CHAPTER 24: How envy is stirred up against our bishop and he is driven from his see [678]
CHAPTER 24
How envy is stirred up against our bishop and he is driven from his see [678]
THE tempter, ‘like a roaring lion’, to quote St Peter, went prowling round God’s fold looking for an entry, on the watch both night and day, trying to overcome the strongest soldier first – for, that done, the rest would easily be conquered. In this skirmish he chose his usual weapon, one by which he has often spread defilement throughout the whole world – woman. Iurminburgh, Ecgfrith’s queen, greatly envied Bishop Wilfrid. Later, let me tell you, after the king was killed, she changed from a she-wolf into a Iamb of God indeed, a perfect abbess and mother of her community. But now she corrupted the king’s heart with poisonous tales about Wilfrid, imitating Jezebel in her onslaughts on the prophets and in her persecution of Elias. She used all her eloquence to describe to Ecgfrith all St Wilfrid’s temporal glories, listing his possessions, the number of his monasteries, the vastness of the buildings, his countless followers arrayed and armed like a king’s retinue. Her darts pierced the king’s heart and took effect; from then on the pair of them used their cunning to secure the condemnation of this holy head of the church and to snatch all the gifts left to God by former kings. This certainly showed daring on their part, but in the end their ill-will turned back upon themselves. Balak went against God’s will when he summoned Balaam to help him. They did likewise. They secured Archbishop Theodore to further criminal folly, winning him over with bribes, for money will blind even the wisest. Theodore came to them and heard them explain that they intended to humiliate Wilfrid. Without the least excuse he agreed to condemn him although he was completely blameless. While our bishop was absent, Theodore found three men from somewhere or other, not Wilfrid’s subjects, and in flagrant contempt of law and precedent proceeded to consecrate them bishops over Wilfrid’s own territory. Our holy bishop, when the news reached him, went straight to the king and the archbishop to find out why, when there was no charge against him, his enemies should behave like robbers and defraud him of all the wealth which the kings, for their love of God, had left him. This is the famous public reply he received: ‘We do not find you guilty of any crime whatsoever; none the less our decrees against you are to remain unchanged.’
This disgraceful decision by no means satisfied our bishop, and on the advice of his fellow bishops he decided to take the case to the Holy See; just as Paul appealed to Caesar when condemned without reason by the Jews. As he turned away from the royal tribunal, he said to the king’s minions who were smirking with delight at his defeat: ‘You who are now laughing at my malicious condemnation will be shedding bitter tears a year from today.’
And his prophecy was true. For twelve months later, to the day, the corpse of King Aelfwini1 was carried into York, at the sight of which the whole population wept and tore their hair for grief and rent their garments.