Notwithstanding that the King, the Night before the Battle, was in a Dream admonished, that in no wise he should attempt to violate the Church goods of St Cuthbert, or any Thing pertaining to that holy Saint, which he did most presumptuously disdain, destroying as much as he could of the said Goods and Lands belonging to St Cuthbert. He was not only punished by God Almighty in his own Captivity, being taken in the Field of Battle, and sore wounded, having first valiantly fought; but there was also taken with him four Earls, two Lords, the Archbishop of St Andrews, one other Bishop, one Knight, with many others: And in the Battle were slain seven Earls of Scotland, besides many Lords, and fifteen thousand Scotsmen; as also by the Loss of the said Cross, and many other most excellent Jewels and Monuments which were brought from Scotland, and other Noblemen’s Banners, which were all offered to the Shrine of St Cuthbert, for the beautifying and adorning thereof; together with the Black Rood of Scotland (so termed), with Mary and John; made of Silver, being as it were smoaked all over; which was set up in the Pillar next St Cuthbert’s Shrine, in the South Alley.*
Abridged.
From ‘The Ancient Rites of Durham’ (1672), edited by John Davies (1623-1693). The original text can be read in ‘Rites of Durham’, originally written in 1593, edited by Joseph Thomas Fowler (1833-1924) and published in 1903 by the Surtees Society (vol. CVII, for 1902).
* The Black Rood remained there until the sixteenth century, when Henry VIII’s government assayers, backed by theologians in keeping with Modern Thought, came to the cathedral and took away everything of monetary value, in this case meaning the silver casket, and burned everything else, meaning the relic within. They tried the same trick with the coffin of St Cuthbert: see Cvthbertvs. The cross vanished from history — unless it is wherever the still-uncorrupted body of St Cuthbert lies.