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97-588: Mellitus ( / m ə ˈ l aɪ t ə s / ; died 24 April 624) was the first bishop of London in the Saxon period, the third archbishop of Canterbury , and a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism to Christianity. He arrived in 601 AD with a group of clergy sent to augment the mission, and was consecrated as Bishop of London in 604. Mellitus

194-407: A 15-meter longhouse have revealed gullgubber and "strike-a-lights," suggesting cultic use. The as yet unpublished site is identified as a 6th-7th century building that was part of a farm and apparently was never used as a residence, and so far has yielded 29 gullgubber, a half-dozen strike-a-lights, a scramasax dated to approximately 550 C.E., pearls, knives, and a ring-nail. In 2011, remains of

291-482: A Roman monastery, or this was a rank bestowed on him to ease his journey to England by making him the leader of the expedition. The papal register, a listing of letters sent out by the popes, describes him as an "abbot in Frankia" in its description of the correspondence, but the letter itself only says "abbot". The first time Mellitus is mentioned in history is in the letters of Gregory, and nothing else of his background

388-808: A bishopric. It may have been that the Kentish king did not wish greater episcopal authority to be exercised outside his own kingdom. Mellitus attended a council of bishops held in Italy in February 610, convened by Pope Boniface IV . The historian N. J. Higham speculates that one reason for his attendance may have been to assert the English Church's independence from the Frankish Church. Boniface had Mellitus take two papal letters back to England, one to Æthelbert and his people, and another to Laurence ,

485-400: A building with size 14 by 7 meters with slightly curved walls marked by large postholes was found at Ose on the outskirts of the town of Ørsta in the county of Møre og Romsdal . It is located 150 meters from the current shore of the local fjord. The building was remarkable in that it in its centre, a quadratic-shaped structure had four holes for round pillars which is interpreted as holding up

582-470: A central spire, similar to Uppåkra. The longer side walls had probably rectangular heavier roof carrying posts with a size of about 40x40 cm. It is interpreted as being a hof. In one of the pillars of the building a part of an iron plough was found. This is interpreted as an offering for a place of worship. Remains of fireplaces was found in the building thought to be used in heathen ceremonies. The burnt remains of pillars were C-14 carbon dated in 2021 to be from

679-558: A dedicated temple: an independent sacred place, built specifically for ritual proceedings, comparable to a Christian church . By extension, it was also commonly believed that the hofs had been located on the same sites as the churches that had superseded them. This was the dominant theory until in 1966 the Danish archeologist Olaf Olsen published the results of a comprehensive study of archeological investigations in Iceland and Sweden and of

776-416: A farmhouse and only incidentally a hof. However, in addition to clarifying the relationship between the annexes and the main hall, the re-excavation revealed even more bone fragments, and analysis shows that at least 23 cattle had been sacrificial offerings. They were killed in an unusual manner, by a blow between the eyes, and their skulls displayed outside for years. The horns had not been removed and in age

873-652: A gift of books and "all things which were needed for worship and the ministry of the Church." Thomas of Elmham , a 15th-century Canterbury chronicler, claimed that in his day there were a number of the books brought to England by Mellitus still at Canterbury. Examination of the remaining manuscripts has determined that one possible survivor of Mellitus' books is the St Augustine Gospels , now in Cambridge, as Corpus Christi College, MS (manuscript) 286. Along with

970-408: A heathen hof in its entirety. The remains of the building consist of holes and trenches for the placement of the pillars and walls that once stood there. Various floor levels were discernible, and it was possible to determine that the hof was initially erected in the 3rd century C.E. on the site of an unusually large longhouse, and then rebuilt six times without appreciable changes, the last version of

1067-411: A large longhouse with a small separate room at the north end, 42 meters long overall and 8 meters wide in the main section. It had three small protruding sections, two near the south end and one on the opposite side. There was a fireplace in the center and smaller fireplaces at both ends of the main room. Animal bones were found all around the inside of the walls in the main room, and a smaller number in

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1164-458: A large and ornate 4th-century church was discovered on Tower Hill , which seems to have mimicked St Ambrose 's cathedral in the imperial capital at Milan on a still-larger scale. This possible cathedral was built between 350 and 400 out of stone taken from other buildings, including its veneer of black marble. It is perfectly possible that the stone came from the London basilica and forum, which

1261-460: A large number of the oldest Danish churches. He was not able to confirm a single case of a heathen hof underlying a Christian church, and concluded in light of this that a hof could not have been an independent building. Particularly in reference to the Hofstaðir building in Iceland (see below), he suggested the model of the temple-farm: that rather than being dedicated exclusively to religious use,

1358-415: A large temple built in his hayfield, a hundred feet long and sixty wide. Everybody had to pay a temple fee. Thor was the god most honoured there. It was rounded on the inside, like a vault, and there were windows and wall-hangings everywhere. The image of Thor stood in the center, with other gods on both sides. In front of them was an altar made with great skill and covered with iron on the top. On this there

1455-575: A letter from Gregory allowing Augustine to convert pagan temples to Christian churches, and to convert pagan animal sacrifices into Christian feasts, to ease the transition to Christianity. Gregory's letter marked a sea change in the missionary strategy, and was later included in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People . Usually known as the Epistola ad Mellitum , it conflicts with

1552-448: A piece of a string instrument were found. These finds indicate with a high degree of likelihood that the hall was used for ceremonial feasts. In addition, large numbers of offered items were found in the area, among others a huge gold ring, amulets with mythological motifs, and animal bones. These finds all suggest that the entire complex was an important religious center. Other finds in the area, for example weapons and jewelry, show that

1649-435: A place of frequent ritual gatherings, probably in spring and summer. The unusual method of slaughter was deliberately dramatic and would have produced a fountain of blood. The skulls were found among roof and wall debris, all but one grouped in two places at the south end of the hall: inside the southeast annex and between the southwestern annex and the wall of the main building; it seems plausible that they were on display when

1746-521: A ritual space based in overall form on the long house. Under the medieval stone church at Mære in Nord-Trøndelag , archeological investigation in the 1960s revealed remnants of a hof, the only one found under a Norwegian church. The building had been of post construction, and gullgubber were found in one post-hole. At Hov in Vingrom near Lake Mjøsa in southern Norway, excavations of

1843-484: A shelter for the god-images which were mounted on the inside pillars. The site dates to about 400 CE, during the Nordic Iron Age , and had been covered with earth to conceal it. Several human teeth, a partial skull, and two glass beads were found, but no gullgubber. The site was later bulldozed to make way for housing. In late summer and early autumn 2020, during archeological survey for a build site, remains of

1940-399: A site of heathen worship were found at Ranheim on the outskirts of Trondheim , consisting of a stone circle approximately 15 m in diameter and 1 m in height delineating an altar, a ceremonial way marked by standing stones, and a building about 5.3 x 4.5 m in size, consisting of 12 large pillars resting on stone bases and enclosing 4 pillars. The building is thought to have been

2037-410: A slope, and interpreted this as a very large baking pit. A number of square ruins in Iceland, above all one at Sæból , were interpreted as the remains of hofs, but Olsen demonstrated that they are identical in form and scale with horse stalls still in use in Iceland. He ascribed the hof legends attached to them to romantic nationalism and pointed out that many were called medieval chapels ( bænhús ) at

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2134-462: A subject of scholarly debate. Tacitus famously wrote in Germania : The Germans do not think it in keeping with the divine majesty to confine gods within walls or to portray them in the likeness of any human countenance. Their holy places are woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is seen only by the eye of reverence. There are in fact several sites in

2231-484: A taste of the sacramental bread . Whether this occurred immediately after Sæberht's death or later is impossible to determine from Bede's chronology, which has both events in the same chapter but gives neither an exact time frame nor the elapsed time between the two events. The historian N. J. Higham connects the timing of this episode with a change in the "overkingship" from the Christian Kentish Æthelberht to

2328-738: A temple in the Icelandic sagas , but is rare in skaldic poetry . Many places in Scandinavia, but especially in West Norse regions, are named hof or hov , either alone or in combination. These include: Some placenames, often names of farms, combine the word, such as: There is also one in England: the village of Hoff in Cumbria , with an associated Hoff Lund, "temple grove." The nature of Germanic places of worship has long been

2425-642: A word for a temple. Hof also occasionally occurs with the meaning "temple" in Old High German and is cognate with the Old English hof . In Scandinavia during the Viking Age , it appears to have displaced older terms for a sacred place, vé , hörgr , lundr , vangr , and vin , particularly in the West Norse linguistic area, namely Norway and Iceland. It is the dominant word for

2522-703: Is The Old Deanery, Dean's Court, City of London . Previously, until 1973, Fulham Palace in West London was the residence for over 1300 years, and from the 18th century, the bishop also had chambers at London House next to the Bishop's Chapel in Aldersgate Street. The current (133rd) bishop of London is Sarah Mullally . She was confirmed on 8 March 2018 after acting in post immediately after her canonical election on 25 January 2018. The diocesan bishop of London has had direct episcopal oversight in

2619-483: Is a better way, volunteers to personally lead the destruction of the temple and its idols, which Bede says was located at Goodmanham , just east of York : So he . . . asked the king to give him arms and a stallion—for hitherto it had not been lawful for the Chief Priest to carry arms or to ride anything but a mare. . . . Girded with a sword and with a spear in his hand, he mounted the king's stallion and rode up to

2716-540: Is considered credible by modern historians. Following the establishment of the archdiocese of Canterbury by the Gregorian mission , its leader St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Saxon kingdom of Essex in 604. (The first bishop of Rochester was also consecrated the same year.) Bede records that Augustine's patron, King Æthelberht of Kent , built a cathedral for his nephew King Sæberht of Essex as part of this mission. This cathedral

2813-541: Is interesting that whilst four medieval churches were built around the same time on the foundations of the Roman Basilica and forum, the London city authorities in 1417 determined that St Peter's dated back to Roman times, and indeed was the original seat of English Christianity. This suggests there may have been something extra in St Peter's location and longevity which justifies it predating the others. In 1995,

2910-555: Is known. It appears likely that he was a native of Italy, along with all the other bishops consecrated by Augustine. Pope Gregory I sent Mellitus to England in June 601, in response to an appeal from Augustine , the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Augustine needed more clergy to join the Gregorian mission that was converting the kingdom of Kent, then ruled by Æthelberht, from paganism to Christianity. The new missionaries brought with them

3007-445: Is not found, the people's wish will be granted. Rather than a single tree, the passage that follows on the great sacrifices held every nine years at Uppsala speaks of a sacred grove adjoining the hof, of which each and every tree is sacred and in which the human and animal victims are hanged. Adam's presumed source, Sweyn Estridsen, was in service as a young man (from 1026 to 1038) with King Anund Jakob of Sweden, and therefore had

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3104-463: Is that at Gamla Uppsala ("Old Uppsala") in Sweden , which was described by Adam of Bremen around 1070, likely based on an eyewitness description by King Sweyn Estridsen : That folk has a very famous temple called Uppsala . . . . In this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor , occupies a throne in the middle of

3201-528: Is thought to have been a hof associated with the longhouse residence. In addition, a nearby hillside appears to have been a sacred grove : numerous settings of crushed stone and fire sites were found all over it, and evenly distributed on, under, and around them, large amounts of burned and crushed bone, burned and crushed clay fragments, and resin drops, and smaller numbers of beads and blades such as knives and arrowheads. The bone fragments were very worn, indicating they had been left exposed or possibly ground, and

3298-553: Is uncertain. The present structure of St Peter upon Cornhill was designed by Christopher Wren following the Great Fire in 1666 and stands upon the highest point in the area of old Londinium, but possibly more significantly directly above the location of a pagan shrine room ( aedes ) within the great Roman London basilica . There is a medieval tradition which maintains the church was founded by King Lucius in AD 199. If St Peter's

3395-596: The City of London and the County of Middlesex ) and a small part of the County of Surrey (the district of Spelthorne , historically part of Middlesex). The see is in the City of London, where the seat is St Paul's Cathedral , which was founded as a cathedral in 604 and was rebuilt from 1675 following the Great Fire of London (1666). Third in seniority in the Church of England after the archbishops of Canterbury and York ,

3492-701: The Tower of London and St. James's Palace , among others) which are geographically in the Diocese of London but, as royal peculiars , are officially outside the bishop's jurisdiction as bishop . The Bishop of London originally had responsibility for the church in the British colonies in North America , although after the American Revolution of 1776, all that remained under his jurisdiction were

3589-581: The Wendish temple at Arkona , a later and non-Germanic site. Moreover, Schuchhardt's excavation was rushed and his own data do not certainly support the square plan that he later claimed to have found at two other Baltic sites. Further excavations at Gamla Uppsala in the 1990s uncovered remains of a large settlement and a very large hall near the church, which has been identified as a hall hof, either "a feasting hall in which pagan festivals took place at certain times" or, based on its lack of internal divisions,

3686-457: The date of Easter . This letter also mentioned the fact that Irish missionary bishops, such as Dagan , refused to eat with the Roman missionaries. Both Æthelberht and Sæberht died around 616 or 618, causing a crisis for the mission. Sæberht's three sons had not converted to Christianity, and drove Mellitus from London. Bede says that Mellitus was exiled because he refused the brothers' request for

3783-593: The Archbishop of Canterbury. He also brought back the synod's decrees to England. No authentic letters or documents from this synod remain, although some were forged in the 1060s and 1070s at Canterbury. During his time as a bishop, Mellitus joined with Justus , the Bishop of Rochester, in signing a letter that Laurence wrote to the Celtic bishops urging the Celtic Church to adopt the Roman method of calculating

3880-582: The King in spiritual matters, while the Epistola was sent to deal with purely practical matters, and thus the two do not contradict each other. Exactly when Mellitus and his party arrived in England is unknown, but he was certainly in the country by 604, when Augustine consecrated him as bishop in the province of the East Saxons , making Mellitus the first Bishop of London after the Roman departure (London

3977-576: The Old Norse word hof is the same as the Dutch and German word hof , which originally meant a hall and later came to refer to a court (originally in the meaning of a royal or aristocratic court) and then also to a farm. In medieval Scandinavian sources, it occurs once as a hall, in the Eddic poem Hymiskviða , and beginning in the fourteenth century, in the "court" meaning. Otherwise, it occurs only as

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4074-562: The Two Cities area (the City of London and the City of Westminster ) since the institution of the London area scheme in 1979. The first mention of Christianity in England comes from Tertullian , possibly writing in the early 200s, but the first mention of an implied church in London relates to a Bishop of London, either Restitus or Aldephius, attending the Council of Arles in 314 AD . The location of Londinium's original cathedral

4171-411: The animals ranged from just full-grown to middle-aged, both of these being unique in Icelandic farming at the time; also the majority appear to have been bulls, which is very surprising in a dairy economy. The dates of the skulls varied, with the last having been slaughtered around 1000 C.E., and one sheep skeleton was found that had been killed in the same manner as the cattle. The bone finds thus indicate

4268-600: The aristocracy, but others, for example Uppåkra in Scania (formerly in Denmark, now in Sweden) functioned as places of assembly for the local population. The temple found in England, at Yeavering , now appears to be an early example of a hall-associated hof, rather than an anomaly. Gro Steinsland , a historian of Norse paganism , is of the opinion that in effect it was economic resources as much as local tradition that led to

4365-468: The beginning of the 19th century and had transformed into ruined hofs by the end of that century. In 2000–2004, excavations in Uppåkra , south of Lund in Scania , revealed that a heathen hof was located there for several hundred years. Since it was possible to excavate the entire site and since it had not been disturbed, this excavation afforded the first opportunity for a purely archeological study of

4462-464: The bishop is one of five senior bishops who sit as of right as one of the 26 Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords (for the remaining diocesan bishops of lesser rank, seats are attained upon vacancy, determined by chronological seniority). The other four senior bishops are the archbishop of Canterbury, the archbishop of York, the bishop of Durham and the bishop of Winchester . The bishop's residence

4559-526: The bowl. This blood, which was called sacrificial blood [ hlaut ], was the blood of live animals offered to the gods. The gods were placed around the platform in the choir-like structure within the temple. All farmers had to pay a toll to the temple . . . . The temple godi was responsible for the upkeep of the temple and ensuring it was maintained properly, as well as for holding sacrificial feasts in it. Snorri Sturluson 's description in Heimskringla of

4656-440: The building dating to the early Viking Age. The building material was in all cases wood, which was also sunk into the ground. The building was not large, only 13 meters long and 6.5 meters wide. The walls on the long sides were made of slightly convex, rough-cut oak posts or "staves," which were sunk into a trench in the earth more than one meter deep. At each corner of the building stood a pillar or corner-post. The central part of

4753-427: The building did indeed serve as a hof. So do the surprisingly small size of the main hearth despite the great size of the building; the relatively few finds of valuable objects (and complete lack of weapons), and the location, which is convenient for travel and highly visible, but not good for a farmstead. Hence, the unusual evidence of frequent meat feasting does not simply indicate a particularly wealthy settlement, but

4850-536: The building was in use and that where they were found was storage, whether normal winter storage or concealment after conversion to Christianity caused the abandonment of the building in the mid-eleventh century. The goat sacrifice can be interpreted as a termination ritual. Olsen also regarded as highly significant that only 9 meters from the south door of the building was an oval pit containing ash, charcoal, fragments of animal bone, and sooty stones. He pointed out that Icelandic farms usually disposed of their refuse down

4947-418: The building, which stood free of the outer walls, was formed by four gigantic wooden columns. The holes for these and for the corner-posts are unusually wide and more than two meters deep, and stone packing found in three of the center holes indicates columns at least 0.7 meters in diameter. The building had three entrances, two in the south and one in the north. Each opening had hefty posts on either side, and

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5044-472: The building. The hof is near the center of the settlement and there are at least four burial mounds to the west and north of it, probably dating to the early Bronze Age or the early Iron Age. At Lunda farm in Södermanland , excavation revealed a small building parallel to the north side of a longhouse, with three phallic figurines inside, one solid gold, the other two cast in bronze and gilded. This

5141-410: The building. Bede praised Mellitus' sane mind, but other than the miracle, little happened during his time as archbishop. Bede also mentioned that Mellitus suffered from gout . Boniface wrote to Mellitus encouraging him in the mission, perhaps prompted by the marriage of Æthelburh of Kent to King Edwin of Northumbria . Whether Mellitus received a pallium , the symbol of an archbishop's authority, from

5238-467: The cathedral following the Great Fire of 1666, Christopher Wren reported discovering no trace of such a structure. Surrey was at times a part of the Kingdom of Essex , and with it the Diocese of London, a situation that changed following a synod at Brentford around 705, reflecting the growing strength of Mercia at the expense of Essex. Because the bishop's diocese includes the royal palaces and

5335-671: The chamber; Wotan and Frikko [presumably Freyr ] have places on either side. The significance of these gods is as follows: Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Wotan—that is, the Furious—carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies. The third is Frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus. But Wotan they chisel armed, as our people are wont to represent Mars . Thor with his scepter apparently resembles Jove . . . . For all

5432-417: The church, dated to approximately 900 C.E., he found post-holes that he interpreted as the remains of the great hof described by Adam of Bremen . He interpreted them as two concentric rectangles, the remains of an almost square building with a high roof. However, as Olsen demonstrated, the remains are too sparse to support this interpretation, which is in any case based on Carl Schuchhardt 's reconstruction of

5529-460: The development of dedicated hofs: in the richest areas, actual temples developed, while in poor areas, the spaces that people had were what they used for blót . In the first chapter, in in heiðnu lǫg , of book four of Landnámabók (Hauksbók) it is stated that Iceland was divided into four courtdistricts all containing three hofs each. Chapter 2 of Kjalnesinga saga contains an extended description of Thorgrim Helgason's temple at Hof: He had

5626-628: The eastern central chapel of the presbytery . Bishop of London The bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England 's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury . By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723. The diocese covers 458 km (177 sq mi) of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames (historically

5723-429: The gods there are appointed priests to offer sacrifices for the people. If plague and famine threaten, a libation is poured to the idol Thor; if war, to Wotan, if marriages are to be celebrated, to Frikko. A note or scholion appended to this passage adds the following description: A golden chain goes round the temple. It hangs over the gable of the building and sends its glitter far off to those who approach, because

5820-461: The historical period at which heathen rites apparently took place in the open, including Hove in Trøndelag , Norway, where offerings were apparently brought to images of the gods on a row of ten posts, but no trace of buildings was found. Yet Tacitus himself wrote of an image of Nerthus . And in his Annals he refers to a temple of Tanfana . Most older scholars considered that a hof would be

5917-763: The hof was used for the feasts and blóts that were held when the king was at the location. Similar complexes of buildings are known from other places in southern Scandinavia, for example Järrestad in Scania, Lisbjerg in Jutland, and Toftegård on Zealand. These royal centers, called central places by archeologists, perhaps also constituted a parallel to the royal palaces of the Merovingian , Carolingian , and Holy Roman Emperors , such as Charlemagne 's palace complex at Aachen . These also included religious buildings, marketplaces, and workshops that were primarily used when

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6014-438: The hofs were also dwellings, and that the word hof referred to the great farm in a rural settlement, at which the most powerful man also held sacrifices ( blótar ) and feasts. However, new archeological discoveries in the late 20th century revealed several buildings in various parts of Scandinavia that do appear to have functioned purely as cult sites. Some of them, for example the hall at Tissø , Denmark, were associated with

6111-416: The idols. . . . [W]ithout hesitation, as soon as he reached the shrine, he cast into it the spear he carried and thus profaned it. Then . . . he told his companions to set fire to the shrine and its enclosures and destroy them. . . . Here it was that the Chief Priest . . . desecrated and destroyed the altars that he had himself dedicated. In the 1990s, Danish archaeologists excavated a chieftain's residence on

6208-1065: The islands of the British West Indies . The diocese was further reduced in 1846, when the counties of Essex and Hertfordshire were ceded to the Diocese of Rochester . The Report of the Commissioners appointed by his Majesty to inquire into the Ecclesiastical Revenues of England and Wales (1835), noted the annual net income for the London see was £13,929. The dates and names of these early bishops are very uncertain. Translated from Guildford . Nominated on 10 January and confirmed on 25 January 1956. Resigned on 31 July 1961 and died on 26 December 1970. Among those who called Assistant Bishop of London, or coadjutor bishop , were: Honorary assistant bishops – retired bishops taking on occasional duties voluntarily – have included: Heathen hofs Etymologically,

6305-474: The late sixth century onwards. Historians seem to be more confident that early English Christian churches met in private homes, and that some Roman villas also installed places of Christian worship. Whether the Lucius story is a fiction, or whether there was actually a church deliberately erected over the shrine room is unclear and could only be settled by archaeological exploration under St Peter's. However, it

6402-402: The layout of the hof: There he had a temple built, and it was a sizeable building, with a door on the side-wall near the gable. The high-seat pillars were placed inside the door, and nails, that were called holy nails [ reginnaglar ], were driven into them. Beyond that point, the temple was a sanctuary. At the inner end there was a structure similar to the choir in churches nowadays and there

6499-402: The letter sent to Æthelberht, which the historian R. A. Markus sees as a turning point in missionary history, when forcible conversion gave way to persuasion. This traditional view, that the Epistola represents a contradiction of the letter to Æthelberht, has been challenged by the historian and theologian George Demacopoulos, who argues that the letter to Æthelberht was mainly meant to encourage

6596-527: The letter to Augustine, the missionaries brought a letter for Æthelberht, urging the King to act like the Roman Emperor Constantine I and force the conversion of his followers to Christianity. The king was also encouraged to destroy all pagan shrines . The historian Ian Wood has suggested that Mellitus' journey through Gaul probably took in the bishoprics of Vienne, Arles, Lyons, Toulon, Marseilles, Metz, Paris, and Rouen, as evidenced by

6693-582: The letters that Gregory addressed to those bishops soliciting their support for Mellitus' party. Gregory also wrote to the Frankish kings Chlothar II , Theuderic II , Theudebert II , along with Brunhilda of Austrasia , who was Theudebert and Theuderic's grandmother and regent. Wood feels that this wide appeal to the Frankish episcopate and royalty was an effort to secure more support for the Gregorian mission. While on his journey to England, Mellitus received

6790-410: The middle of the temple floor, and kettles hung over them. The sacrificial beaker was to be borne around the fire. Jan de Vries considered the 100 by 60 foot dimensions and the eternal flame exaggerated; the human sacrifices in a pool by the door, not so much. Several sagas, including Kjalnesinga saga , also mention hofs being surrounded by a fence. The most famous heathen hof of the Viking Age

6887-520: The missionaries. Mellitus was exiled from London by the pagan successors to his patron, King Sæberht of Essex , following the latter's death around 616. King Æthelberht of Kent , Mellitus' other patron, died at about the same time, forcing him to take refuge in Gaul . Mellitus returned to England the following year, after Æthelberht's successor had been converted to Christianity, but he was unable to return to London, whose inhabitants remained pagan. Mellitus

6984-430: The new episcopate, a charter that claims to be a grant of lands from Æthelberht to Mellitus is a later forgery. Although Gregory had intended London to be the southern archbishopric for the island, Augustine never moved his episcopal see to London, and instead consecrated Mellitus as a plain bishop there. After Augustine's death in 604, Canterbury continued to be the site of the southern archbishopric, and London remained

7081-411: The opportunity to personally see the hof at Uppsala. But we do not know how accurately Adam reports what he said. Accuracy concerning heathenry was not his objective in writing his history. In his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ( Ecclesiastical History of the English People ), Bede describes the conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria . His high-priest, Coifi , convinced that Christianity

7178-519: The outskirts of Tissø in West Zealand County . Among other finds, they uncovered the remains of a large longhouse or hall that was in use between the 6th and 11th centuries C.E. It was apparent from the postholes that the roof had been supported by a few very strong columns and that the building had been tall, possibly two-story. It contained a large central room, where a large number of animal bones, fragments of Frankish glass beakers, and

7275-523: The pagan East Anglian Raedwald , which Higham feels happened after Æthelberht's death. In Higham's view, Sæberht's sons drove Mellitus from London because they had passed from Kentish overlordship to East Anglian, and thus no longer needed to keep Mellitus, who was connected with the Kentish kingdom, in office. Mellitus fled first to Canterbury, but Æthelberht's successor Eadbald was also a pagan, so Mellitus, accompanied by Justus, took refuge in Gaul. Mellitus

7372-431: The paved area in front of the entrance, suggesting the building had been used for ritual feasts. In the eleventh century the building and its yard had been covered with a thick layer of gravel and a church erected 100 m away. In a 1926 excavation, Sune Lindqvist found at least three levels of previous occupation under and immediately to the north of the church at Gamla Uppsala . In the layer immediately underlying

7469-612: The peripatetic court was in residence. The name of the settlement of Hofstaðir, near Mývatn , and local tradition indicate it was the site of a hof. The site was excavated by Daniel Bruun in 1908 and again by Olaf Olsen in 1965. Since 1991, the Icelandic Archeological Institute ( Fornleifastofnun Íslands - FSI) has re-investigated it; since 2002, in an international investigation under the Landscape of Settlements program. The excavations have uncovered

7566-547: The pope is unknown. Mellitus died on 24 April 624, and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury that same day. He became revered as a saint after his death, and was allotted the feast day of 24 April. In the ninth century, Mellitus' feast day was mentioned in the Stowe Missal , along with Laurence and Justus. He was still venerated at St Augustine's in 1120, along with a number of other local saints. There

7663-422: The process of blót repeats the same information about the blood and the bowl, and continues: . . . and with [the hlautteinar ] were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood. But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and to serve as food at the banquet. Fires were to be lighted in

7760-527: The sacrificial blood bowl [ hlautbolli ]. This blood was to be sprinkled over men and animals, and the animals that were given in sacrifice were to be used for feasting when sacrificial banquets were held. Men whom they sacrificed were to be cast into a pool which was outside by the door; they called it Blótkelda (Well of Sacrifice). There is a similar passage in Eyrbyggja saga about Thorolf Mostrarskegg's temple at Hofstaðir, which gives more information about

7857-482: The seat of government at Westminster , they have been regarded as the "King's bishop" and have historically had considerable influence with members of the Royal Family and leading politicians of the day. Since 1748 it has been customary to appoint the Bishop of London to the post of Dean of His Majesty's Chapels Royal , which has the effect of putting under the bishop's jurisdiction, as dean , several chapels (at

7954-403: The shrine stands on level ground with mountains all about it like a theater. Another scholion describes natural features near the hof: Near this temple stands a very large tree with wide-spreading branches, always green winter and summer. What kind it is nobody knows. There is also a spring at which the pagans are accustomed to make their sacrifices, and into it to plunge a live man. And if he

8051-406: The site was associated with the highest strata of society, possibly with the royal family. The entire complex, which also included workshops and a marketplace, may have functioned as a temporary residence for the king when he made periodic visits to that part of the kingdom. Investigations have shown that the complex was only in use for short periods. The king also functioned as a religious leader, and

8148-413: The small room. Various associated buildings have also been excavated. Olsen used Hofstaðir as a particularly good example of the idea of the temple-farm. Despite its large size, in form the building is identical to other longhouses, the small room at the north end was a later addition, and the 1908 excavation had not fully revealed the entrances, annexes, and ancillary buildings. He considered it primarily

8245-404: The southwestern had a projecting section in addition. That must therefore have been the main entrance of the hof. This has been interpreted as the men's entrance, the entrance on the north side as the women's entrance, and the southeastern entrance as for the priest, on the model of stone churches. Two large iron door rings were found, one in the fill around a post, the other about 10 meters from

8342-558: The very few that could be identified were from pigs and either sheep or goats. At Borg in Norrköping Municipality , Östergötland , a small building was excavated that had two rooms on either side of a central hallway. There was a stone foundation interpreted as a hörgr at the far end of the hallway from the entrance. Two amulet rings were found near this and 98 amulet rings and 75  kg of unburned animal bones, including numerous skulls and jawbones, were found in

8439-425: Was a raised platform in the middle of the floor like an altar, where a ring weighing twenty ounces and fashioned without a join was placed, and all oaths had to be sworn on this ring. It also had to be worn by the temple priest at all public gatherings. A sacrificial bowl [ hlautbolli ] was placed on the platform and in it a sacrificial twig [ hlautteinn ]—like a priest's aspergillum—which was used to sprinkle blood from

8536-557: Was also a shrine to him at Old St Paul's Cathedral in London. Shortly after the Norman Conquest , Goscelin wrote a life of Mellitus, the first of several to appear around that time, but none contain any information not included in Bede's earlier works. These later medieval lives do, however, reveal that during Goscelin's lifetime persons suffering from gout were urged to pray at Mellitus' tomb. Goscelin records that Mellitus' shrine flanked that of Augustine, along with Laurence, in

8633-417: Was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 619. During his tenure, he was alleged to have miraculously saved the cathedral, and much of the town of Canterbury, from a fire. After his death in 624, Mellitus was revered as a saint. The medieval chronicler Bede described Mellitus as being of noble birth. In letters, Pope Gregory I called him an abbot , but it is unclear whether Mellitus had previously been abbot of

8730-507: Was built in the Roman era, it would make the church contemporaneous to the Romano-British church at Silchester , similarly built adjacent to the Roman Basilica and most likely pre-Constantine in age. Some caution may be exercised in this respect however, as other research suggests it very rare for early English Christian churches to be founded in pagan temples, and that when temples were turned into churches, this occurred later, in

8827-432: Was constructed in "London" and dedicated to St Paul. Although it is not clear whether Lundenwic or Lundenburh was intended, it is generally assumed the church was located in the same place occupied by the present St Paul's Cathedral on Ludgate Hill in London. Renaissance rumours that the cathedral had been erected over a Roman temple of the goddess Diana are no longer credited: during his rebuilding of

8924-433: Was demolished and levelled around the same time. The 4th-century church was burnt down in the early 5th century. According to a 12th-century list, which may be recorded by Jocelyne of Furness , there had been 14 "archbishops" of London, claiming London's Christian community was founded in the 2nd century under the legendary King Lucius and his missionary saints Fagan , Deruvian , Elvanus , and Medwin . None of that

9021-477: Was not occupied again until Cedd was consecrated as bishop in about 654. Mellitus succeeded Laurence as the third Archbishop of Canterbury after the latter's death in 619. During his tenure as archbishop, Mellitus supposedly performed a miracle in 623 by diverting a fire that had started in Canterbury and threatened the church. He was carried into the flames, upon which the wind changed direction, thus saving

9118-541: Was recalled to Britain by Laurence, the second Archbishop of Canterbury, after his conversion of Eadbald. How long Mellitus' exile lasted is unclear. Bede claims it was a year, but it may have been longer. Mellitus did not return to London, because the East Saxons remained pagan. Although Mellitus fled, there does not seem to have been any serious persecution of Christians in the East Saxon kingdom. The East Saxon see

9215-510: Was the East Saxons' capital). The city was a logical choice for a new bishopric, as it was a hub for the southern road network. It was also a former Roman town; many of the Gregorian mission's efforts were centred in such locations. Before his consecration, Mellitus baptised Sæberht, Æthelberht's nephew, who then allowed the bishopric to be established. The episcopal church built in London was probably founded by Æthelberht, rather than Sæberht. Although Bede records that Æthelberht gave lands to support

9312-514: Was the recipient of a famous letter from Pope Gregory I known as the Epistola ad Mellitum , preserved in a later work by the medieval chronicler Bede , which suggested the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons be undertaken gradually, integrating pagan rituals and customs. In 610, Mellitus returned to Italy to attend a council of bishops, and returned to England bearing papal letters to some of

9409-434: Was to be a fire which would never go out—they called it sacred fire. On the altar was to lie a great armband, made of silver. The temple godi was to wear it on his arm at all gatherings, and everyone was to swear oaths on it whenever a suit was brought. A great copper bowl was to stand on the altar, and into it was to go all the blood which came from animals or men given to Thor. They called this sacrificial blood [ hlaut ] and

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