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The Genesis of a Cult: Cuthbert of Farne and Ecclesiastical Politics in Northumbria in the Late Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

D. P. Kirby
D. P. Kirby
Affiliation:
Department of History and Economic History, University of Aberdeen, Taylor Building, King's College, Old Aberdeen AB9 2UB
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Extract

The episcopate of Cuthbert as bishop of Lindisfarne was a product of a time of great change in the Northumbrian Church in the late seventh century. Bede's Ecclesiastical history and Stephen's Life of Wilfrid make it clear that the expulsion of Wilfrid, bishop of York and sole bishop of the Northumbrians, in 678 (HE v. 19; VW 24) opened up the Northumbrian diocese to large-scale ecclesiastical reorganisation. Wilfrid's vast see was divided and new bishops appointed. In 664, as a young man, Wilfrid had played a significant part at the Council of Whitby in bringing about the expulsion of Colmán, Aidán's successor as bishop of Lindisfarne, the termination of the Columban mission and the replacement of the see of Lindisfarne by that of York; but the bishops who replaced Wilfrid were prepared to deal sensitively with the legacy of Aidán's mission in a post-Council of Whitby era. Bosa, trained at Whitby under Abbess Hild who had been instructed in the religious life by Aidán, became bishop of Deira at York; Eata, abbot of Lindisfarne, one of Aidán's Northumbrian disciples and formerly abbot of the monastery of Melrose which had been founded in the time of the Columban mission, became bishop of Bernicia with his episcopal seat variously at Hexham and Lindisfarne; and Eadhæsd, a former companion of Aidán's disciple Chad (HE iii. 28), was made bishop of Lindsey (HE iv. 12). When Lindsey was lost to the Mercians in 679 Eadhæd was made bishop of the short-lived see of Ripon [HE iv. 12), and in 681 Trumwine, whose antecedents are unknown but who later retired to Whitby, became bishop of Abercorn on the Forth [HE iv. 12, 26).

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , July 1995 , pp. 383 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

HE = Bede's Ecclesiastical history; VCA = Vita sancli Cuthberti auctore anonymo; VCM = Vila sancti Cuthberti metrica auctore Beda; VCP = Vila sancti Cuthberti prosaica auctore Beda; VW = Stephen's Life of Bishop Wilfrid

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15 Bede indicates that Herefrith was no longer abbot of Lindisfarne at the time of the writing of the VCP but that he had been formerly (ch. viii). Whether he was still abbot when Bede showed him his material for the VCP (VCP prologue) is unclear. Nor is it clear whether Bede's ‘qui etiam tune Lindisfarnensi monasterio abbatis iure praefuit’ refers to the time of Cuthbert's death or to the occasion when Herefrith provided Bede with an account of it, but it seems less likely that Herefrith was abbot in 687 and still alive as Bede was preparing to write the VCP than that he was a young man in 687 and abbot many years later. Herefrith's testimony will have been greatly valued as that of an eye-witness but Bede was undoubtedly responsible for the final shape and content of the account he attributes to him: Two Lives of St Cuthbert, 14; Berschin, ‘Opus deliberatum acperfectum’, 102.

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38 For a medical report, in so far as one is possible, see Rubin, S., ‘St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne: a medical reconstruction’, Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland iv (1978), 101–3Google Scholar.

39 Cf. on translation and elevation, Finucane, R. C., Miracles and pilgrims: popular belief in medieval England, London 1977, 26–8Google Scholar, and Geary, P. J., Furta sacra: thefts of relics in the central Middle Ages, Princeton, NJ 1978, 12–13Google Scholar.

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42 S. Rubin comments pers. comm. that fleshy tissue could have survived and the ligaments holding the body together could have defied decomposition ‘if, for example, the body had been embalmed in some way by the brethren at death. Tight-fitting shrouds and other restraints could have a flesh-retaining effect and most certainly an air-tight coffin would inhibit decomposition’. Cf. Finucane, , Miracles and pilgrims, 22–3Google Scholar.

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44 On the burial of 687, see Thacker, , ‘Lindisfarne’, 105Google Scholar. But not all the items and fabrics buried with Cuthbert were necessarily placed in the coffin in 687 and some certainly were not: Coatsworth, E., ‘The pectoral cross and portable altar from the tomb of St Cuthbert’, in Bonner, , Rollason, and Stancliffe, , St Cuthbert, his cult and community, 287–301Google Scholar; H. Granger-Taylor, ‘The weft-patterned silks and their braid: the remains of an Anglo-Saxon dalmatic of c. 800?’, ibid. 303–27, and ‘The inscription on the Nature Goddess silk’, ibid. 339–41; C. Higgins, ‘Some new thoughts on the Nature Goddess silk’, ibid. 329–37.

45 Ward, B., Miracles and the medieval mind: theory, record and event, London 1982, 57Google Scholar, comments that these miracle cures ‘provide a typical instance of the change of veneration from a living saint to a posthumous cult at his tomb’.

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49 Thacker, , ‘Early Anglo-Saxon hagiography’, 123–4Google Scholar, suspects the influence here of Gregory of Tours, who represented St Martin's tomb as attracting undesirable members of society to Tours, not least rebellious royal princes. The issue was a real one at Lindisfarne too. In 750 Eadberht, king of Northumbria, besieged the church of Lindisfarne where Offa, son of King Aldfrith, had sought sanctuary: Symeonis monachi opera omnia, ed. Arnold, T., ii, London 1885, 39–40Google Scholar. Cf. in general, Hall, D., ‘The sanctuary of St Cuthbert’, in Bonner, , Rollason, and Stancliffe, , St Cuthbert, his cult and his community, 425–36Google Scholar.

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60 See above, n. 12.

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67 If Bede ever felt estranged from Acca during this period over the future of Lindisfarne as an episcopal see (because apart from his regard for the community on Lindisfarne, Bede's letter to Ecgberht shows that he believed in the need for more, not fewer, bishoprics in Northumbria), the resolution of tension with the eventual appointment of Bishop Æthelwald in 723/4 will have allowed the restoration of normal relations. Bede continued to dedicate his biblical commentaries to Acca across these years and he spoke well of him in the Ecclesiastical history.