Rethinking Ripon: Cuthbert’s Tonsure and Northumbrian Ecclesiastical Geography

Abstract

This article reconsiders the motivation of the author of the anonymous Life of Cuthbert to insist that the saint received the Petrine tonsure at Ripon instead of (the more likely Irish tonsure) at Melrose, as Bede recounts. While scholars widely agree that this detail was meant to provide Cuthbert with a Roman background less contentious than his actual Irish-influenced upbringing, I will propose a parallel motivation from the perspective of ecclesiastical geography. I argue that the anonymous author used the tonsure as one further method of attempting to expand Lindisfarne’s sphere of influence in early medieval Northumbria.