CHAPTER 53: [The appeal is heard?704]
CHAPTER 53
[The appeal is heard–704]
So on the day appointed the most blessed John, Bishop of the Apostolic See, sitting in council with his right reverend bishops, ordered representatives of each side, both accusers and accused, to present themselves before the holy gathering. This was no sooner said than done. Our holy Bishop Wilfrid with his venerable priests and deacons came in as humble suppliants. They greeted the honourable assembly and promised to obey and carry out their decision with the greatest good-will. The archbishop’s men were also present. They were given time to speak and told that they could choose any one heading from their list of accusations and speak on that and then proceed in order to the other points listed for discussion. They answered:
‘This is our main charge, namely that Bishop Wilfrid here present contumaciously despised and rejected before our synod the statutes of Berhtwald, Archbishop of the Kentish Church and of all Britain and a man who was sent to us by the Apostolic See itself. We have given our view. Now let us hear the defence.’
St Wilfrid, bent under the weight of an honourable old age, rose, surrounded by his brethren, in the sight of the whole gathering.
‘I speak as humble suppliant to your most excellent Holiness, asking you to condescend to hear from my own lips a true account of the actions of my unworthy self. I was indeed present at the council with my abbots, priests, and deacons, for they sent one of the bishops to ask me in the name of the king and the archbishop whether or not I was prepared to submit to the archbishop’s judgement alone and zealously carry out his decisions. I answered thus: “We must be informed of the broad outlines of these decisions before we can commit ourselves one way or another.” The bishop said he himself had not known and that the archbishop had declared that he would by no means let any of our party know what he had resolved upon until we had given a written promise before the synod to submit to his judgement in every single matter, and not to deviate from it one step either to left or right. “I have never in my life heard of so rigid and narrow a constraint”, I replied. “I am to bind myself on oath to carry out a whole mass of decrees, no matter how impossible they may prove to be, without knowing the terms of even one of them.” None the less I promised the synod my wholehearted assent to everything laid down by the archbishop, as long as it tallied with the rules and statutes of the holy fathers and with the canonical definitions and was not in conflict with the synods of St Agatho and his orthodox successors.’
After offering this defence our holy bishop was silent.
The synod fathers continued: ‘Bishop Wilfrid, God’s beloved, has set forth in accordance with the canons, the defence under which he seeks to shelter.’
Then they began speaking in Greek and smiled to themselves, and had a long discussion that they kept concealed from us and finally addressed our accusers.
‘You are not ignorant, dear brethren, of the canonical prescription which reads: “When a number of charges are brought against clerics, if the first one cannot be proved the prosecution is not to proceed to the rest.” Nevertheless, out of respect for the archbishop whom we ourselves sent to Britain and in reverence to this most blessed Bishop Wilfrid – who has been so long fraudulently despoiled – we, asking God and St Peter to reveal the truth of the matter, shall willingly put ourselves out and spend weeks and months sifting every charge, for we intend to settle the case once and for all’.
After that the synod gave our bishop and his brethren, for whom the joy of victory had already begun, permission to return to their lodgings. There they set about preparing for the skirmishes to come. Their opponents, on the other hand, returned home in confusion at the result of this first hearing. Several months later their pack of lies was blown away by the blast of wisdom, and with the help of God and St Peter the truth shone clearly forth, showing our holy pontiff completely and utterly free from anything deserving of degradation: for after seventy sessions of the council over a period of four months, in which he was refined in a veritable furnace of cross-examination, he was acquitted. The Holy See came to his aid in the following way: at Easter, on the third day of the feast, a synod consisting of one hundred and twenty-five orthodox bishops under Pope Agatho was held to root out heretical corruption. Each of the bishops witnessed to the true faith on behalf of his province and city and then confirmed the testimony with his signature. This document was read out in a loud voice before all the people, as is the custom in Rome, and in it, among other items, occurred the following passage:
‘Wilfrid, Bishop of the city of York, having appealed to the Apostolic See and having been cleared by the same authority of certain definite and indefinite charges, did, together with one hundred and twenty-five of his fellow-bishops in this synod and judgement seat, confess the true and Catholic faith on behalf of all the northern part of Britain and Ireland and the islands inhabited by the Angles, Britons, Picts, and Scots, and did corroborate the same with his signature.’
When they heard this all the wise citizens of Rome were amazed. Then Boniface and Sizentius and some others who remembered him from Pope Agatho’s time spoke up.
‘This Bishop Wilfrid,’ they said, ‘is the one whom blessed Agatho sent home cleared, by apostolic authority, of every charge levelled against him; but now, alas, the malice of trouble-makers has sent him wandering from his own see. He has been a bishop now for forty years and more, yet those false accusers still do not think shame to forge documents against the venerable old man and his companions. These scoundrels, one a deacon and the rest mere laymen without the least ecclesiastical rank or dignity, have even had the temerity to arraign His Lordship before the Holy See. They deserve the harshest punishment – let them be thrown into the deepest dungeons to waste away till death.’
The citizens of Rome said they had spoken the truth. Then the pope spoke.
‘We have examined the case of blessed Bishop Wilfrid, whom God loves, in numerous sessions of this council, and we can find nothing against him. Therefore, by the authority of St Peter, Prince of the Apostles, in whom resides the power of binding or loosing from secret sins, we declare him acquitted. Moreover, unworthy though we be, we have decided, with the consent of the whole synod, to confirm whatever Agatho, Benedict, and Sergius, bishops of the holy city, decided on his behalf and delivered in writing by Wilfrid’s own hand to the kings and archbishop.’
Here follows the text of the decree.