Plegmund

Plegmund (or Plegemund; died 2 August either 914 or 923) was a medieval English Archbishop of Canterbury. He may have been a hermit near Chester before he became archbishop in 890. As archbishop (under 14 different Popes), he reorganised the Diocese of Winchester, creating four new sees, and worked with other scholars in translating religious works. During his life he made a journey to Rome which in the circumstances was incredibly dangerous and brought about by the most peculiar of circumstances, but managed to return safely. He was canonised after his death.

Life
Little is known of the early life of Plegmund except that (according to Asser's de Rebus Gestis Aelfredi) he was of Mercian descent. A later tradition, as recorded by Gervase of Canterbury stated that Plegmund lived as a hermit at Plemstall in Cheshire in his "Actus Pontificum Cantuariensi":


 * "Plegemundus, vir admodum religiosus et sacris litteris nobiliter instructus, in Cestria insula quae dicitur ab incolis Plegemundesham, per annos plures heremeticam duxerat vit" ("Plegmund a most religious man and nobly learned in sacred literature, had for many years led an ermetic life on an island in Cheshire called Plegmundesham by the locals")

There are said to be records of a church here as far back as the 7th century, when the River Gowy used to flood the surrounding land and the locality (barely elevated) was known as the "Isle of Chester". A legend, perhaps of the 5th or 6th century, tells of a shipwrecked fisherman who, on finding refuge here, built a church as an act of thanksgiving, dedicating it to St Peter the fisherman.



Although the surrounding land has been drained, the church still stands in an isolated location. Once called "Plegmundeshamm" (which may be translated as "Plegmund's hemmed-in place in water meadows"), later Plemondstall, it is now Plemstall. There are remains of a 12th century church, but the present sandstone building of St Peter is mainly 15th century. The tower was added in 1826, replacing a wooden belfry. Most of the original glass has gone, but there are fragments from the 14th century. In a display case in the north aisle are a Breeches Bible of 1608, a King James Bible of 1611, a folio edition of the bible printed by Edward Whitchurche in 1549, a black letter bible of 1549 and a King James Bible of 1623. The strikingly macabre 14th century tomb of the Hurleston family is located at the rear of St. Peter's church. One noted incumbent in the latter part of the 18th century, was the Rev John Baldwin of Hoole. His son Thomas ,who was also ordained, took part in a famous balloon flight in 1786. He took off from Chester Castle. Another noted incumbent was the Rev. Joseph Hooker Toogood (1907-46). Pevsner records the war memorial was carved by him and in fact the industrious Toogood was responsible for improvements to the chancel screen, a new altar, the reredos and panelling for the sanctuary, the lectern, much of the north chapel and baptistry, a new cover for the font, the choirstalls and their canopy, figures for the sanctuary niches and an alms box.

There is some suggestion that Plegmund was in Rome around 885, but this is from William of Malmesbury who is notorious for sometimes making things up. Once in Rome the typical Anglo-Saxon pilgrim would go straight to the English quarter of the Borgo: the "Schola Saxonum" (later Schola Anglorum), located between the River Tiber and St Peter's (today's Via della Conciliazione - where there is still a church "S. Spirito in Sassia"), and very much financed, backed and protected by many popes due to their special relationship with the English Church. The "Scola" had been built by Leo IV (847-855).

From at least the times of King Aethelwulf of Wessex, father of Alfred there was a tax levied in England with some regularity, called "Peter’s Pence" or "Romefeoh", sent to Rome as alms for the pope, for St Peter and for the upkeep of the Schola. The records tell of regular journeys to Rome by Saxon almoners carrying the payment. However as Malmesbury is the only source for Plegmund travelling to Rome around 885 (and this part of his works is full of errors) it is possible Plegmund never went on this first trip. William of Malmesbury may share his source with Peter of Ickham possibly the author of the meagre and somewhat confused chronicle entitled 'Chronicon de Regibus Angliæ successive regnantibus a tempore Bruti' (or 'Compilatio de Gestis Britonum et Anglorum') - which also gets things completely confused with Plegmund going to Rome to seek absolution for an excommunicated Edward the Elder from Pope Formosus. This obvious contradiction (Edward became king in 900 while Formosus died in 896) became the text of the so-called "Plegmund Narrative" often referred to in later disputes.



An article by Barber from the 1909 Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society contains some speculation on Plegmund (see Link below):


 * "He moved about as occasion demanded. If he had a settled abode or cell he would go to places of public resort near  at hand, and by his preaching seek to benefit the wayfarers. We can thus imagine St. Plegmund, coming in from the place where he had established himself on an isle of Chester, visiting the City, perhaps taking up his position at one or other of its gates (for it was surrounded with its Roman Walls), and instructing out of his laboriously acquired learning those who were willing to pause and listen to his fervid discourse. The anxious enquirer might return with him to his island home, and after further instruction as a catechumen, might receive the grace of Holy Baptism at the very Well which no bears his name."

This is of course pure speculation. As for the location of Plegmund's cell, Barber adds an interesting comment:


 * "I think, however, I should not omit to notice a passage in Henry IIIrd’s Charter, wherein the King confirms to the Abbot of Shrewsbury (and that Abbey had the Advowson of Plemstall) the grant by Robert the bailiff of Chester "of a hermit’s dwelling in the wood of Sutton"; and as this immediately follows the grants in "Donham" and "Trochford", and is made by an official of this City, Sutton is most probably Guilden Sutton, the parish next adjoining Plemstall on the west. Whether this wood extended beyond the bounds of the township, or whether the boundaries of Plemstall and Sutton have always been the same as they now are, we cannot now determine; but at any rate, here is a coincidence which should not be passed over."

"Donham" may be Dunham-on-the-Hill and "Trachford" Mickle Trafford.

Vikings
During the early life of Plegmund England was much troubled by Viking raids. The Vikings may even have raided in the Mersey as early as Plegmund's youth as "Helsby" may be of Viking origin - "Hjalli-by" could be Old Norse for "Village on the edge" and the Gowy has been suggested as both as a Welsh and a Viking border.

During Ceolnoth's archbishopric (833-870), monastic life declined under the pressure of the Viking attacks, and there was a noticeable decline in the quality of the books and other works produced by the scriptoriums. A number of monasteries died out under the pressure of the raids by the invaders, who wintered over in Kent in 851 and 855. Major Danish invasions took place in 865. The campaign of invasion and conquest against the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms lasted 14 years and resulted in almost the complete conquest of Britain. Although eventually fought to a stalemate by a resurgent Alfred of Wessex, the Danes were not evicted from all of their conquered teritory and retained considerable land to the east of the country.

Alfred was born in the royal estate of Wantage, historically in Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, between 847 and 849. He was the youngest of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex by his first wife, Osburh. In 853 Alfred is reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have been sent to Rome where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV, who "anointed him as king". Victorian writers later interpreted this as an anticipatory coronation in preparation for his eventual succession to the throne of Wessex. This is unlikely; his succession could not have been foreseen at the time as Alfred had three living elder brothers. On their return from Rome in 856 Æthelwulf was deposed by his son Æthelbald. With civil war looming the magnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a compromise. Æthelbald would retain the western shires (i.e. historical Wessex), and Æthelwulf would rule in the east. When King Æthelwulf died in 858 Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession: Æthelbald (died 860), Æthelberht (died 865) and Æthelred (died 871).



Much of Æthelred's time in office (870-888) was also spent dealing with the dislocations caused by the invasion of England by Vikings. However he did find time to stir up trouble with the pope. Pope John VIII urged Æthelred and Archbishop Wulfhere of York to reform the dress of the English clergy. The Anglo-Saxon clergy wore the short tunic that was the normal costume of the laypeople of Britain. The Roman custom, however, was to wear long clerical robes or habits, and the Anglo-Saxon custom was opposed by the papacy and other continental clergy. In the winter of 873-4 the Vikings spent the winter at Repton on the middle Trent. Repton is one of the few places where a Viking winter camp has been excavated. Excavations from 1974 to 1988 found a D-shaped earthwork on a bluff, overlooking an arm of the River Trent, and opened a mound containing a mass grave. The mass grave contained the remains of at least 264 individuals. The bones were disarticulated and mostly jumbled together. Forensic study revealed that the individuals ranged in age from their late teens to about forty, four men to every woman. The absence of injury marks on some of the bodies suggest that some members of the party had perhaps died from some kind of contagious disease, which raises the possibility that there was a plague raging in the Viking camp. It was at this time that the relics of Werburgh were translated to Chester. As recorded in the Annales Cestriensis:


 * In the same year, when the Danes made their winter quarters at Repton after the flight of Burgred, king of the Mercians, the men of Hanbury, fearing for themselves, fled to Chester as to a place which was very safe from the butchery of the barbarians, taking with them in a litter the body of S Werburgh, which then for the first time was resolved into dust.

It is impossible to say whether Plegmund was living near Chester in 873/4 when Werburgh's remains were brought there, as his time with Alfred can only be dated to some time before 887. However, Alfred only became king in April 871 and his efforts to revive learning did not get underway until the 880's. This revival entailed the recruitment of clerical scholars from Mercia, Wales and abroad to enhance the tenor of the court and of the episcopacy; the establishment of a court school to educate his own children, the sons of his nobles, and intellectually promising boys of lesser birth; an attempt to require literacy in those who held offices of authority; a series of translations into the vernacular of Latin works the king deemed "most necessary for all men to know"; the compilation of a chronicle detailing the rise of Alfred's kingdom and house, with a genealogy that stretched back to Adam, thus giving the West Saxon kings a biblical ancestry. Alfred recruited scholars from the Continent and from Britain to aid in the revival of Christian learning in Wessex and to provide the king personal instruction. Grimbald and John the Saxon came from Francia; Plegmund, Bishop Werferth of Worcester, Æthelstan, and the royal chaplains Werwulf, from Mercia; and Asser, from St David's in southwestern Wales.



Archbishop
Plegmund's reputation as a scholar attracted the attention of King Alfred the Great, who was patronizing a literary revival at the Anglo-Saxon court. Some time before 887, Alfred summoned Plegmund to his court - Asser makes it apparent that Alfred summoned Plegmund to his court before Alfred had learned to read, and as he learned to read in 887 that establishes a latest date. At the time, Alfred was having trouble with his clergy. Around 877, his archbishop Æthelred wrote to Pope John VIII to complain about King Alfred's conduct towards Canterbury. The exact nature of the dispute is not clear, but the reply from the pope to the archbishop still exists. The pope told the archbishop that Canterbury had papal support and that the pope had written to the king urging the king to respect the rights of the archbishop.

Pleased with his work and holiness, Alfred nominated Plegmund to succeed to the See of Canterbury in 890. Plegmund's election to the Archbishopric of Canterbury is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (manuscript E):


 * "In this year Archbishop Plegmund was elected by God and all the people."

It is curious that Plegmund should have been made Archbishop of Canterbury without evidently having first held an episcopal see or a major abbacy. This is probably the reason for Asser s ironic "venerabilem scilicet virum" (an undoubtedly venerable man), as if there were some contemporary unease about the appointment. Of course, Plegmund was by now very well known to Alfred and was unlikely to write complaining letters to the pope as his predecessor had done.

Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, praised the election of Plegmund, stating that he:


 * "would help root out the last remnants of paganism in the people"

Plegmund's connection with Fulk would come back to haunt Plegmund in a curious way. Upon the deposition of Emperor Charles the Fat in 887, Fulk tried to install his kinsman Guy II, Duke of Spoleto, on the throne and even crowned him at Langres (888), but to no avail. A later Guy IV of Spoleto would stir up trouble in Rome which meant that Plegmund would briefly lose his position as Archbishop.

However, there was a mysterious gap in time between the death of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Ethelred (died June 888), and the consecration of Plegmund; this may have been because the see had been offered to Grimbald, a Flemish monk and scholar, who refused it. Although of dubious historical accuracy, the life of Grimbald was recorded in several volumes, of which the main source is referred to as the Vita Prima of St. Grimbaldi. According to the Vita Prima, King Alfred met Grimbald before his reign, and after his coronation invited Grimbald to England around 892.

Plegmund was granted his pallium by Pope Formosus (861-896), the same pontiff who was famously tried posthumously in the famous Cadaver Synod. William of Malmesbury appears to suggest that Formosus had written to Plegmund proposing him as archbishop. On being elected Archbishop, Plegmund apparently travelled to Rome, where he received the pallium from Pope Formosus:


 * Hic Romam profectus a Formoso papa sacratus est palliumque suscepit et metropolitani plenitudinem potestatis (Gervase of Canterbury)

Formosus became Pope in 891, which suggests that Plegmund did not set out for Rome immediately upon his election.

The Pope who came back from the dead
The Cadaver Synod (also called the Cadaver Trial; Latin: Synodus Horrenda) was held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during January 897. The trial was conducted by Pope Stephen VI (896-97), the successor to Formosus' successor, Pope Boniface VI (896 - for 15 days). Stephen had Formosus' rotting corpse exhumed and brought before an unwilling papal court for judgment. He accused Formosus of continuing to enact the functions of a Bishop when under interdiction and claiming the Pontificate when not yet a Cardinal and illegible to do so. There was an earthquake during the trial:




 * "For the stones themselves, execrating such a monstrosity, then cried out with their own voice by knocking against each other, that they would more willingly suffer spontaneous ruin, than that the Roman Church should remain depressed by so great a scandal."

At the end of the trial, Formosus was pronounced guilty and his papacy retroactively declared null. Stephen VI had been made bishop of Anagni by Pope Formosus, possibly against his will. Pressure from the Spoleto contingent and Stephen's fury with his predecessor probably also precipitated this extraordinary event. With the corpse propped up on a throne, a deacon was appointed to answer for the deceased pontiff. During the trial, Formosus's corpse was condemned for performing the functions of a bishop when he had been deposed and for receiving the pontificate while he was the bishop of Porto, among other revived charges that had been levelled against him in the strife during the pontificate of John VIII. The corpse was found guilty, stripped of its sacred vestments, deprived of three fingers of its right hand (the blessing fingers of the benediction), clad in the garb of a layman, and quickly buried; it was then re-exhumed and thrown in the Tiber to complete the damnatio memoriae. The scandal ended in Stephen's imprisonment and his death by strangling that summer. Liutprand of Cremona adds a postcript that:


 * "When he [Formosus] was afterwards found by fishermen and carried to the Church of the blessed Prince of the Apostles, certain images of the saints, with veneration, saluted him, placed in his coffin; for this I have very often heard from most religious men of the city of Rome."

Barber's Journal article makes no mention of the above strange circumstances. Barber simply writes:


 * "Plegmund paid a second visit to Rome. There is some doubt as to the date and the reason of this. It has been assigned to the close of 908; and Dr. Hook says it was necessitated by Pope Stephen having an­nulled the acts and ordinations of Formosus, owing to some irregularities and indiscretions on his part. If Dr. Hook's view is correct, as also his statement that Plegmund submitted to the questionable ceremony of re-consecration, the assigned date cannot be correct, for in 905, at a Synod held at Ravenna, the ordinations of Formosus, on which doubts had been cast, were confirmed."

By the year 900, the structure of the medieval English Church had not been substantially modified since the days of the missionaries. Plegmund sought to reform the structure of the Church to make administration more efficient and increase the authority of the See of Canterbury.

Off to Rome (again?)
To do this, Plegmund had to gain the approval of Pope Sergius III (904-911), who in 904 had confirmed the annullment (from 897) of all of the acts of Pope Formosus. This was a little complicated, in December 897, Pope Theodore II had (during his 20 days as pope) convened a synod that annulled the Cadaver Synod, rehabilitated Formosus, and ordered that his body, which had been recovered from the Tiber, be reburied in Saint Peter's Basilica in pontifical vestments (apparently he still rests there). In 898 John IX became pope, after Sergius, an old enemy of Formosus, had for a few months established himself by violence in the papal chair. John, who had been ordained by Formosus, completed the work which Theodore had begun. First at a synod in Rome, and then at a great council in Ravenna, he condemned the gross wickedness of the mock trial. All the acts of Formosus were now reinstated. A few popes later Sergius returned as established pope and overturned things again.

This was problematic, for the re-nullification of the acts of Formosus also nullified the appointment of Plegmund to his see, which necessitated Plegmund travelling to Rome in 908 so that he could be regranted his pallium by Sergius III. Because Sergius III had reputedly (according to Auxilius of Naples) ordered the murder of his two immediate predecessors, Leo V (903-4) and Antipope Christopher (also 903-4), and allegedly fathered an illegitimate son who later became pope as John XI (898-900), Sergius' pontificate has been variously described as "dismal and disgraceful", and "efficient and ruthless". The period following the installation of Sergius is known as the "Saeculum obscurum". It lasted sixty years until the death of Pope John XII in 964. During this period, the popes were influenced strongly by a powerful and allegedly corrupt aristocratic family, the Theophylacti, and their relatives.



Plegmund was the first archbishop of Canterbury to visit Rome for nearly a century, and evidently made at good impression as he supposedly returned with the relics of Saint Blaise, having however paid a vast sum for them. A trip to Rome was not a minor matter as it was dangerous and had been unattempted by any of Plegmund's predecessors since Wulfred (see: Amphitheatre) in 814-15. Not only had Plegmund to cross the continent he also had to engage with a possibly murderous Papal court in a nest of potentially lethal intrigue. As noted above, Plegmund appears to have visited Rome twice. Marinus, a former pope (882-884), had granted exemption from all taxes and tolls to the Saxon School at Rome, and had sent sundry presents to the King of England, amongst them being a piece of the supposed "True Wood of the Cross". In return for these favours it is said that:


 * "Plegmund, upon his first return from Rome, busied himself in collecting money from all well-disposed persons to the Papal See, to which the King himself apparently added from the Royal Treasury; this he sent to the Pope."

One problem with this is that the phrase all well-disposed persons to the Papal See seems to be taken from a much later document of Pius IX. Curiously, Pius was pope at the demise of the Papal States (when Laurens made his painting of the Cadaver Synod) and the aforementioned quote might be read with that context in mind.

Reform of the Church
Under Plegmund's leadership, the quality of the Latin used by his scribes improved, surpassing the poor quality used by the scribes of the previous two archbishops, Ceolnoth and Æthelred. When Alfred died in 899, Plegmund presided at the coronation of his son, Edward the Elder, as king. This was despite Plegmund's position as archbishop being on shaky ground given it had been granted by Formosus.

In addition to his religious duties, Plegmund was involved in matters of state and he attended the formal councils held by Edward the Elder in 901, 903, 904 and 909. Following his return from Rome in 908, between 909 and 918 Plegmund created new sees within the existing Diocese of Winchester in Crediton, Ramsbury, Sherborne and Wells. This meant that each future shire of Wessex had its own bishop; of Crediton for Devon and Cornwall, of Ramsbury for Wiltshire, of Sherborne for Dorset and of Wells for Somerset, as well as the diocese of Winchester for Hampshire. As discussed in further detail below, Plegmund's reform of the church divided and hence weakened the old West Saxon sees of of Winchester and Sherborne and in this he may have had a hidden agenda to stack the episcopate with his own, reform-minded bishops.

Plegmund dedicated the "lofty tower" of the New Minster at Winchester in 909. Alfred the Great had intended to build the monastery, but only got around to buying the land. His son, Edward the Elder, finished the project according to Alfred's wishes, with the help of Saint Grimbald who became its first abbot. It stood so close to the Old Minster that the voices of the two choirs merged with chaotic results. The body of King Alfred was transferred to the New Minster, Grimbald's body joined him and it was also given the body of the Breton Saint Judoc (Saint Josse), making it an important pilgrimage centre. Queen Emma added the head of Saint Valentine in 1041.

Death
After "a life full of apostolic labors", Plegmund died at an advanced age on 2 August 914 (according to some) or 2 August 923 (which is more likely) - when according to Gervase of Canterbury he had been in office for 34 years. The correct text of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle reads:


 * 923. "This year went King Edward with an army, late in the harvest, to Thelwall; and ordered the borough to be repaired, and inhabited, and manned. And he ordered another army also from the population of Mercia, the while he sat there to go to Manchester in Northumbria, to repair and to man it. This year died Archbishop Plegmund; and King Reynold won York".

After his death Plegmund was venerated as a saint, with a feast day variously attreibuted to the 2nd or 14th August. However, there is little evidence of his cult before the 13th century, and he is not the "patron" saint of anything in particular. He was originally buried in the Church of St. John at Canterbury, where his remains rested until the fire of 1067.

On the rebuilding of the Cathedral by Lanfranc, the remains were probably placed in a vault in the north transept; but after the attempts to steal the bones of Archbishop Breogwine in 1121, the monks removed them to near the altar of St. Gregory in the southernmost apse of the south-east transept, where they were placed behind the altar. The Chronicle of John Stone, who was a monk of Christ Church in the time of Prior Molash (1427-1437), tells us that there was an image of Archbishop Plegmund, together with one of St. Odo and twelve others, placed in the choir of the Cathedral in his day. These were probably all removed under the Injunctions of Edward VI in 1547. St Plegmund’s Roman Catholic Church was built in Tattenhall in the 1970's, but closed during the Autumn of 2012 and the building was demolished in the Autumn of 2014 to make way for a housing development.

Legacy
Part of the legacy of Plegmund was the so-called Plegmund Narrative which provided a rich source for those wishing to concoct papal decrees, especially just after the Norman Conquest when Lanfranc was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury. As is said of it:




 * * "It was perhaps the Winchester copy which played a curious part in the great struggle for precedence between Canterbury and York. When Lanfranc came to Canterbury, in 1070, he found his metropolitan church in ruins; and the most valuable records of his see were said to have perished in the flames. When the controversy with York was at its height, two years later, some of his monks (if not the archbishop himself) thought it necessary to reconstruct their ancient privilegia, as weapons for a contest which doubtless was really decided on grounds of policy even more than of tradition. Among the ten papal privileges which were ultimately produced in evidence was a letter of Pope Formosus. It is exceedingly improbable that this pope's name would ever have been invoked but for the existence of the Plegmund narrative, which offered an irresistible temptation to the ingenious constructor of papal documents. As it is, the ninth of the privileges takes the form of a letter in which Pope Formosus begins by retracting his former threats — ' mucronem devotationis retrahentes . . . benedictionem vobis mittimus ' — and proceeds, after various injunctions as to regularity in the appointment of bishops, to confirm the supremacy of Canterbury over the whole of the English Church. The Plegmund narrative tells us that the pope, when he wrote his letter, was i motus cum magna iracundia et devotatione and threatened to send maledictionem instead of benedictionem ; so we may be sure that our document was in the forger's hands. Indeed its preservation in the Canterbury Registers is solely due to the fact that the monks thought that it would lend verisimilitude to what followed, if they included this ancient document in the record of their privilegia, though it had no bearing at all on the question in dispute. Accordingly it stands just before the ninth privilege under the title Memorabile factum. It occupies the same place, and bears the same title, in Eadmer's second edition of his Historia Novorum (Rolls Series, pp. 261-76). William of Malmesbury gives the privilegia in his Gesta Pontificum (p. 59), including the letter of Formosus, but not the Plegmund narrative. This he reserves for his Chronicle of the kings of England, where he introduces it with the words 'iocundum puto memoratu*. Thus the memorable fiction found its way into the orthodox history of the English Church."

Lanfranc was nominated to the English Primacy as Archbishop of Canterbury as soon as Stigand had been canonically deposed on 15 August 1070. He was speedily consecrated on 29 August 1070. The new archbishop at once began a policy of reorganisation and reform. His first difficulties were with Thomas of Bayeux, Archbishop-elect of York, (a former pupil) who asserted that his see was independent of Canterbury and claimed jurisdiction over the greater part of the English Midlands. This was the beginning of a long running dispute between the sees of Canterbury and York. In 1127, the dispute over the primacy was settled mainly in York's favour, for they did not have to submit to Canterbury. However the dispute would flare up again and again: no firm settlement was made until the 14th century

Works


With the exception of Asser, it is difficult to say who actually wrote what, or rather translated what, among the group of scholars which Alfred collected. Instead it is better to focus on the structural establishment of literary norms in which Plegmund was involved.

Pastoral Care
Despite the clear statements in the preface to the Pastoral Care, historians record different collaborators. In general Plegmund worked with three other scholars, Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester, Æthelstan (priest and chaplain, probably bishop of Ramsbury from c. 909) and Wærwulf (priest and chaplain, a friend and associate of Werferth according to chartes) in working on translating Pope Gregory the Great's treatise Pastoral Care into Old English, one of the most important translations of Alfred's reign. The core of the community of scholars appears to have been:


 * Plegmund: very much an outsider, having had no former, formal religious position;


 * Bishop Asser: a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne (Salisbury) in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent because of illness, Asser accepted;


 * Mass-priest Grimbald: a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Bertin near Saint-Omer, France;


 * Mass-priest John the Old Saxon: (active c. 885–904), also known as John of Saxony or Scotus, was a scholar and abbot of Athelney, probably born in Old Saxony. He was invited to England by King Alfred and contributed to Alfred's revival of English learning. In his life of Alfred, the Asser reports that John "was a man of most acute intelligence, immensely learned in all fields of literary endeavour, and extremely ingenious in many other forms of expression";

Copies of the work were sent to at least:


 * Plegmund;
 * Werferth: the English bishop of Worcester;
 * Heahstan: a Bishop of London;
 * Wulfsige: a ninth-century Bishop of Sherborne;
 * Swithulf: Bishop of Rochester;



Since Wulfsige, Heahstan and Swithulf (and possibly other bishops) are mentioned only as recipients of the Pastoral Care, they are probably only marginally relevant to the immediate Alfredian network. What is conspicuous is that not one of the actors, except Alfred himself, is a West Saxon. Indeed the other actors spoke Welsh, Mercian and continental Germanic varieties yet worked to produce works in West Saxon. They come from a variety of places, where education and scholarship were in better state than in Wessex. As Asser testifies, Werferth, Plegmund, Bishop Æthelstan and Wærwulf are from Mercia, Asser himself is from Wales, Grimbald and John come from Gaul (Galliam), although their home places are identified as Flanders and Saxony, respectively. The origins of the royal chancery are traced to Winchester and the court of King Alfred. In the Alfredian period Winchester charters display strong influence of the Mercian diplomatic tradition, but towards the 930s (after the death of Plegmund, under King Edward the Elder (899 - 924) and King Æthelstan (924 - 39) new norms develop that reflect both their Mercian origins and West Saxon adaptation. With the Mercian influence being strong in Latin charter material, it seems reasonable to assume that the four Mercian advisers of King Alfred (Plegmund, Werferth, Æthelstan and Wærwulf) were also somehow involved in the organisation and work of the proto-chancery.

One curious fact which may attest to the strength of the Mercian influence is the adoption of the term "Angelcynn", literally Angle-kin, the race of the Angles, as one of the buzz words of King Alfred's court. The Mercians were predominently Angles, while the people of Wessex were Saxons. On the whole it appears that Angelcynn as a lexical norm for the English people was enforced among the Alfredian network, in particular among the coalition formed around the Mercian cluster.

Ordo
The following archbishop was Athelm who was the first Bishop of Wells, and later Archbishop of Canterbury. His translation, or moving from one bishopric to another, was a precedent for later translations of ecclesiastics, because prior to this time period such movements were considered illegal. While archbishop, Athelm crowned King Æthelstan in 924, and perhaps wrote the coronation service for the event. An alternative view is that Plegmund (who lived until 923) had already composed or organised the new Ordo (order of service) in which for the first time the king wore a crown instead of a helmet, however Plegmund may have had no reason to suspect that Edward the Elder would die so soon.

Plegmund's Well


The well is first recorded in a mention from Ormerod of a quitclaim dating from 1301 as "St Pleymond's Well". The monument includes a holy well dedicated to St Plegmund, an Anglo-Saxon saint, Archbishop of Canterbury AD 890-923. The site of St Peter's church at Plemstall was possibly a hermitage occupied by the saint in the late 9th century and the well is associated with this foundation. In medieval times the well was known as a christening well, a name that it retains locally to the present. Plemstall is unusual in Cheshire in that although it is the name of a parish, it is not also a township. Today the area known as Plemstall contains only the former vicarage, a former level-crossing keeper's cottage (both now private residences), St Peter's Church and a farm. Notably, "Holme Farm" derives it's name from the Middle English word for a small island or islet.

A Catholic pilgrimage to the well took place in 1938: this was probably an initiative of Canon Frank Murphy, who was a curate at St Werburgh’s in Grosvenor Park Road Chester during the 1930s. He returned as parish priest from 1959 to 1982, and then organised an annual pilgrimage from St Werburgh’s to the well.

The well is a stone-lined pit with two steps down into the sink on the south side. Beneath this is a circular rough stone well 0.4m in diameter descending for 0.5m to the soakaway. Half of this well is obscured under the stonework lining the northern side of the pit. The pit is of dressed stone and is 1.3m wide east to west, 1.5m wide north to south and 0.4m deep. Flanking the pit on the east and west sides are two large dressed stone slabs, 1.5m by 1m and decorated with a rebate on two sides. These formed a cover for the well and are now left permanently aside.

The well pit was restored in 1907 and, shortly thereafter, an inscribed curb placed around the top, which has since disappeared. The stone was paid for by Mr Osborne Aldis and dedicated by the venerable E. Barber, Archdeacon of Chester. The inscription apparently read:


 * Hie fons Plegmundi functus baptismatis usu Regnante Alfredo, tunc hodieque solet. (Freely translated as: "Here as in days when Alfred erst was king, baptismal water flows from Plegmund's spring").

More can be found on this in the Chester Courant and Advertiser for North Wales (5th August 1908), where Aldis himself writes:


 * "Should it bo for the time forgotten, I trust soon to remind you. To conclude, Mr. Dogg, the well-known statuary mason of Chester, has drafted for me a simple memorial, which is already submitted for the approval of the landowner - the Earl of Shrewsbury - requesting the necessary permission for erection, and it is to be hoped that its inauguration may take place at no distant date."

Fragments of dressed stone lying on the north side of the well may, however, be part of the Aldis curb. The steel railings and the surface of the road 0.5m to the south of the monument, where they fall within the wells protective margin, are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included. Signage at the well explains that the arch errected over it was unveiled on 16th June 2002.

Plegmund, Edward, Æthelflæd and Æþelstān
It is interesting to speculate whether the Mercian Plegmund was involved with Æthelflæd's refortification of Chester and her promotion of the cult of Werburgh. Plegmund was the last of the "core group of scholars" who were assembled by Alfred and lived on longer than Æthelflæd and almost as long as Edward the Elder, both of whom took a major part in the defence of the north of Mercia and the reconquest of the east of Mercia. He also may have been an influence on the young Æþelstān who was to succeed Edgar and fight a major battle just north of Chester.



Æthelflæd
Æthelflæd was born around 870, the oldest child of King Alfred the Great and his Mercian wife, Ealhswith, who was a daughter of Æthelred Mucel, ealdorman of the Gaini, one of the tribes of Mercia. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal house, probably a descendant of King Coenwulf (796–821). Æthelflæd was thus half-Mercian and the alliance between Wessex and Mercia was sealed by her marriage to Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians in around 886. Æthelred's descent is unknown. Richard Abels describes him as "somewhat of a mysterious character", who may have claimed royal blood and been related to King Alfred's father-in-law, Ealdorman Æthelred Mucel. In the view of Ian Walker: "He was a royal ealdorman whose power base lay in the south-west of Mercia in the former kingdom of the Hwicce around Gloucester". Alex Woolf suggests that he was probably the son of King Burgred of Mercia (who had been driven out by the Vikings) and King Alfred's sister Æthelswith, although that would mean that the marriage between Æthelflæd and Æthelred was uncanonical, because Rome then forbade marriage between first cousins. When Plegmund became archbishop the "sins" of the English nobles in intermarrying had been pointed out to him, but he appareently did little to oppose it.

The Roman city of Chester was refortified around 907 by the Mercians. The event is recorded in the Chronicle (although versions vary) and a cryptic note from 907 that "Chester was restored" suggests more fighting (or rebuilding) in that year :


 * A.D. 907. This year died Alfred, who was governor of Bath. The same year was concluded the peace at Hitchingford, as King Edward decreed, both with the Danes of East-Anglia, and those of Northumberland; and Chester was restored.

Raphael Holinshead (writing in the 1570's) also mentions the same, adding that this was when the walls were extended by Æthelflæd - daughter of Alfred and sister to the King:


 * Not without good reason did king Edward permit vnto his sister Elfleda the gouernment of Mercia, during hir life time: for by hir wise and politike order vsed in all hir dooings, he was greatlie furthered & assisted; but speciallie in reparing and building of townes & castels, wherein she shewed hir noble magnificence, in so much that during hir government, which continued about eight yéeres, it is recorded by writers, that she did build and repare these Tamwoorth was by hir repared, Eadsburie and Warwike towns, whose names here insue: Tamwoorth beside Lichfield, Stafford, Warwike, Shrewsburie, Watersburie or Weddesburie, Elilsburie or rather Eadsburie, in the forrest of De la mere besides Chester, Brimsburie bridge vpon Seuerne, Rouncorne at the mouth of the riuer Mercia with other. Moreouer, by hir helpe the citie of Chester, which by Danes had beene greatlie defaced, was newlie repared, fortified with walls and turrets, and greatlie inlarged. So that the castell which stood without the walls before that time, was now brought within compasse of the new wall.

Edward the Elder
The dates here are important. Alfred has his first major fight with the Danes (under Guthrum) in 871-875 at the time that the remains of St Werbergh were tranferred to Chester. Alfred has his second major fight with a fresh wave of Danes in around 894, just after Guthrum's death. In 900 Alfred died and his son Edgar the Elder was consecrated at Kingston-upon-Thames by Plegmund: the "kings stone" traditionally used is still there. Plegmund may have had an influence on the choice of location: the first surviving record of Kingston is from AD 838 as the site of a meeting between King Egbert of Wessex and Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury. Also, it is perhaps significant that Kingston lay on the boundary between Edward's Wessex and Plegmund's Mercia, until in the early tenth century.

In 902, Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd is effectively ruling Mercia and a Hiberno-Norse community settles in Wirral after its expulsion from Dublin. In 907 Chester was "rebuilt" by Æthelflæd. Around 912 Chester is besieged by Ingamund and he is defeated. As Æthelflæd was married around 886 and Plegmund was with Alfred's court by 887 at the latest there is a good chance that Plegmund would have been involved in Æthelflæd's education. Historians estimate that Edward the Elder was probably born in the mid-870s. According to Asser in his "Life of King Alfred", Edward and his sister Ælfthryth were educated at court by male and female tutors, and read ecclesiastical and secular works in English, such as the Psalms and Old English poems. They were taught the courtly qualities of gentleness and humility, and Asser wrote that they were obedient to their father and friendly to visitors. This is a rare case of an Anglo-Saxon prince and princess receiving the same upbringing and it is not unlikely that Æthelflæd recieved, despite the troubled times, at least some education. Edward was a child throughout the early wars his father fought with the Danes but was more of a soldier than also a scholar like his father. By 892, he was commanding part of the Anglo-Saxon army.



Other than a few charters and his role in the coronation little is known about the involvement of Plegmund in the activities of Edward the Elder and Æthelflæd during their rulership of Wessex and Mercia. It can be speculated that Plegmund may have at least discussed the establishment of the cult of Werbergh with Æthelflæd. When Edward came to the throne Wessex had two dioceses, Winchester, held by Denewulf, and Sherborne, held by Asser. In 908 Denewulf died and was replaced the following year by Frithestan; soon afterwards Winchester was divided into two sees, with the creation of the diocese of Ramsbury covering Wiltshire and Berkshire, while Winchester was left with Hampshire and Surrey. Forged charters date the division to 909, but this may not be correct. Asser died in the same year, and at some date between 909 and 918 Sherborne was divided into three sees, Crediton covering Devon and Cornwall, and Wells covering Somerset, leaving Sherborne with Dorset. The effect of the changes was to strengthen the status of Plegmund's Canterbury compared with Winchester and Sherborne.

Nothing is known of Edward the Elder's relations with the Mercians between 919 and the last year of his life, when he put down a Mercian and Welsh revolt at Chester. This was the year following the death of Plegmund. Mercia and the eastern Danelaw were organised into shires at an unknown date in the tenth century, ignoring traditional boundaries, and historians such as Sean Miller and David Griffiths suggest that Edward's imposition of direct control from 919 is a likely context for a change which ignored Mercian sensibilities. Resentment at the changes, at the imposition of rule by distant Wessex, and at fiscal demands by Edward's reeves, may have provoked the revolt at Chester. Edward died at the royal estate of Farndon, twelve miles south of Chester, on 24 July 924, shortly after putting down the revolt, and was buried in the New Minster, Winchester. Perhaps if the Mercian Plegmund was still alive the revolt could have been avoided.

Æþelstān


According to William of Malmesbury, Æþelstān was thirty years old when he came to the throne in 924, which would mean that he was born around 894. He was the oldest son of Edward the Elder and also the tallest. He almost certainly would have interacted with Plegmund, and was possibly also tutored by John the Old Saxon. When his mother Ecgwynn died or was put aside so Edward could make a more prestigious marriage (he married a woman named Aelflaed), Æþelstān was sent to be educated at the court of his aunt Aethelflaed and uncle Aethelred in Mercia, possibly to avoid conflicts with his stepmother and her children.

Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings. He never married and had no children. He was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund. Perhaps his early religious environment in reflected in the fact that Æþelstān was a noted collector of relics, and while this was a common practice at the time, he was marked out by the scale of his collection and the refinement of its contents. Æþelstān promised his half-brothers the throne as his successors. His promise to his stepbrothers is sometimes given as a reason for him never marrying. Æþelstān may have also wanted to live a life of chastity. After Aelfweard died, his brother Edwin survived from King Edward’s second wife. Edwin was to die in mysterious circumstances, apparently drowning at sea in 933.

Æþelstān has some interesting connections with Chester. When Edward died (at Farndon, 17 July 924) the Danish king Sihtric still ruled the Viking Kingdom of York (formerly the southern Northumbrian kingdom of Deira). In January 926, Æþelstān arranged for one of his sisters, Eadgyth of Polesworth, to marry Sihtric. The two kings agreed not to invade each other's territories or to support each other's enemies, which we are apparently asked to believe is the origin of the AL 5782 Masonic Lodge associated with the Bridgegate in Chester. The following year Sihtric died, and Æþelstān seized the chance to invade. There is a St Edith's Church in Shocklach which may be associated with her and which contains some interesting Norse carvings. In 937 at the Battle of Brunanburh (possibly at Bromborough - just north of Chester) Æþelstān's crushing defeat of the combined Norse-Celtic force facing him irrevocably confirmed England as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Æþelstān's possible rival Edwin drowned at sea. According to William of Malmesbury, who is not always accurate, "King Æþelstān ordered his brother Edwin to be drowned in the sea".



For the last two years of Æþelstān’s reign, he enjoyed immense power. No one dared to challenge him. He was a most effective ruler both at home and abroad. He was to die suddenly, possibly at Gloucester, on October 27, 939 around the age of forty-five. At his own request, his body was taken to Malmesbury and buried there. His death caused a revolt in York which spread to the Danelaw before Edmund could stop it. Æþelstān’s English kingdom broke apart until it was permanently reunited in 954. Æþelstān was the last English king who, as a young man, could have been directly influenced by Plegmund

Summary
Plegmund is a fascinating figure. He steps out of obscurity in Plemstall straight into a very tricky environment, and manages to safely navigate not only two perilous trips to Rome but also one very delicate political or military situation after another, seemingly with ease.

Assers comment in his Life of King Alfred (893) that he was "a Mercian by birth and an estimable man richly endowed with learning" has always been thought to have a sub-text and may hint at Plegmund being a more sophisticated political operator than he is usually thought to be. There may well be links between Æthelflæd's activities involving Werburgh and Chester that still remain undiscovered.

Even after his death, rather like Formosus, Plegmund's influence reached out from the grave (even if through forgery) into the later Canterbury–York dispute. One final curious twist in Plegmund's story turned up through research - there is some evidence to suggest that Osborn Aldis M.A. who had the carved stone set around Plegmund's well in 1908 had actually been in prison for forgery, somewhat ironic given the "Plegmund Narrative".

Related Pages

 * Amphitheatre: the early church in Chester;
 * Mickle Trafford;
 * Chester Castle for Baldwin's balloon flight;

Links



 * Plegmund at Wikipedia;
 * St Plegmund; and his connection with Cheshire: Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society 16 (2). Vol 16(2), pp. 54-69 (contains some errors);
 * St. Plegmund's well at Wikipedia;
 * Religion in Hoole & Newton from the Hoole History & Heritage Society - mentions St Peter at Plemonstall;
 * More on Plemstall - from the Hoole History & Heritage Society;
 * Even more on Plemstall;
 * Church website: good for photos;
 * History of Mickle Trafford;
 * Plegmund's well at the Megalithic Portal;
 * Plegmund at saints of the British Isles;
 * Plemstall photos on Thornber.net;
 * Archaeological and historical survey of the well: excellent stuff;
 * Well Dressing;
 * Listed status;
 * St Plegmund from Diocese of Shrewsbury;
 * Plegmund's Well at Cheshire Now;
 * St Plegmund’s Roman Catholic Church at Tattenhall;
 * Gregory’s Dialogues;
 * Sex, Sin and Skeletons on a Tomb-Chest at Plemstall, Cheshire - crazy speculation about sex and tombs;
 * History of the popes from the Catholic Layman (1854);
 * Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Brooks, by Andrew Wareham;
 * History of the vulgate in england by H. H. Glunz;
 * The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein: by Charles Cotton, see Chapter 7;
 * THE SAXON WAY TO ROME by Giovanni Caselli;
 * Plegmund coin;
 * Vikings at Repton;
 * More on Plegmund's scholastic network _AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN_ Sociolinguistic concepts in the study of Alfredian English (2018);