ABSTRACT
Helen Clover has pointed out similarities between Pope Alexander's letter, Accepimus, and the sources of the various Canterbury and St. Augustine's forgeries and has suggested that Accepimus itself may be a forgery. The letter was written in response to reports of efforts by Bishop Walkelin of Winchester's attempts to substitute secular clerics for the monks of his cathedral chapter and that of Canterbury itself. It is similar to a letter from Boniface to Justus that Bede preserved, in which the pope sends the archbishop a pallium and authorizes him to consecrate other bishops as necessary for the continued spreading of the gospel. The pope confirms the ancient rights of the see of Canterbury and states that all the churches of England should be subject to its archbishop. The privilege was not included in the Aethelstan gospel book, but survives only in BL Cotton Cleopatra E. i. It is based upon a genuine pallium letter from the pope to Archbishop Dunstan.
