The Sheriff of Northumberland allows wealth and power to go to his head — and his digestion.

Shortly before Easter, an ivory box went missing from the gifts presented at the shrine of St Cuthbert.

A monk living in the tumbledown hermitage that had once belonged to St Cuthbert reluctantly decided that it needed more than repairs.

As late as the fifteenth century, criminals on the run could find refuge in the precincts of England’s great churches.

When the plague once again visited Northumbria, Bishop Cuthbert of Lindisfarne left his island retreat and brought comfort and healing to the suffering.

Cuthbert, struck down by plague, was vexed to find that his brethren had been praying for him all the previous night.