Eddius Stephanus: Life of Wilfrid
PREFACE
IN the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here begins the humble preface of Stephen the priest to his account of the life of St Wilfrid, a bishop worthy before God. I have no choice but to give way, my honourable masters Bishop Acca and Abbot Tatberht, before the weight of your demands and the will of the whole community – but would that I might be able to accomplish all I should like! The work is difficult, my intelligence and command of rhetoric small; none the less, though the result might come below expectation, the effort will at least pay my debt of obedience. The greatest proof of my respect for you lies in my willingness to satisfy your request even though it demands more than I have to offer. If I produce anything to justify your choice, you must impute it to the grace of God. Relying on the faith and encouragement of you at whose request I begin, I have no doubts about my ultimate success. Everyone realizes that the task you have set me is one you think even myself capable of carrying out. Great profit accrues from the work itself – that of preserving the memory of Bishop wilfrid, for simply to know what kind of man he was is in itself a sure way to virtue. In short, you can accept everything that popular report claims for him but realize that even then you know only very little about matters of great import, for believe me nobody can possibly have the full story.
I beseech you therefore, readers, credit my report. Take no notice of the thousand envious pricks of our old enemy the devil, but give ear and assent to what I now eloquently put forth. Fortitude always meets with enmity — ‘Lightning strikes the peaks first’. Do not imagine I have been so rash and presumptuous as to put down anything which would not be passed as genuine by trustworthy witnesses. I prefer silence to falsehood. Now let us take the journey begun at your request.