Chapter 28

Meanwhile King Alchfrid sent Wilfrid, then a priest, to the King of the Gauls¹ to be consecrated bishop for himself and his people. He sent him for consecration to Agilbert, who, as I have said, had been made Bishop of Paris after his return from Britain. Summoning several other bishops to the royal country-seat at Compiègne, he consecrated Wilfrid with great splendour. But since Wilfrid remained overseas for a considerable time on account of his consecration, King Oswy meanwhile, following his son’s example, sent to Canterbury to be consecrated Bishop of York, a holy man, modest in his ways, learned in the Scriptures, and careful to practise all that he found in them. This was a priest named Chad, a brother of the above-mentioned most reverend Bishop Cedd, and at that time Abbot of Lastingham. With Chad the king sent a priest named Eadhaed, who later, during the reign of Egfrid, became Bishop of Ripon. On arriving in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit had died and that no successor had yet been appointed. They therefore went on to bishop Wini in the province of the West Saxons, consecrated Chad as bishop with the assistance of two bishops of the British, who, as I have often observed, keep Easter contrary to canonical practice between the fourteenth and twentieth days of the moon. For at that time Wini was the only bishop in all Britain who had been canonically consecrated.

When he became bishop, Chad immediately devoted himself to maintaining the truth and purity of the Church, and set himself to practise humility and continence and to study. After the example of the Apostles, he travelled on foot and not on horseback when he went to preach the Gospel, whether in towns or country, in cottages, villages, or strongholds; for he was one of Aidan’s disciples and always sought to instruct his people by the same methods as Aidan and his own brother Cedd. And Wilfrid too, when he returned to Britain as a bishop, introduced into the English churches many Catholic customs, with the result that the Catholic Rite daily gained support and all the Irish then living among the English either conformed to it or returned to their own land.