anglo saxon britain rome and iona

8/8/2019 Anglo Saxon Britain Rome and Iona

1/6

ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. 93

CHAPTER X.ROME AND 1 0NA .

IT was not the Roman mission which finally succeeded in converting the North and the Midlands.That success was due to the Scottish and PictishChurch. At the end of the sixth century, Columba,an Irish missionary, crossed over to the solitary rockof Iona, where he established an abbey on the Irishmodel, and quickly evangelised the northern Picts.From lona, some generations later, went forth theelevoted missionaries who finally converted thenorthern haJf of England.

-:-i.


2/6

94 ANGLO-SAXON P,RITAIN.and the West-Saxons," says Breda, "he convened toa colloquy the bishops and doctors of the nearestprovince of the Britons, in the place which, to thepresent day, is called in the English language, Augustine's Oak." Such open-air meetings by sacred treesor stones were universal in England both before andafter its conversion. "He began to admonish themwith a brotherly admonition to embrace with him theCatholic faith, and to undertake the common task ofevangelising the pagans. For they did not observeEaster at the proper period: moreover, they didmany other things contrary to the unity of theChurch." But the Welsh were jealous of the intruders, and refused to abandon their old customs.Thereupon, Augustine declared that if they wouldnot help him against the heathen, they would perishby the heathen. A few years later, after Augustine'sdeath, this prediction was verified by h:thelfrith ofN orthumbria, whose massacre of the monks of Bangorhas already been noticed.

I t was in return for the destruction of Chester andthe slaughter of the monks that Cadwalla joined theheathen Penda against his fellow Christian Eadwine.But the death of Eadwine left the throne open forthe house of h:thelfrith, whose place Eadwine hadtaken. After a year of renewed heathendom, how-ever, during part of which the Welsh Cadwalla reignedover Northumbria, Oswald, son of h:thelfrith, againunited Deira and Bernicia under his own rule. Oswaldwas a Christian, but he had learnt his Christianityfrom the Scots, amongst whom he bad spent his exile,


3/6

ROME AND IONA. 9Sand he favoured the introduction of Pictish andScottish missionaries into N orthumbria. The Italianmonks who han accompanied Augustine were men offoreign ' speech al).d manners, representatives of analien civilisation, and they attempted to convertwhole kingdoms en bloc by the previous conversionof their rulers. Their method was political andsystematic. But the Pictish and Irish preachers weremen of more Britannic feelings, and they went towork with true missionary earnestness to convert thehalf Celtic people of Northumbria, man by man, intheir own homes. Aidan, the apostle of the north,carried the Pictish faith into the Lothians and Northumberland. He placed his bishop-stool not farfrom the royal town of Bamborough, at Lindisfarne,the Holy Island of the N orthumbrian coast. OtherCeltic missionaries penetrated further south, eveninto the heathen realm of Penda and his tributaryprinces. Ceadda or Chad, the patron saint of Lichfield, carried Christianity to the Mercians. Diumapreached to the Middle English of Leicester withmuch success, Peada, their ealdorman, son of Penda,having himself already embraced the new faith. Pendahad slain Oswald in a great battle at Maserfeld in641; but the martyr only brought increased gloryto the Christians : and Oswiu, who succeeded him,after an interval of anarchy, as king of Deira (forBernicia now chose a king of its own), was also azealous adherent of the Celtic missionaries. Thus theheterodpx Church made rapid strides throughoutthe whole of the north.


4/6

ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN.

Meanwhile, in the south the Latin mIssIonaries,urged to activity, perhaps, by the Pictish successes,had been making fresh progress. In the very yearwhen Oswald was chosen king by the Northumbrians,Birinus, a priest from northern Italy, went by com-mand of the pope to the West Saxons: and aftertwelve months' he was able to baptise their king,Cynegils, at his capital of Dorchester, on the Thames,his sponsor being Oswald of Northumbria. A yearlater, Felix, a Burgundian, "preached the faith ofChrist to the East Anglians," who had indeed beenconverted by the Augustinian missionaries, butafterwards relapsed. Only Sussex and Mercia stillremained heathen. But, in 655, Pellda made a lastattempt against N orthumbria, which he had harriedyear after year, and was met by Oswiu at Winwidfield,near Leeds; the Christians were successful, andPenda was slain, together with thirty royal personspetty princes of the tributary Mercian states, nodoubt. His son, Peada, the Christian ealdorman ofthe Middle English, succeeded him, and the Mer-cians became Christians of the Pictish or Irish type."Their first bishop," says Bceda, "was Diuma, whodied and was buried among the Middle English. Thesecond was Cellach, who abandoned his bishopric,and returned during his lifetime to Scotland (perhapsIreland, but more probably the Scottish king-dom in Argyllshire). Both of these were by birthIrishmen. The third was Trumhere, by race anEnglishman, but educated and ordained by the Irish."Thus Roman Christianity spread over the whole of


5/6

ROME AND IONA 97.England south of the Wash (save only heathen Sus-sex): while the Irish Church had made its way overall the north, from the Wash to the Frith of Forth.The Roman influence may be partly traced by theRoman alphabet superseding the old English runes.Runic inscriptions are rare in the south, where theywere regarded as heathenish relics, and so destroyed;but they are comparatively common in the north.Runics appear on the coins of the first Christiankings of Mercia, Peada and .tEthelred, but soon dieout under their successors.

Hea,thendom was now fairly vanquished. I t survived only in Sussex, cut off from the rest of Englandby the forest belt of the Weald. The next trial ofstrength must clearly lie between Rome and lana.The northern bishops and abbots traced their suc-cession, not to Augustine, but to Columba. Cuth-berht, the English apostle of the north, who reallyconverted the people of Northumbria, as earlier mis-

sionaries had converted its killgs, derived his ordersfrom lona. Rome or Ireland, was now the practicalquestion of the English Church. As might beexpected, Rome conquered. To allay the discord,King Oswiu summone::d a synod at Streoneshalch(now known by its later Danish name of Whitby) in664, to settle the vexed question as to the date ofEaster. The Irish priests claimed the authority ofSt. John for their crescent tonsure j the Romans,headed by Wilfrith, a most vigorous priest, appealedto the authority of St. Peter for the canonical circle." I will never offend the saint who holds the keys of

H


6/6

98 ANGLO-SAXON I3RITAIN.heaven," said Oswiu, with the frank, h a l f ~ h e a t h e n d o m of a recent convert; and the meeting shortly de-cided as the king would have it. '?he Irish partyacquiesced or else returned to Scotland j and thenceforth the new English Church remained in close communion with Rome and the Continent. Whatevermay be our ecclesiastical judgment of this decision,there can be little doubt that its material effects wel'emost excellent. By bringing England into connectionwith Rome, it brought her into connection with thecentre of all then-existing civilisation, and endowed herwith arts and manufactures which she could neverotherwise have attained. The connection with Irelandand the north would have been as fatal, from a purelysecular point of view, to early English culture as wasthe later connection with half-barbaric Scandinavia.Rome gave England the Roman letters, arts, andorganisation: Ireland could only have given ber amore insular form of Celtic civilisation.

anglo saxon britain rome and iona

Documents