CHAPTER 21: Our bishop’s virtue
CHAPTER 21
Our bishop’s virtue
THESE conquests at one and the same time extended our most pious King Ecgfrith’s territory and enlarged the field of Wilfrid’s ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He was now bishop of the Saxons in the south and of the British, Scots, and Picts to the north. He was dearly loved by every race, performed his duties as bishop with all diligence, ordained priests and deacons to help him in all parts of the diocese, and steered the barque of the Church on an even keel through the tossing billows of this world. No wave of conviviality swamped him; neither did he let his abstinence cast him against the rocks of pride. He was habitually temperate at feasts – and even when alone never drank a full glass, no matter how small the vessel might be, neither summer nor winter, whether parched with thirst or faint with cold. There are plenty of witnesses to vouch for this. In praying and keeping vigil, in spiritual reading and in fasting, where will you find his equal? He himself testified before the faithful that he had kept his body unspotted from his mother’s womb. Every night, summer and winter, he washed himself in holy water until Pope John of happy memory advised him to forgo such rigours on account of his age. Nearly all the abbots and abbesses made over their possessions to him by vow, either retaining them in his name during their lifetime or naming him heir in their wills. Nobles, men of high position in the world, sent their sons for him to tutor so that they might have the choice either of giving themselves to God or else of returning as grown men with Wilfrid’s recommendation to enter the king’s service as warriors. These things only served to kindle the flame of envious hate in many hearts, a flame which the devil was quick to fan; but our holy bishop, carrying, in the words of St Paul, armour on the right arm and on the left, bore with equanimity both good fortune and bad. His gifts both to clergy and laity were on such a grand scale that he was second to none in largesse.