WILFRID, SAINT, an Anglo-Saxon bishop, was born, of noble parents, In the king dom of Bernicia in 634. He was remarkable when a boy for his psi:id looks, graceful spanners, and ability. He became at 14 the attendant on a Saxon nobleman, who had retired to spend the last years of his life in the monastery of Lindisfarne. There his attention was directed to the controversy as to the time of celebrating easter (q.v.) exist ing between the two sections into which the Anglo-Saxon Christians were divided; the one advocating the Roman practice, which was that of the continental churches gener ally, the other adhering to the Scoto-I3ritish. Wilfrid resolved to visit Rome to ascer tain which was in the right, and thither he went at the age of 19, with recommendations from the courts of Kent and Bernicia. He returned to England a warm partisan of the Homan party. From Alf rid, of Northumbria, he received a grant of land and a monastery at Ripon, and there, in 664, he was ordained a priest. The synod of Whitby, met in 604 to discuss the disputed questions between the two parties in the church, was attended by the most distinguished members of both, and among others, by Col man, bishop of Lindisfarne, and Wilfrid. We have a curious acccount of this confer ence. The presided, and seems at first to have been puzzled by the arguments, but he noticed that Colman always referred to St. Columba, Wilfrid to St. Peter—and it struck him that the relative power of these saints had ft elose connection with the points at issue. " St. Peter," says Wilfrid, "is the rock on which the Lord founded his church, and to him he intrusted the keys of heaven." " Did St. Columba not receive the same power?" asked the king. Colman could not say he had. "Then you both admit that God has given the keys to St. Peter?" Both said they did. "Well," con tinued the king, - if it is so, I shall not oppose him. Were I to do otherwise, I might find no one to open the gate when I came there; St. Peter might turn his back on me.
We must not offend him. ' The council and audience were carried away by this argu ment, and the king decided in favor of the Roman party. Wilfrid was afterward named bishop of York, but he did not enter into possession of his see until 669. He then sur rounded himself with great pomp, built churches, one of which. at Hexham, was said to be the finest north of the Alps, and strove to oppose the ecclesiastical to the royal power. A quarrel followed with the new king of Northumbria, named Egfrid, and Wilfrid was deposed. He started on a journey to Rome, to make a personal appeal to the pope; but he was driven by a storm to the Coast of Friesland, the inhabitants of which were still pagan. There, however, he was hospitably received by the king. To his arrival the people attributed an excellent fishing season and abundant harvest. He was asked to preach, and he did so in his own Anglo-Saxon tongue, which was perfectly intelligible to the Frisians. Such was the effect, that he baptized many thousands of the people, and all the princes. The event is one of the most memorable in the history of northern Ger many and Scandinavia, for with it began the conversion of these countries to Christianity by Anglo-Saxon missionaries, and the introduction into them of the arts and knowledge inherited from ancient civilization (see BONIFACE ; WICLi1;lton). Wilfrid reached Rome, and the pope decided in his favor; but on his return' to England, the king gave no heed to the decree, and commited him to prison. He escaped, however, to the Weald of Sussex, where he converted the pagan inhabitants. He was afterward recalled to his see; and a proposal was made to elevate him to the primacy, but Ile was still opposed, as the leader of the Roman party, and ultimately he was deposed and excommunicated. He again went to Rome, remained there some years, returned to England in 705, and died at Oundle, in Northampton, in 709.