CHAPTER 25: Bishop Winfrid of Lichfield is robbed
CHAPTER 25
Bishop Winfrid of Lichfield is robbed
WILFRID prepared to set sail with his companions and some of his clergy. The many thousands of monks he was forced to leave behind in the power of the upstart bishops mourned and bewept their fate, imploring God to direct their bishop’s journey according to His will. Wilfrid’s enemies, finding more scope for their malice in the supposition that he was bound for Etaples and thence by the direct route to Rome, sent envoys off with bribes to Theodoric, king of the Franks, and the wicked Duke Ebroin. They were either to exile him for good or kill his friends and take all his possessions. The Lord freed him from his enemies as though from the hands of Herod himself, for just Then Bishop Winfrid, who had been driven out of Lichfield, happened to be on the selfsame route.2 He fell into their hands and may as well have fallen into the lion’s jaws, for they seized him, took all his money, killed many of his friends, and inflicted the extremes of misery on him by leaving him naked. Luckily for our bishop they had mistaken the first syllable of Winfrid’s name.