03 — Whitby and Conformity
The watershed of Cuthbert’s age and the central drama of his life: the Synod of Whitby in 664, where King Oswiu ruled that the Northumbrian church should keep Easter and the tonsure after the Roman manner rather than the Celtic, and Cuthbert’s acceptance of that decision — the Ionan-trained monk who conformed loyally and without rancour. The section then follows him to Lindisfarne, where as prior he did the harder, quieter work of reconciling the grieving community of the mother-house to usages it had been compelled to adopt.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic-Roman; wonderworker of Northumbria)
The Easter question was not a question of doctrine but of usage and unity, and the saints stood on both sides of it: Aidan and Colman kept the Celtic reckoning and were holy men, as Bede insists even while judging the reckoning mistaken; Wilfrid and the Roman party carried the day. Cuthbert belongs to a third and rarer place. Formed wholly in the Ionan tradition, once displaced for keeping its Easter, he accepted the synod’s decision for Rome and spent himself reconciling others to it — not changing sides so much as holding the holiness of the one tradition within the order of the other. This section presents that conformity with both-sides handling per METHODOLOGY §4, and then his work as prior of Lindisfarne making the change take root.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Accepting the Roman Easter | The Easter and tonsure controversy; the Synod of Whitby (664) and Oswiu’s decision; Colman’s departure for Iona with the dissenting monks; Cuthbert’s loyal acceptance of the Roman usage — both-sides handling of a dispute of discipline, not dogma. |
| Prior of Lindisfarne | Cuthbert moved with Eata from Melrose to Lindisfarne after Whitby; his work as prior reconciling the community to the new usages; his patience with murmuring and dissent; the introduction of a stricter rule and the witness of his own life. |
See Also
- The Ripon Episode — the controversy made personal to Cuthbert before Whitby
- The Inner Desert — the solitude to which Cuthbert withdrew after his years as prior
- The Orthodox Reception — the Easter dispute as a question within the one undivided Church
- St. Aidan of Lindisfarne — the holy keeper of the Celtic Easter whom Bede honours across the divide
- St. Columba of Iona — the founder of the tradition Colman carried back to Iona
References
- Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
- Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940.
- Bonner, Gerald, David Rollason, and Clare Stancliffe, eds. St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1989.