CHAPTER 17: The building and dedication of the church at Ripon [671–8]
CHAPTER 17
The building and dedication of the church at Ripon [671–8]
IN the midst of all this worldly pomp there grew up in our bishop, by God’s grace, an ever-increasing love for that Virgin Bride, the Church, espoused to one husband, the daughter of Charity which is the mother of all goodness. He decked her out with fair rules of discipline, as though with flowers of virtue, making her chaste and modest, continent and temperate and submissive, girt about with garments of every hue. in the words of the prophet, ‘All the glory of the king’s daughter is within.’1 Just as Moses, following the pattern God gave him on the mount, built with human hands a tabernacle of various hues to stir up the faith of Israel to the worship of God, so the most blessed Bishop Wilfrid, in the sight of all who believed in their heart and confessed their faith, adorned the bridal-chamber of the true Bridegroom and Bride with gold and silver and every shade of purple: at Ripon he started and completed from foundation to roofbeam a church built of dressed stone, supported with columns and complete with side aisles.
Like Solomon’s temple it was consecrated on completion to the Lord. It was dedicated to St Peter, prince of the apostles, to gain the help of his prayers for all who might enter. The altar with its bases was dedicated and vested in purple woven with gold. The people participated in the ceremony and everything was carried out according to the canons. Those most devout and Christian kings, Ecgfrith and Aelwine, the kings beneath them, the abbots and sheriffs, and all kinds of dignitaries besides were present. Wilfrid stood in front of the altar, facing the people, and in the kings’ presence read out in a clear voice a list of lands which previous monarchs and now themselves had given him for their souls’ salvation with the consent and signature of the bishops and all the ealdormen. He went on to enumerate holy places in various parts of the country which the British clergy, fleeing from our own hostile sword, had deserted. God would indeed be pleased with the good kings for the gift of so much land to our bishop. They gave Wilfrid land round Ribble, Yeadon, Dent, and Catlow, and in other places too. When the sermon was over the kings started a feast of three days and nights in which all the people took part, showing kindness to their enemies and treating God’s servants with deference. Our holy bishop adorned the house of God even further with a marvel of art hitherto undreamt of: he had had written, for his soul’s good, a book of the Gospels, done in letters of purest gold on parchment all empurpled and illuminated, and had ordered jewellers to make a case for them, also of the purest gold and set with precious gems. All these treasures and several more besides are kept in the church to this day as a memorial to him. His remains are here and his name is constantly remembered in the monks’ daily prayer.