424 BISHOPRICS. [EXCURSUS Rochester. In the same year he consecrated Laurentius to be his own successor at Canterbury. The episcopate of Laurentius was terminated by his death in 619 A D. About two years before that date the district presided over by Mellitus relapsed into heathendom, as also did that to which Iustus had been appointed. William of Malmesbury only 5 says (de gest pontif 11) a successoribus regulis deturbatus Mellitus Cantuariam venit. ibi magno curarum aestu quae sociorum pectora decoquebant exceptus, coniuncto sibi Iusto, secessit in Galliam. But there was no bishop appointed to take the place of Mellitus till AD 658 when Cedd was made bishop among the East Saxons, and Beda says (III 22) 10 Orientales Saxones fidem, quam olim expulso Mellito antistite abiecerunt, instantia regis Osuiu receperunt. cf also II 5. On the death of Laurentius Mellitus was made archbishop and dying in 624 was succeeded by Iustus, at whose death in 627 Honorius came to the archiepiscopal dignity, and it is during his episcopate, 15 which continued till 653 AD, that the history contained in these two books commences. To the bishopric of Rochester Iustus returned one year after his departure (he II 6) and continued to preside over the see till his elevation to the archiepiscopate, when he consecrated Romanus to be his 20 successor. This prelate was drowned in the Italian sea [h e II 20] when going as a legate from England to pope Honorius 634 A D, and after him Paulinus at the request of archbishop Honorius took charge of the see of Rochester, which he held for ten years. Paulinus, had previously been a bishop in the province of North- 25 umbria, having converted king Edwin to Christianity 625 AD and having been consecrated bishop by archbishop Iustus [he II 9], and he is accounted the first bishop of York. We also read of the extension of the missionary labours of Paulinus into Lindsey [h e 11 16], but on the death of king Edwin 633 A D he was obliged to leave the northern 30 parts of the land and came along with Edwin's queen to Kent, when he was appointed, as has been said, to the bishopric of Rochester, and the northern provinces were next evangelised by the labours of Aidan who became the first bishop of Lindisfarne. No other bishop was appointed as successor of Paulinus at York till the consecration of Ceadda 35 [he III 28]. But before 640 AD two missions had been planted in England by foreigners which may be looked upon as the commencement of two other sees. In 632 A D, or according to some calculations 636 AD, a IV] BISHOPRICS. 425 Burgundian bishop named Felix came to Honorius the archbishop and was by him sent to preach among the East Angles, whose first bishop he was made and had his episcopal seat at Dunwich [he II 15]. In like manner Birinus sent from Italy by pope Honorius, was made 5 a bishop among the West Saxons about 634 AD, and his seat was at Dorchester in Oxfordshire. Thus, beside the archiepiscopal see, there had been founded though not in a very permanent manner two sees in the province of Northumbria, and four in the southern and eastern parts of the kingdom 10 before 640 A D. EXCURSUS V EASTER HE proper time for the observance of Easter has been a source of because two uses had come to be observed probably because the converts 5 were of two different classes. Some of the earliest Christians were Jews, while others were Gentiles. The former would probably, as we know from Scripture that St Paul actually did, observe Jewish feasts at the Jewish times. To such converts the passover-night would still be observed at the usual date, though connected now in their minds with 10 the death of Jesus. To the Gentile converts who knew nothing of the Paschal feast the fact that Jesus rose on the first day of the week fixed the Sunday as the proper day on which the festival of the resurrection should be observed, while by the Jewish converts the day of the week was disregarded. The Jewish Christians influenced the Asiatic church, 15 and by them the calculation of Easter was made after the Jewish rule for finding the paschal moon. The day which they observed was the 14th of the moon (Nisan) and in after times those who followed this rule obtained the name Quartadecimans. The western church kept Easter always on the first day of the week, nearest to the same 14th day of the 20 moon, only taking care that the day should not precede the vernal equinox. For an account of the controversies which agitated the whole of Christendom on this subject, first in the time of St Polycarp about 160 AD, then at Laodicea about fifteen years later, and then between Victor and Polycrates 190 AD, the reader is referred to the article 25 Easter in DCA. At the council of Nicaea the western use received the sanction of the bled fathers, and thus the party who still adhered to the Jewish EXC V] EASTER. 427 mode of reckoning the time of the Easter festival came to be regarded as heretics. But the Easter question of which so much is said in Beda's history was not a dispute between Eastern and Western churches, but between 5 two branches of the Western church which had been in earlier times at one. In the letter of the emperor Constantine sent forth to the churches after the council of Nicæa it is stated (Socr he 1 9), that in Britain there was the same unanimity of sentiment at that time concerning the observance of Easter which prevailed in the rest of the Western church. 10 But the history of Beda shews that there had arisen before his day a serious diversity between the British use and that of the church of Rome, and we are told by him of an occasion on which king Oswy who followed the British calculation was keeping his Easter and had concluded the Lenten fast, while his queen who had been trained in the 15 Roman use was still fasting and keeping Palm Sunday. This difference is of quite another character from that which disturbed the harmony of the Eastern and Western churches, and as Beda observes (h e III 4) had arisen because Britain lay too far away to be made aware of the synodic decrees issued from time to time by the Roman church for the 20 proper fixing of Easter. Both the British and Romish Christians kept the festival on the first day of the week. At the time of the Nicene council the festival was calculated according to the 84 years cycle, called after Sulpicius Severus but in use a long time before his date, and this made Easter-day to be the Sunday which fell next after the equinox be25 tween the 14th and 20th days of the moon inclusive. To this cycle the British church still adhered (see p 275). But the cycle of 84 years had been supplanted at Rome first by the cycle of 532 years of Victor of Aquitaine and then by that of 19 years of Dionysius Exiguus. According to this latter method of reckoning, Easter day was to be the 30 Sunday next after the equinox between the 15th and 21st days of the moon. From this variation adopted in the mode of calculating Easter by the Roman church and from her by nearly all the West we can see at once how, if the 14th day of the moon fell on Sunday, that would be Easter day to Oswy and the Britons, while to those who followed the 35 Roman use the 21st day of the moon would be Easter day. But we learn from this that the controversy of which Beda says so much was a very different matter from the Quartadeciman dispute between the Eastern and Western churches of old. The British church 428 EASTER. [EXC V had never held the Eastern view, and our church was not Eastern, as has been said, but Western in her origin. For much valuable information on both these Easter controversies the student may read with advantage the article in DCA already alluded to, and the appendix D pp 152 seqq vol 1 Haddan-Stubbs. Also 5 for authorities on each matter connected with the Easter controversy see the various notes on bk III 25. |