=Source.=--Simeon of Durham, _Historia Regum_, ed. Arnold, vol. ii., p.
201. (Rolls Series.)
Three poor monks, sent by divine inspiration from the province of
Mercia to the province of Northumberland, came to York, and requested
Hugh son of Baldric, then sheriff, to find them a guide as far as
the place called Monkchester, now named Newcastle. They were brought
thither and stayed there for a time, but finding no trace of the
ancient community of Christ’s servants there, they passed on to
Jarrow, where amid the ruins, that hardly indicated what they had
been of old, they found many monastic buildings with churches half
destroyed; here they were received by bishop Walcher with the greatest
kindness, and supplied by him with necessaries.... These three
founded three monasteries in the country of the Northumbrians; one
at Durham, by the holy and uncorrupt body of the father Cuthbert, in
honour of St. Mary the Virgin; another at York, in honour of the same
Mary, mother of God; ... and the third in the place ... now called
Whitby.... Indeed, after the savage devastation of the heathen had
with fire and sword reduced to ashes the churches and monasteries,
Christianity was almost extinct, and scarcely any churches survived,
and those covered with twigs and thatch; and for two hundred years
no monasteries had been anywhere rebuilt. Faith in religion waxed so
faint, and religious services failed so utterly, that the name of monk
was unknown to the inhabitants, and they were struck with amazement
when they chanced to see any one of monkish garb and life. But when
these three men aforesaid began to dwell among them, they too began to
change their savage life and manners for the better, and to help them
in restoring the holy places, and of themselves to restore and repair
the half-ruined churches, and even to build new churches in places
where there was none before. And many abandoned the secular life for
the warfare of monks, though few of these were natives of the district,
many more coming from remote parts of England, drawn by reports to join
them heart and soul.