198 Report of Meetings for 1888. By J. Hardy. 



monasteries had been founded in England. The speaker went 

 on to describe the different orders of monks, and the austerity of 

 their respective ways of living. In Northumberland there were 

 not many monastic houses — not so many as in the other counties 

 of England. Yorkshire had the largest number, having more 

 than any two or three counties put together. The monastic 

 houses in Northumberland numbered altogether twenty-seven, or 

 about 100 less than Yorkshire, where there were 130 ; so that 

 Northumberland was sparsely occupied by the monastic orders. 

 The house of Lindisfarne was founded by Oswald, king of Nor- 

 thumbria, about the year 635. Aidan was the first bishop, and 

 he died in 651. Finan, the second bishop, who occupied the see 

 from 652 to 661, rebuilt the church of Lindisfarne. This church 

 was dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and it continued 

 until the bishopric of Eadbert, the seventh Bishop of Lindisfarne, 

 who covered the roof and walls of the church with lead in order- 

 to preserve them. How long this wooden church remained we 

 could not tell. There was every reason to suppose a stone church 

 was in existence on the island before the coming of the Bene- 

 dictine monks in 1082. But after the death of Bede, which 

 occurred in 735, we had very slight means of information with 

 regard to the ecclesiastical history of the north of England. In 

 examining the ruins he was led to the conclusion that there was 

 a stone church before the Norman church was begun, and he 

 thought if they read between the lines of the Charter of Carileph, 

 who founded the Norman church, there was some inference to be 

 derived sufficient to confirm that opinion. In 1082, Carileph 

 ejected the secular canons from his church and introduced the 

 Benedictine monks, and bestowed on them the church of 

 Lindisfarne and other churches in the neighbourhood. Mr 

 Hodges went on to quote the dates of charters from which it 

 might be inferred that there was already a stone church on the 

 island, and he also pointed out characteristics in the masonry to 

 confirm the view of the pre-existeuce of a Saxon church on the 

 spot upon which the Norman edifice was built. The church in 

 which they were standing was built by Edward the monk, and it 

 remained unaltered until the dissolution of the monasteries. The 

 church was sufficient for the requirement of the monks, and 

 therefore did not require enlarging, and as it was substantially 

 built, it did not require repairing. In fact it had remained 

 unaltered, as far as we could see, until the present day. The 



