Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia in the South of England, during the eighth century / by Thomas Kerslake.

  • Kerslake, T. (Thomas), 1812-1891.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia in the South of England, during the eighth century / by Thomas Kerslake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    an Archbishop at Lichfield, only seven miles from his home-court at Tamworth, was in this direction. This attempt to determine the true place of these synods, during the continuance of Mercian supremacy in England ; was intended to confirm the statement, that wherever extraneous dedications of St. Werburgli are found, traces are also found of the energetic or active presence of vEtlielbald. It may' seem to be rather an elaborate implement for so small a purpose. It has been more extensive than was contemplated : but, if once success- fully constructed, it may serve a greater purpose of its own : the setting at rest of a long dispute. And this purpose of its own will itself receive back all that it gives to ours : for if the presence of AEtlielbald, accounts for our having found a St. Werburgli in this now secluded peninsula; the presence of that dedication, is a weighty confirmation of the much disputed fact, that he was busy and much resident there ; and that we might reasonably expect his most important acts to be dated thence. At all events, it is hoped that our sixth and last remaining of the wandering dedi- cations of St. Werburgli, in the Kentish Hoo, has been thus discovered to have been in the immediate company of AEthelbald ; when, as it is said in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle : “A.d. 742. Now was a great synod gathered at Cloueshou, and there was vEtlielbald, King of the Mercians, and Cutbert, Archbishop, and many other wise men.” But something more is to be said concerning this passage itself of the Chronicle. It appears to be only contained in one manu- script ; consequently in the five-column edition, this year is only filled in in the fifth column ; the other four being blank. Sir T. D. Hardy says of this solitary manuscript, that it is “ apparently of the twelfth century ; ” and that it contains “ various peculiar additions, chiefly relating to Kentish ecclesiastical affairs.”1 Pro- fessor Earle also says of it: “ There is no external tradition informing us as to what home it belonged, but the internal 1 Pref. 77.