Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	duke_n	king_n	york_n	1,527	5	10.0727	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43253	The legend of St. Cuthbert with the antiquities of the Church of Durham / by B.R., Esq.	Hegge, Robert, 1599-1629.; R. B. (Richard Baddeley)	1663 (1663)	Wing H1370; ESTC R15307	20,137	102

now so fair a Church for their Saint to rest in that they were ashamed that ever he had lyen in Chester where the Church made of wood seemd to remain a Monument of their former poverty till Egilrick the Bishop took away this eye-sore and built Saint Cuthbert a Church of stone which methinks was but a Posthumus dignity to the Saint and like as if a man should suster his guest to lie meanly when he is gone to provide for him a better lodging In digging the foundations of this Church he found such a Masse of Coyne that resigning his prelateship to his Brother at Durham he returned to his Abbey at Peterburge But the King hearing of his Wealth took occasion to pick a quarrel with him and seizing upon his riches imprisoned him at Westminster This King was Duke William the Conqueror who approaching York with an Army so affrighted the Monks at Durham that once more they must have Saint Cuthbert upon their back and fly with him to Lindisferne coming the first night to Jarro the second to Bedlington the third to Tugahala the fourth to Holy-Island whether they entered dryshod it being then the time of low Ebb though the Monks compared it to the miracle of Jordan or the Red Sea as if the water in Homage to their Saint had fled back to give them enterance but the Monks shortly repaired again to Durham where the Conquerour returning our of Scotland would needs see the incorruptible Saint so magnified And never were the Monks to affraid to have their Imposture discovered for now they had no leisure to cheate the spectatours with a living Monk in stead of a dead Saint but made so many delays and intreaties to the contrary that the King with a Fever of Anger was put in such a heat that hastening out of the Church and taking Horse the Monks in their History make him never stay his course till he had passed over the Tease King William shortly after went about to abrogate the royal Charters of the former Kings whereby Saint Cuthbert his Hally-wark-folke were freed from tribute But Saint Cuthbert in a sleep beate the demander with his pastoral staffe that the next morning not able to rise he was glad to send his Cloak to Saint Cuthbert his Sepulcher and to aske pardon before he could receive any ease After this the King had a reverend opinion of Saint Cuthbert and restored Billingham to the Church with other villages and made Walcherus Bishop of Durham Earl of Northumberland Thus the Monks had victory over the Conquerour and brought him under their Religion who had subdued the land with his sword All this while the Church of Durham was but growing to her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and height of Glory which she obtained under the Magnificent Prelate William of Carleife who thought the Church that Aldwin built too little for so great a Saint and therefore it was pluckt down and the foundations of a more ample Church laid Malcolmus King of Scotland and Pryor Turgot laying the first three stones August 11th 1093. for which Famous work Anthony Beak one of his successors with a great summe of Money got him to be canonized and inrolled among the Saints This Reverend antient Abbey advanced upon the shoulder of a Mountainous Atlas is so environed againe with Hills that he that hath seen the scituation of this City hath seen the Map of Sion and may save a journy to the Holy land shee is girded about with the Renowned River Weare in which as in a Christalline she migh once have beheld the beauty but now the ruines of her Walls Into this Sumptuous Church was the last and great translation of Saint Cuthbert the tradition of whose incorruption Pryor Turgot and the rest of his Brethren had great disire to confirme with their eyes and to shew him publiquely to the people at the day of his translation At night therefore the Pryor with seven of his Brethren meet at his Tomb and taking up the stone they found a Chest covered with lether in which they found the Book of the Evangelist which had fallen into the Sea a goblet of pure Gold and an Ivory combe lastly opening the second chest they beheld the flesh and body of their Saint lying on his right side to give place to the rest of the Reliques which were so many that this Coffin seemed a Charnel House for besides his own body there was the bones of Venerable Bede the head of King Oswald part also of the bones of Aidanus Eudfrid and Ethelwaldus Bishop of Lindisferne All which Reliques with due Reverence they placed in another part of the Church laying only Saint Cuthbert on his back they placed King Oswalds head between his hands At the day of his translation Ranulphus instead of a Funeral preached his Resurrection Sermon and published to the people the incorruption of St. Cuthbert his body which after 418 years was yet flexible and now might plead prescription with the grave to be immortal Thus in great Solemnity they inshrind him besides the Altar in the presence of the Abbot of Sagium the Abbot of Saint Maries in York and the Abbot of Saint Germans with thosands of people spectators of the Miracle This was the place of his rest where so many Treasures were daily offered that the Monks needed not to study Alchimy for Gold having such a Philosophers stone as Saint Cuthbert was to convert money to their purses who had that repute of Sanctity and frequency of worshippers that in his shrine to this day you may see the pious dilapidations of Antient devotion and the very stones worn out with kneeling Here Saint Cuthbert for four hundred years slept without disturbance onely he complain'd once in a dream to a Monk of a Mouse that troubled his rest and made her nest in his Tomb. Hence he lay in Honour and peace till Henry 8th sent that Earthquake among Monasteries and Sepulchres of the Saints which he caused to be opened to finde treasure Among which saith Harpe-feild the Tomb of Saint Cuthbert was so broken up with that Irreverence that with the violence of the blow upon the Coffin they wounded his Leg finding the whole body entire save the tip of his Nose that was wanting his very grave cloaths were so free from corruption as if they had been kept rather in a Wardrop than in a Sepulchre upon his finger he had a Ring with a Saphire stone in it which for Reverence of the Saint they durst not take off but at the Command of Bishop Tonstal shut up his Tomb as was before All this might be true and yet Saint Cuthbert more beholden to the art of his Monks than his own Sanctity for his incorruption for it was Ancient amongst the Aegyptians to embalm the bodies of their dead Kings and with Searecloathes to preserve their Carkasses for many ages from putrefaction and yet they were thought no Saints such as Saint Cuthbert was in honour and reverence

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 Ver●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