Cuthbert and Sheriff John

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

?1163-?1170

King Henry II 1154-1189

A boat carrying trippers motors past the cliffs of Inner Farne in Northumberland. Many visitors are bird watchers, as the Farne Islands archipelago is famous for its guillemots, arctic terns, eider ducks and bright-billed puffins, to say nothing of seals, basking sharks and bottlenose dolphins. Cuthbert had a close affinity for animals of all kinds, but especially birds. See posts tagged St Cuthbert’s Peace.

Introduction

This post is number 28 in the series Miracles of St Cuthbert

In the 680s, St Cuthbert was Bishop of Lindisfarne, an island just off the Northumberland coast, though he lived alone on neighbouring Inner Farne. His remains were later brought to Durham, where in 1093 a large priory was begun in his honour. Reginald, a monk in the priory, recorded dozens of miracles at Cuthbert’s Durham shrine, but some still went to Farne to seek his help.

by Reginald of Durham ?-?1190

A NORTHUMBRIAN man,* carried along by wealth and power, fell into an illness of such gastric misery that, what with the tearing-pains in his stomach, and the gagging in his throat, he went without almost any sustenance whatsoever, whether food or drink. The more that anxious doctors laboured to apply their cures, the more the distress of his wretched state grew steadily.

Eventually, after receiving advice of a more wholesome sort, he made a promise to pay his respects to God’s confessor St Cuthbert, and took ship for the island of Farne, which was not far away.* There, once he had made good on his vow, and offered up tearful devotions to the Lord, he was soon rewarded with the return of the very best of health; and after sharing food and drink together with the brethren who fought the good fight* alone on that island, he took ship again.

Foods that were cheaper and less refined now tasted sweeter to his palate, perhaps because it was so long since his mouth had been accustomed to tasting them at all. Fit and healthy, he went happily back home — the same man who, sick and weak, had struggled to reach the island amid the greatest pain.

by Reginald of Durham ?-?1190

From ‘Reginaldi monachi Dunelmensis libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus’, published (1835) by the Surtees Society in Durham.

Next in series: Cvthbertvs

* He was identified in the margin as ‘Johannes Vicecomes’, or Sheriff John. There was a Sheriff of Northumberland named John in 1163, and again in 1170.

* ‘Farne’ is the name Reginald gave to tiny Inner Farne, just under 1½ miles off the Northumberland coast near Bamburgh (bam-bra). It is to be distinguished from its larger neighbour Lindisfarne or Holy Island. In St Cuthbert’s lifetime (?635-687), Bamburgh had been one of the chief fortified towns of the Kingdom of Northumbria, but it was badly damaged by the Vikings in 993. In Reginald’s day, it was just beginning to revive as a military stronghold and had been refortified with a sturdy keep.

* In Latin, qui militabant. See 1 Timothy 6:12.

Précis

In the 1160s or 1170s, high living struck down a well-to-do man (perhaps the Sheriff of Northumberland) with such gastro-intestinal collapse that doctors were baffled. So he made a pilgrimage to St Cuthbert’s old cell on Inner Farne. For the first time in many days, he found he could eat, and thereafter enjoyed the simplest fare more than ever before.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Donate

Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.