EPISCOPAL SUCCESSION
IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

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Episcopal succession

HEREFORD

<See of the Magonsætan. Location of the see in the seventh and eighth centuries is uncertain; at Hereford or at ?Ledbury, in Herefordshire. In 731 Bede described Bishop Walhstod as 'bishop of the people who dwell west of the river Severn' (HE v.23). Putta and his successors are designated bishops 'Uuestor E[lih]' in the episcopal lists; Wulfheard describes himself as bishop of the church of Hereford (EP 4). Cult of St Æthelberht at Hereford. William of Malmesbury, GP, pp. 00-0. Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature, pp. 50-1 (cult of Æthelberht); Barlow, English Church 1000-1066, pp. 217-18; Hereford 1079-1234, ed. Julia Barrow, English Episcopal Acta 7 (Oxford, 1993).>

Bishops	Accession	Death or translation
PUTTA, formerly bishop of Rochester	676	676 x 688
TYRHTEL	688	705 x 710
TORHTHERE	710	727 x 731
WALHSTOD, ? abb. of Glastonbury	727 x 731	731 x 736
CUTHBERHT	736	740, ? trs. to Canterbury
PODDA	741	747 x 758
ACCA	747 x 758	758 x 770
HEADDA	758 x 770	770 x 777
ALDBERHT	777 or 778	781 x 786
ESNE	781 x 786	786 x 788
CEOLMUND	786 x 788	793 x 798
UTEL	793 x 798	799 x 801
WULFHEARD (EP 4)	799 x 801	822 x 824
BEONNA	824	825 x 832
EADWULF (EP 16)	825 x 832	836 x 839
CUTHWULF	836 x 839	857 x 866
MUCEL (EP 25)	857 x 866	857 x 866
DEORLAF (EP 24)	857 x 866	884 x 888
CYNEMUND	el. 888	888 x 890
EDGAR	888 x 890	930 x 931
TIDHELM	930 x 931	934 or 937 x 940
WULFHELM	934 or 937 x 940	934 or 937 x 940
ÆLFRIC	934 x 937 x 940	949 x 958 or 971
WULFRIC ? [not in ep. list]	? x 968	968 x ?
ÆTHELWULF (ATHULF), monk of the Old Minster, Win.	? x 971	1013 x ?
ÆTHELSTAN	1013 x 1016	10 Feb. 1056
LEOFGAR, priest of Earl Harold	Mar. 1056	16 June 1056
EALDRED, bishop of Hereford and Worcester [not in ep. list]	1056	res. 1060, trs. to York
WALTER of Lotharingia, chaplain to Queen Edith	1060	1079

NOTES. Putta: forced to abandon Rochester in 676 (HE iv.12); went to Seaxwulf, bishop of the Mercians, 'who granted him a church and a small estate, where he ended his life in peace' (ibid.); he may not have been a bishop of this line, though he had come to be regarded as such by c.800 (cf. Plummer ii.222). Walhstod: in office in 731 (HE v.23). Cuthbert: for his verse compositions, see Sims-Williams, pp. 337-45; see also under Canterbury (S 24: Archbishop Cuthberht had been abb. of Lyminge). Cuthwulf: leased land to Ealdorman Ælfstan, with reversion to Bromyard minster (S 1270). Wulfric: attests charters between 958 and 970; beneficiary of S 768, issued in 968. Æthelwulf: monk of the OMW (LVNM). Æthelstan: boundaries of the see of Hereford entered in a gospel-book (Ker, Catalogue, no. 78); vernacular records entered in the 'Hereford Gospels' (Ker, Catalogue, no. 119).

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