“And thou, holy father, leader of the people of God, shepherd of the holy flock, physician of souls, light set upon a candlestick, be the form of all goodness to them that see you, the herald of salvation to all that hear you. Let your company be honest in character, an example to others unto life, not to destruction. Let thy banquets be with sobriety, not with drunkenness. Let thy dress be suited to thy condition. Be not conformed unto men of the world in any vain thing. The empty adornment of dress, and the useless care for it, is for thee a reproach before men and a sin before God. It is better to adorn with good habits the soul that is to live for ever, than to dress up in delicate garments the body that soon will decay in the dust. Let Christ be clothed and fed in the person of the poor man, that so with Christ you may reign. The ransom of a man is true riches. If we love gold, we should send it before us to heaven, where it will be of service to us. What we love, we have; then let us love that which is eternal, not that which is perishable. Let us aim at the praise of God, not of men. Let us do what did the holy men whom we laud. Let us follow their footsteps on earth, that we may be worthy to be partakers in their glory in the heavens. “May the protection of the divine pity keep you from all adversity, and set you with your fathers in the glory of the kingdom of heaven. When our lord, King Karl, comes home, his enemies by God’s mercy subdued, we will arrange to go to him, God helping us. If we are able then to help your holiness, either in the matter of the youths who have been carried captive by the pagans, or in any other need of yours, we will take diligent care to carry it through.” Alcuin soon after wrote another letter to the bishop and monks of Lindisfarne, and yet another to Cudrad, probably Cuthred, a presbyter of Lindisfarne, who had been carried off by the Northmen and then rescued. In these letters he urges them to bear in mind that prayers are more valuable as a defence than collections of arrows and weapons, and heaps of stones for hurling at an enemy. From this it would appear that the monastery at Lindisfarne was being fortified. To the monks of Wearmouth and Jarrow, whose geographical situation rendered them very liable to a raid by the pirate northmen, he wrote a very long and interesting letter, some extracts from which may here be given. [Sidenote: Ep. 27. A.D. 793.] “Keep most diligently the regular life [the life by rule] which your most holy fathers, [the abbats] Benedict[137] [Biscop] and Ceolfrid,[138] decreed for you. “Let the Rule of Saint Benedict [of Nursia, the abbat of Monte Cassino] be very often read in the assembly of the brethren, and expounded in the vulgar tongue that all may understand.