[859]. Mr. Soames very cursorily says: “Augustine received about the same time from Gregory the insidious compliment of a pall. He was charged also to establish twelve suffragan bishops, and to select an archbishop for the see of York. Over this prelate, who was likewise to have under his jurisdiction twelve suffragan sees, he had a personal grant of precedence. After his death the two archbishops were to rank according to priority of consecration.” Anglosax. Church, p. 55. The language, thus most carefully selected, is intended to meet any argument which might be derived from the despatch of the pallium, in token of assumption of authority by the Pope. But there can be little doubt, whatever its original character may have been, that this distinction was both intended and accepted as a mark of the archiepiscopal dignity, and as conveying powers which without it could not be exercised. This was obviously the way Beda understood it, and Gregory meant it to be understood. In his answers to Augustine’s questions, one of which referred to the relations which were to subsist between the Gallican and English churches, the pope thus refuses to give his missionary any authority over the continental bishops:—“In Galliarum episcopis nullam tibi auctoritatem tribuimus; quia ab antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus pallium Arelatensis episcopus accepit, quem nos privare auctoritate percepta minime debemus.” Hist. Eccl. i. 27. And in a subsequent letter to Augustine the same pope writes:—“Et quia nova Anglorum aecclesia ad omnipotentis Dei gratiam, eodem Domino largiente et te laborante, perducta est, usum tibi pallii in ea ad sola missarum solemnia agenda concedimus: ita ut per loca singula duodecim episcopos ordines, qui tuae subiaceant ditioni, quatenus Lundoniensis civitatis episcopus semper in posterum a synodo propria debeat consecrari, atque honoris pallium ab hac sancta et apostolica, cui Deo auctore deservio, sede precipiat. Ad Eburacam vero civitatem te volumus episcopum mittere, quem ipse iudicaveris ordinare; ita duntaxat, ut si eadem civitas cum finitimis locis verbum Dei receperit, ipse quoque duodecim episcopos ordinet, et metropolitani honore perfruatur; quia ei quoque, si vita comes fuerit, pallium tribuere Domino favente disponimus.” Beda, Hist. Eccl. i. 29. On which Beda remarks:—“Misit etiam litteras in quibus significat se ei pallium direxisse, simul et insinuat qualiter episcopos in Britannia constituere debuisset.” Thirty years later, Pope Honorius sent palls both to Paulinus of York and Honorius of Canterbury, with letters to Eádwini of Northumberland; in these he says:—“Duo pallia utrorumque metropolitanorum, id est Honorio et Paulino direximus, ut dum quis eorum de hoc saeculo ad Auctorem suum fuerit arcessitus, in loco ipsius alter episcopum ex hac nostra auctoritate debeat subrogare.” Hist. Eccl. ii. 17. The reason of this Beda tells us was the inconvenience of going to Rome for archiepiscopal ordination:—“Ne sit necesse ad Romanam usque civitatem per tam prolixa terrarum et maris spatia pro ordinando archiepiscopo semper fatigari.” Hist. Eccl. ii. 18. We learn from Honorius’s letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, that this alleviation was granted at the petition of the English kings and prelates:—“Et tam iuxta vestram petitionem, quam filiorum nostrorum regum, vobis per praesentem nostram praeceptionem, vice beati Petri apostolorum principis, auctoritatem tribuimus, ut quando unum ex vobis Divina ad se iusserit gratia vocari, is qui superstes fuerit, alterum in loco defuncti debeat episcopum ordinare. Pro qua etiam re singula vestrae dilectioni pallia pro eadem ordinatione celebranda direximus, ut per nostrae praeceptionis auctoritatem possitis Deo placitam ordinationem efficere: quia ut haec vobis concederemus, longa terrarum marisque intervalla, quae inter nos ac vos obsistunt, ad haec nos condescendere coegerunt.” Hist. Eccl. ii. 18. The archiepiscopate in York ceased after Paulinus’s expulsion till 735, when it was restored, king Eádberht having succeeded in obtaining a pall for his brother Ecgberht. The short chronicle appended to Beda says:—“Ecgberhtus episcopus, accepto ab apostolica sede pallio, primus post Paulinum in archiepiscopatum confirmatus est; ordinavitque Fridubertum et Friduwaldum episcopos.” See also Chron. Sax. an. 735; Sim. Dunelm. an. 735. The following archbishops are recorded to have received their palls from Rome:—
| Canterbury:— | Tátwine. Sim. Dun. an. 733. | |
| Nóðhelm. Chron. Sax. an. 736. Flor. Wig. an. 736. | ||
| Cúðberht. Rog. Wend. i. 227. an. 740. | ||
| Eánberht. Chron. Sax. an. 764. Flor. Wig. an. 764. | ||
| Wulfred. Chron. Sax. an. 804. Flor. Wig. an. 804. Rog. Wend. an. 806. | ||
| Ceólnóð. Chron. Sax. an. 831. Flor. Wig. an. 831. |
| York:— | Ecgberht. an. 745. Rog. Wend. i. 228. | |
| Alberht. Sim. Dun. an. 773. | ||
| Eánbald I. Chron. Sax. an. 780. Flor. Wig. an. 781. Sim. Dun. an. 780. | ||
| Eánbald II. Chron. Sax. an. 797. Sim. Dun. an. 797. | ||
| Oswald. Flor. Wig. an. 973. |
At some period however, which our chroniclers do not note, the custom arose for the archbishop not to receive, but to fetch his pallium. The following cases are recorded:—
| Canterbury:— | Ælfsige. Flor. Wig. an. 959. | |
| Dúnstán. Flor. Wig. an. 960. | ||
| Sigeríc. Chron. Sax. an. 990. | ||
| Ælfríc. Chron. Sax. an. 995. | ||
| Ælfheáh. Chron. Sax. an. 1007. | ||
| Æðelnóð. Chron. Sax. an. 1022. Flor. Wig. an. 1022. | ||
| Rodbyrht. Chron. Sax. an. 1048. |
| York:— | Ælfríc. Chron. Sax. an. 1026. Flor. Wig. an. 1026. | |
| Aldred. Rog. Wend. i. 502. an. 1061. |
Wendover states that when Offa determined to erect Lichfield into an archbishopric, he sent to Pope Adrian for a pall; and that the pall was accordingly dispatched, Rog. Wend. i. 138.
The avarice of the Roman See was thus fed fat: but the inconveniences were felt to be so intolerable, that in 1031 Cnut made them the subject of an especial remonstrance to the Pope. In his letter to the Witan of England he says, writing from Rome:—“Conquestus sum iterum coram domino papa et mihi valde displicere causabar, quod mei archiepiscopi in tantum angariabantur immensitate pecuniarum quae ab eis expetebatur, dum pro pallio accipiendo, secundum morem, apostolicam sedem peterent; decretumque est ne ita deinceps fieret.” Epist. Cnut. apud Flor. Wig. 1031. The question is not whether the Roman See had a right to make a demand, but whether—usurpation or not—it was acquiesced in and admitted by the Anglosaxon church; and on that point there can be no dispute.
[860]. “Unde remur, aliquos venerabiles viros aut de Britannia, id est gente Anglorum, qui maxime familiares apostolicae sedis semper existunt,” etc. Gest. Abb. Fontanellens. Pertz, ii. 289.
[861]. Every wise and powerful government has treated with deserved disregard the complaint that the “Spouse of Christ” was in bondage. In this respect our own country has generally been honourably distinguished. Boniface—himself an Englishman, papal beyond all his contemporaries—laments that no church is in greater bondage than the English,—a noble testimony to the nationality of the institution, the common sense of the people, and the vigour of the State.