A.D. 664.

monks from a monastery at Ripon in order to substitute Romanisers, under Wilfrid, a priest of Northumbrian birth, who, having become discontented with the customs of Lindisfarne, had been sent by Eanfleda's patronage to Rome, and had returned to his native country with a zealous desire to propagate the usages of the Roman Church. The paschal question was discussed in a conference at Streaneshalch (Whitby), in the presence of Oswy and his son. On the part of the Scots appeared Colman of Lindisfarne, with Cedd, a Northumbrian, who had been consecrated as bishop by Aidan's successor Finan, and had effected a second conversion of Essex; and they were strengthened by the countenance of the royal and saintly abbess Hilda, in whose monastery the conference was held. On the other side stood Agilbert, a native of France, who had studied in Ireland, and had held the see of Dorchester in Wessex," with Wilfrid, whom the bishop, on the plea of his own inability to speak the language of the country fluently, put forward as the champion of Rome. Wilfrid argued from the custom of that Church in which St. Peter and St. Paul had lived and taught, had suffered and had been buried. St. John, to whom the other party traced its practice, had, he said, observed it from a wish to avoid offence to the Jews; but the churches which that Apostle had governed had, since the Council of Nicæa, conformed to the Roman usage; and neither St. John, nor even the founder of Iona, if alive, would maintain, in opposition to Rome, a practice which was observed only by a handful of insignificant persons in a remote corner of the earth. On Wilfrid's quoting our Lord's promise to bestow on St. Peter "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," Oswy asked Colman whether these words had really been spoken to the Apostle. The bishop assented, and owned, in answer to a further question, that he could not produce any such grant of authority to St. Columba. "I tell you then," said the king, "that Peter is the doorkeeper whom I will not gainsay, lest perchance, if I make him my enemy by disregarding his statutes, there should be no one to open the door of heaven to me.' The Roman party was victorious, and, while

Ib. 25; v. 19; Life of Wilfrid, by Eddi, 2-7, in Gale, Hist. Brit. Veteres, i. Wilfrid was born in 634. Eadmer, Vita Wilf. 4. (Patrol. clix.) For his first journey to Rome, see Pagi, xi. 514-5. Beda, iii. 22.

Ib. 7. He had resigned it in 661. Note in Godwin, De Præsulibus, 279.

It was, however, as we have seen, a

mistake to identify the Scottish practice with that of the Quartodecimans. See vol. i. p. 544.

" Beda, iii. 25. Archdeacon Churton (p. 78) and Mr. Martineau (p. 80) speak of these words as a jest, and suppose that the council assented to them as such. But there is no ground for this, except the wish of the writers to

some of the Scots conformed, Colman and others withdrew to their own country.

C

a

The bishoprick thus vacated was bestowed on Tuda, who had been already consecrated in the southern part of Ireland, where the Roman usages were established; and when Tuda, in less than a year, was carried off by a pestilence," Wilfrid was appointed to succeed him. But the zealous champion of Roman customs. chose to take his title from York, which Gregory the Great had marked out as the seat of an archbishop, rather than from the Scottish foundation of Lindisfarne; and as the bishops of England were all more or less tainted by a connexion with Scottish or Irish orders, he was not content to receive his consecration at their hands. He therefore passed into France, where he was consecrated, with great pomp, by Agilbert, now bishop of Paris," and twelve other prelates. On his return to England, the vessel in which he was embarked was stranded on the coast of Sussex. The savage and heathen inhabitants rushed down to plunder it, headed by a priest, who, "like another Balaam," a stood on a rising ground uttering spells and curses. But the priest was killed by a stone from a sling; the crew repelled three attacks, and, as the assailants were preparing for a fourth, the returning tide heaved off the vessel, which then made its way prosperously to Sandwich. Wilfrid now found that his scruples as to ordination had cost him dear; for, during his absence, the Northumbrian king had bestowed the bishoprick on Ceadda (or Chad), who had been consecrated in England, and had entered on his see. He, therefore, retired to his monastery of Ripon, where he remained for some years, except when invited to perform episcopal functions in a vacant or unprovided diocese.e

In the year 664 (the same year in which the conference took place at Whitby) a great plague carried off the first native archbishop of Canterbury, Frithona, who, on his elevation to the see, had assumed the name of Adeodatus or Deusdedit.' The kings of Northumbria and Kent agreed to send a presbyter named Wighard to Rome for consecration to the primacy; but Wighard died there, and pope Vitalian, apparently in compliance with a request from

save the king's character for theological argument, while they leave his decision and that of the assembly without a motive.

Beda, iii. 26-8.

y lb. 26.

z Ib. 27.

a See p. 19.

Agilbert has already been mentioned

in this character, p. 66. See Pagi, xi. 540; Hussey, n. in Bed. p. 167.

e Eddi, 12; Beda, iii. 28; iv. 19.

d Eddi, 13.

e Ib. 14.

Beda, iv. 1; Godwin, 40.

A.D. 668.

the kings, chose Theodore, a native of Tarsus, to take his place." Theodore was already sixty-six years of age. He was of eminent repute for learning; but his oriental birth suggested some suspicions, and he was not consecrated until, by allowing his hair to grow for four months, he had qualified himself for receiving the Latin tonsure instead of the Greek. Theodore arrived in England in 669, and held his see for twenty-one years, with the title and jurisdiction of Archbishop of all England ; for York had had no archbishop since Paulinus. Under Theodore the churches of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which until then had been independent of each other, were for the first time united; and in other respects his primacy is memorable in the history of the English church. The resort of English students to the monasteries of Ireland, as seminaries superior to any that could be found in their own country, was now checked by the establishment of schools, in which the learning and the science of the age were taught, and it is said that not only Latin, but the Greek primate's native tongue, was spoken as fluently as English. To Theodore

k

has also been ascribed the division of the country into parishes; and although this idea is now generally abandoned, it seems to be admitted that he may have paved the way for the parochial division by introducing the right of patronage, which had been established in his native church by Justinian."

The archbishop visited every part of the country. On reaching Northumbria, he inquired into the case of Chad, and disallowed his consecration-partly, it would seem, because it was not derived from a purely Roman source, and partly on account of Wilfrid's prior claims to the see. The bishop meekly replied, "If you judge that I have not received the episcopate rightly, I willingly retire from my office, of which, indeed, I never thought myself worthy, but which, although unworthy, I agreed to undertake for the sake of obedience to command." Theodore was struck with this humility; he reordained him through all the grades of the ministry; and, while Wilfrid took possession of the Northumbrian diocese, Chad, after a short retirement in the monastery of Lastingham, was appointed by the king of

Beda, iii. 29; iv. 1; Milman, ii. 30. The more naturally, as the visit of Constans to Rome (p. 50) had taken place shortly before. Hook, i. 148.

The Greek tonsure, which was referred to St. Paul as its author, consisted in shaving (or rather in closely clipping)

A.D. 669.

the whole head. Thomassin, I. ii. 28. 10-11; Martene, ii. 15.

k Beda, iii. 27.

m Ib. iv. 2.

n See vol. i. p. 554; Collier, i. 262; Inett, i. 154; Lappenb. i. 190.

Mercia, on the archbishop's recommendation, to the see of Lichfield."

Gregory's scheme for the ecclesiastical organisation of England had never taken effect. The bishopricks had originally been of the same extent with the kingdoms, except that in Kent there was a second see at Rochester.P Theodore was desirous of increasing the episcopate, and, in a council at Hertford, in 673, proposed a division of the dioceses; but, probably from fear of opposition, he did not press the matter. Soon after this council, Wilfrid again fell into trouble. Egfrid, the son and successor of Oswy, was offended because the bishop, instead of aiding him to overcome the inclination of his first queen for a life of virginity, had encouraged her in it, and had given her the veil; and the king was further provoked by the suggestions of his second queen, who invidiously dwelt on Wilfrid's wealth, his influence, and the splendour of his state. The primate lent himself to the royal schemes, and not only disregarded the rights of Wilfrid, by erecting the sees of Hexham and Sidnacester (near Gainsborough) within his diocese, but superseded him by consecrating a bishop for York itself, as well as bishops for the two new dioceses which had been separated from it. Wilfrid determined to seek redress from Rome. A storm, which carried him to the coast of Friesland, saved him from the plots which, through Egfrid's influence, had been laid for detaining him in France; and he remained for some time in Frisia, where his labours were rewarded by the conversion of the king, Aldgis, with most of the chiefs and some thousands of the people. On his arrival at Rome, in 679, his case was investigated by pope Agatho, with a council of fifty bishops. It (Jaffe.) was decided that, if his diocese were divided, the new sees should be filled with persons of his own choosing, and that those who had been intruded into them should be expelled;" and Wilfrid was invited to take a place in the council against the Monothelites, where he signed the acts as representative of the whole church of Britain."

A.D. 677-8.

Oct. 679.

t

The Roman Council had denounced heavy penalties against all who should contravene its decisions; kings, in particular, were

• Beda, iv. 2-3.

See Lingard, A. S. C. i. 86; Lappenberg, i. 183.

a Wilkins, i. 43; Inett, i. 96; Lingard, A. S. C. i. 132-3.

Beda, iv. 19; Eddi, 23; Inett, i. 89. Beda, iv. 12 and notes; Eddi, 23; see Johnson, i. 118.

Eddi, 25-6.

"Wilkins, i. 44-7; Eddi, 29-31. For documents relating to Wilfrid, see Patrol. lxxxix. 46, seqq.

* Hard. iii. 1131. See Pagi, xi. 628; Collier, i. 248; Inett, i. 99; Hefele, iii. 229; and p. 50 of this volume.

threatened with excommunication. But Egfrid, instead of submitting, imprisoned Wilfrid on his return from Italy, and only offered to release him, and to restore him to a part of his old diocese, on condition of his renouncing the papal statutes. The imprisonment lasted nine months, at the end of which Wilfrid was set at liberty through the influence of the queen, who had been smitten with dangerous illness for possessing herself of his reliquary. He now sought a field of labour at a distance from his persecutors-the kingdom of Sussex, the scene of his perilous adventure in returning from France many years before. Until this time the only Christian teachers who had appeared in Sussex were six poor Irish monks, who had a little monastery at Bosham, but made no progress in converting the inhabitants. The king, however, Ethelwalch, had lately been baptised in Mercia, and gladly patronised the new preacher of the Gospel. The people of Sussex were indebted to Wilfrid for the knowledge of fishing and other useful arts, as well as of Christianity. He established a bishoprick at Selsey, and extended his labours to the Isle of Wight and into the kingdom of Wessex."

A.D. 690.

Theodore, at the age of eighty-eight, feeling the approach of death, began to repent of the part which he had taken against Wilfrid. He sent for him, begged his forgiveness, reconciled him with Aldfrid," the new king of Northumbria, and urged him to accept the succession to the primacy. Wilfrid professed a wish to leave the question of the primacy to a council; but he recovered the sees of York and Hexham, with the monastery of Ripon. The archbishop died in the same year, and was succeeded by Berctwald; and after a time Wilfrid was again ejected for refusing to consent to certain statutes which had been enacted by the late primate. He withdrew into Mercia, where he remained until, in 702, he was summoned to appear before a synod at Onestrefield, in Yorkshire. On being required by this assembly to renounce his episcopal office, and to content himself with the monastery of Ripon, the old man indignantly declared that he would not abandon a dignity to which he had been appointed forty years before. He recounted his merits towards the Church-saying nothing of his zealous labours for the spreading of the Gospel, of his encouragement of letters, or of the stately churches which he had erected, but insisting on his oppo

▾ Eddi, 33-8.

Beda, iv. 13, 16; v. 19; Eddi, 40-1.
A different person from Alfrid pre-

viously mentioned. Mabill. v. 702. b Eddi, 41-2.