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Life of St Wilfrid
Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927
34. How the King Despised the Judgments of the Apostolic See
Then, having traversed many lands, and with the help of God having passed over a great tract of sea by ship, he reached his own land unharmed, together with all his companions, to the great joy of his subjects who were languishing with weariness, and crying out to the Lord with tears. He came back alive, bearing the standard of victory, that is to say, bringing with him the judgment of the Apostolic See, and peaceably presented himself before the king saluting him. With all humility he showed the king the written judgment of the Apostolic See with the consent and subscription of the whole synod, and delivered it to him with its bulls and stamped seals. Then he summoned all the chief men who lived there as well as the servants of God to the synod’s meeting place to hear the wholesome counsels sent from the Apostolic See for the sake of the peace of the churches. After they had heard matters read which were difficult for them and contrary to their will, some of them contumaciously rejected the judgment. Besides this—a fact more execrable—they defamed it, to the peril of their souls, by saying that the writings had been bought for a price, these writings which had been intended by the Apostolic See for the benefit of those that obeyed them.
Then, at the command of the king and his counsellors, with the consent of the bishops who held his bishopric, they decided to put him in prison and keep him there nine months without any token of respect. And forthwith, as we have said, after the writings of the Apostolic See had been opened and read, the king—horrible to tell—enraged, and abetted by his flatterers, despised the judgment of Peter the Apostle and chief of the Apostles who has the power from God to loose and to bind; then taking oath by his soul’s salvation he sternly ordered that our holy bishop, despoiled of all save his garments, should be kept in solitary confinement, that all his subjects should be scattered far and wide, and that none of his friends should be allowed to visit him. His queen moreover, whom we have mentioned before, took away the reliquary of the man of God which was filled with holy relics, and (I tremble to say it) she wore it as an ornament both in her chamber at home and when riding abroad in her chariot. But this brought nothing but evil upon her, as it did to the Philistines, when, after routing the people of Israel, they captured the ark of God and brought the holy of holies through their cities.