Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heddi
HEDDI, HÆDDI, HEADDA, or ÆTLA (d. 705), bishop of the Gewissas or West-Saxons, was consecrated at London by Archbishop Theodore in 676 as successor to Leutherius or Hlothar, under whom the whole kingdom of Wessex formed a single diocese. He fixed his see at Winchester, and, probably about 679, removed thither the bones of St. Birinus [q. v.] from Dorchester in Oxfordshire. Although this was not the first time that Winchester was made the residence of a West-Saxon bishop [see under Wini], Heddi's migration was final (the exact date appears uncertain; Rudborne's date, 683, for the removal of the relics is not trustworthy). Although Dorchester may have continued part of Wessex for some years longer, the extension of the Mercian power rendered it no longer a suitable place for a West-Saxon see. It is possible that Heddi should be identified with Ætla, a monk of Whitby under St. Hilda (Bæda, Hist. Eccl. iv. 23), who became bishop of Dorchester, though Ætla may have given place to Heddi. If Florence of Worcester's account of the Mercian sees is correct, Ætla must have been appointed to Dorchester as a Mercian bishop in 679, and have died shortly afterwards; but it is by no means certain that Dorchester became Mercian so early. Heddi is said by William of Malmesbury to have been an abbot, which must mean abbot of Whitby, but there an abbess would seem more according to rule, and as he is described as not particularly learned, he is scarcely likely to have been one of St. Hilda's scholars. Although Theodore divided many of the English dioceses, he left the West-Saxon diocese untouched, and is said to have decreed that it should not be divided during the lifetime of Heddi, who was evidently opposed to such a step. In 704, however, the question of a division seems to have been revived, for Waldhere, bishop of London, wrote to Archbishop Brihtwald [q. v.], saying that it had been determined in a synod held in that year to refuse to communicate with the West-Saxons unless they obeyed Brihtwald's decree concerning the ordering of bishops, which can scarcely refer to anything else than a division of the diocese. In spite of this, however, Heddi's diocese was not divided until after his death, which took place in 705 (Flor. Wig., and by implication Bæda, who puts it after the accession of Osred in Northumbria, but Anglo-Saxon Chron. wrongly 703). He appears to have worked well with Ine, king of the West-Saxons, and was a friend of Archbishop Theodore. He was a man of much personal holiness, and was zealous in the discharge of his episcopal duties. A letter to him from Aldhelm is preserved by William of Malmesbury (Gesta Pontificum, v. 341). He is reckoned a saint, his day being 30 July. Many miracles were worked at his tomb, and Bæda was told that the West-Saxons were wont to carry away a little dust from it, to mix with water, and give it to the sick to drink; that this mixture had cured many, both men and beasts; and that the habit of taking away dust from the grave was so largely practised that a ditch of no small size had already been made round it. His name was on one of the pyramids said to have been discovered at Glastonbury. A large number of charters are subscribed with his name between 676 and 701.
[Bede's Hist. Eccl. iv. cc. 12, 23, v. c. 18; Anglo-Saxon Chron. ann. 676, 703; Florence of Worcester, ann. 676, 705; William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum, pp. 158, 159, 341, 375 (Rolls Ser.), and De Antiqq. Glaston., Gale's Scriptt. iii. 306; Thomas Rudborne, Anglia Sacra, i. 193; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils and Eccl. Docs. iii. 126, 130, 263, 267; Dict. Christ. Biog., art. ‘Hedda,’ by Bishop Stubbs.]