by the righteous vengeance of God, were snatched from things temporal to eternal torments, there to be tortured. When I had learned this, I devised how to restore to the sacred body of the saint its original service; and so, lest anyone should think to bring to naught that which I had done by my sole endeavour, I sought the advice of my lord king William and his spouse queen Maud, and of Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury. Thereupon the king, in order that the consent of such profitable counsel might be ratified by all parties, sent me to pope Gregory, to consult him on this matter and to speak of other subjects which he had communicated to him. When I had said something, albeit in a few words, to the pope of the holiness of St. Cuthbert, he wholly approved of our counsel, to wit, that I should gather together the monks whom I had found in two places of my bishopric, at Wearmouth and Jarrow, into one, to do service before the holy body of the saint, inasmuch as my bishopric was too small to allow for three communities of monks.1 This also he most devoutly confirmed by apostolical authority, sending his letters to the king and archbishop Lanfranc by my hands, wherein he bestowed his blessing, on behalf of the Lord and St. Peter, upon them and upon all who should endeavour to aid the said purpose, and, on behalf of the same, laid perpetual anathema upon all who, by effort to the contrary, should presume to invalidate it, unless they should desist and do condign satisfaction. When the king had heard the pope's consent on this wise, he rejoiced exceedingly, and, with the witness of queen Maud, archbishop Lanfranc, and the rest of his barons, he gave me licence to perform this, and even charged me to perform it with all haste. The laws of St. Cuthbert, moreover, which he had sanctioned with his faith before the saint's holy body as well as ever they had been under any of the former kings, he then finally renewed and confirmed; and Billingham with all its appendages, which evil men erstwhile had taken from the saint, he restored to the maintenance of the servants of God in his place.

1 Up to this point the text is identical with that of the bishop's charter of 1082, printed in Scriptores Tres, app. pp. i-v. The remainder

is included at a later point in the longer and more comprehensive

charter.

This narrative of the restoration of monastic order at Durham is followed by a recitation of the property which the bishop acquired for the monastery-the vills of Aycliffe, Catton, for a mediety of which he exchanged Winlaton, Jarrow, North Wearmouth, Rainton, the two Pittingtons, Hesleden, Dalton-le-Dale, Merrington, Shincliffe, and Elvet. The last was given,

that the monks may have forty merchants' houses there to their own use, which shall be utterly free from all service to the bishop, save when the city wall (maceries ciuitatis) is in need of repair; for the which no more service shall be required of them than is due from so many merchants.1

To these are added, in Northumberland, Willington and Wallsend, the church of Lindisfarne with the adjoining vill of Fenham, and the church of Norham with its vill named 'Scoreswurthin.' In Nottinghamshire, the king gave land in Normanton-on-Soar, Bonnington, Kingston-on-Soar, and Gotham; while the bishop gave land at Blyburgh in Lincolnshire, and the church of the Holy Trinity in York. The document closes with a solemn asseveration of the gift and with the customary blessings and anathemas.

There follow, in another hand, on ff. 50d. and 51, four documents relating to the property of the church of Durham in Yorkshire, viz. (a) a charter of the Conqueror granting Welton to God, St. Cuthbert, bishop William, and his successors; (b) a similar charter relating to Howden; (c) a statement of the lands in Yorkshire given to St. Cuthbert, i.e. to his monks, by kings and princes before the Conquest; and (d) a detailed statement of the grant of the manor of Northallerton, with other property in the vills of Allertonshire, by William Rufus.

The next documents that call for attention are the two memoranda on f. 46d., the first of which is of considerable interest:

1 This exception is omitted from the longer charter (u.s., p. iii).

At the end of his three years' exile, in the year of our Lord's Incarnation 1093, being the thirteenth year of his pontificate, and the eleventh from the coming of the monks, bishop William, on Thursday, the eleventh of August, with Turgot the prior, who was second after him in the church, and with the other brethren, laid the foundation stones of the church. For, a little while before, that is, on Wednesday, the tenth of August, they had begun to dig the foundation. At that time he led forth the said prior Turgot before the people of the whole bishopric, as he had previously done to Aldwin the prior, his predecessor, and enjoined him, even as Aldwin, to exercise authority over them in his place, to wit, that he should hold, through the office of the archdeaconry, the cure of the whole Christianity throughout the whole bishopric, decreeing that all who should be his successors in the office of prior should likewise succeed him in that of archdeacon. And this he did not without authority or precedent; for we read in the life of St. Cuthbert that St. Boisil, when he was provost of the monastery [of Melrose], frequently used to go forth from the monastery and preach to the people. And, after his death, his disciple, St. Cuthbert to wit, succeeded him in the office of provost, that is, of prior; for he who is now called prior is called by St. Benet the provost of a monastery, etc., as is more fully written therein [i.e. in his Rule]. Wherefore bishop William, the founder of the same church, is known to have so appointed for ever, that each successor of St. Cuthbert in the prior's office in his church, should likewise succeed him in the office of preaching and in the exalted ministry of the archdeaconry, exercising the cure of the whole Christianity throughout the bishopric of the church of Durham.

The second memorandum records the temporary connection between the monastery of Durham and the church of Tynemouth:

Waltheof, earl of Northumbria, with the lad Morcar his cousin, shaping the church of St. Mary and St. Oswin in Tynemouth for divine service with the monks in Jarrow, gave it in perpetual alms to Aldwin the prior and the monks that had their conversation therein, to them and to

all their successors, in the presence of bishop Walcher.1 And Walcher the bishop, with all the clergy of the bishopric, confirmed his gift in full synod, at the request and in the presence of the same earl Waltheof. Wherefore the monks translated the bones of St. Oswin to their own place in Jarrow, and had them no little time with them in the church of St. Paul, but afterwards brought them back to their former place. Thereafter, in the time of bishop William, when the monks were translated to Durham by papal authority, Aubrey, earl of the Northumbrians, renewed this gift, and gave the same church with its priest to the church of St. Cuthbert to possess for ever. And, when for fifteen years it had remained desolate, as it were, without covering, the monks restored it, setting a roof upon it, and afterwards they possessed it for three years. The same bishop William also by his authority confirmed the aforesaid church to the monks of St. Cuthbert for ever, and condemned in synod with perpetual anathema all who hereafter should take it away from St. Cuthbert or the monks that should do him service.

Two further memoranda are written on f. 44, which are repeated in two different hands on f. 47. The first is the remarkable entry referring to Dalton-le-Dale.

At midnight on Saturday, in winter storm and frost, the sons on their mother's behalf, together with their father, lying prostrate with bare feet and in tears, because there was no human aid, sought the help of God against Gosfrid concerning our land of Dalton. Therefore let three measures of malt be given before Christmas to the leprous folk for ever, and at Whitsuntide there shall be given them a measure of wheat. Roger, Philip, and his companions.

Whether the last names belong to the entry or not seems uncertain: they may be merely casual additions; but they are in the hand which wrote all that is on this leaf, including the long list of names of men and women, which appears to be continued on the other side.

1 Waltheof's charter and William of Saint-Calais' confirmation are

The second entry refers to

printed in Scriptores Tres, app. pp. xviii-xx.

Coldingham and to a period later than that of the other memoranda already noted.

In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 1127, on the 17th of July, being the feast of St. Kenelm the martyr, when Thurstin, archbishop of York, and Ranulf, bishop of Durham, and Robert, bishop of St. Andrew's, and John, bishop of Glasgow, and Geoffrey, abbot of St. Albans, were together in Roxburgh with king David, the same bishop Robert summoned Algar the prior and Roger the subprior before the door of the church of St. John the Evangelist, saying and testifying that he laid claim to no claim or custom touching the church of Coldingham, save in so far as all the churches of the whole of Lothian owe obedience in general to the church of St. Andrew's; but that he wished the same church to be more free and quit of all service than any other church in Lothian, for love of his brethren the monks of Durham.

The names of the household clerks of the bishop and of the parish priests who were present at this protestation are added to the record. On f. 47, where, as has been noted, this entry is repeated, there is also a copy of an order from David, king of Scots, to Aedward, apparently prior of Coldingham (Coll'), bidding him to supply logs from a wood for the king's wood-pile at Berwick.

These, with a few brief exceptions, such as the note on St. Godric at the bottom of f. 41d., and with the important reservation of the three entries in old English on ff. 43, 43d., are the contents of the book other than lists of names. The English entries in three separate hands, are records of charters, one of the manumission of bondmen, the others of gifts of land by two earls to St. Cuthbert, the first entrusting to St. Cuthbert's stow' three hides of land in Smeaton, three in Crayke, and one in Sutton-on-the-Forest, all in Yorkshire, and the second giving the vill of Escomb and land at Feregenne, i.e. Ferryhill. These entries belong to the early days of Durham before the Conquest, and form a link between the early Liber vitae of Lindisfarne and its later continuation. With these docu