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Life of St Wilfrid

Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927

15. How He Was Restored to His See

So, after the lapse of three years, Archbishop Theodore came from Kent to the King of Deira and Bernicia, bringing with him the decrees of the Apostolic See from which he had been sent. As soon as he had reached that land he heard from the lips of true witnesses the story of the offence against the canon law and how one bishop had dared, like a thief, to snatch another bishop’s see. He indignantly ordered that Bishop Chad should be deposed from the see of another man.

Chad, being a true and meek servant of God and fully understanding then the wrongdoing implied in his ordination to another’s see by the Quartodecimans, with humble penance confessed his fault in accordance with the decision of the bishops: whereupon Theodore, with Chad’s consent, installed St Wilfrid as bishop in his own see of York. Then our holy bishop, in accordance with the command of the Lord, returned good for evil, not evil for evil, just as David did to Saul when he said, “I will not stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed.” He knew of a place in the kingdom of Wulfhere, King of the Mercians, his faithful friend, which had been granted to him at Lichfield and was suitable as an episcopal see either for himself or for any other to whom he might wish to give it. So a friendly arrangement was made with that true servant of God, Chad, who in all things obeyed the bishops: they thereupon consecrated him fully to the said see through all the ecclesiastical degrees. The king received him in an honourable manner and the bishops installed him in the said place. There he performed many good and pious deeds during his life, and at the fitting time he passed to his fathers, awaiting the day when the Lord shall come in judgment, a day which we believe will rightly have no terrors for him.