CHAPTER 13: The Lord delivers our bishop and his companions from the sea and from the hands of pagans [666; cf. Bede iv,
CHAPTER 13
The Lord delivers our bishop and his companions from the sea and from the hands of pagans [666; cf. Bede iv, 2]
ON the crossing back from Gaul, Bishop Wilfrid’s party in mid-sea and in the middle of the clerics’ songs and psalms of praise, was alarmed by a sudden violent storm and contrary winds, just like the disciples on the Lake of Galilee. The wind howled from the south-east, and white-crested waves drove them towards the land of the South Saxons, a region quite unknown to them. Then the waves left both men and ship high and dry, and drained away from the land, laying bare the shores, and receded far out to sea. Forthwith a great horde of pagans approached, intending to seize the vessel, loot it, carry off captives, and slay without more ado all who resisted. Our holy bishop, anxious to save his friends’ lives, tried to pacify them with soothing words, and promised a large sum of money. They were as fierce and stubborn as Pharaoh; they refused to let God’s people free, declaring contemptuously that everything the sea cast on their shores was theirs. The chief priest of their idolatry set himself up on a high mound like Balaam and started to curse God’s people, trying to bind their hands by his magic art. One of the bishop’s companions took a stone which all the people of God had blessed, and hurled it like David from a sling. It pierced the wizard’s forehead through to the brain. Death took him as it took Goliath, unawares, and he fell back lifeless on the sand. The pagans then prepared for battle, but they directed their onslaught against God’s people in vain, for God was on the side of the few. Gideon, at the Lord’s command, with three hundred warriors slew a hundred and twenty thousand of the Midianites in one attack. Our bishop’s companions were small in number (only one hundred and twenty of them, one for each year of Moses’ life) but, being stout-hearted and well armed, they formed a pact – that no one should turn his back and flee in battle but that each should either die with honour or live in triumph. God can grant either with equal ease. St Wilfrid and his clergy fell to their knees, raised their hands to heaven, and gained God’s help. For just as Moses, Hur and Aaron lifting up his arms, called continually to the Lord for help while Joshua, son of Nun, did battle against Amalek, so did this little band of Christians vanquish a fierce and untamed pagan host. Thrice they routed them, with no mean slaughter, losing, strange to say, only five of their own men all told. Then St Wilfrid prayed again, and God sent back the tide sooner than usual; so that just as the pagans were preparing with all their might and main for a fourth battle, and their king had arrived, the sea flowed in over the whole beach, and the ship cast off and made for the deep. Thanking God for the glorious honour He had granted them, they had a fair passage with the south-west wind behind them and reached harbour at Sandwich.