Page:VCH London 1.djvu/251

 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY interview between Theodore and Wilfrid in London in 686 ; he helped to compile the famous code of King Ine of Wessex/" and died about 693." This is all that is certainly known about him. But a legendary life of the I 2th century enlarges on Bede's account; it pictures Earconwald carried on his litter through the cities and villages of his diocese preaching the Word of God, and describes the strife for his body between the monks of Chertsey and the nuns of Barking, which was finally settled by the intervention of the clerks and people of London, who carried off" the body, aided by a miracle in crossing a flooded river, and laid it to rest with great honour in St. Paul's." During the Middle Ages the relics of Earconwald were the greatest treasures of that cathedral ; the tomb to which his body was removed in the 12th cen- tury *' was the most richly decked of its shrines ; ^* a fraternity was formed in his honour,"' and in 1386 Bishop Braybrook decreed that the feasts of the deposition and translation of St. Earconwald should be kept with as much solemnity as the highest festivals, and gave directions concerning the prayers to be used on those occasions.''' A transcript of the office of St. Earconwald still exists, which possibly formed part of the ancient Use of St. Paul's, and there are also extant several prayers and hymns in his honour, in one of which he is addressed as the ' Light of London.' " For the next three centuries no details of the religious life of the City are obtainable, and the continuity of its church organization is only shown by an unbroken succession of bishops.^' Of the seventeen who immedi- ately followed Earconwald many are known merely from the inclusion of their names in ancient lists, and from occasional signatures to charters and other documents, in which they generally take a very low place. "^ Wald- here, Earconwald's successor, is mentioned by Bede as the spiritual adviser of Sebbi, the pious King of the East Saxons ; '° and a letter of his to Archbishop Berchtwald concerning a meeting between Ine King of the West Saxons and the rulers of the East Saxons has been preserved. ^^ He was succeeded before 706 by Ingwald, who assisted at the consecration of Archbishop Tatwin in 731.'- Ingwald died in 745, and was followed by six bishops, of whom the last, Eadbald, either left the country or died in 796.^^ His successor, Heathoberht, died in 801 ;^* Osmund, the next bishop, was present at a synod at Clovesho in 803, with an abbot and three priests from his diocese.^" The professions of obedience to Canterbury of the three following bishops, '" Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 169 ; Stubbs, Select Charters, 61. " Diet. Christ. Biog. ili, 177. " Life printed by Dugdale {Hist, of St. Paul's, ed. 1818, p. 289). On authorship see Hardy, Cat. of Brit. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 293. »' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 183. " Archaeologia, 1, 444. " See under St. Paul's in ' Religious Houses.' "' Simpson, Reg. Statutorum, 393 ; cf. 52. " Simpson, Doc. Illus. Hist, of St. PauPs, 16-24 5 S/. PauPs and Old City Life, 233-4. '* For the history of this period see F.C.H. Lond. ii, ' Political History.' '^ Flor. Wigorn. Chron. i, 133; Kemble, Cod. Dipt. ; Birch, Cart. Sax. passim. See also note in Kemble, op. cit. i, p. xciv. ^ Bede, op. cit. i, 225. " Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 274. '* Bede, op cit. i, 350 ; Ttvo Sax. Chron. (ed. Earle and Plummer), i, 45 ; Symeon of Durham, Hist. Reg. {Rolls Ser.), ii, 39. " Two Sax. Chron. i, 57 ; ii, 63. The other five were — Ecgwulf (745), Sigheah (772), Aldbcrht (775), Edgar (789), Coenwalh (793). Only dates of accession or first extant signature are given, as dates of death are in all cases doubtful ; Stubbs, Reg. Sacrum Jngl. 221. " Symeon of Durham, Hist. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 66. '' Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 547.