do not seem to be at all on the fundamentals, there were many doctrinal and constitutional resemblances. Both churches were orthodox; both used a Latin ritual[238:1]; both had developed an episcopal organisation; both believed in monasticism; and both were actively engaged in missionary work. Nevertheless the British Christians looked with much disfavour upon the Augustine mission to convert their pagan conquerors and oppressors.
King Ethelbert in 602 arranged a conference of British and Roman bishops on the Severn in Essex.[238:2] At that gathering Augustine with unreasonable rigour and haughtiness demanded conformity; the Britains refused to surrender their independence. To settle the matter Augustine proposed that an appeal be made to a miracle. Accordingly a blind Anglo-Saxon was brought in. The Celtic clergy prayed over him in vain. Whereupon Augustine knelt and prayed, and immediately the blind man was restored to sight,[238:3] but the Celts refused to accept that act as final without the consent of a larger representation in the synod. The next year, therefore, a second council was held at which the persistent Augustine once more demanded conformity to Roman practices and the recognition of papal supremacy, and also requested missionary co-operation, but the Britains, displeased with Augustine's narrow dogmatism and apprehensive of the loss of their freedom, refused to submit. "As you will not have peace with brethren," said the stern Roman monk, "you shall have war from foes; and as you will
not preach unto the English the way of life, you shall suffer at their hands the vengeance of death."[239:1] When, ten years later, a wholesale Saxon massacre of British Christians occurred, in which possibly a thousand priests and monks were slaughtered and many churches and monasteries destroyed, further conferences were at an end for fifty years.
It was not until 664 that the famous Council of Whitby was called by King Oswy of Northumbria in which Bishop Colman and Bishop Cedd, renowned Celtic divines, defended the British Church; while Bishop Agilbert, and Wilfred, the greatest English ecclesiastic of his time, championed Rome. In the discussion about the correct day for Easter, it was asserted by Wilfred that St. Peter held "the keys to the kingdom of Heaven." The king then asked Colman and the monks with him whether that was true, and they were forced to confess that it was. Consequently, feeling that it was safer to be on the side of Peter, the "doorkeeper," the king decided in favour of the Church of Rome.[239:2] This was a very significant victory for the See of St. Peter, because papal supremacy was now recognised in the British Isles, and likewise for the future of England, because it opened up a channel through which Roman Christian civilisation flowed into the British Isles to influence to a greater or less degree every institution in that country and, later, through the great empire which England was to build up to carry those cultural influences around the world. The work of cementing the Latin and Celtic churches in England into one was completed by Theodorus, the Archbishop of Canterbury
(d. 690), and the Venerable Bede (d. 735). Ecclesiastical unity hastened political unity in England[240:1] and developed a common civic life among the divided peoples of the British Isles.[240:2]
Christianity had early spread from Britain to Ireland. The labours of St. Patrick[240:3] (d. 493) and the work of St. Bridget, the "Mary of Ireland" (d. 525), have become classics. The Anglo-Saxon invasion drove many Christians to Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, so that by the seventh century Ireland had become the "Island of Saints" and the whole island was Christianised. Many famous monasteries were planted, and an intense missionary zeal had sent to Scotland, North Britain,[240:4] France, Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy many representatives of the Celtic Church.
In 629, Pope Honorius exhorted the Irish Church to conform to the Roman Easter day. A Celtic deputation was then sent to Rome and, upon returning home, reported in favour of the Latin system, which was adopted first in southern Ireland in 632, then in northern Ireland in 640, and by 704 was generally
observed. The Norman Conquest, in 1066, made the union of Ireland with Rome as well as with England more complete; but it was left to Henry II., who conquered Ireland in 1171, to give finality to the dependence of Ireland on Rome religiously and on England politically.
Christianity was planted in Scotland during the Roman period.[241:1] An Irish colony, converted by St. Patrick, settled there in the fifth century. The labours of St. Ninian (sixth cent.), the work of St. Kentigern (d. 603), and the activity of St. Columba (d. 597) completed the conversion of the country. St. Columba was a famous Irish missionary, who went to Scotland in 563, there converted the king of the Picts and founded many churches. He made his headquarters on the small island of Iona on which was planted a monastery famous as a school for missionaries, as the centre of educational activity, and as the Rome of the Celtic Church.[241:2] For centuries the Celtic Church maintained its independence in Scotland, but gradually gave way to the better organised and more aggressive Roman Church, though the Culdees were not absorbed until 1332.[241:3]
The enthusiasm of the Celtic and English Christians soon attained such proportions that it overflowed