Dommoc
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Dommoc (or Domnoc), a place not certainly identified but probably within the modern county of
Foundation
The primary authority for the foundation of the see of Dommoc is
Early chronology
The date of the foundation of Dommoc is estimated from the foregoing events and from the duration of tenure of the first three bishops.
Location
Despite its former importance, the original location of Dommoc 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 of Eye, Suffolk (for Dunwich, Suffolk), and of Rochester in Kent (for Walton, Suffolk). The uncertainty therefore arose between the tenth and twelfth centuries. William Camden, in his Britannia, promoted general acceptance of the identification with Dunwich, formerly a splendid city on the Suffolk coast between Aldeburgh and Southwold, 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 in Felixstowe, Suffolk, at the tip of the Colneis Hundred peninsula between the River Deben and the River Orwell. This Walton is not to be confused with Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, which stands on the south side of the Orwell and Stour estuary mouth, and which has never been seriously considered as a candidate for Dommoc. The scholarly revival of the claim for Walton as Dommoc was the work of Stuart Rigold.[5][6][7]
Bede records that Sigeberht ruled East Anglia together with
Bede's use of the term civitas for Dommoc,
G.E. Fox and C.E. Stevens suggested that the fort at Walton might be the Portus Adurni of the Notitia Dignitatum, usually identified as Portchester. Be that as it may, the existence of additional forts not mentioned in the Notitia presents no difficulty since that is not a list of all fortresses, but of military units and their stations under the command of the Count of the Saxon Shore.[11][12]
Dunwich
The similarity of sound between Dommoc and Dunwich may be misleading. Dommoc is a difficult name to construe, but could derive from the
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 at
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 at
Felixstowe
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. A stow may be a holy site,
The church site at nearby
The situation of Walton fort, overlooking the seaward reaches of the Deben estuary towards the former island of
It is strongly implied[by whom?] that St Paulinus, from the Canterbury mission, was present in East Anglia at Rædwald's court in around 616, and it seems likely that the dedication of Rendlesham church to Saint Gregory the Great belongs to the early phases of that mission into East Anglia. After his escape from York in 632–633, Paulinus became Bishop of Rochester until his death c. 644, during the first decade of Felix's episcopacy of Dommoc. Bede records that Felix obtained teachers from Kent 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-century
Notes
- ^ The date is calculated as described in § Early chronology.
- ^ Dommoc is also occasionally called Domnoc or Dommoc-ceastre
- ^ Similarly, Aldeburgh—which means 'old burgh' (a burgh is 'a fortified place') in Old English—may also have possessed a fort defending the Alde estuary.[10]
- ^ In c. 1200 Donewic or Donewiz
Citations
- ^ Bede 1969, II.15: "... accepitque sedem episcopatus in ciuitate Dommoc ..." [and he received the seat of the episcopate in the city of Dommoc].
- ^ Bede 1969, II.15.
- ^ Bede 1969, III.20.
- ^ Bede 1969, IV.5.
- ^ Rigold 1961.
- ^ Rigold 1974.
- ^ a b Haslam 1992.
- ^ Bede 1969, III.17–18.
- ^ Fairclough & Plunkett 2000.
- ^ Field 1980, p. 22.
- ^ Fox 1907.
- ^ Stevens 1940.
- ^ Fletcher 1998, p. 87: "Several Irish place-names derive from the Old Irish word domnach; for example Donnybrook, Dublin, or Donaghmore in Co. Tyrone. The word domnach is a loanword from the Latin dominicum, meaning 'a church building'.
- ^ Whitelock 1972.
- ^ Field 1980, pp. 42, 167.
Sources
- Bede (1969). Colgrave, Bertram; Mynors, R. A. B. (eds.). Historia gentis Anglorum ecclesiastica [Bede's ecclesiastical history of the English people]. Translated by Bertram Colgrave; R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822202-5.
- Fairclough, John; Plunkett, S. J. (2000). "Drawings of Walton Castle and other monuments in Walton and Felixstowe". Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. 39 (4): 419–459.
- Field, John (1980). Place-names of Great Britain and Ireland. Newton Abbot, Devon, UK: David & Charles. OCLC 6964610.
- Fletcher, Richard A. (1998). The conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371–1386 AD. London: Fontana. ISBN 978-0-00-686302-1.
- Fox, George E. (1907). "Romano-British Suffolk". In William Page (ed.). A History of Suffolk. The Victoria History of the Counties of England. Vol. I. Folkestone, Kent, UK: Victoria County House. pp. 279–323. ISBN 978-0-7129-0647-0– via University of London, Institute of Historical Research.
- Haslam, Jeremy (1992). "Dommoc and Dunwich: A reappraisal" (PDF). Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History. 1992 (5): 41–46.
- Pestell, Tim (2004). Landscapes of monastic foundation: The establishment of religious houses in East Anglia c. 650-1200. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 9781846152368.
- Plunkett, Steven J. (2005). Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon times. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Tempus. ISBN 978-0752431390.
- Rigold, S. E. (June 1961). "The Supposed See of Dunwich". Journal of the British Archaeological Association. 24 (1): 55–59. .
- Rigold, S. E. (June 1974). "Further Evidence About the Site of Dommoc". Journal of the British Archaeological Association. 37 (1): 97–102. .
- Scarfe, Norman (2004) [1984]. Suffolk in the Middle Ages: Studies in places and place-names, the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, saints, mummies and crosses, Domesday Book, and chronicles of Bury Abbey. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell. ISBN 9781843830689.
- Stevens, C. E. (January 1940). "The British Sections of the Notitia Dignitatum". Archaeological Journal. 97 (1): 125–154. .
- West, Stanley E. (1998). "A corpus of Anglo-Saxon material from Suffolk". East Anglian Archaeology. 84.
- Whitelock, Dorothy (January 1972). "The pre-Viking age church in East Anglia". Anglo-Saxon England. 1: 1–22. .
Further reading
- The venerable Bede (1999). The ecclesiastical history of the English people; The greater chronicle; Bede's letter to Egbert. Translated by McClure, Judith; Collins, Roger. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-283866-7.