Earconwald

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Earconwald
Bishop of London
Wenceslas Hollar - St Erkenwald (monument) (State 2).jpg
The lost shrine of St Erkenwald in St Paul's Cathedral: desecrated in the Reformation and destroyed in the Great Fire of London
Province Canterbury
Installed675
Term ended693
Predecessor Wine
Successor Waldhere
Other post(s) Prince, Abbot of Chertsey
Orders
Consecrationc.675
Personal details
Bornc.630
Died693
Barking Abbey
Buried Old St Paul's Cathedral, London through the location and survival of his relics are debated
Denomination Roman Catholic Church
Sainthood
Feast day13 May
24 April
30 April
14 November in England
Attributesbishop in a small chariot, which he used for travelling his diocese; with Saint Ethelburga of Barking
Patronageagainst gout, London
Shrines St. Paul's, London: relics removed 1550, lost in the Great Fire of London

Saint Earconwald or Erkenwald [lower-alpha 1] (died 693) was a Saxon prince [1] and Bishop of London between 675 and 693. [2] He is the eponymous subject of one of the most important poems in the foundations of English literature [3] (thought to be by the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pearl Poet). He was called Lundoniae maximum sanctus, 'the most holy figure of London', [4] [5] and Lux Londonie, "the light of London". [6] Peter Ackroyd has said of him, "we may still name him as the patron saint of London, [his]... cult survived for over eight hundred years, before entering the temporary darkness of the last four centuries". [4]

Contents

He is associated with a very early Anglo Saxon phase of building at St Paul's Cathedral, and William Dugdale says he began the building. [7]

In recent times he has been portrayed in novels and films, for example in the work of Bernard Cornwell.

The diocese of London was coterminous with the Kingdom of Essex, making the Bishop of London the Bishop of the East Saxons. [8]

Life

Earconwald teaching monks in a historiated initial from the Chertsey Breviary (c.1300) Chertsey Breviary - St. Erkenwald.jpg
Earconwald teaching monks in a historiated initial from the Chertsey Breviary (c.1300)

Origins

Earconwald was of royal ancestry. [9] William Dugdale states that he was a prince, a son of the house of King Offa, King of the Essex or the East Saxons; [10]

He may have been born in the Kingdom of Lindsey in modern Lincolnshire. [11]

Career

In 666, he established two Benedictine abbeys, Chertsey Abbey in Surrey [12] for men, and Barking Abbey for women. [11] [13] His sister, Æthelburh, was Abbess of Barking. [11] [14] Earconwald is said to have engaged Hildelith to instruct Æthelburh in the role of abbess. [15]

Earconwald himself served as Abbot of Chertsey. [16] A charter states that in the late seventh century, he and Frithwald gave land in Streatham and Tooting Graveney to Chertsey Abbey; this grant was confirmed in the time of Athelstan in 933. [17]

A legend says that he often preached to the woodmen in the wild forests that lay to the north of London. [18]

A window in Wells Cathedral. Mostly original glass; the heads depict Pope Stephen, St Blaise, St Earconwald, and Pope Marcellus. Wells Cathedral, window nV detail (50389684823).jpg
A window in Wells Cathedral. Mostly original glass; the heads depict Pope Stephen, St Blaise, St Earconwald, and Pope Marcellus.

Bishop

In 675, Earconwald became Bishop of London, succeeding Bishop Wine. [19] He was the choice of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury. [16] It is also said that his selection as Bishop of London was at the insistence of King Sebbi. [20] An ancient epitaph says that Earconwald served as bishop of London for eleven years. [20]

He was granted the manor (landholding) of Fulham about the year 691 for himself and his successors as Bishop of London. The manor house was Fulham Palace. Nine centuries later, it was the summer residence of the Bishops of London. [21]

Earconwald was an important contributor to the reconversion of Essex, and the fourth Bishop of London since the restoration of the diocese, and he was present at the reconciliation between Archbishop Theodore and Wilfrith. [20]

While bishop, he contributed to King Ine of Wessex's law code, and is mentioned specifically in the code as a contributor. [22] King Ine named Earconwald as an advisor on his laws [23] and called Earconwald "my bishop" in the preface to his laws. [20]

Current historical scholarship credits Earconwald with a major role in the evolution of Anglo-Saxon charters, and it is possible that he drafted the charter of Caedwalla to Farnham. [14]

When St Fursey (a Celtic cleric who did much to establish Christianity throughout the British Isles and particularly in East Anglia) died in 650 he was buried in a church built specially by Earconwald in Péronne which has claimed Fursey as patron ever since. [24]

Building works

The now lost Bishops Gate: a Roman gate in the walls of Roman London, repaired by St Earconwald and then named after him Bishopsgate Hollar.PNG
The now lost Bishops Gate: a Roman gate in the walls of Roman London, repaired by St Earconwald and then named after him

Bishopsgate, one of the eastern gates on London's largely lost Roman and medieval city wall, was said to have been repaired by Earconwald, and to have taken its name from him. [25]

Earconwald is said to have bestowed great cost on the fabric of the early building of St Paul's,[ clarification needed ] and in later times he almost occupied the place of a traditionary founder; the veneration paid to him was second only to that which was rendered to St. Paul. [26]

Archbishop Matthew Parker, who had the most important records on Earconwald at the end of the Counter-Reformation when they may otherwise have been lost Archbishop Matthew Parker.jpg
Archbishop Matthew Parker, who had the most important records on Earconwald at the end of the Counter-Reformation when they may otherwise have been lost

Death and legacy

Earconwald died in 693 [19] while on a visit to Barking Abbey. His remains were buried at a pilgrimage shrine in St Paul's Cathedral.

For a period immediately after the Norman Conquest, St Earconwald was marginalised in religious practice.[ Explain why ] [27]

The most important collection of early materials concerning Earconwald is the Miracula Sancti Erkenwaldi, preserved as a 12th-century manuscript in the Matthew Parker collection (Parker 161) at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. [28] The miracle in the poem is not in these materials, suggesting that the story post-dates this manuscript.

The poem of St Erkenwald

Priorslee Hall, one of the Shropshire addresses occupied by Sir Humphrey Pitt from whom the only known copy of the poem 'Erkenwald' was recovered Priorslee Hall.jpg
Priorslee Hall, one of the Shropshire addresses occupied by Sir Humphrey Pitt from whom the only known copy of the poem 'Erkenwald' was recovered

Earconwald was the subject of the alliterative St Erkenwald Poem, written in the fourteenth century [29] by a poet from the Cheshire/Shropshire/Staffordshire area. [30] The text is thought to be the work of the Pearl Poet [31] whose identity is debated and uncertain. If it is true that it is within the set of this author's work, that would mean that text shares its author with:

Sir Gawain first page 670x990.jpg
Manuscript text in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Gawain and the Green Knight.jpg
An illustration in the oldest copy of the same poem
The text and an illustration from the only surviving manuscript or that work: St Erkenwald may have provided inspiration for the same writer as for this text

The poem is significant in the way it deals with the spiritual welfare of people who could not hear the Christian message, and critics have compared it to the Beowulf poem in this regard. [32]

The poem has survived in only one manuscript, British Library MS Harley 2250. [33] The document was discovered in 1757 by Thomas Percy; the manuscript had been in the possession of Sir Humphrey Pitt of Balcony House, Shifnal, and Priorslee, Shropshire. [34] Other important ancient literary materials narrowly avoided being burnt as kindling by household staff in the circumstances in which Percy was discovering this important cultural survival. [35]

The poem has been linked thematically and in plot terms with the Legend of Trajan and the Miracle of St Gregory; that legend itself being referred to in the Divine Comedy by Dante ( Purgatorio (x. 73-75) and Paradiso (xx 106-117)). [28]

Another possible inspiration for the plot in the poem is found in Kaiserchronik , the Middle High German history of Roman and German emperors dating to around 1150. [28] Some familiarity with the story is also contended for St Thomas Aquinas . [28]

Within pictorial art, the Berne tapestry (copied from paintings by Roger van der Wayden of the Brussels Town Hall in the mid-1400s, which were lost in the conflicts of the 1600s) and apparently repeated in the Cologne Town Hall in the High Medieval period, provides a visual expression of the themes. [28] The intention of this art was to remind judges to dispense impartial justice.

Feast day and translation day

Statue of Erkenwald at St Albans Cathedral St Alban's Abbey IMG 2742 (28883447381).jpg
Statue of Erkenwald at St Albans Cathedral

His feast day is 30 April, with successive translations (see below) being celebrated on 1 February, 13 May and 14 November. [9] [36] [37] He is a patron saint of London. [38]

Prior to the Reformation, the anniversaries of his death as well as his translation were observed at St Paul's as feasts of the first class, by an ordinance of Bishop Braybroke in 1386. [20]

The following Antiphon and Collect for the Feast of St Erkenwald is recorded:

"De Sancto Erkenwaldo Episcopo. Antipho: O decus insigne, nostrum pastorumque benigne, O lux Londonie, pater Erkenwalde beate, Quem super astra Deum gaudes spectare per eum, Aspice letantes tua gaudia nos celebrantes, Et tecum vite fac participes sine fine. V. Ora pro nobis beate Erkenwalde. R. Ut digni efficiamur. "Oratio. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, apud quem est continua semper Sanctorum festivitas Tuorum, presta, quesumus, ut qui memoriam beati Erkenwaldi pontificis agimus, ab hostium nostrorum eruamur nequitia: et ad eternorum nos provehi concedas premiorum beneficia. Per. Pater noster. Ave Ma"

(Concerning Saint Erkenwald the Bishop.

Antiphon: O distinguished God, our kind shepherd, O light of London, blessed father Erkenwald, Whom above the stars you rejoice to behold God through him, Look upon us celebrating your joys, and live with you without end.

V. Pray for us blessed Erkenwald.

R. That we may become worthy.

Prayer. Almighty and everlasting God, with whom is the continual festival of Thy Saints, grant, we beseech, that we who commemorate the blessed high priest Erkenwald, may be delivered from the wickedness of our enemies: and grant us to advance to the eternal blessings of the first. Through [Jesus Christ]. Our Father. Ave Maria) [6]

Relics and shrine

The old St Paul's Cathedral's "greatest glory was the Shrine of St Erkenwald". [39] The shrine rivalled that of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey. [40]

Shrine of St Erkenwald, relics removed 1550, lost as a monument in the Great Fire of London Wenceslas Hollar - St Erkenwald (monument) (State 2).jpg
Shrine of St Erkenwald, relics removed 1550, lost as a monument in the Great Fire of London

It is said that on the death of St Erkenwald, there was a struggle between the canons of St. Paul's and the monks of Chertsey as to who should bury him, during which the people of London brought his body to St. Paul's. The people of London, bringing the body to the city, are supposed to have said:

"We are like strong and vigorous men who will... undermine and overturn cities heavily fortified with men and weapons before we give up the servant of God, our protector... we ourselves intend that such a glorious city and congregation shall be strengthened and honoured by such a patron." [4]

On the journey to London with the body, the River Lee is said to have parted to make way for the dead saint. [18]

After a great fire in 1087 (one of several Erkenwald's relics are said to have survived)[ clarification needed ] the relics were put in a silver shrine. [4] This shrine was put in a new, vast crypt, specially built to hold the "valuable remains of St. Erkenwald" in the wider new building which was built to replace the lost St. Paul's by Bishop Maurice. [18] The body was transferred to a shrine in the cathedral in 1140. [41] In 1314, Bishop Gilbert de Segrave laid the first stone of a new shrine to which the relics of St. Erkenwald were translated twelve years later. [42]

By accounts,[ clarification needed ] the relics were sealed in a leaden casket fashioned in the form of "a gabled house or church". [4] By the time his relics were placed behind the high altar of St Paul's they were supposed to have been with the couch in which he was carried in his declining years, fragments of which were associated with miracles. [4] In the time of Bede, it was recorded that miracles were effected by this couch. [43]

It is recorded that the servants of the church could only move the relics of St Erkenwald "clandestinely at night" because to do otherwise would have created hysteria among the crowds. [4]

The Curfew Tower of Barking Abbey. This was one of the three gateways to Barking Abbey, founded in 666 by Erkenwald, later Bishop of London. The Curfew Tower of Barking Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 912683.jpg
The Curfew Tower of Barking Abbey. This was one of the three gateways to Barking Abbey, founded in 666 by Erkenwald, later Bishop of London.

The shrine was constantly enriched by canons and by the merchants of London, well into the 15th century, and miracles were reported at the site of the shrine into the 16th century. [43] The citizens of London took special pride in the magnificent shrine, and had a special devotion to St Erkenwald. [20]

Amongst the Ashmole manuscripts in the Bodleian Library is the following entry in Ashmole's own hand that concerns work on the shrine in 1448:

"Pondus Cancelli ferrei ante Altare Sancti Erkenwaldi facti Ao Dni. 1448 per manus Stephani Clampard, fabri, sumptibus Decani et Capituli elevati ibidem vi. die Junii anno predicto, 3438 lb. precii cujuslibet lb. cum ferra 4d. Summa 641. 2s.[ Suspect this is 64 l. 2.s, ie £64/2/0, but the sums still don't work. ]

Expens. in ferro 3438 lb. precio cujuslibet vs. Summa 8 li. 16 s. 8 d.

Item in vasos ferri ixc precio ut supra. Summa xlv s.

Item in Stannum ad dealban. Summa viij. li.

(The weight of the iron chancel in front of the Altar of St. Erkenwald made AD 1448 by the hands of Stephen Clampard, carpenter, at the expense of the Dean and Chapter raised there on 6 June of the aforesaid year, 3438 lb. the price of each lb. with iron 4d. Total 641. 2s.

Expense. in iron 3438 lb.[ dubious ] price of each vs.[ clarification needed ] Total £8 16s. 8d.

Also in vessels of iron at the same price as above. Total 45 shillings.

Also for tin for whitewash. The sum of £8 [6]

Ackroyd notes [44] that:

"successful lawyers of London…on nomination as serjeants of law, would walk in procession to St Paul’s in order to venerate the physical presence of the saint." [45]

Catherine of Aragon made an offering at St Erkenwald's shirne as an act of diplomacy ahead of her first marriage into the House of Tudor. Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536).jpg
Catherine of Aragon made an offering at St Erkenwald's shirne as an act of diplomacy ahead of her first marriage into the House of Tudor.

When Catherine of Aragon made her entry into London, two days before her marriage to Prince Arthur, heir to the throne, she visited St Paul's [46] and made an offering there at the shrine of St Erkenwald. [47] The couple were married on St Erkenwald's Day, with the date likely selected to be in alignment with the saint's day. [48]

The St Paul's shrine had the relics removed during the Reformation; the empty shrine survived until the Great Fire of London. [49] In late 1549, at the height of the iconoclasm of the Reformation, Sir Rowland Hill altered the route of his Lord Mayor's day procession and said a de profundis at the tomb of Erkenwald. [50]

There are differing accounts of what happened to his relics, with suggestions the relics were plundered [51] or incinerated, [52] or that he was reburied in St Paul's Cathedral at the east end of the choir, [20] or that they might have been "hidden to be recovered later". [53]

One commentary on the location of his relics summarises the understanding of this point as follows:

"his relics were either destroyed or hidden in a secure place by the faithful from the bloodthirsty iconoclasts. There is a modern speculation that the relics... may still rest at the east end of the present Cathedral choir next to the east altar. Perhaps one day... will reveal the fate of this holy man’s bodily remains." [54]

One commentator has observed that "destruction of this major shrine, located behind the high altar, severed the last connection between St Paul’s and its Saxon predecessor ... (the precise whereabouts have yet to be discovered)." [55]

The burials of both Earconwald and Sebbi quickly became the focus of saints’ cults and pilgrimages. This local mania for miracles and relics has been described as the first evidence that Londoners were becoming enthusiastic about Christianity and that newly returned religion had found its footing in the area. [56]

Erkenwald's grave was a popular place of pilgrimage [57] up to the reformation. [58]

After the Great Fire of London, Christopher Wren made archaeological investigations into the ruins to St Paul's Cathedral looking for the Saxon building Erkenwald had had built. [18]

State events

So far back as 1431, the Masters of the Lincoln's Inn Bench restricted the number of annual revels to four: the feast of St. Erkenwald, alongside the feast of the Purification of our Lady; Midsummer and Halloween. [59]

There were other examples of statecraft being associated with St Erkenwald in the Tudor period: in 1522, there was a state visit to London by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, hosted by Henry VIII The entertainments included a pageant near Cheapside, where Charlemagne greeted the two heads of state and gave them gifts; Erkenwald was incorporated into the performance, with St Dunstan, Thomas Becket, John the Baptist, John of Gaunt all also featured. [60] Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are understood to have married on St Erkenwald's Day.

[61]

Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton, in office as Lord Mayor of London, spoke in anguish at the shrine of Erkenwald when it was being desecrated. British (English) School - Sir Rowland Hill (1492^-1561) - 609006 - National Trust.jpg
Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton, in office as Lord Mayor of London, spoke in anguish at the shrine of Erkenwald when it was being desecrated.

Memorialization of St Erkenwald

Cross in Battersea Park, erected to mark the year 2000. It stands on the site of a manor granted by King Caedwalla to St Erkenwald which is believed to have been the home of St Ethelburga. Battersea Millennium Cross 20200625 101621 (50043201896).jpg
Cross in Battersea Park, erected to mark the year 2000. It stands on the site of a manor granted by King Caedwalla to St Erkenwald which is believed to have been the home of St Ethelburga.
St Erkenwald's Church St Erkenwald's Church, Barking - geograph.org.uk - 1210635.jpg
St Erkenwald's Church

St Erkenwald has also been commemorated in the following ways:

In contemporary culture

In 1997 the Royal Shakespeare Company performed a play called Erkenwald [73] in The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Erkenwald is a supporting character in the Bernard Cornwell stories:

and in the associated 2018 television series.

In that fictional world he is in service to King Alfred. The actor Kevin Eldon has portrayed him. [74]

The British children's writer Abi Elphinstone chose "Erkenwald" as the name of a mythical kingdom in her 2021 book Sky Song. [75]

Erkenwald Neumann is the name of a musical artist with 2022 releases. [76]

One contemporary travel writer has said of St Erkenwald: "It's high time for a London icon to resurface, 1300 years on." [77]

Miracles

A 2000 stone plaque in London honouring St Erkenwald Battersea Millennium Cross 20200625 101704 (50042641683).jpg
A 2000 stone plaque in London honouring St Erkenwald

There are 19 miracles associated with Erkenwald: [27]

See also

Notes

  1. Also Ercenwald, Eorcenwald or Erconwald

Further reading

Citations

  1. "St. Erkenwald". St. Erkenwald Lodge 2808. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  2. Gollancz, Israel (23 April 2018). St. Erkenwald. Forgotten Books. ISBN   978-0-331-84084-1.
  3. "Middle English Alliterative Poetry". mediakron.bc.edu. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ackroyd, Peter (1 January 1900). London: The Biography (Illustrated ed.). New York: Anchor Books. ISBN   978-0-385-49771-8.
  5. "London in the Not-so-Dark Ages". www.gresham.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 "Statutes (Baldock and Lisieux): Pars sexta | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  7. William Dugdale, 'The History of St. Paul's Cathedral in London' (London, 2nd ed. 1716), p115.
  8. On the Diocese of London originally serving the East Saxons "Our History". London Diocesan Board for Schools. 7 May 2023. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  9. 1 2 Farmer Oxford Dictionary of Saints p. 175
  10. William Dugdale, 'The History of St. Paul's Cathedral in London' (London, 2nd ed. 1716), p. 115.
  11. 1 2 3 Walsh A New Dictionary of Saints p. 182
  12. Kirby Earliest English Kings p. 83
  13. Yorke "Adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Royal Courts" Cross Goes North pp. 250–251
  14. 1 2 Kirby Earliest English Kings p. 102
  15. Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge (1891). "Hildilid"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 26. p. 386.
  16. 1 2 Kirby Earliest English Kings pp. 95–96
  17. "Parishes: Tooting Graveney | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
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  19. 1 2 Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 219
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "St. Erconwald - Encyclopedia Volume - Catholic Encyclopedia". Catholic Online. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  21. Walford, Edward (1878). "Fulham: Introduction, in Old and New London". British History Online. pp. 504–521. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
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  23. Kirby Earliest English Kings p. 103
  24. "Who Was Fursey". Furseypilgrims.co.uk. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
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  26. "Secular canons: Cathedral of St. Paul | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  27. 1 2 Whatley, E. Gordon, ed. (1 January 1989). The Saint of London: The Life and Miracles of St.Erkenwald - Text and Translation: v. 58. Binghamton, NY: State University of New York at Binghamton, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. ISBN   978-0-86698-042-5.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 Gollancz, Sir Israel (1923). Selected Early English Poems IV St Erkenwald. Oxford University Press.
  29. Savage, Henry Lyttleton; Gollancz, Israel (1926). St. Erkenwald, a Middle English Poem, Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. Yale University Press.
  30. Austin, Sue (23 February 2024). "Shropshire Day: Natural beauty and culture help county celebrate its own patron saint's day". www.shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  31. Benson, Larry D. (1965). "The Authorship of "St. Erkenwald"". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 64 (3): 393–405. ISSN   0363-6941. JSTOR   27714679.
  32. Weiskott, Eric, ed. (2016), "The Erkenwald Poet's Sense of History", English Alliterative Verse: Poetic Tradition and Literary History, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 127–147, doi:10.1017/9781316718674.007, ISBN   978-1-316-76834-1 , retrieved 10 September 2023
  33. London, British Library, MS Harley 2250, ff. 72v to 75v.
  34. "Middle English Alliterative Poetry". mediakron.bc.edu. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  35. Hales, John W.; Furnivall, Frederick J., eds. (1867). Percy's Folio Manuscript: Ballads and Romances. Vol. I. London: N. Trübner & Co. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
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  37. Ridgway, Claire. "14 November 1532 Archives - The Tudor Society". www.tudorsociety.com. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  38. Farmer Oxford Dictionary of Saints p. 494
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References

Christian titles
Preceded by Bishop of London
675–693
Succeeded by