She, fostering his inclination for a religious life, placed him under the care of an old noble, Cudda, who had betaken himself to a monastic life at Lindisfarne. Later on Eanfled enabled him to visit Rome under the protection of Benedict Biscop, the son of a Northumbrian, or rather Anglian, noble. At Lyons Wilfrid’s pleasing features and quick intelligence made Dalfinus, or Aunemund, the archbishop, desire to adopt him and marry him to his niece. Resisting his offers, the youth went on to Rome, received the papal benediction, and then, in accordance with his promise, returned to Lyons, where he stayed for three years, till the murder of his patron (1 656), whose fate he would have shared had not his beauty stayed the hand of the executioners. On his return home, Oswy’s son Alchfrid gave him a monastery at Ripon, and before long Bishop Agilbert of Paris ordained him priest. He was probably already regarded as the leading exponent of the Roman discipline in England when his speech at the council of Whitby determined the overthrow of the Celtic party (664). About a year later he was consecrated to the see of York (not in England, where perhaps he could not find the fitting number of orthodox prelates, but at Compiègne). On his return journey he narrowly escaped the pagan wreckers of Sussex, and only reached his own country to find he had been supplanted in his see. The rest of his life is a record of wandering and misfortune. For three years (665-668) he ruled his monastery at Ripon in peace, occasionally, however, exercising his episcopal functions in Mercia and Kent. On Archbishop Theodore’s arrival (668) he was restored to his see, but only to be driven out through the anger of King Egfrid’s queen (677). Theodore now divided Wilfrid’s large diocese into three; and the aggrieved prelate went to lay his case before the bishop of Rome. On his way he narrowly escaped murder at the hands of foreign princes, whom his own countrymen had stirred up against him. A synod held at Rome under Agatho (?679) ordained his restitution; but even a papal decision could not prevent his being cast into prison on his return home. When released he wandered first to Mercia, whence Egfrid once more drove him forth to Sussex. Here he rescued the pagan folk from an impending famine, and established a bishop’s see at Selsea. After Egfrid’s death (20th May 685) Wilfrid was restored to York and Ripon (686-687). He was once more driven out in 691- 692, and after appealing to Rome in person obtained another decision in his favour (703-704). Despite the intercession of Berghtwald, archbishop of Canterbury, Egbert’s brother Aldfrid refused to admit the aged prelate into his kingdom till his last illness (705). This year or the next a council was held near the river Nidd, the papal letters were read, and, despite the opposition of the bishops, Wilfrid once more received the abbeys of Ripon and Hexham. Not long after he died at Oundle (Northamptonshire) as he was going on a visit to Ceolred, king of Mercia (709). He was buried at Ripon, whence, according to Eadmer, his bones were afterwards removed to Canterbury.

Wilfrid’s is a memorable name in English history, not only because of the large part he played in supplanting the Celtic discipline and in establishing a precedent of appeal to papal authority, but also by reason of his services to architecture and learning. At York he renewed Paulinus’s old church, roofing it with lead and furnishing it with glass windows; at Ripon he built an entirely new basilica with columns and porches; at Hexham in honour of St Andrew he reared a still nobler church, over which Eddius grows eloquent. In the early days of his bishopric he used to travel about his diocese attended by a little troop of skilled masons. He seems to have also reformed the method of conducting the divine services by the aid of his skilled chanters, Aedde and Aeonan, and to have established or renewed the rule of St Benedict in the monasteries. On each visit to Rome it was bis delight to collect relics for his native land; and to his favourite basilica at Ripon he gave a bookcase wrought in gold and precious stones, besides a splendid copy of the Gospels. As a missionary his success was extraordinary, and even on his way to Rome in 679 he found time to convert the Frisian king, Ald-gislus, though the latter had been bribed to slay him by the offer of “a measure of gold solidi.” Later in life he ordained Suidbert as the first bishop of Frisia. In earlier years his influence was so great that he supplied the Franks with one of their later Merovingian kings, Dagobert II.

wilfrid’s life was written shortly after his death by Eddius at the request of Acea, his successor at Hexham, and Tatbert, abbot of Ripon,—both intimate friends of the great bishop. Other lives were written by Frithegode in the 10th, by Folcard in the llth, and by Eadmer early in the 12th century. The dates have to be supplied mainly from Bede’s Hist. Ecd., iii. c. 25, &c., 13, &c., V. 19, &c. All the lives are printed in Raine’s Historians of the Church of York, vol. i. (Rolls Series).