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The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1 - Contents
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    II. Augustine’s Attempt to Romanize Britain

    1. GREGORY SENDS AUGUSTINE ON BRITISH MISSION

    But another stream of missionary activity stemming from Rome began moving westward. The Saxon settlement of Britain and the missionary zeal of the Celts in carrying the gospel to the Continent caused Pope Gregory I (the Great) to turn his attention upon Britain. Before his elevation to the pontificate Gregory had himself purposed to go to Britain to convert the Saxons. In his stead he now sent Augustine, the Benedictine monk (d. 604), to Kent, in southeastern Britain, together with a company of some thirty other missionaries and interpreters. They landed in 597 on the isle of Thanet. The little band then went to Canterbury, where shelter was given them, and assurance of protection. 22Collins, op. cit., pp. 61-64.PFF1 600.3

    Ethelbert, king of the Saxons, had married Bertha, the Christian daughter of King Charibert of the Franks. She had brought with her a Catholic bishop, and Ethelbert gave them a ruined British Christian church in which to worship. They succeeded in converting Ethelbert. And within a year he and ten thousand of his subjects accepted the Catholic faith and were baptized in the Swale. 23Ibid., pp. 57, 58, 68. It was a crucial hour, destined to affect all future British history. It brought England into close connection with the Continent, and especially with the bishop of Rome. With Canterbury as its headquarters, this Roman form of Christianity spread slowly northward from Kent. The boundaries of the two faiths—the Celtic and the Roman—drew nearer to each other. A life-and-death struggle between the two ensued as they came face to face in Northumbria. 24Thatcher and Schwill, op. cit., pp. 69, 70; Albert H. Newman, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 410.PFF1 601.1

    The Catholic missionaries resolutely addressed themselves to the difficult task of subjecting the British Christians to Rome, who proved exceedingly intractable. When other means failed, the Saxon king even used armed force against them. 25See page 604. This spirit of resistance, it may be added parenthetically, persisted for centuries. In fact, through the later long centuries of Roman domination the English church remained perhaps the least subservient of all the churches. There was a constant protest against foreign aggression, until the yoke was finally thrown off under the English Reformation. 26Lightfoot, op. cit., pp. 52, 53.PFF1 601.2

    2. OVERTURES INDIGNANTLY REPULSED

    To the northern barbarians “Rome” was a magic word. It did not so much mean the Papacy to them, or the city of Rome, as Roman civilization. The two terms were regarded as virtually synonymous. 27Collins, op. cit., p. 54. When the Roman state fell the Christian church was the only power left in the West, and completed its conversion of the pagan peoples in the succeeding years of chaos and misery. 28Oman, op. cit., p. 185. But the Celtic-British church had drifted out of contact with the church at large, and with Rome in particular. And the mission of Augustine to England in 597, it may be remarked, was but one of many enterprises undertaken by Pope Gregory, designed to remedy the situation. The activities of this founder of the medieval Papacy were amazing in their scope. 29Frank M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 103, 104.PFF1 601.3

    The British church having few relations with other Christian bodies except Ireland, the Celts saw little reason to accept Augustine, the stranger, as overlord. He had sojourned but a short time in Britain, and had made converts only in districts distant from their own. So they refused to surrender their autonomy. They were unwilling to recognize human authority in matters of religion, and repelled Gregory’s effort of 597 to bring them into subjection to the pope. They were offended by the pomp and worldliness of the Roman missionaries, steadfastly differing from them in the time of celebration of Easter and following the Eastern mode of baptism. The cleavage was wide.PFF1 602.1

    Augustine had come to Britain with the express design of converting the pagan Saxons to Christ. He had been admitted to episcopal orders at Rome under the specific title of bishop of the English, and was invested by the pope with authority over all native prelates. This recognition he demanded from Dunawd, most eminent of the Celtic scholars, who maintained, on the contrary, that his countrymen owed no allegiance to any other than their own bishop, and supported his position by Scripture. 30Bede, Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chap. 2, in The Loeb Classical Library, Baedae Opera Historica, vol. 1, pp. 205, 207; John Williams, op. cit., p. 141. It was a critical hour.PFF1 602.2

    3. FAILURE OF THE ROMAN MISSION

    Augustine’s methods were different from those of the missionaries of the British church. Augustine was instructed by the pope to retain the customs of the heathen; idol temples were simply to be rededicated as Christian churches, and heathen festivals renamed as days of Christian saints. Animals formerly sacrificed to heathen deities were to be slaughtered for festivals of thanksgiving to God. 31Bede, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, chap. 30, in The Loeb Classical Library, Baedae Opera Historica, vol. 1, p. 163.PFF1 603.1

    Augustine soon attempted the subjection of the native British church. Two conferences, both in 603, were held with Augustine over his claims. The first came to nought, the Britons refusing to accede to his demands. Augustine proposed that they acknowledge the pope as spiritual head, and submit to himself as his representative. This the astonished British bishops indignantly refused to do, with these memorable words:PFF1 603.2

    “Be it known, and without doubt unto you, that we all and every one of us are obedient subjects to the Church of God, and to the Pope of Rome, and to every godly Christian, to love every one in his degree in perfect charity; and to help every one of them, by word and deed, to be the children of God; and other obedience than this I do not know to be due to him whom you name to be pope, or father of fathers, to be claimed and to be demanded; and this obedience we are ready to give and to pay to him, and to every Christian continually; besides, we are under the government of the Bishop of Caerleon-upon-Usk, who is to oversee, under God, over us, to cause us to keep the way spiritual.” 32Quoted in John Williams, op. cit., p. 143.PFF1 603.3

    The tactless Augustine pressed his case, but the British bishops were immovable. Then Augustine moderated his demands, asking only three things: (1) Obedience in the time of celebrating Easter, (2) the practice of baptism according to the Roman form, and (3) joint endeavor in preaching to the English. But the British bishops still refused, asserting, “We will do none of these things, neither will we have you for our archbishop.” 33Bede. Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chap. 2, in The Loeb Classical Library, Baedae Opera Historica, vol. 1, pp. 205, 206.PFF1 603.4

    The second conference fared no better. Seven British bishops, with the archbishop of Caerleon and numerous learned men, met with Augustine. Their response, according to Bede, was to be determined by Augustine’s attitude in greeting them. If he rose and went to meet them, they would yield. But if he haughtily remained seated, they were not to accede to his demands. Augustine remained seated. So they refused to yield or to accept him as their bishop. 34Sir Henry H. Howorth, Saint Augustine of Canterbury, pp. 164, 165. Augustine was furious, and declared:PFF1 603.5

    “If you are unwilling to accept peace with brethren, you will have to accept war from enemies; and if you will not preach the way of life to the nation of the Anglians, from their hands you will suffer the punishment of death.” 35Ibid., pp. 163-165; John Williams, op. cit., p. 144.PFF1 604.1

    This was the opening of undisguised conflict between the Celtic and the Roman churches. 36Green. The Making of England, pp. 228, 229. Not long afterward the Northumbrians under Ethelfrid 37John Williams, op. cit., p. 144; Bede, Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chap. 2, in The Loeb Classical Library, Baedae Opera Historica, vol. 1, p. 213. slaughtered twelve hundred British monks in a fearful massacre. Augustine retired to Kent and was superseded by Laurentius, who similarly failed in negotiating with the British and Irish bishops. They did, how ever, win over Northumbria to the Roman faith for a time. But it was short-lived. The Roman mission under Augustine had failed for the time being.PFF1 604.2

    Stevenson, in the scholarly introduction to his translation of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, adduces much evidence to prove the prior existence of an “independent Celtic Church” with “a non-Roman origin,” in discussing the “Celtic Church in its origin, mission, and jurisdiction.” 38Joseph Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 29, 33, 35.PFF1 604.3

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