[69] The horse lay down under his rider in great agony; but recovered by rolling on the spot and cropping the grass. A person carried away some of the earth, which he hung up against a post in the wall: the house caught fire and was burnt with the exception of the timber to which the bag was tied. See Bede, b. iii. c. 9, 10; and for the other stories, c. 13.
[70] The principal points in dispute were, the time of celebrating Easter and the form of the tonsure. See Bede, Eccl. Hist. iii. 25.
[71] See Bede, Hist. Eccl. iii. 29.
[72] Bede’s Life of St. Cuthbert, c. 24.
[73] Ermenburga, the second wife of Egfrid. The first, Etheldrida, was divorced from him, on account of her love of celibacy, and became a nun. Wilfrid, bishop of Hexham, was several times expelled his see. Elected bishop of York, A.D. 664, he was expelled in 678. He was recalled to Northumbria in 687, and again expelled 692. He died A.D. 709, having been reinstated by the pope. See Bede v. 19. and Sax. Chron.
[74] Virg. Æn. vi. 815.
[75] The country was laid waste by the Danes, A.D. 793, and continued to be disturbed by them throughout the reigns of Alfred and Ethelred. The great devastation was made by William the Conqueror A.D. 1069.
[76] This is not quite correct: Jarrow, one of Benedict’s monasteries, is on the river Tyne.
[77] Benedict surnamed Biscop, a noble Northumbrian, quitted the service of king Oswy, when he had attained his twenty-fifth year, and travelled to Rome five several times; occupying himself while there, either in learning the Roman ritual, or in collecting books, pictures, and ornaments of various descriptions for the monasteries he had founded at Wearmouth: he also brought over masons from France to build a church after the Roman manner; as well as artificers in glass. See Bede’s Lives of the Abbats of Wearmouth and Jarrow.
[78] “... lapidei tabulatus,” this seems intended to designate buildings with courses of stone in a regular manner, which is also implied by him, De Gestis Pontif. lib. iii. f. 148. Bede, whom he here follows, affords no assistance as to the precise meaning: he merely states, that Benedict caused a church to be erected after the Roman model.