The Foundation Of The Anglo-saxo


The Anglo-Saxon Church owes its foundation to the missionary zeal and wise

direction of Gregory the Great. Augustine, whom Gregory sent, arrived in

the kingdom of Kent 597, and established himself at Canterbury. In 625,

Paulinus began his work at York, and Christianity was accepted by the

Northumbrian king and many nobles. On the death of King Eadwine, Paulinus

was obliged to leave the kingdom. Missionaries were brought into
br /> Northumbria in 635 from the Celtic Church, the centre of which was at

Iona, where the new king Oswald had taken refuge on the death of Eadwine.

Aidan now became the leader of the Northern Church. As the

Christianization of the land advanced and Roman customs were introduced

into the northern kingdom, practical inconveniences as to the different

methods of reckoning the date of Easter, in which the North Irish and the

Celts of Scotland differed from the rest of the Christian Church, came to

a settlement of the difficulty at Streaneshalch, or Whitby, 664. Colman,

Bishop of Lindisfarne, the leader of the Celtic party, withdrew, and

Wilfrid, afterward bishop of York, took the lead under the influence of

the Roman tradition. The Church of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, now in

agreement as to custom, was organized by Theodore of Canterbury (668-690),

and developed a remarkable intellectual life, becoming, in fact, for the

first part at least of the eighth century, the centre of Western

theological and literary culture.





Additional source material: Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the

English People, for editions, v. supra, § 96. This is the best

account extant of the conversion of a nation to Christianity. H.

Gee and W. J. Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church

History, London, 1896; A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Councils and

Ecclesiastical Documents, 1869 ff.





(a) Bede, Hist. Ec., I, 29. (MSL, 95:69.)





The scheme of Gregory the Great for the organization of the

English Church A. D. 601.





Gregory, in planning his mission, seems not to have been aware of

the profound changes in the kingdom resulting from the Anglo-Saxon

invasion. He selected York as the seat of an archbishop, because

it was the ancient capital of the Roman province in the North, and

London, because it was the great city of the South. The rivalry of

the two archbishops caused difficulties for centuries, and was a

hinderance to the efficiency of the ecclesiastical system. By this

letter, the British bishops were to be under the authority of

Augustine, a position which was distasteful to the British, who

were extremely hostile to the Anglo-Saxons, and incomprehensible

to them, as they saw no reason or justification in any such

arrangement without their consent. They withdrew from all

intercourse with the new Anglo-Saxon Church and retired into

Wales.





To the most reverend and holy brother and fellow bishop, Augustine,

Gregory, servant of the servants of God.



Although it is certain that the unspeakable rewards of the eternal kingdom

are laid up for those who labor for Almighty God, yet it is necessary for

us to render to them the benefits of honors, that from this recompense

they may be able to labor more abundantly in the zeal for spiritual work.

And because the new Church of the English has been brought by thee to the

grace of Almighty God, by the bounty of the same Lord and by your toil, we

grant you the use of the pallium, in the same to perform only the

solemnities of the mass, in order that in the various places you ordain

twelve bishops who shall be under your authority, so that the bishop of

the city of London ought always thereafter to be consecrated by his own

synod and receive the pallium of honor from the holy Apostolic See, which

by God's authority I serve.(256) Moreover, we will that you send to York a

bishop whom you shall see fit to ordain, yet so that if the same city

shall have received the word of God along with the neighboring places, he

shall ordain twelve other bishops, and enjoy the honor of metropolitan,

because if our life last, we intend, with the Lord's favor, to give him

the pallium also. And we will that he be subject to your authority, my

brother. But after your decease he shall preside over the bishops he has

ordained, so that he shall not be subject in anywise to the bishop of

London. Moreover, let there be a distinction of honor between the bishops

of the city of London and of York, in such a way that he shall take the

precedence who has been ordained first. But let them arrange in concord by

common counsel and harmonious action the things which need to be done for

the zeal for Christ; let them determine rightly and let them accomplish

what they have decided upon without any mutual misunderstandings.



But you, my brother, shall have subject to you not only the bishops whom

you have ordained and those ordained by the bishop of York, but also, by

the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the priests [i.e., the bishops]

of Britain; so that from the lips of your holiness they may receive the

form both of correct faith and of holy life, and fulfilling the duties of

their office in faith and morals may, when the Lord wills, attain to the

kingdom of heaven. May God keep you safe, most reverend brother. Dated the

22d June in the nineteenth year of the reign of Mauritius Tiberius, the

most pious Augustus, in the eighteenth year of the consulship of the same

Lord, indiction four.





(b) Bede, Hist. Ec., III, 25 f. (MSL, 95:158.)





The Easter dispute and the synod of Whitby. The triumph of the

Roman tradition.





The sharpest dispute between the Celtic and the Roman churches was

on the date of Easter as presenting the most inconveniences. The

principal points were as follows: Both parties agreed that it must

be on Sunday, in the third week of the first lunar month, and the

paschal full moon must not fall before the vernal equinox. But the

Celts placed the vernal equinox on March 25, and the Romans on

March 21. The Celts, furthermore, reckoned as the third week the

14th to the 20th days of the moon inclusive; the Romans the 15th

to the 21st inclusive. The Irish Church in the southern part of

Ireland had already adopted the Roman reckoning at the synod of

Leighlin, 630-633 [Hefele, § 289]. The occasion of the difference

of custom was, in reality, that the Romans had adopted in the

previous century a more correct method of reckoning and one that

had fewer practical inconveniences. For a statement by a Celt, see

Epistle of Columbanus to Gregory the Great, in the latter's

Epistolae, Reg. IX, Ep. 127 (PNF, ser. II, vol. XIII, p. 38). In

the following selection space has been saved by omissions which

are, however, indicated.





At this time [circa 652] a great and frequent controversy happened about

the observance of Easter; those that came from Kent or France asserting

that the Scots kept Easter Sunday contrary to the custom of the universal

Church. Among them was a most zealous defender of the true Easter, whose

name was Ronan, a Scot by nation, but instructed in ecclesiastical truth,

either in France or Italy, who disputed with Finan,(257) and convinced

many, or at least induced them, to make a stricter inquiry after the

truth; yet he could not prevail upon Finan James, formerly the deacon of

the venerable archbishop Paulinus kept the true and Catholic Easter,

with all those that he could persuade to adopt the right way. Queen

Eanfleda [wife of Oswy, king of Northumbria] and her attendants also

observed the same as she had seen practised in Kent, having with her a

Kentish priest that followed the Catholic mode, whose name was Romanus.

Thus it is said to have happened in those times that Easter was kept twice

in one year;(258) and that when the king, having ended the time of

fasting, kept his Easter, the queen and her attendants were still fasting

and celebrating Palm Sunday.



After the death of Finan [662] when Colman, who was also sent out of

Scotland, came to be bishop, a great controversy arose about the

observance of Easter, and the rules of ecclesiastical life. This reached

the ears of King Oswy and his son Alfrid; for Oswy, having been instructed

and baptized by the Scots, and being very perfectly skilled in their

language, thought nothing better than what they taught. But Alfrid, having

been instructed in Christianity by Wilfrid, a most learned man, who had

first gone to Rome to learn the ecclesiastical doctrine, and spent much

time at Lyons with Dalfinus, archbishop of France, from whom he had

received the ecclesiastical tonsure, rightly thought this man's doctrine

ought to be preferred to all the traditions of the Scots.



The controversy having been started concerning Easter, the tonsure, and

other ecclesiastical matters, it was agreed that a synod should be held in

the monastery of Streaneshalch, which signifies the bay of the lighthouse,

where the Abbess Hilda, a woman devoted to God, presided; and that there

the controversy should be decided. The kings, both father and son, came

hither. Bishop Colman, with his Scottish clerks, and Agilbert,(259) and

the priests Agatho and Wilfrid. James and Romanus were on their side. But

the Abbess Hilda and her associates were for the Scots, as was also the

venerable bishop Cedd, long before ordained by the Scots. Then Colman

said: "The Easter which I keep, I received from my elders who sent me

hither as bishop; all our fathers, men beloved of God, are known to have

kept it in the same manner; and that the same may not seem to any to be

contemptible or worthy of being rejected, it is the same which St. John

the Evangelist, the disciple especially beloved of our Lord, with all the

churches over which he presided, is recorded as having observed."



Wilfrid, having been ordered by the king to speak, said: "The Easter which

we observe we saw celebrated by all at Rome, where the blessed Apostles,

Peter and Paul, lived, taught, suffered, and were buried; we saw the same

done in Italy and France, when we travelled through those countries for

pilgrimage and prayer. We found the same practised in Africa, Asia, Egypt,

Greece, and in all the world, wherever the Church of Christ is spread

abroad, through several nations and tongues, at one and the same time

except only those and their accomplices in obstinacy, I mean the Picts and

the Britons, who foolishly, in these two remote islands of the world, and

only in part of them, oppose all the rest of the universe. John, pursuant

to the custom of the law, began the celebration of the feast of Easter on

the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, not regarding whether the

same happened on a Saturday or any other day. Thus it appears that you,

Colman, neither follow the example of John, as you imagine, nor that of

Peter, whose traditions you knowingly contradict. For John, keeping the

paschal time according to the decree of the Mosaic law, had no regard to

the first day after the Sabbath [i.e., that it should fall on Sunday],

and you who celebrate Easter only on the first day after the Sabbath do

not practise this. Peter kept Easter Sunday between the fifteenth and the

twenty-first day of the moon, and you do not do this, but keep Easter

Sunday from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of the moon, so that you

often begin Easter on the thirteenth moon in the evening besides this in

your celebration of Easter, you utterly exclude the twenty-first day of

the moon, which the law ordered to be especially observed."



To this Colman rejoined: "Did Anatolius, a holy man, and much commended in

ecclesiastical history, act contrary to the Law and the Gospel when he

wrote that Easter was to be celebrated from the fourteenth to the

twentieth? Is it to be believed that our most reverend Father Columba and

his successors, men beloved of God, who kept Easter after the same manner,

thought or acted contrary to the divine writings? Whereas there were many

among them whose sanctity was attested by heavenly signs and the workings

of miracles, whose life, customs, discipline I never cease to follow, not

questioning that they are saints in heaven."



Wilfrid said: "It is evident that Anatolius was a most holy and learned

and commendable man; but what have you to do with him, since you do not

observe his decrees? For he, following the rule of truth in his Easter,

appointed a cycle of nineteen years, which you are either ignorant of, or

if you know yet despise, though it is kept by the whole Church of Christ.

Concerning your Father Columba and his followers I do not deny that they

were God's servants, and beloved by Him, who, with rustic simplicity but

pious intentions, have themselves loved Him. But as for you and your

companions, you certainly sin, if, having heard the decrees of the

Apostolic See, or rather of the universal Church, and the same confirmed

by Holy Scripture, you refuse to follow them. For though your Fathers were

holy, do you think that their small number in a corner of the remotest

island is to be preferred before the universal Church of Christ throughout

the world? And if that Columba of yours (and, I may say, ours also, if he

was Christ's servant) was a holy man and powerful in miracles, yet could

he be preferred before the most blessed prince of the Apostles, to whom

our Lord said: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and to thee I will

give the keys of the kingdom of heaven'?"



When Wilfrid had thus spoken, the king said: "Is it true, Colman, that

these words were spoken to Peter by our Lord?" He answered: "It is true, O

king." Then he said: "Can you show any such power given to your Columba?"

Colman answered: "None." Then the king added: "Do you both agree that

these words were principally directed to Peter, and that the keys of

heaven were given to him by our Lord?" They both answered: "We do." Then

the king concluded: "And I also say unto you that he is the doorkeeper

whom I will not contradict, but will, as far as I know and am able in all

things, obey his decrees, lest, when I come to the gates of the kingdom of

heaven, there should be one to open them, he being my adversary who is

proved to have the keys." The king having said this, all present, both

small and great, gave their assent, and renounced the more imperfect

institution, and resolved to conform to that which they found to be

better. [ch. 26]. Colman, perceiving that his doctrine was rejected and

his sect despised, took with him such as would not comply with the

Catholic Easter and the tonsure (for there was much controversy about that

also) and went back to Scotland to consult with his people what was to be

done in this case. Cedd, forsaking the practices of the Scots, returned to

his bishopric, having submitted to the Catholic observance of Easter. This

disputation happened in the year of our Lord's incarnation, 664.





(c) Bede, Hist. Ec., IV, 5. (MSL, 95:180.)





The Council of Hertford A. D. 673. The organization of the

Anglo-Saxon Church by Theodore.





As the important synod of Whitby marks the beginning of conformity

of the Anglo-Saxon Church under the leadership of the kingdom of

Northumbria to the customs of the Roman Church, so the synod of

Hertford brings the internal organization of the Church into

conformity with the diocesan system of the Continent and of the

East, where the principles of the general councils were at this

time most completely enforced. Theodore of Canterbury was a

learned Greek who was sent to England to be archbishop of

Canterbury by Pope Vitalian in 668. The Council of Hertford was

the first council of all the Church among the Anglo-Saxons. For

the council, see also Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and

Ecclesiastical Documents, III, 118-122. The text given is that of

Plummer.





In the name of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the perpetual

reign of the same Lord Jesus Christ and His government of His Church. It

seemed good that we should come together according to the prescription of

the venerable canons, to treat of the necessary affairs of the Church. We

are met together on this 24th day of September, the first indiction in the

place called Hertford. I, Theodore, although unworthy, appointed by the

Apostolic See bishop of the church of Canterbury, and our fellow priest

the most reverend Bisi, bishop of the East Angles, together with our

brother and fellow bishop Wilfrid, bishop of the nation of the

Northumbrians, present by his proper legates, as also our brethren and

fellow bishops, Putta, bishop of the Castle of the Kentishmen called

Rochester, Leutherius, bishop of the West Saxons, and Winfrid, bishop of

the province of the Mercians, were present. When we were assembled and had

taken our places, each according to his rank, I said: I beseech you,

beloved brethren, for the fear and love of our Redeemer, that we all labor

in common for our faith, that whatsoever has been decreed and determined

by the holy and approved Fathers may be perfectly followed by us all. I

enlarged upon these and many other things tending unto charity and the

preservation of the unity of the Church. And when I had finished my speech

I asked them singly and in order whether they consented to observe all

things which had been canonically decreed by the Fathers? To which all our

fellow priests answered: We are all well agreed readily and most

cheerfully to keep whatever the canons of the holy Fathers have

prescribed. Whereupon I immediately produced the book of canons,(260) and

pointed out ten chapters from the same book, which I had marked, because I

knew that they were especially necessary for us, and proposed that they

should be diligently observed by all, namely:



Ch. 1. That we shall jointly observe Easter day on the Lord's day after

the fourteenth day of the moon in the first month.



Ch. 2. That no bishop invade the diocese of another, but be content with

the government of the people committed to him.



Ch. 3. That no bishop be allowed to trouble in any way any monasteries

consecrated to God, nor to take away by violence anything that belongs to

them.



Ch. 4. That the monks themselves go not from place to place; that is, from

one monastery to another, without letters dismissory of their own

abbot;(261) but that they shall continue in that obedience which they

promised at the time of their conversion.



Ch. 5. That no clerk, leaving his own bishop, go up and down at his own

pleasure, nor be received wherever he comes, without commendatory letters

from his bishop; but if he be once received and refuse to return when he

is desired so to do, both the receiver and the received shall be laid

under an excommunication.



Ch. 6. That stranger bishops and clerks be content with the hospitality

that is freely offered them; and none of them be allowed to exercise any

sacerdotal function without permission of the bishop in whose diocese he

is known to be.



Ch. 7. That a synod be assembled twice in the year. But, because many

occasions may hinder this, it was jointly agreed by all that once in the

year it be assembled on the first of August in the place called Clovesho.



Ch. 8. That no bishop ambitiously put himself before another, but that

every one observe the time and order of his consecration.



Ch. 9. The ninth chapter was discussed together: That the number of

bishops be increased as the number of the faithful grew;(262) but we did

nothing as to this point at present.



Ch. 10. As to marriages: That none shall be allowed to any but what is a

lawful marriage. Let none commit incest. Let none relinquish his own wife

but for fornication, as the holy Gospel teaches. But if any have dismissed

a wife united to him in lawful marriage, let him not be joined to another

if he wish really to be a Christian, but remain as he is or be reconciled

to his own wife.



After we had jointly treated on and discussed these chapters, that no

scandalous contention should arise henceforth by any of us, and that there

be no changes in the publication of them, it seemed proper that every one

should confirm by the subscription of his own hand whatever had been

determined. I dictated this our definitive sentence to be written by

Titillus, the notary. Done in the month and indiction above noted.

Whosoever, therefore, shall attempt in any way to oppose or infringe this

sentence, confirmed by our present consent, and the subscription of our

hands as agreeable to the decrees of the canons, let him know that he is

deprived of every sacerdotal function and our society. May the divine

grace preserve us safe living in the unity of the Church.





(d) Bede, Hist. Ec., IV, 17. (MSL, 95:198.)





Council of Hatfield, A. D. 680.





At the Council of Hatfield the Anglo-Saxon Church formally

recognized the binding authority of the five general councils

already held, and rejected Monotheletism in accord with the Roman

synod A. D. 649. It seems to have been, as stated in the

introduction to the Acts of the council, a preventive measure. In

Plummer's edition of Bede this chapter is numbered 15.





At this time Theodore, hearing that the faith of the Church of

Constantinople had been much disturbed by the heresy of Eutyches,(263) and

being desirous that the churches of the English over which he ruled should

be free from such a stain, having collected an assembly of venerable

priests and very many doctors, diligently inquired what belief they each

held, and found unanimous agreement of all in the Catholic faith; and this

he took care to commit to a synodical letter for the instruction and

remembrance of posterity. This is the beginning of the letter:



In the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the reign of our most

pious lords, Egfrid, king of the Humbrians, in the tenth year of his

reign, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October [September 17]

in the eighth indiction, and Ethelred, king of the Mercians, in the sixth

year of his reign; and Adwulf, king of the Kentishmen, in the seventh year

of his reign; Theodore being president, by the grace of God, archbishop of

the island of Britain and of the city of Canterbury, and other venerable

men sitting with him, bishops of the island of Britain, with the holy

Gospels laid before them, and in the place which is called by the Saxon

name of Hatfield, we, handling the subject in concert, have made an

exposition of the right and orthodox faith, as our incarnate Lord Jesus

Christ delivered it to His disciples, who saw Him present and heard His

discourses, and as the creed of the holy Fathers has delivered it, and all

the holy and universal synods and all the chorus of approved doctors of

the Catholic Church teach. We therefore piously and orthodoxly following

them and, making our profession according to their divinely inspired

teaching, believe in unison with it, and confess according to the holy

Fathers that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are properly and

truly a consubstantial Trinity in unity, and unity in Trinity; that is, in

one God in three consubstantial subsistencies or persons of equal glory

and honor.



And after many things of this kind that pertained to the confession of the

right faith, the holy synod also adds these things to its letter:



We have received as holy and universal five synods of the blessed Fathers

acceptable to God; that is, of the three hundred and eighteen assembled at

Nicaea against the most impious Arius and his tenets; and of the one

hundred and fifty at Constantinople against the madness of Macedonius and

Eudoxius and their tenets; and of the two hundred in the first Council of

Ephesus against the most wicked Nestorius and his tenets; and of the six

hundred and thirty at Chalcedon against Eutyches and Nestorius and their

tenets; and again of those assembled in a fifth council at Constantinople

[A. D. 553], in the time of the younger Justinian, against Theodore and

the epistles of Theodoret and Ibas and their tenets against Cyril.



And a little after: Also we have received the synod(264) that was held in

the city of Rome in the time of the blessed Pope Martin in the eighth

indiction, in the ninth year of the reign of the most pious

Constantine.(265) And we glorify our Lord Jesus Christ as they glorified

Him, neither adding nor subtracting anything; and we anathematize with

heart and mouth those whom they anathematized; and those whom they

received we receive, glorifying God the Father without beginning, and his

only begotten Son, begotten of the Father before the world began, and the

Holy Ghost proceeding ineffably from the Father and the Son, as those holy

Apostles, prophets, and doctors have declared whom we have mentioned

above. And we all who with Theodore have made an exposition of the

Catholic faith have subscribed hereto.



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