Understanding Chad's grave site

Summary. Bede’s description of the grave site at Licitfelda (Lichfield) mentioned two churches, St Mary close to where Chad was buried and St Peter not far away. Archaeology has shown Chad’s grave was in a shrine tower. The site appears to be a ‘monasterium’ or ‘mynster’ complex and similar to nine other known sites. Imperfect translation of Bede’s text has led to misunderstandings and the ambiguities can now be reviewed in the light of more informed history.

     There has been much speculation on the layout of the grave site where Chad was buried and this has led to much misunderstanding. The following is a review of what is now known with recent archaeology and what has been poor translation of texts.

What is now known

          The first four bishops of Mercia, c. 656-667-8, must have had a mother church somewhere, but the locations are unknown.[1] King Wulfhere invited Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon to help him form a diocese for Mercia and they approved a site at Licetfelda for a new see; the sixth in England. (See the post, Wulfhere and Wilfrid, and later Bede, name Lichfield.) The site was said to be ‘paratum’ – prepared- and when Chad was appointed the 5th[2] bishop of Mercia, it ought to be assumed he had a church at Lichfield in 669. It is recorded a church was present in 672 at the time of Chad’s impending death.[3] Maybe two churches were indicated.

Bishop Jaruman in a roundel in the presbytery tiled floor, holding an early (elaborate) church before Chad arrived. This very early church could not have been on the Lichfield site.

           The death of Chad was recorded by Bede, but the original book has been lost. The oldest copy is known as the Moore Manuscript c. 737. This is a copy and is thus open to errors and although Bede is thought to have been precise many of his sources come from the experiences of others and could also be prone to error.

                    Moore manuscript passage, Historia Ecclesiastica page 156, fol. 74v and translation

 So, Chad died on the 2nd of March (672), and was first buried by St. Mary's Church.

          Archaeology in 2003 showed the grave was apparently within a shrine tower, 7 m x c. 7 m. externally and 5m x c. 5m internally; the east wall was undetermined. The floor was cobbled stone and offset to the north was a grave cut into the bedrock (0.8m deep) c. 2m long and c.2m wide. (see the post, ‘Making sense of Chad's grave, St Peter's cathedral, St Mary's church and a shrine tower’ for the strong evidence this was Chad’s grave). It is assumed Chad’s relics were taken from this site in the 10th, 11th or 12th century since there is no mention in documents of an alternative.

          Bede stated Chad’s grave was near the church of St Mary, so it is presumed this cemetery church was not far from the east end of the nave. There is evidence burials were at the east end of the church. The passage also mentioned a church dedicated to the blessed apostle St Peter. So, were there two churches at the time of Chad’s death? Generally, the primary Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) church was dedicated to an apostle, especially Peter the rock on which the church was built. It later acquired a lesser, secondary church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This pairing of churches with St Mary being secondary includes Canterbury, Ripon, Monkwearmouth, Glastonbury, Lindisfarne, Lastingham, Malmesbury, Hackness and Whitby. This list of secondary Marian churches shows if Lichfield has St Mary first it is significantly anomalous.[4] A first church dedicated to St Peter is consistent with Biblical teaching, was the convention across Europe and the most likely arrangement at Lichfield. In pairs of churches with a saint’s shrine, the church was west to the shrine. This follows Glastonbury, Whithorn, Hexham, Wells, Worcester, Winchcombe, Ripon, Gloucester and possibly Bradford-on-Avon. Therefore, it could be assumed the church of St Peter was at the west end of the nave. If Bishop Wilfrid was involved with organising, even dedicating, the churches, it is most likely the church of St Peter was built first, then St Mary and after Chad’s death the shrine tower. The whole complex would be a monasterium, later a mynster, or minster.

 The misunderstanding

    Bede’s text was translated by Latinists with little or no knowledge of the history of the site and especially the archaeology of 2003. The conventional translation has been, Chad died on the 2nd of March, and was first buried by St. Mary's Church, but afterwards, when the church of the most holy prince of the apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were translated into it.[5] This version came from Charles Plummer, 1896.[6] Somehow, this became, The cathedral established by St Chad, 669–72, was presumably the church dedicated to St. Mary near which he was buried. In 700 his remains were transferred to a funerary church, apparently dedicated to St. Peter. [7] The spurious date of 700[8] was added in the 14th century from a text that is wholly unreliable. There have been other translations which differ in small ways.[9]

          The misunderstandings arise from the imperfect translation of ‘postmodum constructa ibidem’. Postmodum is imprecise in meaning and can be afterwards (the usual interpretation) or presently or shortly. Alternatively, Latinists consulted by the author have suggested the following, ‘postmodum can be linked with different expressions in the phrase, and this affects the sense. Since it is obviously a contrast to primo (‘first burial’), it is likely to refer to the movement of the bones.’ Another wrote, postmodum in the sentence could theoretically refer either to the time of the burial, Chad was buried at St Mary's his remains were subsequently transferred to St Peter's, or instead to the relative timing of the construction of St Peter's. Normally, a comma would be either after or before postmodum to indicate the editor's interpretation; it would be interesting to know, though by no means decisive, whether there are any marks in the manuscripts. The first interpretation seems to me the more natural one. but I would say that the second is at least suggested at the same time. Which means it is more likely to refer to Chad’s bones being translated to a different position and less likely to refer to one church following after another church.

          Constructa is an unusual word. Bede uses the word constructa on three other occasions in his book and all refer to the building of memorial shrines to individuals and not to the building of churches. Namely, where King Oswald died on a battlefield, for Saint Fursa’s final resting place and in a letter to Abbot Mellitus from Pope Gregory giving instructions for building new shrines where there were heathen temples.[10] In the Vulgate Bible the word appears twice, in Nehemiah 3.16 it refers to a pool built next to the sepulchre of David and in Ephesians 2.21 it is to the making of the figurative Holy Temple of God. That is a total of six references where constructa was used for the building of some kind of shrine, sepulchre or metaphorical temple for remembrance; it appears to have a restricted and specific use. It is not a church. Chad’s relics were not translated into a church, but into a shrine. So, what was constructed on Chad’s grave? Bede’s text in the Moore copy has, Est autem locus idem sepulcri tumba lignea in modum domunculi. That is, at the same place of (Chad’s burial) was a sepulchre/shrine made of wood in the shape of a little house.[11] This is understood to mean a timber monument in the shape of a small roofed cell over the original grave. It is supported by Bede describing those who visited the sepulchre out of devotion being able to place their hands through an aperture and collect pulveris. This refers to soil or sand around Chad’s original grave. It is the same as in the miracle at Maserfelth where people took soil from the place where King Oswald’s body fell in battle.[12]

                                            Reconstructed site with two churches and a shrine tower.

            Ibidem has also been confused, since it means in the same place. It is confusing if buried near St Mary and then translated to St Peter on the same place, that is one church is built on another. We now know the burial was in a shrine tower, so it could mean the bones are recovered from the grave and placed on the surface within a ‘little house’ protecting the relics and all inside the shrine tower. This chimes with the idea that Offa’s shrine chest box with the Lichfield Angel, left end left side, being a replacement in the 8th century.

 New explication

Chad died March 2 in 672 and was buried in a grave by the church of St Mary. This was on the same site of the main church of St Peter the Apostle. Sometime later, presumably two or three decades after his body had decomposed, his bones were retrieved and placed in a wooden ‘little house’ shrine on the grave site. This translation could have been around the year 700, so 28 years later. It could have been organised by Bishop Headda (Bede never mentions this bishop and this is anomalous) and more likely by Bishop Wilfrid. The relics were kept in a shrine tower. The arrangement is similar to at least 6 sites in Ireland; remember Chad was in the Gaelic/Celtic/Hibernian church until three years before his death.

[1] Repton, St Michaels hill in Lichfield, and at the Early Medieval settlements along the river Trent have been suggested.

[2] Ceollach’s consecration date is unknown. Before his death, he left or resigned his see and went to the monastery of Iona. It is thought he was in Mercia for less than a year and did not receive his pallium and become bishop. Wilfrid was in Mercia in 668-9 and could have been the 4th bishop of Mercia, if only nominally. If this is true, then Chad was the 5th bishop of Mercia.

[3] Bede, Historiam ecclesiasticam nostrae insulae ac gentis in libris V., c.731, Book 4, chapter 3 recorded that when he foresaw his death, he asked his brothers to meet him at the church. He also mentioned Chad opening the window of the oratory, which could be part of the church.

[4] H. Gittos, Liturgy, architecture and sacred places in Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: 2013), 94.

[5] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical history of the English People, (Oxford: 2008),178. Bede book four, chapter three.

[6] C. Plummer, (ed.), Venerabilis Bede Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis Anglorum, (Oxford:1896).

[7] 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 (London 1990), 37.

[8] This dating appeared in the ‘Lichfield Chronicle,’ initially called the ‘Book of Alan of Ashbourne, Vicar of Lichfield’, British Library MS Cotton Cleopatra D IX, started in 1323. Later published by Wharton in the Anglia Sacra see H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, Volume 1. (London, 1691), 428. The source and detail for this date, January 700, and construction of a church are unknown. Sargent suggested St Peter’s church can be plausibly connected with a church built by Bishop Headda, see A. Sargent, Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad: creating community in Early Medieval Mercia (Hatfield: 2020), 53. If so, the church could have been built from the start of Headda’s episcopate, namely 691 onwards. Bede never mentions Headda and does not link a bishop with the construction of the church of St Peter.

[9] The earliest surviving translation of Bede by Thomas Stapleton, 1565,[9] described the existence of two churches at the time of Chad’s relics being translated (presumably sometime after 672). Namely, Chad was, ‘buried first by St. Mary’s Church, but afterward his bones were removed into the church of the most blessed Saint Peter chief of the apostles, the same church being finished.’

[10] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical history of the English People (oxford: 2008). Oswald’s at Heavenfield, Book III Ch 2, 112; Fursey’s at Péronne, Book III, Chapter 19, 143; shrines replacing altars, Book 1, Chapter 30, 57.

[11] Ibid. 178.

[12] Ibid. 124.