Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

56 ST. WILFRID DEFENDED
pany me thither to that judgment/'1 were his spirited
wrords. More spirited were his deeds, for meekness
is not weakness. Submission to unlawful demands
is an act which sometimes falls heavily on a whole
generation. Again he set out for Kome, in no way
deterred by the fact that now, as before, his enemy
was " his own metropolitan. He was seventy years
old at the time of his third journey to Borne.
After a detailed hearing of his case during four
months, John VI. delivered judgment in favour of
Wilfrid. No single accusation made against him
was proved. The intruded bishops were to accept
the terms of a council, which Wilfrid was ordered to
convoke, or else to plead their cause personally at
Rome.
Peace was finally made without King Aldfrid,
whose enmity lasted till the very eve of his death,
when he at length expressed a desire to be reconciled
to the much-injured bishop. The death of Bishop
Bosa placed John in the see of York, and Hexharn
was the diocese finally assigned to Wilfrid.2 If any
are tempted to regard his life-long struggle as useless
and vain, let them weigh its results. During all the
Saxon period it would seem that no metropolitan
again attempted to depose a bishop unjustly.3 . In
an island far removed from the spiritual centre of
gravitation, imperious kings may aim at making
"
1 Faber, Life of St. Wilfrid, Series of English Saints, p. 162.
2 Les Moines ^Occident, iv. 350.
3 Stubbs, Constitutional History, \. 221.