l7B reporI' of meetjngs fob i9U? 



the pastoral charge of that Southern district, was followed 

 in 661 by his return to Melrose, where, on the death of 

 Boisil, he was appointed abbot. Thirteen years of strenuous 

 effort were spent by the Tweed, during which he endeavoured 

 to correct the errors of witchcraft and superstitii-n, and in 

 his itineration among remote villages "to recall to heavenly 

 things the rustic people, at once by the word of preaching, 

 and the example of his virtue." 



A successor of St. Cuthbert at Melrose was Ethelwold, 

 during whose term of office the memorable niiiacle of the 

 rising from the dead of one Diycthelm is alleged to have 

 taken place. Realising that his restoration was designed for 

 the benefit of his soul, he parted his goods among his wife 

 and children and the poor, and entered the monastery, where, 

 liaving received the tonsure, he secluded himself in a secret 

 dwelling provided by the abbot, and there continued to the 

 day of his death "in extraordinary contrition both of mind 

 and body." In the year 731 the kingdom of Northumbria 

 was divided into four bishoprics, and under that of Lindisfarne 

 Melrose was installed. For a long period thereafter nothing 

 is recorded regarding the monastery ; but in the reign of 

 Kenneth MacAlpin (8-19-859), mention is made of incursions 

 by him into Saxonia, in the course of which Melrose was 

 reduced to ashes. During this period the Scottish kingdom 

 seems to have been gradually developing Southward, till the 

 whole country from Forth to Tweed, after a gieat victory in 

 1018 at Carham, was eventually ceded to Malcolm II. But 

 such partition of the kingdom by the State did not preclude 

 its continuance under the jurisdiction of the Church; and in 

 1072, it is recorded by Simeon of Durham, that " Aldwyn, a 

 presbyter of the province of the Mercians, but a monk in 

 dress and conduct," not only restored the monastery of 

 St. Paul at Jarrow, but, urged by religious zeal, and accom- 

 panied by no less a personage than Turgot, "at that time 

 a cleric as to his dress, but already a monk in heart and 

 deed," betook himself to Melrose, then a solitary waste, and, 

 charmed by its peaceful seclusion, re-established monastic life 

 and discipline there. By reason of his refusal, on conscientious 

 grounds, to swear fidelity to the King of the Scots, he was 

 subjected to much indignity and persecution; but in course 



