Summary. King Wulfhere and Bishop Wilfrid carefully selected the location for their early church at Lichfield. There are good reasons for this site being approved.
King Wulfhere of Mercia and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon and Hexham wanted a church for Mercia to be in the right location for a new diocese, c. 667–8. The appointment by Archbishop Theodore for Chad of Lastingham to be the fifth bishop of Mercia and the first bishop of Lichfield must have established the first cathedral, 669–672. The Venerable Bede of Jarrow noted this decision in his book,[1] 731. See the post, ‘Wulfhere and Wilfrid, and later Bede, name Lichfield.’
Licitfelda was chosen was because it had all the right requirements for settlement and worship. It fitted into the topography traditionally selected for an early church. Churches had to be on a pure site; the location was important.
1. Environmental parameters
The Mercian mudstone hillock provided a dry site for settlement in which the bedrock could have been used for making walls. Mudstone, a form of sandstone, together with local pockets of clay could when mixed and baked in the sun provide walls for dwellings including a church. The surrounding forest on the higher north side would have provided timber and wattle for roofs. Shellfish in the many surrounding pools would have provided calcareous minerals for making lime mortar. Close by on the south side was a stream (now called the Curborough brook and dammed for the Minster pool) was suitable for baptism, washing and sanitation. The site is nearly east-west aligned (the current cathedral is 29o off this alignment).[2] Like the sites of many early minsters the area had seclusion being partly surrounded by marsh and probably open pools of water, with the site slightly above the alluvium and the floodplain. The church could have had the aspect of being in a densely wooded, river plain with the river navigable by a flat-bottomed vessel. Many English minsters were on open ground with water south eastwards and gently rising ground north westwards[3] and Lichfield has precisely this terrain.
Topography of early Lichfield. The
numbers refer to elevation above sea level in metres. Aldershawe is 110m and
Pipe Hill is 120m, both providing water to supply the Trunkfield brook.
Inhabitants could exit and reach the Saxon pathways of Watling (A5) and Icknield Street (A38) and this would have enabled travel, particularly to Northumbria. The first seven bishops and others came from Lindisfarne and Northumbria. Warriors were a small distance away, possibly at Repton or Tutbury,[4] but significantly not too close. Presumably, King Wulfhere’s royal vill was not too far away, see the post ‘TÅmtun, King AEthelred's vill.’ Nearby were the settlements at Catholme, 6th to 9th-centuries, and Letocetum, 1st to 7th-centuries. These neighbouring settlements had people wanting to hear the word of God; it was a good base for missionary work.[5] A limited archaeological excavation in 1976 and 1977 beneath the gardens to the south side of the cathedral revealed three inhumations, timber structures and pottery of the Early Medieval period. It was thought these were the traces of the first ecclesiastical Early Medieval timber-built streamside settlement, directly comparable to that at Jarrow and only slightly damaged by the short-lived, later Saxon cemetery.[6] If true, it means there were residents to construct and maintain an early church. There could also have been farmers since oat and wheat seeds were found which suggests they were either grown on site or being brought in from local fields. The site had all the attributes needed for settlement, and especially seclusion to concentrate on worship.
3. Pure, untainted site
The area was free of ‘idols and
devils.’ Pope Gregory’s letter to Mellitus and Augustine,[7] c.
601, told them to sprinkle holy water on existing temples to cleanse them
and only then add altars and relics. Lastingham, at the foot of the North
Yorkshire Moors, was only suitable, according to Bede, once Cedd, Chad’s
brother, spent time expiating the site from the taint of robbers and dens of
wild beasts.[8]
Wilfrid found the church at York had become like a den of thieves and needed
cleansing. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has for the year 656, Wulfhere alongside
Jaruman and Wilfrid hallowing the new abbey at Medehamstede, later
Peterborough.[9]
There are folklore stories of Chad communing with local deer, baptizing
penitents, standing in prayer for long times in the river, but never a specific
reference to Chad having to cleanse the site at Lichfield. Yet when first
consecrated bishop, Bede stated Chad travelled on foot across the country
devoted to the task of keeping the church in truth and purity.[10]
Perhaps, when Lichfield was offered as a suitable location, previous bishops
had already spiritually cleansed the site. This is plausible considering a
little earlier in time Wulfhere, according to Bede, sent Bishop Jaruman, c. 665,
to restore the East Saxons from their decline into building temples and
worshipping images following a devastating plague.[11]
Clearly, the Mercian king and bishop rejected apostasy and ensured churches in
their kingdom have worship on an untainted site.
An account of
how the site of Mildrith’s legendary chapel at Ebbsfleet in Kent became
sanctified identified four steps.[12] Presumably, these four steps would have applied
to the early church at Lichfield.
Steps 1 and 2: Association with a saint and revelation by
God.
Many sacred sites began with a
miracle associated with a saint and this would lead to a shrine being built
where the saint was buried followed by pilgrims visiting the site. Lichfield is
atypical because the church came first. Bede stated Chad’s bones were buried by
the church of St Mary.[13] On that spot frequent
miracles of healing occurred including a man suffering from freneticus[14]
who wandered onto the site and fell asleep. He stayed the whole night and
next morning was cured in his mind, sanato sensu.[15] A similar story was later
told at Cuthbert’s grave of a demoniac boy being cured with soil taken from the
spot where water was poured away after washing the saint’s body.
Depiction of a man sleeping near the grave of Chad (Ceadda).
This miracle must have caused
pilgrimage. Visitors to Chad’s shrine could collect pulveris, dust, soil,
or probably sand, add to water and drink it, and this too gave healing. The
sacred site was never chosen by Man; it was merely discovered by him; it came
to Man from without.[16] Did Bede realise the
similarity of this miracle with Jacob’s story in which after wandering he too
fell asleep at an unknown place? He saw heaven in his dream and on wakening thought
the place was awesome and named it, Bethel, meaning House of God. By these
signs it was God who sanctified the site.
Divine elevation is extraordinary
if it occurs in a pre-existing folk territory.[17] Not far away the Trent
washlands at Catholme had barrows, a cursus, a sunburst monument and wood
henges; closer still was a Roman temple at Letocetum and a Saxon burial hill
site at St Michaels. Recently, a hengiform monument was investigated at the The
National Arboretum Centre, Alrewas. It was concluded to be an artificially
raised earthen mound, probably created in the later Neolithic period which
focussed on the bend in the River Tame and the confluence between that river
and the River Trent.[18] The surrounding landscape
had a pre-Christian importance ready to be spiritually cleansed. Reclaiming or
taming of a supernatural past was one among many factors in the location of
minsters.[19]
Reconstruction of the henge with the sunburst monument in the distance at Catholme. The cursus is farther back. A date of 2880 – 2410 BC has been given to the henge. Courtesy of Henry Rothwell, with satellite imagery © Google
Steps 3 and 4: Transformation of a church through
a ritual process and consecration by liturgical rite
A review of the dedication rites
undertaken in the Middle Ages concluded every part of a church had to be
sanctified.[20]
Wilfrid too would require new churches to be properly dedicated and therefore
legitimised. Wilfrid’s service for the new church at Ripon in the mid-670s
included dressing and vesting the altar, presumably with sprinkling of blessed
water, reading a list of lands granted to support the church, providing a
sermon, presumably having Mass and following with a feast lasting three days
and nights.[21]
Whether the early church at Lichfield received a similar dedication is unknown,
but with Bishop Wilfrid possibly in Mercia there is every reason to assume
this. The actions of King Wulfhere to remove apostasy in the kingdom of the
East Saxons indicate he too would support a ritual consecration of any church.
Finally, the ‘Penitential of Theodore’, attributed to Archbishop Theodore, but
compiled after his death, 690, listed lawful ways a monastic organisation
should be governed and legitimate ways clergy must conduct themselves. This
showed from the Council of Hertford, September 673, Theodore was exceptionally
severe on how clergy and their community had to behave.[22] It was part of the
Romanising of the church and clergy at Lichfield would have been expected to accede.
The first church-cathedral was
built on a site with features appropriate for settlement and worship, for
having aspects of sacredness and being dedicated by top bishops. Licitfelda
was right for a church or minster.[23]
It was not an uninhabited waste land[24] in the
middle of a forest as some writers think. Lichfield was topographically appropriate,
spiritually clean, sanctified and approved. Licit means approved and feld
means field or clearing; it is in the name.
[1] Historia
Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. See note 6, for a modern translation.
[2] See the
post, ‘East-West alignment’.
[4] ibid.
106.
[5] M. W. Greenslade,
A History of the County of Staffordshire, XIV, Lichfield: The place and
street names, population and boundaries, 37–42. Lichfield: The Cathedral.
[6] M. O. H.
Carver, ‘Excavations south of Lichfield Cathedral, 1976–1977’ South
Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, 1980–1981,
XXII (1982), 38.
[7] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical
history of the English People. Book I, Ch. 30, 56.
[8] ibid.
148.
[9] J.
Ingram, The Saxon Chronicle with an English Translation (London, 1823),
pp. 42 and 45.
[11] ibid.166–7.
[12] H. Gittos, Liturgy, architecture and sacred places in
Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 2013), 21–2.
[13] J. McClure
and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical history of the English People, (Oxford,
2008), 149. A very similar translation of bones from a grave to the church of
St Mary happened at Lastingham with his older brother Cedd.
[14] In
turmoil, having a mental issue, possibly crazy.
[15] ibid.
178.
[16] M. Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion
(Lincoln and London, 1958), 369.
[17] J. Blair, The church in
Anglo-Saxon Society, (Oxford 2005),195.
[18] Survey
of scheduled monument 1006090 at the National Memorial Arboretum, Summer 2023.
See https://youtu.be/lpTIXp6gg5E
[19] ibid.
191.
[20] H.
Gittos, Liturgy, architecture and sacred places in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford,
2013), 21–2.
[21] B. Colgrave,
The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus. Text, translation and notes,
(Cambridge, 1927), 37.
[22] M. W.
Herren and S. A. Brown, Christ in Celtic Christianity (Woodbridge,
2002), 42.
[23] Bede
described Chad having eight ‘brothers’ on the site and such a religious
community would have been called a monasterium, which became translated
to mynster and then minster with modern spelling.
[24] See the
post, ‘Lichfield’s founding myth’. Also, ‘Chad fantasy, folklore and maybe’.