emain in
obscurity for more than eight or nine years. He was needed to work in
the world still, and a deputation, consisting of Ecgfrid, King of
Northumbria, and many nobles and clergy, waited upon him in his
retirement and earnestly begged him to accept the Bishopric of Hexham.
Although he shrank from the irksome task, he was too good a man not to
yield to duty, though he did it reluctantly; but he so thirsted for
solitude, that Eata, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, exchanged with him. At
Easter, he was solemnly consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne, at York, by
Thodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. He did not long continue in office.
His health failed, and he pined for the solitude of his beloved Farne
Island; and when he had been ten years in his bishopric, he again
resigned and sought the lonely rocks, which he did not leave until his
death. He died on the 20th of March, 687. He wished to be buried on
Farne Island, but had consented to have his remains taken to
Lindisfarne, after making the monks promise that, if ever the monastery
should be removed, his bones should be taken away also. His body was
placed in a coffin of stone, and he was buried near the high altar of
the Lindisfarne Cathedral.

Ten years later, the monks decided to enshrine the saint, and place him
above, instead of under the pavement. They opened the coffin, and
announced to the world that they had found the body "entire, flexible,
and succulent," and for eight hundred years it was supposed to remain
so.

Nearly two hundred years later, the circumstances which Cuthbert would
seem to have dimly foreseen occurred. Troublous times arose in
Northumbria. The nobles were at variance with each other, and two
rival kings ascended the throne. The wise saying, "a house that is
divided against itself cannot stand," was verified here. The wary
warlike Danes, seeing this, came trooping down upon the northern
district, and fierce and fearful battles were fought. The conquering
Norsemen took all the booty they could, plundered, destroyed and
desolated the monasteries, and murdered many of the monks. Among the
religious sanctuaries that were made desolate, were those of Tynemouth,
Jarrow, Monkchester (now Newcastle-on-Tyne), and Hexham. They came
again and again, and at last they went to Lindisfarne. The monks there
knew they were coming, and hastily prepared for flight. Remembering,
even in their time of peril, the dying words of St. Cuthbert, they took
h