ry of Lestingay,
which he had founded in the mountains of the Deiri, that is, the Woulds
of Yorkshire. St. Cedd being made bishop of London, or of the East
Saxons, left to him the entire government of this house. Oswi having
yielded up Bernicia, or the northern part of his kingdom, to his son
Alcfrid, this prince sent St. Wilfrid into France, that he might be
consecrated to the bishopric of the Northumbrian kingdom, or of York;
but he stayed so long abroad that Oswi himself nominated St. Chad to
that dignity, who was ordained by Wini, bishop of Winchester, assisted
by two British prelates, in 666. Bede assures us that he zealously
devoted himself to all the laborious functions of his charge, visiting
his diocese on foot, preaching the gospel, and seeking out the poorest
and most abandoned persons to instruct and comfort, in the meanest
cottages, and in the fields. When St. Theodorus, archbishop of
Canterbury, arrived in England, in his general visitation of all the
English churches, he adjudged the see of York to St. Wilfrid. St. Chad
made him this answer: "If you judge that I have not duly received the
episcopal ordination, I willingly resign this charge, having never
thought myself worthy of it: but which, however unworthy, I submitted to
undertake in obedience." The archbishop was charmed with his candor and
humility, would not admit his abdication, but supplied certain rites
which he judged defective in his ordination: and St. Chad, leaving the
see of York, retired to his monastery of Lestingay, but was not suffered
to bury himself long in that solitude. Jaruman, bishop of the Mercians,
dying, St. Chad was called upon to take upon him the charge of that most
extensive diocese.[1] He was the fifth bishop of the Mercians, and first
fixed that see at Litchfield, so called from a great number of martyrs
slain and buried there under Maximianus Herculeus; the name signifying
the field of carcasses. Hence this city bears for its arms a landscape,
covered with the bodies of martyrs. St. Theodorus considering St. Chad's
old age, and the great extent of his diocese, absolutely forbade him to
make his visitations on foot, as he used to do at York. When the
laborious duties of his charge allowed him to retire, he enjoyed God in
solitude with seven or eight monks, whom he had settled in a place near
his cathedral. Here he gained new strength and fresh graces for the
discharge of his functions; he was so strongly affected with the