Councils of Clovesho

The Councils of Clovesho were a series of synods in England in the eighth and ninth centuries.

The location of Clovesho has never been conclusively identified, though it must have been in or near the kingdom of Mercia, but also relatively convenient for bishops from the south of England. It has been described as "the most famous lost place in Anglo-Saxon England".^[1] The leading suggestion has long been Brixworth in Northamptonshire, where the surviving Anglo-Saxon church of All Saints' Church, Brixworth is evidence of the early importance of the place. Hitchin, Herfordshire has recently been suggested.^[2] Older suggestions were Cliffe near Rochester, Kent, previously known as Cliffe-at-Hoo. Lingard^[3] takes it to be Abingdon, and Kemble^[4] to be Tewkesbury, but Haddan and Stubbs^[5] consider these conjectures to be based upon unreliable evidence.

Councils of Clovesho

Whatever uncertainty exists in determining the place which was known as Clovesho, there is no doubt as to the fact of the councils or to the authenticity of their Acts. The councils of Clovesho of which we have authentic evidence are those of the years 742, 747, 794, 798, 803, 824, and 825.^{[citation needed]}

When Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus held the Council of Hertford between 672/3, in which he declared to the assembled bishops that he had been "appointed by the Apostolic See to be Bishop of the Church of Canterbury", a canon was passed to the effect that in future yearly synods should be held on 1 August every year "in the place which is called Clofeshoch."^[6] This ruling represents the inauguration of the first parliamentary system known to have operated in Britain; "there had never before been a parliament with authority enough to decide on matters concerning all the English peoples."^{[citation needed]} Meetings were held at Clovesho for more than 150 years.

The councils held at Clovesho, and those generally of the Anglo-Saxon period, were mixed assemblies at which not only the bishops and abbots, but the kings of Mercia and the chief men of the kingdom were present. They had thus the character not only of a church synod but of the Witenagemot or assembly fairly representative of the Church and realm. The affairs of the Church were decided by the bishops, who were in turn presided over by the archbishop(s), while the king, presiding over his chiefs, gave to their decisions the co-operation and acceptance of the State. Both parties signed the decrees, but there is no evidence of any ingerence of the lay power in the spiritual legislation or judgments of the Church. The country was not yet united into one kingdom, but the decisions made at Clovesho, as far as can be judged from participants' signatures, represented the decisions of the primatial See of Canterbury and the whole English Church south of the Humber.^{[citation needed]}

Notwithstanding the Hertford council provision, ìt was not until seventy years later that the first Council of Clovesho of which we have an authentic record was assembled. In the Canterbury Cartulary there is a charter which says that the Privilege of King Wihtred to the churches was "confirmed and ratified in a synod held in the month of July in a place called Clovesho" in the year 716; some scholars have expressed doubt about the authenticity of this document.^{[citation needed]}

First Council

The first Council of Clovesho, in 742, was presided over by Ethelbald, King of Mercia, and Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury. According to the record of its proceedings,^[7] the council "diligently enquired into the needs of religion, the Creed as delivered by the ancient teaching of the Fathers, and carefully examined how things were ordered at the first beginning of the Church here in England, and where the honour of the monasteries according to the rules of justice was maintained".

The privilege of King Wihtred, assuring the liberty of the Church, was solemnly confirmed. Beyond this, no mention is made of particular provisions.

Second Council

The second Council of Clovesho, held in 747, was one of the most important such gatherings recorded in the history of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Its acts were copied by Spelman^[8] from an ancient Cottonian manuscript now lost.^[9]

They state that the council was composed of "bishops and dignitaries of less degree from the various provinces of Britain", and that it was presided over by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury.^{[citation needed]} According to the Manuscript preserved by William of Malmesbury, "King Ethelbald and his princes and chiefs were present".^{[citation needed]} It was thus substantially representative of the Anglo-Saxon Church.

The Acts relate that "first of all, the Metropolitan, as president, brought forth in their midst two letters of the Apostolic Lord, Pope Zachary, venerated throughout the whole world, and with great care these were plainly read, and also openly translated into our own language, according as he himself by his Apostolic authority had commanded".^{[citation needed]} The papal letters are described as containing a fervent admonition to amendment of life, addressed to the English people of every rank and condition, and requiring that those who condemned these warnings and remained obstinate in their malice should be punished by sentence of excommunication. The council then drew up thirty-one canons dealing mostly with matters of ecclesiastical discipline and liturgy.

The thirteenth and fifteenth canons are noteworthy as showing the close union of the Anglo-Saxon Church with the Holy See. The thirteenth canon is: "That all the most sacred Festivals of Our Lord made Man, in all things pertaining to the same, viz.: in the Office of Baptism, the celebration of Masses, in the method of chanting, shall be celebrated in one and the same way, namely, according to the sample which we have received in writing from the Roman Church. And also, throughout the course of the whole year, the festivals of the Saints are to be kept on one and the same day, with their proper psalmody and chant, according to the Martyrology of the same Roman Church." The fifteenth canon adds that in the seven hours of the daily and nightly Office the clergy "must not dare to sing or read anything not sanctioned by the general use, but only that which comes down by authority of Holy Scripture, and which the usage of the Roman Church allows".

The sixteenth canon requires that the litanies and rogations are to be observed by the clergy and people with great reverence "according to the rite of the Roman Church". The feasts of St. Gregory and of St. Augustine, "who was sent to the English people by our said Pope and father St. Gregory", were to be solemnly celebrated. The clergy and monks were to live so as to be always prepared to receive worthily the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord, and the laity were to be exhorted to the practice of frequent Communion (Canons xxii, xxiii). Persons who did not know Latin were to join in the psalmody by intention, and were to be taught to say, in the Saxon tongue, prayers for the living or for the repose of the souls of the dead (Can. xxvii). Neither clergy nor monks were in future to be allowed to live in the houses of the people (Can. xxix), nor were they to adopt or imitate the dress which is worn by the laity (Can. xxviii).

Third Council

The record of the third Council of Clovesho, in 794, consists merely in a charter by which Offa, King of Mercia, made a grant of land for pious purposes. The charter states that it has been drawn up "in the general synodal Council in the most celebrated place called Clofeshoas".

At or about the time when the papal legates presided at the Council of Chelsea in 787, Offa had obtained from Pope Adrian I that Lichfield should be created an archbishopric and that the Mercian sees should be subjected to its jurisdiction and withdrawn from that of Canterbury. Consequently at this Council of Clovesho in 794, Higbert of Lichfield, to whom the pope had sent the pallium, signs as an archbishop.

Fourth Council

A fourth council was held at Clovesho in 798 by Archbishop Ethelheard with Coenwulf, King of Mercia, at which the bishops and abbots and chief men of the province were present. Its proceedings are related in a document by Archbishop Ethelheard.^[10]

He states that his first care was to examine diligently "in what way the Catholic Faith was held and how the Christian religion was practised amongst them". To this inquiry, "they all replied with one voice: 'Be it known to your Paternity, that even as it was formerly delivered to us by the Holy Roman and Apostolic See, by the mission of the most Blessed Pope Gregory, so do we believe, and what we believe, we in all sincerity do our best to put into practice.'"^{[citation needed]}

The rest of the time of the council was devoted to questions of church property, and an agreement of exchange of certain lands between the archbishop and the Abbess Cynethryth.

Fifth Council

The fifth Council of Clovesho, in 803, is one of the most remarkable of the series, as its Acts contain the declaration of the restitution of the Mercian sees to the province of Canterbury by the authority of Pope Leo III.

In 798 King Coenwulf of Mercia addressed to the pope a long letter, representing "with great affection and humility" the disadvantages of the new archbishopric which had been erected at Lichfield some eleven years previously by Pope Adrian I, at the prayer of King Offa. King Coenwulf in this letter^[11] submits the whole case to the pope, asking his blessing and saying: "I love you as one who is my father, and I embrace you with the whole strength of my obedience", and promising to abide in all things by his decision. "I judge it fitting to bend humbly the ear of our obedience to your holy commands, and to fulfil with all our strength whatever may seem to your Holiness that we ought to do."

Æthelhard, Archbishop of Canterbury, went himself to Rome, and pleaded for the restitution of the sees. In 802 Pope Leo III granted the petition of the king and the archbishop, and issued to the latter a Bull in which he restored to him the full jurisdiction enjoyed by his predecessors. The pope communicated this judgment in a letter to King Coenwulf.^[12]

This decision was duly proclaimed in the Council of Clovesho held in the following year. Archbishop Ethelheard declared to the synod that "by the co-operation of God and of the Apostolic Lord, the Pope Leo", he and his fellow-bishops unanimously ratified the rights of the See of Canterbury, and that an archbishopric should never more be founded at Lichfield, and that the grant of the pallium made "with the consent and permission of the Apostolic Lord Pope Adrian, be considered as null, having been obtained surreptitiously and by evil suggestion".^{[citation needed]}

Higbert, the Archbishop of Lichfield, submitted to the papal judgment, retiring into a monastery, and the Mercian sees returned to the jurisdiction of Canterbury.

Further synods

In 824 and again in 825 the sixth and seventh synods were held at Clovesho, "Beornwulf, King of Mercia, presiding and the Venerable Archbishop Wulfred ruling and controlling the Synod", according to the record of the first, and "Wulfred the Archbishop presiding, and also Beornwulf, King of Mercia", according to the second. The first assembly was occupied in deciding a suit concerning an inheritance, and the second in terminating a dispute between the archbishop and the Abbess Cynethryth.^[13]

Notes

1. ^ By Clifford Offer, quoted by Slater & Goose below
2. ^ Slater, Terry and Goose, Nigel. A county of small towns: the development of Hertfordshire's urban landscape to 1800, p. 191, 2008, Univ of Hertfordshire Press, ISBN 1905313446, 9781905313440
3. ^ Appendix to the Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church.
4. ^ Saxons in England, II, 191.
5. ^ Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, III, 121, n.
6. ^ Bede, H. E., IV, ch. v.
7. ^ Given in Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici, 87.
8. ^ Councils, I, 240.
9. ^ They are printed in Wilkins, I, 94; in Mansi, XII, 395; and in Haddan and Stubbs, III, 360.
10. ^ Lambeth Manuscript 1212, p. 312; Haddan and Stubbs, III, 512.
11. ^ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 521.
12. ^ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 538.
13. ^ Haddan and Stubbs, III, 593, 596.

See also

• History of the Church of England

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). "Councils of Clovesho". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.