Aldfrith's Qitalifications as a Patron of Literature 309 



astonishment and grief the opposition to his hero of such noble 

 and saintly personages as Archbishop Theodore/ Abbess Hild, 

 the patroness of Csedmon, Hadrian, Theodore's coadjutor, Bene- 

 dict Biscop, and Cuthbert. But this is not surprising when we 

 reflect that, with the exception of The6dore and Hadrian, all 

 these noble and saintly personages, with many others of similar 

 stamp, were exponents of the missionary effort of a church whose 

 ways were not the ways of Wilf rith. Green has summed up the 

 effect of this work of evangelization in saying^ : 'The real life 

 and energy of the new Christianity were concentrated in the north, 

 and the north looked for its religious centre, not to Rome, but to 

 Ireland. . . . The spell which it cast over Northumbria was 

 irresistible.' And Bright has expressed the temper of this Irish 

 Christianity in a single sentence^ : 'It brought religion straight 

 home to men's hearts by sheer power of love and self-sacrifice : it 

 held up before them, in the unconscious goodness and nobleness 

 of its representatives, the moral evidence for Christianity.' The 

 French biographer of Alcuin, in a striking antithesis, suggests, 

 with some exaggeration, the two principles which were confront- 

 ing each other in the persons of Wilf rith and his opponents. This 

 is Monnier's epigrammatic summation^ : Tn Ireland, it was lib- 

 erty that prevailed ; in the Anglb-Saxon territories, it was author- 

 ity. In the former, religion was enjoyed ; in the latter, it was 

 constructed.' 



Aldfrith, then, represented a party whose motto was substan- 

 tially 'Northumbria for the Northumbrians,' which was tanta- 

 mount to 'England for the English' ; and Archbishop Theodore, 

 though wielding a power delegated by Rome, was, on the whole, 

 as we have seen, sympathetic with the national party, in opposi- 

 tion to the harsh insistence of Wilf rith on Roman supremacy. In 

 this contest, Benedict Biscop and Aldfrith, as Bishop Stubbs has 

 said,^ were 'thoroughly at one with the comprehensive church- 



^ Cf . Oman, p. 317: 'His [Wilfrith's] haughty bearing and unconciliatory 

 disposition were the real cause of his long strife with men of such excellent 

 character as Archbishop Theodore and King Aldfrith.' 



''P. 312; cf. p. 276. 



' P. 204. 



^ Monnier, Alatin et Charle>iiagne, p. 40. 



^ Diet. Clir. Biog. i. 77. It must not be overlooked that of Archbishop 

 Berhtwald (d. 731) the Sa.x-on Clironicle says (692) : 'Hitherto our bishops 



