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.
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