Biography
Nothhelm
About Nothhelm
Nothhelm, also written Nothelm, was a priest of London who became archbishop of Canterbury in 735. His surviving record brings him into contact with Bede’s historical research and Boniface’s missionary correspondence.
Bede acknowledges Nothhelm’s help in his History. Working with Abbot Albinus, Nothhelm conveyed information about Kent and neighboring regions, then searched the Roman church’s archives with papal permission and brought back letters for Bede’s use.
His interest in learning also appears in the questions he sent Bede about the biblical Books of Kings. Bede addressed a treatise answering thirty questions to him. The scholarly examination of this correspondence places the exchange before Nothhelm became archbishop, while he was still a London priest.
Boniface’s letter gives another view of the relationship between learning and pastoral work. He asked Nothhelm to pray for him and his companions in Germany and to maintain a bond of spiritual friendship. He also requested a copy of Augustine’s questions to Gregory the Great and Gregory’s replies, asking that the document’s authenticity be checked.
The same letter sought advice about a marriage Boniface had permitted, between a godfather and the widowed mother of his godchild. Boniface asked for the grounds of objections raised at Rome, drawing on Scripture, church canons and earlier authorities. He also wanted to know the year in which Gregory’s missionaries had reached England.
As archbishop, Nothhelm received the pallium from Gregory III in 736 and consecrated bishops for Hereford, Sherborne and Elmham. A synod attended by nine bishops belongs to 736 or 737. Hunt dates his death to 17 October 739.
Later writers attributed additional works to him, but Hunt treats those attributions as unsupported. Nothhelm’s Catholic commemoration appears on 17 October in the Archdiocese of Seoul’s GoodNews calendar.
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