Traditional stories state that Ealdwulf was a layman and chancellor to King Edgar of England when one night he accidentally smothered his son while sharing a bed with the child. Rather than go to Rome to seek absolution for this sin, which had been his original plan, Ealdwulf refounded the monastery at Medeshamstede, which later became known as Peterborough Abbey, on the advice of Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester. Ealdwulf then joined his new foundation as a monk[1] before becoming abbot of Peterborough from about 966 to 992.[2][3]
Ealdwulf was bishop of Worcester as well as archbishop of York from 995[4] to his death on 6 May 1002.[1] While archbishop, he held a synod at Worcester around 1000 to consider moving the relics of Saint Oswald of Worcester.[5]
Ealdwulf's reputation was one of extreme piety.[6]William of Malmesbury compared him to his successor Wulfstan as follows "Ealdwulf can be pardoned for holding the two sees contrary to canon law because of his sanctity, and because he did it not through ambition but by necessity."[7]
Citations
^ abHunt "Ealdwulf" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1000–1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church (Second ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN0-582-49049-9.
Brooke, C. N. L. (1999). "York Minster from the Ninth to the early Thirteenth Centuries". Churches and Churchmen in Medieval Europe. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 37–68. ISBN1-85285-183-X.
Fletcher, R. A. (2003). Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-516136-X.
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
