obsidere fecit in Lyndisfarnea. Offa filius Alfridi quoque [qui] ad reliquias sancti Cuthberti pontificis innocens coactive accurrebat, pene defunctus fame de ecclesia sine armis abstractus est 1).

There can be no question which of these two accounts is the more trustworthy. In the Historia Regum Symeon, as is well known, is copying older historical documents. From the year 731 to 803 his source was the ancient Northumbrian chronicle 2). For the period with which we are here concerned, the Historia Regum, according to Theopold 3), contains the completest and most trustworthy records of Northumbria. Roger of Hoveden's Chronicle, for the period in question, is likewise based on a compilation of old Northumbrian annals, and is probably entirely independent of Symeon of Durham 4). In his Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae, on the other hand, Symeon allowed himself free hand in placing his own interpretation upon the material before him.

Indeed, Hinde, in his edition of Symeon's works, compares the two accounts of this very incident as an illustration of the liberties which Symeon, in the Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae, took with his sources. "The natural inference seems to be", he says in his explanation of the trouble between Cynewulf and Eadbert, "that both acts of violence were committed by the king or with his sanction . . . Offa, so far from being a connection or ally of the ruling monarch, was the last remaining descendant of the elder and antagonistic branch of the house of Ida. Eadbert followed but the instinct of his race in pursuing the rightful heir to the crown with unrelenting- severity, and even tearing him from the sanctuary of the altar, whilst the bishop drew upon himself the anger of his sovereign by admitting the fugitive to this ineffectual asylum" 5).

1) Symeon of Durham, Works, Rolls Ser., II 39; Chronica Rogeri de Hoveden, Rolls Ser., I, p. 6.

2) Cf. Arnold, Works of Symeon of Durham, Rolls Ser., II, p. xviii and note I.

3) Kritische Untersuchungen über die Quellen zur angels. Geschichte, Lemgo 1872, p. 76.

4) Cf. Stubbs, Chron. Rog. de Hoveden, Rolls Ser., I, pp. xxx-xxxi. 5) J. H. Hinde, Symeonis Dunelm. Opera, Surtees Soc., 1868, pp. xvii-xviii. Liebermann in his review of Trautmann (Herrig's Archiv, CV 367) noted the

This explanation of the rupture between Bishop Cynewulf and the king is borne out, it seems to me, by a further bit of evidence as to the character of this Northumbrian ruler. In the year 757-58, Pope Paul I. addressed a letter to Eadbert, urging him to restore to Abbot Forthred three estates, Stannigrave, Cuchewalda, and Donemouth 1), which he had forcibly seized into his hand 2). This fact certainly strengthens the impression that, as king, Eadbert was of a head-strong and violent temper an impression which is in no way inconsistent with the fact that, shortly after, he laid aside his crown to receive the tonsure 3). The panegyric on King Eadbert which Symeon inserts in the Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae) is wholly lacking in the older sources, and is presumably the author's own elaboration.

That this violent-tempered king should pursue his enemy even to the altar, is what we might reasonably expect. Nor is it strange that his anger should be kindled against the bishop who braved his displeasure by extending protection to the prince who had invoked the right of sanctuary. It is difficult to see, however, in what way this action on the part of Bishop Cynewulf is "inconsistent with what we infer concerning the poet". In fact, this fearless insistence upon the inviolability of the sacred precincts is exactly what we should look for in the author of Christ and Elene.

Other assertions which Professor Cook makes in regard to Bishop Cynewulf likewise fail of corroboration in the more authentic sources. No warrant is found in these sources for the statement that he "lived as bishop in continual trouble", or that at the time he laid aside the cares of his office he was "worn out with age and labors". These statements are embellishments added by Symeon in the Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae. The account of the bishop's retirement and death, according to the old Northumbrian chronicle, is as follows:

fact that Hinde offered a different explanation of the quarrel between Cynewulf and Eadbert.

1) Jarrow? Cf. Surtees, Hist. of Durham, II 66.

1) Wilkins, Concilia, I 144.

3) Hist. Regum, Works of Sym. of Dur., Rolls Ser., II 41; Chron. Rog. de Hoveden, I 7.

4) Works of Sym. of Dur., I 48-49.

Anno DCCLXXX. Cyniwlf1) quoque episcopus eodem anno relictis saecularibus curis, Higbaldo gubernacula ecclesiae cum electione totius familiae commisit.

Anno DCCLXXXIII. ... Ipso quoque tempore Kyniwlf episcopus, de quo supra diximus, anno pontificatus sui quadragesimo, dereliquit terrestria; qui ad supernam feliciter migravit patriam 2).

There is no record of any trouble in which Cynewulf was involved during his episcopal rule, aside from the quarrel with the king to which we have already referred. The length of his confinement at Bamborough is nowhere stated. In all probability he was not kept in prison long. Hasty anger cools quickly. Even if he remained a prisoner during the rest of the king's reign, he must have been released in 758, when Eadbert stepped from the throne. It is not necessary, therefore, to conceive of the poet, as Strunk 3) suggests, as a Bunyan writing in prison.

To conclude, then, the records of Bishop Cynewulf, as we find them in the authentic sources, afford no basis for the conclusion that "his life from 738 to 780 was quite unfavorable either to study or to the composition of poetry" 4). The cares of a bishopric did not debar Aldhelm from literary pursuits. Why should they have prevented Bishop Cynewulf from composing poetry?

All this, I am well aware, does not prove that the bishop of Lindisfarne was the poet. Without further evidence than we possess at present it is impossible to establish any positive identification of the Anglo-Saxon poet. But if those who seek to identify him with Bishop Cynewulf have not proved their case, it may be affirmed with equal truth, on the other hand,

1) The spelling of the bishop's name in these Latin chronicles is, of course, altogether unreliable. But if we turn to the Northumbrian Genealogies (Oldest Eng. Texts, Ed. Sweet, p. 169), written between 811 and 814, we find in the list of bishops of Lindisfarne, "Cynwulf", which agrees exactly with the poet's signature in Christ and the Fates.

2) Hist. Regum, Works of Sym. of Dur., II 47, 50; Chron. Rog. de Hoveden, I 10, II.

3) Juliana, p. xix.

4) Cook, Christ, p. lxxii.

that Professor Cook has not succeeded in ruling out the Lindisfarne theory as impossible or even improbable.

In the many years since this identification was first proposed, it has repeatedly been attacked on one ground and another. Kemble rejected the bishop of Lindisfarne because he believed the poet was a West-Saxon, and that he lived centuries later. Rieger1) rejected the bishop on the ground that the poet could not have been an ecclesiastic, since in Elene he was guilty of a theological blunder in placing purgatory after the Judgment. Accordingly, Rieger preferred to regard him as a converted pirate, imperfectly instructed in the faith. As it turns out, however, the theological blunder was on the part of Rieger himself, for Cynewulf in the passage in question, was closely following the early Fathers 2). In 1878 Wülker3) attempted to overthrow the identification with the bishop by appealing to the phrase gamelum to geoce, which he took to mean that the poet was not converted until late in life. In that case clearly he could not have ruled the see of Lindisfarne for forty years. But, as we have seen above, gamelum to geoce cannot be forced to bear this interpretation, and whatever our theory as to the poet's identity it is impossible to regard him as an old man at the time of his conversion. Finally, the most recent attempt to refute the Lindisfarne theory is that by Professor Cook, which we have just been considering. Thus, in every instance, the grounds on which it has been sought to overthrow the identification of poet and bishop have later been found to be untenable.

As the matter stands at present, therefore, to conclude the whole discussion, the theory that Cynewulf the poet was bishop of Lindisfarne, in the absence of positive evidence, must still be regarded as a conjecture, though as it appears to me, at least — an entirely reasonable conjecture.

The poet was certainly an ecclesiastic; he was in all probability a Northumbrian; his poems were written during the second half of the eighth century. All these conditions are

1) Ztschr. für d. Philol., I 224 ff.

2) Cf. my article, "Cynewulf and Alcuin", referred to above.
3) Anglia, I 483 ff.

satisfied by Bishop Cynewulf. Outside of York, there is not place in Northumbria more likely to have been the poet's home than Lindisfarne from the time of Aidan a distinguished seat of Christian learning. In the library of this ancient monastery Cynewulf would certainly have found the writings. of the Fathers, which he used so extensively, and the "books" to which he refers in the epilogue of Elene. Everything, in a word, which we know of Lindisfarne and of the bishop accords well with what we infer concerning Cynewulf from a study of the poems to which he has signed his name. Further than this, present evidence will not carry us.

Bryn Mawr, Pa., January 1907.

Carleton F. Brown.

Note. I desire to explain that the use in the preceding pages of ae instead of the Anglo-Saxon digraph is not an attempt on my part to inaugurate a new style, but is due to a misunderstanding on the part of the printer.

C. F. B.