A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



scene the great apostle of the Cumbrian region. When we come to the 

 labours of St. Mungo or Kentigern we catch a glimpse of what appears 

 to be genuine history. In the opinion of Jocelyn, one of his biographers, 1 

 Kentigern was the prominent figure in the revolution which evangelized 

 the district. Some portions of the scenery of Kentigern's life can be 

 identified in districts of modern Cumberland. Flying from Glasgow to 

 escape the persecution of the pagans, he resolved to seek refuge among the 

 Christian Britons of Wales, and arriving at Carlisle, where he heard that 

 many among the mountains were given to idolatry, the saint turned aside, 

 says his biographer, and, God helping him, converted to the Christian 

 religion very many from a strange belief and others who were erroneous 

 in the faith. For some time he remained in a thickly wooded place, 

 and he erected a cross, from which the place took the English name of 

 Crossfield that is, Crucis Novak where a new basilica was erected in 

 Jocelyn's time and dedicated in the name of the blessed Kentigern. 

 When his work in Cumberland was accomplished the saint pursued his 

 journey by the seashore, scattering the seed of the Divine word where- 

 ever he went till he reached Wales. 2 It was in 573, during Kentigern's 

 absence, that the establishment of Christianity was secured by battle at a 

 place which has been identified as the plains of the Esk near Arthuret. 

 The new king, who had been brought up as a Christian in Ireland, 

 recalled the saint. On his return the people flocked to meet him at 

 Hodelm or Hoddom in Dumfriesshire, where he placed his see for a 

 time till he transferred it to his own city of Glasgow. For many years 

 he ruled his vast diocese, which is said to have stretched far enough 

 south to include the present counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. 

 In tracing the footsteps of St. Kentigern on his missionary journey 

 through Cumberland the churches entitled in his name have been 

 pointed out as witnesses of his triumph over the paganism of the dis- 

 trict. Within the modern county there are eight such dedications, 

 seven of which belong to parish churches which date at least from the 

 twelfth century. The narrative of Jocelyn, compiled about the year 

 1 185, agrees with the distribution of Kentigern churches in the county, 

 and from it we may gather that these dedications were in Jocelyn's mind 

 when he discoursed on the saint's wanderings in the neighbourhood of 

 Carlisle. The churches of Irthington and Grinsdale are on the line of 

 the Roman wall, the supposed route taken by Kentigern on his flight 

 from Glasgow. Of the others, Caldbeck, Mungrisdale, Castlesowerby 

 and Crosthwaite lie at the roots of the mountains which form the 

 northern boundary of the Lake District. It was to the people living 

 among the mountains that he is said to have directed his steps after his 

 arrival in Carlisle. The two remaining churches of Aspatria and Brom- 



1 Two biographies of St. Kentigern are known to have been compiled in the twelfth century. A 

 portion only of the earlier, written by an unknown author at the suggestion of Herbert, bishop of Glas- 

 gow, remains to us, and has been printed in the Registrum Episcopates Glasguensis by Mr. Cosmo Innes. 

 The complete Life, written about the year 1185 by Jocelyn, a monk of Purness, exists in two manuscripts : 

 one in the British Museum, and the other in Archbishop Marsh's Library in Dublin. 



3 Historians of Scotland, v. 74. 



