1USTRATED NOTES JOHN M. KELLY LIBQABY Donated by The Redemptorists of the Toronto Province from the Library Collection of Holy Redeemer College, Windsor University of St. Michael s College, Toronto N8LT REDEEMER HIRAM, Illustrated Notes on English Church History FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE REFORMATION AND MODERN CHURCH WORK [VOLS. I. AND iij BY THE REV. C. ARTHUR LANE F.R. Hist. S. t Author of" Church and Realm in Stuart Times, "Descriptive Lantern Lectures on English Church History" "Lectures on the Life of Queen Victoria" etc. REVISED EDITION COMPLETING OVER TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND VOLUMES LONDON I SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.G. BRIGHTON : 129, NORTH STREET. f^ NEW YORK : E. & J. B YOUNG & CO. $ ?T. ANN S Iv iONTUliA uY KFrtFfMER LIBRARY. SU NT Illustrated Notes on English Church History VOL. I FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION BY THE REV. C. ARTHUR LANE F,R. Hist. S., Author of "Church and Realm in Stuart Times, "Descriptive Lantern Lectures on English Church History," "Lectures on the Life of Queen Victoria" etc. REVISED EDITION Completing over Two Hundred and Twenty Thousand Volumes PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. J 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET. NEW YORK : E. S. GORHAM. 1904 tbc Same Butbor. DESCRIPTIVE LANTERN LECTURES ox ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY" FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. Crown Svo, cloth boards, 2s. 6d. CHURCH AND REALM IN THE STUART TIMES PUBLISHED BY EDWARD ARNOLD, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND. Croicn Sco, doth boitnts, 3s. 6<<. PREFACE THE first half of these "Notes" was originally published in 1886. The second half followed in 1888. The present revised edition brings up the number printed to two hundred thousand volumes, and it is gratifying to know that they are circulated and appreciated in the remotest regions where the Church of England has its outposts. The title explains itself. The work is not an exhaustive history, but a collection of notes thereon, to meet inquiries for a cheap illustrated book about the Church of England. Church histories hitherto have mostly been written for students, or are beyond the financial reach of the general public. Such popular handy volumes as bear upon the subject deaL mainly with special aspects, or do not afford so clear an idea of its consecutiveness as will enable the majority of Church-goers to meet erroneous assertions of those who differ from the doctrines of, or envy the noble position occupied by the English Church. To place a connected series of historical facts before the public, at a price within the reach of the humblest, was the chief object of the aiithor. At the same time readers are warned not to expect herein a complete record of all the important events and persons connected with our Church in every age, but only to look for sufficient typical examples as will help them to judge for themselves of the incorrectness of theories recently advanced by modern adversaries of the English Church ; as for instance- (1) That it is of comparatively recent origin ; or (2) that it owes its existence, position, and emoluments to the favour of the civil government ; or (3) that whatever of its history belongs to antiquity is traceable to its connexion with and subjection to the Church of Rome. vi PREFACE The main plan has been to give prominence to the concurrent history of the Church and Kealm ; to show that through all ages they have been indissolubly wedded ; and to present the Church s ancient, mediaeval, and modern history as parts of one continuous whole, with the episcopate for its basis. The history of the Anglican Church beyond the seas is outside the plan, and is therefore only incidentally treated. The " Notes " are divided into two small volumes for the sake of ease in handling, but, as will be seen from the paging, each volume should be considered as only half of one book. Apart from the question of cheapness, it may well be doubted whether there is any necessity for treating the history of the Church of England anew ; especially as there is nothing stated herein which has not been better said over and over again. Although no new light has been thrown upon a well-worn subject by these pages, they may help to diffuse the old light. Nothing has been stated which has not been generally accepted as true, or which is not useful to know ; and if the grouping of certain facts varies at times from the customary methods, it is never without good reason. Possibly no two minds would draw identical conclusions from the vast range of history covered herein, and whatever may be said on con troverted points there are sure to be some who would prefer a different view. That such will question the writer s treatment or selection of events and persons is fully expected ; and lest any readers should feel aggrieved because the errors of the Church of Rome are not expressly denounced, or that insufficient credit has been given to the conscientious convictions of nonconformists, it may be well to state at the outset that these pages do not profess to discuss opinions or theories on matters of faith ; but simply to state, and occasionally comment upon, such ascertained facts of ecclesiastical history as may help the general public to a better understanding of what is meant by the national Church. Party names which have come to be used as terms of opprobrium, are as far as possible avoided in the following pages ; and although the writer does not pretend to look at matters from other than a Churchman s standpoint, he believes that he has not PREFACE vii dealt unfairly or inconsiderately by those who are opposed to the Church of England. When reference is made to their religious systems, it is with a view of showing the external position occupied by the Church towards them in the past, arid there is no intention of implying unkind reflections upon modern adherents of papal or puritan beliefs. Up to the Norman conquest the history of the Church and the history of the people are so closely interwoven that it is impossible to separate them. That is because our knowledge of what occurred in early times has been derived almost exclusively from the writings of ecclesiastics, the religious houses being for ages the sole depositories of literature and science. Until the days of King Alfred it was an exceptional occurrence to find the nobility or princes devoting them selves to peaceful arts or intellectual acquirements ; those who felt so inclined invariably left the world behind them and joined some monastic community, although they may have stopped short of the higher ministerial orders. Books written under such auspices were more dependent on traditional stories and more associated with superstitious improbabilities than we should expect to find in impartial histories ; yet we may easily eliminate the superstitious or unauthentic parts, retaining the portions which commend themselves to common sense, and so glean a tolerably concise, continuous, and reliable record. The life of the Church in our land divides itself naturally into several distinct epochs, or definite periods of time I. The era of Conversion first, when the earliest known inhabitants of our country, governed by agents of the Csesars, became Christians ; and secondly, when Anglo-Saxon settlers were in turn made converts. II. The era of Consolidation when Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Danish tribes, having first received the one Faith, were organized into a national Church, and, through ecclesiastical statesmen, brought under one civil ruler. III. The era of Oppression when the land was ruled by Norman and Plantagenet kings, and the Church became subject to papal influence through their rule. viii PREFACE IV. The era of Patriotism, commonly known as " The Reformation " under the Tudor dynasty during which both Church and Realm resumed their ancient national independence. V. The era of Party strife during the troublous times of the Stuarts, when conflicting religious sects threatened to overwhelm the old Church, which ended at the Revolution. And lastly, VI. The era of Progression during which the Church has tried to meet the great demands made upon its resources, and presented to the world a glorious front. Throughout all those periods, exceeding 1800 years, \ve are able to trace the apostolic form of Church government in England, by the three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons claiming descent from the primitive Church ; and we can also perceive with equal clearness a similar antiquity and continuity of doctrine, by means of liturgies in constant use. Only in minor points of discipline and ceremonial has the Church in Britain materially differed from the rest of Christendom, such differences being caused by varying needs, consequent upon the civil changes our land has passed through when new races of men made it their home, and so modified the character of its inhabitants. It is hoped that many may be led by the perusal of the following pages to study particular epochs and biographies more in detail. Happily there is now no lack of suitable books ; and the clergy are at all times ready to recommend such to their parishioners and pupils. The chief change made in this edition is the combination of both chronological tables at the beginning of the first volume, and a com plete index at the end of the second ; so as to facilitate references. CONTENTS OF VOL. I CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS CONTEMPORARY KINGS, PRELATES, AND POPES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PAGE xvii xxxiv xl PART I Ube ]ra of Conversion CHAPTER I. (A.D. 33-274) THE ORIGIN OF BRITISH CHRISTIANITY Terminology Profane history and religion The conquest by Claudius Britons in Rome Traditions respecting the in troduction of Christianity St. Joseph of Arimathea Other traditions: Lucius Doctrine and liturgy Historical testi mony The early missionaries The early martyrs ... CHAPTER II. (A.D. 274-449) THE GROWTH AND VIGOUR OF BRITISH CHRISTIANITY Constantine the great Church councils British bishops present The council of Nicaea Other councils Decadence of Roman Britain Pelagianism The Alleluia battle Second visit of the Gallican bishops The Celtic mission in Scotland St. Patrick Further Celtic missions CHAPTER III. (A.D. 449-597) EFFECT OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST ON BRITISH CHRISTIANITY The Jutes settle in Kent Arrival of the Saxons The Anglian colonies The destruction of British churches Anglo-Saxon heathenism The survival of British Christianity Organiza tion of the Church in Wales St. Columba in Scotland The 1} CONTENTS PAGE British Church in Cornwall The independence of the British Churches Architecture of the British churches Relation ship to Church of England ... ... ... ... ... 27 CHAPTER IV. (A.D. 597-604) THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE Gregory the great Augustine s arrival in Kent The first arch bishop of Canterbury Correspondence with St. Gregory- Augustine and the British bishops The death of Augustine 43 CHAPTER V. (A.D. 604-681) THE CONVERSION OF "ENGLAND" Unsuccessful Italian missions Paulinus in Northumbria Conver sion of East-Anglia The Celtic mission in Nortlmmbria The conversion of Wessex Conversion of the Middle- Angles Conversion of the East-Saxons The death of Penda The conversion of Sussex Table of conversion of Heptarchy ... 57 PART II TTbe Bra of Consolidation CHAPTER VI. (A.D. 664-690) THE BLENDING OF THE MISSIONS UNDER THEODORE The council of Whitby Wilfrid and Chad Archbishop Theo dore Diocesan changes Amalgamation Synod of Hert fordSynod of Hatfield Wilfrid s appeals to Rome The parochial system ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 75 CHAPTER VII. (A.D. 690-796) PROSPERITY OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH Effects of Theodore s work Illustrative teaching Monastic life St. Cuthbert Anglo-Saxon authors Anglo-Saxon foreign missions Early benefactions to churches Royal devotees Decadence of religious purity Offa, king of Mercia... ... 95 CONTENTS xi CHAPTER VIII. (A.D. 787-1066) THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN PAGE The first Danish invasions Destruction of the Anglo-Saxon churches Alfred the great Peace with the Danes Alfred s government and laws Re-conquest of the north Changes in the Church St. Dunstan Secular v. Regular Dunstan s administration Tho Danish conquest Anglo-Saxon archi tecture The English restoration Genealogical table ... 113 CHAPTER IX. (A.D. 1066-1089) THE NORMAN CONQUEST The Norman nobles Completion of the conquest Episcopal changes Archbishop Stigand Papal influence in England Ecclesiastical courts The Doomsday survey Death of the conqueror Archbishop Lanfranc Disunion of " East" and " West" Changes in doctrine and discipline The liturgical " use " of Sarum Norman architecture ... ... ... 138 PART III Ube ira of Oppression CHAPTER X. (A.D. 1089-1109) THE DAYS OF ANSELM OF CANTERBURY William Rufus and the Church Anselm of Bee Rival popes Anselm s appeal to Rome Anselm and Henry I. Embassies to Rome Distressful condition of the Church Anselm leaves England Reconciliation of Henry and Anselm Anselm s closing days Opinions on Anselm s character ... 157 CHAPTER XL (A.D. 1109-1154) LOSS OF INDEPENDENCE Supremacy of the see of Canterbury Union of Welsh and English Churches Papal encroachments Military religious orders, the crusades New monastic orders Stephen s misrule, Battle of the Standard 174 CONTENTS CHAPTER XII. (A.D. 1154-1175) THOMAS BECKET PAGE Henry II. Thomas Becket Becket becomes archbishop Re striction of Church privileges Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164 The council of Northampton Becket s appeal to the pope The French king s mediation The murder of Becket Consequences of Becket s murder 189 CHAPTER XIII. (A.D. 1175-1228) THE GREAT CHARTER The election of bishops Hugh of Lincoln Pope Innocent III. The humiliation of King John Stephen Langton Magi) a Charta Subsequent events The mendicant orders 202 CHAPTER XIV. (A.D. 1228-1327) THE REACTION AGAINST ROMAN SUPREMACY Edmund Rich of Canterbury Robert " Grossetete," of Lincoln The first representative parliament The English Church under Edward I. The pope s claim to supremacy in Scotland The reign of Edward II 215 CHAPTER XV. (A.D. 1327-1384) BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH REFORM Statutes against Rome The universities John de Wycliffe Wycliffe s translation of the Bible Wycliffe s second trial and death Mediaeval architecture William of Wykeham ... 229 CHAPTER XVI. (A.D. 1384-1509) THE ADVENT OF THE TUDOR DYNASTY The wars with France Social conditions of the fifteenth century Wycliffe and the Lollards Anti-papal statutes Council of Constance Doctrinal abuses Alien priories The printing-press Wars of York and Lancaster Increasing need for Church reform Summary 241 CONTENTS OF VOL. II *% The chapters and pages are numbered successively to follow those in the first volume. PAGE GENEALOGICAL TABLE 268 PART IV tTbe Era of patriotism CHAPTER XVII. (A.D. 1509-1547) HENRY VIII. AND HIS CHANCELLORS Introductory The Oxford reformers Wolsey s scheme for Church reform The king s divorce Convocation and the "seven years " parliament The royal supremacy Foreign influences Translation of the Scriptures Doctrinal reforms The reactionary party 269 CHAPTER XVIII. (A.D. 1536-1540) DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES Pre-Norman and post-Norman religious houses The first sup pressionThe pilgrimage of grace The final suppression The king s vicar-general Distribution of monastic estates Monastic churches made cathedral Monastic churches made collegiate Monastic churches now parochial Educa tional and charitable foundations ... ... ... ... 295 CHAPTER XIX. (A.D. 1547-1558) EDWARD VI. AND MARY The Edwardian council of regency Suppression of the chantries The liturgy Edwardian bishops Foreign religious reformers The succession to the throne The Marian bishops The Spanish match Reconciliation with Rome The Marian per secutionsThe exiled reformers , 317 xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER XX. (A.D. 1558-1603) THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH PAGE Restoration of the royal supremacy Restoration of the Liturgy The vacant bishoprics Consecration of Archbishop Parker Articles of religion The council of Trent The first Romanist nonconformists The first protestant noncon formists Mary, queen of Scots The Spanish armada National glory Summary of Part IV 341 PART Y ZTbe Era of part$ Strife CHAPTER XXL (A.D. 1603-1625) THE GROWTH OF PURITANISM The seventeenth century Scotch presbyterianism The Hampton- Court conference The gunpowder treason plot The authorized version The puritans Abbott, Andrewes, and Laud Progress of Anglican principles ... ... ... 365 CHAPTER XXII. (A.D. 1625-1649) KING VCrSUS PARLIAMENT The petition of right Arbitrary civil government Laud s administration- -the Scotch liturgy "War with Scotland The long parliament Outbreak of the civil war The long parliament and the clergy The long parliament and the bishops The Westminster assembly The " independent " army Regicide ... ... ... .. ... ... ... 385 CHAPTER XXIII. (A.I). 1649-1660) UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH Proceedings of the " rump " Religious anarchy The quakers "Worcester fight Destruction of churches Cromwell s parlia mentsSufferings of the clergy Sufferings of the laity Royalist reaction 411 CONTENTS xv CHAPTER XXIV. (A.D. 1660-1685) RESTORATION OF CHURCH AND REALM PAGE The return of the king The Savoy conference The revised liturgy Repressive legislation The great plague Fire of London A great architect The Church in Scotland National dread of Romanism Popish plots The Church in Ireland 427 CHAPTER XXV. (A.D. 1685-1691) THE SEVEN BISHOPS James II. and the puritans JVwi-resistance The declaration of indulgence The bishops in the Tower Trial of the seven bishops The revolution A lost cause " The Non-jurors" Vacillating clergy ... ... ... ... ... ... 447 ART VI ZTbe Bra of progression CHAPTER XXVI. (A.D. 1688-1714) PEACE AND POPULARITY The protestant succession Toleration act Religious societies The S. P. C.K. Church work abroad The S. P.O. The Scotch episcopate supplanted Queen Anne s bounty Im peachment of Dr. Sacheverell Popularity of the Church- Hardships of nonconformity Pews in churches ... ... 462 CHAPTER XXVII. (A.D. 1714-1830) THE GEORGIAN ERA The silencing of convocation Calm in the Church Growth of infidelity The Wesleys George Whitfield Methodism The evangelical revival Evangelical societies The C.M.S. Parliamentary grants ... ... ... ... ... ... 481 CONTENTS CHAPTER XXyill. (A.D-. 1778-1888) RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PAGE Removal of nonconformist disabilities Encroachments upon Church privileges Removal of Romanist disabilities The new papal hierarchy Removal of Jewish disabilities The Irish Church Removal of atheist disabilities The ecclesi astical commission Disestablishment agitations Lawsuits respecting doctrine and ritual Revival of convocation ... 503 CHAPTER XXIX. (A.D. 1801-1888) MODERN CHURCH WORK Missionary enterprise The Oxford Movement Origin of Sunday Schools The National Society Church restoration In crease of the clergy Church extension Home Mission work - Finance ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 524 CHAPTER XXX. (A.D. 1784-1888) THE EXTENSION OF THE EPISCOPATE The American episcopate The Colonial episcopate Home diocesan changes The diocese of Manchester The diocese of Truro The diocese of St. Albans The diocese of Liverpool The diocese of Newcastle The diocese of South wellThe diocese of Wakefield Suffragan bishops The Lambeth conferences Conclusion ... ... ... ... 545 GENERAL INDEX 567 CHKONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 33. Day of Pentecost (Birthday of the Church) ... 1 43. Invasion of Britain by Claudius Caesar .... 3 54. Family of Caratacus prisoners at Rome .... 5 55. St. Paul imprisoned at Rome ...... 5 60. Joseph of Arimathea founds Glastonbury (?) . . 6 170. King Lucius sends to Rome for Christian teachers (?) . 8 193. (?) Tertullian testifies to the faith of Britain ... 9 240. (?) Origen gives similar testimony ..... 10 274. Birth of Constantine 13 304. (?) Martyrdom of St. Alban 11 314. Bishops of York, London, and Caerleon at Council of Aries 17 325. General council of Nicaea 17 346. Council of Antioch 56 347. British bishops at the council of Sardica . . . .18 358. Hilary of Poitiers testifies to orthodoxy of Britons . . 18 360. British bishops at council of Ariminum . . . .18 381. General council of Constantinople 89 400. St. Ninian settles in the lowlands of Scotland ... 25 401. Corantinus organizes the Christian missions in Cornwall . 38 410-420. (?) Evacuation of Britain by Romans . . . .20 427. Gallican bishops visit the British Church .... 21 428. " Alleluia Battle " at Maes Gannon 21 431. General council of Ephesus 51 b2 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 432. St. Patrick becomes "bishop of the Irish" ... 26 445. (?) Church built at Perranzabuloe 39 447. Sacond visit of Gallican bishops Overthrow of Pelagianism 22 449. Settlement of the Jutes in Kent . . . .30 450-550. Destruction of British churches by heathen invaders . 32 451. General council of Chalcedon ...... 87 477. Settlement of the South-Saxons 29 495. Settlement of the West-Saxons 30 500. (?) See of Llandaff founded 34 520. Battle of Mount- Badon 30 530. Settlement of other Saxon tribes 30 540. (?) See of Bangor founded 34 ,, (?) See of Caerleon-on-Usk transferred to St. Davids . 35 547. Settlement of the Angles in Nortlmmbria . ... 30 553. General council of Constantinople . ... .89 560. See of St. Asaph founded 26, 35 ,, Kingdom of the Middle-Angles founded .... 74 565. Columba settles in lona 36 585. Kingdom of East Anglia established .... 30 587. The Heptarchy established 30 597. Augustine lands in Kent . . . . . .46 601. Mellitus, Justus, and Paulinus reinforce Augustine . . 51 603. British bishops confer with Augustine . . . .52 ,, See of London revived ....... 57 604. The see of Rochester founded 55 , , Death of Augustine ........ 56 616. Apostacy of the East-Saxons ...... 57 626. Paulinus revives the see of York 58 631. Felix and Fursey establish Christianity in East Anglia . 62 633. Apostacy of Northumbria 61 634. Birinus consecrated to work in "Wessex .... 66 635. The Celtic missionaries re-establish Christianity in the north 65 ,, See of Lindisfarne founded ins ead of the see of York . 66 636. The king of Wessex is baptized 67 653. Conversion of the Middle- Angles 68 654. Cedd re-establishes Christianity among the East-Saxons . 69 656. Diuma becomes bishop of Mercia ..... 72 ,, Monastery of Peterborough founded ..... 72 664. Conference at Streanseshalch (Whitby) 75 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xix A.D. PAGE 665. See of York restored by Wilfrid 79 ,, Cuthbert becomes prior of Lindisfarne .... 99 ,, British bishops assist at consecration of St. Chad . . 80 ,, Vighard sent to Rome for consecration . . . .81 669. Archbishop Theodore lands in Britain .... 82 ,, Chad re-consecrated as bishop of Lichfield (Mercia) . . 86 672. Birth of Bede 100 673. Synod of Hertford 87 677. Sees of Lindisfarne and Hexham taken out of York . . 90 678. Wilfrid appeals to Rome 90 679. Kingdom of Mercia divided into five dioceses ... 83 680. Synod of Hatfield 88 Wilfrid subscribes to canons of a synod at Rome . . 90 681. Conversion of South-Saxons ...... 72 ,, Parochial system founded . . . . . .93 ,, Benedict Biscop flourishes as a church builder . . 89, 131 685. Diocese of Ripon proposed . . . . . .91 690. Ina establishes code of Christian laws . . . .109 700. Aldhelm flourishes as a church builder in Wessex . . 100 706. See of Sherborne founded 68 709. Death of Wilfrid .93 716. Boniface of Exeter becomes a missionary in Fricsland . 103 720. Ina establishes an English hospital and school at Rome . 108 725. (?) Bede s Ecclesiastical History written . . . .101 734. See of York becomes an archbishopric . . . .110 735. Death of Venerable Bede 102 750. First recorded mention of tithes ..... 107 787. Synod of Chelsea 107 ,, First Danish invasion . . . . . . .113 ,, See of Lichfield becomes an archbishopric . . .110 790. Offa establishes St. Alban s monastery . . . .112 792. Offa increases Ina s provision for hospital at Rome . .112 794. Alcuin of York becomes educational adviser of Charlemagne 111 795. Danes destroy Lindisfarne . . . . .114 803. Lichfield again becomes a suffragan see . . .111 827. Anglo-Saxon settlements first called England . . .112 833. Bishops and clergy fight against the Danes . . .114 835. Egbert defeats the Danes at Hengist s-down . . .115 851. Danes begin to settle in England . 116 xx CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 855. Ethelwulf legalises and increases payment of tithes . 106 866. Danes destroy the Anglo-Saxon churches . . . .117 870. Martyrdom of Edmund, king of East- Anglia . . . 116 871. Alfred the great becomes king of Wessex .... 119 879. Peace of Wedmore Danes first become Christians . . 120 ,, Alfred codifies laws for his kingdom on basis of Decalogue 121 890. Co-equal intercourse of English and foreign churches . 122 904. See of Wells founded 124 926. Old Cornish Church amalgamated with Anglo-Saxon Church 124 943. Dunstan nourishes as a statesman 125 945. Odo transfers parochial church property to monasteries . 126 955. Dunstan disapproves Edwy s marriage with Elgiva . .127 960. Dunstan becomes archbishop of Canterbury . . .128 988. Death of Dunstan 129 991. Renewed invasions of Danes Imposition of Danegeld . 129 995. ^Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury 129 1002. Massacre of the Danes on St. Brice s day . . . .129 1012. Martyrdom of Elphege, archbishop of Canterbury . . 130 1017-1035. King Cnut and his sons. 1017. All England acknowledges one king . . . . .130 1027. Cnut founds Bury St. Edmund s monastery . . . 131 1042-1066. Edward the Confessor. 1042. Coronation of Edward the Confessor . . . .133 1044. Robert of Jumieges, the first Norman bishop in England . 133 1050. Sees of Cornwall and Devon removed to Exeter . . 39 1052. Stigand elected archbishop of Canterbury . . . . 136 1055. Great Schism between East and West of Christendom . 153 1061. Wulfstan consecrated bishop of Worcester . . . 144 ,, Consecration of Harold s collegiate church at Waltham . 134 1065. Westminster-abbey opened for worship . . . .134 1066. Struggle between Harold and William the Norman . .136 1066-1087. William I. 1066-1087. William I. separates secular and spiritual courts . 148 1067. William I. forbids receipt of papal letters without leave . 148 1070. William the Conqueror refuses homage to the papacy . 146 ,, Lanfranc becomes primate 146 1071. Completion of the Norman conquest . .... 142 Bishops seats removed to more populous cities . . .143 1085. Osmund, bishop of Sarum, compiles his liturgy . . 155 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 1086. Domesday survey made 149 1087-1100. William II. 1087. Tower of London built by Gundulph, bishop of Rochester . 155 1089. Death of Archbishop Lanfranc . . . . . .157 1093. Consecration of Anselm to the see of Canterbury . . 159 1095. William Rufus outlaws Anselm ..... 161 ,, Peter the Hermit preaches the first crusade . . .181 1097. Anselm goes to Rome 163 1099. Synod at Rome condemns lay appointments . . .164 1100-1135. Henry I. 1100. Anselm is recalled by Henry I. 165 1102. Anselm calls a synod to correct abuses . . . .167 1103. Anselm refuses to be re -invested by Henry I. . . .166 1107. Henry I. agrees to compromise the question of investiture 169 1109. Herve, bishop of Bangor, becomes first bishop of Ely . 172 ,, Death of Anselm . . . . . . . .172 1115. Supremacy of Canterbury acknowledged by Welsh bishops 174 1119. The pope usurps the rights of the see of Canterbuiy . . 175 1125. John de Crema sent by the pope as legatus a Mere . . 178 1129. First English Cistercian monastery (Waverley) . .184 1133. See of Carlisle (Augustinian canons) founded . . . 179 1135-1154. Stephen or Maud. 1136. Archbishop William de Corbeuil died . . . .180 1137. Henry de Blois, bishop of Winchester, made papal legate . 179 1138. Battle of the Standard 187 1 139. Bishops of Lincoln, Ely, and Sarum imprisoned by Stephen 188 1154-1189. Henry II. 1154. Nicholas Breakspear becomes pope (Adrian IV.) . . 189 1162. Thomas Becket becomes archbishop of Canterbury . .191 1163. Quarrel between Becket and Henry II. at Woodstock . ]92 ,, Council at Westminster to determine clerical jurisdiction . 193 1164. Constitutions of Clarendon 194 1165. Becket charged with treason at council of Northampton . 195 1170. Henry and Becket become reconciled . . . .198 ,, Murder of Becket in Canterbury cathedral . . . 199 1173. Becket is canonised 200 1174. King Henry II. does penance at Becket s tomb . . . 201 1181. First English Carthusian monastery (Witham) . . .184 1186. Hugh of Avalon consecrated bishop of Lincoln . . . 203 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 1189-1199. Richard I. 1189. Innocent III. becomes pope ...... 206 1190. Archbishops of Canterbury join the Crusades . . . 202 1193. Quarrel respecting election of archbishops of Canterbury . 202 1199-1216. John. 1207. John refuses to receive Stephen Langton as archbishop . 206 1208. England placed under an interdict 206 1212. Innocent III. deposes King John . . . . 207 1213. Kiijg John becomes the pope s vassal and receives Langtorf 207 ,, Langton leads barons in defence of national privileges . 208 1215. Barons and prelates compel John to sign Magna Chart a . 209 1216. Deaths of Pope Innocent III. and King John . . .212 1216-1272. Henry III. 1219. Dominican (black) friars settle in England . . . 213 1220. Translation of Becket s remains 212 1224. Franciscan (grey) friars settle in this country . . . 213 1226. Pope Honorius III. demands patronage of English benefice:; 216 1228. Death of Stephen Langton . . - . . . .212 1229. Pope Gregory IX. demands a tenth of English property . 216 1234. Edmund Rich is made archbishop of Canterbury . .215 1235. Robert Grossetete becomes bishop of Lincoln . . . 218 1237. Legatine council at St. Paul s . . . . . .217 1247. Grossetete resists the papal demands .... 218 1250. Grossetete preaches at Lyons against papal exactions . 218 1253. Death of Grossetete 219 1256. Pope claims " annates," or first-fruits, from English clergy 220 1258. The Provisions of Oxford 220 1259. A foreign priest assassinated at St. Paul s ... . .220 1265. Simon de Montfort summons representatives of commons to a parliament in Westminster chapter-house . . 220 1269. Westminster-abbey re-built by Henry III. . . .212 1272-1307. Edward I. 1274. Edward I. crowned in Westminster abbey . . . 222 1279. Mortmain statute checks bequests to religious houses . 222 1283. Convocation questions right of king to subsidies . . 222 1285. The statute Circumspecte agatis passed .... 223 1295. Clergy summoned as an estate of the realm to parliament . 222 1296. Pope s bull Clericis Laicos 224 ,, Edward I. outlaws clergy for obedience to a papal decree . 224 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xxiii A.D. PAGE 1301. Boniface VIII. claims to hold Scotland as a fief of Rome . 226 1305. Archbishop Winchelsea condemned by the pope . . 226 1307. The parliament at Carlisle protests against papal exactions 227 1307-1327. Edward II. 1308. Suppression of the knights-Templar 227 1317. John XXII. " reserves" eighteen English bishoprics. . 228 1324. John de Wycliffe born 232 1327 1377. Edward III. 1338. Beginning of the wars with France 229 1343. The pope "provides" two cardinals for England . . 229 1344. The commons petition against the pope s action . . 229 1346. Battle of Crecy . . . . . . . .230 1349. The "Black Death" 230 1351. First statute of Provisors against papal patronage . . 230 1353. First statute of Prcemunire against papal jurisdiction . 230 1360. Wycliffe flourishes at Oxford 232 1366. Wycliffe defends refusal of subsidy to Borne . . . 232 ,, William of Wykeham is made bishop of Winchester . . 239 1374. Wycliffesent to Bruges to protest against papal "provisions" 233 1377. Wycliffe summoned to trial at St. Paul s for "heresy " . 234 1377-1399. Richard II. 1380. Wycliffe publishes his translation of the Bible . . .234 1381. Wat Tyler s rebellion Murder of Archbishop Sudbury . 235 1382. Courtenay s statute against heretical preachers . . . 236 1384. Death of Wycliffe .236 1390. Statutes of Provisors re-enacted 248 1393. Statute of Prcemunire re-enacted ..... 248 1395. Lollards plead for Church reform 245 1399-1413. Henry IV. 1401. Statute De Heretico Comburendo William Sawtry burnt . 245 1404, 1410. Commons propose to confiscate Church property . 246 1413-1422. Henry V. 1414. Alien priories suppressed by Henry V. .... 256 1414-18. Council of Constance Huss and Jerome burnt . . 250 1417-18. Pope Martin V. "provides" thirteen bishops for England 248 1422-1461. Henry VI. 1426. Papal bulls to suspend Chichele seized by government . 249 1428. Wycliffe s bones exhumed and burnt .... 252 1437. All Soul s college, Oxford, founded by Chichele . . 257 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. i AOE 1440. King s and Queen s colleges at Cambridge founded . . 257 1449. Commons attempt to tax the clergy 247 1455-85. Wars of the Roses -60 1457. Condemnation of Bishop Pecock 253 1461-1483. Edward IV. 1473. Caxton begins to print at Westminster .... 258 1483-1485. Richard III. (Edward V. reigned two months) 1485. Battle of Bosworth- field 261 1485-1509. Henry VII. 1498. Martyrdom of Savonarola 263 1503. Wareham archbishop of Canterbury 270 1509-1547. Henry VIII. 1510. Marriage of Henry VIII. with his brother s widow . . 277 1512. Dean Colet advocates Church reform .... 272 1515. Wolsey becomes lord chancellor 273 1516. Erasmus publishes Greek Testament .... 273 ,, Revised Breviary published ...... 291 1517. Wolsey permitted to be papal legate .... 273 1520. Martin Luther burns papal bull at Wittenberg . . . 286 1521. King Henry s book against Luther published . . . 286 1523. Wolsey, as legate, suppresses many monasteries . . 273 1526. Tyndale s New Testament published . . . .288 1527. Negotiations commenced for Henry s divorce . . .277 1529. Queen Catharine appeals to Rome ..... 278 ,, Sir T. More succeeds Wolsey as chancellor . . . 275 1530. Death of Cardinal Wolsey 275 ,, Cranmer pleads for Henry s divorce at Rome . . . 278 1531. Convocation, threatened with Prcemnnire, proposes limita tions of papal authority and accepts royal supremacy. 282 1532. Appeals to Rome forbidden by statute (24 Hen. VIII. , c. 12) 278 1533. Archbishop Cranmer pronounces the king s divorce . . 278 1534. Convocation declares against papal jurisdiction . . 280 ,, Statute, 25 Hen. VIII., c. 19, embodied the submission of clergy which convocation had made in 1531 . . 285 ,, Payment of first-fruits to Rome forbidden .... 280 Statute, 25 Hen. VIII., c. 21, forbade issue of papal bulls 281 ,, Convocation pleads for translation of Bible . . . 289 1535. Thomas Cromwell made vicar-general .... 305 ,, Coverdale s Bible published 290 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 1535. More and Fisher beheaded for denying royal supremacy . 284 1536. Bible set up in churches 290 ,, The ten articles issued by convocation .... 292 ,, Dissolution of small monasteries and friaries . . . 299 1537. Institution of a Christian Man published .... 292 ,, Pope s authority condemned (28 Hen. VIII., c. 10) . . 281 ,, Matthew s Bible published 290 1538. Negotiations with Lutheran divines 287 , , Surrender of many greater monasteries .... 302 1539. Pope interdicts England and excommunicates Henry . . 284 New bishoprics act (31 Hen. VI1I-, c. 9) . . . J02 ,, Remaining monasteries dissolved (31 Hen. VIII., c. 13) . 302 ,, Cranmer s Great Bible published 290 The six articles statute accepted by convocation . . . 293 1540. Thomas, Lord Cromwell, beheaded .... 306 1541. Dioceses of Chester, Gloucester and Peterborough founded 308 1542. Convocation ordered lessons to be read in English . . 291 Convocation appointed committee to revise Liturgy . . 91 1543. English Litany published for use in public worship . . 291 ,, Dioceses of Oxford and Bristol founded .... 309 1545. (Dec. 13) First meeting of council of Trent . . .351 1546. Chantries and university endowments granted to crown . 315 1547-1553. Edward VI. 1547. Episcopal jurisdiction licensed by the crown . . .318 ,, " Royal visitation " of the Church . .318 ,, Convocation annuls canons against clerical matrimony . 326 1548. "Election " of bishops superseded by "letters patent" . 324 ,, First English Communion office ..... 323 ,, Foreign reformers invited by Cranmer .... 326 1549. First Prayer-book of Edward VI. s reign authorized . . 322 ,, Second royal visitation ....... 323 ,, Two anabaptists burnt for blasphemy .... 326 1550. Reformed ordinal completed ...... 324 ,, Altars removed from east end of churches Six bishops deprived and imprisoned by the council . . 325 1551. Hooper imprisoned for objecting to vestments . . . 325 1552. Second Prayer-book of Edward VI. s reign authorized . 328 1553. Forty-two articles of religion published .... 349 Futile attempt to make Lady Jane queen of England . 329 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 1553-1558. Mary Tudor. 1553. Imprisoned bishops released, 329 Gardiner made chancellor 331 ,, Flight of clergy and refugees ...... 331 ,, Edwardian bishops deposed, imprisoned, and superseded . 329 ,, Religious laws of Edward repealed ..... 331 1554. Wyatt s rebellion and execution of Lady Jane . . . 332 Mary marries Philip II. of Spain (July) .... 333 ,, Cardinal Pole appointed papal legate (November) . . 334 ,, Parliament and convocation reconciled with Rome . . 334 ,, Anti- papal statutes since 1529 repealed .... 334 1555. The Marian persecutions begin Four bishops burnt . . 335 1595. Cranmer burnt for heresy and succeeded by Pole . . 338 1557. Cardinal Pole s visitation of the universities . . . 340 1558. (Nov. 17) Deaths of Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole . . 340 1558-1603. Elizabeth. 1558. Return of the exiles 341 1559. Royal supremacy and English liturgy revived . . . 342 ,, Deprivation of Marian bishops (May to November) . . 345 ,, Consecration of Parker and other bishops (December) . 347 1560. Elizabeth aids the Scotch reformers 358 ,, Pope offers to sanction reformation if he may be supreme . 353 1561. Severe acts passed against Romanists .... 353 1562. Jewel s Apology published ...... 351 1563. Thirty-eight articles issued by convocation . . . 350 ,, (Nov. 11) Last meeting of council of Trent . . . 352 1567. Dutch religious refugees settle in eight English towns . 355 1568. First dissenting community (Brownists) founded . . 356 ,, "The Bishop s" Bible published 351 1569. Insurrection in the north on behalf of queen of Scots . 358 1570. Pius V. excommunicates Elizabeth Romanist secession . 354 1571. Enforcement of laws against Romanists and papal bulls . 354 ,, Members of parliament propose alterations in religion . 356 1572. First presbyterian congregation in England (Cartwright s) 356 ,, Massacre of St. Bartholomew ...... 354 1577. Archbp. Grindal suspended for encouraging "prophesyings" 357 1580. Jesuits come to " convert" England . .... 354 1583. High-commission court established ..... 357 1584. Richard Hooker appointed to mastership of the Temple . 358 1586. The Babington conspiracy 359 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 1587. Execution of Mary, queen of Scots ... . . . 359 ,, Martin Mar-Prt-late libels published ..... 357 ,, Sixtus V. sanctions hostilities against Elizabeth . . 359 1588. (July) Destruction of Spanish Armada . . . .361 1592. Presbyterianism established in Scotland .... 368 1593. Penal statutes against nonconformists .... 362 1595. The Lambeth Articles published 353 1600. An East India company formed ..... 363 1603-1625. James I. 1603. Millenary petition 370 1604. Hampton-court conference Canons ecclesiastical published 371 1605. Gunpowder treason plot discovered ..... 374 1606. Statutes against Romanists . . . . . 375 1608. First permanent settlement in America .... 378 1610. Scotch episcopate restored ...... 375 1611. The Authorized Version of the Bible published. . . 376 1612. Legate and Wightman burnt 380 1618. Book of Sports published 390 1623. Titular bishops sent to England by the pope . . . 383 1625-28. Mountague and others censured in parliament . . 384 1625 1649. Charles I. 1628. The Petition of Right 386 Parliament resolves itself into a committee of religion . . 387 1629. Parliament attacks unauthorised taxes and is dissolved . 387 1630. Laud and Strafford become the king s chief advisers . . 388 ,, Dr. Leighton pilloried for writing against episcopacy . 390 1633-36. Archbishop Laud enforces discipline .... 389 1637. Severe proceedings against puritans in star-chamber . . 390 ,, Hampden s trial for resisting ship-money tax . . . 389 ,, The Scotch resist Laud s liturgy and canons . . . 393 1638. The National Covenant signed in Scotland . . . 394 1639. Scotch abolish episcopacy and prepare for war . . . 394 1640. Convocation sat as a synod after dissolution of parliament 395 ,, (Nov. 3) First meeting of The Long Parliament . . 396 ,, Impeachment of Strafford and Laud ..... 396 ,, Parliamentary committee appointed to deprive the clergy . 399 1641. High-commission court abolished ..... 397 ,, The Grand Remonstrance ....... 397 ,, Episcopacy suspended root and branch bill, 1642-43 . 402 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PACE 1642. Civil Avar begins at Nottingham (August) .... 398 1643. Westminster assembly convoked to advise long parliament 405 ,, Solemn League and Covenant enforced in England . . 399 1645. (Jan. 10) Execution of Archbishop Laud . . . . 404 ,, Directory substituted for proscribed liturgy . . . 405 ,, Charles I. declines to " establish " presbyterianism . . 407 ,, "New-model" army organized by Oliver Cromwell . . 407 ,, Profanation of cathedrals and churches by puritan soldiers 416 1646. The king surrenders to Scots, who sell him to parliament . 407 ,, Charles I. refuses to sanction abolition of episcopacy. . 407 1647. The army seize the king (June 4) 407 ,, The king escapes to Carisbrook . ..... 407 1648. Presbyterians take up arms for the king, but are defeated . 408 ,, The king in despair agrees to proposals of parliament . 408 ,, Colonel Pride expels presbyterians from parliament (Dec. 6) 409 1649. Execution of Charles I. (Jan. 30) 410 1649-1685. Charles II. (In exile until 1660) . 1649. (February) The " rump " abolishes house of lords, prohibits monarchy, and issues declaration on religion . .411 ,, The Engagement substituted for the covenant . . .411 ,, (May 19) The Commonwealth proclaimed .... 411 1650. Quakers come into notice as a sect . . . . .414 1651. Battle of Worcester and flight of Charles II. . . .415 1653. The " rump" orders the demolition of churches . . 418 ,, Cromwell expels the "rump" and nominates a parliament 419 ., (Dec. 16) Cromwell made lord protector .... 419 1654. (March 20) Triers appointed to administer patronage. . 422 ,, (Aug. 30) Commission to examine politics of incumbents . 422 ,, (Sept. 3) First protectorate parliament met . . . 420 1655. (Nov. 27) Cromwell s persecuting edict issued . . . 422 1656. Second protectorate parliament Cromwell refuses crown . 420 1658. Inauguration of Cromwell s house of lords. . . .421 ,, (Sept. 3) Death of Cromwell and accession of his son Richard 425 1659. Army restores the rump parliament 425 1660. General Monk declares for a free parliament (Jan. 3). . 426 ,, (March 16) The long parliament issues orders for a " con vention," and agrees to its own dissolution . . 426 The declaration from Breda (April 14) .... 426 ,, (May 1) Convention invites Charles II. to return . . 426 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 1660. Restoration of Charles II. and the Church. 1660. Many clergy return to their benefices Juxon primate . 428 1661. The Savoy conference Revision of the liturgy . . . 429 ,, Episcopacy revived in Scotland . . . . .440 1662. Act of uniformity (Aug. 24) Nonconformists deprived . 432 1663. Convocation grants subsidy for the last time . . .247 1664. 1670. Conventicle act forbids noncomformist meetings . 4*33 1665. Five mile act forbids ministers settling near towns . . 434 ,, Great plague in London 435 1666. Great fire of London (Sept. 2-6) 437 ,, Irish act of uniformity ....... 446 1668. Failure of Comprehension scheme ..... 435 1670, 1678. Secret treaties between Charles II. and France . 443 1672. Duke of York received into Church of Rome . . . 441 1673. The Test Act passed to exclude Romanists from office . 441 1675. Rebuilding of St. Paul s cathedral commenced . . . 440 1677. Mary, duke of York s daughter, marries prince of Orange . 442 1678. The popish plots Harsh treatment of Romanists . . 443 ,, Act disabling Romanists from sitting in parliament . .443 1679. Scotch puritans murder Archbishop Sharp . . . 440 1680. Commons refusing to vote subsides, parliament is dissolved 444 ,, Failure of attempt to exclude duke of York from throne . 445 1681. Charles II. proposes prince of Orange as regent to James . 444 ,, Louis XIV., king of France, subsidises Charles II. . . 445 1685-1688. James II. 1685. The new king promises to maintain the national Church . 447 ,, Richard Baxter s trial before Judge Jeffries . . .449 ,, Revocation of edict of Nantes ...... 451 1686. Judges decide in favour of " dispensing power " (June) . 448 ,, Court of high-commission re-established (July) . . . 449 ,, Chapels royal opened for Romanist worship . . . 449 ,, Massey, a Romanist, made dean of Christchurch, Oxford . 450 ,, Camp formed at Hounslow to overawe London . . . 456 1687. Revived high -commission attacks the universities . . 450 ,, (April) Declaration of indulgence published . . . 452 ,, Fellows of Magdalen college replaced by Romanists . . 450 1688. (May 4) James I. orders clergy to read declaration on May 20 452 ,, (May 18) Seven bishops petition against it . . . 453 ,, (June 8) The seven bishops sent to the tower for libel . 454 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 1688. (June 30) Trial and acquittal of the seven bishops . . 455 (June 30) Prince of Orange invited to England . . . 457 (Sept. 30) William of Orange issues his manifesto . . 457 (Oct.) Romanists removed, fellows of Magdalen restored . 457 (Nov. 5) William, prince of Orange, lands at Torbay. . 458 (Dec. 19) William arrives in London .... 458 ,, (Dec. 23) James II. leaves England .459 1689. (Jan. 22) Declaration of Right 459 Eive bishops and 400 clergy refuse allegiance to William . 459 1689-1702. William III. (and Mary). 1689. The Toleration Act passed 464 (Oct.) Throne barred to Romanists by new Bill of Bights . 462 ,, Attempt to remodel the liturgy by parliament averted . 464 1691. Battle of the Boyne 459 1697. Choir of St. Paul s cathedral opened for worship . . 476 1698. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge founded . . 466 1701. A ct of Settlement receives the royal assent . . . 463 , Society for Propagating the Gospel founded . . . 469 1702-1714. Queen Anne. 1702. Scotch parliament re-establishes presbyterianism . . 470 1704. Queen Anne restores first-fruits to the Church . . . 473 1707. Unitarians become a distinct body . . . . . 486 ,, Union of England and Scotland ..... 472 1710. Sacheverell s impeachment ...... 474 ,, St. Paul s cathedral completed ...... 476 1711. Occasional Conformity forbidden by statute . . .478 1714. Schism Act forbade unlicensed nonconformist schools . 478 1714-1727. George I. 1717. Bishop Hoadley s writings considered by convocation . 482 ,, Convocation silenced by annual prorogation until 1850 . 483 1719. "Occasional conformity" and "schism" acts repealed . 478 1722. Parliamentary grants to English dissenters . . . 501 1727-1760. George II. 1728. Act of Indemnity (annual) relieves dissenters from "test " act 503 1736. Bishop Butler s Analogy published ..... 487 1739. Wesley develops his society 494 1760-1830. George III. 1760. Methodists begin to administer Sacraments . . . 495 1776. The historian Gibbon attacks Christianity . 488 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xxxi A.D. PAGE 1778. Sir George Saville passes Romanist relief bill . . . 506 1779. Dissenters relieved from subscription to 39 articles . . 503 1780. Lord George Gordon " No popery " riots .... 507 1781. Sunday-schools founded by Robert Raikes . . .529 ,, Lady Huntingdon s connexion registered .... 494 1783. American independence acknowledged by England . . 545 1784. Consecration of Bishop Seabury for America . . . 546 1787, 1789. " Test" and " corporation " acts repeal bill rejected. 503 ,, First colonial bishop consecrated ..... 547 1789. The French revolution 488 1793. Bishopric of Quebec founded ...... 547 --. ,, Wilberforce attempts to promote Christian teaching in India 498 1795. Wesleyans separate from Church of England . . . 496 1799. Religious Tract Society founded 500 1800. Church Missionary Society founded ..... 500 1801. Union of England and Ireland (Nations and Churches) . 512 1804. British and Foreign Bible Society founded . . . 500 1807. Wilberforce passes Slave Trade Abolition Bill . . . 499 1811. National Society founded 531 1812. Dissenting ministers relieved from further penalties . . 504 1813. Unitarians relieved from some of their disabilities . . 504 1814. First bishop of Calcutta 547 1815. Battle of Waterloo 502 1817. Romanists admitted into army and navy .... 507 1818. Parliamentary grant of 1,000,000 towards new churches . 501 ,, Church Building society founded ..... 502 1820 1830. George IV. 1824. Parliamentary grant of 500,000 for Church Building . 501 1827. The Christian rear published 526 1828. " Test " and " corporation " acts repealed . . . .504 1829. Romanist Relief Bill passed It was rejected in 1825. . 506 1830-1837. William IV. 1831. Foundation of King s college, London .... 537 1832. Commission appointed to inquire into Church revenues . 515 ,, University of Durham founded . ..... 537 1833. Quakers, &c., allowed to substitute affirmation for oath . 510 ,, Jewish relief bill rejected by lords (also in 1848 and 1853) 510 ,, Irish Church Temporalities Act 10 bishoprics suppressed 512 1,000,000 lent to Irish clergy in lieu of tithe arrears . 512 xxxii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 1833. Compensation of 20,000,000 to colonial slave owners . 499 , , Parliament granted 20, 000 yearly for elementary education 531 ,, Tractarian movement began ...... 527 1834. Rejection of bill to relieve bishops from legislation . .517 1836. Ecclesiastical Commission permanently incorporated . . 516 ,, Tithe-commutation Bill passed (6 and 7 Wm. IV., c. 71). 516 ,, Nonconformists allowed to have marriages in chapels . 504 ,, Diocese of Bristol suppressed and diocese of Ripon founded 550 ,, First bishop for Australia consecrated .... 548 1837. Accession of Queen Victoria. 1838. Coronation of Queen Victoria by Archbishop Howley . 539 1839. Elementary education commission appointed . . . 531 1840. Church Discipline, Act passed (3 and 4 Viet., c. 86) . . 520 1841. Bishop Selwyn consecrated for New Zealand . . . 524 1843. Secession from the presbyterian Kirk of Scotland . . 472 1844. Liberation Society founded ...... 504 1845. Maynooth grant permanently established .... 513 ,, (Oct.) Dr. Newman joins the Romanists .... 527 1847. Opposition against amalgamation of Welsh dioceses . . 551 ,, Diocese of Manchester founded . ..... 551 ,, (Nov.) Rothschild not allowed to sit in parliament . . 510 1849. The Gorham case, involving doctrines on Baptism . . 521 1850. Papal bull creates Romanist episcopate in England . . 508 1851. Parliament declares papal bull void (Act repealed 1871) . 509 1852. Convocation resumes its functions 522 1856. The Denison case involving doctrines on Eucharist . . 518 ,, Irish Church disestablishment bill rejected 163 to 93 . 512 1858. Bill abolishing church rates rejected also in 1860 . . 505 ,, Jewish disabilities removed, 143 to 97 . . . .510 ,, Government of India transferred to the crown . . . 510 1859. English Church Union founded 519 1860. Church Defence Institution founded 517 1861. Church rates abolition bill rejected by speaker s vote. . 505 ,, First Church Congress, henceforward held annually . . 523 1864. First diocesan conference, held at Ely . . . . 523 ,, Convocation condemns Essays and Reviews . . . 522 1865. The Church Association founded 519 1866. Convocation condemns Dr. Colenso s writings . . . 522 1867. First pan- Anglican synod, 76 bishops present . . . 562 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D. PAGE 1868. The Mackonochie case, involving ritual observances . . 520 ,, Church Rates Abolition Ad passed ..... 505 1869. Irish Church Disestablishment A ct passed . . . .512 ,, Vatican council promulgates new doctrines . . . 509 1870. Elementary Education Act passed ..... 531 ,, The first suffragan bishop of modern times consecrated . 561 Keble college, Oxford, founded. ..... 529 1871. University tests abolished 506 ,, Commons refuse to disestablish English Church, 374 to 89 517 ,, Martyrdom of Bishop Patteson in Melanesia . . . 524 1872. Commons refuse to disestablish English Church. 356 to 61 517 1873. Church of England Temperance society founded . . 542 1874. Public Worship Regulation Act passed .... 520 1875. The case of Clifton v. Ridsdale 521 1877. Diocese of Trnro founded 552 1878. Diocese of St. Albans founded ,553 ,, Second pan- Anglican synod, 100 bishops present . . 563 1880. Diocese of Liverpool founded ...... 554 ,, Burial Laws Amendment Act passed .... 506 1881. Revised version of New Testament published . . . 377 1882. Diocese of Newcastle founded 555 1884. Diocese of Southwell founded 557 1885. Revised version of Old Testament published . . . 377 ,, Mr. Bradlaugh allowed to take his seat in. parliament . 514 ,, Martyrdom of Bishop Hannington at Busoga . . 525 1886. Houses of Laymen met for the first time .... 523 1887. Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, Church House incorporated 523 1888. Diocese of Wakefield founded 558 ,, Oaths abolition bill passed the commons . . . .514 ., Third pan-Anglican synod, 145 bishops present . . 564 1889. Disestablishment (Wales) bill rejected by commons . . 517 1891. Free Education Act (elementary) passed .... 531 1893. Church defence demonstration in Albert Hall . . .518 1895. Large majority of Church defenders elected to parliament . 518 1896. Queen Victoria Clergy Sustentation Fund founded . . 523 1897. Bishopric of Bristol revived 550 , , National thanksgivings for Queen Victoria s prolonged reign 523 ,, Fourth pan- Anglican synod, 194 bishops present . , 565 CONTEMPORARY KINGS AND PRELATES CIVIL RULERS. THE SOUTHERN PRIMACY. THE WELSH PRIMACY. Traditional Archbishops of London. Traditional Primates The Romon emperors Theaiius oj Caerleon. up to A.D. 410. Eluanus Codar Adelphius 314 Obinus Dubritius 500 Then Celtic tribal Palladius David 560 chiefs until the Teu tonic invasion and settlement. Stephaiius Iltutus Tlieodwinus David removed to Menevia and set up a new see, since called . ineoureaus St. Davids, Caerleon Then various chiefs .tlilarius RESTITUTUS, A.D. 314 giving place to Llan- of the Teuton tribes Gu telinus daff. ___ until the Danish in Fasti dius Archbishops of vasions. Vodinus ST. DAVIDS. Theonus Cynog See suppressed about A.D. 550 Tcilo Ceneu ( SEE OF CANTERBURY SEE OF LONDON |Morfael Supremacy of I 17-__i "% Augustine 597 Laurentius C04 Temporarily revived by Mellitus, 603. who Haerwnen Elwaed Kent. Mellitus 619 fled in 615 Gwrnwen I Justus 024 Llunwerth ( Honorius C27 Permanently founded Gwrgwyst Supremacy of J Northumbria. j Deusdedit 655 Theodore 668 (The first primate) Berhtwald 693 by Cedd Wini Earconauld Waldheri 656 666 674 693 Gwgan Eirieon Clvdawg El fod r Tat win 731 Ingwald 715 Ethelman Notheliii 735 Ecgwulf 746 Elauc Supremacy of Merck. 1 Cuthbert 7 10 Bregwin 759 Lirnberht 766 Wighed Eaclbright Eadgar 754 761 768 Maelsgwyd Made Cadell Ethelhard 793 Cocnwalch 773 Sadwrnfen V Wufred 805 Eadbald 784 Novis Heathobert 795 Sulliaithnay /Egbert 827 Theogild S32 Osmund 813 Idwal Ethelwulf 839 Ceolnoth 833 Ahelnoth 835 Asser /Bthelbald 858 Ceolberht 838 Arthwael \Etlielbert 858 Deorulfa ? Samson Ethelrel 806 Suithulf 854 Ruelin . Alfred 871 Ethelred 871 Ealhstan 863 Rhydderch g Edward I. 931 Phlegmund 890 Wulfsige 870 Elwin S Athelstan 925 >? Edmund I. 940 Atheliu 915 Wulfhelm 924 Ethelward Eadstan 878 Morbiw 886lLlunwerth Edred 94 > Odo 934 Theodred 900 Hubert J Edwy 955 Wulstan 922 Eneuris 942 > s Edgar 958 Alfsia 959 Brithelm 941 Ivor j Edward II. 975 Dunstan 960 Dunstan 958lMorgeneu 944 g Ethelred 997 Ethelgar 988 Alfstan 960 P< Sigeric 990 Nathan 661 ,5 Edmund II. 1016 El trie 995 Jeuan Canute 1017 Elphege 1006 Wulfstan 96] Arwystl Harold I. 1035 Leovingus 1013 Aelfun 1004 Morgeneu Hardicanutel040 Etlielnoth 1020 Aelfwy 1016 Ervin 1023 Edward III. 1042 Eadsius 1038 Alfword 1032 Trahaearn 1039 Robert 1051 Robert 1044 Joseph 1055 ^Harold II. 1066 Stigand 1052 William 1051 Bleiddud 1061 BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST THE PRIMACY OF IRELAND. THE NORTHERN PRIMACY. NOTABLE BISHOPS OF ROME. There were primates of York from LINUS, bishop of very early times. One of them, Rome, A.D. 58, is tra named Eborius, with Restitutus of ditionally identified London and Adelphius of Caerleon, with the Briton Llin. attende 1 the council of Aries in There were 10 bishops St. Patrick 445 A.D. 314, and the see continued to of Rome between St. Beren 455 flourish until the English invasion, him and ELEUTHE- St. Jarlath 465 when it came to an end. RUS (A.D. 177192), Ponnac 48*^ Dubtach I. 497 Paulinus temporarily revived the see in A.D. 627, but he was driven. iy DCi/wccn nun sun, SYLVESTER (314 335), 10 bishops and Ailill I. 513 southward in 634 through war. two rival claimants Ailill II. 526 MMMMM to the see between Dubtach II. 536 David 548 Feidlimid 551 When King Oswald invited mission aries from lona in 635 the bishopric was placed at Lindisfarne. Sylvester and CELES- TINE (423432), and 20 bishops with one rival between Celes- Cairlan 578 Aidan (first bishop) 635 tine and GREGORY Eschaid 588 Finan (second bishop) 651 THE GREAT, who Senach 598 Colman (third bishop) 662 ruled from 590604. Mac Laisre 610 See divided into HONORIUS I. (626 Thomian 623 YORK. LINDISFARNE. 640) was sixth in suc Wilfrid I. 664 Tuda 664 cession to Gregory Segene 661 Chad 666 VITALIAN, 658672, Flan Febla 688 Wilfrid (restored) 669 Eata 678 sixth from Honoritis. Suibne 715 Bosa 678 l Cuthbert 685 Adeodatus 672 Congusa 730 Wilfrid (restored) 686 Eadberct 688 Domnus 676 Celepeter 750 Bosa (restored) 691 Eadfrid 698 Agatho 679 Fredachry 758 John of Beverley 705 Leo II. 682 Foendelach 768 Wilfrid II. 718 Ethelwold 724 Benedict II. 684 Dubdalethy I. 778 Egbert 732 Cynewulf 740 John V. 685 Assiat 793 (The first primate) Conon 686 Cudiniscus 794 Albert 766 Higbald 780 Sergius and rival 687 Coninac 798 Eanbald I. 782 Twelve more occu Torbach 807 Eanbald II. 796 pants bring us to Nuad 808 LEO III., 795816. Flangus 812 Wulfsy 812 Ecgberht 802 16 others came be Artrigius 822 Heathured 819 tween him and LEO Eugene I. 833 Eogred 828 y. (903905), when Farannan 834 Wigmund 837 there was a fifth Dermod 818 Eanbcrt 846 rival. There were Factna 852 Wulfhere 854 Eardulf 854 10 bishops of Rome Ainmire 872 from Leo V. to AGA- Cathasach I. 875 who removfd to PETUS II., 946955 Maelcob 883 CHESTER-LE-ST. 882 John XII. 956 Maelbrigid 885 Ethelbald 895 Cutheard 900 Leo VIII. 963 Tilrecl 915 (to whom a council Joseph 927 Redwald 928 Wilfred 928 opposed Benedict V.) Maelpatrick 936 Wulstan I. 931 Uchtred 944 John XIII. 965 Cathasach II. 937 Sexhelme 945 Benedict VI. 972 Oskytel 956 Aldred 946 (who also had a rival) Muirlach 957 Ethelwold 972 Elfsig 968 Dominus II. 974 Dubdalethy II. 966 Oswald 972jAldhun 990 Benedict VII. 975 Murechan * 998 Adulph 993 who removed to John XIV. 984 Maelmury 1001 Wulstan II. 1002 DURHAM 995 John XV. 986 Eadmund 1021 15 more occupants of AmalgaH 1021 AfricPuttoc 1023;Eadrel 1041 the see, and an eighth Dubdalethy III. 1050 Kinsius lOSlJEgelric 1042 anti-pope, bring us to CiKnasach 1065 Aldred 1060 Egelwin 1056 Alexander II. 1061 KINGS AND PRELATES FROM THE CONQUEST KINGS OF ENGLAND. ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. BISHOPS OF LONDON. BISHOPS OF ST. DAVIDS. William I. 1066 Lanfranc 1070 H. de Orivalle 1075 Sulien 1071 Maurice 1085 Abraham 1076 William II. 1087 Rhyddmarch 1088 Anselm 1093 Griftry 1096 Henry I. 1100 R. de Beaumes 1108 R. d Escures 1114 Bernard 1115 W. de Corbeuil 1123 Gilbert 1128 Stephen 1135 Theobald 1139 Re de Sigillo 1141 D. Fitzgerald 1147 R. de Beaumes 1152 Henry II. 1154 T. a Becket 1162 G. Foliot 1163 Richard 1174 P. de Lei a 1176 Baldwin 1185 Richard I. 1181) R, de Ely 1189 R. Fitzwalter 1193 W. Marychurch 1199 John 1199 G. de Henelawe 1203 S. Langton 1207 Jowerth 1215 Henry III. 1216 E.de.Fauconbergl221 R. Grant 1229 R. le Noir 1229 A. le Gross 1230 E. Rich 1234 Boniface 124o Fulk Basset 1212 H. de Wingham 1259 R. de Carew 1256 H. de Sandwich 1263 Edward I. 1272 R. Kilwardby 1273 J. de Chishul 1274 J. Peckham 1279 R. de Gravesend 1280 T. Beeh 1280 R. Winchelsey 1294 D. Martin 1296 R. de Baldock 1306 Edward II. 1307 W. Reynolds 1313 G. de Seagrave 1313 R. de Newport 1317 Edward III. 1.327 S. Meophan 1328 S. de Gravesend 1319 H. de Gower 1328 J. Stratford 1333 R. de Bentworth 1338 J. Thoresby 1347 T. Hradwardine 1349 R. de Stratford 1340 R. Brian 1350 S. Islip 1349 S. Langhatn 1366 W. Wittlesey 1368 M. deNorthburgl354 S. Sudbury 1362 W. Courtenav 1375 F. Fastolfe 1353 H. Houghton 1361 Richard II. 1377 S. Smllmry 1375 W. Courtenay 1381 R. de Braybroke 1381 J. Gilbert 1389 R. Walden 1405 G. Mone 1397 Henry IV. 139!) T. Arundel 1396 N. Bubbewyth 1406 H. Chicheley 1408 R. Clifford 1407 J. Catterick 1414 Henry V. 1413 H. Chichely 1414 J. Kempe 1422 S. Patrington 1415 W. Grey 1426 B. Nicholls 1418 Henry VI. 1422 R. Fitzhugh 1431 T. Rodburn 1433 J. Stafford 1443 W. Lvndwood 1442 R. Gilbert 1436 J. Langton 1447 J. Kemp 1452 J. Delavere 1447 Edward IV. 1461 T. Bourchier 1454 T. Kemp 1459 R. Ttilly 1460 Edward V. 1483 R. Martin 1482 Richard III. 1483 T. Langton 1483 TO END OF PLANTAGENET DYNASTY ARCHBISHOPS OF ARMAGH. ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK. BISHOPS OF DURHAM. POPES OF ROME. Maclisa 1065 Thomas I. 1070 Walchere 1071 Gregory VII. 1073 W. Carileph 1080 Victor III. 1086 Urban II. 1088 Donald 1092 Gerard 1100 R. Flambaid 1099 Pascal II. 1099 Celsus 1106 Thomas II. 1109 G. Rufus 1133 Gelasius II. 1118 Thurstan 1114 Calixtus II. 1119 Maurice 1129 Honorius II. 1124 Malachy 1134 Innocent II. 1130 Gelasius 1137 William 1144 W. de S. Barbara 1143 Celestine II. 1143 II. Murdoch 1147 Lucius II. 1144 EugeniusIII. 1145 William (rest.) 1153 R. Pont 1 Eveq 1154 II. Pudsey 1153 Anastasirs IV. 1153 Adrian IV. 1154 Cornelius 1174 Alexander III. 1159 Gilbert 1175 Lucius III. 1181 Maclisa II. 1184 Urban III. 1185 Amlave 1184 Gregory VIII. 1187 T. O Connor 1185 Clement III. 1187 G. Plantagenet 1191 Ph. of Poictiers 1197 Celestine III. 1191 Eugene 12061 Innocent III. 1198 L. Nettersil 12201 W. de Grey 1216 R. de Marisco 1217 Honorius III. 1216 Donat 1227 R, Poor 1228 Gregory IX. 1227 Albert - 1240 N. de Farnham 1241 Celestine IV. 1241 Reiner 1247 W. de Kirkham 1249 Innocent IV. 1243 S. de Bovil 1256 Alexander IV. 1254 A. O Connellan 1257 G. de Ludham 1258 R. Stichell 1260 Urban IV. 1261 P. O Scanlan 1261 W. Giffard 1266 Clement IV. 1265 Oregon- X. 1271 W. MacMolissa 1272 R. de Insula 1274 Innocent V. 12"6 Adrian V. 1276 John XX. 1276 W. Wickwaine 1279 Nicholas III. 1277 Martin IV. 1281 J. Romanus 1286 A. de Bek 1283 Honorius IV. 1285 H. de Newark 1296 Nicholas IV. 1288 J. Taafe 1305 T. de Corbridge 1300 Celestine V. 1292 W. de Jorse 1306 W. Greenfield 1304 Boniface VIII. 1294 R. de Jorse 1311 Benedict X. 1303 S. Seagrave 1322 W. de Melton 1316 R. Kellaw 1311 Clement V. 1305 L. Beaumont 1318 John XXI. 1316 D. O Hirnghty 1334 W. laZouche 1342 R. Grevstones 1333 Benedict XI. 1334 R. Fitzralph 1347 Thos. Hatfield 1345 Clement VI. 1342 J. Thoresbv 1352 Innocent VI. 1352 M. Sweetman 1361 A. de Neville 1374 Urban V. 1362 Gregorv XI. 1370 T. Arundel 13F8 John Fordham 1382 Urban VI t 1378 J. Colton 1382 R. Waldby 130(5 W. Skirlawe 1388 Boniface IX. 1389 R. Scrope 1398 Benedict XI I. 1394 N. Fleming 1404 T. Langley 1406 Innocent VII. 1404 H. Bowet 1407 3 Rivals 1406-1417 J. Swayn 1417 Martin V. 1417 J. Kemp 1426 R. Neville 1438 Eugenius IV. 1431 J. Prene 1439 Nicholas V. 1447 J. Mey 1444 W. Booth 1452 Calixtus III. 1447 J. Boie 1457 L. Booth 1457 Pius II. 1458 J. Foxall 1475 G. Neville 1465 Paul IT. 1464 E. Connesburgh 1477 L. Booth 1476 W. Dudley 1476 Sixtus IV. 1471 O. de Palatis 1480JT. Rotherham 14SO Innocent VIII. 1484 XXXV111 CONTEMPORARY PRELATES DURING CIVIL RULERS. ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. BISHOPS OF LONDON. BISHOPS OF ST. DAVIDS. fHenryVH. 1485 J. Morton 1486 H. Parry 1485 R. Hill 1489 T. Savage 149b J. Morgan 1496 H. Dene 1502 W. Wareham 1502 VV. Wareham 1503 W. Barons 1504 R. Sherborne 1505 ^. R. Fitzjames 1500 Henry VIII. 1509 T. Cramner 1533 C. Tunstall 1522 J. Stokesley 1530 E. Vaughan 1509 R. Rawlings 1523 3 B. Bonner (dep.) 1589 W. Barlow 1536 . -<; Edward VI. 1547 N. Ridley 1550 R. Feirar 1548 g Mary 1553 R. Pole 15 6 E. Bonner (rest.) 1553 H. Morgan 1554 - Elizabeth 1558 M. Parker 1559 E. Grindall 1559 T. Young 1560 E. Sandys 1570 R. Davies 1561 E. Grindall 1575 J. Aylmer 1577 M. Middleton 1582 J. Whitgift 1583 R. Fletcher 1595 A. Rudd 1594 R. Bancroft 1597 xJames I. 1603 R. Bancroft 1604 R. Vaughan 1604 T. Ravis 1607 G. Abbott 1609 h G. Abbott 1610 J. King 1611 R. Milburn 1615 p G. Monteigne 1621 W. Laud 1621 | Charles I. 1625 W. Laud 1633 W. Laud 162S T. Field 1627 , Charles II. 1649 W. Juxon 1633 R. Mainwaring 1636 } Restored 1660 W. Juxon 1660 G. Sheldon 1660 W. Lucy 1660 ^ G. Sheldon 1663 H. Henchman 166 W. Sancroft 1677 H. Compton 1675 W. Thomas 1678 James II. 1685 L. Wormack 1683 J. Llovd 1686 William III. 1689 J. Tillotson 1691 T. Watson 1687 \ T. Tenison 1695 G. Bull 1695 /"Anne 1702 P. Bisse 1710 George I. 1714 W. Wake 1715 J. Robinson 1714 A. Ottley 1713 E. Gibson 1723 R. Smallbrook 1724 E. Sydall 1731 i^ George II. 1727 J. Potter 1736 N. Claggett 1732 E. Willes 1743 > T. Herring 1747 T. Sherlock 1748 R. Trevor 1744 oL M. Hutton 1757 A. Ellis 1752 T. Seeker 1758 S. Squire 1761 George III. 1760 T. Hayter 1761 R. Lowth 1766 r-i R. Osbaldeston 1762 C. Moss 1766 F. Cornwallis 176- R. Terrick 1764 J. Yorke 1774 R. Lowth 1777 J. Warren 1779 E. Small well 1783 J. Moore 1783 B. Porteous 1787 S. Horsley 1788 W. Stuart 1794 f C. M. Sutton 1805 J. Randolph 1809 G. Murray 1800 George IV. 1820 W. Howley 1828 W. Howley 1813 C. J. Blomtield 1828 T. Burgess 1803 J, B. Jenkinson 1825 g | William IV. 1830 < Victoria 1837 J. B. Sumner 1848 A. C. Tait 1856 C. Shirwall 1840 C. T. Longley 1862 ^ A. C. Tait 1868 J. Jackson 1869 W. B. Jones 1874 E. W. Benson 1883 F. Temple 1885 V. | F. Temple 1S97 M. Creighton 1897 J. Owen 1897 AND SINCE THE REFORMATION ARCHBISHOPS OF ARMAGH. ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK. BISHOPS OF DURHAM. POPES OF ROME. O. de Palatis 1480 T. Rotherham 1480 J. Shirwood 1485 Innocent VI 11. 1484 R. Fox 1494 Alexander VI. 1492 T. Savage 1501 Pius III. 1503 W. Sever 1502 Julius II. 1503 C. Bainbridge 1507 Leo X. 1; 13 G. Bainbrigg 1508 T. Ruthall 1509 Adrian VI. 1522 J. Kite 1513 T. Wolsey 1514 T. Wolsey 1523 Clement VII. 1523 G. Cromer 1522 E. Lee 1531 C. Tunstall 1530 Paul III. 1534 G. Dowdall 1543 R. Holgate 1545 Jnlir.sIII. 1550 H. Goodacre 1552 Marcellr.s II. 1555 N. Heath 1555 Paul IV. 1555 A. Loftus 15G2 T. Young 1561 J. Pilkington 1561 Pius IV. 1559 T. Lancaster 1568 E. Grindall 1570 Pius V. 1566 J. Long 1584 E. Sandys 1577 R. Barnes 1577 Gregory XIII. 1572 SixtusV. 1585 J. Garvey 1589 J. Piers 1589 M. Hutton 1589 Urban VII. 1590 Gregoiy XIV. 1590 H. Ussher 1595 M. Button 1595 T. Matthew 1595 Innocent IX. 1591 Clement VIII. 1592 T. Matthew 1606 W. James 1606 Leo XI. 1605 R. Neile 1617 Paul V. 1605 C. Hampton 1613 J. Ussher 1624 G. Monteigne 1628 G. Monte- gne 1628 Gregory XV. 1621 Urban VI 1 1. 1623 S. Harsnet 1629 J. Howson 1628 R. Neile 1632 T. Morton 1632 Innocent X. 1644 J. Williams 1641 Alexander VII. 1655 J. Bramhall 1660 A. Frewen 1660 J. Cousin 1660 J. Margetson 1663 R. Sterne 1664 N. Crewe 1674 Clement IX. 1667 M. Boyle 1678 Clement X. 1670 J. Dolben 1683 Innocent XI. 1676 T. Lamplugh 1688 J. Sharpe 1691 Alexander VIII. 1689 Innocent XII. 1691 N. Marsh 1702 Clement XI. 1700 T. Lindsay 1713 Innocent XIII. 1721 W. Dawes 1714 W. Talbot 1722 H. Boulter 1724 Benedict XIII. 1724 L. Blackburn 1724 E. Chandler 1730 Clement XII. 1730 J. Hoadley 1742 T. Herring 1743 Benedict XIV. 1740 G. Stone 1746 M. Hutton 1747 J. Butler 17f,0 J. Gilbert 1757 R. Trevor 1752 Clement XIII. 1758 R. Robinson 1765 R.H.Drummondl761 Clement XIV. 1769 W. Markham 1777 J. Egerton 1771 Pius VI. 1775 T. Thurlow 1787 W. Newcombe 1795 S. Barrington 1791 W. Stewart 1800 Pius VII. 1806 E.V.V.HarcourtlSOS W. Van Mildert 1826 Leo XII. 1823 J. G. Beresford 1822 Pius VIII. 1829 E. Maltby 1836 Gregory XVI. Ifc31 T. Musgrave 1847 C. T. Longley 1856 M. G. Beresford 1862 H. M. Villiers 1860 Pius IX. 1846 C. T. Longley 1860 C. Baring 1861 W. Thompson 1863 J. B. Lightfoot 1879 Leo XIII. 1877 R. Knox 1886 W. D. Maclagan 1891 B. F. Wescott 1890 W. Alexander 1895 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AMONG the many obligations which the writer owes to numerous correspondents throughout England and the colonies, towards the im provement of this work, he desires to publicly express especial thanks to Dr. Stubbs, lord bishop of Oxford, to Professor Montague Burrows, and to the Rev. H. Graiiville Dickson for kind advice and valuable suggestions which have been of great encouragement and assistance. With respect to the illustrations, it is right to mention that about a fourth of the woodcuts in these two volumes have previously appeared in other publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. About thirty have been supplied by Messrs. Virtue and Co., and most of the remainder by Messrs. Cassell and Co. The portrait of Dr. Pusey on page 529 and that of Archbishop Benson on page 564 are from photo graphs by Mr. S. A. Walker, Regent St. The illustration on page 151 is from a photograph by Messrs. Valentine and Co., Dundee. Those on pages 23 and 61 are from photographs by Chester Vaughan, Acton, W. To one and all the author begs to tender hearty thanks for their kind and ready co-operation. ILLUSTRATED NOTES ON ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY PART I )ra of Conversion CHAPTER I. (A.D. 33-274) THE ORIGIN OF BRITISH CHRISTIANITY "The Julian spear A way first opened : and, with Roman chains, The tidings come of Jesus crucified. Lament ! for Diocletian s fiery sword Works busy as the lightning." 1 1. Terminology. Do we always know what we mean when we speak of the Church of England ? There should not be any difficulty in understanding by the word Church, when used in this connexion, that Divine society which the Saviour came on earth to reorganize, and which commenced its appointed task of evangelizing the world after the Pentecostal inspiration. By the word England we usually and rightly understand the territory that is geographically so called, but many persons in speaking or writing of the English Church have limited the application of the geographical term to the English race that is to say, to the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon tribes who commenced to occupy Britain in the middle of the fifth century. There was, however, a flourishing and well-organized Christian com munity here centuries before that invasion, and one object of these pages will be to show that this older Church became so merged into the Anglo-Saxon Christianity which originated in the seventh century, that each may fairly claim a share in the other s history. If this 1 The poetical headings to eacli chapter are from Wordsworth s sonnets. VOL. I. R EARLY RECORDS process of absorption be proved, the continuity of the apostolic Church in this land becomes indisputable. The Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic tribes have for so long been the dominant race that they have habitually treated the Celtic tribes with more or less of neglect. But the Celtic tribes are still preserved among us, their languages also ; they are easily distinguishable as separate peoples, even though some of their descendants in every generation have married with the descendants of their conquerors ; and they must not be left out of account when we consider the history of the faith which bids us recognize all nations in an universal brotherhood. Our country is still called Britain, Great Britain, or Britannia, words that are much more comprehensive than England, and it is in this wider sense that we are to understand the latter word when it is used to distinguish the English branch of the Catholic Church. When then, and how, was the Christian society first planted and established in Britain ? 2. Profane history and religion. Although the ancient inhabitants had a written language, no books by which we might be assisted in our inquiry have been preserved to us ; but from oral traditions, collected and published after the Norman conquest, together with such records as Roman historians compiled from time to time, we are enabled to give a very intelligible answer to the question. The ancient world was not unfamiliar with our island. An eminent explorer named Pythias, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, B.C. 330, made two voyages of discovery to Britain, and reported upon its agricultural resources, as well as the domestic customs of the inhabitants. Coins have been dug up in different parts of the country similar to the Greek coins of Alexander, which point to a commercial intercourse between Britain and his country. Such know ledge and communication may account for the war of conquest undertaken against the Britons by Julius Coesar at the head of an immense army, B.C. 55. That renowned general always wrote an account of his expeditions, and in his book on the Gallic wars he minutely describes the religion and habits of the ancient Britons. He tells us that they were governed by their religious teachers, the Druids; who appear to have been a separate caste with peculiar privileges, the instructors of youth, and the arbitrators in all disputes. The druidical religion is said to have comprised belief in a supreme deity, and the immortality and transmigration of souls ; but the DRUID TEMPLES number of classical deities mentioned by Julius Ctesar shows that they worshipped a plurality of lesser divinities besides. They sacrificed in open-air temples, surrounded either by groves of oak trees, or circles of immense stones similar to those still seen at Avebury, Stonehenge, and Carnoc. On great occasions human victims were offered as vicarious propitiatory sacrifices. The elements of fire, earth and water, vegetation, etc., were additional objects of their veneration. The details of that intricate religious system were only transmitted ontlly to such persons as had undergone a long period of initiation, and even then under the strictest seal of secrecy. We are further told that the Britons were an agricultural as well as a trading community, but inadequately sheltered, clothed in skins, and tattooed. RUINS AT STONED ENOE. There is abundant evidence of their bravery in war, although their weapons were of the rudest kind. The knowledge Julius Caesar acquired of Britain was confined to the tribes inhabiting its southern seaboard, but there appears to have been a still more barbarous people, inhabiting the north and west and the adjacent islands, who had settled there centuries before the arrival of the Celtic tribes. 3. Th.6 conquest by Claudius. Still more important for our purpose is the subsequent invasion of Britain by Claudius Ccesar in the year of our Lord 43. That was the commencement of a series of terrible wars between the Britons and Romans which did not cease ROMAN COLONIZATION until A.D. 84, when the whole territory, now called England and Wales, with so much of Scotland as lies south of the rivers Clyde and Forth, became a Roman province ruled by Roman governors, visited by Roman emperors, colonized by Roman citizens, and kept in order by the Roman legions. Claudius expelled the Druids, who fled to the isle of Aiiglesca, and set up the elaborate worship of the Roman gods. Soon a network of roads opened up the country for traffic, stately palaces and villas studded the land, cities and garrison towns were built in important centres, remains of which are found to this day. In short, Britain became almost as civilized and cultured as any other part of the Roman empire, and so continued for 300 years. 4. Britons in Rome. How do such events affect the introduc tion of Christianity to Britain ? In this way : There was necessarily constant communication between the chief towns of Britain and the CARADOC AT ROME great imperial city of Rome, the chief highways being through Ganl (France) by way of Lyons, the Ehone, and Marseilles. All important events in each country would thus soon be made known in the others. Now it was exactly at the time when Claudius Caesar overcame the Britons that the disciples of our Lord were becoming known and called by the title of Christians. How to deal with this new religion so as to please the Jews and not offend the adherents of the older heathen systems was a burning question for the Roman government. We know that many of the chief preachers of Christianity were arrested, some killed, and others imprisoned. St. Paul was a prisoner in Rome, chained to a soldier, at the very time when his gaoler s comrades were engaged in the long and arduous conquest of Britain. From time to time batches of prisoners were brought to that city from the seat of war, and a notable prisoner was the brave British king Caradoc, whom the Romans called Caratacus. He was not a contemporary prisoner with St. Paul : for it will be remem bered that on account of his dignified bearing before the emperor his life was spared, and he was permitted to return home to govern his tribe as a subject prince of Rome ; but several of his family, retained as hostages for his good behaviour, were state prisoners at Caesar s court, at the time when we know St. Paul had access to it and had made many converts in the household. It is therefore quite probable that the British captives met with St. Paul. 5. Traditional introduction of Christianity. A thirteenth century collection of early British traditions, which cannot be all imaginary, gives full particulars of the imprisoned hostages just referred to. They are said to have been Bran, Llin, and Claudia, the father, son, and daughter of Caratacus ; and we are further told that this Bran, who had been either a druid priest or bard, became a convert to Christianity, and, on being liberated, returned to his native land as an evangelist for Christ. Although this is pure legend there is nothing improbable in the story. It is also thought that Claudii is the same British princess who was (according to Martial, the Roman historian) married to Pudcns, the son of a Roman senator. Now in St. Paul s second epistle to Timothy, chap. iv. 21, Claudia, Linus, and Pudens are all mentioned together. This Linus, the Latin equivalent for Llin, is identified with the first of the long line of bishops of Rome. What then is more likely (if, as the Triads tell us, TRA DITIONA L MISSION A RIES St. Paul s friends ware the children of Garatacus) than that they should take measures for the conversion of their fatherland ? In the absence of direct testimony we ought not to say that St. P<;ul him self actually came to Britain ; but it is idle to think that lie could be ignorant of so notable an addition to the Roman empire, any more than in our day we could imagine an intelligent observer of the times knowing nothing of England s colonial enterprise. St. Clement, a personal friend of St. Paul, says that the great apostle (ravelled to the " furthest limits of the West" (a phrase which, in thj Roman literature of the time, was understood to include Britain). But whether he came himself or not, we may be sure that his wonderful faculty of organization, and the great love he had for his peculiar mission to the Gentile world, would not have allowed him to overlook the claims of so important a part of it as Britain. History does not enable us to say for certain that he came here, but we may reasonably conjecture that many of his ardent converts, and in those days they burned with fervent zeal, may have helped to bring the hearts of the Britons in subjection to the power of the Cross. 6. St. Joseph Of Arimathea. Some other traditional accounts must not pass unnoticed. The Arthurian legends have made us familiar with one which in mediaeval times, and indeed till a recent date, was considered to be unimpeachable as indicating the true source of British Christianity. It is this: The Jews, having a special en mity to SS. Philip, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, and Joseph of Arimathea, banished them. They arrived at Marseilles, where SS. Philip and Lazarus remained, but St. Joseph was sent, with twelve companions and the holy women, to Britain. They landed on the south-west coast and made their way to Avalon, now Glastonbury, bearing with them the Holy Grail (i.e. the chalice wherein our Lord consecrated the wine and water at the institution of the Eucharist, and in which was said to be preserved some of the blood which fell from the Savinn o wounds as he hung on the cross). On their arrival they preached to the people, and for a testimony pointed to St. Joseph s thorn staff which blossomed and became a tree immediately after he had planted it in the ground near the place where they rested. Whereupon the King Arviragus gave them land and allowed them to settle. They at once built a church in honour of the Virgin Mary out of wattles and wreathed twigs which they plastered with mud. No one believes all SITES OF EARL Y SANCTUARIES of that mythical story, but this much is certain, that no place in England lias ever attempted to rival Glastoiibii . y as the site of the first British Christian settlement. When or by whom the first church there was built we shall uevi-r know for truth, but a more substantial structure was soon erected in place of the original humble and primitive one, which has been added to, ivbuiit, and restored from time to time, often at great cost and on a s<:ale of great magnificence, as our picture of the now ruined twelfth century church still serves to show. RUINS OF ST. JOSEPH S CHAPEL, GLASTOXBURY (sec page 126). 7. Other traditions Lucius. Gildas, a British ecclesiastic who lived early in the sixth century, and who is our sole historian up to that time, after describing the defeat of the drnids under Boadicca, A.D. 61, immediately goes on to say, "In the meantime, Christ the true Sun for the first time cast his rays, i. e. the knowledge of His laws on this island." Although the Romans governed the country the Britons still continued to be a tribal people, living in small family communities under chiefs who were called kings. The Venerable Bcde ANCIENT LITURGIES says that one of these British kings, named Lucius, sent a letter to Eleutherius, bishop of Kome, about A.D. 170, requesting to be made a Christian, and have some clergy sent to him, which request was granted. It would not be right to ignore this tradition, or to say that it is wholly fictitious, but scholars feel that as it rests entirely on a sixth century interpolation in a fourth century book, it must not be unreservedly accepted. Possibly Lucius may have heard, in the parts where he lived, enough of the new religion to make him desire to know more ; and as the city of Rome was then the centre of government from which every needful thing was said to be attainable, it was a natural place for him to send to ; but we must not therefore suppose that there was no Christianity among the other tribes. The traditions which state that Lucius converted heathen temples into Christian churches on the sites where St. Paul s cathedral and West minster-abbey now stand ; that he founded the bishopric of Caerlecn- on-Usk, near what is now Llandaff, and built the original churches of St. Mary, Dover ; St. Martin, Canterbury ; and St. Peter-upon- Cornhill, London, are extremely mythical ; and the only dependable fact in connexion with Lucius is the declaration of Bede that from his time to the days of the emperor Diocletian "the Britons kept the faith in quiet peace, inviolate and entire." 8. Doctrine and liturgy. There are many evidences, as we shall presently learn, respecting the purity of the faith professed in the earliest times by Britons ; and the natural way of accounting for so pleasing a fact is by pre-supposing its early introduction and settle ment here, before any of the grievous errors had arisen that afterwards caused so much sorrow of heart to the Christians in other lands, but which, on account of our secluded and insular position, did not easily effect a lodgment in Britain. One thing that we know for certain respecting those early times is that, in days long anterior to any reliable histories, the Christians in Britain had a definite Liturgy, or form of public worship. This may help us a little to understand the source from which the British Church derived its faith. There were four great liturgies in use in different parts of the primitive Christian world, obviously of common oral origin, and identical in doctrine, but differing in many smaller matters. They are known as the Oriental, the Alexandrian, the Roman, and the Galilean liturgies. That which was used in the British Church from earliest times is TERTULLIAN S TESTIMONY identified with the Gallican, probably because the bishops from Gaul held frequent communion with the bishops in Britain. It is said that the Gallican liturgy was first compiled by the evangelist St. John for his Church at Ephesus, and that Irenacus, who was bishop of Lyons in 177, introduced it into Gaul (see page 168). When Jrenaeus became bishop of Lyons, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was grievously persecuting the Christians everywhere, and many of the faithful in Gaul are supposed to have fled to Britain, and in that way to have increased the similarity of worship in the two countries. And there was a great outburst of religious zeal all over Gaul, after the still more terrible persecution of Christians by the emperor Decius, about A.D. 250, by which the British Church was greatly strengthened. HADRIAN S WALL (see footnote on next page}. 9. Historical testimony. Towards the close of the second century, i.e. about the year 193, the fame of the British Church had reached even unto Africa, for Tertullian, the great apologist of Christianity there, wrote: "For in whom else hnve all the nations believed, but in Christ? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, all the coasts of Spain, the various nations of Gaul, and the parts inaccessible to the Romans but now subject to Christ." The only parts then inaccessible to the Romans were the unconquered Picts in the highlands beyond the fortified walls of Hadrian and 10 PRIMITIVE ORGANIZATION- Agricola. 1 Another great writer, Origen, about A.D. 240, testified that in his day the religion of Christ was established in Britain ; after which date many historians record the fact. No one, however, disputes the existence of Christianity in Britain about this time. The controversy rather centres upon the question of its orthodoxy, although there is also an obvious desire on the part of later writers to connect the leading missions of this time with the Church of Kome. 10. The early missionaries. We can only conjecture what was the character of Christian influence in Britain then, except that it was distinctly of a missionary type. The usual method seems to have been for a band of devoted men, generally twelve, under a recognized leader, to penetrate into some untried district and there publish the Gospel of peace. If they were well received they would beg a plot of land on which to build their habitation, and gradually gain converts. Their simple and self denying lives constrained the people to listen to their teaching, and thus they made conquest of human hearts. The leader would then seek consecration as bishop of the flock he had gathered together, and when his disciples were sufficiently zealous and fitted for the task, fresh companies of twelve w r ould be selected from the settlement and commissioned to win some other centre to the cause. So the work went steadily on, tribe after tribe among the Celts in Britain admitted the claim of the Cross to their allegiance, until the whole land became subdued to its influence. Each settlement was a perfectly organized Church, complete in itself, but so related to other centres by mutual counsel, spiritual sympathy, and common belief, as to form but one harmonious and united society. 11. The early martyrs. Towards the close of the third century or perhaps in the beginning of the fourth, the British Church had, in common with other Christian communities, to attest the reality of its faith by the blood of its members. Very many persons of both sexes are said by Gildas to have suffered in different places. A few who met their fate in the principal Roman towns are specially men tioned by name : e. g. Aaron and Julius, who were martyred at 1 About A.I>. 210, Severns built numerous fortresses, part of which still stand, along the line of Hadrian s great wall, from Carlisle to the Tyne, and allowed the Picts to occupy the territory that intervened between it and the northern wall which Agricola and Antoninus built. This district was, however, reclaimed again by Valentinian, A.D. 368, and called " Valent a" after him. After the Romans left Britain, the Scots contended for it against the Picts and established a colony there. EARLY MARTYRS 11 Caerleon ; but the chief place as protomartyr has always been assigned to a Roman soldier of noble birth named Alban, who lived at Verulam. At the commencement of the general persecution of Christians ordered by the emperor Diocletian, Alban gave shelter to Amphibalus, a Christian priest, who was flying from the Roman officers, and after wards facilitated his escape by exchanging clothes with him. Before ST. ALBAN S SHRINE. Amphibalus bade farewell to his preserver, Alban had received such instruction in the truths of Christianity as made him determine to die rather than betray his guest. "When brought before the judge, charged with concealing a blasphemer of the Roman gods, he avowed himself a convert to the proscribed religion, and refused, in spite of torture, to burn incense at the heathen altars. He was therefore 12 RESULTS OF PERSECUTION sentenced to death, and beheaded outside the city ; but his constancy and devotion caused so many others to profess the Christian fai h that the Roman judges, with the connivance of the governor Constantius, were obliged to withhold the enforcement of the persecuting edicts. The events to be recorded in the next chapter speedily put an end to the persecutions of Christians, and then, in this and other countries, stately and beautiful buildings were erected for the worship of the Saviour, in honour of those who witnessed to His mission by their lives and deaths. On the spot where St. Alban was killed, the Christian Britons erected a church to his memory, which was replaced, as centuries rolled by, with more magnificent structures (see page 152). Saxons and Danes, as they became Christians, each strove to outvie their predecessors in the honour done to the memory of Britain s soldier martyr. The present church at St. Albans contains remains of the shrines of Amphibalus and his martyred convert, to both of which pilgrimages were made from all parts of Christendom for many succeeding generations. The name of St. Alban occupies an honoured place in the calendar of the English Church, against the 17th of June. CHAPTER II. (A.D. 274-449) GROWTH AND VIGOUR OF BRITISH CHRISTIANITY " That heresies should strike (if truth be scanned Presumptuously) their roots both wide and deep Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep. The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land By Rome abandoned." 1. Constantine the great. We must turn again to Roman history. Under the rule of Gallienus some of the governors of Britain assumed independent sovereignty of the province. The chief of them was Carausius, who, when Diocletian became emperor, so successfully resisted the imperial authority that he was permitted to retain the usurped dignity. Diocletian then resolved to govern the empire by four Caesars, who should each rule a specified division, but act in harmony. The Gallican provinces were assigned to Constantius, who quickly recovered Britain for the empire, and set up his court in the city of York. Before this a devout Christian lady, named Helena, became his wife ; and in A.D. 274, a son was born to them, called Constantine, who accom panied his father to York. In that city Constantius died, A.D. 306, Constantine suc ceeding him as Caesar. The other C*sars objecting to his elevation, he had to uphold his position by force of arms, which he did successfully ; and after twelve years joint authority with Licinius, became sole emperor in 324. The soldiers of Britain and Gaul, who formed the backbone of his army, KOMAX TOWER AT YORK. shared in his successes. Many of them were undoubtedly Christians, and they had become attached to their leader ever since his father Constantius had allowed the persecuting edicts of Diocletian to be waived, which Constantine on assuming the purple had withdrawn altogether. This was no small boon to them, because where the 13 14 CONSTANTINE THE GREAT edicts were enforced, Gildas informs us, the Christian churches were demolished, the hoty writings burnt, priests and people dragged to the shambles and butchered like sheep, to such an extent that in some provinces scarcely any traces of Christianity remained. This was the last of ten great persecutions by which the early Church was tried, and thereafter Christians were allowed full liberty to serve and worship God in Christ. It was doubtless to a large extent because the shrewd Constantino had found the Christians in his army brave, resolute, honest, and fearless of death in a right cause ; as well as in grateful recognition of the signal aid they had always afforded his father and himself ; perhaps also from a keen perception that the marvellously rapid increase of the Christians, in spite of all these persecutions, indicated a still more numerous membership at no distant date ; that he not only gave them full toleration, but took a personal interest in all their affairs, and adopted the once shameful symbol of the cross, not only as his standard in battle, but also as the image and superscription on many coins. A well-known tradition infers that this change of front was brought about by his having seen in the sky a vision of the cross, and underneath it in Latin words, "In this sign conquer" but Britons may be forgiven for cherishing the patriotic idea that no small part of Constantino s goodwill to Christianity, and his efforts for its welfare throughout the Roman empire, was due to the respect for its great truths commanded by the lives of British converts ; and that Christians of Britain repaid their debt to the continent by giving to the world the first emperor who embraced the true faith. Up to that time the Christian missionaries had commenced their efforts among the lowest of the people, gradually working upwards, as they gained adherents, to the higher ranks of life ; but later on the practice was to convert the king and his court, leaving the people to follow the fashion. In 313 Constantino persuaded his colleague Licinius to agree to a joint edict, w T hich granted to all Christians equal liberty with the older religions to live according to their own laws and institutions ; and by 324, when Licinius was killed, European heathenism had received its death-blow. The advancement of Constantino meant the decadence of Britain as a Roman province, for all the flower of its army, all its beauty and intellect and valour, followed in the train of the conqueror, first to Rome, and then to the still grander city of Byzantium, which Constantino founded to be the seat of government instead of Rome, BYZANTIUM 15 leaving their stately homes in Britain to fall into decay. Only the missionaries remained to instruct and comfort the poor plebeians, who were unable through weakness or poverty to accompany the ever victorious army, with thoughts of greater treasures and a more glorious citizenship in the world to come. THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE (BYZANTIUM). 2. Church, councils. We now arrive at a very important period in Church history the age of Church Councils. During the times of persecution the Christians were obliged, not infrequently to worship in dens and caves of the earth for fear of arrest, they carried their lives in their hands and on their tongues, they were afraid to meet in private, much less to assemble publicly ; and so the faithful were often left without proper guidance and instruction from authorized teachers. When better times came, and they were able to worship openly and exchange ideas without fear or favour, it was found that many wild interpretations had been put upon important doctrines, and that a 16 COUNCIL OF ARLES number of erroneous opinions were current. Constantino, although not as yet a professed Christian, was appealed to as arbitrator. It was then decided that learned representatives and leaders of Christian thought, from all parts of the empire, should be summoned to meet in council and discuss disputed points as they arose ; the authoritative declarations of such assemblies to be accepted as the orthodox belief. The Church in Britain was repeatedly invited to send representatives, because it was recognized throughout Christendom as a true and integral part of the apostolic and universal Church of Christ. 3. British bishops present. In the year 314 such a council was held at Aries, in Gaul, mainly for the purpose of settling the differences of opinion as to how the Church should treat the timid members, who, in times of persecution, had yielded in various ways to the demands made by the heathens ; and among the names of the signatories to the canons then j _J formulated we find the follow ing representa tives from Brit ain: (1) Ebor- ius, bishop of York; (2) Re- stitutus, bishop of London ; (3) Adelphius, bi shop of another Civitate Colo- nice, which is ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE AT ARLES. supposed to have been Caerleon-on-Usk. Assuming that this is correct it would seem as if the bishops named were ecclesiastical overseers in the three civil divisions of Roman Britain : (1) Maxima Ccesariensis, with its centre at York ; (2) Britannia Prima, of which London was the chief town ; and (3) Britannia Secunda, of which Caerleon-on-Usk was the metropolis. Besides the bishops mentioned, the names of Sacerdos, a priest, and Arminius, a deacon, arc also recorded as having been present at the council of Aries among the representatives from Britain. The absurd twelfth century tale of Geoffrey of Monmouth, COUNCIL OF NIC^EA 17 which makes the position of those bishops correspond with that of modern archbishops, and which further says DO less than twenty- eight suffragan bishops then assisted those metropolitans, we may safely consider false ; but of this we can rest assured, that so early as that notaMe council of Aries, the Church in Britain was thoroughly established on an admit: edly orthodox basis, with its three apostolic orders of clergy (bishops, priests, and deacons) in communion with the other Christian Churches of the world. That satisfactory state of things could not have sprung full-grown into existence, it must have been the result of many years unwearied diligence, activity, and self-denial. That the British Church could have afforded to send a deputation so far away at that time, proves it to have already made considerable financial progress, and we may be sure that the same benevolence which found the means to defray the expenses connected with the journey, would not have neglected to provide the clergy at home with such buildings, and fittings, and holy writings for the proper conduct of public worship, as would be worthy of the cause ; and in harmony with the elegance and durability for which Roman towns in Britain were famous. 4. The council Of Nicsea. In 325, one year after Con stantine became sole emperor, a very large Church council was held at Niccza, by his suggestion, to consider a far more serious matter, viz. the teaching and writings of Arius, who denied the consubstantiality of the divine Father and Son. At this assembly 318 bishops from every part of Christendom were present, and although we cannot nominate those belonging to Britain, we are informed that as soon as the representatives returned with the decisions of the council, all the British bishops signified their agreement in a letter sent by them to their beloved ruler, and old friend, Constantino the great. Any Christian teacher who opposed the decrees of such a council was declared to be excommunicate, but it has been the chiefest glory of the Church in this country, before and since it was called England, that its teaching has always proved to be in strict accord with such doctrines as have been pronounced true by these Catholic councils. The formulated doctrinal decision of the bishops assembled at Nicaa is to be found with very few verbal differences in the Nicene Creed (which forms part of the service for Holy Communion) down to the words "in the Holy Ghost." The additions and alterations were 18 COUNCIL OF ARIMINUM made at subsequent councils to meet other false doctrines as they arose. That was the earliest published declaration of the Catholic Faith, and if ever Christians throughout the world are again agreed, it should be upon the basis of the Nicene creed. 5. Other councils. The followers of Arms did not take kindly to their excommunication, or the banishment of their leader ; more over, they had many friends at court, and the support of all who were still favourable to the older heathen religions ; so that sometimes their star was in the ascendant, and the faithful had to fight their battle for truth over again in other councils. St. Athanasius, the leading debater for the orthodox party at the assembly of Nicsea, tells us that a deputation of bishops from Britain attended the council of Sardica, A.D. 347, and supported him against the accusations of the Arian party, who were then in great favour at Constantinople, a very satis factory reminiscence for us. Yet another council, held at Ariminum, A.D. 360, testifies to the unceasing vigour of the British Church in spite of the increasing depression in the prosperity of the country. This council was summoned by the emperor Constantius, a son of Constantine, who offered to pay the expenses of the delegates out of the imperial treasury. Nearly all the prelates declined this favour. The exceptions were three of those who came from Britain. That any Britons should accept assistance points indeed to a growing poverty in some parts of our land ; but the determination to pay their own ex penses on the part of the other British bishops present, and an offer by them to defray the costs incurred by their poorer countrymen, shows that there was still considerable prosperity in other parts. It is said that the bishops from Britain present at Ariminum were unwittingly inveigled into expressing an heretical opinion respecting Arianism, and therefore any testimonies to their general orthodoxy at this period are especially valuable. We are glad to know that Hilary of Poitiers, while an exile in Phrygia, about A.D. 358, congratulated the " bishops of the province of Britain," in common with other bishops whom he specifies, on having remained " free from all contagion of the detestable (Arian) heresy " ; that St. Athanasius, in a letter to the emperor Jovian, A.D. 363, was able to include the churches of Britain amongst those that were loyal to the catholic faith ; that St. Jerome, before the close of the fourth century, could report them as "worshipping the same Christ, and observing the same rule of faith as other nations ;" and that St. Chrysostom, whom we all venerate so highly, was able to DECREASE OF IMPERIAL POWER 1!) say that in this country, as in the East and South or beside the Euxine, " men may be heard discussing points of Scripture with differ ing voices, but not differing beliff." After this consensus of opinion we are prepared to find that, although in some rules of discipline and a few points of ritual observance, the British Christians were subsequently found to have differed from con tinental practice, their doctrinal position was in true harmony with the universal Church. 6. Decay of Roman Britain. Up to this time Britain had been constantly governed by the Romans, although after Constantine went away the deputy rulers were not so eminent as their pre decessors. Latin, the language of the Romans, had for a long time been the chief medium of j communication all important affairs, and a Latin trans lation of the Bible was used, probably founded on the old Latin version from which St. Jerome translated the Vul gate ; but when the educated people left Britain to be near the imperial courts, the illiterate remnant went gradually back to their own Celtic tongue. Being a " distant dependency" of the empire, Britain had not been of much profit to Rome, while, in order to keep the tribes in subjection, a large military force was required, which caused a severe strain on the imperial exchequer ; therefore, when all the available legions and ROMAN SOLDIERS. 20 DEPARTURE OF THE LEGIONS funds were needed to defend Italy against the Gothic invasion, and the soldiers on foreign service had to be recalled, Britain was evacuated, about A.i). 410, never to be re-occupied by the Romans. By this arrangement, as Gildas tells us, the laud was despoiled of all its armed soldiery, and all its active and flourishing youth. Then the people, deprived of all civilizing influences, except such as the few Christian teachers who remained were able to impart, were left to govern them selves. But as they had forgotten how to do this, the old habit of tribal chieftains fighting for supremacy was revived. " For many a petty king ere Arthur came Ruled in this isle, and ever waging war Each upon other, wasted all the land ; And still from time to time the heathen host Swarm d over seas, and harried what was left . . . . And King Leodograii Groan d for the Roman legions here again, And Csesar s eagle." The withdrawal of the Romans, and the disturbed state of Europe put an end to trade and commerce between Britain and Gaul ; the inter change of courtesies between the Churches became less frequent in consequence, so that, while the Christians adhered zealously to the fundamental truths they had received, they were not kept supplied with safeguards against the introduction of new doctrinal errors. 7. Pelagianism. It appears that about this time no small stir was made in the Christian world by one of the British clergy, named Morgan, who had followed the stream of fortune hunters to Rome. He is said by St. Jerome to have been of Scottish (i. e. Irish J ) descent, but on account of his name he is generally considered as a native of what is now Wales. Morg.m means sea-born, and the Greek equivalent (Pdagius) is the name by which he and his heresy (Pelagianism} are known to scholars. He was a man of great originality of thought, and his desire for fame was realized, although not in the sense he would have preferred. His remarkable views were quickly pronounced heterodox, and his name covered with dishonour. The chief points of the controversy were his denial of original sin, and his assertion that man is capable of turning to God and serving Him without the need of divine grace. His opponent was the great Augustine, bishop of 1 Lowland Scots are descendants of tribes who went from the north-west of Scotia, now called Ireland, to settle in Valentia, the low-lying district between the Roman walls. Highlanders are descended from the Picts. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO 21 Hippo (whom we must be careful to distinguish from Augustine, the monk, who came to Kent nearly 200 years later), who, while heartily contending against his errors, cheerfully admits that in private life Pelagius was "honourable, earnest, chaste, and commendable ; a holy man who had made considerable progress in the Christian life, a good and praiseworthy person, with whose name he first became acquainted when he (Pelagius) was living at Rome with commendation and respect." The Britons were naturally proud of their clever country man, and, although he did not personally propagate his doctrines here, many quickly believed them, to the dismay of the orthodox clergy ; who were unable personally to convince the people of their errors, for the reason we have stated that the best of the clergy had withdrawn from the country with the best of the people, only the least influential remaining. The clergy who did stay in the country sent to the Gallium Church for aid and guidance, and the Church in Gaul, having discussed the matter HADRIAN S CASTLE, HOME in council at Troyes, arranged (now called the Castle of St. Angela). to send two of its most able and learned bishops to visit Britain. These were Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes. They reached this country A.D. 429, and by their eloquence soon convinced the Pelagians of their heresy. Not only do they appear to have preached frequently in different parts of the country, they also convened a synod at Verulam (St. Albans), at which the orthodox party was signally victorious. 8. The "Alleluia" battle. It is recorded that during their visit the barbarous tribes from the north, whom the Romans had never been able to conquer, harassed the southern tribes by forcing a passage through the chain of forts built by Agricola and Hadrian across the VISITS OF GALLICAN BISHOPS north at the Forth and Tyne. They had been especially troublesome during the Lenten season of 430, when the Gallican bishops and the British clergy had been engaged in preparing the young and the novices for ihe great annual baptism at Easter ; whereupon Germanus and Lupus undertook to lead the forces of the south against their northern adversaries as soon as the festival was over. The combatants on both sides were simple-minded people, and the superior intellect of the bishops soon invented a ruse which resulted in a bloodless victory. By the aid of scouts they learned the movements of their northern insurgents, and hid the lustiest and most active of the southerners in a wooded valley. The Picts came over and down the hills expecting no opposition, and were almost close to the ambuscade, when, at a given signal from Germanus, the clergy all shouted "Alleluia ! " Their followers repeated the word as one man, raising a shout which reverb erated to the hills and gradually increased in volume of sound. Their enemies were unused to such disciplined movements, and imagining from the noise that their adversaries greatly outnumbered themselves, were smitten with sudden terror, threw away their weapons, and fled back to their hills in precipitate disorder. That has been called the "Alleluia Victory," and the place where it is said to have occurred, " Maes Gannon " (the field of Germanus), is still pointed out in Flint shire. Britons consequently held the name of Germanus in great esteem, and when the Gallican bishops proceeded to inspect such places of interest for Christians as the island afforded, their lasting popularity was assured. At the tomb of St. Alban, Germanus deposited with great ceremony certain relics of apostles and martyrs, and took away some earth from the spot where Alban fell, to place in a new church which he caused to be erected at Auxerre in honour of the martyred soldier. From that time we may date the rapid rise of that excessive veneration for the shrines of saints which in later centuries threatened to replace the higher worship of the Holy Trinity, 9. Second visit of the Gallican bishops. It was thought that the visit of the Gallican prelates had effectually disposed of the Pelagian heresy in Britain, but it was revived fifteen years after, and Germanus was implored to come and set things right again. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, being now dead, Germanus had for his companion this time Sevcrus, bishop of Treves. They reached this country early in the year 447 and were again successful in their efforts on behalf of THE BISHOPRIC CV< MAN 23 the orthodox faith. The heretical teachers were banished, after which, as Bede informs us, "the faith of Britain remained inviolate." Another triumphal progress through the land was made by the dis tinguished strangers, with the result that religious zeal and enthusiasm were everywhere aroused. Existing churches were restored and beautified, "new ones founded, the number of bishops increased, and spirit of devotion revived among the Celtic race which has never wholly died. One me mento of this mission may be found in the bishopric of the Isle of Man, which was founded in honour of Germanus, A. P. 447, its first bishop adopting his name. The ruins of St. German s cathedral, which may still be seen on the rock at the en trance to Peel harbour, are not the remains of the original church, but they stand on its site and still speak volumes to us of the missionary zeal which for centuries flowed from it to other parts. Glastonbury and St. Albans received a particular share of at tention from Germanus, and the religious fervour he communicated to the RUINS OF ST. GERMAN S, ISLE OF MAN. people had much to do with the determined resistance they offered to the heathen races who were about to invade the land, a resistance which will be memorable as long as the defence of Christianity by King Arthur and his knights of the round table occupy so large a place in our romantic song and story. Thus from the second to the middle of the fifth century Christianity 24 ST. NINIAN IN SCOTLAND was the religion of all the laud of Britain which the Romans had subdued. What we now call Ireland and Scotland were less fully open to its influence, owing to the absence of regular intercourse between the countries, and to the long standing feuds between the different Celtic tribes. 10. The Celtic mission in Scotland. There is much to show that the British Christians did not forget or neglect to evangelize their heathen kindred, but the difficulty of dissociating the object of religious teachers from the avowed antipathy of the tribes from which they came, must be held to account for their tardy success. To remove that misapprehension was a work of time, and much depended on the personal character of the leading missionaries. In this respect also, the influence of the Gallican bishops had great results. Long before he came to our country the great ability and sanctity of Gerrnanus had drawn towards him a number of young men who desired to be instructed at his feet, with the view of carry ing on evangelistic work in the British Isles. Many more followed him on his return to Gaul, where other well-known teachers, such as St. Martin of Tours, and famous schools like that of Lerins had long offered great inducements. Foremost among those young students was Ninian, the son of a British chief, who, desiring to preach the Word to the Scots, was sent abroad for education. Having been con secrated as a bishop, he settled in the lowlands about the year 400, and established a Christian community at Whithorn. The rude Scots to whom he was sent were a very violent people, of whom it is said that "they had more hair on their faces than clothes on their bodies." They had come from what was then called Scotia, but now Ireland, to occupy Valentia, that is, the lands between the Solway and Clyde, and although they eventually became rulers of the north, and gave their name to the country, at the time of which we are now treating they were an exceedingly barbarous race. After eight years of dis couraging labour among them, St. Ninian was compelled to quit the country and seek refuge among people of the same race who still remained in Ireland. Before leaving he had built a substantial church of white stone, then an unknown material for such a purpose to the people among whom he placed it. It was the fame of this church which gave the name of Whithorn (white house) to the locality. We have no record of his work among the other Scottish tribes whom ST. PATRICK IN IRELAND 25 he visited in Ireland, but it was doubtless to cany on Ids work there that Palladius, also a native of Britain, was in A,D. 431 consecrated by Celestine, bishop of Rome, to be bishop of the Scots who believed in Christ. His mission, however, was not successful. He was ex pelled from Ireland, as Ninian had been from AVhithorn, by the chief of the tribe, perhaps because he denounced their means of livelihood ; piracy and s^ave-trading being their chief avocations. CELTIC MISSIONARIES STARTING ON A VOYAGE. 11. St. Patrick. Among the captives which these rude robbers had stolen from the Clyde, about the year 403, was a youth of sixteen years, named Succoth, whose noble birth gained for him the surname of Patricius, or Patrick. It seems that both bis father and grandfather were Christian clergymen, so that he received an intellectual training from a very early age. Some pirates took him to the north of Ireland, where he was forced to tend cattle belonging to the chief. After six years he was impelled by a dream to escape from captivity, but was a second time taken by pirates, this time being carried to Gaul. He was noticed there by Christian merchants who restored him to his friends. 26 ST. KENTIGERN The heathenism of the Irish people among whom he had been enslaved troubled him greatly, and belonged to be the means of converting them to the Christian faith. For that purpose his father sent him to Gaul to be taught in the schools of Tours, Auxerre, and Lerius. In due time he was consecrated " bishop of the Irish. " Thus commissioned, and accompanied by twelve friends, he lauded A.D. 432 at the place where the town of "VVicklow now stands. Proceeding northwards, he had the good fortune to convert Smell, king of Leinster, the very chief who had expelled Palladius, and after a few years met with such success as to be able to establish the See of Armagh, which has ever since been the chief bishopric of Ireland. Before St. Patrick died, he had organized a thoroughly efficient ecclesiastical system in the isle of Erin, with monasteries governed by native clergy, which became centres of educa tion, refinement, and missionary enterprise. After his death the Church in Ireland appears to have lost ground, and to have been indebted for revival to the bishops of the British (i. e. Welsh) Church (see page 36). 12. Further Celtic missions. The work begun by St. Niuian in Scotland was not allowed to die out. Several names are given in various histories of missionaries who had penetrated successfully even "the lands beyond Forth" after his departure, while on the north-east coast, a Greek bishop is traditionally reported to have brought certain relics of St. Andrew, and founded a Christian community at the place still named after that apostle, who has since become the patron saint of Scotland. But the real continuation and consolidation of St. Ninian s labours in the lowlands was owing to St. Keniigern, otherwise known as St. Mungo, who, early in the sixth century, preached from Solway- firth to the Clyde, and founded the monastery of St. Asaph, in Wales, soon to be the seat of the bishopric so named 1 (see page 29). We are now able to see how vigorous and extensive was the work of the British Church ; nor can we fail to be impressed with the thought that the see of Rome, which afterwards made such unreasonable demands upon its allegiance, had a singularly small share therein. 1 The principal church of a district governed by a bishop is railed a cathedral, because it contains the seat, or throne, of the bishop. The word comes from the Greek kathedra a seat. The area over which a bishop has jurisdiction is called his see for a kindred reason but the latter word is derived from the Latin sedeo, to sit hence, to sit in judgment, or to rule. CHAPTER III. (A.D. 449-597) EFFECT OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST " The spirit of Caractacrs descends Upon the patriots, animates their glorious task ; Amazement rims before the towering casque Of Arthur, bearing through the stormy field The Virgin sculptured on his Christian shield." 1. The Jutes settle in Kent. We have next to consider the time when the Britons had to fall back before the overwhelming might of the Teutonic or German tribes, who began their work of conquest in Britain the same year that Germamis had left our shores for the last time. Bede tells us that " the poverty-stricken remnant of the Britons " men who forgot how to fight for their country when they forgot how to govern it sent a letter to ^Etius, the Roman consul, imploring military aid against the barbarous northerners who were ravaging the country. But the Romans were too fully occupied with the defence of their own country to send help to the colony they had evacuated. In despair Vorligern, one of the British kings, invited a band of heathen warriors from Jutland, beyond the sea, hoping that by setting one barbarous tribe against another he might get rid of the 27 28 COMING OF THE JUTES fierce and frequent attacks of the northern insurgents. The Saxon Chronicle says that the first company of Jutes landed at Ebsfteet in the isle of Thanet, under the command of two brothers, Hengist and Horsa. A treaty was made between them and Vortigern, that the Jutes should have a trading port in British territory on condition that they helped the Britons against the northern tribes ; and Vortigern s daughter Rowena was married to Hengist as a pledge of good faith. When the northern enemies were defeated the allies of the Britons were not satisfied with the indemnity offered them, and claimed a larger reward for their services than the Britons were willing to give. War followed, in which the Jutes were victorious, and as they had by that time seen enough of the country and its resources to make them desirous of owning it they seized the district now called Kent. There they established a colony, with their leader as king, follow ing up their advantage by making continual raids upon the Britons, who stubbornly contested their fatherland inch by inch. The feud between the Celtic and Teutonic races thus commenced has never been wholly obliterated, and still unhappily shows itself in the political atmosphere of Great Britain and Ireland. Our map of north-west Europe (see page 27) will explain the geographical position originally occupied by the tribes who now became, and for centuries remained, the rulers of our land. The Jutes were separated from the Saxons by the Angles, but they all spoke dialects of the same language, known to us as Old English, and so called because the English or Angles became the dominant tribe, and gave our country and tongue its present name. The Teutonic invaders were unwilling to use the speech of the Celts who inhabited Britain before them. In derision they called it and the speakers of it " Welsh," which meant that they were unin telligible. The persistence with which each race adhered to its own customs, intensified the ill-feeling between the Britons and their foes. .Friendly intercourse was next to impossible, and the struggle was for life or death. "Armed with long swords and battle-axes, the new colonists went forth in family bands under petty chieftains to war against the Welsh, and when they had conquered themselves a district they settled on it as lords of the soil " (Grant Allen}. Save for a hand ful here and there who hid themselves in the fastnesses of forest and mountain and marsh, they slew or enslaved the Britons, and when they had completely subdued the old inhabitants they kept up their warlike spirit by fighting among themselves. The conquered land was divided THE SAXON SETTLEMENTS 21) amongst the victors by lot. The chief received a suitable portion, of which he remained the private possessor. It is thought that the lands previously belonging to the British Christian churches were then appropriated by the conquerors to the maintenance of heathen worship. ST. ASAPH CATHEDRAL (LLANELWV) (sCC page 34). 2. Arrival Of the Saxons. The Teutonic tribes did not come to our country all at once, nor overspread it from one centre, but landed at different places in successive generations, so that the Britons were continually subject to inroads from fresh and vigorous enemies until they were almost surrounded. The Jutes came first in 449, as we have seen, and in 477 the Saxons, having heard from them of the richness and fertility of Britain, invaded the south coast under the leadership of JElle and his son Cissa, who landed at Selsea and encamped at Chichester (Cissanceaster), i.e. Cissa s camp. They attacked the Roman town of Anderida, and left no Briton alive to tell the tale. The territory they occupied was for a long time known as the kingdom of the South- Saxons, whence we have " Sussex." In 495 there was a still more important invasion. A second band of Saxons 30 ANGLIAN MIGRATIONS came to what is now Hampshire, under Cerdic and Cynric, and these gradually overran all the south-west of Britain, as far as Somerset shire, and called their kingdom "Wessex (the West- Saxons}. It is said that their chief antagonist was the renowned King Arthur, of whom we have already heard, and that he, at the battle of Mount Badon, A.D. 520, so stubbornly resisted the Saxon advance, that the territory now known as Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, then called by the Saxons West- Wales, was for many years free from fighting. " And Arthur and his kn : ghthood for a space Were all one will, and thro that strength the king Drew in the petty princedoms under him, Fought, and in twelve great battles overcame The heathen hordes, and made a realm and reign d." By this means the famous church of Glastonbury, "first ground of the saints, the rise and foundation of all religion in our land," was pre served from the terrible destruction and desecration that fell upon the other churches which the British Christians had built. Other, but smaller bands of Saxons colonized the parts known to us as Essex (the East- Saxons], and Middlesex (the Middle- Saxons], about 530. 3. The Anglian colonies. It is thought by some that small expeditions of Jutes and Saxons had settled in the north of Britain even before they had established themselves in the south. Perhaps when they helped the Britons to drive the northern tribes beyond the lloman wall, many families might have been invited to remain on the northern shores ; but the first real occupation of the north did not take place until 547, when a large number of Angles were brought over by Ida. Their descendants soon became masters of the whole country from the river Humber to the firth of Forth. Their kingdom was called Northumbrian and their kings were at one time brctwaldas, i.e. overlords, of all the Anglo-Saxon tribes. Other Anglian colonies were subsequently founded in the eastern counties and the midlands. Norfolk and Suffolk were occupied about A.D. 585, and known as the kingdom of East-Anglia. The coast from the Wash to the Humber formed the territory of the Middle- Angles, which, by additions from the earlier Anglian settlers who allied against the Welsh, gradually developed into the great central kingdom of Mercia. Thus the Heptarchy (i.e. the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Northumbria, East-Anglia, and Mercia) was formed. BRITONS DRIVEN WESTWARD 31 Sometimes the kingdoms of Wessex, Mcrcia, Northumbria, and East- Anglia were divided into still smaller kingdoms, that a king s son or brother might share in the government, ami succeed to full power should the king fall in battle. On the death of either, such divisions would be re-united. The Anglian tribes inhabited a far larger portion of British territory than the Saxons or Jutes, and that is why the country was eventually called Angleland (England). Rivers and mountains were the natural boundaries, but, as each small range of hills was captured by the colonists, the Britons were driven westward, and had to be content with Wales, West- Wales, and Strathdyde as their portion. 4. The destruction of British churches. It must not be thought that they surrendered their right to the possession of the rest without a struggle. The fact that 150 years were required by the Anglo-Saxons to subdue the flat countiy districts, proves that in all the world-wide struggles between the Teuton and Latin races no land was "so stubbornly fought for or so hardly won" as Britain. The enthusiastic love of Christianity, aroused by Bishop Germanus just before the first Teutonic invasion, had much to do with the wondrous resolution of the Britons to die where they fought in defence of their churches, rather than fly and leave them to the desecration, plunder, ST. PANCHAS CHURCH , CANTERBURY (see pages 32 and 50). 32 TEUTONIC DIVINITIES and burning that they knew would be their fate at Anglo-Saxon hands. Nothing could exceed the determination with which the invaders set about annihilating all the Christian sanctuaries that they found. Bede says that all public and private buildings were destroyed, the priests blood was spilt upon the altars, prelates and people were destroyed together by fire and sword, no man daring to give them decent burial. Most of the cities and churches were burned to the ground, many inhabitants being buried in the ruins. For a time Theon, bishop of London, and Thadioc, bishop of York, wandered about their dioceses ; but when the country had entirely relapsed into paganism, and they found that all was lost, then they were forced to retire amongst their fellow- Christians in the west. Among the churches known to have been abandoned by the Britons were St. Martin s and St. Pancras in Canterbury. They are illustrated on pages 31 and 50. 5. Anglo-Saxon heathenism. The Anglo-Saxons wor shipped "gods many and lords many," and their rage was even greater against the Christian teachers of the Britons than against the Britons themselves. For a little time it seemed as if all traces of civilization had been driven from the land. The very names of the days of the week remind us of the deities they worshipped. The Sun ; and the Moon ; Tiw, their god of battles and giver of victory ; Woden, the recognized founder of their race ; Thor or Thunder, their god of strength ; Frea, the goddess of peace and plenty, and Saetere, the god of agri culture. They gave to the hills and valleys and streams names of veneration, and to their leaders similar symbolical titles ; e. g. Hengist and//orsa mean "horse" and "mare," and Ethdwulf, the "noble wolf." Such names indicate the extent to which their religion was identified with animate and inanimate objects of nature. " But the average heathen Anglo-Saxon religion was merely a vast mass of superstition, a dark and gloomy terrorism begotten of the vague dread of misfortune, which barbarians naturally feel in a half-peopled land, where war and massacre are the highest business of every man s lifetime, and a violent death the ordinary way in which he meets his end. . . . Their greatest virtue was courage, cowardice their greatest vice ; those who fell in battle were at once admitted to the hall of Woden to drink ale for ever out of the skulls of their enemies." 1 In every new settlement the chief of a Teutonic tribe would erect near his own dwelling a temple for the i Grant Allen, Anglo-Saxon Britain. S.P.C.K. 2s. Qd. EFFECT OF TEUTONIC INVASIONS 33 gods, and it sometimes happened that a British Christian church was preserved by the Anglo-Saxons from utter destruction to serve this purpose. Such desecration was for Christians infinitely worse than demolition, yet when the heathen Teutons became converted, the churches so defiled were restored to the purpose for which they were originally built (see page 50), and thus became bonds of union between their founders and the Christians who subsequently worshipped in them. BAXGOR CATHEDRAL, CAERNARVONSHIRE. 6. The survival of British Christianity. The result of the Anglo-Saxon invasion was not, as some seem to have imagined, to utterly destroy the Celtic races or their religion, but to cut off their intercourse with the Gallican Church and so prevent them hearing of any progressive changes which may have been deemed expedient for the safe-guarding of the true Faith. Jutes and Saxons and Angles formed a wedge, so to speak, which separated the "Welsh" from other Christians in Europe. This fact accounts for the difference of ritual VOL. I. C 34 SURVIVAL OF THE CELTIC CHURCH observance in the British, Irish, and Scottish Churches from those of the continent, when the latter made a way through the heathen tribes at the beginning of the seventh century, and found that the Celtic Christians, whom they had almost forgotten, had preserved intact their ancient faith and worship, as well as their apostolic ministerial succession. It was then asked why the Britons had not attempted to convert their conquerors, and they explained that it had been im possible for a "Welsh" Christian teacher to show himself among the pagan conquerors and live. They did not, however, neglect to spread the knowledge of the truth, for, having consolidated their own organizations under altered conditions, they not only completed the evangelization of Ireland and Scotland, but sent missionaries to the heathen parts of the mainland of Europe (see page 103). 7. Organization of the Church in Wales. When the British Christians were driven from their old homes, a few fled beyond seas, but the greater portion who survived the struggle maintained in the west a vigorous Christianity. They divided the land that remained to them into ecclesiastical districts, Avith a bishop, a cathedral church, and a monastic college attached to each. These latter became the centres of religious thought, and the depositories of such literature as they were able to preserve and copy, as well as training-schools for fresh generations of evangelists and teachers. Perhaps the most im portant of these scholastic communities were those of Bangor-is-ij-coed on the Dee, near Chester (which is said to have had as many as 2000 members when ultimately destroyed by the Anglian king Ethelred), and that of CacrZeon-on-Usk, which had doubtless seen an unbroken succession of bishops from a time before the council of Aries, although the record of their names is lost. The present dioceses of Wales exactly represent the districts into which that portion of Britain was divided in the sixth century. There is no accurate chronology to guide us respecting that period, but the dates usually assigned to the establishment of the great monasteries, which were deemed the fittest centres of the episcopal government, are as follows : Llandaff about the year 500 ; Bangor and St. David s about 540 ; and St. Asaph, A.D. 570. Those sees have each preserved a continuous line of bishops from those dates until the present time. The names of the prelates successively consecrated to the first three are ready to our hand. Llandaff had Dubricius for its first bishop, who is also known as bishop of Caerlcon. His successor in the episcopal dignity was St. David, now the patron WELSH TRIBAL BISHOPRICS 35 saint of Wales. St. David is supposed to have been uncle to the renowned King Arthur, who gave him permission to remove the bishop s seat from Caerleon to Menevia, where he had established a vigorous religious community. The see of Menevia was afterwards called St. David s in remembrance of the piety, benevolence, and high intellectual attainments of its first archbishop. St. David received his consecration at the hands of the patriarch of Jerusalem, when on a visit to the Holy Land ; and he is also said to have rebuilt the old church at Glastonbury, besides founding many monasteries. The bi^linpric of had St. Denial for its first bishop ; and St. Asaph owed its es tablishment, as we have seen already, to the zeal of St. Kcnti- gcrn. Bangor diocese corresponded in ex tent with the princi pality of Gwynedd, St. David s with De- henbarth, Llandaff with Morganwg, and St. Asaph with Pn 36 ST. FINIAN OF CLONARD 8. St. Collimba in Scotland. After the death of St. Patrick the work he had so felicitously commenced in Ireland declined. It was re-invigorated in this way : St. Finian of Clonard, who was indebted to St. David s monastic college at Menevia for his religious training, and to its archbishop for his ordination, established similar communities in Ireland, wherein many earnest men were trained who revived the slumbering energy of the Church there, and from which not a few went forth to preach in other lands. One of them was called ST. COLUMBA AT ORONSAY. Columba ; he was the son of noble parents, and his work occupies a very prominent position among the Celtic missions. He earned con siderable celebrity for scholarship and religious zeal when a pupil of Finian, and was made abbot of Durrogh. While visiting his old tutor. ST. COLUMBA 37 Columba surreptitiously copied a manuscript belonging to his host. When the work was finished, Finian claimed the copy, but the pupil resisted the claim. Diarmaid, king of Ulster, a relative of Columba, was asked to arbitrate between them ; and on the strength of the old proverb, "mine is the calf that is born of my cow," the king decided that the copy belonged to the owner of the book. Columba was not pleased at having to give up his hard-earned treasure, and before he left the famous hall of Tara where the king held his court, considered himself still further aggrieved by some violation of tribal rights. In anger he sought the king of Connaught, and instigated him to make war on King Diarmaid, who was defeated. The bishops and abbots held a council at Teltown in Meath, to consider the conduct of Columba, and judged that as he was the cause of all the bloodshed by which many sons were lost to the Church, he should be banished from his native land until he had won from the heathen as many souls to Christ as would replace the number slain in battle. To which decree Columba bowed, and taking with him twelve companions he crossed over to Scotland in a coracle made of wicker-work, and covered with ox hides. Our illustration opposite shows him prospecting from a cliff on the isle of Oronsay ; but as he could still see Ireland he did not feel properly banished, so he went with his companions further north. They landed on a small island separated by a strait from the larger isle of Mull, on the eve of Whit-Sunday, A.D. 565. We call that island lona, it is three miles long and one mile broad. King Connell, a kinsman of Columba, gave him the island to be used for a religious settlement. There a monastery was founded to which the whoh3 of northern Scotland, and the myriad isles surrounding it, owe their first knowledge of Christianity. In every highland valley some hermit from lona became a witness unto Christ, and even Iceland was not considered too long and dangerous a voyage for their little boats to make. The monastic buildings (see page 25) were at first primitive and inadequate, possibly of twigs and reeds intertwined and cased with mud, but by degrees a complete establishment in harmony with those of older Christian colonies was raised ; and many of the brethren trained therein have, as we shall see, occupied a conspicuous place in the early history of the English Church. The words of its founder spoken a few hours before he died "To this place, little and poor though it be, there shall come great honour, not only from Scottish kings and people, but from barbarous and foreign nations, and from 38 MEMORIES OF IONA the saints of other Churches also" have been most literally fulfilled. Notwithstanding the share of earthly trials that came upon that sacred spot, it has always been true to the faith it then received, and visitors to Scotland may still worship in the odour of its sanctity. A short time ago the lord of the isle repaired the ruin shown in our illustration, so as to preserve it from further decay. Many other monasteries both in Britain and Ireland trace their origin to lona, but none of them can wrest the chief place from that in which Columba s bones were laid. We shall hear of it again, for we owe it very much. The kings of Scotland were for many generations crowned by Columba and his successors at lona, on the stone which now forms part of the English coronation chair, and -when they died were buried in the holy isle. 9. The British Church in Cornwall. Meamvhile the Church in \\ r est-Wales that is, Cornwall and Devonshire was striking its roots no less deeply down. There is very little doubt but that it was planted there in the third century. Solomon, its king, in the middle of the fourth century, professed the Faith, and before 401 Corantinus, the first Cornish apostle of any note of whom we have THE CHURCH IN CORNWALL 39 record, had the satisfaction of knowing that almost all the inhabitants of its sea-girt shores were adherents of the cross. His work was con tinued and consolidated by Pimniis, an Irishman from Ossory, who brought with him a number of other missionaries, whose pious toil is still bound up and registered in the names of the Cornish towns and villages. So late as the year 1835, an enthusiastic lover of the Church caused to be excavated, at his own cost, from the fine sand near the sea shore, at Perrauzabuloe (St. 1 iran-in-the-sand), a rude but substantial stone building, which archaeologists believe to be the identical church which Cornishmen built over the remains of St. Pirarms immediately after his death, which must have been before A.D. 450. The old Celtic tribes in West- Wales seem very soon to have discovered the ruling passion of their Saxon invaders, and to have purchased from Cerdic, by an annual tribute, permission still to continue worshipping Christ after the manner of their fathers. 1 10. Independence of the British Churches. We have now before us sufficient information to enable us to perceive that the early British Church w r as not destroyed by the Anglo-Saxon invasion ; also that the various offshoots of it in Cornwall, Ireland, and Scotland had such frequent and continuous intercourse as to make them practically all one Church ; their doctrines, orders, and customs being identical. And we have arrived at the end of the sixth century. It would be unfair to suppose that these vigorous Christian communi- 1 The Christian tribes of Cornwall and Devon undoubtedly retained their religious independence until the Saxon king Athclstan forced that part of Britain to submit to the English. That was in 936, in which year the old bishopric of Cornwall had to give place to a new English see at St. Germans ; afterwards to be merged into that of Crediton, in Devonshire, A.D. 1042. Eight years later the seats of the bishops of Cornwall and Devon were removed to the city of Exeter. In the year 1876 the ancient see of Cornwall was revived by the creat on of the bishopric of Truro. The first bishop of Truro, Dr. Edward White Benson, became the 93rd archbishop of Canterbury, and we can hardly wish for more fitting testimony to the existence of a flourishing Christian community in the south-west corner of Britain, before the archbishopric of Canterbury was created, than the words of a sermon preached by him at Perranzabuloe in August 1878. He said : " If St. Augustine had gone to Cornwall he would have found there, as many perhaps might suppose, a multilude of heathen people ; but then he would have found people holding the full knowledge of the Gospel worshipping there day after day as well as Sunday after Sunday. St. Augustine would have found himself among people who knew and loved the same Gospel which he taught." (See also page 124.) 40 INDEPENDENCE OF CELTIC CHURCH ties would permit their history to be obliterated at the bidding of the first itinerant missionary who discovered them, and it was but natural that they should earnestly withstand the claims made upon their allegiance by the Italian monks who arrived among their bitterest foes in the year 597. Everything affecting the right of the ancient British Church to an independent existence turns upon the v:.l: lity of such claims ; but there is nothing in history to show that any bishop of or from the city of Rome had pre viously asserted official supremacy over any ancient churches whose foundation was not traceable to that see. On the contrary, when a patriarch of Constantinople called himself " Universal Bishop," Gregory the great, who occupied the see of Rome at the time of which we are about to treat, denied his right to do so, and declared that any bishop who adopted such a title would be nothing better than Antichrist. As will pre sently be seen, the customs of the Celtic Churches were so different from the Italian Church that they cannot even be supposed to have had an identical derivation, except in the remotest ages. It is unfortunate that more authentic annals respecting early Britain are not available, for ec clesiastical histo rians, subsequent to the Italian mis sions, are not free from the suspi cion of being per sonally interested in upholding the claims of the see of Rome to BRIXWOKTII CHURCH. be "the mother and mistress of all Churches" ; and an over-anxiety BRITISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE 41 is shown to prove that early British saints made pilgrimages to Rome, or received their commissions from its bishop. But if such statements were true, it is difficult to perceive how the customs of the Celtic and Italian Churches could have become so different, when their members were really brought face to face. 11. Architecture of the British churches. We know very little of what the earliest churches of this country were like, but there are, as we have said, several buildings still standing which antiquarians and local historians attribute to a date anterior to the Anglo-Saxon conquest. Foremost among these they place the basilica church at Brixworth, of which an illustration is given on the opposite page. The basilicas were the Roman halls of justice, and were erected in all large Roman towns. The Britons in building their churches had to imitate something in their architecture, and as the heathen temples of the Romans were not built in a suitable style for Christian worship, it is believed that they followed the plan of the basilicas. It is also conjectured that when the Romans left this country, their halls of justice were converted into Christian churches. The walls and arches of that at Brixworth are said to be an instance of this, but the rest of the church is less ancient. We have at least two other churches still used for public worship in which the Gospel has been preached, and the Sacraments duly administered, with comparatively little interruption, for more than 1400 years. These are the churches of St. Martin at Canterbury and St. JVlary in Dover castle ; a view of St. Martin s will be found on page 50, and Roman masonry may still be seen in the chancel wall. A portion of St. Mary s, Dover (see page 56), is built of Roman bricks and cement, a combination only found in build ings erected during the occupation of Britain by the imperial legions. From its unique position it has witnessed the invasion of all the races who in turn have made this island their home. They have both, of course, been restored and added to, but that any portion of them exists at all, must be considered a marvellous intervention of providence, seeing that they conclusively prove the existence of Christianity in Roman Britain. 12. Relationship to the Church of England. -Lest it should be thought that a disproportionate space has been devoted herein to Celtic Church history, which at best is very obscure, the reader is reminded of the modern agitation which has for its object the c 2 WELSH AND ENGLISH immediate "disestablishment and disendowment " of the four Welsh dioceses. They are the same now as they always were ; there has been no break in their historic continuity ; they are the oldest dioceses in Great Britain. For centuries they remained independent of and un controlled by the English, even when the latter became Christian also ; and although communion and fellowship could not help springing up between Christian Churches, yet the differences of race and language kept the Churches organically distinct until the Celtic tribes were brought under the rule of the Teutons. The relations of the Churches were absolutely determined by the relations of the peoples. We have not referred to early British Christianity with a view of suggesting that it was the root from which English Christianity sprang, which would be wrong ; but because it is important for Englishmen to understand that in due time, and by gradual stages, the ancient British Christianity became grafted into the later Anglo-Saxon Church whose origin and growth we are about to relate. The old Church of Britain lived on in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Wales perfectly distinct true to the patriotic traditions of the tribes that formed its members. That old Church greatly influenced the evangelization of Ireland and Scotland, whence missionaries subsequently came to help to convert the English ; and long after, when the Saxons conquered the Cornishmen, and still later when the Normans subdued the Welsh, the Churches, like the races, were absorbed into a single community but did not cease to live. Of that union, brought about in times of mutual necessity by the providence of God, there have sprung many children who have been trained "in the fear and nurture of the Lord." Those Christian sons and daughters have built up a great Christian empire, of which their common faith has been the surest bond. The submission of the Celtic bishops to the Norman primates no more did away with the old Celtic Church than the submission of the Celtic chiefs to the Norman kings did away with the old Celtic race. The Britons, with their racial characteristics and speech, remain with us ; and their faith no less so. They brought their ecclesiastical as well as their national history with them when they and the English were made one nation. Mutual advantages, both temporal and spiritual, have been derived from the union all along the ages ; and we have no right to repudiate that history now. Only let all our fellow-countrymen understand that the Church in Wales is part of the ancient Christianity, and there will be very little fear that they will allow it to be injured or despoiled. CHAPTER IV. (A.D. 597-604) THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE " Subjects of Saxon ^Ella they shall sing Glad Hallelujahs to the eternal King. Blest be the unconscious shore on which ye tread, And blest the silver cross, which ye, instead Of martial banner, in procession bear." 1. Gregory the great. Towards the close of the sixth century the Christian Church had become an important factor in the govern ment of the world. The city of Rome, once the centre of civilization and refinement, rapidly declined in influence after the government was transferred to Constantinople, no more important person than the bishop remaining in residence ; who, by reason of this prominence, became its virtual ruler. When Pope Pelagius.II. died in 590, Italy was overrun with barbarians who threatened even the ancient citadel. The inhabitants, feeling that it was necessary for their safety to have a firm and brave man at the head of affairs, chose Gregory, the then archdeacon of Rome, as his successor, because he had proved himself to be the possessor of all the sterling qualities of a ruler of men. He did not desire this advancement, but they compelled him to accept it, and very soon, by his boundless liberality, he freed the city from its distressful condition, and made an immortal reputation for himself as the reconstructor of the western Church. Some years before he became bishop of Rome, his attention was directed to Britain. An oft-quoted tradition, without which no historical notes on the English Church would seem to be complete, is thus translated from Bede s Ecclesiastical History. 1 "They say that on a certain day, when, some merchants having lately arrived, many things were col lected in the market-place for sale, and many persons had come together to buy, Gregory himself came among the rest, and saw, among other things, some boys put up for sale, of a white body and fair countenance, and also with hair of remarkable beauty. Whom 1 Mr. Gidley s translation, from which most of the quotations from Bede in this book are taken, is published by James Parker, of Oxford, price 6s. 43 ST. GREGORY AND THE ANGLES when he beheld, he asked, as they say, from what region or land they were brought. And it was said that they were brought from the island of Britain whose inhabitants were of such an aspect, Again he asked whether these same islanders were Christians, or still entangled in the errors of paganism ; and it was said that they were pagans. Then he, drawing deep sighs from the bottom of his heart, said : * Alas for grief ! that the author of darkness possesses men of so bright countenance, and that so great grace of aspect bears a mind void of inward grace. Then again he asked what was the name of that na tion. It was answered, that they were called Angles. : It is well, he said ; for they have an angelic face besides, and such it befits to be the co heirs of angels in heaven. What name has that province from which they are brought ? It was answered, that the people of that province were called Deiii. Well, he said, Deiri, withdrawn from anger and call ed to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of that province called 1 It was answered, that he was THE ANGLI IN ROME. called JElla ; then he, alluding to the name, said, Alleluia! it behoves that the praise of God the Creator should be sung in those parts. And going AUGUSTINE S MISSION 45 to the pontiff of the Roman and apostolic see (for he was not himself as yet made pontiff) he asked him to send some ministers of the Word into Britain to the nation of the Angles, by whom it might be con verted to Christ, saying that he himself was ready to accomplish this work, with the co-operation of the Lord, if the apostolic pope thought fit that it should be done. Which, at that time, he was not able to accomplish, because, although the pontiff was willing to grant him his request, the citizens of Rome could not be induced to consent that he should go so far from the city." But some years after Gregory became pope an opportunity was afforded of sending some monks to Britain under Augustine, a man who had gained his good opinion as prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew, at Rome, which Gregory had established in the year 596. 1 Augustine and forty companions were dispatched on their mission, to a land and people with whose very language even they had no acquaintance ; and they lacked the primary condition of missionary zeal, for they had very little confi dence in themselves, and no originality of mind. On their way they stayed some time in Provence, at the monastery of Lerins ; but the information the brethren there gave them respecting the barbarous Angles caused their hearts to sink within them. Fearful at the idea of having to sojourn with so fierce a race, they sent Augustine back to Rome for permission to abandon the dangerous journey. But Gregory had determined to convert the Angles, and refused to absolve his missionaries from their obligation. Obedience was one of the funda mental rules of the Order of St. Benedict, so the monks continued their expedition. Gregory used all his influence to make their way easy. He gave them letters of commendation to the bishops whose dioceses they had to pass through, and, for further encouragement, elevated the little band to the dignity of a distinct and independent monastic brotherhood, with Augustine for their abbot. Whatever might help to arouse their self-respect and courage, he was careful to provide. No expense was spared, and the difficulty of language was lessened by a plentiful supply of interpreters. 1 The Benedictine order of monks was founded by St. Benedict of Nursia, at the beginning of the sixth century, and the rules he framed for their governance became the basiVof all monastic discipline until the eleventh century. For several centuries the English bishops who succeeded Augustine assumed the habit and adopted the rule of St. Benedict before their consecration, and in Dunstan s time the same rules were enforced throughout the monasteries in Britain. See page 129. 46 CONVERSION OF KENT 2. Augustine s arrival in Kent. Thus equipped they proceeded on their journey, and when passing through Gaul heard reassuring news. Bertha, the daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, had been married to Ethelbcrt, king of the Jutes in Kent, on condition that she should be permitted to continue the exercise of the Christian religion in which she had been trained ; and Luidkart, previously bishop of Senlis, went with her as spiritual adviser. To the Kentish people, therefore, the Italian missionaries found their way, landing on the Isle of Thanct in the spring of 597. From thence they sent their homage to the king at Canterbury, who gave them permission to remain there until he decided what course to adopt. He had of course heard of Christianity from Bertha and Bishop Luidhart, but seemed to think that the miracles recorded of the Saviour and his followers were attributable to witchcraft. For that reason, when he had resolved to give audience to Augustine, he declined to meet them in any house, but invited them to address him in the open air, where he believed the demoniacal spells could have no potency. On the day appointed, the little band of missionaries came before the king and queen in solemn procession. One carried a silver cross, while another bore a picture of the Saviour, and as they advanced they chanted a Gregorian litany. The king was much impressed by the scene. He listened graciously to the speech of Augustine, or rather to the inter preter s translation of it, and then gave them liberty to remain where they had been staying, offering them hospitality and a dwelling-place. He allowed them to preach to such of his people who were willing to listen, but said he could not then personally assent to the new and uncertain doctrines they proclaimed, seeing that by doing so he would have to renounce those which he and his people had for so long believed, in common with all the Anglian tribes. The ultimate acceptance ol Christianity by the Kentish court was the result of several conferences between Ethelbert and his nobles, who wisely abstained from coun tenancing such a sweeping reformation, until they were convinced that it would be more beneficial to themselves and the kingdom than their older system of worship. The obvious advantage of establishing friendly intercourse with the rest of Christendom doubtless affected their decision. On Whit- Sunday, 597, Ethelbert and his court were baptized. Prior to this, Augustine and his followers had shared in the worship and ministrations conducted by Bishop Luidhart in the church of St. Martin (see page 50), east of the city of Canterbury, 48 CONSECRATION OF AUGUSTINE which had been built by the Britons in the time of the Roman occupa tion, and which Queen Bertha had rescued from heathen desecration that she might worthily offer her devotions to the Saviour. But when the king accepted Christianity, he gave Augustine permission to preach in all parts of his dominion, and to rebuild and restore the ruined British churches which abounded in Kent (see page 41). Such is the tradition of the introduction of the Gospel to the Jutes, the first of the Anglo-Saxon tribes that invaded Britain. 3. The first archbishop of Canterbury. Augustine was as yet only an abbot, and therefore was not empowered to ordain men to the work of the ministry which was necessary for carrying on a Christian mission successfully. Only a bishop has such power, and a bishop must be consecrated by other bishops. Therefore, when he had given instructions to his companions respecting the preaching and rebuilding, Augustine went over to Gaul (not to Rome) to obtain episcopal authority, and was consecrated "bishop of the Angles" by Vergilius, bishop of Aries, and dEtherius, bishop of Lyons. His consecration gave him no such jurisdiction over the bishops in Wales as he afterwards claimed ; indeed it was not until the year 601 that he received from the bishop of Rome the pallium, 1 or pall, which constituted him "Archbishop and metropolitan" of the Angles, in pursuance of a scheme which Gregory had in his mind for restoring the old provincial sees of Britain, viz. an archbishop for York and another for URY London, with twelve suffragan or assistant bishops in each of those provinces. Augustine, although bishop of Canterbury, was the first of such metropolitan bishops, but it was understood that the bishopric of London should be restored, and be come the chief see on the death of Augustine. Gregory promised to send another pall to York whenever the archbishopric should be 1 The pall was a white woollen collar, with pendants behind and before, made from the wool of lambs that had been blessed by the pope on St. Agnes Day, and embroidered with purple crosses. A representation of one appears on the arms of the see of Canterbury. The pall was not at first an ecclesiastical vestment, but part of the imperial insignia with which Constantino the great had decorated the patr archs of varior.s Churches, and permitted their successors to retain. KENT CHURCHES RESTORED 49 revived there, and, to prevent any further need of bishops elect travel ling to the continent for consecration, he arranged that, when either should die, the surviving metropolitan might ordain a successor to the vacant see. That grand scheme, owing to circumstances Gregory could not foreknow, was only in part fulfilled. By the time Augustine returned from Gaul, his monks had succeeded in winning the hearts of the Kentish folk, and on Christmas-day the sacrament of Baptism, at that time only celebrated by the Church on the great Christian festivals, was administered to over 10,000 persons who assembled for that purpose at the fording-place of the Swale, which divides the isle of Sheppey from the mainland of Kent. By that time the work of building MINSTER CHURCH, ISLE OF SHEPPEY. and restoring churches was in full progress, and one of the churches so restored was without doubt the church of St. Mary in Dover castle (see page 56). There was another old church in ruins at Canterbury, near the royal palace which King Ethelbert had given to Augustine for an episcopal residence. This church Augustine repaired, consecrating it to the "Holy Saviour, God, and our Lord Jesus Christ," and close beside it he built a habitation for himself and those who should succeed him. That was the beginning of Canterbury cathedral, which is still called Christ s-church. The only remains of the original church is the venerable seat, still known as "St. Augustine s Chair" in which for many generations archbishops of Canterbury have been enthroned. Between Christ s-church and St. Martin s church there was another 50 ST. MARTIN S, CANTERBURY British church, not then in ruins, which had been used by Ethelbert as a temple for the worship of his pagan idols. This also was made over to Augustine, dedicated to St. Pancras (page 31), and used for Christian services. It had long been the practice to set apart land in the neighbourhood of churches and temples for the maintenance of the ministry thereof, and the lands belonging to these old churches were transferred with the building, so that this granting of churches, and the lands connected with them, to the missionaries was not really a new endowment, but only a restitution to God of that which had originally been devoted to His service by the Britons, and alienated from that holy purpose by their Anglo-Saxon conquerors (see page 32). ST. MARTIN S CHURCH, CANTERBURY. 4. Correspondence with St. Gregory. The conversion of Kent was now assured, and the Church there in a fair way to successful development. Augustine then began to consider his relationship to the other bishops, in Gaul on the one hand, and among the Welsh on the other. Presently he sent Laurentius and Peter, two of his com panions, with important letters to Gregory, in which he reported the ADVICE OF ST. GREGORY 51 successful progress of his mission, asked advice on various matters, and requested that additional helpers might be sent to him. Two of his questions are of great importance to our inquiry. The first was : " Why should there be different liturgies in use in Gaul and Britain to those in Rome ?" and Gregory in effect replied that there was no harm in this, and Augustine might select from each such things as he thought best adapted to the minds and customs of his new converts. The second question was as follows : " How ought we to act towards the bishops of Gaul and Britain ? " To which Gregory sent answer thus : " We assign no authority to you over the bishops of Gaul, but we commit all the bishops of Britain to you, my brother, that the un learned may be taught, the infirm strengthened by persuasion, and the perverse corrected by authority." This advice was a most un warrantable assumption of authority on Gregory s part, and a breach of the decrees of the General Council of Epliesus, A. p. 431, which stipulated "that no bishop shall occupy another province which has not been subject to him from the beginning." Now none of Gregory s predecessors had asserted any supremacy over the British Church, and this is the first record we have of an assertion of superiority by a bishop of Home over other provincial churches. Augustine sent his messengers to Rome in the spring of the year 598, but it was not until 601 that they returned. They were accom panied hither by a number of other clergy whom Gregory had selected to co-operate with Augustine. Three of these, Mcllitus, Justus, and Paulinus, subsequently occupied positions of very great importance. And they brought with them, "for the worship and ministry of the church, holy vessels and altar vestments, ornaments also for the churches and priestly garments, relics, too, of the apostles and martyrs, and a number of books." 1 By the time this reinforce ment arrived, Augustine had gained full particulars of the British ecclesiastics and they of him. As soon, therefore, as he had received the above instructions, he arranged for a conference with the Welsh. 5. Augustine and the British bishops. The resistance of the British Church to the demands of Augustine is the first of a long series of protests on the part of Christians in Britain against 1 Here we see the ancient character of ritual ornaments, about which there have been many heart-burnings even in the Victorian era, but as they were not a cause of dissension in the controversy with the Celtic bishops, we may infer that there was nothing unusual about them. 52 SYNOD OF THE OAK papal supremacy, so that, when the Church of this country is said to be " protestant," we ought not to understand that it has objected to papal influence over it from the times of the Tudor kings only, but that it has never willingly allowed to the bishops of Rome any legal jurisdiction over Churchmen in this realm. The Welsh and Anglo- Saxon tribes being still in deadly feud, owing to the natural antipathies of race, the Christian teachers of "Wales feared to venture among their mortal foes without some guarantee for security ; so King Ethelbert, who, as Brdwalda, had considerable influence over the Saxon kings, obtained for Augustine the privilege of holding the conference on the confines of the kingdom of Wessex, where the river Severn divided it from Wales. There is a place called Aust Cliff, after Austin, another name for Augustine, which is supposed to be the scene of the assembly. It is known as the "Synod of the Oak," because Augustine met the representatives of the British Church under the spreading branches of an oak tree. Augustine s avowed object at this meeting was to test the willingness of the Britons to unite their forces with his in the conversion of the Teutons. But there were several points of divergence to be discussed before the two parties could work in harmony. Chief among them was the question, "When should Easter-day be kept ? " a subject which is still important enough to occupy several of the introductory pages of our Prayer-book. There had been great diversity of opinion among Christians on the question. In north-west Europe it had only been settled a short time before Augustine came here, so that his mind was full of it. He found the Britons still holding to the old western rule laid down at the council of Aries, A.D. 314, by which they kept the fourteenth day of the paschal moon if it were a Sunday, as Easter-day. This had been the practice of the Christians at Rome also, but they had given it up for the sake of agreement with the patriarchal see of Alexandria, which, by a decree of the council of Niccea, had the right to determine the Sunday that should be observed. Its decision was, that when the fourteenth day of the paschal moon fell upon a Sunday, Easter-day must be the Sunday after. The British Church had not heard of this change of custom on the part of the Roman Church, and refused to give up their old practice without further consideration. Another point of disagreement was the use of the tonsure ; that is, the fashion by which the monks and clergy shaved their heads. The Roman clergy and Benedictine monks cut their hair in the form of a crown ; the Britons wore theirs in BRITISH BISHOPS AND AUGUSTINE 53 the shape of a crescent. Aud then there was the custom of a triple immersion in Baptism. The Romans dipped the candidates first on the right side, and then on the left, the third lime with the face downwards. The Britons were content with a single immersion in the name of the Holy Trinity. No question of doctrine was pro pounded ; only these matters of minor detail. But the underlying principle was the right of Augustine to impose new conditions upon an undoubtedly apostolic and orthodox Church, and the Britons refused to acknowledge his right to interfere with their time-honoured usages and customs. It is said that Augustine hal recourse to AUST CLIFFE, SEVERN ESTUAUV, GLOUCESTEK.S11J l;K. miraculous evidence in support of his claim, but the marvellous had little effect on the Britons sense of right. They stipulated for a second meeting which should be larger and more representative. That gave them time for fuller consideration of the great issues involved. To Augustine s question, whether they would help him to evangelize the Saxons? they made this significant answer, "We do not think it worthy to preach to that cruel people who have treacherously slain our ancestors and robbed us of our just and lawful property." Bede tells us that before the second conference they inquired from one of 54 CO-OPERATION REFUSED their most holy men who lived the life of a recluse, whether they ought to forsake their traditions at the bidding of Augustine. His reply was, " If he be a man of God, follow him." They said, i( And how can we ascertain this ? " Then he replied, " The Lord saith, Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. If, therefore, this Augustine is meek and lowly in heart, it is credible that both he himself bears the yoke of Christ, and offers it to you to bear ; but if he is stern and proud, it is evident that he is not of God, and that his discourse ought not to be regarded by us." And they again said, "And how can we discern even this?" "Con trive," said he, " that he and his people may come first to the place ol the synod ; and if, at your approach, he rise up to you, hear him with submission, knowing that he is a servant of Christ ; but if he slight you, and will not rise up in your presence, when you are more in number, let him also be disregarded by you." Unfortunately for the claims of Romanists, Augustine adopted a very haughty demeanour. The British deputation was a large one. Seven bishops attended, accompanied by many learned men from the famous monastery of Bangor on the Dee, but Augustine neglected to rise and bid them welcome. This was enough ; " He could not have the spirit of Christ," and they refused to yield. They would observe none of his customs nor accept him as their chief, for "If he would not rise up to us just now, how much more will he despise us, if we begin to be subject to him." Dinooth, one of their number, explained, that although they owed fraternal love to the Church of God, and the bishop of Rome, and indeed to all Christians, they owed no other obedience to him whom Augustine called Pope. Another reason why they could not submit to him or his representative was, that they were already sub ject to the metropolitan bishop of Caerleon-on-Usk, who was, under God, their spiritual overseer. Whereupon Augustine added to his discourtesy a public threat of violence : " If they will not accept peace with their brethren," sajd he, "they should receive war from their enemies, and if they would not preach the way of life to the nation of the Angles, they should suffer at their hands the vengeance of death." 1 But we have seen 2 that the Celtic Christians were not devoid of the true missionary spirit, although they were still forced to 1 Nine years after Augustine died the monks of Bnngor-is-y-coed were massacred by order of the Anglian king Ethelfrid ; and this was thought by some to give a prophetic significance to the archbishop s angry retort. 2 Pages 26 and 36. SEE OF ROCHESTER 55 maintain a defensive attitude against the aggressive designs of their conquerors ; and, in the years that were coming, their missions played a larger part in the re-establishment of the Faith in their fatherland, amongst their present persecutors, than did the missions of Augustine, which soon experienced the truth of that which the Welsh had declared, respecting the barbarous nature of Anglo-Saxon paganism. 6. The death Of Augustine. The archbishop of Canterbury returned in great mortification to his work among the Kentish people, and did not live to extend it far beyond that kingdom. Acting on Gregory s instructions, he sent Mellitus to the adjoining kingdom of the East-Saxons to revive the ancient see of London, but that mission had a very short existence. Justus was consecrated bishop of Rochester in the same year, and divided with Augustine the supervision of Kent. To both those new enterprises King Ethelbert gave munificently of his private substance to build and endow the necessary churches, the estate of Tillingham, Essex, being one of his gifts to St. Paul s, London, which still forms part of the endowment for the cathedral maintenance. Ethelbert also built for St. Augustine s monastery a magnificent abbey church, in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul, which was intended to become the resting-place for all that was mortal of the archbishops of Canterbury and the kings of Kent. Augustine laid the founda tions of it, but did not sur vive to witness its com pletion. When he felt that his end was approaching, he consecrated his friend Laur- entius to be his successor. He ought not to have done so, because the council of Nicsea forbade the existence of two bishops for the same KOCHKSTEIl CATHF DUAL WEST DOOlt. DEATH OF AUGUSTINE see at one time ; and another council, held at Antioch in 346, decreed that no bishop should be allowed to consecrate his successor. Bede says he was driven to do so, "in fear lest the unsettled Church might totter and fall if left destitute of a bishop even for an hour." But the events that transpired justified his action. The extent of Augustine s work and influence was described on his tomb. "Here rests Augustine, first lord archbishop of Canterbury, who, formerly directed hither by the blessed Gregory, pontiff of the city of Rome, and sustained by God in the working of miracles, brought over King Ethelbert and his nation from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ, and having completed the days of his office in peace, deceased on the 7th day of the kalends of June in the same king s reign." Beyond what is there recorded, it cannot be maintained that his efforts had any lasting effect in Britain, except that his coming here revived an intercourse between our country and the Christian world which the Anglo-Saxon invasion had caused to be suspended for 150 years. He was buried temporarily in a burial-ground by the public road, according to the usage of the time ; but when King Ethelbert had finished building the abbey church the remains were becomingly interred in the north porch. That monastic foundation continued to exist side by side with the cathedral foundation, and sometimes in rivalry with if, until the sixteenth century, when the monastery passed into secular hands. Through recent en terprise of munificent churchmen, the abbey buildings have been re cently restored to religious uses as a habitation for St. Augustine s mis sionary college. No one will grudge St. Augustine the honour due to him as the first preacher to the Jutes in Kent, where his work, though ROMAN LIGHTHOUSE, AND PART severel y threatened by reverses after OF ST. MARY S CHURCH, DOVER. the death of his patron Ethelbert, has continued to this day. CHAPTER V. (A.D. 604-681) THE CONVERSION OF "ENGLAND" " And when, subjected to a common doom Of mutability, those far-famed piles Shall disappear from both the sister isles, lona s saints, forgetting not past days, Garlands shall wear of amaranthine bloom, While heaven s vast sea of voices chant their praise." 1. Unsuccessful Italian missions. Our next business is to inquire how the rest of the country which we now call England heard about the Christian faith. Laurentius, the successor of Augustine in the see of Canterbury, endeavoured to conciliate the Celtic Church by writing to the Irish bishops as his "most dear lords and brothers," and Dagan, one of the Irish bishops, journeyed to Canterbury to discuss a basis of agreement ; but the Benedictine monks heaped such ridicule upon him, because he wore a different tonsure to themselves, that he refused to eat or lodge in the same house with them, and returned home exceedingly angry. Thenceforward, for half a century, the Churches continued to work independently. The kings of East- Anglia and Essex were nephews of King Ethelbert, and he persuaded them both to receive Christian teachers. King Redivald, of East- Anglia, does not appear to have himself become a convert ; but he tol erated the faith in his province, for he had Christian altars and heathen idols side by side in the same temples. But Scbcrt, king of the East- Saxons, was baptized, and welcomed Mellitus as his bishop in the year 604. London was then one of the strongholds of paganism, for heathen deities were worshipped in temples where St. Paul s cathedral and Westminster-abbey now stand. By the liberality of Ethelbeit those temples were restored and used for Christian purposes ; for Gregory had written in a letter to Mellitus that as it would be impossible to cut off all things at once from the rude pagan minds, the heathen temples should not be destroyed, but cleansed and dedicated to God, the idols replaced by Christian relics, and Christian services sub stituted for idolatrous sacrifices on the principal anniversaries. Sebert died about 616, and was succeeded by his three sons, who repudiated the Christian religion. They attempted to profane the 57 58 LIMITATION OF THE ITALIAN MISSIONS sacraments by demanding to receive the eucharistic elements, but Mellitus explained that " the bread of life was reserved for those who had received the water of life." As they refused to be baptized, they drove the bishop from his see, and the land at once went back to heathenism. Ethelbert, king of Kent, died about the same time as Sebert, and Eadbald his son, like Sebert s sons, renounced the Christian faith, while the people, just as they had before followed the example of the king and court in receiving Christianity, now imitated them in the rejection of it. Thereupon, Justus, bishop of Rochester, preferred voluntary exile in Gaul with Mellitus, bishop of London, than a possible martyrdom at his post. Truly, they could no longer sneer at the Celtic bishops for neglecting to convert their traditional enemies ! Even the archbishop of Canterbury was preparing to follow them, and the mission of Augustine was on the point of being extinguished, when Laurentius dreamed that St. Peter flogged him for his cowardice. He, therefore, decided to stand his ground, and Eadbald, the king, was so pleased by his constancy that he became a warm supporter of the cause, thus saving Kent from the apostasy that came upon Essex. 2. Paulinus in Northumbria, On the death of Ethelbert the rank of Bretwalda devolved on Edwin, king of Northumbria, and the influence of Kent waned rapidly. Edwin desired to marry Ethelburga, daughter of Ethelbert and Queen Bertha, but Eadbald, being now a Christian, would not let his sister go to the north unless, like her mother, she was allowed to worship Christ in her new home. Edwin not only agreed to this, but signified his willingness to adopt Christianity himself if he found the religion of his consort better than his own. The missionary chosen to accompany the young queen was Paulinus, whom Gregory had sent from Rome to help Augustine. He was consecrated bishop (A.D 626) by Justus, who was now archbishop, and in a very little time, by Ethelburga s aid he obtained sufficient influence over Edwin to cause that prince to assemble the Witan, or council of wise men, for the purpose of discussing the merits of Christianity. Some civilities on the part of the bishop of Rome greatly helped to strengthen the hands of Paulinus. Boniface V. sent letters to Edwin and his queen, as Gregory had done to Ethel bert and Bertha, together with some simple presents garments for the king, a comb and looking-glass for Ethelburga. Courtesies of this kind are never thrown awav. We are favoured with a full account of WEST FfiONT OF YOHK MINSTER (SCC HCXt page). 60 PAULINUS OF NORTHUMBRIA the proceedings of the Witan by the Venerable Bede, who was himself a Northumbrian, and may have met with persons who were present. The king explained the object for which he had called them together, and asked Coifi, the heathen high priest, to speak his mind. Coifi argued that the new religion could hardly be less profitable to them than the one they had adhered to for so long. One of the nobles said he would be glad to accept Christianity if it could tell them more about a future life than their old religion did, and this sentiment most of the nobles echoed. Paulinus then addressed the Witan, and with such success that Coifi suggested the immediate demolition of the heathen temples, and forthwith commenced it with his own hands. The king and his court having gone through the necessary course of instruction as catechumens, were baptized on Easter, eve, A.D. 627. When the people heard that the wise men had accepted Christianity they also readily listened to its preachers, the result being that, like Augustine, Paulinus is said to have baptized 10,000 persons in one day. The king gave him a grant of land in the city of York, and built a temporary church of wood until a more durable one of stone could be erected. This was dedicated to St. Peter, and became the bishop s cathedral, thus reviving the ancient see of York in accordance with the plan of Gregory the great. The kingdom of Northumbria over which Edwin ruled, extended from the river Humber to the firth of Forth, and was divided into two provinces by the river Tees. The northern province was called Bernicia, and the southern one Deira. York was in the latter, therefore to Paulinus belongs the honour of being the first preacher of the Word of Life to the Anglian tribe, whoso children had attracted the attention of Gregory in the market-place of Rome. For six years Paulinus and his companions worked earnestly for the cause of Christ throughout the dominions of Edwin,, and was instrumental in persuading Eorpwald, the king of East-Anglia, to become a Christian. But the nobles of East-Anglia were not disposed to follow the king s lead, and to prevent the establishment of Chris tianity, they put Eorpwald to death. Paulinus also built a stone church at Lincoln, in which, A.D. 630, he consecrated Honorius to be the fifth archbishop of Canterbury. In the year 633 the pope of P.ome, who was also called Honorius, decided, as we see by a letter which he sent to Edwin, to recognize the work of Paulinus by sending to him the archiepiscopal pall. But before the pope s ambassadors could reach Britain, Edwin was dead, Paulinus had fled, Northumbria FLIGHT OF PAULINUS 61 was in ruins, and Christianity had been proscribed ! Let us consider the reason for this sudden and terrible change. What we call the midlands was then the kingdom of the Mercians, i.e. men of the "march" or border. It was governed by a fierce barbarian whose name was Penda. He saw in the onward march of Christianity the death sentence of paganism, so he nerved himself for a desperate struggle on behalf of his Teuton divinities. He made war upon North umbria, and killed King Edwin in battle, the rival religions furnishing the war- cries. In Penda s victory Paulinus perceived that an evil day had come for Christ s religion in the north. He knew too that his work there had been in vain. Hurriedly gathering together what treasures he could, the precious altar furniture and gold eucharist chalice, taking with him also Queen Ethelburga and her children, he fled with his clergy to the kingdom of Kent to wait the issues of the time. After their departure Northumbria relapsed into paganism, only one man, the deacon James who taught the people how to sing the chants of Gregory, remaining in the kingdom to keep a lamp burning for the Saviour. Paulinus, on his arrival in Kent, was appointed by G2 FELIX AND FURSEY Honorius of Canterbury to the bishopric of Rochester, which had been vacant a long time. Here he remained until he died, so that the work of the Augustiniaii missionaries among the Anglo-Saxons was again restricted to the kingdom of Kent. Truly, a strange fatality pursued them ! The Celtic bishops, in withholding their energies for quieter times, showed the greater wisdom ; for they were now about to spread their missions over all those parts of Britain which the Italian teachers had been unable to subdue, and wherever they went their missions abided. On returning to Kent, Queen Ethelburga is said to have founded a nunnery in the Roman villa allotted to her use, and it is supposed that the Roman and Saxon masonry in the parish church of Lyminge, Kent (page 61), is a survival of her foundation. 3. Conversion Of East- Anglia. The popes of Rome, how ever, were not to be denied in their efforts to establish missions in Britain. They were well aware of the slow progress made by the Canterbury monks, and to facilitate the conversion of such parts of the country as were still heathen, they gave other missionaries permission to work independently of that see, in the kingdoms of Wessex and East-Anglia. We have seen that the kings Ethelbert and Edwin both endeavoured to plant the Faith in the latter province, but without success. Three years after the murder of Eorpwald, Sigberct, his half- brother, became king. He had been an exile in Gaul for fear of a like assassination. Whilst there he embraced the Christian faith, and determined that all his subjects should have the same privilege offered to them. For this purpose he invited to his court a Burgundian bishop, called Felix, whose name is still revered in Norfolk and Suffolk as the " apostle of East-Anglia." The town of Fclixstowe is so named in his honour. Felix had heard of the unsuccessful efforts of Augustine s band, and knew that East-Anglians would not receive a Christian teacher under the auspices of Canterbury alone, so he went to Rome in the year 630, and obtained the pope s sanction for a separate mission. To prevent disagreement, Honorius I. sent a letter to his namesake at Canterbury, explaining the conditions of the new appoint ment, and Felix was the bearer of it. These preliminaries settled, Felix set to work right earnestly and achieved a remarkable and lasting success. He fixed his residence at Dunwich (which was in time transferred to Norwich], caused many churches to be built, and established schools. He was greatly assisted in his undertaking by EAST-ANGLIAN BISHOPRICS Fursey, a monk belonging to a Scotic family (see footnote, page 20), who came with a number of companions from Ireland, and so captivated the Northfolk and Southfolk by earnest preaching, that Christianity at once took a firmer root than it had yet done among the Anglo- Saxon tribes. That is the first instance of the union of forces between the Celtic and continental Christian teachers. The monks of Canter bury were sorely grieved when they heard of Felix working side by side with a representative of the British Church which they so despised, especially so as Fursey con tinued to wear the tonsure which they hated, and ob serve other customs of disci pline and ritual in a different way to themselves. But as they had no jurisdiction in East-Anglia they had to put up with the inconvenient re flections his undoubted suc cess caused them. The Vener able Bede, who cannot be accused of too great affection for Celtic customs, has warmly praised Fursey s work and testified to the numerous monasteries which the Irish monk had been instrumental in founding. Another achievement of his was to persuade Sigberct to resign his kingdom, and become an inmate of a monastery, which cir cumstance became a fashionable precedent for other royal personages. T1IK CAIIIEDIIAL OF KAST-ANGUA (XdliWICH). 64 PENDA AND CAD WALLA King Sigberct was succeeded by Anna, who largely increased the number and extent of the Christian buildings and their endowments, as did many of the nobles. The schools of Felix provided him with the material for training native clergy, and one of his scholars suc ceeded him in the episcopate. The name of this scholar was Thomas. He was made bishop of Dun \vich in 647. He was therefore the first Anglian (Englishman) who became a bishop. 1 From that time the Church in East-Anglia contained within itself the means of extending and developing the faith, without having recourse to the continent for religious teachers. 4. The Celtic mission in Northumbria. There was, as we have snid, another Roman mission equally independent of the Church in Kent, established among the West-Saxons, but before ex plaining fully the circumstances of its settlement, we must turn our thoughts again to the kingdom of Northumbria, from which Paulinus had retired. After Edwin had been killed in battle by Penda, the provinces of Deira and Bernicia became separate kingdoms. Osric, a cousin of Edwin, ruled over the former, Bernicia falling to the share of Eanfrid, son of Ethelfrid who had preceded Edwin as king. There was a little son of Edwin, whom Paulinus had taken to Kent, but he was too young to be elected king in those troublous times. These two young men, Osric and Eanfrid, hoping to conciliate the heathen Penda, both repudiated Christianity, and their land became heathen once more. But Penda was not satisfied with the victories he had already gained, he wanted to make Northumbria entirely subject to himself as a part of Mercia, and he made war upon the two Northumbrian kings. "We are sorry to have to say that he was helped by Cadwalla, one of the Welsh kings, who, as a Christian, ought not to have allied himself with the pagan king. Penda and Cadwalla fought against and killed Osric and Eanfrid. Now Eanfrid had two brothers, Oswald and Osivy. Long before, when Edwin defeated and slew their father Ethelfrid and took away their kingdom, these three young princes, Eanfrid, Oswald, and Oswy, fled to Scotland, and took refuge in the island of lona, and were sheltered and educated by the Celtic Christian missionaries there. Eanfrid as eldest son was too busy plotting to regain his father s throne to think about any religion, but Oswald and Oswy listened to the monks of lona, and embraced Christianity. 1 Ifchamar, a Kent,ishman but not an Angle, was consecrated in 644. OSWALD OF NORTI1UMBRIA 65 When the princes Eanfiid and Osric were defeated and killed, the throne of Northumbria belonged to Oswald ; so he raised a small army, put his trust in the Christians God, and defeated the Mercian and "Welsh allies, and killed Cadwalla. Having thus recovered the whole of Northumbria, he set about restoring Christianity. But Oswald did not ask Pauliiius to come back, that could not be unless Edwin s little son Oswina were made king, and in lona he would have heard of the ill-feeling between the Kentish Christians and those who had been so good to his family. No ; Paulinus, although bishop of York, must not return. Was there anything more natural for Oswald, under the circumstances, than to ask his kind friends of lona to send him LINDISFARXE PRIORY RUINS BEFORE 1860. a Christian teacher ? This he did, but the man they sent was not fit for the work ; he was stern and unbending, as was likely from the discipline he had undergone, but the people were also determined, and he could make no progress with them. Overwhelmed with disappoint ment he returned to those who had sent him, and, as he told the story VOL. i. D 66 ST. A ID AN IN NORTHUMBRIA of his failure, one of the brethren said : "Methiiiks. brother, thou hast been harsher than was needful to thy untaught hearers. Hast thou not forgotten the maxim of the apostle about milk for babes, that by degrees they may be nourished by the divine word, and enabled to receive the more perfect and keep the higher precepts of God ? " The speaker was Aidan, and the monks of lona agreed that he was the man to be sent to King Oswald s people. The Celtic bishops consecrated him to the episcopal dignity, and in the summer of 635 he arrived in Northumbria. Not, however, to settle in York, and continue the work of Paulinus ; but to found an entirely new com munity identical with that from which he had come. King Oswald gave him for that purpose the small island of Lindi*farne, now called Holy Island, situated on the north-east coast, a few miles south of the river Tweed. There a church and monastery were built, and, as in East-Anglia, schools and colleges for the training of missionaries who could speak the Anglian tongue. That was a most important step, for even Aidan could not speak the English language, King Oswald himself having to interpret to his subjects the missionary s discourses. The men thus trained were soon in great demand, and by their means the monastic settlement of Lindisfarne was able to introduce the Celtic customs and the rule of lona over the greater part of Britain, among tribes who refused to hear Welsh or Italian preaching. 5. The conversion Of WeSSeX. We may now turn to the kingdom of Wessex. There was a monk in Gaul named Birinus, who had heard of the independent mission of Felix in East-Anglia, and desired to obtain a similar privilege for the evangelization of some other Saxon colony. Pope Honorius granted his prayer on condition that Birinus would promise to go only to those parts of Britain where Augustine s band had never attempted to preach. He accepte 1 the conditions, and was consecrated as a missionary bishop by Asterius, bishop of Genoa. He landed on the south-west coast in 634. The West-Saxons among whom he found himself were wild untutored folk, but with true missionary zeal he laboured earnestly for their temporal and spiritual welfare, until by degrees he won his way to the favour of Cynegils the king. To the court of Cynegils came Oswald of Northumbria seeking to marry a West-Saxon princess. That royal convert to the Celtic methods joined with Birinus, the Italian, in an effort to make a Christian of the Wessex king, and in due time they ST. BIRINUS IN W ESSEX 67 were successful. Oswald became at once the godfather and son-in-law of Cynegils, for, as Bede quaintly observes : "The victorious king of the Northumbrians received him on his coming forth from the laver, and by an alliance most delightful and pleasing to God, adopted for his son him who had before been dedicated to God by a new birth, and whose daughter he was about to take to wife." This happened .SIIEIIBOUNE MINSTER {&.C ItCJ t JHt </< ). A.D. 636, at Dorchester in Oxfordshire, where the rivers Tharne and Isis meet, both kings giving land to Birinus for the support of the episcopal seat which they founded for him there. The nobles and people soon followed the example of their king. They were not only baptized, but they gave freely of their substance for the building of churches. There is nothing to show that Birinus ever had any official communication with the Church of Kent, or that it took any interest 68 PEN DA S CHILDREN in his work. In 643 Cenwalch, son of Cyncgils, succeeded to the throne of Wessex, and, like many another of the Anglo-Saxon princes, was not at first favourably disposed to the new teaching ; perhaps this was because he had married Penda s sister. For some reason he put away his wife, which highly incensed the Mercian king, who marched against Cenwalch at the head of an army. Cenwalch was defeated and fled to the court of East-Anglia, where Anna was king. When he saw how Christianity had improved Anna s province he changed his mind respecting it, and on being restored to his own kingdom he became an ardent supporter of the faith. Agilbert had by this time succeeded Birinus at Dorchester ; but because he could not speak the vernacular, Cenwalch founded another see at Winchester (see page 83), appointing as bishop the Saxon Wini, who went to Gaul for consecration. Agilbert objected to the creation of another bishopric in the same kingdom, and retired to France in anger. There he became archbishop of Paris. In 706 the see was again divided, Sherborne-abbey being made a cathedral. Thus the West-Saxons were made Christians, and when, in after years, their kingdom obtained supremacy over all the Anglo- Saxon kingdoms, it became the greatest stronghold of Christianity. 6. Conversion of the Middle- Angles. In the meantime many civil changes had occurred in the north which promoted the spread of Christianity in another direction. Oswald was killed in battle by Penda, A.D. 642, and Northumbria was again divided. Osivy, the youngest of the three princes who came from lona, reigned in Bernicia, and Oswine, son of Edwin, the young prince whom Paulinus had taken to Kent for safety, reigned in Deira. Yery soon Oswy caused Oswine to be treacherously murdered. That left him sole king of the north. When the heinousness of his guilt was pointed out to him he repented bitterly, and showed his sincerity by building and richly endowing a monastery. Penda, king of Mercia, was now growing old ; and, not knowing what might befall him in his numerous wars, he made his son Pcada king over the southern portion of his province. This was called the kingdom of the Middle-Angles. About A.D. 650, Oswy thought that the strife between Northurnbria and Mercia might be allayed by matrimonial alliance, so he married his son to Penda s daughter. Peada also sought to marry Alchfleda, Oswy s daughter, but Oswy would not permit this without some guarantee that she would be allowed to continue a worshipper of LINDISFARNE MISSIONARIES 69 Christ. Peada s position as king of the Middle- Angles gave him more frequent opportunities of becoming acquainted with Christians than he had when following the fortunes of his heathen father in battle; he was therefore easily persuaded, not only to allow Alchfleda to worship in the way she had been trained by the Celtic monks of Lindisfarne, but also to be himself baptized, and welcome to his kingdom a company of priests from Aidan s college. The selected monks were Diuma, a Scot, and three Englishmen, named Adda, Bctti, and Cedd, all of whom were thoroughly successful in their labours. The conversion of his son was a sore trial to the pagan king, although, to do him justice, it was not so much the Christian faith that he objected to, as the indifferent lives of some who professed it. ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL (see page 71] 7. Conversion of the East- Saxons. The next province won for Christ by the Lindisfarne preachers, with whom the tide of success now flowed freely, was Essex. We have seen (page 57) that MAP OF THE ANGLO-SAXON HEPTARCHY. CONVERSION OF ESSEX through the influence of Ethclbert it had received a company of teachers under bishop Mellitus, and had relapsed into heathenism. After thirty-seven years the faith was once more planted in London, this time not to be again uprooted. Sigberct, king of the East-Saxons we must not confuse him with the East-Anglian prince of the same name made frequent visits to Oswy in the north, and observed the work of the Christian clergy. He became a convert, arid asked the monks of Lindisfarne to send missionaries to his subjects, but the very rapid extension of their field of labour caused a dearth of suitable men for new districts. The twelve young men whom Aidan had trained were all at work in different provinces, and there were not any others quite ready for so important a mission. It was not that the author ities of Lindisfarne were in want of means or volunteers, because it was a recognized duty for each convert to give of his labour, or his substance either in lands or produce, to God "in exchange for his soul ; " but the college could not produce with sufficient rapidity trained men on whom they could confidently rely, and Essex was so close to Kent that it was all the more necessary to send a judicious man. Bishop Finan therefore recalled Cedd from the Middle-Angles, and sent him to Sigberct s kingdom. He had only one additional priest with him when he re-established Christian services where St. Paul ;; cathedral stands, yet he met with such success that he was consecrated bishop the very next year A.D. 654. It was clear to everybody that this marvellous spread of Christianity brought great good to the Anglo-Saxon people, for instead of fighting against each other, they dwelt within their own borders and became a very pros- perous race. Princes, nobles, and men of lower degree, eagerly responded to the invitation to build and maintain churches, especially as it was then the custom to dedicate the churches in honour of the living founder, so that Cedd very soon found himself the overseer of a number of flourishing religious communities. 8. The death Of Penda. The rest of the kingdom of Mercia was now about to be admitted to Christian privileges, and again it was the Celtic monks of Lindisfarne who achieved the happy result. Penda, the fierce warrior on whose successes Anglo-Saxon paganism depended for its existence, met at length with the fate he had brought upon so many kings. He had harassed and wasted the northern kingdom until its princes were glad to offer him any terms and tribute, 72 MERCIA AND SUSSEX but he refused them all ; he saw that the only hope for his traditional faith lay in the total subversion of Northumbria, which had become the source and home of Anglian Christianity, therefore he made a last determined effort for its overthrow. On the other hand, Oswy and his nobles, indignant at Penda s refusal of their peace-offerings, declared that as the pagans had declined to accept their costly gifts, they would offer them to the Lord who would ; and Oswy vowed that if God prospered his arms he would build twelve monasteries, and devote his infant daughter .to a religious life. In the conflict that ensued, the hitherto invincible and invulnerable Perida was defeated and killed ; and the Mercian kingdom became a province of Northumbria. Oswy s nobles governed so much of it as lay to the north of the river Trent, while Peada, Penda s son, who was related by marriage to Oswy, was allowed to retain his government of the southern portion as under-king to Oswy. This supremacy of the Northumbrian king was productive of great good to the Christian faith, and Diuma, the chief of the Mid- Angle mission, was made bishop of Mercia, A.D. 656. To cele brate this event, Oswy and Peada founded the monastery of Peter borough. Not long after this Peada was poisoned, and the Mercians revolted against the Northumbrian yoke. Wulfhere, another son of Penda, regained his father s territory, but did not restore paganism. 9. The conversion Of Sussex. There was still another kingdom outside the Saviour s fold that of the South-Saxons. It was divided from the other kingdoms by dense forests, and its inhabit ants were devoid of all culture, hardly knowing how to provide themselves with the necessaries of life. They remained in heathen darkness until almost the close of the seventh century. It is, indeed, surprising that the Italian missionaries of Kent should have allowed nearly a century to go by, without making the least effort to redeem their nearest neighbours from error ; and this is the more remarkable when we find that the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight were Jutes, i.e. of the very same tribe as the Kentish people. We cannot at this distance of time discover a reason for such neglect, but the fact that they were left without the means of grace by their own kindred is, at least, an indirect exoneration of the ancient Church of Britain from any suspicion of cowardice, or want of charity, towards the tribe which was the earliest arid deadliest foe of the Celts. In the year 681, Bishop Wilfrid, who was trained at Lindisfarne, but had gained much THE BISHOPRIC OF SUSSEX 7-3 practical experience of the world by foreign travel, undertook to preach the Gospel to this much neglected people, and founded a cathedral at Selsey, afterwards removed to Chichester, and many monasteries. We shall hear a good deal of this Wilfrid. He is men tioned here, somewhat out of due course, to complete the history of the conversion of the heptarchy. Thus all the Anglo-Saxon kiugdoms were in turn made the happy possessors of Christ s religion, and mainly through the Celtic missions ; that is to say, through missions started by the enterprise of the Celts, who had anciently received Christianity when their race occupied all this country under the rule of the old Roman empire, long before what is known as the Church of Rome had any un usual importance or claimed supremacy. The map on CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL. page 70 will help readers to understand the work performed by missionaries in each division of the heptarchy, in the ultimate conversion of Britain. No account of the Anglo-Saxon conversion would be complete unless it drew attention to the influence different royal ladies exerted on its behalf. Bertha, queen of Kent ; her daughter Ethelburga, queen of Norihwribria ; and Alchfleda, D 2 7-1 SUMMARY queen of the Middle- Angles, were each directly instrumental in the conversion, of their respective provinces, thus showing how the "unbelieving husband may be sanctified by the wife ; " and possibly the wife of Oswald may have influenced her father in the conversion of Wessex, from which kingdom also the first Christian king of Sussex obtained his wife. We have now to find out how the Churches in each province of the heptarchy, which for political reasons were unable up to this time to hold much communication with each other, became organized and amalgamated into the "Church of England." SETTLEMENT AND CONVERSION OF THE HEPTARCHY. (See map on page 70. ) Ti ibe and Leader. Name of k ngdom. D: te of First bishop, and source from which the episcopal succession was derived. Occu pation. Con version. JUTES KENT. 449 597 Augustine, ro.n Rome. (Consecrated (Hengist and in Gaul.) Horsa). SUSSEX. 477 681 Wilfrid, a monk of Lindisfarne, who afterwa ds became a strong par tisan of the Ital ans. (Consecrated SAXONS in Gaul.) (iElle, Cissa, Cerdic, and Cymie). WESSEX. 495 636 Birinus, from Rome. (Consecrated in Gaul.) ESSEX. 530 654 Cedd, from Lindisfarne. Mellitus, of Rome, established himself among v them in 603, but his converts apostatized in 616. (Consecrated by the Scots.) NORTH- \ Aidan, from lonn. Paulinas, of UMBRIA. / 5i< 635 Rome, went to Northumbria in 626, but his work was destroyed in 633. (Consecrated by the Scots.) ANGLES (Ida). - MERCIA. 560 653 Diuma, from Lindisfavne. (Conse crated by the Scots.) EAST- \ ANGLIA. / 585 631 Felix, a bishop of Burgundy, and Fursey, a monk of Ireland. The V Roman missions had previously made two unsuccessful attempts to establish Christianity. PART II lEra of Coneoltoation CHAPTER VI. (A.D. 664-690) BLENDING OF THE MISSIONS UNDER THEODORE " How beautiful your presence, how benign, Servants of God ! who not a thought will share With the vain world Ye holy men, so earnest in your care, Of your own mighty instruments beware. " 1. The council Of Whitby. The success of the missions started by the Celtic Church amongst their old conquerors was hardly conducive to the desires of the Italian missionaries, who wished to bring all the British and Irish bishops in subordination to the see of Canterbury, and through it to the Church at Rome. The reader is reminded that the points of difference between these rival missions were in no sense relative to essential doctrines, either of creeds or sacraments, but concerned external matters 01113% which might easily have been surrendered by either side, had they not been accentuated by personal ill-feeling. To jeer at a fellow-labourer in Christ s vineyaid for the way in which he wore his hair ; as the monks of Canterbury did to the Irish bishop Dagan, when he went to Kent prepared to treat with them amicably, was not the way to bridge over the difficulty. Felix and Fursey could work harmoniously in the neighbouring pro vince of East-Anglia, notwithstanding that the fierce-tempered Kentish clergy held his tonsure in especial abhorrence. Even the keeping of Easter on different days was found to be not incompatible with fraternal sympathy, while the holy Aidan lived at Lindisfarne. Although these were the ostensible subjects of controversy, the real sting in the quarrel was the broader question, whether the ancient Church of Britain should give up its independence as an apostolic Church at the bidding of the bishop of another apostolic Church ; for no doubt had ever been cast in earlier times upon the right of the British bishops to the claim of independent apostolic origin. The ill- 75 76 THE EASTER CONTROVERSY feeling between the rival clergy was so strong, that had the matter been left to them it would have continued indefinitely. The settlement came from the court of King Oswy in Northumbiia. He, it will be remembered, was profoundly attached to the teaching and persons of Aidan and Finan, the first two bishops of Lindisfarne, but they were succeeded by Colman, who lacked their powers of conciliation. When King Oswy came to the throne he married Eanfled, daughter of Edwin and Ethelburga, one of the children whom Paulinus had taken to Kent for safety. She had been trained to believe that the customs of the Roman missionaries were the only correct ones, and had caused her children to be similarly educated. Wilfrid, a clever, clear-sighted, and deter mined man, was tutor to her family ; and Eomanus her private chaplain. Both these were priests of opposite views to Bishop Colman, whom King Oswy favoured, and something like a faction controversy arose within the court relating to the time of keeping Easter, which was increased one year by the circumstance of the four teenth day of a paschal moon happening on a Sunday. The king s party con sidered it as Easter-day, but the queen s friends said Easter ought to be a week later. Thus half the court wanted to keep high festival when the other half would be observing the most solemn season of the Christiin year. It was manifest that such a state of things would bring forth a goodly crop of dragon s teeth, in the shape of domestic infelicities, unless something were done to produce uniformity. So King Oswy made up his mind that the whole question should be thoroughly debated and settled, once for all, in a conference. It was held in 664 at Whitby-abbey. This was a monastery for both sexes, presided over by a la y of singular piety and administrative talent, BENEDICTINE NUN. WHITBY CONFERENCE 77 named Hilda. The assembly was a large one, but invitations were not extended to ecclesiastics outside Oswy s dominions. It was a purely local affair, although, owing to the supremacy of Northumbria, its result was of great importance to the whole of Britain. Cedd, bishop of London, was there, because he had come to look after a monastery which he had founded in the kingdom. Agilberct, bishop of Dorchester, who had come to visit Wilfrid and his pupils, was also present by courtesy, and he was the only bishop present who upheld the Roman customs. The opposing schools of thought were represented as follows, although the meeting was really a debate between Colman and Wilfrid. For the British method. For the Roman custom. King Oswy (president). Colman (bishop of Lindisfarne). Queen Eanfled & Prince Aldfrid. Agilberct (bishop of Dorchester). Cedd (bishop of London). Wilfrid (tutor to Aldfrid). The Celtic clergy. The abbess Hilda. Agatho and Romanus (priests). James, the deacon. Bede gives a full report of this council, which can only be summarized here. King Oswy explained that he wanted to find out the truest traditions respecting the points on which the Christians differed, so that the most authentic might be adopted uniformly in his kingdom, and he called upon the bishop of Lindisfarne to defend the Celtic use. Colman stated that the British custom of observing Easter on the four teenth day of the paschal moon had been unvaryingly observed by his predecessors, in accordance with the example of the evangelist St. John and all the Churches over which that beloved disciple had ruled. Agilberct, by virtue of his rank, was then invited to speak on behalf of the Italian practice, but he excused himself for various reasons, and begged that Wilfrid might be allowed to reply to Colman. Wilfrid claimed that St. Peter and St. Paul had ordered the feast to be kept between the fifteenth and twenty-first of the moon. He did not deny Colman s assertion respecting St. John, but said that St. John s assent to the keeping of Easter on the Sunday after Passover week was merely permissive to prejudiced Jewish converts only, and not intended as a perpetual custom. He ridiculed the obstinacy of the Picts and Britons, who lived in so remote a corner of the world, in preferring their use to the accepted practice of the universal Church. Colman put in evidence the writings of Anatolius, and appealed to the acknowledged custom of Columba, the father of the Scoto-British Churches ; but Wilfrid 78 RETIREMENT OF COLMAN asked, " How could any one prefer Columba to the chief of the apostles to whom Christ had given the keys of heaven and hell ? " Then the king inquired of Colman, " Whether the Saviour had so commissioned St. Peter ? " and he said, "It is true, king." " Can you show that any such power was given to Columba ? " and Colman answered, "No." The king said, "Do both sides agree that these words were said specially to Peter?" and both sides replied, "Yes, certainly." Then the king declared, " I will not contradict that doorkeeper, lest when I seek admission to the kingdom of heaven he may refuse to open the portals for me." The nobles and people present applauded this decision, and it was agreed that Northumbria should in future adopt the Roman reckoning for Easter-day. Any qualified religious teacher in the present day could show how unwarrantable was the inference Wilfrid and Oswy forced from that famous passage, but Colman was a simple-minded man, unused to the rhetorical artifices which his rival had acquired abroad, unable also to withstand his cutting sarcasms and contemptuous sneers ; he saw the traditions of his fathers rejected and the saintly founders of his Church despised, and he knew there would be little comfort for him in Northumbria while Wilfrid had the ear of the court and people. So he resigned his bishopric and went back to lona with many of his clergy. It must be clearly borne in mind that the decision of the Whitby conference did not involve any surrender of independence on the part of the school of Lindisfarne. Submission to the see of Rome was not asked for or granted. All that happened was this : The province ruled by Oswy agreed to observe Easter at the same time that they understood it was kept in all other Churches except the Celtic. A successor to Colman was found in Tuda ; he had been trained at Lindisfarne and made abbot of Mclrose, which the brethren of Lindisfarne had founded. His personal dignity would be less wounded by the change of custom, and the fact that he could so readily accept so onerous a charge, at such a time, is proof that the Celtic teachers were only concerned to maintain the ancient customs of the British Church. 2. Wilfrid and Chad. Tuda \vas consecrated to Lindisfarne by the Celtic bishops, but did not long enjoy his new honours, for in that same year, 664, a pestilential fever passed over Britain which destroyed a great number of the inhabitants, among them being Deusdedit, archbishop of Canterbury ; Cedd, bishop of London ; CONSECRATION OF WILFRID Damian, bishop of Rochester ; and Tuda, bishop of Lindisfarne. To fill the latter s place Wilfrid was nominated by Aldfrid, son of Oswy, who had been made king of Deira, and w r anted to have his old tutor near him. Wilfrid accepted the appointment on two conditions. One was that his see should be at York instead of Lindisfarne, the other that he might go abroad for consecration, for on no account would he accept episcopal ordination at the hands of the Celts. in PON CATHEDHAL (see next page}. Lindisfarne afterwards became a separate see with Eata for its bishop, and Cuthbert for prior of the monastery. Wilfrid was consecrated bishop of York at Compiegne in Neustria with unusual magnificence. Twelve bishops took part in the ceremony, to show their appreciation of his successful efforts towards uniformity in the Whitby conference. The adulation showered upon him everywhere induced him to stay SO WILFRID AND CHAD abroad for about two years. He made no provision for his episcopal duties, and his people began to doubt seeing him again ; the popular feeling, once altogether in his favour, then veered right round, and went entirely against him. There was at that time in the monastery of Lastingham a Lindisfarne monk, named Chad, brother of Cedd, the late bishop of London. The people begged of Oswy that he might be their bishop, to which the king agreed, and Chad reluctantly accepted the onerous position. He was sent to Canterbury for consecration, but finding on arrival that no archbishop had been appointed to succeed Deusdedit, he proceeded to Winchester, where Wini was bishop. As the canons of Nica;a required three bishops to consecrate another bishop, two British bishops came from West- Wales, as Cornwall and Devon were then called, to take part in the consecration, thus uniting the Italian and Celtic lines of episcopal succession. Bishop Chad immediately set to work to revive the neglected Church in the north, toiling early and late, journeying from place to place on foot, winning all hearts by his humility, self-denial, and patient continuance in well doing. There were now two bishops of York, Wilfrid and Chad, which soon became a source of trouble. When Wilfrid returned to Britain, and understood that he had lost the favour of the North umbrians, he allowed Chad to remain unmolested until he could regain their good opinion. He employed himself in superintending the building of churches and abbeys in various other parts of Britain ; and the kings were glad to have the advice of so accomplished a traveller who had visited all the courts of Europe. He was also useful in ordaining clergy for Kent and Essex, until a new archbishop of Canter bury was appointed. He had founded two very important monastic establishments at Hexham and Ripon while he was resident at the courts of Oswy and Aldfrid, in which he now passed most of his time ; organizing them on a scale of then unparalleled splendour. 3. Archbishop Theodore. The mortality mentioned among the Anglo-Saxon bishops greatly hindered Church work, especially as the kingdoms were with one exception all Christian. The times were unusually peaceful, men were ready to work heartily in the cause, but a master mind was needed to set them their tasks. The two most influential princes at this time were Oswy of Northumbria, and Egbert of Kent. Their kingdoms were the centres of the rival religious systems. They were on friendly terms, and agreed that it would be THE CANTERBURY PRIMACY conducive to still greater uniformity in Christian worship, if they selected a man to be archbishop of Canterbury from among the native clergy, and sent him to Rome for consecration. They chose Vighard, one of the Kentish clergy, all parties among the people being delighted with the selection. Vighard reached Rome, but was seized with malaria and died. When the kings heard this they thought it would CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. be better if they asked the pope of Rome to send some one, as he would have a wider field for choice ; this they did, explaining the peculiar needs of the country. VUcdian was pope at this time, nnd he wrote to Oswy to say that, on account of the remoteness of Britain, so few men whose qualifications agreed with the requirements specified were disposed to come, that his task was exceedingly difficult. However, after a lapse of many months, he found a suitable man named Theodore, 82 CONSECRATION OF THEODORE who ultimately did more for this country and its Church than any of his predecessors or successors. Vitalian consecrated him on March 26, A.D. 668. This is the first instance of the direct consecration of an archbishop for the British Isles by the Roman pontiff, and after Theodore there was not another Roman archbishop for 350 years ; all who succeeded him were Englishmen. He was a Greek monk, born, like St. Paul, at Tarsus, in Cilicia ; but, after coming to England, he became attached to the country, and could not have shown more patriotism had he been a native. He was a scholar, a man of vast ex perience, sixty-six years old, heartily in sympathy with the Eastern Church, through which the British bishops claimed to have received many of their customs, and he wore the eastern tonsure. But that he might not be unacceptable to the Kentish clergy, his consecration was delayed for months, until his hair grew sufficiently long for him to be invested with the coronal tonsure. He arrived in Britain, Sunday, May 27, A.D. 669, to be joined soon after by a still more learned ecclesiastic than himself, named Hadri tn, who had refused to accept the higher office of archbishop. Together they traversed all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to obtain a better acquaintance with the people and their needs ; they organized the monasteries, established schools, introduced choral services, and corrected such things as they found defective, whether in church ministrations or monastic discipline. The secular affairs of the country were most favourable to their purpose. " Never at all," says Bede, "from the time that the Angles directed their course to Britain, were there happier times, for, having most brave and Christian kings, they were a terror to all barbarous nations ; and the desires of all inclined to the late heard of joys of the celestial kingdom." Theodore was welcomed everywhere, and being possessed of unusual tact he gained the good opinion of all the princes and nobles, as well as the unanimous support of the clergy. Thus fortified he commenced his grand scheme for the consolidation of all the little missionary independent communities, into a vast united Anglo-Saxon -Church. 4. Diocesan Changes. One part of Theodore s scheme was to increase the number of bishops, and map out the country into smaller districts. He found a small kingdom like Kent with two bishoprics, whereas the other kingdoms, large or small, had but one bishop each, whose spiritual jurisdiction was co-extensive \vith the territory of the patron prince. Theodore was obliged to respect the limits of each DIOCESAN ORGANIZATION 83 kingdom, but there was nothing to prevent him placing more than one bishop in the larger ones, unless the bishop of any objected to the division. The reduced areas thus committed to the care of suffragan bishops were called "dioceses" i.e. a Complete household a perfect community of manageable extent. It took the archbishop several years to complete this portion of his work, and his efforts in North- WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL. umbria were resisted by Wilfrid, but after a while he managed to place seventeen bishops where there had formerly been only nine. East- Ancjlia had two bishops instead of one, Elmham in Norfolk being the home of the new see. Wessex also had two instead of one, Winchester and Sherborne being the cathedrals. Mercia was divided into five with the bishops seats at Lichfield, Hereford, Worcester, 34 NEW BISHOPRICS Leicester, and Lindsey. Korthumbria (which now included the province of Valentia, and by consequence the church founded by St. Ninian at Whithom, in Galloway) received four bishops, the official chairs being placed at York, Liudisfanie, Whithorn, and Hexham (see page 91). Kent, Essex, and Sussex were considered to be sufficiently manned. LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. THEODORE S POLICY 85 5. Amalgamation. One of the first acts of Archbishop Theo dore was to remove Bishop Chad from the see of York, on the ground that he had not been regularly consecrated. Chad willingly retired to his monastery at Lastinghain, whence he had come, and Wilfrid, as the rightful possessor, was invested with the temporalities of the see. Wilfrid continued his work as a church builder by restoring in magnificent fashion the then dilapidated church of St. Peter at York, which Edwin had commenced and Oswald had completed, substituting lead roofs and glass windows for the thatches and openings, covering the walls with plaster, and decorating the interior with sculptures, pictures, and hangings. Chad was not long allowed to lead a quiet life ; his humility and piety attracted the admiration of Theodore, and, as soon as the Mercian bishop Jaruman died, Chad was appointed to succeed him in the see, where he laboured in such a way as to gain the love and esteem of all members of the Church. He did not live many years, but before he died he built a church in honour of St. Mary at Chadstowe, and a house for the bishops, and when a nobler cathedral was erected at Lichfield, his remains were trans ferred within it. It is customary to point to the double consecration of Chad as an instance of the way in which Theodore blended together the rival missions of Celts and Eomans among the Anglo-Saxons. Certainly from Theodore s time it is no longer possible to consider them as separate missions. This is a very important matter, and ought to be clearly understood. Theodore had no official dealings with the British, Scotch, or Irish Churches, but among the Anglo-Saxons he found religious teachers who derived their orders from one or other of these Celtic sources. And the archbishop appointed such of them as he thought fit, no matter where they were trained. Chad was one. We cannot trace for certain whether Chad assisted Theodore or not in the consecration of the bishops who were selected for the numerous new dioceses, but it is probable that he did ; for Theodore would be careful to observe the old rule which declared imposition of hands by three bishops to be necessary for valid consecration to the episcopate, and on Theodore s arrival there were only two prelates besides Chad and Wilfrid in charge of Anglo-Saxon dioceses, one of whom died the same year. Moreover, Chad was Theodore s especial favourite, whilst Wilfrid was quite the reverse. At all events one thing is quite certain, the new archbishop did not send any one abroad for consecration, nor did he send to Gaul or Italy for priests to be consecrated, but selected EPISCOPAL SUCCESSION impartially such men as he found to be of good report when he made his tour of inspection through the country, whether they had been trained in the Canterbury and East-Anglian schools, or in the Celtic colleges, e.g. Putta, Acci, and Heddi, bishops respectively of Rochester, Norfolk, and Wessex, were without doubt chosen by him from the Canterbury college ; whilst Eata and Trumbert for Hexham ; Bosa for York ; Chad, Winfrid and Saxwulf for Lichfield, and Cuthbert for Lindisfarne, were as certainly trained in the Celtic monasteries. And THE CITY OF JERUSALEM. if it be fair to suppose that the coming of Augustine from Home, when only a monk, was equivalent to the establishment of an Italian hierarchy here ; it is no less reasonable to suggest that Theodore s selection of monks belonging to monasteries founded by the old British Church, to be bishops among the Anglo-Saxons, was equally a continuance of the ancient Christianity of Britain. Henceforth then there was a double line of apostolic ministry in the Anglo-Saxon Church, and when by degrees the Scotch, Irish, and Cymric (i.e. Welsh) Churches adopted CONCILIA R AUTHORITY 87 the continental ritual customs, and agreed to recognize the primacy of the archbishop of Canterbury (always understanding that this did not include the right of the pope of Rome to interfere), this double succes sion was still further assured ; if indeed it was not made a threefold cord through the consecration of St. David by the patriarch of the Church of Jerusalem. It is true that all the men whom Theodore appointed agreed to conform to the Roman use in respect of Easter and the tonsure, but this decision was not arrived at because they accepted the supreme right of the pope to judge, but because they saw at last that the rest of Christendom was of one mind on the subjects, and knew that it had always been the desire of the British Church to be in complete accord with the decisions of the universal Church. Even Theodore himself would have been the last to admit that the pope of Rome had any official and legal jurisdiction here, for, having been made archbishop of the Anglo-Saxon Churches, and received the homage of the suffragan bishops and lesser orders, he determined not to allow any foreign bishop to dictate to the Church in Britain, any more than lie would sanction one English bishop interfering in the diocese of another English bishop. The proof of these conclusions will be found in the circumstances treated of in the succeeding paragraphs, to which the reader is invited to give particular attention. 6. Synod of Hertford. As soon as Theodore had made him self sufficiently familiar with the habits of Anglo-Saxons, and the peculiar needs of Britain, he called the bishops and clergy together to confer with them respecting the basis of future operations. The first meeting was held at Hertford in the year 673. Wilfrid of York whose independent spirit chafed under the resolute system of Theodore, was not there, but he sent two of his clergy as proctors. The Celtic clergy were not invited. Theodore first asked the persons assembled if they would agree to maintain such things as were canonically decreed by the Christian fathers ? On their unanimous assent he selected ten articles from a collection of canons that had been approved by the council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, and accepted by the western Churches. They were adapted, after some discussion upon each, to the needs of Britain, and all the prelates and clergy present bound themselves to observe them by signing their names to a transcript of them. The ten important rules of discipline thus laid down are enumerated on the next page. 88 CANONS OF HERTFORD SYNOD 1. That there should be uniformity in keeping Easter. 2. That no bishop should invade another bishop s diocese. 3. That bishops should not "disturb in any respect the monasteries consecrated to God, or take away by violence any part of their property." 4. That monks should not move from one monastery to another without leave of their own abbot. 5. That the clergy should not go from their diocese without leave, nor be received in another diocese without letters of recommendation from their former bishop. 6. That bishops and clergy should not officiate anywhere with out leave of the bishop in whose diocese they were staying. 7. That there should be a yearly synod. 8. That no bishop, through ambition, should prefer himself above others, but take rank according to consecration. 9. That additional bishops should be appointed as the number of the faithful increased. 10. That persons should not wed within the prohibited degrees, nor be wrongfully divorced, nor marry others if divorced. As these conditions have ever since been the rule of the Church in Britain, a knowledge of them will help us to understand the right or wrong of many subsequent events. The gathering together of an annual synod for all the clergy from each kingdom, instead of small local conferences like that of Whitby, completed the external union of the several Anglo-Saxon Churches. 7. Synod Of Hatfield. Another and even more important council was held at Hatfie j d seven years later, which concerned the faith of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Heresies had arisen in other parts of the Christian world, which disturbed the minds of Christians, and Archbishop Theodore was anxious to know how far his assistant bishops and clergy were involved therein. The result was extremely gratifying, for among the large assembly (Wilfrid of York was again needlessly absent) he found an unanimous agreement in Catholic doctrine. He caused this happy circumstance to be placed on record, all the prelates and clergy present subscribing to the document then drawn up. To put the matter shortly, this document, having set forth what the synod held to be the true faith in the Holy Trinity, con cluded by formally declaring its adhesion to the decrees of the Five SYNOD OF HATFIELD General Councils, viz.Niccea, A.D. 325; Constantinople, 381 ; Ephesus, 431 ; Chal- cedon, 451 ; and Con stantinople, 553. These councils are still the authority for the faith of the Church in Britain. Some of them had been so of the Celtic Church for centuries previously to the coming of Theodore. There was nothing, therefore, to differ entiate the Welsh and Anglian Chris tians at that time, except the antipa thies of race and the minor differences of ritual and discipline. The organization of our English Church has been continuous HATFIELD, HERTS. ever since then. 8. Wilfrid s appeals to Rome.We have several times referred to Wilfrid, bishop of York, and his unfriendly attitude to Archbishop Theodore. The outcome is of very great historical importance. It is impossible to overlook the intense vigour with which this exceed ingly clever man prosecuted everything he set his hands to. All over his diocese, by the aid of his friend Benedict Biscop, he built substantial, not to say magnificent, churches, some remains of which are still to be found. The whole country sought his advice for similar purposes. Monasteries under his rule were severely regulated, and the services of the churches improved ; responsive or antiphonal singing was intro duced in public worship ; and above all he set a noble example in his 90 WILFRID S APPEAL TO ROME own pious, self-denying, and austere life. Perhaps it was the conscious ness that he far exceeded all his contemporaries in ability, not except ing Theodore, which caused him to work independently. He was the first great advocate in England of the religious life, and used his immense powers to induce the nobility to leave all secular affairs, and spend the rest of their days in retirement, and their possessions in erecting monasteries. Many noblemen and ladies gave themselves up, and everything they possessed, for religious work at his bidding ; but when he influenced the queen of Northumbria to quit the court and her consort for the solitude of a convent, King Ecgfrid was so incensed that he banished Wilfrid from his dominions. That was in A.D. 677, and again the diocese of York was without a resident bishop ; where upon Archbishop Theodore divided the vast see into four, viz. York, Lindisfarne, Whithorn, and Hexham, without consulting Wilfrid ; who then resolved upon a hitherto unheard of proceeding. He had for years been proclaiming the supremacy of the pope of Rome, and now he determined to appeal in person to that authority. Doubtless Pope Agatho felt flattered by this proceeding, for he at onee summoned a council of fifty prelates specially to inquire into Wilfrid s cause. The assembly pronounced entirely in his favour. Thus exonerated, Wilfrid stayed awhile in Rome. In 680 a synod was held there at which Wilfrid attended as the representative of the Churches of the British Isles. His subscription to the documents of that synod is as follows : " Wilfrid, beloved of God, bishop of the city of York, appealing to the apostolic see for his own cause, and having been absolved by that power of charges, definite and indefinite, and being placed with 125 other bishops in synod on the judgment-seat, also confessed the true and catholic faith for all the northern regions ; the islands of Britain and Ireland, which are inhabited by the races of the Angles and Britons, besides Picts and Scots, and corroborated this with his own subscription." As this subscription was made on the invitation of the pope, Wilfrid must have given him to understand that there was harmony and communion between the Welsh and Anglo-Saxon Churches. If, as some say, there were no dealings whatever between these Churches, he would have had no manner of tille to make such a subscription on their behalf, to the hoodwinking of 125 bishops of the western Churches. What follows is instructive : Wilfrid returned in due time to his country and triumphantly produced before the North umbrian witan the pope s demand that he should be re-instated in his WILFRID OUTLAWED 01 offices and privileges. If the pope s authority were at this time what some would have us believe, we should expect to find that modest assembly eager to obey their supreme spiritual ruler and make apologies to Will rid for his wrongful banishment ; but the reverse of all this happened. The witan said in effect: " Who is the pope and what are his decrees ? "What have they to do with us or we with them? Have we not the right and power to manage our o\vii affairs and punish in our own discretion all offenders against our laws and customs ? " So, to mark their sense of indignation at this unjustifiable attempt to introduce a foreign jurisdiction, they burned the papal letters and sentenced Wilfrid to a rigorous imprisonment, from which he was only released on covenanting to stay away from JSTorthumbria. Then it was that he went and preached the Gospel in the kingdom of the South- Saxons, until that time unacquainted with the knowledge of the true God (see page 73). For nearly six years he worked there, and by his earnest labours regained in great measure the esteem of the Church. When King Ecgfrid died he was once more allowed to return to his friends in Northumbria, and Bosa, whom Theodore had consecrated bishop of York in his absence, was induced to retire in his favour. This cannot be construed into an ultimate compliance with the pope s decision, because the appeal to him was against the sub-division of the diocese, and in returning to York now, Wilfrid had to be content with a portion only of his former territory, because part of it had been divided off to form the dioceses of Lindisfarne and Hexham. Not very long after Wil frid s restoration it was proposed to create an additional see out of his diocese, with the bishop s stool at his now famous monastery of Ripon, but Wilfrid again objected, and was once more banish ed from Northumbria. Tli is time he took re fuge in Mercia, and HEXHAM ABBEY. 92 WILFRID S PERSISTENCE when Cuthwin, bishop of Leicester, died, A.D. 691, Wilfrid was elected to succeed him. Archbishop Theodore was then dead, and his .place occupied by Berctwald, a Saxon. In 702, Berctwald called a council to consider Wilfrid s case (no doubt it was a painful reflection on the whole Church), and Wilfrid was asked whether he would submit to Theodore s plan for re-arranging the dioceses ? He declined, and charged the bishops present at Berctwald ? council with having re sisted the papal decrees for twenty-two years. He refused ^ ^ to submit to any other authority than that of the pope. In sheer despair at their inability to turn his unconquerable spirit, the bishops of the Anglian sy nod pronounced a sentence of deprivation on him for his contumacy, and excommuni cated all who sided with him. Again the old man wende;! his way to Rome, that he miu f ht lay his case before BEYERLEY MKNSTER. WILFRID S COMPROMISE 93 Pope John VI., and this time the Anglo-Saxon Church sent an embassy to justify their action. There was a long trial, extending over four months, which resulted in the acquittal of Wilfrid from any suspicion of wrongdoing. The pope sent him back to Britain with a most peremptory command that he should be restored to all his dignities and possessions. Archbishop Berctwald urged compliance with this order, but King Aldfrid refused to "alter a sentence issued by himself, the archbishop, and all the dignitaries of the land, for any writings coming, as they called it, from the Apostolic See." Wilfrid s friends were many and his sympathizers more. He was looked upon as a persecuted old man, and when King Aldfrid lay a- dying he remembered his youthful affection for his former tutor, and begged that he might be restored to favour. Still the clergy and people of York refused to have him back, and the bishops demurred to his restoration. Finally a compromise was effected. John, the founder of Beverley, then bishop of Hexham, was transferred 1o York, Wilfrid accepting the bishopric of Hexham with possession of the monastery of Ripon. "His life was like an April day, often inter changeably fair and foul, but after many alterations he set in full fair lustre at last." He died in 709. Painful as is the recollection of these unseemly wrangles, the record of them is needful to prove that papal anathemas were nothing accounted of in this country in those days. 9. The parochial system. We have passed over many events in Theo lore s primacy in order to keep Wilfrid s history connected, but we must not lose sight of another part of his plan for consolidating and improving the Church. Before he came, there were many churches built in various parts, but no settled plan of providing them everywhere. Wilfrid had roused the spirit of benevolence, but Theodore sought to turn the liberality of the people into a useful channel. Instead of having resident clergy in each neighbourhood, it had been the custom for them to live in monastic communities, but the new archbishop persuaded the nobles to adopt the system he had seen successfully worked in Greece of having a church and Christian teacher on each landed estate. Also it had been customary for the faithful to pay their offerings into a general fund to be administered by the bishops, but Theodore permitted donors to give money, lands, or share of produce, for the support of a resident clergyman in their own neighbourhood. So it came to be that "the holding of the English noble or landowner became the parish, and his chaplain the THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM parish priest." To encourage this part of his scheme, Theodore arranged that all who built churches and supported a resident pastor should have the right of selecting from the available clergy who that pastor might be. 1 Thus our present system of private patronage, ecclesiastical districts, and episcopal dioceses took its rise, never to be altered. "The regular subordination of priest to bishop, of bishop to primate, in the administration of the Church, supplied a mould on which the civil organization of the State quickly shaped itself;" and " it was the ecclesiastical synods which by their example led the way to our national parliament, as it was the canons enacted in such synods which led the way to a national system of law " (Green}. In other words it was the organization and settlement here by Theodore of a Hinted Anglo-Saxon Church that suggested to our ancestors the possibility of a single civil community. The Church was united before 690. There was not a correspondingly united kingdom until 1017. MONKWEARMOUTH CHI 1 See Hook s Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. i., pp. 152-3, and note. Bishop Stubbs, Const. Hist., says : "It is unnecessary to suppose that Theodore founded the pnrochial system, for it needed no foundation. As the kingdom and shire were the natural sphere of the bishop, so was the township of the single priest. As many townships were too small to require or support a separate church and priest, many parishes contain several townships." CHAPTER VII. (A.D. 690-796) PROSPERITY OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH " The war-worn chieftain quits the world to hide His thin autumnal locks where monks abide In cloistered privacy O Venerable Bede ! The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed Of toil stupendous." 1. Effects Of Theodore s work. Hitherto, owing to the tribal character of the various missionary Churches, we have had to deal much more fully with their work in the different kingdoms than will be necessary in the subsequent pages, now that we have realized them as united under a recognized head, and organized upon an uniform plan. We shall only need to direct attention to representative men in succeeding generations, round whose personality the chief events connected with the Church seem to revolve. The Church had been a long time winning its way into the hearts of the Teutons, but after Theodore had established and settled it throughout the land, it held over them an undisputed sway. The clergy became advisers of the people in temporal as well as spiritual affairs, and no important laws were made without consulting them. Besides having their own ecclesiastical courts the prelates sat with the lay nobles in local and national assemblies to adjudicate upon social, political, and domestic concerns ; they took precedence of the gentry at official gatherings ; the bishop ranked next to royalty, and, if in tribal strife he were made prisoner, the price of his ransom would be the same as that for a king. The unity of the Church often enabled the clergy to prevent strife and bloodshed between the separate kingdoms, so great was the reverence and respect shown by every one to them, and thus the welfare of the people became closely bound up with the prosperity of their religion. 2. Illustrated teaching. The Church had no greater friends than the common people, for, although its settlement in any district was primarily due to the decisions of the nobles in witan assembled, its cords were lengthened, and its stakes strengthened, by the sincere affection of the simple peasants for the revelation which the missionaries had brought to them. It was natural that the bishops should generally stay near the princes to advise them how a Christian state should be 95 96 PICTORIAL TEACHING administered, but there were never wanting large numbers of self- denying men to go out into the valleys and hills and teach the people. There were then few books, and still fewer persons, outside the monasteries, who could read ; some other way had to be found to arrest and maintain the attention than those which we enjoy by means of the printing-press. A language which is still universal was adopted, men s hearts being appealed to through their eyes. Pictures and sculptures were freely used, and the Christian symbol of the cross set up in the gathering-place of each tribe to remind them of the motive power which should actuate them now that they were turned from heathen darkness to be " light in the Lord." Many of those crosses, erected in churchyards and public places, are still to be found through out the country, some showing signs of elaborate workmanship. They were the text-books of the time. Scenes in the story of our redemption were carved on them, which the missionary preachers would regularly ex plain ; and just as children now-a-days, who have picture story-books read to them be fore they are able to read for themselves, remember what has been told them of each picture when they look it over in the absence of the teacher, so the rough untutored minds of the Anglo-Saxon peasantry were able to realize by similar means how great things the Lord had done for them, even when the missionaries had re turned to the monasteries where they lived with the bishop who ruled them. EYAM CHURCHYARD CROSS. 3- Monastic life. Among the early Christians, in this as in other countries, a literal interpretation and imitation of the devout lives of Christ s noblest followers was thought to be the truest means ANGLO-SAXON MONASTERIES 97 of preparing for eternal joys. Solitude, poverty, self-abnegation, the renunciation of family ties, all these were thought to be evidences of an intense degree of spiritual fervour. Those who most excelled in the observance of such rules weiv accounted as nearest to the kingdom of heaven, and were sought out in their retirement by highest and lowest among the people, who wished for instruction in the way of life and advice in temporal concerns. The advice of the monks was usually that men should do as they did, viz. devote all their worldly i-ubstance to the Church, and their time to its service. Hence the rapid growth of the Church s material possessions, which in time became the cause of much unseemly strife, as it is unto this day. The monasteries soon became filled with inmates, for all of whom some occupation had to be found. In the fresh full vigour of a new enterprise it was but natural that many who entered these religions houses should endeavour to excel their fellows ; time was not an object of concern, a whole life s work would be cheerfully given to the careful accomplishment of some such simple task as the building of a house or the re claiming and culture of land. Manuscripts, for example, were engrossed with immense elaborateness of detail on p.-irchment sheets ; in gold, jewels, and colours. Copies of the Scriptures and liturgies were multiplied in that way. The great libraries of the world were searched, and their treasures purchased and stored up in the smaller libraries of Anglo-Saxon monasteries ; the chiefest of them being reproduced by diligent and studious scribes. In writing of other things the monks wrote also of themselves ; hence, from this time, there is no lack of information respecting ecclesiastics of the time. The lives of some of these have become part of the history of their native district, chiefly because they happen to be, each in their locality, the first persons of note of \\hom there is undoubted record. Their biographies are useful to illustrate the active and prosperous Church of the eighth century. 4. St. Cllthbert. One of them, belonging to the north of England, is written into great prominence by the Venerable Brde. Beyond the Tweed, in the house of a widow, lived a dreamy boy, Cuthbert by name, who tended sheep on the hills. Once he thought he saw a light streaming from heaven, and multitudes of angels carrying a pure soul to paradise. When he heard that the saintly Aulan, bishop of Lindisfarne, had died tint very night, he believed that his was the spirit which he had seen in the company of thu VOL. i. E 98 ST. CUTHBERT OF At EL ROSE celestial visitors ; and being desirous of like fellowship lie resolved to seek admission to a religious house. He found his way to the straw- thatched log-houses which then formed the monastic settlement of Melrose, a branch of the abbey of Lindisfarne, and was admitted to the brotherhood there, A. D. 651. After some years of diligent study, conspicuous devotion, and unusual energy, he became its prior. His work while in that monastery made him famous throughout the north, for not only did he wisely rule the large number of persons who were admitted to its society, but went on preaching expeditions to the low- landers, in places solitary and afar off as well as difficult of access, where none else cared to penetrate. It was the custom at that time, MELROSE ABBEY RUINS. whenever a preacher came to a village, for the people to assemble at his summons to hear the Word. " Cuthbert s skill in speaking," says his biographer Bede, was so great, his power of persuasion so va.st, and the light of his countenance so angelic, that no one in his presence concealed from him the secrets of his soul ; all confessed their misdeeds, because they thought that what they had done could not escape his prescience, and atoned for them by such penance as he enjoined." Like the Saviour, he would preach all day and spend many of his nights in lonely meditation, often making journeys to distant places, both by sea and land, not seldom finding himself cut off from oppor tunities of food and shelter. The little town of Kirkcudbright in ST. ALDHELM S BALLADS 99 Galloway preserves in its nomenclature a memorial of such work. In 664, when a new prior was required for Lindisfarne, Cuthbert s repu tation for sanctity, and his experience as a disciplinarian, caused him to be transferred to that more important position. " His life was lightning, and therefore he could make his words thunder. . . . He was wont to blend severity towards sin, with infinite tenderness towards the sinner, and such tenderness he ever believed to be the best mode of dealing with honest confession of shortcoming " (Maclear}. After he had been prior of Lindisfarne for twelve years, he felt the need of rest, and resolved to spend the rest of his life as a recluse. For this purpose lie built himself a cell on one of the little Fame islands, surrounding it with an earthwork so high that he could see nothing of the world, but only the sky beyond it. He rarely saw visitors, nor would he under any circumstances permit females, human or animal, to land on the island. This life of almost complete loneliness lasted for eight years, during which the fame of his piety spread far and wide ; and in 684, Egfrid, king of Northumbria, went to the island with Bishop Trumwine, and entreated him to accept the bishopric of Hexham. After many protestations of inability, he consented to leave his solitude, but delayed the ceremony of consecration for several months, during which he prevailed upon his friend Eata, bishop of Lindisfarne, to exchange positions with him, Eata going to Hexham, and Cuthbert becoming chief ruler over the older but more secluded community. He died in 687, but his name and fame as apostle of the lowlands, and an example of sincere devotion, is still revered throughout the north of Britain. His body was buried at Lindisfarne, in a shroud wrought by the abbess of Tynemouth, and for generations pilgrimages were made to his tomb. 5. Anglo-Saxon authors. In the early part of the eighth century the monastic schools began to produce original writers and thinkers, who became the fathers of that English literature which is now the glory of the world. One of the earliest was Aldhelm, or Eadhelm, bishop of Sherborne. He wrote in Latin and in Saxon ; he used to compose popular ballads in the vernacular, and stand in some public place to sing them, accompanying himself on a harp. Having gained the ear of his audience by means of the music, he generally finished by giving them some spiritual instruction. He translated the Psalms into the vulgar tongue, and persuaded Egbert, one of his brother bishops, to translate the Gospels in like manner ; he is also famous for having induced the Celtic Christians in Cornwall 100 .97: CMDMONS PARAPHRASES to abandon their old rule of keeping Easter in favour of the more general custom. Like Wilfrid he was a great architect, and at Bradford- on- Avon (see page 132) there may still be seen a monument of this branch of his labours, in the little church of St. Laurence. Until ihirty years ago it was hidden among surrounding buildings and used for secular purposes, but in 1857 it was restored to the Church, and is now used daily for public worship. It is the most perfect Saxon stone building extant, and is a very precious relic of the early days of Christianity in the south-west portion of our land. Aklhelm lived among the Saxons in the south, but there was another noted poet belonging to the Angles in the north, named Cccdmon; whose gift of poesy is said to have come to him by a sudden inspiration, as he lay sleeping in a cowshed belonging to Whitby-abbey, after a hard day s work of cattle tending. Previously he had been unable and therefore unwilling to take part in the easy alliterative rhyming \vhich was the amusement of the common people in those simple times, but one winter s night, so he said, a celestial being came to him, and asked him to sing something. " I cannot sing," was his reply. " But you must," said the visitor. " What shall I sing?" asked the bewildered herdsman. " Sing the beginning of created things." And although he was an untaught labourer, he forthwith composed verses in praise of the Deity, which are stiil considered worthy of a place in our literature. When the Abbess Hilda heard his tale he was admitted to the monastery as a monk ; his brethren translated to him passages from their Latin manuscripts of the Scriptures, and he immediately transposed their substance into earnest, passionate verses, in the phraseology of the Anglian peasantry. Aldhelm and Caedmon are both surpassed in literary merit by a monk whom we have often quoted the Venerable Bede most famous among the scholars of western Europe in his day. He lived at the monastery of Jarrow-on- Tyne, which Benedict Biscop had built at the end of the seventh century. Its oratory still remains, having been used almost un interruptedly from that time for Christian worship, thus forming an evidence in stone of the antiquity and continuity of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and another example of the substantial character of its buildings. Bede was born in the year 672, and at the early age of seven was placed in charge of the Jarrow monks, from which time, until his death, he never wandered farther afield than to and from the sister monastery of Wearmouth, also founded by Benedict Biscop ; REDE S LITERARY LABOURS 101 but spent his time in a constant course of study and instruction. He was a most voluminous writer. A score of commentaries on the Scriptures, compiled from the writings of the Christian fathers ; trans lations of the Bible and liturgy into the vulgar tongue, a book upon the saints and martyrs, biographies of his contemporaries, treatises on orthography, astronomy, rhetoric, and poetry ; besides innumerable letters to persons who sought his advice all these are laid to his credit. Indeed his works were a kind of cyclopaedia of almost all that was then known, and they are most of them now in existence ; but above all in value is the book he wrote in Latin at the request of Ceolwulph, king of Northumbria, called The Ecclesiastical History of the Anglian Nation, which is still the chief authority for historians when they seek to know anything respecting our forefathers np to this time. The monasteries of Jairow and "Wearmouth sought to uphold the principles which Wilfiid had enunciated rather than those of the Lindis- farne teachers, and there fore we find many passages in the writings of Bede unfavourable to the Celtic Christians. He was the forerunner of many writers who were interested in advancing the claims of the see of Rome. He himself tells us that much of the information in the Ecclesiastical History was obtained from the libraries at Rome, and the writings of the popes. We are not blaming JARROW cnur.cii TOVEH. 102 D EAT PI OF VENERABLE BEDE Bede for such partisanship, it was part of his education, but we take the fact into account as we read his books. A beautiful word-picture is left us by one of his scholars respecting the clcse of his life. It was the eve of Ascension-day, A.D. 735, when he lay a-dying ; the translation of the Gospel of St. John occupying his closing hours. A group of fair-haired Saxon scribes wrote from his dictation, as far as the words "What are these among so many," when Bede felt his end approach ing. "Write quickly," he said, "I cannot tell how soon my Master will call me hence." All night he lay awake in thanksgiving, and when the festival dawned he repeated his request that they should accelerate the work. At last they said : "Master, there remains but one sentence." " Write quickly," answered Bede. "It is finished, master!" they soon replied. "Aye, it is finished ! " he echoed ; "now lift me up and place me opposite my holy place where I have been accus tomed to pray." He was placed upon the floor of his cell, bade farewell to his companions to whom he had previously given mementoes of his affection, and having sung the doxology, peace fully breathed his last. BEDE S TOMB, DURHAM CATHEDRAL. 6. Anglo-Saxon foreign missions. When thou art con verted strengthen thy brethren." So runs the apostolic precept, which Christians in every age have endeavoured to fulfil. Long before the conversion of the heptarchy, the Celtic Church had dis patched its missionaries to Gaul and Switzerland, as we learn from MISSION S TO THE HEATHEN 103 the lives of the Irish monks Columban and Gall, and the Angles were soon filled with the like missionary zeal. From such schools as those of Glastonbury, Limlisfarne, and Jarrow, men were sent forth to convert the kindred Teutonic tribes who had colonized what we now call Germany. Wilfrid, of York, had preached in Friesland, and afterwards sent Willibrord and twelve monks from his monastery at Ripon to the same district. Two priests named Eivald attempted a similar task in Saxony, but they were torn limb from limb at Cologne, and their remains thrown into the Khine. In 716, Winfrid, better- known as Boniface, educated first at a Celtic monastery near Exeter, and afterwards in a West-Saxon monastery in Hampshire, resolved to help Willibrord at Utrecht. Subsequently he was consecrated " missionary bishop of Germany," by Pope Gregory II., and succeeded in establishing a number of fully organized communities, over which he was made archbishop, with his see at Mayence (see next page). After many years, although an old man of seventy he went again to Friesland, where there were still many remnants of paganism. Here his zeal outran his discretion, and the heathens, enraged by his destruction of their idols, attacked and slew both him and his converts. He courted this fate, believing that a long missionary life would be most fitly crowned at last by the glory of martyrdom. In each place where he had ministered he left behind him disciples who continued his work of civilizing the barbarous tribes of western Europe ; and, thus to missionaries from this country may be traced a share of the peace and good order which marked the empire over which Charlemagne ruled. The Christianity of Gaul, to which the Celtic Church of Britain owed so much, had been depreciated, if not almost destroyed, by a similar Teutonic invasion to that which drove Christianity from the east of Britain ; and after it was revived to some extent by means of the Celtic missionaries, Boniface, by his influence and experience, was able to reform and organize the whole ecclesiastical system within the Frankish dominions. We honour his memory on June 5. 7. Early benefactions to churches. Very much has been said in recent times respecting the charters (i. e. writings, or deeds of gift) which were granted to the Church by Anglo-Saxon kings. Our museums contain several thousands of these documents, mostly in the handwriting of the monks. TJie Codex Diplomaf.icus of Mr. Kemble, and the Cartularium Saxonicum of Mr. de Gray Birch, have 104 BENEFACTIONS TO CHURCHES placed largo numbers of them within our reach in readable form, and so helped the Church to prove the title to her property incontro- vertibly. Before the monasteries set the example of registering the transfer of possessions on parchment or paper, our ancestors con tented themselves with the transference of property in the presence of witnesses ; for example, if land were to be conveyed, a turf would be cut and given to the new owner in the presence of the other people of the neighbourhood ; in similar fashion to the old patriarchal method by which Boaz obtained the inheritance of Elimelech from Naomi. MAYEXCR CATHEDRAL (see previou* page). But the literary monks intro luced to this country a more excellent way. The Church was to live on, they knew, when the petty states would no longer exist ; after the donors and the witnesses had gone to their long home. There would be difficulty, they foresaw, in proving their right to estates and buildings, when a conquering prince desired to alienate them, if they were restricted for evidence to living testi mony ; so they enumerated in written documents full particulars of any property given to the Church ; and this practice was afterwards adopted for all important transfers, even by the laity, although it, was a long time before the ancestral usage was dropped. The writings SPECIMEN DEEDS OF GIFT 105 were only looked upon as additional security. Thus, in a royal grant of the seventh century to Lyminge church, the king is made to say : "But because there is need of care lest our grant of to-day be in the future disowned and called in question, I have thought fit to prepare this document (home paginam), and together with a turf of the foresaid land to deliver it to thee ; where by I prevent not only my successors, whether kings or princes, but also myself, from ever dealing otherwise with the said land than as it is now settled by me." When a king gave any buildings or lands to the Church he gave either from his own possessions or else fiom those which he had acquired .by conquest over some other king, distributing some estates to this or that monastery as an act of thankfulness to the Giver of all victory ; in the same way as he would reward the faithfulness of the barons who assisted him, by the grant of some other part of the conquered territory. But kings were not the only benefactors, the nobles were glad to follow their example ; and every local or county history furnishes abundant evidence that the earliest benefactions to the Church were individual and personal gifts. No one has ever yet been able to find documentary proof of an uniform tribute, officially demanded by the kings, from the people generally, for the support of the Church. The essence of such gifts as the Church received, if the documents be true, is that they were voluntary. Thus we read that Offa, king of Mercia, gave a tenth part of "all his own things" (ommium reruin suaruin) "to Holy Church," and a Kentish deed of A.D. 832 contains the following grant to Canterbury cathedral : " I, Luba, the humble handmaid of God, appoint and establish these foresaid benefactions and alms from my heritable land at Mundlingham to the brethren at Christ-church ; and I entreat, and in the name of the living God I command, the man who may have this land and this inheritance at Mundlingham, that he continue these benefactions to the world s end. The man who will keep and discharge this that I have commanded in this writing, to him be given and kept the heavenly blessing ; he who hinders or neglects it to him be given and kept the punishment of hell, unless he will repent with full amends to God and to men." The conditions relating to the inviolable nature of this gift were very common stipulations at the time, suggested without doubt by the monks, who had some experience already of the tendency to encroach upon Church property, and withhold or subtract the con tributions to it which were thus made a first charge upon estates. As in Luba s gift, so in other benefactions to the Church ; they were bestowed upon the particular church or community which the donor desired to benefit, to be used by that community or church, and by E 2 106 INVIOLABILITY OP OLD ENDOWMENTS no other ; in accordance with the conditions of the third canon of the synod of Hertford, which forbade the alienation of property from any religions house to another. In the year 854 we find that King Ethchvulf and several of his bishops, abbots, and nobles agreed to make grants from their individual properties for the maintenance of the Church, and these became recoverable at common law. This was a distinctly voluntary proceeding, which bound no one else to similar contributions, as is clear from the concluding terms of the charter (still preserved in the British Museum) which they drew up : " And if any one is willing to increase onr donation, may the Omnipotent Cod increase his prosperous days. But if any one shall dare to diminish or disallow it, let him understand that he will have to render an account before the tribunal of Christ, unless he previously amends by giving satisfaction." These selections from Anglo-Saxon documents are typical instances of the way in which the Church acquired its property in early times, and they serve to show that the intention of the donors was then the same as it is now to dedicate something of their own proper good to the service of God for ever. The proportion given would of course depend on the prosperity of the donor, and so we find some d stricts and parishes benefited much more largely than others. This is the case with modern donations also, hence the irregular distribution of Church funds, and the difference in dignity and grandeur of Church buildings. Had there been then, or at any other time, as some suggest, an uniform official endowment, there would have been less variation in these respects. The longer our Church retains such property the more inviolable will be its right thereto, for, although it is continually receiving fresh proofs of the affection of its members, it still retains many of the ancient benefactions ; notwithstanding that dishonest men in every age have risked the curses entailed upon their alienation, by taking to themselves the property of God in possession. Tithes, i. e. a tenth part of certain properties originally given for i.he support of the Church, of which we hear so much in the present day, are very much more ancient benefactions to the Church than such donations as have been referred to. The faithful converts were taught from the earliest times the scriptural duty of contributing a tenth of their substance for the support of the ministry ; but in the eighth century, when Northumbria still held the civil supremacy, we have documentary evidence of their official recognition ; for in the canons drawn up by Egbert, first archbishop of York, it was decreed as follows : SYNOD OF CHELSEA 107 " That the churches ancienlly established be despoiled neither of their tithes nor other property to give them to new places of worship." The decrees of the synod held at Chelsea, A.D. 787, at which Offa made the grant we have referred to, show us that tithes were also voluntary contributions, because the nineteenth canon earnestly entreats all to make a point of giving tithe "because it is God s special portion." THE OLD CHURCH AT CHELSEA (seepage 111). Augustine of Canterbury had, by the advice of Gregory the great, adopted a plan for dividing the contributions of the faithful into four separate funds, one for the bishop, a second for the clergy, a third for Church fabrics, and a fourth for the poor. That was when the bishop had the management of the common fund, to which all benefactions were at one time paid. Afterwards, when people gave 108 GROWTH OF MONASTICISM for special purposes, the custom, which never had canonical force, fell through. The bishops and clergy had their separate estates to administer as they chose, and the monasteries theirs. Then the poor were relieved, sheltered, fed, and employed by the monks and clergy, so that the religious houses became hospitals for all, the secular exchequer being thus relieved from all responsibility on account of the needy ; a state of things which continued until the monasteries were destroyed. It is alleged by some opponents of the Church in modern times that a share of the tithes was at some time or other made divisible by law amongst the poor, but there is no historical evidence for such an assertion. 8. Royal devotees. So great was the prosperity of the Anglo- Saxon Church in the eighth century, and so much respected were its devotees, that it was not at all unusual for kings to leave their regal state and adopt the monastic habit. Many made pilgrimages to places where relics of saints and martyrs were enshrined, and oifered thereat munificent alms ; others journeyed to the city of Rome barefooted, and combined to establish an hospital there for the reception of travellers from Britain, and a school for the education of British children ; several ended their days in the comparative solitude of a monastery which they had been instrumental in founding. Some of those royal zealots were really actuated by religious fervour, others by the desire of relaxation from the cares of state, or the wish for adulation of a novel kind ; others, again, adopted a monastic habit or the pilgrim s staff in expiation of former sins. One of the best was Inn, king of "VVessex, the same who conquered West- Wales, and who was persuaded by Aldhelm to rebuild and endow Glastonbury-abbey. As the story goes, Ethelburh, his queen, persuaded him to renounce his royal state by a very strange device. After feasting his barons one day in extravagant fashion he went forth from the palace to go to another of his castles accompanied by the queen, who, before she left, had instructed the stewards to dismantle the house, hide its treasures, fill it with rubbish, and put a sow with a litter of pigs in the king s bed. Before they had proceeded far on their journey the queen asked Ina to return, and after showing him over the defiled palace, bade him consider the vanity of earthly pomp, and urged him to lay aside his crown and make a pilgrimage to the city of Rome with her. He did so, and they lived as ordinary persons in that city all the days of Ina s life, endowing a school there wherein DECLINE OF MONASTIC PURITY 109 Anglo-Saxon children might become acquainted with the usage of foreign countries. Ethelburh returned to Wessex and died in a Saxon monastery. Ina is famous also for having established a written code of Saxon laws in which, as in the earlier laws of Ethelbert, we can plainly trace the handiwork of the clergy. The provinces of Northumbria, Essex, East-Anglia, Mercia, and Kent, each contributed their quota of penitent kings, and their example was followed by many queens and noblemen and ladies, who often became rulers of the religious houses which they had themselves built and endowed. 9. Decadence Of religious purity. The early part of the eighth century has been called the "Golden Age" of the Church in Britain, because it was then more prosperous than it had ever been before, and purer than it has been since; but carelessness, indifference, and vice, followed swiftly in the wake of its prosperity. Intemperance, im purity, and greed of gold soon became ram pant. The mixed company of worldly-minded and criminal persons, whose professed penitence gained them admission to those once pure homes of Christian life, defiled the monastic abodes which sheltered them. Many still more worthless men, with no knowledge of or care for the religious life, obtained grants of land from kings on the pretence of founding monasteries, so as to hare the estates made over to them and their heirs for ever, gather ing together in the buildings they erected all sorts of worthless persons ; much scandal and vice resulting. A letter written by Bede, at the close of his life, explains the extent to which those evils had grown; and a chapter in his Ecclesiastical History relates how Adamnan, who had been trained in one of the Celtic monasteries, complained to the abbess of Cold- ingham respecting certain evils which abounded in her house ; the SOMPTING CHURCH TOWER (seepage 132). 110 SECULARS AND REGULARS inmates either sleeping idly, or being awake to sin. Stringent measures had to be adopted to reform such abuses, which necessitated a liberal interpretation of the third canon of the synod of Hertford, for the monasteries which in many cases had been independent of episcopal jurisdiction, under the rule of their abbots alone, were now obliged to submit to a regular periodical visitation from their bishop. It is necessary here to state that although the monastic clergy very often went out on preaching tours, the ordinary parochial ministrations were usually left to the seculars, that is, the clergy who lived amongst the people, usually as chaplains in the landed proprietors families, in which position they would be able to meet with the peasantry who gained their livelihood on the estate and were fed for the most part in the great hall of the Thane. They were called secular clergy, because they lived "inseculo," or after the manner of the world, free to marry if they chose, and live much as the parochial clergy do in the present day. All who lived in the religious houses had literally to "renounce the world" and live according to the Benedictine regulations, hence they were known as regulars. The seculars had no other chief than their bishop, but the regulars occupied positions of orderly gradation from the novices to the abbots, much in the same way as our army is regulated now, from the privates in the ranks to the generals of the staff. To place them under a new chief, by giving bishops the power of visiting monasteries, created an ill-feeling between the two classes of clergy, to which we shall refer again later on ; for it resulted in a struggle for supremacy, in which first one and then the other was successful, for more than seven hundred years. 10. Offa, king Of Mercia. - -Meanwhile, the strife amongst the Anglo-Saxon princes for the rank of Brctwalda continued ; it had been borne, as we have saen, by Kentish and Northumbrian kings, but in the second half of the eighth century, Offa, king of Mercia, success fully contended with the kings of Wessex for this overlordship. We have nothing to do with his civil struggles, but as he was the most powerful of the English kings and a friend of Charlemagne, the Frankish king who was winning for himself a still greater supremacy in eastern Europe, his influence upon the Church was correspondingly great. He left no way untried to make his kingdom in every respect as great as, if not greater than, any of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which he had subdued or surpassed. Kent had long enjoyed an ARCHBISHOPRIC OF LICHFIELD 111 archbishop. In 734, after the publication of Bede s history which made known the original intentions of Gregory the great, the see of York was raised to a like dignity. Why, thought Offa, should not the churches in his still more powerful kingdom be similarly encouraged ? Accordingly, he would have the bishopric of Lichfield made a metro politan see, and, when the archbishops of Canterbury and York protested, he sent bribes to Pope Hadrian to oblain the requisite permission and the pall. Hadrian was glad of an opportunity to meddle in the affairs of the English Church, and sent two legates here, who held a council at Chelsea, A.D. 787, and persuaded Jaenbert, archbishop of Canterbury, to surrender control of the five bishoprics of Mercia, and the two of East-Anglia, to Higbert, who was now made archbishop of Lichfield, and by reason of Offa s position as overlord took precedence of the other archbishops on important occasions. This dignity for Lichfield only lasted a short time, for after the death of Offa, Aldulf, who succeeded Higbert, requested that the archbishopric might be abolished. It was in Offa s reign that an Englishman, whose literary reputation was world-wide, received an in vitation from Charlemagne to take up his abode in France, as the director of that great monarch s educational enter prises. His name was Alcuin, he was born at York, and had been instructed by archbishop Egbert there. Having success fully conducted great school? in Northumbria, he was considered the fittest man to revive the almost extinct learning o" Europe. That is another in stance of the influence of British Christianity over the fortunes ST< ALIIAN S MONASTERY CA of the Church abroad; for (see next page). 112 OFF AS MONASTERY AT ST. A LEANS Alcuin, besides his educational work, took part in the religious controversies of the continent, and helped to form western Church policy in the unfortunate struggle for independence against the eastern Churches. The reign of Offa is marked by two other important events. One was his conquest of considerable British territory west of the river Severn, to maintain whinh a huge wall of earth was thrown up, from the mouth of the Wye to that of the Dee (parts of it are still pointed out as Off as dyke), thus forming what has since been the boundary between England and Wales. The other noteworthy circumstance was the murder of Ethelbert, king of East-Anglia, whilst he was a guest in Offa s palace. Traditional accounts state that, in expiation of this crime, and annexation of Ethelbert s kingdom, the king of Mercia made a tardy penance by visiting the city of Eome, and on his return imposing on each family in his dominion a small tax of a penny for the maintenance and support of Ina s school there. He certainly gave large benefactions to Hereford cathedral and Bath-abbey, and also founded the great monastery of St. Albans (see page 152). There had been a notable church at Verulam ever since Alban was martyred, but Oft a, who desired to excel all previous efforts in the foundation of religious houses, built and endowed a more magnificent one than the country had then seen. In after years, when bishops of Rome acquired an usurped authority over the Church in Britain, special privileges of exemption from all episcopal authority save that of the popes were granted to St. Albans-abbey. Offa died A.D. 796, and the civil supremacy passed into the hands of Egbert, king of Wessex, to whom all the other Anglo-Saxon kings paid homage, and by whom the country was called for the first time England, although it was not yet one kingdom. The Anglo-Saxon tribes were henceforth known as the English people, and their tongue the English language, but the divisions of the heptarchy were still observed, with a king over each, who governed absolutely ; the difference was that they had now to fight for the overlord, or at least not to fight against each other. CHAPTER VJII. (A.D. 787-1066) THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN "Dissension checking anus that would restrain The incessant rovers of the Northern main ; Helps to restore and spread a pagan sway : The woman-hearted confessor prepares The evanescence of the Saxon line." 1. The first Danish invasions. In the year 787 three strange ships found their way to this country, not loaded with merchandise, but carrying fierce bands of pirates, who had come from Scandinavia. " They were the first ships of Danish men who sought the land of the English nation." 1 iracy was accounted by them as DANLSJI WARSHIPS. an honourable employment. Their greatest ambition was to be sea- kings. They were of the same Teutonic race as the " English ; " but while the English tribes had become Christian, the Northmen, who had replaced them in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, retained the 113 " Hi COMING OF THE DANES heathen worship of their common ancestry. The pirates light ash- wood ships were so built as to be able to sail with equal facility over the German Ocean or up the English rivers. It is said that they landed first on the coasts of Northumbria, near the monastery of Streanreshalch, since called Whitby, and having treacherously murdered the chief men of the town, who came down to the harbour to meet thorn, they proceeded to lay hands on everything of value, which for the sake of getting rid of the Northmen the panic-stricken people surrendered. St. Hilda s monastery afforded them the largest booty ; for there were numbers of gold and silver vessels and much saleable treasure in the shape of manuscripts and vestments. The monks and priests made a feeble resistance, but the fierce marauders dispatched them with little ceremony. Indeed, they had a special hatred against the Christian religion, for it had well-nigh destroyed their ancient mythological belief. They utterly destroyed the monastic buildings, and having filled their ships with spoil, sailed away over seas. The success of their first expedition emboldened them to fresh attempts, and within two years the towns on the coast of Wessex suffered from similar depredations; in 795 "the harrying of heathen men wretchedly destroyed God s church at Lindisfarne isle, through rapine and manslaughter." The next yenr, "the heathen harried among the Northumbrians, and plundered the monastery at Wearmouth." In 832 "hea heu men ravaged Sheppey." They did not come as an army prepared to give battle to trained troops, but came down suddenly upon some peaceful town \vhich was unprepared to resist them. Offa, king of Mercia, cared nothing about the way they plundered and weakened the smaller provinces, so long as they remained outside his kingdom. But when he died, and Egbert, king of Wessex, assumed the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon kings, a more organized resistance was offered to the invaders. But they continued thoir depredations for full 200 years, and it is not too much to say that a similar distressful condition of affairs occurred all over the country to that which happened 300 years before, when the earlier tribes of Teutons harassed the Celtic population of Britain. In 833 there was a pitched battle between the Danes and Egbert, the bretwalda, in which the bishops, clergy, and monks, took up arms against the heathen ; but the united forces were unable to stand against the Northmen, and two bishops, Herefrid, of Worcester in Mercia, and Wilbert, of Sherborne in Wessex, were killed in the strife. On BATTLE OF HENGIST S-DOWN 115 the whole, however, Egbert was able to hold the Danes in check during his reign, and he obtained a decisive victory over them at Hengist s-Down in Cornwall, A.D. 835. The constant ravages of the Danes forced the Anglo-Saxon kings into a mutual alliance against them, the Church providing everywhere the bond of union. It was a fight for home, and family, and freedom, aud lor love of Christ. 2. Destruction of the Anglo-Saxon churches. In 847 the clergy under Ealatan, bishop of Sherborne, obtained their revenge over the Danes for the death of the bishops by decisively defeating them not far from Glastonbury, whither they had come attracted by the wealth of that famous church. But the Danes were irrepressible, they never accepted defeat. If they went home it was only to return in a short time with large reinforcements ; and in 851 116 MURDER OF ST. EDMUND they had gained a sufficient advantage over the English to be able to winter in the isle of Thanet. Henceforth "it was no longer a series of plunder-raids, but the invasion of Britain by a host of conquerors who settled as they conquered." In 866, and again in 870, they invaded East-Anglia, each time defeating the inhabitants. On the second occasion the Danish leaders Ubba and Ingwar offered life and kingdom to King Edmund if he would renounce Christianity and reign under them. But he refused their terms and gloried in the faith. He had once sheltered Lodbrog, their father, at his court, but, when flushed with wine and inflamed with minstrelsy, one of King Edmund s retainers, basely violating the laws of hospitality, " In the dark of guilty night, Plucked King Lodbrog s lusty life," for which the Danes now took a terrible revenge. They tied Edmund to an oak-tree and shot at him with arrows, but nothing would shake his fortitude. He was then beheaded, and has since been honoured in the English Church as one of its noble martyrs. The tree to which he was bound stood until a few years ago, when it was destroyed by lightning ; and a Danish arrow-head found embedded in its heart was sent to the British Museum. Edmund s body was carefully protected from dishonour by his friends, and when many years later there was danger of its being maltreated by descendants of his murderers, they removed it to the church of St. Gregory by St. Paul, London. In the year 1013 they placed it in a little wooden church at Grecnstead, in Essex, the nave of which remains to the present day, after being used for more than eight centuries in the service of the English Church. It is the only one of all the Saxon wooden churches which remains to us. It is built of upright oak-wood logs, with windows above them, and is well worth a visit from holiday-makers by reason of its ancient dignity as well as its primitive simpMcity. It is about a mile from Ongar station on the Great Eastern Railway. From it the body of St. Edmund, king and martyr, was in quieter times transferred to a worthy shrine still known as St. Edmund s Bury, in Suffolk. So terrible was the strife between the Danes and English, and so vindictive the conduct of the invaders toward the churches and monasteries, that everything in the shape of religion and learning became paralyzed. All the great religious houses and the finest churches were pillaged and destroyed. The noble monastery of Bardney THE SACK OF LINDISFARNE 117 in Lincolnshire fell in 869. The still wealthier one of Crowland followed suit the next year, its abbot beiug slain at the altar where he was celebrating the Holy Communion, many of the monks being tortured and killed in the most cruel manner. Shrines and monu ments of the departed were especially singled out by the Danes as objects of destruction. The costly materials of which they were com posed would be rifled, and the bones and relics scattered hither and thither. Whatever was of wood in the buildings they burnt, and GREENSTEAD CHURCH, NEAR ONGAR, ESSEX. that which was stone or brick they razed to the ground. In 875 the monastery of Lindisfarno was attacked. The brethren there hastily removed the remains of St. Cuthbert, and fled for shelter to Melrose. There also the general enemy came, and the monks were compelled to bear the wooden sarcophagus that contained the precious relics from one place to another, until, in 882, by the aid of a king of Wessex (see page 120), the community obtained a resting-place at Chester-le- street. Another Danish invasion in 995 forced the brotherhood to 118 ST. CUTHBERTS RELICS hide their master s Lones in the primaeval woods of Durham, under a shrine of boughs, until they could erect a humble church to hold them; which preceded the stately pile "half church of God, half castle gainst the Scots" which Carilef built in the eleventh century. "O er northern mountain, marsh, and moor, From sea to sea, from shore to shore, Seven years Saint Cuthbert s corpse they bore. And after many wanderings past, He chose his lordly seat at last. Where his cathedral, huge and vast, Looks down upon the Wear." (Sir W. Scott s " Marmion.") DURHAM CATHEDRAL FROM THE WEAR. Peterborough and Ely, Winchester and London, Canterbury and Rochester, Lindisfarne and Hexham, every place in fact which was likely to contain anything worth searching for; all were pillaged and the inmates massacred by the Danes. The whole country became a scene of desolation, over which the conq-uerors exulted in the wildest ribald glee. "The land was as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." At length arose a leader who put a period to his country s woes. THE SONS OF ETHELVVULF 119 3. Alfred the great. King Ethel \vulf, who succeeded Egbert, had four sons, each of whom in turn wore the crown. The reigns of three of them were very short ; two of them died, and were buried at Sherborne, Ethelred, the third son, succeeding. In his reign the Danes, who had long been devastating the north and east, for the first time invaded Wessex with an army. This they divided in two parts. The king was at his devotions when the attack of the Danes was made, but he refused to be interrupted. He said : " I will serve God first and man after." Meantime his brother Alfred, who led part of the English force, met one division of the enemy and slew their leaders ; and after the king joined in the conflict a similar victory was gained over the other division. Undaunted, the Danes renewed the attack within a fortnight. This time they held their own. A suc cession of battles followed, in one of which another bishop of Sherborne was killed, and soon after, Ethelred died, Alfred taking his place as king of Wessex, A.D. 871. Before the year was out, Alfred fought another battle with the Northmen near Salisbury, in which neither side won, but the Danes were so stubbornly resisted that they ceased troubling Wessex for a while, and confined their attention to Noith- umbria and Mercia. This land they apportioned amongst themselves, as they had done with the kingdom of East-Anglia. It did not matter whose the land might be, Church lands, common or tribal lands, as well as that which had been in the personal possession of the kings or nobles whom they slew in battle, they seized upon it all. Also they changed the names of many towns. In fact, all places in England with the termination by, which is equivalent to bury or town, were so named by the Danes about that time. 4. Peace With the Danes. In 878 they again invaded Alfred s kingdom, Guthrum being their leader. There were several battles, but a decisive one was fought at Ethandun, in which the English were victorious, and Alfred was able to make definite terms with the invaders. He was willing that they should occupy the districts known as Northumbria, Mercia, and East-Anglia, if they would agree to leave Wessex, Kent, and Sussex undisturbed ; in other words, the boundary line was to be the Thames as far as London, and from thence the great highway called " Watling-street," which was the chief means of communication between London and Chester. One great condition, however, was imposed, viz. that the Danes should 320 THE PEACE OF WE DM0 RE become Christians, respect the property of the Church, and restore the lands they had taken from it. To this they agreed, and the treaty was signed at Wedmore. Guthrum, afterwards called Athelstan, was baptized with his nobles, near Athelney, and Alfred was his god-father. Their conversion was the indirect means of bringing to Christianity many other bands of Northmen, who continued immigrating hither for generations ; and from that time, although the Northmen soon became lords of the soil, there was not the destruction of tribes which marked the Teutonic conquest of the Celts. The Danes were heathen THE ISLE OF ATHEL"NEY. when they landed and remained so for awhile, but they at last became absorbed, and lost their tribal characteristics, because they adopted the faith and customs of their English kindred. They perceived the temporal benefit that resulted to others from the possession of Christianity ; they saw their fellows transformed from roving pirates into agricultural settlers, and gradually they came to see that the latter fashion was the easiest way to wealth. Like Coifi of old (see page 60), if to become Christians would bring them more gain than the worship of Woden, they were willing to be baptized ; and if settlement KING ALFRED S LAWS 121 in the land would increase tlieir prosperity, they would forsake their ships without regret. No doubt the people of Northuinbria and Mercia made terms of peace with them to save their homes and churches. They had to be under some overlord, whether it were Guthrum or Alfred could scarcely matter much to them, and the Danes would be glad to make terms of peace with the Saxons under Alfred, for the sake of being permitted to tax, and live upon the labour of, the Anglians. Alfred also was a man of peace ; he had been religiously trained, and desired rather "to live worthily," and leave behind him the remembrance of good works, than to be constantly making war. 5. Alfred s government and laws. - The Peace of Wedmore gave the land ten years rest, during which Alfred set to work to retrieve the prosperity of his kingdom which the Danes had wrecked. The long wars had nearly exhausted the vigour and intelligence of the people, so that Alfred did not know of a single person south of the Thames who could translate from Latin into English. To remedy this, he introduced teachers from other kingdoms, as Asser from AVales and Grimbald fiom Flanders, who established schools. The tradition that Alfred founded the university of Oxford is now declared fictitious. Even when engaged in battles with the Danes, he was never without his Missal, or prayer-book, which he would read by the light of his camp-fire. As he had opportunity, he translated suitable books into the tongue of the common people. Portions of the Scriptures, the works of Bede, several devotional manuals, a book by Orosius on Universal History, and much besides, were all rendered by him into the English vernacular. His efforts for the civil government of his kingdom were even more extensive. In this his chief advisers were the bishops, under whose guidance he issued a code of laws, incor porating those of Ina and OfFa, on the basis of the Docalogue. The earlier codes are not extant, but " Alfred s Dooms," as his code is called, have been handed down to us. They begin thus : " The dooms which the Almighty Himself spaku to Moses, and gave him to keep, and after Christ came to earth, He said He came not to break or forbid, but to keep them." Then follow the ten commandmenls, and such other laws as were thought needful for the kingdom, even to the declaring what holidays the labourers should have. These latter were fasts and festivals of the English Church. For the guidance of the Danes, who had accepted Christianity through his interposition, a special agree- 122 SHA FTESB UR Y-ABBE Y ment was drawn up. It provided for silence and reverence within the walls of churches, forbade Sunday labour, made apostasy a finable offence, and enforced the customary payment of dues to the Church. The destruction of religious houses by the Danes, and the drafting of lay monks into the army almost broke up the monastic system in England. Alfred sought to revive that system, so far as he was able ; for the monasteries were very useful in times of war, as places where the women and children might be sheltered and cared for while the men were fight ing. So we find records of Alfred having built a monastery where Gu- thrum was baptized, and founded a house for women at Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire, A.D. 888, the revenues of Aldhelin s church at Bradford-on- Avon (see page 132) forming part of its endowment. The king s grant of land to Shaftesbury is preserved in the British Museum, and has been deciphered as follows : "I, King Alfred, to the honour of God/ etc., do give and grant for the health of my soul, to the church of Shaftesbury, one hundred hides of land " (the lands are then specified as being in different neighbourhoods) "with the men and other ap purtenances, as they now are, and my daughter Aylena with the same, she being at her own disposal and a nun in the same convent." Then follow the signatures of the witnesses, and the charter concluded thus : :: Whosoever shall alienate these things, 7nay he be ever accursed of God, the holy virgin Mary, and all saints." Many noble ladies, not bound by ar.y vows, lived in such establish ments for protection, and their retainers defended the approaches against the incursions of the Danes. King Alfred, sti l further to guard his kingdom, built many ships with which he often prevented the Northmen from landing on the coasts. To revive the old love of his race for the sea he sent men on foreign expeditions and trading missions, and for the encouragement of Churchmen he sent embassies to the great bishops of Rome and Jerusalem. He also sent ships, soothe chronicles say, to India, with alms for the poor Christian communities which the apostles St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas had established ALFRED THK GREAT. THE LADY OF MERC I A 123 there. Thus we have in Alfred s reign the foundation of our naval and commercial enterprise, and also friendly intercommunion between the apostolic English Church with other apostolic Churches in Jerusalem, Rome, and India. King Alfred died in the year 901, and was buried in the cathedral at Winchester, then the chief city of the paramount AVest-Saxon kingdom. 6. Re-COnquest Of the North. After Alfred had improved his kingdom, through the assistance and advice of the clergy, the way was clear for his son Edward (the Elder] to regain that supremacy which the Saxons had obtained under Egbert over the Anglian prince doms, but which the Danes had wrested from them. He became chief of the Anglo-Saxon provinces as far as the Humber, all the other princes, Danish, Scotch, or Welsh, paying homage to him as their overlord. His sister, Ethelfleda, contributed greatly to this result. She was married to the eorlderman Ethelred, whom King Alfred had made prince of Mercia. When Ethelred died Ethelfleda assumed the reins of government, and made for herself a name and fame as a warrior queen which overshadowed that of Boadicea. She assisted her brother in driving the Danes beyond the Humber, and still further restricted the territory of the Welsh. To maintain and defend the places in which an advantage was gained over the enemy, she would raise earthworks, and build fortifications, which became bases for further operations. Thus Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Derby, Leicester, and Chester became fortified towns. Ethelfleda was known as the "Lady of the Mercians," and after her death, A.D. 918, the Mercian province was annexed by Edward to IVessex. Edward (the Elder) had many sons and daughters, all of whom were woithy in their way; five daughters married foreign princes, a sixth wedded the Danish prince of Northumbria, and three more entered religious houses. Edward s son Athelstan still further increased the power of the West- Saxon kingdom, and adopted the title of emperor to show that he thought himself equal to the other emperors of Europe, and that all the princes of the British Isles were his vassals. He was succeeded by his brother Edmund (the Magnificent) who granted Strathclyde to Malcolm king of Scots on condition of military service. After Edmund, Edred, a third son of Edward the elder, became king. He died in 955. This brief account of England s civil history is necessary for the better understanding of what follows. 124 REARRANGEMENT OF BISHOPRICS 7. Changes in the Church. The influence of the clergy over Alfred the great was exerted still more over his sons and grandsons, Archbishop Phlegmund, who had been one of Alfred s chief advisers, was the leading statesman of Edward the Elder for the first ten years of the latter s reign. Under such circumstances it was but natural that the Church should share as it did in the people s prosperity. The bishoprics which became vacant by the death in battle of the soldier prelates were spee.lily tilled up again, and new ones were formed out TTTE CATHFPKAL OF WELLS, SOMERSET. of the large dioceses of Wessex, as had been done in Mercia and North umbria in the days of Theodore. Thus the see of Wells was founded in 904, and that of St. Germans in Cornwall thirty-two years later, when the West- Welsh submitted themselves to the potent Athelstan. In the reign of that prince the provisions for the mainte nance of the Church were revised. Those who held estates which were chargeable with premiums or tithes to the parochial clergy, or to monasteries, had often neglected to pay them during the troubled ST. DUNSTAN S EARLY YEARS 125 times. On the petition of the clergy these charges were now enforced, and made recoverable under penalties, in such provinces as Athelstan governed. Offa s provision (page 112) for Ina s school at Rome was now increased by a similar contribution from the Saxon kingdoms. The administration of that fund was placed in charge of the clergy at Rome, who gradually converted it to the use of the papal see, until in time those benevolences came to have the appearance of tribute due from the English Church to a spiritual superior, and were called Peter s-pencc, or Home-shot. But there had never been up to that time any surrender of independence by the English to the Roman Church, although the latter was undoubtedly looked up to with reverential feelings by the Christians of this country. The power of its popes was rapidly increasing, as yet there were no glaring abuses in its system, and it was undoubtedly more powerful than any European state. The English clergy desired to obtain a similar supremacy for the Church in Britain, and this was probably the underlying reason for the embassies to various patriarchal churches on terms of equality in King Alfred s time. They saw, however, the advantages of a spiritual court of appeal, and to that extent they were willing to favour the pretentious claims of the papacy, which had not had to suffer the loss of all things at the hands of heathen destroyers, and was therefore in a far more established and successful condition than the English hierarchy. 8. Dunstan and Odo. Early in the tenth century a child was born at Glastonbury, the shrine of mysterious legends, who was des tined, as a man, not only to reform the discipline of the English Church, but to mould the English realm. " Dunstan stands first in the line of ecclesiastical statesmen who counted among them Lan franc and Wolsey, and ended in Laud." As a boy he excelled in all the peaceful arts of music, eloquence, architecture, mathematics, painting, and metallurgy. The manuscripts and stores of precious lore which former monks had laid up in the Glastonbury monastery, formed a mine of intellectual wealth which he loved to explore, and when Edmund the magnificent came to the throne of Alfred, Dunstan, who had been in turn both courtier and monk, was made abbot of the monastery where he had studied, and, by virtue of the legislative position this office gave him in the witanagemot, chief administrator of the state. The archbishop of Canterbury then (A.D. 943) was Odo, who was desirous of enforcing rigorous discipline upon all the clergy. Hitherto 126 CLERICAL CELIBACY it had been allowable for the parochial clergy who were not attached to any monasteries, to exercise their discretion in the matter of marriage, but Odo was persuaded that clerical celibacy was a necessary rule. The seculars naturally objected to the restriction, but the archbishop hoped by transferring cathedral and collegiate revenues as well as parochial church possessions to monastic institutions, thus impover ishing the canons and parsons 1 to force them into Benedictine THE HILLS AT GLASTONBURY. monasteries. Dunstan, who when a monk had adopted a most rigorous mode of life, warmly seconded Odo s designs. The quarrel between regulars and seculars raged fiercely for many years, both sides seeking to discredit ths other by raking up unworthy scandals. For the present it is sufficient to say that the regulars had by a long way the best of the struggle. In violation of all previous canons, much ecclesiastical property now changed hands ; no doubt Odo and Dunstan 1 Parson is an old title of dignity applied to the ecclesiastical representative of a parish. In recent times it has been applied to unbeneficed clergy also. DUNSTAN AND KING EDWY 127 found a way of reconciling this unrighteous proceeding with their consciences, but a terrible retribution was in store for all the religious houses which benefited by such alienation. (See chapter xviii.) 9. Dunstan s administration. The Anglian clergy in the north at that time were on the side of the Danes, and Wulstan, arch bishop of York, led the Danish armies. To outwit Wulstan, Dunstan offered, on behalf of the Saxon kingdom, to permit Kenneth, king of the Scots, to hold so much of Northumbria as was north of the Tweed, on condition that the Scots should help the Saxons against the Danes. Henceforth the Scots held their chief seat in Edinburgh, and by mixing with the Angles of Bernicia, gradually adopted their customs and mannar of speech. It is a characteristic feature of the Anglian race to be able to absorb the peculiar habits of other nationalities. Strathclydc, ceded to a predecessor of Kenneth by Edmund, was anglicized in the same way. Thus the English tongue of the Scottish people to-day, as well as the boundary of their country, is distinctly due to the states manship of the English bishops. The Danes in the north of England were soon defeated by the Scoto-Saxon allies. Archbishop Wulstan was deposed by Dunstan s order and thrown into prison, Oscytel succeeding him in the office. In that way Dunstan gained an influence over all the clergy in the country, and a corresponding power in all the witans, especially in that of Mercia. In the year 955, King Edred died, and was succeeded by his nephew Edwy ; another nephew, Edgar, ruling Mercia as under-king. Those princes were then very young and ill-trained. It is supposed that Dunstan had something to do with their neglected education in the hope that, when they suc ceeded to kingly rank, he might have more influence over them. Edvvy indiscreetly married the lady Elgiva, but as they were related within the prohibited degrees of the Church his action brought down on him the wrath of Dunstan. An open enmity between king and counsellor ensued, Edwy taking the side of the secular clergy in the clerical dispute in opposition to and in defiance of Dunstan. Edvvy s infatuation for Elgiva was so great that he neglected his duties of state to enjoy her society, and it is said that when he absented himself from the hall of entertainment for that purpose on the day of his coronation, thus affronting the nobles who had come to do him honour, the abbot Dunstan, with the bishop of Lichfield, forced him from her company and compelled him to respsct the conventional duties of his station. 128 EDGAR THE PEACEFUL That brought upon Dunstan the enmity of the court, for he was soon afterwards banished from Wessex and his abbey confiscated ; but without his remarkable talents the government of the kingdom, which had been upheld solely by his marvellous powers of organization, could not continue, and he was speedily recalled by the nobles. Archbishop Odo upheld the abbot in his opposition to the marriage, and pronounced it invalid. Later on, when an earl transgressed the laws of marriage in a similar way, Dunstan promptly excommunicated him. The noble then sought a reversal of the sentence by appealing to the bishop of Rome, who decided in his favour, and ordered Dunstan to absolve them. But he refused to follow the pope s decree. The marriage must be abandoned or there should be no absolution. "When Edwy saw how little the prelates of the English Church cared for the pope s decision he gave up his unlawful concubinage, and, in barefooted penitence, begged the abbot s pardon, which he, being entirely victorious, most graciously granted. Edwy died, A.D. 959, of a broken heart, caused by the ill-treatment extended to his excom municated consort, and the insurrection of his brother Edgar. Archbishop Odo had died four months previously. Edgar was then king of England, and Dunstan became archbishop of Canterbury. Edgar is called the peaceful king, and that is the best that can be said of him. The conduct of affairs, both civil and ecclesiastical, was mainly left to Archbishop Dunstan, who is credited with having compiled the new and comprehensive codes of law that mark this reign. Edgar the pacific died in 975, leaving behind him two very young sons, Edward and Ethelred. There was a strife amongst the people as to which of them should be king. The partisans of each prince had their adherents amongst the rival clergy, the seculars siding with the barons in favour of Ethelred, while the monks and yeomen clamoured for Edward. A way out of the dilemma was found by Dunstan, who confronted the witan and decreed for Edward, the elder child, none daring to oppose his choice. But Edward was stabbed four years after by order of his step-mother, Elfrida, at Corfe Castle; Ethelred, who was still but ten years old, succeeding to the throne. It is said that Elfrida, in atonement for her crime, built several monasteries, one of which was at Reading, in Berkshire. For ten years longer Archbishop Dunstan maintained his high position and influence. He is said to have built and restored more than forty monasteries, the chief of which was his Alma Mater at MURDER OF ARCHBISHOP ELPHEGE 129 Glastonbury ; and to have established many schools, for the efficient conduct of which he introduced eminent masters from abroad. He became less bitter as time went on in his treat ment of the secular clergy, for he allowed the canons to remain in Canterbury cathedral ; and it is computed that there were at least 3000 parish churches under his jurisdiction. In his capacity as chief statesman Dunstan had much to do with the Danes, who were allowed to settle in the north. He did not force upon them English customs or English laws, but permitted them to govern themselves in their own fashion, so long as they were peaceably disposed. Hence the origin of the term Danelagh, or territory subject to Danish ; law. Dunstan died in the year 988, and was suc- pS^~y ceeded by Ethelgar. Two years later Sigeric was primate, followed by /Klfric in 995, and Elphege BENEDICTINE MOXK. j n JQQQ 10. The Danish conquest. King Ethelred was now left to manage the kingdom as best he could. He is known in history as the unready, which means "unadvised." In 991 there was trouble again with fresh bands of Northmen from Denmark. To get rid of them Ethelred gave them a very large sum of money, with the consent of the witan. They soon came again, however, to a country where they could be enriched so cheaply, and the tax thus imposed upon people was called Danegeld. In 1002 the king conceived a very horrible plan for extirpating the invaders, for he caused all the Danes that were in England to be massacred on St. Brice s-day, November 13. That dastardly proceeding brought a terrible punishment. To revenge their kindred the Danes came over in large force under Swegen, and harried all the land for years. In one of their expeditions they took Elphege, archbishop of Canterbury, prisoner; and because he would not rob his church to obtain his ransom of 3000 pounds of silver, they pelted him to death with ox bones. This occurred A.D. 1012. King Ethelred, who had married Emma, a daughter of Duke Eichard of Normandy, fled for fear with his wife and children to her father s court. Swegen, the Dane, was then acknowledged king of England. His claim was contested by Edmund Ironside, Ethelred s eldest sou, VOL. T. F 130 THE FIRST KING OF ALL ENGLAND who fought in defence of his father s kingdom. Swegen died in 1014, and the Danes in England elected his son Cnut for king. But the English returned to their allegiance to Ethelred, who, however, died in 1016. There were now many battles between Cnut and Edmund Ironside, which resulted in the partition of Britain, as it had been in the days of King Alfred, except that East-Anglia was apportioned to the English, that is to say, Northumbria and Mercia were ceded to Cnut. After reigning seven months in the south, Edmund Ironside died ; it is thought he was murdered ; and then Cnut became the first sole Icing of all England whose claim to the title was undisputed. Edgar had been crowned by Dunstan as "sole king," but there were other kings in. Edgar s time who refused to give up their regal title although they paid him homage. Cnut was a heathen when he first came to England, but after he found out how extensive and paramount was the influence of the Church, he treated its prelates most con siderately ; and wisely retained the parochial divisions of the country for the purposes of government. To still further commend himself to the English he married Emma of Normandy, the widow of King Ethelred. by whom he had two children, who were to be preferred in the succession to Emma s other children by Ethelred. The story of Cnut and the waves belongs to this period. It is said that when the wars were over his courtiers flattered him very highly for his greatness, and that to reprove them he had his chair of state brought to the edge of the sea as the tide was rising, and thus addressed the waves : " sea, I am thy lord ; my ships sail over thee whither I will, and this land against which thou dashest is mine ; stay then thy waves, and dare not to wet the feet of thy lord and master" (Freeman). Of course his feet were wetted all the same, whereupon he exhorted his courtiers not to forget that the elements were in the power of a greater than any earthly king. Perhaps he thought of what the Christians had told him about the Saviour whom the winds and waves did obey. This much is clear, he became a firm Christian from that time, he even refused to wear his crown, and placed it on the head of the Saviour s image on the rood loft, some say of Winchester, others of Canterbury cathedral. He also made a pilgrimage to Koine, and while there wrote a letter to his subjects promising to rule them well and lead a righteous life; urging them to do the same, and, above all, never to neglect payment of their just dues to the Church. On his return he re-issued the Christian laws of Edgar s reign, and munificently supported all FOUNDATION OF BURY ST. EDMUNDS 131 Church enterprises ; many Danish nobles following the example of his benevolence. Cnut s chief work of this kind was the establishment and endowment of the monastery of Saint Edmund s Bury, alongside the secular church already there, in expiation of his ancestors murder of King Edmund (page 115). Before he died he did a still nobler work than that, for he sent missionaries from this country to his fatherland, who were able to convert Norway and Denmark to ABBEY GATE, BURY ST. EDMUNDS. the Christian faith ; another proof that the mainland of Europe is indebted to Britain s missionary zeal. 11. Anglo-Saxon architecture. There are still many churches in different parts of England which are known to have been built before and about that time. There are Monkwearmouth and Jarrow-on-Tyne which Benedict Biscop built in 674 and 684. (See pages 94 and 101.) Then there is Bradford-on-Avon, built about twenty years later by Aldhelm, which is pictured on page 133 ; and also one scarcely less ancient, and nearly as perfect, at Escomb in Durham. The latter is of stones quarried and carved by Roman masons. At Barton-on-Humber, Eurls-Barton (see next page), and Barnack, we have remains of portions of churches hardly less venerable for age. The general tendency in Saxon times was to make the churches lofty, with small windows high up towards the roof. Most of the Saxon churches were of wood, although many were of stone. The native materials would be used in preference to those brought from a distance. Very seldom were there any isles or pillars, but the roof was pitched from the outside walls. A nave, a chancel, and an entrance porch seem to 132 ANGLO-SAXON ARCHITECTURE have been the usual forms. There are many old towers still standing attached to more modern churches, and on the other hand, towers have been added, or perhaps rebuilt, to an ancient nave. Greenstead church in Essex (page 117) is an example of this. In the tower of Sompting church, Sussex (page 109), we have a well-preserved specimen of the general type of Saxon architecture. The Saxon style is generally called Romanesque, because it is an imitation of the older Roman buildings. We have still more numerous survivals of pre-Norman churches that were built at the close of the tenth and the early part of the eleventh centuries, because those which were built by the Danes after their conversion and those which were built in the time of Edward the confessor, were usually copies of continental churches with which the Norman relatives of the Danes were familiar, and therefore did not destroy. But they improved upon the style of the Saxons, first in massiveness and afterwards in elegance. Apart from any religious motives, great inducements were often offered by the Anglo- Saxon princes for the building of churches, by giving the founders higher social rank, e.g. in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle a charter of King Athelstan is thus recorded : "If a ceorl thrived so as to have five hides of land, a church, a kitchen, a bell, a tower, a seat, and an office in the king s court, from that time forward he was accounted equal in honour to a thane." This is as much as to say in modern terms, that if a prosperous squire \vere to largely benefit his neighbour hood, providing one of the benefits conferred were the building and maintenance of a church, he might be elevated to knighthood or the peerage. Consequently churches were built apace, and when a survey of England was taken in the year 1086 a very large number of churches found a place in the inventory, Norfolk having no less EAKLS-13AKTON SAXON TOWER. ^ 243 > Suff lk 364 <$*& U ^ THE SONS OF CNUT 133 12. The English restoration. Cnut was succeeded in England by his two sons, Harold in the north, and Harthacnut in the south. But Harthacimt died, and Edward^ son of Emma by Ethelred, who had lived at his mother s home in Normandy during Ciiut s reign, and there lost any love of English manners and language he may have had, now returned to England and claimed his father s throne. Many persons were attracted to his cause, and Harold the Dane was driven out of England, Edward thus becoming king. He married Edith, a daughter of Godwine, the most powerful English earl, but had no family. He also was a munificent supporter of all Christian works in this country, but he introduced a large number of his Norman-French friends, some of whom he promoted to positions of honour and dignity ST. ALDHELM S CHURCH, BRA DFORD-ON- AVON. in the English Church. The most important of those foreign prelates were Ulf, bishop of Dorchester (Lincoln), and Robert, bishop of London, who was afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. The Norman officials triumphed for a time over the patriotic leaders, and caused their banishment; but Godwine and his friends in exile raised a force and obtained a fleet, and returned to claim their rights. As the popular feeling was all on their side, the Norman courtiers and prelates judged it wiser to leave England. Godwine and his son Harold, earl of East- Anglia, then became the chief advisers of King Edward. Earl Godwine died soon after, and his son Harold, owing to the timid and feeble 134 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR disposition of the king, who preferred to divide his time between hunting and prayers > became virtual ruler of the land, and succeeded to his father s title. He endeared himself to the people by his successful generalship in war, especially in Wales, and by his wise benevolence towards the Church. King Edward had espoused the cause of the regular clergy, but was almost overridden by the monks, who induced him to build, and endow at vast expense, the abbey church of Westminster. Harold, on the other hand, advanced the cause of the secular clergy by building the church at Waltham as a collegiate I foundation, and pro viding for the main tenance of a dean and [twelve canons there in. Moreover, he went on the customary pil grimage to Rome ? which King Edward was unable through illness to undertake. In every way Harold sought to obtain the goodwill of English people, and through his sister Edith s influence, as well as by his wise adminis- trationof state affairs, (he became also the greatest friend of the Iking, whose health I had rapidly declined. Harold s church at Waltham was com- pleted in 1061; West minster-abbey was not consecrated until TOMB OF EDWAUD THE CONFESSOR. fouryears later. King Edward was too unwell to witness its consecration, and died January 5, 1066, eight days after the ceremony. He was buried in the abbey, THE DISPUTED SUCCESSION 135 and subsequently his bones were translated to their present place. King Edward had recommended to the witans that in the absence of direct issue his brother-in-law the Earl Harold should succeed him in the kingdom ; but he had also promised that Emma s grand-nephew, Duke William of Normandy, should be king. These two, Harold and AVilliam, at once became rivals, and a life and death struggle ensued. AVESTMINSTEH-ABBEY. 136 THE NORMAN INVASION Harold, the people s choice, elected by them in their representative assemblies as the best and bravest, and therefore fittest for king, of all Englishmen ; received the support of the patriotic party as well as the influence of the bishops and clergy. He was crowned by Ealdred, archbishop of York, in Westminster-abbey, which had been determined on by Edward the confessor, as the place of the king s constitution and consecration for ever." He ought to have been crowned by the archbishop of Canterbury, but after the Norman primate, Robert, had fled and his election had been declared void, Stigaud, bishop of Elmham, was elected to succeed him. The pupe of Home refused to HAROLD S CHURCH AT WALTHAM. acknowledge this appointment, and therefore, in all important matters, for the sake of safety, the archbishop of York was called upon to officiate in Stigand s stead. Harold raised a large force to meet Duke William whenever he should land, but his men were chiefly drawn from the agriculturists who were wanted on the farms to reap the harvest. William was taking time to perfectly drill his levies, and when he did invade England Harold s men were for the most part disbanded. In spite of the valiant fight of such men as were left to Harold against the fresh troops led by William, the tide of fortune was in favour of the Normans. Harold was killed at the battle of Hastings, and buried in the church which he had founded at Waltham ; SUCCESS OF DUKE WILLIAM 137 and William (the conqueror] made himself king of this country. Before he came to England he had obtained papal sanction for his enterprise, and ths pope blessed the Norman banners ; consequently, "William s victory at Hastings brought England into closer connection with, and its church into greater submission to, the papacy ; as will appear in subsequent pages. William claimed the English throne by inheritance and Edward s promise, and pointed to his victories as God s approval of the righteousness of his claim. On the spot where Harold was defeated and slain, King William built Battle-abbey as an act of thanksgiving for his great success. (See next page.) It is a singular proof of the adaptability of the English Church that every successive invasion ultimately resulted in an increase of its possessions. Races came and went, but the Church remained ; tribes fought against each other, but they were in accord on this one point at least, that the Church deserved their best support. GENEALOGICAL TABLE. SAXON KINGS. EGBERT. Ethelwulf. I ALFRED THE GREAT. I Edward (the elder). Edmund (the magnificent). EDGAR (the pacific). NORMAN DUKES. ROLF (the ganger). William (longsworu). Richard (tlie fearless). Duke Richard (the good). SWEGBN GODWINE (the rune). (enrl of Wessex). Elgiva=ETHELRED = EMMA = CNUT = illegitimate. 1 (the unready). EDMUND (ironside) (?) killed. HP left a family, which was supplanted. (of Normandy). I (the Dane). ILirthacnut HaroM died. (the Dane) died. EDWARD=Edith. (confessoi) died, KKifi. HAROLD (the Enelish earl) killed, 106B. Duke Robert. WILLIAM (the conqueror), F 2 CHAPTER IX. (A.D. 1066-1089) THE NORMAN CONQUEST. " Yet as the terrors of the lordly bell, That quench, from hut to palace, lamps and fires, Touch not the tapers of the sacred quires ; Even so a thraldom studious to expel Old laws, and ancient customs to derange, To creed or ritual brings no fatal change." 1. The Norman nobles. The victory of Duke William and his friends did not exactly introduce a new race of people into Britain. "Norman" is only another word for Northmen, and when some of the Teutons from the north of Europe (Norway, and Denmark for example) found their way to this country, other bands of Northmen BATTLE-ABBEY GATEWAY (see page 137). made a home for themselves in that part of France which has been since called Normandy. Whether the Northmen were straight from Denmark or transplanted from Normandy, it was the individual power and ability of their leaders rather than their numbers, which gained for them the mastery. They did not come in multitudes, but in small 138 CHARACTER OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST 139 and thoroughly trained companies. Neither did they come without much previous plotting. The disaffected nobles of the older tribes, with their retainers, were sometimes to be found willing to help the invading bands in the hope of being allowed to retain their estates. By intriguing for their influence the way was generally made easy for the landing of adventurous nobles from abroad. If they were victorious the old set of leaders would go to the wall, and another set take their place. What the customs and government of the country under the new administrators would be like, depended upon the training and policy of the persons who came into power. Thus, when the uncivilized and plundering Danes made a hunting-ground of Britain, they left the marks of their character, as a serpent s trail, wherever they went ; until they became accustomed to its cultivated lands and the settled character of its inhabitants, and understood that more was to be gained by preserving both than by destroying either. But when leaders and fighting men came from Normandy, where for a hundred years they had lived among civilized conditions, their object was the reverse of destruction, unless by re-constructing in their own fashion which they thought better, and which time has proved to have been so, they could improve what they found. The Anglo-Saxons had been a very thriftless people, and they might have remained to this day in their primitive untutored state, had it not been for the refining influences of the Church. The same may be said of the Northmen who invaded Gaul, but when these became convinced of the superiority of Christian culture they pursued it with a determination to which other Teuton tribes had been strangers. The way had been prepared for them in this country by the sojourn in Normandy of Anglo-Saxon princes, such as Ethelred the unready and his son Edward the confessor, but especially by the influence of the Norman lady Emma who was wife of two kings of England and mother of two others. The Norman courtiers who surrounded Emma s husbands and sons introduced many foreign fashions ; they were pro moted to lucrative offices in the English Church, and positions of honour in the realm ; and although the English nobles were able to hold their own for a time, they were almost extinguished under the rule of the Norman dukes and their followers, the meanest of whom rapidly rose to wealth and pjwer, All who fought against the Normans at the battle of Hastings were held by the victors to have forfeited their estates to King William, who seized upon their lands 140 THE NORMAN CLERGY and divided them amongst his friends on condition of military service when called upon. The seizure of lands was a gradual process, as the conquest itself was gradual. The estates of Harold and Edward the confessor were the first to be confiscated, and then those of the nobles who fought unsuccessfully for their homesteads. By degrees the Normans subdued every shire and earldom, and through sheer force of enterprise compelled the chief men to "bow before them for need." They then assumed the control of all the land; but it not unfrequently happened that many Englishmen were allowed to redeem their estates if they had not fought against the new rulers, provided that they would consent to do military service in return for their land, which they were thenceforth to hold as if it had been a grant from William, whose permission to hold property became in time the only valid title. Before the coming of the Normans there were many small estates owned by the ceorls or yeomanry, besides the large ones which the earls and thanes possessed. After the conquest small holders, and the tenantry on the larger estates, had to do homage and pay tribute to the new lords ; so that, when the Norman barons came into possession of the properties which William gave to them, the condition of English tenants became an intolerable servitude ; for they had to provide the feudal barons with money and men to enable them to discharge their liabilities to the king. The lands and other possessions belonging to the churches and monasteries were not interfered with, and if an estate which a Norman received was chargeable with any payments of tithe or rent to a religious foundation, he had to solemnly promise the due performance of all such covenants as were entailed. Abbacies and bishoprics, however, were as soon as possible entrusted to Norman*, who often held them with their secular baronies ; and thus all high positions, both in Church and Realm, were transferred from English to Norman holders, until by the end of William s reign few English earls held estates and only one English bishop retained his see. That was the kind of change that took place at the Norman conquest. The condition of the labouring people was certainly less free, but they still remained in their old homes under a change of rulers. "William took a great deal of land from Englishmen and gave it to Normans, but every Norman to whom he gave land had in some sort to become an Englishman in order to hold it. He held it from the king of the English according to the law of England ; he stepped exactly into PROFESSOR FREEMAN S SUMMARY 141 the place of the Englishman who had held the land before him ; he took his rights, his powers, his burthens, whatever they might be, neither more nor less. . . , The English did not become Normans, the Normans did become Englishmen ; but the Normans, in becoming Englishmen, greatly influenced the English nation and brought in many ways of thinking and doing which had not been known in EXETER CATHEDRAL (SCC next pngc}. England before " (Freeman}. The halls where thanes had lived were soon replaced by massive stone castles surrounded by earthworks and moats in which the Norman barons and their retainers lived, and from which the worst of them sallied out from time to time to harass and oppress the old inhabitants who could not penetrate such fastnesses. 142 THE OUTLAWS AT ELY 2. Completion Of the conquest. William the conqueror was crowned in Westminster-abbey by Ealdred, archbishop of York, on Christmas-day, 1066, according to the English ritual ; for he claimed to be the true successor of Edward, as king of the English people, and did not desire to introduce Norman law, but hoped by administering the English codes to commend himself to his new subjects. He did, however, make distinctions between the Normans and the English ; for instance, although he would not dare to interfere with the accepted prerogatives of the Church, he did not allow any of his Norman friends to be punished by it without his permission. His conquest of England had only commenced at Hastings, and he was for some time busy in reducing the north and west to his sway. The forests, mountains, marshes, and moors gave shelter to many bands of outlawed English, who were noted for their deeds of daring, and to whom all disaffected persons found their way, ready on the slightest provocation to raise a revolt against the Normans, first in one district and then in another. The last of these bands was not suppressed until 1071, when those who had entrenched themselves in the isle and monastery of Ely, under the English abbot Thurstan and Hereward the outlaw, were compelled to surrender ; after which no one disputed William s position as king. It must be remembered that he had other dominions in Normandy which required his personal supervision and necessitated frequent prolonged absences from this country. During such absences he placed relatives in charge who were not as just in judgment as himself, although they imitated him in his severity. 3. Episcopal Changes. Until he was firmly settled on his English throne, William interfered but little with Church affairs beyond filling up important vacancies with his Norman friends ; but as soon as he had subdued the nobles he turned his attention to the re-organization of the episcopate. He found many bishops holding more than one see ; for instance, the East-Anglian bishoprics of Elmham and Dunwich were held by one man, as were those of Sherborne with Ramsbury in the south, and Crediton with St. Germans in the south west. He found also that the cathedrals were often placed in sparsely-populated districts ; those he caused to be removed to the busier cities, as that of Wells to Bath ; Selsey to Chichester ; Dor chester, in Oxfordshire, to Lincoln ; and Lichfield to Chester. Where there were pluralist bishops, that is, bishops holding more than one RE-ARRANGEMENT OF BISHOPRICS 143 bishopric, he caused their sees to be amalgamated, as in the case of Sherborne and Ramsbury, over which he appointed his nephew Osmund ; who removed the bishop s stool to Sarum, now known as " Old Sarum," then an important military fortification. Most of the prelates appointed by King William, although strangers to this country, were very worthy and learned men, but some of them shared WORCESTER CATHEDRAL (see next page). largely in the tyrannical characteristics of the Normans. Such an one was Thurstan, who was made abbot of Glastonbury, and who desired to enforce upon the monks of that ancient foundation a different rule of singing the chants and services from the Gregorian music to which they had been accustomed. "When they declined to adopt his novelties he brought soldiers into the abbey, who by his 144 WULFSTAN OF WORCESTER orders discharged a volley of arrows at the disobedient monks, killing many of them, for which outrage William sent him back to Normandy. To some of the abbeys which fell vacant William occasionally appointed Englishmen, probably to allay ill-feeling, but usually Normans were the only recipients of his patronage. He did not depose the English men all at once ; if they had fought against him, or charges of insurrection could be brought against them, they would be deposed ; but usually he waited for the death of the English holders before he placed his Norman friends in their offices. Before long only one English bishop remained ; that was Wulfstan of Worcester. He had been appointed by Edward the confessor soon after the banishment of the Norman prelates, but had preferred to be consecrated by Ealdred, archbishop of York, rather than risk the validity of his appointment by receiving consecration at the hands of Archbishop Stigand. King William sought to depose Wulfstan on a charge of illiterateness ; because he could not speak French, which was the court language, and therefore would be unable to counsel the king or his nobles ; but that was held to be an insufficient reason by the council before which the cases of Wulfstan and other prelates whom William sought to deprive were brought. Wulfstan was a brave soldier as well as a bishop the two offices were often combined in those days he had also a great reputation for sanctity, and even the Normans soon learnt to love him. It would have been unwise on William s part to insist upon the deposition of so popular and suitable a prelate, so Wulfstan was allowed to retain his see, which he kept all through William s reign, and far into the next. His retention of office prevented any break in the continuity of episcopal orders in the English Church at the Norman conquest, for Wulfstan took part in other consecrations. 4. Archbishop Stigand. The council that acquitted Wulfstan was the national witan which met at Winchester every Easter. Many prelates were deposed by it, chief of whom was Archbishop Stigand whom William had determined to replace by Lanfranc, who had long been a trusted friend and counsellor. William owed no gratitude to the English Church, because it had espoused Harold s cause, and therefore he had little scruple in dominating it by Norman prelates. He knew that he could not consider himself really master of England until he had bent the Church to his will, and his French friends whom he now placed in high offices therein would help him to do so. When PAPAL AGGRESSION 145 they lived on the continent they were under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Church of Rome, and now that they made England their home they were still desirous of recognizing its authority, and welcomed its legates. The virtual ruler of the papacy at that time was Hildebrand, who afterwards became Pope Gregory VII. He had brought the influence of the popes of Rome to a greater height than it ever reached before, and many kings and emperors submitted their difficulties to papal arbitration, which had the effect of increasing that influence. When William planned the conquest of England, he sought the countenance of Pope Alexander JL, and pretended that he desired to bring this country under the dominion of the papal see. That was the surest way to gain the pope s approval, for (as Mr. Freeman said in his larger History of the Norman Conquest}: " England s crime, in the eyes of Rome the crime to punish which William s crusade was approved and blessed was the independence still retaiued by the island, Church, and nation. A land where the Church and nation were but different names for the same community, a land where priests and prelates were subject to the law like other men, a land where the king and his witan gave and took away the staff of the bishop, was a land which in the eyes of Rome was more dangerous than a land of Jews and Saracens." After the Norman conquest Gregory VII. sent three legates over to England, to demand William s homage for the kingdom. He had .no intention of rendering such homage, but he was ! glad to make use of the legates to depose Archbishop Stigand, who, it will be re membered, had replaced the Norman archbishop Robert before the latter was dead. Robert appealed at the time to the pope, the only occasion that a bishop of an English 146 WILLIAM AND HILDEBRAND see had done so since Wilfrid s day, and the pope decided that Stigand s consecration was invalid. King Edward and the nobles who elected Stigand evaded compliance with the pope s decree, and for nineteen years Stigand was looked upon as archbishop by the people, and received canonical obedience from the other bishops and clergy. Now, however, it was alleged against him that he had held the bishopric of Winchester at the same time with the see of Canterbury, not an uncommon offence at that time, as we have seen ; also that he had used his predecessor s pall and had received his own pall from an anti- pope.^ On these charges the papal legates agreed to depose Stigand; who was imprisoned at Winchester for the rest of his life. In his place Lanfranc, abbot of St. Stephen s, Caen, was elected. About the same time Ealdred, archbishop of York, died, and Thomas of Bayeux was appointed to succeed him. These two archbishops w r ent to Rome to receive the palls which constituted them metropolitans, and thus brought the English Church more closely under papal dominion. 5. Papal influence in England. When the legates who took so large a part in the national councils of 1070 asked William for his homage, he refused to sacrifice the independence which the kings of this country had always enjoyed, and wrote to Hildebrand to that effect. His letter runs thus : "Thy legate Hubert, holy father, hath called upon me in thy name to take the oath of fealty to thee and thy successors, and to exert myself in enforcing the more regular payment of the money which my predecessors were accustomed to remit to the Church of Rome. One request I have granted, the other I refuse. Homage to thee I have not chosen, nor do I choose to do. I never made a promise to that effect, neither do I find that it was ever per formed by my predecessors to thine." He concluded by asking the 1 It very often happened that there were schisms in the papacy, this is to say, disagreements had arisen in the election of a pope and rival nominees assumed the title and performed the offices. When it was decided which of such rival popes should be acknowledged, the unsuccessful one was declared anti-pope, and all his official acts invalid. The following instances of papal schisms are noteworthy : A.D. 359-366 between Liberius and Felix; A.r>. 418-423, between Boniface I. and Uralius ; A.D. 496-498, between Svmmachus and Laurentius ; A.D. 686-687, between Conon and Sergius ; A.D. 903-905, between Leo V. and Christopher; A.D. 972-974, between Benedict VI. and Boniface VII. ; A.D. 996-999, between Gregory V. and John XVI. ; A.D. 1061-1073, between Alexander II. and Urban ; A.D. 1083-1086, between Gregory VII. and Clement III. ; A.D. 1086-1096, between Clement III. and Urban II. ; A.D. 1378-1380, between Clement VII. and Urban VI. ; A.D. 1406-1417, between Gregory XII., Alexander V. and John XXIII. (See pages 234 and 250.) APPEALS TO ROME 147 pope s prayers " because we have loved your predecessors, and you above all we desire to love sincerely and listen to obediently." In his reply Hildebrand seems to have offered a gloved hand ; he was profuse in his compliments to the king, but more than hinted at a punishment for disrespect to the successor of St. Peter. He also cited the bishops of England to appear before him at Rome, but neither bishops nor king regarded his word, and Hildebrand had sufficient good sense not to press the matter. We thus see the full extent of papal influence in England at this time. Before the conquest the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the popes in England were alike denied : now, as the result of Alexander s sanction to the conquest of England by Normans over whom he admittedly held sway, and the appointment to English sees of Norman clergy who upheld that influence, the independence of the English Church was seriously threatened ; but its independence and authority was not at present allowed to pass wholly into the hands of the popes. The agreement between William and the papacy respecting the tribute ought not to be misunderstood. The payments referred to in William s letter related to the Rome-shot or Peter s-pence that King Ina had instituted in Wessex for the support of his school at Rome, which Offa had extended to Mercia, and Ethelwulf and Alfred the great had confirmed. It was a payment of gradual growth, but was never under stood to be more than a voluntary gift in which the English people might have a beneficial interest when they or their children visited Rome. The regularity of its payment depended upon the prosperity of the country, and upon the rise and fall of the Church of Rome in popular esteem. William would not now have agreed to continue the payment as a benevolence had it not received the countenance of the older English kings, of whom he claimed to be the adopted successor. Henceforth Peter s-pence was regularly demanded by the representatives of the pope, though not regularly paid. Appeals to Rome were also very K frequent in consequence. To them the conqueror had no objection so long as they did not affect his regal dignity, but when an abbot appealed against] him he is reported to have said : "I have a great respect for the pope s legate in things which con- OI)O OF BAYEUX cern religion, but if any monk in my dominions (see next page}. 148 SUBDIVISION OF LAW-COURTS dare to raise a complaint against me I will have him hanged on the highest tree of the forest." And at another time when he had imprisoned his half-brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux, for unjust oppres sion of the Engli:-h, and the pope demanded his release on the ground that William had no jurisdiction over ecclesiastics the king simply took no notice, but kept his relative in durance until the close of his reign. William was familiar with the troubles that sometimes came upon the papacy and the schisms that often resulted, and he made a law that no pope should be recognized in England as the orthodox pope without his approval ; he also forbade the calling of synods or the receipt of papal letters without his permission ; and therefore, while we deplore the introduction of papal powers into the English Church through William s nobles, we are thankful that he left us evidence which proves it to have been a novelty then ; from which we may judge that the English clergy were justified in their subsequent action when they rose against the oppression so thrust upon them and declared that they would submit to it no longer. 6. Ecclesiastical COUrts. One very important change in the government of the church during the reign of William the conqueror was the separation of the ecclesiastical and civil courts. Hitherto, the bishops and abbots had sat in council with the ealdormen in the courts of the shire ; and had their place among the nobles in the witans, or national councils of wise men, which met at different centres near the times of the Church s great festivals, as for instance, in Westminster at Christmas, in Winchester at Easter, and in Gloucester at Pentecost. At those courts both civil and ecclesiastical offences were judged, but William s foreign bishops were unacquainted with the English law and were useless for its administration. To prevent difficulties arising on that account, William ordered that the prelates should no longer adjudicate in combined courts ; but appointed that sheriffs and barons should judge civil affairs, and that spiritual matters should be brought before the higher clergy in ecclesiastical courts. That worked fairly well when the strong-minded William was alive, but the clerical lawyers endeavoured to bring most offences within the sphere of the spiritual courts, thus narrowing the province of the common law. The chief result of the separation was to make it appear that the clergy were a distinct caste outside the civil jurisdiction, and this in the succeeding reigns was used as a powerful lever for enforcing the supreme appellate jurisdiction of the pope of Rome, and suspending that of the king. ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONQUEST 149 7. The Domesday survey. To become more thoroughly acquainted with the English land and the wealth of its people, whether French or English, William caused a record to be made of all the estates, with their possessions, large or small ; from which we learn that about half the lands of the kingdom were at that time in the hands of spiritual persons. It was a most laborious work, and the assistance of the Church, through its bishops and parochial clergy, was called in for its compilation. Report says that not an ox, or cow, or pig, was passed by in that wonderful inventory. The value of lands in preceding reigns, with their present and past holders ; the number of churches and monasteries existing, and how they were provided for ; with a vast amount of other information ; all this was so classified in the register that William could at once tell the wealth of the kingdom, who were the most powerful men in it, and the claims of each to the estates they held. We see by it that many Englishmen still kept estates, some of which were granted to them direct from the king, and others held on terms of service from the barons, who were mostly Norman, but occasionally English. That record is known as the Domesday-look ; it was so called because men s claims to estates were judged from it. It is especially useful to the Church as showing without doubt the possessions which it held in the days before the conquest, for it tells us that most of its present landed heritage comes to it with a prescrip tive title of nearly a thousand years. It gives us a trustworthy idea of the condition of the people and the w r ay they tilled their lands. The great survey was finished by Easter, 1086, but it does not recognize anything that was done in the reign of God wine s son Harold. So far as William was concerned, who claimed to succeed Edward the con fessor, Harold had never been king. In consequence of the survey, all the landowners were summoned to meet the king at Salisbury plain in August of that same year and were made to take an oath of allegiance to King William, and swear to obey him, and fight for him, before all other men ; such services to be rendered in proportion to their registered possession, whether they were lay-owners or ecclesiastical possessors ; because, hitherto, the spirituality had furnished very little to the national needs, most of their property having been exempt. Thus the separating tendencies of the feudal system were disciplined and organized ; and from that time no one has ever thought of setting up more than one king in England. In fact the Realm became under William as united and organized as the Church had been from the days 150 INTRODUCTION OF CL UNI ACS of Theodore. But " everywhere the Church became the bond of union between the Norman lords and the English people, just as its continuity had been the main instrument in preserving the cohesion of the nation." 8. Death of the conqueror. King William died in the year 1087. His reign on the whole had been beneficial to the Church in our country, and might have been more so had he consolidated the great works he had begun. Those who had succeeded him cared for nothing but to plunder the Church. William had undoubtedly oppressed the people, but the selling of Church preferments was his greatest abhorrence. All the men he chose to rule either diocese or monastery, notwithstanding that they were foreigners, were selected for their intrinsic worth, the result being that the Church was thoroughly well disciplined. The monastic system was entirely in the ascendant in William s reign, and the Benedictine rule, the severity of which had been for a long time treated with great laxity, was then revived with greater stringency by the introduction to England of the Cluniac monks, so called from Chmy, in Burgundy, where the com munity was first founded in the year 912 by an abbot named Berno. The monks of Cluny added many new and severe regulations to those formulated by Benedict of Nursia (see page 45). Many of the earliest members of the Cluniac community were remarkable for their states manship and great learning. All luxury was forbidden by their rules, but this condition they soon relaxed in the matter of fabrics for the Church services, because they considered it their duty to honour God by giving to Him of their very best. The civil affairs of the country, with which the Church was necessarily bound up, were not quite so prosperous ; for in order to preserve his kingdom from the Scots and the Danes who still made periodical raids on the coast, William caused the whole of the north of England to be laid waste ; also he destroyed some villages and churches in Hampshire to make for himself the hunting-ground or forest which afterwards became so fatal a spot for his descendants. William met his death abroad. He had been sacking the town of Nantes to avenge a silly personal jest on himself, and whilst giving directions for the burning of its church, his horse swerved at some sparks and threw him forward on his saddle, causing internal injuries from which he never recovered. He was feared and courted in life, but shockingly neglected in his death ; his dead body even, so it is said, being stripped and left imtended. Even when it was taken to Caen to be buried in St. Stephen s church, which he had EARLY YEARS OF LANFRANC 151 founded there, a young man claimed that William had wrongfully wrested the ground on which the church stood from one of his subjects, and refused to let the corpse be interred until the ground was paid for. In his last sickness William wrote to Lanfranc recommending that his son William Rufus should succeed him. He is also said to have expressed penitence for his oppression and wasting of England. 9. Arch.bish.Op Lanfranc. The archbishop who was ap pointed on William s nomination by the council of Winchester, in 1070, deserves more than passing notice. He was born in Italy in 1005, and left an orphan at an early age. He became a most successful school-teacher. Once, when travelling, he was robbed in a forest and tied to a tree ; a ragged monk released him who proved to be the abbot of Bee. Lanfranc asked to be admitted to that monastery, of which he afterwards became the prior and teacher. There he gained the notice of Duke William of Normandy, and became his friend. When William married within the prohibited degrees of the Church Lanfranc was sent to Rome to obtain a dispensation, which was granted on condition that the duke, and Matilda his wife, should each found a monastery and two hospitals. William built St. Stephen s at Caen, and made Lanfranc the abbot. On being asked to accept the archbishopric of Canterbury, Lanfranc at first refused because he did not know the English tongue. This, however, he quickly mastered, and proved .an ex cellent primate. Lanfranc was learned, brave, and just. Al though an Italian, and bred to Norman ways, he soon learned that the English Church had been independent from Theodore s time, and when he found that William s half-brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux and earl of Kent, had EOCHESTEB CAST 152 PRIORITY OF CANTERBURY PRIMACY seized on many lands belonging to the primatial see as fiefs of the earldom, and had also appropriated the revenues of the see from the time of Stigand s deposition, he brought a suit against him in the national council which compelled Odo to restore the misappropriations. With the restored funds so obtained, Lanfranc commenced to rebuild Canterbury cathedral, assisted to rebuild St. Alban s-abbey nave and transepts very much ns they are at this day, and gave much alms to the ST. ALBAN S-ABBEY BEFORE THE MODERN RESTORATION. poor. He had to go to Rome for his pall, but he went reluctantly. It had been part of Hildebrand s plan to compel the periodical attendance of representative prelates in the imperial city of Rome, but Lanfranc, having received all the benefit he was likely to obtain from the papacy, refused to go again, even under threatened penalties. One of the first difficulties Lanfranc had to contend with in England was the question of his precedence over the northern primate. Archbishop Thomas, who had been appointed to the see of York soon after Lanfranc came to Canterbury, refused for a long time to pay him canonical obedience ; and it was not until five years after that the vexed question of seniority was decided by a synod in Lanfranc s favour. The right of the arch- THE GREAT SCHISM 153 bishop of Canterbury to be primate of all England has never since been contested, although there have been many times when archbishops of York have refused to render canonical obedience to the southern primate. Archbishop Lanfranc lived for two years after William the conqueror died, but his place was not filled up for several years. 10. Disunion Of " East " and " West." During Lanfranc s life several important events took place in the Church universal; e.g. the controversies which had taken place between the patriarchate of Constantinople and the patriarchate of Rome came to a crisis, and ended in what is known as the Great Schism. The pope of Rome, who then claimed the title of "universal bishop" which Gregory the great had said none but an antichrist could assume (see page 40), excom municated the eastern Church for having denied the double procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. The patriarch of Constantinople retorted by excommunicating the pope of Rome and his adherents. 1 There was no general council held at which this subject could be officially adjusted, and therefore the Church in England up till that time, A.D. 1054, being altogether independent of the Roman see, was not a party to the schism. Afterwards, when the popes obtained great influence here, the English Church, through its foreign prelates, informally advocated the doctrines by which the western Church had forced the eastern branch into an hostile attitude ; but centuries later it was explained by a saintly English bishop (Ken) that "the faith of the universal Church before the disunion of east and west" was the only true faith for the Church of England. 2 11. Changes in doctrine and discipline. There were also important interpretations of doctrine respecting the Holy Com munion broached about that time, and Lanfranc in a learned treatise maintained that the earthly substances of bread and wine in the eucharist are changed by consecration into the substance of the Lord s Body and Blood, although the appearances and tastes of the earthly elements remain. This is called Transubstantiation, but Lanfranc s 1 "Excommunication" is the sentence by which churchmen are deprived of the privilege of receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion ; but it had this fiulher effect, that all other Christian men were charged to avoid the society of those placed under its ban. The boycotting of modern times is a similar infliction, but it lacks the religious element that made excommunication so terrible in its effects. 2 The controversies between east and west had been going on for centuries, and some consider that Ken s epigram refers to the fifth century, before they began. 154 THE "USE" OF SARUM interpretation was a new one so far as the English Church was con cerned. There were many learned doctors who held different views upon the question, and Pope Gregory VII. desired that it should be left open. In after years men and women were burnt for denying a doctrine identical with that which Lanfranc had asserted. Clerical celibacy was another prominent question during Lanfranc s primacy, but as the feeling in England was so largely in favour of clemency towards the secular clergy, the pope s desire that married clergy should be compelled to desert their wives was not enforced, except in the case of cathedral canons ; but at the same time it was arranged that no married men should in future be ordained to the priesthood. SALISBURY (SARUM) CATHEDRAL. 12. The Liturgical use of Sarum. Last, but not least, among the changes witnessed in the English Church, while Lanfranc was archbishop, was a revision of the English liturgies by Osmund, bishop of Saram, which became many generations later the basis of our present Prayer-book. The scandal created by the Glastonbury fracas under Thurstan (page 143), and objections against the old diversities of ritual, created a demand for an uniform service book ; and Osmund set himself to compile one, extracting from the various diocesan "uses" NORMAN ARCHITECTURE 155 such portions as would make his work more popular. He was suc cessful in his efforts; for although different compilations (such as the liturgies of Bangor, York, and Hereford) remained in use, Osmund s Use of Sarum was by far the greatest in demand for nearly 500 years. All those " uses " were written in the Latin tongue. It would have been considered irreverent to translate Church services into the Norman or English or Celtic languages, although simple portions such as the Lord s prayer, the creed, and ten commandments had often been transposed into the dialects of the peasantry. 13. Norman architecture. Many noble churches were in course of erection throughout England during the reigns of William the conqueror and his sons. They mark an epoch in Church archi tecture both for their simplicity and durability. The style is an improved Romanesque ; it had been introduced to this country in the time of Edward the confessor, but after the conquest the Normans everywhere set themselves to repair the churches that the wars had dismantled, or build better and nobler ones if they considered the older ones to be unsuitable. The chapel of St. John, in the Tower of London (built for the conqueror by Gun- dulph, bishop of Rochester), is a perfect illustration of Norman work ; the cathedral church of Durham (sec page 165) is much grander, but of lapi date ; the country, however, abounds with such. If the country could not fur nish suitable ma- ST. JOHN S < MIA PEL IN THE TOWKU. terials, they brought such from abroad, as when William sent to Caen for stone to build Rattle-abbey. The nave and transepts of St. Alban s- abbey (see page 152), of which Paul de Caen was the architect, were built of Roman bricks procured from the ruins of the contiguous city of 156 NORMAN ARCHITECTURE Verulam. The pillars in many of our cathedrals, as at Norwich, Carlisle, and Hereford, are built after the fashion which Normans introduced. Rochester castle (page 151) is an excellent specimen of the feudal fortresses \\hich Norman barons built all over England. "With all their faults the Normans were a religious people, and they preferred to exercise frugality in food or dress rather than stint the house of God. As we look upon the massive grandeur of their handiwork to-day, after a lapse of 800 years, we realize the poet s description that : "They built in marble ; built as they Who hoped these stones should see the day When Christ should come ; and that these walls Might stand o er them till judgment calls." r PART III Era of Oppression CHAPTER X. (A.D. 1089-1109) THE DAYS OF ANSELM OF CANTERBURY " Record we too, with just and faithful pen, That many hooded cenobites there are, Who in their private cells have yet a care Of public quiet; unambitious men, Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken ; Whose fervent exhortations from afar Move princes to their duty, peace or war." 1. William Rufus and the Church. William the conqueror had acknowledged before his death that his family had no right of succession to the English throne, because he had obtained it by force ; but by the influence of his friend Lanfranc his third son William Rufus was elected by the nobles to succeed him. Bishop Odo, who was now released from confinement, headed a rebellion against the new king in favour of William the conqueror s eldest son Robert ; but this was quickly stamped out, and so long as Lanfranc was alive William Rufus ruled well. When the primate died, the king s true character developed itself. He appointed as justiciar a priest named Ralph, whom men called the Firebrand. Ralph was a great financier, and gained his promotion by suggesting to the king a systematic plan of administering church patronage for the benefit of the royal exchequer. During William II. s reign, when any important ecclesiastical benefice fell vacant, a complete inventory was made of all its temporalities or secular possessions in order that they might be duly transferred to the successor ; but those records were soon used for another purpose, viz. : to estimate the market value of the benefices. When an abbot or bishop died, Ralph seized the temporalities and held them for William Rufus, until some one was willing to pay the value of them to the king, as the price of preferment to the vacancy, on the pretence that, according to the law of feudal tenure, the revenues of all estates and possessions held direct from the king lapsed to the crown on the death of the holder, until the inheritor or successor paid a relief to the feudal lord. 157 158 WILLIAM RUFUS That happened when Lanfranc died, and for four years no one was appointed as archbishop ; all the revenues of the see during that time passed into the hands of the king. The public sale and purchase of Church offices, which we call simony, was of course a sacrilegious pro fanation on the part of the crown, and it resulted in grievous scandal to the Church, because sanctity and merit were no longer considered testimonials for advancement, but had to give way to the power of gold. When the gift of God could be purchased with money the respect for holy things at once declined. Contempt for religion was openly shown by the king s courtiers, until Christianity seemed likely to perish out of the land. The avarice of Rufus extended to secular appointments also, and to make himself ruler of Wales, he offered to such of his knights as cared to undertake such an expedition, all the land each was able to conquer in that province. As the result of such permission an irregular conquest of Wales went on for some time. 2. Anselm Of Bee. After four years of that distressful state of things, the king was taken ill at Gloucester, and his conscience, such as he had, told him that his oppression unfitted him for making his peace with God. Thinking that he was going to die he desired to make a tartly recompense for his sacrilegious reign by appointing one of the holiest men in Christendom to the vacant archbishopric, on the urgent petitions of the nobles. His name was Anselm, a native of Aosta in Piedmont, who had succeeded Lanfranc as prior, and after wards as abbot, of Bee, in Normandy. He had often visited Lanfranc in England, and was now called to the sick king s bed to receive his penitent confession. Anselm refused the archbishopric, for he said he knew the king s sickness was not unto death, and he was unwilling to share with so wicked a man the government of the English Church and Realm. The tears and entreaties of the nobles were alike unavail ing to alter his desire, but they forced him into compliance with their wishes and actually used violence in attempting to place the pastoral staff into his right hand, which he as resolutely kept clenched. At last they held it against his closed fist during the ceremony of election, poor Anselm crying the while "it is nought that ye do, it is nought." Eadmer, a contemporary chronicler, tells us that as they led Anselm from the king s chamber to confirm his election in the adjoining abbey church, which had been lately magnificently rebuilt, he begged the prelates to regard the "plough of the Church" by which God s husbandry was tilled. "This plough in England," said Anselm, ANSELM OF AOSTA 159 "two specially strong oxen draw and govern, the king and the arch bishop of Canterbury ; . . . the one in secular justice and dominion, the other in Divine teaching and authority. One of these oxen, Archbishop Lanfranc, is dead ; the other, with the untameable ferocity of a bull, is now found in possession of the plough, and you, instead of the dead ox, wish to yoke me, an old and feeble sheep, with the un tamed bull ! " The elect archbishop, knowing the kind of monarch he GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL (ABBEY) CHURCH. had to deal with, was careful to stipulate for the restoration of the alienated lands belonging to the see ; and at length before the national council at Winchester, Anselm was invested with the pastoral staff and ring, and did homage for all the temporalities as Lanfranc had done before him. As the king s man he had by feudal law to pay succession duty or "relief." For this he offered 500 marks, a very large sum in those days. The king had expected far more, and refused to accept the sum, so Anselm distributed it amongst the poor and refused to give the king anything at all. He was enthroned at Canterbury, on September 5, 1093, but on that very day, Ralph, the firebrand justiciar served him with a writ to answer in the king s court for an 160 RIVAL POPES AT ROME imputed breach of the king s prerogative, That was a warning of the troubles that were coming. On December 4, Anselni was con secrated by the archbishop of York to be "Primate of all Britain." For awhile there was peace between Anselm and the king, but within a year there arose a memorable struggle between them on the question of the royal prerogatives, which continued for several years. ST. JOHN S CHURCH, LATERAN PALACE, HOME. 3. Rival popes. Early in 1095, Anselm desired leave from the king to visit Rome to receive his pall from the pope. " From which pope ? " demanded Rufus, for there were again two claimants to the papal tiara ; Clement III., who reigned at St. Angelo, and Urban II., who occupied the Laterau palace, each of whom spent most of their time in excommunicating the friends of the other. As yet the Church of England had recognized neither. France and Normandy had admitted Urban s claims, and as the abbey of Bee was in Normandy, Anselm had declared before his consecration that he considered Urban to be the true pope. He answered the king s question accordingly. "But," said Rufus, "by my father s laws no one may acknowledge a pope in England without my sanction, and I have not acknowledged COUNCIL OF ROCKINGHAM 161 Urban." To settle the dispute, an assembly of peers was held at Rockinglmm, beginning on mid- Lent Sunday in 1095. Anselm desired to make the matter one of religious conviction ; but the nobles pointed out that he was charged with violating the English customs and laws, and declined to discuss it other than as a question of feudal suzerainty. On the second day of the meeting the prelates and barons distinctly accused Anselm of attempting to deprive the king of his sovereign power. "Give up this Urban," said they, " cast off this yoke of bondage ; act in freedom as becomes an archbishop of Canterbury, and submit to the king s will." But he refused. The next day, when the bishop of Durham declared that Anselm should be prosecuted for high treason if Urban were not renounced, the archbishop denied that his allegiance to that pope was inconsistent with his oath of fidelity to the king. The essence of the conflict appears in that reply, and in the rejoinder of Rufus that "while he lived he would endure no equal in his realm." Anselm, however, was declared an outlaw, and, by the king s command, the bishops renounced their obedience to him. The nobles, distinguishing between Anselm as the king s vassal and as their pri mate, refused to comply with a similar mandate, for they said : " we were never the archbishop s men, we have not sworn fealty to him as the bishops have done, and therefore have no oath to abjure." Many of the archbishop s friends were now imprisoned or banished, and the revenues of the cathedrals once more seized by the king. So the affair remained for months. Meanwhile the wily monarch had sent some ambassadors to Rome to find out which pope was accounted the lawful one in that city. If a pall was necessary to make an arch bishop, it did not concern Rufus where it came from ; but w r hat did trouble him was that one of his subjects should consider a foreign bishop his king s superior in any matter. Above all, he would like to be rid of such an independent man as Anselm proved to be. His messengers were instructed to approach the popular pope, and obtain from him a pall, so that the king might bestow it on whom he pleased. Of course Urban was only too pleased to be recognized by the king of England, and receive the homage of his envoys and their valuable presents. He sent a pall back with them in charge of the bishop of Albano, whom William Rufus received with due honour, thus publicly acknowledging Urban as rightful pope, but he was unable to persuade the legate to declare the deposition of Anselm ; that was an impossible course even for the pope to pursue. At least, VOL. i. G 162 THE IRISH AND ENGLISH CHURCHES thought Rufus, he will allow me to invest him with his badge of office. "No," said Anselm, for his predecessor had received the pall from none other than the pope. The legate, therefore, laid it on the high altar of Canterbury cathedral, whence Anselm, barefooted, took it, and claimed thereby to have received his commission direct from St. Peter. Rufus tried to obtain from him a suitable payment in consider ation of his not having to go to Rome for the pall, but this too the archbishop refused, and the king was obliged to give way. After that reconciliation an important episcopal act was performed by Anselm, for, in 1096, Malchus, one of the monks of "Winchester was consecrated to the see of Waterford, in Ireland, then first created, at the request of Donald, bishop of Dublin. Both those bishops, Donald and Malchus, professed canonical obedience to the see of Canterbury ; which shows that the Churches of England and Ireland were then in close communion, if not actually united with each other ; and that the importance of Canterbury was growing. 4. Anselm s appeal to Rome. About that time what are known as the Crusades commenced. They were warlike enterprises started in defence of the Christian liberty against attacks from the Saracens and Turks in the east, especially in the holy land. They were called the Crusades because all who took part in them wore the badge of the cross on some part of their attire. To distinguish the people of the different nations who took part in them, coloured crosses were adopted. William Rufus had an eye to the conquest of Normandy from his brother Robert, but Robert joined in the enthusiasm of the Crusaders and willingly relinquished for a time his government of Normandy on condition of receiving a large sum of money from Rufus for the equipment of his expedition. To raise that money the English king made heavy calls on his feudal barons, and on the abbots and prelates who held their benefices as his men. So exacting were his demands that the clergy were obliged to surrender the sacred vessels of the sanctuaries, and strip the churches of their marketable treasures. He also wanted money and men for his conquest in Wales, which the pre lates as well as the barons were bound by the feudal laws to provide in their measure. Archbishop Anselm was not behindhand in performing these obligations, and even v^ent so far as to advance some funds entrusted to him for the cathedral chapter, pledging part of his archiepis- copal revenues for their repayment. But Rufus wanted occasion to deprive Anselm, and he complained that the archbishop s quota of men ANS ELM S PILGRIMAGE TO ROME 163 and means to the Welsh army was insufficient. He cited Anselm to exonerate himself before the king s court. As this was not a question of ecclesiastical order, but one of feudal service in which the king was absolute master, the archbishop was now in a dilemma. Therefore, for his personal safety, Anselm refused to attend the court, and when his case came on for hearing he craved permission through some of the nobles to go to Rome for advice. The king thrice refused this request, but at last offered to permit his absence from the kingdom on condition that he should not take out of the country any treasures belonging to the crown, and that he should not attempt to introduce papal juris diction into England by appealing to the see of Rome against his king. Anselm evasively fenced with this proviso, but the king, who was as heartily glad to be rid of the archbishop as the latter was to go, finally agreed to his unconditional departure. Anselm dressed himself in the guise of a pilgrim with his scrip and staff (see page 214), and appeared before William Rufus to bestow upon him his parting blessing. They never met again ; and as soon as Anselm had left the kingdom Rufus confiscated once more the revenues of the see. Arrived at Rome, Anselm was received with great respect, but he soon found that the theories he had imbibed at Bee respecting the immaculate and infallible pope had no practical reality, for Urban would rather dissemble to Anselm, who upheld the spiritual claims of the papacy, than for- feit his chance of temporal jurisdiction in England by offending its king. After travelling about Italy for some time as the honoured guest of different monas teries by reason of his learning and sanc tity, during which time also he wrote his well-known work on the Incarnation of the Saviour, Anselm was invited to S*i{ attend the council of Bari, at which the alleged heresy of the eastern Church, respecting the procession of the Holy Ghost, was to be debated. Anselm was introduced by Urban to the council as an equal, as the pope or "apostolic vicar of a second world," that is, WILLIAM RUFUS. chief bishop of another country, for 164 THE "INVESTITURE" WARS "pope" only meant "father," and had no higher signification than the term "patriarch," by which the chief bishops of the eastern Churches are known. Aiiselm s pulpit eloquence and great learning caused the council to decide unanimously against the eastern doctrine, and enlisted the sympathy of the bishops present on his personal behalf. Between such a champion of Church doctrine and the tyrannous king of England Urban no longer hesitated, and he urged the council to permit sentence of anathema and excommunication to be issued against Rufus, which was only averted at the entreaty of Anselm. Messengers were sent to England with letters from the pope, demand ing from the king restitution of Anselm s temporalities ; but William Rufus expelled them from his dominions, and the historian of Malmes- bury says that Warelwast, one of the English clergy, was sent with a large bribe to the pope, to prevent Anselm s cause coming to a satis factory termination ; although "he blushes to record that in so great a man as Urban, self-respect and zeal for God had fallen so low that he perverted justice for money." In the meantime, with the aid of Ralph, the justiciar,\vho had become bishop of Durham and general impleader and exactor of the whole kingdom, "William Rufus seized and sold the revenues of many Church preferments. In the year 1099 a synod was held at Rome which condemned all ecclesiastical appoint ments made by laymen ; for in other countries of Europe, as well as in England, there had been from the time of Hildebrand a conflict between the emperors and kings against the popes on the subject of church patronage, and the right to invest the bishops with the insignia of office, 1 which is said to have lasted fifty-six years, occasioned sixty battles between the papal and secular armies (for the pope had then a standing army), and the loss of two millions of lives. Anselm hoped that his cause would be finally decided at that synod, but he was doomed to disappointment ; and when he found that the pope had no real intention of assisting him against the king, he left Rome and went to Lyons. The next year Pope Urban died. William Rufus, too, was shot by an arrow when hunting in the New Forest which his 1 Investiture means the ceremony by which a bishop was formally invested with the right to exercise his judicial functions ; just as the ceremony of transferring an estate from one person to another by means of symbols, referred to on page 105, gave the right to hold property. The "investiture" of a bishop consisted in pre senting him with a pastoral staff to signify his authority over the flock committed to him, and a ring which symbolized his marriage to the Church. Before Anselm s time the English kings had always exercised the right of bestowing those symbols. ACCESSION OF HENRY I 165 father had desolated Hampshire to make, and where his brother Richard had met his death in some mysterious way. He was buried at Winchester, and succeeded by his younger brother Henry, A.D. 1100. 5. Anselm and Henry I. Duke Robert of Normandy was the rightful successor to Rufus, but he was absent on the Crusade in Palestine. Knowing himself to be an usurper, it was Henry s policy to be conciliatory, and he, perceiving that the simony and sacrilege of his brother had alienated the influence of the Church, decided to abandon all such evil practices. Ralph, the notorious bishop of Durham, who had by that time completed the erection of the nave and aisles of Durham cathedra], he imprisoned in the Tower* and Anselm he recalled from Lyons. On his coronation he made the customary declaration or charter of liberties, by which he proposed to govern the kingdom. Its first article runs thus : "I make the Holy Church of God free ; I will neither sell it nor put it to farm. I will not, when an archbishop, bishop, or abbot dies, take anything from the domain of the Church or from its men, until a successor comes I into possession." At the same time Henry refused to surrender the ancient [rights of the English kings to be supreme in their own dominions. [Therefore he required that Anselm should do homage to him as his man, and also be re invested in his bishopric. The demand was strenu ously resisted by Anselm, perhaps not because he objected personally to be invested by a secular prince, for he had been invested by Rufus some years before, and so had previous archbishops of Canterbury ; but because 166 DUPLICITY OF POPE PASCHAL a synod of Rome, in 1075, had declared that any clergy who accepted lay investiture should be excommunicated. Being a foreigner he thought it right to look upon the pope of Rome as his spiritual superior, ignoring the fact that England had always been governed by independent laws. Another controversy ensued between king and archbishop, resulting in no less than five distinct appeals to Rome. 6. Embassies to Rome. Paschal II. was pope when Henry came to the throne, and Anselm refused to be re-invested without Irs permission. The king agreed that this permission should be sought, and William Warelwast was sent to Rome for that purpose. Pope Paschal, in his repry, refused to relax the canons of the Roman synod. On hearing this, Henry declared that the opinion of the pope, or the decisions of a Roman council, were alike indifferent to him, " I will not lose," he said, "the customs of my predecessors, nor endure in my kingdom one who is not my subject." Thereupon Anselm offered to leave England again. But his influence was of use to the king in conciliating the nobles in the event of Duke Robert returning to claim the crown, therefore to postpone extreme measures, it was arranged to send a second, and this time a double embassy to Rome the prelates of York, Norwich, and Chester (Lichfield) on the part of the king ; and two monks, named Baldwin and Alexander, on behalf of Anselm. The king s advocates explained to the pop3 that if his decision were not favourable to Henry all com munication between England and Rome hould cease, and the contributions of Rome-shot be withdrawn. In reply, the pops wrote to Anselm, bidding him persist in refusing to receive investiture from the king. He also sent a written message to Henry, which though com plimentary, did not concede the point the kiuz desired. The replies were read before a great council of prelates and nobles at London, in 1102, and the king was still more incensed ; but the bishops who had been his ambassadors said that the pope had promised, as a IIKMIY THE 1-iRisr. personal favour to Henry, that the see of Rome wou d not object to his investing according to the custom ANSELM S DISCIPLINARY MEASURES 167 of England. Anselm s monks denied that the pope had sent such a contradictory message, and an altercation ensued which ended in a third appeal to Kome, by Anselm, to inquire about the apparent duplicity. 7. Distressful condition of the Church. During those appeals Church work in England was at a standstill. "When bishops or abbots died, or were deposed, others were elected on the king s nomination, but Anselm refused to consecrate them unless Henry surrendered his claim to invest them. The archbishop of York would have consecrated them, but they refused to be hallowed by any other than Anselm, for which refusal they were banished from the country. All this time Anselm was in possession of the revenues of the archbishopric, and was not prevented from performing many official duties pending the final decision on the subject of investiture. For instance, when Henry desired to marry Matilda, daughter of the king of Scotland, against which marriage there was the canonical impedi ment that she had been educated in a convent and forced to wear the veil of a nun, Anselm called a synod together which freed her from the obligation of her monastic vows. Again, in the autumn of 1102, he summoned a council of prelates and nobles for the correction of morals among the clergy, which were in a sad state just then, owing to the number of ill-disposed persons who had purchased preferment in the Church during the reign of William Rufus. At that council six abbots were deposed for simony, and many other clerics, both French and English, lost their staves and authority, which they had unjustly acquired, or lived on with iniquity." About that time the archbishop of Vienna came to England and claimed authority over its bishops in the name of the pope. So distinct an infringement of the rights of English primates was strenuously resisted ; especially by Anselm, who was jealous for his office from whatever source attacked ; consequently the foreign legate had to quit England forthwith. 8. Anselm leaves England. By Lent, 1103, Anselm s messengers returned from Rome with confirmatory letters of the previous written documents, indignantly repudiating the verbal message of the bishops and excommunicating them as having been false to their trust. Henry was now thoroughly roused, he refused to look at these letters, saying : " What has the pope to do with my affairs ? If any one deprives me of that which my predecessors enjoyed he is mine enemy." He therefore demanded of Anselm that he should 168 ANSELM AGAIN AT ROME submit to the "customs of the fathers," and do him homage. Anselm, impracticable as ever, declared that he would rather lose his life than yield. But Henry, who had been kind and forbearing all through, did not want to proceed against him harshly, and suggested a fourth appeal to Rome, this time arranging that Anselm should himself make the journey and endeavour to obtain some concession from the pope which might satisfy the archbishop s conscience, and enable him at the same time to conform to English law, When Anselm reached Eome THE CITY OF LYONS (FRANCE). he found that Warelwast had outrun him and backed up his arguments for the king by a valuable contribution of Peter s-pence. When Warelwast haughtily declared that Henry would rather give up his crown than surrender his right to invest prelates, Paschal sternly replied that "he would not, before God, to save his head, suffer him to have it." But Warelwast was very wary, and although the pope gave Anselm his blessing and temporized a good deal, he obtained from Paschal a friendly letter for king Henry, which, though not surrendering any point of importance, left room for further negotiations, COMPROMISE WITH ANSELM 169 according to the usual diplomacy of the Roman see. Anselm then went to his old friend, the archbishop of Lyons ; Warelwast followed him there, and explained that unless he was prepared to accede to Henry s wishes, it would be safer for him not to return to England ; so Anselm decided to remain abroad, and Henry confiscated the temporal possessions of his archbishopric. Even Paschal had pointed out that the cause of Christianity in England was suffering from this long continued quarrel, and the frequent absences of its chief pastor ; but Anselm preferred that the Church should remain rent and crippled rather than he would give way on any single point. For a long time he stayed at Lyons in the hope that the pope might excommunicate Henry, which Paschal knew better than to do. Eadmer the chronicler, Anselm s friend and biographer, records a letter which was sent from England to the absent archbishop, describing the dreadful condition of the English Church through his obstinacy, and pointing out that every Englishman considered" the points in dispute to be worthless, and a contrivance of the devil to vex the English Church. But even that failed to shake Anselm s determination. 9. Reconciliation of Henry I. and Anselm. Eighteen months elapsed before Anselm, who in other respects has an enviable reputation for shrewdness and perspicacity, perceived that Paschal was only cajoling him, and that the popes of Rome had not that supreme authority all over the world which he had for so long imagined them to possess. With the concurrence of the archbishop of Lyons, he determined to excommunicate the king of England on his own account, and explained his intention to Adela of Blois, sister of Henry, She, fearing that this would put a weapon in the hands of her brother s enemies, promoted a meeting between Anselm and Henry, near Chartres, at which the king offered all sorts of inducements for the archbishop s immediate return. Henry had previously sent Warelwast on a fifth embassy to Rome, which was less unsatisfactory than the other four, seeing that Paschal was now willing to compromise the dispute by conceding the right of homage to the king which Pope Urban had refused to grant ; on condition that the investiture of ring and staff, which symbolized the spiritual authority, should belong to the Church. On that understanding, Anselm returned to his long forsaken flock, whereat the country greatly rejoiced. The wearisome dispute came to an end ou August 1, 1107, when a great assembly of G 2 170 QUESTIONS OF JURISDICTION bishops, abbots, and nobles met at London in the king s palace, at which the king agreed that from henceforth no persons should be invested in England with pastoral staff or ring, either by the king or any lay hand ; and Anselm, on his part, agreed that no one elected to prelacy should be debarred from consecration because he had done homage to the king, prior to the acceptance of that compromise. 10. Anselm s closing days. The result of the quarrel respect ing investiture was a victory for neither party, but a check upon both. The pope was distinctly given to understand that he had no jurisdic tion over temporal affairs in England, and the king was taught that bishops were not to be elevated and promoted on the terms on Avhich he made a knight or a baron ; nor was their office his, in the sense that he could sell it. Anselm s opposition to William Rufus and Henry I. had rescued the Church of England from feudal vassalage and tem poral despotism, but his action had brought it within the grasp of a more odious spiritual autocracy, from which it took 400 years to shake itself free. From that time forward, until the year 1531, it writhed and struggled under the dominion of the popes of Rome, who were no longer merely bishops, but also powerful secular princes. At first the harm that Norman princes and foreign bishops had done to the Church was not apparent. It was a gradual and insinuating evil. We shall misunderstand the position of the Church of England to-day if we forget that the great body of the laity have always been as truly an integral a part of the Church as the clergy who minister to them, and the majority of English churchmen are not to be ignored when we think of the days of Anselm. Before Anselm returned to England, Henry had promised to restore the confiscated revenues of Canterbury, to withdraw the licence for married clergy to retain their wives on payment of heavy fines, to give up the practice of nominating bishops without the consent of the clergy in the cathedral chapters, and to allow the archbishop to convene synods at pleasure, providing the king s consent was first obtained. The king was willing that the pope should exercise spiritual jurisdiction in England, but stipulated that no papal legate should enter this country without special royal licence. On those terms the work of the Church was allowed to proceed. The vacant bishoprics and abbeys were all filled up, and churches and monasteries built and restored. During Anselm s primacy some of our cathedrals were rebuilt, and not a few retain to this day traces of the masonry which he looked upon (see page 196). 172 THE BISHOPRIC OF ELY He was present at the re -dedication of Winchester cathedral (1093), the transepts of which remain as they were then, and he may have attended at the opening of Norwich cathedral in 1101. Worcester cathedral retains part of Bishop Wulfstan s great work, then fresh from the workman s hammer. Rochester and St. Albans both stand to this day much as their builders Bishop Gundtilph and Paul of Caen left them. But Anselm had no personal share in any of those grand struc tures. In his own cathedral of Canterbury progress w r as made in build ing the choir from the designs of Ernulph, prior of Saint Augustine s monastery, but that had a very short existence. William Warelwast, who had so often championed the cause of the king of England before the pope, was then bishop of Exeter ; and he is credited with having commenced building the present cathedral in that city on a very massive plan, but not until after Anselm s death. The last important event in Anselm s primacy connected with English episcopacy, was the creation of the bishopric of Ely. Herv6 le Breton, bishop of Bangor, had been placed as acting abbot over the monastery church there, and as the see of Lincoln was then of unwieldy extent, he suggested to the king, with the consent of the monks, that the diocese should be divided, and that the abbey church of Ely, then just completed, might be the seat of a new diocese. The bishop of Lincoln agreed, and that arrangement was carried out just before Anselm died. 11. Opinions on Anselm s character. The aged primate pissed away April 21, 1109. Several monographs of his life and character have appeared in recent times, in most of which he is represented as a saintly hero, worthy of all honour, fighting for the privileges of the Church against immoral and tyrannous kings. But there is a great difference between the Church as Anselm understood it and a national Church. His training led him to uphold ideas which sought to make bishops of Rome autocrats of an universal despotism. In such a theory patriotism and loyalty finds no place. Duke William came to a land with independent civil and ecclesiastical traditions, and both he and his sons swore to uphold them. They introduced Norman bishops, Norman abbots, and Norman secular barons, but they, like their kings, "realized their new position as Englishmen by adoption, entering immediately on all the claims of their predecessors, and declaring that, so far as their power went, the churches they espoused should suffer no detriment" (Stulibs). Anselm did not enter into that patriotic spirit, He recognized no law that was opposed to the ANSELM S POLICY 173 decrees of bishops of Rome. True it is that he claimed to live up to higher than worldly principles of action, and seek first and last what seemed to him to be the glory of God ; but the ordinary men of his day, the prelates and barons of England, were unable to appreciate his efforts to turn questions of civil obedience into high theological doctrines. And it is true that English kings were very reprehensible in withholding and selling preferments ; but even that practice had a shadow of reason in it for men of those times, because at the conquest the greater part of English land was held by ecclesiastics whose in creasing possessions made them haughty and rebellious. Some checks were needed, but neither kings nor counsellors had then found out the right ones. There is, however, no need to excuse the faults of kings, nor to throw doubts upon the piety or conscientiousness of Anselm. The issue comes within a much narrower compass. He assailed the ancient prerogatives of English kings, and they did right to maintain them. Anselm was entirely unjustified in his desire to set up the authority of an unacknowledged pontiff over that of his lawful sove reign, and in presuming that the declarations of a synod of Rome could override the ancient laws and customs of England. When the position he assumed to maintain which he neglected the greater duties of his primacy and spent long years abroad is considered apart from his private and personal virtues, it will be seen that no man did more to establish precedents which compromised the independence of the English Church and nation, and encouraged the encroachments that resulted in the more direct control of bishops of Rome. That Anselm did everything from the purest motives is altogether beside the question. It is far more to our purpose to know that what he did materially strengthened the central power of the popes, against which all Europe had afterwards to struggle. CHAPTER XI. (A.D. 1109-1154) LOSS OF INDEPENDENCE "The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff For occupation of a magic wand, And tis the pope that wields it. Gorl willeth it, from hill to hill rebound?, And in awe-stricken countries far and nigh, Through nature s hollow arch/ that voice resounds." 1. Supremacy of the see of Canterbury. King Henry I. lived for many years after the death of Anselm, during which the Church of England progressed favourably on the whole, now and then showing signs that its independence was not wholly gone, and that its traditions were still dear to it. Just before Anselm s death, Tliomas, archbishop elect of York, had declined to take the customary oath of canonical obedience to the see of Canterbury (just as his namesake had objected in Lanfranc s time), imagining that the metropolitan pall rendered him independent of the southern primate ; and in this he was supported by the clergy of his province, who were jealous of the supremacy of the archbishop of Canterbury. Knowing that Anselm s days on earth were numbered, Thomas made all sorts of excuses to put off his own consecration, so as to be spared the humiliating profession. But Anselm had so strictly enjoined the bishops, in the event of his death, not to consecrate Thomas without due submission, that he was obliged to give way. After the death of Anselm, Henry imitated his brother William Rufus in delaying the appointment of prelates to vacant bishoprics and abbacies. "When lie did fill them up he invariably preferred a foreigner, and English men had to be content with the minor offices. It was five years before a successor to Anselm was found, during which the revenues of the see were paid into the royal treasury. At last Ralph d JSscures, who, as bishop of Rochester, had been performing the spiritual duties of the see of Canterbury during the interregnum, was translated to the primacy. He had previously been abbot of Seez in Normandy. Shortly after that appointment Thomas of York died, and was succeeded by Thurstan, who also hoped to increase the dignity of his see by refusing canonical submission to that of Canterbury. Naturally Ralph refused to consecrate him, so Thurstan went to Rheims and was consecrated by Calixtns IF., one of two rival popes then governing 174 BANISHMENT OF THURSTAN 175 the Church of Rome, who conferred upon him the privilege of being independent of the southern province. This angered King Henry and the English prelates, and Thurstan was for a time banished from the realm ; for it was a breach of the rights of the Church of England to have its prelates consecrated by a foreign Church, notwithstanding that it had been the custom for its archbishops to obtain palls from Rome. Although Thurstan refused to pay the customary submission to Canterbury, he was allowed to return to England, after a time, on condition that he did not perform any official duties outside the province of York, The presumptuous proceeding of Calixtus had a prejudicial effect on the councils of the realm, for "the assembling of national councils became almost a matter of impossibility t the disputes, amounting often to undignified altercations between the archbishops, disturbed the harmony of even the royal courts and national parliaments" (see Stubbs Const. Hist. vol. ii, p. 198), ST, DAVID S CATHEDRAL. 2. Union of Welsh and English Churches. In the year 1115 a most important event occurred to increase the supremacy of Canterbury. The Church of Wales (that is, the survival of the 176 THE WELSH AND ENGLISH CHURCHES ancient British Church), which had retained its independence up to that time, but which had been gradually drawn towards its more powerful Anglo-Saxon neighbour, was then about to be amalgamated with the English Church, as the country of Wales was afterwards to the English realm. There had for some time been an interchange of friendly offices between these Churches,, as when a bishop of St. Davids did the work of an infirm bishop of Hereford before the conquest ; and we have seen in the last chapter how a bishop of Bangor was translated to the see of Ely. The submission of Wales to the authority of the English throne in the time of William the conqueror ; the constant ravages of the nobles in the time of William Rufus ; and the colonizing of Ross, in Pembrokeshire, by Flemish emigrants in the reign of Henry L; all served to make the Welsh people see that the only way of retaining their territory was to pay allegiance to the "right of might" by recognizing the supremacy of the English throne. The Church helped to make the way easy for that inevitable and desirable consolidation, There was no appreciable difference between the doctrine and discipline of the Welsh and English Churches at that time, they had both for a long while held intercourse with the continental Churches, and at length, by advice of CalixtusIL, the prelates of Wales, through the bishop of St Davids, took the oath of canonical obedience to Archbishop Ralph as their metropolitan. To compensate the Welsh Church in some measure for the loss of its archicpiscopal powers, Calixtus II. dignified David, the first bishop of the see of that name (see page 35) by the title of saint, and his shrine, after this canonization, became a centre of attraction for medieval pilgrims. Both Lanfranc and Anselm had consecrated bishops for Ireland, and Anselm had extended the supremacy of his see to Scotland and the Orkneys- So that the English Church had then spiritual jurisdiction throughout the British Isles, the archbishop of Canterbury being recognized as primate of them all. 3. Papal encroachments. The continued independence of the English Church was a matter of great concern to the popes. Paschal had complained bitterly that the see of Rome was treated with scant reverence by the English clergy ; and when he sent Anselm (a nephew of Archbishop Anselm) to England as his legate with the pall for Archbishop Ralph, did not hesitate to reprimand King Henry for holding councils without his sanction and prohibiting the prosecution of appeals to his see. Warelwast, bishop of Exeter, once more visited PAPAL LEGATES IN ENGLAND 177 Rome to point out that the Church and Realm of England occupied a different position from the continental kingdoms and churches, and had always been independent of papal jurisdiction. In spite of this, Paschal sent the legate Anselm back again to England as permanent official representative of the see of Rome. All previous legates had come for some special purpose, such as the promotion of friendly communications between the popes and the English king ; but . __ _ __. _ .... __^_ u ____. : ___ GENERAL VIEW OF ROME. to set up a regular ambassador as the superior of the English primate was an unheard of claim. To make matters worse, King Henry was absent in Normandy when the legate Anselm produced his credentials, and there was a great stir in consequence among the prelates and nobles of England. When the king heard what had been done he was exceedingly angry, and expelled Anselm from the kingdom. Pope Paschal did not again attempt to interfere ; but after the disputed election of a successor to Paschal had been decided in favour of Calixtus II., another effort was made to establish a permanent 178 THE TESTIMONY OF GERVASE papal legation in Britain. A nobleman named Peter was selected, of whose talent and dignity there were great accounts. He was permitted to visit England and present his claim, but the action of Calixtus in the matter of Thurstan, archbishop of York, had not taught the English people to look favourably on papal interference ; and Henry, having recounted to Peter the traditional independence of this country and its Church from all foreign domination, caused him to be politely escorted out of England by the \vay he came. Soon after, Archbishop Ralph died ; and was succeeded by a French priest William de Corbeuil, who imagined that there would be no harm in paying the same allegiance to the pope when an English archbishop, as he had done when in France. He was the first archbishop of Canterbury who acknowledged himself to be merely a deputy of the pope in this country. He had gained experience as clerk to the notorious justiciar, "Ralph Flambard ; and after his death it was found that he had misappropriated funds belonging to the see of Canterbury. When he went to Rome for his pall, he speedily came to an understanding with the pope respecting papal jurisdiction in England, and then suggested that the dispute for precedence between the sees of York and Canterbury should be decided at an English council, over which a papal legate should preside. Thurstan of York, in the hope of promoting the dignity of his see, agreed ; and one John de Crema, came to England for the purpose in 1125 as legatus a Mere, or extraordinary legate. " His progress through England everywhere excited extreme indignation. You might see, indeed, a thing before unheard in the kingdom of England, a clerk forsooth, who had only reached the grade of priesthood, taking precedence of archbishops, bishops, abbots, and all the nobles of the land ; sitting upon a lofty throne, while they, sitting beneath him, were waiting for his nod. On Easter-day, at first coming into England, he celebrated the office of the day in the mother church in the place of the chief pontiff, presiding on an elevated seat and using the pontifical insignia, although not a bishop, but simply a priest. The minds of many were gravely scandalized, for they saw in this both an unusual novelty and the destruction of the ancient liberties of the kingdom of England ; for it is a thing most well known to the kingdom of England, and to all the regions lying round about, that from the days of Augustine, the first metropolitan of Canterbury, up to the time of that William, all the successors of Augustine who were monks had SUBMISSION TO ROME 179 been held primates and patriarchs, and had never been placed under the dominion of any Roman legate " (Gervase of Canterbury}. King Henry would scarcely have permitted that great indignity to the English Church had he not been greatly concerned about a suc cessor to the throne. His only son had been drowned at sea, and he required the good offices of the powerful Roman pontiff in favour of his daughter Matilda, who had been married to the emperor of Germany. John de Crema then convened a council at Westminster which formulated regulations for the government of the Church of England ; but did not decide the vexed question of precedence between the archbishops, which the legate still further delayed by sending "William and Thurstan to Rome. Archbishop Corbeuil found, all too late, how necessary were the numerous protestations of previous archbishops of Canterbury against the encroachments of Rome. He now recounted to the pope the arrogant conduct of John de Crema and the consequent anger of the English people ; and meekly protested that the establish ment of a legatus ti latere in England was an invasion of the rights of his see. Honorius II., the then pope, craftily suggested that the archbishop of Canterbury should become his ordinary (natus) legate, which would give him the desired precedence over the archbishops of York, and still enable the popes to send extraordinary legates to England when they deemed it expedient. "William de Corbeuil accepted that humiliating compromise ; thus stripping the see of Canterbury of its traditional rights, and making the English Church dependent on the Church of Rome. The primatial see did not long enjoy the fruit of his obsequiousness, for a nephew of King Henry, named Henry de Blois, who was made bishop of Winchester in 1125, was made papal legate in the year 1137 by Pope Innocent II., thus giving a suffragan bishop precedence of his metropolitan. King Henry I, died in 1135, and was buried in Reading-abbey. By his death the Church and Realm of England lost a firm and wise governor, who, although a Norman, was careful to preserve so far as he could the laws and traditions of the English people, after the example of William the conqueror, Shortly before his death he founded the bishopric of Carlisle. He had previously established a monastery for Augustinian monks in the border city, making his chaplain Aldulph the first prior. When Aldulph had completed the building of his church, parts of which remain to this day, it was made the cathedral of the new diocese, with Aldulph as bishop ; thus relieving the too extensive see of Durham. 180 ACCESSION OF STEPHEN Henry s successor was not Matilda, as he had desired, but Stephen of Blois, son of Henry s sister Adela. Stephen s reign was a period of disorder and misrule. Archbishop William died in December 1136, and was succeeded by Theobald, abbot of Bee, in January 1139. j previous page}. 4. Military religious orders. In the latter part of the eleventh century the monastic spirit developed a fresh phase. We have seen that military ability was not wanting on the part of bishops or their clergy ; and therefore, when the Crusades invited Christians to take up arms in defence of the Cross, large numbers of ecclesiastics responded to the call. They preferred to continue living after their accustomed rules, but as the rules had to be modified to suit altered conditions they formed themselves into new monastic bodies which are known as the military religious orders. There were several of those new orders, but only the Knights Templar and the Knights of St. John had any status in England. A word about the Crusades is necessary here. The Mohammedan Saracens, who subdued Palestine and conquered Jerusalem in the seventh century, allowed Christians THE CRUSADES 181 to make pilgrimages to the holy sepulchre ; but the Turks, by whom the Saracens were in turn subdued, treated pilgrims with great cruelty. A poor monk named Peter the hermit witnessed the sad condition of Christians in Palestine, and begged the pope to relieve it (A.D. 1095). The pope suggested that Peter should test the feeling of Europe by preaching about the Turkish cruelties, the result being that an extraordinary enthusiasm was aroused, which was still further inten sified when Pope Urban himself advocated a holy war against the infidels, and promised pardon of sins to all who should engage therein, with an immediate entrance into heaven if their lives were lost in the causa. William of MalmesbiLry, a contemporary English historian, glowingly depicts the ardour with which the inhabitants of the British Isles joined in the crusade. He says : "the Welshman left his hunting, the Scot his fellowship with vermin, the Dane his drinking-party, the Norwegian his raw fish. Lands were deserted of their husbandmen, houses of their inhabitants ; even whole cities migrated. There was no regard to relationship ; affection to their country was held in little esteem ; God alone was placed before their eyes. Whatever was stored in the granaries or hoarded in chambers, to answer the hopes of the avaricious husbandmen or the covetousness of the miser, all, all was deserted, they hungered and thirsted after Jerusalem alone." Millions of people, old and young, rich and poor, male and female, regardless of the length and hardness of the journey, joined in the enterprise, and after enduring much privation, suffering, disease and death, the motley hosts reached Jerusalem in June 1099. " Dieu le veult," " God wills it," was their rallying cry as they slew the Turks wherever they found them, alternating fearful deeds of cruelty and plunder with ecstatic devotion and penitential tears. When the holy city was taken they chose Godfrey de Bouillon as king of Jerusalem, who, for the safe guarding of the city, and the entertainment of the numerous pilgrims who soon nocked thither in greater numbers than ever before, established the two orders of military monks we have mentioned. The business of the Templar knights was to defend the Saviour s tomb and guard Palestine, for which purpose they built numerous monasteries like immense castles throughout the holy land. They wore white tunics over their armour embroidered with black crosses. The knights of St. John Baptist, or knights hospitaller, besides fighting as need required were to tend the sick and wounded, and provide for the welfare of Christian travellers. They were 182 THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLER distinguished by a dark red surtout with a cross of white linen on the breast. It was a grand idea to combine the religious instincts of the cloister with an energetic vocation of a warrior. " The Christian calling is that of a soldier, and the exigencies of the times made it honourable to fight not only against spiritual but against human foes, .... and so the nursing brother and the hos pitable monk became an armed and righting soldier." The chivalric romances of King Arthur, which were put into readable shape about that time, give an idea of the spirit which actuated many crusading knights. "Noble chivalry, courtesy, humanity, friendliness, hardiness, love, friendship, cowardice, murder, hate, virtue, and sin ; " l all those evils and graces were A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN. mingled in strange contrast among the communities of fighting monks, although for a time the higher principles predominated. 2 Each order erected special monasteries in all European provinces, where fresh bands of men and youths might be trained for service in the east. The churches belonging to the Templar monasteries were usually built in a circular form, in imitation of the church of the holy sepulchre. Hence the origin of the famous Norman round-chancelled churches, like the Temple church in London and St. Sepulchre s at Cambridge. Our oldest hospitals are survivals of the establishments of the 1 William Caxton. 2 "The Crusades were probably the great means of inspiring an uniformity of conventional courtesy into the European aristocracy, which still constitutes the common character of gentlemen." Hallam. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR 183 order of St. John. There were several other Crusades during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to meet fresh invasions of the Turks ; who were at last victorious. The holy land has been lost to Christians ever since. The Templar knights were soon after disbanded, and their possessions transferred to the knights of St. John. The Crusades had an important indirect bearing upon the welfare of the Church of England. The nobles often pledged or sold their estates to the monasteries to provide the means for their expeditions ; many left their wives and families in the care of monastic institutions. If they returned safely from the wars they made suitable thank-offerings to the Church, or built, or rebuilt, or restored local sanctuaries. The many monuments of cross-legged knights in our churches indicate the extent of that beneficence. On the other hand, the Crusades vastly increased the power and influence of the popes ; for they brought several European nations into close relationship. The city of Rome was the great collecting and distributing centre, all men respected the office of its bishop, and many princes left their dominions under the care the papacy, thus vastly increasing its temporal authority. When each Crusade was over many of the enthusiasts re mained under arms as a kind of standing army of the Roman pontiff, by which the papacy was able to exercise authority over monarch sat will. ST. SEPULCHRE S, CAMBRIDGE. 5. New monastic orders. In the latter part of the eleventh centurv several new societies of regular monks were founded, and re- 184 CARTHUSIAN MONKS ceived special sanction from the popes to settle and preach wherever they pleased. Chief among them were the Cistercian and Carthusian orders. Nine Carthusian houses were erected in this country. The first was at "Witham in Somerset in the year 1181, but the chief of them was on the site of the great Charterhouse school, which nourished for so many generations in Goswell street, London. Their rule was more strict than the earlier orders ; they were not allowed even to speak except on Sundays and festivals, nor make any signs to each other ; and whereas the Benedictines and Cluniacs usually dwelt near a town, the Carthusians chose the most desert and inhospitable regions for their abode, where they continued to lead lives of self-denial and mortification in imitation of their founder Bruno, who chose an abiding place among wild and rugged rocks near Grenoble, known as the Great Chartreuse, whence their name. They too built many magnificent abbey churches and monasteries, but never relaxed their hard fare. Meat they never tasted. They had to wear rough goat skins next their flesh, and submit to be flogged once a week. The Cistercian order is so called because its chief monastery was at Citeaux, which in Latin is Cistercium. They also had very strict rules, and during the winter were only allowed to eat one meal a day. All parade in dress, or elaboration of services was to be avoided. Robert de MoUme is credited with being the founder of the order, but it does not appear to have been very popular until the great St. Bernard joined it in 1113. The Cistercians, or white monks as they were called on account of their dress, set up their first English house at "Waverley, in Surrey, A.D. 1129 ; Tintern on the Wye (page 193), and Kirkstall, near Leeds, follow ing soon after. Members of the order found a home in the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary, at York, where they promoted disagreements and were expelled | they then established Fountains- abbey, near Ripon. Before the close of the twelfth century the Cistercians had established a large number of important monasteries through out England and Wales. "When those new monastic institutions were first planted in England, the members were devout and earnest men, CISTERCIAN MONKS 185 who subsisted solely upon charity. But as they grew in numbers they increased in wealth, and " none were more greedy in adding farm to farm, none less scrupulous in obtaining grants of land from wealthy patrons," than the Cistercians ; many of whom were appointed by Norman barons to govern existing monasteries on their estates accord ing to the new rules, as was the case at Furness, in Lancashire ; until the order became very wealthy and influential. As their possessions increased their humility and self-denial gradually vanished. An ap propriate instance of the rapid growth of monastic property, and the not less rapid change in their manner of life is found in a colloquy related to have taken place between King Richard I. and a Frenchman named Fulke, just before the lion-hearted king left England for the Crusades in 1189. "You have three daughters," said Fulke, "pride, luxury, and avarice ; and, as long as they remain with you, you cannot expect favour from God." Richard replied : " I have already given away those daughters in marriage pride, to the Templars ; luxury, to the black monks ; and avarice, to the white." Yet we must not suppose that these religious communities entered at once into the enjoyment of fertile estates ; because England was then in many parts a wild, dreary waste, of scarcely more than prairie value. "When they settled in a fresh district they would beg some desolate plot of land and at once reclaim and cultivate it, living under circumstances of great privation until they could gather a little store of provision. Soon their settlements would wear a lively appearance ; the forests would be cleared, the marshes drained, the moorland converted into rich pastures and the estates stocked with good cattle. The lands thus reclaimed were easily let out to tenants, and so the communities became landlords. But instead of spending their revenues in pageantry and personal adornment, they lived frugally, and built grand abbeys and cloistered habitations ; exercising at the same time unstinting hospitality to travellers and strangers, besides providing for the necessities of the poor, and educating the people. As centres of religious influence they in time received boundless support from the piously disposed English men and women, but their prosperily became a cause of weakness to the episcopate and to the parochial system. Nobles who possessed the right of patronage or presentation of clergy to benefices, which themselves or their ancestors had founded, gave them to the monasteries on condition that they provided for the official duties thereof, which condition was usually fulfilled by deputy ; that 186 MONASTIC AVARICE is to say, the monks, who were mostly laymen, employed poor secular priests to perform vicariously the spiritual duties of such parochial churches as had been appropriated to their particular convent. Hence, we have the word vicar, by which we understand a parochial clergyman who does not directly receive the full revenues of his benefice. But the action of the papacy in making the new monastic orders independ ent of episcopal jurisdiction, and dependent only upon the Roman see, weakened the influence of the English bishops and caused the parish priests to be meanly thought of by the inhabitants, which the secular clergy not unnaturally resented. It was a notable addition to the manifold ways in which popes increased their influence in England. BUILDWAS-ABBEY (CISTERCIAN). 6. Stephen s misrule Battle of the Standard. We must briefly return to the civil history of the country during the reign of Stephen of Blois. The bishops had promised Henry I. that they would support the cause of his daughter Matilda, but Stephen was the nearest male heir of Norman blood ; with the exception of Henry, bishop of Winchester, whose monastic vows precluded him from regal dignity. There seems to have been a conspiracy between these brothers for Stephen to be king, and Henry to be primate as soon as Corbeuil BATTLE OF THE STANDARD 187 died, that they might divide the government of England between themselves. The citizens of London declared for Stephen ; and. under pressure from Henry of Winchester, the bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln then the most influential prelates in the country, Roger of Salisbury having been favourite minister, and Alexander of Lincoln a nephew of Henry I. induced the other bishops to uphold London s choice, the archbishop of Canterbury, obsequious as ever, performing the ceremony of consecration. Matilda thereupon gave way, and Stephen at once plunged into a course of reckless extravagance ; his favourite nobles building for themselves more than a thousand castles, from which they might sally forth to pillage and plunder the inhabit ants. In self-defence the prelates and nobles who retired from the government on Stephen s accession built other fortresses, and private feuds raged unchecked. Soon the citizens of Lpndon repented of their choice, and accepted Matilda as their lady. She behaved to them no better than the king, and then they took up arms against her in favour of Stephen. The king of Scotland allied himself to Matilda and in vaded England with an army in support of her cause. His forces committed dreadful depredations in the north, and the country became a chaos of misrule. " One gleam of national glory broke the darkness of the time." The now aged archbishop, Thurstan of York, roused the northern barons to defend their homesteads. He unfurled the banners of the three great northern leaders : Cuthbert, John of Beverley, and AVilfrid of Ripon ; and although too infirm himself to lead them in battle he sent the bishop of Durham before them to Northallerton, where they awaited the onslaught of the northern foe. "Still do our very children boast Of mitred Tlmrstan, what a host He conquered ! Saw we not the plain, (And flying shall behold again) Where faith was proved ? while to battle moved The standard on the sacred wain That bore it, compassed round by a bold Fraternity of barons old." On a wagon they raised a ship-mast, on which they fixed a pro cessional staff that contained, in a small silver box, some consecrated elements of the eucharist. To that mast they also nailed the banners mentioned, and that trophy became to the English instead of a national flag, and Avas in fact called their standard. As they marched the wagon went before them, and the stentorian voice of the bishop of 188 AN EPISCOPAL PRINCE Durham encouraged them to fight for freedom, homes, and Christ, " The fierce hordes dashed in vain against the close English ranks around the standard, and the whole army (of the Scots) fled in con fusion to Carlisle." And thus the greatest attempt ever made by the Scots to invade onr country was arrested by devout patriotism. , Stephen, becoming fs: XN , 7lY alarmed at the in. creasing power of the barons and prelates who built castles, caused many of them to be imprisoned, in cluding his near rela- tives 3 the bishops of Lincoln and Ely, and the powerful statesman prolate, Roger of Salisbury. Also, fearing that his brother Henry might become too powerful, seeing that he was now papal legate, he appointed Theobald to the arch bishopric of Canterbury, in the room of William de Corbeuil, as we have already explained. In revenge p Henry of Win chester, as papal legate, called by his own authority a special synod of the Church ; before which he summoned King Stephen to answer for imprisoning the bishops, who could not be punished, he claimed, except by an ecclesiastical tribunal. Stephen BANNER AND STAVES, admitted his brother s jurisdiction, and sub mitted to the penance he imposed. Thus papal supremacy was still further developed in England. Henry of Winchester,, however, half monk, half soldier, as he was called, possessed too little religious influence to wield a really spiritual power ; it was only at the close of Stephen s reign that the nation really found a moral leader in Theobald, the archbishop of Canterbury. To the Church/ Thomas Becket justly said afterwards, with the proud consciousness of having been Theobald s right hand, Henry (who succeeded Stephen 1154) owed his crown and England her deliverance " (Green s Short History ). CHAPTER XII. (A.D. 1154-1175) THOMAS BEOKET " As with the stream our voyage we pursue, The gross materials of this world present A marvellous study of wild accident ; Saw we not Henry scourged at Becket s shrine ? " 1. Henry II. The new king, Henry II., was the son of Matilda by her marriage with Geoffrey Plantagenet. By his birth he inherited Normandy and Anjou, by his marriage with Eleanor of Poitou he became master of Aquitaine, and now, through the arrangement between his mother and Stephen, was also king of England. He was crowned at Westminster in December 1154, by Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury. The year of his accession is memorable for another reason. Nicholas Breakspear, an Englishman who had been bishop of Alba, was made pope of Rome, under the title of Adrian IV. This is the only instance of an Englishman obtaining that position, and he manifested good feeling towards this country and its king. Henry was an able ruler ; he speedily compelled the barons who had built them selves castles in the days of Stephen to dismantle their fortresses and become peaceable subjects, and by that means he became popular with most of his people. He followed up the advantage by wise judicial reforms which made all men equal before the law. Fixed courts, regular judges, and evidence on oath, helped still further to restrict the authority of the nobles, and the old feudal system gradually gave way to a national one. The king s continental dominions did not interfere with this, because he discouraged the French from becoming landowners in England, and even drove out of this country many of the foreigners who had possessed themselves of estates in his pre decessor s time. The archbishop of Canterbury, as the chief person in the realm next the king, was his chief adviser ; and through Theobald Henry was made acquainted with a number of earnest men who helped him to rule the English wisely. Chief of them was Thomas Beckct, who had been the archbishop s confidential secretary for some time, and was archdeacon of Canterbury at the time of Henry s accession, 189 190 BECKETS EARLY YEARS 2. Thomas Becket. In those days civil offices were only given to persons who could speak French, and as Becket when a lad showed himself to be possessed of high intellectual talents, his father, a wealthy London merchant, sent him to Paris, so that he might become accomplished in all the learning and arts of his time. It was also necessary to success in life for a man to be either a knight or a cleric. Thomas preferred the Church, although at times he did not disdain the battlefield. His admission into the service of the archbishop of Canterbury brought him in contact with important men of that time. His fascinating manners gained him the affection of a large circle of admirers, and the rest were made to fear his vigorous mental powers. Everything he was set to perform he successfully accomplished, and as a reward for his many services he received a number of valuable church preferments. Archbishop Theobald did not appreciate his own position as a subordinate to Henry de Blois of Winchester, and Thomas Becket was commissioned to Eome to obtain from the pope a trans ference of legatine powers to the see of Canterbury in perpetuity, which he did. It was through the diplomacy of the same young man that the pope was induced to support the claims of Henry to be king of England, so that Henry at once pro moted him to the position of chancellor, which, though not j then by any means the highest post in the king s council, was soon made to be so by Becket s remarkable powers of administration. The king was fond of social pleasures, and so was Becket ; they treated each other with fraternal familiarity, and were constant companions in peace and war. If an army was to be raised, Becket s numerous a larger number of knights and any other noble, and he himself HEXRY TT. benefices enabled him to put mercenaries in the field than CONSECRATION OF BECKET 191 led them to victory in battle. He also superintended the education of the king s son, and many other noble youths, and was fore most in promoting the judicial reforms which alleviated the oppressed condition of his countrymen. In short, he was the most popular man in the kingdom, beloved by the poor for his benevolence, and by the rich for his ability. He dressed as a layman, and took part in all secular amusements and social pursuits, exercising an unbounded hospitality, living in a style of magnificence which few kings of the time could rival. If he went on an embassy for the king he took with him so vast a retinue and made so brave a display that people said : " What must the king be whose chancellor is so rich ? " Yet, withal, he is said to have been not unacquainted with the hair-shirt and the scourge, as a penitential antidote to his luxurious life. In 1162 Arch bishop Theobald died, and the king desired that Becket should succeed him, although the latter was only in deacon s orders. 3. Becket becomes archbishop. Henry and Becket were both in Normandy when the vacancy occurred, and the chancellor pointed out to the king how unsuitable his past life and present secular attire were to recommend him for such a position in the eyes of the monks and clergy whom he would have to rule. <! Besides," he pro tested to one of his friends, e( I know the very heart of the king ; he would desire authority in Church affairs to which, as archbishop, I could not consent. I should either have to lose the king s favour, or that of God." The bishops objected to a deacon being suddenly set over them, but the king s mind was made up, and on the eve of Whit-Sunday, 1162, Thomas was admitted to priest s orders, and eight days after consecrated archbishop of Canterbury by Henry de Blois of Winchester, thirteen bishops of the province assisting in the ceremony. And now the life of Becket was completely transformed ; the once luxurious chancellor became an austere Benedictine monk, eating the coarsest food and drinking decoctions of bitter herbs. To the king s dismay he resigned the chancellorship and proceeded to adopt an independent attitude as ruler of the English Church, bestowing on objects of charity the immense revenues he had once lavished in social entertainments. For awhile the king patiently bore the disappointment of losing his friend and chancellor. There were not wanting courtiers to misrepre sent the primate s actions ; but the king did not at once provoke open hostilities, and was outwardly friendly with Becket for a year. Both 192 BECKETS QUARREL WITH HENRY II. attended a council of Pope Alexander III. at Tours, and then a storm began to brew. Thomas Becket proposed that the council should add the name of Anselm of Canterbury to the calendar of saints, and the prevailing tone of the whole assembly was adverse to any exercise of secular authority ; so that when they returned to England, Henry knew that he would have to make a firm stand for the supremacy of the crown, while Becket, on the other hand, determined to maintain the power of the Church and concede nothing to the king. The arch bishop claimed certain temporal rights and possessions that had been withheld from his seo, and the king retorted by demanding Becket s resignation of certain banefices which he had continued to hold. Further the archbishop set the laws of William the conqueror at defiance by excommunicating the Baron of Eynesford (a tenant-in-chief of the crown, who had refused to allow a man whom Becket had nominated to be admitted to a living of which the baron was patron), without previously acquainting the king with his intentions. But the first open hostilities occurred at the national council of Woodstock in July 1163, when the king desired to have the Danegeld (see page 129), which had been hitherto collected by local sheriffs, enrolled as royal revenue. Becket resisted the claim, and the king swore "by the eyes of God " that he would have his way. Becket retorted in a similar oath that not a penny should thus be paid from the lands of the Church. There was henceforward a public quarrel between them. 4. Restriction of Church privileges. The question which brought their ill-feeling to a crisis was the right of the clergy to be tried before civil courts for criminal charges. The king demanded that when clerics were accused of civil offences they should be tried and punished by the royal courts ; but Becket looked upon this as an infringement of the liberties of the Church, and desired to uphold the arrangement of William the conqueror, who separated the civil and ecclesiastical courts. A great council was held at Westminster, in October 1163, to determine the matter. The Church stood to the realm in much the same position as the Jews did to the Romans in New Testament times ; it had a law, but could not put a man to death. The ecclesiastical courts only degraded a man from his office and benefice, which the king and barons considered an inadequate punishment for gross crimes^ The Church advocates said that it was unfair to tiy a man twice over for the same offence, in the Church THE COUNCIL AT WESTMINSTER 193 courts and afterwards in the secular courts ; but as the immunity of the clergy from punishment for heinous offences often amounted to licence, Henry was firm in his demand that they should now be put upon an equal footing with other estates of the realm by being handed over to the secular authorities after degradation by the Church. That was agreed to by the bishops, but Henry still further pressed his claim for national justice by stipulating that a crown officer should be present in the Church courts to see that no crimiuous cleric was allowed to escape punishment* Becket protested that this restricted the TIXTERX ABBEY, CISTERCIAN (see page 184). liberty of the Church, and by his earnest advocacy brought the bishops over to his side. At last the king asked "Whether the bishops were willing to observe the customs of the country?" After deliberation, they vaguely replied : "That they were willing to observe the known customs, without prejudice to their order." The king demanded a withdrawal of the qualifying phrase ; and as they would not consent, he angrily left the meeting, and Becket wrote to Rome for advice. The king also sent an embassy to the pope, and, as at other times, the papal court encouraged the prelate to fight against the king, but advised a conciliatory policy rather than provoke a quarrel between VOL. i. H 194 CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON the papacy and the English court. Another important forfeiture of Church privilege occurred about that time. The principle of the law of refuge (Joshua xx.) had been transferred to the Christian Church at a very early period of its history, under the name of "right of sanctuary," and adopted by the Anglo-Saxon races. Fugitives who had unwittingly committed offences fled to the churches, and if they could but reach the door of a religious house and knock thereat 1 j J u j 3 I ;f they were free from capital punishment, and ~~^-~ " 5^" [|J even goods that had been forfeited by the misdemeanours of their owners were held sacred if they could be placed in care of the Church. That privilege was often abused, and in the days of King Stephen, when holy places were no longer held in reverence, offenders were dragged even from the foot of the altar. The privilege FUGITIVE CLAIMING SANCTUARY. of sanctuary respecting confiscated property was repealed in 1164. 5. Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164. When the messengers returned from Kome the king summoned the prelates to meet in council at Clarendon, near Salisbury, to decide upon the laws which Henry proposed to substitute for existing customs. There were sixteen articles, and their general tenour was to restrain the authority of the Church and make the clergy amenable to the civil courts. The following were some of the provisions : Kule 3. Clergy charged with crimes to be tried in the civil courts, and a king s justice be present in Church courts. Rule 4. No prelate to quit the kingdom without the king s per mission, or do evil and mischief to the realm when abroad. Rule 11. Prelates, as barons, to be subject to feudal burdens. Rule 12. The king to hold all vacant benefices, and to receive their revenues till the vacancies were filled. Rule 14. Forfeited goods not to be protected by sanctuary. Becket refused to affix his official seal to those Constitutions, and the other bishops stood by him in his decision. The council broke up in confusion. Becket went to his lodging, but the other bishops were confined together in one room for three days ; after which the most influential barons announced that they had determined to support COUNCIL OF NORTHAMPTON 195 the king, and Becket was implored to give way. The council was hastily called together again, and Becket said : " It is God s will that I should perjure myself. For the present I submit and incur perjury, to repent of it hereafter as best I may," Still he refused to sign the document, and asked permission to carry home a copy for consideration. But so far from signing it he immediately imposed a penance on himself for having temporarily yielded, and determined to stand alone against the king and barons and prelates in opposing the new laws. 6. The council of North- I ampton. When Henry saw there was no chance of moving the archbishop, he commenced to set the secular courts in motion against him. At a council held at Northampton in 1165, Becket was charged with perjury, con tempt of the crown, and mis appropriation of funds during his chancellorship, and condemned to forfeit all his estates and posses sions to the king. On the recom mendation of Henry de Blois, Becket offered 2000 marks as indemnity, which the king re- I fused; other friends advised him resign the archbishopric, but I that he declined to do. At a subsequent session of the council, from {which the bishops had withdrawn, the arch bishop was impeached for high treason, and when he heard this he went in full pontificals | to the council and dis- COSTI-.MK OF A BISHOP (12TH CENTURY), claimed the right of lay peers to judge him. But they declared him guilty of treason, and the earl of Leicester, as chief justice, called upon him to listen 196 FLIGHT OF BECKET to his sentence. "My sentence! son earl/ exclaimed the arch bishop, "nay, hear me first. The king promoted me against my will to be archbishop of Canterbury. I was then declared free from all secular obligations. Ye are my children and may not sit in judgment on your spiritual father. As the soul is worth more than the body so should you obey God and me rather than an earthly king. Therefore, I I decline to receive judg ment from the king or you, or any other tem poral peer, and will be judged, under God, by the pope alone. I place my church and person under his protection, I and so I quit this court." | Carrying his cross before him he left the council- chamber with dignity amid a storm of insults and cries of "traitor ! " which he said he would |liave resented with his sword had he been a < night. He then fled I for sanctuary to St. Andrew s church, and under cover of the night rode away to Lincoln, and thence by night rode to Canterbury, from whence, in the disguise I of a Cistercian monk, he escaped to St. Omer in France, which was be yond Henry s domin ions. There he recruited his strength, and re sumed somewhat of his NORMAN DOOR, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, former magnificence. HENRY II. AND RIVAL POPES 197 7. Becket s appeal to the pope. 1 When Henry heard of Becket s flight he sent to the king of France desiring that "the traitor" should not be allowed refuge in that kingdom. He also sent a numerous embassage of bishops and barons to Pope Alexander at Sens requesting him to send Becket back to England, and appoint a special legate to investigate the charges. They had not long arrived when Becket, escorted by 300 knights, also reached the papal court to lay before Alexander his copy of the " Constitutions of Clarendon." "When the pope saw these he said that they were not "customs" but "tyrannical usurpations," and censured Becket and the bishops for having promised to observe them even with the qualifying pro vision of Salva ecclesiie dignitate. The pope seemed disposed to take Becket s part but dared not offend the king. Becket then played his master-stroke. The only way to escape from personal danger was to increase papal authority in England. Plucking the archiepiscopal ring from his finger he handed it to the pope and declared himself unable any longer to bear the burden of his office. Next day the pope returned the ring to Becket, who was thus able afterwards to say that he held the primacy from the pope and not from the king. After that Becket retired to Sens, where he remained, surrounded by a band of devoted friends, for some years. It was unavailing for Henry and the barons to banish Becket and several hundreds of his followers, for the spiritual weapon of excommunication by which the Church absolved subjects from their allegiance to their sovereign was too potent to be despised. Fortunately for Henry there were rival popes at the time, and although England had recognized Alexander, Henry now swore fidelity to the other pope, whose name was Paschal, and repudiated any allegiance to Alexander, so that a threatened excommunication from one pope was set off by a counter excommunication by the other pope. Ultimately Alexander was received in Rome as the rightful pope, and he gave to Becket legatine commission over the province of Canterbury. Thus fortified, Becket publicly annulled the "Constitutions of Clarendon," excommunicated many of the authors of that document, and threatened the king with similar punishment. That spread consternation throughout England, which King Henry allayed by once more acknowledging Alexander as pope, and allowing papal legates to make inquiries into the respective merits of his cause and that of the refractory archbishop. 1 See Great English Churchmen. S.P.C.K. Home Library. 3s. <3c7. 198 EFFORTS TOWARDS CONCILIATION 8. The French king s mediation. The legates opened negotiations between the principals in the struggle, and three characteristic meetings took place between Henry II. and Archbishop Becket through the mediation of Louis, king of France, who had taken the primate s part all through. The first interview was at Montmirail, near Chartres, in 1169. The archbishop was then willing to alter the famous qualifying phrase to "saving the honour of God." " But," said Henry to the king of France, "whatever his lordship of Canterbury disapproves he will say is contrary to God s honour, and so he will on all occasions get the advantage of me, but that I may not be thought to despise God s honour, I will put before him this pro position : Let him agree to behave towards me as the holiest of his predecessors behaved towards the weakest of mine, and I will be satisfied," All present considered that a fair proposal. But Becket was inflexible, and referred to the double exile to which Anselm had submitted rather than yield to royal demands. Nothing came of the meeting, and the legates in vain tried to conciliate the rivals. Both clung to the positions they had taken up. "Saving the dignity of my crown," was Henry s reservation, without which he would accept no agreement. Those phrases became in time subjects of common jest. A second meeting was at Montmartre, near Paris, later in the same year, The king offered to submit the question at issue to arbitration, but Becket said he preferred an amicable settlement. " The archbishop said nothing about reservations, and the king was silent as to constitution. Everything seemed to be arranged, when Becket claimed from the king * the kiss of peace, as a guarantee of the royal sincerity." Henry excused himself, and Becket refused to continue negotiations. Once more each side was at open enmity. The archbishop excommunicated right and left, while the king banished the prelate s partisans with no less vigour, As Henry s continental possessions frequently took him out of England he desired that his son Prince Henry should share in the government by being crowned regent of England ; and he ordered the archbishop of York to perform the ceremony of coronation, which was a breach of the prerogatives of the see of Canterbury. Meanwhile the legates were busy with fresh negotiations, and a third meeting took place at Fretteville, in the summer of 1170. Both parties were now heartily tired of the struggle, and w r ere willing to make concessions. All reference to offensive topics was avoided. Although the kiss of peace was not BECKET S RETURN 199 exchanged the meeting between king and prelate was very cordial. They met on horseback out of doors, and rode together privately for some time, the archbishop expressing his willingness to return to England if he were allowed to inflict ecclesiastical censure on those who had infringed his rights by crowning Prince Henry. The king agreed, and, in gratitude for the concession, the primate dismounted and threw himself at Henry s feet. Not to be outdone in courtesy, Henry held Becket s stirrup for him to remount, and after this reconciliation Becket prepared to return to his long neglected flock. But he was not sure that the king would deal truly by him. As he bade the bishop of Paris farewell, he said : " 1 go to England to die." To Henry he said : " My mind tells me we shall never meet again in this life." It need not have been so had the archbishop desired peace. 9. The murder Of Becket. He had sent before him an un suspected messenger with letters from the pope suspending the prelates of York, Durham, London, Salisbury, Exeter. Chester, Rochester, Llandaff, and St. Asaph ; three of them, the bishops of Roch ester, London, and Salisbury, old enemies of Becket, being] also excommunicated. They complained to I the king. "What can I do?" said he. "That your barons must ad vise," they answered, "but as long as the archbishop lives you I will not have a peace ful realm or a quiet life ;" at which the| king cried, "A curse I on all the varlets I have nourished ; TRANSEPT OF THE MARTYRDOM. 200 THE MURDER OF BECKET will no one rid me from the insolence of this turbulent priest ? " Four knights who stood by the king and heard his rash words seized the opportunity of gaining favour with Henry II. by plotting the murder of Beeket, Their names were Richard le Breton, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, and Hugh de Moreville. The story of Becket s death has been told so often and at such great length that a brief account is sufficient here. The knights forced their way into the primate s palace at Canterbury and held a stormy colloquy with him. As he defied them to do their worst they rushed out for weapons, and Becket s friends begged him to take s mctuary in the cathedral ; but before he could reach the high altar the knights overtook him in the transept chapel of St. Benedict, for he would not allow the monks to bar the cloister doors. From the steps of the shrine he asked the knights what they required, and they replied " Your death." Becket said he was ready to die in the name of the Lord, but forbade them to touch his people. They tried to drag him out of the cathedral, but he shook them off. Fitz-Urse, stung by an opprobrious epithet Becket applied to him, struck at the primate s head with a sword ; but the blow only knocked off his mitre. Bowing his head with the words * I commend rny soul to God, St. Denis, and the saints of the Church," he received another furious blow from De Tracy s weapon, which nearly severed the arm of a monk who tried to avert it, and shaved off the archbishop s scalp. Wiping the blood from his face Becket said : " Lord into Thy hands I commend my spirit." Fitz-Urse and Tracy each dealt another blow which brought poor Thomas to his knees. * In defence of the Church I am willing to die," he articulated; upon which Le Breton aimed so violent a stroke that the archbishop s skull was cloven in two and the weapon broken by contact with the marble steps, Hugh de Moreville took no part in the actual murder, but guarded the doors against any attempt at rescue. As soon as their horrible task was completed they hurried away, and the monks laid Becket s body in state on the high altar, burying it the following day in the crypt of his cathedral. 10. Consequences of Becket s murder. This brutal crime sent a thrill of horror throughout the Christian world. Henry regretted it most of all. He felt that his rash words had authorized the deed, although he disavowed the horrible intention. He placed himself in the pope s hands, and submitted to such penance as that pontiff imposed. Becket was at once canonized as a martyr. All RESULTS OF THE MURDER 201 sorts of miracles were snperstitiously attributed to the relics of the murdered primate, and for centuries his shrine was the most venerated in England. As an instance of the undue proportion of respect paid to his memory it has been stated that in one year nearly 1000 marks were offered at his shrine by devotees who made pilgrimages to Canterbury, while to the altar of the Virgin in the same cathedral only 64 marks were offered during the same period, and to the high altar of Christ nothing. When Henry returned to England in 1174 "he rode from Southampton to Canterbury without resting, dismounted at the gate of the city, walked barefoot through the streets to the cathedral, and prostrated himself on the ground before the tomb. In the chapter-house he caused each of the monks to stiike him with the discipline, and afterwards he spent the whole night in the church beside the tomb. The murderers were avoided by every one, and were sent to Home to put themselves at the pope s disposal. He ordered them to go on pilgrimage to the holy land. A doubtful legend says that one died on the road, the others died within three years, and were buried before the door of the church of the holy sepulchre" (CiMs), The chief consequences of Becket s death were seen in King Henry s surrender of much for which he had been striving, and the ultimate submission of England s civil power to papal suzerainty, as the next chapter will show. On the other hand Henry II. was able to secure the greater part of the " Constitutions of Clarendon," which were of service to the nation afterwards. There was nothing very saintly in the character of Becket ; but the sanctity of the place where he was killed, and the sacred office held by the victim, invested his death with a glamour of sacrilege, and caused him to become more powerful in death than he had been in life. CHAPTER XIII. (A.D. 1175-1228) THE GREAT CHARTER " Lo ! John self-stripped of his insignia ; crown, Sceptre and mantle, sword and ring, laid down At a proud legate s feet ! The spears that line Baronial halls, the opprobrious insult feel ; And angry ocean roars a vain appeal, " I. The election Of bishops. Becket s place in the see of Canterbury was successively occupied by Richard, Baldwin, Reginald Fitz-Jocelin, and Hubert Walter, but their primacies were not very remarkable. In Richard s time Canterbury cathedral was burnt down and rebuilt. Both Richard and Baldwin attempted to obtain greater control over the abbeys which were exempt by papal authority from episcopal supervision, but their efforts came to nothing. Baldwin and Walter were crusaders. The only important ecclesiastical events belonging to their terms of office were the disagreements about their election. Before the Norman conquest the clergy of each diocese had the privilege of choosing or electing their bishops. In the case of an archbishop for Canterbury the monks and canons of that cathedral usually elected the primate, the king, owing to the importance of the appointment, exercising considerable influence over their choice. With the Norman conquest the custom arose of bishops being nominated by the king, and so the freedom of election was, to some extent, lost ; but the monks of Christ church, Canterbury, were always scheming to regain that privilege. After Becket s murder the suffragan bishops of the pro vince of Canterbury claimed the right to a voice in the election of their chief, but this claim the Canterbury monks opposed, and obtained papal mandates in their favour. The monks admitted the king s right to send a congt d ttire, or leave to elect, and were willing to submit their choice for his approbation, but objected to any further restric tions ; and successive kings confirmed by their charters this nominal freedom of election. In the case of an archbishop the popes now claimed the right to have the election submitted to them for approval, but in the case of suffragan bishops that proviso was not demanded. The monks of Canterbury in the time of Henry II. , and during some reigns afterwards, were able to retain their old privileges ; because the preaching of a new crusade, in which Henry s son Richard, Casur d& Lion, was soon to take a foremost part, absorbed the world s attention. 202 CROWN PATRONAGE 203 2. Hugh of Lincoln. With many of the bishops often absent from England, and the revenues of vacant sees confiscated to defray the cost of the king s numerous wars in France and Ireland, the English Church suffered morally and financially. Only the monks seemed to prosper, and they were often elevated to the episcopacy to the exclusion of the secular canons. One of the monks so elevated was Hugh of Avalon. He had been an inmate of St. Bernard s monastery in La Grande Chartreuse, and was invited hither by Henry to be prior of the Carthusian monastery at Witham, in Somersetshire, founded by the king as part of his penance for the death of Becket. In 1186 Hugh was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln (then in cluding all the country between the Humber and the Thames, except the eastern counties), after the seat had been vacant for seventeen years ; during which time there had been no supervision of the clergy, no ordinations or confirmations, and no churches built, those that were existing being allowed to fall into ruins. By great administrative ability Hugh was able to thoroughly re-organize the diocese and leave it a model see, with the prospect of a glorious cathedral. He was a stern disciplinarian, and hated all unnecessary pomp or circumstance. Eloquent^ humorous, self-denying, a hater of superstition, and a friend of the poor, he became a splendid example to the other prelates, who indeed needed such ; for they had been promoted mainly on account of their secular services to the king rather than for their spiritual qualities. No one could influence Henry II. so powerfully as the fearless Hugh of Lincoln. Not even to the king would he abate one jot of his love for right and justice, for once when Henry wanted to prefer a courtier to a prebendal stall in Lincoln cathedral, the bishop replied: "0 king, the benefices of the Church are for ecclesiastics, not for those who serve the palace ; " and at another | time, when the king asked why he |had excommunicated a forester with out the royal permission, the bishop jgave answer: "Truly, I did not Kirn uu j think it necessary to communicate 204 BISHOP HUGH AND RICHARD I. such small matters to thee, for, as they were right, I was sure you would immediately approve." This frank and dauntless manner, and faith in the king s sense of right, made him Henry s firmest friend ; and when Richard I. succeeded his father on the English throne, no man could stand so fearlessly and conscientiously before him as Hugh. The bishop resisted all encroachments upon the privilege of sanctuary, and was not unused to defending his convictions against the received opinions of his dayf For instance, he declared that chastity was not incompatible with a marriageable priesthood, at a time when most men considered celibacy among the clergy indispensable to their morality. Again, when men brought to him relics of the saints, or showed him some pretended evidence of their miraculous power, he would indignantly bid them begone with the signs of their unbelief. Perhaps the most remarkable scene that ever took place between a king and a bishop was when Hugh braved the lion-hearted king at Rouen, in 1195. Richard had sent to England a demand for more money for the support of his war with France from the barons and bishops and clergy, but Hugh of Lincoln, on behalf of the clergy, said : "Our homage to the king does not include military service for foreign wars." Richard then ordered the bishop s goods to be confiscated, but none of the king s officers ventured to carry out his mandate for fear of episcopal anathemas. To save them from Richard s wrath, Hugh resolved to p ty a visit to that impetuous monarch in Normandy. On approaching Rouen some nobles met him and begged that for the sake of his personal safety, he would not approach the angry king ; but he took no notice of them. Richard was attending a celebration of the Holy Communion when Hugh reached the court, and had the bishop faltered his fate would have been sealed. But he boldly advanced to the king and claimed the kiss of peace, which was then a customary part of the Eucharist service. Richard looked another way"; the service was suspended, and all the nobles watched the singular mental struggle. " Kiss me, my lord," said Hugh again, " for I have come from far to see thee." " You have not deserved it," replied Richard. "Nay, but 1 have," and he laid hold of the royal robe. The king now turned towards the prelate, but there were no signs of flinching on the part of Hugh when their eyes met, so the lion- heart was vanquished, and the kiss was granted. Afterwards Richard said : " If all bishops were like Hugh, no prince would venture to withstand them." His remarkable courage has gained for him the DEATH OF BISHOP HUGH 205 pseudonym of Jtegum Malleus, "the hammer of kings." Hugh died in the year 1200, and some idea of the respect he commanded by his sanctity may be gathered from the fact that two kings, three arch bishops, fourteen bishops, a hundred abbots, and a long train of nobility attended his funeral. Twenty years after he was canonized, and his name is found in the calendar of our Prayer-book against November 17. His remains were deposited in a superb silver shrine within the choir of his cathedral, which is the earliest dated example in England of the pure lancet Gothic, or Early English architecture. " LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. 3. Pope Innocent III. King Richard had been killed the year before Hugh died , and was succeeded by his brother John, of whom historhns, especially church historians, are compelled to record unpalatable truths. He was unfortunate in his battles nnd lost all 206 POPE INNOCENT III. his father s dominions in France north of the Loire. Those reverses were adjusted by plundering his English subjects and exacting heavy taxes from them. The occupant of the papal throne at that time was Innocent III., the most remarkable and powerful pontiff who ever attained that position. He was raised to the popedom in 1198, and at once claimed temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction over all the world. He had exercised some authority over Richard I., but nothing compared with that which he obtained over King John. It came about in this way : Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, died in 1205, and King John requested the monks of Christ church to appoint the bishop of Norwich in his room. But they, preferring to exercise their ancient freedom of election, appointed their sub-prior instead, and sent him to Rome that his appointment might be con firmed by the pope. The man was so proud of his election that he told every one about it before he reached Rome, and when King John heard the news, he came down upon the monks of Canterbury in his fury and forced them to accept his nominee ; who also was sent to Rome for the pall. Here was an opportunity for Innocent III. ; he refused to confirm the sub-prior s election because of inefficiency, and declined to accept the bishop of Norwich on the ground that kings should not be concerned with the ap pointment of spiritual persons. He then ordered the Canterbury monks to elect an Englishman named Stephen Langton, who was then chancellor of th university of Paris, which they did. But John would no receive Langton and expell the Canterbury monks fo having elected him, confiscating their possessions. Innocent III."" KING JOHN. then did a very bold act, he laid the kingdom under an interdict; that is to say, he prohibited the English clergy from performing spiritual duties until such times as John would submit to papal authority. THE LEGATE PANDULPH 207 4. The humiliation of King John. The result of that action of Innocent III. is generally overstated. No doubt there were many persons who believed that the pope had such power as Innocent claimed, and obeyed his mandate ; but there were a large number of others, well acquainted with the struggles that the Church had made for many generations to retain its national independence against the aggrandizement of the papacy, who cared very little for its denuncia tions. John and Innocent were each determined to try who could hold out the longest. All prelates or clergy who obeyed the pope were expelled from the realm and their benefices seized. In this the king was upheld by the bishops of Durham, Winchester, and Norwich, who agreed that the pope had no legal right to issue such an edict. Innocent then excommunicated the king, but though that may have inconvenienced John a little it did not trouble him much, except that it made him still more bitter against the pope. For four years this state of things continued, but each year the tyrannies and exactions of John increased, so that to escape from them the clergy and barons decided to ask the pope to adopt still stronger measures. The pope had now a large standing army, the result mainly of the Crusades ; with this he was in the habit of fighting against kings and emperors as if he were a temporal prince ; he could therefore enforce his will by an appeal to arms, as John knew very well. In the year 1212 the pope declared John s deposition, and absolved his subjects from their allegiance. Soon after, Innocent gave the kingdom of England to Philip Augustus, king of France, and invited him to invade our country and dethrone John. Philip was not generally an obedient servant of the pope, but now that it suited his purpose he obeyed with considerable alacrity. John knew that as he had alienated the sympathies of the barons and prelates by his extortions, and could only rely upon the broken reed of mercenary forces, he would have no chance against the combined power of Philip and Innocent. He therefore offered his submission to the pope and agreed to receive Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury. But Innocent required more than this. Through his legate, Pandulph, he demanded the surrender of the insignia of royalty, and that John should consent to hold the English realm as feudatory vassal of the papal see, and pay a large annual tribute of Petcr s-pence to the papal exchequer. To all this the terrified king agreed ; he surrendered his crown, robes, sword, and ring to Pandulph, and received them back after a day or two as a 208 NATIONAL RESISTANCE favour from the pope. AVlieii England heard what its king had done it tingled with a sense of shame. "The king has become the pope s man," the people cried, " he has degraded himself to the level of a serf. " But the king s action was to some extent politic, for it prevented another foreign invasion. Philip was ordered back, and John received his absolution from the new archbishop in the chapter-house of Winchester, July 20, 1213 ; but the interdict was not removed until the papal legate was satisfied with the restitution John had made. 5. Stephen Langtoil. Archbishop Langton was then a very important personage, but he used his powers judiciously. He must have greatly astonished both- the king and the pope by his line of conduct. Considering the enormous trouble which Innocent had taken to obtain the primacy for him, we might have expected him to uphold the papal claims ; but as soon as he had entered upon the temporalities of his see he adopted an independent attitude towards the king on the one h md, and the pope on the other. He was an Englishman, and therefore refused to do anything which would dishonour his country, or injure his countrymen, or harm the national Church. John and the barons were at enmity. John \vas in the wrong, and therefore Langton supported the barons in demanding their ancient liberties. On the occasion of John s absolution Langtou had administered an oath to him, by which the king promised to renew the lows of Edward the confessor ; but the archbishop knew John s character too well to be content with a verbal promise made under compulsion. No one quite knew what the ancient laws were, but Langton searched the archives of the nation and produced the charter of Henry I., which recited those laws, and stipulated what privileges the prelates and barons respectively might claim for their order. This he laid before a private council of the noble i held at St. Paul s, London, August 25, 1213. The barons declared themselves ready to die for these liberties. " Swear it ! " said Langton, and they did so. Meantime the papal legate had been traversing the coin 1 try, filling up all the vacant benefices by appointing friends of John and the pope, in defiance of the rights of patrons and the prerogatives of bishops. That was more than Langton could quietly submit to, and therefore he appealed to the pope against such uncanonical intrusions, and inhibited the legate from making further appointments. John had promised to pay the bishops and clergy a large indemnity for the revenues he had abstracted from their benefices and sees in order to have the interdict removed ; but when the ARCHBISHOP LANGTON S PLAN 209 clergy and barons under Langton and Robert Fitz- Walter had marshalled themselves against the king and legate, thus forming what was called The Army of God and Holy Church, John determined to make a second abject submission to the papacy, and take the vow of a crusader, in order to counteract their plans. In return for his sub serviency the pope reduced the indemnity John had covenanted to pay to the clergy, from 100,000 to 40,000 marks, and re moved the inter dict June 29, 1214. When Langton presented to the king the people s claim for their traditional liber ties John, feeling himself strong in the might of his new suzerain, re pudiated his pro mise to ratify the ancient English laws. That was "the last straw," and the barons and prelates took the field in defence of their rights. Only seven knights were with King John, while the whole nation was in arms against him. CHAIM EU HOUSE OF OLD ST. PAUL S. (Hollar.) 6. Magna-Charta. Stephen Langton would not allow time to be wasted. The king wished to submit the matter to the papal suzerain of England, but the archbishop felt this to be a national affair in which the bishops of Rome had no right to interpose, and pressed the king for an immediate decision. John then agreed to sign a 210 THE GREAT CHARTER charter that he never meant to keep. The subscription of the king and the patriots took place at a little island in the Thames opposite to Runny mede, which is frequently visited by modern excursionists, who are glad to know it as the spot " Where England s ancient barons, clad in arms And stern with conquest, from their tyrant king (There rendered tame) did challenge and secure The charter of our freedom." Archbishop Langton had the priceless document already drawn up, but, for the sake of appearances, a few formal negotiations were carried on. The skilfully worded provisions of that famous charter are sacred to this day as the foundation of all our liberties as Englishmen. It was based upon ancient codes of law, "but the vague expressions of the older charters were then exchanged for precise and elaborate provisions." The archbishop knew that there would be a struggle for the temporal and spiritual liberties of Englishmen against the power of Rome, and he was careful so to word the seventy- eight clauses of the charter that no question might thereafter arise respecting what was due to the Church and nation from its rulers. The document was written in Latin. Translated into English its first provision runs : " That the Church of England shall be free, and hold her rights entire, and her liberties inviolate." After specifying these rights, and providing for freedom of the subject, and law and order in the realm, the charter concludes with a re-assertion of its initial principle : " That the Church of England be free, and that all men have and hold the aforesaid liberties truly and peaceably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, in all things and in all places for ever." This charter was signed on the fifteenth of June, 1215, and is still the standard of appeal in all judicial and secular matters ; English churchmen have therefore a right to maintain that it shall be also the standard by which the Church s liberties are to be tested. Satisfied with what they had done, the prelates and barons joyfully returned home with their retainers. But the mean-spirited king sent an embassy to Rome explaining that the first great act of the arch bishop, whom Innocent III. had imposed upon him, was to defy the assumed prerogative of the papacy in this country by organizing a rebellion against the vassal of the pope. Innocent III. was furious ; he proclaimed the charter void, and absolved King John from the SUSPENSION OF LANG TON 211 necessity of observing its conditions. But the English nobles stood firm ; the charter, and nothing but the charter, should be the basis of their allegiance to the king. When Innocent heard that the barons despised his mandate he ordered Langton and the bishops to excom municate them, and strongly reprimanded the prelates for their action in promoting such contempt of the holy see. But the archbishop of Canterbury refused to obey the* pope s decree, whereupon Innocent suspended him and other bishops from their offices. Had the writs of suspension been issued while the prelates were in England, very little notice would have been taken of them ; but they were first invited to attend a council held at Rome, and after they had embarked for their voyage, the sentence of their suspension was proclaimed. They were not allowed to land on English soil again until they had paid heavy fines for their contempt of the papal decrees. Stephen Langton was hardly the kind of man to admit himself in the wrong by paying a fine, so he preferred to stay abroad during the rest of John s reign. M A (.; N A-CII A 11TA ISLA .N 1). 7. Subsequent events. To show their sympathy for Stephen Langton the canons of York elected his brother Simon to the northern primacy. But both king and pope refused to approve the election, and forced the clergy to receive Walter de Gray, bishop of Worcester, instead. Freed from the restraint of Stephen Langton s influence 212 HENRY THE THIRD John turned savagely upon the barons, with the help of a host of foreign mercenary soldiers ; and, with the assent of Pope Innocent III., plunged the country into a far more distressful condition than it had ever known. Lawlessness, anarchy, strife, pillage, and murder were filling the land with terror ; when both tyrants, Innocent III. and King John, were called to their account, A.IJ. 1216. The barons had previously invited Louis, the dauphin of France, to rid them of John s rule ; but as he began to divide their territory among his French friends, they gladly returned to their allegiance to the Plantagenet line ; and after John s death they accepted his son Henry for their king, although he was only a boy of nine years old. At the corona tion of Henry III., Langton s charter was accepted (as indeed it was by all succeeding kings) as the first official act of the reign, by the advice of William, earl of Pembroke, who (with the p.ipal legate and the bishop of Winchester) was the guardian of the young king. ]t was not until 1218 that Archbishop Langton was allowed to return. Then he set himself to reform abuses which had been growing for some time. He was a great advocate of clerical celibacy, and somewhat disposed to the magnificent in ecclesiastical ritual. For instance, to restore religious fervour in the country he caused the memory of several famous English saints to be revived by translating their remains to much grander shrines ; thus Wulfstan of Worcester, and Thomas of Canterbury, were translated amidst imposing ceremonies, to witness which nobles and prelates came from foreign countries. Stephen Langton was able during his lifetime to resist the encroachments of the see of Rome, but he died in July 1228, and left the English Church at the mercy of the foreign ecclesiastics introduced by King Henry. Langton will always be remembered as a brave prelate and a wise statesman. The vigour infused into the Church during the latter days of his primacy had its greatest effect in rebuilding of old, and construction of new churches. Westminster-abbey nave and transepts present to us the finest specimen of Early -English architecture. The abbay church which Edward the Confessor built had fallen into decay, and a great part of it (see page 135) was rebuilt by the direction and at the cost of Henry III., between the years 1220 and 1269, and was perhaps the best work undertaken by that monarch. He was a good husband and a dutiful son, but w r as so occupied with paying attention to his mother s friends from Poitou, and his wife s relations from Provence, that he somewhat neglected his duties to the English. SS. DOMINIC AND FRANCIS 213 8. The mendicant orders. About this time there flourished several brotherhoods, or orders of friars, who went about among all classes of the people without shoes or money, holding open-air services and preaching vigorously, to the great disgust of the more luxurious monks, who thought it insolent on the part of these new enthusiasts "to pretend to be better than other folk." They had their origin in the devotion of two men Dominic, a Spaniard ; and Francis, of Assisi in Italy. Their lives and writings form the subjects of many devotional works in the present day. Dominic had been very eager in the vigorous persecution of the Albigenses in Languedoc, and his zeal in preaching against their so-called heresies gained for him the countenance of Innocent III., who permitted him to establish an order of preachers who were called after him Dominican friars. The first instalment of his order arrived in England in 1219. Their dress was black, hence "Black-friars" Five years after the establishment of the Dominicans, Pope Honorius III. permitted Francis to found a second order whLch was called the Franciscan. In imitation of our Lord s 214 THE MENDICANT ORDERS command that his apostles should carry neither purse nor scrip, nor shoes, nor changes of raiment, Francis adopted a very rough garb of grey wool, bound round the waist by a rope; hence "Grey-friars." A.D. 1224 is the date of their first appearance in this country. Those preaching orders lived upon the alms of their admirers, retaining no more than was sufficient for the needs of each day, bestowing the surplus upon the squalid poor, or, as in later years, upon the building of a church. This practice of continual begging gained for them the name of mendicants. Within a few years the country was overrun by them. It is thought that they had a special commission from the popes to bring about the submission of the Church of England, which had so long defied the papal power. They are sometimes called " the pope s militia." If such was their mission they overdid it by coming here in too great force. There were other orders besides the black and grey, such as the Augustinian, or "Austin-friars," and the Carmelite, or " White-friars" The city of London and other towns preserve in the names of streets evidences of the places where these friars respect ively abided. The Franciscans were devoted to the study of nature, and on their roll of honour are the names of Roger Bacon, Alexander Hales, and other philosophers. But the Dominicans were the greatest theologians, and the works of Thomas Aquinas are still revered by Romanists as a defence against heresy. The original zeal of the friars cannot be gainsaid, and for awhile they put the monks and clergy to shame by their con scientious and earnest lives. Yet, alas ! they soon found a way of eluding the vow of absolute poverty, and often lived more luxuriously and housed themselves more warmly than the richest communities of monks. At first they were welcomed throughout the Christian world, as all true devotional enthusiasm will ever be ; but, as was the case with the privileged orders of monks (see page 184), being ^made independent of episcopal super- A PILGRIM (seepage 163). V i s i 011} ^ey went wherever they chose, and interfered with the work of the parish clergy, thus becoming powerful agents in the work of demoralizing the Church of England, and bringing it more under papal tyranny. CHAPTER XIV. (A.D. 1228-1327) THE REACTION AGAINST ROMAN SUPREMACY " And what melodious sounds at times prevail ! And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam Pours on the surface of the turbid stream. Fair court of Edward ! wonder of the world ! I see a matchless blazonry unfurled Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love. 1. Edmund Rich of Canterbury. Stephen Langton was succeeded in the see of Canterbury by Richard Weather shed, but his term of office lasted only two years. He was not a popular prelate. He died abroad in 1231, and there was not another archbishop until Edmund, suruamed Rich, of Abingdon, was consecrated in 1234. Three men chosen by the Canterbury monks to succeed Weathershed had been rejected by the pope, who claimed the right to nominate to English sees. The popes had then reached the height of their autocratic power, and were obeyed from sheer terror all over Europe. The people of England were very heavily taxed by Henry III., a notoriously extravagant prince in public as well as private ex penditure, and the barons and clergy had to protest bitterly against his demands upon them. Not only so, but the pope sent legates to demand tribute from the English people, which served to increase their irritation. Matthew Paris, the great chronicler of this age, likens the Englishmen of his oTay to sheep, for whose destruction the pope and king, as shepherd and wolf, were allied together. It is impossible to describe the impoverished condition of the nobility and clergy through those combined exactions. The great charter of Stephen Langton, though repeatedly acknowledged by Henry III., was as often ignored by him ; and it became necessary for clergy and laity to band themselves together as a patriotic party against the unholy alliance of king and courtiers- with the papacy. Archbishop Edmund, although a nominee of the pope, attached himself to the patriots ; and assembled the barons in council at Westminster, as Langton had done in the previous reign. Their object was to force Henry to observe the conditions of Magna-Charta. The king would promise anything if the prelates and nobles would grant him supplies, 215 216 ARCHBISHOP EDMUND RICH and they, in their anxiety to be loyal, too readily accepted his fair speeches, and gave him what he needed, in order to keep him out of the toils of unscrupulous advent urers from abroad. The absolute necessity laid upon the clergy to bear the lion s share of those new impositions, while on the one hand it made patriots of many, resulted on the other hand in the promotion of such superstitions as brought wealth to the Church ; especially the sacrifice of masses, for the re pose of the souls of persons who had died, which were thought to be beneficial to the departed, what ever their previous lives had been. The patriotic party were power- HENKY THE THiKi). less to stem the in vasion of foreign nobles; and although in Langton s time (1226) the demand of Rome for two appointments in each cathedral church to be at the disposal of the pope was indignantly rejected, many foreign ecclesiastics were soon intruded upon the English Church. In 1229, the pope s temporal influence here had grown to such an extent that he demanded a tenth of English property on behalf of his see. The nobles refused to pay any such claim. Their estates, they said, were not fiefs of the pope. But as some of the [ relates had been nominated by the papacy the clergy could not escape so easily. The king and nobles often upheld papal claims on Church revenues to rid themselves of any such tribute. The pope was far too powerful to be altogether ignored, and so, to preserve England from his enmity, the Church was plundered. In 1231 a mysterious band of patriots in masks kept the foreign clergy, who occupied English livings, in a perpetual state of terror by sudden attacks upon their storehouses, the contents of which were sold cheaply to the poor. The leader of this band was Sir Robert de Twenge, who seems to have been encouraged in his proceedings by Hubert de Burgh, the last of the great justiciars. The pope protested against such treatment of his incumbents, and, in 1237, sent Cardinal FOREIGN CLERGY 217 Otho, as legate extraordinary, to uphold the papal dignity and protect the foreign clergy. Otho held a council at St. Paul s, London, in November of that year with the avowed intention of promulgating a visitation of monasteries, the deposition of such clergy as held more than one benefice, and other high moral reforms ; but really to create vacancies for papal nominees. The country was indignant at his interference, and the bishops even refused to give the legate hospitality. They thought it was better to have clergy in England holding more offices than one, but within reach of their duties, than that the benefices should be presented singly to foreigners who resided abroad. Unfortunately Henry III. upheld the office of the legate in order to promote his own schemes. There seems to have been something like a conspiracy between king and pope to denationalize the English Church and Realm. When Otho found that the English were averse to his mission, he endeavoured to conciliate them by offering to permit the observance of all ancient privileges on condition that the clergy paid him a consideration. But his overtures were refused, and some of the nobles went to Rome to protest against his infringement of their rights as patrons of livings on their estates. They obtained very little permanent satisfaction, and soon after, encouraged by Pope Gregory, Otho demanded a fifth part of English Church revenues, to assist in defraying the cost of a new crusade, as the war between the pope and the emperor of Germany about this time was called. A feeble resistance was made by the clergy, but ultimately they yielded to the audacious impost. Further, to obtain additional funds for his campaigns, the pope offered all the benefices of the English Church to the Romans and their friends in return for their assistance. In short, every conceivable advantage was taken by this unscrupulous pontiff, with the connivance of the iniquitous King Henry, to provide resources at the expense of the English Church. Such tyranny was more than Edmund Rich could bear. He would gladly have been a second Langton, but it was not in him. Owing to these foreign encroachments and the consequent demoralized condition of the English clergy, he felt himself altogether unfitted for his responsible office ; therefore, he resigned the archbishopric and went into voluntary exile, dying of a broken heart in November 1240. 2. Robert " Grossetete," of Lincoln. A stronger mind was soon forthcoming to fight the Church s battle against the potentate of Rome and lead the English barons in their struggle against the 218 BISHOP GROSSETETE vices of the king, as well as to resist Henry s seizure of Church temporalities during the vacation of a benefice, and revive the dying embers of religious life in England. That was Robert, surnamed " Grossetete," or "Greathead," on account of his scholarly attainments, who had been made bishop of Lincoln, A.D. 1235. Living as he did during a time of universal lawlessness and anarchy, and presiding over the largest diocese in England, his fearless efforts on behalf of justice, without respect of persons, have earned for him undying fame. He utilized the religious enthusiasm of the friars to reform the habits of his clergy, and insisted that the monasteries should make due pro vision for the adequate ministerial care of parishes from which they drew tithes. At first he had belonged to the party which favoured the papal claims ; but when he realized the depravity and cupidity of the pope and his adherents he went right over to the national side, and boldly protested against the ambitious designs of the Roman see. Boniface of Savoy, uncle to the queen of England, had succeeded Edmund Rich in the see of Canterbury ; but Grossetete was able with out difficulty to influence the new-comer, and his advice was asked in moit things concerning the affairs of our Church and country. By his influence Richard-de-la- Wych was appointed to the see of Chichester, and thus another notable addition was made to the band of patriotic prelates. The king had desired that another man should have the Sussex bishopric, and appealed to the pope against the appointment of Wych, withholding the temporalities of the see until a decision was arrived at. That appeal came before a council at Lyons, A. D. 1250, where the pope then lived (see p. 168). Grossetete was present, and did not hesitate to preach a sermon before Innocent IV. and the college of cardinals, denouncing them as the authors of all the troubles that afflicted the English Church. "The cause," he said, "the fountain, the origin of all this is the court of Rome, because it commits the care of the flock to ravening wolves." Much more of a like nature found a place in his remarkable discourse, and we may set it down as the first definite public protest on the part of the English Church, through its representatives, against the inveterate worldliness of the papacy. Innocent was obliged to uphold the appointment of Wych, in the hope of conciliating Grossetete ; but the note of defiance had been sounded, and henceforth the bishops of Rome had often to submit to open reproofs. No foreign cleric was instituted in the diocese of Lincoln during Grossetete s term of office. The pope had commanded SIMON DE MO NT FORT 219 him to institute a mere child to a canonry at Lincoln, but he refused ; and wrote a letter, remarkable for its boldness, to the effect that he would resist and oppose the orders contained in the pope s letters, " because they deprived Christian souls of the ministry of their pastors, and were altogether opposed to the sanctity of the apostolic see, and contrary to the catholic faith." The popular enthusiasm in England for Grossetete prevented the pope s anger from harming the bishop, but he was never forgiven, as we may imagine. The legate Otho was now replaced by another, named Martin, who was still more eager to seize upon English benefices, and to demand aids for the papal exchequer than his predecessor had been. That still further alienated the people from any affection they may have felt for the see of Rome and made them think the more highly of the great reformer Grossetete. So great were the evils that lesulted from the introduction of foreign nobles into the councils of the realm that Grossetete, in combination with Earl Simon de Montfort and other patriot peers, demanded a voice in the election of the king s advisers, and in that way prevented the utter subver sion of the government by aliens. Had Grossetete lived, his efforts would doubt less have ended in the complete rebellion of the national party against the papal yoke ; but he died in 1253, much to the delight of the pope, who asked "every tiue son of the Roman Church to rejoice with him now that his enemy was re moved." Even in his last illness Robert the Greathead fearlessly denounced the Roman pontiff as a heretic and antichrist for his iniquitous claim to "provide" the English benefices with foreign clergy who seldom resided near, or cared for, their cures. Archbishop Scivell, of York, en deavoured for a time to take Grossetete s place as the champion of the English Church against the foreigners, but the two men were incomparable ; for when the pope excommunicated Sewell for his resistance he pined away and died. SIMON DE MONTFORT. 220 PAPAL DEMAND FOR "FIRST-FRUITS" 3. The first representative parliament. Earl Simon was then leader of the national party against foreign courtiers, and he was as firm in upholding the rights of the English Church against the demands of Rome, as he was in resisting the king s extravagant taxes for the support of an improvident court. Although the king was already helplessly in debt he pledged the country to the cost of a war in Sicily, waged by the pope ; and when the barons objected he attempted to silence them by procuring papal excommunications against them ; but Earl Simon s party watched the shore, and searched all persons who landed from Italy, seizing and destroying any papal edicts or "provisions" that were found upon them. In 1256 two papal envoys were busy in our country raising money for the see of Rome, and it was about that time, during the papacy of Alexander IV., that the papal demand for annatcs, or " first-fruits " that is, the first year s income of an incumbent was first heard of in England. So great was the popular hatred against foreigners that once when an alien had been installed as a prebendary of St. Paul s cathedral (A.D. 1259), three young men, in the broad daylight, in the presence of a large assembly, murdered the new incumbent and two friends who were with him ; none of the bystanders interfering with, or attempting to capture the assassins. So many discreditable measures were adopted for relieving the Church of its just possessions, that the clergy offered to pay the king a very large sum towards the debts he had incurred to the pope, on condition that they should be free from all further papal or regal demands. But the pope and the king were far from being satisfied, and although King Henry and his son Edward had sworn to accept the Provisions of Oxford, drawn up by the barons in 1258 and renewed the following year at Westminster, in order to reform the grievances under which the Church and Realm laboured, the king soon evaded his promise, and the barons took up arms against him in sheer despair of obtaining their liberties by more constitutional means. In that struggle the patriots were at first victorious, both king and prince being made prisoners. Earl Simon was appointed governor of the country, and he summoned representatives of the citizens and burgesses to assist the knights of the shire and the nobles and prelates in their deliberations fo^the welfare of the country. This was in 1265, and is the first instance of commoners being summoned to "parliament," a French term by which the "witan" had for a long time been designated. In summon ing this experimental assembly Earl Simon was guided by what he had ORIGINS OF PARLIAMENT 221 seen successfully done in the annual Church synods, that had con tinued without interruption from the times of Archbishop Theodore and held their sessions in the council chambers, or chapter-houses, of the various cathedrals. The Church council chambers were placed at the disposal of the witans also ; for in the national councils, which were part Church synods and part parliaments, the bishops had co ordinate jurisdiction as legislators and judges. Accordingly, Earl Simon s representative assembly of lords and commons met in the chapter-house of Westminster-abbey, where indeed succeeding parlia ments continued to sit when they met in London, until St. Stephen s collegiate church was alienated to the use of legislators. It is well to remember in the present day the true origin and locality of the early parliaments, because many ill-informed persons do not scruple to declare that the Church of England is the creation of the state legislature. The converse of this notion is the truer idea, as all impartial historians have shown us. Earl Simon did not live long after the first representative parlia ment was summoned, for in the same year he was killed at the battle of Evesham by the forces who sided with the king s party. Henry, how ever, agreed to con tinue the representa tion of the Commons in the national coun cils, although such par liaments were chiefly summoned by him to grant funds for his vast expenditure. He would say how much he wanted, and then the three estates of CHAPTER HOUSE, WESTMINSTEII-AEBEY. the Realm which are 222 THE CLERGY AND PARLIAMENT the spiritualty, the nobility, and the commonalty would declare how much each was willing to contribute. It often happened that the clergy engaged themselves to pay the largest share, because they were exempt from the ordinary taxation. King Henry died in 1272, and his son Edward, then absent on a crusade, was proclaimed as his successor. He was crowned at "Westminster in 1274, by Robert Kilwardby, who had replaced Boniface of Savoy as primate. 4. The English Church under Edward I. In Edward s reign the opposition on the part of English Church and Realm to the suzerainty of the Roman pontiff was of a much more organized character than it had previously been. The undue influence of the monks and friars over the sick and dying whom they tended ministerially, by which many estates were bequeathed to religious foundations, was now declared illegal, because estates in the hands of the Church could not be alienated, but were held in perpetual succession, so that the acquisition of property by religious houses meant the loss of revenue and feudal service to the crown. A statute was passed in 1279, for bidding the Church to acquire lands by will or purchase without the consent of the feudal lord. It is called the statute of Mortmain, or dead-hand, because property in the hands of religious corporations was useless for the purposes of state. This statute, while it checked the power of the Church of England, was really aimed at the encroach ments of Rome. John Peckham was then archbishop of Canterbury, better known as Friar John, an exceedingly officious and litigious man. He called together (convocatio), in 1281, a meeting of the clergy of his province to protest against the mortmain law, and reprimanded all who refused to attend his "convocation"; but as he had. neglected to obtain the king s permission to call them together, and as it was distinctly illegal to promulgate anything prejudicial to the king s prerogative, Peckham found himself in difficulties. Edward I. then determined to make the clergy of his realm subject to the civil laws. If any of them paid spiritual allegiance to the pope he did not object, provided that their intercourse with Rome did not pre judice the kingdom or the revenues of the nation. In 1283 Edward summoned the higher clergy to parliament and demanded a subsidy from them. They excused themselves on the ground that the parochial clergy were not represented. Thereupon, for the first time, two representatives of the parochial clergy were ordered to be selected from each diocese, to meet with the representatives of cathedral chapters CHANCELLOR BUR NELL 223 and the prelates, to vote "for the honour of the Church, the peace of the kingdom, and the comfort of the king." The clergy were unwilling to grant the king any subsidies ; they had to make a choice between their duty to the nation and the claims made upon them by the pope, and, unfortunately, through the influence of the legates, they preferred to exasperate the king rather than offend the see of Rome. They told Edward I. that they would be glad to provide for his needs " if the sovereign pontiff would let] them." They could scarcely te have chosen a quicker method |:~ of exasperating the king. The ^ leaderof the royal coun sellors at this time was Bur- nell, bishop of Bath, BATH ABBEY (CATHEDRAL) CHURCH. cellor of England ; and he added to his many laurels by framing and passing through parliament the statute " Circumspectc Agatis" (13 Edw. I. st. iv. c. 1), which defined the powers of the ecclesiastical judges and limited their authority to spiritual matters. Still further to bring the clergy within the ordinary laws of the country which maintained them, Burnell advised the king to summon the inferior clergy from both provinces to send representatives to parliament, and 224 ARCHBISHOP ROBERT WINCHELSEA thus, in 1295, the first complete representative parliament met; to which, besides the barons and prelates who had so long sat there by virtue of their nobility, one proctor was summoned to represent the chapter of each cathedral, and two proctors to represent the parochial clergy of each diocese ; as well as two knights from each shire, two citizens from each city, and two burgesses from each borough. The clergy knew that this was a summons to them in their secular aspect as citizens of the state, for the purposes of taxation ; they, therefore, placed many difficulties in the way of attendance, preferring to make what grants they were willing to afford in their more spiritual synods ; i. c. in the provincial convocations of York and Canterbury ; for, although we have for some time been dealing with the chief points of Church history independently of their relation to the northern or southern province, it will bs remembered that they had continued all the while distinct ; and sometimes out of sheer obstinacy the con vocation of one province would make different arrangements to those put forward by the other assembly. In 1293 Robert of Winchelsea was made archbishop of Canterbury. There had been quite a rapid succession of different popes about that period, but in 1294, whilst "Winchelsea was at Rome for the confirmation of his appointment, two candidates were put forward as rivals for the papacy, which resulted in the election of Celestine V., who, however, soon resigned in favour of the crafty and arrogant Boniface VIII. , a man who did more than any of his predecessors to make the European kings repudiate papal supremacy. Celestine is said to have prophesied that as Boniface " had entered upon the papacy like a fox, he would reign like a lion, and die like a dog." In 1296 Boniface VIII. issued his famous mandate " Clericis laicos" to the clergy of all Christian countries, commanding them not to pay any contributions to secular powers with out his permission ; and this was pleaded by Winchelsea, on behalf of the English clergy, as a reason for refusing subsidies to the king. Whereupon Edward I. read the Church a terrible lesson. He called the lay peers together, and by their advice told the clergy that if they would not pay their share to the public expenditure they should be put out of the protection of the law. The northern convocation soon submitted to Edward s demands, but Winchelsea was obstinate, and the goods and chattels of all religious persons who had not obtained the king s protection by contributing to the national needs before Easter 1297, were confiscated to the realm. When Boniface