CHAPTER 45: Enmity is stirred up between Wilfrid and Aldfrith [691–2]
CHAPTER 45
Enmity is stirred up between Wilfrid and Aldfrith [691–2]
THOSE whose delight it is to stir up forgotten quarrels aroused themselves from their torpor and began disturbing the tenor of life which had up till then remained happily serene. They applied themselves to their envious designs until the storm clouds hovered and the brand of dissension was lighted afresh. For a while all would be peace between the wise King Aldfrith and our holy bishop, and a happier state of affairs could hardly be imagined. Then spite would boil up again and the situation would be reversed. And so they continued for years, in and out of friendship with each other, till finally their quarrels came to a head and the king banished Wilfrid from Northumbria. The principal cause of dissension was of long standing, namely the unjust removal of land and possessions from the Church of St Peter. The second was the making of the same monastery, which had been given to us as our own property, into an episcopal see. This entailed loss of rights that had been granted by Pope Agatho and confirmed by five kings. The third was Aldfrith’s insistence on obedience to Theodore’s edicts – not to those issued when he first took office nor those at the end of his reign whereby he had called all the churches to peace and concord in obedience to the canons, but only those from the middle period when all the trouble had started. Wilfrid refused to submit and betook himself to his friend the king of Mercia. Aethilred welcomed him with great honour out of reverence for the Apostolic See, so Wilfrid dwelt on there under his and God’s protection and was held in high respect by the people of the diocese. It was the diocese the most reverend Bishop Sexwulf had ruled until his death.1