Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/131

 Bernician diocese, adding a see at Hexham to that of Lindisfarne. He also founded a new diocese in the country of the Picts north of the Forth, then under English rule, and placed the see in the monastery of Abercorn (ib. cc. 12, 26). Three years later, in 684, he deposed Tunbert, it is said for disobedience (ib. c. 28; Miscellanea Biographica, Surtees Soc. p. 123), and journeyed to the north to preside over an assembly gathered by Egfrid at Twyford in Northumberland, at which Cuthbert [q. v.] was elected bishop. On the following Easter day, 26 March 685, Theodore consecrated Cuthbert at York to the see of Lindisfarne [see under ]. In 686 Theodore, who felt the infirmity of age increasing upon him, desired to be reconciled to Wilfrid; he invited him to meet him in London and bade Bishop Erkenwald also come to him. According to Wilfrid's biographer, he humbly acknowledged that he had done Wilfrid wrong, and expressed an earnest hope that he would succeed him as archbishop (, c. 43). However this may be, it is evident that he felt sorrow for Wilfrid's sufferings, highly esteemed him for his work among the heathen, and was anxious to take advantage of the accession of Aldfrith [q. v.] to the Northumbrian throne to procure his restoration. He wrote to Aldfrith and to Ælflæd, abbess of Whitby, urging them to be reconciled to Wilfrid, and to his friend Ethelred of Mercia, that he would take Wilfrid under his protection; and speaking of his own age and weakness begged the king to come to him, that ‘my eyes may behold thy pleasant face and my soul bless thee before I die’ (ib.) His injunctions were obeyed, and in a short time Wilfrid was restored to his see at York, though Theodore's subdivision of the diocese was not set aside. Theodore died at the age of eighty-eight on 19 Sept. 690. He was buried in the church of St. Peter's monastery (St. Augustine's) at Canterbury, and an epitaph, of which Bede has preserved the first and last four lines, was placed upon his tomb. When his body was translated in 1091, it was found complete with his cowl and pall (, Hist. Translationis S. Augustini, vol. i. c. 24, vol. ii. c. 27, ap., Patrologia Lat. vol. clv.).

Theodore's piety was not of the sort to excite the admiration of monastic writers; for no miracles are attributed to him, and he was not regarded as a saint ; this was probably due, in part at least, to his quarrel with Wilfrid, whose claim on monastic reverence was fully recognised. He was a man of grand conceptions, strong will, and an autocratic spirit, which led him, at least in his dealings with Wilfrid, into harsh and unfair action. Yet an excuse may be found for him in the earnestness of his desire to do what he knew to be necessary to the well-being of the church, and the difficulties which he doubtless had to encounter. Apart from his public functions his character seems to have been gentle and affectionate. He had great power of organisation, his personal influence was strong, and he was a skilful manager of men. His genius was versatile; for he was excellent alike as a scholar, a teacher, and in the administration of affairs. During his primacy English monasticism rapidly advanced; though the charters to monasteries to which his name is appended are of doubtful value, he protected the monasteries from episcopal invasion, laid down the duties of bishops with regard to them, and legislated wisely for them (Penitential, ii. c. 6). The debt which the English church owes to him cannot easily be overestimated. He secured its unity and gave it organisation, subdividing the vast bishoprics, coterminous with kingdoms, and basing its episcopate on tribal lines, on the means of legislating for itself, and on the idea of obedience to lawfully constituted ecclesiastical authority. The belief that he was the founder of the parochial system (, pp. 285–6; ) is mistaken (, Constitutional History, i. c. 8); but his legislation aided its development (, pp. 406–7). His educational work gave the church a culture that was not wholly lost until the period of the Danish invasions, and had far-reaching effects. Bede says that during his episcopate the churches of the English derived more spiritual profit than they could ever gain before (Hist. Eccles. v. c. 8). His work did not die with him: its fruits are to be discerned in the character and constitution of the church of England at all times to the present day.

The only written work besides a few lines addressed to Hæddi and the letter to Ethelred that can with any certainty be ascribed to Theodore is a ‘Penitential.’ Although Bede does not mention this work, there is abundant evidence that a ‘Penitential’ of Theodore was known in very early times. (Eccles. Doc. iii. 173–4). Various attempts were made from Spelman's time onwards to identify and publish Theodore's ‘Penitential,’ but that which is now accepted as the original work was first edited by Dr. Wasserschleben in 1851, and has since been re-edited by the editors of ‘Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents’ (ib. pp. 173–213), their text being taken from a manuscript probably of the eighth century at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Only in a certain sense can