Papal Letters of Coenwulf, King of Mercia

Collected here are two Latin letters, the correspondence between Coenwulf and Pope Leo III regarding the episcopal districts of the Anglo-Saxon church. These letters would lead to the creation of the new archdiocese under royal patronage, the direct result of the formal exchange of letters in 798. Coenwulf asserted in his letter that his predecessor, King Offa, wanted the new archdiocese created out of enmity for Jaenberht, a region under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of the division; but Leo responded that the only reason the papacy agreed to the creation was because of political pressure and the size of the kingdom of Mercia, and not out of utility to the Anglo-Saxon church.