A.D. 500-A.D. 1500
Section 1. The Church of England.
Trials of the English Church under the Saxons.
We have seen (p. 74) that the native Church of England had not succeeded in converting the Anglo-Saxon invaders who gradually took possession of the country, and that such as remained of the Bishops and Clergy had been compelled for the most part to take refuge in mountainous, and therefore inaccessible, districts. It was, however, only in A.D. 587, that Theonas, Bishop of London, and Thadiocus, Bishop of York, retreated from their sees, and they were both living in exile in Wales, when, ten years later, St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to found a mission in England.
Roman usurpation.
It seems uncertain whether St. Gregory was aware of the previous existence of a Church in these islands; at any rate, he acted as if ignorant of the fact, by bestowing on St. Augustine a spiritual supremacy over the whole country; and the good Italian missionary, when brought into actual contact with the living representatives of a national Church already five hundred years old, appears to have considered himself justified in endeavouring to bring its Liturgy and usages into agreement with the Roman pattern. Consequent disputes. All this was not unnatural, especially under the circumstances of weakness and depression in which the Church of England was then placed; but it was equally natural that such interference should be felt to be an usurpation, and resented accordingly, and that much misunderstanding and bitterness should be the consequence. There probably was a recognition of the claims of the elder race of English Bishops in the fact, that St. Augustine was consecrated to the see of Canterbury rather than to that of London, of which the rightful occupant was still living, and that neither the latter diocese, nor that of York, appear to have been filled up until after the deaths of Theonas and Thadiocus. English independence partially recognized. It was also eventually found expedient to leave to the English Church its own national Liturgy and ritual (originally derived through a Gallican channel from that of Ephesus), instead of insisting upon an exact conformity to Roman rites. Some account of the English Liturgy. This ancient English Liturgy, revised in the seventh century by St. Augustine, underwent a second revision at the hands of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, about A.D. 1083; and, though certain variations existed in some dioceses, the "Use of Sarum," as it was called, became the general "use" throughout the southern portion of England, and was even at length considered to be the Liturgy of the country. It is from this Sarum Use that our present Post-Reformation Liturgy is derived.
A very considerable amount of new life and energy was infused into the Church of England by the mission of St. Augustine. Though the native Bishops and Clergy could not bring themselves to look cordially on those whose religious zeal was not always tempered with justice or courtesy towards their predecessors in the field of their missionary labours, still both foreigners and natives worked for the same cause, each in their own way, and a new evangelization of the freshly-heathenized population ensued[1]. Amalgamation of English and Roman successions. By degrees the two lines of Bishops became blended in one succession, which has continued unbroken until the present day.
English missionary zeal.
The Church of England, thus strengthened and quickened, soon began to give abundant proofs of its vitality by sending out missionaries to convert the heathen in other lands. A large part of Germany and the Netherlands owes its Christianity to English Bishops and Clergy, such as Winfrith or Boniface, Willebrord, and a host of other less well-known or altogether forgotten names. The eighth century was especially distinguished by these missionary labours abroad, whilst, at home, were to be found such good and learned men as the Venerable Bede (A.D. 672 or '3-A.D. 735), an early translator of the Holy Scriptures, and his friend Egbert (A.D. about 678-A.D. 776), Archbishop of York, and founder of a famous school in that city, where the illustrious Alcuin (about A.D. 723-A.D. 804) was a scholar.
Invasion, and conversion of the Danes.