Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pecthelm
PECTHELM (d. 735), bishop of Candida Casa or Whitherne, who is also known as Pehthelm, Pectelmus, Wecthelm, and Wethelm, was for some time a monk or deacon with Aldhelm [q. v.], probably at Malmesbury. William of Malmesbury calls him Aldhelm's pupil (Gest. Pont. p. 257). It was from him that Bede heard the story of a vision seen in Mercia between 705 and 709, and Bede also cites him as an authority for facts connected with Wessex history, especially for an account of events happening ‘at the place where Heddi [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, died.’ He was consecrated to the see of Whitherne, as the first of the Saxon line of bishops, in 730. He was learned in ecclesiastical law, and Boniface [q. v.] wrote to him in 735, asking for advice on the question, May a man marry his godson's mother? Boniface had searched the papal decrees and canons for information, but in vain, and asked both Nothelm [q. v.] and Pecthelm if they could find the case mentioned. Pecthelm and Boniface were united by a bond of mutual intercession, and Boniface sent with his letter a present of a corporal pallium, adorned with white scrolls, and also a towel to dry the feet of God's servants.
Pecthelm died in 735. Dempster ascribes to him letters to Acca [q. v.], bishop of Hexham, who, according to Richard of Hexham, had some share in the creation of the Whitherne see (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, ii. 7).
[Jaffé's Monumenta Moguntiniana, Ep. 29; Bede's Ecclesiastical Hist. v. 13, 18, 23; Dempster's Hist. Eccles. Gent. Scot. xv. 1026; see art. Plechelm.]