Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Odo (d.959)
ODO, or ODA (d. 959), archbishop of Canterbury, called ‘the Good,’ is said to have been the son of a Dane, one of the army of Inguar, or Ivar, that conquered the north of England in 867, though this is not quite so certain as is generally believed (‘dicunt quidam,’ see the contemporary Vita S. Oswaldi, Historians of York, i. 404). He was early in life converted to Christianity, and is said to have been punished severely by his father for persisting in attending church (Eadmer). One of Ælfred's nobles, named Æthelhelm, or Athelm, adopted him, caused him to be baptised, and provided a teacher for him, under whose care he learnt Latin, and, it is said, Greek also (ib.) Having received the tonsure, he made such progress in divine things that he was soon admitted to the priesthood. Nevertheless he is said to have in his younger days served Eadward the elder as a soldier, and to have been persuaded to take orders by his adoptive father, whom he accompanied on a journey to Rome. On the way Æthelhelm fell sick, and his recovery was attributed to a draught of wine which Odo blessed by making the sign of the cross over it (Vita S. Oswaldi, u.s.) William of Malmesbury says that he did not become a clerk until after this journey, but seems to have altered the order of events so as not to represent Odo as taking part in war after his ordination; for it is clear from the story of his blessing the wine that he was then a priest (Gesta Pontificum, p. 21; his military service, though probable enough, comes from a late source, but was the Canterbury tradition in Malmesbury's time). Æthelstan highly esteemed him, and gave him the bishopric of Ramsbury, to which he was ordained in 927 by Archbishop Wulfhelm. When the king in 936 allowed his sister's son Lewis to accept the offer of the crown made by the Frankish nobles, he sent Odo to escort him to his kingdom (Richer, ii. c. 2). Odo followed Æthelstan to the battle of Brunanburh in 937, and when during the night before the battle the king, while surrounded by enemies, dropped his sword, Odo is said to have found it by divine assistance, and to have handed it to him. On the death of Wulfhelm in 942 King Eadmund offered him the archbishopric, but he declined it on the ground that it ought not to be held except by a monk. The king persisted, and finally he either sent or went in person to Fleury to request that he might be granted the cowl by the convent there. After he had received it he accepted the archbishopric. Finding his cathedral church in a dilapidated state, he repaired it, strengthened the piers, raised the wall, and put on a new roof, which he covered with lead, his work upon it lasting during three years. Although little is known for certain about his doings as archbishop, it is evident that he earnestly promoted the reformation of morals, the maintenance of the rights of the church, and the restoration of monastic discipline. During the reign of Eadmund he published constitutions respecting these matters, in which he decreed that the church should be free from all tribute and exactions, insisted on the duties of the king and nobles as regards the protection of the weak and the administration of justice, exhorted the bishops to be diligent in preaching and the care of their dioceses, the clergy to set a good example, and the monks to be faithful to their vows, humble, studious, and constant in prayer. He strictly forbad all unlawful marriages, and especially with nuns and those too near of kin, and admonished all men to observe the feasts and festivals of the church, to pay tithes, and to give alms (Wilkins, Concilia, i. 212). At another time he ordered that before a man took a wife he should give security to keep her as his wife and state her dowry, and laid down that, on the death of the husband, a wife ought to have half his estate, and the whole if there was a child (ib. p. 216). His decrees concerning marriage were demanded by the social condition of the country generally, and more especially of the northern or Danish part of it. There can be no doubt that during the reign of Eadred he supported the administration of Dunstan [q. v.], then abbot of Glastonbury (Memorials of St. Dunstan, Introd., p. lxxxvii). He accompanied the king on one of his expeditions into the north, possibly in 947, when Ripon was destroyed, going not as a warrior, but in order to negotiate, and collected relics of saints from the ruins of Ripon. Chief among these were the bones of Wilfrid the famous bishop of York, which he sent to Canterbury. By his command Frithegode composed his metrical ‘Life of Wilfrid,’ for which Odo wrote the extant prose preface (Historians of York, i. 105–7). In this he speaks of his translation of the saints' relics. It has, however, been asserted, on the authority of the contemporary ‘Life of Oswald,’ that the bones which he translated were those of Archbishop Wilfrid the second (ib. pp. 225, 462; Gesta Pontificum, p. 245). Oswald (d. 972) [q. v.], afterwards archbishop of York, was his nephew, and it was with his uncle's approval that Oswald went, probably in Eadred's reign, to Fleury to learn the Benedictine rule. Odo appears to have maintained the doctrine of transubstantiation, for it is said that on one occasion the consecrated elements became flesh and blood while he was celebrating the eucharist (Vita S. Oswaldi, u.s. pp. 406–407). He crowned Edwy or Eadwig [q. v.] in 956, and when the young king left the coronation banquet for the society of Ælfgifu (fl. 956) [q. v.] and her mother, Odo, remarking that his absence was displeasing to his lords, told them and the bishops that some of them ought to go and fetch him back (Vita S. Dunstani, Memorials of St. Dunstan, p. 32). He had great influence over Edwy, and, the king having married Ælfgifu, the archbishop separated them because they were too nearly related (A.-S. Chron. an. 958, Worcester), and forcibly drove Ælfgifu into banishment (Vita S. Oswaldi, u.s. p. 402); but the story that represents him as inflicting barbarities upon her is unworthy of credit. While the northern part of the kingdom chose Eadgar as king, Odo remained faithful to Edwy (Robertson, Historical Essays, p. 194). He consecrated Dunstan, and it is said that in doing so he declared that he consecrated him to the see of Canterbury, for that it was revealed to him that the new bishop was ordained by God to that see (Adelard, Memorials of St. Dunstan, p. 60). Finding in 959 that his end was near, he sent to Fleury to summon Oswald to come to him, but died on 2 June before Oswald reached England. He was buried on the south side of the altar of his cathedral church. Lanfranc [q. v.] placed his bones in the chapel of the Holy Trinity behind the altar, and at the rebuilding of the choir in 1180 they were placed beneath the feretory of St. Dunstan (Gervase of Canterbury, i. 16, 25). The death of Ælfsige (d. 959) [q. v.], who was nominated as his successor, was held to be a judgment on him for having insulted Odo's memory. The strictness with which Odo reproved laxity of morals accounts for the epithet ‘severus’ given to him in an epitaph; while Dunstan, equally with him a champion of morality, gave him the title of ‘the Good’ (Gesta Pontificum, p. 30), which is adopted in the Canterbury version of the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ (an. 961). Regarded apart from late and untrustworthy legends, he appears as a righteous and holy man, of strong will and commanding influence, no respecter of persons, and careful of the rights of the weak. He was held to be wise and eloquent (Richer, u.s.), and seems to have encouraged learned men such as Frithegode and Abbo of Fleury, who speaks of the friendship that Odo had for him (Memorials of St. Dunstan, p. 410).
[The earliest extant Life of Odo, printed in Anglia Sacra, ii. 78–87 (also in Acta SS. O.S.B. sæc. v. 286–96, and Acta SS., Bolland, July, ii. 62 seq.) is there attributed to Osbern, but is really the work of Eadmer: see Hardy's Cat. of Materials, i. 566 (Rolls Ser.). It is not of course of much authority, though it must represent the Canterbury tradition. Vita S. Oswaldi, Hist. of York, i. 399 seq. (Rolls Ser.), contains notices that are virtually contemporary; see also same vol. pp. 104, 224, Memorials of St. Dunstan, pp. 32, 60, 294, 303, 410, Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontiff., pp. 20–3, 30, 248, Gesta Regum, i. 163, A.-S. Chron. ann. 958, 961, Gervase of Cant. i. 16, 25, ii. 49, 352, all in the Rolls Ser.; Richer, ii. c. 2, ed. Pertz; Kemble's Codex Dipl. Nos. 392, 468; Wilkins's Concilia, i. 212, 216; Robertson's Hist. Essays, pp. 192, 194, 203; Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 360–81; Freeman's Norman Conquest, i. 224, iv. 125.]