In the immediate aftermath of the killing of Robert de Comines, the cathedral community of Durham removed the body of St Cuthbert from the city to prevent its desecration by William's expected punitive force. The monks carried the saint's remains westward as a form of spiritual resistance, returning only after the Norman army had withdrawn. The episode represents the ecclesiastical dimension of northern resistance to the Conquest and established the special status of St Cuthbert's community in the Norman political settlement of the north.
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