Jump to content

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldwulf

From Wikisource
737107Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 03 — Baldwulf1885Thomas Frederick Tout

BALDWULF, BEADWULF, or BADULF (d. 803?), bishop of Whithern or Candida Casa, in Galloway, was consecrated to that see 17 July 791 by Archbishop Eanbald of York and Bishop Æthelberht of Hexham (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, s. a. 791; Sim. Dur. 790; Hen. Hunt. Hist. Angl. lib. iv.) His assisting at the coronation of a Northumbrian king (Eardwulf, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, s. a. 795), and shortly afterwards at the consecration of a Northumbrian archbishop (Eanbald II of York, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, s.a. 796), shows that, in his hands, the bishopric established as an outpost of Anglian influence among the Celts of Galloway lost none of its original character. But Northumbria had by this time become so disorganised that it was found impossible to maintain any hold over this distant dependency. Baldwulf seems to have been the last Anglian bishop of Whithern (Will. Malm. Gesta Pontificum, lib. iii. f. 118). On his death about 803 (Skene's Celtic Scotland, ii. 225–the date seems conjectural), either no bishop was appointed, or the bishop of Lindisfarne, Heathored (Flor. Wig. M. H. B. p. 626 d), added the nominal charge of Galloway to his own diocese. The Gallwegians had regained their ecclesiastical independence.

[Authorities cited above.]