Lichfield's founding myth - take it seriously.

There is an enduring and disturbing origin myth which is said to explain how Lichfield began. Furthermore, it has been repeatedly reimagined over at least eight centuries. Strangely, the foundation story does not even start in Lichfield, but begins in St Albans, Roman Verulamium, and involved St Alban and his priest-friend St Amphibalus. It also is said to have occurred in the third or fourth century, well before the existence of Lichfield. In short, Alban protects his priest friend Amphibalus from Roman persecution of Christians and is subsequently beheaded. Miracles happen at the time of the execution.[1] The story has been reviewed.[2]

A mid-11^th century manuscript entitled Tale of God’s saints who first rested in England listed 89 saints at 56 locations and Albanus at Wætlingeceastre (St Albans) is the first mentioned; he became the protomartyr. The order was Alban, Columba (Iona), Cuthbert (Durham), Oswald (Bamburgh, Durham, Gloucester), John (Beverley), Ecgberht and Wilfrid (Ripon), Chad, Cedd and Ceatta (Lichfield). In 1982 to 1984, an excavation in the cloister of St Albans Abbey revealed 20 graves and two coins dated to the mid-4^th century. The archaeologist surmised it could have been the cemetery for the grave of Alban since it fitted the description of where he was martyred. Several historians in recent years have questioned the existence of Alban, also his dates, his place of execution and even the reason for such a cult.

King Offa of Mercia and his Archbishop Hygeberht visited the shrine at St Albans in 793, which, according to the monks had been neglected. Offa paid for a new shrine (later lost to Viking plundering) and dedicated church, and gave an endowment to the monastery. Offa was re-founding Britain’s primary martyr and beginning an association between St Albans and Lichfield.

King Offa cherishing St Albans. In catalogue of the benefactors of St Albans Abbey. BL Cotton Nero. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

     Geoffrey of Monmouth, c.1095–1155, embellished the story. Around 1136 he wrote a History of the kings of Britain and in this mix of fact and fantasy, he recreated Amphibalus, connected him with the priest sheltering Alban and made him the abbot of Winchester monastery. William, a monk at St Albans, then claimed Amphibalus moved to the north whilst Alban was imprisoned for six months. After Alban’s execution, a great light shone from his tomb which caused 1000 residents of St Albans to search for Amphibalus and seek an explanation. Somehow, they found him in Wales preaching to a crowd and upon listening to his preaching they too were converted and baptised. Consequently, pagan residents in St Albans upset by this mass conversion to a new faith set out to avenge what they thought was heresy. On finding the 1000 new Christians, they killed all except one. John Leland in his travels 1535 to 1543[3]  placed this massacre at Caerleon. The pagans returned to St Albans (some accounts have Rebourn 4 miles from St Albans) with Amphibalus and had him martyred. Matthew Paris considered the site of the massacre was at Lichfield and this was repeated at St Albans in a late 14^th century document. John Lydgate, 1370–1451, monk and poet, wrote about Alban and Amphibalus in 1439. John Rous of Warwick, 1411 or 1420–1492), a medieval historian and antiquary penned a local history of Warwickshire and repeated the story. John Leland, d. 1552, preserved Rous's account and being an antiquary helped to spread the story. It was referred to by John Stow, 1525–1605, William Camden, 1551–1623, Michael Drayton 1563–1631 and Thomas Fuller 1608–1661. Thus, the legend was consolidated. Ward, 1892, said the name of Lichfield can be naturally derived from the field of dead. Fuller,1655, claimed Lichfield in the ‘British’ tongue signified Golgotha, a place bestrewed with skulls. For Shaw, 1798, Amphibalus was mere fiction founded on ignorance and the whole story was ridiculous. The Cathedral Sacrist’s roll of 1345 included the dust of Amphibalus amongst its long list of relics, but it was not listed in the incomplete roll of 1445. There is no statue, image in glass or record of Alban and Amphibalus in the current cathedral.

Drawing of 1688 seal 

In the 16^th century the legend was again reimagined and restored by the townsfolk. The restoration of the myth began when Lichfield was granted its Royal Charter and to mark the occasion a new seal was made in 1549. Previous Guild seals had depicted Mary and child and another showed Chad. The new seal depicted three dismembered males on a green background with two trees depicted. The seal was replaced in 1688 with a similar scene, but now in black and white, and it is still used by                                                                     Lichfield City Council.  

 Heraldic escutcheon, 1679, depicting ‘diverse martyrs in several manners massacred’.

Emblem  used on a 1720 map, with Borrowcop Hill, cathedral and bodies.

         Plaque on the side of the railway bridge over Upper St. John Street, showing three victims (more like soldiers). Upton (2012) said the depiction appeared as part of the livery for the South Staffordshire Railway Company in the 1840s.

     Then came an enthusiasm to know where the martyrs were massacred. Local history with early excavations became a quest for those beginning to dabble in science. In 1686, Robert Plot wrote his second book, The Natural History of Staffordshire, and in it he  gave an account of how Lichefeld started. He said Romans in 286 from Verulam (St Albans) and Erocetum (Wall) found Christians in the exercise of their Religion. They brought them to the place where Lichefeld now is and he described this as Christianfield, near Stitchbrook. 1000 of the Christians where martyred leaving their bodies unburyed to be devowered by birds and beasts. Plot claimed the place had the name of Lichefeld or Cadaverum campus, the field of dead bodies. He took this event to be the utmost antiquity of the City, and so believed Lichefeld started in the year 286.     

   Portrait of Robert Plot in British Museum. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

                                 

This version was repeated by later antiquarians including: Thomas Cox,1738, John Jackson, 1805, John C, Woodhouse, 1811, T.G. Lomax, 1819, and John B. Stone, 1870. Dr Samuel Johnson believed Lic in Lichfield referred to a corpse and his definition of Lichfield was a city in Staffordshire, so named from martyred Christians. It is still referred to occasionally as if history. There have been other narratives. In 1570, Prebendary Whitlock wrote St Michaels held slain Christians, but this was from the result of heathen Saxons taking over the Christian Celtic homelands. Dean Savage, 1914, doubted the Roman persecution, and preferred instead the notion of Lichfield and St Michaels being the Saxon Valhalla of Mercia, the tribal burial-ground away from their centre at Repton. There is a tradition the site is where the church of St Chad lies. On John Speed’s Map c1610, there is a sketch resembling the City Seal, showing slain bodies and placed somewhere near the area now called Christian Fields (SK1146 1124).

Martyrs Wall in Beacon Park. A reconstructed sculpture originally on the front of the Guildhall in 1740s. It is said to show 3 dismembered kings who led the Christians into battle against the Romans. A lion, the cathedral and Borrowcop Hill, where the kings were supposedly buried, are depicted. Yet another twist to the story and can only be a source of confusion. Unsurprisingly it is in a very quiet corner of the park. The inclusion of the cathedral must have caused dismay.

---

[1] Traditionally, Alban’s death was supposed to have occurred in 305, though Bede placed it in the reign of Diocletian (286 – 303).

[2] D. Johnson ‘Lichfield and St Amphibalus: The story of a legend. South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society for 1986–7. (1988), 28, 1–13.

[3] Leland left notes which were published later under the heading of Itinerary.

Chad, fantasy, folklore and maybe.

Alongside the folklore of the martyring of Christians grew a number of legendary stories surrounding St Chad. It was inevitable the saintly stories of the major founder of the early church would be embellished.

Fantasy

Chad retreated to a small oratory he made in a wood by a pool. One day a chased hart (adult male deer) drank at the pool and then lay down exhausted. Chad in pity covered the hart with boughs. A boy arrived who was hunting the hart. Chad told the boy the hart had led him to the water-of-life and went on to teach him the truths of the Gospel. That evening he baptised the boy and the following morning gave him Communion. The boy was Wulfad, the son of King Wulfhere. The boy fetched his brother, Rufin, to see Chad and he too was baptised. Both secretly visited Chad for some days, but their secret was discovered by Wulfhere’s steward called Werbod spying on them. Werbod had previously persuaded Wulfhere to revert from his Christian faith and become a pagan. He informed Wulfhere, who in a rage killed his sons with a sword at Chad’s oratory. (This was said to be on July 24 c. 658 which has been kept as a commemoration for the martyred sons). This led to Werbod going mad and Wulfhere being inconsolable with grief. Erminilda, Wulfhere’s wife, suggested he should visit Chad and seek forgiveness and spiritual healing. In penitence he set himself to build the Christian faith in Mercia and to endow the monastery at Peterborough.

The story has been told by many writers, sometimes with added touches.[1] Perhaps, it has more to say about King Wulfhere than Chad, particularly on the faith choice of being Christian or pagan. It became the founding myth for Peterborough Cathedral and originated from monks at the early Medehamstede Abbey. At Stone Priory, reputedly built by Erminilda, it is said the two murdered sons were buried. The Sacristy Roll of the cathedral in 1385 listed a relic of Wulfhad.

 

Folklore

About ⅓ mile north-east of the cathedral is St Chad’s church near the edge of Stowe Pool. It is late 12th (1190?) or early 13th century. The myth that Chad preached at the church dates to the 13th century. To the west of the church is St Chad’s well and since the 16th century is supposed to be where Chad would stand naked in the water for a long time with arms outstretched in prayer and contemplation.[2] Furthermore, this was the site Chad had his oratory mentioned by Bede. Stukeley, 1756, added this is where Chad’s assistant Owine heard the angels singing as Chad lay dying.[3] It has also been cited as the burial place for Chad. This is a confusion of the early layout of Lichfield with the area around the west end of Stowe pool and even the Cathedral Close being called Stowe. Stone wrote, “There is a tradition that the site chosen for the first church was selected as having been the spot where a great martyrdom of Christians had taken place. This church probably, although this is not certain, occupied the site of that now dedicated to St Chad, at the upper end of the lake.[4] The location of the murdered sons of Wulfhere has been placed at Stowe and somehow this could have morphed into Stone.    

                                                                             

 Chad's well at Stowe  

Altar frontal at St Chad's Church

 

Maybe

The comparatively short episcopacy of Chad at Lichfield (less than three years) has led to some writers believing Chad was a missionary in Mercia before he came to Lichfield. If so he knew Wulfhere before he became King (658) and would therefore know all about Bishop Diuma, the first bishop of Mercia. The logic is that only this way could he have achieved his reputation and saintliness.[5]

The timeline is as follows. Bede stated Chad was a novice trained by Aiden at Lindisfarne.  He says many nobles and commons went to Ireland for religious study or to live an ascetic life, c. 651.[6] One of these was Chad’s friend Egbert and Chad was with him.[7] Bede does not state when he returned and he is not mentioned again until c. 664.[8] Such a long stay in Ireland (13 years gap?) is odd, so the inference is he returned to England in 653 or 4. Possibly, two years later (656) he was consecrated a bishop (some writers assume this was Bishop of York since that is where he was located, but more likely he became Bishop of Northumbria).[9] Bede stated Chad then visited cities, country districts, towns, houses and strongholds on foot. Was this the time he visited Mercia; Savage proposes this. The proposition is credible, but it does not accord with King Wulfhere wanting Bishop Wilfrid to help him and possibly be the fifth Bishop of Mercia. Perhaps, the early church of Mercia was Celtic in its rite of worship and Chad was appropriate, whereas Wulfhere was wanting the Roman church and Wilfrid was appropriate. Wilfrid was senior to Chad so maybe Wulfhere wanted the more senior bishop for Mercia. This paradox has teased writers for a long time.

Adding stories to Chad’s history has a long tradition. Even Chad must have been subject to much folklore and pagan persuasions. Aldhelm, bishop of Sherbourne, c. 639‑709, did his best to caution a student named Heahfrith against travelling to Ireland with its ‘honeycomb of doctrine’ and exposure to a surfeit of pagan mythology.[10] Aldfrith, king of Northumbria, 685‑705, wrote works in Irish, encouraged monks at Iona and resided over a time when Northumbrian culture increased, including when the Lindisfarne Gospels was produced. All those suggests much fantasy and folklore from Gaelic sources were pervading early churches and influencing priests.

---

[1] H. Bradshaw, The Holy Lyfe of Saynt Werburge (1513), Edition C. Horstmann (London: 1887), xi. W. Dugdale, ‘A history of the Abbies and other Monasteries’, Monasticon Anglicanum (London: 1817), Volume 1, 377. R. H. Warner, Life and legends of St Chad, (London and Cambridge:1871), 99–102. H. E. Savage. Dean’s address on St Chad’s Day 1926, 19–20 (deposited in Cathedral Library).. S. Zaluckyj, Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of central England. (Logaston: 2001), 76.

[2] John Leland, vol.2, 99. See L. T. Smith, The Itinerary of John Leland. (Southern Illinois: 1964).

[3] W. Stukeley, Itinerarium Curiosum: or an account of the antiquities and remarkable curiosities in nature and art observed in travels through Great Britain, (London: 1776).

[4] J. B. Stone, A history of Lichfield Cathedral from its foundation to the present time. (London: 1870), 3.

[5] See H. E. Savage, (1926),1.

[6] Bede Historia Ecclesiastica, Book 3, 27. See J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, (Oxford: 2008), 161. Bede listed this work as Historiam ecclesiasticam nostræ insulæ ac gentis in libris V, which translates to The ecclesiastical history of our island and nation in five books.

[7] Ibid Book 4, 3. McClure and Collins, 178.

[8] Ibid Book 4, 3. McClure and Collins, 174.

[9] Ibid Book 3, 28. McClure and Collins, 164. He was reconsecrated a bishop in the Roman church in 664.

[10] C. Breay and J. Story, (eds.), Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Art, Word, War. (London: 2018), 42.