PART II. On the Anglican Branch of the Catholic Church. CHAPTER I. CHURCH OF ENGLAND.-ITS ORIGIN. I. Q. 1. The Catholic Church is compared by the CHAP. Christian Fathers to the Sea,1 as being diffused throughout all the world; as being, like the Sea, one; as having one name, that of the Catholic Church; and as containing within it many Catholic Churches with various names, as the Ocean has many various seas and bays within it: is the CHURCH of ENGLAND one of these Churches? A. Yes. 1 S. THEOPHIL. Antioch. Autolyc. ii. 14. See the beautiful comparison of St. AMBROSE, Hexaëm. iii. 5. Bene Mari plerumque comparatur Fcclesia, &c. S. AMBROSE de Benedict. Patriarch. lib.i. cap. 5. Ecclesia, spectans Hæreticorum procellas et naufragia Judæorum, tanquam Portus salutis, quæ expansis brachiis in gremium tranquillitatis suæ vocet periclitantes, locum fidæ stationis ostendens. Ecclesiæ igitur in hoc sæculo tamquam Portus maritimi per littora diffusi occurrunt laborantibus, dicentes esse credentibus refugium præparatum, quo ventis quassata navigia possint subducere. HOOKER, III. 1. 14. As the main body of the Sea being one, yet within divers precincts hath divers names, so the Catholic Church is in like sort divided into a number of 15 (169) PART distinct societies, every one of which is termed a Church within itself. II. Q. 2. How do you prove that she is a part of the Catholic Church? A. Because she is united with it in Origin, in Doctrine, and in Government. Q. 3. How in Origin? A. By means of the unbroken succession of her Bishops and Pastors, through whom she traces her origin1 from the Apostles, some of whom are recorded to have preached the Gospel in the British Isles. Omne genus ad 1 TERTULLIAN, Præscr. Hæret. c. 20. Originem suam censeatur necesse est. Itaque tot et tantæ Ecclesiæ Una est Illa ab Apostolis Prima, ex quâ Omnes. Sic omnes Prima et Apostolica dum una omnes probant unitatem. Ibid. Apostoli Ecclesias condiderunt a quibus traducem fidei et semina doctrinæ cæteræ Ecclesiæ mutuatæ sunt et quotidie mutuantur ut Ecclesiæ fiant, ac per hoc Apostolicæ deputantur ut soboles Ecclesiarum Apostolicarum. See below, Pt. ii. chap. vi. On the Apostolical Succession in the Church of England. Q. 4. You say that the Church of England was founded in the Apostolic age; how is this consistent with the opinion sometimes maintained, that its inhabitants were first converted to Christianity by St. Augustine, sent from Rome for that purpose by Pope Gregory the First, at the close of the sixth century (A. D. 596 ?) A. St. Augustine converted the Saxon inhabitants of a part of England1 (Kent,) who had invaded that region and dispossessed the ancient British inhabitants; but they relapsed into heathenism in a little more than twenty years after the arrival of St. Augustine; and there were Christian Bishops in Britain several hundred years before he landed there." 1 Abp. BRAMHALL, i. p. 266-8. 2 CHURTON, Early English Church. chaps. i. ii. See also the Brief Account, in the form of a chronicle, of the Scottish and Italian Missions to the Anglo-Saxons, by the Rev. D. I. HEATH, Lond. 1845, p. 4. 3 GILDAS, Britannus Sapiens, (sæculi vii) de Excid. Brit. init. See below, chap. ii. CRAKANTHORPE, Defens. Eccl. Anglic. p. 25. Amplificavit Augustinus inter Anglos Ecclesiam, non fundavit. Q. 5. What proof have you of this? A. Eusebius asserts that some of the Apostles passed over to Britain. Tertullian, who lived in the second century after Christ, speaks of "Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vero subdita." Origen, who lived in the next age, speaks of Britain consenting in the worship of the true God. And St. Alban was martyred under Diocletian (A. D. 305,) nearly three hundred years before the landing of St. Augustine. 1 TERTULL. c. Judæos, c. vii. EUSEB. Præp. Evang. iii. 7. OREGEN, Hom. in Ezek. iv. in S. Luc. i. Hom. 6. See also S. CHRYSOSTOM, tom. ii. p. 499. v. 919. vi. 638. viii. 3, ed. Savil. Q. 6. Since, then, there were Christians in England even from the Apostolic times, can you further show that there were Christian Bishops? A. Yes; it follows, first from the very nature of the case. Ecclesia in Episcopo was the motto of primitive Christianity; and also, Ubi Ecclesia, ibi Episcopus. There was in those ages no idea of such a thing as a Church without a Bishop.2 1S. IGNAT. ad Trall. vii. ad Phil. iv. ad Smyrn. vii. S. CYPRIAN, Ep. 66. p. 168, ed. Fell. Scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesiâ esse, et Ecclesiam in Episcopo; et si qui cum Episcopo non sunt, in Ecclesiâ non esse. 2 GRABE, ad S. Irenæum, p. 199. Casaubon, Exerc. Baron. pp. 307-8, ed. 1654. See above, pt. i. ch. x. Q. 7. Does the existence of British Bishops ante CHAP. PART cedent to Augustine appear from any other evidence? I. A. Yes. British Bishops were present at the earliest Councils of the Church; viz., at the Council of Arles, A. D. 314. (At which time there were three Metropolitans in Britain, as there were three Provinces, one Maxima Casariensis, the other Britannia Prima, the third Britannia Secunda; the seat of the Metropolitan of the first, being York; of the second, London; of the third, Caerleon, on Usk, in Monmouthshire.) Again, at the Council of Sardica, A. D. 347; and again, probably, at that of Ariminum,3 A. D. 359; and there were, we know, seven British Bishops and a British Archbishop, when Augustine landed in England. 2 1 CONCIL. ARELAT. Labbe, i. p. 1430. (Contra Donatis tas, Concilium convocante Constantino M.) to which are attached the following subscriptions: Eborius, Episcopus de civitate Eboracensi, provincia Britannia. Restitutus, Episcopus de civitate Londinensi, provincia suprascriptâ.-Adelphinus, Episcopus de civitate coloniâ Londinensium, (Colonia Lindi, Lincoln. Bingham, ix. 6, 20. Cave, Hist. Lit. i. 350,) exinde Sacerdos Presbyter, Arminius Diaconus. From the above signatures it is clear that there were Abp. USSHER, Brit. Eccles. Antiq. p. 73. BREREWOOD, in S. ATHANAS. Apol. ii. init. BINGHAM, IX. 1. 5. 3 SULP. SEVER. H. S. ii. ad fin. 4 GILFRID, De Gest. Brit. viii. Eo tempore quo Augustinus Monachus in Britanniam missus est a Gregorio Christianismus viguit, cum fuerit, in eâ septem Episcopatus et unus Archiepiscopatus. Vide Bed. ii. 2. The Archbishop was the Menevensis Episcopus (Bp. of St. David's.) Concerning the transfer of the archiepiscopal see, first from Caerleon to Llandaff, and thence to St. David's, Sir. H. SPELMAN thus speaks: Discesserat hæc dignitas archiepis 1 II. copalis a Caerlegione ad Landaviam sub Dubritio, primo CHAP. Landavensis ecclesiæ archiepiscopo, A. D. 512; mox a Landaviâ ad Meneviam cum S. Davide proximo ejus successore, annos plus minus 80 ante istam Augustini synodum, translationi aspirante Arthuro rege invictissimo; sed retento pariter Caerlegionis titulo. (WILKINS, Concil. i. p. 24, not.) See below, chap. iii. ans. 3. note. Bishop BEVERIDGE, ad Canon. Council. Nicæn. i. p. 58. Ecclesia Britannica erat auroxépaλos, nulli extraneo Episcopo sed suo soli Metropolitano subjacens. It may here be added, that not only the Britons, but also the Scots and Picts had received the Gospel before the time of Augustine. See MASON, de Minist. ii. 4. CHAPTER II. CHURCH OF ENGLAND INDEPENDENT OF ROME. Period before the arrival of St. Augustine. Q. 1. THERE were, then, Christians and Christian Bishops in Britain from the Apostolic times;1 but can you show, further, that the British Church did not derive its origin from that of Rome, and was not dependent on it? A. There is no evidence whatever of any such dependence. No trace whatever can be found of the Pope of Rome having exercised any ecclesiastical authority in England for the first six hundred years after Christ; and it is certain that England did not receive her Christianity at first through Rome; indeed, there is very good ground for believing that the Church of England is some years older than that of Rome.3 1 BINGHAM, Antiquities, IX. vi. 20. Indeed, it would appear that there were more Bishops in England and Wales |