Editing Athelm

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{{Short description|Archbishop of Canterbury, Christian saint (died 926)}}
{{For|other men called Æthelhelm|Æthelhelm (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific_prefix = [[Saint]]
| name = Athelm
| title = [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]
| image = 
| imagesize = 
| alt = 
| caption = 
| appointed = between 923 and 925
| ended = 8 January 926
| predecessor = [[Plegmund]]
| successor = [[Wulfhelm]]
| other_post = [[Bishop of Wells]]
| death_date = 8 January 926
| buried = first church of St John the Baptist in Canterbury, later [[Canterbury Cathedral]]
<!----------Sainthood---------->
| feast_day = 8 January
| venerated = [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Roman Catholic Church]]
| canonized_date = [[Pre-Congregation]]
}}

'''Athelm''' (or '''Æthelhelm'''; died 926) was an English churchman, who was the first [[Bishop of Wells]], and later [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. His [[Translation (ecclesiastical)|translation]], or moving from one bishopric to another, was a precedent for later translations of ecclesiastics, because prior to this time period such movements were considered illegal. While archbishop, Athelm crowned King [[Æthelstan]], and perhaps wrote the coronation service for the event.  An older relative of [[Dunstan]], a later Archbishop of Canterbury, Athelm helped promote Dunstan's early career. After Athelm's death, he was considered a saint, with his feast day being on 8 January.

==Background==

Athelm was a [[monk]] of [[Glastonbury Abbey]]<ref name=DNB>Mason "Athelm" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> before his elevation in 909 to the [[see of Wells]], of which he was the first occupant.<ref name=Handbook222>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 222</ref> The see was founded to divide up the [[diocese of Sherborne]], which was very large, by creating a bishopric for the county of Somerset. Wells was likely chosen as the seat because it was the center of the county.<ref name=Robinson5>Robinson ''Saxon Bishops of Wells'' p. 5</ref> Some scholarly works suggest that Athelm may be the same person as [[Æthelhelm]], son of King [[Æthelred of Wessex]],<ref name=Dolley75>Dolley "Important Group" ''[[British Museum Quarterly]]'' p. 75</ref> but this is not accepted by most historians.<ref name=AethelredDNB>Miller "Æthelred I" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> A few sources state that Athelm was [[Abbot of Glastonbury]] before he became bishop,<ref name=DictSaint>Delaney ''Dictionary of Saints'' p. 65</ref> but other sources disagree and do not give him that office.<ref name=DNB/> This traces to later medieval chroniclers, not to contemporary accounts. His brother was Heorstan, who held land near Glastonbury.<ref name=Robinson6>Robinson ''Saxon Bishops of Wells'' p. 6</ref>

==Archbishopric==

Between August 923 and September 925 he became archbishop.<ref name=Handbook214>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 214</ref>{{efn|[[Janet Nelson]] states that he became archbishop in 923.<ref name=Nelson126>Nelson "First Use" ''Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters'' p. 126</ref>}} His translation from the see of Wells set a precedent for the future, and marks a break with historical practice. Previously the moving of a bishop from one see to another had been held to be against canon, or ecclesiastical, law. Recently, however, the popes had themselves been translated, and this practice was to become common in England after Athelm's time.<ref name=Brooks214>Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' pp. 214–216</ref> He was West Saxon, unlike his predecessor, [[Plegmund]], who was Mercian, reflecting the shift in power to [[Wessex]].<ref name=Nelson124>Nelson "First Use" ''Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters'' pp. 124–126</ref> Athelm was a paternal uncle of [[Dunstan]],<ref name=DNB/> who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. It was Athelm who brought Dunstan to the king's court.<ref name=ASE446>Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 446</ref>

Athelm presided at the coronation of King [[Athelstan of England]] on 4 September 925, and probably composed or organised the new ''Ordo'' (order of service) in which for the first time the king wore a crown instead of a helmet. He also attested the king's first grant to [[St Augustine's Abbey]] in Canterbury.<ref name=Nelson124/> It is unclear if the reason that no coins were minted with his name was his short term of office or a change in policy towards the Archbishop of Canterbury minting coins in his own name. Nothing else is known of Athelm's brief time as archbishop.<ref name=Brooks214/>

==Death and burial==

Athelm died on 8 January 926.<ref name=DNB/><ref name=Handbook214/> He was later considered a saint, with a feast day of 8 January.<ref name=CathOnline>Catholic Online "St Athelm" ''Catholic Online''</ref> He was buried at first the church of St John the Baptist near the Saxon-era [[Canterbury Cathedral]]. When a new cathedral was constructed under Archbishop [[Lanfranc]] after the [[Norman Conquest of England]], the earlier archbishops of Canterbury were moved to the north [[transept]] of the new cathedral. Later, Athelm and his successor as archbishop [[Wulfhelm]] were moved to a chapel dedicated to St Benedict, which later was incorporated into the [[Lady Chapel (Canterbury)|Lady Chapel]] constructed by [[Prior of Christ Church|Prior]] Thomas Goldstone (d. 1468).<ref name=Robinson58>Robinson ''Saxon Bishops of Wells'' pp. 58–59</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==Citations==
{{reflist|40em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|60em}}
* {{cite book |author=Brooks, Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Brooks (historian) |title=The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066 |publisher=Leicester University Press |location=London |year=1984 |isbn=0-7185-0041-5}}
* {{cite web |author=Catholic Online |url=http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1590 |title=St Athelm |publisher=Catholic Online |access-date=8 August 2007}}
* {{cite book |author=Delaney, John P. |title=Dictionary of Saints|edition=Second |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, NY |year=1980 |isbn=0-385-13594-7 }}
* {{cite journal |author=Dolley, R. H. M. |title=An Important Group of Tenth-Century Pence |journal= [[British Museum Quarterly|The British Museum Quarterly]] |volume=21 |number=3 |date=June 1958 |pages=74–76 |doi=10.2307/4422583 |jstor=4422583}}
* {{cite book |author1=Fryde, E. B. |author2=Greenway, D. E. |author3=Porter, S. |author4=Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Mason, Emma |title=Athelm (d. 926) |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher= Oxford University Press |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/832|access-date= 7 November 2007 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/832 }} {{ODNBsub}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author= Miller, Sean |title=Æthelred I (d. 871) |encyclopedia =Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8913 |access-date= 9 June 2013 |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/8913 }}{{ODNBsub}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Nelson, Janet |author-link=Janet Nelson |title=The First Use of the Second Anglo-Saxon ''Ordo'' |encyclopedia=Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters |editor1=Barrow, Julia |editor2=Wareham, Andrew |year=2008 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Aldershot, UK|isbn=978-0-7546-5120-8}}
* {{cite book |author=Robinson, J. Armitage |author-link= Armitage Robinson|title=The Saxon Bishops of Wells: A Historical Study in the Tenth Century |publisher=British Academy |location=London |year=1918 |series = British Academy Supplemental Papers |volume=IV |oclc= 13867248}}
* {{cite book |author=Stenton, F. M. |author-link= Frank Stenton |title= Anglo-Saxon England  |year= 1971|publisher= Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, UK |edition=Third |isbn=978-0-19-280139-5  }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{PASE|196819|Æthelhelm 15}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel| [[Christianity|Christian]] titles }}
{{s-new|diocese}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Wells]]|years=909–{{circa}} 923}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Wulfhelm]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Plegmund]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Archbishop of Canterbury]]|years=c. 923–926}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Wulfhelm]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Bishops of Wells}}
{{Archbishops of Canterbury}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Good article}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athelm}}
[[Category:Archbishops of Canterbury]]
[[Category:Bishops of Wells]]
[[Category:10th-century English archbishops]]
[[Category:9th-century births]]
[[Category:926 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:10th-century English bishops]]