PAULINUS.
But to remote Northumbria’s royal hall,
Where thoughtful Edwin, tutor’d in the school
Of sorrow, still maintains a Heathen rule,
Who comes with functions apostolical?
Mark him, of shoulders curved, and stature tall,
Black hair, and vivid eye, and meagre cheek,
His prominent feature like an eagle’s beak;
A man whose aspect doth at once appal
And strike with reverence. The monarch leans
Tow’rd the pure truths this delegate propounds;
Repeatedly his own deep mind he sounds
With careful hesitation,—then convenes
A synod of his counsellors:—give ear,
And what a pensive sage doth utter, hear!
PERSUASION.
“Man’s life is like a sparrow, mighty king!
That, stealing in while by the fire you sit
Housed with rejoicing friends, is seen to flit
Safe from the storm, in comfort tarrying.
Here did it enter—there, on hasty wing
Flies out, and passes on from cold to cold;
But whence it came we know not, nor behold
Whither it goes. Even such that transient thing,
The human soul, not utterly unknown
While in the body lodged, her warm abode;
But from what world she came, what wo or weal
On her departure waits, no tongue hath shown;
This mystery, if the stranger can reveal,
His be a welcome cordially bestowed!”
The Christian doctrine once planted in the hearts of Englishmen was never eradicated, but a storm passing over Northumbria levelled, for a while, the ripening harvest with the soil. Penda of Mercia, a man of remarkable character and fortune, “the last unshaken and powerful adherent of Paganisim among the Anglo-Saxons,” swept like a tempest over the scene, and seemed to blast the growing hopes of the Christian husbandman, while the native princes, in whom, from a national respect for royal lineage, the government was nominally left, relapsed into the errors of the old faith. The deliverance, however, was at hand, from a quarter then beginning to send forth its beneficial influences. Oswald, a Bernician prince, educated among the Scots, or converted Picts, assembled a few followers under the banner of the cross, and restored to his country independence and Christianity.
“History informs us that Oswald’s cross decided the fate of Britain for ever. Oswald obtained the sovereignty of Bernicia, and also of Deira, being entitled to the latter country by his maternal descent, his mother ‘Acha,’ the sister of Eadwine, being descended from Aelle. He was acknowledged as Bretwalda the sixth who held that dignity, and is said to have reigned over the four tongues of Britain, of the Angles, the Britons, the Picts, and the Scots. Oswald combined great vigour with much mildness and religious enthusiasm. By him Christianity was introduced anew into his kingdom, but it was that of his teachers, the Scots, by whom Aidan was sent to him from the isle of St. Columba, (Hii or Icolmkill,) and to whom as an Episcopal seat, he granted the isle of Lindisfarne, now Holy Island, the hallowed abode of many heroes of the Christian faith. Severity towards himself and the powerful, humility and benevolence towards the poor and lowly, activity in the cause of religion, zeal for learning, were the admirable qualities that were praised in Aidan, and shed the purest lustre on the old Scottish Church to which he belonged; and few will feel disposed to doubt that the general impression which the lives of such men made on the minds of people disgusted with Paganism, together with the internal truth of the Christian doctrines, has ever, and in a greater degree, contributed to their first conversion, than even the most convincing and solid arguments. How else could the so-often, vainly attempted conversion of the Northumbrians have been effected by Aidan, who, sprung from a hostile race, sent from a hostile school, strove to propagate the doctrines of the defeated Scots and Picts, the former oppressors of the Britons, in a tongue for which Oswald himself was compelled to act as the interpreter?
“Of Aidan’s fitness for the pious work committed to him, a judgment may be formed from the following anecdote related by Beda. At the solicitation of Oswald, a priest had been sent by the Scots to preach the word to the Pagans of Northumbria, who, proving unqualified for the task, and unwelcome to the people, through the austerity of his character, returned to his country, where, in an assembly of his brethren, he declared his inability to effect any good among a people so ungovernable and barbarous. On hearing this declaration, Aidan, who was present at the meeting, said to him, ‘Brother, it seems to me that you have been harsher than was fitting towards such uninstructed hearers, and have not, in conformity with apostolic usage, first offered the milk of milder instruction, until, gradually nourished by the divine word, they might become capable both of receiving the more perfect, and of executing the higher precepts of God.’ A discussion, to which these words gave rise, terminated in the unanimous declaration, that Aidan was worthy of the Episcopal dignity, and that he ought to be sent back to the ignorant unbelievers.
“In such, and in every other manner possible, Oswald promoted the religion of the Cross, planted by him, not in his own kingdom only, but in the states encircling the British empire. In this he followed the impressions of his youth, and the conviction which had steeled his arm to victory. He might also have cherished the hope that in a British Christian church, the surest spiritual support would be found to consist in the union of all the tongues of Britain.”
For some time the Catholic and Columban clergy lived and laboured together in the common cause of true religion, with mutual charity and increasing usefulness. But the desire for external unity, so attractive in theory, so unattainable in practice, disturbed this pleasing repose; and, in the struggle that ensued, the victory was on the side of the Romish system, aided perhaps by superior learning and experience, and perhaps by the great advantage which dictatorial intolerance often possesses, in religious matters, over an enlarged liberality. On weak or ill-instructed minds, the bold assertion of an exclusive access to salvation, so dogmatically claimed by bigots of all churches, will generally prevail over opposing doctrines, which invest the choice of a sect with a less hazardous responsibility. The scene at the Synod of Whitby reveals a part of the truth, but perhaps a part only; and views of deeper policy may have been concealed under the somewhat slender pretext which led to this momentous change.
“An important measure, both for the benefit of the church and the closer union of the Anglo-Saxons, was reserved for King Oswiu. The Anglo-Saxons, according as they had been converted by Augustine and his followers, or by those of Columba, were attached to the Roman Catholic, or to the British Church. The majority of the ecclesiastics, at least of the more distinguished, belonged to the latter; hence arose a difference in religious views and worship, not only in the several kingdoms, but in the several provinces, which threatened to become extremely dangerous to the new faith. We see this religious discussion introduced through marriages even among the royal families, and that Oswiu himself celebrated the Easter festival, according to the Scottish practice, on a different day from that observed by his queen, Eanflœd, a daughter of the King of Kent. Ealhfrith also, the son, and co-regent with Oswiu, was, through the persuasion of his friend Cenwealh, favourable to the Roman church. Differences of this kind, though affecting externals only, greatly endangered the Christian faith among a people scarcely weaned from the worship of their forefathers, and acquainted with Christianity only in the closest connexion with the new external observances. Colman, a Scot, the third bishop of Lindisfarne, after the death of Finan, zealously strove to establish the principles of his sect. A synod was called at Streoneshealh, (Whitby) in which, under the presidency of Oswiu, the most distinguished ecclesiastics of each church defended their respective doctrines. Among the partisans of Rome were Agilbert, bishop of Wessex, and Wilfrith, (Wilferth) the future celebrated bishop of York. The disputation was maintained on both sides with learning and acuteness, and the Scottish clergy might have succeeded in settling for ever a strong barrier against the Catholic pretensions of the Roman church, if the king, wavering under the weight of so many conflicting arguments, had not remarked, that the Scots appealed to St. Columba, but the Catholics to the Apostle Peter; for Wilfrith had not forgotten to adduce, in support of the Roman tenets, that Peter was the rock on which the Lord had founded his Church, and that to him were committed the keys of Heaven. ‘Has Columba also received such power?’ demanded the king. Colman could not answer in the affirmative. ‘Do you both agree, that to Peter the Lord has given the keys of Heaven?’ Both affirmed it. ‘Then,’ said the king, ‘I will not oppose the Heavenly porter, but to my utmost ability will follow all his commands and precepts, lest, when I come to the gates of Heaven, there be no one to open to me, should he, who is shown to have the key in his custody, turn his back upon me.’ Those sitting in the council, as well as those standing around, noble and vulgar, alike anxious for their eternal salvation, approved of this determination, and were thus, in the usual spirit of large assemblies, and without further investigation of the arguments adduced, impelled to a decision by the excited feelings of the moment. The Scots either returned to their friends, or yielded to the opinion of the majority, and thus, by the learning of their school, became useful to the Anglo-Saxons; but, together with these apparently trivial externals, the great latent influence was sacrificed, which their church would probably have acquired in opposition to the then less firmly established one of Rome.”
The arrival of Theodore, an able and accomplished Asiatic, appointed to the primacy by the Pope, and the co-operation of Wilfrith, just mentioned, an Anglo-Saxon of transcendant talents and unconquerable zeal, confirmed throughout England the ascendency of Romish influence, which had thus been established in Northumbria, and which, from the first, had been recognised in Kent.
We may speculate, with Lappenberg, on the results to be expected if this controversy had terminated differently. A victory of opinion, gained in England by the followers of Columba, might have laid the foundation of a United Church, comprehending all the races that inhabited the island, and sufficiently powerful to contest with Italy the guidance of Christian principles over the rest of Europe, and to confine the Roman Bishoprick within narrower and safer bounds.