A HISTORY OF DORSET 



of Wilts., Dorset, Berks., Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall ; ' and we may per- 

 haps conclude that the new diocese consisted at least of the whole of Dorset 

 and Somerset, with a large part of Wiltshire, and probably included Devon 

 and Cornwall. 



If there had been delay and difficulty in bringing this county into line 

 with the rest of Wessex, Dorset certainly sprang, ecclesiastically as well as 

 politically, into the front rank from the date of the constitution of the see. The 

 saintly Aldhelm, kinsman and partner of King Ine in all schemes for the 

 welfare and advancement of the kingdom, was elected and by Archbishop 

 Berchtwald consecrated first bishop of Sherborne in 705.' As regards his 

 previous connexion with this county, William of Malmesbury recounts how, 

 prior to his departure for Rome to obtain from the pope various privileges 

 for the monasteries he had established, Aldhelm visited his Dorset estate near 

 Wareham and Corfe Castle and built a church two miles from the sea, 

 * wherein he commended to God his going and returning.' According to 

 the chronicler the church was still standing in his day — about the beginning 

 of the twelfth century — and was regarded by the inhabitants of the country 

 with singular veneration on account of the signs and miracles which had 

 taken place there. The shepherds of the district, it was said, when storms 

 broke over them, would fiy for shelter within its walls, where no rain ever 

 fell though the roof had fallen and all attempts to cover it had failed.^" 

 During the four short years of his rule the bishop worthily initiated the 

 work of the church in Dorset. At Sherborne he built, or at least com- 

 menced, his minster or cathedral church," to which was attached a house of 

 secular canons, the ' familia,' or household, at that time always forming part 

 of a bishop's seat. Another important religious foundation, dating not later 

 than the formation of the episcopal see, was the house of religious virgins 

 built by St. Cuthburga, sister of King Ine, at Wimborne, and specially 

 referred to by Aldhelm in a letter, dated 705, giving liberty of election to 

 the monasteries under his charge, as ' the monastery by the river which is 

 called Wimburnia presided over by the abbess Cuthburga.' ^^ During the 

 eighth century the fame of the nuns here and the report of the training and 

 discipline of the abbess-founder and her successors spread even to the Con- 

 tinent, and St. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, sent over to make 

 request that the sisters Lioba and Agatha might be allowed to proceed abroad 

 to take charge of the monastery he had founded at BiscofFsheim in order that 

 the same rule and discipline might be planted there.^* 



To enumerate briefly the succession of bishops of Sherborne in the 

 eighth and ninth centuries : Aldhelm, on his death in 709, was followed by 

 Forthere," who in 737 is said to have accompanied Queen Frythogith to 

 Rome,^° and was succeeded by Herewald, consecrated by Archbishop Nothelm 

 in 736,^* in whose time was held the council of Clovesho (747), at which 



' Ges/a Pon/if. (Rolls Ser.), 175. 



' Flor. Vi^orc. Ciron. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 46 ; Wm. of Malmesbury, Gafa Pontlf. (Rolls Ser.), 376. 



" Ibid. 363-4. " Ibid 378. " Birch, Carl. Sax. i, 168. 



" Cressy, Church Hist, of Brit. lib. xxi, cap. xviii. 



" Flor. Wore. Chron. (En^l. Hist. Soc), i. 47 ; Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. v, cap. yi'iii. 



" Anglo-Sax. Ckron. (Rolls Ser.), 40. 



" Sim. of Durham (Twysden), 100. Herewald appears to have acted as suffragan to Forthere before the 

 death of the latter, for in a charter dated 734-7, they both appear as bishop of the church of Sherborne ; 

 Kemble, Codex Dipl. i, 82. 



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