Chapter 17
Synod of Whitby AD 663Etheldreda stood upon the very edge of the headland at Whitby and stared out at the sea, its silver folds, its deep mysterious depths, its vast impersonal reaches bringing a calm to her mind that had been sadly lacking lately.
Under King Oswy’s patronage and with King Alfrid’s help, Wilfrid had gone from strength to strength. He was at the Synod that was now in progress in the abbey great hall, an impassioned defender of the Roman computation of the Easter date, spokesman for Bishop Agilbert of the West Saxons, a Frenchman who feared his arguments would be impaired if they had to be filtered through a translator.
Etheldreda sighed. So many words. Such heated, angry faces. She could see Bishop Colman’s Scottish monks from Lindisfarne now as they reacted t
