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Life of St Wilfrid
Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927
44. How King Aldfrith Received Our Bishop
And so it happened that many years had passed away and our holy prelate was now living honourably in exile; his monks had been banished and scattered into various places throughout the whole of Britain where they were mourning under the power of alien lords and awaiting redemption from the Lord. At last the news came to them of a most woeful disaster in which Ecgfrith, King of the Northumbrians, had been slain and overthrown by the Picts, together with all the flower of his army. After him the most prudent King Aldfrith came to the throne; and, in the second year of his reign, he reverently summoned St Wilfrid our bishop from exile to his presence, in accordance with the archbishop’s command. First of all he bestowed upon him the monastery at Hexham with all the possessions belonging to it; after an interval of time, in accordance with the judgment of the most blessed Agatho, the ruler of the Apostolic See, and of the Holy Synod, he restored to him his own episcopal see at York and the monastery at Ripon, together with their revenues, and drove the strange bishops out. Like John the Apostle and Evangelist returning to Ephesus, he possessed them in security and amid the rejoicings of his followers, for five years only after his exile.