Alcuin His Life And His Work Author:C. J. B. Gaskoin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE SCHOOL OF JARROW. Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrfd. When the arrival of Hadrian at Canterbury released Benedict Biscop from the duties of Abb... more »ot of SS. Peter and Paul, he seized the opportunity to make a fourth pilgrimage to Rome. On his return, laden with books, some bought, some given by friends, some procured ; from the scriptoria and libraries of Rome, others col- lectedin the neighbourhood Vienne, he made his way to NorthumbriaT" There Ecgfrith, the new King, was well disposed to the cause of learning, and forthwith granted him seventy hides of land near the mouth of the Wear, to endow a monastery dedicated to St Peter. The foundations were laid in 674, and when the church, built of stone 'after the Roman fashion,' was finished, and all was ready, the monks took possession of their home, where they obeyed a rule compiled from those of seventeen of the best monasteries, at home and abroad, which Benedict had visited in his travels. Meanwhile Biscop himself journeyed again to Rome, on this occasion in company with Ceolfrid, Prior of Wearmouth, and returned as before with 'an innumerable store of books of all kinds,' besides pictures and relics for the Ill] . BENEDICT BISCOP. 25 church at Wearmouth. He brought also John the Precentor, who was sent by Pope Agatho, at Biscop's own request, to instruct the monks of Wearmouth in the Roman chant. In 681 another grant of land from Ecgfrith, this time one of forty hides on the south bank of the Tyne, enabled Biscop to found a second monastery, dedicated to St Paul, where in the autumn of the same year ten tonsured and twelve untonsured inmates of the older house began to observe the rule of Biscop under the abbacy of Ceolfrid. One of them, a child eight years old, was destined to bring a world-wide reputatio...« less