Pehthelm
Encyclopedia
Pehthelm was the first historical bishop
of the episcopal see
of Candida Casa
at Whithorn
. He was consecrated in 730 or 731 and served until his demise. His name is also spelled as Pecthelm, Pechthelm, and sometimes as Wehthelm.
Prior to his elevation to bishop he had been a deacon
or monk
in the Kingdom of Wessex
under Aldhelm (later, Saint Aldhelm), the Bishop of Sherborne and founder of the Benedictine
Abbey at Malmesbury
. He was evidently a person of high repute, as Boniface
(later Saint Boniface, and himself of Wessex origin) sought Bishop Pehthelm's advice on an ecclesiastical matter, and sent him a present of a corporal pallium
. Pehthelm's historical significance is largely confined to his status as the first bishop
in the newly created diocese.
The Kingdom of Northumbria
was ascendant from the seventh through the ninth centuries, and it was the premier regional power in Great Britain between the Humber
and the Firths of Clyde
and Forth
. At the Synod of Whitby
in 664, King Oswiu
repudiated the Celtic Christianity
(so called, and also called Columban
after its most notable proponent) that had previously been dominant in the northern Northumbrian territory of Bernicia
, and aligned Northumbria with the continental
church organisation favoured by Northumbria's southern neighbors.
Whatever Oswiu's motivations at Whitby, the move may have been politically expedient, as the Iona
-oriented Columban churches and clerics (who were mostly Irish
) were now replaced by Northumbria's Anglo-Saxon
, York
-oriented churches and clerics.
However, the authority of the Bishop of York was diluted by Theodore
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
, who created several bishoprics out of Northumbrian territory, with the intent that they be subordinate
to Canterbury rather than to York. York resisted and was ultimately equal to the challenge, as the bishopric was elevated to an archbishopric by the Pope
in 735 and was able to oversee its own subordinate bishoprics.
One of York's successful efforts in this power struggle was the in the supervision of a subordinate bishopric
created circa 730 in Galloway
, which was then under Northumbrian rule.
Pehthelm's name
The modern English translations of manuscripts variously spell the name as Pehthelm, Pechthelm, or Pecthelm. Wechthelm, Wettelm, or Wethelm had been offered as alternative possibilities by
Thomas Arnold, the editor of an 1879 publication of the 1155 Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon
, which argued that occasionally medieval writers wrongly transcribed old Anglo-Saxon 'w' as 'p'. Similar discussions have revolved around the name of Pybba (or Wybba) of Mercia
. Charles Plummer
's 1896 edition of Bede's History made note of Arnold's observation, but then went on to translate Pehthelm as 'helm of the Picts', without any stated authority.
Pehthelm is first mentioned in 731 by Bede
(672 – 735) in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People
. Bede relates a hagiographic story of a vision in Mercia
that is said to have occurred sometime between 704 and 709, and then notes that he heard the story from Pehthelm. In the events of 705, Bede says that Pehthelm was for a long time either deacon
or monk
with Bishop Aldhelm (639 – 709), and that he was fond of telling stories of miraculous cures associated with the place where Bishop Hedda (d. 705) had died. Finally, in a passage describing the ecclesiastical state of Britain in 731, Bede says that there are four Northumbrian bishops, of which Pehthelm is the one in the place called the White House, and is the first prelate there. He adds that this is a new episcopacy, created because of an increased number of believers.
The 'White House' referred to is the Candida Casa
that is first mentioned by Bede himself in his account of Saint Ninian
, an account that provides a provenance
for Pehthelm's new diocese.
Sometime between 730 and 735 Boniface
(c. 672 – 754) writes to Bishop Pehthelm seeking his opinion on the ecclesiastical question of whether a man may marry a woman for whose son he is godfather
. Boniface addresses Pehthelm as coepiscopo ('fellow bishop'), and includes gifts of a corporal pallium
adorned with white scrolls, and a towel to dry the feet of the servants of God. The letter from the influential Boniface (later Saint Boniface) implies his high regard for Pehthelm's ecclesiastical scholarship, and may also reflect their common ecclesiastical origins in Wessex. Pehthelm's response to the letter is unrecorded.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
for 763 states that Pehthelm's successor, Frithwald
, had died that year, and provides a rough dating for the start of his episcopacy at Whithorn
. This allows the date of Pehthelm's death to be estimated at 735 or 736.
In a very old (811 – 814) manuscript of Northumbrian genealogies, Pehthelm appears first in the list of bishops at Candida Casa. While not an original source per se, the antiquity of the compiled list supports the assertion that Pehthelm was indeed the first bishop at Whithorn
, and contradicts later assertions (discussed below) that he was the second bishop. The modern editor of the book in which it appears reasons that it was written in the Kingdom of Mercia
by a Northumbrian scribe.
Later sources
In his Deeds of the Bishops of England (1125), William of Malmesbury
briefly mentions Pehthelm as the first bishop at Candida Casa, adding that he was a "disciple" of Aldhelm in "Westsaxonia", and saying that the diocese had later failed due to incursions by the Picts
and Scots
. This is a repetition of information known from earlier sources, except that the assertion that Pehthelm was Aldhelm's disciple (or pupil) is William's own characterisation.
In the Chronicon ex chronicis (1140), John of Worcester
notes that Pehthelm of Candida Casa is one of the four bishops of Northumberland in 731, and that he died in 735 and was succeeded by Frithowald
. This is a repetition of information from earlier sources.
Conflicted sources
The Chronicon ex chronicis (1140) also contains a list of the names of the Bishops of Whithorn located in "The Territory of the Picts", with Pehthelm listed as the second bishop, after Trumwine
. Trumwine was consecrated as bishop of the Picts in 681, and his diocese was briefly based at Abercorn
, just south of the Firth of Forth. However, this was abandoned after the Pictish victory over the Northumbrians at the Battle of Nechtansmere in 685. By the twelfth century when the Chronicon was written the compiler of the list seems to have assumed it as Trumwine's domain, as in the 12th century Galloway was commonly described as "Pictish" in northern English sources. Bede makes clear that Candida Casa was a new diocese and Pehthelm was its first bishop. In his Annals of Galloway, Ritson
notes the error in the Chronicon and condemns the propagation of this mistake by late writers rather vigorously.
Richard of Hexham
, writing about 1141, provides yet another medieval chronicle largely repeating the accounts of Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and borrowing from the work of Symeon of Durham
. However, he also says that he has heard that Acca of Hexham
(c. 660 – c. 742) left his see at Hexham and had a role in the preparations for and founding of the episcopacy of Candida Casa. The suggestion is widely regarded as spurious, as it contradicts all reliable prior sources. Haddan and Stubbs
merely note its implausibility, while Skene
(who quotes and translates Richard's passage) provides a credible reason as to where the confusion lay.
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the episcopal see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
of Candida Casa
Candida Casa
Candida Casa was the name given to the church established by St Ninian in Whithorn, Galloway, southern Scotland, in the mid fifth century AD. The name derives from and / , referring possibly to the stone used to construct it, or the whitewash used to paint it.The church site quickly grew to...
at Whithorn
Whithorn
Whithorn is a former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about ten miles south of Wigtown. The town was the location of the first recorded Christian church in Scotland, Candida Casa : the 'White [or 'Shining'] House', built by Saint Ninian about 397.-Eighth and twelfth centuries:A...
. He was consecrated in 730 or 731 and served until his demise. His name is also spelled as Pecthelm, Pechthelm, and sometimes as Wehthelm.
Prior to his elevation to bishop he had been a deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
or monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
in the Kingdom of Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
under Aldhelm (later, Saint Aldhelm), the Bishop of Sherborne and founder of the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Abbey at Malmesbury
Malmesbury Abbey
Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. In 941 AD, King Athelstan was buried in the Abbey. By the 11th century it contained the second largest library in Europe and was...
. He was evidently a person of high repute, as Boniface
Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...
(later Saint Boniface, and himself of Wessex origin) sought Bishop Pehthelm's advice on an ecclesiastical matter, and sent him a present of a corporal pallium
Pallium
The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...
. Pehthelm's historical significance is largely confined to his status as the first bishop
Bishop (Catholic Church)
In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is responsible for teaching the Catholic faith and ruling the Church....
in the newly created diocese.
Background
Historical contextThe Kingdom of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
was ascendant from the seventh through the ninth centuries, and it was the premier regional power in Great Britain between the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
and the Firths of Clyde
Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...
and Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
. At the Synod of Whitby
Synod of Whitby
The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century Northumbriansynod where King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Iona and its satellite institutions...
in 664, King Oswiu
Oswiu of Northumbria
Oswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...
repudiated the Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity
Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages...
(so called, and also called Columban
Saint Columba
-Saints:* Columba , Irish Christian saint who evangelized Scotland* Columba the Virgin, also known as Saint Columba of Cornwall* Columba of Sens* Columba of Spain* Columba of Terryglass* Sancta Columba -Schools:...
after its most notable proponent) that had previously been dominant in the northern Northumbrian territory of Bernicia
Bernicia
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
, and aligned Northumbria with the continental
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
church organisation favoured by Northumbria's southern neighbors.
Whatever Oswiu's motivations at Whitby, the move may have been politically expedient, as the Iona
Iona
Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
-oriented Columban churches and clerics (who were mostly Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
) were now replaced by Northumbria's Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
, York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
-oriented churches and clerics.
However, the authority of the Bishop of York was diluted by Theodore
Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore was the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury, best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of a school in Canterbury....
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, who created several bishoprics out of Northumbrian territory, with the intent that they be subordinate
Suffragan bishop
A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. He or she may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.-Anglican Communion:...
to Canterbury rather than to York. York resisted and was ultimately equal to the challenge, as the bishopric was elevated to an archbishopric by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
in 735 and was able to oversee its own subordinate bishoprics.
One of York's successful efforts in this power struggle was the in the supervision of a subordinate bishopric
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
created circa 730 in Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
, which was then under Northumbrian rule.
Pehthelm's name
Thomas Arnold, the editor of an 1879 publication of the 1155 Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon
Henry of Huntingdon
Henry of Huntingdon , the son of a canon in the diocese of Lincoln, was a 12th century English historian, the author of a history of England, Historia anglorum, "the most important Anglo-Norman historian to emerge from the secular clergy". He served as archdeacon of Huntingdon...
, which argued that occasionally medieval writers wrongly transcribed old Anglo-Saxon 'w' as 'p'. Similar discussions have revolved around the name of Pybba (or Wybba) of Mercia
Pybba of Mercia
Pybba was an early King of Mercia. He was the son of Creoda and father of Penda and Eowa....
. Charles Plummer
Charles Plummer
Charles Plummer was an English historian, best known for editing Sir John Fortescue's The Governance of England, and for coining the term 'bastard feudalism'....
's 1896 edition of Bede's History made note of Arnold's observation, but then went on to translate Pehthelm as 'helm of the Picts', without any stated authority.
Historical evidence
Original sourcesBede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
(672 – 735) in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
. Bede relates a hagiographic story of a vision in Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
that is said to have occurred sometime between 704 and 709, and then notes that he heard the story from Pehthelm. In the events of 705, Bede says that Pehthelm was for a long time either deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
or monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
with Bishop Aldhelm (639 – 709), and that he was fond of telling stories of miraculous cures associated with the place where Bishop Hedda (d. 705) had died. Finally, in a passage describing the ecclesiastical state of Britain in 731, Bede says that there are four Northumbrian bishops, of which Pehthelm is the one in the place called the White House, and is the first prelate there. He adds that this is a new episcopacy, created because of an increased number of believers.
The 'White House' referred to is the Candida Casa
Candida Casa
Candida Casa was the name given to the church established by St Ninian in Whithorn, Galloway, southern Scotland, in the mid fifth century AD. The name derives from and / , referring possibly to the stone used to construct it, or the whitewash used to paint it.The church site quickly grew to...
that is first mentioned by Bede himself in his account of Saint Ninian
Saint Ninian
Saint Ninian is a Christian saint first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland...
, an account that provides a provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
for Pehthelm's new diocese.
Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...
(c. 672 – 754) writes to Bishop Pehthelm seeking his opinion on the ecclesiastical question of whether a man may marry a woman for whose son he is godfather
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
. Boniface addresses Pehthelm as coepiscopo ('fellow bishop'), and includes gifts of a corporal pallium
Pallium
The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...
adorned with white scrolls, and a towel to dry the feet of the servants of God. The letter from the influential Boniface (later Saint Boniface) implies his high regard for Pehthelm's ecclesiastical scholarship, and may also reflect their common ecclesiastical origins in Wessex. Pehthelm's response to the letter is unrecorded.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
for 763 states that Pehthelm's successor, Frithwald
Frithwald
Frithwald was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Whithorn. The version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the Worcester Chronicle says that in 735 he succeeded Pehthelm, after the latter's death, as Bishop of Whithorn...
, had died that year, and provides a rough dating for the start of his episcopacy at Whithorn
Whithorn
Whithorn is a former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about ten miles south of Wigtown. The town was the location of the first recorded Christian church in Scotland, Candida Casa : the 'White [or 'Shining'] House', built by Saint Ninian about 397.-Eighth and twelfth centuries:A...
. This allows the date of Pehthelm's death to be estimated at 735 or 736.
In a very old (811 – 814) manuscript of Northumbrian genealogies, Pehthelm appears first in the list of bishops at Candida Casa. While not an original source per se, the antiquity of the compiled list supports the assertion that Pehthelm was indeed the first bishop at Whithorn
Whithorn
Whithorn is a former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about ten miles south of Wigtown. The town was the location of the first recorded Christian church in Scotland, Candida Casa : the 'White [or 'Shining'] House', built by Saint Ninian about 397.-Eighth and twelfth centuries:A...
, and contradicts later assertions (discussed below) that he was the second bishop. The modern editor of the book in which it appears reasons that it was written in the Kingdom of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
by a Northumbrian scribe.
Later sources
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
briefly mentions Pehthelm as the first bishop at Candida Casa, adding that he was a "disciple" of Aldhelm in "Westsaxonia", and saying that the diocese had later failed due to incursions by the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
and Scots
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
. This is a repetition of information known from earlier sources, except that the assertion that Pehthelm was Aldhelm's disciple (or pupil) is William's own characterisation.
In the Chronicon ex chronicis (1140), John of Worcester
John of Worcester
John of Worcester was an English monk and chronicler. He is usually held to be the author of the Chronicon ex chronicis.-Chronicon ex chronicis:...
notes that Pehthelm of Candida Casa is one of the four bishops of Northumberland in 731, and that he died in 735 and was succeeded by Frithowald
Frithwald
Frithwald was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Whithorn. The version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the Worcester Chronicle says that in 735 he succeeded Pehthelm, after the latter's death, as Bishop of Whithorn...
. This is a repetition of information from earlier sources.
Conflicted sources
The Chronicon ex chronicis (1140) also contains a list of the names of the Bishops of Whithorn located in "The Territory of the Picts", with Pehthelm listed as the second bishop, after Trumwine
Trumwine of Abercorn
Trumwine was the only ever Bishop of the Northumbrian see of the Picts, based at Abercorn.Although his previous background is unknown, in 681, during the reign of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, Trumwine was appointed "Bishop of the Picts" by Theodore of Tarsus, then Archbishop of Canterbury...
. Trumwine was consecrated as bishop of the Picts in 681, and his diocese was briefly based at Abercorn
Abercorn
Abercorn is a village and parish in West Lothian, Scotland. Close to the south coast of the Firth of Forth, the village is around west of South Queensferry.-History:...
, just south of the Firth of Forth. However, this was abandoned after the Pictish victory over the Northumbrians at the Battle of Nechtansmere in 685. By the twelfth century when the Chronicon was written the compiler of the list seems to have assumed it as Trumwine's domain, as in the 12th century Galloway was commonly described as "Pictish" in northern English sources. Bede makes clear that Candida Casa was a new diocese and Pehthelm was its first bishop. In his Annals of Galloway, Ritson
Joseph Ritson
Joseph Ritson was an English antiquary.He was born at Stockton-on-Tees, of a Westmorland yeoman family. He was educated for the law, and settled in London as a conveyancer at the age of twenty-two. He devoted his spare time to literature, and in 1782 published an attack on Thomas Warton's History...
notes the error in the Chronicon and condemns the propagation of this mistake by late writers rather vigorously.
Richard of Hexham
Richard of Hexham
Richard of Hexham was an English chronicler. He became prior of Hexham about 1141, and died between 1155 and 1167.He wrote Brevis Annotatio, a short history of the church of Hexham from 674 to 1138, for which he borrowed from Bede, Eddius and Symeon of Durham...
, writing about 1141, provides yet another medieval chronicle largely repeating the accounts of Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and borrowing from the work of Symeon of Durham
Symeon of Durham
Symeon of Durham was an English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. When William of Saint-Calais returned from his Norman exile in 1091, Symeon was probably in his company...
. However, he also says that he has heard that Acca of Hexham
Acca of Hexham
Acca , Bishop of Hexham.Born in Northumbria, Acca first served in the household of Bosa, the future Bishop of York, but later attached himself to Saint Wilfrid, possibly as early as 678, and accompanied him on his travels. On the return from their second journey to Rome in 692, Wilfrid was...
(c. 660 – c. 742) left his see at Hexham and had a role in the preparations for and founding of the episcopacy of Candida Casa. The suggestion is widely regarded as spurious, as it contradicts all reliable prior sources. Haddan and Stubbs
William Stubbs
William Stubbs was an English historian and Bishop of Oxford.The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in classics and a third in...
merely note its implausibility, while Skene
William Forbes Skene
William Forbes Skene , Scottish historian and antiquary, was the second son of Sir Walter Scott's friend, James Skene , of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen....
(who quotes and translates Richard's passage) provides a credible reason as to where the confusion lay.