the hay discovered part of a loaf which some Shepherd had hid at which the Saint right glad said Grace and thankfully giving the horse one half satisfied himself with the other and lodging there all night the next day came to Mailros where he no sooner entred but Boysilous Prior of the same Abbey as if he had read in his Forehead a Prophetical Physiognomie of his future Sanctity ran and embraced him in his armes and presented him to Eâ—ta the Abbot who committed him to Boysilous for his Tutor with whom I leave him teaching him St. Johns Gospel which book in honour of the Scholar was kept in Durham in Prior Turgots time called Codex Sancti Cuthberti on which after so many Centuries of years no Moth ever durst presume to feed This Lindisferne by the royal Charter of Oswald became the Mother Church and Nursery of Religion amongst the Bernicians under Aidanus from whom the Episcopal race of the Prelates of Durham reckon their succession In antient description it was an Island but twice a day and embraced by Neptune only at full tide and at Ebbe shaked hands with the Continent for so I may call the voluminous Isle of Great Britaine in proportion of this littel Isle which in a Monk of Durhams Topographie was in compasse 8. miles In this Holy Island so Christned for St. Cuthberts sanctity stood the renowned Monastery founded by King Oswald where Finanus Aidanus his successor built a Cathedral of wood thatched with reeds which resembleth those times when Jupiter angustâ vix totus stabat in aede Inque Jovis dextrâ fictile fulmen eâ—at Frondibus ornabant quae jam Capitolia gemmis Pascebatque suas ipse senator oves But is was not long till Eadbert Saint Cuthbert his successor instead of this consecrated thatch apparreld over the whole Church with a robe of Lead a work of devotion and cost though it is not the Mason but the Worshipper that makes a Church In this Island 14. Bishops successively ascended the Episcopal seat among whom St. Cuthbert was accounted as a glorious Star of the first magnitude in the firmanent of the Church who when he had lived a Monasterial life 15 years in the Abby of Mailros was preferred by Eata to the Priory of Lindisferne which dignity he bare 12 years in such sanctity of life that the Devil as I cannot blame him was much grieved at his Vertues who among other Cheats with which the Monks make the Devil a fool in a certain village as the Saint was preaching set an house on fire to draw the people from his Sermon which when the Countrey folk marvelled they could not quench it was discovered to St. Cuthbert to be phantastical fire and the Devils delusion But after 12 years as before he resigned up his Priorship to become an Hermit choosing the Island Ferne seated in the main Ocean for the place of his Hermitage Anno Dom. 676. This Isle as void of men as full of Devils became the scene or stage whereon Saint Cuthbert acted all his Miracles for at his arrival the Spirits that had frequented this Isle were glad to fly and forego their title The Rocks poured out their water and the Earth as if there had been a return of the Golden Age brought forth Corne without Tillage And here he consecrated 9 years to Contemplation so wholly devoted to Heaven that he forgot he was on Earth and in a whole year to put off his shoes And although he wanted Men for his Auditors yet he ceased not to preach to the Birds that eat up his Corn who so confuted them out of this text Non aliena concupisces that they would never after eat his barley In like manner he reclaimed two Crows from stealing and rapine that pluckt off his thatch from his Anchorage to build their nest and made them so penitent that they lay at his feet prostrate for absolution and the next day brought him a piece of Pork to make him satisfaction with many more Wonders if they might be related upon the credit of a Legend But here is enough to shew what advantage the Monks took of that Ages Devotion whose practices were to devise Miracles of their Saint which as Superstition is alwayes credulous were as easily believed Thus to gain a reverend opinion from the Pagans of Christianity to cozen the people with Legends of wonders who while they defended Truth with Falshood and their Impostures discovered to wiser Ages have made Religion rather suspected than any way advanced it for Truth never needed the protection of Forgery but will carry away the Victory without Hypocrisie But Saint Cuthbert recalls my digression to his Isle where he had so many combats with the Devil that if you will borrow an Optick Glasse from Superstition you may see the print of his feet in many places there till this day It any landed at his Island to see him in devotion he ran into his Hermitage and discoursed out of his window only in love he bare to the Abbatesse of Collingham at great entreaty he sayled into Cocket Isle to her where every night as his custom was going down to the shore to pray two Sea-monsters came kneeling to him and worshipping him who when they had received their blessing returned to the deep and he again to his Anchorage where whiles he imprisoned himself and lived more obscured in his Cell the more illustrious was his fame abroad and in a Synod at Twiford upon Slu in the presence of King Egfrid he was chosen Bishop This dignity was prophesied unto him when he was a boy by an Infant of 3 years old who gravely told told him It becomed not a Bishop to play with children But Saint Cuthbert had so wedded his affections to a solitary life that neither letters nor Embassadors from the Synod could either command or perswade him to take upon him the government of the Church till the King himself attended with the Lords of the Nobility sail'd to this Isle and with the same company might have besieged and taken a City whiles he was conquering St. Cuthbert's resolution Thus though the case be now altered honour pursued him that fled from her and preferment found him out that hid himself from it The Bishoprick of Hexam was then void to which Eata removing gave place to St. Cuthbert to be installed in Lindisferne King Egfrid also to enlarge his Diocesse gave him a great part of the City of Yorke and also the City of Luell with 5. miles circuit about it where Saint Cuthbert built a Nunnery besides other Royal Donations as the Abbey of Mailros and Rippon But St. Cuthbert his minde was alway on his anchorage whither he shortly betook himself and in his Cell ended his life and began his miracles Anno Domini 687. But if I were to make his Funeral Oration 1 would not insert among his praises that he was an Anchoret for thus to unman himself to contemplate himself into a Deity
S. t CUTHBERT THE LEGEND OF St. CVTHBERT WITH THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE Church of DURHAM By B. R. Esq LONDON Printed for Christopher Eccleston at his shop in St. Dunstans Churchyard 1663. The PROLOGVE THough much of the ensuing Discourse be no more consistent with common Reason and probability the the Fables in the Alchoran and so cannot have any design of engaging the faith of the Reader to the veritie of the relations yet things of this nature giving some shaddow of satisfaction to the mind and being free from any real prejudice to Vertue of Religion men thriftie enough in the expence of their time are not seldome content to allow some wast hours in reading them and perhaps with some profit and observation At that time when this Legend bears date Miracles were cheap enough and the credulous ignorance of the Vulgar was easily abused with religious impostures But howsoever such juggles may appear now to the eyes of the more generally knowing and undeceived world I should have charitie enough to believe that the antique invention of them was upon the accompt of promoting the esteem of Holy Religion were not the observation too palpably notorious that they all tended over much to the end of private gain or reputation to the Miracle-mongers Not that I call in question the reasonablenesse of that antient policy how ridiculous soever it appears now for he was no unwise or unlearned * Sir W. Raleigh man which said That the wisdom of one age is the foolishnesse of another Who was the Author of this Book or when by him compiled or upon what accompt though probably for his own private divertisement I do ignore in an equal degree and am not able to give any other accompt thereof then what the Treatise it self affords Had he published it himself without any improbable conjecture it had passed censure with greater security the Author being a master of so much stile and language as the Book it self bespeaks him I am only instrumental in committing it to the Stationer and guilty of the vanity of this Prologue B. R. THE LEGEND OF St. CVTHBERT WITH The ANTIQUITIES of the Church of DURHAM HISTORY and PROPHECY set back to back make up the true Image of Janus whose two faces Time past and future honour as their Overseers In History Time lives after she is dead in Prophecy before she is born In the one she beholds what she was in the other what she will be But sith the Theorie of Time to come is the prerogative of a Deity Man must be modestly content with this blessing bestowed by History upon Mortality that through our Grandfathers eyes we may see what hath been This is all our sublunary Eternity if at the funeral of things History become the Epitaph and rescue their memories from the grave that entombs their ashes And this duty I owe to that Countrey where I had my Cradle to renew the decayed Epitaphs upon the Tombstone of her Antiquities Geographers deal with Countries even as Astronomers with their Asterisms and fancy them into shapes and resemblances so that by the liberty of phantasie Italy is compared to a mans legg Spaine to an Oxhide Britaine to an Hatchet I may liken the Bishoprick to the Letter Δ and Durham to a Crab supposing the City for the body and the Suburbs for the clawes This Countrey lyeth in the bosome of the Ocean and is embraced in the armes of two chrystal Rivers Teese and Derwen The antient Inhabitants in the time of the Romans were the Brigants in the Heptarchie of the Saxons they were called Deiri for the honour of which Province the Children thereof in the time of Aella being to be sold at Rome gave occasion of the replanting of Christianity by Angustine the English Apostle sent hither by Pope Benedictus at the entreaty of Gregory then Archdeacon of Rome who facetely alluding to the names of their Nation Province and King concluded ut Angli Angelis similes de irâ Dei eruerentur Allelujah cantare docerentur The first of the Saxon Kings who made conquest as well of Religion as Men that in this Province was dipt in the sacred Laver of Baptism was the renowned Oswald Qui Genti suae primitias sanctitatis dederit and is observed to be the first of the English Race that was illustrious by miracles This Prince sent once for a learned Monk out of Scotland Aidanus by name to convert his Subjects from Paganism and seated him in the Episcopal Chair of Lindisferne Anno Dom. 635. where while the Bishop taught in the Scotish tongue the King understanding both languages stood and interpreted his Sermons in English This great Monarch that great and pious Founder of the Church to whose womb all the Churches in the North owe their birth in a battel with a Pagan Prince lost his life and the day But with this advantage whiles Penda left him not a head to wear a Crown withall he received a more glorious Diadem of Martyrdom And as fury persecuting revenge after death tore his body in pieces so the devotion of Time dispersed the reliques to several places Nempe jacere Uno non potuit tanta ruina loco For whose sepulchre there was as great contention amongst the English Churches as in old time amongst the Graecians for the Cradle of Homer His Corps were brought to Lindisfern and from thence translated with St. Cuthbert his body to Durham Abbey His Arm was preserved in a Silver Casket at Bedburga or Bambrough not far seated from the Holy Island and at that time the great Metropolis of those parts This sacred Relique retained the blessing of Aidanus and was honored as a Monument of incorruption An History which to this effect by Beda is related That upon an Easter day as the King sate at dinner his servants told him that there was poor folk that expected alms at his gate who forthwith bid him both carry them meat and distribute the platter which was of silver among them with which fact of charity Aidanus who sate by him much delighted took him by the right arm with this hearty wish Never let this arm perish This glorious Martyrs death was the end of Aidanus life and the Pagans at one blow kill'd a Prince and a Bishop with sorrow who thought it a sin to live after so good a King was dead the Soul of which Bishop St Cuthbert happened to see in the dead of the night carried up with great melodie by a Quire of Angels into Heaven which vision so seized upon his affection that resolving upon an holier course of life he betook himself to the Monastery of Mailros built by Aidanus by the bank of Tweede and in his journey thither shewed a great specimen of his humility devotion and gratitude for being seized upon both by night and hunger he was forced to enter into an empty cottage where he found no other host for entertainment than a horse who eating and turning up
a whale and here you have the History of Jonas with many such Histories of wonders with which the Monks delighted the superstition of the times This illustrious miracle of Saint Cuthberts body incorruptible after death raised the Church to that height of renown that King Celwolphus in opinion of his sanctity forsook his Royalty to become a Monk in Lindisferne bringing with him such Kingly treasures and donations of Lands that he seemed rather to resign his Kingdom to the Church than to his Successor and became a Monk to make St. Cuthbert a King bestowing upon him Warkeworth Castle Heycliffe Billingham Woodchestre Huttingham Edulingham Elingham Towns that for ought I know have either out-lived their names or names that have survived their Towns But above all he was a welcome man to their Monastery that for his sake it was granted the Monks of Lindisferne of drink wine who were before to drink water thought they that drank after St. Cuthbert in his Cup found sometimes water turn'd to wine without a Miracle This devout Prince after he had divers years worn a Monks Coole was intombed in Norham which Town Ranulphus Bishop of Durham fortified with a Castle After this Miracle of incorruption Eadfrid The Bishop caused him to be laid in a new Sepulcher and to be placed in more state and reverence about the pavement of the Sanctuary for it was not fit that he should have his grave among the dead whose body seemed to live without a soul and with a sleep to cheate mortalisy of a death By this time the very ground that St Cuthbert had trod on was accounted holy who made every place he frequented a Church Eadfrid in Honour of his presence built up his Hermitage where as if after St Cuthbert a genius of Sanctity had frequented that place Etheldred a Monk of Rippon lived an Hermit 12 years Thus for a long time flourished the Monks of this Church till the Danes disturbed their prosperity who now begun to make incursions upon the frontiers of this land continuing their piracies and invasions till they had made a compleate conquest in King Harold which Monarchy shortly after yeilded to the Norman victory and England twice Conquered in seventy years These were the times when so many Monasteries which the Devotion of former ages had erected had their Funerals and Entombed themselves in their own ashes Then perished that famous Emporium of Hartlepoale where the Religious Jew built a Nunry of which 〈◊〉 own I may say as Hildebert of Rome Quammagnifueris integra fracta doces The ruines shew how great she was in her Glory but now remaines to passengers as a Monument of Devotion and Hostility Then were demolished the two Monasteries of St Peter and Paul at Wormouth and Jarro built by two Abbots Celfrâ—d and Benedict Those two Societies mutual fraternity had so sirmely united that they seemed but one Monastery in two places and shall ever be famous while the memory of Venerable Bede shall be honoured of the learned for in those times in the same Monasteries he had his first education under Benedict a Reverent Abbot and one whom Antiquity defraudes not of those due praises that he procured choise bookes from beyond Sea for his Monastery and was the first that brought into England the use of Glass windows into Churches In his riper years he was brought up by Theodore under whom he was instructed both in sacred and secular learning and attained to that maturity of judgment that never writer since hath brought greater honour to his Nation whiles he confined himself to his Cel his fame travalled to Rome where Pope Sergius in a letter to Celfrid the Abbot earnestly intreated him to come in person but for ought I know without accepting the Popes curtesie he dyed in his Monastery which in memory of his presence after it had lain wast by the Pagans 208. years was re-edified by Adwin a Monk The fury of the Danes still increasing continued by the Sea coast to Tinmouth where Herca of St Cuthbert his acquaintance had been Abbatess so that it was high time for the Monks to look about them for they begun to-understand by the overthrow of their neighbouring Abbeyes that it was in vaine to think that the Danes would like the Divel be affrighted away with Holy water and saw by the bad success of Monasteries that it was not safe trusting the protection of a Saint and so concluded according to St. Cuthbert his will upon flight and putting all their reliques in Saint Cuthbert his Coffins left the Pagans the spoile of an empty Church Anno Domini 893. now it was Eardulphus his fortune to be Bishop in those troublesome times who with his whole Clergy of people followed Saint Cuthberts body carried by seven Monkes as Esq of his body besides whom none might presume to touch his Coffin under the danger of Vzzahs punishment These miseries had been enough to have unsainted Saint Cuthbert when pursued both by foes and overtaken by an homebred enemie famine that would afford him no releif They were now driven to the Irish sea and might well complaine with the old Brittains to Boetius the Consul Repellunt nos Barbari ad mare Repellit nos mare ad Barbaros inter haec oriuntur duo genera funerum aut jugulamur out inâ—rgimur Not far had they sailed from the shoare when both the Sea and the winds were up in armes and both agianst their Pinnace which both Aeolus and Naptune might have worshipped for her sacred carriage of a Bishop and his Clergy with so many reliques that it seemed rather a Cathedral then a ship but the Sea had not that Religion to hear their prayers threatning them so near with shipwrack that they had not that confidence in their Saint to encourage the Mariners with Ne metuas Cuthbertum vehis who now himself wanted some other Saint to invocate for help and was in danger to be drowned after he was dead Where had then been the Church of Durham and the devotion of Kings to his Sepulchre Where had then been the tutelary Deity against the Scots and the lands of the Church called Saint Cuthbert his Patrimonie How then should Saint Cuthbert his Hally marke-folke be free from Tribute and service in War and the fat Monks fed so many years with ease and plenty if now their Saint had been entombed in the sea andhad erected his Episcopal seat amongst the fishes This Sacrilegious storme struck the ship with such a palsie that it shakt out the Text of the Evangelist into the Sea This Book in honour of Saint Cuthbert Eadfrid had writ with his own hands and Bilfrid the Anchorite had curiously painted in which art of drawing the Monks were admirable expert who with such pictures knew bow they enhaunted vulgar eyes The art I confess is both ingenuous and commendable only it argues that the Monks were at great leisure Thus whether the Sea envying the land such a precious Jewel as