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Cedd c620 to 26 October 664
The life of Cedd
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Headlines are in brown.
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
Geographical context is in green.
St Cedd (c 620 to 26 October 664) was one of a
family of missionary priests, educated at Lindisfarne under St Aidan, the most
famous of whom was Chad, the first Bishop of Lichfield. Cedd preached first to the Middle Angles and
then to the East Saxons. About 654 CE he became their Bishop.
Cedd was born in the kingdom of
Northumbria and brought up on the island of Lindisfarne by Aidan of the Irish
Church. He had three brothers: Chad of Mercia (transcribed into Bede's Latin
text as Ceadda), Cynibil and Cælin.
All four were priests and both Cedd and Chad became bishops. Despite being of
apparent Northumbrian birth, the names of all four brothers are Celtic in
origin, rather than Anglo-Saxon. The first datable reference to Cedd by Bede
makes clear that he was a priest by the year 653 CE. This probably pushes his
birth date back to the early 620s. It is likely that Cedd was oldest of the
brothers and was acknowledged the head of the family. He seems to have taken
the lead, while Chad was his chosen successor.
Aidan had come to Northumbria from Iona,
bringing with him a set of practices that are known as the Celtic Rite. As well
as superficial differences over the computus
(calculation of the date of Easter), and the “cut of the tonsure” (the practice
of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the
scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility), these involved a pattern of
Church organisation fundamentally different from the diocesan structure that
was evolving on the continent of Europe. Activity was based in monasteries,
which supported peripatetic missionary bishops. There was a strong emphasis on
personal asceticism, on Biblical exegesis, and on eschatology. Aidan was well
known for his personal austerity and disregard for the trappings of wealth and
power. Bede several times stresses that Cedd and Chad absorbed his example and
traditions. Bede tells us that Chad and many other Northumbrians went to study
with the Irish after the death of Aidan.
In 653, Cedd was sent by Oswiu of
Northumberland with three other priests to convert the Middle Angles, who were
one of the core ethnic groups of Mercia, based on the mid-Trent Valley. Peada
of Mercia, son of Penda, was sub-king of the Middle Angles. Peada had agreed to
become a Christian in return for the hand of Oswiu's daughter, Alchflaed (c.635-c.714) in marriage. This was a time of
growing Northumbrian power, as Oswiu reunited and consolidated the Northumbrian
kingdom after its earlier (641/2) defeat by Penda. Peada travelled to
Northumbria to negotiate his marriage and baptism.
Cedd, together with the priests, Adda,
Betti and Diuma, accompanied Peada back to Middle Anglia, where they won
numerous converts. Bede relates that the pagan Penda did not obstruct preaching
even among his subjects in Mercia proper, and portrays
him as generally sympathetic to Christianity at this point – a very different
view from the general estimate of Penda as a devoted pagan. But,
the mission apparently made little headway in the wider Mercian polity. Bede
credits Cedd's brother Chad with the effective evangelisation of Mercia more
than a decade later. To make progress among the general population,
Christianity appeared to need positive royal backing, including grants of land
for monasteries, rather than a benign attitude from leaders.
Cedd was soon recalled from the mission
to Mercia by Oswiu, who sent him on a mission with one other priest to the East
Saxon kingdom. The priests had been requested by Sigeberht the Good to
reconvert his people.
The East Saxon kingdom was originally
converted by missionaries from Canterbury, where Augustine of Canterbury had
established a Roman mission in 597. The first bishop of the Roman Rite was
Mellitus, who arrived in Essex in 604. After a decade, he was driven out of the
area. The religious destiny of the kingdom was constantly in the balance, with
the royal family itself divided among Christians, pagans, and some wanting to
tolerate both.
Bede tells us that Sigeberht's decision
to be baptised and to reconvert his kingdom was at the initiative of Oswiu.
Sigeberht travelled to Northumbria to accept baptism from Bishop Finan of
Lindisfarne. Cedd went to the East Saxons partly as an emissary of the
Northumbrian monarchy. Certainly his prospects were
helped by the continuing military and political success of Northumbria,
especially the final defeat of Penda in 655. Practically, Northumbria gained
hegemony among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
After making some conversions, Cedd
returned to Lindisfarne to report to Finan. In recognition of his success,
Finan ordained him bishop, calling in two other Irish bishops to assist at the
rite. Cedd was appointed bishop of the East Saxons. As a result, he is
generally listed among the bishops of London, a part of the East Saxon kingdom.
Bede, however, generally uses ethnic descriptions for episcopal
responsibilities when dealing with the generation of Cedd and Chad.
Bede's record makes clear that Cedd
demanded personal commitment and that he was unafraid to confront the powerful.
He excommunicated a thegn who was in an unlawful marriage and forbade
Christians to accept the man's hospitality. According to Bede, when Sigeberht
continued to visit the man's home, Cedd went to the house to denounce the king,
foretelling that he would die in that house. Bede asserts that the King's
subsequent murder (660 CE) was his penance for defying Cedd's injunction.
After the death of Sigeberht, there were
signs that Cedd had a more precarious position. The new king, Swithhelm of Essex, who had assassinated Sigeberht, was a
pagan. He had long been a client of Æthelwold of East
Anglia, who was increasingly dependent on Wulfhere of Mercia, the Christian
king of a newly resurgent Mercia. After some persuasion from Ethelwald, Swithelm accepted
baptism from Cedd. The bishop traveled into East
Anglia to baptize the king at Ethelwald's home. For a
time, the East Saxon kingdom remained Christian.
Bede presents Cedd's work as decisive in
the conversion of the East Saxons, although it was preceded by other
missionaries, and eventually followed by a revival of paganism. Despite the
substantial work, the future suggested that all could be undone.
Cedd founded many churches. He also
founded monasteries at Tilaburg (probably East
Tilbury, but possibly West Tilbury) and Ithancester
(almost certainly Bradwell-on-Sea).
Cedd was appointed as abbot of the
monastery of Lastingham in his native Northumbria at the request of the
sub-king Œthelwald of Deira. Bede records the
foundation of this monastery in some detail, showing that Ethelwald
was put in contact with Cedd through Caelin, one of the bishop's brothers, who
was on the king's staff. Cedd undertook a 40-day fast to purify the site,
although urgent royal business took him away after 30 days, and Cynibil took over the fast for him.
Cedd occupied the position of abbot of
Lastingham to the end of his life, while maintaining his position as missionary
bishop and diplomat. He often travelled far from the monastery in fulfilment of
these other duties. His brother Chad, who succeeded him as abbot, did the same.
Cedd and his brothers regarded Lastingham as a monastic base, providing
intellectual and spiritual support, and a place of retreat. Cedd delegated
daily care of Lastingham to other priests, and it is likely that Chad operated
similarly.
The Venerable Bede writes of Cedd:
The same man of God, whilst he was
bishop among the East Saxons, was also wont several
times to visit his own country, Northumberland, to make exhortations. Ethelwald, the son of King Oswald, who reigned among the Deiri, finding him a holy, wise and good man, desired him
to accept some land to build a monastery, to which the king himself might
frequently resort, to offer his prayers and hear the word, and be buried in it
when he died; for he believed that he should receive much benefit by the
prayers of those who were to serve God in that place.
That prelate, therefore, complying with
the king's desires, chose himself a place to build a monastery among craggy and
distant mountains, which looked more like lurking places for robbers and
retreats for wild beasts, than habitations for men.
Bede goes on to say that to cleanse the
place from former crimes, S. Cedd planned to spend all Lent there in prayer,
but being called away on the king's affairs, his place was
taken by his brother Cynebil,
who readily complied, and when the time of fasting and prayer was over, he
there built the monastery, which is now called Lestingau,
and established therein the religious customs of Lindisfarne, where they had
been educated.
Bede also tells us that S. Cedd was
visiting his monastery, when he died of a pestilence.
He was first buried in the open air; but
in the process of time a church was built of stone in the monastery, in honour
of the Mother of God, and his body interred in the
same, on the right hand of the altar. The bishop left the monastery to be
governed after him by his brother Chad.
It has generally been held that the
monastery referred to was Lastingham, where the church is dedicated to S. Mary.
In 1846 D. H. Haigh claimed that it was Kirkdale. He identified the coffin lid
with the cross as that of King Ethelwald of Deira, on
the strength of the runic inscription. The other coffin lid with an interlace design, and the tassels of a pall on the edges,
was said to be that of S. Cedd. This theory has had few supporters.