TICAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

No. VII.

THE submission of the Saxon Church to the usurped authority of the Pope is an event which might be announced in few words. But the effects which it produced upon the civil and religious state of Britain forbid us to dismiss the subject hastily; and the statements and deductions of party writers have involved the question in an obscurity, which is not easily dispelled. Popish authors, domestic as well as foreign, high-churchmen who contend that the Church should be completely independent of the state, and prerogative lawyers who set no bounds to the Ecclesiastical authority of the crown, have laid claim, with one voice, to the support of Saxon history, and have succeeded in perplexing its simple narrative. The facts of the case are irreconcileable with all these systems; and their respective advocates are at least entitled to the merit of having refuted one another. A brief review of the events by which our ancestors were gradually deprived of their ecclesiastical independence, will suffice to set the question in a proper light.

The most courageous asserters of the Pope's supremacy have not ventured to maintain that he had any actual authority in Britain during the age which preceded the arrival of St. Austin. Baronius and his followers admit that the British, Welsh, Scotch, and Irish Christians were without the pale of the Church of Rome; but he contends that this separation amounted to schism. His proof therefore of the universality of the Pope's power involves an assumption of the very point in dispute. Ile contends that the Pope was supreme, not only de jure, but also de facto. When met When met

dence of our primitive Churches, he answers, that they were guilty of schism, because they were disobedient to Christ's vicar upon earth. Thus he makes out his case by a reference to the Pope's authority, which is the thing that we controvert, and that he undertakes to establish. He cannot shew that the British Christians renounced any article of the Christian faith. They were guilty of no crime save that of being governed by their own archbishops and bishops: when their kingdom was separated from the Roman Empire, their Church ceased to acknowledge the Roman Patriarch: and there is no more pretence for saying that they were schismatics than for denying their conversion, or even their existence. Nor is the actual independence of the Britons the only point which the Pope's advocates have been compelled to concede. Gregory the Great, under whose auspices Austin landed in Kent, protested most indignantly against the title of universal Bishop, which had been assumed by his rival the Patriarch of Constantinople; and pronounced it not merely improper, but antichristian, and impious. Of course, therefore, this Pope (the first who subscribed himself a servant of servants,) could lay no direct claim to a paramount authority over the British or Saxon Christians. And the interview between Austin and the Britons which has been formerly described, did not produce an open but an implied assertion of power

The real character and merits of Aus

tin have been already summed up in the eloquent words of Fuller. Other histobishop Parker is inclined to question the rians have been less impartial. Archfact of his having made any material addition to the Christian Church: and denies that he is even said to have preached the

The new converts, as might have been expected, manifested great deference and respect for the Pope, by whose instrumentality they had been called out of darkness into light. But even by them his directions were not punctually obeyed. Gregory desired, that the Saxon territory should be divided into two provinces, of which the Metropolitans were to be fixed at London and York, and each was to have twelve suffragan Bishops. In direct disobedience to this ordinance, the southern Archiepiscopal chair was fixed at Canterbury, the possessor of which see became Primate, not merely of his own province, but of all England. The northern Archbishoprick was in like manner removed, for a time, from York to Lindisfarne, and never extended its sway over twelve dioceses. This is a plain and undisputed instance of non-compliance with the commands of Rome. The alterations in Gregory's scheme may have proceeded either from ecclesiastical or civil authority; but they clearly establish the fact of domestic interference, and are fatal to all claims of a foreign jurisdiction.

The kingdom of Northumberland, as was formerly shewn, received the Gospel from the Scotch. The East-Saxons, originally converted by Mellitus, relapsed into Paganism, and were recovered by Chad, a Scot, with the support and encouragement of Oswy, king of Northumberland. About the same time the Mercians were converted by missionaries from the same quar

Gospel. Antiquit. Brit. Eccles. p. 53. This declaration is completely at variance with Bede, I. 26. Jortin likewise in his Remarks, thinks proper to call Austin a sanctified ruffian, a most audacious and insolent monk. Fox writes in a better spirit; pointing out and condemning the pride of the Missionary, but admitting at the same time that the Britons ought to have assisted him in his attempt to convert their Saxon invaders.

ter. Diuma, a Scot, was the first Bishop of that kingdom, and his bishoprick was fixed at Lichfield. Three-fourths of the Saxon territo ries are thus proved to have derived their Christianity from Churches who professed no obedience to Rome. And at the date of Theo. dore's advancement to the archbishoprick of Canterbury, viz. in the year 668, Popery was almost confined to the kingdom of Kent. In every other part of the country such establishments were adopted as best suited each particular case. No kingdom had at first more than one see; the Bishop was independent, and owned no Metropolitan ; and with the advice of their clergy and people, the princes founded, or removed, or divided episcopal sees, as seemed most advantageous to the interests of religion. This practice extended even to districts which had been converted by missionaries from Rome. The West-Saxons received Christianity from Birinus, whose see was fixed at Dorchester; but after his death the king divided the West-Saxon territory into the two bishopricks of Dorchester and Winchester, and declared them both independent of any Metropolitan whatsoever.

In these dioceses, as well as in the kingdom of Kent, it is probable that the Romish rites prevailed; but in all the other Saxon provinces we are certain, that a considerable portion of those rites were rejected. There are good grounds for supposing, that the Liturgies of the Irish and Scotch were very different from that which was established by Pope Gregory, and introduced into England by St. Austin. The general character of the ancient British Churches was plainer and less splendid than the fashion subsequently imported from Rome. The time of celebrating Easter was different in the two communions; and we have Austin's authority for believing, that there were many other points

of striking and important dissimilarity. It is impossible, therefore, to reflect upon this complete and sudden union without some feeling of surprize, and the means by which such an event was brought about, are worthy of attentive considera. tion.

In England, as in all other uncivilized countries, every thing then depended upon the qualifications and talents of individuals. The power of the kingdoms of Northumberland, Mercia, and Kent, rose and sunk according to the abilities of their respective kings, and the ecclesiastical community was influenced by similar causes, The first Northumbrian Bishops, Aidan and Finan, were men of superior merit; and during their lives the advocates of the Pope were unable to overturn the form of worship which had been received from the Scotch. But Colman, the successor of Finan, was of an inferior character; and as the Roman party happened to be conducted by a leader of eminent ability, the contest was terminated in their favour.

This leader was Wilfrid, by birth an Englishman, and educated originally in Northumberland. But his studies were afterwards prosecuted in France, and at Rome, and he returned to his native country, in the prime of life, a devoted and most useful adherent of the Pope. His history has been handed down to us, with unusual minuteness, by Eddius, his friend and companion, in a work which has more internal marks of authenticity and truth than any other of that date, and from which Bede's account of Wilfrid is evidently and not very fairly abridged. He was distinguished on his return to England by the sanctity of his life, and the extent of his learning; and he speedily formed and culti vated a friendship with Alfred, whose father, Oswy, king of Northumberland, was the most powerful Saxon: prince of his day. Al

fred had been previously disposed to prefer the Romish to the Scotch communion, and Wilfrid not only confirmed this prepossession, but succeeded, after some delay, in converting Oswy likewise.

For this purpose he availed himself of the old dispute, respecting the time of observing Easter. The Scotch thought, that it ought to be kept on the first Sunday after the thirteenth day of the equinoctial moon. The feast, therefore, fell occasionally upon the fourteenth, from which the followers of this custom obtained the names of Quarto decimans. The Latins, on the other hand, maintained that the fourteenth day must be completed before Easter could be duly observed; and their feast was, therefore, fixed upon the first Sunday after the fourteenth. This difference produced much confusion in the court of king Oswy, whose wife had been brought up in the Latin Church, and followed the Latin forms. And it happened, occacionally, that while one of them was celebrating the Easter festival, the other was engaged in the austerities of the Lent fast. Oswy therefore, consented to call a synod upon the subject, at which Wilfrid and Colman played the principal parts, Colman attended by Hilda, Abbess of Lindisfarne, and a large assembly of his clergy, appealed in defence of the Quarto-decimans, to the practice of his wise and holy predecessors, and asserted, that their practice was derived from St. John. Wilfrid, and Agilbert, Bishop of the West-Saxons, denied the cor. rectness of this last fact, and maintained that their cycle was adopted by all the Churches throughout the world, and originated with St. Peter, to whom the keys of heaven were consigned. Oswy having been told, that no such authority was given to the Scotch Saint, Columba, exclaimed, "Then I will observe the practice of the door-keeper of heaven, lest when I go and knock

there, he should not let me in." Thus terminated the famous synod of Strenaeshalch or Whitby; the result, and probably the object, of which was not merely the adoption of the Roman Easter, and the Roman Tonsure, but the expulsion of Colman from his bishoprick, and the election of Wilfrid in his place, under the title of Bishop of York. Eddius and Bede agree in describing Colman's retreat as voluntary; but their partiality to his successor, and the subsequent events of the history may induce us to distrust their report.

By the exaltation of Wilfrid, his real character was disclosed. He refused to accept of consecration from any English Bishop, alleging, that they were either Quarto-decimans and schismatics, or had derived their episcopal authority from those who had been so. He passed over, therefore, into Gaul, and was consecrated with great splendour by the Catholic Bishops of that country. But he had taken this step with too little precaution, and during his stay in Gaul, king Oswy yielded to the remonstrances of the Scotch Christians, and Ceadda, a Scot, was installed Bishop of York. Eddius bears testimony to the exemplary virtues of this new prelate; but expressly attributed his elevation to the machinations of the Quarto-decimans, and this circumstance furnishes a clue to the reverses by which the life of Wilfrid is distinguished. He was engaged in a series of struggles in favour of the authority of the Pope. At times he was successful, and was rewarded with riches and honour; at times the English triumphed over him, and he was disgraced and banished..

When he returned from France, and found his see occupied by Ceadda, he retired for the space of three years to Ripon, where he had founded and endowed a monastery, But he was unable to limit his ambition within such narrow bounds,

and having gained the friendship and confidence of Wulfer, king of Mercia, the second person in the heptarchy, he exercised his episcopal functions throughout the extensive dominions of that prince; and seized the opportunity of a vacancy in the archbishoprick of Canterbury, to confer the same favour upon Ethelbert, king of Kent. By these means Wilfrid's power and consequence were so much extended, that his opponents were once more driven from the field. Oswy was dead, and Alfred was his particular friend. Theodore, the new Primate, gave all the influence of his rank and learning to the Popish cause; and in the course of a visitation which he held at York, Ceadda was persuaded to vacate that bishoprick, on condition that Wilfrid's ally, Wulfer, should give him the bishoprick of Lich-· field, a diocese which then comprehended the greater part, if not the whole of the kingdom of Mercia. The advocates of Wilfrid, who was now reinstated in the see of York, describe this event as a complete victory; but upou looking into the particulars of Eddius's story, it turns out to be little more than a compromise, very cunningly obtained by the wit of one Bishop from the simplicity of another.

Wilfrid was now at the highest point in his career. His monasteries of Ripon, and Hagulstad or Hexham were rebuilt in the most sumptuous style. His Churches were adorned with marble pillars, columns and porticos; the officiating priests were robed in cloth of gold; and endowments poured in upon them from all quarters of the country. He obtained grants of all the Church-lands, which had been possessed by the British Clergy before the Saxon conquest. This munificent gift was solemnly announced from the Altar at the dedication of the Church at Ripon: the ceremony was concluded by a splendid feast which lasted three days: and Wil

frid presented a copy of the Gospels written in gold upon purplecoloured parchment, and enclosed iu a book-case made of pure gold, and ornamented with the most pre. cious gems. The monastery of Hexham was on a similar scale, and whatever opinion we may be compelled to form of the spirit and temper of its founder, it is certain that he was a munificent patron of letters and arts, and did more to encourage them than any of his contemporaries. His house was His house was the resort of young men of the highest rank; and he gave them a better education than could be pro. cured elsewhere. The highest offices in Church and State, and even in war were filled with the pupils whom he recommended for promotion. He observed the just mean between luxury and superstition; "neither drowning his reason in the streams of conviviality, nor inflaming his pride by a self-righteous abstinence." His morals are represented to have been scrupulously and undeviatingly pure. His largesses like his receipts were greater than those of any other individual: and had he been a prince instead of a Prelate, Wilfrid would have deserved a conspicuous place among the benefactors of his country.

But unhappily he engaged in many political intrigues; and the grandeur which has been just described was not of a durable character. Ecgfrid who had now succeeded to the throne of Northumberland, extended his temporal power as rapidly as Wilfrid enlarged his spiritual authority. And the success of the former was principally at the expense of Wilfrid, the bosom friend of the latter. As Wilfrid subsequently

betook himself to the Mercians for assistance, it is probable that his intimacy with them may have already given umbrage to Ecgfrid. But Eddius merely tells us, that the wife of Ecgfrid," although afterwards she was changed from a shewolf to a most perfect abbess, yet being for the present under the influence of the devil," alienated her husband's mind from the good Bishop Wilfrid. The cause of her ill-will is uncertain; but Wilfrid offended the king by persuading his former queen Etheldreda to enter into a convent; and it is a reasonable conjecture that the she-wolf of the present day may have been united to the king during that separation and have been objected against by the Prelate as illegally married. At all events her objections to Wilfrid were serious and true. She insisted upon his secular pomp and riches, the multitude of his monasteries, the magnitude of his buildings, and his innumerable army of followers adorned with royal and military trappings. These charges, together with a desire of obtaining posession of Wilfrid's wealth are said to have determined the king to banish him. The Bishop made an ineffectual reference to Theodore whose power he had previously disputed, and the Archbishop refused to interfere. Wilfrid declared his determination to appeal to the Pope, for which he was laughed at by the king and his courtiers. But to Rome the zealous Prelate repaired, and Ecgfrid took the opportunity of dividing his diocese into three; and Archbishop Theodore consecrated Bosa, Eata, and Trumbert to the Bishoprics of York, Hexham, and Lindisfarne.

MR. OWEN OF LANARK. OUR readers may remember that some three months ago, we took the REMEMBRANCER, No. 43.

liberty of adverting to the schemes of Mr. Owen of Lanark, and promised to make a further exposure of 3 G