Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tatwin
TATWIN, TATUINI, or TADWINUS (d. 734), archbishop of Canterbury, a Mercian and priest of a monastery called Briudun or Bredon in Worcestershire, was elected successor of Archbishop Brihtwald [q. v.], who died in January 731, and was consecrated by four English bishops at Canterbury on 10 June of that year. It is probable that he owed his elevation to the commanding influence of Ethelbald or Æthelbald (d. 757) [q. v.], king of the Mercians, whose cousin Eanulf was the founder of Bredon. Tatwin is said to have been on terms of affection with Albinus (d. 732), abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and to have given his benediction to his successor, Nothbald (Elmham, pp. 300, 302). After receiving his pall from the pope he consecrated two bishops for the dioceses of Lindsey and Selsey in 733 (Sym. Dunelm Historia Regum). A letter produced in 1072 to establish the supremacy of Canterbury over York, which purports to have been sent by Gregory III to the English bishops, recommending Tatwin to them, asserts that Tatwin went to Rome to fetch the pall (Gesta Pontificum, pp. 55–57). This would have been an innovation; but as the grant of authority over all the bishops of England, which is the special subject of the letter, is contradictory to the policy of the pope, who shortly afterwards granted the pall to Egbert or Ecgberht (d. 766) [q. v.] of York, the letter must be held to be spurious (Ecclesiastical Documents, iii. 65, 311–12). Tatwin died on 30 July 734 (Sym. Dunelm u.s.; Cont. Bædæ; Elmham's date, 31 July 735, p. 311, is a mistake), and was buried in St. Augustine's. His body, with those of other archbishops and saints, was translated in 1091. His epitaph is preserved (Elmham, u.s.). He bore a high character both for religion and prudence, and was well versed in sacred learning (Historia Ecclesiastica, v. 23). Goscelin [q. v.] is said to have written an account of miracles wrought by him (Gesta Pontificum, p. 7). A charter granted in 732 by Ethelbert of Kent to an abbot Dun, possibly the same as Dunno, consecrated bishop of Rochester in 741, is attested by Tatwin (Codex Diplomaticus, No. 77). Forty enigmas, written in Latin hexameters, are attributed to him; they are in one complete series, the first and last letters of the first line of each forming a double acrostic. They are extant in Brit. Mus. MS. Reg. 12, C. xxiii. f. 121 seq., and in a manuscript in the public library, Cambridge, and have been printed by Giles in ‘Anecdota Bædæ,’ pp. 25–34, and by Wright in ‘Anglo-Norman Poets’ (Rolls Ser.), ii. App. 1. Other poems not now known to be extant are ascribed to him by Bale.
[Bede's Hist. Eccl. ed. Plummer, Sym. Dunelm., Elmham, Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontiff. (all Rolls Ser.); Kemble's Codex Dipl. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Goscelin's Hist. Trans. S. Augustini (Migne's Patrol. Lat. clv); Haddan and Stubbs's Eccl. Documents; Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 194 seq.; Dict. Christian Biogr. art. ‘Tatwin,’ by Bishop Stubbs.]