From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian

Bede wrote to biographies of St Cubert, one in verse and the other in
prose. It is from the latter, chapter XXVII and section 45, that I get
the following.

=========
Now, when King Ecgfrid had rashly led his army against the Picts, and devastated their territories with most atrocious cruelty, the man of
God, Cuthbert, knowing that the time was now come, concerning which he
had prophesied the year before to his sister, that the king would live
only one year more, came to Lugubalia (which is corruptly called by the English Luel - Carlisle) to speak to the queen, who was there awaiting
the result of the war in her sister's monastery. But the next day, when
the citizens were leading him to see the walls of the town, and the
remarkable fountain, formerly built by the Romans, suddenly, as he was
resting on his staff, he was disturbed in spirit, and, turning his
countenance sorrowfully to the earth, he raised himself, and, lifting
his eyes to heaven, groaned loudly, and said in a low voice, " Now,
then, the contest is decided! " The presbyter, who was standing near, in incautious haste answered and said, "How do you know it?" But he,
unwilling to declare more concerning those things which were revealed to
him, said, "Do you not see how wonderfully the air is changed and
disturbed? Who is able to investigate the judgments of the Almighty?"
But he immediately entered in and spoke to the queen in private, for it
was the Sabbath-day. "Take care," said he, "that you get into your
chariot very early on the second day of the week, for it is not lawful
to ride in a chariot on the Lord's day, and go quickly to the royal
city, lest, perchance, the king may have been slain. But I have been
asked to go tomorrow to a neighbouring monastery, to consecrate a
church, and will follow you as soon as that duty is finished."
=========

What I find interesting is that Bede's vision of the death of Edgfrid
took place on a Saturday, a day identified in the text as "the Sabbath".
The following day - Sunday - is identified as "the Lord's day". However although the text notes that it is not lawful to ride in a chariot on
the Lord's day, for some reason he did not recommend her to leave
immediately. Was that simply because the journey would take so long and
it would be inconvenient to be in some benighted spot when the Sabbath
ended and the Lord's day arrived, or was it some residual respect for
the Sabbath?

I suspect the latter, though of course I cannot prove it. Nevertheless
it is interesting that St Cuthbert and Bede both recognised that
Saturday is the Sabbath, even though they met for worship on Sunday.

God bless,
Kendall K. Down
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