The churches in Britain before A. D. 1000

Front matter

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

ENGUSH COLLECTION

THE GIFT OF

Chapter I The English Missionaries

IT was pointed out in the first volume (pp. 53, 67, 192) that the conversion of the English led directly to the conversion of other nations. England itself became a missionary centre, sending out its own evangelists, by whose instrumentality, from the seventh to the eleventh centuries, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland were converted to Christianity. This excellent work began as soon as the infant Church of England had set its own house in order. ^ Indeed, Theodore of Tarsus had not

^ " Hardly had all England received fhe faith when it began its marvellous work in Germany. The foresight of Gregory was justified by the event ; the consequences of S. Augustine's mission went far beyond the spiritual conquest of the EngHsh. They spread all over the Teutonic race. The loss of the East which had failed in its mission and allowed the State to interfere with its faith, was more than compensated by the gain of the nation, to whom the future of Europe and the world was entrusted " (J. B. Dalgairns, Preface to Hope's S. Boniface and the Conversion of Germany, p. x. ).

VOL. II. ^ B completed his great achievement of organizing the new-born Church (I., p. 199), when its missions to another and closely kindred nation had begun. And it was this kinship between the Christian English and their heathen brethren on the Continent which greatly facilitated the task of converting the latter. There are still many people who believe that the " gift of Tongues " which was manifested at Pentecost was bestowed upon the Apostles in order to aid them in their work of making disciples of all the nations. There is no trace of their ever making use of a power of speaking foreign languages in their subsequent laboiu'S : neither in Acts nor in any of the Epistles is there any mention of the employment of so remarkable and so useful a possession. Whatever may be the relation between the Tongues manifested on the day of Pentecost and the Tongues manifested in the Church of Corinth (1 Cor. xiv.), it is evident that both gifts were transitory, and that Tongues in the Corinthian Church were not a power of speaking the languages of foreign nations.^ And in the missionary work of the Apostles no such miraculous power was required. Greek was almost a universal language in the Roman Empire. With Greek and Aramaic, and perhaps a little Latin, Apostles could make themselves understood in most places, either directly or through an interpreter. The English Apostles who

1 Robertson and Plununer, 1 Gorinthians, pp. 301-321 ; Walker, The Gift of Tongues, p. 63.

worked for the conversion of Northern Europe were in an equally happy condition as regards language. They were Teutons returning to Teutons (I., pp. 38-40) after an interval of less than three hundred years. No doubt the language which their ancestors had brought from Germany had developed in Britain in a manner somewhat different from the way in which it had continued to develop in Germany ; but we may reasonably believe that in the seventh century Englishmen and Germans would quickly be able to understand one another.^ The great success of the English missionaries on the Continent amounts almost to proof of this hypothesis. And then also, when the frontiers of the Roman Empire were reached, Latin would sometimes come in as a help to mutual understanding. All these English missionaries knew Latin : they worshipped in that language every day

WILFRID

The Englishman who made a beginning with this work was Wilfrid.^ It has been pointed out (I., p. 126)

^ Freeman, Old English History, p. 137. " Some of the oldest specimens of the languages of continental Germany are the translations made for the use of the German converts " (R. W, Church, The Beginning of the Middle Ages, p. 128).

2 It raaat always be remembered that Keltic missionaries from Ireland and Scotland were at work on the Continent long before Englishmen, from St. Fridolin (o. 500) onwards. Later, when Enghsh and other missionaries were occupying the ground in connexion with Rome, the Irish still continued to come, but as teachers or students rather than missionaries.

that when Archbishop Theodore, without consulting Wilfrid, insisted on dividing Wilfrid's diocese into four, Wilfrid appealed to Rome, and went to Rome to plead his cause in person. There is no evidence that Wilfrid objected to the necessary division, but he naturally objected to its being done over his head ; and, as Theodore had already secured the approval of King Egfrid, there was no authority in England to which he could appeal. It was to Rome that England owed its Christianity, and it was Rome that had sent Theodore to take charge of the English Christians. What more reasonable, therefore, than that Wilfrid should apply to Rome for redress ? Wilfrid might have submitted under protest ; but, if he felt that he ought to appeal, there was no one to whom he could apply for help except the Bishop of Rome. And of course,, no one could plead his cause so efficaciously as himself. With bishops at Lindsey, Hexham and York, according to Theodore's new scheme, the diocese of Northumbria would not be neglected. Eddius says that Wilfrid appealed with the approval of his brother bishops {co-episcopi), which may mean that bishops in other kingdoms objected to Theodore's measures. In his petition to Rome, Wilfrid says that Theodore acted without the assent of any bishop, which is probably true.^

^ Sir Roger Twysden {Historical Vindication of the Church of England in the Point of Schism, 34 f.) shows the bearing of Wilfrid's career on the relations between England and Rome,

Wilfrid set out, with a large retinue, in the latter half of 678, and made for Friesland. Bade seems to think that adverse winds drove him out of his course thither (fiante Favonio pulsus est Frisiam), but Eddius says that he meant to land there and that the wind favoured him. He was hospitably received by the heathen King Aldgilsus, and spent the winter there preaching to him and his subjects. Much the same results followed as when Augustine preached to Ethelbert of Kent. First the king and his court, and then multitudes of the people, embraced Christianity.

Meanwhile King Egfrid and Wilfrid's foes in England had not been idle. The threat to appeal to Rome had been laughed at, but, when Wilfrid started to make it, attempts were made to stop him. It was assumed that Wilfrid would cross to Neustria,^ which was the common practice, and hence perhaps arose the idea that Wilfrid was driven by bad weather to land in Friesland. Egfrid got Ebroin, who had made himself tyrant in Neustria, to endeavour to capture

as J. C. Robertson points out {Hist, of Christ. Church, Bk. II., ch. iii.). See also Collier, Eccl. Hist., Bk. II., cent, vii., who points out that Cuthbert must have approved of Theodore's action, otherwise he would not have accepted the see of Lindisfarne.

1 Neustria was the territory between the Schelde and the Loire, and Friesland was, roughly, modern Holland. It included much more than modern Friesland. Its inhabitants were regarded as very barbarous, " living like fish in the water, and holding intercourse with other nations only by sea."

Wilfrid. Through the similarity of name, Ebroin's men caught Winfrid, the expelled Bishop of Mercia, who had succeeded Chad at Lichfield (I., p. 189), instead of Wilfrid. Ebroin then sent to Aldgilsus and tried to bribe him fo give up Wilfrid, but Aldgilsus tore up the letter and rejected the bribe with scorn. Independently of Egfrid's incitement, Ebroin was hostile to Wilfrid, because Wilfrid had helped Dagobert II to return from exile in Ireland to his native country, Austrasia, where he was an obstacle to Ebroin's schemes.^

Dagobert had been in exUe for eighteen years, viz., smce the death of his father, Sigebert III, King of the Austrasian Franks from a.d. 632 to 656. He had been spirited away by Grimoald, the powerful Mayor of the Palace, who is of importance in ecclesiastical history as having been the promoter of the law which forbad the holding of episcopal synods without the sanction of the king. He was not, however, unfriendly to the Church.^ Dagobert was a child

^ The story is told in detail by C. Platts, Pioneers of our Faith, oh. 29 ; see also 32 and 35.

2 There are several rulers bearing this name in the seventh century who must not be confused with one another. (1) This one, who became Mayor of the Palace in Austrasia in 642. (2) King of the Lombards, 662-672. (3) His grandson, Duke of Benevento, 687-689. (4) Ruler of Bavaria and patron of Corbinian, the first Bishop of Freisingen ; he died in 726. Two of the letters of Desiderius, Bishop of Cahors, are addressed to this Mayor of the Palace, Domino illustri, totius aulas immoque, regni Rectori, Orimoaido Majori Domua,

THE ENGLISH MISSIONARIES T

of three when his father died, and Grimoald, after cutting oft the long hair which was the sign of royalty, got Dido, Bishop of Poitiers, to smuggle the child away to Ireland ; and he then set up his own son Childebert as king. The nobles, however, refused to accept him, captured Grimoald, and handed him over to Clovis, who put him to death that same year, 656. It was Wulfoald, a subsequent Mayor of the Palace, who asked Wilfrid to get Dagobert back from Ireland and restore him to Austrasia ; and Wilfrid accomplished this. Wilfrid perhaps knew how munificent Dagobert's father had been to the Church. But the success of Wulfoald in restoring Dagobert was as short as that of Grimoald in sending him into exile. Ebroin, who for long had been one of the leading men in France, and had in 678 got rid of his great opponent, Leodegar, Bishop of Autun, now vanquished Wulfoald and caused Dagobert to be put to death (679). Wilfrid had doubtless acted for the best ; yet it might have been better for the peace of Neustria and Austrasia, if Dagobert had never been restored. Ebroin was now almost supreme in France, and became as tyrannical as he had been before he was checked by Leodegar.^ But his tri-

1 It was perhaps because of his resolute opposition to this tjrrant, and because of the cruel treatment which he received before he was put to death, that Leodegar was canonized and became one of |^ the most' popular saints. The Hofkirche at Lucerne is dedicated to him.

umph, like that of Grimoald and Wulfoald, did not last long. He made himself intolerable, and in 681 he was assassinated by one of the nobles. Ebroin was like Grimoald in strengthening the power of the king (i.e., the power of the mayor) against the clergy, but unlike him in being very hostile to the Church. The clergy supported the nobles in resisting the tyranny of Ebroin, and Ebroin persecuted them and put some of them to death.

Missionary work in Friesland was evidently of more immediate interest to Wilfrid than the prosecution of his own cause at Rome, and he did not move onwards until the spring of 679. Even then he did not move quickly. In Austrasia he stayed at the court of Dagobert II, who showed his gratitude to Wilfrid by pressing upon him the bishopric of Strasburg. When Wilfrid dechned the offer, he loaded him with gifts, and sent Bishop Deodatus to escort him to the court of Berchtar or Perctarit, King of the Lombards, at Pavia. Here again Ebroin tried to bribe Wilfrid's royal entertainer to surrender him. But the King of the Lombards sent him on safely to Rome. On the return journey he passed through Gaul, and found that Dagobert had been murdered by Ebroin. This and his eagerness to exhibit the Roman decree in his favour (I., p. 128) made him hasten back to England without revisiting his converts in Friesland. But after his release from prison (I., p. 129), he went as a missionary to the South

Saxons, who, in reference to the rest of the island, were almost as foreign as the Frieslanders.^ Here, instead of his large retinue on the Continent, Wilfrid had only four companions, but he again did good work. King Ethelwalch and his wife were already Christians, but his subjects were heathen savages^ — so wanting in courage and common sense that they would not venture into deep water to catch fish, and in a time of grievous famine were jumping off the cliffs into the sea rather than endure the pangs of starvation any longer. Wilfrid and his companions taught them to use large nets out at sea, and thus saved them from suicide. After this they became ready hearers ; and, as the drought which had caused the famine ended on the day on which a large number of them were baptized, this was regarded as strong evidence of the truth of his teaching. In Friesland Wilfrid's work had been made easier by the fact that the beginning of his preaching was accompanied by a very abundant harvest. One suspects that there was something defective in the Christianity of Ethelwalch. Apparently he had made little or

1 Florence of Worcester omits the imprisonment and takes Wilfrid direct from Rome to the South Saxons, 679.

2 The king and queen seem to have made no effort to convert them. A few Irish monks had settled at Bosham, but they do not appear to have accomphshed much. The South Saxons remained gens ignara Dei, simvlacris dedita vanis. By jumping into the sea (they thought) they went direct to Woden.

no effort to convert his subjects until Wilfrid came, and then he forced some of them to abandon idolatry ; and when the Isle of Wight was added to his dominions he left the inhabitants there in their original heathenism ; for, owing to want of intercourse with the rest of Britain, Wight, like Sussex, remained heathen much longer than other parts of the island. Ethelwalch, however, did give Wilfrid lands and serfs on the peninsular of Selsey, and there Wilfrid built a monastery. He converted the serfs, and at their baptism emancipated them (I., p. 130). When Csedwalla ^ conquered Sussex, slew Ethelwalch, and made himself King of Wessex, he gave Wilfrid a quarter of the Isle of Wight ; and here the mission work began again. Wilfrid, however, seems to have left most of the work to his nephew, Bemwini, assisted by a priest named Hiddila. Caedwalla was not yet a Christian, but he was grateful to Wilfrid, who had aided him when he was an exile. It must have been a grievous blow to Wilfrid when Caedwalla put Ethelwalch to death, and perhaps this trouble made him unwilling to stay and work in Caedwalla's dominions. At any rate it was at this time, 686 or 687, that he was reconciled to Theodore and returned

• Caedwalla was a turbulent scion of the royal family of the West Saxons who had been for some time in exile. He has no connexion with the British king of the same name who was defeated by Oswald in 634 (I., 96). It is convenient to call the latter Cadwalla.

to work in Northumbria. In 688, Csedwalla repented of his violence in Sussex, Wight and Kent, went on a pilgrimage to Rome, was baptized by Pope Sergius, and died a few days later (April, 689).^ He was the first of the rulers of English kingdoms to make this journey ad limina heatorum apostolorum , . a finibus terrae pio ductus amore (Bede, H.E., v., 7). Ini, his successor as King of Wessex, did the same thirty-seven years later (725) ; as also did Offa, King of the East Saxons, in company with Coenred, King of Mercia, in 709.

On two later occasions we find Wilfrid exhibiting his characteristic zeal in the cause of missions. About 692 or 693 he consecrated Suidbert to be bishop of the Frisians, and on his way to prosecute his second appeal in person at Rome he spent some time in Friesland with the missionaries who were carrying on his work there. This was probably in the winter of 703 and 704 : in 704 he reached Rome, and there, but for the advice of John VII, he would have ended his days.^ The Pope urged him to return, and on

^ Bede {H.E. v., 7) gives an epitaph consisting of twenty-four elegiacs in which this pilgrimage to Rome is commemorated. It was written by Benedictus Crispus Archbishop of Milan (d.725). See Gregorovius, Gesch, der Stadt Rom, 2'° AuiSage, II., pp. 186, 405. His comments on these pilgrimages of English Kings to Rome are noteworthy, pp. 184r-9.

2 It was to John VI that he had appealed so successfully, but he died January 10, 705, and Wilfrid was present at the election of John VII, March 1, 705. Mr, Pl?itts makes confusion here (pp. 350-2).

the journey back to Britain he was too ill to pay much attention to missions. At Meaux he nearly died, but believed that he had received a revelation that he was to live four years longer. As already mentioned (I., 130), he died in 709, and was buried at his beloved Ripon.

It is remarkable that Wilfrid, at the synod near Easterfield on the border of Yorks and Notts, against which he appealed to Rome, said nothing about his missionary labours, or his educational work, or his activity in the building of churches. In pleading the services which he had rendered to the Church as a reason why he should not resign his bishopric, the points on which he dwells are his opposition to the Keltic usages, his introduction of the Latin chant, and his zeal for monasticism. So little did he understand the proportion of things ! It is Wilfrid the missionary that the Church must always honour, whatever estimate may be made of his other achievements.

EGBERT AND WIGBERT

These two, the one a missionary in will, the other a missionary both in will and deed, are sometimes known as Ecgberct and Wictberht, and the former is sometimes known as Saint Egberht. Egbert, at about the age of five and twenty, left his home in Northumbria to go and study in the monasteries in Ireland. At that time this was a common thing to do. In spite of the good schools which had arisen in Britain, both English and British students rather frequently went to the Scots in Ireland to finish their education. They went, as Bede ,says, ■" from one master's cell to another," or as we might say, from one professor's lecture-room to another. " The Scots most willingly received them all, and took care to supply them gratuitously with food, as also to furnish them with books to read and instruction, without making any charge " (Bede, H.E., iii., 27). We know, from Bede alone, of a number of such cases. Chad (I., 123, 126, 168) was there at the same time as Egbert, andAgilbert (I., 119) had been there also. But Egbert's great friend was a young student named Ethelhun, whose brother Ethelwin afterwards came to study in Ireland, and then returned to England to become Bishop of Lindsey, and whose sister Ethelhild became an abbess. Bede says of the two friends that they were youths of great ability and of noble birth. They were studying at the monastery of Rathmelsigi (site uncertain) when the yellow pest swept over England and Ireland in 664. Of course the monastery suffered (I., 120, 166), and most of the inmates either fled or died. The two friends sickened, and one morning Egbert, believing that his end was near, left the infirmary to meditate in solitude on his past life. Feeling that it had been very faulty, he prayed earnestly that he might be allowed to live longer and do better, and vowed that, if he were spared, he would never retiirn to his native Britain, but would lead a pilgrim's life in much devotion and austerity. He then returned to the infirmary, where he found his friend Ethelhun|asleep. But he soon awoke and looked at him and said : " O brother Egbert, what have you done ? I was hoping that we should enter together into life eternal. But I can tell you that what you have asked for will be granted." For he had learned in a vision what his friend had prayed for, and that his prayer was heard. And Ethelhtm died the next night.

Egbert lived to be ninety. He wrote to Egfrid, King of the Northumbrians, who had been so hostOe to Wilfrid, to urge him not to carry out his plan of invading Ireland, whose people had done him no harm. But Egfrid would not listen, and his army spared neither churches nor monasteries. Next year, 685, against the advice of St. Cuthbert, Egfrid marched against the Picts, was drawn into an ambush and slain, which was regarded as a judgment on him for his disregard of Egbert. ^ Soon after this, Egbert's zeal took a new turn. The pilgrim's life which he

1 Egfrid was succeeded by his half-brother Aldfrith, who had been set aside, although the elder, as being nothtcs, i.e. the son of a concubine. William of Malmesbury says that Aldfrith went, Uke Egbert and others, to Ireland, and " enriched his mind with every kind of learning" {O.R., I., 52). Bede says that he went to " the islands of the Scots " {Vita CvtKb. 24), which might mean Ireland or lona. The anonymous Vita Cuthb. 24 saj^ definitely lona.

had vowed should be the life of a missionary. He knew that there were many who had never yet heard the word of God, especially among those who came from the same stock as his own ancestors, as the Frisians, the Danes, the Old Saxons, and others. If this should prove to be impossible, he thought of going to Rome to venerate the thresholds of the blessed Apostles. But the mission-work came first. He chose his companions, men fitted for such an enterprise by learning and courage, and made all necessary preparations with great care.

However, missionary work of this kind was not allowed to Egbert. As St. Paul was forbidden to go into Bithynia to work and was sent to Macedonia instead (Acts xvi. 7-10), so Egbert was commanded to abandon his intention of preaching to the heathen Teutons on the Continent and was sent to instruct the erring followers of Columba in lona. And, as in the Apostle's case, the means of communication was a vision. There was in the monastery with Egbert a brother who had been at Melrose, when Boisil was provost or prior (prospositus or propositus) and Eata was abbot. Boisil had died in the pestilence of 664, but during his lifetime he had a great reputation for sanctity and for power to predict the future. Immediately on seeing Cuthbert, he had recognized him as a saint and foretold that he would be a bishop (Bede, Life of Cuthbert, 6 ; H.E., iv., 27, 28). When Cuthbert sickened of the plague which was fatal to

Boisil, Boisil assured him that he would recover and told him much about the future. Just as Egbert was nearly ready to start with his fellow-missionaries, this brother, who had lived at Melrose before 664, came to him and said that Boisil had appeared to him in a vision, and had charged him to tell Egbert not to carry out his plan, but to go rather and teach in the monasteries of Columba. Egbert was made imeasy, but he was not convinced. He told the brother not to mention the vision (which might be a delusion) to any one else, and then went on with his preparations for the voyage. A day or two later the brother came to Egbert again and told him that in the previous night, just after matins, Boisil had appeared to him again and rebuked him for not being more emphatic in delivering his message to Egbert : " But go now and tell him that, whether he will or no, he must go to Columba's monasteries, because their ploughs go not right, and it is his duty to bring them back into the right way." ^

Egbert was no longer able to think that the vision was a delusion, but, like Balaam and Jonah, he still hoped that he might be allowed to have what he had set his heart upon and avoid what he disliked. He again told the brother to say nothing about the vision, and again went on with his final preparations.

^ This command is reraarkable because Egbert had vowed not to return to Britain. Evidently the island of lona was regarded as no part of the island of Britain.

The vessel which was to take the missionaries was ready, their baggage was on board, and the crew were waiting for a favourable wind, when a storm arose and so damaged the ships that it had to be abandoned. Some of the cargo was ruined, but all that belonged to Egbert and his company was saved. Egbert said with Jonah, " I know that for my sake this tempest is come," and at last abandoned the enterprise.

However, although Egbert was not allowed to go, one of his companions named Wigbert took ship and started for Friesland. He had been in Ireland for years, and was a man of great learning and austerity of life, but his going to Friesland as a missionary in the place of Egbert was not a success. He preached diligently to King Radbod (or Rathbed) and his barbarous subjects ; but he reaped so little fruit of his great labours that he returned to Ireland and went on with his life as a hermit. As Bede puts it, " since he could not be profitable to foreigners by bringing them to the faith, he took all the more care to be profitable to his own ped]ple by the example of his virtues" {H.E., v., 9).^

1 We may leave it so ; but St. Paul's withdrawal from the " opened door " at Troas (2 Cor. ii. 12, 13) is not parallel. He withdrew and undertook equally strenuous work elsewhere.

Radbod at first had been inclined to accept baptism, but, when he was told that all his pagan ancestors were certainly in hell, he said that he would sooner join them than go to heaven with a handful of beggars. This was during the earlier mission of Wulfram,_Bishop of Sens.

VOL. n. o

This charming story about Egbert and Wigbert illustrates a variety of things, chief of which is the intense missionary zeal of English Christians in that age, especially with regard to the heathen descendants of their own ancestors in the North of Germany and the adjoining countries. We may feel pretty sure that Wigbert was an Englishman ; he was at any rate a stranger {peregrimis) in Ireland ; and Egbert is likely to have selected Englishmen (if only on account of the language) to accompany him to Friesland. We may regard the projected mission as mainly, if not exclusively, English. And Egbert's attitude towards the reported warnings of the holy prophet Boisil is very interesting. First he doubts whether they really come from him. Then he doubts whether they are a divine command which must be obeyed ; and nothing but the destruction of the ship which was to have carried him convinced him that his sphere of work must be something very different from that which he had planned. Does this mean simply that he was bent on having his own way ; that he had a longing for mission work among the heathen, and he was determined to gratify it ? Or does it mean that he could not bring himself to believe that God really thought it more important that he should put Columba's disciples right about certain details of the Christian life, than that he should go and teach those who knew no Christianity at all ? For that is what Boisil's charge to him seemed to imply. The Keltic Church of lona, as has been repeatedly pointed out in the first volume (see index), differed from the rest of Christendom in certain usages, one of which certainly was of some importance, viz., the time of keeping Easter ; and it is these differences of usage which are alluded to in the metaphor of their ploughs not going in the right way. One can sympathize with a man who believed, as Egbert may have believed, that to produce uniformity in such matters was a work of less pressing need than that of winning pagans from idolatry to the worship of the true God. Nevertheless, there is also the possibility that Egbert was much better fitted for the one work than for the other, or that he was more needed in the British Isles than in the mission-field on the Continent. But it looks as if the authority from whom Bade got the story thought that the conversion of the Scots from their heretical customs was of more moment than the conversion of the Frisians from paganism ; and perhaps Bede himself may have had some sympathy with that view, for there is nothing in his way of reproducing the narrative to indicate any hesitation or lack of approval, except that he keeps a firm hold on the story of the missions to the heathen.

Another interesting point is the tempest and its effects. It is those that were going to convey the missionaries who suffer loss ; their ship and part of their cargo is ruined : but the property of the missionaries is saved. The narrator seems to imply that this is all as it should be, for no regret is expressed for the calamity to the innocent mariners The idea perhaps is that the baggage of those who were undertaking holy work was imder special protection. Egbert, like Jonah, is sufficiently chastened by being made to undertake an unwelcome duty.