L1 V h,S OF ST. CUTHBERT.* WE may be allowed
to congratulate the venerable author of The History of St. Cuthbert on being able to give to the public a new edition of a work first published nearly forty years ago. It is contained in a handsome, well-appointed volume, in every way worthy of its illustrious subject, the twelfth centenary of whose death its appearance commemorates. It is furnished with appro- priate illustrations, one of the most interesting of which, a map of the ancient Northumbria, exhibits in a convenient shape the extent of the Saint's local honours. More than forty churches in this district we see to have been dedicated to his name. It is in the north-eastern corner of Yorkshire, where there are five within a range of ten miles, that they cluster most thickly. It would not be easy to find an English Saint, except perhaps Thomas of Canterbury, who has been equally honoured.
The authorities for St. Cabbed's life are of early, we may almost say contemporary date, and of unquestionable value. The earliest was written at Lindisfarne or Melrose within twenty years of the Bishop's death, and was at least revised by brethren who had known him well. The next two in order were the work of Bmda, who, though only a lad when St. Cuthbert died, may possibly have seen him, and certainly bad abundance of authority for what he wrote. One is in metre, and is greatly devoted to an account of the Saint's miracles ; the other, in prose, has all the writer's characteristic merits. The miraculous element is still largely present, but it does not offend. The chief impression of the whole is the picture of a great and good man drawn by a sympathetic hand.
St. Cuthbert's life, though it was full of good works, can scarcely be called eventful. In 651, he entered the Monastery of Melrose. Ten years afterwards, he was sent with some of the brethren to found a new house at Ripon. His stay there was short. The new-comers held to the Scottish use of the observa- tion of Easter, and were expelled by the Northumbrian King. Shortly after, he was promoted to the office of Prior of Melrose, vacant by the death (through pestilence) of hie old teacher and friend, Boisil. From Melrose he was transferred to Lindisfarne. After twelve years of work in that house, he carried into execution a scheme probably long cherished, and became an anchorite in the little island of Farna. His own abode was a cell, into which no one was permitted to enter ; but for his visitors—and the fame of his sanctity was such that visitors were inevitable—he built an hospitiunt. From this retreat he was drawn, bat not till the personal entreaties of the King had been brought to bear -upon him, to fill the episcopal office, and he became Bishop of Lindisfarne, Eata, his old Abbot, yielding that See to him in exchange for Ilexham. His tenure of the bishopric was short,—less than two years. At the end of 686, he retired again to his old cell in Farna, and there, two or three months afterwards, he died. The story of his last hours reads like the account of an eye- witness ; but it is not as pleasing as his namesake's narrative of the death of Breda. It is carious to find him classingthose who "kept Easter at an improper time" as sinners against Catholic unity along with the leaders of wicked lives. It was the very error for which he had himself been banished from Ripon. The disposal of his remains was a matter of difference between the dying man and his attendants. His own wish was to be buried at Fermi; and this he thought, for a reason characteristic of the age, would be for the good of the monastery. His fame would lead to the establishment of a sanctuary wherever he was buried. "Fugitives and criminals would flee to his body for refuge, and the brethren would have trouble with the secular powers." But he gave way, and then laid upon his attendants the injunction, • (1.) Thst History of St. Cuthbert. By (Merle., Arohbiehop of Glasgow. Third Edit-30,-1S.; Life of St. Cuthbert. By the Right Rev. Edward Cousin.— (Si The Life of St. Cuthbert. by the Venerable Redo. Tranelsted from the Latin by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, S.J. All three booka pablishod by Barns and Oates, London. 1087.
or what was taken as an injunction, that if they were compelled to leave their abode, they should take his bones with them.
Prom this there came what we may call a post-mortem history of the Saint, more eventful than his life. A Danish attack in 793 was so sudden, that the monks had no time to remove the body, or even to flee themselves. In 875 they had more warning, and took it with them in a progress which is said to be marked by the churches dedicated to the Saint. Seven years their wanderings lasted. Then they formed the plan to cross with their precious burden to Ireland. The plan was foiled, of course by supernatural causes. At last, eight years after the removal, they found a resting-place at Chester-le-Street, and to Chester-le-Street the Bishop's throne was removed from Lindis- farne. Rather more than a century afterwards, another Danish alarm drove the Bishop and his clergy away. They took the body with them to Ripon, and from Ripon to Durham. But its wanderings were not yet ended. Three years after the Conquest, it was carried back to Lindisfarne; but the troubles which suggested the flight soon passed away, and in the following year it was restored to its final resting-place in Durham.
But the history of the remains was not yet ended. Eleven years after the Saint's death, the body had been exhumed and found in perfect preservation,—so, at least, the story runs. This incorruptibility became an established tradition. The Conqueror was anxious to put it to the test, but found himself attacked by sudden illness, and desisted from the attempt. In 1104, the body was solemnly translated to the new cathedral, and is said to have been then found incorrupt. An elaborate account of its condition, of the robes in which it was enveloped, and of various articles which had been enclosed with it, is given by Simeon of Durham. It was not disturbed for more than four centuries, when King Henry VIII.'s Commissioners had the tomb and coffin opened. The evidence of its condition at this time is circumstantial enough. "Then Dr. Lay [one of the Commissioners] did speak Latin to Dr. Henley that he was lying whole," says the narrator ; but it is not clear where this narrator got his information. The original MS. seems to be dated 1595.
Finally, the tomb was opened by Mr. Raine, the eminent archmologist, just sixty years ago. As to the results of this search, we find Archbishop Eyre and Bishop Consitt at variance. The former has no doubt that the remains discovered were not those of the Saint ; the latter is equally positive that they were. The reasons for and against we do not feel called upon to discuss, but we are certainly inclined to think, with Bishop Consitt, that Mr. Paine was not mistaken when he identified the remains with the body of St. Cuthbert.
That the preternatural incorruptibility should have ceased, does not trouble Dr. Consitt. The miracle was not continued when the resting-place of the Saint had fallen into heretical hands. Unlike the springs which St. Cuthbert called from the waterless ground of Fares, and which still continue to flow for the common benefit, it refused to edify an unbelieving generation. Archbishop Eyre accepts the same theory, if it should chance to be tree that Mr. Raine was right. But he evidently prefers to bold that the body is still preserved somewhere intact, and that its hiding-place will be revealed when England again becomes Catholic. To this consummation both writers, of course, look forward, and Dr. Consitt seeks to reconcile us to the prospect by drawing an eloquent contrast between the Festival of St. Cuthbert in 1448 (when Henry VL came on pilgrimage to the shrine), end St. Cuthbert's Day in 1887. But there are many things to be considered before we can say "Amen !" to his prayer that the tide of time may be so rolled back.
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