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Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, His Life and Times
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne His Life and Times Author:Alfred Cooper Fryer Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE BOYHOOD OF CUTHBERHT—IRISH LEGENDS. '' And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud Throws o'er the sea a floating bridge of light, Across... more » whose trembling planks our fancies crowd Into the realm of mystery and night—- So from the world of spirits there descends A bridge of light, connecting it with this ; O'er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends, Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss." —Longfellow. 'HE lamp of Christianity kindled in Aidan's rude cell was not extinguished when he ceased to live. His successors in Lindisfarne, Finian and Colman, maintained the struggle against paganism; and the churches raised by his disciples continued to nourish. Somewhere between the years 634 and 651, the monasteries of Melrose and Coldingham, offshoots of the parent church at Lindisfarne, sprang into existence. The latter,situated on the coast of Berwick, was, like Heruten, an establishment both for monks and nuns; it was ruled by its foundress Ebba, a sister of King Oswald. Over Melrose in 651, the year of Aidan's death, presided Eata, one of his twelve disciples. But far away in Scotland a greater than Wilfrith or Eata was even then standing on the threshold of a glorious career, and preparing, though unconsciously to himself, to take up the great work of evangelisation where Aidan had laid it down. As the pious bishop passed from earth, his mantle descended, not on abbot or neophyte trained in the school of Lindisfarne, but on a humble shepherd, tending his flocks among the wild recesses of Lammermoor. Legend and romance have so beclouded the early history of the British Church, that it is most difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction in the lives of ancient missionaries. To this remark the biography of the patron saint of Durham proves...« less