Slike strani
PDF
ePub

Scots, he did not erect of stone, but of sawn timber, covering it with reeds. At a later time, it was dedicated by the most reverend Archbishop Theodore in honour of the blessed Apostle, Peter. But Eadbert, Bishop of that place, stripping off the reeds, covered the entire building, both roof and sides, with sheets of lead." (Eccl. Hist. III. 25.)

From this passage it is clear that Finan, who was a Christian of the British school, founded a church of cathedral rank without appointing a patron Saint; and though he presided over the See of Lindisfarne ten years, and was succeeded by Colman, one of his countrymen, it may be collected that four years intervened between the resignation of the latter and the arrival of Archbishop Theodore in Britain.*

The next passage is important, as it describes the mode of consecration practised by the Scots. It must be premised that the historian is speaking of Cedd, Bishop of the East Saxons,† to whom Oidivald, King of Deira, had given a spot of ground for the purpose of founding a Monastery.—

"The man of God, wishing by prayer and fasting to purge the place of its former pollution of wickedness, and so to lay the foundations of the Monastery, entreated the king that he would grant him the means and permission to dwell there, for that purpose, during the whole time of Lent, which was then at hand. In all the days of this time, except on the Sabbath, he always prolonged his fast, according to custom, until the evening; and even then he took only a small piece of bread, and one egg, with a little milk mixed with water. He said that this was the custom of those from whom he had learned a rule of regular discipline, that they should first consecrate with prayer and fasting those places which had been newly obtained for founding a Monastery, or church.

* Bede's Eccl. Hist. III. 25, 26, and IV. 2. The Saxon Chronicle translated by Dr. Ingram, A. D. 661 and 6SS.

+ From A. D. 653 to 664.

When ten of the forty days were remaining, a person came, and summoned him to the king; but that the sacred work might not be discontinued on account of the king's business, he desired his presbyter, Cynibill, who was also his own brother, to complete the pious beginning; who having readily complied, and the exercise of fasting and prayer being completed, he (Cedd) built there a Monastery, which is now called Laestingaeu, and established it with religious customs, according to the practice of Lindisfarne, where he had been educated. After he had held his Bishoprick for many years in the aforesaid province, and by appointing superintendents had conducted also the management of this Monastery; it happened that he arrived at the Monastery about the time of his mortality, and, being taken with infirmity of body, he died. He was at first buried without; but in process of time, when a church was built of stone in the Monastery, in honour of the blessed Mother of God, his body was laid within, at the right side of the altar." (Eccl. Hist. III. 23.)

This mode of consecration was so different from that practised in the Romish Church, that Bede thought proper to describe it at length; and from the analogy of their situation, it may be presumed that the practice of the southern Britons was similar. No patron Saint is mentioned, and the church of stone, in honour of the Virgin, was not built until after the death of the original founder of the Monastery. If the consecration of a place depended upon the residence of a person of presumed sanctity, who for a given time should perform certain religious exercises upon the spot, it will at once appear how the Primitive Christians of Wales were, at first, the founders, and afterwards, in default of the usual mode of dedication, were considered to be the Saints of the churches which bear their names.

In the Eastern Empire, the invocation of angels commenced so early that the Council of Laodicea had occasion to condemn it in A. D. 366. It was a more easy deflection from the purity

of Christianity than the invocation of Saints; the latter, however, soon followed; but the custom of dedicating churches to them arose from purely local circumstances. About the end of the fourth century, it was a practice to erect a church in memory of a martyr over his grave. St. Augustine, who died A. D. 430, says,-" We do not erect temples to our martyrs, as if they were Gods; but memories as to dead men, whose spirits live with God." This extract is given on the authority of Bishop Burnet in his Exposition of the twenty second Article, who in a preceding part of the same Exposition says,

*

"It was a remnant both of Judaism and Gentilism, that the souls of the martyrs hovered about their tombs, called their memories; and that therefore they might be called upon and spoke to there. St. Basil, and the other Fathers, that do so often mention the going to their memories, do very plainly insinuate their being present at them, and hearing themselves called upon. This may be the reason, why among all the Saints that are so much magnified in that age,* we never find the blessed Virgin so much as once mentioned. They knew not where her body was laid, they had no tomb for her, no, nor any of her relicks or utensils. But upon the occasion of Nestorius's denying her to be the Mother of God, and by carrying the opposition to that too far, a superstition to her was set on foot, it made a progress sufficient to balance the slowness of its beginning; the whole world was then filled with very extravagant devotions for her."

If this view of the learned Prelate be correct, the churches generally founded in the fourth century were those called by ecclesiastical historians "martyria," or "memoriæ martyrum."+ They were necessarily confined to the spot where the Saint was buried, in honour of whom, therefore, only one church of

*The fourth century.

+ Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, VIII. Chap. 1. Section 8.

this description could be erected. The custom would, however, lead to the erection of churches to the memory of Saints in other indifferent places; and the belief, that martyrs could hear themselves called upon over their graves, would lead to the practice of invocation generally. But the concurrence of the view, here taken, with the preceding arrangement of Welsh foundations, is most obvious in the late introduction of the homage of St. Mary. The heresy of Nestorius occupied the attention of the Church, in the East, from the third General Council at Ephesus A. D. 431 to the fourth General Council at Chalcedon A. D. 451. Sufficient time must be allowed for the spread of these superstitions, and they would hardly reach Britain before most churches of the earliest foundation were built. The secluded state of the Britons, and their refusal to submit to the authority of the Pope, interposed a further delay, until long after the conversion of the Saxons.*

To the class of St. David belong all the foundations of churches erected by the Primitive Christians of Wales, from the earliest period to the middle of the seventh century. The mean peirod of their establishment is from the year 500 to 550.

* In the works of the "Cynfeirdd," or Primitive Bards, the second person in the Trinity is often called "mab Mair," or the son of Mary; which would indicate the side the Britons would have taken in the Nestorian controversy if it had reached them. But in the poems, which, there is reason to suppose from their style, were written before the year 900, the intercession of the Virgin is mentioned only in an ode the author of which is not known. (Myvyrian Archaiology, Vol. I. pp. 187, 188.) Her name is spoken of in terms expressive of superstition in three other poems which have been attributed to the earlier Bards, but the language in which they are composed is too modern to allow them to be genuine. (Myv. Archaiol. Vol. I. pp. 16, 26, 552.) In the Ecclesiastical History of Bede, the Virgin does not occupy the pre-eminent situation to which she afterwards attained; the favourite Saint of the Anglo-Saxons, in the infancy of their Church, being St. Peter.

[ocr errors]

Their general antiquity may be shown by the methods of proof already employed, and accords well with the notion that they were founded by the persons to whom they are ascribed, who are also ascertained to have lived principally in the fifth and sixth centuries. Very few of these persons have been admitted into the Romish Calendar; and, if credit be given to the authority of the Welsh Trads, only six of them were canonized.* They also differ from Roman Catholic Saints in one important particular, that few of them have been dignified with the title of martyr. They lived at a time when Christianity was the common religion of their country; and if some individuals of their number met with a violent death, it appears to have been at the hands of the enemies of their nation rather than their faith. That they were men of holy lives is recorded in all the scanty accounts which remain respecting them; and it is evident that many of them made a formal profession of religion according to the system of Monachism prevalent in the early ages of Christianity. But the character, in which, more especially, their names have been handed down to posterity, is that of founders of churches. Many of them had more than ordinary opportunities of conferring this blessing upon their country; for they were related to its chieftains, and the churches they founded were often situate within the territories of the head of their tribe. Others, not so fortunate as to birth, are ascertained to have founded churches in places connected with ther own history, and probably they depended upon their influence with some neighbouring chieftain. In nearly all cases, the assumption of their names, so far from depending upon chance, is attributable to local causes.

The second class of foundations, or those dedicated to St. Michael, commenced when the Britons were beginning to

* Cambrian Biography, vocibus Gwrthefyr, & Teilo.

« PrejšnjaNaprej »