CHAPTER II.

MISSIONS TO THE BRITISH ISLES.

"Wo be to that shepheard (I say)
That will not watch his fold alway,
As to his office doth belong:
Wo be to him that doth not keepe
From Romish wolves his sheepe,

With staffe and weapon strong."

British Monk's Song.

CHRISTIANITY was introduced into Great Britain at a very early period. Justin Martyr, writing about A.D. 140, places Christianity in every region known to the Romans. Irenæus, at a later period in the same century, declares that the Gospel had then spread, by means of the Apostles and their disciples, to earth's remotest bounds, and especially mentions the Celts, who were then seated in the British isles, as enlightened by its rays. Tertullian, writing between A.D. 198 and 208, more explicitly speaks of the regions of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subdued unto Christ. (Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vero subdita.) Eusebius, also about a century after, attributes the acquaintance of the Britons with the

Gospel to some of the Apostles. Of the labours of the first missionaries in our island there is no record. They left behind them, however, doctrines and usages not only at variance with what Rome now teaches, but with those which Austin and his monks introduced in the sixth century.

In the year 596, A.D., this remarkable man received his commission from Rome to visit our shores as a missionary, and in the following year landed for the purpose in Kent. The circumstances which led to this memorable event, and those attendant upon the opening of his commission, with the subsequent subjugation of the British Church to Rome, are curious and characteristic of the Christianity of that age.

The Anglo-Saxon people sprang from three piratical tribes, of Gothic origin. Two of these were seated in what is now called Jutland, and in three adjacent islands. The emigration of the Jutes does not seem to have been extensive, its British settlements being confined to Kent, the Isle of Wight, and the southern part of Hampshire. The Angles, whose home lay in Sleswick, and Holstein, as now called, emigrated entirely, and spreading over the north-eastern, midland, and northern counties of South Britain, eventually gave name to the whole country. The Saxons, nearest neighbours of these, found new abodes in Essex, Middlesex, and in those counties west of Kent, which lie between the Thames and the Channel. The earlier years of their settlement in Britain were little favourable to

their reception of the Christian religion. The people, indeed, whose fair possessions had lured them from their Scandinavian abodes, had risen into importance and wealth, under an abandonment of paganism. The Britons, aroused into a long course of sanguinary conflict with their treacherous invaders, were little likely to think of their conversion. It is therefore probable, that the native clergy made no attempt to humanise these ferocious pagans, by communicating to them a knowledge of the Gospel. The pagan warriors, moreover, were likely to derive new prejudices against Christianity, from the success which usually waited upon their own arms. Britain's trust in the cross had not secured her fortunes from constant declension. Reliance upon Woden had been encouraged unceasingly by victory. A people unacquainted with true religion, would hence naturally infer, that its own deities were more powerful than those of its opponents. Vainly would Christianity solicit notice from such minds thus prepossessed. A considerable change must be wrought in the whole frame of a society like this, before it could be gained over to calm reflection upon the religion of a people prostrate under its assaults. Providence effected such a change. England's principal monarch then was Ethelbert, King of Kent. He appears to have ascended his father's throne about the year 560, and probably ten years afterwards, he married Bertha, daughter of Cherebert, King of Paris. This princess, coming of a Christian family, was not allowed

to pass over into Kent until ample stipulations had been made for the free profession of her holy faith. She came accordingly, attended by Luidhard, a Frankish bishop, and for her accommodation a British church was erected, in honour of St. Martin, on the eastern side of Canterbury. A Christian congregation was formed in the principal seat of Anglo-Saxon power. As its leading member was the most illustrious female in the island, we may reasonably suppose that it did not long fail of making converts. Hence it became understood at Rome, that among Englishmen an anxious desire prevailed for admission within the Church of Christ. How far any such anxiety had affected Ethelbert there are no direct means of ascertaining. But Gregory the Great, as he is termed, Bishop of Rome, intimated to Bertha, by letter, that she ought early to have inclined him favourably towards her own religion. Ethelbert's politic temper, and habitual prudence, would restrain him from a hasty avowal of an important change in his religion. Had not Ethelbert, however, long looked upon Christianity with an approving eye, it is unlikely that when publicly called upon to embrace it, he should so readily have obeyed the summons. From Gregory, honourably distinguished among popes, (he was said to be the last of the good ones and the first of the bad,) the summons came. Gregory's remarks on the character and motives of John, Bishop of Constantinople, when he took upon him to rebuke that prelate for arrogance, show how

little he himself possessed the grace of meekness or charity. John, a bishop almost adored in that capital from his extreme rigour in ascetic mortifications, had assumed under imperial sanction the title of Universal Bishop. Highly offended, Gregory styled himself, Servant of the servants of God, an ostentation of humility yet retained by the princely pontiffs. He reminded also the Emperor Maurice of St. Peter's high prerogatives, and yet, he added, that pillar of our faith is never called Universal Apostle. John the Faster's assumption he paints as an insult to the priesthood and a scandal to the Church, and charges his rival with downright hypocrisy. His words are,-"Ossa jejuniis atterunt, et mente turgemus. Corpus despectis vestibus tegitur, et elatione cordis purpuram superamus. Doctores humilium duces superbiæ, ovina facie lupinos dentes abscondimus." He seems never to have forgiven Maurice for lacerating his own pride as Bishop of Rome. When that Emperor fell under the murderous hand of Phocas, the infamous usurper not only met with a ready recognition, but also with fulsome compliments from Gregory. As a counterpoise to the encroaching spirit of his Eastern rivals, Gregory naturally thought of extending the influence of his own authority in an opposite direction. Britain presented an inviting field. Her ancient Church, which in better days would probably have spurned any Roman attempt at interference, had been miserably shattered by the Saxon conquest.