A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



church at Hexham, and eventually Ripon and the see of York. But this 



reconciliation lasted only five years." Wilfrid, again driven from Northum- 



bria, found a refuge in Mercia, where the diocese of Leicester reckons him 



among its bishops. A synod held at Austerfield, near Bawtry, deprived him 



of all his Northumbrian possessions except Ripon (703). Wilfrid appealed to 



Rome, enumerating his benefactions to the church of Northunibna— the true 



Easter, the Roman tonsure, the primitive liturgical music, the Benedictine 



rule =" His friends were shunned as excommunicated persons by those who 



had seized his possessions.'" A council called at Rome by Pope John VI 



was attended by Wilfrid and his accusers. Cleared of their charges against 



him he returned to England with letters recommending him to the Kings of 



Mercia and Northumbria," and ordering the Archbishop of Canterbury to 



call a fresh synod to restore him to his see. Aldfrith was unwilling to 



receive him, but soon afterwards, on his death-bed, desired his recall." 



A synod was called by King Osred in 705, and met at a place by the Nidd. 



Bosa, who had returned to the see of York, and John, Bishop of Hexham, 



were present, and attempted to support the decrees of Austerfield.'" Wilfrid 



was restored to Ripon and Hexham, and spent the rest of his life as Bishop 



of Hexham. Bosa seems to have died about this time, and John was 



translated to York.'* Wilfrid, visited by a disease which had attacked him 



on his journey from Rome, died in 709 at Oundle, one of the monasteries 



which he had founded on his domains in Mercia. His inipetuousness 



of temper and his intolerance of opposition must be admitted. His 



advocacy of Roman and Gallican customs, and his scorn for his early 



teachers, made him enemies among the supporters of Scottish rites. But the 



victory which he won at the synod of Whitby was permanent. The better 



sense of his enemies prevented the re-introduction of customs which isolated 



Northumbria. By his missionary activity in Mercia and Sussex he exercised 



a unifying influence upon English religion of more importance than his 



dissensions with Ecgfrith and Aldfrith. In every part of England which 



felt the power of Northumbrian religion Wilfrid's personal influence was a 



prominent factor, and helped incalculably to extend the work which had been 



begun in England by Augustine. He was buried in his church at Ripon.'' 



John, who ruled the see of York from 705 until 718, is the second saint 

 of the church of York." His life was that of an untiring teacher and 



" Eddius, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 63. The chronology of Wilfrid's restoration in 686 is uncertain : 

 Bede (op. cit. iv, 29) says that he held the see of Lindisfarne for a year, between the death of Cuthbert and 

 the appointment of Eadberht. Florence of Worcester (an. 686) makes him Bishop of Hexham, and (an. 687) 

 of Lindisfarne after the death of Cuthbert. As Eata, Bishop of Hexham, died apparently in 686, Wilfrid 

 probably held his see for a time, and after the death of St. Cuthbert in 687, united it with Lindisfarne. 

 On Wilfrid's recovery of the see of York or soon after, Eadberht was probably consecrated to Lindisfarne and 

 St. John of Beverley to Hexham. 



" Ibid. 65, 67, 68, 69. For the probable identity of Ouestraefelda or Estrefeld with Austerfield, see 

 Raine's note in Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 65. 1 



'" Ibid, i, 70 : ' vasa de quibus nostri vescebantur, lavari prius, quasi sorde poUuta, jubebant, antequam 

 ab aliis contingerentur.' '• Ibid, i, 80, 81. 



" Ibid, i, 88. The chief witness to Aldfrith's dying words was his half-sister .rifled. Abbess of 

 Whitby, who testified to their tenor at the Council of Nidd. (Ibid, i, 91.) 



" Ibid, i, 91. " See Bede, op. cit. v, 3. 



" Bede, op. cit. v, 19 ; Eddius, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 99. 



" Bede, op. cit. v, z-6, relates the life and miracles of St. John, from whom he had received holy 

 orders. The 'Vita Sancti Johannis,' written by Folcard, Abbot of Thorney, between 1066 and 1070, and 

 the ' Miracula ' by William Keccll or Ketell and others, are printed in Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), i, 239-347. 



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