Cedd
Encyclopedia
Cedd was an Anglo-Saxon
monk and bishop from Northumbria
. He was an evangelist
of the Middle Angles
and East Saxons
in England
and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby
, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England. He is venerated by Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
in his Ecclesiastical History Of The English People
. The following account is based entirely on Book 3 of Bede's History.
Cedd was born in the kingdom of Northumbria
and brought up on the island of Lindisfarne
by Aidan. He was one of four brothers: Chad
(originally Ceadda), Cynibil
and Caelin
being his siblings. The first datable reference to Cedd by Bede makes clear that he was a priest by the year 653. This probably pushes his birth date back to the early 620s. It is likely that Cedd was oldest of the brothers and was acknowledged the head of the family. While he was alive, he seems to have taken the lead, while Chad was his chosen successor.
Aidan had come to Northumbria from Iona
, bringing with him a set of practices that are known as the Celtic Rite
. As well as superficial differences over the Computus
(calculation of the date of Easter
), and the cut of the tonsure
, these involved a pattern of Church organization fundamentally different from the diocesan structure
that was evolving on the continent of Europe. Activity centred on monasteries, which acted as bases for peripatetic missionary bishops. There was a strong emphasis on personal asceticism
, on Biblical exegesis
, and on eschatology
. Aidan was well-known for his personal austerity and disregard for the trappings of wealth and power, and Bede several times stresses that Cedd and Chad absorbed his example and traditions. Bede tells us that Chad and many other Northumbrians went to study with the Irish after the death of Aidan (651). Cedd is not mentioned as one of these wandering scholars. He is further pictured by Bede as very close to Aidan's successor, Finan. So is highly likely that he owed his entire formation as a priest and scholar to Aidan and to Lindisfarne.
with three other priests, to evangelise the Middle Angles
, who were one of the core ethnic groups of Mercia
, based on the mid-Trent
valley. Peada
, son of Penda
was sub-king of the Middle Angles. Peada had agreed to become a Christian
in return for the hand of Oswiu's daughter, Alchflaed, in marriage. This was a time of growing Northumbrian power, as Oswiu reunited and consolidated the Northumbrian kingdom after its earlier (641/2) defeat by Penda. Peada travelled to Northumbria to negotiate his marriage and baptism.
Cedd, together with the other priests, Adda, Betti and Diuma
, accompanied Peada back to Middle Anglia and won a considerable number of converts of all classes. Bede relates that the pagan Penda did not obstruct preaching even among his subjects in Mercia proper, and portrays him as generally sympathetic to Christianity at this point - a very different view from the general estimate of Penda as a devoted pagan. However, the mission apparently made little headway in the wider Mercian polity, since Bede credits Cedd's brother Chad
with the effective evangelization of Mercia, more than a decade later. It seems that, to make progress among the general population, Christianity needed positive royal backing, including grants of land for monasteries, rather than merely a benign attitude.
, accompanied by one other priest. This was at the request of King Sigeberht
to re-convert his people.
The East Saxon kingdom
was originally converted by missionaries from Canterbury
, where St. Augustine
had established a Roman mission in 597. The first bishop of the Roman Rite
was Mellitus
, who arrived in Essex in 604, but he had been driven out after about a decade. Thereafter, the religious destiny of the kingdom was constantly in the balance, with the royal family itself divided - some Christian, some pagan, and some wanting to tolerate both.
Bede tells us that Sigeberht's decision to be baptized and to reconvert his kingdom definitively was on the initiative of Oswiu. Sigeberht actually travelled to Northumbria to accept baptism
from Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne
. It seems that Cedd went to the East Saxons partly as an emissary of the Northumbrian monarchy. Certainly his prospects can only have been helped by the continuing military and political success of Northumbria, especially the final defeat of Penda in 655, which gave Northumbria a practical hegemony among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
After making some conversions, Cedd returned to Lindisfarne to report to Finan. In recognition of his success, Finan ordained him bishop, calling in two other Irish bishops to assist at the rite. Cedd was appointed bishop
of the East Saxons
. As a result of this appointment, he is generally listed among the bishops of London - a part of the East Saxon kingdom. He is not so-described by Bede, however, who generally uses ethnic descriptions for episcopal responsibilities when dealing with the generation of Cedd and Chad.
Bede's record makes clear that Cedd demanded personal commitment and that he was unafraid to confront the powerful. He excommunicated
a thegn
who was in an unlawful marriage and forbade Christians to accept the man's hospitality. According to Bede, when Sigeberht himself continued to visit the man's home, Cedd descended on their revels to denounce the king openly, foretelling that he would die in that very house. Bede asserts that the King's subsequent murder (660) was his penance for defying Cedd's injunction.
There are signs that Cedd's position in Essex became more tenuous after the death of Sigeberht. The new king, and murderer of Sigeberht, Swithelm, was a pagan. It seems that he had long been a client of Ethelwald
, king of the East Angles, who was himself increasingly dependent on Wulfhere
, Christian king of a newly resurgent Mercia. After some persuasion from Ethelwald, Swithelm accepted baptism from Cedd, although Cedd had to travel into East Anglia to baptize him at Ethelwald's home. This kept the East Saxon kingdom Christian for the time being.
Bede presents Cedd's work as decisive in the conversion of the East Saxons. This is despite earlier missionary work and a subsequent relapse into paganism. It seems that substantial work had been done but that there was still a possibility of that it could be undone.
, but possibly West Tilbury
) and Ithancester (almost certainly Bradwell-on-Sea
).
Cedd also became abbot of the monastery of Lastingham
in his native Northumbria at the request of the sub-king of Deira, Ethelwald (not to be confused with Ethelwald of the East Angles
). Bede records the foundation in some detail, making clear that Ethelwald was put in contact with Cedd through Caelin, Cedd's brother, who was on the king's staff. Cedd undertook a forty-day fast to purify the site, although urgent royal business took him away after thirty days and Cynibil took over the fast for him.
Cedd occupied the position of abbot of Lastingham to the end of his life, while maintaining his position as missionary bishop and diplomat, often far away from the monastery itself. His brother Chad was to do the same. Clearly Lastingham was regarded as a monastic base for the family of Cedd, giving them intellectual and spiritual support and a place of retreat. However, Bede makes clear that Cedd appointed others to have day-to-day care of Lastingham, and probably Chad did the same.
which differed from the Roman Rite
, both in the accepted form of the tonsure
(i.e. the shaven patch of scalp adopted by Christian monks) and in the method of calculating the date of Easter
. These differences came to a head within the Northumbrian kingdom at a meeting known as the Synod of Whitby
. The proceedings of the council were hampered by the participants' mutual incomprehension of each other's languages, which probably included Gaelic
, Old English, Frankish
and Early Welsh
, as well as Latin
. Bede tells us that Cedd was a conscientious interpreter
for both sides. Cedd's facility with the languages, together with his status as a trusted royal emissary, must have given him a key role as a go-between in the negotiations. Moreover, this facility would be seen as an eschatological sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, reversing the disaster of Babel
. When the council ended, he returned to Essex. According to Bede, he accepted the Roman observance of Easter, and returned to his work as bishop, abandoning the practices of the Scots - by which Bede means the Irish from the Kingdom of Dál Riata
.
A short time later, he travelled back to Northumbria, this time to the monastery at Lastingham, where he fell ill with the plague and died on 26 October 664. Bede records that a party of thirty monks travelled up from Essex to Lastingham. All but one small boy died there of the plague. Cedd was initially buried at Lastingham in an open-air grave, but his body was moved to a shrine inside the later stone church at the monastery. Chad succeeded Cedd as abbot at Lastingham.
King Swithelm died at about the same time as Cedd and was succeeded by the joint kings Sighere
and Sebbi
. There was a partial reversion to paganism, which Bede blames on the effects of the plague. Mercia under King Wulfhere
was now the dominant force south of the Humber, so it fell to Wulfhere to take prompt action. He dispatched Bishop Jaruman
to take over Cedd's work among the East Saxons. Jaruman, working (according to Bede) with great discretion, toured Essex, negotiated with local magnates, and soon restored the situation.
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
monk and bishop from Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
. He was an evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
of the Middle Angles
Middle Angles
The Middle Angles were an important ethnic or cultural group within the larger kingdom of Mercia in England in the Anglo-Saxon period.-Origins and territory:...
and East Saxons
Kingdom of Essex
The Kingdom of Essex or Kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent. Kings of Essex were...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby
Synod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
, a meeting which resolved important differences within the Church in England. He is venerated by Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
Background
The little that is known about Cedd comes to us mainly from the writing of BedeBede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
in his Ecclesiastical History Of The English People
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
. The following account is based entirely on Book 3 of Bede's History.
Cedd was born in the kingdom of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
and brought up on the island of Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
by Aidan. He was one of four brothers: Chad
Chad of Mercia
Chad was a prominent 7th century Anglo-Saxon churchman, who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonized as a saint. He was the brother of Cedd, also a saint...
(originally Ceadda), Cynibil
Cynibil
Cynibil was one of four Northumbrian brothers named by Bede as prominent in the early Anglo-Saxon Church. The others were Chad of Mercia, Cedd and Caelin....
and Caelin
Caelin
Cælin was one of four brothers named by Bede as active in the early Anglo-Saxon Church. The others were Cedd, Chad, and Cynibil.Bede portrays Cælin as a chaplain at the court of Ethelwald, a nephew of King Oswiu of Northumbria. Ethelwald was appointed to administer the coastal area of Deira...
being his siblings. The first datable reference to Cedd by Bede makes clear that he was a priest by the year 653. This probably pushes his birth date back to the early 620s. It is likely that Cedd was oldest of the brothers and was acknowledged the head of the family. While he was alive, he seems to have taken the lead, while Chad was his chosen successor.
Aidan had come to Northumbria from Iona
Iona
Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
, bringing with him a set of practices that are known as the Celtic Rite
Celtic Rite
The term "Celtic Rite" is applied to the various liturgical rites used in Celtic Christianity in Great Britain, Ireland and Brittany, sporadically in Galicia and also in the monasteries founded by the Irish missions of St. Columbanus in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy during the early...
. As well as superficial differences over the Computus
Computus
Computus is the calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. The name has been used for this procedure since the early Middle Ages, as it was one of the most important computations of the age....
(calculation of the date of Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
), and the cut of the tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
, these involved a pattern of Church organization fundamentally different from the diocesan structure
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
that was evolving on the continent of Europe. Activity centred on monasteries, which acted as bases for peripatetic missionary bishops. There was a strong emphasis on personal asceticism
Asceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
, on Biblical exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
, and on eschatology
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
. Aidan was well-known for his personal austerity and disregard for the trappings of wealth and power, and Bede several times stresses that Cedd and Chad absorbed his example and traditions. Bede tells us that Chad and many other Northumbrians went to study with the Irish after the death of Aidan (651). Cedd is not mentioned as one of these wandering scholars. He is further pictured by Bede as very close to Aidan's successor, Finan. So is highly likely that he owed his entire formation as a priest and scholar to Aidan and to Lindisfarne.
Mission to Mercia
In 653, Cedd was sent by King OswiuOswiu of Northumbria
Oswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...
with three other priests, to evangelise the Middle Angles
Middle Angles
The Middle Angles were an important ethnic or cultural group within the larger kingdom of Mercia in England in the Anglo-Saxon period.-Origins and territory:...
, who were one of the core ethnic groups of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, based on the mid-Trent
River Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
valley. Peada
Peada of Mercia
Peada , a son of Penda, was briefly King of southern Mercia after his father's death in November 655 until his own death in the spring of the next year.In about the year 653 Peada was made king of the Middle Angles by his father...
, son of Penda
Penda of Mercia
Penda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
was sub-king of the Middle Angles. Peada had agreed to become a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in return for the hand of Oswiu's daughter, Alchflaed, in marriage. This was a time of growing Northumbrian power, as Oswiu reunited and consolidated the Northumbrian kingdom after its earlier (641/2) defeat by Penda. Peada travelled to Northumbria to negotiate his marriage and baptism.
Cedd, together with the other priests, Adda, Betti and Diuma
Diuma
Diuma was a medieval Bishop of Mercia.Diuma was consecrated after 655 but his death date is unknown. He was an Irishman, and one of the four priests that were introduced into the kingdom of Mercia in 653 by Peada of Mercia son of Penda king of Mercia. Peada had become a Christian when he married...
, accompanied Peada back to Middle Anglia and won a considerable number of converts of all classes. Bede relates that the pagan Penda did not obstruct preaching even among his subjects in Mercia proper, and portrays him as generally sympathetic to Christianity at this point - a very different view from the general estimate of Penda as a devoted pagan. However, the mission apparently made little headway in the wider Mercian polity, since Bede credits Cedd's brother Chad
Chad of Mercia
Chad was a prominent 7th century Anglo-Saxon churchman, who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonized as a saint. He was the brother of Cedd, also a saint...
with the effective evangelization of Mercia, more than a decade later. It seems that, to make progress among the general population, Christianity needed positive royal backing, including grants of land for monasteries, rather than merely a benign attitude.
Bishop of the East Saxons
Cedd was soon recalled from the mission to Mercia by Oswiu himself. The king then sent him to the East Saxon kingdomKingdom of Essex
The Kingdom of Essex or Kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent. Kings of Essex were...
, accompanied by one other priest. This was at the request of King Sigeberht
Sigeberht II of Essex
Sigeberht II, nicknamed the Good or the Blessed , was King of the East Saxons , in succession to his relative Sigeberht I the Little...
to re-convert his people.
The East Saxon kingdom
Kingdom of Essex
The Kingdom of Essex or Kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent. Kings of Essex were...
was originally converted by missionaries from Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, where St. Augustine
Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...
had established a Roman mission in 597. The first bishop of the Roman Rite
Roman Rite
The Roman Rite is the liturgical rite used in the Diocese of Rome in the Catholic Church. It is by far the most widespread of the Latin liturgical rites used within the Western or Latin autonomous particular Church, the particular Church that itself is also called the Latin Rite, and that is one of...
was Mellitus
Mellitus
Mellitus was the first Bishop of London in the Saxon period, the third Archbishop of Canterbury, and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Christianity. He arrived in 601 AD with a group of clergymen sent to augment the mission,...
, who arrived in Essex in 604, but he had been driven out after about a decade. Thereafter, the religious destiny of the kingdom was constantly in the balance, with the royal family itself divided - some Christian, some pagan, and some wanting to tolerate both.
Bede tells us that Sigeberht's decision to be baptized and to reconvert his kingdom definitively was on the initiative of Oswiu. Sigeberht actually travelled to Northumbria to accept baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
from Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne
Finan of Lindisfarne
Finan of Lindisfarne , also known as Saint Finan, was an Irish monk, trained at Iona in Scotland, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne from 651 until 661. Originally from Ireland, he founded a cathedral on Lindisfarne and converted the kings Sigebert of Essex and Peada of the Middle Angles to...
. It seems that Cedd went to the East Saxons partly as an emissary of the Northumbrian monarchy. Certainly his prospects can only have been helped by the continuing military and political success of Northumbria, especially the final defeat of Penda in 655, which gave Northumbria a practical hegemony among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
After making some conversions, Cedd returned to Lindisfarne to report to Finan. In recognition of his success, Finan ordained him bishop, calling in two other Irish bishops to assist at the rite. Cedd was appointed bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the East Saxons
Kingdom of Essex
The Kingdom of Essex or Kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent. Kings of Essex were...
. As a result of this appointment, he is generally listed among the bishops of London - a part of the East Saxon kingdom. He is not so-described by Bede, however, who generally uses ethnic descriptions for episcopal responsibilities when dealing with the generation of Cedd and Chad.
Bede's record makes clear that Cedd demanded personal commitment and that he was unafraid to confront the powerful. He excommunicated
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
a thegn
Thegn
The term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...
who was in an unlawful marriage and forbade Christians to accept the man's hospitality. According to Bede, when Sigeberht himself continued to visit the man's home, Cedd descended on their revels to denounce the king openly, foretelling that he would die in that very house. Bede asserts that the King's subsequent murder (660) was his penance for defying Cedd's injunction.
There are signs that Cedd's position in Essex became more tenuous after the death of Sigeberht. The new king, and murderer of Sigeberht, Swithelm, was a pagan. It seems that he had long been a client of Ethelwald
Æthelwold of East Anglia
Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald , was a 7th century king of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their regio at Rendlesham...
, king of the East Angles, who was himself increasingly dependent on Wulfhere
Wulfhere of Mercia
Wulfhere was King of Mercia from the end of the 650s until 675. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere...
, Christian king of a newly resurgent Mercia. After some persuasion from Ethelwald, Swithelm accepted baptism from Cedd, although Cedd had to travel into East Anglia to baptize him at Ethelwald's home. This kept the East Saxon kingdom Christian for the time being.
Bede presents Cedd's work as decisive in the conversion of the East Saxons. This is despite earlier missionary work and a subsequent relapse into paganism. It seems that substantial work had been done but that there was still a possibility of that it could be undone.
Monastic Foundations
Cedd founded many churches. He also founded monasteries at Tilaburg (probably East TilburyEast Tilbury
East Tilbury is a village in the unitary authority of Thurrock borough, England and one of the traditional parishes in Thurrock.-History:In Saxon times, the location on which the church now stands was surrounded by tidal marshland...
, but possibly West Tilbury
West Tilbury
West Tilbury is a village situated on the top of a river terrace overlooking the river Thames. The modern town of Tilbury is mainly in the traditional parish of Chadwell St Mary.-Location and administration:...
) and Ithancester (almost certainly Bradwell-on-Sea
Bradwell-on-Sea
Bradwell-on-Sea is a village in Essex, England. The village is on the Dengie peninsula. It is located about north-northeast of Southminster and is east from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the District of Maldon in the parliamentary constituency of Maldon whose boundaries were...
).
Cedd also became abbot of the monastery of Lastingham
Lastingham
Lastingham is a village and civil parish which lies in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the southern fringe of the North York Moors, five miles north east of Kirkbymoorside, one and a half miles to the east of Hutton-le-Hole. It was home to the early missionaries to the...
in his native Northumbria at the request of the sub-king of Deira, Ethelwald (not to be confused with Ethelwald of the East Angles
Æthelwold of East Anglia
Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald , was a 7th century king of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their regio at Rendlesham...
). Bede records the foundation in some detail, making clear that Ethelwald was put in contact with Cedd through Caelin, Cedd's brother, who was on the king's staff. Cedd undertook a forty-day fast to purify the site, although urgent royal business took him away after thirty days and Cynibil took over the fast for him.
Cedd occupied the position of abbot of Lastingham to the end of his life, while maintaining his position as missionary bishop and diplomat, often far away from the monastery itself. His brother Chad was to do the same. Clearly Lastingham was regarded as a monastic base for the family of Cedd, giving them intellectual and spiritual support and a place of retreat. However, Bede makes clear that Cedd appointed others to have day-to-day care of Lastingham, and probably Chad did the same.
Final Years
Cedd had been brought up in the Celtic RiteCeltic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...
which differed from the Roman Rite
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, both in the accepted form of the tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
(i.e. the shaven patch of scalp adopted by Christian monks) and in the method of calculating the date of Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
. These differences came to a head within the Northumbrian kingdom at a meeting known as the Synod of Whitby
Synod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
. The proceedings of the council were hampered by the participants' mutual incomprehension of each other's languages, which probably included Gaelic
Goidelic languages
The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
, Old English, Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
and Early Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, as well as Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. Bede tells us that Cedd was a conscientious interpreter
Interpreting
Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...
for both sides. Cedd's facility with the languages, together with his status as a trusted royal emissary, must have given him a key role as a go-between in the negotiations. Moreover, this facility would be seen as an eschatological sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, reversing the disaster of Babel
Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...
. When the council ended, he returned to Essex. According to Bede, he accepted the Roman observance of Easter, and returned to his work as bishop, abandoning the practices of the Scots - by which Bede means the Irish from the Kingdom of Dál Riata
Dál Riata
Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...
.
A short time later, he travelled back to Northumbria, this time to the monastery at Lastingham, where he fell ill with the plague and died on 26 October 664. Bede records that a party of thirty monks travelled up from Essex to Lastingham. All but one small boy died there of the plague. Cedd was initially buried at Lastingham in an open-air grave, but his body was moved to a shrine inside the later stone church at the monastery. Chad succeeded Cedd as abbot at Lastingham.
King Swithelm died at about the same time as Cedd and was succeeded by the joint kings Sighere
Sighere of Essex
Sighere was the joint king of the Kingdom of Essex along with his brother Sebbi from 664 to 683. He was outlived by Sebbi, who became the sole ruler of Essex after his death. Sighere and Sebbi were cousins of their predecessor Swithelm. While Sighere returned to paganism, Sebbi remained...
and Sebbi
Sebbi of Essex
Sebbi was the joint King of Essex from 664 to 683 along with his brother, Sighere. After Sighere died, Sebbi became sole ruler of Essex until 694....
. There was a partial reversion to paganism, which Bede blames on the effects of the plague. Mercia under King Wulfhere
Wulfhere of Mercia
Wulfhere was King of Mercia from the end of the 650s until 675. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere...
was now the dominant force south of the Humber, so it fell to Wulfhere to take prompt action. He dispatched Bishop Jaruman
Jaruman
Jaruman was the fourth Bishop of Mercia. He fought against apostasy outside his diocese. He served as bishop in the time of King Wulfhere of Mercia, on whose behalf he undertook several missions to Saxon tribes which had lapsed into paganism...
to take over Cedd's work among the East Saxons. Jaruman, working (according to Bede) with great discretion, toured Essex, negotiated with local magnates, and soon restored the situation.
External links
Background Reading
- Bassett, Steven, Ed. The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Leicester University Press, 1989. ISBN 9780718513672. Studies on state formation that provide important political background to the conversion.
- Fletcher, Richard. The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371-1386. . HarperCollins, 1997. ISBN 0002552035. Places the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons in the widest possible context, and places Cedd's family incidentally but tellingly within the author's overall interpretation.
- Mayr-Harting, HenryHenry Mayr-HartingProfessor Henry Maria Robert Egmont Mayr-Harting was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford and Lay Canon of Christ Church, Oxford from 1997 until 2003....
. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 1991. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9780271007694. Cedd and Chad are strongly featured in this widely-recommended narrative account of the conversion, much revised since its first publication in 1972, and giving a clear picture of the political and cultural context.