CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 9
AFTER this brief foretaste of the life of the venerable Eosterwine let us pick up the thread of our story. Shortly after Benedict had appointed Eosterwine abbot of St Peter’s and Ceolfrith of St Paul’s he set off on his fifth journey from Britain to Rome and returned, as always, with a rich store of countless valuable gifts for his churches: a large supply of sacred books and no less a stock of sacred pictures than on previous journeys. He brought back paintings of the life of Our Lord for the chapel of the Holy Mother of God which he had built within the main monastery, setting them, as its crowning glory, all the way round the walls. His treasures included a set of pictures for the monastery and church of the blessed apostle Paul, consisting of scenes, very skilfully arranged, to show how the Old Testament foreshadowed the New. In one set, for instance, the picture of Isaac carrying the wood on which he was to be burnt as a sacrifice was placed immediately below that of Christ carrying the cross on which He was about to suffer. Similarly the Son of Man lifted up on the cross was paired with the serpent raised up by Moses in the desert.1 Amongst other things he also brought back two cloaks of incomparable work-manship, silk throughout, with which he later purchased three hides of land near the mouth of the River Wear on the south bank. It was from King Aldfrid and his councillors that this purchase was made, for Benedict learned on his return that King Egfrid had been slain.2