from the parts of Gaul, and advancing to the river Thames, wintered at Fulenham [Fulham]. In the same year there was an eclipse of the moon after midnight on the 13th of October. Destruction of numerous monasteries in Gaul. In the year of our Lord 881, numerous monasteries in France were demolished by the pagans ; insomuch that the brethren of the monastery of Fleury disentombed the relics of the blessed abbat Benedict, and wandered with them hither and thither to escape the enemy. In the same year also king Alfred defeated a multitude of pagans in a naval battle destroying some and bringing others under subjection. How the episcopal see was transferredfrom Lindisfarne to Chester. In the year of our Lord 882, St. Cuthbert appeared to abbat Eadred in a vision of the night, and bade him tell the bishop of that district to redeem Cuthred, the son of Hardecnute, whom the Danes had sold as a slave to a certain widow at Wintigeham, and to make him their king. This was accordingly done, and he was crowned king in the thirteenth year of king Alfred ; after which the episcopal see, which was before in the isle of Lindisfarne, was transferred to Chester, which was formerly called Cunegecester. The saint had also directed through the abbat aforesaid, that whoever should flee to his body in the hour of danger should be unmolested for a month, and king Alfred, as also king Cuthred, made it a law of perpetual observance. In augmentation of the former episcopal see the aforesaid kings granted the whole territory between the Tyne and the Tees to St. Cuthbert for ever, and consigned to the pains of hell all who should disturb it. A t the same time the bishopric of the church of Hagustald [Hexham] ceased to exist on account of the excesses of the pagans. How pope Marinus sent relics to king Alfred. In the year of our Lord 883, Marinus sat in the Roman chair one year and five months. At the request of king Alfred he made the English school at Rome free of tribute, and, besides many other presents, he sent the aforesaid king no inconsiderable portion of the health-giving cross on which the Son of God had hung for the salvation of the world.