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Mellitus

 
British History: Mellitus
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Bishop of London (604-19), archbishop of Canterbury (619-24). Mellitus was one of the missionaries sent from Rome in 601 to reinforce Augustine's original mission of 597. In 617, when the Christian king of Essex was succeeded by pagan sons, Mellitus was driven from London. A (temporarily) pagan king succeeded in Kent at much the same time, and Mellitus was exiled in Gaul before returning to become archbishop.

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Mellitus
Archbishop of Canterbury
A page divided into 12 sections, each section displaying a scene from the bible
Passion scenes from the St Augustine Gospels, possibly brought by Mellitus to England
Enthroned unknown
Reign ended 24 April 624
Predecessor Laurence
Successor Justus
Consecration 619
Personal details
Died 24 April 624
Sainthood
Feast day 24 April[1]
Venerated in Eastern Orthodox Church
Roman Catholic Church[2][3]
Anglican Communion[1]

Mellitus (died 24 April 624), a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons, was the first Bishop of London and the third Archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of a group of clergy who arrived in England in 601 AD to agument the missonaries already in the country. In 604 he was consecrated as Bishop of London, but in 616, after the death of his patron, he was forced to leave London and take refuge in Gaul. Mellitus returned to England some time the following year, but he was unable to return to London, where the inhabitants remained pagan. He was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury in 619. During his tenure he was alleged to have miraculously saved the cathedral, and much of the town of Canterbury, from a fire. After his death in 624, Mellitus became revered as a saint.

Contents

Early life

The medieval chronicler Bede described Mellitus as being of noble birth. In letters, Pope Gregory I called him an abbot, but whether this was a rank bestowed on Mellitus after his journey to England in order to help with the journey or if Mellitus was previously an abbot of a Roman monastery is unclear.[4] The papal register, or listing of letters sent out by the popes, lists Mellitus as an "abbot in Frankia", however, even though the letter itself only says "abbot".[5] The first time Mellitus is mentioned in history is in the letters of Gregory, and nothing else of his background is known.[4] It appears likely that Mellitus was a native of Italy, however, along with all the other bishops consecrated by Augustine.[6]

Journey to England

Mellitus was sent to England in June 601 by Gregory[7] in response to an appeal from Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, for more clergy to join the Gregorian mission which was converting the kingdom of Kent under King Æthelberht of Kent.[8] Accompanying the group of new missionaries was a present of books and "all things which were needed for worship and the ministry of the Church."[9][10] A 15th-century Canterbury chronicler, Thomas of Elmham, claimed that there were a number of books brought to England by Mellitus still at Canterbury in his day, but examination of the remaining manuscripts has determined that one possible survivor of Mellitus' books is the St. Augustine Gospels, now in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 286.[4][notes 1] Along with the letter to Augustine, the returning missionaries brought a letter to Æthelberht, urging the King to act like the Roman Emperor Constantine I and force the conversion of his followers to Christianity. The King was also urged to destroy all pagan shrines.[13]

The historian Ian Wood feels that during his journey through Gaul, Mellitus probably followed a route that took in Vienne, Arles, Lyons, Toulon, Marseilles, Metz, Paris, and Rouen, among other bishoprics. The evidence for this is the letters that Gregory wrote to various bishops soliciting their support for Mellitus' party. Gregory also wrote to the Frankish kings Chlothar II, Theuderic II, Theudebert II, along with Brunhild, Theudebert and Theuderic's grandmother who was their regent. Wood feels that this wide appeal to the Frankish episcopate and royalty was an effort to secure more support for the Gregorian mission.[14] While on the journey, Mellitus was the recipient of a letter from Gregory allowing Augustine to convert pagan temples to Christian churches and to allow the conversion of pagan animal sacrifices into Christian feasts, all to help with the transition to Christianity.[4] This famous letter was a change in the missionary strategy,[15] and was later included in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.[16] This letter, usually known as the Epistola ad Mellitium,[17] conflicts with the letter sent to Æthelberht, and the historian R. A. Markus sees this as a turning point in missionary history, in that forcible conversion gave way to persuasion.[13] This traditional view that the Epistola represents a contradiction of the letter to Æthelberht has been challenged by George Demacopoulos who argues that the letter to Æthelberht was mainly meant to encourage the king in spiritual matters, while the Epistola was sent to deal with purely practical matters, and thus the two do not contradict each other.[18]

Bishop of London

Exactly when Mellitus and his party arrived in England is unknown. Mellitus was certainly in England by 604,[4] when Augustine consecrated him as bishop[19] in the province of the East Saxons, making Mellitus the first Bishop of London—London was the East Saxons' capital.[20] The city was a logical choice for a new bishopric, as it was a hub for the southern road network. It was also a former Roman town, and many of the Gregorian mission's efforts were centred in such locations. Before his consecration, Mellitus baptised Saebert of Essex, Æthelberht's nephew, and Saebert then allowed the bishopric to be established. The episcopal church which was built in London was probably founded by Æthelberht, rather than Saebert, but a charter that claims to be a grant of lands from Æthelberht to Mellitus is a later forgery.[4]

Although Gregory had originally intended that London become the southern archbishopric for the island, Augustine never moved his see to London, instead consecrating Mellitus as a plain bishop there.[notes 2] After Augustine's death in 604, Canterbury continued to be the site of the southern archbishopric, and London remained a plain bishopric. It may have been that the Kentish king did not wish that greater episcopal authority be exercised outside his own kingdom.[4]

Mellitus attended a council of bishops in Italy in February 610, held by Pope Boniface IV.[4] The historian N. J. Higham speculates that one reason for Mellitus' attendance may have been to assert the English church's independence from the Frankish church.[22] Boniface had Mellitus bring back two papal letters to England, one to Æthelbert and his people, and another to Lawrence, the archbishop of Canterbury.[23] He also brought back the synod's decrees to England.[24] No authentic letters or documents from this synod remain, although some were forged in the 1060s and 1070s at Canterbury.[4] While he was bishop, Mellitus and Justus, the bishop of Rochester, signed a letter that Laurence wrote to the Celtic bishops urging the Celtic Church to adopt the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter.[25]

Both Æthelberht and Saebert died around 616 or 618, causing an emergency in the mission.[4] Saebert's three sons had not converted to Christianity, and Mellitus was driven from London by them.[26] Bede says that the exile happened because Mellitus refused the brothers request for a taste of the sacramental bread.[4][notes 3] Whether this occurred right after the death of Saebert or after a period of time is impossible to determine from Bede's chronology, which has both events in the same chapter, but does not give any exact time frame for both events nor for the time elapsed between the two events.[28] The historian N. J. Higham connects the timing of this episode with a change in the "overkingship" from the Christian Kentish Æthelberht to the pagan East Anglian Raedwald, which Higham feels happened after Æthelberht's death. In Higham's view, Saebert's sons drove Mellitus from London because they had passed from Kentish overlordship to East Anglian, and thus no longer needed to keep Mellitus, who was connected with the Kentish kingdom, in office.[29]

Mellitus fled first to Canterbury, but Æthelberht's successor Eadbald also was a pagan, so Mellitus fled to Gaul, along with Justus.[4] Mellitus was recalled to Britain by Laurence of Canterbury, the second Archbishop of Canterbury, who had converted Eadbald.[30] How long Mellitus' exile lasted is unclear. Bede claims it was a year, but it may have been longer.[28] However, Mellitus did not return to London,[30] because the East Saxons remained pagan.[4] Although Mellitus fled, there does not seem to have been any serious persecution of Christians in the East Saxon kingdom.[31] The East Saxon see was not occupied again until Cedd was consecrated as bishop around 654.[32]

Archbishop and death

After Laurence's death in 619, Mellitus succeeded him as the third Archbishop of Canterbury.[33] It was while he was archbishop that he supposedly performed a miracle in 623 by diverting a fire that had started in Canterbury and was threatening the church. Mellitus was carried into the flames, upon which the wind changed direction, thus saving the cathedral.[34] Other than the miracle, little happened during his time as archbishop, with Bede praising his sane mind.[35] While archbishop, he received letters from Boniface encouraging him in the mission. These letters were probably connected with the marriage of Æthelburg of Kent to King Edwin of Northumbria. Whether Mellitus received a pallium, the symbol of an archbishop's authority, from the pope is unknown.[4] Bede also mentioned that Mellitus suffered from gout.[24]

Mellitus died on 24 April 624[33] and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury that same day.[4] He became revered as a saint after his death, and was allotted the feast day of 24 April.[3] He was still venerated at St Augustine's in 1120, along with a number of other local saints.[36] There was also a shrine to him at Old St Paul's Cathedral in London.[37] Shortly after the Norman conquest of England, Goscelin wrote a life of Mellitus, the first of several to appear around that time, but none contain any information not included in Bede's earlier works. They do, however, reveal that in that period, persons suffering from gout were urged to pray at his tomb.[4] Goscelin records that Mellitus' shrine flanked that of Augustine, along with Laurence, in the eastern central chapel in the presbytery.[38]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Another possible survivor is a copy of the Rule of St Benedict, now MS Oxford Bodleian Hatton 48.[11] Another Gospel, in an Italian hand, and closely related to the Augustine Gospels, is MS Oxford Bodelian Auctarium D.2.14, which shows evidence of being held in Anglo-Saxon hands during the right time frame. Lastly, a fragment of a work by Gregory the Great, now held by the British Library as part of MS Cotton Titus C may have arrived with the missionaries.[12]
  2. ^ Although the historian S. Brechter argued that Augustine did in fact move the archbishopric to London, and that Mellitus was his successor there instead of Laurence, this argument has been shown as unlikely.[21]
  3. ^ The historian James Campbell speculates that the brothers may have wanted a taste either because they thought it was magic or because the bread was white, which was rare in the time period.[27]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Holoford, et al. Oxford Book of Days p. 170
  2. ^ "St. Mellitus of Canterbury". Catholic Online. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5070.  Accessed on 12 November 2009
  3. ^ a b Walsh A New Dictionary of Saints p. 420
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Brooks "Mellitus (d. 624)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  5. ^ Church "Paganism in Conversion-age Anglo-Saxon England" History p. 164
  6. ^ Higham Convert Kings p. 96
  7. ^ Mayr-Harting Coming of Christianity p. 64
  8. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 9
  9. ^ Bede A History of the English Church and People p. 85–86
  10. ^ Mayr-Harting Coming of Christianity p. 62
  11. ^ Colgrave "Introduction" Earliest Life of Gregory the Great pp. 27–28
  12. ^ Lapidge Anglo-Saxon Library pp. 24-25
  13. ^ a b Markus "Gregory the Great and a Papal Missionary Strategy" Studies in Church History 6 pp. 34–37
  14. ^ Wood "Mission of Augustine" Speculum p. 6
  15. ^ Markus "Gregory the Great's Europe" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society p. 26
  16. ^ Bede History of the English Church and People pp. 86–87
  17. ^ Spiegel "'Tabernacula' of Gregory the Great" Anglo-Saxon England 36 pp. 2–3
  18. ^ Demacopoulos "Gregory the Great and the Pagan Shrines of Kent" Journal of Late Antiquity pp. 353–369
  19. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 219
  20. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 11–13a
  21. ^ Wallace-Hadrill Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People p. 39
  22. ^ Higham Convert Kings p. 115
  23. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 13
  24. ^ a b Blair World of Bede pp. 86–87
  25. ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 112
  26. ^ Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 36
  27. ^ Campbell "Observations on the Conversion of England" Essays in Anglo-Saxon History pp. 77–78
  28. ^ a b Higham Convert Kings p. 137
  29. ^ Higham English Empire pp. 202-203
  30. ^ a b Lapidge "Mellitus" Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
  31. ^ Higham Convert Kings pp. 135–136
  32. ^ Higham Convert Kings pp. 234–237
  33. ^ a b Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 213
  34. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 30
  35. ^ Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 43
  36. ^ Hayward "An Absent Father" Journal of Medieval History p. 217 footnote 72
  37. ^ Nilson Cathedral Shrines of Medieval England p. 36
  38. ^ Gem "Significance of the 11th-century Rebuilding of Christ Church and St Augustine's, Canterbury" Medieval Art and Architecture at Canterbury p. 8

References

  • Bede; translated by Leo Sherley-Price (1988). A History of the English Church and People. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044042-9. 
  • Blair, Peter Hunter (1990). The World of Bede (Reprint of 1970 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39819-3. 
  • Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5. 
  • Brooks, N. P. (2004). "Mellitus (d. 624) (fee required)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (October 2005 revised ed.). Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18531.  Accessed 7 November 2007
  • Campbell, James. "Observations on the Conversion of England". Essays in Anglo-Saxon History. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 69–84. ISBN 0-907628-32-X. 
  • Church, S. D. (2008). "Paganism in Conversion-age Anglo-Saxon England: The Evidence of Bede's Ecclesiastical History Reconsidered". History 93 (310): 162–180. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2008.00420.x. 
  • Colgrave, Bertram (2007). "Introduction". The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great (Paperback reissue of 1968 ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31384-1. 
  • Demacopoulos, George (Fall 2008). "Gregory the Great and the Pagan Shrines of Kent". Journal of Late Antiquity 1 (2): 353–369. doi:10.1353/jla.0.0018. 
  • Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third Edition, revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. 
  • Gem, Richard (1982). "The Significance of the 11th-century Rebuilding of Christ Church and St Augustine's, Canterbury, in the Development of Romanesque Architecture". Medieval Art and Architecture at Canterbury Before 1220. British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions. V. Kent Archaelogical Society. pp. 1–19. ISBN 0-907307-05-1. 
  • Hayward, Paul Antony (2003). "An Absent Father: Eadmer, Goscelin and the Cult of St Peter, the First Abbot of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury". Journal of Medieval History 29: 201–218. doi:10.1016/S0304-4181(03)00030-7. 
  • Higham, N. J. (1997). The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4827-3. 
  • Higham, N. J. (1995). An English Empire: Bede and the Early Anglo-Saxon Kings. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4423-5. 
  • Hindley, Geoffrey (2006). A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The Beginnings of the English Nation. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-78671-738-5. 
  • Holford-Strevens, Leofranc; Blackburn, Bonnie J. (2000). The Oxford Book of Days. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866260-2. 
  • Lapidge, Michael (2006). The Anglo-Saxon Library. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926722-7. 
  • Lapidge, Michael (2001). "Mellitus". in Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 305–306. ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1. 
  • Markus, R. A. (1970). "Gregory the Great and a Papal Missionary Strategy". Studies in Church History 6: The Mission of the Church and the Propagation of the Faith. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 29–38. 
  • Markus, R. A. (1981). "Gregory the Great's Europe". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Fifth Series 31: 21–36. doi:10.2307/3679043. 
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry (1991). The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00769-9. 
  • Nilson, Ben (1998). Cathedral Shrines of Medieval England. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-540-5. 
  • Spiegel, Flora (2007). "The 'tabernacula' of Gregory the Great and the Conversion of Anglo-Saxon England". Anglo-Saxon England 36. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–13. doi:10.1017/S0263675107000014. 
  • Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5. 
  • Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. (1988). Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary. Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822269-6. 
  • Walsh, Michael J. (2007). A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. London: Burns & Oats. ISBN 0-8601-2438-X. 
  • Wood, Ian (Jan 1994). "The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English". Speculum 69 (1): 1–17. doi:10.2307/2864782. 

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Theonus		 Bishop of London
604–619		 Succeeded by
Cedd
Preceded by
Laurence		 Archbishop of Canterbury
619–624		 Succeeded by
Justus
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