THE HISTORY OF THE SEE.
The history of the See of Canterbury may be said to have begun with the coming of Augustine, for there can be no doubt that it is owing to its being the settling-place of the first messengers of the gospel in Saxon England that Canterbury has been the metropolis of the English Church. Pope Gregory, with his usual thoroughness, sent to Augustine, soon after his arrival here, an elaborate scheme for the division of our island into sees, which were to be gradually developed as Christianity spread. According to his arrangement, there were to be two archbishops, one at London and one at York. But we cannot regret that this scheme was not carried out, as an archiepiscopal see is much more picturesquely framed by the hills which encircle Canterbury than it could have been by the dingy vastness of the political and social capital.
Augustine reached England in 597, and found that his path had been made easy by the fact that Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, was a Christian. He soon effected the conversion of the king himself, and his labours were so rapidly successful that at Christmas, 597, no less than ten thousand Saxons were baptized at the mouth of the Medway. The archiepiscopal pall, and a papal Bull, creating Augustine first English archbishop, were duly sent from Rome, and the royal palace in Canterbury, with an old church—Roman or British—close by, were handed over to him by Ethelbert. The first archbishop died in 605, and was buried, according to the old Roman custom, by the side of the high road which had brought him to Canterbury. A few years later, however, his remains were transferred to the Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, which had then just been completed.
Augustine was succeeded by one of the monks who had originally come with him from Rome. The new archbishop’s name was Lawrence; he had been already consecrated by Augustine in his lifetime. This unusual measure was thought to be necessary, as the Church had hardly yet established itself in a strong position. Indeed, so weak was its hold over its rapidly acquired converts, that when Ethelbert’s son, who succeeded his father in 616, backslid into the path of heathendom, the great majority of the people followed the royal example, and Lawrence, together with the Bishops of London and Rochester, prepared to leave England altogether, as a country hopelessly abandoned to paganism. However, the archbishop determined to make one more attempt to maintain his position, and succeeded in terrifying the king, by a pretended miracle, into becoming a Christian. He then recalled the two bishops who had already crossed to France, and on his death, in 619, was succeeded by the Bishop of London, Mellitus. Mellitus only held the Primacy till 624, when his place was filled by Justin, who also had a brief archiepiscopal life, being succeeded in 627 by Honorius. This archbishop held the see for twenty-six years, till 653, and it was not until 655 that his successor was appointed.
So far the archbishops had all been foreigners who had come over either with Augustine or with the second company of missionaries who were despatched by Gregory soon after Ethelbert’s conversion. In 655, however, a native Englishman, named Frithona, was consecrated by the Saxon Bishop of Rochester, and adopted the name of Deus Dedit. He ruled at Canterbury till 664, and after his death the see remained vacant for four years, probably owing to the plague which was then wasting all Europe, and caused the death of Wighard, a Saxon, who had started for Rome to receive his consecration there. But in 668, Theodore, a native of Tarsus in Cecilia, was appointed, and was welcomed by the members of the torn and divided English Church. He devoted all his energy to centralizing and consolidating the power of the archbishop, which had been hitherto largely nominal. He journeyed all over England, correcting the prevalent laxity of discipline and establishing the control of the metropolitan authority. He went so far as to interfere with the Archbishopric of York, and with the help of the king attempted to divide it into three sees. He was, moreover, an enthusiastic scholar, and first diffused the study of Greek in England. He had brought a copy of Homer with him, and is said to have established a school of Greek in Canterbury. He died in 690, and after his death there was no archbishop for three years. In 693, one Brethwald, an English monk, some time Abbot of Reculver, was appointed to the see. The Saxon Church shows that it had benefited by Theodore’s rigorous discipline, in that it was henceforth able to supply its own archbishops; it had now securely established itself all over the country, and the last home of paganism, which, curiously enough, held its own longest in Sussex, had been finally converted in Theodore’s time. Brethwald ruled till 731, and was followed by Tatwin (731-734) and Nothelm (734-740). In 740 Cuthbert became archbishop. He seems to have been an interesting personage with a good deal of zeal for reform; he is recorded to have assembled a synod at Cliff to discuss measures for the improvement of the lives and behaviour both of clergy and laity. Probably at his instigation the synod ordained that the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed should be taught in the vulgar tongue; he was the first archbishop buried in the cathedral. He was succeeded by Bregwin, who held the see from 759 to 765. He was an exception among the series of English primates, being of German origin. During the rule of the next archbishop, Jaenbert, an attempt was made to transfer the primacy from Canterbury. Offa, the King of Mercia, had established himself in a position of commanding power, and wishing that the seat of the chief ecclesiastical authority should be within his own dominion, obtained a Bull from Pope Adrian I. by which an Archbishop of Lichfield was created, with a larger see than that of Canterbury. Jaenbert seems to have acquiesced, though doubtless most unwillingly, in this arrangement, but in spite of the central situation of Lichfield, the traditional claims of Canterbury were too strong, and Adulf was the first and last Archbishop of Lichfield. Athelard, who succeeded Jaenbert in 790, had the primacy restored to him. The Northmen began their raids on the English coasts at this time, and their ravages probably continued through the days of his successors, Wulfred, Feologild, Ceolnoth, and Ethelred (805-889).
In 889 the learned Plegmund, formerly tutor of Alfred, was by his quondam pupil’s influence made Archbishop of Canterbury. It was during his time that the sees of Wells for Somerset and Crediton for Devonshire were established.
Athelm (914-923).
Wulfhelm (923-942).
Odo (942-959), called “the severe,” was born a pagan Dane of East Anglia, but having been received into a noble Saxon family, was duly baptized into the faith. He was appointed to the Wiltshire bishopric by Athelstane, and combined in his person the characters of the warlike Dane and the Christian churchman. Like his successor Dunstan, Odo made his chief objects in life the maintenance of the Church’s supremacy and the reformation of the married clergy. He bore his archbishopric with much pomp and dignity through the reigns of Edmund, Edred, and Edwy. He was responsible for Dunstan’s conduct on the occasion of King Edwy’s coronation, though it is not known how far he sanctioned the cruelties subsequently practised on Elgiva. Odo reconstructed and enlarged the cathedral.
His immediate successor was Elsi, Bishop of Winchester, but this archbishop died while on his way to Rome to receive his pall from the Pope.