THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH

27

life. It was always difficult to distinguish what was secular and what was ecclesiastical. The laws of Alfred began with the Ten Commandments. There was not, till the time of William the Conqueror, any clear distinction between Secular and Ecclesiastical Courts. Though there were Councils of the Church, yet again and again ecclesiastical affairs were discussed at the Councils of the Nation. The King and his Witan had a large share in the appointment of Bishops, and Bishops were often associated very closely in the work of the State. It has been pointed out that this "weakened its spiritual life, tended to make its ministers worldly, and finally caused it to share in the national exhaustion and decline of the last years of the native monarchy. On the other hand, this union strengthened its hold on the national life and the affections of the people." cannot but think that this intimate union of Church and State has been an element which has persisted all through our history, and has helped largely to explain some of the characteristics of the Church of England at the present day.

I

Then, thirdly, almost from its origin, the English Church was conspicuous for its strong interest in learning. In the south, Hadrian and Theodore brought many books from Rome, and established a school at Canterbury, From there learning spread to the West Saxon Church, and under Aldhelm Malmesbury became the centre of the culture of the time. In the north, the Northumbrian Church inherited what learning the Celtic Church had possessed, and it was the Irish script which became the foundation of the English handwriting, and Irish ornament which beautified the English manuscripts. But it was Benedict Biscop who, in repeated journeys to Rome, brought to his monastery at Wearmouth great stores of books, and enabled Bede for a time to make this country conspicuous in the learned world of the day. England sent manuscripts to Rome in return for what it had

1 Hunt, The English Church from its Foundation to the Norman Conquest, p. 414.

received, and in the writings of Bede there was an interesting combination of the desire to collect for the benefit of his fellow-countrymen all that he could of the learning of the time, and a patriotic desire to preserve the records of the English Church and people. Among Bede's pupils was Egbert, Archbishop of York, who founded the School of York, and from York went forth Alcuin to carry on to the Continent the traditions of English learning and preside over the Schools of Charle

magne.

But all this promise and fruition of learning were destroyed by the great cataclysm of the Danish invasion. The monks of St. Cuthbert had to wander with the precious possession of his body. Many monasteries throughout the country were totally destroyed. Even when the monasteries were still standing there were none left to read what books remained, and traditions of learning were largely lost.

But some revival came with Alfred. A student and a patron of learning, by his translations he brought foreign learning to the service of his people. His Chronicle laid the foundation of secular English History. The Danish invasions had almost extinguished learning in England. The deterioration of the Church was checked by his example, and the partial revival which ended the AngloSaxon period was largely the result of his work.

Fourthly, from the beginning the Church was very definitely a Church of the people, and one which developed a real popular religion. The example of Cædmon, who may be rather a name given to a collection of writings, shows us how the teaching of Christianity was expressed in popular songs and poems which might bring it home to the people, and would be sung at village feasts. We know how, at the time when he died, Bede himself was engaged upon a translation of St. John into the vernacular. It was the work of Alfred to translate into the tongue of his people books which might give them an introduction to religious and secular knowledge. At a later date Dunstan and Oswald, the great Bishop of Worcester,

A MISSIONARY CHURCH

29

and other leading Bishops, were known as popular preachers, and there have been preserved to us collections of homilies in the English language to enable the clergy to instruct their people. All through the history of England we shall find evidences of this desire for a simple popular religion, and this influence has had its effect in moulding the character of the English Church at the present time.

Fifthly, it was a missionary Church. It inherited this missionary enterprise and spirit of adventure from the Celtic Church, but the Englishman has always combined a love of adventure with his love of home, and it was natural that when England became Christian, English people should become missionaries. The earliest record we have is the mission of Wilfrid among the Frisians. Then came Willibrord, who followed in his steps, and was consecrated Archbishop. Companions of his carried his work on. But the greatest of the names of these early missionaries was Boniface, the "Apostle of Germany. He was accompanied by a body of English workers, who became Bishops set over monasteries, and at the end of his life, on June 5, 755, he was martyred. "As a missionary," we are told, "he was courageous and indefatigable; as a prelate, skilful in organization and firm of purpose. The oath of obedience which he took to the Roman See was strongly expressed and unreserved, and as the founder and first spiritual ruler of the German Church, he brought it into close connection with the Papacy. Apart from any consideration of the effects which the relation thus created with Rome may have had upon the course of German history in later ages, his action in this respect gave the Church which he created a standard of orthodox faith and practice, and prevented it from becoming a mere handmaid to the Carolingian House. To the English Church he was ever a loving and dutiful son; he watched its fortunes with anxiety, and looked to its Bishops and Councils for advice; he was cheered by the sympathy and strengthened by the prayers of its members, and was nobly supported by the devotion of those

whom it sent to help him in his work."1 At a later date we hear of English missions in Scandinavia. It was part of the policy of Canute to use the zeal of the Englishmen to complete the conversion of the Danes, and he seems to have had a design to give the See of Canterbury some superiority over the Church in Denmark.

Then, lastly, the Church of England was, to a certain extent, an insular Church. As the present Bishop of Truro says: "In such matters as the relation of the Church to the State, of the Ecclesiastical law to the Civil law, and the Church as a whole to the Papacy, it remains insular and peculiar." As regards its relation to the See of Rome, this insularity must not be exaggerated. From the beginning the English Church recognized what it owed to the mission of St. Augustine, and to the interests taken in its development by Gregory the Great and his successors. Rome to England represented not only the centre of ecclesiastical life, but also the home of learning and civilization, and all the great men of the English Church, especially in its early days, went to Rome to learn and to receive from it what it could teach. There was something like an English College in Rome, and it is known that many Anglo-Saxon coins have been found there. Its Archbishops regularly went to Rome to receive the Pall, and a journey to Rome in those days was often a dangerous undertaking.

But side by side with this there was a good deal of independence or insularity. The Church of Rome had interfered little with the affairs of the Church of England, and did not probably interest itself in them very much. Only twice do we hear of legates coming to England, once in the time of Offa, and then again just before the Norman Conquest. There are one or two Papal letters dealing 1 Hunt, op. cit., pp. 219, 220.

3

2 Visitation Articles and Injunctions, edited by Walter Howard Frere, D.D., vol. i., p. 47.

3 See Hunt, op. cit., pp. 236-240, 414: "While it regarded the Roman See with gratitude and reverence, it seldom either sought or accepted guidance from Rome. Twice only since the coming of Theodore had legates interfered in its affairs: the papal

THE MEDIÆVAL CHURCH

31 with this country, but generally the Church of England managed its own affairs and did not pay much attention to Papal directions, and did not care about them. There was a gain in some directions in this insularity, but there was some loss also, and particularly in later days. When England was rather cut off from the religious reform movements on the Continent, its spiritual life suffered. Dunstan was inspired in his monastic reforms by his visits to France, and the Norman Ecclesiastics whom Edward the Confessor brought into the country represented, in some ways, a higher type of Church life.

To sum up, then: already in Anglo-Saxon times we find many of the characteristics which have marked the English Church since then, and the root of much that we shall find in its later history.

II

We pass now to the medieval period, which extends from the year 1066 to the beginning of the Reformation in England with the anti-Papal legislation of Henry VIII.1 It is a period of nearly 500 years, and divides itself roughly into two. The first includes the years up to 1300; it represents the best period of medieval life when the Papacy was continually extending its power, largely because it represented the most vigorous spiritual life of Christendom. The second period was that of the decay of the medieval Papacy, when its power and influence had become burdensome, and everything was tending to the break-up of the old society and the Reformation.

decrees in Wilfrith's case were held of small account; a papal sentence was, we are told, set aside by so eminent a Churchman as Dunstan."

1 The important dates are:

1532. The Submission of the Clergy.

1533. The Restraint of Appeals.

1534. The Supremacy Act.

Abjuration of Papal Supremacy by the Clergy. 1536. Act for the Dissolution of the Smaller Monasteries. 1539. Act for the Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries.