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From the first, men and women of royal birth formed a distinctive, indeed preponderant, class among Anglo-Saxon saints. At first sight it would appear that Mercia, whose royal family was converted relatively late, lacked early royal cults of the distinction of those of Northumbria, Kent, and East Anglia. Nevertheless, a considerable number of Mercian kings, princes, and princesses achieved sainthood in the late 7th and early 8th centuries, albeit generally in obscure and localized circumstances. The 7th-century pagan king, Penda, was (or was reputed) the progenitor of many saints, including his son, lEthelred, his daughters, Cyneburg and Cyneswith, and his granddaughter, Werburg, and more doubtfully Edith and Eadburg, his supposed daughters, and Rumwold, Wulflad, Rufinus, Osyth, and Mildburg, his reputed grandchildren. 1 In the 8th and 9th centuries Mercian interest in royal saints persisted. lEthelbald's relative, Guthlac, became the object of an important cult in the earlier 8th century, and two Mercian princes, Kenelm and Wigstan, attracted devotion in the 9th. Moreover, the Mercians accorded similar honours to members of other royal families: the Northumbrian king, Oswald, is a particularly notable example, but there were others, including the Northumbrian prince, Ealhmund (Alcmund), and the East Anglian king, lEthelberht. 2 This list is by no means exhaustive. The purpose of this paper is not, however, to add to it, but to consider the origins of some of the more important of these cults and their fortunes up to the final incorporation of Mercia into the West Saxon empire. In doing so, it is hoped to show that generally they were of ancient foundation, under royal auspices, and that often they had strong political overtones. Above all, it will be stressed that many are linked with royal administrative centres and in particular with the ancient minsters which were founded at such centres. The term 'minster' was applied by the Anglo-Saxons to all religious communities, whether of monks proper or of secular clergy, a usage which reflects the fact that many early Anglo-Saxon monasteries had assumed the pastoral role which was ultimately the principal distinction • I am very grateful to Dr D. W. Rollason, Dr J. Blair, and the Editor for many helpful suggestions and comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

This article examines the origins and early development of the cult of Pope Gregory the Great (590±604) in Rome, England, Gaul and Ireland. A ®rst section analyses the earliest Life of the pope, written between 704 and 714 at the Northumbrian monastery of Whitby, arguing that it depended not upon oral tradition but upon early writings originating among Gregory's disciples in Rome and in part at least recorded by John Moschus. A second section relates this material to the development of Gregory's cult in the seventh and early eighth centuries, highlighting the activity of Archbishop Theodore in England. Although clerical rather than popular, the cult thus promoted established Gregory's reputation as a pastor, evangelist and father of the Latin liturgy.

Although exceptional skill and learning have been devoted to the origins of martyr cult, undeniably this grand and highly distinguished tradition has been shaped by certain widely shared and long-standing assumptions. In particular, while great scholars such as Duchesne and Delehaye have exhibited a strong (and very proper) scepticism about particular legends, there has in general been a predisposition to accept at face value the underlying context as presented by the post-Constantinian Church. Most historians of the martyrs have followed hagiographical tradition and accepted that, as Pope Leo I claimed in the mid-fifth century, ‘uncounted numbers’ of the faithful had died in the imperial persecutions and were marked out as endowed with power ‘to help those in danger, to drive away sickness, to expel unclean spirits and to cure infirmities without number’. That carefully constructed picture, however, only emerges in the late fourth and fifth centuries, and it is the circumstances and processes which shaped its emergence that will be examined here.