ears upon
the story of this, his favourite monastery. It was in 661 that the
transference from Eata to Wilfrid took place, and at once the Scottish
monks, refusing to conform to Roman usages, left Ripon in a body. It is
probable that Wilfrid imposed upon their successors the Benedictine
Rule, which he had studied at Rome. The new Abbot was not yet in
priest's orders, but was presently ordained at Ripon by Agilbert, the
Frankish Bishop of Wessex. In 664 he took the action for which he is
especially remembered in English history. Appearing at the Synod of
Whitby, he prevailed upon King Oswiu to throw in his lot with the Roman
party, and was thus the means indirectly of preventing the isolation of
the England of that time from the Church and civilization of the
Continent. Almost immediately afterwards Abbot Wilfrid became Bishop of
Northumbria, and this tenure of the two offices by the same person was
perhaps the origin of the subsequent connection of Ripon with the
Archbishops of York.[1] Wilfrid insisted on going to be consecrated by
Agilbert, who was now Bishop of Paris, and so long did he remain abroad
that on his return in 666 he found another bishop, Chad (afterwards St.
Chad of Lichfield), in possession of the see. He therefore retired to
Ripon for three years, during which, however, he visited Mercia and also
Kent, where he met Aedde, or Eddius, who became his chaplain and
biographer.

=The Saxon Monastery.=--In 669 Wilfrid was restored to his see by
Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, and soon afterwards began to build
at Ripon. The Scottish monastery, which was probably of wood, is thought
to have occupied a site between Priest Lane, Stonebridgegate,[2] and a
nameless road which connects them. Wilfrid now abandoned it, and erected
upon a new site a more imposing monastery of stone.[3] The practice of
building in stone seems to have become uncommon in Britain after the
departure of the Romans, and Wilfrid is thought to have employed foreign
workmen, perhaps Italians.[4] His church is described by Eddius,
himself now a Ripon monk, as "of smoothed stone from base to summit, and
supported on various columns and (?) arcades (_porticibus_)," and was
doubtless of that Italian type which had become identified in Britain
with the Roman party in the Church, as opposed to the Scottish mission.
The Scottish type of church consisted of a small aisle-less nave and
square chancel: the Italian type generally had aisles, and the