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Dommoc (orDomnoc), a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county ofSuffolk, was the original seat of theAnglo-Saxon bishops of theKingdom of East Anglia. It was established bySigeberht of East Anglia for SaintFelix inc. 629–631. It remained the bishopric of all East Anglia untilc. 673, whenTheodore of Tarsus,Archbishop of Canterbury, divided the see and created a second bishopric, theSee of Elmham associated with bothNorth Elmham, Norfolk andSouth Elmham, Suffolk. The see ofDommoc continued to exist until the time of the Viking Wars of the 860s, after which it lapsed.
The primary authority for the foundation of the see ofDommoc isBede'sHistoria ecclesiastica which stipulates Felix's mission in relation to Sigeberht's rule.[a][1] Following the assassination ofEorpwald of East Anglia byRicberht inc. 627 the kingdom fell back into "error" for three years, before Sigeberht, brother or half-brother of Eorpwald, took possession of the kingdom. Sigeberht had lived in exile inGaul during his brother's lifetime, where he had been initiated in the sacraments of the Christian faith, becoming a very Christian man of learning. On his accession he resolved to ensure that the whole kingdom shared his faith and he was very ably supported by Saint Felix. Felix had been born and consecrated inBurgundy. He came to Archbishop Honorius of Canterbury (Saint Honorius) and expressed his desire to preach the Gospel of Life. Honorius sent him to the East Angles, where he found a fruitful multitude of believers and brought that whole province to the faith and works of righteousness. He accepted the episcopal seat in the city ('civitas') ofDommoc, and when he had governed it for seventeen years he died there in peace.[2] An alternative account surviving in the much later work ofWilliam of Malmesbury relates that Sigeberht and Felix came to the kingdom together from Gaul.
The date of the foundation ofDommoc is estimated from the foregoing events and from the duration of tenure of the first three bishops.Edwin of Northumbria was baptised byPaulinus of York at Easter 626 and they then undertook the conversion of theKingdom of Lindsey and of Eorpwald and his kingdom. Eorpwald was slain soon after his baptism, after which there was a reversal of faith for three years. Felix was bishop for seventeen years, his successor Thomas for five, and his successorBerhtgisl Boniface for a further seventeen (a total of 39 episcopal years). Both Thomas and Berhtgisl were consecrated by Archbishop Honorius, who died in 653.[3] After Berhtgisl's death Archbishop Theodore, who reachedCanterbury in 668–689, appointedBisi toDommoc, and Bisi attended theCouncil of Hertford in 673. By then Bisi's health was declining so that he was unable to administer the diocese and soon afterwards Theodore divided the see.[4] Since Berhtgisl cannot have died later than 670, the foundation ofDommoc should date toc. 630–631 and the assassination of Eorpwald toc. 627. This would place the death of Felix atc. 647 and of Thomasc. 652. That would accord with theLiber Eliensis tradition that Felix baptised SaintÆthelthryth (Etheldreda) in or soon after 631 atExning and with William of Malmesbury's statement that he baptisedCenwalh of Wessex in East Anglia before that king was restored to Wessex byKing Anna inc. 647.
Despite its former importance, the original location ofDommoc has been lost for many centuries and forms the subject of scholarly debate. This reflects rival claims staked during the 13th century by the monks ofEye, Suffolk (forDunwich, Suffolk), and ofRochester in Kent (forWalton, Suffolk). The uncertainty therefore arose between the tenth and twelfth centuries.William Camden, in hisBritannia, promoted general acceptance of the identification with Dunwich, formerly a splendid city on the Suffolk coast betweenAldeburgh andSouthwold, all but a tiny part of which has now been lost to coastal erosion. The Rochester claim for Walton refers to the place near or inFelixstowe, Suffolk, at the tip of theColneis Hundred peninsula between theRiver Deben and theRiver Orwell. This Walton is not to be confused withWalton-on-the-Naze, Essex, which stands on the south side of the Orwell andStour estuary mouth, and which has never been seriously considered as a candidate forDommoc. The scholarly revival of the claim for Walton asDommoc was the work of Stuart Rigold.[5][6][7]
Bede records that Sigeberht ruled East Anglia together withEcgric, his relative orcognatus, who until Sigeberht's abdication had ruled over part of the kingdom, and afterwards succeeded to the rule of all of it. The meaning of the arrangement is not clear, but there is no difficulty in accepting that during his own reign Sigeberht had the power to grant a coastal site to Felix either at Dunwich or Felixstowe, since it was he who granted the land, possibly an old shore fort, atCnobheresburg toSaint Fursey.[8]
Bede's use of the termcivitas forDommoc,[b] suggests that the site had once been a Roman settlement, possibly fortified.[7] The re-use ofRoman forts or fortified enclosures for early Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical and monastic purposes is well-attested, for instance atOthona (Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex),Rochester andReculver (Kent),Durobrivae (Castor, Cambridgeshire), and in East Anglia at Fursey's monastery (probablyBurgh Castle, orGariannonum). It is certain that there was a stone fort at Walton (Walton Castle), like other shore-forts of about 6 acres (2.4 ha) enclosure, and that it was adjacent to a large Roman settlement, most of which (including the fort) is now lost into the sea.[9] The nature of Roman Dunwich is less well understood, for although some importantRoman roads lead towards it, the site was lost to the sea too early for archaeological records. However it formerly had an important harbour which might have been protected by a fort.[c] The placename evidence is also indecisive.
G.E. Fox and C.E. Stevens suggested that the fort at Walton might be thePortus Adurni of theNotitia Dignitatum, usually identified asPortchester. Be that as it may, the existence of additional forts not mentioned in theNotitia presents no difficulty since that is not a list of all fortresses, but of military units and their stations under the command of theCount of the Saxon Shore.[11][12]
The similarity of sound betweenDommoc and Dunwich may be misleading.Dommoc is a difficult name to construe,but could derive from theLatin:dominicum,[citation needed] a church, possibly in an Irish-assimilated formdomnach, as Fletcher notes.[13] The nameDunwich[d] should mean thewic 'market', possibly fromvicus (often riverine or estuarine), 'at the hill'. Thewic names for places of importance likeIpswich andNorwich are comparable. If the nameDommoc became Dunwich, its original meaning was lost in the shift and a different etymological structure was adopted to explain and replace it, between the tenth and twelfth centuries.
There was no known church dedicated to Saint Felix at Dunwich, but that is no objection since the founder could not have commemorated himself and would likely have made an apostolic dedication. Dunwich was thriving atDomesday, but following sea encroachments many of its ecclesiastical possessions were granted to the risingPriory of Eye in north Suffolk. The seal-matrix of the last-known bishop ofDommoc, Ethilwald, was discovered about two hundred years ago at Eye. Eye also possessed in post-mediaeval times a book now lost, known as theRed Book of Eye, written inLombardicmajuscule and presumably with purple-stained pages, reputed to have belonged to Saint Felix. These may have reached Eye from Dunwich, but they might also have been taken toHoxne, close to Eye, during the tenth or eleventh centuries from any centre in East Anglia, when Hoxne was temporarily the episcopal seat.[14]
During the fifteenth century, when the Dunwich identification had taken hold, a series of glass windows depicting Saint Fursey, Saint Felix, Saint Etheldreda, and other Anglo-Saxon subjects existed atBlythburgh church, not far from Dunwich. However, that site had its own independentWuffing tradition connected with the grave of KingAnna of East Anglia (died 653); conversely, its position at the fordable headwaters of theBlyth estuary, controlling the Blyth and its watershed hinterland suggests the likely existence of a royal dwelling in that neighbourhood in the time of Anna himself, and of Saint Felix. If so, the siting of an episcopal seat at Dunwich would be readily explicable.
The apparent connection between Felixstowe and the name of Felix is suggestive, but the placename Felixstowe is not recorded before the thirteenth century and its origin is disputed. Astow may be a holy site,[15] but the Domesday name for theWalton fort isburh, a form of the wordburgh. A priory dedicated to St Felix was founded within the fort at Walton around the end of the eleventh century byRoger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk, who invited monks from Rochester to establish themselves there. During the twelfth century the powerful Bigod family also had a castle at Walton and a separate large residence there (the Manor, or Old Hall), at whichKing John issued theIpswich Town Charter in 1200.
The church site at nearbyFalkenham (overlooking the river Deben betweenHemley and Felixstowe Ferry) may have early Wuffing associations, for it is dedicated to the royal martyrSaint Æthelberht (died 794). Falkenham was at Domesday a sub-manor or berewick of Walton, and in the time of ArchbishopLanfranc it was claimed by Rochester as one of a group of possessions which had been taken from it into royal keeping during theViking Wars.
The situation of Walton fort, overlooking the seaward reaches of the Deben estuary towards the former island ofBawdsey on the north bank, was of prime importance to the control of that river and lay directly within the sphere ofRendlesham, the Wuffinga royal dwelling known to have existed a little above the fordable headwaters of the Deben estuary inc. 660. TheSutton Hoo cemetery demonstrates the outstanding importance of this river as a seat of regnal power shortly before Sigeberht's time, during the period ofRædwald's reign, and as the centre of a regio or province spreading from theOrwell to beyond theRiver Alde and across the tributary hinterlands of the Alde and Deben rivers.
It is strongly implied[by whom?] that St Paulinus, from theCanterbury mission, was present in East Anglia at Rædwald's court in around 616, and it seems likely that the dedication of Rendlesham church to SaintGregory the Great belongs to the early phases of that mission into East Anglia. After his escape fromYork in 632–633, Paulinus became Bishop of Rochester until his deathc. 644, during the first decade of Felix's episcopacy ofDommoc. Bede records that Felix obtained teachers fromKent to supply the school founded in East Anglia by Sigeberht. Rochester was then the closest bishopric to East Anglia by the sea-route to Kent from the Deben. It is therefore possible that when Roger Bigod founded a priory at Walton fort, he was consciously renewing a connection between Rochester and Walton which had been developed in the time of Felix and Paulinus.
Rochester's claim is expressed thus: "b. Felix fundavit eccl'iam q'e m'o Felixstowe uocatur et in ea sedit xvji annis" ['The blessed Felix founded the church which is now called Felixstowe and sate in that (place) 17 years']. It appears in the monastic register compiled before 1251 (Harleian MS 261), under the annal for 633. The 16th-centuryantiquary,John Leland noted sources supporting both the claims of Eye for Dunwich and of Rochester for Walton. There are, however, several East Anglian sites associated with the work of Saint Felix. Although one of these two seems more likely, there is no certainty that it was either.
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