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Wilfrid
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Wilfrid (sometimes Wilfrith) (c. 634 – c. 709) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian nobleman, he entered the religious life as a teenager, studying at Lindisfarne, Canterbury, Gaul and Rome, before returning to Northumbria around 660 to become abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon. In 664, he was the spokesman for the Roman "party" at the Council of Whitby, gaining fame for his speech advocating the adoption of the Roman practice for figuring the date of Easter.
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Wilfrid (sometimes Wilfrith) (c. 634 – c. 709) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian nobleman, he entered the religious life as a teenager, studying at Lindisfarne, Canterbury, Gaul and Rome, before returning to Northumbria around 660 to become abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon. In 664, he was the spokesman for the Roman "party" at the Council of Whitby, gaining fame for his speech advocating the adoption of the Roman practice for figuring the date of Easter. His success led the king's son, Alhfrith, to appoint him to the episcopate. Because of a lack of validly consecrated bishops in England, Wilfrid went to Gaul for consecration, and while there Alhfrith seems to have unsuccessfully revolted against his father Oswiu, leaving Wilfrid's appointment to a bishopric up in the air. While he was in Gaul, Oswiu appointed another bishop, Ceadda, to Wilfrid's intended see, or bishopric. After Wilfrid's return to Northumbria, he retired to Ripon for the next few years.
After the appointment of Theodore of Tarsus as Archbishop of Canterbury in 668, Theodore resolved the situation in Northumbria by deposing Ceadda, and returning Wilfrid to the Northumbrian see. For the next nine years, Wilfrid ruled his bishopric, founding monasteries, building churches, improving the liturgy, and discharging his episcopal duties. However, his diocese was very large, and Theodore wished to carry out a reformation of the English church, including breaking up some of the largest dioceses into smaller ones. When Wilfrid and Ecgfrith, the Northumbrian king, quarrelled, Theodore took the opportunity to carry out the desired reforms, which Wilfrid objected to. Ecgfrith expelled Wilfrid from York, so Wilfrid traveled to Rome to appeal to the papacy. Pope Agatho ruled in Wilfrid's favour, but when Wilfrid returned to Northumbria with the papal decree, Ecgfrith refused to honour it, and imprisoned Wilfrid before exiling him.
Wilfrid spent the next few years in Sussex, converting its pagan inhabitants to Christianity. Eventually, Theodore and Wilfrid settled their differences, and Theodore urged the new Northumbrian king, Aldfrith, to allow Wilfrid's return, which Aldfrith agreed to. In 691, though, the Aldfrith expelled Wilfrid again, and Wilfrid went to Mercia, where he helped missionaries and acted as bishop for the Mercian king. Wilfrid appealed to the papacy once more in 700 about his expulsion, and the pope ordered an English council held to decide the issue. This council, held at Austerfield in 702, attempted to confiscate all of Wilfrid's possessions, and Wilfrid traveled back to Rome to appeal this decision. His opponents in Northumbria excommunicated him, but the papacy upheld Wilfrid's side, and eventually Wilfrid was restored to Ripon and Hexham, his Northumbrian monasteries. He died in 709 or 710, and was venerated as a saint after his death.
Historians then and now have been divided over Wilfrid. His followers commissioned a Life of Wilfrid shortly after his death, and the great medieval historian Bede also wrote extensively about Wilfrid. Wilfrid lived ostentatiously, and traveled with a large retinue. He ruled a large number of monasteries, and was the first Englishman to introduce the Rule of Saint Benedict into English monasteries. Modern historians have differed widely on their interpretations of his life, some seeing him mainly as a proponent of Roman customs against the Celtic Church, others as an advocate for monasticism. Most agree that he was not humble nor afraid of controversy.
Early life
Childhood and early education
Wilfrid was born in Northumbria about 633. The historian James Fraser argues that he was from a noble family from Deira, one of the subdivisions of Northumbria, pointing out that most of his early contacts were from there. Around age fourteen he left home because of a conflict with his stepmother, probably without his father's consent. Although his background is never explicitly stated as noble, the fact that retainers of the king were frequent guests at his father's house and that when he left home, he equipped his party with horses and clothes fit for a royal court makes it plain that his family was aristocratic.
He went to King Oswiu's court, where the queen, Eanflæd became his patroness. The queen sent him to study under Cudda, previously a retainer of her husband's, but at that point a monk at Lindisfarne. This was about 648, and the abbot was Aidan, who had helped convert Northumbria to Christianity. While at Lindisfarne, Wilfrid is said to have "learned the whole Psalter by heart and several books". Wilfrid studied at Lindisfarne for a brief time before going to Canterbury and the Kentish king's court there, where he stayed with friends of the queen for three years. The queen had sent a letter of introduction to her cousin, King Eorcenberht with Wilfrid, in 652, in order to assure Wilfrid's reception by the king. While in Kent, Wilfrid's career was advanced by Eanflæd's cousin Hlothere, who later was king of Kent from 673 to 685. The Kentish court had a number of visiting clergymen at this point, including Benedict Biscop, a noted missionary. Wilfrid appears to have spent about a year in Kent, but the exact chronology is not certain.
Abbot of Ripon
After his return to Northumbria, Cenwalh, the king of Wessex, around 658 recommended Wilfrid to Alhfrith, Oswiu's son, as a cleric knowledgeable of Roman customs and liturgy. Shortly before 664, Alhfrith gave him a monastery at Ripon, which had only recently been founded by Alhfrith. Wilfrid ejected the previous abbot, Eata, because he would not follow the Roman customs. Among the expelled monks was Cuthbert, later a saint. Wilfrid introduced the Rule of Saint Benedict into Ripon, and claimed that he was the first person in England to make a monastery follow it, but it should be noted that this claim rests on the Life of Wilfrid and doesn't say where exactly Wilfrid became knowledgeable about the Rule, nor exactly what form of the Rule Wilfrid meant. Shortly afterwards he was ordained a priest by Agilbert, bishop of Dorchester in the kingdom of the Gewissæ, part of Wessex. Wilfrid was a protege of Agilbert, who not only ordained Wilfrid a priest but later helped consecrate him as a bishop. Wilfrid attracted to Ripon the monk Ceolfrith, who had been at Gilling Abbey but that abbey had recently been depopulated due to plague. Ceolfrith later became abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow, while the medieval chronicler and writer Bede was a monk there. Bede makes little mention of the connections of Ceolfrith and Wilfrid, but it was Wilfrid who consecrated Ceolfrith a priest and who gave permission for him to transfer to Wearmouth.
Whitby
Background
In 664, a controversy between the Celtic, or Irish, and Roman church practices, partly over how to calculate the date of Easter, led to King Oswiu of Northumbria calling a church council to be held at Whitby Abbey. The main sticking point was the divergence of figuring the date of Easter, as the two churches used different methods, which led to Easter being celebrated on different days. Some members of Oswiu's family, his wife Eanflæd, and a son, Alhfrith, celebrated Easter on the Roman date, but the church in Northumbria had traditionally used the Celtic calculation. Because of the Lenten fast before the celebration of Easter, having divergent dates for Easter meant that part of the royal court would be fasting while another part would be feasting, which led to tensions. Oswiu himself had been brought up in the Celtic traditions, but political pressures may have influenced his decision to call a council, as well as fears that if the Northumbrian church continued to have dissension over the Easter dating it would lead to internal strife. It also appears that regional tensions within Northumbria between the two traditional divisions, Bernicia and Deira, played a part, as Bernicia favoured the Celtic method of dating and Deira leaned towards the Roman method. Although the Easter dating controversy was the ostensible reason for the council, political concerns unrelated to the dating problem also were involved. The historian Richard Abels sees several conflicts contributing to the council, including a generational conflict between Oswiu and Alhfrith. Also contributing was the decline of Oswiu's preeminence over the other British kingdoms and the challenge to that position by Mercia. Lastly, the death of the archbishop of Canterbury, Deusdedit, was a factor in the council's decisions. Abels also speculates that the expulsion of Eata from Ripon may have been the spark that led to the calling of the council.
York
Delays and difficulties
He delayed his return, and when he finally did return he found Ceadda had been installed at York. Why he delayed has never been clear, although the historians Eric John and Richard Abels theorize that it was due to Alhfrith's rebellion against Oswiu, which was defeated. They suggest that the rebellion happened shortly after Whitby, and while Wilfrid was in Gaul for his consecration. Because Oswiu knew that Alhfrith had been a supporter of Wilfrid's, Oswiu prevented Wilfrid's return, suspecting Wilfrid of supporting Oswiu's rivals. The fact that Ceadda was supported by Oswiu, and Wilfrid had been a supporter of Oswiu's son, lends further support to the theory that Alhfrith's rebellion took place while Wilfrid was in Gaul.
At some point during his return to Northumbria, his ship was blown ashore on the Sussex coast. The inhabitants at this time were still pagan, and they attacked Wilfrid's party, who killed the chief priest before managing to get their ship afloat and escape. The historian Marion Gibbs puts forth the theory that after this episode, Wilfrid visited Kent again, and took part in the diplomacy related to Wigheard's appointment to the see of Canterbury. Wilfrid may also have taken part in attempts to persuade King Cenwalh of Wessex to allow Agilbert to return to his see.
Expulsion
Dispute with the king
In 677 or 678, Wilfrid and Ecgfrith quarrelled, and Wilfrid was expelled from his see. The abbess Hilda of Whitby was a leader of a faction in the Northumbrian church that disliked Wilfrid, and her close ties with Theodore helped to undermine Wilfrid's position in Northumbria. Another contributing factor in the king's expulsion of Wilfrid was Wilfrid's encouragement of Æthelthryth's entry into a nunnery. Wilfrid personally gave the veil to Æthelthryth when she retired to Ely Abbey. The historian Eric John feels that Wilfrid's close ties with the Mercian kingdom also contributed to his troubles with Egfrith, although John points out that these ties were necessary for Wilfrid's monastic foundations, some of which were in Mercia. Wilfrid not only lost his diocese, he lost control of his monasteries also.
Theodore took advantage of the situation to implement the decrees of the council on dividing up large dioceses. Theodore set up new bishoprics from Wilfrid's diocese, with the seats at York, Hexham, Lindisfarne, and one in the region of Lindsey. The Lindsey see was quickly absorbed by the diocese of Lichfield, but the other three remained separate. The bishops chosen for these sees, Eata at Hexham, Eadhaed at Lindsey, and Bosa at York, had all either been supporters of the Celtic/Irish party at Whitby, or trained by those who were. Eata had also been ejected from Ripon by Wilfrid. The new bishops were unacceptable to Wilfrid, who claimed the three bishops were not truly members of the Catholic Church, because of their support for the Celtic/Irish method of dating Easter, and thus Wilfrid could not serve alongside them. Another concern for Wilfrid was that the three new bishops did not come from Wilfrid's monastic houses nor from the communities where the bishops' seats were placed. This went against the custom of the time, which was to promote bishoprics from within the locality. The deposition of Wilfrid became tangled up in a dispute over whether or not the Gregorian plan for Britain, with two metropolitan sees, set at York and Canterbury, would be followed through or abandoned. Wilfrid seems to have felt that he had metropolitan authority over the northern part of England, but Theodore never acknowledged these claims, instead claiming authority over the whole the island of Britain.
Return to Northumbria and exile
Return from exile
In 686 Wilfrid was recalled to Northumbria after the death of Ecgfrith in battle with the Picts. During the 680's, Theodore had created two more dioceses in Northumbria, at Ripon, and at Abercorn in the Pictish kingdom, but neither diocese lasted long. After Ecgfrith's death, Theodore wrote to the new king of Northumbria, Aldfrith, along with Æthelred, king of Mercia and the abbess of Whitby, Ælfflæd, suggesting that an agreement be made allowing Wilfrid's return to Northumbria. Aldfrith agreed, and Wilfrid returned to the north, and Bosa was removed from York. Wilfrid did not recover the whole of his previous bishopric, however, as Hexham and Lindisfarne remained separate sees.
He appears to have resided at Ripon and for a time he acted as administrator of the see of Lindisfarne after Cuthbert's death in 687. In 691, the subdivision issue arose once more, along with quarrels with the new king Aldfrith over lands, and attempts were made to make Wilfrid either give up all his lands or to stay confined to Ripon. A proposal to turn Ripon into a bishopric also was a source of dispute. When no compromise was possible, Wilfrid left Northumbria for Mercia, and Bosa was returned to York.
Mercia
During this exile, Wilfrid resided in Mercia, and acted as bishop there with the consent of King Æthelred. Information on this period of Wilfrid's life is meagre as the Life of Wilfrid has little to say of this period. He is generally held to have been bishop of Leicester up to about 706 when he is held to have been transferred to Hexham. While he was in Mercia, Wilfrid became involved in the missionary efforts to the Frisians, which he had started in 678 when he was stayed in Frisia. Wilfrid helped the missionary efforts of Willibrord, which were more successful than Wilfrid's earlier attempts. Willibrord was a monk of Ripon who was also a native of Northumbria.
Wilfrid was present at the exhumation at Ely Abbey of the body of Queen Æthelthryth in 695. Wilfrid had been her spiritual advisor in the 670's, and had helped the queen become a nun against the wishes of her husband King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. She had joined Ely Abbey, and died there in 679. The ceremony in 695 found that her body had not decayed, which led to her being declared a saint. Wilfrid's testimony as to the character and virginity of Æthelthryth was recorded by Bede.
In around 700, Wilfrid appealed once more to Pope Sergius I over his expulsion from York, with the pope referring the issue back to a council in England. In 702/703 King Aldfrith held a council at Austerfield that upheld Wilfrid's expulsion from York, and once more Wilfrid traveled to Rome to appeal to the pope. The Life of Wilfrid gives a speech, supposedly delivered by Wilfrid there, that defended Wilfrid's career over the past 40 years. The council was presided over by Berhtwald, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and the decision of the council was that Wilfrid would be deprived of all his monasteries but Ripon, and that he would cease to perform episcopal functions. When Wilfrid continued his appeal to the papacy, his opponents had his supporters and Wilfrid excommunicated.
Rome and final return to Northumbria
While traveling to Rome, Wilfrid stopped in Frisia to see Willibrord. Once Wilfrid arrived in Rome, the pope held a council, which declared that the king of Northumbria should follow the earlier papal decrees restoring Wilfrid to his see. While there, Wilfrid was disconcerted to discover that the papal court spoke Greek, and his biographer noted that Wilfrid was displeased when the pope discussed the appeal with advisors in a language Wilfrid could not understand. The pope also ordered another council held in England that would decide the issue, and ordered the attendance of Bosa, Berhtwald and Wilfrid. While returning to England, Wilfrid had a seizure at Meaux, but returned to Kent by 705.
Soon after Wilfrid's arrival in England, Aldfrith died. The new king, Eadwulf, had been considered a friend of Wilfrid, but after his ascension, he ordered Wilfrid to stay out of Northumbria. But Eadwulf only reigned a few months, and was expelled to make way for Aldfrith's son Osred. Wilfrid served as spiritual advisor to the young king Osred. He may have been one of the main supporters of Osred, besides Abbess Ælfflæd of Whitby, who was the daughter of Oswiu, and the nobleman Beornhæth. Once Osred was secure on the throne, in 706 Wilfrid was restored to Ripon and Hexham. When Bosa of York died, however, Wilfrid did not contest the decision to appoint John of Beverley to the see of York. This appointment was a transfer of John from the see of Hexham, which left Wilfrid able to perform episcopal functions at Hexham, which he did until his death.
Other aspects
Cult of St Oswald
Sometime after the translation of Oswald of Northumbria's relics to Bardney Abbey by Osthryth between 675 and 679, Wilfrid, along with Hexham Abbey, started promoting the cult of the dead king. The historian Barbara Yorke sees this promotion as a major factor in the prominence given to Oswald in Bede's Ecclesiastical History. The historian D. P. Kirby sees the prominence given to Oswald by Wilfrid as a contributing factor in Wilfrid's expulsion from York in 678, believing that Ecgfrith felt that Wilfrid was promoting Oswald's branch of the Northumbrian royal family over Ecgfrith's branch. One of Wilfrid's proteges, Willibrord, became a missionary to the Frisians in 695, perhaps inspired by Wilfrid's example and needing to leave Northumbria because he was known as a follower of Wilfrid.
Monastic network
His network of monasteries extended across at least three of the kingdoms existing in England in his day. They included Hexham, Ripon, Selsey and Oundle, as well as possibly Peterborough, Brixworth, Evesham, Wing, and Withington. At his monasteries and dioceses he built churches in a style built on the continent and at Rome. He traveled between his various monasteries and churches with a large entourage, numbering up to 120 followers. He made many contacts and friends, not only in Northumbria and the other English kingdoms, but in Gaul, Frisia and Italy as well. Nobles sent their sons to him for fostering, and Wilfrid was known to help his proteges, no matter if they became clerics or not. The historian Peter Brown speculated that one reason for Wilfrid's exile in 678 was that he was overshadowing the king as a patron. He had many contacts in Gaul from his many visits to the area. His contacts extended to the Lombard kingdom in Italy, where they included King Perctarit and his son Cunipert.
Wilfrid was a prolific founder of churches, which he then controlled until his death, and which he transferred to others when he died. He was a great fundraiser, acquiring lands and money from many of the kings he had contact with. He was also noted for his ability to attract support from powerful women, especially queens. His first patron was Queen Eanflæd, who introduced him to a number of helpful contacts. Later, he attracted the support of Queen Æthelthryth, who gave the endowment for Hexham abbey. It was Ælffled who helped persuade the Northumbrians to allow Wilfrid to return from his last exile.
Resignation and death
After his final return to Northumbria, Wilfrid retired to the monastery at Ripon, where he lived until his death at Oundle, Northamptonshire, at the age of 75. He died either in 709, or 710. A little over a year before his death, he suffered another stroke or seizure, which led him to make arrangements for the disposition of his monasteries and possessions. He was buried in Ripon, near the altar of his church. Bede records the epitaph that was placed on the tomb. After his death, he was succeeded at Hexham by Acca of Hexham, one of his proteges who had accompanied him to Rome in 703. The monastery at Ripon celebrated the first anniversary of his death with a gathering of all the abbots of Wilfrid's monasteries for a commemoration.
Wilfrid left large sums of money to his monastic foundations to enable them to purchase royal favour. Soon after his death, a Vita Wilfredi, or Life of Wilfrid, was written by Stephan, a monk of Ripon, with the first edition appearing around 715, but a later revision was done in the 730s. It was commissioned by two of Wilfrid's followers, Acca of Hexham, and the abbot of Ripon, Tatbert. Stephanus' Life is concerned with vindicating Wilfrid and making a case for his sainthood, and must be used with caution by historians for that reason. Bearing in mind its biases, it is still an invaluable source for both Wilfrid's life and for the history of the time. It is the first biography written by a contemporary to appear in Anglo-Saxon England.
Legacy
Wilfrid's feast day is 12 October or 24 April. Both dates were celebrated in Anglo-Saxon England, but the April date appears first in the liturgical calendars. Right after his death, his body was treated as a cult object, and miracles were alleged to have happened at the spot where the water used to wash his body was disposed. A cult grew up at Ripon after his death, and was still active until 948, when King Eadred destroyed the church at Ripon, and Wilfrid's relics were taken by Archbishop Odo of Canterbury. Another source says that Oswald, archbishop of York, who was Odo's nephew, preserved the relics at Ripon and restored the community there to care for them. After the Norman Conquest of England, cult continued to be paid to Wilfrid, with 48 churches dedicated to him and relics distributed between at least eleven sites. During the 19th century, the feast of Wilfrid was celebrated on the Sunday following Lammas in the town of Ripon with a parade and horse racing, which continued up until at least 1908. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion.
Wilfrid was one of the first bishops to bring relics of saints back from Rome, and his biographer Stephen implied that he was the first person to legally obtain body parts as relics. The papacy was trying to restrict the relics being removed from Rome to things that had come in contact with the bodily remains such as dust and cloth, rather than actual body parts. He was known as an advocate of Benedictine monasticism, regarding it as a tool in his efforts to "root out the poisonous weeds planted by the Scots." He built at both Ripon and Hexham, as well as living a majestic lifestyle. Because of his various exiles, he founded monastic communities that were widely scattered over the British Isles, which he kept control of until his death.
Commentators have said that Wilfrid "came into conflict with almost every prominent secular and ecclesiastical figure of the age." Hindley, a historian of the Anglo-Saxons, states that "Wilfrid would not win his sainthood through the Christian virtue of humility." The historian Barbara Yorke said of him that "Wilfrid's character was such that he seems to have been able to attract and infuriate in equal measure". His contemporary, Bede, although a partisan of the Roman dating of Easter, always treats Wilfrid with a bit of unease, showing some concern about how Wilfrid conducted himself as a clergyman and as a bishop. The historian Eric John feels that it was Wilfrid's devotion to monasticism that led him to believe that the only way for the Church to be improved was through monasticism. John traces Wilfrid's many appeals to Rome to concern to hold together his monastic empire, not to self-interest. John also challenges the belief that Wilfrid was fond of pomp, pointing out that the comparison between the Irish missionaries who walked versus Wilfrid who rode leaves out the fact that the quickest method of travel in the Middle Ages was to ride.
The historian Peter Hunter Blair summarizes Wilfrid's life as follows: "Wilfrid left a distinctive mark on the character of the English church in the seventh century. He was not a humble man, nor, so far as we can see, was he a man greatly interested in learning, and perhaps he would have been more at home as a member of the Gallo-Roman episcopate where the wealth which gave him enemies in England would have passed unnoticed and where his interference in matters of state would have been less likely to take him to prison." R. W. Southern, another modern historian, says that Wilfrid was "the greatest papal enthusiast of the century".
Sources
Retrieved on 26 January 2009
Retrieved on 24 January 2009
Retrieved on 12 September 2007.
Retrieved 9 November 2007.
Further reading
External links
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