Stonyhurst Gospel
Encyclopedia
The Stonyhurst Gospel, also known as the St Cuthbert Gospel or the St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, is a small 7th-century pocket gospel book
, written in Latin
, which was probably placed in the tomb of Saint Cuthbert
of Lindisfarne
, a few years after he died in 687. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western book-binding to survive, and both the vellum
pages and the binding are in outstanding condition for a book of this age. Although it was long regarded as Cuthbert's personal copy of the Gospel, to which there are early references, the book is now regarded as dating from the years after Cuthbert's death in 687, and probably a gift from Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
, where it was written, intended to be placed in his coffin when his remains were placed behind the altar at Lindisfarne in 698. It presumably remained in the coffin through its travels after 875, forced by Viking invasions, but was removed in 1104 when the burial, by then in Durham Cathedral
, was once again moved within the building. It was then kept with other relics in the cathedral, although the bishops and important visitors were able to wear the book in a leather bag around their necks. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries
in England
by Henry VIII
between 1536 and 1541, it passed to collectors.
It is now on long-term loan to the British Library
, catalogued as Loan 74. On 14 July 2011 the British Library launched a fundraising campaign to buy the book for £9m ($14.3m), two-thirds of which has already been raised. The Library plans to display the Gospel for half the time at the British Library in London, and half the time in Durham
. The library describes the manuscript as "the earliest surviving intact European book and one of the world’s most significant books".
At only 3.5 by 5 in (8.9 by 12.7 cm) the Stonyhurst Gospel is one of the smallest surviving Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts. The text is the Gospel of John
. It was written at the monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
during the abbacy of Ceolfrith, probably very soon after the very large Codex Amiatinus
.
leatherwork. The front cover includes colour, and the main motif is raised. The panels of geometrical decoration with interlace
closely relates to Insular illuminated manuscript
s, and can be compared to the carpet page
s found in these. Elements of the design also relate to Anglo-Saxon metalwork, and Coptic designs.
The raised pattern was thought to have been produced by gluing cord to the board and tooling the leather over it, in a technique of Coptic
origin, of which few early examples survive - one of the closest is a 9th- or 10th-century Islamic binding found in the Mosque of Uqba in Kairouan
, Tunisia
. However newer research has suggested that building up the shape in gesso
before applying the leather is more likely to have been the technique. The stitching however does use "Coptic sewing", "flexible unsupported sewing (produced by two needles and thread looping round one another in a figure-of-eight sewing pattern)" This is also found in the earliest surviving leather bookbindings, which are from Coptic
libraries in Egypt from the 7th and 8th centuries; in particular the design of the cover of one in the Morgan Library
(MS M.569) has been compared to the Stonyhurst Gospel.
The binding designs include three pigments filling lines engraved with a sharp pointed instrument, which now appear as two shades of yellow, one bright and the other pale, and a blue that now verges on black. These have not been analysed, and a benefit of the intended purchase of the manuscript by the British Library is that more research will be possible.
, with just a few emphasized letters at the start of sections in "text" uncial. Close examination of details of the forms of letters allows the manuscript to be placed with some confidence within a chronological sequence of the few other manuscripts thought to have been produced at Wearmouth-Jarrow. The Northumbrian scribes "imitate very closely the best Italian manuscripts of about the sixth century", but introduced small elements that gave their style a distinct style, which has always been greatly admired. However there were several scribes, seven different ones working on the Codex Amiatinus, who may not all have developed at the same pace.
Developments in style can be seen within a single manuscript, especially in the key Codex Amiatinus
, an almost complete bible, which can also be precisely located as leaving Wearmouth-Jarrow with a party led by Abbot Ceolfrith on June 4, 716, bound for Rome. The codex was to be presented to the pope, a decision only announced by Ceolfrith very shortly before departure, allowing the dedication page to be dated very precisely to probably May 716, though the rest of the manuscript was probably already some years old, but only begun after Ceolfrith succeeded as abbot in 689. The script of the dedication page differs slightly from the main text, but is by the same hand and in the same "elaborated text uncial" style as some pages at Durham (MS A II 17, part ii, ff 103-11). At the other end of the sequence, it may be possible to date the Saint Petersburg Bede to 746 at the earliest, from references in memoranda in the text, although this remains a matter of controversy.
There survive parts of a gospel book, by coincidence now bound up with the famous Utrecht Psalter
, which are identifiable as by the same scribe as the Cuthbert Gospel, and where "the capitular uncial of the two manuscripts is indistinguishable in style or quality, so they may well be very close to each other in date". Since the Utrecht pages also use Rustic capital script, which the Cuthbert Gospel does not, it allows another basis for comparison with further manuscripts in the sequence.
From the paleographical evidence, T. J. Brown concluded that the Cuthbert manuscript was written after the main text of the Codex Amiatinus, which was perhaps finished by 695, though it might be later. Turning to the historical evidence for Cuthbert's burial, this places it after his original burial in 687 but possibly before his elevation to the high altar in 698. If this is correct, the book was never a personal possession of Cuthbert, as has sometimes been thought, but was possibly created specifically to be placed in his coffin, whether for the occasion of his elevation in 698 or at another date. The less precise hints about dating that can be derived from the style of the binding compared to other works do not conflict with these conclusions.
's prose life of Cuthbert, written c. 721, copied at the priory
of Durham Cathedral in the last quarter of the 12th century. The 46 full page miniatures include many miracles associated with Cuthbert both before and after his death.
The book is presumed to have been buried with Cuthbert at Lindisfarne
either in 687 or more likely in 698, and to have stayed with the body during the wanderings forced by the Viking invasions two centuries later. Cuthbert's burial was first disturbed eleven years after his death, when his remains were moved to the altar to reflect his recognition, in the days before a formal process of canonization
, as a saint. The coffin was opened and his body was said to have been found perfectly preserved or incorrupt
. This apparent miracle led to the steady growth of Cuthbert's posthumous cultus, to the point where he became the most popular saint of Northern England. Numerous miracle
s were attributed to his intercession and to intercessory prayer
near his remains. The noted 8th century author Bede
wrote both a verse and a prose life of St Cuthbert around 720. He has been described as "perhaps the most popular saint in England prior to the death of Thomas Becket
in 1170."
In 875 the Danes
took the monastery of Lindisfarne and the monks fled, carrying with them St Cuthbert's body around various places including Melrose. After seven years of wandering it found a resting-place at the still existing St Cuthbert's church
in Chester-le-Street
until 995, when another Danish invasion led to its removal to Ripon
. Then the saint intimated, as it was believed, that he wished to remain in Durham
. A new stone church—the so-called 'White Church'—was built, the predecessor of the present grand Cathedral
.
In 1104, early in the bishopric of Ranulf Flambard
, Cuthbert's tomb was opened again and his relics translated to a new shrine
behind the altar
of the recently completed Cathedral. According to the earlier of the two accounts of the event that survive, known as "Miracles 18-20", when the inner coffin was opened, "the monks saw a "a book of the Gospels lying at the head of the board", that is, on the inner lid of the decorated coffin now preserved in the Cathedral Library". The account in "Miracle 20" adds that Bishop Flambard, during his sermon on the day the new shrine received Cuthbert's body, showed the congregation "a Gospel of Saint John in miraculously perfect condition, which had a satchel-like container of red leather with a badly frayed sling made of silken threads". For the remainder of the Middle Ages, until 1540, the book was kept as a relic
, and there are various records of it being shown to visitors, the more distinguished of which were allowed to hang it round their neck for a while.
Durham Cathedral Priory was one of the institutions ended in the dissolution of the Monasteries
in 1540, and some decades later the book was recorded by Archbishop Ussher in the library of the Oxford scholar, antiquary and astrologer
, Thomas Allen
(1542–1632) of Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College, Oxford
). However it is not in a catalogue of Allen's library of 1622, and was not in the collection of Allen's manuscripts that was presented to the Bodleian Library
by Sir Kenelm Digby in 1634. Nothing is then known of its whereabouts for a century or so.
According to an 18th century Latin inscription pasted to the inside cover of the manuscript, the Stonyhurst Gospel was given by 3rd Earl of Lichfield
(1718–1772) to the Catholic priest the Reverend Thomas Phillips (1708–1774) who donated it to the English Jesuit College
at Liège
on 20 June 1769. Lichfield was an Anglican, but knew Phillips as the latter was chaplain to his neighbour in Oxfordshire, the recusant George Talbot, 14th Earl of Shrewsbury (1719–1787). The manuscript has been owned since 1769 by the Society of Jesus
(British Province) and was formerly in the library of Stonyhurst College
, Lancashire
, successor to the Liège college. It has been on loan to the British Library
since 1979 where it has been (almost) permanently on display in its exhibition gallery, first in the British Museum
building, and now in the Ritblat Gallery at the new St Pancras site of the Library.
from what has been called the "Italo-Northumbrian" family of texts, other well-known examples of which are several manuscripts from Wearmouth-Jarrow, including the Codex Amiatinus
, and in the British Library the Lindisfarne Gospels
and the Gospel Book MS Royal 1. B. VII
. This family is presumed to have derived from a hypothetical "Neapolitan Gospelbook" brought to England by Adrian of Canterbury
, a companion of Theodore of Tarsus
who Bede
says had been abbot of Nisida
, an equally hypothetical monastery near Naples
. In the rubric
s of the Lindisfarne Gospels are several that are "specifically Neapolitan", including festivals which were celebrated only in Naples such as The Nativity of St. Januarius
and the Dedication of the Basilica of Stephen. The Neapolitan manuscript was probably at Wearmouth-Jarrow.
Four passages are marked in the margin, which correspond to those used as readings in Masses for the Dead
in the Roman lectionary
of the mid-7th century. This seems to have been done hastily, as most left offsets on the opposite page from the pages being closed before the ink was dry. This seems to indicate that the book was used at least once as the gospel book for a Mass for the Dead, perhaps on the occasion of Cuthbert's elevation in 698. In the example illustrated at right, the start of the reading at line 8 is marked with a cross, and pro de/functis ("for the dead") written above. The reading ends on the next page, which is also marked.
(d. 664), abbot of Melrose Abbey
in modern Scotland, was Cuthbert's teacher. Bede's prose life of Cuthbert (he wrote two, one in prose and one in verse) records that during Boisil's last illness, he and Cuthbert read daily one of the seven gatherings or quaternion
s of Boisil's manuscript of the Gospel of John. The sermon in Miracle 20 identifies this manuscript with the one at Durham, and says that both saints had worn it round their necks, ignoring that it has twelve gatherings rather than seven. There are further references from Durham to Boisil's book, such as a list of relics in the cathedral in 1389. In the 11th century Boisil's remains had also been brought to Durham, and enshrined next to those of Cuthbert; around the same time Bede's own remains were stolen from Monkwearmouth-Jarrow for Durham, by a "notably underhand trick", and placed in Cuthbert's coffin, where they remained until 1104.
or charm, which was especially strong in early medieval Britain and Ireland. Manuscripts containing the text of one gospel only are very rare, except for those with lengthy explanatory gloss
es, and all the examples known to Brown were of John. Disapproving references to such uses can be found in the writings of Saints Jerome
and Eligius
, and Alcuin
, but they are accepted by John Chrysostom
, Augustine, who "expresses qualified approval" of using manuscripts as a cure for headaches, and Gregory the Great, who sent one to Queen Theodelinda
for her son. Bede's prose Life mentions that Cuthbert combated the use of amulets and charms in the villages around Melrose
. However, like many other leading figures of the church, he may have distinguished between amulets based on Christian texts and symbols and other types.
The size of the Cuthbert Gospel places it within the Insular tradition of the "pocket gospels", of which several survive, including the Book of Dimma
, Book of Mulling
, and Book of Deer
, although all the others are or were originally texts of all four gospels, with the possible exception of a few pages from the Gospel of John enshrined with the Stowe Missal
in its cumdach
or book-reliquary. There was a tradition of even smaller books, whose use may have been seems to have been often amuletic, and a manuscript of John alone, with a page size of 72 x 56 mm, was found in a reliquary at Chartres Cathedral in 1712. It is probably Italian from the 5th or 6th century, and the label it carried in 1712 saying it was a relic of St Leobinus
, a bishop of Chartes who died in about 556, may be correct. The other examples are mostly in Greek or the Coptic language
and contain a variety of biblical texts, especially psalter
s. Brown concludes that the three Latin manuscripts of John "seem to attest an early medieval practice of placing a complete Gospel of St. John in a shrine, as a protective amulet; and it seems reasonable to conclude that our manuscript was placed in St. Cuthbert's coffin to protect it".
Gospel Book
The Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament...
, written in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, which was probably placed in the tomb of Saint Cuthbert
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
Saint Cuthbert was an Anglo-Saxon monk, bishop and hermit associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Northumbria, at that time including, in modern terms, northern England as well as south-eastern Scotland as far as the Firth of Forth...
of Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
, a few years after he died in 687. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western book-binding to survive, and both the vellum
Vellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
pages and the binding are in outstanding condition for a book of this age. Although it was long regarded as Cuthbert's personal copy of the Gospel, to which there are early references, the book is now regarded as dating from the years after Cuthbert's death in 687, and probably a gift from Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Wearmouth-Jarrow is a twin-foundation English monastery, located on the River Wear in Sunderland and the River Tyne at Jarrow respectively, in the Kingdom of Northumbria . Its formal name is The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Wearmouth-Jarrow...
, where it was written, intended to be placed in his coffin when his remains were placed behind the altar at Lindisfarne in 698. It presumably remained in the coffin through its travels after 875, forced by Viking invasions, but was removed in 1104 when the burial, by then in Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...
, was once again moved within the building. It was then kept with other relics in the cathedral, although the bishops and important visitors were able to wear the book in a leather bag around their necks. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
between 1536 and 1541, it passed to collectors.
It is now on long-term loan to the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, catalogued as Loan 74. On 14 July 2011 the British Library launched a fundraising campaign to buy the book for £9m ($14.3m), two-thirds of which has already been raised. The Library plans to display the Gospel for half the time at the British Library in London, and half the time in Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
. The library describes the manuscript as "the earliest surviving intact European book and one of the world’s most significant books".
At only 3.5 by 5 in (8.9 by 12.7 cm) the Stonyhurst Gospel is one of the smallest surviving Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
manuscripts. The text is the Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
. It was written at the monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
Wearmouth-Jarrow is a twin-foundation English monastery, located on the River Wear in Sunderland and the River Tyne at Jarrow respectively, in the Kingdom of Northumbria . Its formal name is The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Wearmouth-Jarrow...
during the abbacy of Ceolfrith, probably very soon after the very large Codex Amiatinus
Codex Amiatinus
The Codex Amiatinus, designated by siglum A, is the earliest surviving manuscript of the nearly complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate version, and is considered to be the most accurate copy of St. Jerome's text. It is missing the Book of Baruch. It was produced in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of...
.
Binding
The original tooled red goatskin binding is the earliest surviving Western binding, and the virtually unique survivor of decorated InsularInsular art
Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, is the style of art produced in the post-Roman history of Ireland and Great Britain. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style different from that of the rest of Europe...
leatherwork. The front cover includes colour, and the main motif is raised. The panels of geometrical decoration with interlace
Interlace (visual arts)
In the visual arts, interlace is a decorative element found in medieval art. In interlace, bands or portions of other motifs are looped, braided, and knotted in complex geometric patterns, often to fill a space. Islamic interlace patterns and Celtic knotwork share similar patterns, suggesting a...
closely relates to Insular illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
s, and can be compared to the carpet page
Carpet page
Carpet pages are a characteristic feature of Insular illuminated manuscripts. They are pages of mainly geometrical ornamentation, which may include repeated animal forms, typically placed at the beginning of each of the four Gospels in Gospel Books...
s found in these. Elements of the design also relate to Anglo-Saxon metalwork, and Coptic designs.
The raised pattern was thought to have been produced by gluing cord to the board and tooling the leather over it, in a technique of Coptic
Coptic binding
Coptic binding refers to methods of bookbinding developed by early Christians in Egypt, the Copts, and used from as early as the 2nd century AD to the 11th century...
origin, of which few early examples survive - one of the closest is a 9th- or 10th-century Islamic binding found in the Mosque of Uqba in Kairouan
Kairouan
Kairouan , also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan , is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. Referred to as the Islamic Cultural Capital, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
. However newer research has suggested that building up the shape in gesso
Gesso
Gesso is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these...
before applying the leather is more likely to have been the technique. The stitching however does use "Coptic sewing", "flexible unsupported sewing (produced by two needles and thread looping round one another in a figure-of-eight sewing pattern)" This is also found in the earliest surviving leather bookbindings, which are from Coptic
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:*The Copts: were a major ethnic group in Egypt. This term described all the people living in Egypt under Roman rule during the 4th to 6th centuries A.D., and until the Muslims took over....
libraries in Egypt from the 7th and 8th centuries; in particular the design of the cover of one in the Morgan Library
Morgan Library
The Morgan Library & Museum is a museum and research library in New York City, USA. It was founded to house the private library of J. P. Morgan in 1906, which included, besides the manuscripts and printed books, some of them in rare bindings, his collection of prints and drawings...
(MS M.569) has been compared to the Stonyhurst Gospel.
The binding designs include three pigments filling lines engraved with a sharp pointed instrument, which now appear as two shades of yellow, one bright and the other pale, and a blue that now verges on black. These have not been analysed, and a benefit of the intended purchase of the manuscript by the British Library is that more research will be possible.
Dating
The manuscript itself has no date but a rather precise dating has been given to it, based mainly on its paleography or handwriting, and also the known facts of Cuthbert's burial. The script is the "capitular" form of uncialUncial
Uncial is a majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters are written in either Greek, Latin, or Gothic.-Development:...
, with just a few emphasized letters at the start of sections in "text" uncial. Close examination of details of the forms of letters allows the manuscript to be placed with some confidence within a chronological sequence of the few other manuscripts thought to have been produced at Wearmouth-Jarrow. The Northumbrian scribes "imitate very closely the best Italian manuscripts of about the sixth century", but introduced small elements that gave their style a distinct style, which has always been greatly admired. However there were several scribes, seven different ones working on the Codex Amiatinus, who may not all have developed at the same pace.
Developments in style can be seen within a single manuscript, especially in the key Codex Amiatinus
Codex Amiatinus
The Codex Amiatinus, designated by siglum A, is the earliest surviving manuscript of the nearly complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate version, and is considered to be the most accurate copy of St. Jerome's text. It is missing the Book of Baruch. It was produced in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of...
, an almost complete bible, which can also be precisely located as leaving Wearmouth-Jarrow with a party led by Abbot Ceolfrith on June 4, 716, bound for Rome. The codex was to be presented to the pope, a decision only announced by Ceolfrith very shortly before departure, allowing the dedication page to be dated very precisely to probably May 716, though the rest of the manuscript was probably already some years old, but only begun after Ceolfrith succeeded as abbot in 689. The script of the dedication page differs slightly from the main text, but is by the same hand and in the same "elaborated text uncial" style as some pages at Durham (MS A II 17, part ii, ff 103-11). At the other end of the sequence, it may be possible to date the Saint Petersburg Bede to 746 at the earliest, from references in memoranda in the text, although this remains a matter of controversy.
There survive parts of a gospel book, by coincidence now bound up with the famous Utrecht Psalter
Utrecht Psalter
The Utrecht Psalter is a ninth century illuminated psalter which is a key masterpiece of Carolingian art; it is probably the most valuable manuscript in the Netherlands. It is famous for its 166 lively pen illustrations, with one accompanying each psalm and the other texts in the manuscript...
, which are identifiable as by the same scribe as the Cuthbert Gospel, and where "the capitular uncial of the two manuscripts is indistinguishable in style or quality, so they may well be very close to each other in date". Since the Utrecht pages also use Rustic capital script, which the Cuthbert Gospel does not, it allows another basis for comparison with further manuscripts in the sequence.
From the paleographical evidence, T. J. Brown concluded that the Cuthbert manuscript was written after the main text of the Codex Amiatinus, which was perhaps finished by 695, though it might be later. Turning to the historical evidence for Cuthbert's burial, this places it after his original burial in 687 but possibly before his elevation to the high altar in 698. If this is correct, the book was never a personal possession of Cuthbert, as has sometimes been thought, but was possibly created specifically to be placed in his coffin, whether for the occasion of his elevation in 698 or at another date. The less precise hints about dating that can be derived from the style of the binding compared to other works do not conflict with these conclusions.
Gallery
British Library MS Yates Thompson 26 is a manuscript of BedeBede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
's prose life of Cuthbert, written c. 721, copied at the priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
of Durham Cathedral in the last quarter of the 12th century. The 46 full page miniatures include many miracles associated with Cuthbert both before and after his death.
History
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
either in 687 or more likely in 698, and to have stayed with the body during the wanderings forced by the Viking invasions two centuries later. Cuthbert's burial was first disturbed eleven years after his death, when his remains were moved to the altar to reflect his recognition, in the days before a formal process of canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
, as a saint. The coffin was opened and his body was said to have been found perfectly preserved or incorrupt
Incorruptibility
Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that supernatural intervention allows some human bodies to avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness...
. This apparent miracle led to the steady growth of Cuthbert's posthumous cultus, to the point where he became the most popular saint of Northern England. Numerous miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s were attributed to his intercession and to intercessory prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
near his remains. The noted 8th century author Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
wrote both a verse and a prose life of St Cuthbert around 720. He has been described as "perhaps the most popular saint in England prior to the death of Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
in 1170."
In 875 the Danes
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
took the monastery of Lindisfarne and the monks fled, carrying with them St Cuthbert's body around various places including Melrose. After seven years of wandering it found a resting-place at the still existing St Cuthbert's church
St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street
The parish church of St Mary and St Cuthbert is a Church of England church in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, England. The site has been used for worship for over 1100 years; elements of the current building are over 950 years old...
in Chester-le-Street
Chester-le-Street
Chester-le-Street is a town in County Durham, England. It has a history going back to Roman times when it was called Concangis. The town is located south of Newcastle upon Tyne and west of Sunderland on the River Wear...
until 995, when another Danish invasion led to its removal to Ripon
Ripon
Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...
. Then the saint intimated, as it was believed, that he wished to remain in Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
. A new stone church—the so-called 'White Church'—was built, the predecessor of the present grand Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...
.
In 1104, early in the bishopric of Ranulf Flambard
Ranulf Flambard
Ranulf Flambard was a medieval Norman Bishop of Durham and an influential government minister of King William Rufus of England...
, Cuthbert's tomb was opened again and his relics translated to a new shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
behind the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
of the recently completed Cathedral. According to the earlier of the two accounts of the event that survive, known as "Miracles 18-20", when the inner coffin was opened, "the monks saw a "a book of the Gospels lying at the head of the board", that is, on the inner lid of the decorated coffin now preserved in the Cathedral Library". The account in "Miracle 20" adds that Bishop Flambard, during his sermon on the day the new shrine received Cuthbert's body, showed the congregation "a Gospel of Saint John in miraculously perfect condition, which had a satchel-like container of red leather with a badly frayed sling made of silken threads". For the remainder of the Middle Ages, until 1540, the book was kept as a relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
, and there are various records of it being shown to visitors, the more distinguished of which were allowed to hang it round their neck for a while.
Durham Cathedral Priory was one of the institutions ended in the dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in 1540, and some decades later the book was recorded by Archbishop Ussher in the library of the Oxford scholar, antiquary and astrologer
Astrologer
An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
, Thomas Allen
Thomas Allen (mathematician)
Thomas Allen was an English mathematician and astrologer.-Life:He was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1561; and graduated as M.A. in 1567...
(1542–1632) of Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...
). However it is not in a catalogue of Allen's library of 1622, and was not in the collection of Allen's manuscripts that was presented to the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
by Sir Kenelm Digby in 1634. Nothing is then known of its whereabouts for a century or so.
According to an 18th century Latin inscription pasted to the inside cover of the manuscript, the Stonyhurst Gospel was given by 3rd Earl of Lichfield
George Lee, 3rd Earl of Lichfield
George Henry Lee II, 3rd Earl of Lichfield PC was a British politician and peer. He was made a Privy Councillor and Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms in 1762, holding both honors until death...
(1718–1772) to the Catholic priest the Reverend Thomas Phillips (1708–1774) who donated it to the English Jesuit College
Colleges of St Omer, Bruges and Liège
The Colleges of St Omer, Bruges and Liège were successive expatriate institutions for the Catholic education of English students and were run by the Jesuits....
at Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
on 20 June 1769. Lichfield was an Anglican, but knew Phillips as the latter was chaplain to his neighbour in Oxfordshire, the recusant George Talbot, 14th Earl of Shrewsbury (1719–1787). The manuscript has been owned since 1769 by the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
(British Province) and was formerly in the library of Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, successor to the Liège college. It has been on loan to the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
since 1979 where it has been (almost) permanently on display in its exhibition gallery, first in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
building, and now in the Ritblat Gallery at the new St Pancras site of the Library.
Text
The text is a good copy of the single Gospel of JohnGospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
from what has been called the "Italo-Northumbrian" family of texts, other well-known examples of which are several manuscripts from Wearmouth-Jarrow, including the Codex Amiatinus
Codex Amiatinus
The Codex Amiatinus, designated by siglum A, is the earliest surviving manuscript of the nearly complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate version, and is considered to be the most accurate copy of St. Jerome's text. It is missing the Book of Baruch. It was produced in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of...
, and in the British Library the Lindisfarne Gospels
Lindisfarne Gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated Latin manuscript of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the British Library...
and the Gospel Book MS Royal 1. B. VII
Gospel Book (British Library, MS Royal 1. B. VII)
British Library, Royal 1. B. VII is an 8th century Anglo-Saxon illuminated Gospel Book. It is closely related to the Lindisfarne Gospels, being either copied from it or from a common model. It is not as lavishly illuminated, and the decoration shows Merovingian influence...
. This family is presumed to have derived from a hypothetical "Neapolitan Gospelbook" brought to England by Adrian of Canterbury
Adrian of Canterbury
Saint Adrian of Canterbury was a famous scholar and the Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury in the English county of Kent.-Life:...
, a companion of Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore was the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury....
who Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
says had been abbot of Nisida
Nisida
Nisida is a volcanic islet of the Flegrean Islands archipelago, in southern Italy. It lies at a very short distance from Cape Posillipo, just north of Naples; it is now connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. The islet is almost circular, with a flooded crater forming the bay of Porto Paone on...
, an equally hypothetical monastery near Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. In the rubric
Rubric
A rubric is a word or section of text which is traditionally written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The word derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...
s of the Lindisfarne Gospels are several that are "specifically Neapolitan", including festivals which were celebrated only in Naples such as The Nativity of St. Januarius
Januarius
Januarius, Bishop of Naples, is a martyr saint of the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. While no contemporary sources on his life are preserved, later sources and legends claim that he died during the Diocletianic Persecution, which ended with Diocletian's retirement in...
and the Dedication of the Basilica of Stephen. The Neapolitan manuscript was probably at Wearmouth-Jarrow.
Four passages are marked in the margin, which correspond to those used as readings in Masses for the Dead
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
in the Roman lectionary
Lectionary
A Lectionary is a book or listing that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given day or occasion.-History:...
of the mid-7th century. This seems to have been done hastily, as most left offsets on the opposite page from the pages being closed before the ink was dry. This seems to indicate that the book was used at least once as the gospel book for a Mass for the Dead, perhaps on the occasion of Cuthbert's elevation in 698. In the example illustrated at right, the start of the reading at line 8 is marked with a cross, and pro de/functis ("for the dead") written above. The reading ends on the next page, which is also marked.
Boisil's book
Saint BoisilBoisil
Saint Boisil was the Abbot of Melrose Abbey, now in Scotland.Almost all that is known of Saint Boisil is learned from Bede. He derived his information from Sigfrid, a monk of Jarrow, who had previously been trained by Boisil at Melrose...
(d. 664), abbot of Melrose Abbey
Melrose Abbey
Melrose Abbey is a Gothic-style abbey in Melrose, Scotland. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks, on the request of King David I of Scotland. It was headed by the Abbot or Commendator of Melrose. Today the abbey is maintained by Historic Scotland...
in modern Scotland, was Cuthbert's teacher. Bede's prose life of Cuthbert (he wrote two, one in prose and one in verse) records that during Boisil's last illness, he and Cuthbert read daily one of the seven gatherings or quaternion
Quaternion
In mathematics, the quaternions are a number system that extends the complex numbers. They were first described by Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space...
s of Boisil's manuscript of the Gospel of John. The sermon in Miracle 20 identifies this manuscript with the one at Durham, and says that both saints had worn it round their necks, ignoring that it has twelve gatherings rather than seven. There are further references from Durham to Boisil's book, such as a list of relics in the cathedral in 1389. In the 11th century Boisil's remains had also been brought to Durham, and enshrined next to those of Cuthbert; around the same time Bede's own remains were stolen from Monkwearmouth-Jarrow for Durham, by a "notably underhand trick", and placed in Cuthbert's coffin, where they remained until 1104.
The Gospel of John as an amulet
There was a long and somewhat controversial tradition of using manuscripts of the gospel of John, or extracts such as the opening verse, as a protective or healing amuletAmulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
or charm, which was especially strong in early medieval Britain and Ireland. Manuscripts containing the text of one gospel only are very rare, except for those with lengthy explanatory gloss
Gloss
A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....
es, and all the examples known to Brown were of John. Disapproving references to such uses can be found in the writings of Saints Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
and Eligius
Saint Eligius
Saint Eligius is the patron saint of goldsmiths, other metalworkers, and coin collectors. He is also the patron saint of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers , a corps of the British Army, but he is best known for being the patron saint of horses and those who work with them...
, and Alcuin
Alcuin
Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York...
, but they are accepted by John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...
, Augustine, who "expresses qualified approval" of using manuscripts as a cure for headaches, and Gregory the Great, who sent one to Queen Theodelinda
Theodelinda
Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, was the daughter of duke Garibald I of Bavaria.She was married first in 588 to Authari, king of the Lombards, son of king Cleph. Authari died in 590. Theodelinda was allowed to pick Agilulf as her next husband and Authari's successor in 591...
for her son. Bede's prose Life mentions that Cuthbert combated the use of amulets and charms in the villages around Melrose
Melrose
-Scotland:* Melrose, Scotland , a town in the Scottish Borders** Melrose Abbey, ruined monastery** Melrose RFC, rugby club** Melrose Golf Club-Australia:* Melrose, South Australia, a town in the southern Flinders Ranges...
. However, like many other leading figures of the church, he may have distinguished between amulets based on Christian texts and symbols and other types.
The size of the Cuthbert Gospel places it within the Insular tradition of the "pocket gospels", of which several survive, including the Book of Dimma
Book of Dimma
thumb|left|The 12th century case of the Book of Dimma.The Book of Dimma is an 8th-century Irish pocket Gospel Book originally from the Abbey of Roscrea, founded by St. Cronan in the County Tipperary, Ireland. In addition to the four Gospels, in between the Gospels of Luke and John, it has an...
, Book of Mulling
Book of Mulling
The Book of Mulling or less commonly, Book of Moling , is an Irish pocket Gospel Book from the late 8th century. The text collection includes the four Gospels, a liturgical service which includes the "Apostles' Creed", and in the colophon, a supposed plan of St...
, and Book of Deer
Book of Deer
The Book of Deer is a 10th-century Latin Gospel Book from Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with early 12th-century additions in Latin, Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It is most famous for containing the earliest surviving Gaelic literature from Scotland...
, although all the others are or were originally texts of all four gospels, with the possible exception of a few pages from the Gospel of John enshrined with the Stowe Missal
Stowe Missal
The Stowe Missal, which is strictly speaking a sacramentary rather than a missal, is an Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin with some Gaelic in about 750. In the mid-11th century it was annotated and some pages rewritten at Lorrha Monastery in County Tipperary, Ireland...
in its cumdach
Cumdach
A cumdach or book shrine is an elaborate ornamented box or case used as a reliquary to enshrine books regarded as relics of the saints who had used them in Early Medieval Ireland...
or book-reliquary. There was a tradition of even smaller books, whose use may have been seems to have been often amuletic, and a manuscript of John alone, with a page size of 72 x 56 mm, was found in a reliquary at Chartres Cathedral in 1712. It is probably Italian from the 5th or 6th century, and the label it carried in 1712 saying it was a relic of St Leobinus
Leobinus
Saint Leobinus was a hermit, abbot, and bishop. The son of a peasant family, he became a hermit and a monk of Micy before being ordained a priest. He was then elected abbot of Brou and then around 544, became Bishop of Chartres, succeeding Etherius with the consent of Childebert I.-External...
, a bishop of Chartes who died in about 556, may be correct. The other examples are mostly in Greek or the Coptic language
Coptic language
Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
and contain a variety of biblical texts, especially psalter
Psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were...
s. Brown concludes that the three Latin manuscripts of John "seem to attest an early medieval practice of placing a complete Gospel of St. John in a shrine, as a protective amulet; and it seems reasonable to conclude that our manuscript was placed in St. Cuthbert's coffin to protect it".
Appeal
The agreement with the Jesuit British Province requires the agreed price of £9 million to be raised by March 2012. In the early stages of the appeal the emphasis has been on raising large individual donations, which have included £250,000 pledged by the Art Fund. In 2012 a phase targeted at the wider public is likely.Further reading
- Stevick, Robert D., "The St. Cuthbert Gospel Binding and Insular Design", Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 8, No. 15 (1987), pp. 9–19; JSTOR
External links
- British Library campaign video, 4.55 minutes, with good views of the manuscript
- a shorter BBC video, 1.22 minutes, with the curator
- Binding of the Stonyhurst Gospels
- Daily Telegraph story
