Grant to Malmesbury by Ecgfrith of Mercia.—Alcuin’s letters to
Mercia.—Kenulf and Leo III restore Canterbury to its primatial
position.—Gifts of money to the Pope.—Alcuin’s letters to the
restored archbishop.—His letter to Karl on the archbishop’s
proposed visit. Letters of Karl to Offa (on a question of
discipline) and Athelhard (in favour of Mercian exiles).
Before proceeding to examine Alcuin’s letter to a Mercian nobleman on the
death of Offa and his son Ecgfrith, it should be remarked that we of the
diocese of Bristol must not allow the mention of this poor young king
Ecgfrith to pass without our acknowledgement for a deed of justice done.
When Offa defeated the West Saxon king at Bensington, he took possession
of a good deal of the border land, including two tracts of land which
King Cadwalla of Wessex had given to Malmesbury, namely Tetbury in
Gloucestershire and Purton in Wilts. William of Malmesbury naturally
reports the iniquity of Offa in thus pillaging the abbey which was the
home of William’s life and studies. Offa gave Tetbury to the Bishop
of Worcester. Purton was the subject of a deed by Ecgfrith during his
reign of a few months. The deed has remarkable interest for us in this
diocese, in that it is doubly dated; first as in the seven hundred and
ninety-sixth year from the Incarnation, and next, with a very interesting
recognition of our own Aldhelm, due to the fact that the theft had
been from Aldhelm’s own Malmesbury, “in the eighty-seventh year from
the passing of father Aldhelm.” The deed restores land of thirty-five
families at Piritune, on the east side of Braden Wood, to the abbat and
brethren of Malmesbury, for the repose of the soul of his father Offa
who had taken it from them, and in order that the memory of Ecgfrith
might always be preserved in their prayers. As a sort of unimportant
afterthought he adds that the abbat and brethren have given him two
thousand shillings of pure silver, probably as many pounds of our money.
The deed was signed by Athelhard of Canterbury, not by Lichfield. The
reason no doubt is that Tetbury and Purton are south of the Thames, and
so outside the Province of Lichfield and within the diminished Province
of Canterbury.
When the death of Offa’s son, the youthful Ecgfrith, king of Mercia,
occurred in this same year 796 in which year his father Offa had
died,[113] and a distant cousin Kenulf succeeded, Alcuin, as has been
said, wrote a very serious letter to one of the chief officers of Mercia.
[Sidenote: Ep. 79. A.D. 797.]
“These are times of tribulation everywhere in the land; faith is failing;
truth is dumb; malice increases; and arrogance adds to your miseries. Men
are not content to follow in the steps of our early fathers, in dress, or
food, or honest ways. Some most foolish man thinks out something unsuited
to human nature, and hateful to God; and straightway almost the whole of
the people set themselves busily to follow this above all.
“That most noble youth [Ecgfrith] is dead; not, as I think, because
of his own sins alone, but also because the vengeance of his father’s
bloodshedding has reached the son. For you know best of all how much
blood the father shed that the kingdom might be safe for the son. It
proved to be the destruction, not the confirmation, of his reign.
“Admonish the more diligently your new king [Kenulf], yes, and the
king of Northumbria [Ardwulf] too, that they keep in touch with the
divine piety, avoiding adulteries; that they do not neglect their early
wives[114] for the sake of adulteries with women of the nobility, but
under the fear of God have their own wives, or by consent live in
chastity. I fear that Ardwulf, the king of my part of the country, will
soon[115] have to lose the kingdom because of the insult which he has
offered to God in sending away his own wife, and, it is said, living
openly with a concubine. It seems that the prosperity of the English is
nearly at an end; unless indeed by assiduous prayers, and honest ways,
and humble life, and chaste conversation, and keeping the faith, they
win from God to keep the land which God of His free gift gave to our
forefathers.”
With this letter we may fitly compare the letter which Alcuin wrote
to the king himself, Kenulf, who had thus unexpectedly succeeded. It
begins in a complimentary manner, but it is a very faithful letter. It
carefully recognizes the inconsistencies of Offa’s life, inconsistencies
which appear to have characterized the best rulers in those times, very
rude and violent times, when one occasion and another seemed to demand
ruthless treatment.
[Sidenote: Ep. 80. A.D. 797.]
“To the most excellent Coenulf, King of the Mercians, the humble levite
Albinus wishes health.
“Your goodness, moderation, and nobility of conduct, are a great joy to
me. They are befitting to the royal dignity, which excels all others in
honour, and ought to excel also in perfectness of conduct, in fairness of
justice, in holiness of piety. The royal clemency should go beyond that
of ordinary men, as we read in ancient histories, and in holy Scripture
where it is said[116]—Mercy and truth exalt a throne; and in the Psalms
it is said[117] of Almighty God—All the paths of the Lord are mercy and
truth. The more a man shines forth in works of truth and mercy, the more
has he in him of the image of the divine.
“Have always in mind Him who raised thee from a poor position and set
thee as a ruler over the princes of His people. Know that thou art rather
a shepherd, and a dispenser of the gifts of God, than a lord and an
exactor.
“Have always in mind the very best features of the reign of your most
noble predecessor Offa; his modest conversation; his zeal in correcting
the life of a Christian people. Whatever good arrangements he made in
the kingdom to thee by God given, let your devotion most diligently
carry out; but if in any respect he acted with greed, or cruelty, know
that this you must by all means avoid. For it is not without cause that
that most noble son of his survived his father for so short a time. The
deserts of a father are often visited on a son.
“Have prudent counsellors who fear God; love justice; seek peace with
friends; show faith and holiness in pious manner of life.
“For the English race is vexed with tribulations by reason of its many
sins. The goodness of kings, the preaching of the priests of Christ, the
religious life of the people, can raise it to the height of its ancient
honour; so that a blessed progeny of our fathers may deserve to possess
perpetual happiness, stability of the kingdom, and fortitude against any
foe; that the Church of Christ, as ordained by holy fathers, may grow
and prosper. Always have in honour, most illustrious ruler, the priests
of Christ; for the more reverently you are disposed to the servants of
Christ, and the preachers of the word of God, the more will Christ, the
King pious and true, exalt and confirm your honour, on the intercession
of His saints.”
When Kenulf, this distant cousin of Ecgfrith, came to the throne, he
looked into the matter of the archbishopric of Lichfield, and he took a
view adverse to Offa’s action. He wrote to Pope Leo III a letter,[118]
in which he put the points very clearly. His bishops and learned men
had told him that the division of the Province of Canterbury into two
provinces was contrary to the canons and apostolical statutes of the most
blessed Gregory, who had ordered that there should be twelve bishops
under the archbishop of the southern province, seated at London. On the
death of Augustine of Canterbury, it had seemed good to all the wise men
of the race, the Witangemote, that not London but Canterbury should be
the seat of the Primacy, where Augustine’s body lay. King Offa, by reason
of his enmity with the venerable archbishop Jaenbert and the people of
Kent, set to work to divide the province into two. The most pious Adrian,
at the request of the said king, had done what no one before had presumed
to do, had raised the Mercian prelate to the dignity of the pallium.
Kenulf did not blame either of them; but he hoped that the Pope would
look into the matter and make a benign and just response. He had sent an
embassy on the part of himself and the bishops in the previous year by
Wada the Abbat; but Wada, after accepting the charge, had indolently—nay
foolishly—withdrawn. He now sent by the hands of a presbyter, Birine, and
two of his officers, Fildas and Cheolberth, a small present, out of his
love for the Pope, namely, 120 mancuses,[119] some forty to fifty pounds,
say not far off £1000 of our time.
Pope Leo addressed his reply to king Kenulf, his most loved bishops, and
most glorious dukes. It was a difficult letter to write, for Kenulf had
been very frank about the uncanonical action of Hadrian the Pope. Leo
answered this part of Kenulf’s letter by stating that his predecessor had
acted as he had done (1) because Offa had declared it to be the universal
wish, the petition of all, that the archbishopric should be divided
into two; (2) because of the great extension of the Mercian kingdom;
(3) for very many causes and advantages. He, Leo, now authorized the
departure from Pope Gregory’s order in so far as this, that he recognized
Canterbury, not London, as the chief seat of archiepiscopal authority.
He declared that Canterbury was the primatial see, and must continue and
be viewed as such. I cannot find in his letter a definite declaration
that he annuls the act of his predecessor, but that is the effect of the
letter; nor does he declare that Lichfield is no longer an archbishopric.
Kenulf, as we have seen, had sent him, out of his affection for him, a
gift of 120 mancuses. But he reminded the king that Offa had bound his
successors to maintain the gift to the Pope, in each year, of as many
mancuses as there are days in the year, namely, he says, 365, as alms
to the poor, and as an endowment for keeping in order the lamps [in the
churches]. This is much more likely than the shadowy gifts of Ina, king
of Wessex, to have been the origin of Peter’s Pence, a sum of money
collected in England, at first fitfully and eventually year by year, and
sent out to the Pope. The money was collected in the parishes of each
diocese down to the time of the Reformation. It is a regular item in the
churchwardens’ accounts of the earlier years of Henry VIII. Only a fixed
amount of the whole sum collected was sent to the Pope, the balance
being used for repairs in the several dioceses. We have a list prepared
by a representative of a late mediaeval Pope giving £190 6_s._ 8_d._
as the amount received by him for the year, corresponding roughly to a
normal 300 marks a year.
Offa’s money for the Pope went of course from Mercia. When Wessex became
predominant, Ethelwulf, the son of Ecgbert and father of Alfred, made
large gifts to Rome, and left by will 300 mancuses, 100 in honour of St.
Peter, specially for filling with oil all the lamps of his apostolic
church on Easter Eve and at cock crow, 100 in honour of St. Paul, in the
same terms and for the same purpose in respect of the basilica of St.
Paul, and 100 for the Pope himself. King Alfred also sent presents to
Rome. From 883 to 890 there are four records of gifts from Wessex. After
890 we have no such record in Alfred’s reign; and in Alfred’s will there
is no mention of the spiritual head of the Church of the West.
We learn from our own great historian, William of Malmesbury, that Kenulf
wrote two later letters to Leo on this subject, and he gives us Leo’s
reply.[120] Athelhard, the Pope says, has come to the holy churches of
the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, to fulfil his vow of prayer and
to inform the Pope of his ecclesiastical mission. He tells the king
that by the authority of St. Peter, the chief of the apostles, whose
office though unworthily he fills, he gives to Athelhard such prelatical
authority that if any in the province, whether kings, princes, or people,
transgress the commands of the Lord, he shall excommunicate them till
they repent. Concerning the jurisdiction which the archbishops of
Canterbury had held, as well over bishops as over monasteries, of which
they had been unjustly deprived, the Pope had made full inquiry, and now
placed all ordinations and confirmations on their ancient footing, and
restored them to him entire. Thus did Pope Leo III condemn the injustice
of Pope Hadrian I. We had better have managed our own affairs, instead of
paying to foreigners infinite sums of money to mismanage them.
Before we leave this strange episode of the creation of an archbishopric
of Lichfield, it is of special local interest to us in Bristol, and
to the deanery of Stapleton, that the chief Mercian prelate, Higbert
of Lichfield, signed deeds relating to Westbury upon Trym and Aust on
Severn, above the archbishop of Canterbury. This was in 794. Offa the
king signed first, Ecgferth, the king’s young son, second, and then
Hygeberht; Ethelhard of Canterbury coming fifth in one and fourth in
the other. The first deed gave from the king to his officer Ethelmund,
in 794, four cassates of land at the place called Westbury, in the
province of the Huiccians, near the river called Avon, free of all
public charges except the three which were common to all, namely, for
the king’s military expeditions, for the building of bridges, and for
the fortification of strongholds.[121] The other deed restores to the
see of Worcester (Wegrin) the land of five families at Aust, which the
duke Bynna had taken without right, it being the property of the see of
Worcester. To make all safe, six dukes made the sign of the cross at the
foot of this deed, which is, as we all know, the origin of the modern
phrase ‘signing’ a deed or a letter. The dukes included Bynna himself.
[Sidenote: Ep. 85. A.D. 797.]
Alcuin wrote a very wise letter to Athelhard of Canterbury on the
occasion of the restoration of the primacy. He advised that penance
should be done. Athelhard and all the people should keep a fast, he for
having left his see, they for having accepted error. There should be
diligent prayers, and alms, and solemn masses, everywhere, that God might
wipe out what any of them had done wrong. The archbishop was specially
urged to bring back study into the house of God, that is, the conventual
home of the monks and the archbishop, with its centre, the cathedral
church. There should be young men reading, and a chorus of singers, and
the study of books, in order that the dignity of that holy see might be
renewed, and they might deserve to have the privilege of electing to the
primacy.
“The unity of the Church, which has been in part cut asunder, not as it
seems for any reasonable cause but from grasping at power, should, if it
can be done, be restored in peaceful ways; the rent should be stitched
up again. You should take counsel with all your bishops, and with your
brother of York, on this principle, that the pious father Higbert of
Lichfield be not deprived of his pall during his lifetime, but the
consecration of bishops must come back to the holy and primal see. Let
your most holy wisdom see to it that loving concord exist among the chief
shepherds of the churches of Christ.”
[Sidenote: Ep. 171. A.D. 801.]
With regard to the remark of Alcuin that Athelhard should do penance
for having left his see, it may be explained that Alcuin had in vain
advised Athelhard not to leave England on the restoration of the primacy
to Canterbury. Athelhard persisted in visiting Rome, and informed Alcuin
that he had commenced the journey. Alcuin thereupon wrote this:—“Return,
return, holy father, as soon as your pious embassy is finished, to your
lost sheep. As there are two eyes in the body, so I believe and desire
that you two, Canterbury and York, give light throughout the breadth of
all Britain. Do not deprive your country of its right eye.”
Then Alcuin gives a very significant hint that the ways of the clergy
of England are not good enough for France, and they had better not let
Charlemagne see anything of that kind.
“If you come to the lord king, warn your companions, and especially the
clergy, that they acquit themselves in an honourable manner, in all holy
religion, in dress, and in ecclesiastical order; so that wherever you go
you leave always an example of all goodness. Forbid them to wear in the
presence of the lord king ornaments of gold or robes of silk; let them
go humbly clad, after the manner of servants of God. And through every
district you must pass with peace and honest conversation, for you know
the manner and custom of this Frankish race.”
Nothing could make more clear the commanding position held by Alcuin than
this exceedingly free counsel from a deacon to the Primate of England. We
may quote portions of yet another letter giving the same impression.
[Sidenote: Ep. 190. A.D. 802.]
In a letter to Athelhard after his safe return to England and
a favourable reception which he had reported to Alcuin, Alcuin
congratulated the archbishop on the restoration to its ancient dignity of
the most holy see of the first teacher of our race. By divine favour, the
members now once more cohered in unity with the proper head, and natural
peace shone forth between the two chief prelates of Britain, and one will
of piety and concord was vigorous under the two cities of metropolitans.
“And now,” he writes, “now that you have received the power to correct
and the liberty to preach, fear not, speak out! The silence of the bishop
is the ruin of the people.”
It is an interesting fact that we have a letter which Alcuin wrote to
Karl, introducing to him this same archbishop on the very journey of
which he so decidedly disapproved.
[Sidenote: Ep. 172. A.D. 801.]
“To the most greatly desired lord David the king, Flaccus his pensioner
wishes eternal health in Christ.
“The sweetness of your affection, and the assurance of your approved
piety, very often urge me to address letters to your authority, and by
the office of syllables to trace out that which bodily frailty prevents
my will from accomplishing. But novel circumstances compel me now to
write once more, that the paper may bring the affection of the heart, and
may pour into the ears of your piety the prayers which never have been
in vain in the presence of your pity. Nor do I believe that my prayers
for your stableness and safety are vain in the sight of God, for the
divine grace gladly receives the tears which flow forth from the fount of
love[122].
“I have been informed that certain of the friends of your Flaccus,
Edelard to wit, Metropolitan of the See of Dorobernia and Pontiff of
the primatial see in Britain, and Ceilmund[123] of the kingdom of the
Mercians, formerly minister of king Offa, and Torhcmund[124] the faithful
servant of king Edilred, a man approved in faith, strenuous in arms,
who has boldly avenged the blood of his lord, desire to approach your
piety[125]. All of these have been very faithful to me, and have aided
me on my journey; they have also aided my boys as they went about hither
and thither. I pray your best clemency to receive them with your wonted
kindness, for they have been close friends to me. I have often known
bishops religious and devoted in Christ’s service, and men strong and
faithful in secular dignity, to be laudable to your equity; for there is
no doubt that all the best men, approved by their own conscience, love
good men, being taught by the example of the omnipotent God who is the
highest good. And it is most certain that every creature that has reason
has by His goodness whatever of good it has, the Very Truth saying, ‘I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me walketh not in darkness but
shall have the light of life.’ John viii. 12.”
Before we leave Mercian affairs and the relations between Karl and
Offa, it may be of interest to give a letter[126] from Karl to Offa
which will serve to show the extreme care he took in order to maintain
ecclesiastical discipline, and the severity of that discipline. That a
man with all the affairs of immense dominions on his hands should have
made time to produce such a letter on such a point seems very worthy of
note. Karl’s statement of his titles shows that this is an early letter.
“Karl, by the grace of God king of the Franks and Defender of the Holy
Church of God, to his loved brother and friend Offa greeting.
“That priest who is a Scot[127] has been living among us for some
time, in the diocese of Hildebold, Bishop[128] of Cologne. He has now
been accused of eating meat in Lent. Our priests refuse to judge him,
because they have not received full evidence from the accusers. They
have, however, not allowed him to continue to reside there, on account
of this evil report, lest the honour in which the priesthood is held
should be diminished among ignorant folk, or others should be tempted by
this rumour to violate the holy fast. Our priests are of opinion that he
should be sent to the judgement of his own bishop, where his oath was
taken.
“We pray your providence to order that he transfer himself as soon as
conveniently may be to his own land, that he may be judged in the place
from which he came forth. For there also it must be that the purity in
manners and firmness in faith and honesty of conversation of the Holy
Church of God are diligently kept according to canonical sanction, like a
dove perfect and unspotted, whose wings are as of silver and the hinder
parts should shine as gold.
“Life, health, and prosperity be given to thee and thy faithful ones by
the God Christ for ever.”
A letter which Karl wrote to Athelhard of Canterbury begging him
to intercede for some exiles, sets forth his style and title very
differently[129], evidently at a later date.
It bears very directly upon one of the complaints which, as we have seen,
Offa had made in letters to Karl; namely, the shelter afforded at Karl’s
court to fugitives from Mercia.
“Karl, by the grace of God king of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician
of the Romans, to Athilhard the archbishop and Ceolwulf his brother
bishop, eternal beatitude.
“In reliance on that friendship which we formed in speech when we met,
we have sent to your piety these unhappy exiles from their fatherland;
praying that you would deign to intercede for them with my dearest
brother king Offa, that they may be allowed to live in their own land in
peace, without any unjust oppression. For their lord Umhrinsgstan[130]
is dead. It appeared to us that he would have been faithful to his own
lord if he had been allowed to remain in his own land; but, as he used to
say, he fled to us to escape the danger of death, always ready to purge
himself of any unfaithfulness. That reconciliation might ensue we kept
him with us for a while, not from any unfriendliness.
“If you are able to obtain peace for these his fellow tribesmen, let them
remain in their fatherland. But if my brother gives a hard reply about
them, send them back to me uninjured. It is better to live abroad than to
perish, to serve in a foreign land than to die at home. I have confidence
in the goodness of my brother, if you plead strenuously with him for
them, that he will receive them benignantly for the love that is between
us, or rather for the love of Christ, who said, Forgive and it shall be
forgiven you.
“May the divine piety keep thy holiness, interceding for us, safe for
ever.”
It was a skilful stroke of business on Karl’s part to send the men over
to the charge of the archbishop, which amounted to putting them in
sanctuary. If he had kept them in France and written to beg that they
might be allowed to return, it would have been much easier for Offa to
say no. And if he had sent them direct to Offa in the first instance,
they would probably never have got out of his clutches at all.