To the Lord John, Priest and most beloved in the Lord of Lords, Bede, the Servant of Christ, sendeth Health.
It cannot be expressed, my beloved Lord in Christ, how much I feel your affection, and am always delighted, if so it might be, by your presence, nor how much I am excited by the continual memory of your holy sweetness, even amid the discomforts of the long journey, which you are eager to enter upon. Wherefore, (either to commemorate my own devotion, or to lighten the burden of your journey,) I have offered unto you the acts of the blessed Bishop Cuthbert, which I have lately written in verse. For I trust, without any doubt, that the company of so great a man may confer much happiness. For the sweetness of his affability consoles the sorrower; his contrite fervour stimulates the fainting; and his vigorous intercession defends him who is in danger. But you must know that I have not been able to relate all his acts: for both new wonders are daily wrought by
