INTRODUCTION. THE present volume requires no very elaborate or lengthened statement by way of introduction. the present § 1. Of the two important works usually-and, I Contents of believe, rightly-attributed to Symeon, viz. the Historia volume. Dunelmensis Ecclesiae and the Historia Regum,1 the former appears in this volume, accompanied by the various pieces appended to it in Twysden's Decem Scriptores, by the two narratives first printed in Bedford's volume of 1732, (whereof one relates the invasion of the see by William Cumin in 1141, the other describes the harsh treatment of bishop William by William Rufus in 1087,) and by some chapters on the miracles and translations of St. Cuthbert. In the Appendix are printed; 1. The poem by Ædelwulf on the abbots of his cell, of which the only existing printed version is that in Mabillon's Acta SS. Benedictinorum : 2. A life of Bartholomew the anchorite of Farne, printed by the Bollandists under June 24 from a MS. imperfect at the end; 3. Portions of the life of St. Oswald the Northumbrian king, by Reginald a monk of Durham ; this has never been printed. Symeon. § 2. Before proceeding with the description of these Life of various pieces, and the reasons why some of them appear here, it will be convenient to state all that is 1 First published by Twysden in the Decem Scriptores (1652), again, in part, in the Monum. Hist. Britan., and more recently in a carefully edited volume printed by the Sur- known of the writer of the first and principal work in the collection. This amounts to very little. No one has recorded the year either of Symeon's birth, or of his death. That he was at Jarrow during some part of the period of nine years (1074-1083) passed there by the monastic community formed by Aldwin of Winchcomb, before its removal to Durham, we know from his own statement.1 "We remember," he says in the Historia Regum, under 1121, "when Wulmar a monk of our congregation, and other brothers in their turns crossed over thither [to Tynemouth] from Jarrow, "to celebrate the divine worship there. Our brothers "also brought over whenever they pleased the bones "of St. Oswin to their house at Jarrow, and took them "back again when they thought fit to their former 2 resting-place. Lastly, when Albri had received the "honor of the earldom, he also granted to us, after "our removal to Durham, the same place." He also says that he had often heard the descendants of the old followers of St. Cuthbert sing in the church of Durham in their peculiar style in the days of bishop Probably a Walcher. It seems likely, from the manner in which Symeon dwells on the motives of the fervent disciples, native of some 1 Quoted by Thomas Rud at p. | ing Durham would have been treated xxxi. of Bedford's Symeon. 2 Wulmar's is the fifth name on the list of monks professed at Durham; see p. 4; he must therefore have been much senior to Symeon, who is thirty-eighth. 3 See p. 57. It is unnecessary to infer from this passage with Mr. Hinde (Surtees ed. of Symeon, p. v.) that Symeon was a "resident at Durham" before the removal of the monastery from Jarrow. The distance from the two places is only fifteen or sixteen miles; it is certain that any Jarrow monk visit as a welcome and favoured guest by the bishop; moreover, the charter quoted below in § 5 shows that as far back as 1075 preparations were being made, in which the bishop was seconded by all the great lay lords of the Patrimony of St. Cuthbert, for removing Aldwin and his monks as soon as possible to Durham. There is therefore no difficulty in supposing that Symeon, though living at Jarrow, might have often heard the singing at Durham, chiefly from the southern counties, who came and, southern placed themselves under Aldwin at Jarrow, after 1074, to be trained in monastic virtue, that he was himself one of them. After describing the life of hardship and poverty which Aldwin and his two companions from Evesham had begun to lead among the ruins of Jarrow, he says (p. 109)-"Meantime many, fired by their example, renouncing the world, received from them the monk's habit, and learned under the training of "regular discipline to be Christ's soldiers. A few of these belonged to Northumbria, but a larger number "were from the southern parts of England, men who, going forth after the example of Abraham from their country, and from their kindred, and from their "fathers' house, desired to enter the land of promise, "that is, their country on high, having Aldwin as their "master in the religious life." A character of Aldwin, which seems to breathe the loving admiration and loyalty of a former disciple, follows. §3. There is a corresponding passage, entering into fuller detail with regard to external events and acts, but saying little as to actuating motives, in the Historia Regum. "Many," he there writes, after describing the settlement at Jarrow, "leaving the secular life, engaged "themselves along with the three in the monastic war fare. But few of these belonged to the province; the greater number, attracted by their reputation from "remote districts of England, joined themselves to them "with one accord." Yet although Symeon may probably be regarded as one of these fervent neophytes from the south, and although he certainly was at Jarrow for some time before the removal to Durham in 1083, Date of his it would seem that he was not a professed monk till profession. some time after that event. For the total number of 1 An. 1074. |