33 anonymous history of St. Cuthbert, which, next to his Life by Bede, has the greatest value, says that 'he was watching over the flocks of his master in the mountains near the river Leder.' There 'on a certain night, when he was extending his long vigils in prayers, as was his wont,' which shows the bent of his mind towards a religious life, he had a vision in which he saw the soul of Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne being carried to heaven by choirs of the heavenly host; and resolved in consequence to enter a monastery and put himself under monastic discipline. 'And,' says Bede, although he knew that the church of Lindisfarne possessed many holy men by whose learning and examples he might well be instructed, yet, allured by the fame of the exalted virtues of Boisil, a monk and priest, he chose rather to go to Mailros. And it happened, when he arrived there, as he leaped from his horse and was about to enter the church to pray, that he gave his horse to an attendant, as well as the spear which he held in his hand (for he had not as yet laid aside his secular dress), Boisil himself, who was standing at the gate of the monastery, first saw him.' Boisil 'kindly received Cudberct as he arrived; and, on his explaining the object of his visit, viz., that he preferred a monastery to the world, he kindly kept him near himself, for he was the provost of that same monastery. And after a few days, on the arrival of Eata of blessed memory, then a priest and the abbot of that monastery of Mailros, and afterwards abbot of Lindisfarne, and likewise bishop of the church of Lindisfarne, Boisil spoke to him of Cudberct, and, telling him how well disposed he was, obtained permission to give him the tonsure, and to unite him in fellowship with the rest of the brethren; 34 and thus Cudberct became a monk of the 33 Alio quoque tempore, in adolescentia sua, dum adhuc esset in populari vita, quando in montanis juxta fluvium, quoad dicitur Leder, cum monastery of Melrose. As aliis pastoribus pecos a domini sui Bishop Aidan died in the year 651, this gives us the first certain date in his life. bert. The only Life which professes to give his earlier history Irish Life is 'The Book of the Nativity of Saint Cuthbert, taken and of St. Cuthtranslated from the Irish.'35 According to this Life, Cuthbert was born in Ireland, of royal extraction. His mother Sabina, daughter of the king who reigned in the city called Lainestri, was taken captive by the king of Connathe, who slew her father and all her family. He afterwards violated her, and then sent her to his own mother, who adopted her, and, together with her, entered a monastery of virgins which was then under the care of a bishop. There Sabina gave birth to the boy Cuthbert, and the bishop baptized him, giving him the Irish name of Mullucc. He is said to have been born in 'Kenanus,' or Kells, a monastery said to have been founded by Columba on the death of the bishop who had educated him. His mother goes with him to Britain by the usual mode of transit in these legends, that is, by a stone which miraculously performs the functions of a curach, and they land in Galweia, in that region called Rennii, in the harbour of Rintsnoc,' 36 no doubt Portpatrick in the Rinns of Galloway. Then, leaving their stone curach, they take another vessel and go to a harbour called Letherpen in Erregaithle, a land of the Scots. This harbour is situated between Erregaithle and Incegal, near a lake called Loicafan.' A harbour between Argyll and the Isles must be on its west side, and the inlet called Lochmelfort may be meant, near the head of which is the lake called Loch Avich; or, if Loch Awe is meant, it may have been at Crinan, near which was Dunadd, the capital of 35 Libellus de nativitate Sancti Cuthberti de Historiis Hybernensium excerptus et translatus-a MS. of the fourteenth century, in the Diocesan Library at York, printed by the Surtees Club. 36 Et miro modo in lapidea devectus navicula, apud Galweiam in regione illa, quae Rennii vocatur, in portu qui Rintsnoc dicitur, applicuit.--C. xix. Dalriada.37 Here they landed, the mother and son and three men, and wishing to warm themselves, they collect for the purpose dry branches, and heap them up to light a fire. The place, however, was much exposed to robbers, and the glitter of the golden armlets of the mother attracted the notice of some, who rushed upon her with lances, and would have slain her, but were discomfited by the prayers of the holy boy. From that day to this, when that spot is covered with branches or pieces of wood, they ignite of themselves, which the inhabitants attribute to the merits of the boy.38 Then they go to the borders of Scotia,39 where Columba, the first bishop of Dunkeld, receives the boy and educates him with a girl, a native of Ireland, named Brigida, who tells him that the Lord destines him for the Angles in the east of this province, but reserves her for the western population of the land of the Irish. Here he excites the envy of three southern clerics from the region of the Angles.40 They then go to the island which is called Hy, or Iona, where they remain some time with the religious men of that place. Then they visit two brothers-german of the mother, Meldanus and Eatanus, who were bishops in the province of the Scots, in which each had an episcopal seat; and these take the boy and place him under the care of a certain religious man in Lothian, while the mother goes on a pilgrimage to Rome. In this place in Lothian a church was afterwards erected in his honour, which is to this day called Childeschirche, and here the book of the nativity of St. Cuthbert, taken from the Irish histories, terminates.41 Childeschirche is the old 37 Post hæc, curroc lapidea in Galweia derelicta, navim aliam subiit, et alio portu, qui Letherpen dicitur, in Erregaithle, quæ est terra Scottorum, applicuit. Portus ille inter Erregaithle et Incegal situs est, lacus vero, qui ibi proximus adjacet, Loicafan vocatus est. Non tamen amplius quam tres viri cum matre et filio extiterant qui applicuerant.-Ib. 38 lb., c. xx. 39 Scotia is here distinguished from Erregaithle, or Argathelia, which indicates a certain antiquity. 40 Ib., c. xxi. Ib., cc. xxii. xxiii. name of the parish now called Channelkirk, in the upper part of the vale of the Leader; and the Irish Life thus lands him where Bede takes him up. It is certainly remarkable that Bede gives no indication of Cudberct's nationality. He must surely have known whether he was of Irish descent or not. He is himself far too candid and honest a historian not to have stated the fact if it was so, and it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that this part of his narrative was one of those portions which he had expunged at the instance of the critics to whom he had submitted his manuscript. Unfortunately Bede nowhere gives us Cudberct's age. He elsewhere calls him at this time a young man, and he says that his life had reached to old age.42 Cudberct resigned his bishopric in 686, and died in 687. He could hardly have been under sixty at that time, and it was probably on his attaining that age that he withdrew from active life. This would place his birth in the year 626, and make him twenty-five when he joined the monastery at Mailros. The Irish Life appears to have been recognised by the monks of Durham as early as the fourteenth century,43 and it is perfectly possible that these events may have taken place before Bede takes up his history, though they are characterised by the usual anachronisms. Dunkeld was not founded till more than a century after his death, and, as it was dedicated to St. Columba of Iona, he no doubt appears here as its bishop half-a-century after his death.44 The Brigida there mentioned is also obviously intended for St. Bridget of Kildare, who belongs to a much earlier period; and the Bishop Eatanus, his 42 Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iv. c. 27. Reverentissimus ecclesiæ Lindisfarnensis in Britannia ex anachorita antistes Cuthberctus, totam ab infantia usque ad senilem vitam miraculorum signis inclitam duxit.— Bede, Chronicon Adam., 701. 43 See Preface to the volume containing the Life, p. ix. 44 It is on the authority of this life alone that a Columba is sometimes called the first bishop of Dunkeld; but it is impossible to accept this as historical. A.D. 651-661. life in the monastery mother's brother, is surely no other than Eata, abbot of Melrose, and afterwards bishop of Lindisfarne. The truth may possibly be that he was the son of an Irish kinglet by an Anglic mother; and this would account for her coming to Britain with the boy, and his being placed under a master in the vale of the Leader. Bede gives us no particulars of Cudberct's life in the Cudberct's monastery of Melrose from 651, when he joined it, to the year 661, when he accompanies Abbot Eata to Ripon, where of Melrose. King Alchfrid had given the latter a certain domain to found a monastery, which he did, and having instituted in it the same monastic discipline which he had previously established at Mailros, Cudberct was appointed provost of the guest-chamber. During this period of ten years we may place the events recorded in the chapter annexed to the Irish Life. According to this chapter, 'after the blessed youth Cuthbert had arrived in Scottish land, he began to dwell in different parts of the country, and coming to a town called Dul forsook the world, and became a solitary. Not more than a mile from it there is in the woods a high and steep mountain called by the inhabitants Doilweme, and on its summit he began to lead a solitary life. Here he brings from the hard rock a fountain of water which still exists. Here too he erects a large stone cross, builds an oratory of wood, and out of a single stone, not far from the cross, constructs a bath, in which he used to immerse himself and spend the night in prayer, which bath still exists on the summit of the mountain. Cuthbert remains some time in the territory of the Picts leading a solitary life, till the daughter of the king of that province accuses him of having violated her; but, at the prayer of the saint, the earth opened and swallowed her up at a place still called Corruen, and it was on this account that he never permitted a female to enter his church—a custom,' says the writer, 'which is still rigidly |