66 PAPERS, ETC. 
Wendover,” “ Ralph de Diceto,” and above all the 
“ Monk of Abingdon,” (who wrote before the end 
of the 10th century,) mention the consecration of 
seven bishops in one day, I think the conclusion 
at which Wharton arrives in his note on the tract 
ofthe “Canon of Wells” in his “ Anglia Sacra,” 
is by far the most probable which can at this time be 
gleaned from history. Itis this, —1st, That the Bull 
of Pope Formosus, placing the country ofthe West 
Saxons under an Interdict, (on account of the non- 
appointment of bishops,) is altogether false; a Bull 
professing to have been issued A.n. 904, 5, or 9, 
could not be his, for he died 4.0. 996. 2ndly, That 
Edmund the Elder, and Plegmund, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, did hold a Synod a.n. 904 or 5. Zrdly, 
That it was there determined to found three new 
bishoprics in the kingdom of the West Saxons, to be 
taken out of the sees of Sherborne and Winchester. 
4thly, That execution of the plan was deferred till the 
death ofthe prelates of those sees, (who were yet 
alive, and both of them men of renown, one of 
them being ‘ Asser,’ the other ‘ Dinwolf’) but that 
in the year 909 or 910, both Winchester and Sher- 
borne becoming vacant, five bishops instead of two, 
were appointed in their room. These, with the 
bishops of Dorchester and Chichester, whose dioceses 
became vacant at the same time, made the seven. 
Amongst the new sees founded, was that of Wells. 
The first bishop was named _thelm, (said to have 
been a monk of Glastonbury, but that is uncertain). 
