BOOK IV.

FROM THE ELECTION OF GREGORY THE GREAT TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE,

A.D. 590-814

 

CHAPTER III.

The Western Church, from the Death of Gregory the Great to the Pontificate of Gregory the Second. A.D. 604-715.

 

 

The relations of the papacy with the empire during the period between the first and the second Gregories may in some degree be understood from the foregoing chapter.

The monothelite controversy for a time weakened the influence of Rome, both through the error of Honorius in favouring the heretical party and through the collisions between the papacy and the imperial power. But although Martin suffered severely in person for his proceedings in the council of Lateran, these proceedings—the assembling of such a synod without the emperor’s sanction, and the bold condemnation of his ecclesiastical measures—remained as important steps in the advance of the papal claims; and in no long time the authority of the Roman name was re-established by the sixth general council. At that council the title of ecumenical or universal bishop, which Gregory had not only denounced in others but rejected for himself, was ascribed to Agatho by his representatives, and the bishops of Rome thenceforth usually assumed it.

Agatho obtained from Constantine Pogonatus an abatement of the sum payable to the emperor on the appointment of a pope; and the same emperor granted to Benedict II that, in order to guard against a repetition of the inconveniences which had been felt from the necessity of waiting for the imperial confirmation, the pope should be consecrated immediately after his election. Yet the confirmation by the secular power still remained necessary for the possession of St. Peter’s chair, and disputed elections gave the exarchs of Ravenna ample opportunities of interfering in the establishment of the Roman bishops; if indeed the meaning of the edict for the immediate consecration of the pope were not that the exarch’s ratification should be sufficient, without the necessity of referring the matter to Constantinople.

The political influence of the popes increased in proportion as the emperors were obliged by the progress of the Saracens to concentrate their strength for the defence of their eastern dominions, and to devolve on the bishops of Rome the care of guarding against the Lombards. The popes now possessed some fortresses of their own, and from time to time they repaired the walls of Rome. The Italians came to regard them more than the sovereigns of Constantinople; and such incidents as the rising of the soldiery against the attempt to carry off Sergius, a similar rising in the pontificate of John VI, and the refusal of the Romans to acknowledge the authority of Philippicus, are significant tokens of the power which the bishops of Rome had acquired in their own city.

The desolation of the churches of Palestine by the Saracens, and the withdrawal of the patriarchs from Antioch and Jerusalem to the enjoyment of a titular dignity within the empire, furnished the popes with a pretext for a new interference in the affairs of the east. A bishop of Joppa had taken it on himself, perhaps with the imperial sanction, to fill up some vacant sees. In opposition to him, Theodore of Rome commissioned Stephen bishop of Dor (whose name has occurred in the history of the monothelite controversy) to act as his vicar in the Holy Land. The execution of the commission was resisted by the influence of the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch; but similar delegations were afterwards given by other popes, although it does not appear with what effect.

The differences between the popes and the court encouraged the archbishops of Ravenna to set up pretensions to independence, which they rested on the eastern principle that the civil importance of their city entitled it to such ecclesiastical dignity. The claim caused considerable difficulty to the popes, but was at length set at rest in 683 by Leo II, who obtained an imperial order that the archbishop should repair to Rome for consecration. The schism of Istria, which had arisen out of the controversy on the Three Articles in the middle of the sixth century, was, after many temporary accommodations, finally healed by Sergius in 698. But in the Lombard kingdom, although Catholicism was established from the reign of Grimoald (A.D 662-671), the church still remained independent of Rome, and the entire relations of the Lombards with the papacy were not of any cordial or satisfactory kind.

The history of the Spanish church for a century after its abjuration of Arianism consists chiefly in the records of its synods. These assemblies did not confine themselves to the regulation of ecclesiastical matters, but also took an active concern in the affairs of state. As the sovereignty was elective, the voice of the bishops was influential in the choice of kings; and the kings, who from the time of Recared were solemnly crowned by the chief pastors of the church, were naturally desirous to fortify their throne by the support of the clergy. Hence the bishops acquired very great political importance : they were charged with the oversight, not only of the administration of justice, but of the collection of taxes. By this relation between the ecclesiastical and the secular powers, the church became nationalized, and the connection with Rome, in which the catholic bishops had at first found a means of influence and strength, was gradually weakened during the lapse of time from the period of the reconciliation. Although Gregory had bestowed the pall on his friend Leander, bishop of Seville, no record is found of its arrival in Spain; later bishops of Seville do not appear to have applied for it; and the primacy of Spain was transferred by the royal authority from that city to the capital, Toledo.

The most eminent men of the Spanish church during this time were Isidore, bishop of Seville (Hispalensis), and Ildefonso (or Alfonso), bishop of Toledo. Isidore, the brother and successor of Leander, held his see from 595 to 636, and was a voluminous writer. His works, which are very miscellaneous in character, are little more than compilations, and are valuable chiefly for the fragments of earlier writings which are preserved in them. But his learning and genius were in his own day admired as extraordinary, and his fame afterwards became such that in the ninth century his name was employed to bespeak credit for the great forgery of the Decretals. Ildefonso, who filled the see of Toledo in the middle of the seventh century, distinguished himself in asserting the perpetual virginity of the Saviour’s mother. His exertions are said to have been rewarded by her appearing in dazzling brightness over the altar of his cathedral, and presenting him with a magnificent vestment, to be worn at the celebration of the Eucharist on her festivals.

In the first years of the eighth century king Witiza forbade appeals to Rome, authorized the marriage of the clergy, and obtained for his measures the sanction of a synod held in Toledo in 710; and it is said that he threatened such of the clergy as should oppose these measures with death. This prince is described as a prodigy of impiety, tyranny, and vice; but it has been shown that the darkness of his reputation appears more strongly in later writers than in those who lived near his own time; and it has been conjectured that he may have only meant to prevent the recurrence of complaints against the immorality of the clergy by reviving the liberty of marriage, which had always existed during the Arian period of the Spanish church. But, whatever may have been his motives or the details of his acts, the effects of these were soon brought to an end by the Arab conquest of Spain, which dethroned his successor Roderick. The mountaineers of the north alone retained their independence with their Christianity. The Christians who fell under the Mahometan dominion received the same humiliating toleration in Spain as elsewhere; and in their depressed condition they were glad once more to look for countenance to the see of Rome.

In France the disorders of the time tended to lessen the connection of the church with Rome. Such differences as arose were necessarily decided on the spot; and there is hardly any trace of intercourse with the papal see between the pontificates of the first and the second Gregories. The same troubles which led to this effect caused a general decay of discipline both among the clergy and in the monasteries. When men of the conquering race began to seek after the emoluments and dignities of the church—a change which is marked by the substitution of Teutonic for Roman names in lists of bishops from the seventh century—they brought much of their rudeness with them, and canons against hunting and fighting prelates began to be necessary

At the same time the weak and temporal influence by which such persons were attracted into the ranks of the clergy were continually on the increase. Vast gifts of land and of money were bestowed by princes on churches and monasteries, sometimes from pious feeling, sometimes by way of compromise for the indulgence of their vicious passions. Thus Dagobert, the last Merovingian who possessed any energy of character, by the advice of St Eligius, his master of the mint, enlarged a little chapel of St. Denys, near Paris, into a splendid monastery, furnished it with precious ornaments, the work of the pious goldsmith, and endowed it with large estates, which were partly derived from the spoil of other religious houses. This prince, “like Solomon”, says Fredegar, “had three queens and a multitude of concubines”; and the chronicler seems to consider it as a question whether his liberality to the church were or were not sufficient to cover his sins.

Another writer, however, not only speaks without any doubt on the subject, but professes to give conclusive information as to the fate of Dagobert. A hermit on an island in the Mediterranean, it is said, was warned in a vision to pray for the Frankish kings soul. He then saw Dagobert in chains, hurried along by a troop of fiends, who were about to cast him into a volcano, when his cries to St. Denys, St. Michael, and St. Martin, brought to his assistance three venerable and glorious persons, who drove off the devils, and, with songs of triumph, conveyed the rescued soul to Abraham's bosom.

On the reunion of the monarchy under Dagobert’s father, Clotaire II, the bishops were summoned to an assembly of the leudes, and seventy-nine of them appeared at it. The laws passed by the joint consent of the spiritual and temporal aristocracies show traces of ecclesiastical influence, not only in the increase of clerical privileges, but in the humane spirit which pervades them. From that time bishops appear mixing deeply in political strife. Saints become conspicuous objects of general interest. The severity of their lives acquires for them reverence and power, but this power is exercised in the rude contentions of the age. One of the most famous of these saints, Leodegar (or Léger), bishop of Autun, may be mentioned by way of example. Leodegar was sprung from or connected with the most powerful families of the Frankish nobility. He acquired great credit with Bathildis, the saintly Anglo-Saxon who rose from the condition of a captive to be queen of Clovis II and regent of Neustria, and by her he was promoted from the abbacy of St Maixent to the see of Autun. He is celebrated for the austerity of his life, for his frequency in prayer, for his eloquence as a preacher, for his bounty to the poor and to his church, and for his vigilant administration of the episcopal office. But he appears as the political chief of a powerful party of nobles; he takes the lead in setting up and in dethroning kings; and, if he did not actually bear the title of mayor of the palace, he for a time exercised the power of the mayoralty in the Neustro-Burgundian kingdom. After various turns of fortune, Leodegar fell into the hands of his rival Ebroin, who caused his eyes to be put out—an operation which he bore with perfect calmness, singing psalms during the execution of it. Two years later, by order of Ebroin, he was exposed to tortures, his lips were cut off, his tongue was cut out, and he was dragged over sharp stones with such violence that for a time he was unable to stand. Notwithstanding the loss of his organs of speech, however, the bishop was able to speak as well as before. His sufferings and his merits excited a general enthusiasm in his favour, and Ebroin in alarm resolved to rid himself of him by death. A great council of bishops was summoned, and Leodegar was accused before it of having been concerned in the death of Childeric II—a prince who had owed his throne to him, but had afterwards confined him in the monastery of Luxeuil, and had been put to death by the party with which the imprisoned bishop was connected. Leodegar firmly denied the charge, and referred to God as his witness. But his guilt was considered as certain; his robe was rent, in token of degradation from his order; and, although a bright light appeared around his head in attestation of his innocence and sanctity, he was beheaded by order of Ebroin. Leodegar was revered as a martyr, and is said to have performed innumerable miracles after death. Yet among his opponents also were some who are ranked in the number of saints—such as Dado or Audoen (Ouen), bishop of Rouen, the friend and biographer of St Eligius, Praejectus (Prix) of Clermont, and Agilbert of Paris. Ouen’s part in the struggle is celebrated for the significant answer which he gave when consulted by Ebroin—“Remember Fredegund”,—words which may have been intended only to recommend the imitation of that famous queen's readiness and decision, but which we can hardly read without thinking also of the unscrupulous wickedness by which her purposes were accomplished.

The Irish church, from which Columba had gone forth to labour in North Britain, and Columban in Gaul and Italy, was in these ages fruitful in missionaries, of whom many further notices will occur hereafter. But its internal history, however full of interest for the antiquarian inquirer, offers little that can find a place in such a narrative as this. It will be enough to mention here certain peculiarities of administration, which not only throw light on the condition of the Irish church, but serve also to explain the “unusual arrangement” of St. Columba’s foundation at Iona, and to account both for the commonness of the episcopal title among the Irish missionary clergy and for the irregular character of their proceedings.

In the early Irish church it was held that the power of ordination belonged to the bishops alone; but the episcopate was merely a personal distinction, which conveyed no right of local jurisdiction. There was no limit to the number of persons on whom it might be conferred, and, like the chorepiscopi of other countries, they were consecrated by a single bishop. The position of Irish bishops, therefore, was widely different, both in spiritual and in temporal respects, from that of bishops elsewhere. As to rank, it would seem that not only abbots, but even anchorets and the lecturers of the church, sometimes took precedence of them. The care of the ecclesiastical property was from early times committed to officers who had the title of Erenachs; and, by a remarkable variation from the usual order of the church, the spiritual government was exercised by a class of persons who, as having succeeded to the churches of eminent early missionaries, were styled their Coarbs (or successors). These coarbs occupied positions which had originally been held by abbots; and, while some of them belonged to the episcopal order, the greater number were presbyters. The office of erenach was not transmitted from father to son, but according to the system of tanistry—a tanist, or successor, being chosen during the lifetime of each holder. The dignity of coarb was not originally restricted to particular families; but from the tenth century it seems to have become for the most part hereditary—passing from a deceased possessor to his brother, to his nephew, or (as the marriage of the clergy was usual in the Irish church) to his son. The erenachs were originally taken from the ranks of the clergy, but the office gradually fell into the hands of laymen; and at length —probably in consequence of the Danish invasions in the tenth century, when the power of defending the church’s possessions became a chief qualification for ecclesiastical government—the laity were admitted to the office of coarbs also; so that, according to a complaint of St. Bernard, the church of Armagh was held by eight laymen in succession, and even instances of female coarbs sometimes occur. 

The early history of Christianity in the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is marked by much similarity of circumstances. Missionaries meet with a friendly reception: the king, after some prudent hesitation, becomes a convert, but his successors relapse into heathenism; until, after a time, the throne is filled by a prince who had learned the truths of the gospel in exile, and the profession of the faith is restored. Matrimonial alliances exercise the same influence in the spreading of religion which had before been seen among the barbarian conquerors of Gaul, Spain, and Italy. Among the evidences by which the gospel was recommended, we find frequent mention of miracles, and not uncommonly the argument from temporal interest—the experience of the fruitlessness of serving the pagan deities, and the inference that they had no power to help or to punish.

In the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons two rival agencies were concerned—that of the Irish or Scottish, and that of the Roman party. Some of the differences as to usage between the Roman missionaries and the native clergy have already been mentioned—among them, the variation as to the time of Easter, produced by the adhesion of the Britons to a cycle which at Rome had long been obsolete. Another subject of contention was the form of the tonsure. It was not until monachism became popular that any tonsure was introduced; nor was it common among the western clergy until the sixth century. But a far earlier origin was now claimed for the fashions which contended in Britain. The Romans, who shaved the crown of the bead, in imitation of the crown of thorns, deduced their practice from St. Peter while that of the Scots and Irish, who shaved the front as far as the ears, in the form of a crescent, was traced by its opponents to Simon Magus—a derivation which the Scots do not appear to have disputed, as they contented themselves with insisting on the virtues of some who had used their form of tonsure. The importance which the Irish attached to these varieties may be inferred from the statement of Laurence, the successor of Augustine at Canterbury, that an Irish bishop named Dagan refused, when in England, to partake of food with the Italian clergy, and even to eat under the same roof with them. Honorius and other bishops of Rome endeavoured to allay the dissensions by writing to the bishops of the national party. They succeeded in gaining the Irish, and even some of the Britons; but the Scots of the north continued obstinately to hold out.

Paulinus, the first archbishop of York, had, after the defeat and death of his convert Edwin of Northumbria, withdrawn into Kent with the widowed queen Ethelburga, a daughter of King Ethelbert, and spent his last years in the bishopric of Rochester, while the northern kingdom fell back into idolatry. Oswald, who in 635 ascended the Northumbrian throne, had been converted while an exile in Scotland, and, in undertaking the conversion of his subjects, naturally looked to the same church through which he had himself received his knowledge of the gospel. At his request a bishop was sent from Iona; but the missionary was a man of stern character, and, after a short trial, withdrew in anger and despair at the obstinacy of the Northumbrians. The fathers of Iona met in consultation, and he indignantly related to them the failure of his enterprise; when, after he had finished, one of the monks, in a gentle tone of voice, told him that he had proceeded wrongly, and ought rather to have condescended to the rudeness and ignorance of those to whom he had been sent. Immediately the brethren exclaimed that the speaker, Aidan, was right; that the method which he had suggested was the true one, and that he was himself the fittest person to execute it. He was forthwith consecrated as a bishop, and was recommended to Oswald, who (evidently with a reference to the insular nature of his old abode) assigned the island of Lindisfarne for his residence. Here Aidan established a system closely resembling that of Iona; the bishops, with their staff of clergy, living according to monastic rule in a community governed by an abbot. Oswald zealously assisted his labours in spreading the gospel; and, as Aidan was but imperfectly acquainted with the language of the country, the king himself, who had learned the Celtic tongue during his exile, often acted as interpreter while the bishop delivered his religious instructions.

Aidan’s settlement at Lindisfarne was followed by a large immigration of Scottish missionaries into England. Bede—Roman as he is in his affections, and strongly opposed to their peculiarities— bears hearty witness to the virtues of these northern clergy—their zeal, their gentleness, their humility and simplicity, their earnest study of Scripture, their freedom from all selfishness and avarice, their honest boldness in dealing with the great, their tenderness and charity towards the poor, their strict and self-denying life. “Hence”, he writes, with an implied allusion to the degeneracy of his own time, in those days the religious habit was held in great reverence, so that wheresoever any clerk or monk appeared, he was joyfully received by all as the servant of God; even if he were met with on his journey the people ran to him, and, with bended neck, were glad to be either signed with his hand or blessed by his mouth; and they diligently gave ear to his words of exhortation. And if perchance a priest came to any village, forthwith the inhabitants gathered together, and were careful to seek from him the word of life." Of Aidan himself the historian says that he thoroughly endeavoured to practise all that he knew of Christian duty; and that even as to the paschal question, while he erred in differing from the Catholics, he earnestly studied to unite with them in celebrating the great facts of our redemption through the passion, resurrection, and ascension of the Saviour. Aidan's successors were of like character. By them not only was Christianity spread over Northumbria, but other kingdoms, as Mercia and Essex, even to the northern bank of the Thames, were evangelized by missionaries who derived their orders immediately or more remotely from St. Columba's foundation at Iona.

But collisions with the Roman party were inevitable. Oswy, the brother and successor of Oswald, who had learnt his Christianity and had been baptized in Scotland, married a daughter of Edwin of Northumbria, named Eanfleda, who after her father’s death had been carried by Paulinus into Kent, and there brought up among her mother's kindred. The royal pair adhered to the customs of their respective teachers; and thus, while Oswy was celebrating the Easter festival, the queen was still engaged in the penitential exercises of Lent. The king’s eldest son and colleague, Aldfrid, strongly took up the Roman views, and expelled the Scottish monks from a monastery at Ripon in order to substitute Romanizers, under Wilfrid, a priest of Northumbrian birth, who, having become discontented with the customs of Lindisfarne, had been sent by Eanfleda’s patronage to Rome, and had returned to his native country with a zealous desire to propagate the usages of the Roman church. The paschal question was discussed in a conference at Streaneshalch (Whitby), in the presence of Oswy and his son. On the part of the Scots appeared Colman of Lindisfarne, with Cedd, a Northumbrian, who had been consecrated as bishop by Aidan’s successor Finan, and had effected a second conversion of Essex; and they were strengthened by the countenance of the royal and saintly abbess Hilda, in whose monastery the conference was held. On the other side stood Agilbert, a native of France, who had studied in Ireland, and had held the see of Dorchester in Wessex, with Wilfrid, whom the bishop, on the plea of his own inability to speak the language of the country fluently, put forward as the champion of Rome. Wilfrid argued from the custom of that church in which St. Peter and St. Paul had lived and taught, had suffered and had been buried. St. John, to whom the other party traced its practice, had, he said, observed it from a wish to avoid offence to the Jews; but the church which that apostle had governed had, since the council of Nicaea, conformed to the Roman usage; and neither St. John, nor even the founder of Iona, if alive, would maintain, in opposition to Rome, a practice which was observed only by a handful of insignificant persons in a remote corner of the earth. On Wilfrid’s quoting our Lord’s promise to bestow on St. Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Oswy asked Colman whether these words had really been spoken to the apostle. The bishop assented, and owned, in answer to a further question, that he could not produce any such grant of authority to St. Columba. “I tell you then”, said the king, “that Peter is the door­keeper, whom I will not gainsay, lest perchance, if I make him my enemy by disregarding his statutes, there should be no one to open the door of heaven to me”. The Roman party was victorious, and, while some of the Scots conformed, Colman and others withdrew to their own country.

The bishopric thus vacated was bestowed on Tuda, who had been already consecrated in the southern part of Ireland, where the Roman usages were established; and when Tuda, within less than a year, was carried off by a pestilence, Wilfrid was appointed to succeed him. But the zealous champion of Roman customs chose to take his title from York, which Gregory the Great had marked out as the seat of an archbishop, rather than from the Scottish foundation of Lindisfarne; and as the bishops of England were all more or less tainted by a connexion with Scottish or Irish orders, he was not content to receive his consecration at their hands. He therefore passed into France, where he was consecrated with great pomp by Agilbert, now bishop of Paris, and twelve other prelates. In his return to England the vessel in which he was embarked was stranded on the coast of Sussex. The savage and heathen inhabitants rushed down to plunder it, headed by a priest, who, “like another Balaam”, stood on a rising ground uttering spells and curses. But the priest was killed by a stone from a sling; the crew repelled three attacks, and, as the assailants were preparing for a fourth, the returning tide heaved off the vessel, which then made its way prosperously to Sandwich. Wilfrid found that his scruples as to ordination had cost him dear; for during his absence the Northumbrian king had bestowed his bishopric on Ceadda (or Chad), who had been consecrated in England, and had entered on his see. Wilfrid, therefore, retired to his monastery of Ripon, where he remained for some years, except when invited to perform episcopal functions in a vacant or unprovided diocese.

In the year 664 (the same year in which the conference took place at Whitby) a great plague carried off the first native archbishop of Canterbury, Frithona, who on his elevation to the see had assumed the name of Adeodatus or Deusdedit. The kings of Northumbria and Kent agreed to send a presbyter named Wighard to Rome for consecration to the primacy; but Wighard died there, and pope Vitalian, apparently in compliance with a request from the kings, chose Theodore, a native of Tarsus, to take his place. Theodore was already sixty-six years of age. He was of eminent repute for learning; but as his oriental birth suggested some suspicions, his consecration was deferred until, by allowing his hair to grow for four months, he had qualified himself for receiving the Latin tonsure instead of the Greek. Theodore arrived in England in 669, and held his see for twenty-one years, with the title and jurisdiction of archbishop of all England; for York had had no archbishop since Paulinus. Under Theodore the churches of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which until then had been independent of each other, were for the first time united; and in other respects his primacy is memorable in the history of the English church. The resort of English students to the monasteries of Ireland, as seminaries superior to any that could be found in their own country, was checked by the establishment of schools in which the learning and the science of the age were taught; and it is said that not only Latin, but the Greek primate's native tongue, was spoken as fluently as English. To Theodore has also been ascribed the division of England into parishes; and although this idea is now generally abandoned, it seems to be admitted that he may have paved the way for the parochial division by introducing the right of patronage, which had been established in his native church by Justinian.

The archbishop visited every part of the country. On reaching Northumbria, he inquired into the case of Chad, and disallowed his consecration—partly, it would seem, because it was not derived from a purely Roman source, and partly on account of Wilfrid’s prior claims to the see. The bishop meekly replied, “If you judge that I have not received the episcopate rightly, I willingly retire from my office, of which, indeed, I never thought myself worthy, but which, although unworthy, I agreed to undertake for the sake of obedience to command”. Theodore, struck with this humility, reordained him through all the grades of the ministry; and, while Wilfrid took possession of the Northumbrian diocese, Chad, after a short retirement at the monastery of Lastingham, of which he had formerly been an inmate, was appointed by the king of Mercia, on the archbishop’s recommendation, to the see of Lichfield.

Gregory’s scheme for the ecclesiastical organization of England had never taken effect. The bishoprics had originally been of the same extent with the kingdoms, except that in Kent there was a second see at Rochester. Theodore was desirous of increasing the episcopate, and, in a council at Hertford, in 673, proposed a division of the dioceses; but, probably from fear of opposition, he did not press the matter. Soon after this council Wilfrid again fell into trouble. Egfrid, the son and successor of Oswy, was offended because the bishop, instead of aiding him to overcome the inclination of his first queen, Etheldreda, afterwards abbess of Ely, for a life of virginity, had encouraged her in it, and had given her the veil; and the king was further provoked by the suggestions of his second queen, who invidiously dwelt on Wilfrid’s wealth, his influence, and the splendour of his state. The primate lent himself to the royal schemes, and not only disregarded the rights of Wilfrid by erecting the sees of Hexham and Sidnacester (near Gainsborough) within his diocese, but superseded him by consecrating a bishop for York itself, as well as bishops for the two new dioceses which had been separated from it. Wilfrid determined to seek redress from Rome. A storm, which carried him to the Frisian coast, saved him from the plots which, through Egfrid’s influence, had been laid for detaining him in France; and he remained for some time in Frisia, where his labours were rewarded by the conversion of the king, with most of the chiefs and some thousands of the people. On his arrival at Rome, in 679, his case was investigated by pope Agatho with a council of fifty bishops. It was decided that, if his diocese were divided, the new sees should be filled with persons of his own choosing, and that those who had been intruded into them should be expelled; and Wilfrid was invited to take a place in the council against the monothelites, where he signed the acts as representative of the whole church of Britain.

The Roman council had denounced heavy penalties against all who should contravene its decisions; kings, in particular, were threatened with excommunication. But Egfrid, instead of submitting, imprisoned Wilfrid on his return from Italy, and only offered to release him, and to restore him to a part of his old diocese, on condition of his renouncing the papal statutes. The imprisonment lasted nine months, at the end of which Wilfrid was set at liberty through the influence of the queen, who had been smitten with dangerous illness for possessing herself of his reliquary. He now sought a field of labour at a distance from his persecutors—the kingdom of Sussex, the scene of his perilous adventure in returning from France many years before. Until this time the only Christian teachers who had appeared in Sussex were six poor Irish monks, who had a little monastery at Bosham, but made no progress in converting the inhabitants. The king, however, Ethelwalch, had lately been baptized in Mercia, and gladly patronized the new preacher of the gospel—even to the extent of compelling some of his subjects to receive baptism by force. The people of Sussex were indebted to Wilfrid for the knowledge of fishing and other useful arts, as well as of Christianity. He established a bishopric at Selsey, and extended his labours to the Isle of Wight, and into the kingdom of Wessex.

Theodore, at the age of eighty-eight, feeling the approach of death, began to repent of the part which he had taken against Wilfrid. He sent for him, begged his forgiveness, reconciled him with Aldfrid, the new king of Northumbria, and urged him to accept the succession to the primacy. Wilfrid professed a wish to leave the question of the primacy to a council; but he recovered the sees of York and Hexham, with the monastery of Ripon. The archbishop died in 690, and when the see had been two years vacant, was succeeded by Berctwald; and after a time Wilfrid was again ejected—partly for refusing to consent to certain statutes which had been enacted by the late primate. He withdrew into Mercia, where he remained until in 702 he was summoned to appear before a synod at Onestrefield, in Yorkshire. On being required by this assembly to renounce his episcopal office, and to content himself with the monastery of Ripon, the old man indignantly declared that he would not abandon a dignity to which he had been appointed forty years before. He recounted his merits towards the church—saying nothing of his zealous labours for the spreading of the gospel, of his encouragement of letters, or of the stately churches which he had erected, but insisting on his opposition to the Scottish usages, on his introduction of the Latin chant and of the Benedictine rule, and again he repaired to Rome, while his partisans in England were put under a sort of excommunication. The pope, John VI, was naturally inclined to favour one whose troubles had arisen from a refusal to obey the decrees of Theodore except in so far as they were consistent with those of the apostolic see. And when, at Easter 704, the acts of Pope Agatho’s synod against the monothelites were publicly read, the occurrence of Wilfrid’s name among the signatures, with the coincidence of his being then again at Rome as a suitor for aid against oppression, raised a general enthusiasm in his favour. He would have wished to end his days at Rome, but by the desire of John VII, whose election he had witnessed, he returned to England, carrying with him a papal recommendation addressed to Ethelred of Mercia and Aldfrid of Northumbrian. The primate, Berctwald, received him kindly; but Aldfrid set at nought the pope’s letter, until on his death-bed he relented, and the testimony of his sister as to his last wishes procured for Wilfrid a restoration to the see of Hexham, although it does not appear that he ever recovered the rest of his original diocese. In 709 Wilfrid closed his active and troubled life at the monastery of Oundle, and was buried at Ripon, the place which, while living in the body, he loved above all others.

The Roman customs as to Easter and the tonsure gradually made their way throughout the British Isles. In 710 they were adopted by the southern Picts, in consequence of a letter addressed to king Naitan (or Nectan) by Ceolfrid, abbot of Jarrow. It was in vain that Adamnan, abbot of Iona, who had been converted to the Roman usages in Northumbria, attempted, in the last years of the seventh century, to introduce them into his monastery : but he was more successful among his own countrymen, the northern Irish, who at his instance abandoned their ancient practice about 697; and at length, in 716, Egbert, an English monk who had received his education in Ireland, induced the monks of St. Columba to celebrate the catholic Easter. The ancient British church adhered to its paschal calculation until the end of the eighth century, but appears to have then conformed to the Roman usage; and, if disputes afterwards arose on the subject, they excited little attention, and speedily died away.

Christianity had had a powerful effect on the civilization of the Anglo-Saxons, and through the exertions of Theodore, Wilfrid, and others, arts and learning were now actively cultivated in England. Benedict Biscop, the founder of the abbey of Wearmouth, who was the companion of Wilfrid in his first visit to Rome, brought back with him the arch-chanter John, by whom the northern clergy were instructed in the Gregorian chant, the course of the festivals, and other ritual matters. From six expeditions to Rome Benedict returned laden with books, relics, vestments, vessels for the altar, and religious pictures. Instead of the thatched wooden churches with which the Scottish missionaries had been content, Benedict and Wilfrid, with the help of masons from France, erected buildings of squared and polished stone, with glazed windows and leaded roofs. Wilfrid built a large structure of this kind over the little wooden church at York in which Paulinus had baptized the Northumbrian king Edwin, but which had since fallen into disrepair and squalid neglect. At Ripon he raised another church, which was consecrated with great pomp and ceremony; two kings were present, and the festivities lasted three days and nights. Still more remarkable than these was his cathedral at Hexham, which is described as the most splendid ecclesiastical building north of the Alps. Benedict Biscop’s churches were adorned with pictures brought from Italy. Among them are mentioned one of the blessed Virgin, a set of scenes from the Apocalypse, representing the last judgment, and a series in which subjects from the Old Testament were paralleled with their antitypes from the New; thus, Isaac carrying the wood for his sacrifice corresponded to our Lord bearing the cross, and the brazen serpent to the crucifixion.

Monasteries had now been founded and endowed in great numbers. In some of them recluses of both sexes lived, although in separate parts of the buildings. Many ladies of royal birth became abbesses or nuns; and at length it was not unusual for English kings to abdicate their thrones, to go in pilgrimage to Rome, and there to end their days in the monastic habit. But among the Anglo-Saxons, as elsewhere, the popularity of monachism was accompanied by decay. Bede, in his epistle to Egbert, archbishop of York (A.D. 734), draws a picture of corruptions in discipline and morals, both among monks and clergy, which contrasts sadly with his beautiful sketch of the primitive Scottish missionaries. Among other things he mentions a remarkable abuse arising out of the immunities attached to monastic property. Land among the Anglo-Saxons was distinguished as folkland or bocland. The folkland was national property, held of the king on condition of performing certain services, granted only for a certain term, and liable to resumption; the bocland was held by book or charter, for one or more lives, or in perpetuity, and was exempted from most (and in some cases from all) of the duties with which the folkland was burdened. The estates of monasteries were bocland, and, so long as the monastic society existed, the land belonged to it. In order, therefore, to secure the advantages of this tenure, some nobles professed a desire to endow monasteries with the lands which they held as folkland. By presents or other means they induced the king and the witan (or national council) to sanction its conversion into bocland; they erected monastic buildings on it, and in these they lived with their wives and families, styling themselves abbots, but having nothing of the monastic character except the name and the tonsure.

Among the men of letters whom the English church (or, indeed, the whole church) produced in this age, the most celebrated is Bede. The fame which he had attained in his own time is attested by the fact that he was invited to Rome by Sergius I, although the pope’s death prevented the acceptance of the invitation; and from the following century he has been commonly distinguished by the epithet of Venerable. Born about the year 673, in the neighbourhood of Jarrow, an offshoot from Benedict Biscop’s abbey of Wearmouth, he became an inmate of the monastery at the age of seven, and there spent the remainder of his life. He tells us of himself that, besides the regular exercises of devotion, he made it his pleasure every day either to learn or to teach or to write something. He laboured assiduously in collecting and transmitting the knowledge of former ages, not only as to ecclesiastical subjects, but in general learning. His history of the English church comes down to the year 731,—within three years of his own death, which took place on the eve of Ascension-day 734, his last moments having been spent in dictating the conclusion of a version of St. John’s Gospel.

Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury, and afterwards bishop of Sherborne, who died in 709, was distinguished as a divine and as a poet. And Caedmon, originally a servant of St. Hilda’s abbey at Streaneshalch, displayed in his native tongue poetical gifts which his contemporaries referred to miraculous inspiration. The Anglo-Saxons were the first nation which possessed a vernacular religious poetry; and it is remarked to the honour of the Anglo- Saxon poets, that their themes were not derived from the legends of saints, but from the narratives of Holy Scripture.

During this period much was done for the conversion of the Germanic tribes, partly by missionaries from the Frankish kingdom, but in a greater degree by zealous men who went forth from Britain or from Ireland. Of these, Columban and his disciple Gall, with their labours in Gaul and in Switzerland, have been already mentioned.

(1) The conversion of the Bavarians has been commonly referred to the sixth century, so as to accord with the statement that Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, the correspondent of Gregory the Great, was a Bavarian princess, and had received an orthodox Christian training in her own land. But even if this statement be mistaken, it is certain that the Bavarians had the advantage of settling in a country which had previously been Christian (for such it was even before the time of Severin); and the remains of its earlier Christianity were not without effect on them.

In 613 a Frankish council, in consequence of reports which had reached it, sent Eustasius, the successor of Columban at Luxeuil, with a monk of his society named Agil, into Bavaria, where they found that many of the inhabitants were infected with heretical opinions, which are (perhaps somewhat incorrectly) described as the errors of Photinus or Bonosus.

About the middle of the seventh century, Emmeran, a bishop of Aquitaine, was stirred by reports which reached him as to the heathenism of the Avars in Pannonia, to resign his see, with the intention of preaching the gospel in that country. Accompanied by an interpreter skilled in the Teutonic dialects, he made his way as far as Radaspona (Ratisbon), where he was kindly received by Theodo, duke of Bavaria. Theodo, who was already a Christian, represented to the bishop that the disturbed state of Pannonia rendered his undertaking hopeless; he entreated him to remain in Bavaria, where he assured him that his zeal would find abundant exercise; and when argument proved ineffectual, he forcibly detained him. Emmeran regarded this as a providential intimation of his duty; and for three years he preached with great diligence to the Bavarians. At the end of that time he set out for Rome, but it is said that he was pursued, overtaken, and murdered by the duke’s son, in revenge for the dishonour of a sister, which the bishop, although innocent, had allowed the princess and her paramour to charge on him.

In the end of the century, Rudbert, bishop of Worms, at the invitation of another duke named Theodo, undertook a mission into the same country, where he baptized the duke, and founded the episcopal city of Salzburg on the site of the old Roman Juvavium. To the labours of Rudbert is chiefly due the establishment of Christianity in Bavaria. It would seem, however, that he eventually returned to his original diocese of Worms.

The Christianity of the Thuringians has, like that of the Bavarians, been referred to the sixth century. The country and its rulers were, however, still heathen, when, in the latter part of the seventh century, an Irish bishop named Kyllena or Kilian appeared in it at the head of a band of missionaries, and met with a friendly reception from the duke, Gozbert, whose residence was at Wurzburg. After a time, it is said, Kilian went to Rome, and, having been authorized by pope Conon to preach wheresoever he would, he returned to Wurzburg, where Gozbert now consented to be baptized. The duke, while yet a heathen, had married his brother’s widow, Geilana; and, although he had not been required before baptism to renounce this union (which was sanctioned by the national customs), Kilian afterwards urged a separation as a matter of Christian duty. Gozbert was willing to make the sacrifice; but Geilana took advantage of his absence on a warlike expedition to murder Kilian, with two companions who had adhered to him. The bodies of the martyrs were concealed, but their graves were illustrated by miracles; and the vengeance of Heaven pursued the ducal house, which speedily became extinct.

The tribes to the north of France were visited by missionaries both from that country and from the British isles. Among the most eminent of these was Amandus, a native of Aquitaine, who was consecrated as a regionary(or missionary) bishop about the year 628, and laboured in the country near the Scheldt. The inhabitants are described as so ferocious that all the clergy who had attempted to preach to them had withdrawn in despair. Amandus was fortified with a commission from king Dagobert, which authorized him to baptize the whole population by force; but he made little progress until, by recovering to life a man who had been hanged, he obtained the reputation of miraculous power. In consequence of having ventured to reprove Dagobert for the number of his wives and concubines he was banished; but the king, on marrying a young queen, discarded the others, recalled Amandus, entreated his forgiveness, and, on the birth of a prince, engaged him to baptize the child. It is said that at the baptism, when no one responded to the bishop’s prayer, the mouth of the little Sigebert, who was only forty days old, was opened to utter “Amen”. Amandus, who preferred the life of a missionary to that of a courtier, hastened to return to his old neighbourhood, where, although he had to endure many hardships, with much enmity on the part of the heathen population, and was obliged to support himself by the work of his own hands, his preaching was now very effectual. After a time his zeal induced him to go as a missionary to the Slavonic tribes on the Danube; but, as he was received by them with an indifference which did not seem to promise either success or martyrdom, he once more resumed his labours in the region of the Scheldt, and, on the death of a bishop of Maastricht, he was appointed to that see in the year 647. He found, however, so much annoyance both from the disorders of the clergy and from the character of the people, that he expressed to pope Martin a wish to resign the bishopric. Martin, in a letter which is significant as to the position of the Roman see, endeavoured to dissuade him from this desire. He requests Amandus to promulgate the decisions of the lateran synod against the monothelites, which had just been held, and, with a view to fortifying himself against the empire, he urges the bishop to aid him in strengthening the connexion of king Sigebert with Rome. Notwithstanding the pope’s remonstrances, however, Amandus withdrew from his see, after having held it three years, and he spent the remainder of his days in superintending the monasteries which he founded.

About the same time with Amandus, and in districts which bordered on the principal scene of his labours, two other celebrated missionaries were exerting themselves for the furtherance of the gospel. One of these was Livin, an Irishman, who became bishop of Ghent, and was martyred about the year 650; the other was Eligius (or Eloy), bishop of Noyon. Eligius was originally a goldsmith, and, partly by skill in his art, but yet more by his integrity, gained the confidence of Clotaire II. He retained his position under Dagobert, to whom he became master of the mint, and coins of his workman­ship are still extant. While yet a layman he was noted for his piety. The Holy Scriptures and other religious books always lay open before him as he worked; his wealth was devoted to religious and charitable purposes; he made pilgrimages to holy places; he built monasteries; he redeemed whole shiploads of captives—Romans, Gauls, Britons, Moors, and especially Saxons from Germanys—and endeavoured to train them to Christianity. Such was his charity that strangers were directed to his house by being told that in a certain quarter they would see a crowd of poor persons around the pious goldsmith’s door; and already, it is said, his sanctity had been attested by the performance of many miracles. After having spent some time in a lower clerical office, he was consecrated bishop of Noyon in 640, his friend and biographer Audoen (or Ouen) being at the same time consecrated to the see of Rouen. The labours of Eligius extended to the neighbourhood of the Scheldt. The inhabitants of his wide diocese were generally rude and ferocious; part of them were heathens, while others were Christians only in name, and the bishop had to encounter many dangers, and to endure many insults at their hands2 His death took place in the year 659.

Among the tribes which shared in the ministrations of Eligius were the Frisians, who then occupied a large tract of country. The successful labours of Wilfrid among them at a later time (A.D. 678) have already been mentioned; but the king whom he converted, Aldgis, was succeeded by a heathen, Radbod. Wulfram, bishop of Sens, at the head of a party of monks, undertook a mission to the Frisians. He found that they were accustomed to offer human sacrifices, the victims being put to death by hanging. In answer to the taunt that, if his story were true, the Saviour of whom he spoke could recall them to life, Wulfram restored five men who had been executed; and after this display of power his preaching made many converts. Radbod had allowed one of his children to be baptized, and had himself consented to receive baptism; but, when one of his feet was already in the font, he adjured the bishop in God's name to tell him in which of the abodes which he had spoken of the former kings and nobles of the nation were. Wulfram replied, that the number of the elect is fixed, and that those who had died without baptism must necessarily be among the damned. “I would rather be there with my ancestors”, said the king, “than in heaven with a handful of beggars”; and, drawing back his foot from the baptistery, he remained a heathen.

But the chief efforts for the conversion of the Frisians were made by missionaries from the British islands. Egbert, a pious Anglo-Saxon inmate of an Irish monastery (the same who afterwards persuaded the monks of Iona to adopt the Roman Easter), conceived the idea of preaching to the heathens of Germany. He was warned by visions, and afterwards by the stranding of the vessel in which he had embarked, that the enterprise was not for him; but his mind was still intent on it, and he resolved to attempt it by means of his disciples. One of these, Wigbert, went into Frisia in 690, and for two years preached with much success. On his return, Willibrord, a Northumbrian, who before proceeding into Ireland had been trained in Wilfrid’s monastery at Ripon, set out at the head of twelve monks,—a further opening for their labours having been made by the victory which Pipin of Heristal, the virtual sovereign of Austrasia, had gained over Radbod at Dorstadt. Pipin received the missionaries with kindness, gave them leave to preach in that part of the Frisian territory which had been added to the Frankish kingdom, and promised to support them by his authority. After a time Willibrord repaired to Rome with a view of obtaining the papal sanction and instructions for his work, as also a supply of relics to be placed in the churches which he should build. On his return, the work of conversion made such progress that Pipin wished to have him consecrated as archbishop of the district in which he had laboured, and for this purpose sent him a second time to Rome. The pope, Sergius, consented, and instead of Willibrord’s barbaric name bestowed on him that of Clement. The archbishop's see was fixed at Wiltaburg, and he appears to have succeeded in extirpating paganism from the Frankish portion of Frisia. He also attempted to spread the gospel in the independent part of the country, and went even as far as Denmark, where, however, his labours had but little effect. In his return he landed on Heligoland, which was then called Fositesland, from a god named Forseti or Fosite. The island was regarded as holy; no one might touch the animals which lived on it, nor drink, except in silence, of its sacred well: but in defiance of the popular superstition Willibrord baptized three converts in the well, and his companions killed some of the consecrated cattle. The pagan inhabitants, after having waited in vain expectation that the vengeance of the gods would strike the profane strangers with death or madness, carried them before Radbod, who was then in the island. Lots were cast thrice before any one of the party could be chosen for death. At length one was sacrificed, and Willibrord, after having denounced the errors of heathenism with a boldness which won Radbod's admiration, was sent back with honour to Pipin. The renewal of war between Radbod and the Franks interfered for a time with the work of the missionaries. After the death of the pagan king in 719, circumstances were more favourable for the preaching of the gospel in the independent part of Frisia; and Willibrord continued in a course of active and successful exertion until his death in 739. Among his fellow-labourers during a part of this time was Boniface, afterwards the apostle of Germany.

 

 

CHAPTER IV

.ICONOCLASM. A.D. 717-775.