Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lichfield: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal SeeClifton, A. B.
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lichfield: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See
Clifton, A. B.
Lichfield Cathedral
The next bishop was a Saxon abbot named =Trumhere= (659-662), and he
was succeeded on his death by =Jaruman= (662-667). Both were appointed
by King Wulphere, son of Penda, who had been raised to the Mercian
throne by his people; and both were Saxons who had been consecrated in
the Northumbrian Church. Jaruman was a most energetic bishop, and he
appears to have been sent into Essex to reconvert the people there who
had fallen into paganism again; his mission was a success, and Jaruman
returned to his own people in Mercia.
It was during Jaruman's episcopate that difficulties arose between
the Church in Britain and the Church in Rome. Rome had sent messengers
to Britain, and they had been the means of converting a large portion
of the south coast and of East Anglia; but there were differences in
the two Churches, and one particularly caused much trouble. The Roman
Church had always kept Easter Day on a Sunday, but the British Church
held this feast on March 14, whatever day of the week it might be. A
synod was called at Whitby, and it was decided, mainly through the
instrumentality of Wilfrid, the future bishop of York, in favour of the
Roman Sunday. In this way, it may be said, began the rule of Rome in the
English Church. Shortly after, in 667, Jaruman died, and no successor was
appointed for two years. During this time, Theodorus of Tarsus became
Archbishop of Canterbury, and to him belongs the credit of making the
English Church: before, each kingdom had had its own Church, but Theodore
welded them together into one whole, and completed their dependence on
the bishop of Rome. Wilfrid was made bishop of York, and St. Chad, who
had been consecrated to that see, retired to the abbey at Lastingham,
only in the next year, 669, to be reconsecrated as bishop of Mercia
by the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
=St. Chad= or =Ceadda= (669-672) made his seat at Lichfield, and in so
doing founded the diocese of Lichfield.
St. Chad, as has been stated before, was the patron saint of
Lichfield. What is known of him is principally derived from Bede's
"Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation." From this we learn
that when not on his missionary travels over the diocese he spent most
of his time in prayer, and in meditation on death and supernatural
things. His method was to proceed from place to place in his diocese
on foot; and there is a story of Theodore taking St. Chad in his arms
and lifting him on to a horse which he presented to him. He founded
the abbey of Barrow-on-Humber, which King Wulphere endowed with fifty
hides of land. His headquarters, as we have said, were at Lichfield,
and he built, or finished building, a small church near what is still
known as St. Chad's Well, at the eastern end of Stowe Pool.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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