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.
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