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Footnotes:
[1] Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus agreed that it was better for them to
go back to their own country, and there serve God with minds at rest, than
to live fruitlessly among barbarians who had revolted from the faith
(Bede, ii. 5). It was in pursuance of this resolution that Mellitus and
Justus crossed the Channel, and Laurentius prepared to follow them.
[2] The last decade of the century usually played an important part in the
period which our present consideration covers. From 190 to 200,
Christianity made such progress in Britain as to justify the remark of
Tertullian quoted on page 54. From 290 to 300, Constantius secured his
position. From 390 to 400, the last great stand against the barbarian
invaders on the north was made by the help of Roman arms. From 490 to 500,
the great victory of the Britons under Ambrosius Aurelianus over the
Saxons rolled back for many years the English advance. From 590 to 600,
the Christianising of the English began to be a fact.
[3] See page 96.
[4] Ecclesiastical History of the Franks, ix. 37.
[5] Page 120.
[6] _Daily Chronicle_, June 30, 1893.
[7] _Standard_, May 30, 1893.
[8] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ (late Canterbury copy). Green, _Making of
England_, p. 111.
[9] There is a very interesting discussion in a recent book, _The History
of St. Martin's Church, Canterbury_, by the Rev. C. F. Routledge, Honorary
Canon of Canterbury, on the meaning of this statement (pages 120, &c.). It
seems to me clear that Bede believed the church in question to have been
dedicated to St. Martin while the Romans were still in the land. As Martin
was living up to 397, and the Roman empire in Britain ended in 407, there
is not much time for a dedication to this particular Martin. But our ideas
of dedications are very different from those which guided the nomenclature
of churches in the earliest centuries of Christianity here. If Martin
himself ever lived at Canterbury, and had this church, the difficulty
would disappear.
[10] The contradictory instructions given by Gregory on the question of
using heathen temples for Christian worship are rather puzzling. They are
found in a letter to Mellitus, dated June 15, 601, and in a letter to
Augustine, dated June 22, 601. The surmise of Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs
that the former date is wrong, and that the letter to Mellitus was later
than that to Augustine, is reasonable, and solves the puzzle. On this
view, Gregory wrote to Augustine, on June 22, 601, to the effect that the
idol-temples must be destroyed. This letter, as we know, he gave to
Mellitus, who was in Rome, to be brought by him to England. Then, a few
days later, perhaps on June 27, he sent a short letter to Mellitus, to say
that he had carefully considered the matter, and had decided that if an
idol-temple was well built, it should be cleansed, and consecrated to the
service of Christ. It is an interesting fact that the earliest historical
testimony to the existence and martyrdom of St. George, who was recognised
for so many centuries as the Patron of England, is found in an inscription
in a church in southern Syria, dating from about the year 346, stating
that the church had been a heathen temple, and was dedicated as a church
in honour of the "great martyr" St. George.
[11] Known as the Goidelic branch of the Celtic race.
[12] The names Galatae and Celtae are not improbably the same word, the
latter name being pronounced with a short vowel between the _l_ and the
_t_, as though spelled Cel[)a]tae or Cel[)u]tae. It is in fact so
pronounced to this day in many parts of the island.
[13] Known as the Brythonic branch of the race.
[14] As has been already remarked, they are now generally described as the
Brythonic and Goidelic branches of the Celtic race.
[15] Or with ab, as Bevan and Baddam, that is, ab Evan and ab Adam. Map
and mab, ap and ab, stand for "son."
[16] St. Peter is now being claimed as one of the Apostles of Britain; but
it is impossible to deal seriously with such a proposition. A pamphlet
with this view was issued in 1893, by the Reverend W. Fleming, M. R.
Cardinal Baronius, holding the view that St. Peter lived long in Rome,
felt the difficulty which any one with the historic sense must feel, that
St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans makes no mention of St. Peter as
being then in Rome, nor does the history in the last chapters of the Acts.
The explanation given is that St. Peter, though permanently resident in
Rome, was away from home on these occasions. As there is no trace of him
in any known country at the time, Britain is taken as the place of his
sojourn during some of the later years of St. Paul, probably as the
country where traces of his sojourn were least likely to be found on
record. Mr. Fleming quotes a passage from a book written in 1609 by the
second "Vicar Apostolic of England and Scotland," which is only too
typical an example of a style of assertion and argument of which we might
have hoped that we had seen the last. "I assure the indifferent reader,
that St. Peter's preaching to the ancient Britons, on the one side is
affirmed both by Latins and Greeks, by ancient and modern, by foreign and
domestic, by Catholic writers..., by Protestant antiquaries...; and on the
other side, denied by no one ancient writer, Greek or Latin, foreign or
domestic, Catholic or other."
[17] Archdeacon Prescott informs me that in an early deed in the MS.
Register of Lanercost Priory there is mention made of a _capella de
virgis_, a chapel of wattle-work, at Treverman (Triermain). Divine Service
was celebrated there by consent of Egelwin, the last Anglo-Saxon Bishop of
Durham.
[18] Some writers, not aware of the extent to which wattle-work can be
used and has been used, have said that _virgea_ must in this connection
mean "made of boards," not of wattle. There seems to be no sufficient
reason for putting this interpretation upon a well-known word. And even if
it had that meaning, we should find in the recently revealed British
marsh-fortress an equally good illustration of their skill in working
boards. The principal causeway is faced with oak boards on its two
vertical sides. These are kept in their place by carefully squared oak
posts, driven deep into the ground below, so that their tops are level
with the surface of the causeway. The tops of the posts are morticed, and
a bar of oak, across the causeway, is let into the tops of the two posts
opposite to one another, and is fastened there with oak pegs. Thus the
boards which face the vertical sides of the causeway are clamped tight in
their places. The work is done throughout with extreme neatness of fit and
finish.
[19] Juvenal, _Satires_, xii. 46; Martial, _Epigrams_, xiv. 99.
[20] _Ep._ xi. 53.
[21] _Wars of the Jews_, vi. 6.
[22] _Annals_, xiv. 32, 33.
[23] That is, in December 1893, in the war with the Matabele.
[24] It is added that in the eventual revenge of the Romans, some eighty
thousand of the Britons were killed. These numbers seem at first sight
very large, too large to be historical. But we may bear in mind that
Caesar a hundred years before had noted with surprise the populousness of
Britain--_hominum infinita multitudo_, countless swarms of men.
[25] See p. 117. As I have found myself obliged by historical
considerations to abandon the interesting old tradition of King Lucius, I
may as well give in a note some details of the story which have special
interest for us in London. It may be mentioned as a preliminary, that
Gildas (about A. D. 560) makes no reference to the story. Bede, who
usually follows Gildas, gets his information about Lucius from the Roman
Chronicle, as enlarged in the time of Prosper. But he gives two different
dates, in one place (i. 4) A. D. 156, which is inconsistent with the names
of the reigning emperors as given by him, and in another place (the
summary at the end of book v) after A. D. 167. The earliest British
testimony to the story is that of Nennius, in the ninth century. He tells
us that Lucius was called Lleur maur, the great light, because of this
event.
The fully developed story is quoted by Dugdale (_History of St. Paul's_,
p. 2) from a MS. in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's
before the fire of 1666, as follows:--'In the year 185 Pope Eleutherius
sent hither into Britain, at the instance of King Lucius, two eminent
doctors, Faganus and Damianus, to the end that they might instruct him and
his subjects in the principles of Christian religion, and consecrate such
churches as had been dedicated to divers false gods, unto the honour of
the true God: whereupon these holy men consecrated three metropolitical
sees in the three chief cities of the island, unto which they subjected
divers bishopricks: the first at London, whereunto all England, from the
banks of Humber southwards, and Severn eastward, belonged: the second,
York, which contained all beyond Humber northwards, together with
Scotland: the third, Caerleon (upon Uske) whereunto all westward of
Severn, with Wales totally, were subject. All which continued so till
Augustine (who was sent by Pope Gregory) in the year 604 after the birth
of our Saviour, having translated the primacy to Canterbury, constituted
Mellitus the first bishop of London.'
The Church of St. Peter upon Cornhill claims to have been the Cathedral
Church of London, as founded by Lucius. There was a brass plate hanging
'in the revestrie of Saint Paules at London' (Hollinshed, A D. 1574), with
a statement to that effect, probably dating from the time of Edward IV.
The old brass plate, now preserved in the vestry of St. Peter's, Cornhill,
is 'the old one revived': except in some of the details it agrees with the
following copy of the plate formerly in the vestry of St. Paul's as given
by Weever before the fire (_Funeral Monuments_, A. D. 1631, p. 413).
'Be hit known to al Men that the yeerys of owr Lord God An. clxxix,
Lucius, the fyrst christen king of this lond, then callyd Brytayne,
fowndyd the fyrst Chyrch in London, that is to sey, the Chyrch of Sent
Peter upon Cornhyl; and he fowndyd ther an Archbishoppys See, and made
that Chirch the Metropolitant and cheef Chirch of this Kindom, and so
enduryd the space of cccc yeerys and more, unto the commyng of Sent
Austen, an Apostyl of Englond, the whych was sent into the lond by Sent
Gregory, the Doctor of the Chirch, in the tym of King Ethelbert, and then
was the Archbyshoppys See and Pol removyd from the aforeseyd Chirch of
Sent Peters apon Cornhyl unto Derebernaum, that now ys callyd Canterbury,
and ther yt remeynyth to this dey.
'And Millet Monk, whych came into this lond wyth Sent Austen, was made the
fyrst Bishop of London, and hys See was made in Powllys Chyrch. And this
Lucius, Kyng, was the fyrst Fowndyr of Peters Chyrch apon Cornhyl; and he
regnyd King in this Ilond after Brut mccxlv yeerys. And the yeerys of owr
Lord God a cxxiiii Lucius was crownyd Kyng, and the yeerys of hys reygne
lxxvii yeerys, and he was beryd aftyr sum cronekil at London, and aftyr
sum cronekil he was beryd at Glowcester, at that plase wher the ordyr of
Sent Francys standyth.'
The records of the Corporation of London shew that in 1399 and 1417 the
Rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill, had precedence over all Rectors in the
City on this account. 'An apostolic contention oftentimes arose between
the Rectors of the churches of St. Peter, Cornhill, St. Magnus the Martyr,
and St. Nicholas, Cold Abbey, which of them would seem to be the greater
and by reason of such dignity should occupy the last place in the
procession in the week of Pentecost.' The Mayor and Aldermen decided that
the Rector of St. Peter's, 'of right, and for the honour of that most
sacred Basilica of St. Peter (which was the first church founded in
London, namely, in the year of our Lord 199, by King Lucius, and in which
was the metropolitan see for four hundred years and more) shall go alone
after all the other Rectors of the same City ... as being priors or abbots
over them.' [From an account of the Church of St. Peter upon Cornhill, by
the Rev. R. Whittington, now Prebendary of St. Paul's, 1872.]
[26] On this important point we may expect some detailed discussion before
long. The interesting publication, recently commenced, of the _Supplément
aux Bollandistes pour des vies de Saints de l'époque Mérovingienne_
(Dupont, 4 Rue du Bouloi, Paris), will contain a treatise _sur
l'évangélisation de l'Angleterre par les soins du roi Lucius_.
[27] The French ecclesiastics claim the foundation of bishoprics at some
of these places in the first century.
[28] The language of the traditions would suggest that only the holders of
the principal sees went from Britain, there being other bishops who stayed
at home, in smaller places. Bishoprics rapidly increased in number in the
early Anglo-Saxon Church; indeed, the number of bishoprics in England
remained almost stationary from Bede's time to Henry VIII. In the time of
Archbishop Tatwine, who was contemporary with the last years of Bede,
there were seventeen bishoprics, counting Whithorn, and at the beginning
of Henry VIII's reign there were eighteen, counting Man; the Welsh
bishoprics are not included in these numbers. Dunwich and Elmham,
Sherborne, Selsey, Lindisfarne, Lindsey, in Tatwine's time, were
represented respectively by Norwich, Salisbury, Chichester, Durham,
Lincoln, in Henry VIII's time. Leicester, Hexham, Whithorn, had
disappeared, and Bath, Carlisle, Ely, Exeter, Man, had come into
existence.
[29] See page 59.
[30] Any one writing of these early times has to exercise great
self-restraint, if he is not to overload his subject with interesting
illustrations. I cannot refrain from quoting here two paragraphs from Bede
(iii. 15) which shew that there was a curious knowledge of the property of
oil in England in the seventh century, about 651 A. D.
A certain priest, whose name was Utta, a man of great gravity and
sincerity, and on that account honoured by all men, even the princes of
the world, being ordered to Kent, to bring from thence, as wife for King
Oswy, Eanfleda, the daughter of King Edwin, who had been carried thither
when her father was killed; and intending to go thither by land, but to
return with the virgin by sea; repaired to Bishop Aldan, entreating him to
offer up his prayers to our Lord for him and his company, who were then to
set out on their journey. He, blessing and recommending them to our Lord,
at the same time gave them some holy oil, saying, "I know that when you go
aboard, you will meet with a storm and contrary wind; but do you remember
to cast this oil I give you into the sea, and the wind shall cease
immediately, you will have pleasant calm weather, and return home safe."
All which fell out as the bishop had predicted. For in the first place,
the winds raging, the sailors endeavoured to ride it out at anchor, but
all to no purpose; for the sea breaking in on all sides, and the ship
beginning to be filled with water, they all concluded that certain death
was at hand. The priest at last remembering the bishop's words, laid hold
of the phial and cast some of the oil into the sea, which, as had been
foretold, became presently calm. Thus it came to pass that the man of God,
by the spirit of prophecy, foretold the storm that was to happen, and by
virtue of the same spirit, though absent, appeased the same. Which miracle
was not told me by a person of little credit, but by Cynemund, a most
faithful priest of our church, who declared that it was related to him by
Utta, the priest, on and by whom the same was wrought.
[31] The dates of the departures and restorations of the Roman troops may
be stated as follows:--
A. D. 387. Withdrawal of the Roman troops from Britain.
A. D. 396. A legion sent to guard the Wall.
A. D. 402. The legion withdrawn.
A. D. 406. The Roman army restored.
A. D. 407. Constantine the usurper again withdraws the army.
A. D. 409. Termination of the Roman empire in Britain.
The last troops no doubt sailed from Richborough, the massive Roman walls
of which have defied the ravages of time. Since these lectures were
delivered, an interesting token of the presence of the Romans has been
found there, a gold coin of Honorius, who was emperor of the West at the
time of the final withdrawal. It has evidently not been in circulation for
more than at most a very short time. Richborough has now been purchased at
the instance of the Archbishop of Canterbury and placed under trustees,
and all treasures found there will be carefully preserved. The great bulk
of the coins and other relics found in recent years was acquired some time
ago for the Liverpool Museum.
[32] Haddan and Stubbs, i. 121. The British were not driven from these
parts much before 652-658. Hence, perhaps, the preservation of the old
wattle church, the conquerors being now Christians.
[33] The list of sixteen Archbishops is given by Sir T. D. Hardy in his
edition (1854) of Le Neve's _Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae_, on the ground
that he did not wish to omit a list given by Godwin; he adds that Wharton
(_de episcopis Londin_.) believed Restitutus and Fastidius to be the only
names of Bishops of London contained in the list. The names of the
so-called Archbishops are:--1. Theanus; 2. Eluanus; 3. Cadar; 4. Obinus;
5. Conanus; 6. Palladius; 7. Stephanus; 8. Iltutus; 9. Theodwinus, or
Dewynus; 10. Theodredus; 11. Hilarius; 12. Restitutus; 13. Guitelinus; 14.
Fastidius; 15. Vodinus; 16. Theonus. The first on the list is said to have
been made archbishop by King Lucius. The date of the twelfth is of course
314. The fifteenth is said to have been murdered by Hengist for protesting
against the unlawful marriage of Vortigern with Hengist's daughter Rowena,
about 455; this date of the last but one on the list is consistent with a
view held by some chroniclers that there were no bishops of London between
the beginning of the Saxon invasion and the coming of Augustine.
It is evident that when the masquerading dress of Latin is taken off the
names, some of them are British.
[34] It is unnecessary to say that some writers in the past have assumed
that a metropolitan bishop in early times was of course an archbishop. It
was not so.
[35] Augustine does not appear to have been called Archbishop of
Canterbury in his lifetime. He was called Bishop of the English, and
sometimes Archbishop. His epitaph, as given by Bede (ii. 3), described him
as _dominus Augustinus Dorovernensis Archiepiscopus primus_, "the Lord
Augustine, first Archbishop of Dorovernium" (Canterbury).
[36] Bede, i. 29.
[37] If, indeed, he is certainly speaking of the same Picts.
[38] See page 96.
[39] On one stone,--+Alpha+ et +Omega+, hic iacent sancti et praecipui
sacerdotes id est Viventius et Mavorius; on the other,--[Piu]s et
Florentius.
[40] It has been said confidently that the Alpha and Omega is not found in
Ireland. I found, however, an early stone in the churchyard at Kells with
the Alpha and Omega, the Chi Rho, and the I H S. This is the only case in
which I have seen all three on one monument.
[41] In a field near the Almond, at Kirkliston. The inscription is In oc
tumulo iacit Vetta f Victi ... If we take the form used by Bede (i. 15)
_Victi_ would stand for Victigilsi.
[42] See page 11.
[43] Tacitus, _Life of Julius Agricola_, ch. 24.
[44] See page 59.
[45] See page 58.
[46] Almost the same details, however, appear in the treatment of Wilfrid
by his fellow-Anglians (Eddi, ch. 49). His opponents so entirely execrated
his fellowship, that if any abbat or priest of his party, bidden by a
faithful layman, made the sign of the cross over the meat, it was cast out
as a thing offered to idols; and any vessel they used was washed before
one of the other side would touch it. Theological differences are a
competent substitute for difference of race.
[47] The general idea of the "cycle of years" is that after such-and-such
a number of years the sun and moon and earth return to the same relative
positions. This is fairly true of nineteen years; more closely true of
ninety-five.
[48] Adamnan, who tells us this, tells us also that the prophecy was
fulfilled. Lugbe Mocummin was at Cantyre with the Saint some months after,
and found there a ship whose captain told them of the destruction of the
city (now called Citta Nuova). _Life of Columba_, i. 22.
[49] St. Oliver, formed from Santo Liverio (St. Liberius, the Swiss St.
Livres), and San Todo, from St. Odo, are similar cases.
[50] One has recently been found at Silchester, much further east than any
other known example.
[51] In modern phrase, the Goidelic, not the Brythonic branch of the
Celtic race.
[52] Thus on the famous stone at St. Dogmael's, near Cardigan, the first
bilingual inscription of this kind found, the Ogam is _sagramni maqi
cunatami_, the Latin, _sagrani fili cunotami_.
[53] It is unnecessary to explain that _Missa_, the Latin equivalent of
Mass, was of course used in Augustine's time. It was not for centuries
after this that a narrow meaning came to be attached to the words Missa
and Mass, by the introduction and prevalence of the doctrine of
Transubstantiation.
[54] Those who desire information on these points will find it in the Rev.
F. E. Warren's _Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church_.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.
The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
letters have been replaced with +transliterations+.
"Bythonic" has been corrected to "Brythonic" in footnote 51.