Chad's burial

Summary. Chad was buried in a grave near a church called St Marys on a site with St Peters in 672. Several misunderstandings have occurred from this simple event.

     Until archaeological investigation in 2003 at the east end of the knave it was not known where Chad was buried. There were also misunderstandings of this site due to misleading translation of ambiguous texts.

Facts known

          The first four bishops of Mercia, c. 656-667/8, must have had a mother church-cathedral somewhere, but their locations are unknown.[1] King Wulfhere invited Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon, c. 667/8 to help him form a diocese for Mercia and together they approved a site at Licetfelda (later Licitfelda) for the sixth see in England; see the post, ‘Wilfrid, creator of the first cathedral.’ The site was said to be ‘paratum’, meaning prepared.[2] Then a new archbishop of Canterbury called Theodore, with the agreement of Wulfhere and possibly Oswiu the King of Northumbria, appointed Chad to be the 5th[3] bishop of Mercia. It is assumed he had a church in 669 when he arrived. At the time of Chad’s death in 672 it is recorded two churches were mentioned.[4]

 

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 described by Bede, but the original text has been lost. The oldest copy is known as the Moore Manuscript c. 737. This is a copy and could possibly have errors’

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

 

          Archaeology in 2003 revealed Chad’s grave.[5] 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 or choir area where many burials have been uncovered. The passage also mentioned a church dedicated to the blessed apostle St Peter. The primary Early Medieval church was almost always dedicated to an apostle and especially Peter, the rock on which the church was built. A first church dedicated to St Peter is consistent with Biblical teaching, was the convention across Europe and the most likely arrangement at Lichfield. Pairing of churches with the church of St Mary being secondary includes Canterbury, Ripon, Monkwearmouth, Glastonbury, Lindisfarne, Lastingham, Malmesbury, Hackness and Whitby. If ever Lichfield had St Mary built first it would be significantly anomalous.[6] In pairs of churches with a saint’s shrine, the church was almost always west to the shrine. This follows the order at Glastonbury, Whithorn, Hexham, Wells, Worcester, Winchcombe, Ripon, Gloucester and possibly Bradford-on-Avon. Therefore, it could be presumed 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 mynster (O.E. for minster).

 

AI rendition of pilgrims praying at Chad’s grave next to the cemetery church of St Marys

 

The mistranslation

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.[7] This version came from Charles Plummer, 1896.[8] 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. [9] The spurious date of 700[10] was added in the 14th century from a text that is wholly unreliable. There have been other translations which differ in small ways.[11]

 

          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 (unlikely), 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 be the more natural one. but the second understanding 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; constructum is much more understood. Bede used 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.[12] 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 or constructum. Therefore, Chad’s relics were not translated into a church, but into a shrine.

There is little evidence of saints being buried within any church in the 7th-century. Pope Gregory’s Dialogues gave strong restrictions on church burial in Collectio Canonum Hibernensis of c.700. It explained cemetery churches like St Marys were at a distance from the main church. The cemetery was where ancestors were buried and that would be the prime site chosen by the dying. The church was the eucharistic space and the cemetery was the sepulchral space. 

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.[13] 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 (a foramina shrine) meaning substrate. This is 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.[14]

Reconstructed site with two churches and a shrine tower. It is a linear arrangement which means a pilgrim passes in a line when visiting the buildings.

 

            Ibidem has also been confused, since it means in the same place, that is ‘on the same spot’. 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 around the grave. 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 for ‘the little wooden house’, does not have a floor.

 

So, the new explication is:

Chad died on March 2, 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 top of 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). It is more likely to have been organised by Bishop Wilfrid. The relics were then surrounded by 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 and at his death there were indications he was being remembered as a ‘Celtic’ like saint.[15]

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

[2] B. Colgrave, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus. Text, translation and notes. Ch. 14.

[3] 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.

[4] Bede, Historiam ecclesiasticam nostrae insulae ac gentis in libris V., c.731, Book 4, chapter 3.

[5] The grave was within a shrine tower, approximately 7m x 7 m. externally and 5m x 5m internally; the east wall was indeterminate, but could have been a doorway. 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, ‘Chad's grave-the evidence’.

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

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

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

[9] 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.

[10] 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.

[11] The earliest surviving translation of Bede by Thomas Stapleton, 1565,[11] 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.’

[12] 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.

[13] Ibid. 178.

[14] Ibid. 124.

[15] Bede records, Book 4 Chapter 3, that a vision was recorded in which at Chad’s death the soul of his brother Cedd fetched the soul of Chad and this occurred in Ireland.