The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire C650-C1100

THE CHURCH IN ANGLO-SAXON BUCKINGHAMSHIRE c.650-c.1100 KEITH BAILEY This paper discusses the scanty evidence for the history of the church in Buckinghamshire between the start ofthe conversion period around the middle ofthe seventh century to the onset of Norman rule after 1066. A handful of charters, some architecture and archaeological dis coveries, and some saints' lives constitute the available material, most of which has been sub ject to earlier, piecemeal investigation. Taken together, however, the evidence is capable of yielding a more detailed story than has sometimes been assumed. In particular, the network of minster churches is examined. The beginnings of the creation of local, later parish, churches are also discussed. I these respects, notably through the pages of Bede's In terms of its effect on the history of society, and Ecclesiastical History, completed in 731. Bede has indeed the landscape, the conversion of the various little to say about the conversion of the large tracts Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to Christianity in the cen of central England which coalesced to form the tury or so after the arrival of St. Augustine in 597 kingdom of Mercia, and which at the time of his was one of the crucial events in English history. death in 735 was the major power in England, a Not only was a new system of belief introduced, position it maintained until eclipsed by Wessex replacing the paganism which the incomers had after 820. During this period, the area of brought from their German homelands, but with it Buckinghamshire was divided between extremely came also a wider spread of literacy, albeit shadowy 'tribes', whose territories followed the restricted for centuries to churchmen and the high north-east to south-west grain of the geology in the est echelons of lay society. The new religion Chiltems and the Vale of Aylesbury. 1 The required far more in the way of buildings: Cilternscetan and the Hendrica covered the south churches, monastic complexes and so on, and these and north of the later shire respectively. In the later were to become one of the most enduring features seventh century they were part of the Middle of both town and country, albeit frequently rebuilt. Angles, a loose grouping of peoples between the Not only did the church demand accommodation, it Wash and the Upper Thames.2 Each polity would also needed substantial tracts of land to provide have had its own ruler until this region was sustenance for the clergy and their lay servants, and absorbed by Mercia, which was expanding from its a key feature of the conversion period was the core in the Trent valley. In doing so, it had to con granting by kings of very large estates to the newly tend with established southern kingdoms such as founded minsters. To do so they used the land-book those of the West Saxons and Kent for control of or charter, itself an innovation brought from the the region around London. Not until 653 was a Continent by the first churchmen. This process con single ruler imposed on the Middle Angles, when tinued throughout the Anglo-Saxon period. The Peada, son of Penda of Mercia was given control. result was a significant reduction in the amount of This was presumably to secure the area from land in royal hands in most counties, Bucking takeover by Penda's numerous enemies, who were hamshire among them. soon to destroy him at the battle of the Winwced in Unfortunately, although the importance of the 655. 3 Although Peada himself was dead within church during the five centuries after 600 is clear, three years, the area remained under Mercian con the survival of sources for this area is extremely trol. No further rulers of Middle Anglia are patchy, as is the archaeological record and the sur recorded, although there were certainly Mercian vival of standing architectural features. Kingdoms sub-kings of parts of it, some of whom played a key like Kent and N orthumbria are far better served in role in its conversion to Christianity. 62 K. A. Bailey The process by which the assorted Anglo II Saxon kingdoms were converted to the new faith First, however, we must consider the wider frame seems to have been quite standardised.4 First, a work of the conversion, since several of the Anglo missionary would arrive with a group of follow Saxon kingdoms impinged on the region around ers, seeking audience with the king and his lead London. Kent, whose king JE6elberht also exer ing noblemen. Discussion would then ensue cised some kind of imperium over the southern about the new faith and its advantages, compared kingdoms, was the first objective of Augustine in with the paganism hitherto endorsed, apparently 597. Within ten years, bishops had been installed at without much depth of conviction for the most Canterbury, Roch ster and Loudon. The latter was part. Baptism of the core group would follow, under Lbe control of the Eas1 Saxons.? The new after which the establishment of monastic cen bishoprics coincided with the boundaries of the tres, suitably endowed with land, would take various kingdoms, moving with the ebb and flow of place, from which the conversion of the popula their fortunes in the continuing struggles for tion at large would proceed. That this was often a supremacy. East Saxon territory included not only political rather than a spiritual process is evi Essex, but also Middlesex and much of Hert denced by the number of cases in which kings fordshire.8 The death of JE6elberht in 616 repre apostatised when circumstances changed: for sented a setback, as both Kentish and East Saxon example, in Essex after the death of JE6elberht of kings began to backslide, perhaps because the Kent in 616, and again during an outbreak of political advantages were now less apparent, rather plague in the 650s. than any deep-seated attachment to the pagan gods. Sometimes the missions were offshoots from the In the 620s, the focus moved to Northumbria, original one of 597, sometimes, as with Birinus whose king Edwin (616-632) also claimed over converting the West Saxons of the Upper Thames lordship in the southern kingdoms.9 He married a Valley, Fursey in East Anglia and the Irish missions Kentish princess and was converted as part of the to Northumbria, they were independent. If the marriage settlement. Paulinus from Canterbury course of events was similar, it was not always became bishop of York, working to convert the smooth and straightforward. Everywhere the sev southern parts of the kingdom, Deira and Lindsey. enth century was the critical period. When it began, This process was abruptly halted with the death of the great majority of Anglo-Saxons were pagan Edwin. His succesors, Oswald and Oswiu, were (even if some of their British subjects had been also described as Bretwalda (lit. 'wide, or Britain Christians from the Roman and post-Roman peri ruler'). They belonged to the northern part of the ods), whereas by 700, the majority were at least kingdom, Bernicia. Oswiu's reign saw the resolu nominal adherents of the new faith. tion of the problem of Easter celebration between Buckinghamshire was affected by several of the differing Celtic and Roman traditions in favour these missionary drives, although there is little evi of the latter, at the synod of Whitby in 664. 10 dence of precisely what happened and when, as it The close interrelationships between the ruling was not the scene of any activities known to Bede, families meant that several still-pagan kings nor was it in the core territory of any of the major encountered tbe new religion away from their own kingdoms. Bede does offer a few glimpses of the territories, and were persuaded to convert, not process by which Middle Anglia was converted, least if there was a dynastic marriage involved. In although none refers to the later shire. The same is this way, the kings of East Anglia began to be con true ofEddius Stephanus's Life of St. Wilfrid, writ verted in the 620s. They also had their own mis ten soon after the death of its hero in 709. Wilfrid sion in the form of the Irish priest Fursey. 11 played an important role in the conversion of the Overlordship of the sort practised first by Midlands, the South Saxons and further afield in Northumbria and later by Mercia was an important Europe. A much later source for events in seventh factor in the conversion process. For example, century Buckinghamshire is the Life of St. Osyth when Birinus began his mission to the West (OE Osgy6), which for all its failings as a piece of Saxons of the upper Thames Valley in the mid- later medieval hagiography, does seem to present a 630s, the baptism of their king Cynegils and the plausible picture of the earliest days of Christianity grant of the Roman sitCJ at Dorchester for the new around Aylesbury. 6 bishopric was witnessed by Oswald. 12 The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.65~c.JJOO 63 III the broad folk divisions of the kingdom: Lichfield, The resolute paganism of Penda meant that Mercia Lindsey, Hereford, Worcester and probably and Middle Anglia formed the last significant terri Leicester, although there is no record of its bishops tory in England to attract the attention of missionar before the 690s. 17 ies, a process which did not really commence until The most likely period for a serious attempt to the early 650s. It seems, however, that Penda both convert the peoples in the region between the tolerated existing Christian communities, and did Thames and the Ouse was the 660s, and this agrees not obstruct missionary activity, especially after the with evidence from other sources.

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