists of a single house; yet there remain ruins of the walls of the ancient monastery, and it is said

to be the most ancient of all, Ibid, l. c.. This indeed I cannot accept. For I judge that the monastery of Lindisfarne is more ancient than that of Melrose: for if King Oswald had had monks of Melrose, he would not have sought preachers from far-off Hi or Jona, or, as more recent writers write, Jova Reeves, Life of S. Columba, p. 413. *, one of the Hebrides, lying in the western quarter of present-day Scotland. Then, if the monastery of Lindisfarne had had its beginning after that of Melrose, there would seem to be a greater dignity in Melrose than in Lindisfarne; and so a promotion of abbots from the latter to the former: but quite the contrary happened. Thus our St. Eata, on the testimony of Bede, book III of the History, 26 Migne, vol. XCV, col. 163., was set over them with the authority of an abbot, who was abbot in the monastery called Mailros: thus also the same Bede, book IV, chapter 27 Ibid., col. 221., says that St. Cuthbert, before that abbot of Melrose, was promoted, at the call of St. Eata, to the rule of Lindisfarne. It is easily to be granted, therefore, that Melrose had its origin after Lindisfarne, founded in the year of Christ 635.

[8] I think, however, that the monastery of Melrose took its beginning a good while before the year 664. when he held its rule: Here again we take Bede as our guide, who in book III, chapter 26 Migne, Patrol., vol. XCV, col. 163., and book V, chapter 24 Ibid., col. 287., says that in the year 664, over the brethren who, when the Scots were departing, preferred to remain in the Church of Lindisfarne, there was set with the authority of an abbot the most reverend and gentle Eata, who was abbot in the monastery called Mailros. Already then in the year 664 Melrose had put on the form of a regular monastery, in which our Saint had given proofs of his holiness, by which he was shown fit to sustain a heavier burden. Indeed, that that monastery was already flourishing in the year of the Lord 651, Bede is also a witness in the prose Life of St. Cuthbert. For having had a vision of the death of St. Aidan, who died in the year 651, he at once resolved to leave the world and seek a monastery, chapter 4 of the Life Ibid., vol. XCIV, col. 739.: and so he betook himself to Melrose, where, having been received by St. Boisil, he was joined to the fellowship of the brethren by St. Eata the abbot, having received the tonsure, chapter 6 Ibid., col. 742.. In the earlier half of the VII century, therefore, the origin of Melrose is to be sought, without its being permitted me to determine anything more exactly.

[9] the kind of life of the monks Now Bede describes for us the manner of living in these monasteries, book III of the History, chapter 26 Ibid., vol. XCV, col. 164.: "How great," he says, "was the frugality and how great the continence of the man himself and of his predecessors, that very place which they ruled also testifies, where, when they departed, except for the church very few houses were found, that is, only those without which civil life can in no way exist. For if they received any money from the rich, they straightway gave it to the poor. For there was no need either to collect money or to provide houses for the reception of the powerful of the world, who never came to the church except only for the sake of prayer and of hearing the word of God. The king himself, when occasion required, came with only five or six attendants, and, having finished his prayer in the church, departed. But if it happened that they took refreshment there, content only with the simple and daily food of the brethren, they sought nothing further. For the whole concern of those teachers then was to serve God, not the world; the whole care to cultivate the heart, not the belly."

[10] of the Scots is described, "Whence also the habit of religion was at that time in great veneration; so that wherever any cleric or monk arrived, he was joyfully received by all as a servant of God. Even if he were found going along on a journey, they would run up, and with bowed neck rejoiced to be signed by his hand or blessed by his mouth, and they also paid diligent attention to the words of exhortation of these men. And on Sundays too they flocked eagerly to the church or to the monasteries, not for the sake of refreshing the body, but of hearing the word of God: and if any one of the priests happened to come into a village, the villagers straightway assembled together and took care to seek from him the word of life. For neither had the priests or clerics themselves any other reason for going to the villages than to preach, to baptize, to visit the sick, and, to say it briefly, to care for souls, for they were so far purified from every plague of avarice, that no one would accept lands and possessions for building monasteries unless compelled by the powerful. Which custom was preserved in all respects for some time after this in the Churches of the Northumbrians. But of these things enough has been said."

[11] Both at Melrose and at Lindisfarne After St. Eata had ruled the monastery of Melrose for at least thirteen years, he was brought in the year 664 to the rule of Lindisfarne. For this is what the text of Bede cited at number 8 has, namely that the Saint came to Lindisfarne in that year: but at the same number we have shown that St. Eata gave the monastic tonsure to St. Cuthbert in the year 651: since therefore there is an interval of thirteen years between the years 651 and 664, this we must by all means admit. But neither can we make it much greater: for since, as we taught above at number 4, St. Eata was born about the year 625, and so in the year 651 had reached the age of twenty-six years, he could not have been placed over the monastery of Melrose as abbot much earlier, lest St. Aidan should be said to have committed a matter of such moment, as is the rule of a monastery in its beginnings, to a man scarcely past the bounds of adolescence. This also is confirmed to some extent from the Life of St. Cuthbert, chapter 6 Migne, Patrol. vol. XCIV, col. 742.: for although the holy young man knew that the Church of Lindisfarne had many holy men, yet, forestalled by the fame of Boisil, a monk and priest of sublime virtues, he preferred to make for Melrose. For Boisil was prior of the monastery, who kept the young man with him: and after a few days, when St. Eata arrived, St. Cuthbert put on the monastic habit. I suspect that it was only then, namely in the year 651, that Eata held the helm of Melrose. Ours treat of St. Boisil at the XXIII day of January Act. SS. vol. II of January, p. 540..

[12] as at Ripon, While St. Eata was living at Melrose, Alcfrid, son of King Oswy, says Bede in the Life of St. Cuthbert, chapter 7 Migne, Patrol. vol. XCIV, col. 743., "resolved to give to Abbot Eata a certain place of his kingdom, which is called Inhrypum, for building a monastery there: and the same abbot, taking some of the brethren with him,… founded there the monastery that was sought, and imbued it with the same institutes of regular discipline as Mailros before." But the monastery did not long continue among the Scots. For, as Bede notes in the Life of St. Cuthbert, chapter 8 Ibid. col. 744., "Eata with Cuthbert and the others whom he had brought with him was driven back home, and the site of the monastery which he had founded is given to other monks to inhabit", namely first of all to St. Wilfrid, as the said Bede testifies, book V, chapter 19 Ibid. vol. XCV, col. 265., saying: "Which place, namely (Inhripum), he (King Alchfrid) had formerly given for the building of a monastery there to those who followed the Scots. But because they afterwards, the choice being given them, preferred to withdraw rather than to accept the catholic Easter and the other rites according to the custom of the Roman and apostolic Church, he gave this to him (Wilfrid)." Since indeed St. Eata remained in Northumbria, and was consecrated bishop by Theodore of Canterbury, there is no doubt that he himself too, an Englishman, accepted the Roman rite. But as the Scots withdrew, the number of the monks was diminished, for whom thereafter the two more ancient monasteries, Lindisfarne and Melrose, were sufficient: whence Hripum could be given by King Alchfrid to St. Wilfrid.

[13] the varied fortune of which is set out. The monastery of Hripum (today Ripon in the county of York) passed first of all to the Order of St. Benedict, and then about the beginning of the Norman reign became a collegiate church; in which state it remained until Henry VIII, who transferred its goods to secular condition. But James I, king of England, at the urging of his queen Anne, in the year 1604 instituted anew a chapter, Anglican of course, for a dean and six canons: whose annual revenues were estimated at 247 English pounds. There were moreover at Ripon two hospitals, founded by Catholics: for the Anglican clergy, who must provide for wives and for the raising, dowering and advancement of children, for the most part cannot have so much money left over as to raise up pious institutions or restore those falling down Dugdale, Monast. Angl. vol. II, p. 131. London edition, 1817..

* Chester-lestreet

* Durham

* today Colmkill

§ II. The Saint's episcopates at Lindisfarne and Hexham; his holy death; his burial and translation.

The episcopal sees having been multiplied. What were the causes for multiplying the bishoprics throughout Northumbria, which one Church, that of York or Lindisfarne, comprehended, has been set out in the Acts of St. Acca, bishop of Hexham, at the XX day of October Act. SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 965.. In what manner St. Eata was promoted to the episcopate, Bede relates, book IV, chapter 12 Migne, Patrol. vol. XCV, col. 191.. "In which year also," he says, namely 678, "a dissension having arisen between King Ecgfrid himself and the most reverend prelate Wilfrid, the same prelate was driven from the see of his bishopric, and two bishops were put in his place, to preside over the nation of the Northumbrians: namely Bosa, to govern the province of the Deirans, and Eata that of the Bernicians: the former having his episcopal chair in the city of York, the latter in the Church of Hexham or of Lindisfarne, both taken up from the college of monks to the rank of the episcopate … Now Bosa and Eata were ordained at York by Archbishop Theodore; who also, three years after the departure of Wilfrid, added two prelates to their number, Tunbert to the Church of Hexham, Eata remaining at Lindisfarne, and Trumwine to the province of the Picts, which at that time was subject to the rule of the English." Thus far Bede.

[15] The Saint is made bishop From what has been said it becomes clear that St. Eata presided over the monastery of Lindisfarne with the title of abbot for almost fourteen years, before he came to the episcopate. Yet he did not cease to lead the monastic life. For, says Bede, book IV, chapter 27 Migne, Patrol. vol. XCV, col 221., "from ancient times there (at Lindisfarne) both the bishop with the clergy and the abbot were accustomed to remain with the monks, who yet themselves also belonged to the care of the bishop. Because, indeed, Aidan, who was the first bishop of that place, coming thither with monks and himself a monk, established the monastic way of life in it; as the blessed father Augustine also is known to have done before in Kent, the most reverend Pope Gregory writing to him, which we have also set down above. 'But because your fraternity,' he says, 'instructed in the rules of a monastery, ought not to live apart from your clergy, in the Church of the English, which by God's guidance has lately been brought to the faith, you ought to establish that way of life which was that of our fathers at the beginning of the nascent Church, among whom none of them out of

the things they possessed said that anything was his own, but all things were common to them.'" This response of St. Gregory is found among his works, book XI, letter 64 Migne, Patrol., vol. LXXVII, 1183..

[16] of Lindisfarne, Let it be permitted here to remark in passing that from the monastic origin of various Churches of England it came about that many had chapters of regulars, which persevered in the regular state down to the age of Henry VIII; whence in Churches of this kind he who was elected abbot of the monastery was by that very right at the same time bishop of the whole diocese. Pope Urban VIII enumerates such Churches, when he prescribes to the Anglo-Benedictine monks (for they alone possessed cathedral Churches) that they should constitute chapters or colleges of the several Churches, and elect prelates, short however of the abbatial dignity, the chief of whom should be the first dignity in the church and diocese. The names of these Churches Urban VIII reviews in his bull, given on the IV of the Ides of July in the year 1633 Dugdale, Monast. Anglic. vol. VIII, p. 1648.; they are namely the metropolitan of Canterbury, the cathedrals of Winchester (Winchester), Durham (Durham), sprung from the Church of Lindisfarne, Ely, Worcester, Norwich, Rochester (Rochester), Bath (Bath), Coventry Ibid. p. 1650.. And this state of the Churches in England persisted until Pope Pius IX, by an Apostolic Brief given on the XXIV of September 1850, having abrogated the old Catholic hierarchy, established a new one, which consists of one metropolitan Church of Westminster and twelve suffragan bishoprics Kersten, Journal hist. et lit. vol. XVII, p. 366., among which is Hexham, which, as we have said, our St. Eata once ruled as bishop.

[17] and he attends the synod of Heathfield The Saint was probably present at the council which St. Theodore celebrated on the plain of Haethfelda in the year 680, of which Bede treats, book IV, chapter 17 Migne, Patrol. vol. XIV, col. 198.. That synod was convened by command of Pope Agatho, as appears from his letter to Ethelred, king of the Mercians, and Archbishop Theodore Labbe, vol. VI, conc. col. 576.. For since it is said that St. Theodore, archbishop of the island of Britain, celebrated it, the other bishops of the island of Britain sitting together with him, it can scarcely be doubted that St. Eata also was present among the others. Further, in this synod, since he had heard that the faith of the Church at Constantinople was much disturbed by the heresy of Eutyches, he wished to keep the Churches of the English immune from a stain of this kind: and accordingly at this very time an ecumenical council was summoned at Constantinople, which came to its end on the XVI of September 681, and in which Monothelitism was condemned. Now the English fathers accept the faith which the ecumenical councils accepted, namely Nicaea, Constantinople I, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople II. "We accept," they say, "and glorify our Lord Jesus, as these glorified him: adding or subtracting nothing: and we anathematize with heart and mouth those whom they anathematized, and those whom they accepted, we accept."

[18] and translated to Hexham, Now when St. Eata had governed two Churches, those of Lindisfarne and Hexham, for almost seven years, that is, from the year 678 to 685, St. Cuthbert, in a synod beside the river Alne, in the place called Altuifyrdi, which means "At the double ford" (Twyford), over which Archbishop Theodore presided, in the presence of King Ecgfrid, was elected to the episcopate by the consent of all. "But he was elected," continues Bede, book IV, chapter 28 Migne, Patrol., vol. XCV, col. 222., "first to the bishopric of the Church of Hexham in place of Tunbert, who had been deposed from the episcopate. But since he himself preferred to be set over the Church of Lindisfarne, in which he had lived, it was decided that, Eata returning to the see of the Church of Hexham, for the ruling of which he had first been ordained, Cuthbert should take up the helm of the Church of Lindisfarne." This election of St. Cuthbert, made before the winter of the year 684, was completed by his ordination, on the very solemnity, says Bede in the place cited Ibid. col. 223., of Easter, which in the year 685 fell on the XXVI day of March, at York, in the presence of the aforesaid King Ecgfrid, seven bishops assembling for his consecration, among whom Theodore of blessed memory held the primacy.

[19] he dies a holy death, In the same year in which St. Cuthbert was consecrated bishop, St. Eata fell asleep in the Lord; namely in the year 685. For in Bede, book V, chapter 2 Ibid. col. 230., it is said that at the beginning of the reign of Altfrid, Bishop Eata having died, John, a holy man, took up the prelacy of the Church of Hexham. And Altfrid succeeded his brother Ecgfrid, who had been slain, in the year 685, as Bede notes, book V, chapter 24 Ibid. col. 287.. And according to the Saxon Chronicle, as Edm. Gibson edited it at Oxford in the year 1692, under the year 685 there is noted the consecration of John, called of Beverley, whose Acts ours illustrated at the VII day of May Act. SS. vol. II of May, p. 166 and in the Appendix of May, p. 843.. St. Eata, as our biographer has it at number 5, was received with the greatest joy by his people of Hexham, but, seized by the disease of dysentery, he made an end of his life seven months afterwards, dying on the XXVI day of October, since from the XXVI day of March, or from the consecration of St. Cuthbert, he had held the Church of Hexham for fully seven months.

[20] and is buried in the church of St. Andrew, That St. Eata obtained a tomb at Hexham immediately after his death, the finding of his Relics there in the XII century abundantly shows. Our biographer at number 6 says that he was buried beside the sanctuary of the church of Hexham on the south side, and that a small stone chapel was built over his tomb. But he adds: "From which place it is held uncertain by whom he was translated, and placed within the church in a shrine with fitting honour." It seems likely, however, that he was translated by Alfred, priest of the Church of Durham, who with his right hand raised his venerable successors Acca and Alcmund, and placed them honourably within the church on biers. That is to say, I believe this Alfrid to be the same as the one who in the book on the Miracles of St. Wilfrid or on the Saints of the Church of Hexham, number 15, is called Alured, son of Westou, whom also, for the grace of his learning and wisdom, they named Alured Larwa, that is, the Teacher. This man, namely, says the anonymous writer, a regular canon of the XII century, "admonished by a divine revelation, going about through the sacred places which the savagery of the barbarians had laid waste, digging up the Relics of many Saints from their tombs, translated them to the church of Durham." And these things were done somewhat before Thomas I ascended the see of York, which happened in the year 1070 Godwin, De præsul. Angl. Epp. Eborac. p. 23.; for the son of Alured asked of Archbishop Thomas that the ruinous church of Hexham be granted to him: which he also obtained, regular canons being brought into it Mabill. Act. SS. vol. III, part I, p. 215 *..

[21] and in the year 1154 he is laid in a new tomb. Now when by their industry the church of Hexham had been restored, adorned with precious ornaments and enriched with the Relics of St. Andrew and other saints, the religious men resolved to elevate the remains of their home Saints: and for the celebration of this rite they appointed the V of the Nones of March of the year 1154 Ibid. p. 216 *.. Now having found the bodies of SS. Acca, Alcmund, Fredenbert and Albert, (by others called) Tilbert, finally "opening the shrine in which the Relics of the venerable bishop Acca (wrongly for Eata, as Mabillon notes Ibid. l. c. note.) were covered, they find his bones, breathing a heavenly odour. When all who were present, terrified and astounded, had inhaled it, dissolved in tears, they most devoutly commended themselves to the prayers of so great a patron. They found in the same case a vessel of lead, containing certain fragments of blessed Fredenbert, breathing the fragrance of the same odour. Then there resounded in the mouth of all thanksgiving and the voice of praise. And bringing up the smaller case which they had adorned, they placed in it the Relics of the Blessed bishop with the vessel of lead which they had found… And a table having been set up beside the altar, resting on three columns, most becomingly diversified with sculptures and paintings, they set in the middle the greater shrine, which contained the sacred pledges of four bishops; on its south side that which covered the venerable bones of St. Aata (Eata); on the north they set the third with those things which they had put in it. Namely the shrine in which, with the sacred Relics of St. Babylas, bishop and Martyr, there was contained a certain part of the dust from the body of St. Aata the bishop. These things having been duly performed and the solemnities of Masses having been celebrated with due joy, the people are dismissed, the company of the brethren is returned to its accustomed peace and quiet." And these are for the most part the things which we have thought should be set before the Acts of St. Eata: the rest we shall illustrate as they occur in the Acts themselves.

LIFE OF ST. EATA, BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE,

By an anonymous author, from the Rievaulx manuscript.

Eata, confessor and bishop, at Lindisfarne and Hexham. (S.)

BHL Number: 2357

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR & BY J. V. H.

SOLE CHAPTER.

The Saint's instruction and monastic life under Aidan, a Scottish bishop; his headship of the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne; his episcopate at Hexham; his death and burial.

King Oswald into Northumbria In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred and thirty-three, King Edwin, the most noble king of the Northumbrians ^a, having been slain, there took up the kingdom of the Bernicians in his place a son of Ethelfrid, by name Eansfrid. For during the whole time that Edwin reigned, the sons of the aforesaid King Ethelfrid, who had reigned before him, were living in exile with a great company of noble youth among the Scots or Picts, where, having been instructed in the faith, they were baptized. For when King Edwin was dead, Eansfrid, returning from exile and obtaining the kingdom of the Bernicians, abandoned the faith which he had received and turned to idolatry ^b. Whence by the just judgment of God he was in a short time slain by Cadwalla, king of the Britons ^c. On his death there succeeded his brother Oswald, who brought the kingdom of the Deirans and of the Bernicians under his dominion ^d.

[2] calls St. Aidan, who educates the boy Eata, and, when he has been made a monk, He straightway summoned Aidan, the venerable bishop, to convert the people subject to him, established for him an episcopal see on the island of Lindisfarne, and took care to build churches and monasteries in various places ^e. And the same holy Bishop Aidan took twelve boys of the English nation to be instructed in Christ: among whom was Eata, a boy of good character and of a very gentle spirit ^f. For being a diligent hearer of the admonitions and examples of his teacher, and clinging to him with his whole mind, he shone forth conspicuous for every uprightness of conduct. Accepted therefore by God and men, and having been made a monk, he gave himself to following the monastic life in vigils, fasts and other good works, day and night. For he was a man outstanding in the virtue of patience, shining in chastity, affable and pleasant to all, and, as the Venerable Bede testifies, adorned above all men with the grace of gentleness and simplicity.

[3] makes him head of the monastery of Melrose. Having at length been made abbot of Mailros, that is, Meuros ^g, showing his brethren examples of much greater humility and charity than before, all his fellow-brethren loved him not as a master but as a kindly father. To the powerful and the rich of this world he was so far

venerable that even kings themselves honoured him as a father, and bestowed lands and possessions with devout minds for building monasteries. And the pious father built churches and monasteries with diligent zeal in suitable places; he took care to gather together in them disciples who gave themselves to the pursuits of holy living. Among these were Boisil ^h, prior of the monastery of Melrose, and Cuthbert, afterwards bishop of Lindisfarne ⁱ, men shining indeed with the brightness of wonderful sanctity and wonderfully strong in the spirit of prophecy. But after the conflict in the monastery of the abbess Hilda concerning the observance of Easter ^k, Bishop Colman, a Scot by race ^l, obtained from King Oswy ^m that the venerable abbot Eata should preside over the church of Lindisfarne with the authority of an abbot ⁿ. For many Scots loved St. Eata, because he was one of the twelve boys of St. Aidan the bishop.

[4] St. Eata becomes bishop of Hexham, Taking up the care of the church of Lindisfarne, Eata, bringing with him Blessed Cuthbert, whom he had made prior of Melrose after the death of Blessed Boisil, appointed him prior in the monastery of Lindisfarne ^o. At length, a dissension having arisen between King Egfrid and St. Wilfrid the bishop, and the latter having been driven from the bishopric [p], Bosa in the kingdom of the Deirans at York [q], and Abbot Eata in the province of the Bernicians at the church of Hexham, that is, Extoldesham [r], where now there are regular canons, or at the church of Lindisfarne, that is, Holy Land, were put in his place as bishops [s]. They were consecrated at York by Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury. Three years after the expulsion of St. Wilfrid, Trumwine was ordained bishop in the province of the Picts, then subject to the rule of the English, and Tumbert to the church of Hexham, Eata remaining at the church of Lindisfarne [t]. But after three years Tumbert was deposed for the fault of a certain disobedience, and in his place St. Cuthbert was elected [u].

[5] leaving the see of Lindisfarne to St. Cuthbert: But since he loved the church of Lindisfarne more than that of Hexham, Eata having returned to Hexham, to which he had first been ordained, Cuthbert was set over the church of Lindisfarne and consecrated bishop. Eata was received with the great joy of all, all exulting and giving thanks to God that they had been found worthy to receive back again, by the providence of God's grace, their most beloved pastor, whom they had sorrowfully lost. He was frequent in prayers, in season and out of season in exhortations, intent on works of almsgiving, given to ecclesiastical disciplines, and whatever he recognized through the Holy Spirit should be done, he took care to carry out diligently and devoutly. And when the merciful Lord had determined to reward his labours with an eternal recompense, he was struck by a most acute disease of the bowels, which physicians call dysentery [v].

[6] he dies a holy death; and his body, honourably buried at Hexham, As this grew heavier day by day, tried as gold through fire, all the rust of sins having been burned away, he closed his last day, and entered the gate of the heavenly kingdom to live for ever. And he was buried beside the sanctuary of the aforesaid church of Hexham on the south side, and a small stone chapel was built over his tomb [w]. From which place it is held uncertain by whom he was translated, and placed within the church in a shrine with fitting honour. It seems likely, however, that he was translated by Alfred, priest of the church of Durham, who raised from the earth his venerable successors Acca and Alcmund, and placed them honourably within the church on biers [x].

[7] which Thomas II of York tries to take away. In the year of the Lord 1113, when Thomas, archbishop of York, had come to the church of Hexham, and was planning, led by the counsel of the canons of the Church of York, to transfer the relics of St. Eata with him to his see, the brethren of that same church, made sorrowful, besought St. Eata with earnest prayers that he should not widow and desert by withdrawing his presence the place which while living he had cultivated and loved and had honoured by his burial. On the same night, on the morrow of which he had determined to carry off the same Relics, in the silence of the dead of night, there appeared to the archbishop, sunk in sleep, one of venerable aspect, and in pontifical habit, bearing a pastoral staff in his hand, and looking upon him terribly he spoke thus: "What is this that you are preparing to do? You have come to transfer me from the place of my rest to another's church, which has not been commanded you by the Lord: I tell you that you will pay the penalty of your presumption." And raising the staff which he bore in his hand, he struck him twice on the shoulder; and with vehement threats disappeared. And the archbishop, awakened, and crying out for very great terror, roused all the clerics, who were disturbed by his cries; he related what had happened, and implored the brethren of that Church to entreat God as suppliants for his presumption. For he declared, binding himself by a vow, that he would never again presume to despoil that church of any of its patrons. And so, after being cast down by illness for three days, he at last recovered, and with the business undone he returned to his own church.

ANNOTATIONS.

under one dean had twelve canons, and the several schools under one master had twelve disciples. Thus our holy Eata was one of the twelve boys whom St. Aidan took to be instructed in Christ. We determined at number 4 of the Preliminary Commentary that St. Eata was placed under monastic discipline at about ten years of age: certainly boys were received into monasteries to be instructed below that age. Bede, as he himself says, book V, chapter 24 Migne, Patrol., vol. XCV, col. 288., when he was seven years old was given to be brought up by the most reverend Abbot Benedict, and then by Ceolfrid. We judge, however, that ten years should be given to St. Eata on account of his headships of the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne, his episcopate at Hexham and the other things he did, as we have intimated at number 8 of the Preliminary Commentary.

p. In the Acts of St. Acca, bishop of Hexham, at the XX day of October, the origin of the very grave dissension that arose between men in every respect holy has been set out Act. SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 965..

q. Ours have illustrated the Acts of St. Bosa, bishop of York, at the IX day of March Ibid., vol. II of March, p. 10.. Bede remarks, book III, chapter 1 Migne, Patrol., vol. XCV, col. 116., that the nation of the Northumbrians was divided into two provinces, of the Bernicians and of the Deirans.

r. Hagustaldia, today Hexham, retained the episcopal see as long as the body of St. Cuthbert remained there. But, being moved hither and thither on account of hostile devastations, it rested for some time at Chester, until Bishop Aldun carried the body across to Durham together with the episcopal chair Twysden. Rer. Anglic. Scriptt., vol. I, p. 163.. The secular canons having been expelled, Gulielmus de S. Carilepho put Benedictine monks in their place about the year 1083 Ibid., p. 212.; although Edm. Goodwin rather ascribes this to his predecessor Walcher in the year 1080 De Præsul. Angl. p. 108.. Monasticism further continued in the cathedral Church of Durham down to the times of Henry VIII Carlisle. Topogr. Diction., under Durham..

s. The regular canons were brought into Hexham by Thomas II, archbishop of York: namely, the episcopal chair having already been moved to Durham, the place passed to the see of York Ibid., under Hexham.. Thomas II held the pastoral staff from the year 1109 to 1114.

t. From this it becomes clear that Archbishop Theodore had resolved from the very beginning that there should be a double episcopal see among the Bernicians, namely at Lindisfarne and at Hexham.

u. We have it from the Saxon Chronicle that St. Cuthbert, by order of King Egferth, was consecrated bishop of Hexham in the year 685 on the first day of Easter. But in a short time he exchanged this bishopric for that of Lindisfarne; since indeed St. Eata, who died in the same year on the XXVI day of October, leaving the see of Lindisfarne, went to Hexham.

v. These things agree exactly with what Bede relates in the Life of St. Cuthbert, chapter 8 Migne, Patrol., vol. XCIV, col. 746.: for when St. Boisil had revealed many future things to his disciple Cuthbert, he also foretold a three-year pestilence, in which St. Cuthbert himself and his abbot Eata were by no means to perish; he forewarned that Eata would die of the disease which physicians call dysentery, with a truthful word, as the issue of events taught.

w. The body of St. Eata was brought into the church of St. Andrew at Hexham; nor should we wonder that it was laid under a small stone chapel. For St. Wilfrid had built the church of Hexham most magnificently at the time when he was governing the see of York in peace. This sacred building Eddius, in chapter 21 of the Life of St. Wilfrid Mabillon Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened. sæc. IV Part I, p. 688., says (with exaggeration, I believe) was the most splendid of all this side of the Alps. For indeed, as is read there: "He founded a house for the Lord, wrought in honour of the Blessed Andrew the Apostle: of which the depth in the earth, founded with wonderfully polished stones together with its houses, and above the earth the manifold house supported on various columns and many porticoes, and adorned with a wonderful length and height of walls and carried round by various windings of lines of passages, sometimes upward, sometimes downward, by spiral stairs, it is not for my littleness to set forth in this discourse, what the holy prelate himself … devised to do in the work." Let it be permitted here to indicate in passing that the word domus here means the vaults by which the walls are strengthened. Certainly Adelung in his German Lexicon says that the word Doma indicates in lowest Latinity a vaulted summit (Kuppel) Adelung, under Dom.. That is to say, the very frequent commerce of the English with Gaul and Italy, and the bishops, priests and monks arriving from these regions, had raised the churches to this elegance of structure. Before these times, moreover, in England, and especially in Northumbria, scarcely converted to the Christian faith, buildings, even ecclesiastical ones, were altogether rustic. When St. Finan, the successor of St. Aidan, wished to make at Lindisfarne, as Bede testifies, book III, chapter 25 Goodwin, De episc. Eborac. p. 96., a church suited to the episcopal see, he built it entirely after the manner of the Scots, not of stone, but of hewn oak, and thatched it with reed: which afterwards Eadbert, bishop of Lindisfarne from the year 687 to 698 Migne, Patrol. vol. XCIV col. 788., having taken away the reed, took care to cover wholly with plates of lead, that is, both the roof and the walls themselves as well. Bede displays for us a similar image of churches in the Life of St. Cuthbert, chapter 46 Rose, Westmoreland and Durham illustrated. vol. III, p. 96., when he says that Ethelwald, the successor of St. Cuthbert in the hermitage, found that the walls of the oratory, which, of planks not very carefully

fitted together, had been loosened by long age, and that the planks being separated from one another had given easy entrance to the whirlwinds. "But the venerable man, who sought the beauty of the heavenly rather than of the earthly building, taking hay and clay, or whatever of such material he found, had stopped up the chinks, that he might not be held back from earnestness in prayer by the daily assaults of rains or winds. When therefore Ethelwald, on entering the place, had seen these things, he asked of the brethren who visited him a calf's skin, and, fastening it with nails in that corner in which both he himself and his predecessor Cuthbert were accustomed often to stand or kneel in prayer, he set it against the violence of the storms." It seems, further, that in England, above all in the northern parts, the memory of the primitive buildings has persisted: for even today, on fixed days, garlands of rushes adorned with flowers are carried about by girls, and on a Sunday they are borne in a long and solemn procession to the church, and are set there in the middle of the building: and this rite is called the Procession or Bearing of the rushes, Rushbearing: it is a wholly popular festival, in which children are presented with little gifts Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened. sæc. III. Part I, p. 216 *..

x. Of this first translation of the body of St. Eata we have treated at number 20 of the Preliminary Commentary. But the second translation was made, as Joan. Mabillon has it Monast. Anglic. vol. VI, p. 180., by Richard, prior of the regular canons from the year 1143 to 1170 Vol. 6, p. 181., the one we related above at number 21 of the Preliminary Commentary. But the biographer makes another difficulty for us in this place. For he says that Thomas the younger, archbishop of York, attempted in the year 1113 the carrying off of the body of St. Eata; but that the sorrowful brethren, who with earnest prayers besought the Saint not to desert the place, frustrated the design. When therefore Thomas undertook these things, there were already at Hexham some brethren who had a right to the Relics of their church, and on the other hand we read in the manuscript History of Richard of Hexham, cited in the Monasticon Anglicanum Act. SS. Ord. S. Bened. sæc. III. Part I, p. 221 *., that in the same year 1113, on the kalends of November, regular canons were brought into Hexham by Archbishop Thomas. How then could they preserve what they did not yet have? But if attention is paid to the narrative in the book of the Miracles of St. Wilfrid in Mabillon Monast. Anglic. vol. VI, p. 1172., it becomes altogether clear that the interval from the introduction of the canons to the attempted carrying off of the sacred body was very short. For it is said that in the time of Thomas the younger, the canons having already been brought into the church of Hexham, the clerics of York grieved that they had no body of the holy bishops in their church, and therefore resolved that the body of St. Eata should be carried off to York. "For the clerics considered the weakness of the common people of Hexham and the poverty of the brethren who had lately arrived: whence they did not fear to use force against them." From this it is altogether plain that the carrying off was attempted shortly after the introduction of the canons, and so about the end of the year 1113 or the beginning of the following: for Thomas the younger died on the XIX day of February 1114.