CHAPTER 47: He discovers their trap
CHAPTER 47
He discovers their trap
IN the meantime, while they were attempting to draw up some kind of formal reply, one of the King’s officers stole out of the king’s tent and came to our bishop. Wilfrid had taken him in as a helpless infant, brought him up from the cradle in fact; consequently the man was greatly devoted to him. He came in disguise, mingling with the crowd, and explained that the bishops’ decision was a trap.
‘They are trying to trick you completely by getting you to sign their decision at the outset, so that afterwards you will be bound by whatever they think fit to stipulate. Your hands will then be tied; you will be powerless to alter a single clause. The upshot of the transaction will be that every single parcel of land you are known to possess in Northumbria, whether belonging to the diocese or the monasteries or coming to you in any other way, will be taken from you. You will be forced to surrender to the archbishop everything you have gained in Mercia from King Aethilred. Berhtwald will then give it to whom he pleases. Finally, you will find that your own signature has condemned you to degradation from the office of bishop.’
Having given his warning, the officer returned by stealth. Our holy bishop, being a man of great strength of character, thought the matter over and was much more wary of signing anything after that. The synod demanded an immediate reply, even threatening that if an answer were not forthcoming he might well find himself sentenced and condemned. His reply was: ‘First let me hear the archbishop’s decision; if it agrees with the rules laid down by the holy fathers, then I will embrace it with all my heart.’
In the end the synod could no longer conceal its plan. Its motives had been publicly known for some time. They openly declared that it was their wish to strip Wilfrid of all he possessed so that he would not be able to call the smallest cottage his own in either Northumbria or Mercia. The ruthlessness of the decision, for which the king and archbishop were responsible, shocked even Wilfrid’s enemies. They cried out against the wickedness of leaving completely penniless a man famous throughout the whole country and especially as no capital offence could be brought against him. So they hit upon a slightly more humane design. Wilfrid would be allowed to keep the monastery at Ripon which he himself had built and dedicated to St Peter, with all its lands and possessions, and the privileges granted to the abbot and community would devolve on him. But the grant was made only on condition that he signed a solemn promise to the effect that he would stay there quietly and never leave the monastery bounds without royal consent, nor exercise his episcopal office in any way at all, and finally that he would voluntarily lay down his rank. Thus they tried to force him to promise his own degradation on oath.
Wilfrid replied in steady fearless tones:
‘Why are you trying to bring me to so sad a plight as to have me make my own signature an instrument of self-destruction? I have been a bishop now for nearly forty years and though unworthy of that rank I am completely innocent of crime; yet you would have me drag down my own name and make it a scandal to all who hear it. After the death of those elders whom Pope Gregory sent to us, was I not the first to root out from the Church the foul weeds planted by the Scots? Did I not convert the whole Northumbrian nation to celebrating Easter at the proper time as the Holy See demanded, and to having the proper Roman tonsure in the form of a crown instead of your old way of shaving the back of the head from the top down? Did I not teach you to chant according to the practice of the early Church, with two choirs singing alternately, but simultaneously for responsories and antiphons and doing the responses and chants together antiphonally? Did I not bring the monastic life into line with the Rule of St Benedict never before introduced into these parts? And now, have I got to bring some hurried sentence against myself, unconscious though I am of any crime committed? With regard to this latest novelty of yours whereby you seek to violate my very office, I appeal in all confidence to the Holy See. Here and now I challenge anyone who presumes to degrade me to accompany me thither to seek judgement. You ought to let the Roman officials, who are no fools, know what charge you bring against me, before I submit to you alone.’
To this the king and archbishop replied: ‘Now at any rate he is guilty. Let him stand condemned for preferring their judgement to ours.’
The king added to the archbishop’s proposal: ‘If you want, I can use my army to put pressure on him and force him, this time without the slightest delay, to say how willing he is to accept our decision.’
But here the other synodal bishops interrupted: ‘We ought to remember that he only came here on the promise of safe conduct from us; otherwise he would never have ventured. Let us all return home in peace.’