Chapter 10: Of the Opposition Between the Roman Party and the British and Scottish; and the Eminence of Scottish and Irish Doctors in the Catholic Church

Of the height that the opposition between the Roman party and that of the British and Scottish grew to; and the abatement thereof in time: and how the Doctors of the Scottish and Irish side have been ever accounted most eminent men in the Catholic Church, notwithstanding their dis-union from the Bishop of Rome.

In Colman's room Wilfrid was chosen Archbishop of York: who had learned at Rome from Archdeacon Boniface, the course of Easter, which the schismatics of Britain and Ireland did not know (so go the words of Stephen, the ancient writer of his life:) and afterward did brag, that he was the first which did teach the true Easter in Northumberland (having cast out the Scots) which did ordain the ecclesiastical songs to be parted on sides, and which did command Saint Benet's rule to be observed by Monks. But when he was named to the Archbishopric, he refused it at the first (as William of Malmesbury relates) lest he should receive his consecration from the Scottish Bishops, or from such as the Scots had ordained, whose communion the Apostolic See had rejected. The speech which he used to this purpose, to the Kings that had chosen him, is thus laid down by Stephen the writer of his life. O my honourable Lords the Kings; it is necessary for us by all means providently to consider, how with your election I may (by the help of God) come to the degree of a Bishop, without the accusation of Catholic men. For there be many Bishops here in Britain, none of whom it is my part to accuse, ordained within these fourteen years by the Britons and Scots, whom neither the See Apostolic has received into her communion, nor yet such as consent with the schismatics. And therefore in my humility I request of you, that you would send me with your warrant beyond the Sea, into the country of France, where many Catholic Bishops are to be had; that without any controversy of the Apostolic See I may be counted meet, though unworthy, to receive the degree of a Bishop.

While Wilfrid protracted time beyond the Seas, King Oswy led by the advice of the Quartadecimans (so they injuriously nicknamed the British and Irish, that did celebrate Easter from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of the moon) appointed a most religious servant of God and an admirable Doctor that came from Ireland, named Ceadda, to be ordained Bishop of York in his room. Constituunt etenim perverso canone Coeddam, Moribus acclinem, doctrinae robore fortem, Praesulis eximij servare cubilia: sicque Audacter vivo sponsam rapuere marito, says Fridegodus. This Ceadda, being the scholar of Bishop Aidan, was far otherwise affected to the British and Irish than Wilfrid was: and therefore was content to receive his ordination from Wini Bishop of the West-Saxons, and two other British Bishops that were of the Quartadeciman party. For at that time (as Bede notes) there was not in all Britain any Bishop canonically ordained (that is to say, by such as were of the communion of the Church of Rome) except that Wini only.

But shortly after, the opposition between these two sides grew to be so great, that our Cuthbert (Bishop of Lindisfarne) upon his death-bed required his followers; that they should hold no communion with them which did swerve from the unity of the Catholic peace, either by not celebrating Easter in his due time, or by living perversely: and that they should rather take up his bones and remove their place of habitation, than any way condescend to submit their necks to the yoke of schismatics. For the further maintaining of which breach also, there were certain decrees made both by the Romans, and by the Saxons that were guided by their institution. One of the instructions that the Romans gave them, was this: You must beware, that causes be not referred to other Provinces or Churches, which use another manner and another religion: whether to the Jews, which do serve the shadow of the Law rather than the truth; or to the Britons, who are contrary to all men, and have cut themselves off from the Roman manner, and the unity of the Church; or to Heretics, although they should be learned in ecclesiastical causes, and well studied. And among the decrees made by some of the Saxon Bishops (which were to be seen in the Library of Sir Thomas Knevet in Norfolk, and are still, I suppose, preserved there by his heir) this is laid down for one. Such as have received ordination from the Bishops of the Scots or Britons, who in the matter of Easter and Tonsure are not united to the Catholic Church, let them be again by imposition of hands confirmed by a Catholic Bishop. In like manner also let the Churches that have been ordered by those Bishops, be sprinkled with exorcized water, and confirmed with some service. We have no licence also to give to them Chrism or the Eucharist, when they require it; unless they do first profess, that they will remain with us in the unity of the Church. And such likewise as either of their nation, or of any other, shall doubt of their baptism, let them be baptized. Thus did they.

On the other side, how averse the British and the Irish were from having any communion with those of the Roman party; the complaint of Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus before specified, does sufficiently manifest. And the answer is well known, which the seven British Bishops, and many other most learned men of the same nation, did return to the propositions made to them by Austin the Monk (who was sent to their parts with authority from Rome:) that they would perform none of them, nor at all admit him for their Archbishop. The Welsh Chroniclers do further relate, that Dinot the Abbot of Bangor produced diverse arguments at that time, to show that they did owe him no subjection: and this among others. We are under the government of the Bishop of Kaer-leon upon Usk, who under God is to oversee us, and cause us to keep the way spiritual. And Gotcelinus Bertinianus in the life of Austin: that for the authority of their ceremonies they did allege, that they were not only delivered to them by Saint Eleutherius the Pope their first instructer at the first infancy almost of the Church, but also hitherto observed by their holy fathers who were the friends of God and followers of the Apostles: and therefore they ought not to change them for any new dogmatists. But above all others, the British Priests that dwelt in West-wales abhorred the communion of these new dogmatists above all measure: as Aldhelme Abbot of Malmesbury declares at large in his Epistle sent to Geruntius King of Cornwall. Where among many other particulars he shows, that if any of the Catholics (for so he calls those of his own side) did go to dwell among them; they would not vouchsafe to admit them to their company and society, before they first put them to forty days penance. Yes, even to this day (says Bede, who wrote his history in the year 731) it is the manner of the Britons, to hold the faith and the religion of the English in no account at all, nor to communicate with them in any thing more than with Pagans.

Whereunto those verses of Taliessyn (honoured by the Britons with the title of Ben Beirdh, that is, the chief of the Bards or Wisemen) may be added: (which show, that he wrote after the coming of Austin into England, and not 50 or 60 years before, as others have imagined.) Gwae'r offeiriad byd Nys engreifftia gwyd Ac ny phregetha: Gwae ny cheidw ey gail Ac ef yn vigail, Ac nys areilia: Gwae ny cheidw ey dheuaid Rhac bleidhie, Rhufeniaid A'iffon gnwppa. Wo be to that Priest yborne, That will not cleanly weed his corne And preach his charge among: Wo be to that shepherd (I say) That will not watch his fold alway, As to his office does belong: Wo be to him that does not keep From Romish wolves his sheep With staff and weapon strong.

As also those others of Mantuan; which show that some took the boldness to tax the Romans of folly, impudence, and stolidity, for standing so much upon matters of human institution, that for the not admitting of them they would break peace there, where the Law of God and the doctrine first delivered by Christ and his Apostles was safely kept and maintained. Adde quod & patres ausi taxare Latinos; Causabantur eos stultè, imprudenter, & aequo Duriùs, ad ritum Romae voluisse Britannos Cogere, & antiquum tam praecipitanter amorem Tam stolido temeràsse ausu. Concedere Roma Debuit, aiebant, potiùs quàm rumpere pacem Humani quae juris erant; modò salva maneret Lex divina, fides, Christi doctrina, Senatus Quam primus tulit ore suo; quia tradita ab ipso Christo erat, humanae doctore & lumine vitae.

By all that has been said, the vanity of Osullevan may be seen, who feigns the Northern Irish, together with the Picts and the Britons, to have been so obsequious to the Bishop of Rome; that they reformed the celebration of Easter by them formerly used, as soon as they understood what the rite of the Roman Church was. Whereas it is known, that after the declaration thereof made by Pope Honorius and the Clergy of Rome; the Northern Irish were nothing moved therewith, but continued still their own tradition. And therefore Bede finds no other excuse for Bishop Aidan herein; but that either he was ignorant of the canonical time, or if he knew it, that he was so overcome with the authority of his own nation, that he did not follow it: that he did it, after the manner of his own nation; and that he could not keep Easter contrary to the custom of them which had sent him. His successor Finan contended more fiercely in the business with Ronan his countryman; and declared himself an open adversary to the Roman rite. Colman that succeeded him, did tread just in his steps: so far, that being put down in the Synod of Streanshal, yet for fear of his country (as before we have heard out of Stephen, the writer of the life of Wilfrid) he refused to conform himself; and chose rather to forgo his Bishopric, than to submit himself to the Roman laws. Colmanusque suas inglorius abjicit arces, Malens Ausonias victus dissolvere leges: says Fridegodus. Neither did he go away alone: but took with him all his countrymen that he had gathered together in Lindisfarne or Holy Island: the Scottish monks also that were at Rippon (in Yorkshire) making choice rather to quit their place, than to admit the observation of Easter and the rest of the rites according to the custom of the Church of Rome. And so did the matter rest among the Irish about forty years after that: until their own countryman Adamnanus persuaded most of them to yield to the custom received herein by all the Churches abroad.

The Picts did the like not long after, under King Naitan: who by his regall authority commanded Easter to be observed throughout all his provinces according to the cycle of 19 years (abolishing the erroneous period of 84 years which before they used) and caused all priests and monks to be shorne croune-wise, after the Roman manner. The monks also of the island of Hy or Y-Columkille, by the perswasion of Ecgbert (an English priest, that had been bred in Ireland) in the year of our Lord 716, forsooke the observation of Easter and the Tonsure which they had received from Columkille a hundred and fifty years before, and followed the Roman rite; about 80 years after the time of Pope Honorius, and the sending of Bishop Aidan from there into England. The Britons in the time of Bede retained still their old usage: till Elbodus (who was the chief Bishop of North Wales, and died in the year of our Lord 809, as Caradoc of Lhancarvan records) brought in the Roman observation of Easter. Which is the cause, why his disciple Nennius, designeth the time wherein he wrote his history, by the character of the 19 years cycle, and not of the other of 84. But however North Wales did; it is very probable that West Wales (which of all other parts was most eagerly bent against the traditions of the Roman Church) stood out yet longer. For we finde in the Greek writers of the life of Chrysostome, that certaine clergy men which dwelt in the isles of the Ocean, repaired from the utmost borders of the habitable world to Constantinople, in the days of Methodius (who was Patriarch there, from the year 842 to the year 847) to enquire of certaine ecclesiasticall traditions, and the perfect and exact computation of Easter. Whereby it appeareth, that these questions were kept still a foot in these islands; and that the resolution of the Bishop of Constantinople was sought for from hence, as well as the determination of the Bishop of Rome, who is now made the only oracle of the world.

Neither is it here to be omitted, that whatever broyles did passe between our Irish that were not subject to the See of Rome, and those others that were of the Roman communion: in the succeeding ages, they of the one side were esteemed to be saints, as well as they of the other; Aidan for example and Finan, who were counted ringleaders of the Quartadeciman party, as well as Wilfrid and Cuthbert, who were so violent against it. Yet now adays men are made to believe, that out of the communion of the Church of Rome nothing but Hell can be looked for; and that subjection to the Bishop of Rome, as to the visible head of the universal Church, is required as a matter necessary to salvation. Which if it may goe currant for good divinity: the case is like to goe hard, not onely, with the twelve hundred British monks of Bangor, who were martyred in one day by Edelfride king of Northumberland (whom our Annals style by the name of the saints;) but also with Saint Aidan and Saint Finan, who deserve to be honoured by the English nation with as venerable a remembrance, as (I doe not say, Wilfrid and Cuthbert; but) Austin the monk and his followers. For by the ministery of Aidan was the kingdom of Northumberland recovered from paganisme: (whereunto belonged then, beside the shire of Northumberland and the lands beyond it to Edenborrow Frith, Cumberland also and Westmorland, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Bishopricke of Durham:) and by the meanes of Finan, not onely the kingdom of the East-Saxons (which contained Essex, Middlesex, and halfe of Hertfordshire) regained, but also the large kingdom of Mercia converted first to Christianity; which comprehended under it, Glocestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolneshire, Huntingtonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Darbyshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Chesshire, and the other halfe of Hertfordshire.

The Scottish that professed no subjection to the Church of Rome, were they, that sent preachers for the conversion of these countries; and ordained Bishops to governe them: namely, Aidan, Finan and Colman successively for the kingdom of Northumberland; for the East-Saxons, Cedd brother to Ceadda the Bishop of Yorke before mentioned, for the Middle-Angles (which inhabited Leicestershire) and the Mercians, Diuma (for the paucity of priests, says Bede, constrained one Bishop to be appointed over two people) and after him Cellach and Trumhere. And these with their followers, notwithstanding their division from the See of Rome, were for their extraordinary sanctity of life and painfulnesse in preaching the Gospel (wherein they went farre beyond those of the other side, that afterward thrust them out and entred in upon their labours) exceedingly reverenced by all that knew them: Aidan especially, who although he could not keepe Easter (says Bede) contrary to the manner of them which had sent him; yet he was carefull diligently to performe the workes of faith and godlinesse, and love, according to the manner used by all holy men. Whereupon he was worthily beloved of all, even of them also who thought otherwise of Easter than he did: and was had in reverence not only by them that were of meaner ranke, but also by the Bishops themselves, Honorius of Canterbury, and Felix of the East-Angles. Neither did Honorius and Felix any other way carry themselves herein, than their predecessors Laurentius, Mellitus and Iustus had done before them: who writing to the Bishops of Ireland, that dissented from the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and many other things; made no scruple to prefixe this loving and respectfull superscription to their letters. To our Lords and most deare brethren, the Bishops or Abbots throughout all Scotland; Laurentius, Mellitus and Iustus Bishops, the servants of the servants of God. For however Ireland at that time received not the same lawes wherewith other nations were governed: yet it so flourished in the vigor of Christian doctrine, (as Abbot Ionas testifieth) that it exceeded the faith of all the neighbor nations; and in that respect was generally had in honor by them.