To edit the two most important Lives of St Cuthbert is almost a pious duty for one who lives under the shadow of Durham Cathedral. But it is something more than that. These Lives of St Cuthbert throw considerable light on the secular history of the golden age of Northumbria. They also illustrate one of the most important periods in the history of the English Church, when, after having passed through its infancy, it was faced with the alternative of clinging to the attractive, but undoubtedly moribund, Celtic forms, or accepting the doctrines and practices of the youthful and progressive Roman Church. At the Synod of Whitby, Oswiu and his councillors chose the latter alternative. Cuthbert, like very many more, accepted the changes, but remained Celtic at heart to the end, in spite of the words which Bede puts into his mouth on his death–bed (p. 284 below). It would be difficult to find two more typical representatives of the Roman and Celtic outlook respectively than Wilfrid and Cuthbert: the one proud, capable, determined, a born fighter, a magnificent organiser, patron of the arts, rivalling the king himself in his pomp and ceremony– and Cuthbert, humble, simple, spiritual, ascetic, beloved by all both high and low, but looking always to the past rather than to the future.