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WILFRID AI'I'EALS AGAIN TO ROME. 77
fiery indignation. With kindling eye and ringing
voice lie recounted all that he had done for the cause
of the Church in Northumbria,—how he had settled
the questions of the Paschal feast and the tonsure,
how he had formed in stately order the Church's
service of song, her Responsories and Antiphons,
how he had regulated the monastic houses according
to the rule of St. Benedict, in a manner heretofore
unknown. And he concluded by a bold and defiant
announcement that he would again submit his cause
to the judgment of the Apostolic see. ' Of his noble
apostolic labours," .says Dean Milman, "his conversion
of the heathen, his culti\atioa of arts and letters,
his st.itely buildings, his monasteries, he said
nothing." ^
The mention of an ajjpeal to Rome deeply stirred
the ire of the king, who went so far as to talk of
making him submit by force of arms. But wiser
counsels prevailed. The bishops reminded him that
Wilfrid had a safe conduct to come to the council.
So he was permitted to depart, and the council ended.
But so intense was the antagonistic feeling in Northumbria,
that a sentence of excommunication was
pronounced against him and all his adherents and
friends.
Ethelred received Wilfrid kindly on his return into
Mercia, and promised that he would watchfully guard
all his possessions in that kingdom until he should
return from Rome. His friends were encouraged and
comforted by a letter addressed to them by the great
" Latin Chiisti, nity," ii. p. 269.