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CHAP. X.

Of the height that the opposition betwixt the Roman party and that of the British and Scotish grew unto; and the abatement thereof in time: and how the doctors of the Scotish and Irish side have been ever accounted most eminent men in the Catholic Church, notwithstanding their disunion from the bishop of Rome.

IN Colman's room Wilfrid was chosen archbishop of York, who had learned at Rome from archbishop Boniface "the course of Easter, which the schismaticks of Britain and Ireland did not know" (so go the words of Stephen, the ancient writer of his life:) and afterwards did brag, “that he was the first which did reach 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 St. Benet's rule to be observed by monks." But when he was named to the archbishoprick, he refused it at the first, as William of Malmesbury relateth, "lest he should receive his consecration from the Scotish bishops, or from such as the Scots had ordained, whose communion the apostolic see had rejected." The speech which he used to this purpose unto the kings that had chosen him, is thus laid down by

a Paschalem rationem, quam schismatici Britanniæ et Hiberniæ non cognoverunt; et alias multas ecclesiastica disciplinæ regulas Bonifacius archidiaconus quasi proprio filio suo diligenter dictavit. Steph. presb. vit. Wilfrid. cap. 5. See also Bede, lib. 5. cap. 20.

b Se primum fuisse, qui verum Pascha in Northanimbria Scotis electis docuerit, qui cantus ecclesiasticos antiphonatim instituerit, qui sanctissimi benedicti regulam a monachis observari jusserit. Gulielm. Malmesbur. lib. 3. de gest. Pontific. Angl.

e Sed perstitit ille negare; ne ab episcopis Scotis, vel ab iis quos Scoti ordinaverant, consecrationem susciperet, quorum communionem sedes aspernaretur apostolica. Id. ibid.

Stephen the writer of his life: " Od 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 hath 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 Wilfride 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 Ceaddam,
Moribus acclinem, doctrinæ robore fortem,

d O Domini venerabiles reges; omnibus modis nobis necessarium est provide considerare, quomodo cum electione vestra, sine accusatione catholicorum virorum, ad gradum episcopalem cum Dei adjutorio venire valeam. Sunt enim hic in Britannia multi episcopi, quorum nullum meum est accusare, quamvis veraciter sciam, quod aut quatuordecim anni sunt, ut Britones et Scoti ab illis sunt ordinati, quos nec apostolica sedes in communionem recepit, neque eos qui schismaticis consentiunt. Et ideo in mea humilitate a vobis posco, ut me mittatis cum vestro præsidio trans mare ad Galliarum regionem, ubi catholici episcopi multi habentur: ut sine controversia apostolicæ sedis, licet indignus, gradum episcopalem merear accipere. Steph. Presb. vit. Wilfrid. cap. 12.

e Quo ultra mare moras nectente, Oswius rex, præventus consiliis Quartadecimanorum (qui vocabantur ita, quia Pascha in quartadecima luna cum Judæis celebrabant) Ceddam virum sanctissimum, tamen contra regulas, intrusit tribunali Eboracensi. Gulielm. Malmesb. lib. 3. de gest. Pontif. Angl.

f Ordinantes servum Dei religiosissimum et admirabilem doctorem, de Hibernia insula venientem nomine Cœodda, adhuc eo ignorante, in sedem episcopalem Euroicæ civitatis indocte contra canones constituerunt. Steph. presb. vit. Wilfrid. cap. 14.

VOL. IV.

A A

Præsulis eximii servare cubilia : sicque
Audacter vivo sponsam rapuere marito,

saith 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 Winis bishop of the West Saxons, and two other British bishops that were of the quartadeciman party. For at that time, as Bede noteth, "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 betwixt these two sides grew to be so great, that our Cuthbert (bishop of Landisfarne) 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 unto 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 the 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

Ab illo est consecratus antistes, assumptis in societatem ordinationis duobus de Britonum gente episcopis, qui Dominicum Pascha diem secus morem canonicum a XIV. usque ad xxi. lunam celebrant. Non enim erat tunc ullus, excepto illo Wini, in tota Britannia canonice ordinatus episcopus. Bed. lib. 3. hist. cap. 28.

ǹ Cum illis autem qui ab unitate catholicæ pacis, vel Pascha non suo tempore celebrando, vel perverse vivendo aberrant, vobis sit nulla communio, &c. Id. in vit. Cuthbert. cap. 39.

i Institutio dicit Rom. Cavendum est ne ad alias provincias aut ecclesias referantur causæ, quæ alio more et alia religione utantur: sive ad Judæos, qui umbræ legis magis quam veritati deserviunt; aut Britones, qui omnibus contrarii sunt, et a Romano more et ab unitate Ecclesiæ se absciderunt; aut hæreticos, quamvis sint in ecclesiasticis causis docti, et studiosi fuerint. Ex Codice canonum Cottoniano, titulorum 66.

the law rather than the truth, or to the Britons, who are contrary unto 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 the Britons, who in the matter of Easter and tonsure are not united unto 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 exorcised water, and confirmed with some service. We have no licence also to give unto 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, doth sufficiently manifest. And the answer is well known, which " them seven British bishops, and many other most learned men" of the same nation, did

* Qui ordinati sunt a Scotorum vel Britanorum episcopis, qui in Pascha vel tonsura Catholicæ non sunt adunati Ecclesiæ; iterum a Catholico episcopo manus impositione confirmentur. Similiter et Ecclesiæ quæ ab illis episcopis ordinantur, aqua exorcizata aspergantur, et aliqua collectione confirmentur. Licentiam quoque non habemus eis poscentibus Chrismam vel eucharistiam dare, ni ante confessi fuerint velle se nobiscum esse in unitate Ecclesiæ. Et qui ex horum similiter gente, vel quacunque, de baptismo suo dubitaverint, baptizentur. Decret. Pontific. MS. cap. 9. De communicatione Scotorum et Britonum, qui

in Pascha et tonsura catholici non sunt.

1 Bed. lib. 2. hist. cap. 4.

Septem Britonum episcopi, et plures viri doctissimi, maxime de nobilissimo eorum monasterio, quod vocatur lingua Anglorum Bancornaburg, cui Dinoot abbas præfuisse narratur. Bed. lib. 2. hist. cap. 2.

return unto the propositions made unto them by Austin the monk, who was sent unto 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 shew 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 unto them by St. Eleutherius the pope their first instructor 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 Aldhelm abbot of Malmesbury declareth at large in his epistle sent to Geruntius king of Cornwall; where among many other particulars he sheweth, that ifa any of the Catholics (for so he calleth those of his own side) did go to dwell among them; "they would not vouchsafe to admit them unto their company and society, before they first put them to

n Illi nihil horum se facturos, neque illum pro archiepiscopo habituros esse respondebant. Bed. hist. lib. 2. cap. 2. Tam ipsum quam ejus statuta, statim reversi spreverunt: nec ipsum pro archiepiscopo se habituros publice proclamabant. Girald. Cambrens. Itinerar. Cambriæ, lib. 2. cap. 1.

• In a Welsh manuscript, sometime belonging unto P. Mostein Gentleman. P Auctorizabant suas ceremonias non solum a sancto Eleutherio papa primo institutore suo ab ipsa pene infantia Ecclesiæ dicatas, verum a sanctis patribus suis Dei amicis et apostolorum sequacibus hactenus observatas; quas non deberent mutare propter novos dogmatistas. Gotcelin. monachus, in vita Augustini, cap. 32. MS. in bibliotheca Cottoniana.

q Si quilibet de nostris, id est, Catholicis ad eos habitandi gratia perrexerint ; non prius ad consortium sodalitatis suæ adsciscere dignantur, quam quadraginta dierum spatia in pœnitendo peragere compellantur. Aldhelm. epist. ad Domno

nios.

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