[843]. “The inundation and plague were reported by a deacon, whom his bishop, Gregory of Tours, had despatched to Rome for some relics. The ingenious messenger embellished his tale and the river with a great dragon and a train of little serpents.” Greg. Turon. lib. x. cap. 1.
[844]. “Gregory of Rome (Dialog. l. ii. c. 15) relates a memorable prediction of St. Benedict. ‘Roma a gentilibus non exterminabitur sed tempestatibus, coruscis turbinibus et terrae motu in semetipsa marcescet.’ Such a prophecy melts into true history, and becomes the evidence of the fact after which it was invented.”
[845]. “I cannot bear to see the finest provinces of Gaul in the hands of those heretics,” cried Clovis, with all the zeal of a new convert. The clergy blessed the pious sentiment, and the orthodox barbarian was rewarded with a series of bloody victories, which mainly tended to establish the predominance of the Frank over all the other elements in Gaul.
[846]. If traditions could be construed into good history, Britain was abundantly provided with apostolical converters: Joseph of Arimathea, Aristobulus, one of the seventy, St. Paul himself, have all had their several supporters. Nay even St. Peter has been said to have visited this island: Ἔπειτα [ὁ Πέτρος] ... εἰς βρεττανίαν παραγίνεται· Ἔνθα δὴ χειροτριβήσας καὶ πολλὰ τῶν ἀκατοναμάτων ἐνθῶν εἰς τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστιν ἐπισπασάμενος ... ἐπιμείνας τὲ τοῖς ἐν βρεττανὶᾳ ἡμέρας τινὰς, καὶ πολλοὺς τῷ λόγῳ φωτίσας τῆς χάριτος, ἐκκλησίας τε συστησάμενος, ἐπισκόπους τε καὶ πρεσβυτέρους καὶ διακόνους χειροτονήσας, δωδεκάτῳ ἔτει τοῦ Καίσαρος αὖθις εἰς Ῥώμην παραγίνεται. Menolog. Graec. xvi. Mart.
[847]. At Arles in 314, Sardica in 347, and Rimini in 359.
[848]. Not to speak of Ninian, Palladius and Patricius, we may refer to Germanus of Auxerre, who is stated to have been sent as Papal Vicar to England, to arrest the progress of Pelagianism, at the beginning of the fifth century. Schrödl asserts this in the broadest terms: “Auf Bitten der Britischen Bischöfe, und gesendet von Pabst Cölestin, besuchte der Bischof Germanus von Auxerre in der Eigenschaft eines päbstlichen Vicars, zweimal Britannien,” etc. Erste Jahrh. p. 2. Lingard is somewhat less decided: he says, “Pope Celestine, at the representation of the deacon Palladius, commissioned Germanus of Auxerre to proceed in his name to Britain,” etc. Ang. Church, i. 8. Both these authors refer to Prosper, in Chron. anno 429. “Papa Coelestinus Germanum Autisiodorensem episcopum vice sua mittit, et deturbatis haereticis Britannos ad Catholicam fidem dirigit.” Prosper was not only a contemporary of the facts he relates, but at a later period actually became secretary to Celestine: his authority therefore is of much weight. Still it is observable that Beda, in his relation, does not attribute the mission of Germanus to the Pope. He says, that the Britons having applied for aid to the prelates of Gaul, these held a great synod, and elected Germanus and Lupus to proceed to England. Hist. Eccl. i. 17. Beda’s account is taken from the life of Germanus written by Constantius of Lyons, about forty years after the bishop’s death. He says as little of the Vicariate in his account of the second mission. However, even supposing Prosper, whose means of judgment were certainly the best, to be right, it only follows that Celestine dispatched Germanus as his Vicar, but not that the British prelates formally received him in that capacity. It does not seem to me that the passage contains any satisfactory proof that the Roman See enjoyed a right of appointing Vicars in England at the period in question, however it may have desired, or tried practically, to establish one.
[849]. Beda, II. E. i. 22.
[850]. “Scottos vero per Daganum episcopum in hanc, quam superius memoravimus, insulam (sc. Britanniam) et Columbanum abbatem in Gallis venientem, nihil discrepare a Brittonibus in eorum conversatione didicimus. Nam Daganus episcopus ad nos veniens, non solum cibum nobiscum, sed nec in eodem hospitio quo vescebamur, sumere voluit.” Such is the account Laurentius, Mellitus and Justus give in their epistle to the Scottish prelates themselves. Beda, Hist. Eccl. ii. 4. And the Keltic example is answered in an equally intolerant spirit by Theodore:—“Qui ordinati sunt Scottorum vel Brittonum episcopi, qui in Pascha vel tonsura catholicae non sunt adunati aecclesiae, iterum a catholico episcopo manus impositione confirmentur. Licentiam quoque non habemus eis poscentibus chrisma vel eucharistiam dare, nisi ante confessi fuerint velle nobiscum esse in unitate aecclesiae. Et qui ex eorum similiter gente, vel quicumque de baptismo suo dubitaverit, baptizetur.” Cap. Theod. Thorpe, ii. 64. See also Canones Sancti Gregorii, cap. 145. Kunstmann, Poenit. p. 141.
[851]. This seems to follow from the relation of what passed at Augustine’s interview with the Welsh prelates. At the same time we should judge very unwisely were we to believe missionary jealousies confined to the nineteenth century. In the distracted state of the British the bishops were almost the only possessors of a legal authority; and it is not at all probable that they would have looked with equanimity on those who came with an open proposal of subordination, even had it been unaccompanied with circumstances wounding to their self-love.
[852]. Kent is probably only an apparent exception. Rochester can hardly have been otherwise than the capital of a subordinate kingdom.