Chapter 19

In the fourth year of Osred’s reign, Coenred, who had ruled the kingdom of Mercia with great renown for some while, resigned his kingly sceptre for a yet more noble kingdom. During the pontificate of Constantine, he went to Rome, received the tonsure, and became a monk at the shrine of the Apostles, passing the remainder of his days in prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy. He was succeeded on the throne by Ceolred, son of Ethelred who had ruled the kingdom before Coenred. With Coenred went Offa, son of Sighere the above-mentioned king of the East Saxons, a very handsome and lovable young man who the entire nation greatly hoped would inherit and uphold the sceptre of the kingdom. But, fired by an equal ardour, he left his wife, lands, family, and country for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, hoping to receive an hundred-fold in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting. So, when they had arrived at the holy places in Rome, he received the tonsure, entered upon the monastic life, and at last attained the long-desired vision of the blessed Apostles in heaven.

During the same year in which these two left Britain, the renowned Bishop Wilfrid ended his days in the region of Oundle, after forty-five years as a bishop. The coffin containing his body was carried to his own monastery at Ripon and buried in the church of the blessed Apostle Peter with the honours due to so eminent a prelate. I will now turn back and recall briefly some of the events of his life.¹ As a boy, he was of a good disposition and behaviour for his age, always bearing himself modestly and thoughtfully, so that he was deservedly loved, admired, and welcomed by his elders as one of themselves. When he reached the age of fourteen, he chose monastic life rather than secular, and when he informed his father – for his mother was dead – he readily agreed to his heavenly desires and aspirations, and encouraged him to persevere in this laudable decision. He therefore went to the Isle of Lindisfarne and offered himself for the service of the monks, diligently setting himself to learn and practise all that conduces to monastic purity and devotion. Having a quick mind, he very soon learned the psalms and certain other books, before he received the tonsure, but not before he had become remarkable for monastic attributes more important than the tonsure, for humility and obedience, which naturally endeared him to the older monks as well as to his contemporaries. When he had served God in that monastery for some years, being a thoughtful youth, he gradually came to realize that the way of life taught by the Irish was far from perfect; so he decided to visit Rome and see what ecclesiastical and monastic customs were in use at the apostolic see. When he acquainted the brethren with his wish, they commended his proposal and encouraged him to carry out whatever he had in mind. Without further delay, he went to Queen Eanfled, who knew him and at whose request he had been accepted into the monastery, and told her of his desire to visit the shrines of the blessed Apostles. The youth’s plan pleased the queen, who sent him to King Earconbert of Kent, her uncle’s son, with the request that he would send him honourably to Rome. At this time Honorius, one of the disciples of blessed Pope Gregory and a man of great experience in church matters, was occupying the archbishopric with great distinction. And while he was waiting there, Wilfrid, being an active-minded young man, diligently set himself to study everything that he saw. Another young man then arrived named Biscop, known as Benedict, whom I have already mentioned: he came of noble English family, and also wished to travel to Rome. So the king gave Wilfrid to Benedict as his companion, with instructions to accompany him to Rome. On their arrival at Lugdunum,² Wilfrid was detained there by Dalfin,³ bishop of the city; but Benedict continued on his journey to Rome without staying. For the bishop took great pleasure in the young man’s wise conversation, graceful appearance, and enthusiasm for action, as well as in his balanced and mature opinions. He therefore made ample provision for all the needs of Wilfrid and his companions for as long as they stayed with him, and offered to entrust to him, if he were willing, the administration of a considerable area of Gaul, to give him his young niece as wife, and make him his own adopted son. Wilfrid thanked him for the kindness that he had been pleased to show a stranger, but told him. that he had set his heart on a different way of life, which was the reason why he had left his own country and set out on the journey to Rome.

Hearing this, the bishop sent him on to Rome, providing him with a guide and generously supplying everything that the needs of the journey demanded. And he earnestly pressed him to remember to come that way on his return journey to his own country. When Wilfrid arrived in Rome, he devoted himself daily to constant prayer and study of church matters, as he had intended, and won the friendship of the most holy and learned archdeacon Boniface, who was also a papal counsellor. Under his guidance he mastered each of the Gospels in turn and the correct method of calculating Easter, while through this tutor he came to understand many other things relating to church order which he had no means of learning in his own country; and having spent some months engrossed in profitable study, he returned to Dalfin in Gaul. He remained with him three years, received the tonsure at his hands, and so won his affection that the bishop considered making him his heir. But the bishop’s cruel death intervened to prevent this, and Wilfrid was destined rather to become a bishop of his own people the English. For Queen Baldhild sent soldiers with orders to kill the bishop, and Wilfrid as his clerk accompanied him to the place of execution, wishing to die with him, although the bishop strongly opposed this. But when the executioners learned that he was a foreigner and an Englishman, they spared him and refused to put him to death with his bishop.

On his return to Britain, Wilfrid was admitted to the friendship of King Alchfrid, who had learned to love and follow the Catholic laws of the Church. When he found Wilfrid was also a Catholic, the king gave him ten hides of land at a place called Stanford, and not long afterwards, a monastery with thirty hides at Ripon. This place had been formerly granted to monks who followed the Irish custom in order to build a monastery there. But since, when offered the alternative, they had preferred to abandon the place rather than adopt the Catholic Easter and other canonical rites in accordance with the usage of the Roman and apostolic Church, the king gave it to one whom he knew to be trained in better doctrines and customs.

At this time, under instructions from the king, Wilfrid was ordained priest at this monastery by the above-mentioned Agilbert, Bishop of the Gewissae, because the king wished to retain a man of such great learning and devotion as a priest and counsellor for his own special companionship. Shortly after the exposure and removal of the Irish sect that I mentioned, and with the approval and advice of his father Oswy, the king sent Wilfrid to Gaul, asking that he be consecrated as his bishop, Wilfrid being at the time about thirty years of age. And when Agilbert, then Bishop of Paris, and eleven other bishops had gathered to make him a bishop, they carried out the rite of his consecration with great splendour. But since Wilfrid remained overseas for some while, a holy man named Chad was consecrated Bishop of York at the orders of King Oswy, as I have already described. Chad, having ruled the church very ably for three years, resigned the see and retired to his monastery of Lastingham, and Wilfrid then became bishop of the whole province of the Northumbrians.

Subsequently, as I have already told, Wilfrid was expelled from his bishopric during the reign of Egfrid, and other bishops were consecrated in his place. Intending to travel to Rome and plead his case before the apostolic Pope, he therefore took ship, but a strong westerly wind drove him to Frisia, where he was honourably received by the barbarous people and their king Aldgils. He preached Christ among them, teaching the word of truth to many thousands, and cleansing them from the guilt of their sins in the font of our Saviour. He was the first to attempt the work of their evangelization, which was later completed so zealously by the most reverend Christian Bishop Willibrord. Having spent the winter happily there with God’s new people, Wilfrid set out once more for Rome. There his case was heard before Pope Agatho and several bishops, who were unanimous in acquitting him of the charges laid against him and declared him worthy of his bishopric.

At this time Pope Agatho summoned a hundred and twenty-five bishops to a Synod in Rome in order to combat those who were teaching that there was only one will and action in our Lord and Saviour. He ordered Wilfrid to be summoned to take his place among the bishops, and to state his own belief and that of the province or island whence he had come. And when both he and his nation were shown to be Catholic in their belief, it was thought fitting to include this among the other findings of the synod in the following form: ‘Wilfrid, beloved of God, Bishop of the city of York, having brought his case before the apostolic see, has been acquitted by its authority from all charges against him, both definite and indefinite. Appointed to take his seat in consultation with one hundred and twenty-five bishops in synod, he affirmed the true and Catholic Faith on behalf of all the northern part of Britain, Ireland, and the islands inhabited by the English, Britons, Irish, and Picts, ratifying this by his own signature.’

After this, Wilfrid returned to Britain and converted the province of the South Saxons from their idolatrous rites to the Faith of Christ. He also sent preachers to the Isle of Wight, and during the second year of King Aldfrid, Egfrid’s successor, he was restored to his own see and bishopric at the king’s invitation. But five years later he was again accused and expelled from his diocese by the king and several bishops. He travelled to Rome, and was given opportunity to defend himself in the presence of his accusers before the apostolic Pope John [VI] and several bishops. It was unanimously decided that his accusers had brought partially false charges against him; and the Pope wrote to the English kings Ethelred and Aldfrid that he had been unjustly condemned and that they should restore him to his bishopric.

His acquittal was greatly forwarded by the reading of the transactions of the synod held by Pope Agatho of blessed memory during Wilfrid’s former visit to the city, when he had sat at the council with the other bishops, as I have already described. For when as need required and at the direction of the apostolic Pope, the transactions of this Synod were read for some days in the presence of the nobility and many of the people, they came to the passage where it is written: ‘Wilfrid, beloved of God and Bishop of the city of York, having brought his case before the apostolic see, has by its authority been acquitted from all charges etc.,’ as already recorded. When this was read, those who listened were surprised; and when the reader finished, they began to ask one another, ‘Who was this Bishop Wilfrid?’ Then Boniface, counsellor to the apostolic Pope, and many others who had met him there in Pope Agatho’s time, explained that he was the same bishop who had been accused by his own people and had recently come to Rome to be tried by the apostolic see. ‘He came here long ago under a similar accusation’ they said, ‘and the dispute between the two parties was quickly heard and decided. Pope Agatho of blessed memory showed that he had been unjustly expelled from his bishopric, and had so high a regard for Wilfrid that he ordered him to sit in the council of bishops which he had summoned, as a man of blameless faith and honest mind.’ Hearing this, the Pope and all the assembly declared that a man of such authority, who had been a bishop for nearly forty years, should certainly not be condemned, but should be cleared of all charges laid against him and returned home with honour.

As Wilfrid was crossing Gaul on his return to Britain, he was suddenly overtaken by an illness, which grew so serious that he was unable to ride and had to be carried by his attendants in a litter. He was brought to Maeldum,⁴ a city of Gaul, where he lay four days and nights as though dead, and only his faint breathing showed that he was still alive. He remained like this for four days without food or drink, speech or hearing, but at daybreak on the fifth day he sat up as though waking from a deep sleep. When he opened his eyes and saw around him a crowd of brethren singing psalms and weeping, he sighed and asked for the priest Acca, who came in at once when summoned and, seeing Wilfrid better and able to speak, fell on his knees and thanked God with all the brethren present. And when they had sat down, and began with some hesitation to talk of the judgements of heaven, the bishop told the others to leave them for an hour, and said to the priest Acca:

‘I have seen a momentous vision, which I want you to keep secret until I know God’s will for me. There stood beside me a noble being in white robes, who told me that he was Michael the Archangel. “I am come to recall you from death,” he said, “for our Lord has granted you life at the prayers of your brethren and the intercession of His blessed Mother the ever-virgin Mary. So I now pronounce that you shall be healed of this sickness: but be prepared, for I shall return to visit you after four years. When you return to your own country, you shall recover the greater portion of the possessions that were taken from you and end your life in perfect peace.”’ And to the delight of all, who gave thanks to God, the bishop recovered, resumed his journey, and arrived in Britain.

When they had studied the letters that Wilfrid had brought from the apostolic Pope, Archbishop Bertwald and Ethelred very readily supported him. The latter, formerly king but now an abbot, sent for Coenred, whom he had appointed king in his own place, and asked him to be a friend to Wilfrid, to which he agreed. Aldfrid, King of the Northumbrians, still refused to receive him; but he died shortly afterwards, and was succeeded by his son Osred. A synod was soon held near the river Nidd, and after some argument between the parties, it was generally agreed that Wilfrid should be restored to the bishopric of his own church. And so for four years, until the day of his death, he lived his life in peace. He died in his monastery in the region of Oundle during the rule of Abbot Cuthbald and was carried by the brethren to his first monastery at Ripon, where he was buried in the church of the blessed Apostle Peter close to the altar on the south side, as already recorded, and the following epitaph was inscribed above him:

Here Wilfrid, mighty prelate, lies at peace

Who, spurred by love of God, this temple raised,

And hallowed it in Peter’s noble name,

To whom our Master Christ bequeathed the keys.

Fair gold and purple vestments he bestowed,

A noble cross of richly shining ore

He placed aloft as sign of victory won.

The Gospels four in golden letters writ

At his command and in due order bound

Were fitly cased in covers of red gold.

Easter’s mistimed observance he set right

In due conformity with canon law

Fixed by the Fathers, and to all his folk

Banishing doubt, made manifest the truth.

Here he established many flocks of monks

And as a watchful shpeherd bade them keep

The rule established by the saints of old.

In his long life he weathered many storms,

Discords at home and perils overseas.

He ruled as bishop five and forty years,

And passed rejoicing to God’s heavenly realm.

Grant us, O Jesus, his true flock to be,

And tread with him the road that leads to Thee.