Beginning of the Trials of Wilfrid: St. Etheldreda

Wilfrid, reduced to a subordinate position, reconciles himself to King Oswy, who dies after a prosperous reign of twenty-eight years. — Extension of Northumbrian domination, and of Wilfrid's jurisdiction towards the north. — At the commencement of the new reign, alliance between him and King

'"^ Hook, t. i. p. 1G5. Mignet, Mcmoire sur la Conversion dcVAllcmagnc paries Moines, p. 25.

"" " Neque unquam prorsus fcliciora fuere tcmpora... dum omnium vota ad nuper audita coelestis regni gaudia penderent."— Bede, iv. 2.

356 ST. WILFRID ESTABLISHES ROMAN UNITY

Egfrid, who triumphs both in the insurrection of the Picts and the invasion of the Mercians. — Episcopal virtues and austerities of Wilfrid. — His confirmation journeys; the child resuscitated. — Wilfrid's monasteries become centres of public education. — Services which he renders to the arts; music, spread of the Gregorian chant. — Great architectural works at York, at Ripon, and especially at Hexham, where he builds the finest church on this side the Alps on land given by Queen Etheldreda. — Connection of Wilfrid with Etheldreda, the first and most popular of English female saints. — Her origin and connections. — Twice married, she succeeds in consecrating her virginity to God. — Wilfrid encourages her in her resistance to King Egfrid, and gives her the veil at Coldingham; Egfrid pursues her. — She flies to Ely. — Legends of her journey. — Foundation and monastic life at Ely. — The major-domo Owen. — Wilfrid continues to advise Etheldreda. — His quarrel with Egfrid provoked by the new queen, Ermenburge. — The Archbishop Theodore interferes in their disputes. — He deposes Wilfrid, and divides his diocese into three newbishoprics, which he confides to Celtic monks. — Wilfrid appeals to Rome. — The saints and great abbots of his country remain indifierent or — Strange ignorance of ecclesit stical right, even among the

While the Archbishop Theodore received everysuborcHMte where the credit of the intellectual and moral prosposition, perity of England, Wilfrid, re-established in his see, but eclipsed by the popularity and authority of the primate, appears to have been thrown back into a subordinate position. Nevertheless it was he who had given the first signal for this renewal of Roman influence in England, who had gained the decisive battle of Whitby, who had begun, supported, and decided the struggle against the insular spirit and its exclusive tendencies, and who, in more than one trial, had paid the price of his spontaneous devotion. And it was a stranger from the depths of Asia Minor who came to reap what he had sown, while not one special mark of pontifical approbation or gratitude had honored the first author and most intrepid champion of this happy revolution. In contemplating the triumphs of Theodore, there only remained for him to say, like the precursor of our Saviour, " He must increase, but I must decrease," and to prove the disinterestedness and sincerity of his soul, by lending all the assistance possible to his venerable rival.

This he did by sending deputies to the council of midkidto Hertford. Enough occupation besides remained to osw'y. him in dividing his life between the duties of the episcopate and those of his monastic profession. Reduced to

AND THE BENEDICTINE ORDER. 357

a secondary rank, he could yet find ample satisfaction for his zeal for the good of souls and of the Church, above all, since his reconciliation with Oswy. This reconciliation was complete, and accompanied by such an adhesion to the opinions of Wilfrid on the part of the Bretwalda, that, having ftillen ill, he conceived the project of going, if he recovered — he, the first of Saxon kings— to pass the remainder of his life near the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome. He implored Wilfrid to accompany him, promising him new gifts to keep up that pomp and magnificence of worship which was so dear to the bishop. But the death of Oswy put a stop to this project. He died at the age of fiftyeight, after a reign of twenty-eight years, which had been signalized by the deliverance of his country, and by the overthrow of the pagan domination of the Mercians, and which, had it not been stained by the murder of the pious Oswin, would have been the most glorious and happy in the Saxon annals. He was buried at Whitby, in the great maritime monastery to which he had given his daughter as the price of his decisive victory over the pagans. This daughter, Elfleda, on becoming abbess ten years after the death of her father, claimed his remains, and placed them beside those of her maternal grandfather Edwin, the first Christian king among the northern English, so that the two greatest princes of the two rival Northumbrian dynasties reposed together in this monastic uecropolis.^^^

This famous Oswy, last and greatest Bretwalda of whom history keeps any record, had established in the north of his kingdom a supremacy still more extensive in some respects, and more durable, than in the south. Passing the frontiers which his predecessors Edwin and Oswald had given to Northumbria on the Caledonian side, he subjugated all the territory between the Forth and the Tay.112 j3ut it was chiefly in the east of the central peninsula, in those districts which have since received the names of Lothian and the Marches, that he impressed on the institutions, manners, and language, that Anglo-Saxon character which, throughout the history of Scotland, remains so visibly distinct from the manners and traditions of Caledonia. Hence

'" " In hoc monasterio et ipsa et pater ipsius Oswi et pater matris ejus Edwinus et multi alii nobiles in ecclesia S. Petri sepulti sunt." — Cede, iii. 24,

¹¹² "Perdomuit... gcntem Pictorum maxima ex parte regno Anglorum Bubjecit." Bede, iii. 24. arose that partition of Scotland during the whole of its independent existence between two influences, or rather between two races, nominally ruled by the same kings, but distinct by language, laws, cultivation, and all the habits of life, and almost always at bitter feud with each other.^^^ Extension Oswy's victories over the race which had formerly dLceLof sheltered his youth and exile extended, out of all proportion, the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Northumbria, which had been originally established at Lindisfarne in the centre of the kingdom, but which, since the restoration of Wilfrid, had been fixed at York, much further south. The crosier of Wilfrid thus extended not only over the two primitive kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira, but also over three provinces inhabited by the vanquished races, the Picts of Lothian, the Britons of Cumberland, and the mingled population of Britons, Scots, and Picts in Galloway .11* His spiritual authority was recognized, at least nominally, by all the Celtic races, and it cannot be doubted that he used all his efforts to root out from among them, as from among the Northumbrians, the customs of their fathers. This also, was, no doubt, one of the causes of that flood of resistance and discontent which was to sweep him away in the end. His union Oswy was replaced on the Northumbrian throne niw King by his son Egfrid. During the first years of the jjg^r reign the concord between the king and the bishop was complete. The Picts, however, imagined that the youth of Egfrid would furnish them with an opportunity

of regaining all that his father had taken from them. A

general insurrection took place, seconded by all the auxiliaries which could be provided by the unconquered tribes of Victories Caledonia. But Egfrid, a worthy successor of the valiant kings Oswy and Oswald, put himself at the head of a troop of cavalry, surprised his enemies, and exterminated them. We are not told whether religion had any part in this war, but it is plain that all the desires of Wilfrid were for the triumph of the Northumbrians by the language of his friend Eddi, who speaks of the Picts as brutes (though they were already Christians), describes as bestial their hatred of the Saxon yoke, and rejoices that two rivers were so choked with their corpses that it was almost possible to cross dryshod to attack the survivors and "^ AuGUSTiN Thierry, Diz Ans d'Etudes Historiques, p. 166. ¹¹⁴ " Wilfrido administrante episcopatum, nee non et omnium Northymbrorum, sed et Pictorum, quousque rex Oswin imperium protendere poterat." — Bede, iv. 3. Cf. Vakin, memoir already quoted. bring them again under the detested yoke which fifteen years later they succeeded in throwing off forever.ii-^

Wilfrid must have been more embarrassed when Wulphere, his old and faithful friend, the protector of his disgrace, the husband of the gentle Ermenilda, too faithful to the traditions of his father Penda, tried in his turn to destroy the young Egfrid, and to render Northumbria again tributary to Mercia. But he soon decided for his hereditary chief, and joined his exhortations, in the name of the men of God, to those addressed by the Northumbrian Parliament to the king, to excite him to a most vigorous resistance, in which they triumphed. ^^*^ Thus it was not Northumbria, but Mercia, which became tributary. Egfrid even seized a whole province to increase his kingdom, already so vast, and never allowed the Mercians to regain their independence till after the accession of Ethelred, brother of Wulphere, who had married the sister of the victor.^^''

Egfrid and Wilfrid were now both victorious: one over the enemies who had menaced his kingdom in the north andsouth; the other over the dissidents who occupied so large a portion of his diocese. During several years of a very temporary alliance, which was destined to end in the most bitter enmity, they combined all the power of their double authority to strengthen the edifice of Northumbrian royalty, and the just supremacy of Roman customs, over the vanquished Celts and the tributary Mercians. The young kingshowed great deference to the already celebrated prelate who had been the friend of his elder brother. Harvests of unusual abundance seemed to the people a pledge of celestial protection; and, as in the other parts of England, the harmony of the priesthood and royalty, under the auspices of a great bishop, seemed about to bring in an era of general peace and prosperity.^i'^

uo It Tenero adhuc regno, populi bestiales Pictorum feroci animo subjectionem Saxonura despiciebant.... Statim equitatii cxercito praeparato... stragem immensani populi subruit, duo flumina cadaveribus mortuorum replens, ita... ut supra siccis pedibus ambulantes, fugientium turbas occidentes persequebantur, ct in servitutem redacti populi... subjecti jugo captivitatis jacebant." — Eddius, c. 18.

116 4*i|ox vero, consilio senuni patriam custodirc, ecclesias Dei defenderc episcopo docente, in Deo confisus." — Ibid., c. 19.

"^ Bkue, iv. 12. See genealogical tables VI. and VIII., Appendix, pp. 000. and OOO- 118 4, Wilfrido episcopo ad austrum super Saxones, ad aquiloncni super Britones et Scotos, Pictosque regnura ecclcsiarum multiplicabatur.... Rex et regina sinml Wilfrido obcdientes facti, pax ct gaudium in populis, anni frugiferi." — Eddius, c. 20, 18.

^^^ power of Wilfrid was used only for the S'^od of souls, commencing with his own. He was surpassed by no one in those works of piety and mortification which the numerous temporal cares that oppressed him rendered yet more dear and yet more necessary. His nights passed in prayer, his. days in studying the Holy Scriptures, perhaps edified and surprised his visitors and daily companions less than his fasts and abstinence. Saxon intemperance Avas confounded by the example of this powerful personage, the first in the country, except the king, who never permitted himself to drink more than the contents of a small phial, even when he was most exhausted, and after a long journey on foot under a burning sun. As to purity of body and soul, he believed that he preserved it by washing from head to foot in cold but consecrated water every night, summer and winter; and he preserved this habit — borrowed, perhaps, unconsciously, from the austerities of Celtic monachism ^^^— until he was forbidden to continue it by the Pope, on account of his age.i^"^

His zeal for good was tempered, at this time at least, by great moderation. We are told expressly in considering this epoch of his life, that he had made himself dear to all the different races of his immense diocese, from the Humber to the Clyde. He multiplied, as much as possible, the priests and deacons necessary for the new parishes, which were everywhere formed; but he reserved to himself the principal part in the fatigues and obligations of an apos- ^^''° ministry. He travelled, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, in all weathers and all seasons, through his great province, to baptize, to preach even in the smallest hamlets, and, above all, to administer the rite of confirmation. Everywhere eager crowds pursued him and surrounded him, to obtain the benefit of the sacraments from his hands.121 It was in one of these journeys that an incident occurred, at the village of Tiddafrey, which ought to be recorded here. While the ceremony of confirmation was go-

"9 See p. 101.

^^" " In conviviis tara abstinenter vivebat, ut numquam solus, quamvis parvissima pliiala esset, potu consurapsisset, aut pro calore sitiens, aut.... In vigiliis et orationibus, in lectione et jejuniis quis similisei?... Corpus in aqua benedicta nocturnis horis inclementer restate ac hieme consuetudinarie lavavit." — Eddius, c. 20.

¹²¹ "Omnibus gentibus charus et amabilis.... Inter saeculares undas fluctuantes moderate novas ecclesias gubernabat.... Equitante et pergente ad varia officia episcopatus sui."— Eddius, c. 20, 17. ing on, a poor mother, agonized by the loss of her first born, made her way, weeping, through the crowd, with the little body of her child clasped to her heart. Having reached the first rank among the mothers, who pressed forward with their children, she presented her dead son to the bishop among the living, as if to be confirmed with them. Wilfrid, leaning over the child, perceived that it Avas dead. Then, comprehending how it was, he- paused beside the desolate mother, and watched her a while in silence; upon w^hich she threw herself at his feet, covering them with tears and kisses, and with a voice broken by sobs, adjured him to give her back her child. " 0, holy man," she cried, '' beware how you destroy the faith of a desperate woman! Help me to believe; restore my child to life, and baptize it. To God and to you it is still living. Courage! fear not to do it in the strength of Christ! " Wilfrid remembered the Canaanite of the Gospel. He knelt in prayer. Then placing his right hand on the heart of the child, he felt that it beat, and so restored it to life. After having thus raised it up, and baptized it, he returned it to the mother, exacting a promise that at seven years old she should bring it to him to be trained as a servant of God.^-^ This miracle may or may not be believed; but who can refuse to be touched by the cry of the mother? and it is pleasant to find in Wilfrid that goodness of heart which God sometimes gives to great disputants and stern champions, and which alone renders them completely irresistible.

Let us add, to return to the dark reality of earthly things, that the mother, once in possession of her child, would not give him up, but fled with him to the Britons ^^^— that is to say, to the enemies of the saint, probably in Cumbria, which was also in the diocese of Wilfrid, and from whence it was necessary for an officer of the bishop to bring the child back by force to his benefactor. He afterwards became a monk at Ripon, where he was called the bishop's son.

It is not easy to understand how Wilfrid should Tiiomonas-

1 11-I1- • r-iii-

have needed unwilling recruits to hil nis monaster-

'^^ " Amaro animo susurrans, moerore ct onere fatigata... habens primogenitum uiortuura subsinupannis involutum.... Coram facie agnoscentis cecidit ia terrain... adjuravit eum audaciter... pedes deosculabatur, lacryniis irrigavit,... ' O sanctissime, noli orbate inulieris fidein extinguerc, sed credulitatem mcani adjuva: suscita eum ct baptiza; tibi euim et Deo vivit: in virtute Christi ne dubites." — Eddius, c. 17.

1^3 «( Latentem sub allis Britonum," Eddi says. ies, when the number of monks who thronged to i[c*cduea"'' them is one of the best established facts in his history. Besides, the Northumbrian monasteries, like others, were schools, and many of the children received there enrolled themselves among their masters. Some important details in the life of our saint prove that the education given in monasteries was a true public education, and fitted youths for the world as well as for the cloister. It is expressly said that the Anglo-Saxons of high rank, the earls and thanes, were eager to confide their children to Wilfrid, to be brought up in his monastic establishments; and that at the end of their education they chose between the service of God and that of the king. If they decided on a secular and military life, Wilfrid sent them to the king fully armed, as he himself at fourteen years of age had appeared before Queen Eanfleda.^^ Services During all the course of his laborious episcopate, wufrld'to^ Wilfrid was moved, by the love of God and the love of souls, to make great efforts for the consecration, ^^ ^i^g service of tke Church, of those inexhaustible treasures of art which at that time found refuge alone in the monastic order. Music, above all, appeared to him an indispensable auxiliary of the new faith. He was not content with establishing within his monasteries a course of musical instruction, the teachers of which he had brought from the great school of Gregorian song at Canterbury; but with the help of Stephen Eddi, who has left us the story of his life, he spread this instruction through all the churches of the north of England. Thanks to him, the Anglo-Saxon peasants mingled with their labors as well as with their prayers the sweet and solemn chanting of psalms in the Gregorian tones.^-^ Thanks to him, Northumbria become a great centre of music, rivalling the school of Canterbury, in which the priests and

124 (4 Principes et sseculares viri nobiles filios suos ad erudiendum sibi dederunt, ut aut Deo servirent, si eligerent, aut adultos, si maluissent, regi armatos commendaret." — Eddius, c. 20.

'^^ Faber, pp. 62, GG. " Sed et sonos cantandi in ecclesia, quos eatenus in Cantia tantum noverant, ab hoc tempore per omnes Anglorum ecclesias discere coeperunt... primusque magister Nortanhymbrorum ecclesiis MMi... invitatus de Cantia." — Bede, iv. 3. There is a second curious passage regarding other companions of Wilfrid: " Cantatorem quoque egregiuni, vocabulo Maban, qui a successoribus discipulorum B. papai Gregorii in Cantia fuerat cantandi sonos edoctus, ad se suosque instituentlos accersiit, ac per annos duodecim tennit: quatenus et quiss illi non nover.fnt, carmina ecclesiastica doceret: et ea quae quondam cognita longo usu vel negligentia inveterare coeperunt, hujus doctrina priscum renovarentur in statum. Nam et ipse episcopus Acca cantator erat peritissimus." — Bede, v. 19. the faithful renewed their musical education periodically, as at the fountain head— a fact which must have associated the noble memory of Wilfrid with the solemn and consoling modulations of a popular and traditional liturgy.

But ecclesiastical architecture offered him a still Avider field; and the results obtained by his exertions roused his contemporaries to an enthusiasm the echo of which has descended to us. Born with a taste for art and building, and also with a decided love of pomp and magnificence, he devoted all these natural dispositions to the service of God.^^s j^i i]^q i^g^d of the monkish ccementarii, whom he had brought from Canterbury, he began by thoroughly repairing the primitive Cathedral of York, which had been founded by Paulinus, the first Roman missionary, and where Edwin, the first Christian king, with his daughter Eanfleda, had been baptized. Since the translation of the bishopric to Lindisfarne, this church had been like a place abandoned. The rain entered on all sides, and birds built their nests in it. Wilfrid, like a prudent architect, began his work by covering the roof with lead; he then put transparent glass in the windows; and finally caused the stones injured by damp to be washed and scraped. It seems even possible that he may have been the inventor of that white-washing which has since been so greatly abused; ^^^ after which he provided the restored cathedral with rich ornaments and a territorial endowment.

But he was much more prodigal towards his beloved Monastery of Ripon, which he held by the gift of his first friend Alchfrid, and which had been the first centre of his independent and missionary action. He built there a vast basilica, dedicated to St. Peter, which excited universal amazement. Nothing had ever been seen equal to its lofty porches and columns of polished stone, nor, above all, to its magnificent Book of the Gospels, covered with plates of gold set with precious stones, which Wilfrid, for the good of his soul, had caused to be transcribed in letters of gold on purple vellum, and which he placed on the altar the day that the church was dedicated. On the day of '^'' " Crescebat ergo cum saeculari sumptu... pontifici nostro, amico sponsi aeternalis, magis ac magis ardentissinius amor sponsa3."

''^ ''Culmina corrupta tecti renovans, artificiose plumbo puro dctegens, per fenestras introituni avium et imbrium vitro prohibuit; per quod tamen intro lumen radiabat Parietes lavans, secundum proplietam super lucem dealbavit." Eddius, c. 15. "Ipse illas alba calce dealbavit." — GuiLLt Malmesb., De Gest. Pontif. Angl., 1. iii. f. 148. this ceremony, in presence of King Egfrid, his brother, the neighboring abbots, the ealdormen,i28 h^q earls, lords, and other principal Saxons, Wilfrid, standing before the altar, turned towards the people who filled the church, and solemly declared his right to all the lands and churches, enumerating them by name, which had been conceded to him by the kings, with consent of the bishops and assembly of nobles of the country, and which were situated principally in that district which the British clergy had abandoned when flying before the swords of the Saxons. Thus his hostility against the Celtic Christians reappeared, even in the midst of this joyful solemnity, which ended in true Saxon fashion with a grand banquet, where the Abbot of Ripou entertained all the guests, and which lasted three days and three nights.^^a At the new '^^^ magnificence displayed by Wilfrid at Ripon Abbey of was yet again surpassed in an entirely new foundaexam. ^j^^^ ^^ Hexham, situated much further north, in the heart of Bernicia, not far from the place where the sainted King Oswald had planted, for the first time, the cross on the soil of Northumbria, and commenced that struggle which had secured the greatness and independence of his country. It was there — near to the blood-rstained cradle of Northumbrian Christianity, at the foot of the lofty wall built as a defence against the Picts by the Emperor Severus, a little below the junction of the two branches of the Tyne, on a plain surrounded by undulating hills — that Wilfrid chose the site of a great monastery, destined, though he little suspected it, to be his own last asylum.^^o As he had dedicated his first abbey to St. Peter, he dedicated this to St. Andrew, the pat-

'^* This is the title then given to the greatest Saxon lords, earls, or governors, more or less hereditary, of provinces, — from hence the modern word alderman. The ealdorman is translated in the Latin works of the time by the word dux. and his functions were similar to those of the lord-lieutenant of each English county, or of the supreme courts of the kingdom of Hungary, the constitution of which so faithfully reproduced most of the English institutions.

'*' " Basilicara polite lapide a fundaraentis in terris usque ad summum aedificatam variis columnis et porticibus sufiTultum.... Inauditum erat sseculis nostris miraculum.... Invitatis regibus, cum abbatibus prsefectisque et subregulis totiusque dignitatis personae.... Coram regibus enumerans regiones quas ante reges... et in ilia die cum consensu et subscriptione episcoporum et omnium principum, illi dederunt.... Consummato sermone, magnum convivium trium dierura eo noctium... laetificantes inierunt." — Eddics, c. 27.

"•^ This site is perfectly described in a recent publication of the Surtees Society, which contains a complete history of Hexham — The Priory of Hexham, its Ghroniclers, Endowments, and Annals, by James Raine. Durham, 1864,

AND THE BENEDICTINE ORDER. 365

ron of the church in which he had first prayed on arriving at Rome, and from whence the first apostles of England had been sent. The surprise and admiration which his previous works had awakened became indescribable at the sight of the deep foundations dug, and immense stones placed in them for the basement of a church which, when finished —with its porches and pillars, its numerous naves and clerestories, its vast vaults underneath, its spiral staircases and galleries, and the imposing height of its spires — was regarded for two centuries as the most beautiful on this side the Alps, and as a kind of reproduction of Roman ambition.131

From the pinnacle of one of these towers, which The monk was of unheard-of height, a young monk upon one mason faiioccasion fell to the ground, breaking his arms and the summit legs on the pavement. The rest believed him dead, buiwing. and were about to carry him away in a coffin, when Wilfrid, in tears, stopped the bearers, collected the whole community, and said to them: — '* Pray all of you to God, with lively faith, that He would grant us the grace which He gave to St. Paul, that He would restore this child to life, and that the enemy may not have such occasion to rejoice in our work." The general prayer was granted. The medical members of the community bound up the broken limbs of the young monk, who recovered slowly, and lived long. This incident proves that Wilfrid himself directed the works,

'^* '• Cujus profunditatem in terra cum domibus (?) mirifice politis lapidibus fundatam, et super terrain multiplicem domum... variis linearum anfractibus viarum, aliquando sursum, aliquando deorsum, per cochleas circumductam, non est mese parvitatis explicare... neque ullani domum aliam citra Alpes montes, talera sedificatam audivimus." — Eddius, c. 21. " Ibi ffidificia minaci altitudine murorum, erecta... multa proprio sed et caemcntariorum, quos ex Roma nmnificentiae attraxerat, magisterio... nunc qui Roma veniunt allegant ut qui Hagulstadensem fabricam vident, ambitioncm Romanam se imaginari jurent." — Guillelm. Malmesb., Z)e Gest. l^ontif., 1. iii. f. 155. The successor of Wilfrid collected here a crowd of relics placed in shrines. Each triforium, formed by the intercolumniation of the edifice, was occupied by one of these shrines. This wonderful church, with all its riches, was burnt by the Danes in 875. Nothing now remains but the crypt, of which a plan, extremely curious and complicated, will be found in the excellent Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture, by Mr. J. H. Parker, p. 11. This crypt is now covered by the beautiful Abbey Church, rebuilt in the twelfth century, the choir and transept of which have preserved their original beauty, the nave having been destroyed by the Scots in 129G. Those among my readers who are interested in architecture will forgive an old archaeologist for presenting to their notice the text of Richard, Prior of Hexham, who wrote about 1150, and who had seen the ruins of Wilfrid's church. It will be found in Appendix V., p. 000- and that the monks of the monastery mingled with the ccementarii by profession whom Wilfrid had brought fron? Canterbury, or even attracted from Rome by the offer of large salaries.^^^

A hundred years later, an illustrious Northumbrian monk, who has been adopted by France and received into the number of her distinguished men, the great Alcuin, begged the sons of Wilfrid to reckon him among the number of their familiar friends, referring at the same time to the admiration excited, even beyond the seas, by the magnificent dwelling left to them by their founder. " Oh, noble posterity of saints," he wrote to them, " heirs of their honors and of their spotless life, inhabitants of that dwelling so marvellous in beauty, walk in the footsteps of your fathers, so that, passing from the splendor of your earthly home, you may be worthy, by the grace of God, to rejoin those from whom you are descended in the kingdom of eternal beauty." ^^s connectioa The land on which the new Monastery of HexwiuTQueen ham was built had been given to Bishop Wilfrid, Ethoidreda. plot by the king, but by the queen, Etheldreda, whose personal estate it was, a part of her dowry. 1^4 It was the residence he preferred to all others, as much on account of the calm which he enjoyed there as from his tender affection for the giver.13^ It is now time to turn to this saint, whose life was so singular, whose influence over the destiny of Wilfrid was so marked, and in whom we must recognize the earliest, and for a long time the most popular, of all the English female saints.^s*^

132 a Cum aedificarent caementarii murorura altitudines, quidam juvenis de pinna enormis proceritatis elapsus ad terram... ultima spiramina traliens jacebat.... Pontificis lacrymantis moratione... spiritura vitae recepit et alligantes medici ossa confracta de die in diem melioratus est." —Eddius, c. 22. See preceding note in respect to tlie Roman workmen.

¹³³ n Ji^dilberto episcopo et omni congregationi in ecclesia sancti Andreae Deo scrventiuni, Alcliuirius vestrffi clicntellus caritatis in Christo salutem... O nobilissima sanctorum progenies patrum! illorum honoris venerabilisque vitas successores et pulcherrimorum habitatores locorum vestrorum, sequimini vestigia patrum: ut de his pulcherrimis habitationibus ad eorum, qui vos genuerunt, ajteruEe beatitudinis consortium, in caclestis regni pulchritudinem, Deo donante, pervenire mereamini." — Alcuini Opera, ed. Froben. 1777, t. i. p. 196.

"* Raine, p. xiv. This territory, known by the name of Hexhamshire, was twelve miles long and three broad.

135 ⁴⁴ pj.gg ceteris quibus praafuit ecclesiis, banc creberius visitavit, devotius coluit." — ^LRED, De Sanctis Eccles. Hagustaldensis, c. 1. "Tum ob amorem dilectissimaj dominae suae, turn propter secretiorem et quietiorera vitam." — RiCARD. Hagustald., De Ant. et Moderno Statu ejusdcm JEcclesicB, c. 2.

"^ Under the name of St. Audrey. This name, now quite fallen into disuse, is given by Shakespeare to one of his characters in As You Z'"'*e It.

AND THE BENEDICTINE ORDER. 3G7

Etheldreda no doubt, like all the princes and princesses of the Anglo-Saxon dynasties, believed herself descended irora Odin; but at least she was undoubtedly of the family of the Uffings, the royal race in East Anglia. Her father. King Anna, married a Northumbrian princess, sister of the Abbess Hilda, and grand niece of Edwin, first Christian king of Northumbria. It Avas to avenge the death of this father, who had fallen under the sword of the sanguinary Penda, that King Oswy, her father-in-law, made war on the Mercians, and not only delivered East Anglia, but also conquered and occupied Mercia. Etheldreda was the sister of Ermenilda, Queen of the Mercians, who had so well seconded Wilfrid in the work of converting her people.^'^^ She had also another sister, married to that King of Kent who was so zealous for the destruction of idols.^^s ^^d she was niece, through ^ her mother, of Hilda, the holy and powerful Abbess of Whitby, whose authority, though no doubt weakened since the victory gained by Wilfrid over her friends at Whitby itself, was, notwithstanding, always great throughout Northumbria.

Like all princesses whose history has fallen into the region of legends, the chroniclers boast of her precocious piety, the fervor and stainless purity of her early years. Nevertheless, she loved ornament; and on her death-bed still remembered the weight of the necklaces and jewels with which her delicate throat had been loaded.i^^ These orna-- ments gave additional brilliancy to her great beauty, which excited, it is said, the passion of all the neighboring princes.^^^ The most ardent of these, the Prince of the Gyrwiens, a Saxon colony established in the marshy country which separates East Anglia from Mercia, asked her in marriage, and obtained her from her father, two years before the death of that king on the field of battle^'^i Etheldreda, how- ^^^ ever, having resolved to follow the example of the

*" See above, p. 340.

"* See p. 287. Cf. Bede, iv. 22; and Thomas, Historia Eliensis, i. 2, 25, ap. Act. SS. O. S. B. sec. ii. A new edition of this historian is published by Stewart, London, 1848.

i:t9 <. Merito in collo pondus languoris porto, in quo juvenculam me memini supervacua monilium pondera portare." — Bede, iv. 19.

¹⁴⁰ "Abipsis infantia; rudimentis sobrietati et pudicitiaj indulgens.... Acccdunt plurimi forma; virginis excellentiam admirantes.... Innuineris ejus pulchritudo principibus complacebat: et venusta faciei ejus pulchritudo ad puellares promovebat amplexus." Thom., Eliens., § 4.

'" " Postulatur a Toniberto principe ... qui in amorem virginis totum animum informandum instituit.... Alligatur licet invita conjugali copulse.... Desponsata raatrem Domini meruit imitari. ... In quorum copula blessed Virgin Mary, and to consecrate herself wholly to God, resisted to the utmost the will of her father, and succeeded in preventing the consummation of her marriage during the three years that she passed with the tender and generous Tombert. He died; and the young widow supposed herself forever delivered from the matrimonial yoke, and free to give herself up to Christ. But it was not so. Egfrid, the son and heir of the great King of Northumbria, the most powerful prince of the Anglo-Saxon nation, became in his turn enamoured of her. Her resistance was as vain as in the first instance. The entreaties of her uncle, who had succeeded her father as King of East Anglia, and those of all her relations, compelled her to a second marriage, which no doubt seemed to them a new and precious pledge of alliance between the two kingdoms.^*^ The impas- *^^^" sioned Egfrid bestowed on her, in full sovereignty, considerable possessions, of which the vast territory of Hexham, which she afterwards gave to Wilfrid, formed part.

When Wilfrid became bishop, he acquired at once, as has been seen, a great influence over the king, and the queen was not slow to show him still greater confidence and affection.143 gut what must have been the surprise and irritation of the young king, whom the powerful testimony of his contemporary Bede represents to us as very pious and highly beloved by God,^^ when he found that Etheldreda persisted, as in her former marriage, in keeping her virginity for God Like the terrible Clotaire, the husband of St. Radegonde, a century previous, he found that he had married not a woman, but a nun.145 But although he loved not less than Clotaire the wife who refused to belong to him, he respected and feared her more. She seemed to him more his lady and mistress than his equal and queen. Several years thus passed; the refusals of Etheldreda serving only to increase his passion. He then determined to apply to Wilfrid, well

non commixtione carnis unum corpus, sed, ut creditur, in Christo unus erat animus.... Ignara maritalis negotii, indefessis precibus apud Deum obtinuit, ut illani custodiret inimaculatam." — Ibid.

"- " Gaudebat solutam se esse in Christi libertate de jugo conjugii.... JEgfridus... inflanitnatur in amorem virginis, opes confert innumeras, dotesque spondet multiplices.... Principis petitio vehementius facta est... licet invita... adquievit unanimi parentum voluntati."— Thom., Eliens., c. 4, 8.

"^ See above, p. 358. " Quem virgo regina praj omnibus in regno dilectum et electum habuerat." — Id., c. 15.

"* Vita S. Cuihberti, c. 24.

¹⁴⁵ ('Dicebat se habere jugalem monacham, non reginam."

AND THE BENEDICTINE ORDER. 3G9

knowing what was the empire of the bishop over the conscience of Etheldreda, as well as over her heart, since he was the man for whom she had the greatest affection. ii'^ He offered him, as Wilfrid himself related to the venerable Bede, large estates and much money as the price of the queen's consent to his wishes. Bede only sees in Wilfrid on this occasion a witness to the incorruptible virginity of the saint. But, if we are to believe the official panegyrist of Etheldreda, it was Wilfrid who encouraged her in her resistance, while at first pretending to second the views of the king, in order to preserve his favor. In his secret conferences with her, he showed her heaven as the reward of her perseverance. She made to him the vow of chastity, and he then counselled her to ask from the king a formal separation, that she might consecrate herself to God in a monastery. Egfrid at first refused this absolutely; but after long disputes— after twelve years of so strange and stormy a union, vanquished by the prayers and tears of her whom he ever loved with so faithful a passion — he suffered a kind of consent to be torn from him to the departure of his unconquerable wife.^'*'

146 It Acriores JEgfrido stiinulos adjicit, et aJ oopulani virginis feroces illius animos vehementer incendit... (sed) reginam irapudice non tetigit, neque constristavit... quoniam non ut reginam aut pareni, verum tanquam dominam per omnia venerabatur.... Tamen optat ille debitura a conjuge." — Thom., Eliens., t. i. 8, 9.

'"' Respect for truth obliges me to give entire the text on which this singular history rests. In the first place that of the contemporary Bede, whose curiosity, at first incredulous, may be remarked; next that of the monk of Ely, who did not write until five centuries after the death of Etheldreda, but who lived in the monastery which she had founded, and surrounded with all the memorials which she had herself brought and left there, and which had passed from mouth to mouth until his time. " Data est regi prtefato cujus consortio cum duodecim annis uteretur, perpetuas tamen mansit virginitatis integritate gloriosa: sicut mihimct sciscitanti cum hoc an ita esset, quibusdam venisset in dubium beatte menioriaj Wilfrid episcopus referebat; dicens se testem integritatis ejus esse certissimum: adeo ut iEgfridus promiserit se ei terras ac pecunias multas esse donaturum, si reginaj posset persuaderc ejus uti connubio, quia sciebat illam nullum virorum plus illo diligere." —Bede, iv. 19. " Vidit ejus assiduam cum beato prajsule familiaritatem.... Hinc Dei praeconem rex frustra fatigat prasmiis..., Wilfridus voti virginei fautor existens, vigilantis animi sagacitate procurabat, ne qua femineaj mentis inconstantia virgo mutaret.... Dissimulavit provide, tanquam regi favcns ct desiderii sui eflScaciam regina3 persuadendam polliccns; veritus ne, sicut contigit, ob rem hujusce modi offensum ilium haberet.... Sic Dei virtute prsedita, per consilium sancti prajsulis nullatenus regi assensum praibuit; egitque vir beatus sua industria ut potius divortium quaireret.... Princeps, nee facile adquiescit graviterque dolendum se asserit, si aliquando contingat a conjuge dilecta ferre divortium, licet ci nunquam conjunctus esset more conjugatorum. Postulat iteruni regina, fletibus et diutinis postulationibus tanto importunius insistit.... Rex tandem victus ipsius importur

She was no sooner furnished with this tardy and painful acquiescence in her wishes, than she hastened to Coldingham, to the great seaside monastery governed by Ebba, aunt of the king, and sister of his predecessors Oswald and Oswy.

Wilfrid very soon followed, to give her the veil and black robe, which should henceforward prove her new position as a uun.^*^ Soon after, however, Egfrid followed her to her retreat; unable to en-

^ dure her absence and the sacrifice she had imposed

ou him, he came with the furious determination of Bues her. reclaiming her, and asserting his rights. The Abbess Ebba saw that she could not resist the violence of her nephew; she advised the queen, therefore, to flee. Etheldreda accord- She ^^S^J 1^^ Coldingham on foot, disguised in the dress of a poor woman, and accompanied by two brave nuns of the monastery. It did not occur to her to seek an asylum at Whitby, though the Abbess Hilda was her aunt. She must have known too well that that holj^ princess would encourage no enterprise in which Wilfrid had a share. She turned southward, through a thousand diiSculties and adventures, towards the river which separated Northumbria from the rest of England, and having happily crossed that stream, she paused on the confines of her own country, East Anglia, in an estate which her first husband had given to her as her jointure.^"^^

"^^^'^ ^°"S ^i^*"l fatiguing journoy of the queen, disguised, and flying from her husband to bury herself in a cloister, touched deeply the imagination of the English people; and miraculous stories founded on it passed from mouth to mouth for ages, while they were also commemorated in the sculptured capitals and painted glass of nis precibus, licet invitus, tamen earn cUmisitinvincibilem." — Thom., Eliens., i. 9, 10. Let us add, finally, that Eddi, the disciple of Wilfrid, maintains a prudent and complete silence as to the intervention of his master in this delicate affair.

''^ " Accepto velamine sanctimonialis a Wilfrido." — Bede, 1. c. 149 u jjj veste huinili... latitando incessit.... Per innumera itinerum discrimina.et labores di versos... ut possessionem propriam, quam a Tomberto primo sponso ejus, jure dotis... perpetuo possidendam acceperat." — Thom., Eliens., c. 15. This author continually appeals to the traditional evidences by which he was inspired: "Hoc in Beda nequaquam invenimus sed pro cunctorum usque nunc testimonio scribendum existiniavimus.... Quicumque locum Coludi norunt, cum assertione hujus rei testes existunt.... Quffi ex priorum attestatione comperi, atque scriptura teste nosse contigit.... Res seniorura nostrorura relatione nobis tradita, quara omnis provincia in qua acciderat velut hesternum recitare solet et meminit." — C. 9, 11, 12, 13. the great monastic churches.^^ Pious pilgrimages were made to the promontory washed by the sea, on which, in the first stage of her journey, pursued by Egfrid, she took refuge with her companions, and round which the tide rose so high as to render it inaccessible for seven consecutive days, until the king, discouraged, abandoned the pursuit.^^i And the pilgrims pointed out to each other the spot where, travelling on foot on a day of great heat, she fell asleep from fatigue on the open plain. Its position was marked by a majestic ash, the largest tree in the district, which was believed to have been the travelling staff which the royal traveller had thrust into the ground while she slept, and which she found at her waking already covered with verdure; an emblem of the great monastery in the shade of which she was destined to pass the rest of her days, and to shelter, among many others, her friend and protector Wilfrid.^'^

The lands she possessed in right of her first husband were very extensive, since they supported nearly six hundred families. Their position was almost that of an island, surrounded by fens, which could only bo crossed in boats. This island was called Ely, or the Isle of Eels.^-5^ It is a name to be found on every page of the political and religious history of England.^^^ Etheldreda built a monastery there, which grew into speedy greatness, and where many Anglo-Saxon virgins joined her, among whom Avere a number of princesses of her family, having at their head her sister, the Queen of Kent. Mothers confided their daughters to her to educate. Even men, and among them many priests, selected her also for their guide and mistress in the spiritual life. Many of the officials other household followed her example when she quitted the throne

'^° For example, on the capitals of the beautiful Cathedral of Ely, in 1342.

'^* " Mare sunni alveum cgrediens.,. locum, in quem sacra? virgines ascenderant, circumdedit, et sicut ab incolis loci accepimus, per septem continues dies eas occuluit... solitos recursus obliviseens, quamdiu rex illic aut penes locum mirabatur." — Ibid., c. 11. This roclcy cape is still called, as in the time of Thomas, Colbert's Head.

io2 u j)g somno evigilata... invenit baculuni itineris sui... jam viridi amicta cortice fronduisse... facta est fraxinus maxima... quara ex nostris adhuc plures viderunt."— /iiV^., c. 13. This place was called, in Anglo-Saxon, ^deldrethestowe, Etheldrcda's Rest.

'^^ "A copia anguillarum qua3 in iisdem paludibus capiuntur." — Bede, c. 1.

'*•* After having been destroyed by the Danes, Ely became an abbey of monks, and was erected into a bishopric in 1108. Its cathedral, of which we shall speak later, is one of the marvels of Anglo-Norman architecture.

Her major- ^^d the world to devote herself to God. The chief domo,' of these officials, who may be regarded as the queen's major-domo, was an East Anglian lord, named Owin, a man of faith and of amiable disposition, who had been attached to her from her cradle, had accompanied her from East Anglia to Northumbria, and had no desire to remain in the world after her and without her. He abandoned his honors and possessions, and, putting on a poor man's dress, went with a mattock and axe on his shoulder, and knocked at the door of the monastery where Abbot Ceadda lived, at Lichfield in Mercia. '' I come here," he said, " to seek, not rest, as some do, but work. I am not worth much for meditation or study, but I will do as much manual labor as you like; and while the bishop reads in his cell I will take care of the work outside-i-^-^ Others of her servants joined Etheldreda at Ely, where she soon found herself at the head of one of those double communities of men and women, or rather of brethren and sisters, which played so important a part in history at the epoch of which we are speaking.i^s

She gave them, during the seven years she passed at their head, an example of all monastic virtues, and especially of zeal in fasting and prayer. Few details exist of this period of her existence, but the holiness of that life must have left deep traces in the memory of Anglo-Saxon Christians to have enabled it to triumph over time and human forgetfulness beyond that of any other woman of the race. Among her austerities, the greatest wonder was that so great a lady should wear nothing but woollen instead of linen garments, and that she took a bath only on the four great feasts of the year, and even then, after the rest of the comraunity.i'5'' Wilfrid Wilfrid never gave up his care of Etheldreda. tod^reef ^s ^o"^^ ^s he knew of her arrival at Ely he her. hastened thither.^'^^ It was he who instituted her

¹⁵⁵ " Ovini monaclius magni meriti et pura intentione... eratque primus ministrorum et princcps domus ejus.... Secui'im atque asciara in manu ferens.... Non ad otium, ut quidam, sed ad laborem." — Bede, iv. 3. Cf. BOLLA.ND., die 4 Martii. This Owin is the monk who attended Bishop Ceadda in las last moments. See above, p. 349. He himself is reckoned among the saints, and the Bollandists have consecrated an article to him in their volume i. of March. Bede relates the story of another of Etheldreda's officers — her cupbearer — who, after having been made a prisoner, and sold as a slave in the market at London to a Frisian, was bought back by the King of Kent, nephew of Etheldreda.

>56 TiiOM., Eliens., c. 15, 18, 22, and 23. i" Bede, iv. 19. 158 4( Beata3 virginis non immemor, nee se a vicissitudine diiectionis illius

AND THE BENEDICTINE ORDER. 373

abbess, who gave the veil to her nuns, and who regulated all that concerned the government and interests, temporal or spiritual, of the new community. He paid her frequent visits, and never ceased to give consolation and enlightenment to her for whom he must have felt more than ever responsible, since he had encouraged her to sacrifice the obligations of conjugal life to follow the path of supernatural virtue.

However touching and dramatic this history may be, it appears happily certain that no one in the Catholic Church would now authorize or approve the conduct of Wilfrid. It is not less certain that no one of his own time seems to have blamed him. Without any desire of judging him severely, it is evident that these events had no fortunate influence upon him. His life, hitherto agitated, but glorious and prosperous, became, after the consecration of Etheldreda, nothing but a tissue of trials and tempests. First of all, the intimate and fruitful union which had existed between ^-iif^^^n^j him and the king of his country, was broken beyond remedy. Egfrid never pardoned him for his deceit, for having interfered in his domestic life, only to destroy its charm, and for having used his influence to encourage the wife whom he loved to desert him; and he long nourished his resentment in silence, waiting and preparing for the day when he might despoil him of his episcopal see.^^^

But the direct instrument of the rupture between them and of the disasters of Wilfrid, was the second wife of Egfrid, she who, thanks to Wilfrid, and to him alone, had taken the place of St. Etheldreda on the throne, and in the heart of the sovereign of Xorthumbria. This princess, Ermenburga, was a sister-inlaw of the King of the W^est Saxons. It was she, if we may believe the companion and biographer of Wilfrid, by whom the perfidious enemy of the Christian flock chose to work, excludens, ut earn in Ely descendisse cognoverat, festinus advolat." —TnoM., c. 16. Cf. 15 and 19. " A quo ipsa plurinium regendi consilium et vitse solatium habuit."

*''' " Nee deinceps confessorem Domini Wilfridum a secretis seu affoctis ut antea coluit, sed iram diu taoito contra ilium sub pectore gessit; et expectata hora, ob istius modi causam, cum de sede sui episcopatus cxpulit." —TiiOM., Ellens., 1. i. c. 11. Bede, the contemporary of Wilfrid, and wlio had questioned him with regard to the story of Etheldreda (iv. 10), simply mentions the rupture without alluding to its motives; he shows otlierwise in all that regards the conflicts of Wilfrid with kings and bishops a singular reserve, very rare with him.

VOL II. 32 according to his custom of employing the weakness of women to corrupt the human race.

This wicked Jezebel, continues our ardent musician, drew from her quiver the most poisoned arrows to pierce the heart of the king, and to provoke him to a furious envy of the great bishop. With the eloquence of hatred she represented to him the shameless pomp and luxury displayed on every occasion by the Bishop of York; his immense riches, his services of gold and silver, the increasing number of his monasteries, the vast grandeur of his buildings, his innumerable army of dependants and vassals, better armed and better clothed perhaps than those of the king. She pointed out to him besides how many abbots and abbesses either gave up to him during their lives the government of their communities, or solemnly constituted him their heir; so that the moment might be foreseen when all those estates, given by the generosity of the Northumbrians to the sanctuaries of the new religion, would become the appanage of one man.^^** Such arguments could not but aggravate the resentment of a heart wounded by the desertion of a wife passionately regretted, and to whom another wife pointed out the way of vengeance.

Archbishop The husband and wife thus decided upon the de- ^aker'part ^tfuction of Wilfrid; but not daring to attack hirai with them, directly, they had the art to engage the Archbishop Theodore in their plans, and to strike their enemy, the great champion of Rome, by the hand of the direct and supreme representative of Roman authority in England. Eddi distinctly accuses the primate of having been bribed by the King and Queen of Northumbria.!*^! It is repugnant to our minds to admit such an accusation against a saint '^° " Consueta arma arripiens, vasa fragilia muliebria quaesivit.... De pharetra sua venenatas sagittas venefica in cor regis, quasi impiissima Jezabel, per auditum verborum emisit, enunaerans ei eloquenter... innumerumque sodalium exercitum regalibus vestimentis et armis ornatum.... Namque psene omnes abbates et abbatissae coenobiorum, aut sub suo nomine secum substantias custodientes, aut post obitum suum haeredeni ilium habere optantes voto voverunt." — Eudius, c. 23, 20. "Quod aureis et argenteis vasis sibi ministrari faceret." — Guill. Malmesb., f. 148.

¹⁶¹ '<Adauxilium suas vesaniaj archiepiscopum Theodorum cum muneribus, quffi excjecant etiam sapientium oculos... invitaverunt. Venientes vero ad eos quid mente agerent in contemptu ejus patefacientes, et sine aliquo culpandi piaculo inique damnare consensit." — Eddius, c. 23. William of Malmesbury, in the twelfth century, repeats this account. The Bollandists do not admit that Theodore was corrupted, but do not hesitate to accuse him of culpable connivance with the enemies of Wilfrid. — Act. SS., vol. vi. Sept., p. 62. placed in the Roman calendar side by side with St. "Wilfrid. We can more easily believe that the archbishop suffered himself to be led away by an apprehension of the too great power of Wilfrid, and above all,, by a perfectly legitimate desire to put in execution his project for augmenting and better dividing the English dioceses. It is also almost certain that he allowed himself to be influenced by a kind of Celtic reaction, the movers of which did not attempt to return to anti-Roman usages, but only to punish in Wilfrid the destroyer of their ancient ritual and their recent conqueror.

Accordingly, during one of Wilfrid's numerous He deposes absences, Theodore came to York, and using, or "^^jjfji'^'., abusing, the supremacy with which the Pope had ms dioc'ese^ invested him, he deposed Wilfrid, and also divided ^rs!* *^'^'^'^' the diocese of York or Northumbria into three new dioceses. Nothing could be more significant of the spirit which animated him than his choice of bishop for these new dioceses, who were all monks taken from the ancient Celtic monasteries, who, while recognizing Roman customs, had still repelled the Roman customs, had still repelled the Roman bishop.^^^ One of these new sees naturally remained at York; there the archbishop placed Bosa, since venerated as a saint, whom he found in the community of Whitby,i^3 ^nd consequently of the school of the Abbess Hilda, always so hostile to Wilfrid. By a refinement of animosity, the capital of the second diocese was placed at Hexham, precisely in that great monastery which Wilfrid had created with such magnificence. The bishop placed there was the abbot of the Celtic novitiate of Melrose, that very Eata who had been superior of the Scottish community, formerly displaced from Ripon to make room for Wilfrid.^^ The third diocese, which comprehended that part of Mercia recently conquered by the Northumbrian king, Avas also confided to a Geltic monk, who had been the companion of Ceadda when he replaced Wilfrid after his first deposition by Oswy.i'''^ Finally, as if to add a touch of derision to violence,

¹⁶² u -pj-gg episcopos aliunde inventos, et non de subjectis illius parochiie... inordinate solus ordinavit." — Eddius, c. 23.

'" Bede, iv. 12, 23. Bosa is honored (November 2) in the English martyrology.

'*^ See above, p. 313.

'"* Bede, iii. 28; iv. 12. This monk was named Eadhaed. lie was afterwards placed by Theodore at Ripon, in order to neutralize the influence of Wilfrid in his earliest foundation. a fourth diocese was carved out, according to several authors, in the vast territories of Northumbria, having for its chief seat Lindisfarne, the sanctuary and asyhim of the Celtic spirit. This miserable relic of his extinct greatness it was proposed to leave to Wilfrid, thus taking care to place him in the midst of his adversaries-^^*^

All these measures bore the unmistakable mark of a Celtic reaction; but the archbishop gave as his reason that the diocese was large enough to give occupation to four bishops, and that its revenues furnished sufficient support for three instead of ministering to the luxury of one.i'^'

Wilfrid iip- ^* ^^^ ^^'^^ report of this attempt on the rights peals to' of the Church and his own, Wilfrid hurried home, "™*^* and summoned the king and the archbishop publicly to explain their motives for having thus despoiled him not only of his ecclesiastical authority, but also of the lands which he held as the gift of the reigning king, his father and brother. " It is," he said to them, " mere robbery." The

two potentates simply replied, " We have no crime with

which to reproach you, but we will not change any part of the judgment we have delivered." " Then," replied Wilfrid, '' I appeal to the judgment of the Holy See." ^*^^ It was the first time that an appeal to Rome had been heard of in Eng-

'^^ It appears more probable, according to Bede, that this diocese of Lindisfarne was not created, or rather renewed, until 681; but, supposing it to have been in 678, it is certain that Wilfrid did not then accept the government, as he did some years later. We must not, like Fleury, confound this diocese of Lindisfarne, situated in Bernicia, north of Northumbria, with that of Lindisfari, created by Theodore, and which comprehended the province of Lindsey (now Lincolnshire), a division of Mercia. In 681, Theodore finished his work, and created — quite to the north of the country conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, on the banks of the Forth — a last diocese, which he placed in the Monastery of Abercorn, and which was to comprise all the Picts subject to Northumbrian rule. The land to the north of the Huraber was thus divided into five dioceses — York, Ripon, Hexham, Lindisfarne, .ind Abercorn; the twelve dioceses subject to the metropolis of York, of which Gregory had prescribed the foundation to Augustin, still lay i'ar in the future. But Theodore did not intend to create in the north a rival metropolis to his own. On the other hand, he multiplied dioceses south of the Humber; he divided the immense diocese of Mercia into six — Lichfield, Leicester, Uereford, Worcester, Sydnacester, and Dorchester, since transferred to Lincoln. Of these six, the four whose names are in italics still exist.

¹⁶⁷ "Pi-Eetendebat causam justitite ut inde tres alerentur episcopi, unde unus tumebat." — Guill. Malmesb., f. 149.

168 ¹⁴ Interrogans quid causae esset, ut... praedonum more defraudarent.... Illi responderunt famosum verbum dicentes coram omni populo: Nul- 1am criminis culpam in aliquo nocendi tibi adscribiiuus sed tamen statuta de tc judicia non mutabimus." land; but Wilfrid recalled St Paul's " I appeal until Ca3sar." The step he thus took was a prelude to those great appeals and solemn struggles which, after the Norman Conquest, stirred all the West, and gave so much celebrity to the pontificates of St. Anselm and St. Thomas of Canterbury.

As he passed out of the royal assembly where he had thus signified his refusal to obey, he turned towards certain flatterers of the prince who were enjoying and laughing at his disgrace. " On this day next year," he said to them, "you who now laugh at my expense shall weep bitterly at your own." And in fact next year, on the very same day, all the people of York were tearing their hair and their garments in token of mourning, as the funeral procession of the young brother and heir of Egfrid passed through their city. This young prince, who was scarcely eighteen years of age, and already dear to the Anglo-Saxons, had been the guest of Wilfrid at the solemn dedication of Ripon: he perished in a war against the Mercians, the beginning of a series of defeats which lasted during all the remainder of the hitherto prosperous reign of Egfrid.^'^^

The cowardly animosity of these courtiers against j^^^^ the haughty and intrepid prelate is, however, much less surprising than the fact that, incontestably, Wilfrid met with no aid and no sympathy among i^olViIof^ the great and holy churchmen who were his contemporaries. Not only did the illustrious Abbess Hilda, protectress of the Celtic ritual, remain always relentlessly, implacably hostile to him,!'*^ but not one of the abbots whom his example had imbued with the Roman and Benedictine spirit came to his succor; neither Benedict Biscop, who was as much Roman at heart, and by his numerous pilgrimages to Rome, as Wilfrid himself; nor the pious, humble, and austere Cuthbert, whose sanctity was already known in the very country and diocese of Wilfrid, and nourished through many ages the popular devotion of northern England. Except his own personal followers, very numerous indeed, and warmly attached to him, all that Northumbria in which the Celtic apostles had wrought so many wonders, re- 1G9 a Adulatoribus dixit: Hoc anniversario die, qui nunc ridetis in meam pro invidia condemnationem, tunc in vestra confusione amare flebitis." —Eddius, c. 23. Cf. Bede, iv. 21.

"" " Ut putant sit quanta miseria involvat mortales, quod illi viri quo3 sanctissinios celebrat antiquitas, Theodorus, Bertliwaldus, Johannes, Bosa, nee non et Hilda abbatissa digladiabili odio irapetierint Wilfridum.'"— Guill. Maljiesb., f. 152. Cf. Faber, p. 88. mained either hostile or profoundly indifferent. This indifference and hostility of the country, arising, no doubt, from an excessive susceptibility of national sentiment, is again apparent at a later date in the histories of Anselm and Thomas a Becket. It is a point of resemblance between these illustrious men and the tirst great bishop of the English race which must strike every observer.

The modern reader will not be less astonished at the ignorance of the Anglo-Saxon Church in the most elementary rules of canonical law as to the institution and immovability of bishops. When St. Wilfrid was superseded at York for the first time, without trial, before he had even taken possession, St. Chad accepted his see without hesitation; and other saints — Cuthbert, Bosa, and John of Beverley— afterwards followed his example, while the Metropolitan of Canterbury, himself inscribed in the Roman calendar, consecrated all these intruders. When the Holy See intervened on behalf of the law, its decrees met with but a tardy or equivocal acquiescence. But such causes of astonishment, too often awakened by the conscientious sttidy of history, ought not to trouble sincere and serious minds. If the dogmas and morals taught by the Church have never varied, it has required many centuries to give to her discipline and government that form which now appears to us the only regular one. To expect in primitive times, and among young and restless nations, to find the monarchical concentration or uniform docility which, in our days, characterized the exercise of ecclesiastical authority, is to fall into the same error as those simple historians, lately so common among us, who mete out the royalty of Clovis or St. Louis by the measure of the monarchy of Louis XIV.