Wilfrida

ON ST. WILFRIDA, ABBESS OF WILTON,

IN ENGLAND,

At the end of the X century, or the beginning of the XI.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Wilfrida or Vulfridis abbess in England (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The memory in the Martyrologies of the Saint, called by various names and wrongly pulled apart into two; her ancient veneration: her Acts rejected.

Among the abbesses whom England of old brought forth and nourished, S. Wulfhild is read inscribed on this day in the English Martyrology of John Wilson, of the earlier edition, that of the year 1608, The Saint's name variously written, who in his repeated edition of the same was referred to the XXXI day of May. Her other Calendars too commemorate; but likewise at various days, and, with the name somewhat inflected, they call her Wulfhild, Wilfrida, Wilfreda and Wulfruda. Nor do the English writers who have mentioned her vary less: for by them she is named now Wulftritha, Wlftritha, Wilfritha, now Wulftrudis, Wulfrida, Wlfrida and Wolfhilda. Howden in his Annals at the year 964 wrongly called her Elfthritha, repeating here, perhaps by a slip of memory, the name of Elfthritha, whom a little before he had said was the wife of king Edgar. Further, I, following Malmesbury and Westminster, by whom our Wlfritha is called Wlfrida and Wilfrith, shall call her Wilfrida. About the place too, whether of her veneration or of her death, there is no agreement among the martyrologists: for some affirm that she was venerated at Barking, once a noble monastery of Virgins in Essex, others in the nunnery of Wilton in the county of the same name. Some finally ascribe to her the laurel of virginity, which others pass over in silence, and others prefer expressly to deny. Each point we shall examine in its place, after we have established her veneration.

[2] The praised Wilson, for the twofold edition of his Martyrology, recounts a twofold eulogy of Wulfhild or Wilfrida, in the Martyrologies: the one at the IX day of September, the other at the XXXI of May, as we have already given notice: this latter, revised by the author, I alone transfer hither, being about to observe in the course of the work if anything besides worthy of note occur in the other. Take therefore the words turned from English into Latin: At Barking in Essex, the deposition of S. Wulfhild virgin and abbess, daughter of Wulfhelm, an earl among the West Saxons, who was first made a religious at Wilton; but afterward, founding a monastery at Horton in Dorset out of her own goods and with the help of S. Edgar the king, she was set over it by him, and not long after was also elected abbess of the monastery of Barking in Essex. Which two monasteries she directed with great prudence and holiness until the last day of her life, which she reached full of miracles about the year of Christ CMLXXX; and she was buried at Barking; whose sacred body, dug up in the thirtieth year after her death, was found so unharmed and entire with all its garments as if it had but lately been buried; where also it has been preserved with great honor and veneration even to our own age. What of this eulogy is to be admitted and what rejected we shall discuss below.

[3] now into two The same Wilson in the earlier edition of the same Martyrology at the XXII day of July announces Wilfreda as though different from the other. At Winchester, he says, in Hampshire, the commemoration of B. Wilfreda queen and abbess, wife of S. Edgar the king and mother of S. Edith the virgin, who, brought up from childhood with a religious woman in the monastery of Winchester, and then married to king Edgar, despising the vain goods of the world after her husband's death, entered the aforesaid monastery, and was set over it as abbess; where in exceptional holiness of life she rendered her soul to her heavenly Spouse about the year CMLXXXVII, where also her body was buried, and has been preserved in great honor and veneration even to our times. Wilson blundered here, first, when he believed this Wilfrida distinct from the Wulfhild whom in the same Martyrology he referred to the IX day of September, and judged the latter a virgin, the former the widow of S. Edgar the king and mother of holy Edith. This error of his he partly corrected in the later edition, when, Wilfrida being passed over, he recounted Wulfhild alone; and partly retained, when he called that same Wulfhild a virgin, who was to be called not indeed Edgar's wife or widow, but nevertheless the mother of S. Edith by that same king, as will be plain from what follows. He blundered secondly, when he writes that she was made a nun at Winchester in Hampshire, and that her body was buried there, whereas she made illustrious the nunnery of Wilton, in English Wilton in the county of the same name, Wiltonia or Wiltshire, both by her monastic life and by her burial, as we shall show.

[4] Philip Ferrari, partly following Wilson, in his general Catalogue at the XXII of July has thus: wrongly pulled apart, now as one and the same, In England, of S. Wilfreda, queen and abbess: but at the IX of September thus: In England, of S. Welfreda, virgin and abbess. By their example too Arthur in the Gynæceum at the said day of July says: In England, of S. Wilfreda, queen and abbess of the Benedictine Order, who, clothed in a mean habit instead of a royal cloak, completed an admirable life in monastic humility, abstinence, perpetual service of Christ and continual contempt of herself. Then likewise at the IX of September: In England, of S. Welfreda, virgin abbess of the same Order (of S. Benedict), who, having despised the world and trampled on the devil, left to her subjects a singular example of piety, patience, fortitude and perseverance. Finally on the XIV day of the same month of September, to which in his Annotations at the XXII of July he had referred the reader, he again mentions Wilfrida, whom he observes to be also called Wulfruda, in these words: At Wilton in England, the commemoration of S. Wilfrida the Benedictine abbess, conspicuous for the merits of her life. Further, this latter commemoration and the place of her veneration Arthur learned from Edward Maihew in the Trophæa of the Benedictine English Congregation at the same day.

[5] But Hugh Ménard in the Benedictine Martyrology referred her to the XIII of September, at various days writing thus: At Wilton in England, of saint Wilfrida the abbess: but why he does this I do not know; for in his Observations he praises Maihew, who treats of her first on the following day, as has been said. In Ménard's footsteps Gabriel Bucelinus trod in the likewise Benedictine Menology, where at the same day the Saint's eulogy, to the rest thus far adduced

he wove more purely in this manner: At Wilton in England, of S. Wilfrida the abbess. To Wilfrida, not yet consecrated to God, Edgar king of England offered violence, whom, his wife being dead, he greatly courted for the fellowship of his bed: but she with most noble contempt, the nuptials of the most powerful king who loved her exceedingly being despised, and all the pomp of the kingdom and of the court being derided, fleeing to the monastery of Wilton, preferred the cowl to the purple, and consecrated herself wholly to the service of the King of kings; where she thereafter labored with so great earnestness of sacred progress that, having surpassed the rest in virtues, she was set over them as abbess, and for the loftiness of her perfection deserved after her death to be enrolled in the roll of the Saints. The praised Ménard has the like in his Observations; but of these afterward.

[6] Finally, before I make an end of recounting the announcements of the Martyrologies, is recorded: why we treat of her today. I add two in which at the IX of September the memory of our holy Abbess is celebrated. The first is the enlarged Usuardine Altemps codex, from which our Henschen and Papebroch formerly excerpted at Rome the variant readings or supplements, and which the latter of these judged to have been enlarged in England; but Sollerius observed in his Preface to Usuard's Martyrology, pag. LXIII, that it once belonged to the church of Winchester in the same kingdom. From this codex therefore, in the just-praised Sollerius among the supplements, it is thus read at the IX day of September: At the monastery of Barking, of saint Wilfida the abbess. The other is the universal Martyrology of Castellanus, in which at the same day it is said: Likewise in England, of S. Vulfild, virgin, abbess. In the fabulous Life too which we have, the Saint is said to have foretold that she would pass from this light to the Lord on the Vigil of S. Ethelwold the bishop, that is, on the fifth of the Ides of September. For the rest, which of all these martyrologists has more rightly assigned S. Wilfrida's day of death or of feast, is undiscovered by me: nevertheless, since my predecessors in the Prætermissi at the XXXI of May deferred her to the present day of September, I have judged that I should treat of her at this day with the Altemps codex, the older English Martyrology of Wilson, Castellanus and the rest, and exhibit to the studious reader the few things which we know about her deeds.

[7] The title of Saint anciently ascribed to her: Of her veneration, besides the commemorations of the Calendars recounted, we have few things. William of Malmesbury, a writer of the XII century, in book 2 On the Deeds of the pontiffs of the English, after he has treated of S. Edith's burial in the monastery of Wilton, thus proceeds: There lies in the same church her mother Wilfrith …, and she is truly asserted and celebrated as a saint. Roger Howden too, who flourished in the XIII century, adorns her with the title of Saint, when in his Annals at the year 964 he says: Edgar the peaceable king of the English … received of holy Elfthritha Edith, a virgin most devoted to God. Hence it is clear that Wilfrida already enjoyed in the XII and XIII century the title of Saint, which later historiographers also preserved for her. One thing I here add, the testimony of Nicholas Harpsfield, archdeacon of Canterbury, from his Ecclesiastical History of England, century X, chap. X, where this is read: King Edgar ravished Wilfrida by force, as we have said: who afterward not only preserved her body whole and undefiled, but also passed her life so severely and holily among the sacred virgins of Wilton (over whom she also presided) that she is by all posterity reckoned as enrolled among the choirs of the heavenly ones after her death.

[8] an antiphon and a collect concerning her. There are extant in our Museum various Mss. pertaining to the Saints of England, Scotland and Ireland, under the wrapper ✠ Ms. 167, and among these one Ms. exhibiting collects and antiphons of various Saints, excerpted, as may be conjectured, from some English Breviary or Antiphonary: but among the rest, concerning S. Wilfhild or Wlfhilda, the following antiphon and collect is prescribed: Increase in us, O Jesus Christ, the blessing of thy grace by the merits of thy beloved Wilfhild, through whose charity thou didst deign to declare so great a miracle, that, all the guests being satisfied, the liquid was found in its former fulness. ℣. Precious gem of the English, Wlfhilda, intercede for our sins. Collect. O God, lover of chastity and preserver of continence, who for her purity didst bestow on blessed Wlfhilda sanctity, for her good works glory, grant us, we beseech thee, by her holy merits, that, the gates of the heavenly kingdom being opened, we may deserve to meet the highest King with the oil of gladness. Through our Lord. Finally, what Wilson writes in his Martyrology about the veneration of her sacred body persevering to his own age confirms the constant veneration of our holy Abbess.

[9] The Acts which we have are shown fabulous The Acts of S. Wlfhild virgin and abbess Capgrave published in the Legend of the Saints of England, from folio 226 verso, and we have the same from the Ms. of Rouge-Cloître, in which she is written Wolfhildis virgin and abbess. They display no author; but whoever he was, he was a fable-monger and a peddler of trifles, and therefore unworthy of all credit and of the press. Since however I suspect that from this fountain flowed the error of certain writers, by which a twofold holy Abbess of this name is recounted, one a virgin, the other a queen, wife of S. Edgar the king, it will be useful to have culled some things from these Acts, that the reader may discern how much credit ought prudently to be attributed to this biographer. At the very threshold of his lucubration he traces the Saint's genealogy from an eagle's nest, no less ridiculously than confidently, in this manner: Wolfred [\] king of the West Saxons on a certain occasion went to a certain wood for the sake of hunting, and heard the voice of a little one wailing in a tree, and caused it to be diligently inquired by the throng of hunters what this might be. And they found on the top of the tree, in an eagle's nest, an elegant infant, conspicuous in form, having on his body a mark as it were a royal sign, wrapped in a purple cloak, displaying on his arms twin golden bracelets, a token of nobility: whom the king caused to be baptized, and, calling him Nesting from the nest, having had him nobly brought up, advanced him to be an earl.*

[10] He begot Witburding, who begot Wulfhelin, [,] who, having begotten children by his wife (that is, after he had begotten them), together with his wife led a celibate life for eighteen years even to advanced age. But an angel of the Lord at length in a threefold vision exhorted both of them to come together, because now in a chaster age they should beget a Bride for Christ, and for the rest should preserve their purpose. And so they are made more certain by their mutual testimony, nor dare they rebel, being taught by so evident a heavenly command, proved by a threefold admonition. A little girl therefore was born and named Wolfhild, and, being weaned, is delivered to the virgins of Winchester to be brought up. Who would not laugh at the tasteless fable-monger, who pronounces old wives' fables as though from the tripod as a true event?

[11] Further, there are some who praise a manuscript Life of the Saint by Robert Buckland as author, and are rejected as unworthy of the press. who is unknown to me, unless he is the same as him whom John Pits in his Historical Relations calls Ralph Buckland and lays down as having flourished in the XVII century, writing among other things of his literary monuments: He is also said to have translated into English all the volumes of Surius on the Lives of the Saints and to have offered them to the press. But whether our manuscript Life has Buckland as its author or not is uncertain: but if he is the man whom Pits mentions, it makes no difference whether we ascribe it to him or to another; since a writer who flourished six hundred years after Wilfrida cannot add authority to a Life otherwise faulty. I have determined therefore not to publish the fabulous Life, but in its place to exhibit to the studious reader surer things, though few, gathered from approved authors. Since however some martyrologists were, as I have already given notice, led into error by that fable-monger, it will be necessary here and there to refute his fictions, lest we seem to have rejected them wrongly.

\ Capgrave Alfredus*

§ II. A summary of her Life from various sources: the error of the biographer and of certain martyrologists corrected: Edgar's penitence: Edith's sanctity.

[ ] Born of noble parents Although none of the older writers of England composed the Life of S. Wilfrida of set purpose, yet I find some things mingled here and there with the deeds of other Saints, which exhibit a certain brief summary of her Life. First of all, that she was sprung of illustrious blood among the English, the biographers of S. Dunstan archbishop of Canterbury and of S. Edith the virgin nun hand down. The first of these, who is believed to have been a monk of Canterbury, Osbert by name, and a writer of the XII century, published in Surius at the XIX day of May, says that Wilfrida — with her name however unmentioned — was born of the nobles of the English. The other Mabillon in the preliminary Observations to the Life of S. Eadgith or Edith, Benedictine Century 5, pag. 636, is of opinion was Gotselin or Goscelin, who is said to have flourished in the XI century in tom. 1 of February, pag. 384, num. 2, where also the reader will find more about him. But he in the praised Mabillon calls our holy Abbess the daughter of a royal duke, as we shall presently see. The names of her parents neither the writers cited nor other ancient ones set forth; wherefore I do not know whence the biographer learned what he recites in the fabulous genealogy at num. 9 and 10.

[13] she is brought up in the nunnery of Wilton. Of the Saint's tender years, and of the things done in them up to marriageable age, I have found nothing handed down to memory. The biographer wrote that she, as soon as she was weaned, was delivered to the sacred virgins of Wilton to be brought up: which indeed is not out of keeping with the custom of that age; nay, from what is to be said it will be established that she dwelt there among the aforesaid nuns when she suffered the loss of her virginity from Edgar king of England and was invited to the fellowship of the royal bed. Returning afterward to the same nunnery, she preferred with noble mind the sacred veil to the royal diadem, and the observances of the monastic life to the delights of the court, and was there set over the rest. The situation of this place William of Malmesbury briefly indicates in book 2 On the Deeds of the pontiffs of the English, writing thus: The monastery of Wilton blessed Edith, daughter of king Edgar, adorns with the sweet remains of the seat of her bones, and cherishes with her love. Wilton is a village of no small size, situated upon the river Wylye, of such renown that the whole district is called from it. Somewhat more at length William Camden treats of the same village in his description of Wiltshire, pag. 179, where he places it at the confluence of the two rivers Wylye and Nadder, two and a half miles distant from Salisbury, if the map which he prefixes be accurate; and there he mentions the said monastery, and finally about its ruins adds: It has gradually as it were wasted away, and now boasts only of being a thin little village, with a Mayor only for its chief magistrate, and of the most elegant house of the earl of Pembroke, which rose out of the ruined monastery.

[14] A summary of her whole Life Now take a brief summary of her Life. The praised biographer of S. Edith in the cited Mabillon writes this of her: Blessed Edith the virgin was the daughter of king Edgar and of Vulftrudis, daughter of a royal duke: which Vulftrudis the king had determined to join to himself in perpetual fellowship of the kingdom; but she, after her delivery, chose rather to live continently thereafter than to serve allurements, the love of Christ inviting her. And so she received the habit of nuns at

Wilton from the hands of saint Ethelwold the bishop, and, advancing in examples and virtues, was set over the virgins as spiritual mother. Further, blessed Edith, left under her Mother's care, at length, with the king assenting, put on the monastic dress in the same monastery. And her Mother instructed her not with gold, not with jewels, not with manifold adornment, but with the splendor of letters and of virtues. Thus he, partly hinting at, partly pressing down with reverent silence, the unlawful love of the holy king Edgar for the virgin Wilfrida.

[15] The matter William of Malmesbury explains more clearly in book 2 On the Deeds of the kings of the English, from various sources chap. 8, where he speaks thus of S. Eadgar or Edgar the king: There are those who try to set a blemish upon his huge glory, saying that in his first times he was cruel toward his citizens, lustful toward virgins. Then after some things he thus proceeds: Hearing of the beauty of a virgin dedicated to God, he violently drew her away from her monastery, and, when she had been drawn away, took her modesty and placed her more than once in his bed. Which when it had offended the ears of blessed Dunstan, being vehemently rebuked by him, he did not disdain a seven years' penance, the king deigning to be afflicted with fasting, and at the same time to be without his diadem for seven years. Thus far William, according indeed to the opinion of others: but he himself, a few things being interposed, recounting S. Edgar's offspring, sets forth his own mind in these words: He begot also S. Edith of Wlfritha [\], who it is certain was not then a nun, but that the Girl, being a laywoman, had veiled herself for fear of the king, and that presently she, the veil being snatched away, was subdued to the imperial bed: whence blessed Dunstan, being offended that he had desired her who had even in shadow been a nun, exercised his pontifical vigor against him.*

[16] He repeats the like in book 2 On the Deeds of the pontiffs of the English, is given: whence I transfer hither the following. There lies in the same church (of Wilton) her (the virgin Edith's) mother Wilfrith, whom it is established was not a nun, as common opinion assigns [\], but was veiled by a sudden fear of the king, by her own counsel only, and, the veil being snatched away, was subdued to the royal bed. Whence he, because he had touched a woman who had even in shadow been a nun, being rebuked by S. Dunstan, performed a seven years' penance. She too, her delivery being accomplished, did not cling to the frequenting of pleasure; but rather grieved and spurned it, and she is truly asserted and celebrated as a Saint. With Malmesbury Matthew of Westminster agrees in the Flowers of the histories, at the year of Christ 963. In the Life too of S. Dunstan, whose author, as we gave notice, is reported to be Osbert, in Surius at the XIX day of May the same things are read in these words: For on a certain occasion that same king came into the monastery of virgins which is at Wilton, and there, being taken with the beauty of a certain Girl who, born of the nobles of the English, was being brought up and guarded among the nuns without a veil, he ordered her to be brought more secretly to his conversation. She, when she was being led, fearing for her modesty, snatched a veil from one of the nuns and placed it on her head, hoping to be protected in this way if perchance the king should wish to exact anything dishonorable from her. Whom he, beholding her veiled, said: How suddenly hast thou been made a nun! And snatching the veil, he drew it from her head, while she resisted in vain with such effort as she could: for indeed he abused her, and by this all the religious throughout England were wounded in mind by a grave scandal. Which scandal was the more vehement because that same king had a lawful wife, namely Elfleda, surnamed the White, daughter of Ordiner the powerful duke of the East Angles, of whom also he had begotten S. Edward.* Finally the same fact is handed down by other writers also, so that it cannot be called into doubt: but now certain things must be elucidated.

[17] the biographer weaves a wonderful story, First of all it cannot be doubted that this Wilfrida is one and the same who by the martyrologists recounted in §1 is pulled apart into two, and is called now queen abbess, now virgin abbess. Nor do I doubt that that error crept in upon them from the fabulous manuscript Life, of which there was treatment in §1: for since in this Wolfhild is said to have preserved her virginity in every way unimpaired, and since it was established from elsewhere that a certain Wulfhild or Wilfrida, mother of S. Edith by Edgar, was venerated as a saint, the said martyrologists judged that this one was distinct from that. Now what credit that biographer deserves is clear both from the wonderful genealogy of the Saint which we recited from him at num. 9 and 10, and from this very passage of the Life, in which he undertakes a pleasant fable, that against the credit of the ancients he may defend the Saint's virginity as in every way inviolate. Take a summary of his prolix narrative. Wulfhild, who was being brought up in the monastery of Wilton among the sacred virgins, king Edgar loved desperately, and could bring her by neither flatteries nor threats to comply with his desire, nor did he dare to snatch her from the house of the Lord. And so he takes counsel with a kinswoman of hers, Wenfleda by name; who, feigning herself sick, summons Wulfhild, as one to be enrolled as heir of her goods.

[18] that he may claim virginity for her: She comes, and finds Wenfleda reclining at a banquet with Edgar: and without delay she is clothed with royal adornment and is bidden to sit at table between the king and Wenfleda. Then the king, setting forth the delights of the court and the splendor of the royal throne to which she was to be raised, invites her to contract marriage with him. But the Virgin, setting all things after her heavenly Spouse, plans flight; and therefore, pleading sickness, goes out into a certain chamber to rest a little. But the king's guards, who watched her in that very chamber, prevented her from carrying out her plan. This way being closed, she attempts another, and, withdrawing to a privy with two girls, and laying aside her royal adornment, escaping through its channel with an angel as guide, she lodged the first night in the farm of Werewelle with a certain poor woman, and thence on the next day returned to Wilton. Edgar, when he learned of it, presently hastens thither, and, having found her, seizes her outside the church: but she, fleeing into the church, left her sleeve, by which she was held, wonderfully torn apart in the king's hands. But he, coming to himself, was astounded at the prodigy, and left the Bride of Christ thenceforward to her own will, and gave her many farms.

[19] whence an error crept into certain Martyrologies. Who would not see that this Wulfhild is the same as she whom the writers praised above mentioned, and of whom it is established that S. Edith was born? Those martyrologists therefore must be corrected who announce two Wulfhilds or Wilfridas, one a queen, the other a virgin, unknown to all other writers. But someone may ask by what means then it could have come into the biographer's mind to attempt with so many roundabout ways to claim virginity for Wulfhild. I answer that he could have been led to it either to wipe away this odious stain from the Saint's fame even at the cost of truth, or because he really believed her a virgin, having perhaps read her distinguished with the title of virgin — which I too should not dare certainly to deny her, as will appear from what follows. But this being supposed, he seems to have found no other way by which to compose her virginity with Edgar's amours than to cover that stain, unjustly branded upon her as he could believe, by such a fable, and by this means to weaken or correct the statements of other writers. Nevertheless he would have imposed more safely if he had utterly pressed down with silence the amours of king Edgar: for indeed from the mention of these it is manifestly clear that S. Wulfhild, whose Life he there writes, was the mother of S. Edith.

[20] The other thing which may here be asked is whether the laurel of virginity can be ascribed to our holy Abbess. Whether she can be reckoned a virgin: The reason for doubting is that she is read to have been violated unwilling and struggling; wherefore if, persevering in a chaste mind, she merely suffered the outrage, and endured it without consent and unwilling, it is certain that she was by no means cheated of the said laurel; as in a like case was shown in tom. 1 of September in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of B. Margaret of Louvain, num. 50 and 51, from SS. Augustine and Thomas. But I, that I may not determine anything with rash daring on either side, leave the whole to the judgment of God, to whom alone the Saint's mind and will were known. I observe however that against virginity taken formally and completively, as S. Thomas says, 2. 2. q. 152, a. 1, being asserted of S. Wulfhild, there is no force in what we adduced from Malmesbury at num. 15; namely that she was placed more than once in king Edgar's bed, which therefore might introduce a strong suspicion of consent: there is, I say, no force in these things; since this is not Malmesbury's opinion, but of those who try to set a blemish upon the huge glory of S. Edgar, nor does any of the others whom we have praised hand it down. Nor is the same author in the way when in book 2 On the Deeds of the pontiffs of the English, in our num. 16, he says that the Saint grieved over her violation; for that can conveniently be explained of virginity taken materially, or of bodily integrity, whose corruption, done against consent, does not prejudice virginity.

[21] However these things may be, from what has been said it is established that the Saint thereafter sent word of farewell to all the allurements of the flesh and the delights of the world, she returns to the monastery: Edgar's penitence; Edith's sanctity. and that the more gloriously if, as S. Edith's biographer has it, reported at num. 14, the king had determined to join her to himself in perpetual fellowship of the kingdom; Ethelfleda or Elfleda, that same king's wife, being namely already then dead when he offered violence to the Virgin, or a little after. The first Alford holds in the Annals of the English church, at the year 962, num. 2: the other must be said if we prefer to believe S. Dunstan's biographer, whose words we recounted at num. 16 from Surius; which it does not please me here to inquire into. But while out of love of truth we record this blemish of king Edgar, it is also a pleasure to note in few words his penitence, worthy of the memory of posterity, and the providence of the divine clemency. Edgar, being sharply rebuked by S. Dunstan for the crime committed against the Virgin, and cast down at that bishop's feet, undertook and performed a seven years' penance, and, rising from his fall more fervent, deserved a place among the Saints, as is clear from his Acts, illustrated at the VIII day of July in our Work, where in §2 the said fall and penitence are narrated, which may also be read generally in others. Edith too, or Eadgith, born of that embrace, brought up in the monastery of Wilton by her mother's care and taught by her precepts, ended a most holy life by a blessed death, on the XVI day of September, as is in Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, century 5, from pag. 636.

\ al. Wlfrida*

\ al. delirat*

§ III. Her monastic profession and rule at Wilton: the time of her death: various assertions of the biographer exploded.

[ ] About the year 963 veiled, and made From S. Edith's biographer at num. 14 we have said that Wilfrida, or as he calls her Wltrudis, received the habit of nuns from the hands of S. Ethelwold bishop of Winchester in the monastery of Wilton: which if, as is probable, we admit as true, it must be said to have been done in the year 963, in which S. Ethelwold is said in our Work at the 1st day of August, pag. 86, num. 16, to have been raised to the bishopric of Winchester, or at any rate

a little after. So we gather from the Acts of S. Edith in Mabillon, where she is narrated to have died in the twenty-third year of her age, on the XVI of the Kalends of October … about the year of the Lord nine hundred and eighty-four: wherefore if from the year 984 we subtract twenty-two whole years, we shall come to the year 962, about which Edith must have been born; and since her Mother, as far as appears from what was said in the preceding §, betook herself to the nuns of Wilton not long after her delivery, it is fitly understood that she could have been veiled by S. Ethelwold about the year 963.

[23] abbess, she is present at the translation of S. Edward: She was still among the living, and was presiding over the aforesaid monastery, in the year 979, in which she was present, together with her daughter Edith and the rest of the virgins, at the translation of S. Edward, king of England and martyr, as we learn from the Acts of the praised Saint at the XVIII day of March, pag. 645, num. 8, where, from the Chronicle of John Brompton, abbot of Jervaulx, about earl Elfer inviting the bishops, abbots and nobles of the kingdom for the translation of the martyr's sacred body, among other things this is read: He also sends a messenger to the abbess Wolfrida in the monastery of Winchester [\], and announces that she should assemble with the virgins committed to her for the performing of so great a man's obsequies. Now there was in that same monastery a certain venerable virgin, sister of S. Edward himself, mighty in great uprightness of life and manners, named Edith, who was the daughter of the aforesaid king Edgar and of his wife Wolfrida, not yet consecrated to God.* And when they had presently assembled with the utmost diligence and veneration etc., the body was exhumed and translated.

[24] she seems to have survived her daughter, who died in 984, The Saint's remaining deeds I do not find in writers worthy of credit; for what her biographer narrates is altogether suspect, and of these things we shall treat below. The year of her death too none whom I have read has recorded; but certainly those err who, on Alford's testimony in the Annals of the English church at the year 984, num. 16, thought that she died in the year 980. They err, I say, not because that opinion, as Alford there argues, does not agree with the biographer published in Capgrave (for we care nothing for that biographer's statements); but because in the Acts of S. Edith the Mother is expressly said, in the words which I subjoin, to have survived her daughter who died about the year 984. Further, on the thirtieth day from her death the holy virgin appeared to her Mother Wlftrudis, exceedingly beautiful and cheerful, and clothed with light as with a garment and splendid, and said that she was well beloved by her King in everlasting glory. She had not therefore yet departed from among the living in the year 984; nay rather, if what the same biographer subjoins after S. Edith's elevation is to be taken of our Wlftrudis, she must be said to have reached the year of Christ 997 or even to have passed it.

[25] For after he has said that thirteen years having passed after S. Edith's departure — and therefore about the year 997 — her body was elevated by S. Dunstan, admonished by the virgin herself, nay, even to have survived her elevation made in the year 997. he reports among the miracles which then about that time happened these: The clerks of the Picts were carrying about in a casket the holy confessor Juvius, and, being honorably received in the holy virgin's monastery, they laid the sacred relics upon the altar of blessed Edith: and when they wished to withdraw thence, those relics clung to the altar with so great a weight that they could by no means be removed. The strangers therefore weep, wail, rend their garments, tear their hair; at length, the matter being despaired of, two thousand shillings having been received from Wlftrudis the abbess, they went away sorrowful to their own place. If these things, I say — which however is not certain — are to be taken of our S. Wilfrida, she was still among the living in the year of Christ 997, and deserved to be present at the sacred honors of her daughter and at the solemn elevation of her body. Further, in what year that carrying about of S. Juvius was undertaken, or how long she survived it, I have not found; and therefore I have placed the Saint's death about the end of the X or the beginning of the XI century. Among the supplements to Usuard in our Sollerius, the Tournai codex and Molanus announce S. Juvinus the confessor at the III of October in the district of Dulcomum and Dulcrimum; Ménard and Maihew commemorate him at Wilton at the VI day, but Ferrari at the III and XIII of the same month: wherefore I refer these matters to be examined at one of these days. Meanwhile I observe that that sum of two thousand shillings could have been given without any stain of simony, perhaps for a precious reliquary, or for the sake of assuaging their grief.

[26] It remains that we examine certain assertions of the holy Abbess' biographer; She was not abbess of Barking, nor of Horton, for although he deserves no sure credit, as is clear enough from what has been said thus far, yet it will be useful to have briefly refuted him, that the learned reader may be able himself to pass his own judgment on his lucubration. First of all he says that she was set by king Edgar over two monasteries of sacred virgins, namely of Barking and of Horton, and that she founded or endowed the latter both out of her own patrimony and out of the same king's munificence; and that, when she had ruled both monasteries for a long time, being cast out thence by the ambition of certain presbyters and by the command of Alftrudis or Alfrida, mother of Ethelred king of England, she foretold that after twenty years she would return thither. And he subjoins that it happened as she had prophesied: for Alftrudis, who had seized the monastery of Barking or of Horton, being chastised first by a plague of her beasts of burden, then of her servants, when she did not yet come to herself, was seized with sickness and, terrified by the threats of S. Ethelburga, who had appeared to her, at length came to herself, Wulfhild being restored to her own monastery from which she had been exiled twenty years; where, when she had afterward presided seven years, she died and was buried.

[27] But these are the biographer's inventions, whose falsity is clear enough from what has been said thus far. Assuredly to none of the writers whom I have at any rate read was that rule of the Saint over the monasteries of Barking and Horton known; as he fables nay, what we have adduced from the Life of S. Edith shows sufficiently that she persevered in the monastery of Wilton at least until after Edith's death; nay, we gather that she also died there from Malmesbury, who, as we said at num. 16, affirms that she was buried in the church of that place. Nor does the falsity of the biographer's narrative appear less from the time into which the Saint's return to the nuns of Barking must have fallen: for if for the long time during which the biographer writes that she presided over the nuns of Barking before her expulsion we reckon only five years, and add these, together with the twenty during which she was in exile, to the year 963, about which we have shown that she was veiled; if, I say, we add these 25 years to the year 963, it will have to be said that she was not restored to her virgins by Alfrida before the year 988.

[28] of the Saint But at that time Alfrida had long since laid aside her royal haughtiness and was performing a severe penance for the holy king Edward slain by her counsel, on the testimony of Malmesbury, who in book 2 On the Deeds of the kings of the English, chap. 9, when he had narrated that Elfrida was divinely prevented from approaching the body of S. Edward, famous for miracles, before it was translated — which was done in the year 979 or the following — thus proceeds: Elfrida, bowed down from that royal disdain, repented dreadfully, so that for many years at Wherwell [\] she wrapped in haircloth the flesh nourished in delights, and by night, laid on the ground without a pillow, took her sleep, devising besides whatever crosses she could for her body* etc. She did not therefore at that time flourish with royal power, or think about unjustly retaining monasteries, as the biographer fables; but in the monastery which she had founded she herself, probably as a nun, was passing her life in mourning and self-chastisement.

[29] the biographer, Finally from the often-praised Acts of S. Edith it is sufficiently gathered that, while Wlftrudis was living, some other woman was set by S. Edgar over the monastery of Barking: for thus it is there read of Edith, beginning her life at Wilton under her Mother's discipline: When she was fifteen years old her father king Edgar set her as abbess over three monasteries of nuns, that of Winchester, that of Barking, and a certain third: but she could not be torn away from that house in which she had begun to serve God. But she brought it about that over each of those monasteries spiritual mothers, as more fit, should be set, preferring to be under her Mother than to preside over others, and rather to fear her Mother than to command others. For from these things it is drawn out that Wilfrida in the year 977, which was the fifteenth of Edith's age, was not abbess of the nuns of Barking; since no mention is here made of that matter, nay rather the contrary is hinted, when that virgin is said to have preferred to live under her Mother's command at Wilton than to command the rest in the monastery of Barking. But that by Mother Wilfrida is designated is clear from the same Acts at the beginning, where she, being set over the virgins of Wilton, is asserted to have imbued her daughter Edith with monastic institutions: the words we gave at num. 14. Now let us hear the biographer's remaining assertions.

[30] The same biographer of ours writes that our holy Abbess was at London, whither she had fled with her nuns on account of wars, whose other assertions too and that she died there, and adds that, when a certain man, to whom she had been hostile on account of his crimes, had put his hand to the bier on which her body was being carried to the monastery of Barking, it was weighed down with so great a weight that it could be moved by no force; but when he withdrew, it was lifted with easy effort, and that that same man, having detested his sins, then at last deserved to carry the bier with the rest. Thus he: but since from what has been said it is established that the Saint passed her life not in the monastery of Barking but in that of Wilton, it is clear what is to be judged of a narrative of this kind. He reports also another miracle about a certain woman, who, when she had partly recovered the use of her eyes and feet in the Saint's oratory at Horton, hastened to Barking, as she had been admonished, and there was granted entire health.

[31] Finally he had premised that three prodigies happened while Wilfrida was living, are recited. if we believe him. The first is that a dove, gliding down from the heavens, was seen to settle upon the Saint's head while she was being veiled, consecrating her virginity to Christ. The second is that by the sign of the Cross she enlightened a blind infant. The third finally, that, receiving S. Ethelwold the bishop at a meal, she so multiplied the small quantity of wine which did not suffice for the guests that, when these had been satisfied, it was found not at all diminished. What further I judge of all these things, receive in few words. I greatly fear that he took the prodigy of the dove gliding down from heaven from the Life of some other holy virgin and adapted it to Wilfrida, and I fear the same of the second miracle: for he who fetches the Saint's great-grandfather from an eagle's nest, as we showed at num. 9, cannot but be suspect of like plagiarisms or fictions. This suspicion is increased by the third miracle, the like of which is narrated in the Acts of S. Ethelwold, when king Eadred visited him, as may be read in our work, tom. 1 of August, pag. 91, num. 12. Finally the same biographer, and from him Wilson in the English Martyrology, say that the Saint's body was found after thirty years free from all corruption in the monastery of Barking: and the latter adds that it was preserved and honored there even to his own age: but if that finding of the uncorrupted body be true,

it must have happened in the monastery of Wilton; and if that same body was at Barking until Wilson's age, or in the XVII century, it must needs have been translated thither, as is established from what has been said.

\ Wiltoniensi*

\ al. Warwellam*