altar was
usually raised upon a platform, beneath which was a crypt called
_confessio_. A little later than 670 A.D. Wilfrid's new minster was
solemnly dedicated by him in honour of St. Peter, in the presence of a
great concourse of clergy and nobles, headed by the King of Northumbria,
Ecgfrith, the successor of Oswiu. The endowments seem to have included
at this time certain lands round Ripon which had belonged to the British
Church before the coming of the Angles, and to have been now increased
by grants--some as far distant as Lancashire--made by the great men
present at the ceremony. Wilfrid himself gave a splendid copy of the
Gospels, written in gold upon purple vellum, the beginning perhaps of a
library.[5] The feasting was kept up for three days--indeed, no
monastery could have had for its church a more striking dedication. And
for the next seven years Ripon must have shared the importance of the
Abbot-Bishop, whose state rivalled that of the king. By persuading the
queen to become a nun, however, he presently lost the royal favour;
while the great size of the diocese, which extended at last from the
Forth to the Wash, prevented the achievement of complete success in his
episcopal work.

As yet the see of Canterbury was the sole archbishopric, and in 678
Archbishop Theodore--already known as an organizer of the
episcopate--was invited to the court of Northumbria. With Ecgfrith's
approval, but without consulting Wilfrid, he divided the diocese into
the three sees of Hexham, York, and Lindsey, answering respectively to
the tribal divisions Bernicia, Deira, and the land of the Lindiswaras
(Lincolnshire). Wise though this action was, it was naturally resented
by Wilfrid, who appealed to the Pope--the first appeal of the kind ever
made by an Englishman--and set out himself for Rome. He was destined not
to return till 680, and even then to be kept out of his bishopric till
686. Ripon was now in the new diocese of York, but in 681 Theodore
constituted yet another diocese, of which he made Ripon the cathedral
town.

Of =Eadhead, First Bishop of Ripon= (681-686), little is known. Originally
a priest at the court of Oswiu, he had accompanied the intruded bishop,
Chad, when the latter sought consecration at Canterbury during Wilfrid's
absence for consecration in Gaul. Eadhead had afterwards been appointed
by Theodore to the see of Lindsey, and was translated thence to Ripon
when Lindsey was recovered by the Mercians.

H