ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Colman retired from a district in which he could no longer hold his own. 

 Tuda, his successor at Lindisfarne, died not long after, and Wilfrid was 

 chosen to succeed him, 



Wilfrid evidently aimed at reviving the metropolitan jurisdiction of 

 York. His hatred of Scottish heresy led him to go for consecration to 



: Compiegne in Gaul.'" This journey, and his delay in returning, seem to 



r have been the first causes of a quarrel with the Northumbrian princes. 



( When he came back to Northumbria he found a Bishop of York appointed 

 in his place, Ceadda, the brother of Cedd, an Englishman who had received 



' his education in an Irish monastery and adhered to the Scottish party. 

 Wilfrid retired to Ripon and to the work of a missionary bishop in Kent 

 and Mercia until, in 669, Archbishop Theodore procured his acknowledgement 

 as Bishop of York." The next nine years were an epoch of prosperity for 

 Wilfrid, who was not only an administrator and leader of a party, but also a 

 devotee of religious art. He restored the ruined church at York begun by 

 Eadwine and continued by Oswald. ^'' At Ripon and Hexham he built 

 basilican churches,''* and when travelling through Mercia he was accompanied 

 by his cantors, masons, and teachers of nearly every art. From the Continent 

 he brought back relics and vestments, and the wonderful development of 

 Northumbrian art in his day probably owed much to his personal influence.^* 

 However, his power, his large possessions, and his unconciliatory temper 

 made him unpopular with Oswiu's son, Ecgfrith." In 678, he was deprived 

 of his diocese. Theodore consecrated three bishops to three subdivisions of 

 the see. Bosa took the place of Wilfrid at York. Not long after, Eadhaed, 

 Bishop of Lindsey, driven from his see by Mercian conquest, occupied 

 Wilfrid's monastery at Ripon, perhaps as the capital of a new diocese.*'' 

 For eight years Wilfrid was a fugitive, preaching in Frisia, pleading his 

 case at Rome, wandering in Mercia and Wessex, and living as apostle and 

 bishop of the South Saxons at Selsey. Once he returned to Northumbria to 

 enforce Pope Agatho's decree of restoration, and endured a lengthy im- 

 prisonment." In 686 Ecgfrith's successor, Aldfrith, restored to him his 



" Compiegne is mentioned by Bede alone as the place of consecration (op. cit. iii, 28). Eddius says that 

 the ceremony took place in Gaul {flist. Ch. York [Rolls Ser.], i, 18, 19), but adds that it was performed by 

 twelve bishops. 



" Eddius, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 21, attributes the appointment of Ceadda to Oswiu's annoyance 

 with Wilfrid. His vexation at Wilfrid's long absence in Gaul was doubtless fanned by the Quartodeciman 

 sympathizers at court. Bede (op. cit. iii, 28) does not make this clear, although later writers, e.g. Eadmer 

 {Hist. Ch. York [Rolls Ser.], i, 174), positively assert that Oswiu was instigated by the Scottish party. 

 Ceadda, on the restoration of Wilfrid, retired for a time to Lastingham (Bede, op. cit. iv, 3), but was soon 

 summoned to be Bishop of Mercia. 



" Eddius, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 23. 



» Ibid. 25, 32, 33. 



" Ibid. 47, 48, 83. 



" Bede, op. cit. iv, 12. Eddius, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 34, attributes the banishment of his hero 

 to the envy of Queen Eormenburh. Wilfrid's support of Etheldreda, the first wife of Ecgfrith, against her 

 husband and her acceptance of the veil at his hands (Bede, op. cit. iv, 19) would explain the king's prejudice 

 against him. 



" Bede, loc. cit. The third bishop was Eata, who became Bishop of the Bernician province, with his see 

 probably at Lindisfarne. The Angl.-Sax. Chron. places the battle which led to the Mercian recovery of Lindsey 

 in 679 on the Trent, and Florence of Worcester says that Eadhaed was set over the church of Ripon in 681. 

 Eadhaed is reckoned as Bishop of Ripon in the lists prefixed to the MSS. of Florence of Worcester. But in 

 685 he signed as 'Lindissi Episcopus.' (Kemble, Cod. Dipl. i, 29 from MS. Dodsworth, ix, fol. 108.) On the 

 whole this indicates that, as Abbot of Ripon, he still maintained a territorial style which he had lost and another 

 bishop was using. 



•' Eddius, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 49, 50. 



