Α.Β. 795.] CRUELTY OF CONSTΑΝΤΕΧΕ. ficai jurisdiction over both clergy and laity throughout that church's demesnes, and is subject to no archbishop or legate, but to the supreme pontiff" alone. It is also to be noted that the munificent king Offa, when he granted the aforesaid payment of Romescot from his kingdom to the blessed Peter's* vicar, the pontiff of the city of Rome, obtained from the Roman pontiff, that the church of Alban, the proto-martyr of the English, should faithfully collect the.same from the whole of Hertfordshire, in which the aforesaid church stands, and retain it for its own use. And as this church was endowed with all royalties, so its abbat for the time being wears the pontifical ornaments. Thus much may suffice for the present concerning St. Alban. Signs in heaven, precursors offamine and mortality. In the year of our Lord 794, Humbert, archbishop of Lichfield, died, and was succeeded by Higbert. The same year dreadful prodigies terrified the miserable English nation; for fearful thunderbolts and horrible fiery dragons were seen passing through the air, foreboding a mighty famine and dreadful slaughter of the people, For the Danes with the Norwegians committed sad havoc among the people of Northumberland and of Lindesfarne, destroying the churches of Christ with their inmates. The island of Lindisfarne, which has an extent of eight miles or more, contains a noble monastery, in which was buried the illustrious father, bishop Cuthbert, with other prelates, his most holy successors. Now the Lindis is a rivulet, flowing into the sea, and is about two feet in width at low tides, but at high tides it cannot be seen. Persecution by the emperor Constantine. In the year of our Lord 795, the emperor Constantine put out the eyes of many.who had incurred his suspicion; he condemned pope Stephen to a cruel death, after detaining him forty years in prison ; and all who were suspected by him, or over whom he had any power, he caused to swear on the wood of the holy cross, that they would worship no image of God or of the saints, nor invoke the mother of God. Those who kept vigils to God, who lived religiously, or who had in their possession the relics of the saints, he condemned and deprived of their patrimonies, and subjected