THE CONVERSION OF THE TEUTONS
(1)
THE ENGLISH
By
the Rev. J. P. WHITNEY
WHEN Teutonic tribes of mixed
descent invaded Britain they came as heathen unaffected by Roman Christianity
against Keltic tribes partly heathen and partly Christian; the old inhabitants
had been Romanized and Christianized in different degrees, varying coastwards
and inland, in cities and country, to the south-east and to the west: the
invaders moreover covered and at first devastated more land than they could
hold, and their own settlement was a long process, varying in length in
different districts. The separation of the Britons from the government and
influence of Rome had been also slow and reluctant. Hence for many reasons it
is hard to generalize about the Christianity with which the Teutonic invaders came
into touch. Where this Christianity was not strong or long implanted it tended
towards weakness and decay: here and there revivals of heathenism took place:
here and there in the long years of Teutonic settlement revivals of Keltic
Christianity began. Hence, as time passes on, new vigour of a Keltic and not a
Romanised type is found as in Wales among the British: elsewhere the influence
of Christianity lessens, and the Britons of some parts, so far from being able
to convert the newcomers, keep their own religion more as a custom than as a
living force. In either case the result is the same: the invaders are for long
years wholly unaffected by the Christianity of the land they are conquering.
Little need be said here of the
religion the invaders brought with them: in some points of morals they may have
been above some other races and hence the moral code of Christianity might
appeal to them, but it is idle to speculate as to elements in their religion
which possibly made them readier later on to accept Christian doctrines. Their
whole outlook, however, upon the unseen world brought it into close touch with
their lives and the fortunes of their race: their religion so far as it was
effective was a source of joy in life, and of strength in action, not of fear
or weakness. Hence, when they received Christianity, it was with the freedom of
sons, not the timidity of slaves, with a ready understanding that its
discipline was to strengthen their characters for action. English Christianity
was thus marked off from Teutonic Christianity elsewhere by moral differences,
slight and not to be overestimated: moreover, because it started afresh, free
from the political and social traditions of the Empire, and because its
conditions, in spite of much intercourse with the Continent, were locally more
uniform and more insular than elsewhere, its growth took a somewhat peculiar
turn. Christianity came to the English from the Papacy, and not from the Empire:
it came at one great epoch, and when the Conquest was well under way, rather
than by the gradual influence of daily life, as it did with the Teutonic races
elsewhere. "The wonderful vitality of imperialist traditions ... took no
hold here. Escaping this, the English Church was saved from the infection of
court-life and corruption ... it escaped the position forced upon the bishops
of France as secular officers, defensors and civil magistrates." And this
original impulse as described by Stubbs kept on its way in spite of later Frankish
influence and intercourse. But at the same time the mission brought with it a
larger life and a broader outlook: it is significant that Aethelberht of Kent,
the first to accept the new faith, is also the first in the list of kings who
put forth laws. Later kings who did the same were also noted for their interest
in the Church.
Gregory the Great
The part taken by Gregory the Great,
and the impulse he gave to the mission, have been spoken of elsewhere. But it
should be noted here as a sign of the responsibility for the whole West felt by
the Papal See in face of the barbarian inroads; furthermore the letters of
commendation given to the missionaries by the Pope to bishops and rulers
amongst the Franks opened up more fully lines of connection already laid down
for the future English Church. Two of Gregory's letters would, indeed, suggest
that the English had already expressed some wish for missionaries to be sent to
them: "it has come to us that the race of the English desires with
yearning to be turned to the faith of Christ ... but that the bishops in their
neighbourhood" — and this apparently applied to the Franks, not solely at
any rate to the Welsh — "are negligent." And the Pope (at an
uncertain date) had formed a plan for buying English youths "to be given
to God in the monasteries." This may be taken along with the beautiful
tradition current in Northumbria of Gregory's pity for the English boys in the
Roman slave-market. But at any rate the time was favourable for a mission owing
to the marriage of Aethelberht of Kent, the most powerful English ruler of the
time, with Berhta, daughter of Chariberht of Paris; and this Christian queen
had taken across to her new home the Frankish bishop Liudhard as her chaplain.
But from other indications little seems to have been known in the Rome of that
day about the heathen invaders, and the English invasion had cut off the
British Christians from intercourse with the Continent.
Augustine' s Mission [596-597
The mission left Rome early in 596:
during the journey its members wished to return from the perils in front of
them, but, encouraged by Gregory's fatherly firmness and knit together by his
giving their leader Augustine the authority of an abbot over them, they went on
and landed, most probably at Richborough, 597. Aethelberht received them
kindly, and gave them an interview — in the open air for fear of magic.
Augustine — taller than his comrades — led the procession of 40 men (possibly
including Frankish interpreters), chanting a Litany as they went, carrying a
silver cross and a wooden picture of the crucifixion; Aethelberht heard them
with sympathy, and yet with an open mind. He gave them a home in Canterbury in
the later parish of St Alphege: here they could worship in St Martin's church,
and they were also allowed to preach freely to the king's subjects. By
Whitsuntide the king himself was so far won over as to be baptised — on
Whitsunday or its eve, probably at St Martin's church (1 or 2 June 597). The
king used no force to lead his subjects after him, but he naturally favoured
those who followed him, and soon many were won by the faithful lives of the
missionaries, shown so easily by the common life of a brotherhood. Throughout
the story of the Conversion it is indeed to the lives rather than to the
preaching of the missionaries that Bede assigns their success, and the
tolerance of the English kings in Kent and elsewhere gave them a ready opening.
If here and there the missionaries met persecution, it never rose to martyrdom.
According to the Pope's directions,
Augustine ought now to be consecrated, and for this purpose he went to Arles,
where Vergilius (the usually accurate Bede mistakes the name) consecrated him
(16 Nov. 597).
Soon after his return to Kent the
new bishop sent off to the Pope by the hands of his presbyter Laurentius and
the monk Peter news of his success, along with a number of questions as to the
difficulties he foresaw. We find Boniface in his day doing the same, and we may
see in it a common and indeed natural custom rather than a sign of weakness.
597-601] Augustine's Questions and Gregory's Answers
The questions and the answers to
them only concern us here so far as they show the special difficulties of the
mission and the character of St Augustine. Their importance for the character
of the Pope has been shown elsewhere. But their authenticity has been doubted: some
of them are not what might have been expected, e.g. those on liturgic
selection, and on recognizing marriages contracted in heathenism but against
Church law. The preface printed in the Epistles but omitted by Bede is more
doubtful than the reply itself; and seems intended to explain the chronology of
Bede. But the documentary history of the reply and its absence from the
registry in Rome — where Boniface in 736 failed to have it found — have also
caused suspicion. Yet, considering the ways in which the Epistles as a whole
have reached us, this is not in itself sufficient to cause rejection. The
arguments that Gregory's answers are not what we should expect, and that the
questions concern points all raised afterwards, really cut both ways. The
correction (by a later letter sent after the messengers) of a first command (in
a letter to Aethelberht) for the destruction of heathen temples would hardly
have occurred to a forger, and it therefore carries weight. But the dates and
the long interval between the questions (597) and the reply (601) are a little
difficult. To heighten the success of Augustine, and to make the mission appear
instantaneously successful would come natural to later writers. The later
tradition which makes Aethelberht as a second Constantine give up his palace to
Augustine as another Sylvester is one indication of such a tendency. If the
baptism really took place in 598 the difficulties are less.
The first question relates to the
division of the offerings of the faithful between the bishop and his clergy: to
this the answer was that the Roman custom was a fourfold division between the
bishop, the clergy, the poor and the repair of the churches. But, since
Augustine and his companions were monks, they would live in common, so that they
would share the offerings in common also. As to the clergy in minor orders they
should receive their stipends separately, might live apart and might take wives:
but they were bound to obey church rule.
The purely monastic type of mission
thus brought incidentally with it a difference between the systems of division
first of offerings, then of systematized tithes, in England, where a fourfold
division found no place, and on the Continent, if indeed we can generalise as
to the custom observed abroad. Later ecclesiastical regulations and orders attempted
to bring the Frankish system into England, but the English division remained
different from the continental.
The second question was why one
custom of saying mass should be observed in the Roman Church, and another in
the Church of Gaul. The Pope replied that things were not to be loved for the
sake of places, but places for the sake of good things: hence what was good in
any local custom might be brought into the Church of the English — advice which
has been sometimes held to sanction a liturgic freedom not likely to commend
itself to the somewhat correct mind of Augustine, and certainly not used by
him. Questions as to punishment for thefts from churches and as to the degrees
for marriage were perhaps needful in a rough society, and one case mentioned —
that of a marriage of a man with his step-mother — presented itself in the case
of Aethelberht's successor Eadbald, who took to himself his father's second
wife. But as the background to some of these questions there is clearly
something of the same social condition which produced the Penitentials of later
dates, although it is going too far to ascribe the whole to a later day and to
Archbishop Theodore as writer.
The sixth and seventh questions dealt
with the Episcopate: when asked whether one bishop might consecrate by himself
in cases of need, Gregory replied that Augustine, as the only bishop of the
Church of England, could do nothing but consecrate alone unless bishops from
Gaul chanced to be present. Provision for new sees should, however, be made so
that this difficulty should disappear, and then three or four bishops should be
present. The seventh question asked how Augustine was to deal with the bishops
of Gaul and Britain. Here it may be noted that when elsewhere he spoke of
bishops in the neighbourhood of the English Gregory seems to have meant the bishops
in Gaul: the British bishops he seems to have ignored. But here he commits them
(Brittanniarum omnes episcopos) to
the care of Augustine (who is, of course, to exercise no authority in Gaul,
although he is to be on terms of fellowship with the bishops there), so that
"the unlearned may be taught, the weak made stronger by persuasion, and
the perverse corrected by authority."
These answers were brought to Augustine
by a band of new missionaries, Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus and others, who
carried with them sacred vessels, vestments and books, as well as a pall for
Augustine. He was to consecrate twelve bishops to be under his jurisdiction as
bishop of London. For the city of York a bishop was also to be consecrated, who
was, as the districts beyond York gradually received the word of God, also to
consecrate twelve bishops under himself as metropolitan. During Augustine's
lifetime the Bishop of York was to be subject to him, but afterwards the
northern metropolitan was to be independent, and the metropolitan first
ordained of the two ruling together was to have precedence. All these bishops
were to act together in councils and so on. To Augustine, likewise, Gregory
committed all the priests of Britain.
577-601] Gregory's Scheme of Division
To Mellitus, after he had started,
the Pope also sent a later letter (22 June), in which he gave directions about
the use of heathen temples; the buildings themselves were not to be destroyed,
as he had said before to Aethelberht, but the idols were to be broken and the
places purified, altars were to be built, and then the temples were to become
churches. Thus the people would keep their old holy places; and rejoicings,
like those on the old heathen festivals, were to be allowed them on days of
dedication or the nativities of holy martyrs. The church of St Martin at
Canterbury had already been given to the mission: on another site, that of an old
church once used by Roman Christians, Augustine had built Christ Church, which
was to become the mother church of England and the centre of a great monastery:
another ruined building — which had been used as a temple — was purified and
dedicated as St Pancras, a Roman martyr: outside the city walls the king built
a church, St Peter and St Paul, also to be the centre of a monastery,
afterwards known, when Laurentius had consecrated it, as St Augustine's, of
which Peter was the first abbot. Here the kings and the archbishops were to be
buried, and between this monastery and Christ Church a long-lived jealousy
arose, which had sometimes great effects upon ecclesiastical politics. In this
way Augustine made Canterbury a great Christian centre. If the progress outside
Kent was for a long time slow, the tenacity of the Christian hold upon
Canterbury itself is also to be noted.
The growth of the mission in new
fields and its relations with the British are henceforth the main threads of
the history. A meeting with the British bishops and teachers was brought about
at Augustine's oak on "the borders of the West Saxons and Hwicce"
(either Aust on the Severn, or, less probably, a place near Malmesbury) — a
local definition which changed between the days of Augustine and those of Bede.
The bishops must have been those of South Wales, and those of Devon and North
Wales may have been with them, but the Britons of the West country were now
separated from those of Wales by the advance of the West Saxons after Dyrham (577).
Augustine urged these bishops to keep catholic unity and join in preaching the
Gospel to the English. This task they had not attempted of their own accord:
they were still less likely to do it under the new leadership.
There were points of difference
between the Roman and British Christians, breaches of uniformity due to a long
separation, rather than to original differences, but tending towards difference
of spirit, at the very time, moreover, when unity of feeling and of action was
most necessary: standing as their observance of Easter showed outside the
general trend of European custom, the British held an attitude towards Rome
which had marked an earlier day. But these differences, almost accidental to
begin with, were exaggerated into matters of Christian liberty on the one side,
into matters of heresy upon the other. The difference in the date of Easter had
been caused by the separation of Britain from the Empire; the British had kept
the old cycle of eighty-four years used generally in the West before the
English conquest: since the separation Rome — followed gradually by the West
—had twice changed to a better cycle, and the last change, moreover, had
brought the West into accord with the East. Furthermore Romans and Britons
started from a different vernal equinox: 21 March and 25 March respectively;
the Britons also kept Easter on the fourteenth of Nisan if that were a Sunday:
but the Romans in that case kept it on the Sunday following. There were thus
ample differences which would lead to practical discord: but there was no
excuse for the charge of Quartodecimanism against the British, for they did not
keep the fourteenth of Nisan if it fell on a week-day. There were other differences
also; in the tonsure where the Britons (and the Kelts generally) merely shaved
the front of the head, whereas the Romans shaved the crown in a circle, and in
baptism where the precise difference is unknown. No decision was reached: even
the demonstration by Augustine of his gift of miracles — an account of which
had reached Rome and caused the Pope to write to him advising humility and
self-examination in face of success — was not decisive. The British
representatives went back to consult their fellows, and a second meeting —
probably in the same place — followed. It is here that Bede places the British
story of the way in which upon the advice of a hermit the British discovered
the pride of Augustine. But if there was on his side some pride in the older civilization
cherished in the Western capital, there was on the other side the obstinacy of
a race long left to itself, and over-jealous of its independence.
At the second conference Augustine —
ready to overlook some particulars of British use which were contrary to
Western customs — laid down three conditions of union : the same date for
Easter; the observance of Roman custom in baptism; and fellowship in missions
to the English. But to these conditions the British would not agree, nor would
they receive him as their archbishop. It is perhaps well to observe that the
difference on these three conditions would have interfered with the attraction
of converts. In the eyes of Augustine the mission would appear to have ranked
above questions of precedence: the British had not yet overcome their national
repugnance to the English, and they saw, what became plainer in later years,
that the leadership of the Roman missionaries would of necessity result from
fellowship in work. The growth of bitterness between the races was quickened by
the failure of these negotiations.
604-617] Controversies
A step forward in organisation was
taken when (604) Augustine consecrated Justus to be bishop of Durobrivae, or
Rochester in West Kent, and Mellitus to be bishop of London for the East Saxons
— whose king Saeberht had become a Christian and was now subject to Kent.
Shortly afterwards Augustine died (605), and was followed in his see by
Laurentius, who had been already consecrated in his leader's lifetime.
The character of the founder of the
line of papae alterius orbis has been
often sketched in very different colours, and sometimes perhaps with outlines
too firm for the material we have at hand. It was long before the enmity
between the Britons and English died down, and until it did so the two sides
distorted his words and deeds: Britons exaggerated his haughtiness and pride:
English exaggerated his firmness in correcting an upstart race. The ordinary
view bears marks of both these exaggerations. Disputes between English
independence and Papal rule have had a like effect, and incidents in his career
have been twisted overmuch to suit a given framework. Our earlier records may not
have drawn him exactly as he was: modern writers have certainly taken even
greater liberty. He did not rise to the dignity of a Boniface or a Columbanus,
but the limits both upwards and downwards of his personality are shown us by
what he did. Unsympathetic yet patient, constructive and systematic he had the
genius of his race, he had learnt and could teach the discipline which had
trained him, and his personality has been overshadowed by his work.
The rule of Laurentius is known
principally for an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the Irish. An Irish
(Scots) bishop Dagan coming among the English would not even eat in the same
house with Laurentius and his followers: accordingly Laurentius wrote to
"his dearest brothers, the bishops and abbots through all Scotia,"
pressing unity upon them. But nothing came either of this attempt, or from a
like letter to the British, although they may have led to the Canterbury
tradition of Laurentius' friendly relations with the British.
Northumbria [588-625
Even before the death of Aethelberht
— after a long reign of 56 years (616) — the power of Kent had been waning.
Raedwald of East Anglia, once a vassal of Kent, who had been baptized at Canterbury,
had renounced his allegiance and had tried to combine in some strange way the
worship of Christ and of the old gods. In 617 this Raedwald was strong enough
to beat even the victorious Aethelfrith king of Northumbria, who had himself
beaten the Dalriadic Scots in the North and the Britons at Chester (616). This
latter victory had separated the Britons of Wales from their northern kinsmen,
just as the victory of Dyrham (577) had separated them from the south. The warfare
between Raedwald and Aethelfrith had important consequences, both for religion
and politics. Edwin, son of Aelle of Deira, was in exile, as his kingdom had
been seized on his father's death (588) by Aethelric of Bernicia. Aethelric's
son, Aethelfrith, a great warrior against the British, now ruled over both
Northern kingdoms, and, to make his dynasty sure, sought the death of his
brother-in-law, Edwin, who as babe and youth found shelter first in Wales and
then with Raedwald of East Anglia. The East Anglian king refused to give up the
fugitive, and in the war which followed he seized Lindsey and then defeated the
Bernicians on the ford of the Idle in North Mercia. Aethelfrith was slain, and
Edwin gained not only his father's kingdom but also Bernicia.
Aethelberht in Kent had been
succeeded by his son Eadbald, who took to himself his father's second wife,
thus separating himself from the Christians. In Essex, too, the Christian
Saeberht was succeeded by his two sons Saexred and Saeward, who being pagans at
heart in the end drove Mellitus away from London. Laurentius was now left
alone, for Mellitus and Justus fled to the Franks, and even he was preparing
for flight, when a dream delayed him. But before long Eadbald professed
Christianity. Justus returned to Rochester, and, in the end, the deaths of
Laurentius (619) and his successor Mellitus (624) placed him on the throne of
Canterbury (624-627). Mellitus however was not readmitted to London: Kent alone
kept its Christianity, but soon the conversion of Northumbria, when Honorius
(627-653) was archbishop, brought about a great change.
On Raedwald's death his supremacy
passed gradually into the hands of Edwin of Northumbria.
625-627] Edwin
This prince married as his second
wife Aethelburga (or Tata), daughter of Aethelberht of Kent, and sister to
Eadbald, who was now a Christian. On his marriage he promised his wife liberty
for her religion, and even hinted that he might consider the faith for himself.
Paulinus, one of the second band of Roman missionaries, went with her to the
North, and before he left Canterbury was consecrated bishop by Justus (21 July
625). A year after the marriage Cuichelm king of Wessex sent one Eomer to Edwin
to assassinate him, but the devotion of a thegn Lilla, whose name was long
remembered, saved Edwin's life; that same night the queen bore him a daughter,
Eanfled, the first Northumbrian to be baptized. In double gratitude the king
vowed to become a Christian if he defeated his West Saxon foe. When later on he
returned home victorious he therefore submitted himself to instruction by
Paulinus, and slowly pondered over the new faith. A mysterious vision, which he
had seen long before at the East Anglian court, when a stranger promised him
safety and future power, giving him a secret sign for remembrance, was now
recalled to him by Paulinus along with the secret sign which the messenger in
the vision had given him. Edwin was convinced for himself and called his Witan
together in eastern Deira to debate with Paulinus over the new faith. Hitherto
there had been no sign of life or strength in the English heathenism, and now
Coifi, the chief of the king's priests, showed its weakness by his speech: he
is the first of his class we meet with, for too much stress must not be laid on
Bede's mention (II chap. 6) of the "idolatrous high priests" (idolatris pontificibus) who hardened the
hearts of the Londoners against receiving back Mellitus. Bede gives us an
account of the debate, probably from some old tradition, embodying truth but
not to be pressed in detail: Coifi gave his view that the religion they
professed had absolutely no virtue, and no usefulness: he had been its diligent
servant, and had gained no reward. A chieftain spoke next of more spiritual
things: the future life of man seemed dark and mysterious as the night outside
might seem to a bird flying through the fire-lit space where they sat:
perchance this new faith could penetrate the darkness. Coifi thereupon took the
lead in profaning and destroying a neighbouring temple at Goodmanham, by Market
Weighton. Afterwards Edwin (12 April 627, Easter day) was baptized at York in
the little wooden church he had built during his preparation for baptism. But
after his baptism he built there — in the middle of the old Roman city, where
Severus and Chlorus had died, and whence Constantine had started on his great
career — a nobler church of stone, a material which marked the beginnings of a
new civilization. This, however, was still left unfinished when he died, but
its site is now covered by the present crypt.
Paulinus [627-647
For six years Paulinus preached and
taught both in Bernicia and Deira, though he left most mark in the latter: from
Catterick southwards as far as Campodunum (possibly Slack, near Huddersfield)
he journeyed and sojourned, catechizing and baptizing, and a church afterwards
destroyed here by the pagan Mercians marked his work at the latter place. In
Lindsey also — the north of Lincolnshire, a district at that time tributary to
Northumbria — he taught, and at Lincoln he built a stone church of beautiful
workmanship, in which on the death of Justus of Canterbury (10 Nov., probably
627) he consecrated as successor Honorius. In these labours Paulinus was helped
by others, especially by James his deacon, who was not only a man of zeal, but
very skilful in song. When in later days Paulinus fled southwards, James stayed
behind, and around his home near Catterick he taught many to sing in "the
Roman or the Canterbury way." This knowledge of music in Yorkshire, which
long afterwards caught the notice of Giraldus Cambrensis, was kept alive and
furthered by Eddius under Wilfrid and by John (formerly arch-chanter at St
Peter's in Rome) under Benedict Biscop. Outside Northumbria, too, the influence
of Paulinus worked change. In East Anglia Eorpwald, son of Raedwald (627), was
now king, and, by the persuasion of Edwin, was brought, with his territory, to
Christianity.
Before long Eorpwald was, however,
assassinated by a pagan, and for three years the kingdom fell into idolatry
until the accession of his brother Sigebert (630 or 631), who in a time of
exile among the Franks had been baptized and more fully taught religion. In the
conversion of his kingdom he was greatly helped by Felix, a Burgundian, who had
come to Honorius for missionary work in England, and had been sent by him to
Sigebert, and placed in Dunwich as bishop for his kingdom (631-647): here there
was not only a church built, but a school "after the manner of Kent,"
in which youths were taught. From quite another part came a fellow-labourer:
Fursey from Ireland, the founder of a monastery at Cnobheresburg, often but
doubtfully taken to be Burgh Castle near Great Yarmouth, renowned not only for
his saintliness but for his mystic experiences and visions; he wandered, as so
many of his race did, from a wish to lead the pilgrim life, and like Aidan
(with whom Bede instinctively joins him) he was torn in two by the love of
mankind, driving him to active work, and by the love of solitude, driving him
to the hermit's life.
When his East Anglian monastery was
well founded, he handed it over to his brother, Fullan (Faelan), who was a
bishop, and the priests Gobban and Dicul. Later, when Penda of Mercia was
restoring heathenism, he passed to the land of the Franks and there under
Clovis II (638-656) he founded the monastery of Lagny on the Marne. When he was
on the point of leaving this new home for a visit to his brethren he died (c.
647). His life is significant not only of Keltic restlessness and devotion, but
also of the many influences now working on missions: in East Anglia as in the
larger field beyond impulses from Rome, Burgundy, Gaul, and Ireland all worked
together : national and racial antagonisms were overcome by the solvent of
Christianity. A new unity was growing up in the West as formerly in the East.
What happened in East Anglia, and has been recorded, almost by accident, must
have also happened elsewhere.
The energy of Paulinus, backed by
the power of Edwin, had wrought so much that the Pope (now Honorius I) carried
out the plan of Gregory the Great by sending to Paulinus a pall with the title
of archbishop. But the bearers of the gift reached England only to find that
Paulinus had fled from the North. Edwin's rule had been effective beyond
anything known so far among the English: peace for travelers was enforced, and
the king's dignity was shown in a growing pomp: banners were borne before him
not only in war but during peace, and the tufa carried before him on his progresses seemed a claim to a power that was either
very old or very new. Suddenly this prosperous rule was interrupted by a league
between Penda of Mercia, who had gradually grown in power since his accession
(626), and Cadwallon of North Wales. In the woodlands of Heathfield, near
Doncaster, Edwin was defeated (12 October 633) and slain. York was taken, Deira
laid waste: Aethelburga fled with Paulinus, and a time of disorder and paganism
"hateful to all good men" began. In Deira Edwin's cousin Osric, in
Bernicia Eanfrid, son of Aethelfrith, ruled, and both of them fell from the faith.
Within a year Osric was slain in battle against the Welsh who seemed to have
been holding the land: Eanfrid too was slain when he came to sue for peace from
Cadwallon. Eanfrid's brother, Oswald, succeeded, able in war, glorious in
peace, and on the Heavenfield, near Chollerford, just north of Hexham, he
defeated Cadwallon as he advanced against him from York and slew him on the
Deniseburn (635). For a time the northern lands had peace, and Oswald's
influence soon reached beyond his own borders. His nearest neighbour, Penda of
Mercia, however, more than held his own, and even harried Ecgric, who had
succeeded Sigebert in East Anglia: but over the West Saxons Oswald held some
kind of influence, which he used to further Christianity. Birinus, according to
later tradition a Roman, had gone to Pope Honorius offering himself for
missionary service, and after consecration by Asterius, archbishop of Milan, he
was sent to Wessex (634): he had meant to work in the inland districts, but in
the end stayed near the coast, and so became the apostle of Wessex: the king
Cynegils became a Christian; Birinus was consecrated as bishop of Dorchester on
Thames (Dorcic), but we know little in detail of his work beyond its results.
When Ecgric was attacked by Penda,
Sigebert, recalled from a monastery to lead his former subjects, went to battle
armed only with a wand: both he and Ecgric were slain, and Anna, nephew of
Raedwald, succeeded. This new king's house was noted for its monastic zeal, and
in the number of its saints rivalled the line of Penda. His step-daughter
Saethryd and his daughter Aethelburga crossed over to the Franks to the
monastery of Brie (Faremoutier-en-Brie): here in a double monastery for both
sexes like Whitby (Streoneshalh), favoured by the same dynasty afterwards —
both became abbesses. Hither also Erconberht of Kent — the first English king
to follow Frankish rulers in destroying idols — sent a daughter. An impulse was
thus given by the foreign connection to the growth of monasticism in England:
by the middle of the century there were about a dozen houses founded, and
through Aethelthryth (Aethelreda, Audrey) the foundress of Ely, and others, the
East Anglian line was foremost in the movement.
Paulinus, traces of whose work long
remained, had fled southwards in 633 and there he became, through one of the
translations so common in that day, the bishop of Rochester. After his
departure the Christianity of Northumbria passed into another phase. In his
long exile Oswald had been sheltered among the Scots, and had come to know
something of the enthusiasm and learning which made them the best teachers of
the day. He had been baptized at Iona, and thither he now sent for a bishop.
One was sent, whose name the fine reticence of Bede concealed for a Scots
writer some centuries later to supply, but he despaired of the task and went
home again. Then Aidan (Aedan), the gentle and devoted, was consecrated bishop
and sent (635). After the Scots custom he took his seat on an island,
Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, near to the Bernician capital Bamborough. Here
there grew up a monastery on the Keltic plan like that of Iona: ruled,
however, by Aidan himself, as abbot and bishop, it was also a new and effective
missionary centre for Bernicia. Through it Irish (or Scots) influence reached
north-eastern England, and changed the land much as it had changed western
Scotland. It spread far southwards, but its original home was Iona.
Monastic Houses [633-635
Keltic monasticism, and the work of
Columba around Iona, have been described in previous chapters of this work. The
eremitic tendency of Keltic monasticism never disappeared, and just as the
original monasteries in Ireland itself were mission stations for the tribes
among which they were placed, so Iona (originally Hii or Ioua, from which by a
mistaken reading Iona has arisen) became a mission station not only for the
Dalriadic Scots but for the Picts. Irish monasteries, however, underwent some
changes outside Ireland: the love of wandering, the restlessness which Columba
"the soldier of the island" showed by his inability to be idle even
for an hour, drove the monks to travel (pro
Christo peregrinari): on the Continent they aimed at living as strangers:
but at Iona Columba and his successors strove to learn the Pictish tongue, and
mission work seems to have been esteemed even more highly there than the life
of quiet devotion. Learning, however, was never forgotten: not only Columba but
his successor Baithene (597-600) copied manuscripts. And where Iona led
Lindisfarne followed. But more than all other characteristics the enthusiasm
and simplicity of the Irish monks appealed to their hearers and neighbours.
Above all it was in Aidan, the apostle of the north, that these spiritual gifts
were seen, and on his long preaching tours he won the hearts of all. Oswald
himself often went with him as interpreter (from which we may infer that Aidan
did not gain the same mastery of language that Columba did), and as a king Oswald
answered to Aidan's ideal: frequent in prayer, fruitful in alms, the first
English king to have, or indeed to need, an almoner.
But once again Penda of Mercia broke
in: leagued with Cadwalader, successor to Cadwallon, he defeated Oswald at
Maserfield (642). Oswald's severed head was rescued and carried off first to
Lindisfarne; thence afterwards in St Cuthbert's coffin to Durham, where it was
seen in the present generation.
In Bernicia Oswald was succeeded by
his brother Oswy (Oswiu), but in Deira the old dynastic jealousy revived, and
Edwin's kinsman Oswin was chosen king. But Oswy joined the rival houses, for he
fetched from Kent Edwin's daughter Eanfled, and made her his queen. Soon
afterwards Oswin, who was like Oswald in his goodness and his friendship for
Aidan, was betrayed to Oswy at Gilling, and slain (651). Eleven days later
Aidan himself died, but his spirit and his work lived on in the school he had
made and the disciples he had trained.
642-651] Bede
In the mere record of events, mainly
wars and revolutions, it is easy to overlook the gradual work, the change of
character, the growth of civilization, which had been slowly taking place. The
missions from the Continent had brought with them a larger outlook, a wider
knowledge of a varied world, and a vision of a vaster unity with an ancient
background: the Irish missions had brought deep devotion, spiritual intensity,
and the traditions of the great Irish schools. In the north of England these
two streams of life were joined, and a rich civilization was the outcome.
Jarrow and Monkwearmouth reached to Iona on the west and to Canterbury on the
south, and both Canterbury and Iona stood for a great past. Historic feeling
had led Columba to defend the bards for their services to history: Canterbury,
by instinct and tradition as well as by training, held to the past, and Bede,
like Alcuin later, inherited something from each. Hence come not only his love
for religion and order, but also his love of history and historic truth. It was
these which helped him to see the growing unity and drove him to record the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation.
What he felt in himself answered to the many-sided history with its growing
life. We owe him so much for his preservation of details otherwise unknown, for
his diligent search after truth, that we are likely to forget his sense of the
unity, the common life, which was now growing up out of many elements and from
many local beginnings. Bede is the first prophet of English unity, and the
first to tell its tale.
The English were now taking their
place in civilization and Christianity. They were soon to be the great
missionaries of Europe: they were now able to care for themselves. In 644
Ithamar, the first Englishman to be "hallowed" as bishop, took the
bishop's stool at Rochester: in 647 and 652 Englishmen, first Thomas and then
Berctgils (Boniface), became bishops of Dunwich. Honorius at Canterbury died
(30 September 653), and after a long vacancy was succeeded by a West Saxon,
Frithonas, who took the name of Deusdedit. But in spite of local work and
impulses, in spite of gradual change, there was little real unity even of
effort, there was still less of organisation. The Roman missionaries had a wider
background of civilization, and were accustomed to larger states with wider
interests. They worked for unity, and against the persistence of little states
with many narrow policies: to secure civilization it was necessary to reach
larger union. There was already the rich variety of personal character and life:
something more was needed now. It was the perception of this lack on the part
of the English themselves, and not merely the accident of events, that led to
the synod of Whitby and the work of Theodore.
The success of the Scots mission in
the north had brought up once more the old differences between the Keltic and
Roman Churches: the same difficulty had met Augustine, and the crisis would
have come earlier had it not been for the gentle influence of Aidan. When
Oswy's bride went northwards she took with her a chaplain Romanus, who kept
Easter by the general and Roman rule, whereas the Scots had naturally brought
with them their own use. In southern Ireland the Roman Easter had been already
adopted (before 634), but the weight of Iona had been thrown strongly upon the
other side, so that northern Ireland, Iona and its offshoots, kept to their
older usage. Finan, Aidan's successor at Lindisfarne (651-661), had come to
Lindisfarne fresh from discussions between the two parties in the Irish
monasteries: he found James the deacon, and Ronan, a Scot of continental
education and sympathies, urging the Roman use which had now the support of a
party at court. Finan was himself a controversialist but he was also more. It
was in his days that Peada, son of Penda, and under him king of the Middle
Angles (Northamptonshire), married Oswy 's daughter, was baptized, and with his
father's tacit leave brought Christianity into his sub-kingdom, so influencing
Mercia as a whole. The band of missionaries who went to his help from
Northumbria was made up of three Northumbrians, including Chad's brother Cedd,
and one Scot, Diuma. Diuma became bishop of the Middle Angles and the Mercians
after the death of Penda, which took away the last vigorous supporter of
heathenism. Under all this turmoil a new generation, with its own point of
view, its own work and interests, was growing up. Men who differed from each
other were being brought together in peaceful work as well as in controversy.
New openings were also being made for work : there was, as Bede tells us, such
a scarcity of priests that one bishop — like Diuma — had to be set over two
peoples. Diuma was followed by another Scot Ceollach, who left his diocese to
return to Iona: then came Trumhere "brought up in the monastic life,
English by nation, but ordained bishop by the Scots." Christianity in
England was forming a type of its own, moulded by many forces, and the many-sided
life, spiritual and intellectual, of Bede's own monastery enabled him to
understand this growth.
655-665] A new generation. The Yellow Pest
In Essex Sigebert II (the Good),
although still heathen, was a friend of Oswy's and a visitor at his court: in
the end he and his attendants were baptized by Finan: the place of baptism was
Attewall (?Ad Murum, near Newcastle), where Peada was also baptised, and the
times of the two baptisms may have been the same.
Cedd recalled from Mercia went as
chaplain to this new royal convert and after some success in work went home to
Lindisfarne for a visit. Here Finan "calling to himself two other bishops
for the ministry of ordination" — a sign that the English Church was now
passing into more settled life — consecrated him bishop for Essex. As bishop he
went back, ordained priests and deacons, built churches at Tilbury and
elsewhere, teaching "also the discipline of a life of rule." But his
love was divided between the work of his diocese, and the monastic life. Aethelwald
of Deira, Oswald's son, who held Deira at some time possibly after the murder
of Oswin, was deeply attached to Cedd and his three brothers, one of whom,
Celin, was his chaplain. As a place of retreat for the bishop and as a
burial-place for the king, a site was chosen "in hills steep and remote,
rather hiding places for robbers and homes of wild beasts than habitations for
men," and here grew up the famous house of Lastingham, where Cedd and
after him Chad were abbots. Keltic influence was thus strong. But at the same
time we have many signs of a growing unity. Thus we find Oswy of Northumbria
and Ecgbert of Kent joining, on the death of Deusdedit of Canterbury (655-664),
to choose a successor Wighard, a priest at Canterbury, and send him to Rome for
consecration by Vitalian. When part of Essex lapsed into idolatry, Wulfhere of
Mercia, who stood over the East Saxon sub-kings Sebbi the Christian and Sighere
the heathen, sent his own bishop Iaruman of Mercia to reconvert it (665). Local
barriers are thus everywhere overstepped.
The Yellow Pest with all its horrors
had caused widespread terror and thrown everything out of gear. The roll of its
victims was long. Erconberht king of Kent as well as the archbishop Deusdedit,
Tuda bishop at Lindisfarne, the saintly Cedd at Lastingham (where Chad succeeded
him): at Melrose the prior Boisil, where also his successor the devoted
Cuthbert the missionary of the north all but died. In Essex to the south, and
northwards by the Tweed, men turned again to witchcraft and heathen charms. In
its mortality and its effects upon society it was somewhat like the later Black
Death. Hence the religious and social reconstruction which follows it is all
the more significant.
Wilfrid [663-681
The South Saxons were the last tribe
to be brought to Christianity. Wilfrid, whose character was moulded by many
forces to be typical of the new age, was chosen, probably through the influence
of Alchfrid, Oswy's son, to succeed Tuda. There were few bishops left, and some
of those were of Scots consecration. Wilfrid, the eager supporter of
continental customs, went to Frankish bishops for consecration. This he
received at Compiegne, under ceremonies of unusual pomp, and among the prelates
who shared in it was Agilbert (Albert) of Wessex. This bishop, coming
originally from the Franks, had worked in Wessex under Coenwalch, until the
king grew weary of his "barbarous" speech,' and invited Wini (also of
apparently Frankish ordination) to take the see. Then Agilbert went (663) to
Northumbria for a time, after which he went home. Wini's story was unhappy: not
many years afterwards he too was driven out of his see, whereupon he
"bought" from Wulfhere "for a price" the see of London, and
there remained. In all this moral disorder thrown by Bede upon a strange
background of miracle and portent can be seen some result of the Pest.
Wilfrid tarried too long among the
Franks, for when he reached Northumbria he found Chad placed in his seat. He
then retired to his old monastery of Ripon. But in his voyage homewards (spring
666) he had been thrown upon the Sussex coast, and narrowly escaped capture by
the barbarians: a wizard standing upon a mound sought to help the wreckers with
his charms: he was slain "like Goliath" by a sling, and thus only
after a fight did Wilfrid and his company escape. But later on he was to return
to Sussex. Meanwhile from Ripon he acted at times as bishop both in Mercia,
where along with Wulfhere he founded monasteries such as Oundle, and also in
Kent during the vacancy at Canterbury, where as his biographer Eddius tells us
he studied the Benedictine rule. Thus he gained something for his native north,
and to the south he in turn gave gifts of music, and of crafts, through the
singers and the masons who travelled in his train. Even before he worked in
Sussex Wilfrid a Northerner was in himself a bond of union between North and
South. After 681, when Aethelwalch of Sussex had already become a Christian
through the persuasion of Wulfhere, and as we may suppose also of his own
queen, Ebba, who came from the Christian district of the Hwicce, Wilfrid began
effective work in the almost untouched Sussex. A Scot Dicul had already founded
a small monastery at Bosham (Bosanham), but the monks probably lived as foreigners
apart from the people and at any rate had small success. Wilfrid's foundation
of Selsey was to have a wider influence. This work of peace is a relief to the
ecclesiastical quarrels of Wilfrid's later years. His work in Sussex completed
the conversion of the English.
664-673] The Synod of Whitby
With the Synod of Whitby (664) under
Finan's successor Colman and with the coming of Archbishop Theodore (669-690) a
new period begins. The wanderings of bishops from see to see, the mingling of
missionary effort with more strictly local work, had been even more marked in
England than on the Continent. This was not merely a result of Scots or Irish
influence; indeed the type of Keltic bishop, non-territorial and with little
power, which we know the best, was probably less an original institution than
the work of time. There is reason to think that territorial bishops were found
in Ireland to begin with, and that the later type was due to the same social
and ecclesiastical causes which later produced like results in Wales, making
the Church preeminently monastic, and raising the power of abbots. There were
not wanting signs that in the early English Church something the same might
have taken place had it not been for the Synod of Whitby and Theodore. After
them the work of a bishop becomes more fixed, and its area is limited. But the
relative importance of the Synod and of Theodore's rule is sometimes wrongly
presented. The Synod with its removal of the obstacle to unity — the difference
in Easter — was a striking witness to the need of union and the desire for it.
It is not, however, until Theodore comes that the type of bishop is changed:
with that the danger from monasticism which threatened England as it later on
affected Keltic lands was greatly lessened. What might otherwise have been we
can see from the words of Bede in his letter to Ecgbert; from the pretended
monasteries, really secular in life and under the control of nobles, great
danger threatened and even arose. The Synod of Hertford (673) indeed confirmed
those monastic immunities which were now growing up (Canon 3). But its reorganization
of episcopal power prevented this danger being what it would otherwise have
been, and the other canons of Hertford enforced a vigorous discipline. In its
lasting impression upon the English Church the primacy of Theodore is unique:
it summed up the varied past: it was the birthday of a more vigorous and
ordered life.
It has become common to weigh the
shares of Roman and Keltic missions in the great work thus summed up. The
tendency has been to ascribe too much to the charming characters of the
northern saints, and to overlook the quiet persistence of the Roman builders.
But in striving after a balanced judgment it is possible to place the two
parties too distinctly against each other. The generation which came just
before the Synod of Whitby probably made less of the difference than we
ourselves do: community of field and community of life was forming a community
of type; the English missionaries who later on converted the Teutonic tribes
based their work not only upon their own burning zeal but upon the life of
monasteries and the care of bishops. These two things were the characteristics
of English religious life in the seventh century, and they no less than the
new-born religious zeal were due to a long history in which Kelt and Roman bore
their part and under which they had grown together.
(2)
GERMANY
The conversion of the Franks to
Christianity, and that too in its orthodox form, has been already dealt with.
According to the most probable view of evidence, not quite consistent, and not
easy to weigh, Clovis was baptized on Christmas day 496, probably at Rheims. He
had however been friendly to Christianity even before his conquest of Syagrius
(486), and became naturally more so afterwards. After his conversion, followed
by that of many Franks, he was able as an orthodox king to reckon on the help
or at least the sympathy of Catholic bishops everywhere: the wars that spread
his power took somewhat the character of crusades and for three centuries this
remained true of Frankish campaigns against the heathens. Broadly speaking,
with the power of the Frankish kings went the power of the Church, although the
fellowship between the two was sometimes closer, sometimes looser. As the
Frankish powers spread into districts less thoroughly Romanized new sees had to
be founded, and even in the more settled lands this happened also. But a
distinction must be made between the new missionary bishops and the type of
bishops already found in the Romanized cities. Up to the settlement under
Boniface (Winfrid, Bonifatius) or even later we have a time in which both types
appear side by side. As a rule the city bishop owed his appointment to the
State: the missionary bishop to the Church. It is not a question of differences
between Roman and Keltic clergy, but merely between lands in which Roman
traditions survived, and those where missions started quite afresh. What
Theodore did for England Boniface was to do for the continental Teutons.
Local differences were many and
strong: in Austrasia heathenism was more general to begin with and lived on
longer. The Frankish conquests drove together heathens and Christians, and in
some places heathenism gained strength: on the whole, the leading families and the
towns were more thoroughly Christianized than the country, which remained
mainly heathen. In some places — like Mainz, Cologne, and Tongres — Christian
communities, sometimes chiefly oriental or foreign, may have lived on since
Roman times and sometimes bishops were left: in others — like Trier —
Christianity was just becoming general when the Frankish conquest brought in
new conditions. Everything depended upon the centres already gained for
Christianity, and across the Rhine these were few and tended to become fewer.
Nearer Italy there were centres to which Christianity had come from the south,
such as Augsburg, which until about the year 600 was connected with Aquileia.
But where such centres of life were few or Christianity had only begun its
growth the Teutonic invaders could be but little affected by it.
600] The Keltic Monks
The Keltic missions came to give
these new centres, and by a monastic framework to guard their power. There are
some indications — in the letters of Boniface and elsewhere — that Keltic
priests, some of whom caused him trouble, were more widely spread than we might
suppose. And as Keltic monasteries became stages in systematic pilgrimages to
Rome a steady stream of Christianity was brought to bear upon the Teutons. The
Keltic missionaries were for the most part led to travel by the wish to live
amid new surroundings: they lived among their new neighbours as strangers, but
the evils around them forced them to become missionaries, and, although Keltic
monasticism was ascetic and rigorous, Keltic monks never feared to plunge into
the world and to play a part there when it seemed good. Frankish Christianity,
with its comparative neglect of penance, seemed to the great missionary
Columbanus merely superficial: he stood outside the ordinary Frankish Church:
his altar at Luxeuil was consecrated by an Irish bishop, and he had no
episcopal licence for his foundations. Hence the Keltic monasteries besides
being centres of learning strengthened the tendency already shown to exempt
monasteries from episcopal control. The difference about Easter did not of
necessity lead to lasting strife, and the monastic foundations of Columbanus,
his comrades and followers, kept alive upon the Continent the Irish love of
learning. As regards the papal power Keltic tradition and habits belonged to an
earlier day when the papal control had been less effective; this tradition
Columbanus kept and showed in his defence of the Keltic Easter. But it is a
mistake to take these differences as implying either hostility to the Papacy or
a claim to full independence.
The Keltic monks travelled for the
most part in bands of twelve, but there were other single teachers such as
Rupert (Rodbert) a Frank who towards the end of the seventh century came to
Regensburg, the ducal court of Bavaria, and thence passed into the wild
Salzkammergut with its Roman memories and remains; here a monastery, a nunnery,
and a church were planted. A like work was also wrought at Regensburg by
Emmeran, although his first hope had been to preach to the Avars. These
isolated endeavours gave new centres of Christian civilization, but in later
years few traces of them were left. Work on a larger and more considered plan
was needed. But the life of St Severinus (died 482) in Noricum (Bavaria) shows
how far the influence of a hermit could reach and how great it could be.
534 Frisia [613-647
Frisia, with its unknown coasts and
wild heathenism, soon began to attract missionaries. The growth of Christianity
here had been due to the Franks and varied with the state of their church:
simony and careless appointments of bishops had been somewhat checked: the
influence of Columbanus had reached far, not only in the south but even
northwards to the Marne: a new and differently trained generation had grown up,
and when the union of the kingdoms under Chlotar II (613) gave the land rest,
the church thus strengthened broke fresh ground among its neighbours to east
and north. Chlotar II had encouraged Amandus, a hermit of Roman descent from
Aquitaine, who felt himself called by St Peter to distant missions: pilgrimages
to Rome deepened the wish, and after Chlotar had procured his consecration he
worked as a missionary bishop from Ghent as a centre. Hitherto Frisian
merchants had come to the Franks, and Frankish rule had gained ground upon the
borders, but even Maestricht and Noyon, although bishoprics, were yet partly
heathen. Quarrels with King Dagobert, and banishment for a time (629) turned
him to other fields. But both around Ghent and at Maestricht where he was
afterwards bishop (647) he was unhappy in his work: the enforcement of baptism
by royal order under Dagobert may have been due to his suggestion, and at any
rate it explains his lack of success: spells of work on the Danube, in
Carinthia, at the mouth of the Scheldt and among the Basques varied a strange
career marked by restless energy and much wandering. After his death a little
more ground was gained under the direction of Cunibert of Cologne, a church was
built at Utrecht, and under the well-known Eligius (bishop of Noyon, 641, and
renowned as a silversmith) a better foundation was laid. But the task was left
unfinished until the following century. Frisia was affected by the changes of
Frankish politics. Christian missions were both too fitful and too
disconnected. A general plan and organisation was needed.
In England, as the letter of Daniel
bishop of Winchester to Boniface (Ep. 23) shows, the methods of missions had
been carefully thought out, since the local conditions not only aroused
enthusiasm to call forth missionaries but gave them a training ground for their
work. Englishmen were learning at this very time what careful organisation and
ordered work could do. They had felt the benefit of fellowship with Rome and
its traditions while they had still the fresh energy of younger tribes and
growing states. This is the reason why in the eighth century English
missionaries take the place of the earlier Felts.
678-695] Willibrord
And the field of labour seemed
already fixed for them: they had not forgotten the land from which they had
come. Wilfrid landed in Frisia (678) on his way to Rome — in order to avoid the
enmity of Ebroin, mayor of the palace — and stayed there a winter because of
the friendly welcome by Adelgis the king (who refused to sell his guest) and
his people. This was only an episode. Ecgbert, a Northumbrian who was
afterwards to go to Iona, who had lived long in Ireland and pledged himself to
pilgrimage, was hindered by visions and by storms from a long desired journey
to Frisia: in his place he sent a pupil Wicbert who only stayed two years and
then went home again. This failure only caused Ecgbert to send another mission
of twelve monks. The leader of it, Willibrord, was a Northumbrian whose father
Wilgils in old age became a hermit at the Humber's mouth. He had been educated
up to the age of twenty at Ripon — Wilfrid's old monastic home — and afterwards
in Ireland (c. 678). He landed and went to Utrecht, now held by Radbod the
Frisian king, who must have regained territory, for Utrecht had formerly been a
Frankish town. But Frisia beyond it was lost to the Franks as the result of a
war which was just ended and had naturally left behind it. The defeated Radbod
was little likely to favour the faith of his Frankish enemies, and Willibrord
saw a chance of securer work under Frankish protection. He therefore journeyed
to Pepin, who promised him help for a work which was of interest to both of
them. Willibrord shared the enthusiasm of Wilfrid and Bonif ace for Rome — and
indeed others, the Irish Adamnan and Ecgbert for instance, were turning towards
Rome and unity. Accordingly Willibrord went to Rome to get consent for his
mission, thus beginning the policy which Winfrid afterwards carried out on a
larger scale.
Success soon made organisation
desirable: the monks elected one Suidbert as their future bishop and he passed
across to England to be consecrated there by Wilfrid. But after his return
difficulties seem to have arisen and the new bishop left Frisia in order to
preach to the Bructeri: a little later we find Pepin, like the earlier kings,
taking the organisation into his own hands and sending Willibrord to Rome for
consecration (22 Nov. 695) as archbishop of a province to include both Frankish
and independent Frisia. Willibrord, who at his consecration took the name of
Clement, received the pall at Rome, and from Pepin as his seat Utrecht, where
he built a cathedral and a monastery. A native church began, and soon he felt
able to devote himself to the Frisians in Radbod's territory since Radbod
himself was now friendly to the Franks, and his daughter Theutsind had married
Pepin's son Grimoald. But here Willibrord's success was small: Radbod was
indifferent although not hostile and Willibrord went on further to preach to
the Danes. Their country too he left and on his return to Frisia landed on the
coast: by venturing to baptize some converts in a holy well he awoke the anger
of the heathen and they sought to have him put to death by Radbod. The king
however spared his life, but as the hopes of any work among the free Frisians
now seemed hopeless he went back to Utrecht. After Pepin's death (16 Dec. 714)
the quarrel between his sons enabled Radbod to regain the part of Frisia held
by the Franks. The church had gained no real hold among the natives: Willibrord
had left, the priests were put to flight, and the land once more under the sway
of a heathen king became heathen too. It was now that Winfrid came.
Winfrid [714-719
Winfrid was born near Crediton (c. 680)
of a noble English family: after education first in a monastery at Exeter and
then at Nutshall (Nutsall, Netley, or Nursling ?) he was ordained, and employed
in important affairs. But above the claims of learning and the chance of a
great career at home he felt the missionary's call to the wild. From London he
sailed to Frisia (716): here he stayed for part of a year until on the outbreak
of a Frankish war he went back to his West-Saxon monastery. On the death of his
old master Winbert the monks wished to make him abbot, but his future work lay
plain before him and he refused. He sought letters of commendation from Daniel,
bishop of Winchester — a man of much learning and experience to whom Bede owed
much information — and with these (718) he went abroad again. But this time
passing through Frankland he went to Rome, to visit the threshold of the
Apostles. Here he saw Gregory II, and from him he received as "Bonifatius
the religious priest" — the name by which he was henceforth known — a
letter of commendation (15 May 719). The journey was a common one for an
Englishman of the day, but Boniface with his strong wish for missionary work
reached Rome when the Papacy was turning towards plans of organisation.
Furthermore between him and the Pope a friendship and even a fellowship began.
722] Boniface
Taking this new line of organisation
under papal guidance Boniface went to Thuringia, where the natives, in new
seats, and pressed upon by Franks and Saxons, had partly received and then soon
lost Christianity. To win back their leaders was Boniface's new task: the land
was disordered in politics and religion alike: heathenism was found side by
side with Christianity of strange types. From Thuringia Boniface started for
the Frankish court, but on the way he heard of Radbod's death, which might make
Frisia a more fruitful field. Already Willibrord, working like Boniface himself
under papal sanction, had been consecrated Archbishop of Utrecht, and to his
help Boniface now went. When after a three years' stay Willibrord would have
had him as coadjutor he pleaded the papal command: he sought leave to depart
and passed to Hesse. This was ground more unworked than Thuringia, for the
people had kept their older seats and with them their old customs, but it might
link Saxony to the Frankish Church. So great was his success — thousands being baptized
— that he could soon think of organizing a bishopric. He sent a report to Rome
and in reply was called thither himself. On his way he probably met Charles
Martel, and at Rome he was consecrated (St Andrew's day, 722 or less probably
723). At his consecration he took an oath much like that taken by the suburbicarian
bishops, and thus pledged himself to work as a bishop under papal direction.
But by a significant change the promise of fidelity to the Eastern Emperor was
left out and its place taken by a promise to hold no intercourse with bishops
who disobeyed the canons, to work against them and to denounce them to the
Pope. The new bishop received letters of commendation to all who could help his
work in Germany and especially to Charles Martel. Henceforth Boniface could
depend even more than before upon papal direction, help, and sympathy: we find
him, like St Augustine of Canterbury, sending difficulties to Rome for
decision. As he was to build up a church which was suffering from Keltic
disorder and Frankish negligence, a collection of canons was a natural papal
gift to him.
Boniface now begins a new stage of
his work, no longer as a mere missionary pioneer but rather as a missionary
statesman in the service of Rome. For his new plans and his new office state
support was needed. Backed by a letter from Charles Martel, Boniface went to
Hesse to weld together the scattered links of his earlier work. Some twenty
years later he wrote to Daniel of Winchester: "Without the patronage of
the Prince of the Franks I am able neither to rule the people of the church nor
to defend the priests or deacons, the monks or nuns: and I am not powerful
enough to hinder the very rites of the pagans and the sacrileges of idols in
Germany without his order and the dread of him." The boldness he showed in
felling the sacred oak at Geismar led the heathen to think their gods had lost
their power, and from these successes in Hesse Boniface passed to Thuringia. In
each district he founded schools of learning and of training for his converts:
Amanaburg and Fritzlar in Hesse, Ohrdruff in Thuringia: for women,
Tauberbischofsheim, Kitzingen, and Ochsenfurt, three foundations near the Main.
These were founded before his organisation of Bavaria, and his favourite house
Fulda was specially planned to foster Christian civilization and to be a
monastic model. This side of Boniface's work is sometimes overlooked in
comparison with his ordering of dioceses, but the two were really complementary:
on the monastic side he entered into the heritage of the Keltic monks to whom,
when there was no question of disorder or irregularity, he was by no means an
enemy. At Fulda Sturm, a Bavarian of his own training, ruled: there and elsewhere
helpers from England, some of them bound to Boniface by ties of blood, and all
by kinship in devotion, made new homes for themselves: Burchard, Lul, Denehard,
Willibald, Wicbert among the men: Lioba and Walpurgis among the women. With
England a lively interchange of letters was kept up: some of his English
friends came out to him as they gradually lost their kinsfolk by death, and
others came because of their love for him. But in either case they helped to
strengthen associations which were of political as well as religious power.
Boniface himself was strong enough to award praise and blame to English kings;
he himself, his comrades, and his work gave England some hold upon continental
life.
On the death of Gregory II (11 Feb.
731) Gregory III succeeded, a true successor in his care for Germany. When
Boniface declared to him that the burden of his growing work was becoming too heavy,
the papal answer was (732) to make him Archbishop, although with no defined
province, so that he could the better call fellow-labourers to his help. In the
few following years we must probably place much of Boniface's work in
furthering his foundations, and some of his letters of the time show him turned
to reading and study of questions raised by his pastoral work. But about 735 we
find him in Bavaria where once before the duke Theodo and Gregory II had
thought of a church organisation in the interests both of church and duchy.
Huebert was now duke under stricter Frankish suzerainty: little had hitherto
been done and Passau was the only see. In Bavaria Boniface now travelled and
taught. But his third visit to Rome (probably 738), caused possibly by his wish
to take up once more his old plans for Frisia, now that the field of Germany
was under cultivation, brought a year's break and rest. This time Boniface was
a great figure both with the Romans and the pilgrims, so greatly had his renown
been spread.
741-742] Pope Zacharias
In Bavaria after Hucbert's death
(probably 736) Odilo was placed as duke, a ruler of a different type, less
ready to submit to Frankish direction and a generous patron of the Church. To
Bavaria Boniface went (739), and now he takes a new position, that of legate of
Rome: his appearance as legate was followed by the meeting of a Synod and a
division of the duchy into four dioceses: Passau (where Vibilo who had been
consecrated at Rome remained), Regensburg, Salzburg, and Freising. A little
later (741) we find Boniface similarly founding another group of three dioceses
for Hesse and Thuringia: Btiraburg, near Fritzlar, for Hesse, Wtirzburg for
southern and Erfurt for northern Thuringia. Zacharias who had now (3 Dec. 741)
succeeded Gregory III confirmed this division, although like his predecessor
advising caution against erecting too may sees and so lowering the episcopal
standard. But Boniface's personal inspiration found him able helpers: at
Buraburg an Englishman, Witta, was placed, and at Wtirzburg another, Burchard,
entered upon the heritage of the Keltic Kilian. The protection of Charles
Martel, even if not too eager, had been of great use: his death (22 Oct. 741)
brought about a change in Boniface's work: henceforth it was to be for the
whole of eastern Frankish territory.
Carloman invited Boniface to come
and hold a Synod in Austrasia: in this way discipline, which had been trampled
under foot for some sixty years, could be restored. Boniface was here faced by
conditions such as he had known in Bavaria. His work in Hesse had already
brought to him opposition from Frankish bishops.
But among the Franks church law was
widely disregarded and Boniface found it hard, as he told Daniel of Winchester,
to keep the oath he had sworn to the Pope. If he was to refrain altogether from
intercourse with offending bishops his work would be impossible. There was no
weakening of his allegiance to the Pope, but a new element, the Frankish State,
was now coming more fully into his life and his plans. The most striking
feature in Boniface's career is the way in which while never waiting for
circumstances he was quick to seize each circumstance and use it to the utmost
good. He never lost sight of any work he had ever planned and begun: if he
turned aside for some pressing need he wove that special work into his general
plan, and with each new field his outlook broadened.
The new pope Zacharias was a Greek
from Calabria, a man of mildness and yet of diplomatic skill: his tone towards
Boniface was somewhat more commanding than that used by previous popes, and the
explanation may be found in his policy towards the Franks, against whom he for
a time played off the Bavarians and Lombards. Odilo of Bavaria had probably
encouraged Girfo in his revolt against Carloman and Pepin, and afterwards he
began a movement for independence. A papal envoy is said to have ordered a Frankish
army to leave his land, but this did not hinder the defeat of the Bavarian
duke. The Nordgau was separated from his duchy and joined to Austrasia. Neuburg
on the Danube became — possibly through some adaptation of Odilo's plans — a
new bishopric and remained so for some two generations. Eichstadt, where a
monastery had already been founded, was made the seat of another bishopric for
a population of mixed descent.
Councils [742-747
The projected Council for Austrasia
met in a place unknown (21 April 742),2 and began the work of reorganisation.
Bishops were to be consecrated for cities and over them was to be set the
archbishop Boniface, legate (misses) of St Peter: councils were to meet yearly:
the moral standard of the priesthood was to be raised, and the priests were to
be subject to the bishops: bishops or priests who were not known were not to be
allowed to minister and heathen customs were to be put away. In the place given
to Boniface it is best to see a restoration of the metropolitan system, and
that this was made by royal power is significant. Not only the bishops of the
older and more settled part of the realm, Cologne and Strassburg, but also
those of Würzburg, Eichstadt, Thiraburg, and Erfurt, were invited to the
Council. To carry out the reforms laid down was the work of Boniface. In the
next two years many new bishops were appointed, and (1 March 743) a second
Synod met at Estinnes, and here, by the assembly of bishops and leading laymen,
the decrees of 742 were confirmed. In 744 (2 March) a Synod for Neustria met at
Soissons, and a new organisation followed for Pepin's realm also. The
archbishoprics of Rheims, Rouen, and Sens were to be restored, and Boniface,
who had acted in close friendly if not official touch with Pepin, asked the
Pope to send three palls for them. But before Zacharias replied (22 June 744)
some change was made in the plans and Grimo of Rouen alone was to have the
pall. This change and some freedom in Boniface's criticism of papal fees and
Roman customs made the Pope a little angry, but we find him none the less (1
May 748) commending Boniface his "brother, archbishop, legate of the Holy
See, and personal representative" to the bishops — expressly named — of
both the eastern and western Franks. And in an earlier letter (5 Nov. 744)
Zacharias even extended the right of free preaching in the province of Bavaria
which was granted by his predecessor. "And not only for Bavaria, but for
the whole province of the Gauls he was
to use the office of preaching laid upon him by the Pope for reformation and
edification.
The original plan was for Boniface
to be Archbishop of Cologne, and in this position wield even greater power. To
this the Pope had agreed. But when Gewilip was rightly deposed from Mainz,
Carloman and Pepin (perhaps led by enemies of Boniface at court) appointed
Boniface his successor, and so the see of Mainz (which became an archbishopric
in 780) as held by a legate and apostle gained a new renown. Cologne which had
probably been an archbishopric in the sixth century became such again in 785,
but the jealousy between the two great cities lingered on, and echoes even in
the letters of Gregory VII.