A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



and censed it ; then, rising, took out of it an 

 image of the risen Lord, with the holy Sacra- 

 ment inclosed in crystal in its breast. This they 

 brought and set on the high altar, all the monks 

 singing the anthem of C/ir/j/aJ resurgens. Then the 

 image was carried in procession round the church 

 under a canopy of rich purple velvet borne by 

 four ancient gentlemen, and was finally replaced 

 on the altar, to remain there until Ascension Day. 



Processions were held on most of the principal 

 holy-days ; on Whit Sunday and Trinity Sunday 

 round the church, bearing the banner and relics ; 

 on Corpus Christi round Palace Green with the 

 Corpus Christi shrine ; on St. Mark's Day to 

 Bow Church, where a service was held. In 

 every procession the shrine containing St. Bede's 

 bones was carried by four monks, and afterwards 

 replaced in his tomb. 



St. Cuthbert's Day was of course a great 

 festival. The cover of his shrine was raised, as 

 on certain other days, that the faithful might 

 behold the jewels and other relics in the feretory ; 

 and the whole convent kept open house in the 

 frater, dining all together on that day alone of 

 all days in the year. 



Across the church from north to south ran a 

 line of blue marble in the pavement with a cross 

 in it. Beyond this no woman might pass ; '^ 

 and any woman transgressing this rule, or enter- 

 ing the precincts of the abbey, was liable to 

 severe punishment. Early in the twelfth cen- 

 tury Helisend, the queen of Scotland's chamber- 

 maid, disguised herself in a black cope and hood 

 and secretly entered the church ; but she was 

 discovered and forcibly ejected by Bernard the 

 sacristan, whose language on the occasion does 

 him little credit either as a man or a monk.^^ 

 Again in 141 7 two maidservants from New- 

 castle tried to penetrate to St. Cuthbert's fere- 

 tory, clad in masculine attire. They also were 

 detected, and sentenced to walk in the same 

 dress in procession on various festival days round 

 the churches of St. Nicholas and All Saints, 

 Newcastle.'* 



There was also a strict rule that all riders 

 approaching the church should dismount at the 

 gate of the churchyard. A certain knight in 

 the time of Henry II essayed to ride up to the 

 door, but judgement descended on him, his horse 

 falling and rolling him in the mud.'* 



A curious dispute arose in the fourteenth cen- 

 tury between a certain rector of St. Mary's 

 in the South Bailey, and the prior of Durham. 

 The rector asserted that he had a right to 

 enter the prior's hall on festival days, quasi 



^ St. Cuthbert, having been in his youth betrayed 

 by a woman, would never willingly allow any female 

 to approach him ; and the monks thought it right to 

 observe the same rule with regard to his remains. 



^^ Reginald Dun. Libcllus (Surt. Soc), c, Ixxiv. 



^* Bourne, Hist. Nctccastk, 208. 



°' Reginald Dun. Libcllus (Surt. Soc), c, cxxvii. 



propositus^ and to celebrate prayers ; and on 

 lesser days to read the Gospel, to sprinkle holy 

 water in the brewhouse, bakehouse, and kitchen ; 

 and there to receive a commons of bread, beer, 

 and flesh or fish. He also said that the tithes of 

 the monastery gardens were his by right. All 

 these claims, which he grounded on the fact that 

 a great portion of his parish lay within the walls 

 of the monastery, the prior utterly denied. The 

 case was submitted to arbitration, and was finally 

 given against the rector ; but the prior of good 

 will granted him parochial dues from the servants 

 of the priory living within his parish, and tithes 

 of the prior's garden after his own table was 

 supplied. 



In 1388 the then rector urged his right ex 

 officio to eat three days a week at the prior's 

 table ; and in 1434 the prior granted to John 

 Burgham, rector of St. Mary's, an annual 

 pension of 13;. 4^. during his incumbency in 

 recompense of the tithes of the gardens ' for- 

 merly within the limits of the said parish, but 

 now within the septa of the monastery,' in lieu 

 of which tithes the rector used on certain days 

 to eat within the abbey. He also granted to the 

 rector a garment de secta clericorum every year for 

 his good service ; and thus for a mark and a 

 customary sable suit at Christmas the rector 

 became a retainer of the house of Durham.'" 



In early days the church, made doubly safe by 

 its great strength and high degree of sanctity, 

 was sometimes used as a temporary place of 

 deposit for gold or treasure. In 1255 Henry III 

 excited the wrath of the monks by seizing some 

 gold which had been left for safe-keeping at 

 St. Cuthbert's shrine ; '^ and a century and a half 

 later Henry V wrote to a priest of Durham to 

 inquire about some treasure which he had placed 

 in charge of the late prior (John of Heming- 

 brough), two of his monks, and a man called 

 Middleton. The priest at once wrote to the 

 new prior (John Wessington), and told him to 

 allow no chest or other ' instrument ' that might 

 contain gold or gems to be removed from the 

 priory or church without the king's knowledge. '* 

 Four times a year, at the festivals of the 

 Purification, Easter, the nativity of St. John the 

 Baptist, and All Saints, the prior withdrew from 

 Durham to one of his manor houses, usually to 

 Bearpark [Beaurepaire], Bewley, Pittington, or 

 Wardley, attended by his officers and a con- 

 siderable number of the monks, for the purposes 

 of feasting and relaxation. These periods of 

 recreation were known as the ' Ludi Prioris ' ; 

 and, if we may judge by the provision made for 



'* Surt. Hist. Dur. iv ; Addend. 162. 



" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 507-8. 



" Cotton MS. Vesp. F. xiii, fol. 30. In 1323 a 

 chest containing some important accounts was deposited 

 by the king's order in the treasury of Durham Cathe- 

 dral, and the monks were made responsible for it ; 

 Close, 17 Edw. II, m. 42. 



90 



