Lyfing (Archbishop of Canterbury)

Infobox Archbishop of Canterbury
Full name = Lyfing


began=unknown
birth_name = Aelfstan
consecration = 1013
term_end = 12 June 1020
predecessor = Alphege
successor = Aethelnoth
birth_date =
death_date = 12 June 1020
tomb = Canterbury Cathedral

Lyfing (died 12 June 1020) was an Anglo-Saxon bishop of Wells and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Life

Lyfing was born "Aelfstan" and took his ecclesiastical name from "leof-carus" (= "darling").

He was abbot of Chertsey Abbey from about 989.Mason, Emma "Lyfing (d. 1020)" "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16798 Online Edition] accessed 7 November 2007] cite book |author=Knowles, David |authorlink=David Knowles|coauthors=London, Vera C. M.; Brooke, Christopher |title=The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940-1216|edition=Second Edition |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge|year=2001 |isbn=0-521-80452-3 |pages=p. 38, 244] He became Bishop of Wells in 998 or 999,cite book |author=Fryde, E. B. |coauthors=Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third Edition, revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X |pages=222] and in 1013 King Ethelred the Unready appointed him to the see of Canterbury.cite book |author=Fryde, E. B. |coauthors=Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third Edition, revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X |pages=214] Lyfing was taken captive by Vikings and held prisoner for a time, but he was released in time to attend the Witenagemot in 1014, and he started repairs of the damage the Vikings had done to Canterbury Cathedral.

Lyfing was unable to go to Rome for his pallium during King Ethelred's reign, for every bishop that was consecrated during the remainder of the king's reign was consecrated by Archbishop Wulfstan of York.Williams, Ann "Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King" London: Hambledon and London 2003 ISBN1-85285-382-4 p. 111] By 1018, however, he was named as archbishop, having returned to England from Rome with letters from Pope Benedict VIII.cite book |author=Brooks, Nicholas |title=The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066 |publisher=Leicester University Press |location=London |year=1984 |isbn=0-7185-0041-5 |pages=p. 287-290] As Archbishop of Canterbury, Lyfing crowned two English kings: Ethelred's son Edmund Ironside in 1016 and Canute the Great in 1017. He seems to have gone to Rome on behalf of Canute at least once.O'Brien, Harriet "Queen Emma and the Vikings: A History of Power, Love and Greed in Eleventh-Century England" New York:Bloomsbury ISBN 1-58234-596-1 p. 122]

He died on 12 June 1020. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, near the altar of St. Martin. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle called him "a sagacious man, both before God and before the world".Quoted in cite book |author=Barlow, Frank |authorlink=Frank Barlow (historian) |title=The English Church 1000-1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church |publisher=Longman |location=New York |year=1979 |isbn=0-582-49049-9 |edition=Second Edition |pages=p. 66]

References

External links

* [http://www.pase.ac.uk/pase/apps/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?personKey=14322 Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England: Lyfing]

Persondata
NAME= Lyfing
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Aelfstan
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Archbishop of Canterbury; Bishop of Wells
DATE OF BIRTH=
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH= 12 June 1020
PLACE OF DEATH=