ECCLESIASTICAL 

 HISTORY 



THE date of the conversion of Leicestershire to Christianity can be 

 fixed with tolerable certainty. It was in the year 653 that Penda's 

 son Peada, then sub-king of the Mid-Angles, returned from his 

 baptism in Northumbria, bringing with him four Scotic monks, 

 Adda, Betti, Cedda, and Diuma, to preach to his people. 1 The last-named of 

 these four was consecrated bishop of all Mercia in 656." From this time the 

 work of evangelization seems to have gone on quietly and steadily, and we do 

 not hear of any serious lapses from the faith in this part of the country. Of 

 Leicestershire, as distinguished from the rest of the Mercian kingdom, little is 

 known until the coming of Archbishop Theodore in 668. There is little 

 reason to doubt that the five-fold partition of the vast diocese of Mercia was 

 planned by Theodore himself at the council of Hatfield, though it is hard to 

 say when the first steps were taken towards the carrying out of his scheme. 3 

 At the time of the council (A.D. 679) Sexulf was bishop of all Mercia,* but 

 the first bishop of Leicester was Cuthwine, who died some time before the year 

 69 2. 6 At his death the rule of the new diocese was offered by King Ethelred 

 to the exiled Wilfrid, 8 who only kept it for a few years. An unbroken suc- 

 cession of bishops of Leicester cannot be shown to begin before the consecra- 

 tion of Torhthelm in 73/. 7 He was followed by ten others, 8 but the last four 

 must have worked under great difficulties, for the resistance of Mercia to the 

 Danish invaders had practically ceased in 874.' The last bishop of Leicester, 

 Leofwine, had nominal charge of Lindsey also, 10 but before his death (circa 

 965) n he had settled himself permanently at Dorchester. 13 It would seem 

 that in his day there was more need than ever for a bishop in the northern 

 Midlands, just then recovering from a century of raids and devastations ; and 

 there must have been plenty of missionary work for the Church to do amongst 

 the Danes, who remained as permanent settlers. But from this time there 

 was never another bishop of Leicester. 



There are no events of great interest connected with the early history of 

 Christianity in this country. The name of St. Wigstan, a prince of the royal 



1 Bede, Eccl. Hist, iii, i, 30. ' Ibid. 22 ; Bright, Early Engl. Ch. Hist. 181. 



3 Florence of Wore. Chnn. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), i, 36. * Bede, Eccl. Hist, iv, 13. 



'Haddon and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 127-9. ' Historians of the Ch. of York (Rolls Ser.), i, 65. 



7 Haddon and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 127-9. 8 Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 224. 



' With the flight of Burrhed ; Florence of Wore. Chnn. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 92. 



10 Ibid, i, 242. " Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 224 ; this is the date of his last signature. 



"Will, of Malmes. De Gest. Pont. (Rolls Ser.), 312. 



355 



