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Epochs of Church History
EDITED BY
PROFESSOR MANDELL CREIGHTON.
THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
Edited by Professor MANDELL CREIGHTON.
Fcp. 8vo, 2s. 6d. each.
THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN OTHER LANDS. By Rev. H. W. TUCKER.
THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. By Rev. GEORGE G. PERRY.
THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By the Rev. J. H.
OVERTON.
THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. By the Hon. G. C. BRODRICK.
THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. By J. BASS MULLINGER, M.A.
THE CHURCH OF THE EARLY FATHERS. By A. PLUMMER, D.D.
THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By the Rev. A. CARR.
THE CHURCH AND THE PURITANS, 1570-1660. By H. OFFLEY WAKEMAN, M.A.
THE CHURCH AND THE EASTERN EMPIRE. By the Rev. H. F. TOZER.
HILDEBRAND AND HIS TIMES. By the Rev. W. R. W. STEPHENS.
THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By Rev. W. HUNT, M.A.
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. By H. M. GWATKIN, M.A.
THE COUNTER-REFORMATION. By A. W. WARD.
THE ENGLISH CHURCH
IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
BY WILLIAM HUNT.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1888.
_All rights reserved_
Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
PREFACE.
This book is intended to illustrate the relations of the English Church
with the papacy and with the English State down to the revolt of Wyclif
against the abuses which had gathered round the ecclesiastical system of
the Middle Ages, and the Great Schism in the papacy which materially
affected the ideas of the whole of Western Christendom. It was thought
expedient to deal with these subjects in a narrative form, and some gaps
have therefore had to be filled up, and some links supplied. This has been
done as far as possible by notices of matters which bear on the moral
condition of the Church, and serve to show how far it was qualified at
various periods to be the example and instructor of the nation. No
attempt, however, has been made to write a complete history on a small
scale, and I have designedly passed by many points, in themselves of
interest and importance, in order to give as much space as might be to my
proper subjects. Besides, this volume has been written as one of a series
in which the missions to the Teutonic peoples, the various aspects of
Monasticism, the question of Investitures, and the place which the
University of Oxford fills in our Church's history have been, or will be,
treated separately. Accordingly I have not touched on any of these things
further than seemed absolutely necessary.
I wish that, limited as my task has been, I could believe that it has been
adequately performed. No one can understand the character, or appreciate
the claims, of the English Church who has not studied its history from the
beginning, and it is hoped that this little book may do something, however
small, towards spreading a correct idea of the part that the Church has
borne in the progress of the nation, and of the grounds on which its
members maintain that it has from the first been a National Church, as
regards its inherent life and independent attitude as well as its intimate
and peculiar relations with the State. A firm grasp of the position it
held during the Middle Ages is necessary to a right understanding of the
final rupture with Rome accomplished in the sixteenth century, and will
afford a complete safeguard against the vulgar error of regarding the
Church as a creation of the State, an institution established by the
civil power, and maintained by its bounty. Those who are acquainted with
our mediaeval chroniclers will see that I have written from original
sources. I have also freely availed myself of the labours of others, and,
above all, of the works of Bishop Stubbs, which have been of the greatest
assistance to me.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE v
LISTS OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY AND THE BISHOPS AND
ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK TO 1377 xiii
CHAPTER I. ROME AND IONA.
St. Augustin's Mission--Pope Gregory's Scheme of Organization--
Causes of its Failure--Foundation and Overthrow of the See of
York--Independent Missions--The See of Lindisfarne--Scottish
Christianity--The Schism--The Synod of Whitby--Restoration of
the See of York 1
CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATION.
Archbishop Theodore--His Work in Organization--New Dioceses--
Wilfrith's Appeals to Rome--Literary Greatness of Northumbria--
Parishes--Tithes--The Church in Wessex--A Third Archbishopric--
The Church in Relation to the State--to Rome--to Western
Christendom 15
CHAPTER III. RUIN AND REVIVAL.
Ruin of Northumbria--AEthelwulf's Pilgrimage--Danish Invasions
of Southern England; the Peace of Wedmore--Alfred's Work--
Character of the Church in the Tenth Century--Reorganization--
Revival--Oda--Dunstan--Seculars and Regulars--Dunstan's
Ecclesiastical Administration--Coronations--Dunstan's Last
Days--AElfric the Grammarian 34
CHAPTER IV. EXHAUSTION.
Characteristics of the Period--Renewed Scandinavian Invasions--
Legislation--Archbishop AElfheah: his Martyrdom--End of the
Danish War--Cnut and the Church--The King's Clerks--Spiritual
Decadence--Foreigners appointed to English Sees--Effect of these
Appointments--Party Struggles--Earl Harold--Pilgrimages--A
Legatine Visit--A Schismatical Archbishop--The Papacy and the
Conquest--Summary: The National Character of the Church before
the Norman Conquest 55
CHAPTER V. ROYAL SUPREMACY.
The Conqueror and Lanfranc--Canterbury and York--Separate
Ecclesiastical System--Removal of Sees--Extent and Limits of
Papal Influence--The Conqueror's Bishops--Change in the
Character of the Church--An Appeal to Rome--Feudal Tendencies--
St. Anselm--Struggle against Tyranny--Investitures--Henry I.--
Councils--Legates--Independence of the See of York--Summary 77
CHAPTER VI. CLERICAL PRETENSIONS.
Stephen and the English Church--Archbishop Theobald and Henry
of Winchester--Thomas the Chancellor--The Scutage of Toulouse--
Thomas the Archbishop--Clerical Immunity--The Archbishop in
Exile--His Martyrdom--Henry's General Relations to the Church--
Conquest of Ireland--Richard's Crusade--Longchamp--Archbishop
Hubert Walter--Character of the Clergy 105
CHAPTER VII. VASSALAGE.
The Alliance between the Church and the Crown--Coronation of
John--Quarrel between John and the Pope--The Interdict--
Vassalage of England--The Great Charter--Papal Tutelage of
Henry III.--Taxation of Spiritualities--Papal Oppression--
Edmund Rich, Archbishop--Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of
Lincoln--Alienation from Rome--Civil War--Increase of Clerical
Pretensions--The Canon Law 135
CHAPTER VIII. THE CHURCH AND THE NATION.
Character of the Reign of Edward I.--Archbishop Peckham--
Statute of Mortmain--Conquest of Wales--Circumspecte Agatis--
Expulsion of the Jews--Clerical Taxation and Representation
in Parliament--Breach between the Crown and the Papacy--
Confirmation of the Charters--Archbishop Winchelsey and the
Rights of the Crown--The English Parliament and Papal
Exactions--Church and State during the Reign of Edward II.--
Papal Provisions to Bishoprics--The Bishops and Secular
Politics--The Province of York--Parliament and Convocation 161
CHAPTER IX. THE PAPACY AND THE PARLIAMENT.
Ecclesiastical Character of the Reign of Edward III.--
Archbishops and their Ecclesiastical Administration--
Provisions--Statute of Provisors--Statute of Praemunire--
Refusal of Tribute--Relations between the Church and the
State--Causes of Discontent at the Condition of the Church--
Attack on Clerical Ministers and the Wealthy Clergy--Concordat
with the Papacy--The Good Parliament--Conclusion 192
INDEX 219
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY TO 1377.
+-------------------------------------------+
| | Accession. | Death. |
|-------------------|------------|----------|
|Augustin | 597 | 604 |
|Laurentius | 604 | 619 |
|Mellitus | 619 | 624 |
|Justus | 624 | 627 |
|Honorius | 627 | 653 |
|Deusdedit | 655 | 664 |
|Theodore | 668 | 690 |
|Brihtwald | 693 | 731 |
|Tatwin | 731 | 734 |
|Nothelm | 735 | 739 |
|Cuthberht | 740 | 758 |
|Brecgwin | 759 | 765 |
|Jaenberht | 766 | 791 |
|AEthelheard | 793 | 805 |
|Wulfred | 805 | 832 |
|Feologeld | 832 | 832 |
|Ceolnoth | 833 | 870 |
|AEthelred | 870 | 889 |
|Plegmund | 890 | 914 |
|Athelm | 914 | 923 |
|Wulfhelm | 923 | 942 |
|Oda | 942 | 959 |
|Dunstan | 960 | 988 |
|AEthelgar | 988 | 989 |
|Sigeric | 990 | 994 |
|AElfric | 995 | 1005 |
|AElfheah | 1005 | 1012 |
|Lyfing | 1013 | 1020 |
|AEthelnoth | 1020 | 1038 |
|Eadsige | 1038 | 1050 |
|Robert | 1051 | 1070 |
|Stigand | 1052 | ... |
|Lanfranc | 1070 | 1089 |
|Anselm | 1093 | 1109 |
|Ralph | 1114 | 1122 |
|William of Corbeuil| 1123 | 1136 |
|Theobald | 1139 | 1161 |
|Thomas [Becket] | 1162 | 1170 |
|Richard | 1174 | 1184 |
|Baldwin | 1185 | 1190 |
|Hubert Walter | 1193 | 1205 |
|Stephen Langton | 1207 | 1228 |
|Richard Grant | 1229 | 1231 |
|Edmund Rich | 1234 | 1240 |
|Boniface | 1245 | 1270 |
|Robert Kilwardby | 1273 |res. 1278 |
|John Peckham | 1279 | 1292 |
|Robert Winchelsey | 1294 | 1313 |
|Walter Reynolds | 1313 | 1327 |
|Simon Mepeham | 1328 | 1333 |
|John Stratford | 1333 | 1348 |
|Thomas Bradwardine | 1349 | 1349 |
|Simon Islip | 1349 | 1366 |
|Simon Langham | 1366 |res. 1368 |
|William Whittlesey | 1368 | 1374 |
|Simon Sudbury | 1375 | 1381 |
+-------------------------------------------+
BISHOPS AND ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK TO 1377.
+-------------------------------------------+
| | Accession. | Death. |
|-------------------|------------|----------|
|Paulinus | 625 | ... |
|Wilfrith | 664 | 709 |
|Ceadda | 664 |res. 669 |
|Bosa | 678 | 705 |
|John of Beverley | 705 |res. 718 |
|Wilfrith II. | 718 | 732 |
|Ecgberht | 732 | 766 |
|AEthelberht (Albert)| 766 | 780 |
|Eanbald | 780 | 796 |
|Eanbald II. | 796 | 812 |
|Wulfsige | ... | 831 |
|Wigmund | 837 | ... |
|Wulfhere | 854 | 900 |
|AEthelbald | 900 | ... |
|Redewald |cir. 928 | ... |
|Wulfstan |cir. 931 | 956 |
|Oskytel | 958 | 971 |
|Oswald | 972 | 992 |
|Ealdulf | 992 | 1002 |
|Wulfstan II. | 1003 | 1023 |
|AElfric | 1023 | 1051 |
|Kinesige | 1051 | 1060 |
|Ealdred | 1060 | 1069 |
|Thomas | 1070 | 1100 |
|Gerard | 1101 | 1108 |
|Thomas II. | 1109 | 1114 |
|Thurstan | 1119 | 1140 |
|William | 1143 | 1154 |
|Henry Murdac | 1147 | 1153 |
|Roger | 1154 | 1181 |
|Geoffrey | 1191 | 1212 |
|Walter Gray | 1215 | 1255 |
|Sewal de Bovill | 1256 | 1258 |
|Godfrey | 1258 | 1265 |
|Walter Giffard | 1266 | 1279 |
|William Wickwain | 1279 | 1285 |
|John le Roman | 1286 | 1296 |
|Henry Newark | 1298 | 1299 |
|Thomas Corbridge | 1300 | 1303 |
|William Greenfield | 1306 | 1315 |
|William Melton | 1317 | 1340 |
|William Zouche | 1342 | 1352 |
|John Thoresby | 1352 | 1373 |
|Alexander Neville | 1374 | 1392 |
+-------------------------------------------+
THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
CHAPTER I.
_ROME AND IONA._
ST. AUGUSTIN'S MISSION--POPE GREGORY'S SCHEME OF ORGANIZATION--CAUSES
OF ITS FAILURE--FOUNDATION AND OVERTHROW OF THE SEE OF
YORK--INDEPENDENT MISSIONS--THE SEE OF LINDISFARNE--SCOTTISH
CHRISTIANITY--THE SCHISM--THE SYNOD OF WHITBY--RESTORATION OF THE SEE
OF YORK.
[Sidenote: St. Augustin's landing at Ebbsfleet, 597.]
The Gospel was first brought to the Teutonic conquerors of Britain by
Roman missionaries, and was received by the kings of various kingdoms.
From the first the Church that was planted here was national in character,
and formed a basis for national union; and when that union was
accomplished the English State became coextensive with the English Church,
and was closely united with it. The main object of this book is to trace
the relations of the Church both with the Papacy and with the State down
to the new era that opened with the schism in the Papacy and the Wyclifite
movement. Our narrative will begin with the coming of Augustin and his
companions in 597 to preach the Gospel to the English people. They landed
in the Isle of Thanet. The way had, to some extent, been prepared for
them, for AEthelberht, king of Kent, whose superiority was acknowledged as
far north as the Humber, had married a Christian princess named Bertha,
the daughter of a Frankish king, and had allowed her to bring a priest
with her and to practise her own religion. He had not, however, learnt
much about Christianity from his queen or her priest. Nevertheless, he
received the Gospel from Augustin, and was baptized with many of his
people. By Gregory's command, Augustin was consecrated "archbishop of the
English nation" by the archbishop of Arles. AEthelberht gave him his royal
city of Canterbury, and built for him there the monastery of Christ
Church, the mother-church of our country.
[Sidenote: Gregory's scheme of organization, 601.]
Gregory organized the new Church, in the full belief that it would extend
over the whole island. He sent Augustin the "pall," a vestment denoting
metropolitan authority, and constituting the recipient vicar of the Pope.
Two metropolitan sees were to be established--the one at London, the
residence of the East Saxon King Saeberct, who reigned as sub-king under
AEthelberht, a crowded mart, and the centre of a system of roads; the other
at York, the capital of the old Roman province north of the Humber. Both
archbishops were to receive the pall, and to be of equal authority. At the
same time, the unity of the Church was ensured, for they were to consult
together and act in unison. Both the provinces were to be divided into
twelve suffragan bishoprics, and as the northern province took in the
country now called Scotland, they were of fairly equal size. This
arrangement was not to be carried out until after Augustin's death. As
long as he lived all the bishops alike were to obey him, and he was, we
may suppose, to continue to reside at Canterbury. Moreover, the clergy of
the Welsh or Britons were to be subject to him and to the future
archbishops of the English Church. Augustin endeavoured to persuade the
Welsh clergy to join him in preaching the Gospel to the Teutonic invaders,
and held a meeting with them at or near Aust, on the Severn. But they
refused to acknowledge his authority, or even to hold communion with him,
and would not give up their peculiar usages with respect to the date of
Easter and the administration of Baptism. At Augustin's request, Gregory
sent him a letter of instructions as to the government of the Church. It
bears witness to the Pope's largeness of mind. While morality and decency
were to be enforced, the archbishop was not bound strictly to follow the
Roman ritual; if he found anything that he thought would be helpful to his
converts in the Gallican or any other use, he might adopt it, and so make
up a use collected from various sources.
[Sidenote: Causes of its failure.]
Excellent as Gregory's scheme would have been had Britain still been under
Roman rule, it was unsuited to a country divided as England then was into
several rival kingdoms. London did not become a metropolitan see, probably
because AEthelberht was unwilling that the seat of ecclesiastical authority
should be transferred from his own kingdom to the chief city of a
dependent people, while Augustin had no wish that the church which he had
founded at Canterbury, and the second monastery, now called after him,
which he had begun to build there for a burying-place for himself and his
successors, should be reduced to a lower rank. Other Roman clergy had been
sent by Gregory to reinforce the mission, and of these Augustin
consecrated Mellitus to be bishop of London, Justus to be bishop over Kent
west of the Medway, with Rochester as the city of his see, an arrangement
that marks an early tribal distinction, and Laurentius to be his own
successor at Canterbury. Thus the metropolitan see remained with Kent.
More generally, Gregory's scheme failed because it was founded on the old
division of Britain as a province of the Roman empire, and was not adapted
to the tribal distinctions of the English. Moreover, political
circumstances determined the development of the Church; for the Roman
mission received a series of checks, and the work of evangelization was
taken up by Scottish missionaries. The kingdoms into which the country was
divided were finally converted by efforts more or less independent of the
Kentish mission; the work of evangelization followed tribal lines, and for
sixty years after Augustin's death the tendency of the Church was towards
disunion.
[Sidenote: Foundation and overthrow of the see of York, 627-633.]
Although the king of the East Angles received baptism in Kent at the
bidding of AEthelberht, he fell back into idolatry on his return to his own
land. And as AEthelberht's son, Eadbald, was a pagan, many of the
Kentishmen and East Saxons also deserted Christianity when he became king.
Eadbald was converted by Laurentius, and did what he could to forward the
cause of Christ. With AEthelberht's death, however, the greatness of Kent
passed away, and Eadbald could not insist on the destruction of idols even
in his own country. While Kent sank into political insignificance the
Kentish mission made one great advance, and then ended in failure. The
Northumbrian king, Eadwine, who reigned over the two Northumbrian
kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira, from the Forth to the Humber, and gradually
established a supremacy over the whole English people except the
Kentishmen, married AEthelburh, the daughter of AEthelberht. She was
accompanied to her new home by Paulinus, who was ordained bishop by
Justus, the successor of Mellitus; and Boniface V. wrote to her exhorting
her to labour for the conversion of her husband, and saying that he would
not cease to pray for her success. His prayers were heard; Eadwine was
baptized, and made his capital, York, the seat of the bishopric of
Paulinus. The people of Deira (Yorkshire) followed their king's example,
while Bernicia, though Paulinus preached and baptized there, remained, on
the whole, heathen; no church was built and no altar was raised. South of
the Humber the authority of Eadwine and the preaching of Paulinus effected
the conversion of Lindsey, and of the king, at least, of the East Angles.
In 633, however, Eadwine was defeated and slain by Penda, the heathen king
of Mercia, and Cadwallon, the Briton. Heathenism was already triumphant in
East Anglia, and on Eadwine's death many of the Northumbrians relapsed
into idolatry. AEthelburh and her children sought shelter in Kent, and
Paulinus fled with them. Only one Roman clergyman, the deacon James,
remained in Northumbria to labour on in faith that God's cause would yet
triumph there. Ignorant of the calamity that had befallen the Church, the
Pope, in pursuance of Gregory's scheme, sent the pall to Paulinus. When
the papal gift arrived in England the Church of York had been overthrown,
and Paulinus had been translated to Rochester.
[Sidenote: Independent missions.]
[Sidenote: Foundation of the see of Lindisfarne, 635.]
After the success of the Kentish mission had received this terrible check,
the work of evangelization was carried on by efforts that were more or
less independent of it. East Anglia was finally converted by a Burgundian
priest named Felix, who was consecrated bishop by Honorius, archbishop of
Canterbury, and fixed his see at Dunwich, once on the Suffolk coast. The
Italian, Birinus, who was consecrated in Italy, brought the Gospel to the
West Saxons, and received Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, for the place of his
see. Northumbria was evangelized by Celtic missionaries who were not in
communion with Rome and Canterbury. About the middle of the sixth century
the Irish Scot, Columba, founded the monastery of Iona. He and his
companions preached the Gospel to the northern Picts and the Scots of the
western isles, and Iona became a centre of Christian light. During the
reign of Eadwine, Oswald and Oswiu, princes of the rival Bernician line,
had found shelter in Iona. Oswald returned to become king of Bernicia
shortly after the death of Eadwine, and before long brought Deira also
under his dominion. As soon as he had gained possession of the kingdom of
Bernicia, he sent to Iona for missionaries to instruct his people. Aidan,
a missionary from Columba's house, came to him, and so it came to pass
that Bernicia received Christianity from Celtic teachers, from Aidan and
his fellow-workers. Oswald warmly seconded their efforts, and fixed the
see of Aidan, who was in bishop's orders, in Lindisfarne, or Holy Isle,
not far from Bamborough, where he resided; for though he ruled over both
the Northumbrian kingdoms, and completed the minster at York, he made his
home in the North, among his own people. Bernicia thus became the
stronghold of Celtic Christianity under the rule of the kings of the house
of Ida, while the Christians of Deira were naturally more inclined to the
Roman usages which had been introduced by Paulinus and practised by
Eadwine and his queen. Aidan built a monastery at Lindisfarne, and peopled
it with monks from Iona. This gave him a good supply of clergy, and the
work of evangelization prospered and took deep root. The greatness of
Oswald provoked Penda to renew his struggle with the northern kingdom, and
the Northumbrian king was defeated and slain at Maserfield. As his foes
closed round him he prayed for their conversion. His words sank deeply
into men's hearts. "'May God have mercy on their souls,' said Oswald, as
he fell to earth," was a line handed down from generation to generation.
From his hermit's retreat on Farne Island, Aidan beheld the thick clouds
of smoke rise from the country round Bamborough, and cried, "Behold, Lord,
the evil that Penda doeth!" Still the work of God went on; and when Oswiu
came to the throne the prayer of Oswald received its answer, for a
marriage between his house and the house of Penda led to the
evangelization of the Mercians and Middle Angles by the monks of Iona.
From them too the East Saxons received the Gospel, and Cedd, an English
monk of Lindisfarne, was consecrated to the bishopric that had been held
by the Roman Mellitus.
[Sidenote: Scottish Christianity.]
By the middle of the seventh century only Kent and East Anglia remained in
full and exclusive communion with Rome; for Sussex was still heathen,
Wini, the West Saxon bishop, acted with British bishops, and Scottish
Christianity prevailed in all the rest of England. The Scottish
missionaries were full of zeal and self-devotion, and were masters of a
considerable store of learning. Their nature was impulsive; while they
were loving and tender-hearted, passionate invectives came as readily from
their lips as words of love. Celtic Christianity was a religion of
perpetual miracles, of deep and varying emotions, and of contempt for
worldly things, that, however noble in itself, was sometimes manifested
extravagantly. While its teachers seldom failed to win men's love, they
were not equally successful in influencing their conduct. It was well that
the English Church turned away from them, for their religious system could
never have produced an organized ecclesiastical society. It was monastic
rather than hierarchical, and a Celtic priest-abbot was a far more
important person than a bishop who was not the ruler of an abbey, though
in England the bishops were probably always abbots. In founding their sees
they sought seclusion rather than good administrative centres, and the
bishop's monastery was less a place of diocesan government than the
headquarters of missionary effort. They had no regular diocesan system,
and bishops and clergy ministered where they would. Their monasticism was
of a specially ascetic character. Both Aidan and Cuthberht loved to leave
the society of the monks at Lindisfarne, and to retire to the barren
little Farne Island, where they could only hear the roaring of the
northern ocean and the crying of the sea-birds. Cuthberht, indeed, even
after he joined the Roman Church, kept the characteristics of the Scottish
monk. He left the duties of his bishopric altogether and ended his days in
his island-hermitage. This love of asceticism was fatal to the well-being
of the Church; the individual soul was everything; the Church was nothing;
and though great victories were won over heathenism, the Scottish Church
remained without corporate life. Lastly, it was not in communion with
Rome, and so lay outside Catholic Christendom. And though it had much to
offer the English both in religion and learning, every gift would have
been rendered fruitless by isolation from the progressive life of Western
Christendom.
[Sidenote: The schism.]
It was, indeed, impossible, from the very nature of things, that Celtic
Christianity should long prevail in England, for its arrangements were
based on the loose organization of the sept, and the English needed
arrangements that suited kingship and tended towards political as well as
ecclesiastical union. Its rejection was, however, determined by questions
of Church order. Up to the middle of the fifth century the Celtic
Christians computed Easter by the Roman lunar cycle, which had gradually
diverged from that of Eastern Christendom. When, however, the Romans
adopted a new system of computation, the Welsh and the Irish Scots adhered
to the old cycle; and they further differed from the Roman Church as
regards the shape of the tonsure and the rites observed in the
administration of Baptism. Unimportant as such differences may seem to us,
they were really no light matters; for, as the Church was engaged in a
conflict with paganism, unity with itself was of the first consequence.
The points at issue began to be much debated in Northumbria when the
gentle-spirited Aidan was succeeded at Lindisfarne by Finan, a man of
violent temper. The Bernician court was divided. Oswiu was attached to the
Scottish communion, and his attachment was strengthened by his regard for
Colman, the successor of Finan. On the other hand, his queen, Eanflaed, the
daughter of Eadwine, belonged to the Roman party; and so it came about
that, while the king was keeping his Easter feast, his queen was still in
the Lenten fast. Oswiu's son, Alchfrith, who reigned as under-king in
Deira, left the Scottish communion and eagerly upheld the Roman party. He
was encouraged by Wilfrith, the abbot of Ripon. Wilfrith, who was the
child of wealthy parents, had been led by the unkindness of his stepmother
to desire to become a monk, and had been sent, when a handsome, clever lad
of thirteen, to Queen Eanflaed, that she might decide what he should do.
Eanflaed sent him to Lindisfarne, and he stayed there for some years. Then
she helped him to visit Rome, and he made the journey, which was as yet
unknown to his fellow-countrymen, partly in the company of Benedict
Biscop, who became the founder of Roman monasticism in the north of
England. While he was at Rome Wilfrith studied ecclesiastical matters, and
especially the subject of the computation of Easter. He returned home
fully convinced of the excellence of the Roman Church, and found in
Alchfrith a warm friend and willing disciple. Alchfrith had built a
monastery at Ripon, and peopled it with Scottish monks from Melrose. When
he adopted the Roman customs, these monks, of whom Cuthberht was one,
refused to follow his example, and accordingly he turned them out, and
gave the monastery to Wilfrith.
[Sidenote: The synod of Whitby, 664.]
Before long Wilfrith, who was a good preacher and charitable to the poor,
became exceedingly popular. The ecclesiastical dispute was evidently
closely connected with the rivalry between the two Northumbrian kingdoms;
the Roman cause was upheld in Deira and by the Deiran under-king, while
the Celtic clergy were strong in Bernicia, and trusted in the support of
Oswiu. A visit from Agilberct, a Frank, who had held the West Saxon
bishopric, and had since returned to Gaul, gave Alchfrith an opportunity
of bringing matters to an issue. Agilberct admitted Wilfrith to the
priesthood, and urged on a decision of the dispute. A conference was held
at the abbey of Strenaeshalch, or Whitby. The abbey was ruled by Hild,
great-niece of King Eadwine, who presided over a congregation composed of
monks as well as nuns. Five of Hild's monks became bishops, and the poet
Caedmon was first a herdsman, and then a brother of her house. Hild
belonged to the Scottish party, which was represented at the conference by
Colman, Cedd, and others. The leaders on the Roman side were Agilberct,
Wilfrith, James the deacon of Paulinus, and Eanflaed's chaplain, Romanus.
The question was decided in a synod of the whole Northumbrian kingdom,
presided over by Oswiu and Alchfrith. Oswiu opened the proceedings with a
short speech, in which he urged the necessity of union and the importance
of finding out what the true tradition was. Colman then stated his case,
which he rested on the tradition of his Church and the authority of St.
John. At the request of Agilberct, Oswiu called on Wilfrith to answer him.
Wilfrith spoke in an overbearing tone, for he was of an impatient temper.
He sneered at the obstinacy of "a few Picts and Britons" in setting
themselves in opposition to the whole world, and met Colman's arguments by
declaring that the Celtic Easter was condemned by St. Peter, of whom the
Lord had said, "Thou art Peter," &c. (Matt. xvi. 18). On this, Oswiu asked
Colman whether the Lord had indeed spoken thus, and when he said that He
had done so, further demanded whether his Columba had received any such
power. Colman allowed that he had not. The king then asked whether both
parties were agreed that Peter had received the keys of Heaven. "Even so,"
was the answer. "Then," said he, "I will not go against him who is
doorkeeper, but will do all I know and can to obey him, lest perchance,
when I come to the door of the kingdom of Heaven, I should find none to
open to me, because he who holds the keys is offended with me." The
assembly agreed with the king's decision, and declared for the Roman
usages. James the deacon saw the reward of his long and faithful labour;
he was a skilful singer, and introduced the Roman method of chanting into
Northumbria.
The Synod of Whitby is the turning-point in the history of the schism.
Before many years the Celtic party died out in the north, and though the
Celtic customs lingered a little longer among the Britons of the west, the
decisive blow had been struck; the Church of England was to follow Rome.
The gain was great. The Church was to have a share in the progressive life
of Catholic Christianity; it was to have a stately ritual, and to be
adorned by the arts and strengthened by the learning of the west; it
gained unity and organization for itself, and the power of exercising a
determining influence on the lives of individual men, and on the formation
and history of the future State. Nevertheless, the decision of the synod
was not all gain, for it led to the submission of the Church to papal
authority, and in times of national weakness exposed it to papal
aggression.
[Sidenote: Restoration of the see of York, 664.]
Colman refused to accept the decision of the synod, and left England in
anger, taking several of his monks with him. His departure ruined the
cause of his Church. His successor in the vast Northumbrian diocese died
of the terrible plague that visited England the year of the Synod. Then
the two kings held a meeting of the Northumbrian witan, and Wilfrith was
chosen bishop. The victory of his party was further declared by the
restoration of the see of York. Ever since the flight of Paulinus, York
had remained without a bishop; now, doubtless at the instance of Alchfrith
and the people of Deira, it took the place of Bernician Lindisfarne as
the seat of the Northumbrian bishopric. Wilfrith went to Gaul to receive
consecration, on the ground that there were not three canonically ordained
bishops in England, an assertion which seems to have been hasty and
incorrect. He stayed abroad for three years, and so well-nigh threw away
the victory he had gained, for while he was absent Alchfrith lost his
kingdom, and the rivalry between the two divisions of Northumbria found
expression in a revulsion of feeling in ecclesiastical matters. When he
came back he found that Aidan's disciple, Ceadda (St. Chad), the brother
of Cedd, who had adopted the Roman customs, had been appointed bishop in
his place. He retired to Ripon, acted as bishop in other parts, and helped
forward the introduction of Roman monasticism into monasteries that had
hitherto followed the Columban model.