Eadwulf of Crediton

Eadwulf
Bishop of Crediton
Church	Christian
Elected	909
Term ended	934
Predecessor	Putta
Successor	Æthelgar
Personal details
Died	934

Eadwulf (or Edwulf) was a medieval Bishop of Crediton.

Life

Eadwulf was elected to Crediton in 909^[1] and built a cathedral there in 910, which later became the collegiate church of Crediton. He was also associated with the founding of the town of Launceston, Cornwall.

Eadwulf died in 934^[1] and was buried at Crediton church.

Supposed epitaph

The Devon historian John Prince^[2] (d.1723) recorded a Latin inscription in verse said to have been engraved on the ledger-stone in Crediton Church of one of the early Bishops of Crediton, he suggested possibly that of Bishop "Eadulph died 932" (sic). The inscription survives in almost identical wording on the monumental brass of Giles Daubeney, 6th Baron Daubeney (1393–1445/46) in South Petherton Church, Somerset. Also the first two lines of it were requested by the will dated about 1500 of a member of the Wilmer family of East Leigh in North Devon, to be inscribed on a monumental brass in his own memory.^[3] The inscription is as follows:

Sis testis Xpe^{[lower-alpha 1]} q(uo)d non jacet (hic) lapis iste

Corpus ut ornetur sed spiritus (ut) memoretur

Quisquis eris qui transieris sta perlege plora

Sum q(uo)d eris fueramq(ue) q(uo)d es pro me p(re)cor ora

Translated literally line by line as:

"Be a witness, O Christ, that this stone does not lie here

To adorn the body, but that it might commemorate the soul.

Whoever thou art who will pass by, stand, read, weep:

I am what you will be, I was what you are. I beseech you, pray for me!"

Prince made a verse translation thus:^[4]

"Christ! bear me witness, that this stone is not

Put here t'adorn a body, that must rot;

But keep a name, that it mayn't be forgot.

Whoso doth pass, stay, read, bewail, I am

What thou must be; was what thou art the same;

Then pray for me, e're you go whence ye came"

Notes

1. Xpe, abbreviation of Greek form Χριστός, given vocative case ending -e as if Latin Christe, pronounced here for rhyming purposes "Crist-ay"

Citations

1. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology p. 215
2. Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, p.343, apparently relying on A View of Devonshire by Thomas Westcote (1567?–1637?)
3. Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.283
4. Prince, Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, p.343, "Eadulph, Bishop of Devon"

References

• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third Edition, revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.

External links

• Eadwulf 32 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England