Vita Sancti Wilfrithi

Last updated
Vita Sancti Wilfrithi
"The Life of St. Wilfrid"
Hexhamfromeddius.jpg
A page from an 11th-century manuscript of the Vita Sancti Wilfrithi describing the foundation of Hexham Abbey
Author(s) Stephen of Ripon
Language Medieval Latin
DateComposed between 709 and c. 720
Manuscript(s)1. London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. vi. Provenance: probably transferred from Yorkshire before it was held in Canterbury and then acquired by the British Library.
fos. 2-77: 9th century, with 11th-century additions;
fos. 78-125: 11th century, with 12th-century additions on the final page.
2. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Fell vol. III 34a-56b, originally vol. I. Written in the late 11th or early 12th century. [1]
GenreProse hagiography

The Vita Sancti Wilfrithi or Life of St Wilfrid (spelled "Wilfrid" in the modern era [2] ) is an early 8th-century hagiographic text recounting the life of the Northumbrian bishop, Wilfrid. Although a hagiography, it has few miracles, while its main concerns are with the politics of the Northumbrian church and the history of the monasteries of Ripon and Hexham. It is one of a collection of historical sources from the late 7th- and early 8th-centuries, along with the anonymous Vita Sancti Cuthberti , the works of Bede and Adomnán's Vita Sancti Columbae , that detail the Christianisation of Great Britain and make the period the best documented period in English history before the age of Alfred the Great.

Contents

Date and authorship

In the preface to the Vita Wilfrithi, the author reveals that he is a priest called Stephen. [3] Writers in modern times often style the author "Eddius Stephanus", [4] an attribution that goes back to the 17th century. [5] This attribution is now thought unlikely by many historians. [6] The identification was made because the Vita Wilfrithi recounts that sometime between 666 and 669, Wilfrid brought two singing masters from Kent to Ripon, Ædde and Æona. [7]

This Ædde was also mentioned by Bede, who says that an Æddi cognomento Stephanus ("Ædde, also known as Stephen") was brought to Northumbria by Wilfrid and was the first singing-master (cantor) among the Northumbrians. [8] This is not however thought to be good evidence by many modern historians, [9] while many other factors, such as age, make the attribution positively unlikely. [10]

The Vita Wilfrithi can be dated reasonably securely between 709, the year of Wilfrid's death, and c. 720. [11] The latter date, c. 720, is the approximate date of the Vita Sancti Cuthberti, a text which the Vita Wilfrithi quotes, [12] and indeed imitates so often that one historian has used the word "plagiarism". [13] There are some indications that it was written after 716. [14]

Synopsis

The Vita narrates the life and career of Wilfrid, from his boyhood until his death, with brief digressions into the other affairs of Wilfrid's two main monasteries, Ripon and Hexham. [15] It details his boyhood decision to become a churchman, his quarrels with Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, and various secular figures, his travels back and forth between England and Rome, his participation in church synods, and eventually his death. [16]

The text devotes over one third of its contents to Wilfrid's "Northumbrian achievements", but Stephen devotes almost no space to Wilfrid's second period in office as Bishop of York (686–691), and little space to his activity in Mercia. [17] The Vita Wilfrithi, in common with many hagiographies written close to the death of their subject, records very few miracles, but like Bede and Eusebius of Caesarea, incorporates full documents relevant to its story. [15]

Problems

According to Fulk et al., the Vita Wilfrithi is tendentious and partisan. [18] The Vita, perhaps mirroring the views of Wilfrid himself, is contemptuous of the Gaelic contribution, the "poisonous seeds" they planted, to the development of the Northumbrian and English church, and thus discredits Lindisfarne and the other English monasteries associated with them. [19]

Wilfrid is given full responsibility for the victory of the Roman faction in the Synod of Whitby, his great triumph over the Gaelic monks. Bede however sidelines Wilfrid, making it unclear to the modern historian which writer is being more accurate; and while Stephen depicts the second half of the 7th century as a "Wilfridian golden age", in the narrative of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum , Wilfrid is but one of many ecclesiastical figures who contribute to the development of the English church. [20] These factors led the historian Walter Goffart to argue that Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica was actually written because the leaders of the Bernician church sought to counter the version of history being promulgated by the Deiran "Wilfridians" in the Vita Wilfrithi. [21]

Inspirations

The Vita Wilfrithi inspired a 10th-century Latin poem entitled Breviloquium Vitae Wilfridi, written by Frithegod to commemorate Oda's acquisition of Wilfrid's relics for Canterbury Cathedral around 950. The historian Michael Lapidge has called the Breviloquium "one of the most difficult Latin poems written in pre-conquest England". [22]

Notes

  1. ↑ Colgrave, Life of Bishop Wilfrid, pp. xiii-xiv.
  2. ↑ Fraser, Pictland, p. 47
  3. ↑ Webb and Farmer (eds.), Age of Bede, p. 107
  4. ↑ The popular Penguin translation, Webb and Farmer (eds.), Age of Bede, pp. 104–84, styles the author such
  5. ↑ Kirby, "Bede, Eddius Stephanus", p. 102
  6. ↑ See Goffart, Narrators, p. 281, n. 210
  7. ↑ VSW, 14, in Webb and Farmer (eds.), Age of Bede, p. 122
  8. ↑ Bede, HE, iv.2; Colgrave, McClure and Collins (eds.), Bede, p. 172
  9. ↑ McClure and Collins (eds.), Bede, p. 400, n. 173
  10. ↑ Kirby, "Bede, Eddius Stephanus", pp. 102–3
  11. ↑ Goffart, Narrators, pp. 282–3; Gransden, Historical Writing, p. 71
  12. ↑ Goffart, Narrators, p. 283
  13. ↑ Goffart, Narrators, p. 284
  14. ↑ Fraser, Pictland, p. 265
  15. 1 2 Gransden, Historical Writing, p. 71
  16. ↑ Gransden, Historical Writing, p. 71; Webb and Farmer (eds.), Age of Bede, pp. 104–84
  17. ↑ Goffart, Narrators, pp. 285–6
  18. ↑ Fulk, Cain, and Anderson, History of Old English literature, p. 90
  19. ↑ Goffart, Narrators, pp. 325–8, for summary
  20. ↑ Fraser, Pictland, p. 264; for full discussion, see Goffart, "Bede and the Ghost of Bishop Wilfrid", Narrators, pp. 235–328
  21. ↑ Goffart, Narrators, pp. 235–328
  22. ↑ Lapidge, "Frithegod (fl. c.950–c.958)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bede</span> Anglo-Saxon monk, writer and saint (672/3–735)

Bede, also known as Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable, was an English monk and an author and scholar. He was one of the greatest teachers and writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most famous work, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, gained him the title "The Father of English History". He served at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumbria</span> Medieval kingdom of the Angles

Northumbria was an early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is now Northern England and south-east Scotland.

The Synod of Whitby was a Christian administrative gathering held in Northumbria in 664, wherein King Oswiu ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practiced by Irish monks at Iona and its satellite institutions. The synod was summoned at Hilda's double monastery of Streonshalh (Streanæshalch), later called Whitby Abbey.

Theodore of Tarsus was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690. Theodore grew up in Tarsus, but fled to Constantinople after the Persian Empire conquered Tarsus and other cities. After studying there, he relocated to Rome and was later installed as the Archbishop of Canterbury on the orders of Pope Vitalian. Accounts of his life appear in two 8th-century texts. Theodore is best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury.

Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon. In 664 Wilfrid acted as spokesman for the Roman position at the Synod of Whitby, and became famous for his speech advocating that the Roman method for calculating the date of Easter should be adopted. His success prompted the king's son, Alhfrith, to appoint him Bishop of Northumbria. Wilfrid chose to be consecrated in Gaul because of the lack of what he considered to be validly consecrated bishops in England at that time. During Wilfrid's absence Alhfrith seems to have led an unsuccessful revolt against his father, Oswiu, leaving a question mark over Wilfrid's appointment as bishop. Before Wilfrid's return Oswiu had appointed Ceadda in his place, resulting in Wilfrid's retirement to Ripon for a few years following his arrival back in Northumbria.

Ecgfrith was the King of Deira from 664 until 670, and then King of Northumbria from 670 until his death in 20 May 685 possibly at age of 31. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Nechtansmere against the Picts of Fortriu in which he lost his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Æthelred of Mercia</span> 7th and 8th-century King of Mercia

Æthelred was king of Mercia from 675 until 704. He was the son of Penda of Mercia and came to the throne in 675, when his brother, Wulfhere of Mercia, died from an illness. Within a year of his accession he invaded Kent, where his armies destroyed the city of Rochester. In 679 he defeated his brother-in-law, Ecgfrith of Northumbria, at the Battle of the Trent: the battle was a major setback for the Northumbrians, and effectively ended their military involvement in English affairs south of the Humber. It also permanently returned the Kingdom of Lindsey to Mercia's possession. However, Æthelred was unable to re-establish his predecessors' domination of southern Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wulfhere of Mercia</span> 7th-century King of Mercia

Wulfhere or Wulfar was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere extended his influence over much of that region. His campaigns against the West Saxons led to Mercian control of much of the Thames valley. He conquered the Isle of Wight and the Meon valley and gave them to King Æthelwealh of the South Saxons. He also had influence in Surrey, Essex, and Kent. He married Eormenhild, the daughter of King Eorcenberht of Kent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen of Ripon</span> 7th and 8th-century monk and writer

Stephen of Ripon was the author of the eighth-century hagiographic text Vita Sancti Wilfrithi. Other names once traditionally attributed to him are Eddius Stephanus or Æddi Stephanus, but these names are no longer preferred or accepted by historians today; modern usage tends to favour "Stephen".

Eanflæd was a Deiran princess, queen of Northumbria and later, the abbess of an influential Christian monastery in Whitby, England. She was the daughter of King Edwin of Northumbria and Æthelburg, who in turn was the daughter of King Æthelberht of Kent. In or shortly after 642 Eanflæd became the second wife of King Oswiu of Northumbria. After Oswiu's death in 670, she retired to Whitby Abbey, which had been founded by Hilda of Whitby. Eanflæd became the abbess around 680 and remained there until her death. The monastery had strong association with members of the Northumbrian royal family and played an important role in the establishment of Roman Christianity in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Dun Nechtain</span> 685 battle between Picts and Northumbrians

The Battle of Dun Nechtain or Battle of Nechtansmere was fought between the Picts, led by King Bridei Mac Bili, and the Northumbrians, led by King Ecgfrith, on 20 May 685.

Coenred was king of Mercia from 704 to 709. Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the English Midlands. He was a son of the Mercian king Wulfhere, whose brother Æthelred succeeded to the throne in 675 on Wulfhere's death. In 704, Æthelred abdicated in favour of Coenred to become a monk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldfrith of Northumbria</span> 7th and 8th-century King of Northumbria

Aldfrith was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death. He is described by early writers such as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripon as a man of great learning. Some of his works and some letters written to him survive. His reign was relatively peaceful, marred only by disputes with Bishop Wilfrid, a major figure in the early Northumbrian church.

<i>Ecclesiastical History of the English People</i> 8th-century Latin history of England by Bede

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between the pre-Schism Roman Rite and Celtic Christianity. It was composed in Latin, and is believed to have been completed in 731 when Bede was approximately 59 years old. It is considered one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history, and has played a key role in the development of an English national identity.

The Battle of Two Rivers was fought between the Picts and Northumbrians in the year 671. The exact battle site is unknown. It marked the end of the Pictish rebellion early in the reign of Ecgfrith, with a decisive victory for the Northumbrians. Attestation of the battle is limited to the account in Stephen of Ripon's Vita Sancti Wilfrithi.

James the Deacon was a Roman deacon who accompanied Paulinus of York on his mission to Northumbria. He was a member of the Gregorian mission, which went to England to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism. However, when he arrived in England is unknown. After Paulinus left Northumbria, James stayed near Lincoln and continued his missionary efforts, dying sometime after 671, according to the medieval chronicler Bede.

Botwine was a Northumbrian saint venerated at Ripon and Peterborough. He is well documented as a priest, and latter Abbot of Ripon. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recension E, recorded his death in the 780s in one of three Ripon abbatial obits derived from a chronicle of Northumbrian origin. Following the death of St Botwine in 786AD, his replacement, Ealdberht was elected and consecrated Abbot. Ealdberht died in 788AD, and was himself succeeded as Abbot by St. Sigered of Ripon.

Dryhthelm, also known as Drithelm or Drythelm, was a monk associated with the monastery of Melrose known from the Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede. According to the latter, before entering the religious life he lived with his family in "a district of Northumbria which is called Incuneningum". Incuneningum is thought by some modern scholars to refer to Cunninghame, now part of Ayrshire.

The Vita Sancti Cuthberti is a prose hagiography from early medieval Northumbria. It is probably the earliest extant saint's life from Anglo-Saxon England, and is an account of the life and miracles of Cuthbert, a Bernician hermit-monk who became bishop of Lindisfarne. Surviving in eight manuscripts from Continental Europe, it was not as well read in the Middle Ages as the prose version by Bede. It was however Bede's main source for his two dedicated works on Cuthbert, the "Metrical Life" and the "Prose Life".

Tatberht was an eighth century Anglo-Saxon saint, abbot and contemporary of Bede.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.