A.D. 1170.] GODKIC'S OPINION OF HIMSELF. Of the answer which the man of God gave to one who wished to write his life. The saint had some intimate friends among the monks of Durham, especially one whose name was Ν .* This man was repeatedly urged to write the life and virtues of St. Godrie for the benefit of posterity, and to obtain more certain information on the subject, he came to the man of God, to learn from him what he should write. Whilst sitting at the saint's feet, he said that he proposed to write his life, and stated the benefit which would result to posterity from a kno;vledge of what he had done : to which the man of God replied with much energy, " My friend, the life of Godric is as follows :—In the first place, Godric the coarse rustie, the unclean fornicator, a falsifier, deceiver, and perjurer, a vagrant, petulant and gluttonous, a foul dog, a baseworm, not a hermit but a hypocrite, not a solitary but a looseminded fellow, a devourer of alms, contemptuous, a lover of pleasure, negligent, slothful, and snoring away his time, prodigal and ambitions, unworthy to serve others, and ever lashing or rebuking those who ministered to himself. These are the things, and still worse than these which you will have to write about Godric." When he had said these words, indignantly, he held his peace, and the monk retired in confusion : but when some years had intervened, he did not dare again to question the saint about his past life, until Godric himself, in compassion, or perhaps because he repented of the wrong he had done him, of his own accord told him what he wished to know, but at the same time adjured the monk, by the regard which they had for one another, to show the book to no one during his life. Of the answer which Godrie gave when asked concerning the departure of the soul, and its state after death. Another time, when the same monk came to him at ti e feast of Saint John the Baptist to celebrate mass for hini, he sat outside the door of his oratory, and heard Godrie within singing. After vespers, the brother asked him what was th e nature of the soul's departure from this world: to which he * W e learn from other sources that this man's name iras Keginaìd. Χ . for nowen, istho letter commonly used by the medieval writers and copyists, to occupy the place of a name not known to them.