Later this month, on 14 November, there will be an historic ecumenical service in the Soulton Hall Prayer Room.
The date is significant as it is associated with one of the Saints’ days of Saint Erkenwald, Bishop of London, Prince of the East Saxons.
As the patron saint of London, Erkenwald is easily connected by offices to Sir Rowland Hill, who was Lord Mayor of that great city in 1549–50.
Though separated by eight centuries, these figures are united by a persistent quest for harmony and accommodation and the necessity of bridging divides, whether religious, legal, or cultural, to build a stable, just society.
This moment offers a useful opportunity to reflect on the freight of meaning that attaches to the lives of St. Erkenwald and Sir Rowland Hill.
St. Erkenwald: A Royal Prince Forging Unity and Legitimacy
St. Erkenwald, Bishop of London in the 7th century, was a Prince of the East Saxons, giving his life immediate influence over both church and state at a time both where on some views still forming.
He lived during a time of profound transition following the Synod of Whitby, and his own ministry was highly active. His life was dedicated to finding common ground within the early Undivided Church, well before England itself had fully formed. This process of forming England was deeply entwined with church process, noting that Erkenwald is the first in the unbroken line of episcopal succession in London after the city and the South East re-adopted paganism following the Roman withdrawal and Viking incursions.
This early, indigenous status of Erkenwald was crucial centuries later. His position as a Prince-Bishop within an unbroken apostolic line that predated the deeper Papal entanglements of the medieval period was recognised by the Tudors. He became part of the high level rhetoric of legitimacy for the new Church of England, forming part of an analysis that the nation’s spiritual life possessed a kinf of ancient, super-positional authority.
Erkenwald worked toward ecclesiastical unity, helping to integrate the distinct Celtic Christian traditions with the emerging Roman hierarchy.
He sough to see that C7th London’s church was a place of accommodation, fostering stability rather than division. Furthermore, his royal background gave weight to his role as an advisor to King Ine of Wessex in formulating his law code. He worked to temper the customs of pre-Christian tribal law with spiritual principles, ensuring the legal framework could accommodate the common good of diverse people and temper private vengeance with public justice.
The Proto-Renaissance Bridge: The Virtuous Pagan
The continuity of Erkenwald’s theme of accommodation jumps forward through the anonymous 14th-century poem, St. Erkenwald.
This profound text, which was read at Soulton Hall earlier this year, is widely attributed to the Pearl Poet, who hailed from the same Shropshire or Cheshire region as Sir Rowland Hill.
The poem takes the theme of accommodation into the realm of theology and history.
The narrative wrestles with a major Humanist concern: the fate of the “virtuous pagan” like the judge discovered beneath ancient St Paul’s in the narrive of the poem.
This debate asks: can Divine grace accommodate a person who lived a deeply righteous life under natural law but died without formal spiritual knowledge? The poem’s resolution, where the judge’s soul is saved by Erkenwald’s miraculous tears, provides a theological accommodation for justice and virtue found outside the formal ecclesiastical structure. The poem frames this discussion by folding in a new identity for the city as a “New Troy,” integrating the classical, pre-Christian story of heroes into England’s foundational myth. This act of synthesizing spiritual doctrine, classical scholarship, and English cultural identity is a powerful example of cultural harmony and proto-Renaissance thought.
Sir Rowland Hill: Reflecting on the Needs of Anxious Souls in the Reformation
Sir Rowland Hill, the builder of Soulton Hall, carried forward the same spirit of accommodation in the turbulent 16th century.
The upheavals of the Reformation caused genuine spiritual terror: good-willed people were told their deeply held beliefs were flawed, and more poignantly, they faced profound theological uncertainty about the eternal fate of virtuous loved ones who had departed under the old order. The fear that the dearly remembered dead were now considered to have been excluded from grace by new theological rules was a devastating personal burden.
As Lord Mayor of London and a man keenly focused on the welfare of the people, Hill’s work engaged with this collective anxiety. His deep respect for St. Erkenwald’s traditions shows his concern for the long-standing spiritual roots of the English Church. Erkenwald’s story — particularly the theological accommodation granted to the virtuous pagan judge — offered a precedent and a comforting narrative that virtue and good works were recognised by the Divine regardless of the current theological flux.
Hill’s interest in classical ideas and humanist learning is evident both in his publishing work, which facilitated the spread of works like the Geneva Bible, and in the sophisticated design codes of Soulton Hall itself.
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The house, therefore, became a physical monument to intellectual accommodation, providing a haven where radical theology and ancient wisdom could coexist at a unique time, deeply riven and fraught. This moment reminds us that the quest for harmony and the challenge of finding common ground are not new.
Whether it was Prince Erkenwald uniting diverse spiritual traditions, the Pearl Poet debating the reach of Divine grace, or Rowland Hill blending classical virtue with spiritual reform for the welfare of his anxious community, the persistent theme is that unity is achieved through thoughtful, persistent respect and dialogue.
The coming service in the Soulton Hall Prayer Room is thus an important engagement with these enduring concepts.
It is an act of recognizing this historic legacy in its specific location, affirming its profound importance, and deploying this history of accommodation in the service of fellowship for all traditions whose spiritual stories may now bifurcate.
