argued more pride than Religion 'T is true that an Hermit is either a god or a beast yet sith man is more symbolical with the one than the other it is easie to suspect which way the Metamorphosis will tend For if you would have the lively picture of an Hermit truly represented look upon Nebuchadnezzar in his curse when he was driven from men and did eat grasse as the Oxen when his body was wet with the dew of Heaven till his hairs became as Eagles feathers and his nails as the clawes of birds Thus therefore for an Hermit to excommunicate himself from being a holy Citizen of the World what is it else but to sin against the Common weal and definition of a man to whom society is as natural as to be a Creature so that whiles others think it devotion in him I shall rather think it a melancholy distemper Saint Cuthberts last Will and Testament directed to the Monks was to bury him at the East side of his Oratory in a Coffin that the Venerable Tuda gave him and for to wrap or winde his Corps in the sheet that Verâ—a Abbatesse of Tinmouth once sent him for a token which for the reverence of that Holy woman he had never worn in his life-time And lastly if they should be invaded by Pagans to carry his bones away with them Thus Saint Cuthbert Sainted himselt in his life-time and gave them notice what a precious Relique he should be when he was dead All these Petition were duely performed only at the request of the Monks he permitted that his body should be transported to Lindisferne where in St. Peters Church at the right side of the High Altar he was solemnly layd in a Tomb of Stone Now were the times when the Doctrine of Miracles begun to build Cburches and Religious Houses so to swarm and multiply that all England seemed but one great Monastery and called by the Pope Terra Sacerdotum But Time that hath the Sublunary World for her continual banquet hath so fed upon these antient buildings that some she quite devoured others pick'd to the bone and what she hath left for standing dishes Hostility hath quite eaten up and defaced besides that great Climacterical year when Henry the 8th durst incur those thundering Anathemata's which by the appointment of the Monks attended the violation of Abbey-lands Si de tot laesis sua numina quisque deorum Vindicet in poenas non sat is unuserit But I most bewail those Abbeys whose Names are buried in their ashes and their very ruines suffer the death of a Sepulcher and dye twice because they want a Monument that they lived Of these Monuments of Devotion that live the life of memory and belonged once to St. Cuthbert stood Collingham This Monastery consisted of Monks and Nuns over whom Ebba was some times Abbatesse who received her veyle of Finanus the second Bishop of the Holy Island Among the Bernicians likewise was the Episcopal seat of Hagustaldum or Hexam bestowed by King Alfred upon Saint Cuthbert which Malmesbury somewhat mistaken in the Scale of Miles placed but 50 miles from Yorke and commendeth for beauty of structure before any building on this side the Alpes In this Church sate 9 Bishops among whom the learned John of Beverley not to be named by an Oxford man without a preface of honour was advanced to that dignity by King Alfred and then swayed the Pastoral Staff till he was translated to Yorke In his younger yeares he was brought up according to the nobility of his birth under Hilda Abbatesse of Strenshall or Whitby in Yorkeshire of which shee was also Foundresse Afterward he was Scholar to the Genius of Learning Theodore of Canterbury who born at Tarsus is Cilicia was the first that brought Learning into England as well as Religion who bringing over with him Homer the first we read of in this Isle and other good Authors instructed many Famous Scholars in the Greek Tongue and Mathematicks where among the rest I find Saint Beda Herebald Whilfride and this John of Beverley who at the translation of the School of Crekelade which Theodore had there planted to Oxford was the first Master of Art in that Vniversity as it appreareth out of an antient Window in Salisbury Library under John of Beverleyes Picture And he that goeth higher to fetch the Antiquity of Oxford than from his time doth but grope in the dark This age of 800 years is enough to prove Cambridge the younger Sister till Lelands deduction will follow that Sigebert King of the East Angles founded that Vniversity because Bede and after him Malmsbury relate that he erected divers Schools in this Kingdom but in neither Author Grant or Cambridge is mentioned nor in any Writer since for 400. years after to be an Vniversity But to return with pardon to Saint Cuthbert who had now lyen Eleven years in his Sepulchre when the Monks thought by this time to take his bones disrob'd of flesh and put them among other reliques But whiles they opened his Coffin they start at a wonder they look'd for bones and found flesh they expected a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and saw an entire body with joynts flexible and his face so dissembling Death that else where it is true that Sleep is the image of Death here Death was the image of Sleep nay his funeral weeds were so fresh as if putrefaction had not dared to take him by the Coat This was rather to pay his debt to Heaven than to Nature that after he should restore his soul to God he should keep back the payment of his body from corruption This Miracle of incorruption Bede reports who was eleven years old at Saint Cuthbert his death in relating whereof he made no Lye but told one the History of whose Life and Death he writ and took upon trust from the information of the Monks of Lindisfern who had deflowred all the miracles of Saints in Holy Writ and bestowed them upon their Saint Cuthbert so barren brain'd Monks were they that would not invent new ones but such as were writ before to their hands for Adam could not be commander of the creatures in the state of innocency but St. Cuthbert also must have the savage beasts to do him homage Abraham could not entertain three Angels under on Oak but Saint Cuthbert must have Angels for his guests as the Monastery of Rippon The Children of Israel could not eat Manna and Angels food but Saint Cuthbert must have three Loaves bestowed upon him by an Angel which were baked in Paradise A Raven could not bring Elias flesh but an Eagle must bring Saint Cuthbert fish And here also this miracle hath an Idea in the Scripture that when his Mother sail'd with him from Ireland into Scotland the books of the Psalms fell into the sea which forthwith was swallowed up of a Sea calf and delivered to them at their landing Take but the Psaltes for a man and the Sea calf for
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
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
princely gifts bought the good wishes of the Monks in his journey The souldiers also offer at the Kings command 96. pounds when it had been more sit that Saint Cuthbert out of his Church-treasure should have bestowed as much on them who with their sword and blood obtained the victory yet Saint Cuthbert and the benedictions of his idle Monks must have the glory of the conquest which opinion made King Ethelstans brother in a like occasion into Scotland take Saint Cuthbert in his way honouring the Sepulchre with many kingly offerings and renewing to them the Charters of his predecessours And here I will not deny but as it may be expedient for the Common Wealth by way of policy that some men though altogether guiltlesse of that art be thought by the vulgar people skilfull Magicians or Conjurers that they who will rather trust God with their unlawful secrets then man might be more affraid to offend lest they should be bewrayed So the King might make good use of that opinion of Saint Cuthbert being a tutelary Deity against the Scots In conceite of whose protection certainely the English Souldiers were much encouraged and animated to the great disadvantage of their enemies and obtaining the victory As also this perswasion kept this part from frequent incursions when the Monks had invented so many fearful miracles that befell those that attempted either by Hostility or stealth to wrong any thing belonging to the Saint But I wonder how the Monks could maintain this Imposture so many years when men growing wiser begun to suspect the falsehood of the Monks as devisers of miracles for their own gain and it seems the Monks were put to a great shift to maintaine the Saint-ships of Saint Thomas Becket and Saint Cuthbert when they pretended such amity between them that they that belonged to Saint Cuthbert must be made whole by Saint Becket a small journy for a sick man to travaile between Canterbury and Durham But the Monks knew full well that some would not be able to undertake the Pilgrimage others rather to use the Saint-ship of a Physician some again to be content rather to dye at home others to recover in the way lastly some either to dye in their jorney or else to save the credit of their Saint that they should never come thither But to return to the Monks of Chester who with their Bishop enjoyed such calme of Ease that they make no noise in History till the rumor of the landing of Danes troubled their rest This was the 115. year after they had seated themselves in Chester when Aldwinus then Bishop was bid by Saint Cuthbert in his sleep to avoid the fury of the Danes But after six Moneths and peace concluded in their return from thence there happened a weighty miracle for at Wardenlaw East from Durham Saint Cuthbert his Coffin was so heavy that all the company that accompanied his corps could not draw the waine whereon they lay by which they perceived so much of Saint Cuthbert his mind that he would not be carried to Chester At length after the preparation of three days fast it was revealed to Eadmarus a devout Monk that Dunholme was the place of his perpetual rest and then two or three could draw the cart which before the whole Diocesse of people could not so much as move Now concerning the vulgar fable of the duu Cow and the Milk maid that directed them to Dunholme I find nothing in the Historians of this Church who would not leave out any thing that concerned Saint Cuthbert by way of a miracle The Topography of Dunholme was at that time more beholden to nature for fortification then fertility where thick Woods both hindered the stars from viewing the earth and the earth from prospect of Heaven Here the Monks with extempory devotion made with boughs and branches of trees rather an arbour than a Church to place Saint Cuthbert in but from this Chappel of boughs they translated him to another Church Whitekerke where he rested in ease Aldwinus the Bishop raised up no smal building of stone work for his Cathedral Church where all the people between Coqued and Tease were at work three years and were paid for their pains with expectation of treasure in heaven a very cheap way to pay workmen for their wages Into this new Basilica St. Cuthberts walking body in the 309 years after his first burial in Lindisferne was with great solemnity inshrin'd in the presence of Cuthred Earl of Northumberland Among the Monks that attended Saint Cuthbert to Dunholme was one Rigulphus who was 210. years old an History to be ranked under the same place with the wandring Jew a poor Monument to be remembred by sith he gives no account to posterity of his extended age when number of years is the onely commendation of a man Another of Saint Cuthberts followers was Eathred a Monk who for 6. years before he died could never speak but in the Church where as if Religion had then lent him a tongue no man was more vocal to sing his part these were the beginnings of the Church of Durham where Aldwinus the last Bishop of Chester and first of Durham first ascended the Episcopal Chair Anno Domini 996. in King Etheldreds raign who whiles Saint Dunstane was baptizing him defiled the Holy Saint with the fruit of his womb at which St Dunstane swore by God and by his Mother that he would prove a lazy fellow howsoever to prove the lazinesse of the Monks of Durham he gave Saint Cuthbert Darlington with the appurtenances where afterwards Hugh Pusar built both a Nunery and a Church To these possessions Sunculphus one of the Nobility added Bradbury Mordon and Sockburge so ready was the Devotion in those times to give all to the Church and to become poor to be made rich in the world to come Aldwinus dying in the 24th year after his removing to Durham left only the West-tower of the Church for Edmundus to finish who was his successor and chosen Bishop by a voice out of Saint Cuthberts Tombe or perchance by a Monk his good freind who lay hid under it for I do not read that Saint Cuthbert ever drank in his pottage that as it is by the Proverbe he should speak in his grave But without jesting he was a reverend Prelate whose days had the honour which his predecessors attaind not to that now the Danes became worshippers of Saint Cuthbert in Durham who had burnt his Church in Lindisferne who now from Pagans turned Christians in that excess of Devotion that Cumulus their King came five miles barefoot to his Tomb in Durham and gave to the Saint his Church so many Towns as would breath a fat Monk to repeate them Wacfeild Evenwood Ingleton Middleton Staindrop and Rabye where the predecessors of the Nevills who lye entombed at Staindrop Church built the Castle and held it of the Church of Durham for the annual rent of four pounds The Monks of Durham had