04 — The Synod of 664
The event that places Hilda at the hinge of English Church history: the Synod of Whitby in 664, held within her own monastery, which resolved in favour of Rome the divergence between the Ionan-Celtic and the Roman observances of Pascha and the monastic tonsure. Hilda’s own sympathies lay with the Celtic party, yet — once King Oswiu pronounced for Rome — she accepted the decision and remained a loyal servant of the unified Church.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic-Roman; abbess of Whitby)
The Synod of Whitby was not a dispute about the faith but about practice: the calculation of Easter and the form of the tonsure, which had come to divide the Roman mission descended from Augustine of Canterbury from the Ionan mission descended from Columba and carried into Northumbria by Aidan. Because both observances ran through the Northumbrian royal household — King Oswiu keeping the Ionan Easter, his queen Eanflæd the Roman — the matter was brought to a head, and Oswiu summoned a council at Hilda’s Whitby. Bede, himself a partisan of Rome, gives the fullest account (HE III.25). These files set out the synod as Hilda hosted it, the leaning of her own house toward the Celtic side, and the obedience with which she received the ruling against it.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Hosting the Great Synod | Whitby as the venue of the synod of 664; the question at issue (Pascha and the tonsure); the protagonists — Colmán for Iona, Wilfrid for Rome — and Hilda’s place as host and as a sympathizer of the Celtic cause. |
| Accepting the Decision | King Oswiu’s judgment for Rome; Hilda’s acceptance of a ruling against her own leanings; both sides of the question of how deeply she favoured the Celtic party, and the loyal churchwoman she proved to be. |
See Also
- Founding Streanæshalch — the house that hosted the synod
- Bede on Hilda — the partisan source for the synod
- St. Colman of Lindisfarne — the leader of the Celtic party whose cause Hilda favoured
- St. Aidan of Lindisfarne — the founder of the Ionan mission in Northumbria
- The Pre-Schism Church — the undivided Church within which the dispute was settled
References
- Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. (III.25–26.)
- Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
- Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.