CUTHBKHT 



CUTLERY 



open, ami a company of angels descend upon the 

 MI ih, mill again ascend to iieaven, carrying with 

 thnu the soul of St Aidan, the pious Bishop of 

 Lindisfarne, or Holy Island. The vision deter- 

 iniiK-il him to become a monk, and in the same year 

 In* iMitrivd the monastery of Old Melrose, of which 

 St Itoisil was then provost or prior, and St Eata 

 ubKot. When the latter removed to the newly- 

 fnuiiiled monastery of Kipon, Cuthbert accom- 

 panied him, and was ap|M>inted to the office of 

 superintendent of the guests. In consequence of 

 the dispute as to the keeping of Easter, which 

 \v.is then raging, Eata returned to Melrose, 

 and Cuthbert, having accompanied him, was on 

 tin- death of St Boisil in 661 elected prior of 

 the monastery. While in this office, he distin- 

 guished himself by his assiduitv in visiting the 

 surrounding country, and especially the remoter 

 mountain hamlets, sometimes on horseback, but 

 oftener on foot, and labouring by his teaching and 

 example to reclaim the people from the superstitious 

 or pagan rites into which they hail fallen. After a 

 few years spent in this way, he left Melrose for the 

 island monastery of Lindisrarne, of which he became 

 prior, his old master, St Eata, being abbot. Long- 

 ing for an austerer life even than the monastic, he 

 quitted Lindisfarne in 676, to become an anchorite, 

 or solitary recluse, in a hut which he built with his 

 own hands on House Island, one of the Farne 

 group. Here, in 684, he was visited by Eegfrid, 

 king of Northumbria; Trumuine, ex-bishop of the 

 Picts, and other great men of the north, who came 

 at the request of the synod of Twyford to entreat 

 that he would accept the bishopric of Hexham. He 

 reluctantly complied with their wishes, but shortly 

 after exchanged the see of Hexham for that of 

 Lindisfarne. Still thirsting after solitude, at the 

 end of two years he resigned his bishopric, and 

 returned to his hut, where he died on the 20th of 

 March 687. The anniversary of his death was a 

 great festival in the early English Church, which 

 commemorated also the 4th or September, as the 

 anniversary of the day on which his body was 

 translated to Durham. The influence which St 

 Cuthbert exercised upon his age seems to have been 

 due chiefly to his fervent piety and extraordinary 

 asceticism. The gift of a persuasive tongue is 

 ascribed to him, and he would seem to have had 

 skill and prudence in the management of all airs, 

 but nowhere is there any trace of his learning. 



The fame of St Cuthbert hod been great during 

 his life ; it became far greater after his death. 

 Churches were dedicated to him throughout all 

 the wide country lietween the Trent and Mersey 

 on the south, and the Forth and Clyde on the 

 north. It is stated that when his tomb was opened 

 at the end of eleven years, his body was found 

 incorrupt, and so, for more than 800 years, it was 

 believed still to continue. It remained at Lindis- 

 farne till 875, when the monks, bearing it on their 

 shoulders, fled inland from the fury of the Danes. 

 After many wanderings it found a resting-place at 

 Chester-le-Street in 883. It was transferred to 

 Kipon in 995, and in the same year it was removed 

 to Durham. Here, inclosed in a costly shrine, and 

 believed to work daily miracles, it remained till 

 the Reformation. The grave was opened in 1826, 

 when a coffin was found to inclose another, which 

 there was reason to suppose had been made in 1 104 ; 

 and this again inclosed a third, which answered the 

 description of one made in 698, when the saint was 

 raised from his first grave. This innermost case 

 contained, not, indeed, the incorruptible body of 

 St Cuthbert, but his skeleton, still entire, wrapped 

 in five robes of embroidered silk. Fragments of 

 these, and of the episcopal vestments, together 

 with a comb and other relics, found beside the 

 boues, are to be seen in the cathedral library. 



The asceticism which distinguished St Cuthbert 

 in life, long lingered round his tomb. Until the 

 Reformation, no woman was suffered to approach 

 his shrine. Hit* wrath, it was believed, was equally 

 prompt to avenge every injury to the honour or 

 possessions of his church. A cloth said to have 

 been used by St Cuthbert in celebrating mass was 

 fashioned into a standard, which was believed to 

 insure victory to the army in whose ranks it was 

 carried. Flodden was only one of many fields in 

 which the defeat of the Scots was ascribed to the 

 banner of St Cuthbert. 



The Life of St Cuthbert was twice written by the 

 Venerable Bede. Other ancient authorities are Symeon 

 of Durham, and Reginald of Durham. See Maine's St 

 Cuthbert (1828), Archbishop Eyre's History of St Cuth- 

 bert (1849; 3d ed. 1887), and Fryer's Cuthberht of Lindit- 

 farne (180). 



The name St Cnthberfs Beads has been popularly 

 given to single joints of the stems of fossil Cnnoidea 

 (q.v. ), which being hollow could be strung on 

 thread, and so made into a rosary. 



Cuticle, a sheath formed outside a layer of 

 cells, either by their secretory activity or by a 

 modification of their external portions. In the 

 strict sense, a cuticle is not in itself cellular, but 

 consists of the products or of the modified portions 

 of underlying cells. The thin envelope which may 

 be readily stripped off a leech or earthworm when 

 killed in 'spirit supplies a convenient example. A 

 cuticle is usually formed outside relatively passive 

 cells, but even ciliated Epithelium (q.v.) may 

 have its cuticular outer layer through the pores 

 of which the cilia emerge. ' By continuous modifi- 

 cations of the cells considerable thickness of cuticle 

 may be developed as e.g. the hard lining of the 

 gizzard in many birds. By chemical modification 

 of a well -developed cuticular formation very varied 

 protective and offensive skin-structures often 

 result. Thus the peculiar gelatinous, cellulose- 

 containing tunic of Ascidians is for the most part 

 a cuticle ; the shells of molluscs are cuticular for- 

 mations plus lime ; the raspers of snails are formed 

 from cuticle ; the hard armour of Arthropods is a 

 cuticle associated with the formation of Chitin 

 (q.v.) ; the bristles, paws, and firm sheaths of many 

 worms are also cuticular, and so on. For the use 

 of the term in special connections e.g. the cuticle 

 of the hair or of the teeth, see special articles. 

 The term must not be confused with ctitis, one of 

 the names for the under skin or dermis ; nor should 

 it ever be used as equivalent to skin. See CELL, 

 EPITHELIUM, SKIN. 



Clltlass a sword nearly 3 feet long, broad and 

 nearly straight, mostly used by seamen of the 

 royal navy. Those of the converted pattern of 

 1871 were pronounced utterly inefficient and unfit 

 for service by a commission in 1887. See SWORD. 



Cutlery, the general name given to such 

 cutting instruments as knives, forks, scissors, 

 razors, &c. The making of larger objects of this 

 nature, such as axes, chisels, and saws, is rather 

 the business of the tool-maker than of the cutler. 

 Shells, flints, and other sharp-edged stones formed 

 the rudest and most ancient cutting instruments, 

 and the earliest traces of human existence in 

 Britain and elsewhere are associated with stone 

 celts ' and other weapons and cutting implements. 

 These were followed by bronze weapons and other 

 articles, including reaping-hooks. In the museum 

 of Bologna there are ancient Etruscan bronze knives 

 carved in form somewhat like modern reaping- 

 hooks, and in the great Naples collection of objects 

 from Pompeii and Herculaneum, there are sickles, 

 bill-hooks, knives, lancets, and spring-shears, some 

 of which are made of iron or steel, as wrll as of 

 bronze. These are of course ancient Roman. 



