ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



The devotion of Athelstan, imbibed from his predecessors, was transmitted 

 to his brother, who followed him on the throne of Wessex. In the ebb and 

 flow of Danish power in Northumbria after Athelstan the presence of 

 Edmund became necessary in 944, and of Edred in 954. Both kings therefore 

 visited Chester-le-Street and endorsed the privileges of the Church. ^Ethel- 

 wold, bishop of Winchester, formerly a protege of Athelstan, made pilgrimage 

 somewhat later to the same spot. These visits, duly recorded, afford evidence 

 of the enormous prestige of St. Cuthbert's shrine through these turbulent 

 days, and help to account for the magic power of his name in time to 

 come.'" 



With the closing years of the loth century we reach the foundation of 

 the city of Durham. There is no mention of its unique site before the 

 familiar events of 995, though its nearness to a Roman road'° must have given 

 frequent opportunity to the wayfarer to inspect its wonderful natural position. 

 About 980 the ferocity of the Danes was renewed in constant raids upon the 

 south coast of England." In 99 i the attack passed northward, and Danegeld 

 was first paid. Aldhun had been consecrated bishop of Chester-le-Street in 

 the previous year, so succeeding to the now ample estates of St. Cuthbert. 

 The undiminished fury of the Danes broke upon his see in 993. Aware that 

 he was powerless to protect the possessions of the Church, the bishop had 

 entrusted some of the manors to Uchtred, earl of Northumberland, and to two 

 other nobles, intending to resume them when happier days came.'^ Other 

 manors, either before or after this, he bestowed as a marriage portion upon his 

 daughter, Egfrida, who was married to this same Uchtred.'^ Having thus 

 provided for the temporalities of the Church, Aldhun formed in 995 the 

 famous resolution of taking the body of St. Cuthbert to Ripon, whither the 

 whole congregation of St. Cuthbert betook itself. 



In the summer of the very same year peace was restored, if indeed the 

 menace of the Danes had been made effective, of which there is no real 

 proof. The congregation set out on the return journey to Chester-le-Street.*" 

 The bier became immovable. It was considered to be a sign that the saint 

 refused to be borne back to the old spot. They were then close to the place 

 where in after days Simeon recorded the account which he had received from 

 the descendants of the original porters. From his pen the phrase prope Dun- 

 helmum is not likely to have meant anything more distant than the immediate 



" Raine, S/. Cuthbert, 53, with authorities there quoted. 



'^ The existence of this road was discovered by Mr. Cade, of Gainford, in the eighteenth century. See 

 Archaeologia, vii, and Surtees' note on Mr. Cade in his account of Gainford. 



" Anglo-Sax. Chron. sub ann. 



"Simeon of Dur. Opera, \, 83 and 213. For the existence and history ot the official earldom see 

 Hodgson Wmdit, History of Northumbria, 158,3 book strangely overlooked by Dr. Lapsley in his County 

 Palatine of Durham. 



" The date is uncertain. It may have been after the return from Ripon. Simeon the monk perhaps 

 naturally omits the fact of Aldhun's daughter and her dowry. It is vouched for by the interesting tract 

 printed with his works in the Rolls Series, i, 2 1 5. For the general existence of clerical marriage in this period 

 see Hunt, Hist. Engl. Ch. 269, 321. As regards the congregation of St. Cuthbert in particular, the practice was 

 probably curtailed when Edmund became bishop in : 02 1. It seems to me likely that the circumstances of this 

 bishop's election (Simeon of Dur. Opera, \, 85-6) point to the introduction of monastic influence. When 

 Simeon calls Aldhun (i, 78) probabilis monachus, he is looking at him through twelfth-century spectacles. 



'° It would appear (see note 36, above) that a Roman road led from Sockburn to Mainsforth, 

 Old Durham, and Chester-le-Street. It traversed the very lands that had been given to the congregation of 

 St. Cuthbert, and it would be natural, not to say much safer, to bring the body over territory associated with 

 the saint, and probably at this time specially under the protection of Uchtred. Simeon of Dur. op. cit. i, 83 

 and 21 3. 



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