ON S. BRITHWALD, BISHOP OF WILTON IN ENGLAND.
Year 1045.
CommentaryBrithwald, Bishop of Wilton in England (S.)
From various sources.
[1] There is a province in the interior of England, distinguished by the title of County, called Wiltshire, commonly Wilshire, taking its name from the town of Wilton, situated at the confluence of the rivers Nadder and Wylye, which Camden shows was called Ellandunum by the ancients. Bishop of Wilton Here there was formerly an Episcopal See: when it was transferred to Salisbury, not far distant, Ellandunum, or Wiltun, gradually declined so much that it is now scarcely a small hamlet.
[2] The eighth Bishop of that place at the beginning of the eleventh century was Brithwald, or Brithwold. Concerning whom William of Malmesbury, book 2 of his deeds of the English Bishops, S. Brithwald where he treats of the Bishops of Sherborne, Salisbury, and Wilton: "The eighth," he says, "was Brithwold, formerly a monk of Glastonbury; who administered the bishopric for many years, from the time of King Ethelred to Edward the last. In the time of King Canute, on a certain occasion at Glastonbury, as he often did, He is divinely taught about the future state of England; intent upon heavenly vigils, he experienced a divine vision. For when the thought had come to him which frequently troubled him, about the royal line of the English being nearly extinct, while he pondered this, sleep crept over him, and behold, caught up to the heavens, he saw Peter the Prince of the Apostles, holding by the hand Edward, the son of King Ethelred, who was then in exile in Normandy, and consecrating him as King, with a celibate life designated, and a definite number of twenty-four years calculated, at which he would reach the limit of his reign: and to the same Edward, complaining about posterity, Peter replied: 'The kingdom of the English belongs to God; after you He will provide a King according to His pleasure.'"
[3] Ethelred, brother of S. Edward the Martyr and father of S. Edward the Confessor, reigned from 14 April 978 to 23 April 1016. Canute, or Cnuto, a Dane, succeeded and married his widow Emma, the mother of S. Edward, in the year 1018; he died on 12 November 1035. The same vision of S. Brithwald is narrated by the same Malmesbury in his deeds of the English Kings, book 2, chapter 13, and somewhat more fully in the life of S. Edward on 5 January, chapter 1, numbers 4 and 5; likewise by Matthew of Westminster at the year 1055, Nicholas Harpsfield in the 11th century, chapter 19, Ralph of Chester, book 6, chapter 18, and others, who all testify, however, that it was not Edward who complained about posterity, but Brithwald himself who was anxious about it, and that he received that reply from S. Peter.
[4] Ralph and Harpsfield write that this happened while Brithwald was still a monk in the cenobium of Glastonbury, commonly called Glastonbury, of which we treated at chapter 1 of the life of S. Edward, letter l. But Malmesbury, who lived closer to Brithwald's time, disagrees; and writes that he held office from the time of King Ethelred to Edward: therefore during the reign of Canute he could not have been a monk. In the life of S. Edward this is attributed to Brithwald, Bishop of Winchester; and it is added: "For when you shall have slept with your fathers, not Brithwald of Winchester. the Lord will visit His people and the Lord will work the redemption of His people. For He will choose for Himself a man after His own heart who will do all His will, who with my help, having obtained the kingdom of the English, will put an end to the Danish fury. For he will be acceptable to God, pleasing to men, terrible to enemies, lovable to citizens, useful to the Church, and will conclude a praiseworthy life with a holy end." All of which the outcome of events proved to have been fulfilled in Blessed Edward. Therefore, since Brithwald of Wilton did not die before the reign of Edward, these things must be understood of the Bishop of Winchester.
[5] Winchester, formerly Venta Belgarum, now Wintchester to the English and Caer Gwent to the Britons — from the British word Guin or Guen, who is Ethelwold II and died earlier. meaning "white," because situated on a soil of whitish chalk and clay — a city of the province of Hampshire or Hamshire, had as Bishop at nearly the same time Ethelwold, whom certain more recent writers say was also called Brithwold, the third from S. Alphege. But that heavenly vision could not have been presented to him during the reign of Canute, since he is said to have succeeded Kenulph in the year 1006 and to have died in 1015, and Florentius of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, and others closest to those times call him Ethelwold, or Aethelwold, not Brithwold. He is nevertheless different from S. Ethelwold, Bishop of the same See, of whom we shall treat on 1 August.
[6] In the year 1045 at last, Brithwald, Bishop of Wilton, died, as Florence of Worcester writes; from whose history it is easy to perceive how many calamities he must have been harassed by. The death of S. Brithwald, In the same year the Westminster chronicler writes: "Brithwald, Bishop of Ramsbury, died." So also other Bishops of Wilton are found to have been called, because they had their residence at Ramsbury; whence Hermann the Fleming, the successor of S. Brithwald, transferred it to Salisbury, "because at Ramsbury," says Malmesbury, "there was neither a gathering of clergy, nor any means of sustenance." Ramsbury, commonly Ramesbury, lies on the river Cunetio, commonly called the Kennet, in the eastern part of Wiltshire; and it is now only a hamlet, but commended for the pleasantness of its meadows, as Camden attests.
[7] Having completed the course of his life, Brithwald was buried at Glastonbury, burial. whose possessions he had increased with many estates and revenues, being also most generous to our own monastery. So William of Malmesbury, an alumnus of the monastery situated on the northern edge of Wiltshire, of which more will be said at the life of S. Aldhelm on 25 May, and of S. Maidulph, from whom it takes its name, and which Bede calls the city of Maidulph. The name of S. Brithwald is inscribed in the English Martyrology on this day, but he is said to have been Bishop of Winchester. public veneration. On the same day Ferrarius writes: "In England, S. Brithwald, Bishop of Winchester." But Hugh Menard, on 17 January: "At Wilton in England, S. Brithwald, Bishop and Confessor." We treated of another Brithwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 9 January.