discussions have revolved around the name of Pybba (or Wybba) of Mercia. Charles Plummer's 1896 edition of Bede's History made note of Arnold's observation, but then went on to translate Pehthelm as 'helm of the Picts', without any stated authority. Historical evidence Original sources Pehthelm is first mentioned in 731 by Bede (672 – 735) in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Bede relates a hagiographic story of a vision in Mercia that is said to have occurred sometime between 704 and 709, and then notes that he heard the story from Pehthelm. In the events of 705, Bede says that Pehthelm was for a long time either deacon or monk with Bishop Aldhelm (639 – 709), and that he was fond of telling stories of miraculous cures associated with the place where Bishop Hedda (d. 705) had died. Finally, in a passage describing the ecclesiastical state of Britain in 731, Bede says that there are four Northumbrian bishops, of which Pehthelm is the one in the place called the White House, and is the first prelate there. He adds that this is a new episcopacy, created because of an increased number of believers. The 'White House' referred to is the Candida Casa that is first mentioned by Bede himself in his account of Saint Ninian, an account that provides a provenance for Pehthelm's new diocese. Sometime between 730 and 735 Boniface (c. 672 – 754) writes to Bishop Pehthelm seeking his opinion on the ecclesiastical question of whether a man may marry a woman for whose son he is godfather. Boniface addresses Pehthelm as coepiscopo ('fellow bishop'), and includes gifts of a corporal pallium adorned with white scrolls, and a towel to dry the feet of the servants of God. The letter from the influential Boniface (later Saint Boniface) implies his high regard for Pehthelm's ecclesiastical scholarship, and may also reflect their common ecclesiastical origins in Wessex. Pehthelm's response to the letter is unrecorded. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 763 states that Pehthelm's successor, Frithwald, had died that year, and provides a rough dating for the start of his episcopacy at Whithorn. This allows the date of Pehthelm's death to be estimated at 735 or 736. In a very old (811 – 814) manuscript of Northumbrian genealogies, Pehthelm appears first in the list of bishops at Candida Casa. While not an original source per se, the antiquity of the