The Synod of Streoneshalch
(later known more famously as the Synod of Whitby), 664 CE
Early stone cross of Streanæshealh
The momentous agreement at Whitby, 30
km northeast of Farndale, which resolved the incompatibilities between Roman
and Celtic Christian traditions, and placed Britain onto the European stage
Streanæshealh
In 657 CE,
King Oswy or Oswiu, the Christian King of Northumbria, gave land at Streanæshealh, the site which later became Whitby,
to Hild (614 to 680 CE) to found a monastery. Hild was its first abbess. In the eleventh century the place came to be called Prestebi (Scandinavian byr
or village presta, of priests) and later white
byr, or Whitby, but this was much later.
Nevertheless the momentous event of 664 CE is generally referred today as the
Synod of Whitby.
Streanæshealh was founded as an act of thanksgiving
by Oswy after he defeated the pagan King Penda of Mercia. It was founded as a double
monastery for men and women. Its first abbess, the royal princess Hild, was
later venerated as a saint. The abbey became a centre of learning, and here Cædmon the cowherd started writing poems. The abbey became
the leading royal nunnery of the kingdom of Deira,
and the burial-place of its royal family.
Celtic
and Roman Christianity
St Gregory
had sent Augustine to convert the Angli to
Christianity in 597 CE and his focus was initially in the south. In 627 CE King
Edwin of Deira had converted to
Christianity at Eoforwic
(York). He adopted the Roman traditions of Christianity.
When
Edwin died, overall control of the Kingdom of Northumbria passed to the
northern Kingdom of Bernicia.
Edwin’s
successor King Oswald dominated the northern region from Bamburgh. Oswald had
learned Christian practices from the monks of Iona during a visit there. He
gave Lindisfarne to his Bishop Aidan who built a monastery there in 635 CE in
the Iona tradition.
Aidan
brought with him a set of practices that are known as the Celtic Rite. As well
as differences over the computes, the science behind the calculation of
the calendar including the important 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.
Celtic
Christian activity was based in monasteries, which supported peripatetic
missionary bishops. There was a strong emphasis on personal asceticism. 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.
Lastingham had been founded in the Celtic
tradition from Iona and Lindisfarne in 653 CE.
Early
Christians had celebrated Easter on the same day as the Jewish Passover, held
on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month of the Jewish year, called Nisan.
However in 325 CE the First Council of Niceaea had
ordered that Christians should not use the Jewish calendar, but should
celebrate Easter on a Sunday. Which Sunday was a complex process which required
the science of the computus to calculate.
Celtic Christian traditions continued to adopt the older system for the
calculation of Easter, based on the Jewish Passover, but Roman Christianity had
moved onto the complex new computus methods.
Oswald (633 to 642 CE) was succeeded by his son Oswy
(642 to 670 CE) who continued to follow Celtic traditions. However his
queen was Eanflæd who was Edwin’s daughter and she
had adopted Roman practices. This must have led to absurd circumstances when
husband and wife celebrated Easter, the most important day of the Christian
year, on different weekends. Oswy’s son, Alchfrith, was a sub king ruling over Deira,
and in the early 660s he expelled Ionan monks from a
monastery at Ripon and gave it to Wilfred, a Northumbrian who had recently
returned from Rome. So whilst Oswy was continuing to follow the Celtic
tradition, his wife and son were advocates of Roman tradition and had found a
champion in Wilfred.
The Synod
In 664 CE
King Oswy convened a synod at Streanæshealh to
resolve these issues so that he could decide which tradition should continue to
be adopted in Northumbria.
The
proceedings of the council were hampered by the participants' mutual
incomprehension of each other's languages, which probably included Old Irish,
Old English, Frankish and Old Welsh, as well as Latin. Bede recounted that Cedd interpreted for both sides. Cedd's facility
with the languages, together with his status as a trusted royal emissary,
likely made him a key figure in the negotiations.
Bishop
Colmán advocated the Ionan Celtic tradition and
argued that it was the traditional practice of Columba, who had followed the
teaching of St John the apostle.
The Roman
approach was advocated by Wilfred on behalf of Agilbert since Wilfred was able
to articulate in English. He argued that the Roman tradition was adopted across
the world as far as Egypt. The custom of St John was an old tradition which had
been superseded by the Council of Nicaea, and it was the practice of St Peter
and St Paul. Columba had done his best with the knowledge he had, and his error
was therefore excusable, but now knowing the correct approach, it would be
wrong to continue to follow the old ways. None had authority over Peter.
In answer to
Oswy’s question both sides agreed that Peter’s doctrine was the rock which
superseded others. Oswy therefore decided in favour of the Roman practice.
Bede, by his
time a promotor of Roman Christianity, later presented the synod as a momentous
event, and he produced his own computus
calculations in De Temporibus (703 CE) and
later De Temporum Ratione (716 to 725 CE). The
Bedean tables were later used across the Carolingian Empire and in Rome.
This
might be Bede who later recorded the Synod in his Ecclesiastical History
or
Go Straight to Chapter 4 – Anglo
Saxon Kirkdale
There is a
separate page about Whitby, with some
references to source material.