Ætla, who lived in the 7th century, is believed to be one of many Bishops of Dorchester during the
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
period. The village of
Attlebridge,
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
is named after him, as he is credited for the construction of a bridge ('brycg' in Old English) there.
Ætla was attested about 660.
[Powicke ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 219] In the 670s, the seat of his bishopric was at
Dorchester-on-Thames, which was then under Mercian control.
[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 49] He does not seem to have had any comparable predecessors or successors in that see.
Early life
Details regarding Ætla's early life are sparse. The venerable historian
Bede's writings indicate a comparatively short duration of his existence. Prior to assuming the mantle of bishop, Ætla pursued a monastic vocation within the Northumbrian Monastery of Whitby.
Citations
References
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Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde ''Handbook of British Chronology'' 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961
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External links
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Bishops of Dorchester (Mercia)
7th-century English bishops
{{UK-bishop-stub