conformity with papal usages, yet leading Roman ecclesiastics were jealous and suspicious. He was a Greek, and remarkable for independence of mind. Hence Pope Vitalian was careful to secure for him his friend Adrian, as a companion. That learned African, to whose instructions ancient England owed so much, came over partly as a spy upon his actions'. This espionage, the successor of Vitalian gladly renewed by means of the Precentor. Besides providing for his adopted country an outline of ecclesiastical jurisprudence and terms of religious conformity, Theodore appears to have been guided by an usage of his native Asia in planning the establishment of a parochial clergy. Under royal sanction, he followed Justinian in offering the perpetual patronage of churches as an encouragement for their erection'. Opulent proprietors were thus tempted to supply the spiritual wants of their tenantry; and Bede records two instances in which this judicious policy proved effective. Theodore's oriental system had been, however, in operation for ages before every English estate of any magnitude had secured the benefit of a church within its boundary. This very lingering progress has thrown much obscurity 1 "Ne quid ille contrarium| veritati fidei, Græcorum more, in Ecclesiam cui præesset, introduceret."-BED. iii. 1. p. 255. * WHELOC. in Bed. p. 399. The authority is an extract from the Codex Cantuariensis, a MS. in the library of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. "There are some things also to be found in those laws (of Justinian), which show that country churches had anciently been built and endowed in the East; since Justinian there begins about this time to settle the rights of patronage, giving to him who had built the church, the power to nominate a priest to officiate in it, but leaving the bishop authority to approve or reject the person so nominated."COMBER's Divine Right of Tythes. Part 2. p. 79. The cases of Puch and Addi, both counts, in the north of England. (Bed. v. 4, 5. pp. 375, 388.) There can be no doubt that many other such cases of pious munificence had occurred when Bede wrote, for he does not mention these as extraordinary acts. around the origin of parishes. The principle of their formation will, however, account sufficiently for their unequal sizes, and for existing rights of patronage. At the great age of eighty-eight, Theodore was released from earthly labours'. His life had been no less honourable than long; and he must, undoubtedly, be ranked among the ablest of English primates. A Protestant may possibly regret that such eminent qualities laid the foundation of an insidious influence, which eventually adulterated sound religion, and insulted the national independence. The days of Theodore, however, were anterior to most Roman innovations, and he seems always to have looked upon the papal see under an Oriental feeling of independence. Far inferior persons in the religious history of ancient England have, accordingly, been canonised. The name of Theodore, though he was the corner-stone of pontifical authority through all the British isles, will be vainly sought among the saintly rubrics in a Romish calendar: but his reputation stands on higher grounds. By defining principles of doctrine and discipline, he first gave stability to the religious establishment of England. Her mental growth was effectually secured by his active and zealous patronage of learning. During the earlier years of his English residence, instruction was given personally, both by himself and his friend, Adrian, in every branch of scholarship then known to students'. As a theologian, Theodore long maintained a high degree of importance. He had adopted a prevailing opinion, that every sin must be visited by some corresponding penalty. For 1 BED. v. 8. p. 398. Theodore died in 690.-INETT. i. 117. Sax. Chr. 67. "BED. iv. 2. p. 259. 3 See Bampton Lectures. Ser mon V. the just apportionment of this, he compiled his famous Penitential, an assumed authority for the modern Romish confessional, of extraordinary value from its antiquity and bulk. Theodore, however, has afforded Romanism considerable embarrassment, by pronouncing confession to God alone sufficient for spiritual safety'. His authority, therefore, is unfavourable to sacramental absolution, that scholastic lure, so ominous to attrite souls, but admirably fitted for a ready and powerful hold upon mankind. When Theodore felt his end approaching, he thought of Wilfrid3, conscious, perhaps, of some harshness towards him, or merely anxious to render him a parting service. Though vain and restless, that prelate ever shone under adversity. On his first journey for papal interference, stress of weather drove him into Friesland, where he nobly spent a winter in evangelizing the heathen population. His subsequent exile had rendered a like invaluable service to pagan Sussex'. Theodore could no longer disapprove. In the expatriated prelate, he only 'See the canon, as given in the published Penitential, Bampton Lectures, 289. It stands thus in an ancient copy, or fragment of Theodore's Penitential, in the British Museum (MSS. Cotton. Vespasian. D. 15, f. 100). "Confessionem suam dō soli, si necesse est, licebit agere." 2 Attrition is a scholastic term, not known to be earlier than the thirteenth century, denoting a state of mind in which the sinner desires pardon, from the mere apprehension of punishment, but without any higher motive. It is taught in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, a manual provided by papal authority for instructing ordinary clergymen, that this feeling is rendered, by means of sacerdotal absolution, effectual for saving souls; an easier way than genuine contrition, being thus mercifully provided by God. This bold, but popular assumption, is artfully evaded by the Council itself; so that an acute Romanist, pressed in argument, has a loophole for escaping from it. EDDIUS. XV. Scrip. 73. MALMESB. Script. post Bed. 151. Both writers, as might be expected from their papal prejudices, make Theodore deeply repentant for his conduct to Wilfrid. 4 * BED. v. 20. p. 443. saw a very meritorious labourer in the Gospel vineyard'. He wrote accordingly, in his favour to the court of Northumberland, and Wilfrid, restored to his bishopric, was again tempted by prosperity. At first his jurisdiction did not reach its original extent: but he shortly regained spiritual authority over the whole Northumbrian dominions. Unhappily, however, his intractable, haughty spirit, had not even yet been sufficiently disciplined: he could not bend himself to the canons enacted under Theodore, or endure the conversion of his beloved monastic foundation, at Ripon, into an episcopal see'. These new displays of turbulence induced the king to call the prelacy together. It was a full meeting, headed by Brihtwald, successor to Theodore, and under its authority, Wilfrid was once more driven into exile3. His age was now verging upon seventy, but anger and impatience yet roused him into activity. He hastened again to Rome; and, regardless of the contempt poured by his countrymen upon papal interference on a former occasion, laid his case before the pontiff, and pleaded strenuously for a favourable judgment. His exertions having prevailed, he made another experiment upon the authorities of Northumbria. This was firmly, but courteously repelled. After due deliberation, the king expressed his resolution to abide by the decisions of former sovereigns, made, as they were, under sanction of the prelacy, regularly convened, with two successive 1 "Quia longo tempore propriis donabatur, in episcopalem sedem orbatus substantiis inter Paganos transmutatur."-EDDIUS. XV. Sc. in Domino multum laboravit." | 75. Theodorus Ethelredi Regi Merciorum.-EDDIUS. XV. Scrip. 74. 2 "Secunda est (causa dissentionis) ut monasterium supradictum, quod in privilegium nobis 8" Cum sancto Berthwaldo Archiespiscopo, et totius pene Britanniæ Episcopis."-Ib. 20. p. 444. BED. v. Το metropolitans at its head. Of Wilfrid's cause he desired to hear no more. Dying soon after, while his son was yet a boy, a bold usurper seized the throne. him Wilfrid immediately applied, but was peremptorily ordered to quit the kingdom within six days, with all his adherents, under pain of death. The youthful heir, however, soon supplanted him, and Wilfrid now was partially successful. A synod assembled on the banks of the Nidd, which Elfleda, an abbess, paternal aunt to the young king, enlightened by a speech, painting her brother's remorse, before death, on account of Wilfrid, and his determination, if life had been spared, to restore him'. The fathers were not wholly proof against such testimony from a lady, and a nun. They allowed Wilfrid the see of Hexham and the abbey of Ripon, which he held peaceably during the remaining four years of his agitated life'. His indefatigable zeal for Italian usages, and repeated calls for papal interference, were naturally thought, in the course of years, an ample title to Romish invocation. St. Wilfrid's tutelage was, accordingly, long implored in northern England. The sainted prelate has been industriously paraded as an authority of high antiquity for appeals to Rome. He furnishes, undoubtedly, the first known English example of them. But his history shows them to have been uniformly treated with utter contempt, and this not only by the civil authorities, but also by the ecclesiastical. Wilfrid's case is really, therefore, fatal to the very cause that leans upon it for support. He obviously sought 86. 1EDDIUS. XV. Script. 84, 85, shire, and was buried at Ripon, in 2 BED. 447. Wilfrid died in 709, at Oundle, in Northampton Yorkshire.-WHARTON de Episc. |