The Henson Journals

[203]

Wednesday, March 31st, 1926.

Bede, writing in 731, refers to one whom the later lists call bishop of Hereford as eis populis qui ultra amnem Sabrinam ad occidentem habitant Valchstod episcopus: from which one may conclude that Bede had never heard the name of Hereford in connexion with the bishopric of the land beyond the Severn. It may then, as yet, have had no definite ecclesiastical centre, though it would seem to have had some more or less recognized diocesan boundaries. In 679 (or only three years after Putta's settlement in his "church & small piece of ground") Archbishop Theodore, at the request of King Ethelred, divided Mercia into five dioceses (parochias): Lichfield, Leicester, Lindsay, Worcester, and a fifth division which, according to Florence of Worcester, was formed into the see of Dorchester. But Stubbs shows that there is absolutely no evidence for this last statement, & suggests that the fifth diocese was Hereford.

v. Bannister. p. 15.

[204]

Putta takes rank as the first bishop of Hereford, and the commemoration of a 1250th anniversary of the founding of the see, assumes that it was founded in 676. Probably it is true to say that, since that year, an episcopal ministry has been exercised in Hereford. Stubbs, in his article on Putta in the Dict: of Ch. Biog., states the facts, & his own judgment on them thus:–

"In the year 676 Ethelred of Mercia invaded Kent & sacked Rochester, whereupon Putta retired under the protection of the Mercian bishop Saxulf, taking no trouble about recovering his see or restoring the church of Rochester, but contenting himself with a church & a small estate, on which he resided continually, only occasionally leaving it to give instruction in the songs of the Church. The new home of Putta is identified, although not by Bede himself, with Hereford, & Putta ranks as the first Bishop of that see. Although there is little direct authority for this, there does not seem much reason to question it, as probably the creation of the diocese of Hereford was, like that of the other new dioceses of Mercia, an immediate result of the measures taken by Theodore in 679."

[205]

Plummer in his edition of Bede's Eccl: Hist: (vol. ii. 222) writes:

"The whole tenor of Bede's narrative is against the idea that Putta discharged episcopal functions after the loss of Rochester. He lived as a simple priest to the end of his life. The 'agallus mon grandis' cannot refer to the extent of a diocese, but indicates the plot of land with which his church was endowed…Worg mentions the death of a Putta, Bp. of Hereford, under 688, but he says no word to identify him with Putta ex–bishop of Rochester… It is true that the see of Hereford must have been founded about this time if its first bishop died in 688."

Bannister points out that in 800 when Wulfhard made his profession of faith & obedience to the Abp. He styled himself, "gratia Dei humilis Herefordensis Ecclesiae Episcopus". Whether, then, Putta's church was on the banks of the Wye or not, it is certain that the cathedral church of Hereford, in some form or other, existed at the end of the eighth century." (p. 16).

Stubbs. Const: Hist: (vol. I. ch. viii) deals at length with "The Anglo–Saxon Church". "North and South Hecana had their bishop at Hereford" p. 226. The bishoprick was a tribal kingdom.

[206]

There is a valuable & informing note in Wigorn's statement about the division of the Mercian diocese, in Haddan & Stubbs, Councils & Eccl. Documents iii. 128 f. The chapter on 'Organisation' in Hunt's "The English Church "597–1066" is worth reading. Of Theodore's subdivision of the original dioceses he writes:–

"The basis on which he worked was tribal and territorial. Instead of bishoprics extending over whole kingdoms, he created dioceses, conterminous with the settlements of tribes or peoples which preceded the establishment of the kingdoms. These settlements had each some kind of separate administrative machinery, & each remained a definite part of a kingdom. His bishops were to be bishops of tribes or peoples, each with a diocese embracing the territory occupied by the people over whom he was set as spiritual ruler." p. 139.

The see of Hereford "was instituted by Theodore & was, no doubt, part of his original plan, for it completed the tribal division of the Mercian dominions by providing the Hecanas with a bishop of their own." p. 142. So much for the origins of the Bishoprick of Hereford.

[207]

At the time when Boniface and his companions were engaged in evangelizing the Teutonic tribes, they heard that the famous churches of the East, the special husbandry of Christ and His Apostles, were the prey of the antichristian armies of Mohammed. The defenceless patriarchates of Jerusalem, of Antioch, and Alexandria, deprived of their rightful pastors, and curtailed on every side, are moving illustrations of the general ruin: and out of four hundred sees that once shed a salutary light on Africa, four only were surviving in the eleventh century. The rest had been absorbed into the vortex of Islamism.

v. Hardwick. Ch. Hist. Middle Age. p.33.

A parallel might be drawn between the earlier epoch in which the Bpk. of Hereford was founded, and the present age which commemorates the founding. The Mohammedans then fairly equivalent to the Bolshevists now: and the conversion of the Northern peoples may conceivably be paralleled by that of the Asiaticks and Africans now.

[208]

I stayed all day in my study, and read promiscuously, but with a general notion of gathering provender for my Hereford sermon. That excellent Bannister sent me his book on "The Cathedral Church of Hereford", which was published by S.P.C.K. in 1924. The West of England is rich in antiquaries. In Gloucester there is Gee: in Wells Armitage Robinson: in Worcester, Pearce: and in Hereford, Bannister. Here, in the north, our antiquaries are all laymen – Bayley, General Surtees, and Alderman Wooller, they succeed a generation of parsons – Raine, Greenwell, Hodgson, and Taylor.

The Churchwarden of S. James, Darlington, writes to tell me that the Vicar, Gobat, has gone into a nursing home: that he cannot obtain a celebrant for the Easter Communion: that he is at his wit's end! I had to tell him that I could send nobody, and to authorize the suspension of the early celebrations. The communicants were to be told from me that they must go to the adjacent churches for this Easter Communion, or postpone making it until Low Sunday. We shall have to close the parish churches altogether soon.

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