12 June 1020 A.D. Lyfing Dies—Bishop of Wells and 30th of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury

12 June 1020 A.D. Lyfing Dies—Bishop of Wells and 30^th of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury

Lyfing (died 12 June 1020) was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Wells and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Contents 

• 1 Life
• 2 Notes
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Life

Lyfing was born "Ælfstan" and took his ecclesiastical name from leof-carus (= "darling").

Lyfing was abbot of Chertsey Abbey from about 989.^[1][2] He became Bishop of Wells in 998 or 999,^[3] and in 1013 King Æthelred the Unready appointed him to the see of Canterbury.^[4] Lyfing was taken captive by Vikings and held prisoner for a time, but he was released in time to attend the Witenagemot in 1014, and he started repairs of the damage the Vikings had done to Canterbury Cathedral.

Lyfing was unable to go to Rome for his pallium during King Æthelred's reign, for every bishop that was consecrated during the remainder of the king's reign was consecrated by Archbishop Wulfstan of York.^[5] By 1018, however, he was named as archbishop, having returned to England from Rome with letters from Pope Benedict VIII.^[6] As Archbishop of Canterbury, Lyfing crowned two English kings: Ethelred's son Edmund Ironside in 1016 and Cnut the Great in 1017.^[1] He seems to have gone to Rome on behalf of Cnut at least once.^[7]

Lyfing died on 12 June 1020.^[4] He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, near the altar of St. Martin.^[1] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle called him "a sagacious man, both before God and before the world".^[8]

Notes

1.       ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Mason "Lyfing (d. 1020)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

2.       Jump up ^ Knowles, et al. Heads of Religious Houses pp. 38, 244

3.       Jump up ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 222

4.       ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 214

5.       Jump up ^ Williams Æthelred the Unready p. 111

6.       Jump up ^ Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury pp. 287–290

7.       Jump up ^ O'Brien Queen Emma and the Vikings p. 122

8.       Jump up ^ Quoted in Barlow, English Church 1000–1066 p. 66

References

• Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1000–1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church (Second ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-49049-9. 
• Brooks, Nicolas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7185-0041-2. 
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-56350-5. 
• Knowles, David; London, Vera C. M.; Brooke, Christopher (2001). The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940–1216 (Second ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80452-3. 
• Mason, Emma (2004). "Lyfing (d. 1020)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16798. Retrieved 7 November 2007.  (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• O'Brien, Harriet (2005). Queen Emma and the Vikings: A History of Power, Love and Greed in Eleventh-Century England. New York: Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-58234-596-3. 
• Williams, Ann (2003). Aethelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London: Hambledon & London. ISBN 978-1-85285-382-2. 

External links

• Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England: Lyfing

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Ælfwine	Bishop of Wells c. 999–1013	Succeeded by Æthelwine
Preceded by Ælfheah	Archbishop of Canterbury 1013–1020	Succeeded by Æthelnoth