ering, and after passing through
many hands, ultimately came into the possession of Sir Robert Cotton, in
whose collection, as we have said before, it is now preserved in the
British Museum.

I cannot refrain, even at the risk of incurring some blame for my
digression, presenting the reader with a part of a letter full of
fraternal love, which Alcuin addressed to the monks of Lindesfarne on
this sad occasion.

"Your dearest fraternity," says he, "was wont to afford me much joy. But
now how different! though absent, I deeply lament the more your
tribulations and calamities; the manner in which the Pagans contaminate
the sanctuaries of God, and shed the blood of saints around the altar,
devastating the joy of our house, and trampling on the bodies of holy men
in the temple of God, as though they were treading on a dunghill in the
street. But of what effect is our wailing unless we come before the
altars of Christ and cry, 'Spare me, O Lord! spare thy people, and take
not thine inheritance from them;' nor let the Pagans say, 'Where is the
God of the Christians?' Besides who is to pacify the churches of Britain,
if St. Cuthbert cannot defend them with so great a number of saints?
Nevertheless do not trouble the mind about these things, for God
chasteneth all the sons whom he receiveth, and therefore perhaps afflicts
you the more, because he the more loveth you. Jerusalem, the delightful
city of God, was lost by the Chaldean scourge; and Rome, the city of the
holy Apostles and innumerable martyrs, was surrounded by the Pagans and
devastated. Well nigh the whole of Europe is evacuated by the scourging
sword of the Goths or the Huns. But in the same manner in which God
preserved the stars to illuminate the heavens, so will He preserve the
churches to ornament, and in their office to strengthen and increase the
Christian religion."[162]

Thus it came to pass that Eardulphus was the last bishop of Lindesfarne
and the first of Cunecacestre, or Chester-upon-the-Street, to which place
his see was removed previous to its final settlement at Durham.

After a succession of many bishops, some recorded as learned and bookish
by monkish annalists, and nearly all benefactors in some way to their
church, we arrive at the period when Aldwine was consecrated bishop of
that see in the year 990. The commotions of his time made his presidency
a troubled and harassing one. Sweyn, king of Denmark, and Olauis, king of
Norway, invaded England,