EDDIUS 's Life of Wilfrid is with the exception of the Anonymous Life of St Cuthbert, and Bede's Metrical Life of the same saint, the earliest piece of biography we possess. In fact it is almost the earliest considerable piece of literature written in this country. Its importance is obvious for it gives us a contemporary picture of a man who was a great figure in the political and ecclesiastical life of the seventh century. The Church was definitely moulded into shape during Wilfrid's lifetime, and Wilfrid himself played a leading part in deciding what that shape should be. He was largely instrumental in converting the whole of Northumbria to the Roman form of Christianity; he brought the north definitely into contact with the Mother Church by his journeys to Rome and by his appeals to the Apostolic See; he built churches which were the wonder of the western world; he exercised a great influence on the art and architecture of the times, and, more important even than all these, by his defiance of kings and princes he asserted the authority of the Church in so definite a manner that as a result no less than twenty-six of the forty-six years of his episcopacy were spent in exile. He died worn out by the struggle, but he had triumphantly proved that the Church was no mere appendage to the throne.