Saint Wilfrid
Évêque d'York
(634-709)
Un fait extraordinaire signale la naissance de saint Wilfrid; la maison de ses parents semble enveloppée dans un incendie; les voisins, effrayés, accourent pour éteindre le feu, mais ils s'aperçoivent avec admiration que le feu s'élance vers le ciel sans rien consumer. C'est ainsi que brûlera le flambeau du zèle de Wilfrid dans la sainte Église de Dieu.
Tout jeune encore, il résolut de se donner au Seigneur. Après un court séjour dans un couvent, s'apercevant que certains usages, contraires à ceux de Rome, s'étaient glissés dans les cérémonies, il se décida à visiter le tombeau des saints Apôtres, afin de bien discerner la vérité au centre même de la lumière. Wilfrid fut un des premiers Anglo-Saxons qui eurent le bonheur de faire le voyage de Rome, alors si long et si pénible. Bientôt le pieux pèlerin aura beaucoup d'imitateurs, et ce pèlerinage sera en grand honneur en Angleterre, grâce à son exemple.
A Rome, son premier soin est de visiter les tombeaux vénérés et de prier, dans les sanctuaires les plus sacrés, pour la conversion entière de sa patrie. Sa prière est exaucée, car il remplacera lui-même dignement le grand moine et pontife, nommé, qui, à la voix de saint Grégoire le Grand, avait porté aux Anglo-Saxons les prémices de la foi. Après un séjour de quelques années dans les Gaules, Wilfrid rentre enfin dans sa patrie, où son dévouement aux usages de Rome lui attire des ennemis et des admirateurs. Il n'a que trente ans, quand le pieux roi Alfred lui fait accepter l'évêché d'York.
Sous sa houlette, l'Évangile prend, dans ce pays, un développement merveilleux: les monastères se multiplient, de magnifiques cathédrales s'élèvent sur le sol anglo-saxon; le saint évêque préside lui-même à la construction de ces édifices grandioses qui ravissent d'admiration des populations à demi barbares, chez lesquelles l'on ne connaissait encore que les édifices de bois.
L'évêque civilisateur ne se bornait pas à l'organisation matérielle: il réformait les moeurs de son troupeau et faisait régner, avec Jésus-Christ, la paix, la justice et la charité. Un jour qu'il donnait la confirmation, une pauvre femme le supplia de ressusciter son enfant mort; Wilfrid, ému de ses larmes, bénit l'enfant et lui rendit la vie.
Incapable de céder à la peur et de manquer à sa conscience, le vaillant pontife est déposé et exilé plusieurs fois; on lui rend enfin justice, et il achève sa carrière en paix.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
Saint Wilfrid eut une existence fort mouvementée, au VIIe siècle. Il naquit en Angleterre en 634. S'étant fait moine, le jeune Wilfrid va poursuivre sa formation religieuse et intellectuelle à Lyon, puis à Rome. De retour dans sa patrie, il prend l'habit bénédictin à Lindisfarne et deviendra l'Abbé du monastère de Rippon. Bientôt, il sera élu évêque d'York, recevant la consécration épiscopale lors d'un passage en France, à Compiègne.
L'évêque Wilfrid était aussi un grand missionnaire. Il ira porter l'Évangile jusqu'en Frise, en Hollande. Doté d'un tempérament passionné et fougueux, il se faisait autant d'adversaires que d'amis ! Beaucoup de ses misères lui vinrent du roi de l'époque : en effet, sans le prévenir, il avait conduit la reine son épouse au couvent ! On comprend la fureur royale !
Le grand mérite de saint Wilfrid fut d'être véritablement oecuménique. Il fut le fidèle artisan de l'unification de l'Église en Angleterre. Il y avait alors deux Églises chrétiennes séparées : l'une autonome et Celte, dirigée d'ailleurs par un autre saint évêque qui se nommait Chad, et l'autre Anglo-saxonne, reliée à Rome. Grâce à la réconciliation des deux évêques, ces Églises vont fusionner et resteront unies jusqu'au schisme du roi Henri VIII.
On n'a pas attendu le XXe siècle pour faire l'Europe ! Au VIIe siècle, saint Wilfrid fut un véritable Européen. De par ses études, ses missions et aussi l'exil qu'il subit à plusieurs reprises, on le trouve à Lyon, à Rome, en Hollande et en Angleterre, fondant des monastères dans l'observance de la règle de saint Benoît. Réfugié en Austrasie, à l'époque le nord-est de la France, il faillit devenir évêque de Strasbourg ! C'est en Angleterre qu'il termina sa vie missionnaire itinérante, en 709.
Le nom de Wilfrid, auquel se relie celui d'Alfred, signifie selon l'étymologie germanique "volonté" et "paix".
Rédacteur : Frère Bernard Pineau, OP
St. Wilfrid
Bishop of York, son of a
Northumbrian thegn, born in 634;
died at Oundle in Northamptonshire,
709. He was unhappy at home, through the unkindness of a stepmother, and in his
fourteenth year he was sent away to the Court
of King Oswy, King of Northumbria. Here he attracted the attention of Queen Eanfleda
and by her, at his own request, he was sent to the Monastery of Lindisfarne.
After three years spent here he was sent for, again through the kindness of the
queen, to Rome, in the
company of St. Benedict
Biscop. At Rome he
was the pupil of Boniface, the pope's archdeacon. On his way
home he stayed for three years at Lyons, where he received
the tonsure from Annemundas,
the bishop of that
place. Annemundas wanted him to
remain at Lyons
altogether, and marry his niece
and become his heir, but Wilfrid was determined that he would be a priest. Soon after persecution arose at Lyons, and Annemundas
perished in it. The same fate
nearly came to Wilfrid, but when it was shown that he was a Saxon
he was allowed to depart, and came back to England. In England he received the
newly founded monastery
at Ripon as the gift of Alchfrid,
Oswy's son and heir, and here he
established the full Benedictine
Rule. The Columbite monks,
who had been settled previously at Ripon, withdrew to the North. It was not
until he had been for five years Abbot of Ripon,
that Wilfrid became a priest.
His main work at Ripon was the introduction of Roman
rules and the putting forward of a Roman
practice with regard to the point at issue between the Holy See and the Scottish
monks in Northumbria;
to settle these questions the
synod of Whitby was held in 664. Chiefly owing to Wilfrid's
advocacy of the claims of the Holy See the votes of the
majority were given to that
side, and Colman and his monks, bitterly
disappointed, withdrew from Northumbria. Wilfrid, in consequence of the favours
he had then obtained, was elected
bishop in Colman's
place, and, refusing to receive consecration from the
northern bishops, whom
he regarded as schismatics, went
over to France to be consecrated at Compiègne.
He delayed some time in France, whether by his own fault or not is not quite clear, and on his return in 666 was driven from his course by a storm and shipwrecked on the coast of Sussex, where the heathen inhabitants repelled him and almost killed him. He succeeded in landing, however, in Kent not far from Sandwich. Thence he made his way to Northumbria, only to find that, owing to his long absence, his see had been filled up, and that a St. Chad was bishop in his place. He retired to his old monastery at Ripon, and from thence went southwards and worked in Mercia, especially at Lichfield, and also in Kent.
In 669 Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury visited Northumbria, where he found Chad working as bishop. He pointed out to him the defects of his position and, at his instigation, St. Chad withdrew and Wilfrid once more became Bishop of York. During his tenure of the see, he acted with great vigour and energy, completing the work of enforcing the Roman obedience against the Scottish monks. He founded a great many monasteries of the Benedictine Order, especially at Henlam and at Ripon, and completely rebuilt the minster at York. In all that he did he acted with great magnificence, although his own life was always simple and restrained.
So long as Oswy lived all went well, but with Ecgfrid, Oswy's son and successor, Wilfrid was very unpopular, because of his action in connection with Ecgfrid's bride Etheldrida, who by Wilfrid's advice would not live with her husband but retired into a monastery. It was just at this juncture that Theodore, possibly exceeding his powers as Archbishop of Canterbury, proceeded to subdivide the great diocese over which Wilfrid ruled, and to make suffragan bishops of Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Witherne. Wilfrid, whether or not he approved of the principle of subdivision, refused to allow Theodore's right to make it, and appealed to the central authority at Rome, whither he at once went. Theodore replied by consecrating three bishops in Wilfrid's own church at York and dividing his whole bishopric between them.
An attempt was made by his enemies to prevent Wilfrid from reaching Rome, but by a singular coincidence Winfrid, Bishop of Lichfield, happened to be going to Rome at the same time, and the singularity of the name led to his being stopped while Wilfrid got through safely. At Rome a council was called by Pope Agatho to decide the case, and Wilfrid appeared before it in person, while Theodore was represented. The case was decided in Wilfrid's favour, and the intruding bishops were removed. Wilfrid was to return to York, and since subdivision of his diocese was needed, he was to appoint others as his coadjutors. He came back to Northumbria with this decision, but the king, though not disputing the right of Rome to settle the question, said that Wilfrid had brought the decision and put him in prison at Bambrough. After a time this imprisonment was converted to exile, and he was driven from the kingdom of Northumbria. He went south to Sussex where the heathen inhabitants had so inhospitably received him fifteen years before, and preached as a missionary at Selsey.
In 686 a reconciliation took place between Theodore and Wilfrid, who had then been working in Sussex for five years. Through Theodore's good offices Wilfrid was received back in Northumbria, where Aldfrid was now king. He became Bishop of Hexham at once, and before long, when York again fell vacant, he took possession there once more. For some years all went well, but at the end of that time great difficulties arose with the king because Wilfrid utterly refused to recognize what had been done by Theodore but annulled by Rome in the matter of the subdivision of his diocese, and he once more left York and appealed to Rome. He reached Rome for the third and last time in 704.
The proceedings at Rome were very lengthy, but after some months Wilfrid was again victorious. Archbishop Brihtwald was to hold a synod and see justice done. Wilfrid started again for England but on his way was taken ill at Meaux and nearly died. He recovered, however, and came back to England, where he was reconciled to Brihtwald. A synod was held, and it was decided to give back to Wilfrid, Hexham and Ripon, but not York, a settlement which, though unsatisfactory, he decided to accept, as the principle of Roman authority had been vindicated.
Beyond all others of his time, St. Wilfrid stands out as the great defender of the rights of the Holy See. For that principle he fought all through his life, first against Colman and the Scottish monks from Iona, and then against Theodore and his successor in the See of Canterbury; and much of his life was spent in exile for this reason. But to him above all others is due the establishment of the authority of the Roman See in England, and for that reason he will always have a very high place among English saints.
Eddius, the biographer of St. Wilfrid, was brought by that saint from Canterbury when he returned to York in 669. His special work was to be in connection with the music of the church of York, and he was to teach the Roman method of chant. He was an inmate of the monastery of Ripon in 709, when St. Wilfrid spent his last days there, and he undertook the work of writing the life of the saint at the request of Acca, St. Wilfrid's successor in the See of Hexham. The best edition of the work is in Raines, "Historians of the Church of York" (Rolls Series).
He delayed some time in France, whether by his own fault or not is not quite clear, and on his return in 666 was driven from his course by a storm and shipwrecked on the coast of Sussex, where the heathen inhabitants repelled him and almost killed him. He succeeded in landing, however, in Kent not far from Sandwich. Thence he made his way to Northumbria, only to find that, owing to his long absence, his see had been filled up, and that a St. Chad was bishop in his place. He retired to his old monastery at Ripon, and from thence went southwards and worked in Mercia, especially at Lichfield, and also in Kent.
In 669 Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury visited Northumbria, where he found Chad working as bishop. He pointed out to him the defects of his position and, at his instigation, St. Chad withdrew and Wilfrid once more became Bishop of York. During his tenure of the see, he acted with great vigour and energy, completing the work of enforcing the Roman obedience against the Scottish monks. He founded a great many monasteries of the Benedictine Order, especially at Henlam and at Ripon, and completely rebuilt the minster at York. In all that he did he acted with great magnificence, although his own life was always simple and restrained.
So long as Oswy lived all went well, but with Ecgfrid, Oswy's son and successor, Wilfrid was very unpopular, because of his action in connection with Ecgfrid's bride Etheldrida, who by Wilfrid's advice would not live with her husband but retired into a monastery. It was just at this juncture that Theodore, possibly exceeding his powers as Archbishop of Canterbury, proceeded to subdivide the great diocese over which Wilfrid ruled, and to make suffragan bishops of Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Witherne. Wilfrid, whether or not he approved of the principle of subdivision, refused to allow Theodore's right to make it, and appealed to the central authority at Rome, whither he at once went. Theodore replied by consecrating three bishops in Wilfrid's own church at York and dividing his whole bishopric between them.
An attempt was made by his enemies to prevent Wilfrid from reaching Rome, but by a singular coincidence Winfrid, Bishop of Lichfield, happened to be going to Rome at the same time, and the singularity of the name led to his being stopped while Wilfrid got through safely. At Rome a council was called by Pope Agatho to decide the case, and Wilfrid appeared before it in person, while Theodore was represented. The case was decided in Wilfrid's favour, and the intruding bishops were removed. Wilfrid was to return to York, and since subdivision of his diocese was needed, he was to appoint others as his coadjutors. He came back to Northumbria with this decision, but the king, though not disputing the right of Rome to settle the question, said that Wilfrid had brought the decision and put him in prison at Bambrough. After a time this imprisonment was converted to exile, and he was driven from the kingdom of Northumbria. He went south to Sussex where the heathen inhabitants had so inhospitably received him fifteen years before, and preached as a missionary at Selsey.
In 686 a reconciliation took place between Theodore and Wilfrid, who had then been working in Sussex for five years. Through Theodore's good offices Wilfrid was received back in Northumbria, where Aldfrid was now king. He became Bishop of Hexham at once, and before long, when York again fell vacant, he took possession there once more. For some years all went well, but at the end of that time great difficulties arose with the king because Wilfrid utterly refused to recognize what had been done by Theodore but annulled by Rome in the matter of the subdivision of his diocese, and he once more left York and appealed to Rome. He reached Rome for the third and last time in 704.
The proceedings at Rome were very lengthy, but after some months Wilfrid was again victorious. Archbishop Brihtwald was to hold a synod and see justice done. Wilfrid started again for England but on his way was taken ill at Meaux and nearly died. He recovered, however, and came back to England, where he was reconciled to Brihtwald. A synod was held, and it was decided to give back to Wilfrid, Hexham and Ripon, but not York, a settlement which, though unsatisfactory, he decided to accept, as the principle of Roman authority had been vindicated.
Beyond all others of his time, St. Wilfrid stands out as the great defender of the rights of the Holy See. For that principle he fought all through his life, first against Colman and the Scottish monks from Iona, and then against Theodore and his successor in the See of Canterbury; and much of his life was spent in exile for this reason. But to him above all others is due the establishment of the authority of the Roman See in England, and for that reason he will always have a very high place among English saints.
Eddius, the biographer of St. Wilfrid, was brought by that saint from Canterbury when he returned to York in 669. His special work was to be in connection with the music of the church of York, and he was to teach the Roman method of chant. He was an inmate of the monastery of Ripon in 709, when St. Wilfrid spent his last days there, and he undertook the work of writing the life of the saint at the request of Acca, St. Wilfrid's successor in the See of Hexham. The best edition of the work is in Raines, "Historians of the Church of York" (Rolls Series).
Wilfrid (Walfridus,
Willferder) of York, OSB B (RM)
Born in Ripon, Northumbria, 634; died at Oundle, in 709. Son of a thane, Saint
Wilfrid joined the court of King Oswy of Northumbria when he was 13, and became
a favorite of Queen Saint Eanfleda, who sent him to Lindisfarne for his
education. There he become a monk during the Celtic régime. He studied in
Canterbury under Saint Honorius and became an adherent of Roman liturgical
practices.
Then he left
England for Rome in 653-654 in the company of Saint Benet Biscop. After a year
at Lyons, where he refused an offer to marry Bishop Saint Annemund's niece, he
arrived in Rome, where he studied under Boniface, Pope Saint Martin's
secretary. Wilfrid's studies here convinced him that his own Christian
formation, rich in traditional learning and spirituality, was in some respects
bereft of some important religious wealth.
He then spent three
years at Lyons, where he received the tonsure, Roman instead of Celtic style,
but escaped with his life when Annemund was murdered by Ebroin at
Châlon-sur-Saône, because he was a foreigner.
He returned to
England in about 660, he was appointed abbot of Ripon monastery where he
introduced the Roman observance, and was asked by King Alcfrid of Deira to
instruct his people in the Roman rite. When the monks at Ripon decided to
return to their native Melrose rather than abandon their Celtic customs,
Wilfrid was appointed abbot. He introduced the Roman usage and the rule of
Saint Benedict to the monastery, was ordained, and was a leader in replacing
Celtic practices with Roman in northern England.
The Synod of Whitby
was convened at Saint Hilda's monastery at Saint Streaneschalch (Whitby) to
determine the practices of the Church in England. A primary question was the
dating of Easter, which had troubled many humble Christians in Britain because
the Celtic and Roman churches differed in how the date was determined. King
Oswy opened the synod by saying that all who serve the one God ought to observe
one rule of life.
Bishop Saint Colman
of Lindisfarne argued in favor of the Celtic way. He pointed out that they
derived their method of calculating the date of Easter from Saint John. Saint
Wilfrid countered: "Far be it from me to charge Saint John with
foolishness." Then he added that the Roman method derived from Saint
Peter.
When he concluded,
King Oswy said, "I tell you, Peter is the guardian of the gates of heaven.
Our Lord gave him the keys of the kingdom. I shall not contradict him. In
everything I shall do my best to obey his commands. Otherwise, when I reach the
gates of the kingdom of heaven, he who holds the keys may not agree to open up
for me."
When the Roman
party triumphed at the council held in 664, largely through his efforts,
Alcfrid named him bishop of York, but since Wilfrid regarded the northern
bishops who had refused to accept the decrees of Whitby as schismatic, he went
to Compiègne, France, to be ordained.
Delayed until 666
in his return, he found that Saint Chad had been appointed bishop of York by
King Oswy of Northumbria; rather than contest the election of Chad, Wilfrid
returned to Ripon. But in 669 the new archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Theodore,
ruled Chad's election irregular, removed him, and restored Wilfrid as bishop of
York. He made a visitation of his entire diocese, restored his cathedral, and
instituted Roman liturgical chant in all his churches.
Oswy was succeeded
by King Egfrid, whom Wilfrid had alienated by encouraging Egfrid's wife, Saint
Etheldreda, in refusing the king's marital rights and becoming a nun at
Coldingham. At Egfrid's insistence, the metropolitan Theodore in 678 divided
the see of York into four dioceses despite the objections of Wilfrid, who was
deposed.
Wilfrid went to
Rome to appeal the decision in 677--the first known appeal of an English bishop
to Rome. He spent the winter in Friesland making converts, and when he arrived
in Rome in 679 he was restored to his see by Pope Saint Agatho.
When Wilfrid
returned to England in 680, Egfrid refused to accept the pope's order and
imprisoned Wilfrid for nine months. When freed he went to Sussex. From Selsey
he energetically evangelized the heathen South Saxons, converted practically
all the inhabitants, and built a monastery at Selsey on land donated by King
Ethelwalh.
On the death of
Egfrid in battle in 685, Wilfrid met with Theodore, who asked his forgiveness
for his actions in deposing him and ordaining the bishops of the newly formed
dioceses in Wilfrid's cathedral at York.
In 686 Egfrid's
successor, King Aldfrid, at Theodore's request, recalled Wilfrid and restored
him to Ripon, but the peace lasted only five years. Aldfrid quarreled with
Wilfrid and exiled him in 691. Wilfrid went to Mercia, where at the request of
King Ethelred he administered the vacant see of Litchfield.
In 703 Theodore's
successor, Saint Berhtwald, at Aldfrid's instigation, called a synod that
ordered Wilfrid to resign his bishopric and retire to Ripon. When he still
refused to accept the division of his see, he again went to Rome, where Pope
John VI upheld him and ordered Berhtwald to call a synod clearing Wilfrid. Only
when Aldfrid died in 705, repenting of his actions against Wilfrid, was a
compromise worked out by which Wilfrid was appointed bishop of Hexham while
Saint John of Beverly remained as bishop of York.
Wilfrid died at
Saint Andrew's Monastery in Oundle, Northamptonshire, while on a visitation of
monasteries he had founded in Mercia.
Saint Wilfrid was
an outstanding figure of his time, a very able and courageous man, holding
tenaciously to his convictions in spite of consequent embroilments with civil
and ecclesiastical authorities. He was the first Englishman to carry a lawsuit
to the Roman courts and was successful in helping to bring the discipline of
the English church more into line with that of Rome and the continent. His
vicissitudes and misfortunes have somewhat obscured his abilities as a
missionary, not only among the South Saxons but also for a brief period in
Friesland in 678-79; his preaching there may be taken as the starting point of
the great English mission to the Germanic peoples on the European mainland
(Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Colgrave, Delaney, Duckett, Encyclopedia,
Webb).
In art, Wilfrid is
presented as a bishop either (1) baptizing; (2) preaching; (3) landing from a
ship and received by the king; or (4) engaged in theological disputation with
his crozier near him and a lectern before him. Venerated at Ripon, Sompting
(Sussex), and Frisia (Roeder).
St. Wilfred, Bishop of York, Confessor
From his life written by Eddi Stephani, precentor of the church of
Canterbury, in the same age, prior to Bede, ap. Mabill. Act. Ben. t. 3, p. 170;
t. 5, p. 676. Bede, Hist. l. 3, c. 25, &c. Also Fredegodus, by order of St.
Odo of Canterbury, and Eadmer, secretary to St. Anselm, wrote his life. Among
the moderns, Mr. Peck has compiled his life at large in his history of
Stamford, l. 2. See also Johnson’s Collection of English Canons, and Mr.
Smith’s App. in Bedam, n. 18, 19. His life in the English-Saxon language, MSS.
Bibl. Cotton. Julius, A. X.
A.D. 709
ST. WILFRID, in English-Saxon Willferder, to whose zealous labours
several churches both in our island and abroad were indebted for their
conversion to Christ, was born in the kingdom of Northumberland, towards the
year 634. At fourteen years of age he was sent to the monastery of Lindisfarne
that he might be trained up in the study of the sacred sciences, in which he
discovered an application, penetration, and maturity of judgment beyond his
years. A desire of greater improvement than he could attain to in that house, where
he perceived the discipline that was practised to be imperfect, put him upon a
project of travelling into France and Italy. He made some stay at Canterbury,
where he studied the Roman discipline, and learned the psalter according to the
Roman version, instead of that of St. Jerom, which he had used before. In 653,
according to Mr. Smith, St. Bennet Biscop, his countryman, passed through Kent
on his first journey to Rome; and St. Wilfrid, who had set out with the same
design, crossed the seas with him, but with an intention to visit the most
famous monasteries in his way, the better to instruct himself in the rules of
Christian perfection. At Lyons they were detained a whole year by St.
Delphinus, surnamed Annemund, archbishop of that city, who conceived so great
an affection for Wilfrid that he offered him his niece in marriage, and
promised to procure him a considerable employment; but the saint continued
steadfast in the resolution he had taken to devote himself to God, and
proceeded on his journey the year following. At Rome he devoutly visited every
day the tombs of the martyrs, and contracted a friendship with Boniface, the
archdeacon, who was a very pious and a very learned man; he was secretary to
the holy pope St. Martin, and took as much delight in instructing young Wilfrid
as if he had been his own child. He carefully explained to him the four
gospels, and the right calculation of Easter against the erroneous practice of
the Britons and Irish; likewise the other rules of ecclesiastical discipline.
At length he presented him to the pope, who gave him his blessing by the
imposition of his hands, and prayer. After this, Wilfrid left Rome, from whence
he brought relics, and returned to Lyons to the archbishop, whom he reverenced
as his father. He staid three years at Lyons, and received the ecclesiastical
tonsure from St. Delphinius, who desired to make him his heir; but was put to
death at Challons upon the Saone, by the order of Ebroin, in 658. He is
honoured at Lyons as a martyr on the 29th of September, being commonly called
St. Chaumont. Wilfrid accompanied him to the place of execution, and would have
been glad to have died for him or with him. After he had interred his spiritual
father, he returned into England loaded with relics.
Alcfrid, natural son of Oswi, who at that time reigned over the Deiri,
(his father contenting himself with Bernicia,) being informed that Wilfrid had
been instructed in the discipline of the Roman Church, sent for him, and
received him as an angel from heaven. After he had discoursed with him
concerning several customs of that church, he conjured him to continue with
him, to instruct him and his people in ecclesiastical discipline. This St.
Wilfrid consented to, and the prince entered into an intimate friendship with
him, and gave him land at Rippon to found a monastery upon, which our saint
governed and richly endowed. Assisted by the munificence of the king, he
distributed very considerable sums in alms, was exceedingly beloved and
respected on account of his virtues, and was even looked upon as a prophet.
Agilbert, bishop of the West-Saxons, coming to pay a visit to King Oswi and his
son, Aclfrid entreated him to ordain Wilfrid priest, that he might remain
always near his person. Agilbert said, that a person of such merit ought to be
promoted to a bishopric; and ordained him priest in 663, in the monastery of
Rippon. The Northumbrians had relapsed into idolatry after the death of King
Edwin; but St. Oswald obtained St. Aidan, the holy Irish monk of Hij, for bishop,
and planted the faith again in that kingdom. St. Aiden resided, not at York, as
St. Paulinus had done, but at Lindisfarne. Finan and Colman, his countrymen,
succeeded him, and had all the kingdom of Northumberland for their diocess.
These Scots or Irish followed an erroneous calculation of Easter; and King Oswi
who had been instructed by them, and his queen Eanflede, daughter of Edwin, who
came from Kent, sometimes kept Lent and Easter at different times in the same
court. The Scots and Britons herein were not schismatics, as Rapin and some
others pretend; for they did not coincide with the Quartodecimans, who had been
condemned by the church, nor had this difference between the Scots and the
universal church then proceeded to a breach of communion. To put an end to this
dispute, in 664 a conference was held in the great monastery of St. Hilda, at
Streaneshalch, now Whitby, before the kings Oswi and Alcfrid. Colman brought
thither his Scottish clergy; on the other side, Agilbert, bishop of West-Sex or
Dorchester, had with him Agatho, a priest from Paris, Romanus, the abbot
Wilfrid, and the deacon James. Colman alleged the example of his predecessors,
and of St. Columba himself, and pretended that practice to have been
established in Asia, by St. John the Evangelist; which assertion it would have
been a difficult task to prove. 1 Wilfrid replied, that the agreement of all the churches in Africa,
Asia, Egypt, Greece, Gaul, Rome, Italy, and the rest of the world, ought to
have more weight than that of the Picts and Britons in a part of the two
remotest islands of the ocean; that St. John could not reject at once all the
observances of the law, so long as the church judaized in some points; but that
after the death of St. John the custom which St. Peter established at Rome, was
observed by his successors in Asia, and by the universal church, and was
commanded by the Nicene council: that the Britons and Picts neither followed
St. Peter, nor St. John, neither the law nor the gospel; that Columba and the
rest of their ancestors were without fault, because they knew no better; but
that they were inexcusable who refused to be instructed. He added that Christ
said to St. Peter: Thou art Peter, &c. 2 Hereupon King Oswi said: “Do you all acknowledge, of both parties, that
our Lord said this particularly to Peter, and that the Lord gave him the keys
of the kingdom of heaven?” They replied: “We acknowledge it.” Then he
concluded: “I declare, that I will not oppose this keeper of the gate of
heaven, and that I will obey his orders to the utmost of my power, lest he shut
that gate against me.” This resolution of the king was approved by the whole
assembly. Rapin confesses that Oswi acknowledged a prerogative of St. Peter
above the rest of the apostles, and that on this account he preferred the
practice which he had established at Rome, to that which he thought derived
from St. John. 3 It is evident from the very silence of both parties, that the Scots or
Irish and Britons never called in question the supremacy of the bishop of Rome.
Another difference which regarded the tonsure was agitated in this conference.
The Romans made it quite round the head, to resemble, they said, our Lord’s
crown of thorns. This was called St. Peter’s Tonsure: the other, called by
derision Simon Magus’s, was only a semicircle shaved from ear to ear above the
forehead, not reaching to the hinder part, which was covered with hair. 4 Bede mentions no decision with regard to this point, which was left to
the custom of each place. St. Cedd, bishop of Essex or London, who was present
at this conference, and, being a native of Deira, had followed the Scottish
customs, declared upon the spot that he embraced the Roman discipline: but
Colman said he would consult with his brethren, the monks of Jona, and retired
to them with his Scottish priests. Tuda was consecrated bishop of
Northumberland in his room, but soon after died of a pestilence which raged in
England in 664. He had been educated and ordained by the Southern Irish, but conformed
to the Roman discipline; he was much lamented on account of his virtue. King
Alcfrid desired to have his own priest Wilfrid placed in the episcopal see, and
sent him into France, to receive consecration at the hands of his old friend
Agilbert, who, seeing his diocess of West-Sex divided, and another bishop,
named Wina, placed at Venta, called by the Saxons Wintacestir, now Winchester,
returned to France, which was his native country, where the bishopric of Paris
was given him. Wilfrid being absent a long time on this journey, Oswi caused
St. Ceadda, or Chad, abbot of Lestingau, a disciple of St. Aidan, to be
ordained bishop. The see of Canterbury being vacant by the death of Deusdedit,
he was consecrated by Wina, bishop of Winchester, who was the only bishop at
that time in Great Britain that had been canonically ordained. Agilbert
joyfully received Wilfrid, and, with twelve other bishops, performed the
ceremony of his ordination with great solemnity at Compiegne. St. Wilfrid was
then in the thirtieth year of his age, in 664; he was carried by the bishops in
a golden chair, according to the custom of the Gauls.
At his return into England he would not dispute the election of St.
Chad; but retired to Rippon, which monastery he made his residence for three
years, though he was often called into Mercia by King Wulfere, to ordain
deacons and priests and to perform other episcopal functions. Oswi having
defeated and slain Penda in 655, conquered all that kingdom; but, three years
after, made Peada, Penda’s son, to whom he had given his daughter in marriage,
king of that part which lay south of the Trent; but Peada dying soon after,
Oswi again united that country to his own dominions. Not long after, the
Mercians took up arms, and placed Wulfere, Penda’s second son, upon the throne
in 659. This prince was for some time a pagan, or at least favoured the pagans;
but at length became a zealous propagator of the faith, and governed by the
counsels of St. Wilfrid, who founded monasteries and churches in several parts
of Mercia. Mr. Peck endeavours to prove, 5 that the priory of St. Leonard, about a quarter of a mile out of
Stamford, was built by St. Wilfrid, though rebuilt, in honour of St. Leonard,
by William, bishop of Durham, in the reign of the Conqueror, and only then
dedicated in honour of St. Leonard. 6 St. Theodorus, archbishop of Canterbury, in his visitation, found the
election of St. Chad to have been irregular, and removed him; but, charmed with
his humility and virtue, placed him in the see of Litchfield. At the same time
he put St. Wilfrid in possession of the see of York, in 669, before the death
of Oswi, which happened in 670. Upon his demise, Alcfrid was obliged by the
people to leave the throne to Egfrid, the eldest legitimate son of Oswi. St.
Wilfrid consecrated the great church of St. Peter, which he had built at
Rippon, in presence of the new king, in 670; and afterwards that of St. Andrew
at Hexham, and several others. Being a man of most persuasive oratory and
strict virtue, he promoted every where religion and piety with incredible
success. He invited out of Kent the precentor Eddi Stephani, who became from
that time his constant companion, and afterwards wrote his life. With his
assistance the saint established, in all the churches of the north, the use of
Plain-song, which St. Gregory the Great instituted in the church-music, and
admirably well adapted it to every different part of the divine office, as Franchini
observes; 7 in which it is easier and more becoming than that which is performed
with a harmonious discord of voices and variation of melody. 8 The monastic state was a principal object of St. Wilfrid’s care; and
this he settled among the Midland and Northern English, as St. Austin had
established it in Kent. 9
King Egfrid had taken to wife St. Audry, who preferring a religious
life, according to the liberty which the church has always understood, by
constant tradition, to be allowed by the divine law before cohabition, St. Wilfrid
endeavoured at first to engage her to change her resolution; but finding her
inflexible in it, at length consented to give her the veil. This action
exceedingly provoked the king; and his new Queen Ermenberga employed every base
and little means entirely to ruin him in the opinion of her husband. In order
to undermine him, a project was set on foot for dividing his bishopric, after
the holy prelate had spent ten years in settling Christianity in it. Theodorus,
the archbishop of Canterbury and metropolitan of all England, was gained by
specious pretences, and parcelled his great diocess, consecrating Bosa to the
see of York, for the Deiri; Eata to that of Lindisfarne, for Bernicia; and
Eadhed to the church of Lindissi or great part of Lincolnshire, which Egfrid
had won from Mercia. 10 This passed in the year 678. Eadhed resided first at Sidnacester, near
Gainsborough; but after King Wulfere had recovered Lindsey and all
Lincolnshire, he retired to Rippon. Wilfrid, for opposing this partition, was
rejected; but appealed to the pope. Dreading a disturbance or schism, he raised
no clamour; but being too well versed in the canons not to see the irregularity
and nullity of many steps that had been taken against him embarked for Rome.
Being driven by contrary winds at sea upon the coast of Friesland, he was moved
to compassion upon seeing the spiritual blindness and idolatry of the
inhabitants, and preached the faith to them. During that winter and the
following spring he staid among them, converted and baptized many thousands,
with several lords of the country. Thus he opened that harvest which St.
Willibrord and others, excited by his example, afterwards cultivated. Wilfrid
is honoured to this day as the apostle of that country. 11 Ebroin, either through the solicitations of the saint’s enemies in
England, or on the score of his enmity on account of St. Delphinus of Lyons,
sent letters to Adalgise, king of Friesland, promising to give him a bushel of
gold, if he would send him Bishop Wilfrid, or his head. The king read the
letters publicly before Wilfrid, the messengers, and his own officers, and
tearing them to pieces with indignation, threw them into the fire, expressing
the utmost execration of so detestable a treachery.
Next summer Wilfrid, leaving his new converts with great reluctance
under the direction of proper pastors, travelled through Austrasia, where King
Dagobert II. entertained him most honourably, and entreated him to fill the
bishopric of Strasburg, which happened then to be vacant. Upon his refusal,
this prince made him very considerable presents, and sent Adeodatus, bishop of
Toul, to accompany him to Rome, where he arrived late in the year 679. He found
Pope Agatho already apprised of what had passed in England, by a monk whom
Theodorus had despatched on his side with letters. The pope was preparing to
hold a great council against the Monothelites. In the meantime, to discuss this
cause, he assembled a synod in October, 679, in the Lateran basilic, or church
of our Saviour, consisting of above fifty bishops and priests, chiefly of the
Suburbicarian churches (i. e. of part of Italy and those of
Sicily), though their names are strangely mangled in Sir Henry Spelman’s copy. 12 The causes of the dissension in the British church having been weighed,
it was decreed, by the authority of St. Peter, that there should be in it one
archbishop honoured with the pall, who should promote and canonically ordain
the bishops to the other sees; but that none of the bishops should presume to
meddle with the rights of any other prelate, but all should study to instruct
and convert the people. After this, St. Wilfrid was admitted to the council,
though Johnson thinks this a second council, held soon after the first, in the
same place; and that St. Wilfrid was not arrived at Rome when the first was
convened, but had only stated his case to the pope by letters. Having presented
his petition in person to the pope and bishops assembled, the synod exceedingly
commended his moderation, in that he had raised no disturbance or resistance by
contumacy, but had been content calmly to enter his protestation and appeals,
professing that he would submit to whatever was determined: and it was
definitively decreed, that he should be restored to his bishopric. Mr. Johnson
takes notice that St. Wilfrid never claimed any archiepiscopal jurisdiction,
and that this synod 13 expressly says, the sacerdotal primacy in Britain was settled by St.
Gregory and St. Austin in the see of Canterbury; whence this author imagines
St. Gregory altered his first decree or purpose by some posterior regulation.
St. Wilfrid staid above four months at Rome, and assisted at the great Lateran
council of one hundred and twenty-five bishops, in which he, with the rest,
condemned the Monothelite heresy. When he arrived in England, he repaired to
the king, and showed him the sealed decrees of the pope. The prince, when he
had first caused them to be read to the prelates of his own faction that were
in the room with him, cried out, they had been obtained by bribery, and
commanded a certain reeve (or steward of the church for secular affairs) to
commit Wilfrid to prison, where he was detained nine months. They took from him
everything but the clothes which he then wore, and sent his attendants some one
way, and some another. Queen Ermenberga took away his case of relics, which she
hung up in her chamber, and carried about with her in her chariot, when she
went out. The holy bishop’s guards heard him sing psalms in his dark dungeon,
and beheld a light which terrified them; and the saint having cured the
governor’s wife with holy water, he refused to guard him any longer, and the
king ordered him to be removed to another prison. At length the queen was
seized with a sudden fit of sickness in a monastery, the abbess whereof (who
was Ebba, the king’s aunt) represented to her the injustice done to St.
Wilfrid: whereupon he was set at liberty, his relics were restored, and his
companions were sent back to him.
St. Wilfrid, who was inflamed with an ardent zeal for the conversion of
infidels and the salvation of souls, repaired to the kingdom of the South
Saxons, which had not yet received the light of faith. Edilwalch, the king, who
had been lately baptized in Mercia, where King Wulphere was his godfather,
received him with open arms; and the saint, by his preaching, converted the
whole nation, with all the priests of the idols. That country was oppressed
with a dreadful famine, no rain having fallen there for three years; but on the
day on which St. Wilfrid first administered baptism with great solemnity to an
incredible number of the nobility and people, abundant rains fell. The saint
also taught the people to fish, which was a great relief to them. In the first
essay they caught three hundred fishes, of which the saint induced them to give
one hundred to the poor, and as many to those of whom they had borrowed their
nets, keeping the like number for their own use. The king gave him land of
eighty-seven families, on which he built two monasteries, Bosenham and Selsey,
that is, Isle of the Sea-Calf. This latter place became an episcopal see, which
was afterwards removed to Chichester. The saint sent a priest into the Isle of
Wight, whither the faith had not penetrated, and he had the satisfaction to see
all the inhabitants regenerated in the waters of life. Cadwalla, king of the
West Saxons, to whom that island was then subject, sent for St. Wilfrid, and
took his advice. The saint chiefly resided in the peninsula of Selsey, and
cultivated this vineyard five years, till, upon the death of King Egfrid, he
was called back into Northumberland. That prince was slain in battle by the
Picts, whose country he had invaded in 685. As he left no issue, Alcfrid, his
natural brother, was sent for out of Ireland, whither he had retired, and a
second time mounted the throne. St. Theodorus being above fourscore years of
age, and seized with frequent fits of sickness, sent to St. Wilfrid, requesting
that he would meet him at London, with Erchambald, bishop of that city. He
confessed to them all the actions of his life; then said to St. Wilfrid: “The
greatest remorse that I feel is, that I consented with the king to deprive you
of your possessions, without any fault committed on your part. I confess this
my crime to God and St. Peter; and I take them both to witness, that I will do
all that lies in my power to make amends for my fault, and to reconcile you to
all the kings and lords who are my friends. God hath revealed to me that I
shall not live to the end of this year. I conjure you to consent that I may
establish you in my life-time archbishop of my see.” St. Wilfrid replied: “May
God and St. Peter pardon you all our differences. I will always pray for you as
your friend. Send letters to your friends, that they may restore to me part of
my possessions, according to the decree of the holy see. The choice of a successor
in your see will be afterwards considered in a proper assembly.” Pursuant to
this engagement St. Theodorus wrote to King Alcfrid, to Ethelred, king of the
Mercians, to Elfleda, who had succeeded St. Hilda in the abbey of
Streaneshalch, and others. Alcfrid having received these letters, recalled the
holy bishop in the second year of his reign, towards the end of the year 686,
and restored to him, first his monastery of Hexham, and soon after that of
Rippon, and the episcopal see of York; Bosa of York, and St. John of Beverley,
at Hexham, relinquishing their sees to him. Theodorus had first parcelled it
into three, afterwards into five bishoprics, consecrating Tunbert to Hexham,
and Trumwin to the diocess of the Southern Picts, subject to the kings of Northumberland,
whose see was fixed at Withern. These bishops were holy men, well qualified for
their ministry, and, in simplicity, took upon themselves a charge which their
immediate superiors imposed upon them.
St. Wilfrid, after his restoration, reduced Hexham and Rippon to their
original condition of mere monasteries; and St. Cuthbert who had from the
beginning sustained the episcopal charge only in obedience and by compulsion,
retired to Farne upon St. Wilfrid’s return, and died there the following year,
687; so that St. Wilfrid was obliged to take upon him the care also of the
diocess of Lindisfarne, till a new bishop could be chosen. The irreproachable
conduct, the vigilancy, and the indefatigable zeal of our holy prelate ought to
have stopped the mouths of his enemies; but these very virtues, which enraged
the devil, raised new storms against him. King Alcfrid would have a new
bishopric elected at Rippon: St. Wilfrid opposed the project, and was obliged
once more to fly, in 691, five years after he had been restored. He retired to
Ethelred, King of the Mercians, who received him most graciously, and entreated
him to take upon himself the care of the see of Litchfield, which was then
vacant. The good bishop’s discourses on the vanity of the world, and the
infinite importance of salvation, made such an impression on the king, that, in
hopes more easily to secure a happy eternity, he soon after relinquished his
crown, and put on the monastic habit. Our saint founded many monasteries and
churches in Mercia, and usefully employed there his labours; till, finding his
enemies in Northumberland had gained Brithwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
were soliciting a sentence of deposition against him, he appealed a second time
to Rome, and took another journey thither in 703. His accusers appeared there
against him, but to their own confusion. Pope John VI. honourably acquitted the
saint, who had in every thing proceeded according to the canons. His very
enemies always acknowledged his life to be irreproachable; and a bishop cannot
be deposed unless a canonical fault be proved against him in a synod. If it was
necessary to divide his bishopric, this was not to be done without his
concurrence, and withal reserving to him his own see; the authority at least not
of some small consistory, but of a full provincial council, in the West, also
of the pope, and in the East of the patriarch of that part, ought to intervene,
as many instances in France and other places long before that time, clearly
show. Moreover, this persecution was raised by court envy, jealousy, and
resentment. These were the instruments which conjured up the storm, and the
secret springs which put in motion the engines that were employed against this
servant of God through the simplicity or ignorance of many, the malice of some,
and the complaisance and condescension of others. The holy prelate being the
best skilled in sacred learning and in the canons of the Church in all Britain,
as St. Theodorus on his death-bed acknowledged him to be, was too great a
disciplinarian for some at court. How pure his views were, and how remote from
avarice and ambition, appeared from his charity towards his persecutors, the
meekness with which he maintained the rights of his see, and the discipline of
the Church, and the humility and disinterestedness with which he refused the
bishopric of the Mercians, and excused himself from acquiescing in the earnest
request of St. Theodorus, when he desired to make him his coadjutor in the
metropolitical see of Canterbury. 14 If he was rich, he knew no other use of what he possessed than to
employ it in the foundation of churches, and in the relief of the poor. He
rejoiced to see others share the fruits of his harvest; and though traversed in
every advance that he made, he never threw away the labouring oar, or grew
remiss in his ministry, or in quickening others to the utmost exertion of their
zeal in the cause of God. Such a character appeared in the most shining light
to all impartial judges, and St. Wilfrid met at Rome with that protection and
applause which were due to his heroic virtue. Pope John VI. in 704, sent letters 15 by an express messenger to the kings of Mercia and Northumberland in
favour of the persecuted bishop, charging Archbishop Brithwald to call a synod
which should do him justice; in default of which he ordered the parties to make
their personal appearance at Rome.
St. Wilfrid, in his return, was taken dangerously ill at Meaux in
France: under which distemper Bede relates 16 that he was assured by a heavenly vision, that Christ, through the
intercession of his mother, the Holy Virgin Mary, and at the prayers of his
friends, had prolonged his life four years. When he landed in England,
Archbishop Brithwald promised him heartily to concur to his restoration to his
former see. Ethelred, the late King of Mercia, then abbot of Bardney, received
him with great joy, and warmly recommended him to his nephew Coënred, to whom
he had resigned his crown when he forsook the world. Coënred was so inflamed
with the love of heavenly things by the converse he had with the holy man, that
he conceived a great desire also to renounce the world; which project he
afterwards executed in the year 709, of his reign the fourth, when he travelled
to Rome with Offa, king of the East-Saxons, and both put on the monastic habit,
and, persevering with great fervour to their last hours, died happily in that
city. Alcfrid, King of Northumberland, yet made difficulties; but died in 705,
and, in his last sickness, repented of the injustice he had done to St.
Wilfrid, as his sister Elfleda, abbess of Streaneshalch, gave testimony. His
restitution, therefore, was easily agreed to by the whole kingdom, under Osred,
who being only eight years old, succeeded his father, Brithric being regent
during his minority. St. Wilfrid took possession of the diocess of Hexham, but
chiefly resided in his monastery of Rippon, leaving York to St. John of
Beverley. He governed the monasteries in Mercia, of which he had been the
founder, and which were afterwards destroyed by the Danes. He died at one of
these at Undalum, now called Oundle, in Northamptonshire, on the 24th of April,
709, having divided his treasures between his monasteries, churches, and the
former companions of his exile. His body was buried in his church of St. Peter
at Rippon. 17 That monastery having been destroyed by the wars, the greatest part of
his remains was translated to Canterbury in the time of St. Odo, and deposited
under the high altar, in 959. They were enshrined by Lanfranc, and deposited on
the north side of the altar by St. Anselm, on the 12th of October: the day of
which translation became his principal festival. These relics are said now to
repose near the monument of that truly great man, Cardinal Pole.
True virtue is always of a piece with itself, is always governed by the
same principle, and always steers the same course. In prosperity it is humble,
modest, and timorous; in adversity, magnanimous, and equally active and brave.
To suffer from good men is often the severest of trials: but from whatever
quarter persecution comes, it is our duty not to sink under it, but sincerely
humbling ourselves both before God and man, we must not be daunted, considering
that on one side it is the part of cowards only to be pusillanimous, or to
despair; and, on the other, it is arrogance and pride to fall into impatience,
or to repay injuries with revenge, insults, or ill will. St. Wilfrid saw the
clouds gather, and ready to burst over his head; yet was undaunted. He never
reviled his persecutors—never complained of the envy and malice of those who
stirred up whole kingdoms against him. Envy died with him: and immediately the
whole world gave due praise to the purity of his intentions, the ardour of his
zeal for virtue and discipline, and the sanctity of his life. The historians of
our nation unanimously conspire in paying a grateful tribute to his memory,
which is consecrated in the Roman and other Martyrologies.
Note 1. If any of the apostles who lived among the Jews tolerated for some time
a coinciding of Easter with the Jewish Pasch, at least the contrary rule was
always the general discipline of the church, which the apostles established to
show the distinction and the liberty of the new law, as for the same purpose
they changed the Sabbath into Sunday. When the general council of Nice, in 325,
had condemned the custom of keeping Easter with the Jews on the fourteenth day
of the first lunar month nearest the spring equinox, those who obstinately
persisted in that practice were called Quartodecimans, and were schismatics,
&c. They who held that practice to be of precept from the Jewish law, were
always heretics. The Scots or Irish, in the fifth and sixth centuries, kept Easter
on a Sunday, not on the fourteenth day, with the Quartodecimans and Jews,
unless when this fourteenth day was the Sunday, by which they differed widely
from the practice that was condemned at Nice, yet fell short of perfect
conformity with the universal church. [back]
Note 4. There was likewise the Oriental
Tonsure called St. Paul’s, which some monks used also in the West; this
consisted in shaving the whole head. The use of ecclesiastical tonsures seems
only to have been introduced in the fourth or fifth century after the
persecutions, as a mark of a person’s being consecrated to God, and in
imitation of Christ’s crown of thorns. See Bona Rerum Liturg. Smith in Bed.
Append. p. 715; Fleury, l. 39. [back]
Note 6. Bede tells us, that King Alcfrid
bestowed on St. Wilfrid land of thirty families at Stamford, where he built a
monastery before he founded that of Rippon. Mr. Smith is inclined to think this
Stamford was situated on the Derwent in Yorkshire. But ancient MSS. and writers
call it Stamford in Lincolnshire, as Mr. Smith confesses; and after Oswi’s
victory over Penda, all Mercia was subjected to the Northumbrians, till Oswi
constituted Peada rather viceroy than king of South-Mercia; so that St. Wilfrid
might build a church in that country. (See Mr. Peck’s History of Stamford.)
After King Wulfere, his brother became independent in Mercia, Lindsey, and
probably almost all Lincolnshire, was again conquered by the Northumbrians, and
obeyed them for some years. This church of St. Leonard’s, near Stamford, was
formerly a place of great devotion. The nave, or middle aisle is still
standing, and shows the remains of a stately pile, and of costly and excellent
workmanship, though it is now converted into a barn, for the use of a new
farm-house. In digging the foundations of this house some stone coffins were
found, which are used for troughs, and the bones of the illustrious dead
interred there were scattered about the fields with an indecency which the pagan
Romans would have called sacrilegious. Mr. Hearn, in his Preface to Textus
Roffensis, p. 43, speaking of the ruins of Rewley, (alias North-Ousney,) an
abbey of Cistercians, near Oxford, says: “Great quantities of men’s bones are
frequently dug up, which are often barbarously used, without considering that
the persons there buried were renowned for all sorts of virtues, particularly
for justice, clemency, and bounty towards the poor. But I foresee what the
advocates of sacrilege will say,” &c. See the like invectives of Mr.
Stephens and others, which might seem too harsh if here inserted. The pagan
Romans punished a wilful violation, or removing the stones, of a sepulchre,
with great rigour, calling it a sacrilege, and a crime against the public next
in guilt to that of treason. See Gutherius De Jure Manium, l. 3, c. 25; De
Sepulchro violato ap. Grævium, Antiq. Roman. t. 12. [back]
Note 7. Guido, a monk of Arezzo, in Tuscany, in 1009, was the inventor of the
gamma-ut or gamut, and the six notes, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La;
which syllables are taken from the three first verses of the hymn of St. John
Baptist, Ut queant laxis, &c. Without the use of the gamut,
a person could not in a little time become perfect master of plain-song. Guido
says, in a letter which he wrote: “I hope they who come after us will not
forget to pray for us. For we make a perfect master of singing in a year or
two; whereas till now a person could scarcely attain this science, even
imperfectly, in ten years.” The gamut is the first note, but oftener taken for
the whole scale of music, or series of sounds rising or falling towards
acuteness or gravity from any given pitch or tone. Plain-song is that in which
all sing in unison; it is executed by fixing the musical notes within due
limits, and ordering or disposing the changes, risings, and fallings of the
voice according to the natural series of the musical sounds. [back]
Note 14. His modesty is remarkable in never
soliciting the metropolitical jurisdiction, which St. Gregory had ordained
should be settled at York, and which had been granted to St. Paulinus. It had
failed in the Scottish bishops who resided at Lindisfarne; but was recovered in
734, by Egbert or Ecgbright, brother to Eadbyrht, king of Northumberland, a
prelate still more eminent for his superiority in knowledge than for his high
birth, as Bede testifies. He was Alcuin’s master. [back]
Note 15. Extant in Spelman, pp. 179, 204; but
in the latter place falsely ascribed to Pope John VII. as if it were a
different letter. [back]
Note 17. See Dugdale’s History of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Rippon,
which was dissolved 27 Henry VIII. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
X: October. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Voir aussi : http://www.wilfrid.com/heraldry.htm
