Heavenfield

Another topic in William Trent Foley’s article “Imitatio Apostoli: St Wilfrid of York and the Andrew Script” (1989, Am Benedictine Rev) that I found very interesting is his discussion of Cuthbert and Wilfrid following different and indeed clashing life scripts.

“The difference between Aidan and Cuthbert, on the one hand, and Wilfrid on the other can be traced to their different scripts. Aidan and Cuthbert received their scripts exclusively through the Celtic Christian meliu of northern Britain. In that melieu, sanctity has long been bound up in the ideal of martyrdom that centered on ascetic self-control. Wilfrid had taken more of his script, however, from the Latin-Mediterranean cities of Rome and Lyon … both… had been drenched with the blood of Christian martyrs who stood firm against persecution from secular authorities. …In both places, Wilfrid encountered through legend and witnessed in person this ancient ideal which understood martyrdom as the holy person’s struggle against the secular ruler who is hostile to God’s people and purposes. …the Hexham church’s dedication to Andrew is owing to more than simply some general devotion that Wilfrid had for the Roman Gregorian tradition which Andrew supposedly symbolized; it can be traced more specifically to Wilfrid’s recognition that Andrew’s story was also his own. The Hexham church thus stands as a memorial not only to Andrew’s ordeal, but to Wilfrid’s as well.

…In the final chapter of Wilfrid’s Life, Eddius [Stephan] writes the following in loving admiration of his late master: ‘But now it is for us to believe fully and perfectly that our intercessor [Wilfrid] by the sign of the holy cross has been made equal to the apostles of God, Peter and Andrew, who he specifically loved.” … I suspect that by so ending his Life in ascribing to Wilfrid an apostle-martyr status equal to Andrew’s, Eddius was remembering his old abbot to the world in exactly the way that Wilfrid would have wanted.” (p. 29-31)

I think Foley’s identification of the Latin-Mediterranean model for Wilfrid’s life is a very important one. We often write/talk about authors modeling their subjects on this or that, but it is also probable that people really did model their lives on their heroes. Remember that a saint is a hero; a more important hero to a true monastic than any secular hero, real or fictional. Its also not surprising that these two different religious lifestyles would each choose a local model saint that exemplified those ideas, Wilfrid for the Mediterranean model and Cuthbert for the Anglo-Celtic/Celtic model. I think it may be better to talk of Wilfrid in this Mediterranean mode because the term Romanist (which I admit that I use all the time) is charged with many post-Reformation feelings and images that are not relevant for the seventh century.

I wonder if it is likely that two such polar examples of piety could have only developed in direct opposition to one another. Both living in the same kingdom at the same time. Cuthbert is the student of Eata, who was the bishop in most direct contact and conflict with Wilfrid (previously discussed here), and Eata was the oldest and perhaps most trusted English pupil of Aidan of Lindisfarne. Wilfrid was the student of Bishop ‘Dalphinus’ of Lyon and Bishop Agilbert (later of Paris, originally of somewhere in Gaul).

I think we also sometimes get into this mode of considering Cuthbert to be all goodness and light and Wilfrid to be nasty and political, but that is a trap. Each followed their own model and teacher. I don’t doubt Wilfrid’s faith, sincerity, or belief that it was right — and he usually was! Contemporary kings gave him plenty of reason to feel persecuted. I’m sure they did prefer the quiet monks who, as far as we know, very rarely interfered in politics and didn’t want their wealth. Yet, Wilfrid’s practical approach to politics and endowments to his monasteries got results. Endowments are a necessary thing when your king dies and the throne passes from his lineage, as no doubt Jarrow knew full well. Their endowments ended abruptly with the death of King Ecgfrith. From then on they have to barter with King Aldfrith for additional lands and there are no royal building programs at Wearmouth-Jarrow. I really have to wonder how monasteries like Lastingham survived when their founder was branded a traitor. They must have got help from the episcopal sees of Cedd and Chad. Their political position would have made establishing veneration of Cedd even more important than usual.

Thinking about this month’s lost kingdom of Craven, it calls to mind the episode in Stephan’s Life of Wilfrid where Wilfrid miraculously restores a boy to life and then later forcefully reclaims him at age 7. The miraculous healing of the British boy is given in the chapter immediately after Wilfrid is given lands in Craven.

“St Wilfrid was out riding on a certain day, going to fulfill his various duties of his bishopric, baptizing and also confirming people with the laying on of hands; among these there was a certain woman in a town called “On Tiddanufri”, sad at heart, moaning with grief and wearied with her load. For she held in her bosom the body of her first-born child, wrapped in rags and hidden from sight; she uncovered the face of the corpse for the bishop to confirm it amongst the rest, hoping thus to bring it back to life. Now our holy bishop, as soon as he perceived that it was dead, hesitated a little as to what he ought to do. But the mother fell to the earth before the face of the bishop on his perceiving what she had done, and, weeping bitterly, she boldly adjured him, in the name of the Lord his God, by virtue of his holiness to raise her son, to baptize him and free him from the mouth of the lion. …[she said] ‘Most holy man, do not destroy the faith of a bereaved mother but help thou my (un)belief, raise him up and baptize him and he will live for God and for you. By the power of Christ, do not hesitate!’

Then the holy bishop…uttered a prayer, and when he placed his hand on the dead body it breathed again forthwith, receiving the spirit of life. So he baptized the child which had been brought back to life again and gave it into the charge of the mother, bidding her, in the name of the Lord, give back her child to himself at the age of seven, for the service of God. The mother, however, when she saw how handsome the body was, listened to the evil counsel of her husband, made light of her promise, and fled from her country.

The bishop’s reeve, named Hocca, having sought and found him hidden among others of the British race, took him away by force and carried him off to the bishop. The boy’s Christian name was Eodwald and his surname was Bishop’s Son: he lived in Ripon serving God until he died in the great plague. (Stephan, Life of Bishop Wilfrid, Chapter 18; Bertram Colgrave, ed and trans. The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus Cambridge UP, 1985 reprint of 1927)

This passage brings up many issues. Included as it is after the consecration of Wilfrid’s new church at Ripon, the date of the event must be around 671-2. The boy was seven years old when he was brought to the bishop, who was exiled in 678. The following chapter on King Ecgfrith’s victory over the Picts and Audrey’s leaving him to 671-673 also fits with this event occurring in about 671-2.

This is yet another clue as to a “great plague” that occurred in the after 678. Abbess Audrey of Ely also died in a plague in 679. The Historia Brittonum (c. 825) also claims that King Cadwaladr son of Cadwallon died in a plague. It mistakenly says it was in the time of King Oswiu, and this has lead to problems over dating Cadwaladr. However, the Annals Cambriae (ends 954) is clear:

682: A great plague in Britain, in which Cadwaladr son of Cadwallon dies.

In his notes on the text, Bertram Colgrave notes that his is probably the same plague that attacked Jarrow in 685 where only Abbot Coelfrith and one boy, usually identified as Bede, survived. Adomnan of Iona also refers to a plague in the mid 680s on one of his trips to visit King Aldfrith. From 679 to 686 seems like a long time for one plague to rage, usually they burn out faster. There may have been several waves of plague. Its hard to tell how feasible that is without knowing what the plague causing organism is.

What stands out more than the plague is Wilfrid’s treatment of the boy and his parents. Wilfrid obviously takes the boy away from unwilling parents. Stephan’s claim that Wilfrid had the right because of his mother’s request doesn’t hold up. Mothers are not allowed to make their children an oblate without the father’s permission! Obviously the father did not give permission. Also note that Wilfrid completely renamed the British boy Eodwald/Eadwald Bishop’sSon (cognomine Eodwald et agnomine Filius Episcopi)*. He is making a claim of ownership with that surname and completely obliterating the parents existence. Is this a window into the process of name changes from British to English? Did English overlords have the right to rename their British servants or monastic oblates? Is this also a window into how English monasteries found enough ‘monks’ to do all the work on their large estates? Of course the best known menial laborer on a Northumbrian estate, Caedmon** the cow herd, had a very British name, probably indicating that the first religious vernacular poet in English was genetically British/Welsh.

*Farmer’s edition is a significantly different and less accurate translation. He completely leaves the boy’s new name out of the Age of Bede edition. Colgrave’s 1927 edition (reprinted 1985) is the authoritative, bilingual edition.

** Note the similarity of this name to Cadfan, Cadwallon, Cadwaladr, Cadfael, all kings of Gwynedd (North Wales) during the seventh century.

This month’s lost kingdom is the British kingdom of Craven. It has been identified by placenames only and its existence as a distinct district in the Domesday Book. The district of Craven is to the north-west of Elmet reaching to the rivers Ribble, Wharfe, and Aire. Note that in the past, most of Craven has been referred to as southern Rheged. So, now we know that this was not part of Rheged.

(from http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/celtpn.htm)

Wood asserts that the name Craven is Old Welsh from crafu ‘to scratch or to scrap’, meaning scraped land. This fits the faults, the rock formations, of this mountainous region. A large portion of Craven was in the Pennine mountains.

Wood describes Craven as “a large district in Anglo-Saxon times, controlling the upper dales of the Wharfe, Ribble, and Aire, and containing two possible shires in the eleventh century.” It seems to fit what Bede and contemporary writers called “regions” within the “provinces” (kingdoms). Wood notes that these “regions”, where evidence exists, appear to have once been independent tribes, clans or kingdoms.

Places in the region of Craven are mentioned once in Anglo-Saxon literature. When church of Ripon is consecrated, Bishop Wilfrid reads out a list of lands given to him by Kings Ecgfrith and his brother King Ælfwine. These lands were “holy places in various parts of the country which the British clergy, fleeing from our own hostile sword, had deserted….They gave Wilfrid land round Ribble, Yeadon, Dent, and Catlow” (Farmer, p. 124). These lands all fall in the district of the proposed kingdom of Craven and therefore date its transfer to Northumbria, probably recently under Kings Ecgfrith and Ælfwine in the early 670s. Expanding ‘Northumbria’ east of the Pennines appears to be Ecgfrith’s primary areas of conquest, probably against relatively minor opposition (compared to Mercia south of Elmet or the Picts north of Lothian).

Most English kings prior to Ecgfrith appear to have been willing or compelled to be satisfied with hegemony over their British neighbors. It may be that they simply didn’t have enough English retainers to fill all the necessary administrative positions within an enlarged kingdom. Yet, the last significant British power within what we normally consider Northumbria fell with Cadwallon at the battle of Denisesburna against Oswald in 634. The Bernician dynasty was still too weak in 634 to occupy and expel the British aristocrats. There is reason to think that, like his father Æthelfrith, Oswald was willing to work with British kingdoms, as evidenced by the marriage of his brother Oswiu to Rheinmellt great granddaughter of Urien Rheged. Likewise, Oswiu seems to have been satisfied by exerting hegemony over most of the northern British kingdoms. Although Oswiu exerted hegemony over distant kingdoms (Pictland, Dalriada, Strathclyde, Lindsey, and elsewhere), Ecgfrith is the first credited with expanding direct control over more British territory. Gododdin, their nearest northern neighbor, is the only region that Oswald and Oswiu seem to have annexed directly into Bernicia. Likewise, Edwin is only credited with permanently annexing Elmet.

References and suggested reading:

PN Wood (1996) “On the Little British Kingdom of Craven” Northern History 32: 1-20.

CM Taylor (1992) “Elmet: boundaries and Celtic survival in the post-Roman period.” Medieval History 2: 111-129.

Farmer, David (ed and trans) (198 “Eddius Stephanus: Life of Wilfrid” in The Age of Bede. Penguin.

I’ve been reading Virginia Blanton’s Signs of Devotion (2007) and I find that I need to review what is actually recorded in the four earliest texts on Audrey (Æthelthryth) of Ely, all seventh century. So what follows here is a short bullet point list of some of the facts on Audrey in the earliest sources and their possible relationship to the 11th century Liber Eliensis.

Stephan’s Life of Wilfrid (c. 710-720)

• Oldest work to mention Audrey
• Chapter 19: “pious King Ecgfrith” and Queen Æthelthryth had fruitful years and “joy at home and victory over their enemies” as long as they were obedient to Bishop Wilfrid. “Queen Æthelthryth’s body did not corrupt in death, an indication that it was unstained in life”… Ecgfrith is compared to the biblical King Joas of Judah. “While he was on good terms with the bishop, as many will tell you, he enlarged his kingdom by many victories; but when they quarreled and the queen separated from him to give herself to God, the kings triumphs ceased, and that within his own lifetime.” It then discusses Ecgfrith’s early victories over the Picts and his control over them, until he was slain (by them).
  • Ecgfrith’s victories actually continue against the Picts and Mercia until he exiles Bishop Wilfrid in 678, six years after Æthelthryth takes the veil.
• Chapter 22: Bishop Wilfrid builds the Church of St Andrew at Hexham on land given by “saintly Queen Æthelthryth”.
• Chapter 39: Abbess Æbbe of Coldingham does enter the scene at one point on behalf of Bishop Wilfrid to explain that his poor treatment of Wilfrid was causing the illness of his second queen, Irmenburgh (Eormenburgh?). Here she acts as a wise woman convincing her nephew King Ecgfrith to release Wilfrid from prison, restore the relics the queen has stolen from him and to rescue the health of his seemingly dying queen.
  • Stephan writes more passionately and in greater volume on Ecgfrith’s second queen Irmenburg than on Audrey.
  • Æbbe’s role as a wise women pleading with King Ecgfrith for the benefit of his queen is similar to that of her role in the Liber Eliensis in protecting Audrey from King Ecgfrith.

Stephen follows the primary rule of hagiography writing. Do not allow anyone to upstage your favorite saint! So even though Wilfrid had a much closer relationship than vitae suggests and this vitae has a huge number of women, Æthelthryth is not a very strong presence in the vitae. There is no mention of her entry into Coldingham, founding of Ely or her translation.

Bede, Martyrology , 720s?

• Æthelthryth is included here among the martyrs. Her inclusion is exceptional because Bede includes very few fellow Anglo-Saxons.

Bede, ‘Greater Chronicle’ within On the Reckoning of Time, 725

• This is an abstract of what he includes in the History. He mentions her father Anna, her husband Ecgfrith, her perpetual virginity, her transformation from a queen to consecrated virgin, building of Ely, and her uncorrupted body found 16 years after her death. All included in the long entry on the year 4639.
• This is a good judge of how important Bede believed Æthelthryth to be because he only refers to the English seven times in the ‘Greater Chronicle’: Augustine of Canterbury’s arrival in Kent during the time of Ælle and Æthelfrith, Bishop Paulinus’ arrival in York in the time of Edwin of Northumbria, Æthelthryth’s life and death, Willibrord’s consecration as Bishop of the Frisians, Cuthbert’s life and death, Egbert’s conversion of the Irish [Iona] to Rome, and Abbot Coelfrith’s life and death. It is extraordinary that Bede believed that Æthelthryth was among the seven most important events/people in English history.

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People (c. 731)

• Bede is the earliest sign of veneration of Æthelthryth. Stephan mentions knowledge of her uncorrupted body but really makes no reference to any details.
• Book IV, Chapter 3: Owine the monk, former head of Queen Æthelthryth’s household, joined Lastingham and became part of Bishop Chad’s household. He heard the joyful music of an angels visitation to Chad before his death.
• Book IV Chapter 19:(Primary life of Audrey used by the Liber Eliensis).
  • Æthelthryth the daughter of King Anna of East Anglia marries Ecgfrith, later king of Northumbria.
  • She had previously married Tondberht, ealdorman of the South Gwyre, who died shortly after their marriage.
  • She preserved her virginity through the two marriages, including 12 years with King Ecgfrith.
  • Bede personally interviewed Bishop Wilfrid on Æthelthryth’s virginity because some doubted it. Wilfrid told Bede of the land and money offered to him by Ecgfrith if he would tell Æthelthryth to consummate the marriage.
  • Her uncorrrupted body proves that she had maintained her virginity.
  • After asking Ecgfrith to allow her to enter the church for years, he finally allows her to leave. She enters Coldingham under the rule of Ecgfrith’s aunt Abbess Æbbe. Bishop Wilfrid gives her the veil and habit of a nun.
  • After one year at Coldingham, she is “appointed” abbess at Ely where she built a monastery.
  • Description of Æthelthryth’s ascetic lifestyle.
  • Claims that she prophesized her death and the number of people from Ely who would die of the plague.
  • She died seven years after becoming abbess and was buried at her command among the other sisters in a common wooden coffin.
  • Succeeded as abbess by her sister Sæxburgh, widow of King Eorcenberht. After 16 years Sæxberht had her raised and placed in a new stone coffin. They miraculously found a stone coffin that fit precisely at Grantacester, because Ely had no stones.
  • Body is examined by Sæxburgh, Bishop Wilfrid, and her former physician Cynefrith who treated her before her death. He describes the last days of her illness and the wound he lanced before her death. The account of her last illness and the discovery of her uncorrupted body are told by the physician Cynefrith. He relates that Æthelthryth claims that she deserves this tumor on her neck because of her youthful vanity in wearing necklaces of gold and pearls. Her burial cloths and the original coffin are said to have expelled devils from people and worked miraculous healings. She was reburied in the newly discovered stone coffin in the church.
  • Description of the Isle of Ely as 600 hides within the kingdom of East Anglia. Æthelthryth is said to have wanted her monastery here because these were her people. There is no claim that she received the land from her first husband.
• Book IV, Chapter 20: Bede inserts his hymn on Æthelthryth. The hymn doesn’t add any new information, but that was not the point of writing or including it. This hymn is included in the Liber Eliensis.

Bede’s text lacks dating information or her feast day. The most he says is that she had seven years as abbess before her death. His martyrology did provide the feast day. McClure and Collins believe that Bede was using a lost Life of Æthelthryth written at Ely. It is easy to see why they might believe that because all the elements of a brief vitae are here. It seems almost certain that he had a written account of Æthelthryth’s death and translation, although other parts clearly came from his interview with Bishop Wilfrid. It does have a bit of a constructed feel to it. There are too many symbolic numbers: 12 years of marriage and 7 years as abbess. Seven is symbolic for completeness, so this is symbolic of her accomplishing all she needed to as abbess. By what Bede himself writes, she had been a nun for 8 years, but seven is the number stressed.

Given as much as Bede does write about Æthelthryth, it is odd that he didn’t write a formal vitae for her. The only reason why I can think that he didn’t is because an sufficient one already existed. Given what all he wrote in his Greater Chronicle, this lost ‘life of Æthelthryth’ must have made its way to Wearmouth-Jarrow before 725.

For further reading:

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Judith McClure and Roger Collins, eds. Oxford UP, 1994. (includes the Greater Chronicle)

Stephan of Ripon, Life of Wilfrid in The Age of Bede, DH Farmer, ed. Penguin, 1988.

This past weekend is the feast day of St. Hild of Whitby. According to Bede, she died on 17 November 680 and her feast is celebrated in the Episcopal Church on November 18th and in the Church of England on November 19th.

Hild’s return to Northumbria from East Anglia in 646 was one of the most important events in the development of the early Northumbrian church. She had been in East Anglia staying with her nephew King Ealdwulf waiting for a ship to take her to Gaul (France) where she could join her sister Hereswitha in the convent at Chelles. Like her sister, Hild was almost certainly a widow. She was 32 years old and for a woman of her time, she would have been expected to either marry or enter a convent long before, particularly since her closest male kinsmen were all dead.

Hild and her sister Hereswitha remind me of Mary and Martha of Bethany. When she was widowed, Hereswitha decided to leave England and enter a convent in Gaul (France) where she could be free to lead a contemplative life, free of all the hassles of royal, secular life or even royal religious life. She left behind at least one son who became a long reigning king of East Anglia. Gaul was a common destination for southern English women before the 650s because there were very few convents or double monasteries in England. Had she remained in the land ruled by her brothers in law, she would have had to found her own monastery as most other royal women of her era did if they wished to remain in Britain. Its also possible that her brothers in law would rather she leave the kingdom than require support from them. So at age 32 Hild goes to East Anglia to wait for a whole year for transportation to join her sister at Chelles when Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne and probably her cousin King Oswine calls her home to Northumbria (Deira?). If she was a widow, then presumably she could have refused and continued to join in her sister in Gaul. If she wasn’t a widow, then her cousin King Oswine, the head of her father’s kindred in 647, could have demanded that she return home, but it seems likely that King Anna of East Anglia could have seen to it that she made it to Chelles, if they wished. So, there is no reason to believe that Hild didn’t return home to a world of work of her own accord. There were no convents in Northumbria; she would have to build everything from scratch.

So why did Bishop Aidan want to to come home so badly that he would make a last ditch effort to catch her before she boarded a ship for Gaul? It was finally time for the Lindisfarne mission to begin to found women’s monasteries (convents) and Aidan was certainly searching for capable women. He needed a Martha. I believe that with the help of King Oswine, Aidan identified Hild as just the woman he needed probably because she had a reputation as been a good manager of a household. Aidan had previously given the veil to Heiu, the first nun in Northumbria, but she doesn’t seem to have been cut out to be an abbess. Aidan gave Hild the veil at the age of 33, and placed her on one hide of land (big enough to support one family) on the north side of the River Wear (possibly near Abbot Utta’s monastery of Gateshead?) where she remained for one year while she was learning to be a nun.

After her year of training, Hild moved on to become Abbess of Hartlepool in her homeland of Deira. Abbess Heiu who had earlier founded Hartlepool retired to Calcaria (Tadcaster?). Bede does not connect Heiu’s retirement to Hild’s arrival at Hartlepool; he simply says that Heiu retired shortly after founding Hartlepool. Running the first convent, really double monastery (both men and women under an abbess), was not an easy job! Bede tells us that when she came to Hartlepool she set to work establishing the Rule of Life in accordance with that she had been taught by Bishop Aidan with great industry. In 651 her cousin King Oswine was executed by his rival King Oswiu and Bishop Aidan died within a fortnight of each other. Despite the bitterness that Oswine’s execution must have held for Abbess Hild, as it did for Oswiu’s Queen Eanflæd another cousin of Oswine, Hild seems to have had at least the respect of Oswiu. While at Hartlepool she was entrusted the infant oblate Ælfflæd daughter of King Oswiu and Hild’s cousin Queen Eanflæd, whom she raised and eventually succeeded her as abbess of Whitby.

Two years later, in 657, Hild went on to found a new monastery at Whitby (Streanæshalch), one of the greatest monasteries of the age. It was here that the famous Synod of Whitby was held in 664 with Abbess Hild as the hostess. Synods are not usually held at convents or double monasteries; that it was held here is a testament to the respect Hild and her monastery as held by the entire Northumbrian church. Here as Lees and Overing famously entitled an article, she was ‘birthing bishops and fathering poets’. Throughout the seventh century, Whitby was the lead training and learning monastery in Northumbria. Among the young men trained at Whitby, five went on to become bishops — Bosa of York (678-86, 691-706), Ætla of Dorchester (670s), Oftfor of the Hwicce (c. 691-?), John of Beverly (bishop of Hexham 687-706 and York 706-721) and Wilfrid II of York (721-732). Another of Hild’s students Tatfrith had been chosen to become bishop of the Hwicce died before he could be consecrated. It was also Hild who recognized that the shy cowherd Cædmon had been blessed by God with the ability to compose songs of praise to God in the English language. Bede considered Cædmon to be the first Christian poet in the English language and he includes a snippet in his History, translated into to Latin. Some of the early scribes who copied Bede’s History translated it into Old English and they are the among the earliest examples of Old English poetry (in at least two dialects, if I recall correctly). One of the most impressive modern crosses (below) raised in Britain is dedicated to Cædmon and Hild and placed near modern Whitby. The four panels are from top down: Christ, David with his lyre, St. Hild (surrounded by the faces of her five students who became bishops) and Cædmon near eye level. We know during this time Hild was also expanding her monastic network to include at least another monastery at Hackness and perhaps another monastery near Carlisle.

Cædmon’s Cross (modern), Whitby

(available here via a creative commons license)

Hild did not escape being pulled into the politics of her day. She had been baptized by the Roman Bishop Paulinus of York in c. 626 with her uncle King Edwin. Yet, she returned to Northumbrian at the summons of Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne, who followed Iona’s practices and was, as we would say today, not in communion with Rome. We know that she was on Lindisfarne’s side at the Synod of Whitby and consistently was a leader among the Anglo-Celtic party in Northumbria. This made her the rival of Bishop Wilfrid. When Wilfrid was deposed and his see was divided in 678, Hild’s student Bosa became Bishop of York with authority over Whitby. According to Stephan’s Life of Wilfrid, when Bishop Wilfrid appealed the loss of his see and his exile to Rome (the first such appeal from Britain), much to his surprise when he reached Rome in 679 he found representatives from “holy” Abbess Hild and Archbishop Theodore waiting for him. They lost their case to Wilfrid, but King Ecgfrith would not allow Bishop Wilfrid to return to Northumbria. We don’t know if Hild heard the outcome of their case against Wilfrid, she died the following year on November 17th. Despite Wilfrid’s various wins and losses over the next 25 years, Whitby managed to keep a bishop of its own training at least through the lifetime of Hild’s successor and foster child Abbess Ælfflæd who died about 714.

Hild was considered a saint immediately upon her death. Although Bede does not tell us that she was buried in the Church of St. Peter at Whitby we can probably assume this is so. Her legacy at Whitby became a complicated one that I shall save for another post. However, material in Bede’s History, deference given to her memory even by her rivals disciples in the Life of Wilfrid, and the beautiful account of her death in the Old English Martyrology both confirm that information of Hild’s life was preserved in detail outside of Whitby. We might suspect that her five bishops and the countless numbers of students who enjoyed her hospitality and instruction ensured her sainthood. The works of Anglo-Saxon England’s own Martha have stood the test of time and her memory flourishes today as one of the few early female saints of the Church of England. She is the only female English “Celtic” saint recognized today; books on female Celtic saints must always make room for this one Englishwoman. There are probably more church and school dedications to St. Hild within the Anglican Communion than any other non-biblical female saint.

~~~

Updated 20 Nov 2007

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book III Chapter 25 and Book IV Chapters 23, 24. McClure and Collins, eds. Oxford UP, 1994.

Stephan of Ripon, Life of Bishop Wilfrid, D. Farmer, Ed. The Age of Bede, Penguin.

Lees, Clare and Gillian Overing. “Birthing Bishops and Fathering Poets: Bede, Hild, and the Relations of Cultural Production.” Exemplaria 6 (1994) 35-65.

My friend Larry over at The Ruminate has come to the conclusion that he disagrees with my proposal back in 2003 that the link between Willibrord’s mission to Frisia and Bishop Wilfrid is not as strong as had long been assumed. The primary source for the link is not Bede, but Stephan of Ripon’s Life of Wilfrid. It is Stephan who calls Willibrord the spiritual son of Wilfrid and he is the only early author who mentions that Willibrord was raised at Ripon. Stephan tries to claim that Willibrord is continuing a mission began by Wilfrid. Bede doesn’t stress such a relationship between the two men and Bede’s source was Bishop Acca who spent a winter with Willibrord and Wilfrid, on Wilfrid’s last trip to Rome. Bede also used Stephan’s Life of Wilfrid extensively, so his knew of Stephan’s claims and did not repeat them. To be honest, I’m not sure where Larry’s disagreement lies. Part of my evidence was Irish influence on Willibrord and at Echternach, but I also wrote about how Stephan, Bede and Alcuin write about Willibrord and Wilfrid too.

As for the Irish influences on Wilfrid that he mentions:

• Wilfrid’s relationship with/to “hermits”: Well, I don’t think hermits were uniquely Irish. There may have been more Irish hermits than other nationalities but supporting hermits (like Oethelwald of Farne) isn’t necessarily Irish influence. Guthlac was also a hermit, but I don’t think he was particularly influenced by the Irish.
• “connections to St Brigit”: I don’t know what those are, so hopefully Larry will elaborate.
• “his style of being a bishop”: I’ve heard this before (though I don’t remember where). I’ve been thinking about this recently and I don’t think this is necessarily an Irish style. It seems to me that this is also a missionary bishop style. It remained in Ireland because it suited their culture better than an urban model, since there was no real urban life in Ireland. Bishop Paulinus of York had also had a similar style of episcopate, working in Bernicia, Deira and Lindsey. Their epsicopates were linked to the hegemony of their king. York would not have forgotten that Pope Gregory the Great’s response to Paulinus’ large range was to make him an archbishop. I think Catherine Cubitt is correct when she says that Wilfrid’s real objection is that his own people would not be given the sees carved out of his own. He wanted to be an archbishop, as Gregory the Great had intended for York. If not an archbishop, at least promote his own people. Indeed, Wilfrid’s original appeal to Rome states

“If it pleases the archbishop and my fellow bishops to increase the number of bishops, then let them choose men from our own clergy, candidates whom the bishops can agree upon. Do no let the Church suffer damage from strangers and outsiders; anything irregular and imprudent does nothing but give rise to quarrel after quarrel, such as can never be unravelled, appeased, nor ended.” (Stephan, Life of Wilfrid, ch. 30, Farmer ed., 1988, p. 138).

When Wilfrid says from our own clergy he means his clergy. Of course the three intruders were also Northumbrian clergy from Lindisfarne’s network.

Another point of contact between Wilfrid and Ireland is Stephan’s claim that Wilfrid helped Dagobert II return from exile in Ireland to become King of Austrasia (Life of Wilfrid, Ch. 28 and Ch. 33). So there is no doubt that he had useful contacts in Ireland. None of this links him to Willibrord’s time in Ireland.

~

Cubitt, Catherine. (1989). “Wilfrid’s ‘Usurping Bishops’: Episcopal Elections in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 600-c.800″. Northern History 25:18-38.

I was thinking about the feast of St Wilfrid today and flipping through the Life of Bishop Wilfrid. It occurred to me how much Wilfrid is surrounded by women in his Life. In some ways we learn as much about seventh century women in Stephen’s Life of Bishop Wilfrid as we do in Bede’s History, particularly relative to their lengths. It is important to note that Stephan and Wilfrid’s disciples apparently thought that it was important to show him nearly constantly interacting with women. Stephen wrote this Life only about ten years after Wilfrid’s death when many of the protagonists in the Life were still alive, or at the very least their children or disciples were very much still in power. So today I thought I would start a series of blogs on Wilfrid’s interactions with women.

Women are critical in the Life from the very beginning with the miraculous light shining over his pious mother’s labor and Wilfrid’s birth. This miracle is later repeated as divine light brightens Wilfrid’s dark dungeon cell as he sings the psalms. After this Stephan inserts a rare prayer:

“O Christ, Eternal light, who dost not desert those who acknowledge Thee, Thou whom we believe to be the true light illuminating ‘every man that cometh into this world’, who in the beginning didst mark with fiery glory from the hour of thy future servant’s birth when he came forth from his mother’s womb, now as he prayed in the darkness of his prison cell Thou didst deign to send an angel to visit him and to bring him light, just as when Thine apostle Peter was imprisoned in chains by wicked Herod. To Thee be glory and thanksgiving!”

(Stephen, Life of Wilfrid, ch. 36; Farmer ed. The Age of Bede, 1983, p. 144)

We hear no more from Wilfrid’s pious mother. By age 14, Wilfrid is suffering under the gaze of a harsh stepmother. We hear no specifics of her treatment of young Wilfrid, but obviously she did not measure up to the boy’s pious mother.

Wilfrid now equips himself and his servants and with the help of his father’s friends who he has impressed, presents himself before Queen Eanflæd. There have been various reasons put forward why this young noble offers his service to the queen rather than to King Oswiu. Most of these reasons focus on Eanflæd as a princess of Deira, but I think this very young boy is looking for a new surrogate mother. He is offering his service to a mother-figure who will look after him like a son, unlike his stepmother.

Surrogate mother is exactly the role that Eanflæd takes on. She is the one who recognizes that this clever boy would be better in the church than in a retinue or serving her household. She finds an older thane Cudda who wants to retire to the church and sets up Wilfrid as his servant, so they both join Lindisfarne together. When Wilfrid wants to go to Rome, on Cudda’s advice, he returns to Queen Eanflæd who takes care of him. She “fits him out handsomely for the journey” and has letters written to commend him to her cousin King Erconberht of Kent, who is asked to find other travelers to accompany him to Rome. Erconberht kept him in Kent for a whole year until — on Queen Eanflæd’s proding — he found (Benedict) Biscop Baducing to guide him to Rome. Eanflæd is not mentioned again in the Life, her role as surrogate mother is over.

Bede, on the other hand, claims that Eanflæd’s insistence on celebrating Easter according to the Roman calendar is one of the causes of the Synod of Whitby. It is nearly certain that she was present at the synod. What must it have meant to Wilfrid to come home and win the decision at Whitby in front of Queen Eanflæd who had initially sent him to Rome? Stephan surely knew that from 664, if not before, Wilfrid’s relationship with Queen Eanflæd had become much more complicated and was better ignored. It seems likely that Wilfrid’s relationship with Eanflæd soured over his relationship with her step-sons Alhfrith and Aldfrith, and her sons Ecgfrith and Ælfwine. Further, when King Oswiu died and was buried at Whitby, Eanflæd retired there as a nun to be with her daughter Ælfflæd and her cousin Hild. The monastery of Whitby continued to be opponents of Wilfrid until the synod of Nidd in 706. Yes, it was better for Stephan to leave Eanflæd as just the benevolent surrogate mother who sends him to Rome.

In future blogs I look at Stephan’s oscillating use of wicked and holy women, particularly queens in the Life of Bishop Wilfrid.