"FOR GOD and Saint Cuthbert." With these words Bishop Eadfrith of Lindisfarne dedicated his book of the four gospels; it was known as St Cuthbert's book and more recently as the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The glories of the work are the illuminated pages and capitals. Their myriad dots of colour took ages to complete. The colours were carefully extracted from minerals, plants and insects. Some from as far away as the Himalayas.

Any book was a huge investment of resources. The vellum pages could require the hides of 1,000 sheep or calves. King Aldfrith once gave land for eight families in return for one book. The Gospels then are a monument not only to the skill, but to the organisation and resources of the 8th-century Northumbrian Golden Age. Yet in his humility lest it be found perfect, Eadfrith left small parts unfinished. These deliberate blemishes bring us closest to the men praising God and Cuthbert on Lindisfarne.

Later Aethelwald bound it and Bilfrith added ornamentation of precious stones and metals. In 875 AD, facing renewed Danish attacks, the Community left Lindisfarne and toured the North. Setting sail for Ireland they were driven back and "the copy of the gospels, adorned with gold figures, fell overboard, and sank to the bottom of the sea."

Miraculously, according to the Durham chronicler Simeon, the book was found. It 'had lost none of the external brilliancy of its gems and gold, nor any of the internal beauty of its illuminations, and the fairness of its leaves.'
When at Chester-le-Street, Aldred carefully inserted an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Latin, in the Northumbrian dialect. The Gospels are therefore the oldest surviving English gospel and of even greater significance to the north.

The Community of St Cuthbert played a vital part in keeping alive both Christianity and the sense of Northumbrian identity, both were represented by the relics of Cuthbert, including the Gospels. After the shrine moved to Durham the gospels were laid on the high altar next to the shrine of the saint.
At the dissolution of the Monastery in 1539 the shrine was looted, and the gospels removed. The gem-covered binding was ripped off. A keeper of the Tower of London sold the book to a collector, Sir Henry Cotton. The Gospels only by chance survived when Cotton's house burned down. He passed them to the British Museum. They added a Victorian cover which 'makes us a laughing stock'. The Museum handed them to the British Library. There they lie in a room of bibles with no reference to their Northumbrian origins.
The British Library has rehearsed various arguments why London should keep the gospels. But... Do we really believe that scholars are unable to travel to Durham? That having the Gospels in London attracts tourists to the North? That the Library at St Pancras is a setting comparable to Durham Cathedral?
They also try to link the Gospels to the Elgin Marbles, but the North is not a foreign country do they know that? Museums are returning Nazi loot; the Scots have recovered the Stone of Scone. We are asking for our Gospels back!

They have offered computer images and replicas, useful aids, but will 180,000 people queue to see a replica?

The best argument for reuniting Cuthbert with the gospels, comes fittingly from the British Library curator Janet Backhouse:

'This particular book has never been regarded merely as a museum curiosity, of interest only to scholars and connoisseurs, but has kept something of the mystique of a holy relic, even to the twentieth century.'

Back in the North the gospels would be a boost to Northumbrian pride in our own achievements, they would become a focus point for children studying their own culture, and would boost tourism and the North's claims as a centre of culture.

4 September, 2004, was the 900th anniversary of the translation of Saint Cuthbert's body into Durham Cathedral. What better time to see the final journey of Saint Cuthbert's book?
This article first appeared in Sursam Corda the magazine of
St Mary`s cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne.

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