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Selsey in West Sussex, where an episcopal see was founded by St Wilfrid

c. 681: Preaching of Bishop Wilfrid and widespread baptism

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See also: History of Christianity in Sussex

The written evidence for the foundation of a bishopric in Sussex comes from the The Life of Wilfrid attributed to Stephen of Ripon and Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People.[1][2] Their narrative says that [in about 681] Bishop Wilfrid, who had been expelled from Northumbria, began preaching in Sussex, which up until that point had remained widely heathen.[3] Bede records that several prominent ealdormen and þegns were baptised around 681, followed by the rest of the people of the kingdom.[4] In Wilfrid's biography, he is recorded as having preached to the South Saxons by emphasising that the Kingdom of God was imminently arriving and that those who had not been baptised and who upheld idolatry would be damned to eternal punishment. The conversion of the South Saxons was supported by Æthelwealh and implicitly Mercia, which was dominant over Sussex at the time.[3] The Life of St Wilfrid records that the king gave Wilfrid his own estate and land in Selsey to set up an episcopal see.[5] Whilst Wilfrid was in Sussex, the kingdom was invaded by Cædwalla of Wessex, and Æthelwealh was killed.[6][7] The Life of St Wilfrid describes how during this time, Wilfrid was still converting the South Saxons and was given land by Cædwalla after his conquest.[1]

Modern academics have questioned the narrative provided by Stephen and Bede. The historian David Peter Kirby suggests that Stephen's "Life of Wilfrid" was extremely partisan, as its purpose was to magnify Wilfrid as well as vindicate him. Bede's "Ecclesiastical History" takes a more nuanced view than "Life", this ambiguity is because Bede did not approve of Wilfrid and did not simply copy Stephen's "Life". Henry Mayr-Harting writes that it would have been easy for Bede just to copy from Stephen's "Life" into his own "Ecclesiastical History", but experience equipped him to deal with the "difficulty of sources".According to Michael Shapland it is possible that on Wilfrids arrival, the people of Sussex would already have been Insular Christians. Stephen would have suppressed this knowledge in the "Life of Wilfrid" and Bede in his "History". This analysis suggests that the narrative by Stephen and Bede provide a biased historical account of Wilfrid's "successful" Christianization of Sussex".[8][9][10][11]


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Saxon king, Cædwalla, granting land to Wilfrid to build his monastery in Selsey|Engraving showing the local Saxon king, Cædwalla, granting land to Wilfrid to build his monastery in Selsey.]]

After the departure of the Roman army, the Saxons arrived and founded the Kingdom of Sussex in the 5th century, bringing with them their polytheistic religion.[12][13] The Saxon pagan culture probably caused a reversal of the spread of Christianity.[14] The written evidence for the foundation of a bishopric in Sussex comes from the The Life of Wilfrid attributed to Stephen of Ripon and Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People.[1][2] Their narrative says that [in about 681] Bishop Wilfrid, who had been expelled from Northumbria, began preaching in Sussex, which up until that point had remained widely heathen.[3] The Life of St Wilfrid notes that Sussex was inaccessible, having a rocky coast and thick forests, which allowed it to maintain its independence.[5] At this point, the local king, Æthelwealh of Sussex, had been baptised in Mercia under influence from Wulfhere, who had become his godfather. Wulfhere died in 675, providing a latest possible date for the baptism, and was succeeded by Æthelred of Mercia, who was ruling in 681.[3][4] At the time of Æthelwealh's conversion, he was married to Eafe, a Christian lady originally from Hwicce, whose religion may have influenced his decision to be baptised.[6]

Æðelwealh became Sussex's first Christian king when he married Eafe, the daughter of Wulfhere, the Christian king of Mercia. In 681 St Wilfrid, the exiled Bishop of York, landed at Selsey and is credited with evangelising the local population and founding the church in Sussex. King Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid which became the site of Selsey Abbey. The seat of the Sussex bishopric was originally located here before the Normans moved it to Chichester Cathedral in 1075. According to Bede, Sussex was the last area of the country to be converted.[13][15] However it is unlikely that Sussex was wholly heathen when Wilfrid arrived. Some modern academics have questioned the narrative provided by Stephen and Bede. According to Michael Shapland it is possible that on Wilfrids arrival, the people of Sussex would already have been Insular Christians. Stephen would have suppressed this knowledge in the "Life of Wilfrid" and Bede in his "History". This analysis suggests that the narrative by Stephen and Bede provide a biased historical account of Wilfrid's "successful" Christianization of Sussex".[8][9][10][11] [16]

Æðelwealh, Sussex's king, had been baptised. Damianus, a South Saxon, was made Bishop of Rochester in the Kingdom of Kent in the 650s; this may indicate earlier missionary work in the first half of the 7th century.[17] At the time of Wilfrid's mission there was a monastery at Bosham containing a few monks led by an Irish monk named Dicul,[17] which was probably part of the Hiberno-Scottish mission of the time. Wilfrid was a champion of Roman customs and it was these customs that were adopted by the church in Sussex rather than the Celtic customs that had taken root in Scotland and Ireland.

Shortly after Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid for the church, Cædwalla of Wessex killed Æðelwealh and conquered Sussex. Christianity in Sussex was put under control of the diocese of Winchester. It was not until c. 715 that Eadberht, Abbot of Selsey was consecrated the first bishop of the South Saxons.[18]

St Lewinna, or St Leofwynn, was a female saint who lived around Seaford, probably at Bishopstone around the 7th century. According to the hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript, Lyminster is the burial place of St Cuthflæd of Lyminster.[19][20] In the late 7th or early 8th century, St Cuthman, a shepherd who may have been born in Chidham and had been reduced to begging, set out from his home with his disabled mother using a one-wheeled cart.[21] When he reached Steyning he saw a vision and stopped there to build a church.[21] Cuthman was venerated as a saint and his church was in existence by 857 when King Æthelwulf of Wessex was buried there.[21] Steyning was an important religious centre and St Cuthman's grave became a place of pilgrimage in the 10th and 11th centuries.[19][20][21] In 681, Bede records that an outbreak of the plague had devastated parts of England, including Sussex, and the monks at Selsey Abbey fasted and prayed for three days for an end to the outbreak. A young boy with the plague prayed to St Oswald and his prayers were answered, and a vision of St Peter and St Paul was said to have appeared to the boy, telling him that he would be the last to die.[22]

The church built at Steyning was one of around 50 minster churches across Sussex[23][24] and these churches supplied itinerant clergy to surrounding districts.[25] Other examples are churches at Singleton, Lyminster, Findon and Bishopstone.[18] The jurisdiction of each minster church in the pre-Viking era seems to match early land divisions that were replaced by hundreds in the 10th or 11th centuries.[23] It was not until 200–300 years after its conversion to Christianity in the 680s that a network of local parish churches existed in Sussex.[25]

Various monastic houses were established in the Saxon period in Sussex including at Selsey Abbey, Lyminster Priory, Aldingbourne, Beddingham, Bosham, Chichester, Ferring and South Malling, near Lewes.

refs

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  1. ^ a b c Stephanus 1985, Chapter 62.
  2. ^ a b Welch 1978, p. 13.
  3. ^ a b c d Higham 1997, pp. 29–31.
  4. ^ a b Sellar 1907, Book 4, chapter 13.
  5. ^ a b Stephanus 1985, Chapter 61.
  6. ^ a b Kelly_B.
  7. ^ Yorke 1990, p. 130.
  8. ^ a b Kirby 1978, pp. 169–170.
  9. ^ a b Goffart 2012, p. 254, p. 254 n 98, pp. 318-319.
  10. ^ a b Shapland 2023, pp. 117–135.
  11. ^ a b Mayr-Harting 1991, p. 46.
  12. ^ Jones. The end of Roman Britain. pp. 164–168
  13. ^ a b Armstrong. A History of Sussex. pp. 38-40
  14. ^ Higham The English Conquest. p. 79.
  15. ^ Bede.HE.IV.13
  16. ^ Brandon 2006, pp. 70–71.
  17. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Brandon 2006 70–71 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ a b Brandon 2006, p. 71
  19. ^ a b Stowe MS 944 Archived 2014-01-03 at archive.today, British Library
  20. ^ a b The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford University Press.
  21. ^ a b c d "Early Medieval – AD 410-1066" (PDF) (PDF). Chichester Harbour Conservancy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 April 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  22. ^ "History Page-Plague and Pestillence". St Peter's Church, Selsey. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  23. ^ a b Rushton 1999
  24. ^ Hudson, T.P., ed. (1980). "A History of the County of Sussex Volume 6 Part 1 Bramber Rape (Southern Part) - Steyning". Victoria County Histories. pp. 241–244.
  25. ^ a b Brandon 2006, p. 72
  • Kirby, D.P. (1978). "The Church in Saxon Sussex". In Brandon, Peter (ed.). The South Saxons. Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 0-85033-240-0.
  • Shapland, Michael (2023). Kaminski, Jamie (ed.). "Selsey Cathedral and the Early Medieval Kingdoms of Sussex". Sussex Archaeological Collections. 161. Lewes: Sussex Archaeological Society.
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry (1991). The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00769-9.
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