ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



he assisted." ^thelmod, 766-78 ; Denefrith, consecrated by Archbishop 

 yEthelheard in 793;" Wigberht or Wibert, who went with Archbishop 

 Wulfred to Rome in 8 i 2.^' Ealhstan, a vahant soldier no less than bishop, 

 and esteemed for his military prowess, took an important part in the conflicts 

 of his time, and not only assisted King Egbert in the subjugation of the 

 kingdoms of Kent and Essex, but afforded him and his successor material 

 help as well as active encouragement in their struggle against the Danes.^° 

 William of Malmesbury, who described the bishop as of singular power in 

 secular matters and pre-eminent in counsel, but resented his action in having 

 appropriated the abbey of Malmesbury to the episcopal see, declared that 

 avarice, spite of his liberality in the national cause, was the besetting sin of 

 Ealhstan, adding, however, that he left his church well endowed." Accord- 

 ing to i\\Q Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ealhstan died in 867, after he had held the 

 bishopric of Sherborne ' fifty winters,' and ' his body lies there in the town.' "^ 

 Bishop Heahmund, who subscribed 868—70, again recalls the fierce conflict 

 going on with the Danes, for he, ' with many good men,' was slain in battle 

 at Merton in 871 ; ''^ his successor, iEthelheah, subscribed 871—8 ; Wulfsige, 

 ^Ifsige, or Alfsius, 883.'* Asser, chiefly remembered as the friend and 

 biographer of King Alfred, signed acts in 900 and 904. He was in all 

 probability made bishop of the western portion of the diocese, which at that 

 time reached to Land's End, in the lifetime of his predecessor and succeeded 

 to the whole on the death of Wulfsige ; this, at any rate, offers a solution of 

 the fact that Asser is described by Alfred as ' my bishop ' at a date previous 

 to 890, while Asser himself states that the king bestowed on him the charge 

 of Exeter with the whole diocese that pertained to it in Saxony (Wessex) and 

 Cornwall,^^ and disposes of the confusion resulting from the two bishops 

 appearing as contemporary occupants of the same see.^° 



The beginning of the tenth century brings us to what has been described 

 as 'the great ecclesiastical event of the reign of Edward the Elder,' " the second 

 division of the West Saxon see, with the account of the consecration of the 

 seven bishops at Canterbury. 'In the year 904 of our Lord's nativity,' writes 

 William of Malmesbury — 



Pope Formosus sent letters into England by which he pronounced excommunication 

 and malediction on king Edward and all his subjects, instead of the benediction which had 

 been sent by Pope Gregory from the seat of St. Peter to the English people, because for 

 7 whole years the whole district of the West Saxons had been destitute of bishops. On 

 hearing this king Edward assembled a council of the senators of the English people, over 

 which Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury, presided interpreting carefully the words of the 

 apostolic message. Then the king and bishops chose a salutary council for themselves and 

 their people and, according to the word of our Lord ' the harvest truly is plenteous but the 



" Wilkins, Condi, i, 94. " Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i, 79. 



" Flor. of V7orc. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Sec), i, 64. 



" Gesta Regum Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 109. King .(Ethelwulf is said to have had two excellent bishops : 

 St. Swithun of Winchester, who directed the king in celestial matters ; and Ealhstan of Sherborne, who advised 

 him in earthly affairs. 



»' Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 175-6. " Op. cit. 53. 



" Ibid. 62. The following year King .iEthelred, who received mortal injuries in the same battle, died 

 and was buried at Wimborne (ibid.), his predecessors, .^thelbald and .(Ethelbert, having received burial at 

 Sherborne; ibid. 58-9. 



" Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 177. " Petrie, Monumenia Hist. Brit. 4, 9. 



" Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, ii, 433 ; W. H. Jones, Early Annals of the Episcopate in Wilts and Dorset, 

 20-1. 



" Stubbs, William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), Introd. ii, p. liv. 



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