ONLY a few years after the death of the Emperor Constantine the hands of imperial Rome waxed feeble, and the pressure of her own needs caused the withdrawal of her legions from Britain, and in 409 the Roman Empire in the island terminated. While these events were proceeding a new race had set its eyes on the shores of the land. Boatloads of the hardy tribes of the countries of the Northern seas stole down upon the north and east coasts, and settled themselves in the country. The numbers of these warriors increased as generations passed by, and for some hundreds of years, until the final invasion of the country by William the Conqueror, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and Danes poured into Britain. The British generally were slowly driven back towards the south and west, while in some parts of the island they assimilated with their conquerors. The Picts also assailed the British in the northern part of the island, while the Scots, who inhabited the coasts of Ireland, raided the British shores, and over the greater part of the land wars were incessant. After generations of fighting, and when matters had settled into comparative calm, the British held Wales and part of Cornwall, the Picts Caledonia, and the Saxon invaders, the east, center, and the north. To the Angles we owe the names of England and the English, and the combination of the different races referred to, form the people of Great Britain.
Let us try to imagine the state of the population of the country in those un-restful times. First, on the withdrawal of the imperial forces, there were those who were right glad to throw off the Roman yoke, and opposed to them were the great party of Roman-loving Britons. Later on, the Britons, with what unity they possessed, were contending against the Picts, and then against Saxon invaders also. Again, as the Saxons obtained land and power, and settled themselves under their kings, they would perchance ally themselves with some of the British against the Picts. Or the kingdoms, composed of the various tribes of Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, which had settled in the land, would fight one against another, and at times would enter into alliances with the British, the better to overwhelm their fellow Saxons! Further, when, after the lapse of many generations, the Saxons had either driven out the Britons from their old possessions, or had assimilated themselves with them as children of the soil, they would in turn seek to drive back the invading Danes, who came in their armed ships, as had done their forefathers before them, to make England their home.
The Northmen, whether Saxons, Jutes, or Danes, were heathen, and their gods and religion were in accord with themselves—rude and fierce. Unlike the licentious deities of decaying Rome, their gods were destroyers and thunderers; they loved the roar of battle, and to them smoking homesteads were as sweet incense. These Northmen slew the Christians and destroyed their churches, and as the mass of the British were slowly forced back, southward and westward, during a prolonged period, their religious teachers retreated with them; while ruined churches told the story of an overwhelmed religion. Thus the Church of God in Britain, which, under the Roman occupation, had extended over the greater part of the land, was hemmed in in Wales and the west, and separated by a broad belt of paganism from the Churches of the East and of Europe.
Because of these events the Church in Britain, for a considerable period of time, was to a great extent isolated, and it lived a life of its own. This may be well regarded as distinctly providential, for the Church, both in the East and in Europe, was rapidly departing from the holy principles and the simplicity of apostolic times. We do not affirm that the British Church was pure in Scripture truth and principle, as it had been at the beginning—far from it; but the sword of the heathen certainly protected it from some of the evils which were fast leavening the Church on the Continent of Europe.
With the above short sketch before us, and referring to it occasionally, we shall endeavor very briefly to recount the story of the Church in Britain from the time of the Emperor Constantine till the advent on British shores of Augustine the monk, whom Pope Gregory of Rome sent to convert the pagan English, and to subdue the British Church. This period, from A.D. 312 to A.D. 597, approaching in length that which has elapsed since the Reformation, is full of interest. The British Church at the commencement of the period was patronized by the state of imperial Rome; then from about the year 400 it shared the sufferings and hardships which befell the land wherein it was planted; and at the close of the period it arose out of persecution and affliction to be earnest and fruitful, sending forth its missionaries, reaching the Picts of Caledonia, and the Scots of Ireland, penetrating into the territory of the Saxon, and extending even to the Continent of Europe.
A t the call of Constantine, the British Church sent bishops to the general councils of the Church. Three were selected, probably because they represented to imperial Rome the chief provinces of the island. In those comparatively early days, upon a vital question arising in the Church, bishops and delegates came together to consider the matter. The Church thereby practically declared its unity. And more: as there was no ruling bishop or pope in those times, the Holy Scriptures were accepted as the authoritative voice.
To the great Council of Nicea, A.D. 325, we owe the Nicene Creed, which so nobly sets forth the nature of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Still the bishops returning from the Council could not say, "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us," as was said of the first council of the Church, but rather, "It seemed good to us and the Emperor," who we will not forget was an un-baptized man, though practically the president.
The Emperor gave a great impulse to the building of gorgeous churches and the worship of relics. As regards the former, it is a matter of sincere congratulation that these islands yield no remains of costly ornamentation or similar mementoes of the departure of the Church from its heavenly calling, as do cities such as Rome, and also those of the East. And as ornamental remains exist in the ruins of private edifices in Britain, it cannot be said that all such records of the past have been swept away by barbaric hands. As regards relics, they were venerated in Britain. How this evil habit was introduced into the island we cannot positively say; it may have come from Rome, or from other places where the bones of the martyrs had been held in high esteem from shortly after the apostolic age. Together with sacred bones, the British Church held to the notion of sacred places—also an utter departure in spirit from Scripture teaching. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were in favor. The land where Christ had lived and had been buried, was the direction the ancient pilgrims chiefly regarded. It is supposed that from the East these visitors brought back with them the monastic idea, and the practice of the shaving of the head, for the British monks shaved their heads as did the Easterns, and not as did the monks of the Romish Church. Easter was also kept according to the Eastern style; and in various other practices the British differed from the European Churches.
The Church in Britain, unlike the Churches on the Continent, had no archbishops. Some at least of its bishops were poor, and generally its bishops were far removed from riches.
The British Church had a version of the Scriptures which differed in certain small matters from the version in use in other Churches; so that in a variety of ways we see that it possessed a distinct character of its own.
An interesting feature of its character is found in the opposition to the doctrines of Pelagius conducted by two bishops from Gaul in the year 429. These two worthy men spoke to the people in the fields or villages, or wherever they could find them. The British people were much agitated over the doctrines, and they listened eagerly. After a time an open discussion was arranged. The Pelagian party came forth arrayed in fine garments and their two opponents appeared in plain attire. The people sat and stood about, a great company of both men and women, and the people practically decided the case, for they drove off the Pelagians. Thus the laity had a practical voice in ecclesiastical matters, or, at all events, on the vital questions of doctrine which affect all the Church. In after years, in relation to such matters, the ecclesiastics treated the laity as utterly beneath their notice.
The early British Church, in addition to considerable learning, possessed most remarkable missionary zeal, and by glancing at the names of a few of the great men of her early days a fair notion can be gained of what the Church was like.
In the year 360 Wales gave birth to Ninian. He died in 432. His labors commenced and continued in troublous times. The marvel is that he was the great missionary of his day to the Southern Picts, who, un-subdued by the Roman legions, were ever warring with the garrison of the North of England, and who poured into Britain when the Roman troops were withdrawn. The Picts, whether Southern or Northern, could only regard the Britons as their natural enemies, once of the same blood as themselves, but at length the allies if not the serfs of the Latin race. Yet during the period when the victorious Picts plundered and destroyed the Northern Britons, Ninian maintained his missionary labors amongst them, and planted churches in their territory. To this day the name of Ninian lives in the legends of Scotland, and also in various churches and places called after him.
It is most remarkable how that from this period, say from the year 400, the Christian faith, through the zeal of the British Church, began slowly but surely to extend over the Picts, Southern and Northern, and later over a great extent of the Saxon kingdoms.
At about the same period arose Patrick, who was even greater than Ninian. When a boy he was stolen from his home in Britain and carried into slavery, together with hundreds of others, by the Scots, whose land was Northern Ireland. This untoward circumstance was ordained of God, to lead Patrick to become the great missionary to the people of Ireland. True, there were isolated Christians in Ireland before his day, but he was the great evangelist and apostle of the Irish. Like Ninian, Patrick's labors were carried out in the midst of a wild people, who fought against the Britons, and therefore in the presence of difficulties which could be surmounted by a power no less than that of God. His labors in Ireland had commenced before Ninian's death, and his mightiest successes there are assigned by some to the years before that event occurred.
The vigor and the life of the British Church wrought chiefly outside Britain during the long years of trouble induced by the wars with the Saxons—or the English, as for convenience sake we will now call them. The mission spirit found first its outlet amongst the peoples of Scotland and Ireland.
Patrick was joined in his work by men from Gaul as well as from Britain. For very many generations Gaul and Britain had been connected with each other; they had continually interchanged warriors and religious teachers in the time of the Druids; and now, in the name of Christ, missionaries from either country labored together. Patrick originated a "household" community of workers, some of whom were apt in agriculture, mechanics, and household duties, and others were devoted to literary pursuits, while all the "household" would preach Christ to the heathen. From the midst of Patrick's converts and helpers in Ireland, missionaries poured out to Caledonia, to the pagan Saxons, and also to various European nations.
He died in or about the year 493.
In close moral connection with Patrick is the great Columba. He was born in Ireland in 521, and was trained in the religious community of which Patrick was the founder. His name is associated with much Christian work in Ireland, and when he was forty-two years old, Columba, accompanied by twelve monks, came to Iona, where he instituted his famous society, the object of which was "to preach the Word of God in the provinces of the Northern Picts." This society of so-called monks lived by the labor of, their hands; the orchards and fields of their own planting sustained the workers. One of the common names for these worthy monks—some of whom were married, and all of whom led useful lives—was "Soldiers of Christ." They journeyed amongst the heathen around them, and thus were in constant danger and open to a violent death. The copying of the Scriptures was a large part of their work, and it is said that Columba himself wrote three hundred New Testaments with his own hand. In their college or colleges—for the institutions under Columba increased—the most talented men of the day were to be found; various languages were studied, and the missionaries to different countries were trained in the language of the country to which they would go.
The ruins of the monastery on Iona are not those of the building erected by Columba, but of a more recent period. He and his fellow workers lived in reed and mud huts, of which many of the churches of those days were built. Through the work of Columba and his assistants the pagan section of the Picts at length became nominally Christian.
Columba died on June 9th, A.D. 597. The work he had instituted lived long after him, and, as we shall see in our next chapter, his followers penetrated into the darkness of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and many of the pagan English people, by their instrumentality, were converted to Christianity.