Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert

Book excerpt: OF all the English saints none figures more prominently in the history of the north of England than St Cuthbert. Reginald of Durham says that the three most popular saints of his day were Cuthbert of Durham, Edmund of Bury, and Aethilthryth of Ely; and he goes on to prove that Cuthbert was the greatest of the three. The saint's incorruptible body became the centre of a cult which, within a few centuries, had reached all parts of England and many parts of western Europe. Bede in his Prose Life puts into the mouth of the dying saint (c. 39) prophetic words which, though they seem peculiarly out of place on the lips of the humble-minded Cuthbert, were nevertheless destined to come true: "For I know that, although I seemed contemptible to some while I lived, yet, after my death, you will see more clearly what I was and how my teaching is not to be despised." Undoubtedly Bede's reputation had something to do with the widespread respect in which St Cuthbert was held, for the writings of the Jarrow monk, including his two Lives of St Cuthbert, were in constant demand from the eighth century onwards, not only in England but on the continent. Cuthbert, the disciple of Bede, who afterwards became abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow, writes to Lull, bishop of Mainz (754-86), to say that he is sending him copies of the Life of St Cuthbert in prose and verse.l There are fourteen MSS of the Prose Life still preserved in continental libraries, the majority of which were written abroad; besides these there are several recorded in mediaeval catalogues and elsewhere and since lost, while eight of the Metrical Life also remain on the continent.4 That this popularity abroad was not entirely due to Bede seems to be evidenced by the fact that of the seven MSS of the Anonymous Life which still remain, it is almost certain that every one was written on the continent. In the ninth century his name appears in the Martyrologies of Florus of Lyons, of Wandalbert, of Rhabanus Maurus, of Ado of Vienne, ofUsuard, in Notker's Martyrology of Saint-Gall and in the Codex Epternacensis of the Hieronymian Martyrology. Alcuin in the same century could also say of him in an epigram: Laudibus ac celebrat quem tota Britannia crebris, Et precibus rogitat se auxiliare piis. In England many churches were dedicated to St Cuthbert, not only in the northern counties, but also as far afield as Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire and Cornwall. In the Historia de Sando Cuthberto an anonymous author relates how Cuthbert appeared to King Alfred at Glastonbury and tells how the same king's dying commands to his son Edward were to love God and St Cuthbert.s Aethelstan on his way to Scotland, probably in 934, came to Chester-Ie-Street in order to bestow lands upon the saint and also treasures, some of which still survive. These are merely a few examples of the widespread cult which finally led to the building of the noblest of the English cathedrals and the establishment of a see at Durham more powerful in temporal authority and richer in estates than any other in the country. The chief authorities for the life of the saint are the two works that follow, the Life written by an anonymous monk of Lindisfarne, and Bede's Prose Life. The latter was not Bede's first attempt at writing a Life of St Cuthbert, for he had previously written a metrical version which was, as he explained in the Prologue to the Prose Life, "somewhat shorter indeed, but similarly arranged" (p. 147). The models for this twofold treatment of the subject were Sedulius' Carmen and Opus paschale, both of which were very familiar to Bede. Both Bede's versions are based upon the Anonymous Life, but both, in addition to filling out the concise account of the anonymous writer, have extra information to give.