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ST. BONIFACE.
67
due to the personal example he set of the doctrine
which he preached. Mortification and recollection
in God were specially his gifts, and Bede says: "When
he offered up to God the sacrifice of the saving
victim, it was not with a loud voice, but with an
abundance of heartfelt tears".1 The wonders of his
death equalled those of his life: his body, incorrupt
in the tomb, was regarded with special veneration
and interest. The shrine of the saint was plundered
and demolished by Henry VIII. in 1540, but the
body itself was reburied in Durham Cathedral. A
ystery now rests over the exact spot where th
body, once so honoured, lies.2 The manner of St.
Cnthbert's episcopal consecration has been quoted as
a semi-royal nomination to spiritualities, but it must
not be forgotten that it was sanctioned by Theodore,
who had received his orders, jurisdiction, and every
other faculty that belonged to him as metropolitan
from Kome.
St. Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, St. John of Beverley,
St. Erconwald of London, and St. Aldhelm, first Abbot
of Malmesbury, afterwards Bishop of Sherborne, were
amongst the first fruits of sanctity which the Saxon
Church produced at this time. The missionary spirit
was represented by Winfred, better known as Boniface,
the great apostle of Germany, whom the Angles
in the first flush of their own fervour had the erlorv
O
of giving to their sister nation.
1 Hist. Eccles., lib. iv. cap. xxviii.
- Life of St. Cuthbtrt) Consitt. See chap. xi.