Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/244

 Devon,’ and similar works; while one or two are abridged from regular ‘Lives’ by Walton or other biographers. Wilford assumed the credit of editorship, and the book is invariably known as ‘Wilford's Lives,’ but it was in reality the work of obscure compilers in his pay, chief among whom was John Jones (1700–1770) [q. v.] At the time of publication Wilford was living at the Three Luces in Little Britain, still the stronghold of the bookselling trade, prior to the migration to Paternoster Row.

[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vol. ii. passim; Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, vi. 428, 443; Lowndes's Bibl. Manual, ed. Bohn; Timperley's Cyclopædia of Printing; Roberts's Earlier History of English Bookselling, 1889; Thoms's Curll Papers, 1879, p. 100; London Magazine, ix. 512, x. 260; Brit. Mus. Cat.] 

WILFRID or WILFRITH, (634–709), bishop of York, the son of a Northumbrian thegn, is said to have been born in 634 (, c. 1; he was thirty or ‘about thirty’ in 664,, c. 11; Hist. Eccles. v. 24). In his fourteenth year he was a handsome and well-mannered lad, fond of arms, horses, and fine clothes, but he was not happy, for he had an unkind stepmother, and he wished to enter a monastery. His father sent him to the court of Oswy [q. v.], where he pleased the queen, Eanflæd [q. v.], who sent him to Lindisfarne. Though he did not receive the tonsure there, he discharged all the duties of a novice, learning the psalter by heart in the Gallican version, and studying other books. Owing doubtless to the queen's influence, he desired to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Eanflæd sent him to her cousin, Earconbert of Kent, that he might find a companion for him. At Earconbert's court he continued his ascetic life and learnt the Roman psalter. After spending a year in Kent he left England in 653 in company with Benedict Biscop [see ]. They parted at Lyons, where Wilfrid prolonged his stay with Annemund, the archbishop, who offered, if he would remain with him, to adopt him as his son and give him his niece, the daughter of Dalfinus, count of the city, in marriage; but he would not give up the life that he had chosen, and went on to Rome. There the pope's archdeacon Boniface instructed him in the Easter question and the Benedictine rule, and introduced him to Eugenius I. He returned to Lyons, received the tonsure from the archbishop, and stayed with him about three years. The party of Ebroin, mayor of the palace to Clothaire III, king of Neustria and Burgundy, beheaded the archbishop at Châlon-sur-Saône on 29 Sept. 658. Wilfrid nearly shared his fate; but when it was found that he was an Englishman, a fellow-countryman of Queen Bathild, he was set free [see under ]. He returned to Northumbria and found Alchfrith [q. v.], who was then ruling in Deira, already converted to the Roman side in ecclesiastical matters. Alchfrith gave him land for a monastery at Stanford, probably Stamford on the Derwent, and in or about 661 expelled Eata [q. v.], Cuthbert (d. 687) [q. v.], and the other Columbite monks from Ripon, and gave the monastery to Wilfrid, who, probably in 663, was ordained priest by Bishop Agilbert, then on a visit to Northumbria.

Early in 664 Oswy and Alchfrith held a conference at Streanæshalch, later called Whitby, to determine the dispute between the Roman and Columbite parties. Wilfrid was put forward by Agilbert as the spokesman on the Roman side in opposition to Bishop Colman. He argued ably, adopting a contemptuous tone towards his opponent. The conference ended in the victory of the Roman party. Colman left Northumbria, and Tuda, his successor, dying of the plague, Alchfrith obtained the election of Wilfrid as bishop ‘for himself and his people,’ which means that his see was to be at York. At his request Alchfrith sent him to Gaul for consecration, for he is said to have declared that he would not receive consecration from bishops who were quartodecimans (, c. 12), as the Celtic clergy were unfairly styled. As it seems probable that both Archbishop Deusdedit and Damian of Rochester were then dead, and as Wini was an intruder into Agilbert's bishopric, there would not be any bishop in England whose consecration would be held canonical by Wilfrid except Boniface of East-Anglia (, p. 241, but cf. Eccles. Doc. iii. 106). Perhaps before the end of the year (, Bede, ii. 317) he was consecrated ‘bishop of York’ (, u.s.) by Agilbert and eleven other bishops at Compiègne, and was, according to a Gallican custom, borne aloft by his consecrators in a golden chair. He delayed his return to England, and meanwhile Oswy appointed Ceadda or Chad [q. v.] bishop in his place. In 666, not knowing that his see had been taken from him, he left Gaul with several clergy to return home. His ship was stranded on the coast of Sussex. The heathen South-Saxons threatened to kill the crew and passengers. Wilfrid's men beat them off, the tide rose, the ship floated again, and Wilfrid and his company escaped with the loss of five men, and landed at Sandwich. When Wilfrid found that his bishopric had been given to Ceadda, he retired to Ripon. On the invita-