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
The Sheriff of Northumberland allows wealth and power to go to his head — and his digestion.
?1163-?1170
King Henry II 1154-1189
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.
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.
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.
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.