WILFRID (WILFRITH), SAINT: Bishop of York; b. 634; d. at Oundle (70 m. n.n.w. of London), Northamptonshire, Oct. 3 (or 12; cf. Plummer's Bede, ii. 328), 709. He was the son of a Northumbrian thane, and was educated at Lindisfame, where he won esteem by his diligence and manly qualities; after spending a year at Canterbury, he accompanied Benedict Biscop to Rome in 653. He was at Lyons, 655-658, and received the Roman tonsure there from Archbishop Aunemund. Returning to Northumbria about 660, Alchfrid; king

of Deira (son of Oawy, king of Northumbria), made him head of the monastery at Ripon in 661. He was ordained priest in 663. In 664 he spoke for the Roman party at the Synod of Whitby (q.v) against Colman and the Celtic party, and prevailed. Alchfrid then secured Wilfrid's election as bishop, with his see at York, where there had been no bishop since the departure of Paulinus (q.v.) in 663. He went to Gaul to be consecrated late in 664 or early in 665, and when he returned, in 666, finding that Oswy had installed Ceadda (q.v.) in his place, retired to Ripon. He performed episcopal functions in Mercia and Kent. In 669 Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (see Theodore of Tarsus), instated him in his bishopric. By upholding Etheldred, queen of Northumbria, in her desire to become a nun, he gained the ill-will of King Egfrid (see Etheldred, Saint). In 678 Egfrid and Theodore undertook to divide his bishopric without consulting him. Wilfrid resisted, and made the first appeal by an Englishman to Rome. On his way thither he spent the winter (678-679) in Frisia, where he preached to the heathen and baptized many. At Rome he attended the synod held in March, 680, against the Monothelite heresy. His appeal was successful; but, when he came back to England, Egfrid put him in prison for nine months, then forced him to flee to Mercia, Wessex, and finally to Sussex (681), the one English kingdom whose people were still heathen. He converted them, after he had relieved their need in a severe famine by teaching them to fish. Later he introduced the Gospel in the Isle of Wight, thus completing the christianization of the English. Meanwhile his rights and claims were wholly ignored in Northumbria. In 686 he was reconciled with Theodore and returned to York. But he quarreled again with the king in 691 and went to Etheldred of Mercia, who made him bishop of Leicester. Again he pleaded his cause at Rome in 704, making the journey thither on foot, notwithstanding his seventy years. He returned to England in 705, and was restored to the bishopric of Hexham and the monastery of Ripon.

Wilfrid's energy in introducing the civilization of the continent caused opposition among the rude Angles and Saxons, while his appeals to Rome aroused political animosities. He was wealthy and lived magnificently, as befitted his station, and thus he incurred envy. His life was troubled, and he has been called haughty and worldly; but there is abundant evidence that his character was lovable. He is described as a singularly attractive youth, and he made warm friends everywhere in his travels; at home his monks and clergy stood by him devotedly, while his missionary zeal, proven in Frisia and South England, is noteworthy. His services to his country and church were great, and he is justly classed among the foremost of English churchmen. He perceived that what was most needful was to introduce the arts and learning; and to this end - he labored at the cost of much personas suffering. He, had constantly in his retinue masons, glaziers, and other artizans, whom he employed in building churches and monasteries. He gave his cathedral church at York a new roof covered with lead, put glass in its windows, plastered its walls, and orna-

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mented the altar. He built a basilica at Ripon with columns and porches, and a grand church at Hexham. For the former he provided a copy of the Gospels in letters of gold on purple vellum, and placed it in a richly adorned case. He made the church service more seemly and dignified, .and reestablished, if he did not introduce, the Benedictine rule in the English monasteries.

Bibliography: A series of lives of Wilfrid are collected with comment in The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, vol. f., pp. xxxi.-xliv., 1-509, ed. J. Rains in Rolls Series, no. 73, London, 1879 (these include the life by his friend and disciple, Eddius Stephanus, and the one by Eadmer, q.v., who died 1124, as well as a number of lesser productions); of. the discussion of Eddins' work by B. W. Wells, in The English Historical Review, vi (1891), 535-550. Some facts not given in Eddius are to be found in Bede, Hist. eccl., v. 19 (use Plummer's ed. of Bede, Oxford, 1896, and consult the notes). Consult Fasti Eboraceases, ed. W. H. Dixon and J. Raine, i. 55-83, London, 1863; T. Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, i. 164-184, 229, 432.434, London, 1842; F. W. Faber, Lives of the English Saints: Wilfrid, Bishop of York, ib. 1844; H. Soames, Anglo-Saxon Church, pp. 68-88, 3d. ed., ib. 1856; C. F. de T. Montalembert, Les Moines d'occident, iv. 137-390, 5 vols., P ris, 1860-67, Eng transl., 7 vols:, London, 1861-79; W. F. Hook, Lives of theArehbishops of Canterbury, vol. i., chap. 4, London, 1860; K. Obser, Wilfrid der alters, Heidelberg, 1884; W. Bright, Early English Church History, passim, Oxford, 1897 (important); G. F. Browne, Theodore and Wilfrith, London, 1897; A. Streeter, St. Wilfrid, Archbishop of Canterbury, ib. 1897; W. Hunt, The English Church . (697-1066), passim, ib. 1899 (also of importance); DNB, lxi. 238-242 (gives a discriminating bibliography); DCB, iv. 1179-85 (valuable); Milman, Latin Christianity, book iv., chaps. 3-4.