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Life of St Wilfrid
Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927
36. Of the House Illuminated by God
When he had finished his words of consolation, the king’s officers took our holy bishop and, “as a lamb led to the slaughter, which opened not his mouth,” so they led him to a man named Osfrith, the reeve of the royal borough of Broninis, and placed their prisoner before him, bidding him, in accordance with the king’s word, guard diligently in dungeons darkened by foul mist, without the knowledge of any of his friends, the holy bishop who might well have been called at this time the light of Britain, considering the great merits of his faith. This same thegn was faithful to the king, and on his urgent bidding kept the bishop under guard in hidden dungeons, where the sun rarely shone by day and where no lamp is lit to give brightness by night. His guardians, however, when they heard the holy man of God perpetually singing psalms, and saw the place in the darkness of the night all lit up within as if it were day, spoke to all of his holiness, and, being amazed themselves, filled others with terror.
O Christ, eternal Light Who dost never desert those who acknowledge Thee, Who art held to be the “true light” and dost illumine “every man that cometh into the world,” Who in the beginning didst mark by fiery splendour the hour of the nativity of Thy future servant when he came forth from his mother’s womb: now Thou didst deign to bring the light of an angelic visitation into the deep obscurity of the dungeon as he prayed, just as when thine Apostle Peter was chained in the prison by the impious King Herod, “the angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shined in the cell”; to Thee be glory and thanksgiving.
During this time when the king had him in custody without any token of honour, he promised him part of the bishopric which he had formerly owned and other gifts, by no means small, if Wilfrid would be willing to acquiesce in his commands and decisions, and would choose to deny that the canonical statutes which had been sent from the Apostolic See were genuine. To this he made humble reply, yet with confidence in the Apostolic authority, that he would rather lose his head than ever make such an acknowledgment. So we see that a good will, based on a knowledge of God, cannot be moved.