A Source Book for Ancient Church History

by Joseph Cullen Ayer

(a) Bede, Hist. Ec., I, 29. (MSL, 95:69.)

The scheme of Gregory the Great for the organization of the English Church A. D. 601.

Gregory, in planning his mission, seems not to have been aware of the profound changes in the kingdom resulting from the Anglo-Saxon invasion. He selected York as the seat of an archbishop, because it was the ancient capital of the Roman province in the North, and London, because it was the great city of the South. The rivalry of the two archbishops caused difficulties for centuries, and was a hinderance to the efficiency of the ecclesiastical system. By this letter, the British bishops were to be under the authority of Augustine, a position which was distasteful to the British, who were extremely hostile to the Anglo-Saxons, and incomprehensible to them, as they saw no reason or justification in any such arrangement without their consent. They withdrew from all intercourse with the new Anglo-Saxon Church and retired into Wales.

To the most reverend and holy brother and fellow bishop, Augustine, Gregory, servant of the servants of God.

Although it is certain that the unspeakable rewards of the eternal kingdom are laid up for those who labor for Almighty God, yet it is necessary for us to render to them the benefits of honors, that from this recompense they may be able to labor more abundantly in the zeal for spiritual work. And because the new Church of the English has been brought by thee to the grace of Almighty God, by the bounty of the same Lord and by your toil, we grant you the use of the pallium, in the same to perform only the solemnities of the mass, in order that in the various places you ordain twelve bishops who shall be under your authority, so that the bishop of the city of London ought always thereafter to be consecrated by his own synod and receive the pallium of honor from the holy Apostolic See, which by God's authority I serve.[256] Moreover, we will that you send to York a bishop whom you shall see fit to ordain, yet so that if the same city shall have received the word of God along with the neighboring places, he shall ordain twelve other bishops, and enjoy the honor of metropolitan, because if our life last, we intend, with the Lord's favor, to give him the pallium also. And we will that he be subject to your authority, my brother. But after your decease he shall preside over the bishops he has ordained, so that he shall not be subject in anywise to the bishop of London. Moreover, let there be a distinction of honor between the bishops of the city of London and of York, in such a way that he shall take the precedence who has been ordained first. But let them arrange in concord by common counsel and harmonious action the things which need to be done for the zeal for Christ; let them determine rightly and let them accomplish what they have decided upon without any mutual misunderstandings.

But you, my brother, shall have subject to you not only the [pg 605] bishops whom you have ordained and those ordained by the bishop of York, but also, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the priests [i.e., the bishops] of Britain; so that from the lips of your holiness they may receive the form both of correct faith and of holy life, and fulfilling the duties of their office in faith and morals may, when the Lord wills, attain to the kingdom of heaven. May God keep you safe, most reverend brother. Dated the 22d June in the nineteenth year of the reign of Mauritius Tiberius, the most pious Augustus, in the eighteenth year of the consulship of the same Lord, indiction four.

(b) Bede, Hist. Ec., III, 25 f. (MSL, 95:158.)

The Easter dispute and the synod of Whitby. The triumph of the Roman tradition.

The sharpest dispute between the Celtic and the Roman churches was on the date of Easter as presenting the most inconveniences. The principal points were as follows: Both parties agreed that it must be on Sunday, in the third week of the first lunar month, and the paschal full moon must not fall before the vernal equinox. But the Celts placed the vernal equinox on March 25, and the Romans on March 21. The Celts, furthermore, reckoned as the third week the 14th to the 20th days of the moon inclusive; the Romans the 15th to the 21st inclusive. The Irish Church in the southern part of Ireland had already adopted the Roman reckoning at the synod of Leighlin, 630-633 [Hefele, § 289]. The occasion of the difference of custom was, in reality, that the Romans had adopted in the previous century a more correct method of reckoning and one that had fewer practical inconveniences. For a statement by a Celt, see Epistle of Columbanus to Gregory the Great, in the latter's Epistolæ, Reg. IX, Ep. 127 (PNF, ser. II, vol. XIII, p. 38). In the following selection space has been saved by omissions which are, however, indicated.