Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T23:57:03.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Church in Anglo-Saxon Towns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

J. Campbell
J. Campbell*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Worcester College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

To begin, as is natural, by considering the sedes episcopales of early England is to realise how little we know of its significant places—even to use the word ‘town’ is to beg a question. It is certain that some sedes were established at major centres of authority. Bede used metropolis to describe London and Canterbury and by that he meant the capital of a kingdom. Gregory the Great was probably wise in selecting London as the seat of an archbishop, an intention in which he seems to have persisted even after he was informed of English conditions. Not only was it the capital of a kingdom but it had geographical advantages which Canterbury could not rival. Even though Canterbury was established as the archbishops’ sedes there are indications that already from the seventh century they were using London as a meeting place, and perhaps as a dwelling place, at least on occasion. No major council of the early English church was held at or near Canterbury. York’s position in the north probably resembled that of London in the south. Our view of it has been transformed by Phillips’s excavations, which have shown that the great headquarters building of the legionary fortress was maintained and used, at least in part, until well after the conversion period.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 16: The Church in Town and Countryside , 1979 , pp. 119 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 [Ed Plummer, C.,] Opera Historica, 2 vols (Oxford 1896) 1 pp 46, 85Google Scholar.

2 Whitelock, D., Some Anglo-Saxon Bishops of London (London 1974) p 4 n 3 Google Scholar.

3 Ibid p 9 n 4 for archbishops of Canterbury consecrating bishops at London in 676 and 838-9 and for ninth-century councils there. Some eighth century councils were held at Chelsea, nearby. Boniface thought Augustine had held a synod at London, Die Briefe des Heiligen Bonifatius und Lullus, ed Tangl, M. (Berlin 1955) p 84 Google Scholar. However suspect Eddius’s account of Theodore’s summoning Wilfrid and Eorconweald to him it is significant that it is to London he says they were summoned, Eddius [Stephanus. Het Leven van Sint Wilfrid, ed Moonen, H.] (’S-Hertogenbosch 1946) cap 43 p 148 Google Scholar.

4 Unless some unidentified meeting place or places was in that area.

5 This derives from a paper read by Mr Phillips to an Anglo-German archaeological colloquium at York in September 1977.

6 Opera Historica 1 pp 114, 117. The Lincoln church is now thought to have been discovered, The Times (26 July 1978) pp 1, 2.

7 Biddle, M., ‘Felix Urbs Winthonia’, Tenth Century Studies, [ed Parsons, D.] (London/Chichester 1975) pp 125-7Google Scholar.

8 CS 1 no 166.

9 Opera Historica 1 p 413 (Letter to Egbert).

10 Eddius cap 15 p 92.

11 VCH Staffordshire 4 pp 8-10 (though the estate may have been enlarged after the eighth century).

12 Eddius cap 41 p 144.

13 Jones, G. R. J., ‘Multiple Estates and Early Settlement’, Medieval Settlement, Continuity and Change, ed Sawyer, P.H (London 1976) pp 15–40 Google Scholar; Barrow, G. W. S., The Kingdom of the Scots (London 1973) pp 7–27 Google Scholar.

14 Deanesly, M., ‘Early English and Gallic Minsters’, TRHS 4 ser 23 (1941) pp 15–40 Google Scholar; Page, [W.] [‘Some Remarks on the Churches of the Domesday Survey’], Archeologia 66 (London 1914-5) pp 61–102 Google Scholar; Barlow, [F.], [The English Church 1000-1066] (London 1966) p 184 Google Scholar.

15 Opera Historica 1 p 115.

16 The Old English Version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, ed Miller, T., pt 1, EETS 95 (1895) p 161 Google Scholar.

17 Opera Historica 1 pp 400-1 (anonymous life of Ceolfrith).

18 Cramp, R. J., ‘Monastic Sites’, The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, [ed Wilson, D. M.] (London 1976) pp 223-9Google Scholar, 453-7, 459-62.

19 Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed Earle, J. and Plummer, C., 2 vols (Oxford 1899) 1 p 48 Google Scholar.

20 The Chronicle of Aethelweard, ed Campbell, A. (London 1962) p 37 Google Scholar.

21 Diplomatarium [Anglicum Aevi Saxonici, ed Thorpe, B.] (London 1865) pp 607 Google Scholar, 611.

22 Select English Historical Documents of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, ed Harmer, F.E (Cambridge 1914) pp 1–2 Google Scholar, 39-40; cheese or something of the sort was to go with the loaves.

23 CS 1 no 402.

24 Whitelock, D., Anglo-Saxon Wills (Cambridge 1930) no XX Google Scholar.

25 Bede, , Opera Historica 1 p 138 Google Scholar; Aethelwulf, , De Abbatibus, ed Campbell, A. (Oxford 1967) p 38 Google Scholar.

26 Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert, ed Colgrave, B. (Cambridge 1940) p 278 Google Scholar.

27 M. Biddle, ‘Towns’, The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, pp 120-41; Loyn, H. R., ‘Towns in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed Clemoes, P. and Hughes, K. (Cambridge 1971) pp 115-28Google Scholar; Campbell, [J.], ‘Norwich’, [The Atlas of Historic Towns, ed Lobel, M.D.] 2 (London 1975) pp 5, 7-8Google Scholar; Russell, J. C., British Medieval Population (Albuquerque 1948) p 305 Google Scholar.

28 Biddle, ‘Felix Urbs Winthonia’, Tenth Century Studies pp 127-38.

29 Knowles, MO pp 702-3; Barlow, F., Edward the Confessor (London 1970) pp 153-4Google Scholar.

30 Lobel, [M. D.], [Bury St Edmunds] (Oxford 1935) pp 4–13 Google Scholar, 12.

31 VCH Hertfordshire 4 p 67.

32 Liber Eliensis, [ed Blake, E. O.] CSer, 3 ser 92 (1962) pp 75 Google Scholar, 80, 82, 84, 89, 91.

33 Stenton, F. M., ‘St Frideswide and her Times’, Oxoniensia 1 (Oxford 1936) pp 103-12Google Scholar; Hassall, T. G., Oxoniensia 28 (1973) pp 270 Google Scholar-4.

34 The authenticity of the clause in the charter of 1004 relating to tithe is questioned: Whitelock, D., EHD 1 p 546 Google Scholar.

35 Taylor, [H. M.], Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 3 (Cambridge, 1978) p 751 Google Scholar.

36 Domesday Book does not mention canons at, for example, Great Paxton or Worksop but there is evidence for them somewhat later: Radford, C. A. R., ‘Pre-Conquest Minster Churches’, Arch[aeological] J[ournal] 130 (London 1973) p 133 Google Scholar; Brown, C., ‘Foundation Charter of Worksop Priory’, Thoroton Society 9 (Nottingham 1905) p 85 Google ScholarPubMed.

37 Hill, [J. W. F.], Medieval Lincoln (Cambridge 1965) pp 64–73 Google Scholar.

38 VCH Gloucestershire 2 p 84.

39 Alcock, L., ‘By South Cadbury is that Camelot. . .’ (London 1972) pp 198–200 Google Scholar.

40 VCH Derbyshire 1 pp 87-8; Hall, R. A., ‘The Pre-Conquest Burh at Derby’, D[erbyshire] A[rchaeological] J[ournal] 94 (Kendal 1974) p 18 Google Scholar.

41 Thompson, [A.] Hamilton [‘Notes on Secular Colleges of Canons in England’, ArchJ 74 (1917)] p 142 Google Scholar.

42 VCH Derbyshire 1 p 310; The Cartulary of Darley Abbey, ed Darlington, R.R., Derby shire Archaeological and Natural History Society (Derby 1945) 1 Google Scholar p liv; Saltman, A., ‘The History of the Foundation of Dale Abbey’, DAJ 87 (1967) p 25 Google Scholar.

43 Taylor, , Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 3 p 1073 Google Scholar.

44 Vaughan, R., Mathew Paris (Cambridge 1958) p 191 Google Scholar.

45 Blythburgh in Suffolk could be a case in point if there was substance in the twelfth-century contention that Anna king of the East Angles was buried and still venerated there, Liber Eliensis p 18.

46 Denton, J. H., English Royal Free Chapels (Manchester 1970)Google Scholar.

47 VCH Staffordshire 4 pp 22-3. The recorded population of the town was a hundred and sixty six. If this figure was accurate one household in thirteen was that of a canon.

48 Brooke, [C. N. L.], [‘The Church in the Towns, 1000-1250’], SCH 6 (1970) pp 59–83 Google Scholar; Brooke, [C. N. L.] and Keir, [G.], [London 800-1216: the Shaping of a City] (London 1975) pp 128-48Google Scholar; Rogers, [A.], [‘Parish Boundaries and Urban History’], Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3 ser 35 (London 1972) pp 46–64 Google Scholar are the most im portant recent studies.

49 D[omesday] B[ook seu Liber Censualis Willelmi Primi Regis Angliae, ed Farley, A.], 2 vols (London 1783) 1 pp 117–18 Google Scholar; Campbell, ‘Norwich’ pp 3, 23-4.

50 Biddle, [M.] and Keene, [D. J.], [‘Winchester in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Winchester in the Early Middle Ages: an Edition and Discussion of the Winton Domesday, ed Barlow, F., Biddle, M., von Feilitzen, O. and Keene, D. J.] (Oxford 1976) pp 329-35Google Scholar, 498-9.

51 Page pp 85-6.

52 Musset, L., Les Peuples Scandinaves au Moyen Age (Paris 1951) p 144 Google Scholar.

53 Biddle and Keene p 334; Medieval Archaeology 8 (London 1974) for a church in York little larger; Hassall, T. G., Oxoniensia 39 (1974)Google Scholar for a church in Oxford converted from a domestic building. In a Suffolk village the construction of a chapel beside the cemetery of the mother church was explained on the ground that the latter could not hold the whole parish, DB 1 p 281.

54 Brooke pp 76-7.

55 DB 2 p 116. Stigand may possibly have been a Norwich man, Barlow p 78 n 1.

56 Though there are indications in Norwich that Edgar’s law on the division of tithe between an old minster and a new church may have been applied, Barlow p 195; Campbell, ‘Norwich’ p 4 n 12.

57 Biddle and Keene p 332.

58 Ancient Laws [and Institutes, ed Thorpe, B.] (London 1840) p 397 Google Scholar; Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics, ed Fehr, B. (Hamburg 1914) pp 24-5Google Scholar.

59 Deanesly, M., The Pre-Conquest Church in England (London 1961) pp 332-3Google Scholar; [Liebermann, F., Die] Gesetze [der Angelsachsen], 3 vols (Halle 1898-1916) 1 p 417 Google Scholar (dated by him to 1066-c1150).

60 Southern, R. W., Saint Anselm and his Biographer (Cambridge 1963) p 242 Google Scholar.

61 Gesetze 1 p 633 (earlier twelfth century but probably often reflecting pre-Conquest law).

62 Saint Bettet of Holme, ed West, J.R., Norfolk Record Society (Norwich 1932) nos 120 Google Scholar, 178, 217.

63 Ancient Laws pp 426-7.

64 Diplomatarium pp 642-9, 628.

65 Gesetze 1 p 649.

66 Stubbs, W., Select Charters (9 ed Oxford 1951) p 101 Google Scholar.

67 Brooke and Kerr pp 126-7; Rogers p 50 n 1; Ancient Laws p 484 (an Old English version of the Capitula of Theodulf of Orleans).

68 Hudson, W., ‘The Norwich Taxation of 1254’, Norfolk Archaeology 17 (Norwich 1910) p 106 Google Scholar.

69 Ancient Laws p 462; Jost, K., Die ‘Institutes of Polity Civil and Ecclesiastical’ (Berne 1959) pp 97 Google Scholar-9.

70 The Vita Wulfstani of William of Malmesbury, ed Darlington, R. R., CSer 3 ser 40 (1928) pp 12-3Google Scholar.

71 Ancient Laws p 462.

72 Lobel p 12.

73 For example p 131 n 80 below.

74 Barlow p 193.

75 Ross, [C.], [The] Cartulary [of Cirencester Abbey],/(Oxford 1964)Google Scholar prints (no 28/1) the foundation charter and refers (pp xix, xxi-xxii, xxv-xxviii) to the literature on Regenbald. Round, J. H., ‘Regenbald the Chancellor’, Feudal England (London 1909) pp 421-30Google Scholar is fundamental.

76 Ross, Cartulary no 575 and Round’s article on him in DNB.

77 The Domesday Geography of South West England, ed Darby, H.C. and Finn, R. Welldon (Cambridge 1967) pp 200-1Google Scholar, 204, 209; The Domesday Geography of South East England, ed Darby, H. C. and Campbell, E. M. J. (Cambridge 1962) p 281 Google Scholar; The Domesday Geography of Midland England, ed Darby, H.C. and Terrett, I. B. (Cambridge 1954) pp 20 Google Scholar, 49.

78 MRHEW pp 470, 471, 473.

79 Barlow pp 129-37; Round, J.H., ‘Ingelric the Priest and Albert of Lotharingia’, The Commune of London and other Studies (London 1889) pp 28–38 Google Scholar.

80 Barlow pp 192-3.

81 DB 1 fok 1-2, Craster, H. H. E., ‘A Contemporary Record of the Pontificate of Ranulf Flambard’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4 ser 7 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1930) p 47 Google Scholar, MRHEW pp 154, 470, VCH Hampshire 1 p 152. For valuable remarks on the conversion of minster communities to Augustinian, Brett, [M.],. [The English Church under Henry I] (Oxford 1975) pp 138-40Google Scholar.

82 Hill, Medieval Lincoin pp 141-5; Blomefield, F. and Parkin, C., An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, 11 vols (London 1805-11) 2 pp 75 Google Scholar, 91, 105, 116, 118, 126, 137, 145, 238, 255, 272, 299, 353, 367, 423, 429, 438, 439, 443, 466, 475 (2), 484.

83 Barlow pp 208-3 gives a most thorough account of the sees and their moves.

84 Campbell, ‘Norwich’ pp 8-9 and the works there cited.

85 For example, VCH Bedfordshire 1 pp 196-7; VCH Buckinghamshire 1 pp 223-4, 281, 311-2; VCH Derbyshire 2 pp 87-8; Hamilton Thompson pp 155-6.

86 Hill, Medieval Lincoln pp 144-5.

87 The Life and Miracles of Saint William of Norwich, ed Jessopp, A. and James, M. R. (Cambridge 1896) p 43 Google Scholar.

88 Ibid p 26.

89 Brett pp 162-4.

90 Diplomatarium pp 608-10; Barlow pp 196-8.

91 Brooke (1970) pp 80-1.

92 See p 121 above. I owe this identification with Campodunum to a so far unpublished paper by Miss Margaret Fell.

93 Pigot, H., ‘Hadleigh’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology (Ipswich 1863) pp 30–81 Google Scholar.

94 Ibid p 79.

95 HMC Eighth Report p 322.

96 Asser’s Life of King Alfred together with the Annals of Saint Neot’s, ed Stevenson, W.H. (new impr Oxford 1959) p 140 Google Scholar.