ENGLAND. (ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORV.) 



15 



of Christianity might have been in the times of Roman 

 subjugation, it was doomed to suffer a total eclipse, 

 nay, an almost utter extinction, by the arrival of the 

 pagan Saxons. The period, when the innumerable 

 hordes of Scythians, from every quarter, burst, with 

 irresistible violence, upon the Roman empire ; when 

 " clouds upon clouds successively rose in the sky, till 

 the congregated host, gathering fresh terror as it rolled 

 along", obscured the sun of Italy, and sunk the western 

 world in night, " was peculiarly calamitous to Bri- 

 tain, by obliging the Romans to abandon the island. 

 Before the arrival of the Saxons, the northern 

 parts of provincial Britain were quite depopulated, by 

 the successful and oft repeated inroads of the Scots 

 and Picts ; and the Saxons completed the desolation. 

 They murdered the Christian clergy, and destroyed 

 the ir churches. Their pagan enmity was fostered 

 and inflamed by their long and bloody contests with 

 the Christian Britons. The desolation was so great, 

 th at more than half the population was swept away. 

 W hile, in Scotland, there was not so much as one 

 place that deserved the name of a city ; only 28 towns 

 remained in South Britain, where the Romans had 

 built so many ; and none of these (London and Win- 

 chester excepted) contained 10,000 inhabitants in the 

 7th century, and the greatest part a few hundreds 

 only. " And at no time, from the Saxon heptarchy 

 to the Norman conquest, did it," says Dr Henry, 

 "contain above one million and a half of people." 

 It was not till A. D. 570, that the first rays of evan- 



Selical light dawned upon the Saxon conquerors of 

 ritain, by means of a marriage alliance between 

 one of their petty monarchs and the daughter of 

 Cherebert, king of France, a princess warmly attached 

 to Christianity. 



In A. D. 596, the famous Austin, the monk, was 

 sent over, by pope Gregory, to attempt their conver- 

 sion. He, with forty other monks, landed in Eng- 

 land, and was kindly received by Ethelbert, who 

 assigned Canterbury, as the place of their residence, 

 to Austin and his companions. They entered it in 

 solemn procession, carrying the picture of Christ 

 before them, and a silver cross, singing a hymn. 

 Their pious endeavours were crowned with such 

 success, that, in a very short time, the king, and 

 most of his subjects, were converted ; and no fewer 

 than 10,000 of them were baptized on Christmas day. 

 Upon the news of Austin's success, at the papal 

 court, more missionaries were sent to Austin, and a 

 model for the government of the infant church, and a 

 valuable library of books, vestments, sacred utensils, 

 and holy relics. Austin's efforts, however, to 

 reduce the Welch Christians to dependence on the 

 papal authority failed of success ; and, in revenge, 

 the ghostly abbot threatened them with the wrath of* 

 heaven and the hostilities of the English. 



The East Saxons were soon after converted by 

 Mellitus, and a bishop's see was established at 

 London, their capital, A. D. 610. The Northum- 

 brians were next converted, which auspicious event 

 was accelerated by the marriage of their king, 

 Edwin, with Edelburg, a daughter of Ethelbert, king 

 of Kent. That princess having the free exercise of 

 her religion secured to her and her household, was 

 accompanied by Paulinus, a missionary, into her new 

 dominions, whose labours were so successful, that 

 Edwin, and his high priest, Coiffi, a great many of 

 the nobility, and great multitudes of the common 

 people, renounced paganism, and were baptized ; no 

 fewer than 12,000 are said to have received the ini- 

 tiatory rite of baptism in one day. By the influence 

 of Edwin and Paulinus, Carpwald, king of the East 

 Angles, and many of his subjects, were converted ; 

 and, as a reward to the services of Paulinus, Edwin 

 erected a bishop's see at York, and even obtained an 



archbishop's pall for him from Pope Honorius. The 

 Northumbrians, upon the defeat and death of Edwin, 

 A. D. 938, apostatized, but were soon after re-con- 

 verted by their king, Oswald, who had been instructed 

 in the Christian religion, during his captivity in Scot- 

 land, by the Culdees. The East Angles, who had 

 apostatized, were restored in the same manner by 

 their prince Sigebert, who, during his exile among 

 the Franks, had been converted to Christianity. At 

 his restoration to his kingdom, he brought over 

 Felix, a Burgundian priest, who was appointed the 

 first bishop of the East Angles. The West Saxons 

 were converted by Berinus, who was greatly indebted 

 for his success tt> the arrival of Oswald, the Northum- 

 brian, at the court of Cynigfel, king of Wessex, A. D. 

 635, to marry that monarch's daughter ; for, by 

 Oswald's persuasion, not only the king, but also a 

 great number of his subjects, embraced the Christian 

 laith, and a bishop's see was founded at Dorchester, 

 of which Berinus was the first bishop. The Mercians 

 wei-e converted about the middle of the seventh cen- 

 tury. This was also brought about by a marriage 

 alliance between the eldest son of the Mercian 

 monarch with Alchflida, daughter of Oswi, king of 

 Northumberland, who at his return home, carried 

 with him four missionaries, who preached the gospel, 

 such as it was, successfully in Mercia ; and the last 

 of these four, who was a Scotsman, was ordained the 

 first bishop of the Mercians by bishop Finanus. 



From the above, it appears, that the English, in 

 the kingdoms of Kent and Wessex, were converted 

 to, and instructed in the Christian faith by French 

 and Romish missionaries, while the Mercians and 

 Northumbrians received the light of the gospel from 

 Scottish preachers ; which circumstance gave rise to 

 a controversy concerning the time of keeping Easter, 

 and the form of the ecclesiastical tonsure. The 

 Romish missionaries, and their churches, kept Easter, 

 on the first Sunday after the 14th, and before 

 the 22d day of the first moon, after the vernal 

 equinox ; and those churches planted by the Scottish 

 missionaries, kept that festival on the first Sunday 

 after the 13th, and before the 21st day of the same 

 moon. Therefore, when the 14th day of that moon 

 happened to be a Sunday, those of the Scottish com- 

 munion celebrated the Easter festival on that day, 

 whereas those of the Romish communion did not 

 celebrate theirs till the Sunday after. 



To promote the union of the English church with 

 the church of Rome, a grand council was summoned, 

 by Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of -Canter bury, to 

 meet at Hertford, A. D. 673, at which he presided ; 

 and obtained their consent to a number of canons 

 which he had brought from Rome, demanding a per- 

 fect uniformity among all the English churches. 

 Besides this union among the English churches, and 

 conformity to the Romish church, which was brought 

 about by Theodore, several new doctrines and prac- 

 tices were introduced, that were formerly unknown ; 

 amongst these, was the introduction of an auricular 

 or secret confession to a priest, as necessary to abso- 

 lution, directly contrary to the doctrines of the Scot- 

 tish missionaries, who taught, that confession to 

 God was sufficient. Theodore, by his address, now 

 obtained the recognition of the metropolitan power 

 over all the English clergy ; and exercised it, while 

 he lived, with no little severity. He died in the 89th 

 year of his age, and 23d of his pontificate. 



In the course of the 7th century, many monasteries 

 were founded in all parts of England. They were 

 designed, at first, for the seats ot bishops and their 

 clergy, for the residence of secular priests, who 

 preached and administered the sacrament over all the 

 neighbouring country ; and, in all places, they wero 

 seminaries of learning, for educating the youth. No 



