THE CONTENTS OF ST. CUTHBERT'S SHRINE 



no doubt that it was a shrivelled eyeball, including the lids." If this is so, 

 it is surely a strong contirmation ot the original drying up without decay of 

 the 'corpus incorruptum.'^ When the bones were laid out for us and counted 

 up, before being deposited in the new oaken coffin, it was found that only 

 one important member was missing, one of the thigh bones; this may be 

 the 'leg' which was broken by the goldsmith with his hammer. Dr. Selby 

 Plummer* says that 'the partially worn though otherwise perfect condition 

 of the teeth, the conditions of the lower jaw, the partial ossification of the 

 larynx, the comparative thinness and lightness of the scapula, warrant us in 

 assigning the age of their owner as of about fifty-five years of age,' which also 

 corresponds closely enough to what we know respecting St. Cuthbert's age at 

 his death. Perhaps the most striking confirmation of the relation between 

 this skeleton and the original records is this ; in Bede's Life of St. Cuthhert* 

 we are told that after a great crisis the Saint recovered his health, save that 

 a tumour which had been external then 'took an internal direction and troubled 

 him all the rest of his life.' For when the bones were examined by us we 

 saw in the breast-bone a well-marked deep hole which had been eaten out 

 by a long and obstinate tumour ; over about half the mouth of this hole 

 a piece of bone had grown, showing that much time had elapsed during 

 the progress of the malady. Dr. Plummer also adds that on this bone 'were 

 many perforations, due to some ulcerative process.'^ In many ways it is 

 probable that St. Cuthbert was a great sufferer throughout his life ; and the 

 skeleton answers exactly to the descriptions of the ancient records, which show 

 us a man old before his days, oppressed with ill-health, and of a consumptive 

 tendency. And finally, contemporaries tell us that St. Cuthbert was ' neither 

 very tall nor very short,' and the skeleton as we carefully measured it was 

 about five feet eight inches long.* 



These are cumulative probabilities which incline the mind towards a 

 belief that we have here the remains of St. Cuthbert. Future discovery, or, 

 it may be, the revealing of the Benedictine secret, may compel us to think 

 otherwise ; as it is, the sum of proof is strongly in favour of the genuineness 

 of the remains, though proof positive is wanting. 



The Head of St. Oswald^ 



The history of this relic is briefly this : After the battle on the Maser- 

 field in 642 in which the King fell,"* his remains were brutally treated by 

 Penda, the triumphant pagan king of Mercia; his head was stuck up on 

 a pole ; King Oswio later on took it down.' He carried it to Lindisflirne, 

 where it was received as a most precious relic. When the monks were forced 

 to take flight thence in 875, they tell us that they placed the head in 

 St. Cuthbert's coffin,'" and William of Malmesbury adds that 'the head is 

 said to be held between the arms of the ever blessed Cuthbert.' " In the 

 translation of 11 04 it is said that the head was restored to its place by the 



1 jlrch. Ivii. (i), 21 note, but see Raine, St. Cuthbert, 214. 8 Ibid. 23 note. 



' Ibid. 20. * Cap. 8. » Jrch. Ivii. (i), 20. 



• Ibid. 23-24. 1 See Reginald of Durham (Surtces See. i.), cap. 42. 



8 Bede, Hist. Eccl., lib. iii. cap. ix. » Ibid. c.ip. xii. 



1" Sym. Dur. (Rolls series), i. 57. H Ibid. i. 53. 



