Page:The golden days of the early English church from the arrival of Theodore to the death of Bede, volume 3.djvu/16

2 countenanced the view, and it was certainly countenanced very largely at Durham.

It is clear from the absence of any reference to the place of his birth or to his parentage that he was of humble origin. Bede claims that he had heard a story about his early life from Trumwine, the Bishop of the Picts, who had been told it by Cuthberht himself. It illustrates the extravagant ascetic views then prevailing, which extended even to small children, who were taught that it was really wicked to jest and play games with other boys. Cuthberht excelled at such pastimes, and was a leader in them, and never seemed to weary, notably at leaping, running, wrestling, or standing on his head. One day a number of boys, Cuthberht being one, were engaged in a wrestling match in a meadow, when a small boy of about three years old ran up to him and exhorted him not to indulge in such idle sports, but to subject his mind as well as his limbs to a grave deportment. When Cuthberht took no heed of what he said, the small boy began to weep bitterly and, addressing him, asked how he who had been consecrated by God to teach even his elders could thus behave and be thus frivolous among children. Cuthberht listened attentively, and, being much moved by what the smaller child had said, altered his conduct, "and thus," moralises our historian, "the wantonness of a boy was restrained by the agency of a child."

A story like this is the despair of history, for