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WAS ST. AIDAN
AN

ANGLICAN?

By the REV. SYDNEY F. SMITH, SJ.

LONDON

:

Office: 18 West Square, S.E.

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: 32^ Church Street,

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Fenny Biographical Series.
St. George. By the Rev. J. W. Reeks.

St. Patrick, By the Very Rev. Arthur Ryan.

St. Alphonsus Liguori. By a Redemptorist Father.
Ven. John Ogilvie, S.J. By Mrs. Francis Kerr.
B. John Fisher. By the Rev. W. H. Cologan.
B. Edmund Campion. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
Ven. Edmund Arrowsmlth. By the same.
St. Ignatius Loyola. By the same.

B. Thomas More. By John O’Hagan, M.A.
St. Columba. By the Rev. J. Golden.
Yen. Philip Howard. By G. Ambrose Lee.
The English Martyrs. By the Rev.

J. Morris, S.J.

Leo XIII. By the Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J.
St. Teresa. By David Lewis, M.A.

St: Peter Glaver. By the Rev. Fr. Sola, S.J.
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez. By Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
Sti John Berchmans. By the same.
St. Thomas of Canterbury. By the same.
St. Benedict. By the Rev. T. B. Snow, O.S.B.

St. Francis of Sales. By Very Rev. Canon Mackey.

St. Augustine. By the Rev. A. J. Saxton.

St. Philip Neri. By G. Ambrose Lee.

B. ClementHofbauer. ByRev.O. R.Vassall,C.SS.R.

St. Francis of Assisi. By Rev.J. Prendergast,O.S.F.

Ven. Margaret Clltheroe. By Rev. A. B. Gurdon.
Archbishop Ullathorne (with portrait).

Mary Queen of Scots. By Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott.
Dame Marion Boyd. By the Archbishop ofGlasgow.
St. Columbanus. By the Rev. J. Golden.
Father Damien, the Apostle of the Lepers.
Father Mathew. By the Rev. W. H. Cologan.
St. Francis Xavier.

Father Olivaint: a Martyr of the Commune.

Mary Howitt. By James Britten.
St. Vincent Ferrer. By Rev. B. Wilberforce, O.P.

Ven. Oliver Plunket. By Rev. O. R. Vassall,C.SS.R.

B. Juvenal Ancina. By the Rev. John Morris, S.J.
Cardinal Newman. By the Rev. Dr. Barry.
St. Vincent de Paul. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
St. Catharine of Siena.

St. Aloysius. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.

The Cure d’Ars. By Lady Herbert.
St. Zita. By the same.

St. Margaret, the Penitent of Cortona.

St. Cuthbert. By Mrs. Francis Kerr.

Frederick Ozanam. By B. F. C. Costelloe, M.A.



Mas St. Htoan an Bngltcan?

BY THE REV. SYDNEY F. SMITH, S.J.

Dr. Lightfoot, whose premature death we all so. much

deplore, had occasion to preach on several occasions in

places memorable on account of their part in the early

ecclesiastical history of Northumbria.

These sermons were published in 1891, (after the

preacher’s death) the little volume containing some ad-

ditional sermons on certain post-Reformation occupants of

the see of Durham, in pursuance of the ruling idea that

continuity between the Catholic past and the Anglican

present has never been interrupted.

With these more recent celebrities we are not concerned.

But, as the sermons on the early Northumbrian saints

and missionaries are considered by Anglicans, especially

in the North, to afford a valuable support to the contin-

uity theory, we shall do well to examine into the matter,

at any incidental expressions of hostility to ourselves.

“It was not from Imperial Rome, nor from Kent, the

handmaid of Rome, that Northumbria was destined to

receive her Christianity. A larger and freer spirit must
be stamped on the English Church in her infancy, never

to be obliterated in maturer age.”* In these words we

have the key-note to the preacher’s contention. The

spirit of the modern English (that is, Anglican) Church

is a spirit of freedom. It is this which makes recogni-

* Leaders of the Northern Church. By the Right Rev, J. B.

Lightfoot, D.D., late Bishop of Durham, p. 41.

DeaofcHfied



2 Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

tion of the Roman thraldom an impossibility to her, and

it is her consolation to find that this self-same spirit,

which she has so faithfully preserved, is congenital.

She received it from the earliest of all her founders.

For the founders in question were founders, not of the

Northumbrian Church only, but to the entire English

Church, one small corner in the south-east alone

excepted. To Aidan, not to Augustine, must be

attributed the conversion of every kingdom of the

Heptarchy save that of Kent. “ Augustine was the

Apostle of Kent, but Aidan was the Apostle of Eng-

land.”* When we probe deeper and inquire into the
cause of Aidant success and Augustine's failure, we

discover it in the power of “ earnest, simple, self-denying

lives, pleading with a force which no eloquence of words

can command :”f the suggestion being that these quali-

ties were deficient in the Roman missionaries led by St.

Augustine. A tendency to disheartenment, want of
courage to face persecution, imperfect realization of the

difference between solid and superficial conversions, and

other defects are imputed to the Roman, by contrast to

the Celtic, missionaries. It would seem as if we were to

understand that this better moral equipment, with the

consequent success in the arduous labours of the aposto-

late, was the natural outcome of the alleged rejection by

the Celtic missionaries of the Papal Supremacy; although

the inference is hardly supported by the comparative

results of Anglican and Catholic missionary effort in

modern times. Such is the substance of Dr. Lightfoot’s

contention in the first four sermons of his little volume,

a contention which in the sermons themselves is rather

asserted than proved, but which is supported by some

slight attempts at proof in the appended notes.

A few words first to give in outline the history of
the planting of the Christian faith in this country. St.

Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory the Great, in 596,
with a few companions, to convert the island of Great

Britain. The missionaries seem to have set out with

* P. 11. t P. 10.



Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

3

some very natural trepidation of heart on their journey

to the distant land where the Roman arms could afford

them no protection. On their arrival in France, the
reports reaching them of the ferocity of the islanders

daunted their courage still more, and it required all the

authority and persuasiveness of the intrepid Pontiff, who

would have readily shared their dangers in his own

person, to nerve them to their enterprise. Success,

however—an easy success in the first instance—was in
store for them. Ethelbert, King of Kent, was gained

over almost at once, and the example of the monarch

whom they revered and trusted, was followed generally

by his subjects, and the see of Canterbury was founded

in what had hitherto been the royal city. For a time

the obvious course was to consolidate the work com-

menced. But after an interval of seven years an oppor-

tunity offered of establishing another Christian centre in

the neighbouring East Saxon kingdom. Mellitus was

sent to London, and the foundations of the original

Cathedral of St. Paul's were laid. Failure, however,

overtook this new effort, twelve years later, when the

Christian King Sabert died and his three Pagan sons

succeeded him. Mellitus was bidden to depart, and

the fate even of Kentish Christianity hung for a time in

the balance when Ethelbert’s death, occurring about the

same time, transferred the sceptre to his Pagan son

Eadbald. The latter danger was fortunately averted by

the conversion of Eadbald, but though the sons of

Sabert were all slain in battle after a short reign, some

forty years intervened before the East Saxons would

give heed again to the voice of the preacher.

After St. Augustine had been twenty years in his

grave, an opportunity at last offered of making the

truth known to the Angles of the North. Ethelburga,

a sister of Eadbald, was chosen as his bride by Edwin,

the Northumbrian Sovereign of Deira—Edwin, the son
of that very Ella whose name had caused St. Gregory

to say in his quaint manner, as he gazed on the white-

skinned Anglian boys in the Roman slave-market, that

Alleluias (-£//a-luias) should sound in the land of Deira,



4 Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

and that it should soon be rescued from the wrath of

God (de ira Dei). Eadbald demanded for his sister

Ethelburga full liberty to profess her faith, and Edwin

nobly replied that she should have it, and that he him-

self would embrace it, if on examination he found it to

bear the marks of truth. Here was a bright prospect

for St. Paulinus, now sent with the Princess as her

chaplain. For a time, indeed, he had to wait for his

harvest Edwin was dilatory about his promised

examination, but at length he was convinced, received

Baptism, and joined with Paulinus in an active

apostolate among his people.

The people seem to have listened with eager ears.

Bede gives a glowing account of the plentiful conversions,

and mentions by way of illustration how at one time at

Yevering, at the foot of the Cheviots, Paulinus was

occupied for thirty-six consecutive days in an uninter-

rupted labour of first instructing, and then baptizing in

the waters of the glen, the crowds who flocked to him

from all the villages and places around. This was in

Bernicia, the northern division of Edwins kingdom. In

Deira, the southern division, a similar sight could be

witnessed on the banks of the Swale near Catterick.

Nor did Paulinus confine his labours to the provinces

north of the Humber. His zeal looked beyond, and we

find him presently in Lindsey, the modern Lincolnshire

and Nottinghamshire, repeating the same happy suc-

cesses. At Lincoln itself the Governor and his

family were converted, and a church erected near

the site of the modern Cathedral; and at Tiovulfin-

gacestir, probably Southwell, the Trent emulated

the Glen and the Swale, and lent its waters to

a multitude of neophytes. To the impulse of Paulinus

also we ought fairly to attribute the apostolate under-

taken by Edwin in East Anglia. At the time this East

Anglian effort was not crowned with lasting success.

Though many embraced the Faith in company with

their King, Eorpwald, the latter was shortly afterwards

martyred, and the province relapsed into heathenism.

For a time only, however. It was permanently regained



Was St. Aidan an Anglican ? 5

three years later, under Sigbert, the new King, who had

been converted during a foreign exile. Shortly after his

accession to the East Anglian throne, a Burgundian

monk of the name of Felix crossed over into Kent and

offered his services to Archbishop Honorius. Honorius

sent him on to Sigbert, by whom he was gratefully

received. And thus he became the Apostle of East

Anglia.

To return to the northern kingdom. When the work

of evangelizing it had lasted six years, and was full of

the happiest promise, a great disaster befell the land.

Penda, King of Mercia, the central sovereignty of the

island, in league with Cadwallon, King of North Wales

—

the first a pagan, the second worse than a pagan in his

bitter antipathy to the Christianized Anglians—invaded
the dominions of Edwin, and defeated him in a decisive

battle at Hatfield, in south-eastern Yorkshire. Edwin

himself was slain on the field, and then ensued a “very

great slaughter in the church and people of Northumbria.”

The Welsh king, particularly, spared neither women nor

children
;
he put them all to a cruel death amidst great

torments, and for a length of time harried all their prov-

inces, in the resolve to exterminate the entire Anglian

race from the territory of Britain. St. Paulinus, appar-

ently, saw no object in remaining where for the present

little work could be done, and, moreover, deemed it his

duty to escort the Kentish Princess, with whom he had

been charged, back to her brother’s dominions. He left
his companion, James the Deacon, to supply his place

so far as was needful, and we may suppose, in the defect

of any positive record, that his intention was to return

to the work himself when the storm should have blown

over. However, the see of Rochester falling vacant at

the time of his arrival in the south, he was appointed by

Honorius of Canterbury to fill it.

The storm in Northumbria lasted for a year—“ a year
hateful to all good men”—and then the air was clear
once more. St. Oswald overthrew Cadwallon in the

famous Battle of Heavenfield, and recovered all his

uncle Edwin’s dominions. Having spent many years of



6 Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

exile among the Scots, and received Christian Baptism

and instruction from the monks of Iona, it was natural

he should send thither for pastors to whose care he could

commit his people. The result was the sending of St.

Aidan, followed presently by many others from the same

source; and thus the evangelization of Northumbria was

commenced anew by these Celtic monks. Aidan fixed

his see at Lindisfarne, and thus caused Bernicia rather

than Deira, of the two provinces of the kingdom, to be

the centre of the new missionary operations. We have
heard from Bishop Lightfoot, in this faithful to the

account given by the Venerable Bede, what manner of

man St. Aidan was, and how his gentle saintliness told

with the people. “ Churches were built in various places,

crowds used to come with joy to hear the Word preached,

possessions and territories were given by royal munifi-

cence for the erection of monasteries, English children

were taught by Scottish teachers, and learnt at the same

time both more advanced studies and the observance

of regular discipline.”

No further interruption was destined to stay the
course of Northumbrian Christianity. After a nine

years’ reign Oswald was, indeed, slain in battle, pro-

bably at Oswestry, by the same Penda who had

slain his uncle Edwin. But, though Deira and

Bernicia were divided again for a short time, each

received a Christian ruler, and after a few years Oswy,

the brother of Oswald, united them both under his

sceptre, and the succession was secured to his family.

Aidan himself was spared for sixteen years to superin-

tend the progress of his work, and after his death there

were Finan and Colman and their successors to continue

it.

Nor was it only in the Northumbrian provinces that

the Celtic mission from Iona gathered its fruits. During

the episcopate of Finan, Peada, son of Penda, sought

Baptism at his hands and begged for some monks, who

were given him to convert the Mid-Anglians. An
attempt was also made to re-convert the East Saxons by

Cedd, one of St. Aidan’s disciples, and, after the death of



Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

/

Penda on the field of Winwsed, Diuma was sent to

establish at Lichfield a bishopric of Mercia.

This was the extent of the Celtic labours. Under

influences altogether independent of Columba, the West

Saxon kingdom was evangelized. Birinus was sent over

by Pope Honorius, with a commission to evangelize the

Mid-Saxons. Landing, however, in Hampshire, he

found the West Saxons in need of conversion, and felt

that he would be fulfilling best the spirit of his charge by

bestowing his first labours upon them. This was a few

years before the arrival of St. Aidan in the North. The

work of Birinus, very soon after its inauguration, had to

pass through a crisis, but it came out safely, and, after

the death of Birinus, was taken up and carried to comple-

tion by Agilbert, a Frankish Bishop, and other successors.

The only English race still remaining Pagan was that

of the South Saxons. The distinction of effecting their

conversion was reserved for St. Wilfrid in 681, during

one of his unjust exiles from Northumbria.

With the aid of this slight sketch, it is possible to

estimate Dr. Lightfoofs contention that Aidan, not

Augustine, was the Apostle of England. As Catholics,

we have no motive for undervaluing the work done by

the monks of Iona. They and the missionaries from

the Continent are cherished with equal veneration by

ourselves now as they ever were by our Catholic ances-

tors. We regard them all equally as our fathers in the
faith, and they while living regarded one another as

ministers of the same faith and fellow-labourers in the

same good cause. Aidan, says Bede, “ was deservedly

loved by all, even by those who thought differently

about the Pasch
;
and not only by persons of ordinary

station, for he was held in like reverence by the Bishops

themselves, Honorius of Canterbury and Felix of the

East Anglians.”* When, however, we are required in

favour of St. Aidan to dispossess St. Augustine of
w
his

traditional title of Apostle of England, accorded to him

by all previous generations, we may welfask on what

grounds.

* Eccles. Hist, iii., 25.



8
;

Was St. Aidan an Anglican?

Former ages have been unhesitating in awarding the

title to St. Augustine and to him only. In the Council

of Clovesho, for instance, in 747 it was decreed : “That

the birthday of the blessed Pope Gregory, as also the

day of death, falling on May 26th, of St. Augustine,

Archbishop and Confessor, who, sent by the aforesaid

Pope, our Father St. Gregory, brought to the English

race the knowledge of faith, the Sacrament of Baptism,

and the knowledge of the heavenly country, be honoured

and venerated by all as is becoming.”* Surely they

were better able to know then than modern Anglicans

can know now, what was the comparative impression

made upon the country by the different workers and

classes of workers, who, not further back than a centuiy

and a half, had founded their Church ? And they tell us

out of this their fuller knowledge, that the original and the

dominating impulse in the evangelization of the country

was St. Augustine’s not St. Aidan’s. Now this is just
what is ordinarily meant by apostleship. The title

belongs to the labourer who lays the foundations, and

it is not necessary that he should have personally carried

the building founded to its completion, or that he should

have extended the borders of the Church to every

province of the nation.

What St. Augustine did was to found the Church in

the kingdom of Kent, and thereby establish a basis for

Christian rule and influence in the land. We can well
understand why he did not do more. His episcopate

lasted but six years, he had necessarily but a very few

colleagues of his own, and the Britons to whom he

applied for aid refused it in their un-Christian hatred

of their Teutonic enemies. In spite of this dearth of

helpers, he made an attempt to found two other bishoprics

—one at Rochester, the other at London—and it was
not his fault if the accession of the heathen princes

expelled Mellitus from London before the newly-sown

faith of the East Saxons had had time to mature.

To St. Augustine’s impulse we must also attribute the

Haddan and Stubbs, Councils
, p. 368.



Was St. Aidan an Anglican f 9

grand work of St. Paulinus in the North, although it

did not commence till twenty years after the Saint’s

death. We must call it a grand work, for so it was.
Already we have heard Bede’s account of what was

done
;
but because a terrible persecution overtook it in

its infancy and interrupted its course, we are asked by

Dr. Lightfoot to regard the labours of Paulinus as a

mere exhibition of “ feverish activity.” Paulinus, it is

alleged, had not the prudence to think of consolidating

his work : his only anxiety was to multiply converts.

Consequently, when the trial came, “ it was as if a sponge

had passed over the land.” How amusingly unconscious
Anglicans are of the inconsistencies into which their

position leads them ! Augustine can spare no monks

for external work, and seeks to consolidate that already

begun. In consequence he is blamed for his want of

zeal. Paulinus is beset by vast multitudes seeking

admission into the fold. He spends himself day and

night in giving such preliminary instruction as was possi-

ble under the circumstances, and then administers

Baptism. In consequence, he is accused of feverish

activity. What sort of historical justice is this ? Paulinus

could not do much towards consolidating his work,

because he had neither the means nor the time. He
did what he could : he made a beginning

;
and doubt-

less would have proceeded to mature what was in its

infancy had his destiny allowed him. It is true he

left when Cadwallon was devastating the land, and Dr.

Lightfoot considers this to evince faint-heartedness. No
doubt it would have been magnificent to stay and court

martyrdom. But would the useless sacrifice of life have

been more according to the dictates of Christian prudence

than a temporary withdrawal, the more so as he did

leave another to sustain the neophytes in their trial, one

who perhaps was the better fitted for that office, just

because he was the less known ? #

And by what authority does Dr. Lightfoot tell us that

the work of Paulinus was altogether blotted out? Bede

is the only informant that we have, and he certainly

does not say so much. At most it is Dr. Lightfoot’s



io Was St. Aidan an Anglican?

inference from Bede’s story, and, we submit, it is a false

inference. There was only a year’s interval between the

departure of Paulinus and the coming of Aidan. Bede

himself tells us that St. Hilda had been christened by

Paulinus, and he has preserved to us a touching account,

told in his own hearing by one old man, of the venera-

tion felt for Paulinus when he baptized in the Trent. It

is reasonable to think that, although St. Aidan of course

added many besides to the Church, a large number, the

nucleus in fact, of the flock which gathered round him

on his arrival was formed out of those whom Paulinus
had converted and baptized. They were won back

rather than won, and many of them not so much won

back as preserved to the faith which they had not aban-

doned at heart during the persecution. There was

continuity, in other words, between the work of Aidan

and that of Paulinus : and so Paulinus more than Aidan,

and, behind Paulinus, Augustine, was the Apostle of the

North.

Such is Augustine’s claim to the title of Apostle.

What about Aidan’s? Aidan and his monks did un-

doubtedly a grand work. The faith of the neophytes

was no longer in their days subjected to the trial of royal

persecutions, and this made the labours of the missionary

easier. We must note this difference between the
circumstances under which the Celtic and the Roman

missionaries respectively laboured, because it ought to

enter into the comparison which Anglicans have chal-

lenged in the view of disparaging the Romans. The

difference is in itself, however, matter only for thanks-

giving, by no means for disparagement of the labours of

the Celts. As regards the extent of their part in the

conversion of the country, we may call Aidan co-apostle,

with Paulinus, of the North
;
and we may call his disciple

Cedd an apostle of the East Saxons, and his other

disciple Chad the apostle of Mercia. We may also
award Aidan his share in the, conversion of the South

Saxons, whose immediate apostle was his still more

famous disciple St. Wilfrid: although Dr. Lightfoot

must have experienced a difficulty in comprising Wilfrid’s



Was St. Aidan an Anglican? ii

works in the category of successes attributable to the

freer spirit of the Celtic missionaries.

But it is time to pass to the more essential question,

whether there was any such difference in faith between

Aidan and Augustine as Anglicans have lately taken to

maintain ?

The story of the efforts made by St. Augustine to

establish relations with the British clergy, is familiar to

us all. There was a meeting under an oak-tree, some-

where near Cirencester, between the two parties, which

came to nought because they could not arrange the

terms. St. Augustine seems to have been aware that

there was some difference of practice between the Britons

and the rest of Christendom, the result of their great

isolation from the centre of ecclesiastical life and teach-

ing, and he had considered with himself how much of

this dissentient practice he could conscientiously tolerate.

He required of the Britons only that they should cele-

brate their Pasch at the same time as the rest of the

world, that they should observe the rites of the Roman

Church in the administration of Baptism, and that they

should co-operate in converting the Anglians. Of

these points the last was a matter of obligation under

the precept of Christain charity, and the second must

always remain obscure to us through the lack of further

data. As regards the first we have full information.

The Britons differed from the rest of the world in their

assignment of Easter in two respects : first, in following

a computation of Paschal cycles which, though formerly

in use at Rome, had on account of its defects been

superseded by one more accurate
;
secondly, in keeping

the feast on the fourteenth day itself of the Paschal

moon when that day happened to be a Sunday, instead

of transferring it to the twenty-first, the Sunday following.

After some negotiations the Britons rejected the over*

tures of St. Augustine, and the question arises, what was

the real motives of the rejection ? Anglicans, not deem-

ing the points mentioned to involve any important

principle, have concluded that the real issue lay behind,

and was that of the Papal claims. So, for instance, Dr.



12 Was St. Aidan an Anglican ?

Bright, who censures Lingard as follows; “Lingard

argues that the subjects of Papal authority and British

independence did not come into consideration.* This is

futile. The British delegates could not fail to know that

Augustine did come to them as specially empowered

from Rome. And their reverence for Rome did not, in
their view, commit them to obedience to its emissary.

But it must have done so, had it included a belief in

Papal Supremacy.” f If, however, these subjects had

come into consideration, Bede must have known it from

his authorities. The dialogue, too, would have taken a

different form altogether. There was no motive on

either side for concealing the true issue, if it was that

alleged. Dr. Bright’s mistake is to assume that conduct

is always strictly logical. If it were so, the inference

from resistance and disobedience to rejection of authority

would be sound. As it is not, the inference is unsound.

What then were the real motives by which the Britons

were actuated? That St. Augustine’s pride in not rising

to receive their envoys counted for very much is not

conceivable. Judging from the circumstances, we may

set down dislike of the Saxons, their race-foes, as the main

ground of the British refusal. Still, probably each of St.

Augustine’s demands was repulsive to the Britons.

Religious rites and usages, although only involving

discipline, may through long custom become intensely

precious. This very matter of Easter computation

supplies us with an apt illustration from our own experi-

ence. When the suggestion is made that, in the interests

of practical convenience, Easter should be a fixed instead

of a moveable feast, it is always urged that no principle

can possibly be involved in the proposal. Yet what

Catholic does not instinctively feel that the change would

cut him to the quick, and that if, what is of course incon-

ceivable, the Pope could be got at by the advocates of

change and should prescribe according to their wishes, it

would require of us an almost heroic exercise of obedience

to submit?

* Anglo-Saxon Church, i., 380.

t Early English Church History , p. 83.



Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

13

We are to conclude, then, that no evidence of difference
of creed between St. Augustine and the Britons can be

inferred from the occurrences at Augustine’s oak. And

this is to the point, although we are immediately concerned

with the faith of Aidan and the Northern Celts, not of

the Celts in Wales. It is to the point, because the faith of

all the Celts was confessedly the same, and one argument

advanced by Anglicans for the alleged “ independence
”

of Aidan is the alleged “ independence ” of the Britons.

It is to the point again, because we have in the Easter

controversy between the supporters of Colman, Aidan’s

successor, and those of Wilfrid, which came to a head at

the conference of Whitby, sixty years later, a mere re-

production of the previous dispute at the oak. In Aidan’s

time, we are told by Bede, his error in celebrating the

Pasch was tolerated. He was so respected and venerated

by all, that those who knew better did not like to trouble

him about an observance which he would have found it

so hard to surrender. But after his death the incon-

venience arising out of the clash between the two

observances grew more acute and caused the scandal of

differing from the Universal Church in so sacred a matter

to be more fully realised.

The crisis was reached one year, when King Oswy,

following the Celtic computation, began his Easter

festivities whilst his Kentish Queen was just addressing;

her. mind to the mournful ceremonies of Holy Week.

Then the conference of Whitby was held. The Celtic

representatives were Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne,

with his clerics from Scotland, Bishop Cedd, who

had preached to the East Saxons, and Abbess Hilda

of Whitby. On the other side were Agilbert, Bishop of

the West Saxons, Wilfrid, James the Roman deacon left

behind by Paulinus, and Tuda, a Celt from Southern

Ireland. Also there were present Kings Oswy and

Alchfrid, the former inclining to the Celtic, the latter to

the Roman, usage. Colman expounded the argument

for his own side, relying on the authority of St. Columba

and the supposed authority of St. John. Wilfrid replied,

with some unnecessary heat of words, but with an excel-



14 Was St. Aidan an Anglican?

lent exposition of the motives demanding compliance

with the Catholic custom, drawn partly from the reasons

by which the Universal Church had been moved to adopt

her method, partly from the general duty of obedience.

Dealing with the authority of St. Columba pleaded by

his opponents, he attributed that Saint’s error to the

absence of more accurate information in his distant

dwelling-place, and expressed confidence that he would

have abandoned it had the information arrived in his

days. That thus he had suffered no harm from his error,

which however would not be the case with the present

gerieration of his sons, who would certainly sin if they

contemned the decrees of the Apostolic See and the

Universal Church. For were St. Columba and his monks

of higher authority than the blessed Prince of the

Apostles, to whom the Lord said, “ Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of
Hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give thee the

keys of the Kingdom of Heaven ”?

This appeal brought up King Oswy, who asked of

Colman if such words were truly said by our Lord to St.

Peter. On receiving the acknowledgment that they
were, he rejoined, “ This then is the door-keeper whom

I will not resist, but as far as my knowledge and power
goes, I will obey all his decrees, lest perchance when I

approach the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven, there

be none to open, he turning his back to me to whom

the keys are proved to have been given.”

The words of the Gospel brought home forcibly to the

mind of the King the necessity of obedience to him whom

God had placed over His Church, blessed Peter, ever

living in the line of his successors. The effect on Cedd

was the same. So was the effect on Eata and many of

the monks of Colman’s own Abbey of Lindisfarne: so

probably was it on Hilda of Whitby, since she continued

at her post under the rectified observance : so certainly

it was on many others, as we learn from Bede, who says,

“All present agreed with the King, the leaders from

their seats, the commoner sort from the place where

they stood.”



Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

15

Colman, with a few others, alone continued to

resist the change. They returned to Scotland, “ in

order to treat with their own people there what should

be done.” The phrase here used is noticeable. We
may fairly gather from it that even Colman was not

altogether sure of a point concerning which so many of

his previous adherents had been convinced by the dis-

cussion held. He wanted light, and went to seek it of

those in whom he had confidence. That he ever passed

over himself to the Catholic observance does not appear,

but the Celtic Christians had all accepted it within the

space of half a century from 66 4, the date of the Council

of Whitby. Those in South Ireland-had even accepted

it thirty years earlier, according to Bede, “in deference

to the admonitions of the Bishop of the Apostolic See.”

The Northern Irish accepted it in 704, convinced by

the reasoning of Adamnan, the then Abbot of St.

Columba’s own monastery at Iona. Adamnan was less

successful with his own people, but these too were gained

over twelve years later by the Anglian Egbert. In

Wales, nourished probably by the intense animosity felt

by its inhabitants for their English neighbours, the

erroneous system held out longer. It was not com-

pletely extinguished till the commencement of the ninth

century. But, as a set off against this, we find the Welsh

consistently regarded by English writers as in schism on

account of their attitude towards the rest of the Christian

world.

From these facts we are able to see how little there is

in common between the position taken up by modern

Anglicans and that of these ancient Celtic Christians.

The Anglican position is one of protest based on a con-

scious theory that the “ Bishop of Rome hath no authority

in this realm of England,” the authority which he claims

belonging of right only to the English Crown. The

attitude of the Celtic monks was not based on any

theoretical differences in regard to the ultimate seat of

authority between themselves and the rest of the

Christian world. It was merely an attitude of practical

protest against a particular measure, and based on the



1

6

Was St. Aidan an Anglican

?

very strong feeling that the usage to which they had

been so long accustomed, and into which they had, so

to speak, grown, ought not to be abandoned. We may
call this, as we have called it higher up, disobedience

:

refusal to obey a recognized authority as distinguished

from refusal to recognize the authority commanding:

refusal, too, to obey, not of the baser sort, but refusal

arising out of the mistaken persuasion that the particular

order issued was in violation of a most sacred obligation.

Let it however be granted, for the sake of argument,

that the Anglican thesis is completely proved : that

Welsh and Irish and Scottish* were in their origins quite

as Anglicans are now. What then ? Are they brought

by this a whit nearer the establishment of their pet

theory, that in the days of Henry and Elizabeth no

breach took place in the continuity which they claim to

hold with the Church of the Dunstans and the Anselms,

the Cuthberts and the De Burys ? If we are to say that

the Celtic Church of Northumbria did differ, on the

point of Roman supremacy, from the rest of the world,

we must say also that it was of short survival. It gave

way at once before the influx of what was deemed to be

fuller light at Whitby. It retired to a remote island off

the coast of Mayo, there also soon to lose all traces of

its peculiar usages. Meanwhile in Northumbria all

classes hastened to harmonize their beliefs and practices

with those of their southern and continental brethren:

and it is from them, not from the Celts—that is, supposing
the two to have represented essentially different creeds

—

that the later English Church, the Church of the Anglo-

Saxon and mediaeval periods, derives its origin.

* These terms are used, here and throughout, for convenience

sake, as they are understood now-a-days.



SHILLING PACKETS.

The Publications of the Society may also be obtained
in Shilling Packets with illustrated wrapper. Of these

the following are now ready —

I. ENGLISH FAITH AND ENGLISH
MARTYRS. I.

1. Henry VIII. and the Eng- 6. The Popes and the English
lish Monasteries. Church.

2. Blessed Peter and the English 7. Queen Mary.

People. 8. Blessed John Fisher.

3. Before and after Gunpowder 9. Blessed Thomas More.

Plot. 10. The English Martyrs.

4. Before and after the Reforma- 11. Ven. Margaret Clitheroe.

tion. 12. Ven. Edmund Arrowsmith.

5. Was Barlow a Bishop?

II. ENGLISH FAITH AND ENGLISH
MARTYRS. IL

1. The Conversion of England. 6. The Faith of the Ancient

2. The Old Religion in England. English Church concerning

3. A Voice from the Dead. the Blessed Virgin.
4. The Continuity of the Eng- 7. The Church of Old England.

lish Church. 8. St. Bede, Monk and Mass

5. The Faith of the Ancient Priest.

English Church concerning 9. Blessed Edmund Campion,

the Holy Eucharist. 10. Ven. Philip Howard.

11. St. Thomas of Canterbury.

Ill- STORIES OF SAINTS AND SINNERS.

1. St. Mary Magdalene and

other Women of the New
Testament.

2. Ven. John Ogilvie, S.J.

3. St. Francis of Assisi.

4. Mary Queen of Scots.

5. St. Zita.

6. St. Margaret of Cortona.

7. Regained.

8. Legends of St. Francis.

9. The Catholic’s Library

Tales. No. 7.

10. The Catholic’s Library
Tales. No. 2.

11. Sylvia’s Lesson.

12. St. Vincent de Paul.

of

of

IV. IRELAND AND HER SAINTS.

1. St. Patrick.

2. St. Columba.

3. St. Columbanus.

4. Ven. Oliver Plunket.

5. Father Mathew.

6. St. Brigid.

7. The HolyRosary.

8. The Catholic’s Library of
Tales. No. 5.

9. Brian Daly.

10. The Catholic’s Library of
Poems. No. 5.

11. The Catholic’s Library of
Tales. No. 1 5.



V. MODERN NEEDS AND MODERN
WORKERS.

1. Leo XIII. on Labour. 7. Total Abstinence from a

2. Temperance and Thriftv Catholic Point of View.

3. The Reform of the Poor Law. 8. Christian Art.

4. School Savings Banks and 9. Father Olivaint.

Benefit Clubs. 10. Cardinal Newman.

5. Catholic Clubs. 11. Soeur Rosalie.

6. Mixed Marriages. 12. Archbishop Ullathorne.

VI. MISSIONS AND MISSIONERS.

1. Our National Vice. 6. St. Alphonsus Liguori.

2. The African Slave Trade. 7. Father Damien.

3. Woman’s Work in the African 8. Don Bosco.

;
Missions. 9. The Little Sisters.

4. Catholic Missions. 10. St. Francis Xavier.

5. Cathplic Temperance Leaf- n. St. Peter Claver.

lets. 12. Leo XIII.

> VII. THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.

1. The Blessed Sacrament the 7. Extracts from the writings
Centre of Immutable Truth. of St. Irenseus.

2. The Passion of Our Lord. 8. The Pope and the English

3. The Church Catholic. Church.

4. The Bible and the Reforma- 9. Church Defence, 1st series.

tion. 10. ,, ,, 2nd series.

5. The Church and the Bible, n. ,, ,, 3rd series.
6. A Scriptural Life of the 12. Questions and Answers.

Blessed Virgin.

VIII. EIGHT LECTURES ON THE POSI-
TION OF CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND.

BY CARDINAL NEWMAN.

Protestant View of the Catholic Church.

Tradition the sustaining Power of the Protestant View.

Fable the Basis of the Protestant View.

True Testimony unequal to the Protestant View.

Prejudice the Life of the Protestant View.

Assumed Principles the Ground of the Protestant View.

Ignorance the Protection of the Protestant View.

Duty of Catholics towards the Protestant View.

IX. JESUITRY AND JESUITS.
1. Positivism, 6. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez.

2. Socialism 7. St. John Berchmans.

3. Fr. Olivaint’s Last Retreat, 8. St. Aloysius.

4. St. Ignatius Loyola. 9. St. Francis Xavier.

5. How Theories are Manufac- 10. A Tangled Tale.
tured, 11. Missing Links.