Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/566

Rh ANGLO-SAXON 506 ANGLO-SAXON changed with Romp, and St. Gregory in 601 sent Augustine the pallium, the emblem of archiepiscopal jurisdiction, directing him to consecrate other bishops and to set up his see in London. This wa,s not then possible, and Canterbuiy became the mother church of England. London, however, very shortly after- wards had its church, and Mellitus was consecrated to reside there as Bishop of the East Saxons, while another church was erected at Rochester with Justus as bishop. On Ethelbert's death in 616 great reverses befell the cause of Christianity. Essex and part of Kent apostatized, but St. Lawrence, the new archbishop, stood his ground. A few years later a great advance was matle by the marriage of the powerful King Eadwine of Northumbria to a Kentish Christian princess. Paulinus, a Roman who had been sent to help Augustine, was consecrated bishop, and, accompanying her as her chaplain, he was able to baptize Eadwine in 627, and build the church of St. Peter at York. It is true that a pagan reaction six years afterwards swept away most of the results acliieved, but even then his deacon James remained at work in Yorksliire. Meanwhile Felix, a Bur- gimdian monk acting under orders from Canterbury, had gained over East Anglia; and Birinus, who had been sent straight from Rome, began in 634 the con- version of the people of Wessex. In the North it seemed as if the Faith was almost extinguished, owing mainly to the relentless opposition of Penda, the pagan King of Mercia, but help came from an unexpected quarter. In 634 the remnants of North- umbrian sovereignty were soon grasped by St. Oswald, who had been brought up in exile among the Irish monks settled in lona, and had there become a Christian. When this young prince had gained a vic- tory over his enemies and established himself more firmly, he summoned (c. 635) a Scottish (i. e. Irish) missionary from lona. This w.as St. Aidan, who es- tablished a community of his followers in the Island of Lindisfame, and thence evangelized all the land of the north. St. Aidan followed the Celtic traditions in the points in which they differed from the Roman (e. g. the keepmg of Easter), but there can be no question as to his sanctity or as to the wonderful effects of his preaching. From Lindisfarne came St. Cedd and St. Chad, two brothers who respectively evangelized Essex and Mercia. To Lindisfarne also we are indebted, at least indirectly, for St. Cuthbert, who consolidated the empire of Christianity in the north, and for St. Wilfrid, who, besides converting the South Saxons, the tardiest of the Teutonic settlers to receive the Gospel, accomplished the great task of reconciling the Christians of Northumberland to the Roirian Easter and to the other institutions which had the support of papal authority. To sum up, it has been said, not inaptly, that in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons " the Roman planted, the Scot watered, the Briton did nothing." III. Development under Roman Authority. — Meanwhile a great work of organization had been going on. Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk who had been consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian, came to England in 669. He was warmly welcomed by all, and in 673 held a national council of the ICnglish bishops at Hertford, and an- other in 680 at Hatfield. In these synods much was done to promote unity, to define the limits of juris- diction, and to restrain the wanderings and mutual interference of the clerj^. What w.as still more im- p(jrtant, St. Theodore, vi.siting the whole of ]';ngland, con.secrated new bishops and divided up the vast dioceses which in many cases were coextensive with the kingdoms of the heptarchy. It seems to have been a conKeqience of this la-st proceeding that a f(ud for a while broke out between Theodore and Wilfrid, the latter being driven from his See of Kipon and appealing to Rome. But after some tempestuous years, marked alike by great endurance and missionary zeal on Wilfrid's part, Theodore ac- knowledged that he had done grave wrong to his brother bishop. They were reconciled and for the short time that remained worked together harmoni- ously in the cause of Roman order and discipline. It would seem that in the interests of anti-papal con- troversy, a great deal too much has been made of the divergent customs of the Roman and Celtic mission- aries. Both in Scotland and on the Continent, Irish Christianity was thoroughly loyal in spirit to the See of Rome. Such men as St. Cuthbert, St. Cedd, St. Chad, and St. Wilfrid co-operated heartily with the efforts to preach the Gospel made by the teachers sent from Canterbury. The Celtic customs had already received their death-blow in the choice made by the Noi'thumbrian King Oswiu, when at the Synod of Whitby (664) he elected to stand by the Roman Key-bearer, St. Peter. In fact, after the lapse of a few years they are no more heard of. In the eighth century the pope granted the pallium to Egbert, Bishop of York, and thus restored the see as an archbishopric according to a scheni" already foreshadowed in St. Gregory's letter to Augustine. Moreover, two very important synods were held at this period. The one, in 747, was summoned at the instance of Pope Zacharias, whose letter was read aloud, and devoted itself to thorough-going legisla- l>iori«i.s IN- England after the Norman Conquest tion for the internal reform of the clergy. The other, in 7S7, was presided over by the two papal legates, George and Theophylact, who forwariled to Pope Adrian a report of the proceedings, including among other things a formal recognition of tithes. In this synod Lichfield, through the influence of Offa, King of Mercia, who maile misleading representations at Rome, was erected into an archbishopric; but, sixteen years later, when Offa aiul Pope Adrian were dead, Leo HI reversed the decision of his predecessor. It hits been suggested that th(! institution of Peter's- pence, which tiates from tliis iieriod. was the price paid by Offa for Adrian's coniplaisaiu-e, but this is pure conjecture. During the ninth century, in the