Page:The ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy vol 2.djvu/309

A.D. 841 876.] and in their tribulation gave vent to their distress in continual lamentations, and waited their end in caverns and thickets, absorbed in grief. Some indeed in terror at the savage cruelty of the barbarians, fled to foreign lands which had hitherto escaped the hostile attacks of the pagans. Some also bore with them the remains of their fathers, whose souls reign with the Lord of Sabaoth, whom they devoutly served while on earth. The fugitives also carried abroad with them the writings which contained the acts of these same fathers in the Lord, and accounts of the possessions of the churches, their nature and extent, and by whom they were given; but great part of these documents was swept away in the storms of the times, and alas! irrecoverably lost amidst such fearful commotions.

This is what the monks of Jumièges and Fontenelles did; overtaken by a terrible disaster they never brought back what they carried away. The monks of Jumièges translated to Haspres the relics of St. Hugh the archbishop and abbot Aicadre, which the inhabitants of Cambray and Arras preserve in precious shrines, and venerate to this day. The monks of Fontenelles carried to Ghent the relics of the holy confessors Wandrille the abbot, and Ansbert and Wulfran, archbishops, which are in the possession of the Flemings