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Mellitus

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Mellitus
Passion scene from the St Augustine Gospels, possibly brought by Mellitus to England
Installedunknown
Term ended24 April 624
PredecessorLaurence
SuccessorJustus
Orders
Consecration619
Personal details
Died24 April 624
Sainthood
Feast day24 April

Mellitus (died 24 April 624) was the first Bishop of London and the third Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the members of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons. He was sent to England in 601 AD, and was accompanied by other clergy to agument the missonaries already there. In 604 he was consecrated as Bishop of London, but in 616 after the death of his patron he was forced to leave London and take refuge in Gaul. He returned to England within the next year, but was never able to return to London as the inhabitants remained pagans. In 619 he was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury. While archbishop he was alleged to have saved the cathedral and much of the town of Canterbury from a fire. After his death in 624, he was reverred as a saint.

Early life

The medieval chronicler Bede describes Mellitus as being of noble birth and Pope Gregory I describes him as an abbot.[1] Mellitus was sent to England in June 601 by Gregory[2] in response to an appeal from Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, for more clergy to join the Gregorian mission which was converting the kingdom of Kent under King Æthelberht of Kent.[3] Accompanying the group of new missionaries was a present of books and "all things which were needed for worship and the ministry of the Church."[4][5] A 15th century Canterbury chronicler claimed that there were a number of books brought to England by Mellitus still at Canterbury in his day, but examination of the remaining manuscripts has determined that the only possible survivor of Mellitus' books is the St. Augustine Gospels, now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 286.[1]

The historian Ian Wood feels that the journey Mellitus made through Gaul probably traveled through Vienne, Arles, Lyons, Toulon, Marseilles, Metz, Paris, and Rouen, among other bishoprics. The evidence for this is the letters that Gregory wrote to various bishops soliciting their support for Mellitus' party. Gregory also wrote to the Frankish kings Chlothar II, Theuderic II, Theudebert II, along with Brunhild, Theudebert and Theuderic's grandmother who was their regent. Wood feels that this wide appeal to the Frankis episcopate and royalty was an effort to secure more support for the Gregorian mission.[6]

Bishop of London

Mellitus was consecrated in 604 by Augustine as bishop[7] in the province of the East Saxons, which had a capital at London, making him the first Bishop of London.[8] Mellitus baptised Saebert of Essex, Æthelberht's nephew, and Saebert then allowed the bishopric to be established. The episcopal church which was built in London was probably founded by Æthelberht, rather than Saebert, but a charter that claims to be a grant of lands from Æthelberht to Mellitus is a forgery. Mellitus attended a council of bishops in Italy in February 610, held by Pope Boniface IV.[1] Boniface had him bring back two papal letters to England, one to Æthelbert and his people, and another to Lawrence, the archbishop of Canterbury.[9] He also brought back the synod's decrees to England.[10] No authentic letters or documents from this synod remain, although some were forged in the 1060s and 1070s at Canterbury.[1] While he was bishop, Mellitus and Justus, the bishop of Rochester, subscribed a letter that Laurence wrote to the Celtic bishops urging the Celtic Church to adopt the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter.[11]

Mellitus was driven from London by Saebert's heathen sons in 616,[12] which Bede says happened because he refused the brothers request for a taste of the sacramental bread. This was after the death of Saebert, as well as Æthelberht of Kent, which left the Gregorian mission without strong patrons.[1] He fled to Gaul but was recalled to Britain by St. Laurence of Canterbury, the second Archbishop of Canterbury. However, he did not return to London,[13] because the East Saxons remained pagan.[1]

Archbishop and death

Upon Laurence's death in 619, Mellitus succeeded him as the third Archbishop of Canterbury.[14] Gregory addressed a letter to Melitus that dealt with the issue of pagan temples and festivals, urging the reuse of temples.[1] It was while he was archbishop that he supposedly performed a miracle in 623 by diverting a fire that had started in Canterbury and was threatening the church. Mellitus was carried into the flames, which caused the winds to change direction, saving the church.[15] Other than the miracle, little happened during his time as archbishop, with Bede praising his sane mind.[16]

He died on 24 April 624[14] and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury on the same day.[1] After his death, he was revered as a saint, with a feast day of 24 April.[17] He was still venerated in 1120 at St Augustine's, along with a number of other local saints.[18] Bede praised Mellitus, even though he says that Mellitus suffered from gout.[10]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Brooks "Mellitus (d. 624)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ Mayr-Harting Coming of Christianity p. 64
  3. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 9
  4. ^ Bede A History of the English Church and People p. 85–86
  5. ^ Mayr-Harting Coming of Christianity p. 62
  6. ^ Wood "Mission of Augustine" Speculum p. 6
  7. ^ Fryde, et. al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 219
  8. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 11–13a
  9. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 13
  10. ^ a b Blair World of Bede pp. 86–87
  11. ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 112
  12. ^ Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 36
  13. ^ Lapidge "Mellitus" Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England
  14. ^ a b Fryde, et. al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 213
  15. ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury p. 30
  16. ^ Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 43
  17. ^ Walsh A New Dictionary of Saints p. 420
  18. ^ Hayward "An Absent Father" Journal of Medieval History p. 217 footnote 72

References

  • Beda Venerablis (1988). A History of the English Church and People. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044042-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Blair, Peter Hunter (1990). The World of Bede (Reprint of 1970 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39819-3.
  • Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5.
  • Brooks, N. P. (2004). "Mellitus (d. 624) (fee required)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (October 2005 revised ed.). Oxford University Press. accessed 7 Nov 2007
  • Fryde, E. B. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third Edition, revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Hayward, Paul Antony (2003). "An absent father: Eadmer, Goscelin and the cult of St Peter, the first abbot of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury". Journal of Medieval History. 29: 201–218.
  • Hindley, Geoffrey (2006). A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The Beginnings of the English Nation. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-78671-738-5.
  • Lapidge, Michael (2001). "Mellitus". The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 305–306. ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
  • Mayr-Harting, Henry (1991). The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00769-9.
  • Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (Third ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5.
  • Walsh, Michael J. (2007). A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. London: Burns & Oats. ISBN 0-8601-2438-X.
  • Wood, Ian (1994). "The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English". Speculum. 69 (1): 1–17. doi:10.2307/2864782. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Bishop of London
604–619 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Canterbury
619–624 		Succeeded by

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