Download - The Role of Bishops in the Early Anglo-Saxon Church: A Reassessment

The Role of Bishops in the Early Anglo-Saxon Church: A Reassessment

SIMON COATES University of Edinburgh

n the early Anglo-Saxon period most areas of religious life were characterized more by diversity than by unity. Geography, the I scarcity of written texts and the conflicting demands of tradition

and authority render an awareness of diversity essential to thinking about the nature of religious communities in early England. Just as it is difficult to construct any single model of the nature of early monasteriu,’ so the authority and place of the episcopate in early Anglo-Saxon England cannot be viewed in terms of uniformity. The writings of Bede, Eddius Stephanus and the anonymous monk of Lindisfarne defining the nature of episcopal authority spoke with a variety of voices and were conditioned by particular literary strategies, reflecting the background, milieu and concerns of their authors. It is the purpose of this article both to reveal something of these strategies and to suggest that the role and importance of bishops should be returned to the centre of the early Anglo-Saxon church.

The importance of the early Anglo-Saxon episcopate has largely been neglected for three reasons. First, the chief source for the early history of the English church consists of the writings of Bede. Bede entered the monasterium of Wearmouth and Jarrow at the age of seven and remained there all his life. Although ordained to the priesthood, he never became a bishop.’ Consequently, as the representative of a

A shorter version of this paper was first read at the Ecclesiastical History Society Conference in Nottingham in July 1994. I would like to thank Janet L. Nelson, Catherine Cubitt, Stuart Airlie and Thomas S. Brown for comments and advice.

Sarah Foot, ‘Anglo-Saxon Minsters: A Review of Terminology’. Pastoral Care Before the Parish, ed. John Blair and Richard Sharpe (Leicester, 1992) [hereafter Blair and Sharpe, Pastoral Care Before the Parish], pp. 212-25; Patrick Sims-Williams, Religion and Litemture in Western England 600-800 (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 115-43.

Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, Bede’s EccItsiiaticaI History of the English People (Oxford, 1%9) [hereafter Bede, H q , v. 24, p. 567.

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178 BISHOPS IN THE EARLY CHURCH

monastic culture heavily influenced by Benedictine ~pirituality,~ he perceived the world through monastic eyes. Secondly, in providing the most detailed account of English religious institutions before the twelfth century, Bede left a historical vision which was taken up by later Benedictine historians of the tenth-century monastic reform movement who injected further monastic bias into early Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical life.4

The tenth-century monastic reformers justified their creation of monastic cathedrals and their concern universally to regulate monastic life in accordance with the Benedictine Rule by means of an appeal to a golden age in ecclesiastical life perceived, through the writings of Bede, to have existed in the seventh and eighth centurie~.~ In appealing to the pre-Viking past to endorse the view that a uniform concept of Benedictinism governed the organization of monastic houses and that there were monastic cathedrals in the eighth century, the tenth-century reformers created a picture of it which, as Alan Thacker has noted, was ‘all of a piece and all monastic’.6 Their espousal of this view passed into later works written by Benedictine historians. William of Malmesbury accepted the view that the early Anglo-Saxon cathedral at Canterbury was staffed by monks and not secular priests. He stressed that since the seventh century and the time of Archbishop Laurence there had always been monks at Canterbury. Gervase of Canterbury similarly specified that the seventh- and eighth-century archbishops had been monks before their election.’ By emphasizing the monastic structure of the early Anglo-Saxon church, the reformers relegated the role of bishops in securing the conversion of England into the background. This role needs to be recovered.

Thirdly, in recent historiography a reassessment of monasticism and its role in the pastoral organization of the early English church has taken place. This has further undermined the importance of the episcopate within the early Anglo-Saxon church by arguing that organized pastoral care existed from the earliest days of the conversion and was not con-

A. G. P. Van Der Walt, ‘Reflections of the Benedictine Rule in Eede’s Homiliary’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History [hereafter JEH, xxwvii (1986). 367-76; Henry Mayr- Harting, The Venerable Bede, the Rule of St Benedict and Social Class (Jarrow Lecture, 1976).

Antonia Gransden, ‘Me’s Reputation as an Historian in Medieval England’, JEH, Xxxii (1981), 397-425; R. H. C. Davis, ‘Bede after Bede’, Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. Allen Bmwn, ed. C. Harper-Bill, C. J. Holdsworth and J. L. Nelson (woodbridge, 1989), pp. 103-16; Patrick Wormald, ‘Aethelwold and his Continental Counterparts: Contact, Comparison, Contrast’, Bishop Aethelwold: His Career and Influence, ed. B . Yorke (Woodbridge, 1988) bereafter Yorke, Bishop Aethelwold], pp. 37-42.

Antonia Gransden, ‘Traditionalism and Continuity during the Last Century of Anglo- Saxon Monasticism’, JEH, XI (1989), 159-207, esp. 160-70.

A. T. Thacker, ‘Aethelwold and Abingdon’, Yorke, Bishop Aethelwold, p. 63. William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, i. 14 and 20, ed. N. E. S. A.

Hamilton (Rolls Series, 1870), pp. 21, 32; Gervase of Canterbury, Actus Pontijicum, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1880), pp. 338, 344.

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fined to the ordained clergy under the supervision of bishops but rather exercised by all the religious within networks of monasteria forming a clear system of ecclesiastical organization. According to John Blair, ‘all or most establishments called monasteria either per- formed or supported pastoral work within defined territories.’8 The importance of the episcopal hierarchy has thus been undermined by studies of the pastoral structure of the English church which have concentrated more upon the institutions involved in pastoral care than upon the individual personnel who undertook pastoral work. As will become evident, however, early Anglo-Saxon texts stress the importance of the episcopal hierarchy and episcopal personnel in securing and consolidating the Christianization of early England.

I

In the hagiographical and historical writing of late seventh-century and early eighth-century Northumbria, the lives of bishops were con- structed and analysed by authors who belonged outside their ranks. Bede, the anonymous monk of Lindisfarne who wrote the first Vita Sancti Cuthberti and Eddius Stephanus were all monks who wrote primarily for a monastic readership. The communities to which these writers belonged - Lindisfarne, Wearmouth-Jarrow, Hexham and Ripon - were monastic but showed a high regard for episcopacy and an awareness of its role. In promoting the cults of episcopal saints these communities acknowledged, supported and reinforced the social dominance of the episcopate in the early English church. Following the dismemberment of the vast Northumbrian diocese of Bishop Wilfrid, inaugurated by the reforms of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury in the mid-seventh century, Lindisfarne, Hexham and Ripon were all communities of monasteria which contained episcopal sees, and only Ripon did not manage to retain its bishop. For the writers from these communities, the ideal bishop was and remained a monk and there was a close connection between the monastic and episcopal lives. The anonymous monk therefore commented on Cuthbert’s election to the episcopate in the following terms: ‘He continued with the utmost constancy to be what he had been before; he showed the same humility

* Minsters and Parish Churches: The Local Church in Transition 950-1200, ed. John Blair (Oxford, 1988), p. 1. For the increasingly large amount of literature on this subject see the studies in Blair and Sharpe, Pastoral Care before the Parish; John Blair, ‘Secular Minster Churches in Domesday Book’, Domesday Book: A Renssesrment, ed. P. Sawyer (1985), pp. 104-42; idem, ‘Local Churches in Domesday Book and Before’, Domesdoy Studies, ed. J. C. Holt (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 265-78; Sarah Foot, ‘Parochial Ministry in Early Anglo- Saxon England: The Role of Monastic Co~nmunities’, Studies in Chwch History, xxvi (Oxford, 1989), 43-54; C. Brooke, ‘Rural Ecclesiastical Institutions in England: The Search for their Origins’, Settimone di studio del Centro itoliano di studi sull’olto medioevo, xxviii (Spoleto. 1982), 658-71 1; T. L. Amos, ‘Monks and Pastoral Care in the Early Middle Ages’, Religion, CultureandSociety in the Early Middle Ages. ed. T. F. X. Noble and J. J . Contreni (Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1987). pp. 165-80.



of heart, the same poverty of dress, and, being full of authority and grace, he maintained the dignity of a bishop without abandoning the ideal of the monk or the virtue of the hermit.’9

It has been argued that Bede’s ‘austerely monastic’IO concept of pastoral authority led him to view the care of the faithful as the task of a spiritual elite, the sancti doctores and praedicatores.“ In writing of this elite he drew heavily upon the writings of Gregory the Great, who had dispensed with the normal terminology used to describe pastors and had replaced it with references to ‘sacred rulers’, ‘preachers’ and ’teachers’, stressing that spiritual authority was not to be equated with ecclesiastical office and generating uncertainty about the nature of leadership within the church. Yet although Bede related the terms sancti doctores and praedicatores to the unordained, it is hard to concede that he deliberately refrained from identifying them with the ordained hierarchy of bishops, priests and deacons, since he described Paulinus as ‘doctori atque antistiti’, linking his authority as a teacher with his ordination as a bishop.I2

Despite writing of a spiritual elite, describing a priesthood of all believers and envisaging women preachers, Bede’s account of the evangelization of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the Historia Eccfesiastica is dominated by the work of bishops, many of whom were monks: Augustine, Paulinus, Aidan, Cuthbert, Wilfrid and Chad. Chad travelled on foot, preaching in town and countryside. In Bede’s account of the conversion of Sussex, Wilfrid’s ability to convert the South Saxons was explicitly contrasted with the labours of the Irish monk, Dicuill, who had established a monasteriolum at Bosham with a small number of brothers, but ‘none of the natives cared to follow their way of life or listen to their preaching.’I3 Leaving aside Bede’s attribu- tion of Wilfrid’s success to his ability to teach the South Saxons how to fish, this suggests that Bede envisaged an episcopate heavily influenced by monastic ideals as the ideal means of initiating conversion, conveying the sacraments and preaching to the laity. This emphasis upon the authoritative position of bishops in the work of Christianization is further borne out by the letter written by Bede towards the end of his life, urging Bishop Ecgbert of York to undertake reform of the church, ensure that a bishop should visit every homestead and hamlet within

Vita Sancti Cuthberti auctore anonymo, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave, Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert (Cambridge, 1940) bereafter VCA], iv. 1, p. 111.

lo Alan ”hacker, ‘Monks, Preaching and Pastoral Care in Early Anglo-Saxon England’, Blair and Sharpe. Pastoral Care before the Parish, p. 160.

Ibid., pp. 152-4; A. T. Thacka, ‘Bede’s Ideal of Reform’, Ideal and Reality in Frankish und Anglo-Saxon Society, ed. Patrick Wormald, Roger Collins and Donald Bullough (Oxford, 1983). pp. 130-2.

Bede, HE, ii. 14. p. 186. I 3 Ibid., iv. 13, p. 373. For analysis of Bede’s discussion of the conversion of the South

Saxons see Henry Mayr-Harting, ‘St Wilfrid in Sussex’, Studies in Sussex Church History, ed. M. J. Kitch (1981). pp. 1-17.


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his care at least once a year, and convert existing monasferia into episcopal sees.I4

Although monastic hagiographers drew upon the actual lives of the episcopal saints themselves to create their images of episcopal authority, they also related the careers of these saints to a retrospective tradition. Every episcopal saint stood as a model of virtue cast in a mould which could be traced back through the Vitae of earlier saints such as Martin of Tours or St Antony and ultimately to the apostles and Christ himself. Monastic authors, however, differed as to the manner in which Christ-likeness was manifested in the lives of episcopal saints.

Bede carefully defined a view of episcopal authority which was related to the bishop’s ability to combine the ascetic life of solitude, renuncia- tion of the values of the world, and the study of the Scriptures with the active life of preaching and ministering to his flock. Pastoral authority was not an alternative to a life of ascetic discipline, but rather a necessary component of it. Bishops did not live double lives as ascetics and pastors. Their ability to move inward to embrace a life of con- templation and meditation was linked to their ability to move outward to operate within the wider community and ensure that laity and clergy alike were aware of their ministry and gifts. Bishops were shown to have been influenced by a desert, anchoritic model of the ascetic life which stressed the need to flee the world and to adopt a life of solitude, battling against demons and the flesh. Aidan and Eadberht of Lindisfarne, Chad and John of Beverley, all possessed retreats where they would isolate themselves spatially from their fellows and engage in prayer and meditati~n.’~ Bede, however, had also absorbed a pattern of authority derived from the writings of Augustine and Cassian which espoused a social and communal form of asceticism marked by the need to live in and serve a community rather than to pursue a life of total withdrawal and solitude. l6 He thus adopted the predominant picture of Cuthbert as a solitary figure, found in the anonymous Life of the saint, by showing more clearly how Cuthbert worked and operated in relation to his fellows, through open commitment to preaching and carrying out works of pastoral care.” He also praised the early archbishops

l4 Bede, Epistola ad Ecgbertum, ed. C. Plummer. Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica (2 vols., Oxford, IS%), i. 405-23.

Bede, HE, iii. 16, iv. 3, 30, v. 2, pp. 262-3, 331-9, 442-5, 456-1; Bede, Vita Sancti Cuthberti Prosaica, ed. Bertram Colgrave, Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert (Cambridge, 1940) bereafter VCPJ. 42. pp. 292-3. l6 For the subtle distinctions between the ‘eremitic’ and the ‘coenobitic’ forms of monastic

life and the adoption of ascetic values by bishops in late antiquity and the early middle ages see R. A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 181-228, and for theiniluential impact of Cassian on these developments see P. Rousseau, Ascetics, Authority and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian (Oxford, 1978), pp. 169-239.

Clare Stancliffe. ‘Cuthbert and the Polarity between Pastor and Solitary’, St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200, ed. Gerald Bonner, David Rollason and Clare Stancliffe (Woodbridge. 1989). pp. 23-42.



of Canterbury for their ability to live with their clergy and engage in scholarly pursuits in a communal regime.’*

In the Historia Ecclesiastica, Bede especially praised bishops whose episcopal authority was marked by the cultivation of a spirit of poverty. l9 This reflected Bede’s monastic background, since poverty was a virtue emphasized in the Benedictine Rule.zo Aidan rarely dined with the king and cared little for worldly possessions, handing over to the poor the gifts he received from kings and giving food rather than money to potentes who visited him.21 Colman and his predecessors on Lindisfarne ‘had no money but only cattle’.u The priests and clerics from the see of Lindisfarne, who visited villages in the surrounding neighbourhood to undertake pastoral duties, were said to be so free from avarice that ‘none of them would accept lands or possessions to build monasteries, unless compelled to by the secular authoritie~.”~ Augustine and his companions attempted to emulate the life of the primitive church in accepting ‘only the necessaries of life’,24 and after it was prophesied that Cuthbert was to become a bishop, he feared that in accepting episcopal office he might be tempted by love of wealth.25 As a bishop he therefore practised a life of frugality and ‘rejoiced to preserve the rigours of monastic life’, giving food to the hungry and clothes to the suffering.26

A different model of how early Anglo-Saxon bishops were shown to possess a Christ-like authority was enunciated by Eddius Stephanus in the highly polemical Vita Wilfridi.27 Wilfrid was unashamedly rich: a

Is M e , HE, i. 26. 27, pp. 79-103. l9 M. T. A. Carroll, The Venerable Bede: His Spiritual Teachings (Washington, 1946),

pp. 23641; G. W. Olsen, ‘ M e as Historian: The Evidence from his Observations on the Life of the First Christian Community at Jerusalem’, JEH, xxxiii (1982), 519-30, at 522-3. lo Regula Sancti Benedicti, 33, ed. A. de Vogii6 and J. Neufville, Sources Chrktiennes. clxxxii (Paris, 1971-2). p. 562. In P. F. Jones, A Concordance to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Bede (Cambridge, Mass., 1929) there are only ten references to gold, three of which occur in the epitaph on Wilfrid quoted from an inscription found at Ripon and not itself composed by M e .

22 Ibid., iii. 26, p. 311. l3 Ibid. 24 Ibid., i. 26, p. 77. 25 VCP, 8, pp. 184-5. l6 VCP, 26, pp. 241-43. It is clear that in describing Cuthbert’s poverty Bede was moti-

vated by his own attachment to the ideals of Benedictine spirituality, since arguably this led him deliberately to refrain from describing the treasures associated with Cuthbert’s cult, such as his pectoral cross. On these treasures see The Relics of St Cuthbert, ed. C . F. Battiscombe (Oxford, 1956), pp. 308-25; on the importance of wealth and munificence in Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical life see C. R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective (Mqchester, 1982), esp. pp. 22-45. l7 The identification of the author of the Vita Wirfridi with the singing master Aedde said

to have been brought to Northumbria by Wilfrid in Bede. HE, iv. 2, pp. 333-7 and Eddius Stephanus, Vita Wiuridi, 14, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus (Cambridge, 1927) [hereafter V w , pp. 30-1, has been disputed by D. P. Kirby, ‘Bede, Eddius Stephanus and the “Life of Wilfrid”’, English Historical Review, xcviii (1983), 101-14. It seems likely, however, that the author should certainly be called

M e , HE, iii. 5 , pp. 226-9.


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saint who was more of a sombre warrior than a holy dove, he con- structed the church at Ripon and gave it a gospel book written out in gold lettering on purple parchment.” Bede’s attitude towards Wilfrid has commonly been conceived as lukewarm if not actively hostile.29 This view is justifiable but the grounds upon which it is held can be reassessed. In recent studies the political interpretation of the cult of Anglo-Saxon saints has predominated, with emphasis on those func- tions of the cult of saints which centre on the denigration of a rival royal family, the promotion of an ideal of kingship or the protection of land.’O These political interpretations have influenced views of the purposes of Wilfrid’s hagiographer by ignoring the spiritual dimensions of his Vita. Wilfrid has been seen as a very politically conscious bishop, primarily concerned to defend his large family of monasteries from his enemies and detractor^.^' His appearance to his disciples after his death, when he guarded the monastery of Ripon by surrounding its walls with an arc of light, has been related to his involvement in the troubled succession to the Northumbrian throne in the early eighth century.’* The distinction between Wilfrid’s episcopal sanctity and that of Cuthbert is thus explained by reference to the fact that Cuthbert’s cult has been closely identified with kings and bishops who had acted in opposition to Wilfrid during his troubled and turbulent career, when Wilfrid was repeatedly expelled from his see and had to seek redress by appeal to the papal court.

Aside from the political dimensions of Wilfrid’s cult, analysis of the theological dimensions of the cult of saints in Anglo-Saxon England explains why Wilfrid remained a less popular and less frequently revered episcopal saint than Cuthbert. Wilfrid’s episcopal authority was perceived by Stephanus in terms of an idea of Christlikeness which stressed the manner in which sanctity was acquired through the endurance of, and triumph over, suffering at the hands of secular and ecclesiastical

‘Stephanus‘, as noted in J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Bede S Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1988) [hereafter WallaceHadrill, Historical Commentary], p. 139 and Walter Goffart, ‘The Historia Ecclesiastica: Bede’s Agenda and Ours’, Haskins Society Journal, ii (1990), 34-5.

29Saint wilfrid at Hexham, ed. D. P. Kirby (Newcastle upon Tjme, 1974); D. Whitelock, ‘Bede and his Teachers and Friends’, Famulus Christi, ed. Gerald Bonner (1976), pp. 3 1-4, and, most recently and provocatively, Walter Goffart, The Narrators of Barbarian History (Princeton, 1988) [hereafter Goffart. Narrators], pp. 235-328.

D. W. Rollason, Suints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1989) Ihereafter Rollason, Sainrs and Relics]. esp. ch. 5 ; idem, ‘The Cults of Murdered Royal Saints in Anglo-Saxon England’, Anglo-Saxon England, xi (1983), 1-22; idem, ‘Relic Cults as an Instrument of Royal Policy, c. 9OO-c. 1050’, Anglo-Saxon England, xv (1986), 91-103; A. T. Thacker, ‘Kings, Saints and Monasteries in pre-Viking Mercia’, Midland History, x (1985), 1-25; Goffart, Narrators, pp. 235-328; Susan Ridyard, The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge. 1988), esp. p. 78.

3’ A. T. Thacker, ‘The Social and Continental Background to Early Anglo-Saxon Hagio- graphy’, unpublished D. Phil. thesis (Oxford, 1977). pp. 235-79. 32 VW, 68, pp. 146-9; Rollason, Saints and Relics, ch. 5 ; Goffart, Narrators, pp. 235-328.

VW, 17, pp. 36-7.



authorities. This differed substantially from the conception of episcopal authority described by Bede and the anonymous monk of Lindisfarne. Stephanus followed a number of biblical and continental models which depicted saints whose sanctity had been defined through the fact that they had undergone suffering and persecution. These models need to be explored in some detail.

I1

The ultimate model stressing the need for a saint to endure persecution lay in the Bible itself. The Epistle to the Hebrews had stressed that hardship was to be endured as discipline. Pauline theology similarly taught the doctrine that an apostolic career was characterized by public and social suffering.33 As a bishop, Wilfrid consistently underwent persecution by both laymen and clergy hostile to his devotion to Rome and his vast ecclesiastical wealth. Wilfrid’s ability to triumph over his enemies lay in his willingness to endure suffering and his consistent appeal to the canonical traditions of Rome in search of deliverance. His final glorification occurred in his last years. With his dismembered monastic empire finally restored to him at the synod of Nidd, he became a dedicated patron of his followers, rewarding them with lands and wealth as the monastic framework in which he operated closed in more firmly upon him.

Stephanus’ espousal of a concept of authority based upon suffering owed much to his concern to portray Wilfrid as the natural heir to the apostles. Turning to the Acts of the Apostles, he used particular scenes from Luke’s account of the early church as metaphors, comparing Wilfrid’s dramatic miraculous escape from prison with that of Peter.34 Furthermore, both Acts and the Vita Wiyridi narrate the growth and expansion of the church despite persecution and opposition. In Acts, the apostles were flogged and the Jews attempted to kill Paul; Wilfrid was banished by the kings Egfrith and Aldfrith, while in Gaul the Frankish mayor of the palace, Ebroin, attempted to have him killed.” Wilfrid, like Paul in Acts, assumed the role of apostle to a people who had formerly been separated from the church. His striving to bring the separatist Celtic church into conformity with Rome at the synod of Whitby, which earned him elevation to episcopal rank, mirrored Paul’s concern about the problem of the Gentiles at the council of Jerusalem.36 Wilfrid was also devoted to Andrew and Peter. He dedicated the church at Ripon to Peter and steadfastly stood for the Petrine tradition at the synod of Whitby. Similarly, he visited St Andrew’s oratory at Rome

33 Heb., 12: 7; 2 Cor., 11: 23-5. ” VW, 38, pp. 76-7; Acts, 16: 26. 35 Acts, 5: 40, 12: 2, 13-15,23: 12-22; VW, 24-8, 33-9,45-9, pp. 49-57,86101,91-101. 36 VW, 10, pp. 20-3; Acts, 15: 1-35.

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and dedicated his church at Hexham and monastery at Oundle to the saint.37 Apocryphal acts of the apostles which consistently showed the apostles undergoing persecution and martyrdom also influenced Stephanus’s portrait.38 Apocryphal stories concerning Peter and Andrew were preserved in a number of Latin manuscripts. The Acts of Peter existed in the sixthheventh century Actus Vercellemes, a codex at Vercelii. Stories concerning Andrew, the apocryphal Acts of Andrew and the Acts of Andrew and Matthias had been translated into Latin by 350.39 Accounts of Andrew’s martyrdom were also preserved in the Liber de miraculis beatae Andrae apostoli by Gregory of Tours and in texts by Venantius Fortunatus and Isidore of Seville.40 Apocryphal legends about Andrew were known in Anglo-Saxon England. An eighth- century manuscript of Anglo-Saxon provenance, the Pseudo-Titus Epistle, contains an apocryphon of Andrew. The manuscript was associated with the Anglo-Saxon missionary, Burchard of Wessex, Andrew was also the subject of an Old English epic poem, Andreas, which may have been composed by Stephanus’s patron, Acca, a notable disciple of Wilfrid.41

Stephanus’s concern to teach a theology of persecution also owed much to the traditions of martyrdom which had developed in Gaul and Rome. In the fourth century Martin of Tours was credited with virtual martyrdom by Sulpicius S e ~ e r u s . ~ ~ He was beaten with whips and sticks by soldiers, bitterly attacked by his episcopal successor, Brice, and accused of supporting Pris~illianism.~~ Bishops in Gaul, including Gregory of Tours, were notable devotees of martyr cults and the activities of Frankish kings and nobles ensured a regular supply of episcopal victims. Wilfrid himself was said to have visited Lyons where forty-eight martyrs suffered? Stephanus claimed that it was during

37 VW. 5, 22, 65, 68, pp. 10-13, 44-7, 140-3. 146-9. 3a W. T. Foley, ‘Zmitatio Apastoli: St Wilfrid of York and the Andrew Script’, American Benedictine Review, Xl(1989), 13-3 1. 39 p. M. Peterson, Andm, Brother of Simon Peter: His History and his Legends, Supple-

ment to Novum Testamentum (Leiden, 1%8), p. 41. * Ibid., pp. 14-15; on Gregory’s authorship of this text see K. Zelzer. ‘Zur Frage dcs Autors der Miracufa B. Andreae apostoli und zur Sprache des Gregor von Tours’, Grazer Beitruge, vi (1977). 217-41. 41 D. de Bruyne, ‘Nouveaux fragments des actes de Pierre, de Paul, de Jean, de Andre,

zt de I’Apocalypse d‘&’, Revue BtWdictine. xxv (1908). 149-60. The Pseudo-Titus Epistle is translated in New Testament Apocrypha. ed. E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1964). ii. 141-66; A. S. Cook, ‘The Old English Andreus and Bishop Acca of Hexham’, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. xxvi (1924). 245-332. 42 Sulpicius Severus. Epistulae, 2, ed. J . Fontaine. Sources Chdtiennes, 133 (Paris,

43 Sulpicius Severus, Dialogi, i. 24.3, ii. 3, 5; iii. 12. 15, ed. C. Halm, Corpus Scriptorum Ecciesiusticorum Latinorum, 1 (Vienna. 1866), 177, 183-4, 186-7, 210, 213-14.

VW, 3, 6, pp. 8-9, 12-15; Gregory of Tours, Liber in Gloria Martyrum, 48-9, ed. B. Krusch, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum. 1.2 [hereafter

1967-9). 324-34.

MGH SRM], pp. 521-2.



Wilfiid’s stay in Lyons, at some time between 655 and 658, that he witnessed the martyrdom of Bishop Dalfinus. There are historical problems arising from this account which have been analysed in detail elsewhere.” Briefly, it is assumed that Wilfrid cannot historically have witnessed this martyrdom, which was in fact the martyrdom of Aunemund, and that Stephanus invented Wilfrid’s involvement in this event to establish his saintly credentials at the beginning of the Vita. Whether Wilfrid was actually present at the event described is unimpor- tant; what is important is that Stephanus knew of the martyrdom of Aunemund and used an account of it in his work.

The Acta Aunemundi is the most detailed account of Aunemund’s martyrdom.46 It describes the downfall of a powerful aristocratic bishop, closely involved with the royal court, who had baptized or stood as godfather to Clothar, the first-born son of Clovis IL4’ Aunemund’s power and influence generated hostility and he was killed by a group of rival clergy and courtiers at Macon, his body later being moved to Lyons. Early manuscripts of the Acta Aunemundi have not survived and this has led many to question the authenticity of its dating. It seems likely that the text as it survives is a tenth-century revision of an earlier work. Its prologue ends with a reference to a previous account of Aunemund’s life and it calls Aunemund bishop throughout, whereas after the Merovingian period the head of the church of Lyons was referred to by his proper title of a r chb i~hop .~~ Both the Acta Aunemundi and the Vita Wivridi convey a picture of a bishop ready to do battle with the secular authorities. Wadlebert, abbot of Luxeuil and Aunemundus’ counsellor, assumes a similar role to that played by Wilfiid in Stephanus’s account of the martyrdom. Stephanus utilized the story of one powerful bishop to begin his story of the life of another, thus establishing the theme of martyrdom at the beginning of his Vita.

Other seventh-century Gallic bishops had suffered martyrdom. The Passiones Leudegarii recount the death of the bishop of Autun, who led a revolt against Ebroin, mayor of the palace. The first account of Leudegar’s life and martyrdom seems to have been compiled shortly after 680.49 This text possesses a highly narrative framework in a

45 A. Coville, Recherches sur I‘hktoire de Lyon au Vme au IXme siPcle (450-800) (Paris, 1928) [hereafter Coville, Recherches], pp. 381-5; J . L. Nelson, ‘Queens as Jezebels: The Careers of Brunhild and Balthild in Merovingian History’, Studies in Church History Subsidia, i (Oxford, 1978), 31-77, repr. J. L. Nelson, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Eumpe (1986), pp. 148; Goffart, Narrators, p. 288.

Acta S. Aunemundi alias Dalfini episcopi, ed. J. Carnandet. Acta Sanctorum, Septernbris, vii (Pans and Rome, 1867), 694-8. 47 Acta Aunemundi, 2, 8, pp. 694-5. 48 Coville, Recherches, pp. 372-5; P. Fouracre, ‘Merovingian History and Merovingian

Hagiography’, Past and Present, 127 (1990) [hereafter Fouracre, ‘Merovingian History’],

49 W. Wattenbach and W. Levison, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Vorzeit und Karolinger, i (Weimar, 1952), 129. Passio Leudegarii I , ed. B. Krusch. MGH

26-7.

SRM. V. 282-322.


SIMON COATES 187

similar vein to the Life of Wirfrid and, like Stephanus, its author spoke of invidia: hatred or envy directed against the bishop.S0 Later accounts of Leudegar’s martyrdom were marked by less political detail since there was less need to defend Leudegar’s sanctity by explaining the awkward details of his career.51 Like Aunemund and Wilfrid, Leudegar was a leading aristocratic figure who possessed close connections with the royal court. His brother was count of Paris and his uncle bishop of Poitiers. Although on his appointment to the see of Autun he had restored order following a period of rivalry over the issue of control of the bishopric, he attracted the hostility of an element within the clergy who planned to murder him.52 In the first account of his life Leudegar is depicted as a generous lord who disposed of his wealth before his arrest and was then martyred as a self-sacrificing shepherd. In depicting Ebroin as a villain, the text conveyed an identical theme to that of the Life of Wilfrid.53

The Passio Praejecti was a further text which described the martyrdom of a powerful and royally connected Merovingian bishop, Prae- jectus bishop of C l e r m ~ n t . ~ ~ This text gave a clear account of the manner in which envy operated in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a clerical community. Praejectus’s martyrdom, like that of Leudegar, was connected with factional conflict arising from his succession to the episcopal see. He had been involved in a legal dispute with Hector, ruler of Marseilles, over property held by the church of Clermont: Hector claimed that the property belonged to his spouse. Praejectus won the case, but its outcome aroused the hostility of powerful local people. He was murdered by the Saxon Radbert and was said to have willingly given himself as a martyr. The assassins mistook his protector, Abbot Amarinus, for him and having killed Amarinus were departing; but Praejectus called them back and offered himself to die.55

Stephanus was also acquainted with a text which depicted another persecuted saint and also came from Gaul: Jonas’s Life of the wandering Irish monk Co lumbanu~ .~~ Stephanus used this text to emphasize the monastic character of Wilfrid’s episcopate and illustrate how his portrait of Wilfrid attempted to synthesize Celtic and Roman religious ideals. The parallels between Jonas’s text and Stephanus’s Life were both general and specific. In general terms, both Lives were characterized by

VW, 14.24,40; PasSoLeudegariiI, 8.9, 19,21,28,33, MGHSRM, v. 289-91, 300-1, 302-3,308-10.314-15. ” Fouracre, ‘Merovingian History’, 15, 20-1. 52 Passio Leudegarii I , 2, MGH SRM, v. 284-5. 53 VW, 25, 27, 33, pp. 50-1, 52-4, 66-9. 54 Passio Praejecti, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, v. 225-48. ’’ Passio Pmejecti, 23-4,27, 30-1, MGH SRM, v. 239-40, 241-2, 243-4. 56 Jonas, Vita Columbani, ed. B. Krusch [hereafter Eta Columbani], MGH SRM,

iv. 61-152; I . N. Wood, ‘The Vita Columbani and Merovingian Nagiography’; Peritia, i (1982) [hereafter Wood, ‘The Vita Columbani’], 63-80.



the presence of divine light at the saint’s birth, signifying his election; both described the relationship between the saint and his parents in similar terms; both described how the saint entered a monastery at an early age but then engaged in peregrinatio to foreign shores; both showed the saint in possession of large numbers of followers who were styled as the children of Israel; and both were marked by miracle stories which described the loosening of chains from prisoners as a result of the power of the saint.’’ A further indication that Stephanus knew of the Life of Columbanus is evident from his account of how Wilfrid was miraculously healed by St Michael, having fallen ill near Meaux when returning from Rome. This story closely parallels an account in the Life of Columbanus of how Abbot Bertulf was cured by St Peter, having also fallen ill when returning from Rome.s8 Furthermore, Meaux, the site of Wilfrid‘s stay, was a centre of Columbanian monasticism. Columbanus had blessed the household of Chagneric and his daughter Burgundofara at Meaux. Burgundofara had founded a monastery at Faremoutiers in the diocese of Meaux and her brother, Faro, had become bishop of the see.s9

Above all, however, for Stephanus the Life of Columbanus depicted a saint persecuted by secular powers. Columbanus was uncompromising with kings and queens. The most famous section of Jonas’s work concerns the account of the conflict between Columbanus, King Theuderich and Theuderich’s grandmother, Brunhild. Columbanus chastised Theuderich for fathering illegitimate children through his concubines. This aroused the wrath of Brunhild and Columbanus was banished to Besanqon. Continual persecution led to his wandering through Auxerre, Orlkans and Tours. He was eventually received favourably by the Lombard King Agilulf and granted a site in the Apennines where he created the monastic colony of Bobbio.60 When the accounts of persecution described in the Life of Columbanus and the Life of Wirfrid are compared the most striking feature is that both works depict a persecuting queen as Jezebel. Stephanus claimed that Balthild, the queen who ordered Dalphinus’s death in Lyons, was like Jezebel. He also described Iurminburg in similar terms. Jonas similarly depicted Brunhild as Jezebel.61 As noted above, there are historical problems associated with Stephanus’s account of the death of Dalphinus. It is generally assumed that Stephanus was confused about the circumstances surrounding this martyrdom. It is odd that he should have associated Balthild with the death of the archbishop of Lyons. She was closely associated with Columbanian monasticism through her

>’ Vita Columbani, i. 2-7,9, 19-20, MGH SRM. iv. 66-74,75,87-93; YW. 1 4 2 5 , 34-5,

58 VW, 56, pp. 120-3; Vita Colurnbani, ii. 23, MGH SRM, iv. 143-7. 59 Vita Coturnbani, i. 26. ii. 7, 11, 21, MGH SRM, iv. 99-100, 119-21, 130-1, 141-2. * Vita Coturnbani, i. 18-22, 30, MGH SRM, iv. 86-97, 106-8.

38, 44, pp. 4-11, 50-1, 70-3, 76-7, 90-1.

VW, 6, 24, pp. 12-15, 48-51; Vita Columbani, i. 18, MGH SRM, iv. 86.


SIMON COATES 189

connections with Jouarre.62 This was the monastery which contained the tomb of Wilfrid’s patron, Agilbert, the Frankish bishop of the West Saxons who had ordained Wilfrid priest and who was later, as bishop of Paris, involved in his c~nsecration.~~ A partial solution to the problem posed by Stephanus’s naming the persecuting queen as Balthild is, however, suggested by the fact that, in one of the two sur- viving manuscripts of the Life of Wilfrid, she is named not as Balthild but as Brunhild.@ Given that the depiction of queens as Jezebels is not common in early medieval hagiography, it is therefore likely that Stephanus’s use of this motif was derived from Jonas.6s

Stephanus’s knowledge and use of texts depicting the lives of persecuted bishops and monks was linked to the connections which existed between the intellectual milieux of Columbanian houses and Wilfiidian foundations. It has been shown how Aunemundus was accompanied by the abbot of Luxeuil in the days preceding his martyrdom. Luxeuil was Columbanus’s first major foundation and thus it would appear that Aunemundus had close connections with this monastery, which was a notable nursery of monk-bishops. At least eleven monks from Lwceuil had been appointed to Gallic sees in the seventh century.66 Desiderius, bishop of Vienne, had been closely associated with Columbanian monasticism and had suffered persecution at the hands of Brunhild. He was exiled and stoned to death for criticizing Theuderich and his concubines as Columbanus had done.67

Eligius of Noyon was a further Merovingian bishop dedicated to the support of Columbanian monasticism.68 Active as a functionary at the courts of kings Clothar I1 and Dagobert I, he had founded a monastery at Solignac. The Life of Eligius is not concerned with recording how he suffered extensive persecution or a martyr’s death, but rather with the participation of the bishop in a number of disputes with various secular and ecclesiastical figures as a result of his close connections with the royal court and active involvement in political affairs. Eligius visited a vicus near Noyon and preached against the dancing and superstitions practised by the inhabitants. He encountered

Vita Balthildis, 8, MGH SRM, ii. 491-3. 63 VW, 9. 12, pp. 18-19, 24-7. 64 VW, pp. xiii-xv. 65 Knowledge of Jonas’s work was not widespread in seventh-century Francia although

Fredegar. who was probably writing in the late 65Os, knew of it and quoted extensively from the section in which Brunhild was described as Jezebel: Fredegar, iv. 36, MGH SRM, ii. 134-8; also in The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar, ed. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (1960); Wood, ‘The Vitu Columbani’, 68-70; W. Goffart, ‘The Fredegar Problem Recon- sidered‘, Speculum, xxxviii (1963). 206-41. 66 F. Prim, Friihes Monchtum im Frankenreich (Munich-Vienna, 1%5) [hereafter Prim.

Friihes Monchtum], pp. 121-41. 67 Passio Desiderii, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, iii. 638-45.

Vita Eligii, ed. B. Krusch. MGH SRM, iv.663-741; Prinz, Friihes Monchtum, pp. 124-41.



opposition when trying to impose his episcopal authority on this rural community formerly under the control of a local magnate, Erchinoald the major domus of the Neustrian palace. The followers of Erchinoald threatened to lynch Eligius when he preached against their superstitious practices.@ A further source of conflict between Eligius and Erchinoald was the bishop’s attempts to control cult centres in his diocese, as expressed in his concern to stop Erchinoald building a monastery over the body of the Irish saint, Fursey.’O

Stephanus’s depiction of a persecuted saint influenced by ideals of martyrdom, although closely connected to texts from Gaul, did not, however, merely locate Wilfrid within a Gallic tradition of episcopal sanctity. He also looked to Rome. Pope Martin I was the only Roman pope from the time of Constantine until the murder of John VIII in 882 to endure martyrdom. He died in exile, having been found guilty of treason by the Byzantine emperor in 655. Martin’s death arose from his refusal to compromise with the emperor over a christological dispute. This refusal found expression in his convening of the Lateran Council of 649 which condemned monotheletism and undermined the emperor’s attempts to obtain monophysite support in his fight against the Persians.” The death of a pope for refusing to compromise over matters of church doctrine and custom at a time when Wilfrid had recently visited Rome arguably influenced Stephanus’s own presentation of Wilfrid’s commitment to orthodoxy and willingness to suffer for it. Wilfrid’s battles with kings Egfrith and Aldfrith mirror Martin’s with the emperor. The result was exile and persecution. Those who adhered to Roman apostolic authority must be prepared to face suffering.

The idea of martyrdom was conceived in a number of different ways in a number of different texts. Within the Irish tradition a threefold classification of martyrdom had developed, denoted by the colours red, white and green. White and green martyrdom involved separation from men, toils and fasting; red martyrdom involved persecution and destruc- t i ~ n . ’ ~ Gregory the Great had espoused an ideal of public martyrdom which occurred during times of persecution. As a result of the develop- ment of monasticism, however, the ascetic ideal of withdrawal from the world, fasting and purification of the body had become perceived as a form of martyrdom which Gregory had defined as ‘secret martyr-

@ Vita EIigii, ii. 20, MGH SRM, iv. 711-12. ‘O Vita Fursei, 10, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, iv. 439-40.

Liber Pontificalis, ed. L . Duchesne (2 vols.. Pans, 1886-92). i. 92), i. 336-40, J. Herrin, The Formdon of Christendom (Oxford, 1987), pp. 253-9; T. S. Brown, Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy A D 554-800 (Rome, 1984). pp. 175-80; J. Richards, The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages

l2 Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus: A Collection of Old Irish Glosses, Scholia, Prose and Verse, ed. W . Stokes and J. Strachan (2 vols., Cambridge, 1901-3), ii. 246-7.

(1979), pp. 183-92.


SIMON COATES 191

d ~ m ’ . ~ ~ Gregory of Tours transposed martyrdom from the context of persecution by the godless and stressed that believers could become martyrs not by suffering death but by undergoing moral struggle, making themselves their own persecutors as ‘athletes of Christ’.74 In his commentary on Luke, Bede also discussed a form of sacrifice that did not involve physical death. He wrote of how, by means of the death of pride, a humble person transformed by a form of death could challenge and overcome evil, demonic forces in the ~ o r l d . ’ ~

Stephanus perceived Wilfrid in relation to the ideal of red martyrdom and Gregory the Great’s concept of public martyrdom. Wilfrid himself, however, did not earn the title of martyr because Stephanus believed that the martyr must die.76 During his experience of the martyrdom of Bishop Dalfinus at Lyons at the beginning of the Vita, Wilfrid offered himself to die; he was designated a confessor rather than a martyr by Stephanus. Stephanus’s concept of the classification of saints as martyrs and confessors was based upon the apologetic traditions of the early church, whereby a confessor was not merely a saint whose life testi- fied to the truth of Christ’s own life but a saint who had been persecuted by secular powers without suffering death. This was why John the Evangelist, to whom Stephanus compared Wilfrid in the account of Dalfinus’s martyrdom, was similarly considered a confessor and not a ma r. Although he suffered, he had survived immersion in boiling oil. %

I11

The diversity of early Anglo-Saxon episcopal authority is revealed through the fact that, aside from Stephanus’s text, bishops were perceived in terms of the forms of martyrdom outlined above which emphasized moral struggle. Martyrs who suffered death or persecution were restricted to royal saints or missionaries who did not receive episcopal status. Aidan, John of Beverley, Chad and Cedd were not depicted by Bede as suffering persecution from secular rulers; instead,

l3 Gregory the Great, Dialogues, iii. 26, ed. A. de Vogiik, Sources Chrktiennes, 260 (Piirk, 1978-80). pp. 371-3; A. C. Rush, ‘Spiritual Martyrdom in St Gregory the Great’, Theological Studies, xxiii (1%2), 569-89.

Gregory of Tours, Liber in Gloria Martyrum, 52, 53, 72, 106, MGH SRM, 1. ii, 525, 5367,561. For a general discussion of the term ‘martyr’ see H. Delehaye, Sanctus. &aisur le culte des saints duns I’antiquitP, Subsidia hagiographica, xvii (Brussh, 1927), 74-121. E.E. Malone. The Monk and the Martyr (Washington, 1950) analyses the place of martyrdom in the ascetic life. n Bede, In Luram, ed. D. Hurst, Corpus Christianorum Series Latino [hereafter CCSLJ,

cxx. 218-19. See further V. I. J . Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton, 1991), pp. 181-2. l6 The name Stephanus may in itself be significant in regard to the author’s ideas con-

cerning the concept of martyrdom since he bore the same name as the first martyr recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. ” VW, 6, 14-15.



they were praised for the humility, fasting and withdrawal into solitude which underpinned and strengthened their commitment to pastoral

Bede showed how Aidan’s relationship with Oswine was characterized by mutual respect. Oswine chastised Aidan for giving his horse away to a beggar, but later pleaded with the saint for forgiveness. Aidan cried bitterly over this act of kingly piety because he was aware that the king’s death was imminent.79 Cuthbert, too, was not despised but revered by secular authorities to whom he gave advice. Although prophesying the death of King Egfrith as a result of his campaign against the Picts, he was not depicted in an active quarrel with the king.80 Rather than banishing Cuthbert into exile, Egfrith begged the reluctant Cuthbert to become a bishop.8’ The anonymous monk twice referred to Cuthbert as a martyr.82 He made no real distinction, however, between the saint as martyr and as confessor, and did not equate either status with the suffering of persecution. Stephanus, on the other hand, consistently equated the status of both martyr and confessor with the suffering of persecution. In his portrayal of Wilfrid he offered a unique picture of episcopal sanctity by advocating the necessity for a bishop to be persecuted.

Stephanus’s portrayal of Wilfrid’s episcopal authority arose from his understanding of how God intervened in the world. Bede and the anonymous monk shared with Stephanus a concern for the monastic nature of the episcopate, but embraced different theological views concerning the manner in which evil manifested itself in the world and the manner in which God’s redemptive power, manifest in the lives of holy men, was able to overcome it.

As a bishop, Cuthbert’s imitation of apostolic activity involved fre- quent prayer, fasting, the keeping of vigils, avoidance of worldly honour, withdrawal into solitude and the working of miracles largely associated with healing. Aidan and John of Beverley behaved in a similar manner. Cuthbert’s battle with evil was not a struggle against secular rulers but against the dark forces of nature. For Cuthbert, the fall created estrangement between man and the natural world. Evil took the form of disease, hunger and lack of shelter. He had to expel devils from Fame Island before he could establish a dwelling place.83 However, for Cuthbert the natural world was also the site of God’s redemptive power. Through nature it was possible to experience contact with the divine. Exposing himself to the hardships of nature by means of such acts as the giving away of his bread to a stranger at Ripon, Cuthbert

Bede, HE, iii. 3,5,14-17,21-3,25-6,28; iv. 2-3,23; v. 2-7, pp. 218-21,226-9,254-67, 278-89. 295-311, 314-17. 332-47. 404-15. 456-69. 79 Ibid,, iii. 14, pp. 258-61.

VCA, iii. 6, iv. 8, pp. 86-9, 180-5; VCP, 24, 27. pp. 234-9, 242-9; Bede. HE, iv. 26, 426-3 1.

VCA, iv. 15. 17, DD. 132-3. 136-7. p8‘ VCA, iv. 1, pp. 110-13; VCP, 24, pp. 234-9; Bede. HE, iv. 27-8, pp. 430-9.

VCA,.iii. 1, pp. 94-7; VCE -17, pp. 214-17; Bede, HE, iv. 28, pp. 4 3 4 4 .


SIMON COATES 193

was able to achieve mastery over the natural world. Ravens sought his for iveness, sea animals warmed his feet and an eagle brought him

In contrast, Stephanus located evil not in nature but in social relationships. Evil broke the bonds of community and severed personal relationships. Through the operation of evil, Wilfrid became estranged from kings, bishops and clergy. In the Vita Wivridi evil strikes most frequently at figures of high status who exercise authority over others. Queen Iurminburg brought evil upon herself by wearing Wilfrid’s reliquary as an ~rnament.~’ Not all rulers are shown to be affected by evil, however. Stephanus evaluated and judged their actions according to their ability to submit to the authority of the Roman church. Thus obedient kings such as Caedwalla befriended Wilfrid and submitted to Roman customs.86 Stephanus also located God’s redemptive power in the world of social relationships. Reconciliation with God is shown to bring with it reconciliation in social relationships. Thus those who persecuted Wilfrid, such as Theodore, had the opportunity to become reconciled with him if they treated him well.87

food. 88

IV

So far the diversity of early Anglo-Saxon episcopal authority has been stressed. It is clear, however, that a strong degree of unity may also be found among these texts. First, definitions of episcopal authority stressed the manner in which bishops were unified through common commitment to the values and practices of the Roman church. The extent of Romanization in these texts varied, but all of them placed bishops firmly within a Roman context and, although influenced by Celtic ideals, most notably in the case of Bede, they were anxious to avoid or undermine the divisive influence of Celtic separatism. Thus Aidan, although praised by Bede for his poverty, humility and main- tenance of a monastic way of life, was censured for his persistent attachment to the Celtic practice of calculating Easter; whereas Cuthbert, who combined the ascetic devotional life of the Celtic tradition with a commitment to Roman orthodoxy in matters of tonsure and Easter observance, was portrayed as Bede’s real hero.88 Wilfrid’s consistent adherence to the rules of ecclesiastical discipline led him to teach the Roman observance of Easter, instruct his monks in the use of a double choir and engage in the synod of Whitby, where he revealed his devotion to the canons and customs of the Roman church, powerfully criticizing

sl VCA, ii. 2-3, 5; iii. 4-5, pp. 76-83, 84-7, 98-103; VCP, 7, 10, 12, 20-1, pp. 174-9, 188-91. 194-7, 222-7. 85 VW, 34, pp. 70-1. 86 Ibid., 42, pp. 84-5.

MI W e , HE, iii. 17, pp. 266-7; Wallace-Hadrill, Historical Commentary. p. 170. Ibid.. 24, 43, pp. 48-50. 86-91.



the Ionan tradition and marking himself out for the episcopate. While Wilfrid took ideas from Rome, he also gave to it, instructing that one of the four parts into which his wealth was divided should be sent to the apostolic see.89

Furthermore, all the texts examined were united by the shared concern that bishops stood at the apex of the pyramid of ecclesiastical responsibility, possessing the chief personal responsibility for teaching, preaching and the active Christianization and depaganization of early Anglo-Saxon society. Bishops alone could confirm, ordain priests and abbots, and consecrate the oils used in the anointing of the sick.% This emphasis upon the power of bishops is also found in legislative texts. Theodore’s Penitential affirmed that the judgement of those committing capital offences against monks and lower-ranking clerici fell to bishops.”

Despite the concern of monastic hagiographers to accord a high place to the continued persistence of monastic practices by bishops, it is clear that bishops themselves occupied a central place in the early Anglo-Saxon church. This is further borne out by the directives in canon law drafted in an episcopal milieu which assign prime importance to the pastoral work of bishops.92 Unlike hagiographical writings, prescriptive literature sought to differentiate more clearly between various members of the clergy rather than to combine monastic and episcopal office. At the council of Hertford separate canons forbidding wandering covered monachi responsible to their abbots and clerici responsible to their bishops, while canon six of the council of Clofesho of 747 drew a distinction between clerici and rnonachi when decreeing that the life- styles of both should be examined before their ordination to the priesthood.93 The legatine synods of 786 distinguished between canons living canonically and monks living regularly.94 Archbishop Egbert of York’s Dialogues did not assign an exalted place to the figure of the monk as hagiography had done: the value of a monk’s oath in criminal cases was rated at thirty ploughlands, while that of a priest was 120. Similarly, if a layman killed a priest he was to pay 800 silver pieces to the church to which the priest belonged; a monk, however, carried a blood price

89 VW, 5 , 7, 10, 14, 29-33. 46-7, 63, pp. 10-13, 14-17. 20-3. 30-1, 56-69, 92-9, 136-9. Theodore, Penitential, 11. iii. 2, 4-5, 8; 11. iv. 5, ed. A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs,

Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland (3 vols., Oxford, 18%) [hereafter Haddan and Stubbs, Councils]. iii. 192-3; Bede, In Epistulm VII Catholicas, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL, cxxi. 221-2; In Marcum, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL, cxx. 443. 91 Theodore, Penitential, I. iv. 5 , ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 180. 92 Catherine Cubitt, ‘Pastoral Care and Conciliar Canons: The Provisions of the 747

Council of Clofesho’. in Blair and Sharpe, Pastoral Care before the Parish [hereafter Cubitt, ‘Pastoral Care and Conciliar Canons’], pp. 194-211. See also her Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c. 6 5 k . 850 (Leicester, 1995). 93 Council of Hertford: Bede, HE, iv. 5 cc. 4-5, pp. 350-1; Council of Clofesho 747 c. 6,

ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 364. 94 Legatine Synods 786 c. 4, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 450.


SIMON COATES 195

of 400 silver pieces.95 In the second book of Theodore’s Penitential, rulings concerning ordained clergy and abbots on the one hand, and monks and rnonusteria on the other, were given in separate sections. The killing of a bishop or presbyter was considered more serious than that of a monachus aut clericus, and a priest or deacon who vomited through drunkenness was to do penance for forty days whereas a monk was to do penance for thirty.% These texts thus serve to emphasize that a recognized episcopal hierarchy existed in the early Anglo-Saxon church. The importance of such a hierarchy is further borne out by references to pastoral care found not only in texts produced in an episcopal milieu but also in hagiographical and historical writing.

Those who assert that monastic communities were actively engaged in parochial ministry have focused primarily upon the nature of monastic communities as institutions rather than upon the personnel who inhabited them. If one examines the literary evidence for the role of monusteriu in parochial ministry, it becomes apparent that the personnel from them who undertook pastoral care within the locality were predominantly ordained clergy. At Lindisfarne, the site of an episcopal see, Bede mentions teaching by unordained monks but states that only those in priest’s orders baptized. Wilfrid was given a fourth part of the Isle of Wight by King Caedwalla and he made this over to one of his clergy, Beornwine, but specifically assigned him a priest for the work of preaching and bapti~ing.~’ Cuthbert carried out preaching and baptizing in the surrounding countryside while a prior at Melrose, and was often away for a month. Melrose, however, was closely associated with the episcopate as it was the daughter-house of Lindi~farne .~~ Bishop Cedd established churches in various places in Essex, especially Bradwell-on-Sea and Tilbury , ordaining priests and deacons ’to assist him in preaching the word of faith and in the administration of baptism.’w Egbert’s Dialogues similarly show the role of priests and ordained clergy in the ministry to the laity. Although Egbert’s legislation covered monks, only priests and deacons are mentioned in relation to the ministry to the dying. Theodore’s Penitential decreed that anyone wishing to set a monasterium in another place should do it on the advice of a bishop and should release a priest for the ministry of the church in the former place. Headda, the abbot of a community at Dowdeswell, promised that his ‘inheritance’ should pass to the see of Worcester when no member of his family in holy orders could be found to maintain the monastic rule. His insistence on his successors being in orders may have derived from the belief that his community had a duty to administer the

g5 Egbert. Dialogues, cc. 1 , 12, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 404, 408-9. % Theodore, Penitential, I. i. 2-3, I. iv. 5, 11. ii, 11. vi. ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils,

iii. 177. 180. 191-2. 195-6. 97 Bede, HE, iii. 3, iv. 16, pp. 218-21, 382-5. * VCP, 9, pp. 184-7; Bede, RE, iv. 27, pp. 430-5; Cubitt, ‘Pastoral Care and Conciliar Canons’, p. 206.

Bede, HE, iii. 22, pp. 280-5.


1% BISHOPS IN THE EARLY CHURCH

sacraments to the surrounding population. loo The fact that pastoral care was undertaken primarily by the ordained clergy under the instruc- tion of bishops accounts for Bede’s concern in the Letter to Egbert to advocate that new episcopal sees should be sited in monasteria. If this reform was effectively carried out the number of episcopal sees would increase and parochial workers could be more tightly controlled by bishops, while those who undertook pastoral care in monasteria would come under episcopal authority.

In the literary and theological preoccupations of the monastic writers of seventh- and early eighth-century Northumbria, and in the organization of the parochial structure of the early English church, bishops were accorded a central place. An episcopal hierarchy existed in the early Anglo-Saxon church and the presentation of its role and authority owed much to texts and practices from Merovingian Gaul, where a strong and distinctive episcopal system was well entrenched. For too long the early Anglo-Saxon church has been viewed through monastic spectacles and the place and importance of bishops in that church relegated to the background. The propaganda of the tenth-century monastic reformers which has undervalued the importance of the episcopate in relation to monastic communities should not blind us to the achievements of the bishops.

loo Egbert, Dialogues, c. 2, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 404; Theodore, Penitential, 11. vi. 7 , cd. Haddan and Stubbs. Councils, iii. 195; P . H. Sawyer. Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography (Royal Historical Society Guides and Hand- books no. 8, 1968). no. 1413.


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