Bed. Eccl. Hist. lib. III. cc. 25, 26. pp. 233, 239. Dr. Ingram's Saxon Chronicle, pp. 48, 88. Spelman. Conc. p. 150. Usser. Brit. Eccl. Antiqu. p. 482. Eadmer. Vit. S. Wilfrid. apud Mabillon. Act. SS. Ord. S. Benedict. Lut. Par. 1673. tom. III. p. 202. Eadmer's Life of Wilfrid is to be found in MS. in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. No. CCCLXXI. 8 Tuda, a former adherent of the British party, who had been brought over to the Roman side, was appointed bishop of Northumbria on the retirement of Colman. But the new prelate lived no more than a few months after his promotion. Wilfrid, being about thirty years of age, was then chosen to preside over the northern diocese. In this dignified post he soon gave general offence by his ostentatious habits and love of interference. To his royal patron, and former pupil, Alchfrid, or Egfrid, now king in Oswy's room, he appears to have rendered himself particularly obnoxious by abetting the fanaticism of that sovreign's wife, Ethelreda, or Audrey; a princess who was obstinately bent upon deserting her husband, and shutting herself up in a monastery. Eddius, however, Wilfrid's chaplain, attributes that prelate's disgrace to his style of living, and fondness of accumulation. Probably, both causes concurred in effecting his ruin. He was, in fact, driven from his diocese. He then repaired to Rome, and finding some sort of a council deliberating there, he laid his case before it. By the pope and his advisers his deprivation was pronounced uncanonical, and he was sent home with a letter to that effect, addressed to his sovreign. That this letter mentioned no claim to any papal authority for deciding such cases as Wilfrid's judicially, appears plainly enough from the following words of Eadmer. "Perveniens vir Dei Britanniam regi literas, quas ab apostolica sede acceperat, detulit, et earundem literarum auctoritatem subnixum in conventu nobilium causam suam viva voce defendit, seque falso accusatum, ac injuria degradatum libera protestatione ostendit." (Bibl. C. C. C. C. MSS. Parker. CCCLXXI. p. 51.) Wilfrid, then, pleaded that his deprivation was inconsistent with the received principles of ecclesiastical jurisprudence, (a plea which he confirmed by producing the judgment of Roman canonists,) and he sought besides to vindicate his own character from the reflections cast upon it. Fridegod, accordingly, a monastic writer of the tenth century, more intent, certainly, upon displaying a knowledge of Greek, and a talent for poetical grandiloquence, than upon the development of historical truth, thus describes the communication which Wilfrid brought from Rome: "Annuit, et scriptis legalibus Archierarchus (Mabillon. Act. SS. Ord. Ben. tom. III. p. 169.) It does not appear from this passage that the Archierarchus, or pope, laid claim to any power of enforcing the restitution of Wilfrid. Only he denounced divine vengeance against Egfrid, and Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, (a prelate who concurred in the proceedings against Wilfrid, and probably promoted them also,) unless these two should agree to his restoration. Nor does this ancient Bene dictine poet hint that Wilfrid alleged, when he appeared before Egfrid on his return, any papal authority judicially competent to his restitution. On the contrary, from the following lines he seems to have considered that the disgraced prelate chiefly argued his case upon scriptural grounds. (Ibid. p. 188.) "Post evangelicum catorthoma, post recitatas From this extract it might seem that Wilfrid's effects had been confiscated: which is likely enough, and would certainly furnish a very cogent reason with most men why he should not be restored. Or the poet may refer to that division of his diocese which had been effected since his removal from it. However the case may be, it is undeniable that the papal interference in his favour was treated with the utmost contempt: a plain proof that the Northumbrian court, though willing to follow the religious usages of Rome, admitted not the pontiff to any jurisdiction over England. The words of Eadmer are: "Propria itaque rex ira cæcatus, et seducentium se adulatione a vero distractus, literas apostolici papa tumido fastu despexit, despiciendo irrisit, irridendo a se procul abjecit, ac in famulum Dei nequissimum delatoris crimen injecit." 9 Although the Roman party had ever been esta blished in Kent, and by the accession of Oswy had obtained political influence over the whole of England, yet the people generally seem to have rather preferred that national Church to which they had chiefly owed their conversion. On the death of Deusdedit, bishop of Canterbury, we find, accordingly, that Wine, bishop of Winchester, was the only prelate in the island who had received what the Romanists chose to call canonical consecration; and that his zeal for the foreign party was none of the most ardent may be inferred from the fact, that he used the cooperation of two British bishops in consecrating the famous St. Chad. Thus the acquisition of the Northumbrian royal family to the Roman side appears to have turned the scale in favour of a cause rather upon the decline. This powerful family, having thus committed itself, naturally became anxious to reduce the whole nation to a conformity with Italian usages. Probably it was thought, that one reason why England had been found so backward in adopting these usages was to be attributed to the constant possession of the see of Canterbury by foreigners. When Deusdedit, accordingly, died, Oswy, king of Northumberland, and Egbert, king of Kent, advised with each other as to the best mode of terminating those religious dissensions which had so long agitated the country. The result was, that they recommended to the choice of their subjects a native priest named Wighard, as the successor of Deusdedit. He was elected, and was sent to Rome for consecration. Soon after his arrival in that city, Wighard died. Vitalian, the pope, then took upon himself to consecrate to the see of Canterbury an elderly monk of great learning, energy, and moral worth, named Theodore, a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia. A negotiation for the admission of the new prelate probably followed; for he spent very nearly a year, after his consecration, in France. At length, however, in 669, he landed in England, and applied the whole force of his able and active mind to render the country throughout conformable to Roman usages. Favouring circumstances aiding the exertions of Theodore, he found them crowned with success; and he seems to have been the first prelate of Canterbury, who established any authority for that see beyond the limits of Kent. In other words, he seems to have been the first individual connected with Rome, whom ancient England owned for a metropolitan. Thus Theodore realized the project in which Augustine had failed, and which appears to have languished, as rather hopeless, since the Kentish apostle's death. But the monk of Tarsus, although zealous to identify the religious rites of England with those of Rome, appears to have known nothing of any right inherent in the latter to jurisdiction over the former. Had he acknowledged any such right, we should certainly have heard something of his interference in Wilfrid's behalf, after that prelate's return from Rome with a pontifical communication in his favour. Bed. 248, 253. Inett's Origines Anglicana, I. cc. 5, 6, 7. 10 ❝ Anno 792. Carolus, rex Francorum, misit synodalem librum ad Britanniam, sibi a Constantinopoli directum, in quo libro, (heu, proh dolor!) multa inconvenientia, et veræ fidei contraria, reperiebantur: maxime, quod pene omnium orientalium doctorum, non minus quam trecentorum, vel co |