The early Mercian church

 

Summary. In the first 150 years the church in Mercia change direction four times with each phase determined by the kings. 

The first church at Licetfelda was Celtic in its faith and organisation. It was promoted by King Oswiu of Northumbria with patronage by King Wulfhere of Mercia, 658-75, followed by his brother Æthelred, 675-705, and their sons Coenred, 704-709, and Ceolred, 709-16.[1] In this time, 656-716, there were 9 bishops and almost all had been trained at Lindisfarne with experience in Celtic Ireland. It is true from the time of Chad in 669 the bishops were consecrated in the Roman church, but it is conjectured they also retained an outlook which was Celtic in tradition.[2] The changeover from localism to papal centralism took time.

AI rendition of King Wulfhere from his statue on the west front of the cathedral

The Mercian church then showed greater affiliation with the Northumbrian-York church and its Northumbria Hiberno-Saxon tradition. This was determined by King Æthelbald, 716-757, a distant cousin of the previous Mercian kings. In this time there were 3 possible bishops, but dates are uncertain. This was the tradition outlined by Bede in his book, 731,[3] with allegiance to Rome combined with a north of England slant. 

A stone found at Repton is thought to show King Aethelbald. It is held at Derby Museum.  

Aethelbald signature.

King Offa, 756-96, a distant relative of Æthelbald, then looked to Charlemagne, Europe and Rome and developed his own Romanesque tradition with his own archbishop. In this time there were 2 possible bishops and one archbishop.[4] Offa appeared to be more interested in the power games of kings and emperors than in what the priests and pope were doing. The Mercian church was obedient to him.

AI rendition of King Offa from a statue on the west front of the cathedral. He is holding a mitre showing his archbishopric.

Finally, a fractious allegiance passed back to the Archbishop of Canterbury demanded by the pope during the reigns of King Coenwulf, 796-821, and Ceolwulf, 821-3. These Mercian kings were very distantly related to previous kings. In this time there were 3 bishops and the introduction of a quasi-monastic culture. They accepted the pope’s ruling, but disputed everything coming out of Canterbury. 

King Coenwulf gold coin

With each phase there appeared new bishops, new rules for running the church and most likely changes in the intrinsic architecture of the church. Each change seemed to be timed by changes with the kings.

Evidence for a Celtic phase

The concept of a Celtic Christianity remains controversial.[5] Celtic is applied to various diverse cultures and several, now extinct, languages.[6] These cultures had missionary saints and Celtic Christianity was centred on these wandering saints.

Evidence for a Celtic faith is:    

·       The area had a river, marsh, wells and springs. Celtic people considered springs and wells to be holy places. The church building was often on a hill in a spiritually untainted area.[7]

Licetfelda mynster on a sandstone outcrop north of a river and wetlands stood an early stone cathedral-church close to standing crosses, a saint's shrine chapel (which came later), and a small cemetery church, Close by were dwellings and small farm holdings. It was isolated for worship, but not far from old Roman roads. It had the attributes needed for settlement and features needed for baptism and spiritual reflection.    

·       The first 7 bishops knew all about Lindisfarne with its Celtic monastery.    

·       Chad, the 5th bishop of Mercia, was born in a Celtic, probably Yorkshire, settlement and after his period as a novice in Lindisfarne continued his church education in Celtic monasteries in Northern Ireland.[8] Chad’s true name, Ceadda, is Celtic. Bede described how he was first consecrated a bishop in the Celtic rite by two Celtic bishops at Winchester.[9] 

AI rendition of Chad and his 3 older brothers being taught by Bishop Aidan at Lindisfarne.    

·       Bede described how Chad’s soul after death was seen over Ireland with that of his Celtic brother Cedd.[10]    

·       Chad’s grave was in a shrine tower chapel that had similar dimensions and layout to standing Celtic chapels with graves to saints in Ireland. It has also been linked to that at Jouarre Abbey, northern France, which connects with St Columbanus and his Celtic mission, c. 630.    

·       The mynster layout, if sacred and numinous to pilgrims, appeared to resemble similar Celtic sacred landscapes in Ireland.   

·       In the    Staffordshire (Lichfield) Hoard there are three linked pieces that appear to be the handle and decoration of a calling handbell. Several plates of the reconstructed handbell show a cloisonné arrangement resembling an early Celtic handbell. Most of the known early bells (95) belonged to Celtic Insular churches.[11]    

·       The name of Lichfield has been conjectured to come from a Celtic-Anglo-Saxon hybrid with Lich derived from the Celtic word Luitcoit meaning grey wood. This origin-explanation has been dismissed by others.[12]

 

Evidence for a Northumbria Hiberno-Saxon tradition, 716-756    

·          Chad’s Gospels, written possibly sometime between 720 and 740, has artwork which is Celtic, Mercian and Pictish, and a text in a Northumbria Hiberno-Saxon tradition. It has diminuendo, meaning each line reduces in height across the page. This was an innovative way of laying out the text invented by 6th-century Irish monastic scribes and understood in Jarrow. Two pages of artwork resemble two pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels in layout.[13]   

·       Bede, 731, in Jarrow described the life of Chad in much the same fulsome way he did for Cuthbert. He is thought to have been informed of Chad by Trumbercht (Trumbert) one of Chad’s brethren.     

·       In 737, some state 740, it is possible Æthelbald raided Northumbria and held control or fear of the kingdom for a time. He also pillaged York in 740.   

·        A number of Mercians were appointed to Canterbury during the 730s and 740 almost certainly arranged by Æthelbald. During Cuthbert's archbishopric, 735, the Diocese of York was raised to archbishopric level. Canterbury was now only concerned with bishops south of the Humber. Again, Æthelbald must have accepted, or managed this elevation of the church at York.   

·       In 745-6, Boniface, an Early Medieval monk missionary in Germany, along with seven other bishops, sent Æthelbald a letter not only praising Æthelbald's faith and alms-giving, but also reproaching him for many sins against the church. The letter passed to Ecgberht, the Archbishop of York, which indicates Æthelbald was more likely to respond to a Northumbrian-York reproach, rather than one from Canterbury.   

·       In 757, Æthelbald was killed at Seckington in Warwickshire and according to a later continuation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, he “was treacherously killed at night by his bodyguard in shocking fashion."[14] This shows a sympathy for the king from the scribes, not Bede, at Jarrow.

Evidence for a Romanesque phase, 757-803   

·       The left end of a stone shrine chest depicting Gabriel and known as the ‘Lichfield Angel’ has Romanesque features in the face being similar to those on Offa’s coins, the tunic and the pose. The same Romanesque style was favoured by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne.[15]   

·       A surviving letter from Charlemagne to Offa, dated 796, refers to an earlier letter from Offa, and discusses diplomatic events, the status of English pilgrims on the continent and the exchange of diplomatic gifts, as well as the trade of goods between the two kingdoms. Offa is called ‘a dearest brother’.[16]   

·       Offa persuaded Pope Adrian I in 787 to divide the archdiocese of Canterbury in two, creating a new Archdiocese of Lichfield which then became dominant during Offa’s reign. Higbert, Archbishop of Lichfield, was usually the second signature on Offa’s charters.[17] 

Hygeberht arċiepiscopus signature

Evidence for a fractious return of allegiance to Canterbury.    

·       Coenwulf wrote to the Pope and asked Leo to consider making London the seat of the southern archbishopric, removing the honour from Canterbury, but this was refused. In 802, the pope reinstated Canterbury as the archdiocese over southern England. It was reaffirmed in a Council in 803.[18] Coenwulf appeared to not want this and was in dispute with the archbishop for two decades. The disagreement continued after Coenwulf’s death, but the pope was now in control. Perhaps. It had taken 160 years to reach this position.

---

[1] See the posts, ‘Wulfhere and Wilfrid, and later Bede, name Lichfield,’ and ‘First cathedral, King Wulfhere's.’ Described in the biography of Bishop Wilfrid written by a monk at Ripon called Stephanus and published 712–3. Title was Victa Sancti Wilfridi I. Episcopi Eboracensis. It has been translated by B. Colgrave The life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus (Cambridge: 1985). “He knew of a place in the kingdom of Wulfhere, King of the Mercians, his faithful friend which had been granted to him at Lichfield, and was suitable as an episcopal see either for himself, or for any other to whom he might wish to give it.”

[2] See the post, ‘Chad, fact and fiction.’

[3] Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum published in 731, Book 4, Chapter 3. See J. McClure and R. Collins, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. (Oxford: 2008) 178.

[4] See the post, ‘King Offa and Archbishop Higbert,’

[5] S. Jenkins, The Celts. A sceptical history, (London: 2022), 35.

[6]  The diverse cultures include early Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Breton, Manx and Cornish.

[7] See the post, ‘Why Licitfelda was approved.’

[8] Aidan was an Irish missionary who moved from Iona to Lindisfarne in 634 or 5. It is thought Chad entered Lindisfarne at the age of 12. However, Wilfrid was 14 when he entered.

[9] This is the year 664, but some accounts have different dates. The bishop at Winchester was called Wini. He was made to leave Winchester by the king and flee to Mercia. It is said he then paid to be the bishop of London in 656 and this simony led to his condemnation by Bede. This probably reflected on Chad.

[10] Bede, iv, 3. See note 3, McClure and Collins (2008), 178.

[11] See the post, ‘A bishop's handbell.’

[12] See the post, ‘The name of Lichfield.’

[13] See the post, ‘Chad's Gospels.’

[14] J. McClure and R. Collins (2008), 297, see note 3. This was an addition to the Moore manuscript, pages xxi-ii.

[15] See the post, ‘Lichfield Angel..’

[16] F. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England. (Oxford: 1989), 221.

[17] C. J. Godfrey,   ‘The Archbishopric of Lichfield’, Studies in Church History, (1964), 1, 145-53. See also the post, ‘King Offa and Archbishop Higbert.’

[18] F. Stenton (1989), 226. See note 15.