Was born at Harpham, a village in the north of England. In the reign of
king Alfred, he was made bishop of Hexham; he gave venerable Bede the
orders of deacon and priest; and built the monastery of Beverley, then a
forest, now a market-town, twenty-seven miles from York, where he died,
in 721.[134] Bede assigns several miracles to him in his lifetime.
William of Malmesbury relates, that the inhabitants of Beverley
acknowledge the sanctity of their patron, because the fiercest bulls
being dragged with the strongest ropes, by the lustiest men, into his
church-yard, lose their fury, become gentle as lambs, and being left to
their freedom, innocently sport themselves, instead of goring and
trampling with their horns and feet all that come near them.[135] It is
related by another author that in 1312, on the feast of St. Bernard,
wonderful oil miraculously issued from his sepulchre, which was a
sovereign remedy against many diseases. Also, that king Ethelstan laid
his knife on the saint’s altar, in pledge, that if by his interference
he obtained a victory over the Scots, he would enrich his church; by the
merits of the saint he conquered, and desiring to have a sign as a
perpetual testimony of prerogative over the Scots, he struck his sword
into a rock near Dunbar-castle, which for many ages retained a mark of a
yard in length from the blow, and this was referred to by king Edward I.
before pope Boniface, in proof of his right over Scotland. Ethelstan, in
consequence of his victory, granted right of sanctuary to the church of
Beverley, with other privileges.[136]