Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/268

 196 the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and overwhelmed the congregation of Abiron. But how this was done has been described elsewhere.

§ 12. In the year of our Lord's incarnation eight hundred and ninety-four, King Guthred, having reigned many years in prosperity, departed this life, and bequeathed the privileges of the church of St. Cuthbert, concerning its repose and liberties, and the safety of those who should seek refuge therein from all aggressors, with other statutes in its behalf, to be preserved inviolate by all the kings and bishops, and all people who should come after him, and they are so preserved unto this very day. Indeed, no one has ever ventured, with impunity, to infringe them. Of such as have ventured, the Scots, as I have said, having violated its peace, were suddenly swallowed up alive. Others, also, who committed the same crime, were terribly punished for the same, as we shall hereafter describe. When Guthred was dead. King Alfred received the crown of the Northumbrians: for after St. Cuthbert had appeared to him, he added to his paternal kingdom of the East Saxons, the province of the East Angles; and now, after Guthred's death, that of Northumberland also.

§ 13. In the year of our Lord's incarnation eight hundred and ninety-nine, the same pious Alfred, King of the Angles, died after a reign of twenty-eight years and a half, and was succeeded by his son King Edward, who had been diligently warned by his father by all means to love and honour St. Cuthbert and his church, in memory of the difficulties and misfortunes out of which he had rescued his father, and had restored him to his kingdom, which, by the defeat of his enemies, he had enlarged beyond the limits of any of his predecessors.

§ 14. During the same year in which King Alfred died, Bishop Eardulf, of whom we have frequently made mention, departed this life in a good old age, to receive in heaven the reward of his righteous labours. This