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Life of St Wilfrid
Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927
33. Of Our Bishop’s Return
So after Bishop Wilfrid, the beloved of God, had spent many days there, he was bidden by the Apostolic authority and the command of all the holy synod to return to his country, to carry with him the commands of the Apostolic See in writing, to show them to the holy Archbishop Theodore and also to King Ecgfrith. So our holy bishop, humbly obeying with unwavering loyalty the commands of the Apostolic See in all things, as he had promised, spent several days going round the shrines of the saints to pray there; he also obtained from chosen men a great many holy relics, for the edification of the churches of Britain, writing down what each of the relics was and to which saint it belonged; and many other possessions he acquired which it is tedious to enumerate now, for the adornment of the house of God, in accordance with his custom. So, with the blessing of the Apostolic See and all the holy synod, he began his journey homewards to his own land with all his train, rejoicing and glad, God being his helper.
So when our holy bishop, triumphantly bearing the decision, had made his way from the Apostolic See through Campania and had crossed the mountains, he came into the land of the Franks. But there his faithful friend Dagobert had been lately killed by treachery through the guile of certain dukes and with the consent of the bishops—(Heaven save the mark!). One of these bishops met him with a great army, plotting impious schemes in his heart and intending, if God had not hindered, to rob all his comrades and reduce them to serfdom, or to sell them as slaves, or to slay them if they resisted, and also to imprison our holy bishop and to reserve him for the judgment of Ebroin the duke.
He questioned him thus: “What gives you confidence to go through the land of the Franks so boldly, you who are worthy of death, seeing that you sent forth to us from exile one made king by your help; he wasted our cities and despised the counsels of the elders; like Rehoboam the son of Solomon, he humiliated the people with tribute and despised the churches of God and their rulers; he was slain to atone for these his sins and his body lies in the grave.”
Then our holy prelate humbly made reply to the bishop: “I speak the truth in Christ Jesus and by the Apostle Saint Peter I lie not, that in accordance with the command of God to the people of Israel which dwelt a stranger in a strange land, I helped and nourished such a man living as an exile and a sojourner and I raised him up for your good and not for your harm that he might be the builder of your cities, the comforter of your citizens, the counsellor of your elders, the defender of the churches of God in the name of the Lord, even as he had promised. O most righteous bishop, what else would you have to do if an exile of our race and of royal descent should come to your holiness, other than what I did in the name of the Lord?”
The bishop answered, “‘The Lord preserve your coming in’” and so forth, and, “Woe is me a sinner: grant me indulgence because like Judah the patriarch I see that you are much juster than I am. The Lord be with you and Saint Peter the Apostle be your aid.”