Pehthelm (died 735/6) was the first historical bishop of the episcopal see of Candida Casa at Whithorn. He was consecrated in 730 or 731 and served until his demise. His name is also spelled as Pecthelm, Pechthelm, and sometimes as Wehthelm. Prior to his elevation to bishop he had been a deacon or monk in the Kingdom of Wessex under Aldhelm (later, Saint Aldhelm), the Bishop of Sherborne and founder of the Benedictine Abbey at Malmesbury. He was evidently a person of high repute, as Boniface (later Saint Boniface, and himself of Wessex origin) sought Bishop Pehthelm's advice on an ecclesiastical matter, and sent him a present of a corporal pallium. Pehthelm's historical significance is largely confined to his status as the first bishop in the newly created diocese. Background Historical context The Kingdom of Northumbria was ascendant from the seventh through the ninth centuries, and it was the premier regional power in Great Britain between the Humber and the Firths of Clyde and Forth. At the Synod of Whitby in 664, King Oswiu repudiated the Celtic Christianity (so called, and also called Columban after its most notable proponent) that had previously been dominant in the northern Northumbrian territory of Bernicia, and aligned Northumbria with the continental church organisation favoured by Northumbria's southern neighbors. Whatever Oswiu's motivations at Whitby, the move may have been politically expedient, as the Iona-oriented Columban churches and clerics (who were mostly Irish) were now replaced by Northumbria's Anglo-Saxon, York-oriented churches and clerics. However, the authority of the Bishop of York was diluted by Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who created several bishoprics out of Northumbrian territory, with the intent that they be subordinate to Canterbury rather than to York. York resisted and was ultimately equal to the challenge, as the bishopric was elevated to an archbishopric by the Pope in 735 and was able to oversee its own subordinate bishoprics. One of York's successful efforts in this power struggle was the supervision of a subordinate bishopric created circa 730 in Galloway, which was then under Northumbrian rule. Pehthelm's name The modern English translations of manuscripts variously spell the name as Pehthelm, Pechthelm, or Pecthelm. Wechthelm, Wettelm, or Wethelm had been offered as alternative possibilities by Thomas Arnold, the editor of an 1879 publication of the 1155 Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon, which argued that occasionally medieval writers wrongly transcribed old Anglo-Saxon 'w' as 'p'. Similar