Sabine Baring-Gould - The Lives of the Saints, Volume III (of 16) - March

But we must go back a little in our history. When the decision of the council or parliament, held at Whitby, in 664, was adverse to the Keltic rite, Cedd renounced the customs of Lindisfarne, but Colman, bishop of Lindisfarne, obstinately holding to them, withdrew from Northumbria into Scotland with all those who were willing to follow him. Tuda succeeded him in the pontificate of Northumbria, but died soon after.

"In the meanwhile," says Bede, "King Alchfrid (of Deira) sent Wilfrid the priest to the king of the Gauls, to have him consecrated bishop for himself and his subjects. Now he sent him to be ordained to Agilbert, of whom we said above that he left Britain, and was made bishop of the city of Paris. Wilfrid was consecrated, A.D. 665, by him with great pomp; many bishops coming together for that purpose in a village belonging to the king (Clothair III. of Neustria) called Compiegne. While he was still making some stay abroad, after his ordination, king Oswy, following the example of his son, sent to Kent a holy man of modest character, sufficiently well read in the Scriptures, and diligently carrying out into practice what he had learnt from the Scriptures, to be ordained bishop of the Church at York. Now this was a priest named Ceadda (Chad), brother of the most reverend prelate Cedd, of whom we have made frequent mention, and abbot of the monastery called Lastingham. The king also sent with him his own priest, Eadhed by name, who was afterwards, in the reign of Egfrid, made bishop of the Church of Ripon. But when they arrived in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit had departed this life, and that no other prelate was as yet appointed in his place. Whereupon they turned aside to the province of the West Saxons, where Wini was bishop, and by him the above-mentioned person was consecrated bishop; two bishops of the British nation, who kept Easter Sunday according to canonical custom from the 14th to the 20th day of the moon, being associated with him; for at that time there was no other bishop in all Britain canonically ordained, except Wini.

"Chad then, being consecrated a bishop, began at once to devote himself to ecclesiastical truth and to chastity; to apply himself to the practice of humility, continence, and study; to travel about, not on horseback, but after the manner of the apostles, on foot, to preach the gospel in the towns, the open country, cottages, villages, and castles; for he was one of the disciples of Aidan, and endeavoured to instruct his hearers by the same actions and behaviour, according to his master's example and that of his own brother Cedd. Wilfrid also, who had already been made a bishop, coming into Britain, A.D. 666, in like manner by his doctrine brought into the English Church many rules of Catholic observance. Whence it came to pass that the Catholic institutions daily gained strength, and all the Scots that dwelt in England either conformed to these or returned into their own country."

This is Bede's account of the consecration of Wilfrid and Chad. At that time the diocese of York comprised the whole of Northumbria, including the south of Scotland. Under Oswald the see of Lindisfarne – the Iona of the Anglo-Saxons – was founded, containing within its jurisdiction the kingdom of Bernicia, until the establishment by Theodore of another see at Hexham. The writer of Wilfrid's life tells us that he objected to being consecrated by the English bishops, inasmuch as they were converts to the Scottish calculation regarding the celebration of Easter, or had received consecration from those who were of that opinion. Though Wini, who had been consecrated in Gaul, cannot be placed in either of these classes, yet Wilfrid knew he would summon to assist him two bishops who belonged to one of them; hence his preference for Gaul. Wilfrid's delay in Gaul, perhaps, excited the King's suspicions that he, like his friend Agilbert, was seeking a mitre there; or it may be that the king, influenced by the Scottish party (who could not forgive Wilfrid for the victory he gained over them at Whitby), consented to the election of Chad to the see.

Chad has been severely censured for accepting the bishopric under these circumstances. It may be, however, that he, stirred by sorrow at seeing the diocese left without a head, and doubting too, perhaps, whether Wilfrid would return, adopted this course, which may be condemned as uncanonical.

S. Chad is commemorated in some Breviaries as an archbishop. But he was only a bishop, for that dignity had fallen into abeyance from the time that Paulinus fled into Kent. But though no suffragans acknowledged Chad as their superior, he had ample scope for the most abundant energy. We have given above Bede's account of his untiring labours; let us now hear that of the metrical Life attributed to Robert of Gloucester.

Theodore, the new archbishop of Canterbury, arrived in England in A.D. 669. "Soon after," says Bede, "he visited the whole island, wherever the tribes of the Angles dwelt, for he was willingly entertained and heard by all persons; and everywhere he taught the right rule of life, and the canonical custom of celebrating Easter. He was the first archbishop whom all the English Church obeyed."

Visiting Northumbria, he charged Chad with not being duly consecrated. The saint replied with great humility, "If thou knowest that I have not duly received the episcopate, I willingly resign the office, for I never thought myself worthy of it; but, though unworthy, I consented to undertake it for obedience sake." Theodore hearing his humble answer, said that he should not resign the episcopate, but he himself completed his ordination again after the Roman manner. He probably advised Chad to resign his see to Wilfrid, for we next hear of our saint in retirement at Lastingham.

In 669, Jaruman, bishop of the Mercians, died. King Wulfhere asked Theodore to send them a bishop. The archbishop did not wish to consecrate a fresh one, so he begged King Oswy to let Chad, who was then at Lastingham, be their bishop. Theodore knowing that it was Chad's custom to go about the work of the gospel on foot, rather than on horseback, bade our saint ride whenever he had a long journey to perform, but, finding Chad unwilling to comply, the archbishop with his own hands lifted him on horseback, for he thought him a holy man, and obliged him to ride wherever he had need to go.

Though Chad was bishop of Lindisfarne for so short a time, he left his mark on the affections of the people, for we find that at least one chantry was dedicated in his name at York Minster. Soon after his election to the bishopric of the Mercians, he set out for Repton in Derbyshire, where Diuma, the first bishop of the Mercians, had established his see.

Whether our saint desired a more central position for the episcopal see, or was influenced by the wish to do honour to a spot enriched with the blood of martyrs, Bede does not tell us, but Chad established the Mercian see at Lichfield, then called Licetfield, or the Field of the Dead, where one thousand British Christians are said to have been put to death.

His new diocese was not much less in extent than that of Northumbria. It comprised seventeen counties, and stretched from the banks of the Severn to the shores of the German Ocean. Theodore, years afterwards, detached from it the sees of Worcester, Leicester, Lindesey (in Lincolnshire), and Hereford. Though it was far beyond the power of one man to administer it effectually, yet Bede witnesses that "Chad took care to administer the same with great rectitude of life, according to the example of the ancients. King Wulfhere also gave him land of fifty families to build a monastery at the place called Ad Barve, i. e. , 'At the wood,' in the province of Lindesey, wherein monks of the regular life instituted by him continue to this day." "Ad Barve" is conjectured by Smith, of Durham, to be Barton-on-Humber, where there is still standing a very ancient church, admitted by Rickman to be partly Saxon, dedicated to S. Peter.