Unknown

Our knowledge of this monument results primarily from the preservation of its inscription within a collection of ecclesiastical inscriptions and related materials from England, Gaul and Italy, brought together in the later eighth century by Milred, bishop of Worcester c. 745–775 (Sims-Williams 1982, 21–6; Lapidge 1993, 2–3). A solitary bifolium survives from a copy of this sylloge, probably of mid tenth-century date, and is housed in the manuscript collection of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Wallach 1975). Part of the text was also recorded by John Leland at Malmesbury in the sixteenth century, probably from the same manuscript (Leland 1774, 115; Lapidge 1975, 805–6; Sims-Williams 1982, 24). Marginal notes in the Urbana fragment have been shown to be in Leland's hand (Sheerin 1977).

Not available

Unknown

The poem in the Urbana sylloge is headed:

 V(ERSVS) BEDA(E) IN ABSIDA BASILICE

The text in hexameters reads:

 Splendet apostolici radio locus iste dicatus

 Nominis, et digne communis honore refulget

 Ara quater ternae Christo sub rege cohortis,

 Doctrina cuius euangelizante quadrato

 Vnius fidei trinitas innotuit orbi

 Terrigenasque dedit caelis regnare per aeuum.

 Obsecro, quisque legis, Cyneberhtum supplice uoto

 Commendes Domino, cuius haec ductus amore,

 A fundamentis sacraria condidit alta

 Hac et in urbe sibi seseque sequentibus almam

 Fecit presulibus sedem, qua turba piorum

 Sumeret aeterne caelestia pignora uite.

(Text as edited by Schaller 1977, 19–20, correcting Wallach 1975, 144, and conveniently quoted by Lapidge 1993, 2.)

The text has been translated by Michael Lapidge: 'This place gleams, dedicated to the brilliance of the apostolic name, and its common altar shines worthily in its distinction, (the altar) of the four-times-three cohort under Christ the king, through whose evangelical teaching the trinity of the unique faith is revealed to the four-cornered world and granted to earth-dwellers that they should reign in the heavens for ever. I beseech you, whoever should read (these lines), that with earnest prayer you commend Cyneberht to the Lord – drawn by Whose love (Cyneberht) built up these lofty precincts from their foundations and created a holy see in this town for himself and the bishops following him, through which the congregation of the faithful might obtain the celestial inheritance of eternal life' (Lapidge 1993, 2–3).

Line 7 is glossed 'cynebertus praesul' in the left-hand margin. The handwriting has been identified as that of John Leland (Sheerin 1977, 173).

Though such dedicatory inscriptions or tituli were commonly stone monuments, like Caistor 1, it is possible that this was a purely painted rather than a stone-cut inscription. Long verse inscriptions of this sort can often be found on stone on the Continent, especially in Italy, but nothing of this length has been found from Anglo-Saxon England (John Higgitt, pers. comm.).

Appendix C item (lost stones for which no illustration has survived).

The manuscript heading ascribes composition of the text to Bede, and textual analysis supports that ascription (Wallach 1975, 144–6). The text was probably transmitted as a literary item via Bede's lost Liber epigrammatum (Bernt 1968, 169; Lapidge 1975), but the heading also specifies that it was actually inscribed in the apse of some church building. The location of the church is not specified, but it is said to be dedicated in 'the apostolic name'. A certain Cyneberht, a 'praesul' or bishop, is named as he who 'built up these lofty precincts from their foundations and created a holy see in this town for himself and the bishops following him' (Lapidge 1993, 2). Wallach (1975, 150) identified Cyneberht with the bishop of Lindsey who is named in the Preface to Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica as his informant about 'the growth of their faith in Christ and of the succession of bishops' in that province, and in IV.12 and V.23 as the current bishop (Bede 1969, 6, 370, 558). Cyneberht became bishop in the period 716×731 and his death is given by Symeon as 732 (Fryde et al. 1986, 219).

The text therefore seems to bear witness to a cathedral church at an unidentified place in Lindsey (but presumably at the place otherwise referred to as Syddensis civitas), that was dedicated to one of the apostles (Gem 1993b, 125–6) or more specifically to St Peter, to St Paul, or to St Peter and St Paul (Latham 1979, 101–2), and which had an apse in which was set up a dedicatory inscription composed by Bede to mark its creation or substantial elaboration. Lapidge (1975, 806) presumes that the place (the 'urbs' of line 10) was Lincoln. Although Stocker has since argued that the term 'urbs' might also apply to a monastery such as Bardney (1993, 118–19), both the churches of St Paul-in-the-Bail and St Peter-at-Arches/St Peter Pleas in Lincoln also represent obvious candidates for the inscription's location.

This is one of a handful of early church dedication inscriptions in England for which evidence survives (cf. Higgitt 1979). Its source, literary form, and the glimpse of its architectural context are important indications of the pretensions of the early church in Lindsey.

Probably 720s

Leland 1774, 115; Kraus 1958, 8, 10; Lapidge 1975, 805–6; Wallach 1975, 134, 144–7, 150–1; Schaller 1977, 17–21; Sheerin 1977, 173–7; Higgitt 1979, 365–6; Sims-Williams 1982, 24; Sims-Williams 1990, 345–6, 351–2; Gem 1993b, 125–6; Lapidge 1993, 2–3, 19–20; Stocker 1993, 118–20; Schaller 1995, 192–6; Lapidge 1996, 315–16, 364–5, 510–11