The Christian Church in These Islands before the Coming of Augustine

18

Some writers, not aware of the extent to which wattle-work can be used and has been used, have said that virgea must in this connection mean “made of boards,” not of wattle. There seems to be no sufficient reason for putting this interpretation upon a well-known word. And even if it had that meaning, we should find in the recently revealed British marsh-fortress an equally good illustration of their skill in working boards. The principal causeway is faced with oak boards on its two vertical sides. These are kept in their place by carefully squared oak posts, driven deep into the ground below, so that their tops are level with the surface of the causeway. The tops of the posts are morticed, and a bar of oak, across the causeway, is let into the tops of the two posts opposite to one another, and is fastened there with oak pegs. Thus the boards which face the vertical sides of the causeway are clamped tight in their places. The work is done throughout with extreme neatness of fit and finish.

19

Juvenal, Satires, xii. 46; Martial, Epigrams, xiv. 99.

20

Ep. xi. 53.

21

Wars of the Jews, vi. 6.

22

Annals, xiv. 32, 33.

23

That is, in December 1893, in the war with the Matabele.

24

It is added that in the eventual revenge of the Romans, some eighty thousand of the Britons were killed. These numbers seem at first sight very large, too large to be historical. But we may bear in mind that Caesar a hundred years before had noted with surprise the populousness of Britain —hominum infinita multitudo, countless swarms of men.

25

See p. 117. As I have found myself obliged by historical considerations to abandon the interesting old tradition of King Lucius, I may as well give in a note some details of the story which have special interest for us in London. It may be mentioned as a preliminary, that Gildas (about a. d. 560) makes no reference to the story. Bede, who usually follows Gildas, gets his information about Lucius from the Roman Chronicle, as enlarged in the time of Prosper. But he gives two different dates, in one place (i. 4) a. d. 156, which is inconsistent with the names of the reigning emperors as given by him, and in another place (the summary at the end of book v) after a. d. 167. The earliest British testimony to the story is that of Nennius, in the ninth century. He tells us that Lucius was called Lleur maur, the great light, because of this event.

26

On this important point we may expect some detailed discussion before long. The interesting publication, recently commenced, of the Supplément aux Bollandistes pour des vies de Saints de l’époque Mérovingienne (Dupont, 4 Rue du Bouloi, Paris), will contain a treatise sur l’évangélisation de l’Angleterre par les soins du roi Lucius.

27

The French ecclesiastics claim the foundation of bishoprics at some of these places in the first century.

28

The language of the traditions would suggest that only the holders of the principal sees went from Britain, there being other bishops who stayed at home, in smaller places. Bishoprics rapidly increased in number in the early Anglo-Saxon Church; indeed, the number of bishoprics in England remained almost stationary from Bede’s time to Henry VIII. In the time of Archbishop Tatwine, who was contemporary with the last years of Bede, there were seventeen bishoprics, counting Whithorn, and at the beginning of Henry VIII’s reign there were eighteen, counting Man; the Welsh bishoprics are not included in these numbers. Dunwich and Elmham, Sherborne, Selsey, Lindisfarne, Lindsey, in Tatwine’s time, were represented respectively by Norwich, Salisbury, Chichester, Durham, Lincoln, in Henry VIII’s time. Leicester, Hexham, Whithorn, had disappeared, and Bath, Carlisle, Ely, Exeter, Man, had come into existence.

29

See page 59.

30

Any one writing of these early times has to exercise great self-restraint, if he is not to overload his subject with interesting illustrations. I cannot refrain from quoting here two paragraphs from Bede (iii. 15) which shew that there was a curious knowledge of the property of oil in England in the seventh century, about 651 a. d.

31

The dates of the departures and restorations of the Roman troops may be stated as follows: —

32

Haddan and Stubbs, i. 121. The British were not driven from these parts much before 652-658. Hence, perhaps, the preservation of the old wattle church, the conquerors being now Christians.

33

The list of sixteen Archbishops is given by Sir T. D. Hardy in his edition (1854) of Le Neve’s Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, on the ground that he did not wish to omit a list given by Godwin; he adds that Wharton (de episcopis Londin.) believed Restitutus and Fastidius to be the only names of Bishops of London contained in the list. The names of the so-called Archbishops are: – 1. Theanus; 2. Eluanus; 3. Cadar; 4. Obinus; 5. Conanus; 6. Palladius; 7. Stephanus; 8. Iltutus; 9. Theodwinus, or Dewynus; 10. Theodredus; 11. Hilarius; 12. Restitutus; 13. Guitelinus; 14. Fastidius; 15. Vodinus; 16. Theonus. The first on the list is said to have been made archbishop by King Lucius. The date of the twelfth is of course 314. The fifteenth is said to have been murdered by Hengist for protesting against the unlawful marriage of Vortigern with Hengist’s daughter Rowena, about 455; this date of the last but one on the list is consistent with a view held by some chroniclers that there were no bishops of London between the beginning of the Saxon invasion and the coming of Augustine.

34

It is unnecessary to say that some writers in the past have assumed that a metropolitan bishop in early times was of course an archbishop. It was not so.

35

Augustine does not appear to have been called Archbishop of Canterbury in his lifetime. He was called Bishop of the English, and sometimes Archbishop. His epitaph, as given by Bede (ii. 3), described him as dominus Augustinus Dorovernensis Archiepiscopus primus, “the Lord Augustine, first Archbishop of Dorovernium” (Canterbury).

36

Bede, i. 29.

37

If, indeed, he is certainly speaking of the same Picts.

38

See page 96.

39

On one stone, – Α et Ω, hic iacent sancti et praecipui sacerdotes id est Viventius et Mavorius; on the other, – [Piu]s et Florentius.

40

It has been said confidently that the Alpha and Omega is not found in Ireland. I found, however, an early stone in the churchyard at Kells with the Alpha and Omega, the Chi Rho, and the I H S. This is the only case in which I have seen all three on one monument.

41

In a field near the Almond, at Kirkliston. The inscription is In oc tumulo iacit Vetta f Victi … If we take the form used by Bede (i. 15) Victi would stand for Victigilsi.

42

See page 11.

43

Tacitus, Life of Julius Agricola, ch. 24.

44

See page 59.

45

See page 58.

46

Almost the same details, however, appear in the treatment of Wilfrid by his fellow-Anglians (Eddi, ch. 49). His opponents so entirely execrated his fellowship, that if any abbat or priest of his party, bidden by a faithful layman, made the sign of the cross over the meat, it was cast out as a thing offered to idols; and any vessel they used was washed before one of the other side would touch it. Theological differences are a competent substitute for difference of race.

47

The general idea of the “cycle of years” is that after such-and-such a number of years the sun and moon and earth return to the same relative positions. This is fairly true of nineteen years; more closely true of ninety-five.

48

Adamnan, who tells us this, tells us also that the prophecy was fulfilled. Lugbe Mocummin was at Cantyre with the Saint some months after, and found there a ship whose captain told them of the destruction of the city (now called Citta Nuova). Life of Columba, i. 22.

49

St. Oliver, formed from Santo Liverio (St. Liberius, the Swiss St. Livres), and San Todo, from St. Odo, are similar cases.

50

One has recently been found at Silchester, much further east than any other known example.

51

In modern phrase, the Goidelic, not the Brythonic branch of the Celtic race.

52

Thus on the famous stone at St. Dogmael’s, near Cardigan, the first bilingual inscription of this kind found, the Ogam is sagramni maqi cunatami, the Latin, sagrani fili cunotami.

53

It is unnecessary to explain that Missa, the Latin equivalent of Mass, was of course used in Augustine’s time. It was not for centuries after this that a narrow meaning came to be attached to the words Missa and Mass, by the introduction and prevalence of the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

54

Those who desire information on these points will find it in the Rev. F. E. Warren’s Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church.