CHAPTER II.

Pope Gregory the Great--Desires to reduce Britain--Policy of Gregory and Augustine--Arrival of the Mission--Appreciation--Britain superior to Rome--Dionoth at Bangor--First and Second Romish Aggressions--Anguish of the Britons--Pride of Rome--Rome has recourse to the Sword--Massacre--Saint Peter scourges an Archbishop--Oswald--His Victory--Corman--Mission of Oswald and Aidan--Death of Oswald.

[Sidenote: GREGORY THE GREAT.]

It is matter of fact that the spiritual life had waned in Italian catholicism; and in proportion as the heavenly spirit had become weak, the lust of dominion had grown strong. The Roman metropolitans and their delegates soon became impatient to mould all Christendom to their peculiar forms.

About the end of the sixth century an eminent man filled the see of Rome. Gregory was born of senatorial family, and already on the high road to honour, when he suddenly renounced the world, and transformed the palace of his fathers into a convent. But his ambition had only changed its object. In his views, the whole church should submit to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Rome. True, he rejected the title of universal bishop assumed by the patriarch of Constantinople; but if he desired not the name, he was not the less eager for the substance.[39] On the borders of the West, in the island of Great Britain, was a Christian church independent of Rome: this must be conquered, and a favourable opportunity soon occurred.

[39] He says (Epp. lib. ix, ep. xii.): De Constantinopolitana ecclesia quis eam dubitet apostolicæ sedi esse subjectam? Concerning the church of Constantinople, who doubts that it is subject to the apostolical see.

[Sidenote: POLICY OF GREGORY AND AUGUSTINE.]

Before his elevation to the primacy, and while he was as yet only the monk Gregory, he chanced one day to cross a market in Rome where certain foreign dealers were exposing their wares for sale. Among them he perceived some fair-haired youthful slaves, whose noble bearing attracted his attention. On drawing near them, he learned that the Anglo-Saxon nation to which they belonged had refused to receive the Gospel from the Britons. When he afterwards became bishop of Rome, this crafty and energetic pontiff, "the last of the good and the first of the bad," as he has been called, determined to convert these proud conquerors, and make use of them in subduing the British church to the papacy, as he had already made use of the Frank monarchs to reduce the Gauls. Rome has often shown herself more eager to bring Christians rather than idolaters to the pope.[40] Was it thus with Gregory? We must leave the question unanswered.

[40] We know the history of Tahiti and of other modern missions of the Romish church.

Ethelbert, king of Kent, having married a Christian princess of Frank descent, the Roman bishop thought the conjuncture favourable for his design, and despatched a mission under the direction of one of his friends named Augustine, A.D. 596. At first the missionaries recoiled from the task appointed them; but Gregory was firm. Desirous of gaining the assistance of the Frank kings, Theodoric and Theodebert, he affected to consider them as the lords paramount of England, and commended to them the conversion of _their subjects_.[41] Nor was this all. He claimed also the support of the powerful Brunchilda, grandmother of these two kings, and equally notorious for her treachery, her irregularities, and her crimes; and did not scruple to extol the _good works_ and _godly fear_ of this modern Jezebel.[42] Under such auspices the Romish mission arrived in England. The pope had made a skilful choice of his delegate. Augustine possessed even to a greater extent than Gregory himself a mixture of ambition and devotedness, of superstition and piety, of cunning and zeal. He thought that faith and holiness were less essential to the church than authority and power; and that its prerogative was not so much to save souls as to collect all the human race under the sceptre of Rome.[43] Gregory himself was distressed at Augustine's spiritual pride, and often exhorted him to humility.

[41] Subjectos vestros. (Opp. Gregorii, tom. iv. p 334.) Your subjects.

[42] Prona in bonis operibus . . . in omnipotentis Dei timore. (Ibid. tom. ii. p. 835.) Disposed to good works . . . in the fear of God omnipotent.

[43] We find the same idea in Wiseman, Lect. ix, On the principal doctrines and practices of the Catholic church. London, 1836.

Success of that kind which popery desires soon crowned the labours of its servants. The forty-one missionaries having landed in the isle of Thanet, in the year 597, the king of Kent consented to receive them, but in the open air, for fear of magic. They drew up in such a manner as to produce an effect on the rude islanders. The procession was opened by a monk bearing a huge cross on which the figure of Christ was represented: his colleagues followed chanting their Latin hymns, and thus they approached the oak appointed for the place of conference. They inspired sufficient confidence in Ethelbert to gain permission to celebrate their worship in an old ruinous chapel at Durovern (Canterbury), where British Christians had in former times adored the Saviour Christ. The king and thousands of his subjects received not long after, with certain forms, and certain Christian doctrines, the errors of the Roman pontiffs--as purgatory, for instance, which Gregory was advocating with the aid of the most absurd fables.[44] Augustine baptized ten thousand pagans in one day. As yet Rome had only set her foot in Great Britain, she did not fail erelong to establish her kingdom there.

[44] Hoepfner, De origine dogmatis de purgatorio. Halle, 1792.

We should be unwilling to undervalue the religious element now placed before the Anglo-Saxons, and we can readily believe that many of the missionaries sent from Italy desired to work a Christian work. We think, too, that the Middle Ages ought to be appreciated with more equitable sentiments than have always been found in the persons who have written on that period. Man's conscience lived, spoke, and groaned during the long dominion of popery; and like a plant growing among thorns, it often succeeded in forcing a passage through the obstacles of traditionalism and hierarchy, to blossom in the quickening sun of God's grace. The Christian element is even strongly marked in some of the most eminent men of theocracy--in Anselm for instance.

[Sidenote: BRITAIN SUPERIOR TO ROME.]

Yet as it is our task to relate the history of the struggles which took place between primitive Christianity and Roman-catholicism, we cannot forbear pointing out the superiority of the former in a religious light, while we acknowledge the superiority of the latter in a political point of view. We believe (and we shall presently have a proof of it)[45] that a visit to Iona would have taught the Anglo-Saxons much more than their frequent pilgrimages to the banks of the Tiber. Doubtless, as has been remarked, these pilgrims contemplated at Rome "the noble monuments of antiquity," but there existed at that time in the British islands--and it has been too often overlooked--a Christianity which, if not perfectly pure, was at least better than that of popery. The British church, which at the beginning of the seventh century carried faith and civilization into Burgundy, the Vosges mountains, and Switzerland, might well have spread them both over Britain. The influence of the arts, whose civilizing influence we are far from depreciating, would have come later.

[45] In the history of Oswald, king of Northumberland.

But so far was the Christianity of the Britons from converting the Saxon heptarchy, that it was, alas! the Romanism of the heptarchy which was destined to conquer Britain. These struggles between the Roman and British churches, which fill all the seventh century, are of the highest importance to the English church, for they establish clearly its primitive liberty. They possess also great interest for the other churches of the West, as showing in the most striking characters the usurping acts by which the papacy eventually reduced them beneath its yoke.

[Sidenote: DIONOTH AT BANGOR.]

Augustine, appointed archbishop not only of the Saxons, but of the free Britons, was settled by papal ordinance, first at London and afterwards at Canterbury. Being at the head of a hierarchy composed of twelve bishops, he soon attempted to bring all the Christians of Britain under the Roman jurisdiction. At that time there existed at Bangor,[46] in North Wales, a large Christian society, amounting to nearly three thousand individuals, collected together to work with their own hands,[47] to study, and to pray, and from whose bosom numerous missionaries (Columbanus was among the number) had from time to time gone forth. The president of this church was Dionoth, a faithful teacher, ready to serve all men in charity, yet firmly convinced that no one should have supremacy in the Lord's vineyard. Although one of the most influential men in the British church, he was somewhat timid and hesitating; he would yield to a certain point for the love of peace; but would never flinch from his duty. He was another apostle John, full of mildness, and yet condemning the Diotrephes, _who love to have pre-eminence among the brethren_. Augustine thus addressed him: "Acknowledge the authority of the Bishop of Rome." These are the first words of the papacy to the ancient Christians of Britain. "We desire to love all men," meekly replied the venerable Briton; "and what we do for you, we will do for him also whom you call the pope. But he is not entitled to call himself the _father of fathers_, and the only submission we can render him is that which we owe to every Christian."[48] This was not what Augustine asked.

[46] Bann-cor, the choir on the steep hill. Carlisle. Top. Dict. Wales.

[47] Ars unicuique dabatur, ut ex opero manuum quotidiano se posset in victu necessario continere. (Preuves de l'hist de Bretagne, ii, 25.) An art was given to each, that by the daily labour of their hands, each might be able to supply himself with the necessities of life.

[48] Istam obedientiam nos multius parati dare et solvere ei et cuique Christiano continuo Wilkins, Conc, M. Brit. i. 26.

[Sidenote: SECOND ROMISH AGGRESSION.]

He was not discouraged by this first check. Proud of the pallium which Rome had sent him, and relying on the swords of the Anglo-Saxons, he convoked in 601 a general assembly of British and Saxon bishops. The meeting took place in the open air, beneath a venerable oak near Wigornia (Worcester or Hereford), and here occurred the second Romish aggression. Dionoth resisted with firmness the extravagant pretensions of Augustine, who again summoned him to recognize the authority of Rome.[49] Another Briton protested against the presumption of the Romans, who ascribed to their consecration a virtue which they refused to that of Iona or of the Asiatic churches.[50] "The Britons," exclaimed a third, "cannot submit either to the haughtiness of the Romans or the tyranny of the Saxons."[51] To no purpose did the archbishop lavish his arguments, prayers, censures, and miracles even; the Britons were firm. Some of them who had eaten with the Saxons while they were as yet heathens, refused to do so now that they had submitted to the pope.[52] The Scotch were particularly inflexible; for one of their number, by name Dagam, would not only take no food at the same table with the Romans, but not even under the same roof.[53] Thus did Augustine fail a second time, and the independence of Britain appeared secure.

[49] Dionothus de non approbanda apud eos Romanorum auctoritate disputabat. Wilkins, Conc. M. Brit. 24.

[50] Ordinationesque more asiatico eisdem contulisse. Ibid. 24.

[51] In communionem admittere vel Romanorum fastum vel Saxonum tyrannidem. Ibid. i, 26.

[52] According to the apostolic precept, 1 Cor. 5, 9. 1.

[53] Dagamus ad nos veniens, non solum cibum nobiscum, sed nec in eodem hospitio quo vescebamur, sumere, noluit. (Beda, lib. ii, cap. iv.) Dagam coming to us, not only refused to eat with us, but even to take his food in the same house where we were entertained.

[Sidenote: PRIDE OF ROME.]

And yet the formidable power of the popes, aided by the sword of the conquerors, alarmed the Britons. They imagined they saw a mysterious decree once more yoking the nations of the earth to the triumphal car of Rome, and many left Wigornia uneasy and sad at heart. How is it possible to save a cause, when even its defenders begin to despair? It was not long before they were summoned to a new council. "What is to be done?" they exclaimed with sorrowful forebodings. Popery was not yet thoroughly known: it was hardly formed. The half-enlightened consciences of these believers were a prey to the most violent agitation. They asked themselves whether, in rejecting this new power, they might not be rejecting God himself. A pious Christian, who led a solitary life, had acquired a great reputation in the surrounding district. Some of the Britons visited him, and inquired whether they should resist Augustine or follow him.[54] "If he is a man of God, follow him," replied the hermit.--"And how shall we know that?"--"If he is meek and humble of heart, he bears Christ's yoke; but if he is violent and proud, he is not of God."--"What sign shall we have of his humility?"--"If he rises from his seat when you enter the room." Thus spoke the oracle of Britain: it would have been better to have consulted the Holy Scriptures.

[54] Ad quendam virum sanctum et prudentam qui apud eos anachoreticam ducere vitam solebat, consulentes an ad prædicationem Augustini suas deserere traditiones deberent. (Beda, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. cap. ii.) They took counsel of a certain holy and wise man who led among them the life of a hermit, whether at the preaching of Augustine they ought to abandon their own traditions.

But humility is not a virtue that flourishes among Romish pontiffs and legates: they love to remain seated while others court and worship them. The British bishops entered the council-hall, and the archbishop, desirous of indicating his superiority, proudly kept his seat.[55] Astonished at this sight, the Britons would hear no more of the authority of Rome. For the third time they said No--they knew _no other master but Christ_. Augustine, who expected to see these bishops prostrate their churches at his feet, was surprised and indignant. He had reckoned on the immediate submission of Britain, and the pope had now to learn that his missionary had deceived him.... Animated by that insolent spirit which is found too often in the ministers of the Romish church, Augustine exclaimed: "If you will not receive brethren who bring you peace, you shall receive enemies who will bring you war. If you will not unite with us in showing the Saxons the way of life, you shall receive from them the stroke of death."[56] Having thus spoken, the haughty archbishop withdrew, and occupied his last days in preparing the accomplishment of his ill-omened prophecy.[57] Argument had failed: now for the sword!

[55] Factumque est ut venientibus illis sederet Augustinus in sella. Ibid.

[56] Si pacem cum fructibus accipere nollent, bellum ab hostibus forent accepturi ... Ibid.

[57] Ipsum Augustinum hujus belli non modo conscium sed et _impulsorem_ exstitisse. Wilkins adds, that the expression found in Bede, concerning the death of Augustine, is a parenthesis foisted in by Romanist writers, and not found in the Saxon manuscripts. (Conc. Brit. p. 26.) Augustine himself was not only accessory to that war, but he was even its instigator.

[Sidenote: MASSACRE.]

Shortly after the death of Augustine, Edelfrid, one of the Anglo-Saxon kings, and who was still a heathen, collected a numerous army, and advanced towards Bangor, the centre of British Christianity. Alarm spread through those feeble churches. They wept and prayed. The sword of Edelfrid drew nearer. To whom can they apply, or where shall they find help? The magnitude of the danger seemed to recall the Britons to their pristine piety: not to men, but to the Lord himself will they turn their thoughts. Twelve hundred and fifty servants of the living God, calling to mind what are the arms of Christian warfare, after preparing themselves by fasting, met together in a retired spot to send up their prayers to God.[58] A British chief, named Brocmail, moved by tender compassion, stationed himself near them with a few soldiers; but the cruel Edelfrid, observing from a distance this band of kneeling Christians, demanded: "Who are these people, and what are they doing?" On being informed, he added: "They are fighting then against us, although unarmed;" and immediately he ordered his soldiers to fall upon the prostrate crowd. Twelve hundred of them were slain.[59] They prayed and they died. The Saxons forthwith proceeded to Bangor, the chief seat of Christian learning, and razed it to the ground. Romanism was triumphant in England. The news of these massacres filled the country _with weeping and great mourning_; but the priests of Romish consecration (and the venerable Bede shared their sentiments) beheld in this cruel slaughter the accomplishment of the prophecy of the _holy pontiff_ Augustine;[60] and a national tradition among the Welsh for many ages pointed to him as the instigator of this cowardly butchery. Thus did Rome loose the savage Pagan against the primitive church of Britain, and fastened it all dripping with blood to her triumphal car. A great mystery of iniquity was accomplishing.

[58] Ad memoratam aciem, peracto jejunio triduano, cum aliis orandi causa convenerant. (Beda, ii, cap. ii.) At the aforesaid engagement, after three days had been spent in fasting, they met together with others for prayer.

[59] Extinctos in ea pugna ferunt de his qui ad orandum venerunt viros circiter mille ducentos. Beda, lib. ii, cap. ii.

[60] Sic completum est presagium sancti pontificis Augustini. Ibid.

But while the Saxon sword appeared to have swept every thing from before the papacy, the ground trembled under its feet, and seemed about to swallow it up. The hierarchical rather than Christian conversions effected by the priests of Rome were so unreal that a vast number of neophytes suddenly returned to the worship of their idols. Eadbald, king of Kent, was himself among the number of apostates. Such reversions to paganism are not unfrequent in the history of the Romish missions. The bishops fled into Gaul: Mellitus and Justus had already reached the continent in safety, and Lawrence, Augustine's successor, was about to follow them. While lying in the church where he had desired to pass the night before leaving England, he groaned in spirit as he saw the work founded by Augustine perishing in his hands. He saved it by a miracle. The next morning he presented himself before the king with his clothes all disordered and his body covered with wounds. "Saint Peter," he said, "appeared to me during the night and scourged me severely because I was about to forsake his flock."[61] The _scourge_ was a means of moral persuasion which Peter had forgotten in his epistles. Did Lawrence cause these blows to be inflicted by others--or did he inflict them himself--or is the whole account an idle dream? We should prefer adopting the latter hypothesis. The superstitious prince, excited at the news of this supernatural intervention, eagerly acknowledged the authority of the pope, the vicar of an apostle who so mercilessly scourged those who had the misfortune to displease him. If the dominion of Rome had then disappeared from England, it is probable that the Britons, regaining their courage, and favoured in other respects by the wants which would have been felt by the Saxons, would have recovered from their defeat, and would have imparted their free Christianity to their conquerors. But now the Roman bishop seemed to remain master of England, and the faith of the Britons to be crushed for ever. But it was not so. A young man, sprung from the energetic race of the conquerors, was about to become the champion of truth and liberty, and almost the whole island to be freed from the Roman yoke.

[61] Apparuit ei beatissimus apostolorum princeps, et multo illum tempore secretæ noctis flagellis acrioribus afficiens. Beda, ii. cap. vi.

[Sidenote: OSWALD.]

[Sidenote: OSWALD'S VICTORY--CORMAN.]

Oswald, an Anglo-Saxon prince, son of the heathen and cruel Edelfrid, had been compelled by family reverses to take refuge in Scotland, when very young, accompanied by his brother Oswy and several other youthful chiefs. He had acquired the language of the country, been instructed in the truths of Holy Writ, converted by the grace of God, and baptized into the Scottish church.[62] He loved to sit at the feet of the elders of Iona and listen to their words. They showed him Jesus Christ going from place to place doing good, and he desired to do so likewise; they told him that Christ was the only head of the church, and he promised never to acknowledge any other. Being a single-hearted generous man, he was especially animated with tender compassion towards the poor, and would take off his own cloak to cover the nakedness of one of his brethren. Often, while mingling in the quiet assemblies of the Scottish Christians, he had desired to go as a missionary to the Anglo-Saxons. It was not long before he conceived the bold design of leading the people of Northumberland to the Saviour; but being a prince as well as a Christian, he determined to begin by reconquering the throne of his fathers. There was in this young Englishman the love of a disciple and the courage of a hero. At the head of an army, small indeed, but strong by faith in Christ,[63] he entered Northumberland, knelt with his troops in prayer on the field of battle, and gained a signal victory over a powerful enemy, 634 A. D. To recover the kingdom of his ancestors was only a part of his task. Oswald desired to give his people the benefits of the true faith.[64] The Christianity taught in 625 to King Edwin and the Northumbrians by Pendin of York had disappeared amidst the ravages of the pagan armies. Oswald requested a missionary from the Scots who had given him an asylum, and they accordingly sent one of the brethren named Corman, a pious but uncultivated and austere man. He soon returned dispirited to Iona: "The people to whom you sent me," he told the elders of that island, "are so obstinate that we must renounce all idea of changing their manners." As Aidan, one of their number, listened to this report, he said to himself: "If thy love had been offered to this people, oh, my Saviour, many hearts would have been touched!... I will go and make Thee known--Thee who breaketh not the bruised reed!" Then, turning to the missionary with a look of mild reproach, he added: "Brother, you have been too severe towards hearers so dull of heart. You should have given them spiritual milk to drink until they were able to receive more solid food." All eyes were fixed on the man who spoke so wisely. "Aidan is worthy of the episcopate," exclaimed the brethren of Iona: and, like Timothy, he was consecrated by the laying on of the hands of the company of elders.[65]

[62] Cum magna nobilium juventute apud Scotos sive Pictos exulabant, ibique ad doctrinam Scottorum cathechisati et baptismatis gratia sunt recreati. (Beda, iii. cap. i.) They were exiled among the Scots or Picts with many youths of noble rank, and there they were instructed in the doctrine of the Scots and were converted by the grace of baptism.

[63] Superveniente cum parvo exercitu, sed fide Christi munito. Beda, lib. iii, cap. i.

[64] Desiderans totam cui præesse cœpit gentem fidei Christianæ gratia imbui. (Ibid. cap. iii.) Desiring that the whole nation over which he ruled might be imbued with the grace of the Christian faith.

[65] Aydanus accepto gradu episcopatus, quo tempore eodem monasterio Segenius abbas et _presbyter_ præfuit. (Beda, lib. iii, cap. v.) Aidan having received the dignity of a bishop at the time when Segenius, abbot and presbyter, presided over that monastery. When Bede tells us that a plain priest was president, he excludes the idea that there were bishops in the assembly. See 1 Timothy, iv, 14.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF OSWALD.]

Oswald received Aidan as an angel from heaven, and as the missionary was ignorant of the Saxon language, the king accompanied him every where, standing by his side, and interpreting his gentle discourses.[66] The people crowded joyfully around Oswald, Aidan, and other missionaries from Scotland and Ireland, listening eagerly to the _Word of God_.[67] The king preached by his works still more than by his words. One day during Easter, as he was about to take his seat at table, he was informed that a crowd of his subjects, driven by hunger, had collected before his palace gates. Instantly he ordered the food prepared for himself to be carried out and distributed among them; and taking the silver vessels which stood before him, he broke them in pieces and commanded his servants to divide them among the poor. He also introduced the knowledge of the Saviour to the people of Wessex, whither he had gone to marry the king's daughter; and after a reign of nine years, he died at the head of his army while repelling an invasion of the idolatrous Mercians, headed by the cruel Penda (5th August, 642 A. D.) As he fell he exclaimed: "Lord, have mercy on the souls of my people!" This youthful prince has left a name dear to the churches of Great Britain.

[66] Evangelisante antistite, ipse Rex suis ducibus ac ministris interpres verbi existeret cœlestis. (Beda, lib. iii, cap. iii.) When the bishop was preaching, the king himself interpreted the heavenly message to his officers and servants.

[67] Confluebant _ad audiendum verbum Dei_ populi gaudentes. (Beda, lib. iii, cap. iii.) The people eagerly flocked together to hear the word of God.

His death did not interrupt the labours of the missionaries. Their meekness and the recollection of Oswald endeared them to all. As soon as the villagers caught sight of one on the high-road, they would throng round him, begging him to teach them the _Word of life_.[68] The faith which the terrible Edelfrid thought he had washed away in the blood of the worshippers of God, was re-appearing in every direction; and Rome, which once already in the days of Honorius had been forced to leave Britain, might be perhaps a second time compelled to flee to its ships from before the face of a people who asserted their liberty.

[68] Mox congregati in unum vicani, _verbum vitæ_ ab illo expetere curabant. (Beda, lib. iii, cap. xxvi.) Presently the villagers flocked together earnestly desiring to hear from him the word of life.