“What assurance is there for the churches of Britain if the holy Cuthbert, with so great a number of saints, does not defend his own Church? Either this is the beginning of greater affliction, or else the sins of the dwellers there have called it upon them. It has not happened by chance; it is the sign that calamity was greatly deserved. “But now, ye that survive, stand like men, fight bravely, defend the camp of God. Remember Judas Machabeus, how he purged the Temple of God, and freed the people from a foreign yoke. If anything in your manner of life needs correction, pray correct it speedily. Call back to you your patrons, who have left you for a time. It was not that their influence with God’s mercy failed; but, we know not why, they did not speak. Do not boast yourselves in the vanity of raiment; that is matter not of boasting but of disgrace for priests and servants of God. Do not blur the words of your prayers with drunkenness. Do not go forth after pleasures of the flesh and greediness of the world; but remain firmly in the service of God and in the discipline of the life by rule; that the most holy fathers whose sons you are may not cease to be your protectors. Go in their footsteps, and abide secure in their prayers. Be not degenerate sons of such ancestry. Never will they cease from your defence, if they see you follow their example. “Be not utterly cast down in mind by this calamity. God chastens every son whom he receives; and He has chastened you the more because he loves you more. Jerusalem, the city loved of God, and the Temple of God, perished in the flames of the Chaldeans. Rome, with her coronal of holy Apostles and innumerable martyrs, has been broken up by a pagan visitation; but by God’s pity has quickly recovered. Nearly the whole of Europe has been laid waste by the sword and the fire of Goths and of Huns; but now, by God’s mercy, as the sky is adorned with stars, so the land of Europe shines bright with churches, and in them the divine offices of the religion of Christ flourish and increase.