Baring-Gould’s sources: The Salisbury Martyrology of Wytford (1526) on July 31st. Ferrarius on June 1st. In the Anglican Martyrology, published in 1640, on July 24th, the day on which the martyrs died; on which day also the Bollandists. Authority The Acts written, according to Camden, by Robert of Swaffham, in the 12th cent. They rest entirely on popular tradition, and are certainly incorrect in many points.] According to the story, Wulfhad and Rufin were the sons of Wulfhere, king of Mercia, and of his wife Erminilda, daughter of Ercombert, king of Kent, but as this does not agree with the statements of reliable historians, nor with probability, it cannot be easily admitted. The story goes on to say that Wulfhere was much under the influence of a heathen counsellor, Werbod, who asked the hand of S. Werburga, the king’s daughter, in marriage. The mother and the two brothers scouted the notion of Werburga being given to a man not a prince or earl, and Wulfhad and Rufin told him to his face that he was not worthy to marry their sister. Werbod dissembled his rage, and waited an opportunity for revenge. One day Wulfhad was out hunting, when the stag he was pursuing brought him to the cell of S. Chad, who exhorted him to receive the faith of Christ and be baptized. Wulfhad answered that he would do so if the stag he had been pursuing would come of her own accord, with a rope round her neck, and present herself before him. S. Chad prayed, and the stag bounded through the bushes to the spot, with the rope as Wulfhad desired. S. Chad then baptized the prince, and next morning communicated him. Rufinus was led by his brother to receive holy baptism, and when Werebod learned this, he told the king of it, and Wulfhere, in a fit of fury, pursued his sons to the cell of S. Chad, and killed them with his own hands.