CHAP. I. [INTRODUCTORY.] THE BRITISH CHURCH AND ITS INDEPENDENCE. INDEPEN DENCE. BRITAIN having become a regular Roman Province, large BRITISH numbers of persons from Rome; and various parts of the empire settled in it. Seneca owned property in Britain to the amount of £300,000, and in an insurrection which took place in the year 61 a vast number of foreigners perished. Christianity had at this time spread far and wide in the empire. Gildas, the earliest British Historian, (born A.D. 511), says, that the religion of Jesus found its way into this island at the time of the defeat of Boadicea by the Romans, or about the year 61.* preached in Clement and Justin Martyr testify to the spread of Chris- Paul probably tianity in their time in every part of the empire, Barbarian and Grecian.† Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus, a historian of the Britain. fifth century, says that Paul, after his release, went to Spain and other nations to preach the Gospel, and to "islands lying in the ocean." Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, expressly enumerates the British isles amongst the places visited by Apostles.§ Jerome says, that Paul went even unto "the Spains," the common name of the western regions. || Venantius, Bishop of Poicters, in the fifth century, bears a similar testimony, alluding by name to Britain.¶ There is good reason, therefore, to believe that Christianity was preached in the British isles by the Apostle Paul. anity in date. Whoever was the Preacher, there is clear evidence of the Christifact, that Christianity existed in this island at a very early Britain at date. Tertullian, who lived in the second century, says, that avery early places in Britain into which the Roman arms had not penetrated were "subject to Christ."** Origen, who lived in the third century, speaks of Britain as "consenting together in Christ."++ The persecution of Diocletian extended to the CHAP. I. British Church. British Independence of Rome. Au It was then that Alban received the crown of martyrdom, with many others. Representatives from this Church took part in the Council of Arles, and were present also at the Councils of Sardica and Ariminum, held respectively in the years 347 and 359. Jerome and Chrysostom testify to the orthodoxy of the faith of British Christians.* Numerous Councils were held in Britain, of which those of Verulam, Brevi, and Victory were the most noteworthy. Pelagianism was the subject of special condemnation in the above.t The British Church was not subject to the Roman, nor to any other foreign authority. This is evident from circumstances gustine, which occurred on the arrival of Augustine in Britain. The the monk. British had sought the assistance of the Saxons against the Assumption of Augustine. Picts and Scots-a step which proved injurious to their own independence. The Saxons preferred the British to their native soil, and ultimately established themselves in it by the sword. They were Pagans; and certain monkish writers have said that "the heathen invaders left not the face of Christianity wherever they prevailed;" but this was not so, for the British Church flourished in the West and North, and though oppressed, continued to exist even in the midst of the Saxons. The Venerable Bede, who lived in the 8th century, and was a strong partisan of Rome, testifies that Ethelbert, King of Kent, had a Christian wife of the Royal family of the Franks, and that she was permitted to attend the old British Church of St. Martin, which was close to the city of Canterbury, and which had been built in the time of the Romans. Augustine and his companions, who arrived on a mission from Gregory, A.D. 596, were favourably received by the King, who, soon after, was admitted into the Church by baptism. The work of evangelization was carried on both by the Britons and Augustine. The independence of the British Church appears in a remarkable manner from the attitude assumed towards it by the Roman emissary. Gregory, who had protested against the title of Universal Bishop, when taken by John of Constantinople, entertained high and unwarrantable notions of his own Patriarchal authority. Augustine, amongst others, put the following question to † No. 10. • No. 9. No. 11. CHURCH ROMAN. rantable The British Gregory :-"How are we to deal with the Bishops of France BRITISH and Britain?" Gregory took upon himself to commit the Bri- ANTItish Bishops to his care,* and Augustine lost no time in attempting to subjugate the native Church. By the assistance of King UnwarEthelbert, he induced the British Prelates to meet him in conduct of conference under an oak, long after called "Augustine's Oak." Gregory. Augustine proposed that the Bishops should ratify what he termed "a Catholic peace," and join him in preaching to the Anglo-Saxons. After much disputation, they rejected his Bishops proposals, on the ground that such a peace would subject them gustine's to Augustine, and the Bishop of Rome, and involve the surren- overtures. der of their own customs. A second conference took place, but with a similar result. strong bias in favour of Rome, and alleges that a miracle was wrought on the occasion, says that the British would do none. of the things which Augustine required, nor receive him as Archbishop.t Bede, though he writes with a reject Au Henceforth, Britain for a long period had in it two distinct The two Churches, Churches-the one, the ancient British Church, and the other the Roman established by Augustine. It is remarkable that Bede himself the new. speaks of the community of Augustine as a new Church Laurentius, who succeeded to the see of Canterbury on the death of its first occupant, essayed in vain to reduce the British to subjection. He found that the Irish as well as the British would hold no intercourse with the members of his communion.§ tion by the Church. The efforts of the Irish for the conversion of the Saxons Successful were eminently successful, while those of the Augustinian evangelizaChurch were confined for the most part to Kent, and even Irish there had nearly failed. Bede testifies that the kingdom of Northumbria was converted by the Scots.|| In this work Aidan, Finan, and Colman in succession took the lead.T The kingdoms of Mercia, of the East Saxons, and others of The Kingthe Heptarchy were indebted for their Christianity mainly to dom of the Irish Church, and yet the cause of ecclesiastical independ- loses its ence in this realm was lost under the following circumstances. ecc Oswald, King of Northumbria, having introduced Christianity pendence. into his kingdom, A.D. 633, established Aidan as Bishop of + No. 13. No. 14. *No. 12. § No. 15. Mercia ecclesiasti cal inde СНАР І. Lindisfarne. Aidan, being of the Scots, was not in communion with Rome, but Bede bears testimony to his character and zeal, alleging, however, that the latter was "not according to knowledge." In this see Aidan was succeeded by Finan, and again by Colman, who were of the same faith, and it was by these Bishops and their ecclesiastics that the whole of the kingdom from the Humber to Edinburgh was converted to the faith. In the reign of Oswy, however, things took an unfavourable turn for the old Church. Enfleda, the wife of the king, had been brought up in Kent, and in the communion of the new Church. She was accompanied by a warm zealot named Romanus, a priest of the Augustinian communion. Visitors from Kent and France assailed the British mode of observing Easter, and a violent controversy broke out in the Court itself, for it happened that while the king was keeping Easter, the queen was observing Lent.* The monarch wearied with the difference determined to reduce all into a state of uniformity. A synod was held at Whitby, A.D. 664, in which a discussion took place between Colman, as the advocate of the old, and Wilfrid as the champion of the new Church. Wilfrid had been educated in Rome, and was himself the tutor of Alchfrid, now associated with his father Oswy on the throne. Alchfrid was a strong advocate of the new Church. The result was as might be expected; the king gave a decision in favour of Wilfrid, a result to which his wife and son had mainly conDecline of duced. Colman now retired to his country. Colman now retired to his country. The low ebb to which the Augustinian party had been reduced ere this appears Church be- from the fact that only one Bishop, Uini, had been canonically ordained in the estimation of the Romanizers.† Ceadda and Wilfrid now consecrated, "brought," says Bede, "into the English Church, very many rules of Catholic observance." Thus the so-called "Catholic institution" daily gained strength. And so the new Church, when it was on the point of failure, triumphed over the old. Oswy and the king of Kent agreed to send a man to Rome to be ordained Bishop, and that he, says Bede, "having the rank of an Archbishop, might ordain Catholic prelates for the churches of the English nation throughout all Britain."§ The Pope, in return, addressed a letter of congratulation to $ No. 20. the Augus tinian Jore this. * No. 17. † No. 18. + + No. 19. |