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at this reply, the metropolitan left the assembly, threatening them with the vengeance of Heaven, and the invasion of an English army. These menaces, uttered in the heat of passion, appear to have been speedily forgotten; for although Augustine has been accused by several historians of having instigated the subsequent slaughter of twelve hundred and fifty monks of Banchor, it is certain that this act of savage ferocity was perpetrated by Edilfride, a prince who lived beyond the Humber, and over whom the prelate of Canterbury could possess no influence.

In the differences betwixt the churches of Asia and Rome, which began in the end of the second century, the latter had been followed in matters of doctrine by all the western churches, excepting those of Gaul and Milan *. Britain, separated from the continent, and removed from the sphere of dispute, was still less likely to yield a tame subservience to the Roman pontiffs; whom she in fact regarded in no other light than as bishops of their own diocese. We look, at this distance of time, with wonder, at the heat to which disputes about a topic so frivolous as the time of observing Easter arose; not considering that some of our own contentions are in themselves hardly less un

* When the Pope attempted to impose the Roman office on the different western churches, Milan sheltered itself beneath the authority of St. Ambrose, and the Ambrosian office still prevailed in that district, in contradistinction to the Roman ritual.

important, and will in a few years appear in that light to our posterity. Surely it is respecting these minor differences that mutual forbearance and harmony ought to prevail; there is a point in holding the greater truths, beyond which forbearance is lukewarmness, and concord with opponents a tame submission to falsehood, as well as a traitorous invitation to encroachment. Yet it is too true that these latter are the doctrines, in regard to which men are perpetually demanding charity with an affected and canting liberality, while they embroil themselves in contending for petty peculiarities, in which charity is safe, practicable, and obligatory.

XII. Disappointed in his hopes of amalgamating the two churches, Augustine now contracted his views, and devoted the remainder of his life to the regulation of that establishment which his own hand had formed. After having appointed, in the year 604, Justus, bishop of Rochester, Mellitus, bishop of the East Saxons, and Laurentius as his own successor in the metropolitan see; he died in the year following, the eighth of his residence in England, where he had extended the Christian faith among the Anglo-Saxons, little further than over the district of Kent, and part of the present counties of Essex and Middlesex.

XIII. In the character of this prelate, learning, piety, and zeal, were unhappily alloyed by vanity and imperiousness, Some have deemed him fur

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ther worthy of censure, as an enthusiast; but if we are to understand by enthusiasm only a warmer degree of zeal, we must surely withdraw it from the number of his faults; for it is not to the ordizeal of persons calling themselves, and, perhaps, deserving to be called, reasonable and moderate ministers, that heathen and savage countries have been indebted for the blessings of the Gospel. If Christianity be allowed to be better than Heathenism, it is expedient in common benevolence (to say nothing of the positive injunction), that it should be imparted to heathen nations; and if moderate men are not in general disposed to relinquish their comforts at home, and to make the first advances in what they term a romantic undertaking, these advances must either not be made at all, or be made by men, the ardour of whose zeal might, perhaps, under other circumstances, be justly condemned, as bordering on enthusiastic fervour. In the case which we suppose, it is pardonable and even praiseworthy, because it seems necessary to the production of the desired effect: not but that it would be better if that effect could be produced by the least exceptionable agents; and not but that, when the first difficulties have been surmounted, it may be reasonably presumed that such agents will have no longer any objection to the mission.

XIV. The newly appointed bishop of the East Saxons had converted that people, who occupied

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Essex and Middlesex. His see was fixed in London, the capital of this little state, which was then tributary to Kent. Here Sebert, the king, with the ardour of a convert, substituted the abbey church of Westminster for a temple sacred to Apollo; and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul another church, in the site of an ancient temple of Diana, and of the modern St. Paul's cathedral. Gregory's, intention, of removing the see of the primacy on the death of Augustine, to London, was nevertheless found incapable of being fulfilled, London being then not thoroughly converted, and Ethelbert being unwilling that the archiepiscopal authority should dignify the capital of another and an inferior prince.

Born under such highly favourable auspices, the infant church was in a short time unhappily involved in difficulties, and menaced with destruction. On the death of Ethelbert, A. D. 616, Eadbald, his son and successor, marrying his own mother-in-law, of course renounced a religion which condemned the incestuous alliance, as it is natural for those whose deeds are evil to love darkness rather than light. Since in all countries it is incidental to a national church to contain a certain body of lukewarm worshippers, who regard religion only in its connexion with government, or are ready to shift their faith at the call of interest or fashion, the example of this monarch's apostacy was followed by a considerable number of

his subjects. To add to these calamities of the newly planted church, three pagan sons soon after succeeding to Eadbald's cousin, Sebert the king of the East Saxons, expelled the new religion from their dominions, and forced Mellitus to take refuge in Kent. The immediate occasion of this bishop's expulsion, is said by Bede to have been his refusal to distribute to these barbarous princes a portion of the white bread, which he used in celebrating the eucharist.

The three, English prelates now despairing of their establishment, two of them passed over in fear or dejection to the continent. Laurentius, however, lingered behind, in hopes of experiencing some favourable change of fortune, to which he resolved to contribute by one of those pious frauds, common in a superstitious age, and hardly palliated, but, certainly, never excused, by the good which they tend to accomplish. Having mangled his body with many stripes, he rushed into the presence of the incestuous prince, alleging that he had been thus severely treated by St. Peter, in punishment for his neglecting to plead before royalty the cause of the injured church. The credulity of Eadbald awakened in his bosom the latent spark of remorse. He repudiated his queen, recalled the bishops, and re-established the Christian faith throughout his kingdom; but the East Saxons being less disposed to a recanta

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