[Sidenote: Council of Pisa.]

At length there was an universal longing for the cessation of the great schism in the Western Church, and a Council was held at Pisa, A.D. 1409, where it was agreed by the Cardinals belonging to the two parties to depose both Pope and anti-Pope, and to elect another who took the name of Alexander V., with an understanding that he was at once to reform and pacify the Church. But neither Pope nor anti-Pope would resign, so that there were three claimants instead of two, and very soon after his {110} election Alexander V. died. John XXIII. (A.D. 1410-A.D. 1415) was elected in his place, but he proved to be thoroughly devoid of principle, and the Council of Pisa having proved unsuccessful in promoting unity or reformation, another was convoked at Constance, A.D. 1414, under the presidency of the Emperor Sigismund I. [Sidenote: Council of Constance.] This Council was attended by the representatives of all the monarchs of the West, as well as by a very large number of Bishops and Clergy, and it was decreed that the three claimants to the papal throne should be deposed. John XXIII. was thrown into prison, and, after considerable delay, Martin V. (A.D. 1417-A.D. 1431) was chosen to succeed him. The Council shortly after broke up, without having done any thing towards the much desired reformation of the Church, although the English, French, and German deputies had been very earnest in their endeavours to advance some scheme of reform. [Sidenote: Council of Basle.] Another Council met at Basle, A.D. 1431, whence it was transferred by Pope Eugenius IV. (A.D. 1431-A.D. 1447) first to Ferrara, and afterwards (A.D. 1439) to Florence. This opportunity was also lost in a dispute between the Council and the Pope, and there seemed to be nothing more to hope for from Councils as a means of reformation.

[Sidenote: State of the papacy at the end of the fifteen century.]

Nor were the personal characters of the Popes who filled the see of Rome during the remainder of the century, such as to encourage any expectation that their influence would be employed to revive religion, or to encourage holy living. Worldliness and ambition, revenge and immorality, cast a deep shadow over the records of the papacy at this time, until the century closes with the reign of Alexander VI., or {111} Roderigo Borgia (A.D. 1492-A.D. 1503), who was elected by bribery, and whose shameless vice and cruelty brought greater scandals upon the Church than any of his predecessors had done.

Section 3. The Monastic Orders.

Monastic orders, though not by any means an invention of the Middle Ages, may yet fairly be said to have attained their height, both of prosperity and of usefulness, during this period of Church History. [Sidenote: Early rise of monasticism.] We may trace the origin of Christian monastic life to very early times, when persecution drove many Christians to a life of loneliness and privation in desert places. The mode of life thus begun from necessity was afterwards continued from choice, and in the hope of more complete self-devotion to God's service; and the solitary hermits and anchorites of primitive ages became the forerunners of an elaborate system of religious communities of men and women.

[Sidenote: Later influences brought to bear on it.]

St. Basil, in the fourth century, brought monasticism into a more definite form, and St. Athanasius during the same century introduced it into Europe from the East. In the West the religious life spread and flourished under the fostering care of such men as St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, whilst by St. Benedict in the sixth century it was developed into the famous Benedictine rule, to which, with few exceptions, all the European monasteries conformed, and which was the parent of various minor orders or subdivisions[1].

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[Sidenote: Beneficial results of monasticism.]

It is not easy to estimate the vast amount of good which the labours of the Benedictine monks conferred on the Church of the Middle Ages, good which has left many traces to the present day. Not only did they provide in a vast number of instances for the spiritual wants of the parishes in and near which they lived, as well as for the education of the young, both rich and poor, but they were also the philosophers, the authors, the artists, and the physicians, nay, even the farmers and the mechanics of Mediaeval times. They built cathedrals and churches, made roads and bridges, copied books when writing stood in the place of printing, and were in general the props and pioneers of civilization. Amongst the very large number of men who embraced the monastic life, it is no marvel that some were not all they professed to be, or that occasional causes for scandal arose, but the popular idea of the universal corruption of the inhabitants of the monasteries is unsupported by facts, and much of what helped to give rise to this false notion is traceable to the doings of the mendicant or preaching friars. These begging orders were offshoots from the regulars, and were but too often very unworthy representatives of the parent stock[2].

Section 4. The Crusades.

Amongst the events which stand out most distinctly in the history of the Church in the Middle Ages, the long series of warlike expeditions known as the {113} Crusades bear a prominent part, stretching out as they do from the end of the eleventh to nearly the end of the thirteenth centuries.

The empire of the Arabs had died out, but they had been succeeded in their schemes of conquest as well as in their adherence to the false faith of Mahomet, by the savage Turks, whose ferocity and hatred of Christianity were especially displayed in the ill-treatment of those Christians whose piety led them to visit the scenes of our Blessed Lord's Life and Death. [Sidenote: Cause of the Crusades.] The indignation excited in Europe by the stories of outrage and desecration which were from time to time brought back by pilgrims to the Holy Land, at length found an outlet and expression in the First Crusade, which was preached, A.D. 1095, by Peter the Hermit, with the sanction both of the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople. This expedition resulted in the taking of the Holy City by the armies of the Cross (A.D. 1099), and the establishment in it of a Christian sovereignty.

[Sidenote: Their transient results.]

The First Crusade was the only one which had any real success, and even this was a transient one, for less than ninety years afterwards (A.D. 1187) Jerusalem was again taken by the Saracens, and has never since been a Christian power. But though the deliverance of the Holy Land from the yoke of the infidels was not accomplished by the Crusades, and though they caused much misery and bloodshed, and were stained by much lawlessness and plunder, yet the advance of the barbarous and anti-Christian influences of Mahometanism was checked, the Churches of Europe were saved from the soul-destroying apostasy which had over-run so large a portion of Asia, and the Crescent waned before the Cross.

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[Sidenote: Reasons for their ill-success.]

Much of the ill success with which the Crusaders met during several of these expeditions, may be traced to jealousies and heart-burnings between the different princes and nobles who took part in them, whilst disagreements on a larger scale were amongst the evil fruits of the unhappy division between Eastern and Western Christendom. Latin Christians appear in too many instances to have made use of the opportunities afforded them to injure and oppress their weaker brethren of the Greek Church, even whilst marching against the common foe of both, and the Fourth Crusade (A.D. 1203) was actually diverted from its legitimate purpose in order to conquer Constantinople, and establish a Latin Emperor, as well as a Latin Patriarch within its walls.

[Sidenote: Good directly brought about by them.]

Still, whatever may have been the want of single-mindedness on the part of many of the professed soldiers of the Cross, whatever the amount of failure with regard to the immediate objects of the Crusades, it is clear that much good was brought about through them by God's Providence, not only in the check given to the encroachments of the unbelievers, but also more indirectly in the quenching of rising heresies, in the greater purity of life which in many cases accompanied the taking of the Cross, the weakening of the feudal system, the impulse given to learning and civilization. Earnestness and self-devotion such as were shown by Godfrey de Bouillon, St. Louis of France, and no doubt by many more amongst the Crusaders, were rewarded and blessed, though not in what might have seemed at first sight the only way of success.

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Section 5. State of Religions Relief and Practice during the Middle Ages.

[Sidenote: Popular idea of the Middle Ages,]

There is a wide-spread notion that the Middle Ages were also "Dark Ages," full of ignorance and superstition, with hardly a ray of knowledge or true religion to enlighten the gloom, and also that the Church was the great encourager of this state of things; indeed, that it was mainly due to the influence of the monks and of the Clergy generally.

[Sidenote: not founded in history.]

This belief is however quite unhistorical. No doubt there was abundance of ignorance as well as of superstition, its natural consequence, but there are ample means of accounting for both in the political condition of Europe at that time, nor is it needful to blame the Church for what was in fact due to the sins and errors of the world.

[Sidenote: Real causes of ignorance and vice in the Middle Ages.]

The confusion incident to the breaking up of the old Roman empire, and the occupation of its different provinces by less highly-civilized nations, had been followed by other disorders after the death of Charlemagne and the partition of his dominions; and the constant state of warfare and aggression in which most of the princes of that time lived, was not calculated to leave their subjects much leisure for intellectual culture. Besides this, we must take into account the crushing influence of the feudal system, which gave the nobles almost absolute power over their serfs or dependants, thus encouraging lawlessness on the one hand, and causing degradation on the other. The scarcity and costliness of books before the invention of printing was another {116} formidable obstacle to any universal spread of education, all which causes tended to bring learning into contempt amongst the restless barons and their followers, restricting it chiefly to the Clergy and the monks. Thus not only theology, but secular knowledge besides, found a home in the Church, which was at once the guardian and the channel of literature.

[Sidenote: No scarcity of the means of grace in Mediaeval times.]

There are also good grounds for believing that the provision made by the Church for the spiritual necessities of the people was not, at any rate, less abundant than is the case at the present day. Indeed, there is no doubt that both Churches and Clergy, and consequently opportunities for worship and instruction, were far more in proportion to the number and needs of the population than they can be said to be now in our own country, even after the persevering and liberal efforts of late years. [Sidenote: Difficulties respecting Services and Bibles on the vernacular,] If it is objected that the want of free access to the Holy Scriptures, and the use of the Latin tongue in the public services of the Church, were calculated largely to outweigh any advantages which the people of those days might possess, we may remember that those comparatively few who could read were just those who would have access to the necessarily rare copies then existing of the Word of God, and that to them also the Latin version would be more comprehensible than any other. Again, with regard to Latin services, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to translate the devotions of the Church into any of the slowly-forming dialects of the different European nations; whilst Latin was more universally spoken and understood than French is now, and was probably intelligible to a larger number of men and women during a {117} considerable portion of the Middle Ages than any one of the other languages used.

[Sidenote: but the wish for them not wholly disregarded.]

As the various languages of Europe became gradually developed, a desire naturally arose amongst those who spoke them for services in the vernacular; and this desire was not left altogether ungratified even long before the Reformation. Thus, in England, the Epistles and Gospels and the Litany were translated into the native language in the Services of the Church, and interlinear translations were made of many portions of the Mediaeval Prayer Books[3]. Neither must we imagine that the translations of Holy Scripture put forth by the Reformers, or even that earlier version to which Wickliffe gave his name, were by any means the first efforts made to produce the Holy Bible in the vernacular. From Anglo-Saxon times downwards, we have traces of Bibles translated for the use of those who preferred such versions; and to the truth of this statement may be quoted the testimony of John Foxe, the "martyrologist," who says, "If histories be well examined, we shall find, both before the Conquest and after, as well before John Wickliffe was born as since, the whole body of the Scriptures by sundry men translated into this our country tongue[4]."

[Sidenote: State of learning in the Middle Ages.]

The Mediaeval Church was, in reality, a great supporter of learning. Our two great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were not less flourishing during the Middle Ages than at present; and nearly all of the colleges and halls at both Universities were founded in those days {118} of supposed darkness. Nor was this care for literature confined to the Church in England; Universities of equal note were to be found abroad at Paris, Pavia, Bologna, Salamanca, and other places, whilst the Schoolmen, or professors, who taught in these seats of learning, and who numbered amongst themselves the most acute thinkers and reasoners of the time, such as St. Anselm, Peter Lombard, Albertus Magnus, and St. Thomas Aquinas, were all attached to some Religious Order. Enough of the results of their labours have come down to our days to show us that it is neither wise nor just to despise the mental work which they accomplished, even though their conclusions may not always be in accordance with our own.

It is not meant by what has been said above to infer that the Mediaeval Church was altogether free from blemishes, or to deny that these blemishes did, as time went on, increase to an extent which rendered reformation not only expedient but necessary. [Sidenote: The effects of Roman influence.] We have already seen that the supremacy claimed by the Popes over the whole Church was productive of great, though, by God's good Providence, not unmitigated, evil in a political point of view; and much of the error in faith or practice on the part of Christians of those days, seems traceable to the tendency on the part of Rome to crystallize opinions into dogmas, and then to impose those dogmas on the Church. Thus the "Romish doctrine concerning purgatory," and the mechanism of "pardons," or indulgences, grew out of the floating belief held by such holy men as St. Augustine, that the souls of the faithful would undergo some more perfect purification after death than is attainable in this world; while the elaborate system of invocations of, and devotions to, the Blessed {119} Virgin Mary and the saints, were built up out of a not only harmless but justifiable faith in the intercessions of the Saints for the Church on earth, and the wish to obtain a share in their prayers. So again, the denial of the cup to the laity, which was justly felt by many to be such a grievous privation, was the natural consequence of the over-refinements of the Roman Church respecting the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist[5].

[Sidenote: The right spirit in which to regard the Mediaeval Church.]

But whatever imperfections may have clung to the Visible Church in the Middle Ages, whether owing to external hindrances, or to the human frailties of her members, we have no right to doubt that she was still the one great instrument in God's Hands for the salvation of souls. Neither should we dwell so exclusively on what is often an exaggerated estimate of the extent and duration of these blemishes, as to ignore the zeal and self-devotion which grudged neither expense nor labour in the service of God and the adornment of His House and Worship, the charity which truly "cared for the poor," the faith and holiness which shone forth in the public and private lives of such men as St. Ferdinand of Spain, St. Louis of France, and Rudolf of Hapsburg, Emperor of Germany, and were, doubtless, not wanting in the case of countless numbers of their fellow-Christians, whose names, little known and soon forgotten on earth, are for ever written in God's Book of Remembrance.



[1] Especially the Cluniacs, founded by Berno, Abbot of Clugny, A.D. 910, and the Cistercians, founded by Robert of Citeaux, A.D. 1098, and rendered illustrious by St. Bernard, afterwards Abbot of Clairvaux (A.D. 1113-A.D. 1153).

[2] The order of Franciscan Friars was founded by St. Francis of Assisi, A.D. 1207, and that of the Dominicans by St. Dominic of Castile, A.D. 1215. They were originally intended to supplement the real or supposed defects of the Clergy and the regular orders, and to aid in the suppression of heresy.

[3] See "Key to the Prayer Book," pp. 1-8.

[4] See "Key to the Bible," pp. 18-23.

[5] The practice of communion in one kind made its way very slowly, especially in England, where it was perhaps never universal. A decree of the Council of Constance in A.D. 1415 gave its first authoritative sanction.



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CHAPTER XI

The Mediaeval History of Continental Churches

A.D. 900-A.D. 1500

[Sidenote: No Mediaeval Church history in Asia or Africa.]

Before proceeding to the consideration of the different European Churches in Mediaeval times, it may be well to remark that from the year 500 the Christian history of Asia and Africa is almost a blank. Arianism, partly imported into Africa by the Vandals, who crossed thither from Spain, and partly of native growth, as well as the opposite error, Eutychianism, took from the African Church all spiritual life and vigour, so that the apostasy of Mahomet met with no formidable obstacles when in the seventh century it swept like a flood over what had been Christian Africa. It is true that the Copts in Egypt and the native Christians of Abyssinia appear to have preserved the Apostolic Succession, but both these Churches are in a state of great depression, and the Faith they profess is mingled with much ignorance and superstition, as well as with positive error.

A similar process took place in Asia. Arianism, chiefly in its later development of Nestorianism, with Eutychianism and other errors, ate out the heart of the Church, faith grew weak, and love grew cold, and {121} Mahometanism once more triumphed almost unchecked. Although the Churches of Asia are not all utterly extinct, yet they share more or less in the state of ignorance, superstition, and depression which is a natural consequence of the serious errors with which their profession of Christianity is intermixed, as well as of the way in which the few despised Christians are mingled with their richer and more numerous Mahometan neighbours.

Section 1. The Church of Italy.

[Sidenote: Lombard kingdom in Italy.]

The kingdom of the Goths in Italy was not of long duration, and their successors and fellow-Arians, the Lombards, only obtained possession of the northern portion of the Peninsula, whilst Rome and Southern Italy became once more subject to the emperors of the East. Gregory the Great (A.D. 390-A.D. 604) began the work of converting the Lombards to the Catholic Faith, and in the middle of the seventh century Arianism had disappeared from Italy. [Sidenote: Renewal of the tie between East and West.] The renewal of the connexion between the Eastern and Western Empires, and the attempt of the Emperor Justinian to subject the see of Rome to that of Constantinople, placed Gregory under the necessity of vindicating the independence of the Church of Italy, and of denying the right of any one Patriarch to assume authority over another. St. Gregory's holiness and learning, and the wisdom of his endeavours to reform corruptions, were most beneficial to the Church over which he ruled. [Sidenote: Its rupture.] The Image-breaking Controversy put an end to the nominal tie between the Eastern emperors and the Church of Italy (about A.D. 730), and almost the whole {122} of the peninsula soon after became part of the dominions of Charlemagne. This great Emperor's influence was used in Italy, as elsewhere, to foster the work of the Church, which however suffered severely from the state of lawlessness and confusion incident on the breaking up of Charlemagne's empire after his death, A.D. 814. [Sidenote: Depression of the Church in Italy.] The Church of Italy in the ninth century had also to undergo the inroads of the Mahometans in the South, and of the heathen Magyars (or Hungarians) on the North, as well as of the Northmen, who ravaged and pillaged the churches and monasteries on the coasts. Other depressing influences were to be found in the secularization of the Bishops of Rome through the increase of their temporal power, and the usurpation by the German emperors of the right of election to the popedom, which properly belonged to the Clergy of Rome. [Sidenote: Gregory VII.'s reforms.] The corruptions which from these and other causes had crept into the Church of Italy, drew towards them the attention of the famous Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory VII. (A.D. 1073-A.D. 1085), and his efforts at reformation were not without a beneficial effect. [Sidenote: Heresies of the Albigenses] Early in the twelfth century the heretical sect of the Albigenses, whose doctrines resembled those of the ancient Manicheans, spread from the South of France into Italy, where they received the name of Paterini. [Sidenote: and Waldenses.] Both they and the kindred sect of the Waldenses came under the notice of Innocent III. (A.D. 1198-A.D. 1216). The Albigenses were exterminated with circumstances of great cruelty[1], but the {123} Waldenses survive to the present day in the valleys of Piedmont. [Sidenote: Evil effects of the residence at Avignon on the Italian Church.] The seventy years' residence of the Bishops of Rome at Avignon (A.D. 1305-A.D. 1376) was felt by the Church of Italy to be an injury and a great evil, and in the forty years' schism which followed the return of the chief pastor of the Italians to his own episcopal city (A.D. 1378-A.D. 1417), only the kingdom of the Two Sicilies sided with the anti-Popes. [Sidenote: Other depressing influences.] Meanwhile the constant warfare between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines in Italy, the feuds between the different republics, the worldliness and evil lives of too many of the Popes, and the luxury and immorality which increased riches, consequent on increased commerce, brought with them, had all tended to a state of things in which the purifying influences of the Church as "the salt of the earth" were sorely needed. [Sidenote: Desires for reformation.] Longings for a reformation of men's lives and morals were smouldering in many breasts, and in the city of Florence these hidden wishes were kindled into a flame by the zeal and eloquence of the monk Girolamo Savonarola, who however fell a victim to his zeal, A.D. 1498.

[Sidenote: Liturgy of the Italian Church.]

The ancient Liturgy of the Church of Italy was derived from one bearing the name of St. Peter, and revised by St. Gregory, A.D. 590. This Roman or Gregorian Liturgy, though with certain later additions, is still in use throughout Italy, the only exception to this rule being the cathedral and diocese of Milan, which still preserve a Liturgy known as that of St. Ambrose, who was Bishop of Milan from A.D. 374 to A.D. 397.

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Section 2. The Church of France.

[Sidenote: Orthodoxy of the Franks.]

The Franks alone of all the barbarians who swept over Europe at the time of the decay of the Western Empire, were Catholic from their first conversion to Christianity; and to this circumstance the French kings owed their title of Eldest Sons of the Church. It was by the influence of a French princess, Bertha, the Christian wife of Ethelbert, king of Kent, that St. Augustine and his companions were favourably received in England; whilst another princess of the same race, Ingunda, who married the son of the Visigoth king of Spain, is said to have brought about the conversion of her husband from Arianism to the Catholic faith, by her own constancy under persecution. [Sidenote: The Church under Charlemagne.] During the reign of the Emperor Charlemagne (A.D. 768-A.D. 814), the French monasteries became seats of learning, and amongst the learned men who assisted the Emperor in his efforts for the religious and intellectual improvement of his people, may be mentioned the English Alcuin, who held an honourable position at the French court as the instructor and adviser of the monarch and his sons. [Sidenote: The French Liturgy.] The Gallican Liturgy, a branch of the Primitive Liturgy of Ephesus, was entirely disused by order of Charlemagne, and the Roman service used in its stead. [Sidenote: Conversion of the Northmen.] From about A.D. 870 the Northmen, who had long been a scourge to France, began to settle down in that country, and were gradually converted to the Christian Faith, their chief, Rollo, marrying a Christian princess, A.D. 911, and being baptized in the following year. [Sidenote: The Crusades.] A French {125} hermit, Peter of Auvergne, was the instigator of the First Crusade, which was preached by him at Clermont, and joined by a large number of French nobles, the command of the expedition being given to Godfrey de Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine. The system of Crusades thus inaugurated for the defence of Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land, and the winning back of the Holy Places from the hands of the Mahometans, was turned to a cruel and unjustifiable use in the thirteenth century, when Innocent III. proclaimed a Crusade against the Albigenses in the South of France, in which multitudes of these unhappy and misguided men were slaughtered.

[Sidenote: Rupture between France and the Pope.]

During the reign of Philip IV. (A.D. 1285-A.D. 1314) a collision took place for the first time, between the Church and Kingdom of France and the authority of the Pope. Hitherto the disputes between the Popes and the French monarchs had been on personal rather than on political grounds, and had given no opportunity for defining the exact limits of papal authority in France. [Sidenote: Comparative independence of French Church.] But meanwhile the French Clergy had not lost their feeling of nationality, and the kings of France had been able to use much more independent action in the appointment of Bishops than was the case in other countries. Hence the Bishops and Clergy joined with the king in resisting the sentence of excommunication pronounced by the Pope on Philip and his kingdom. Neither King nor Pope appear to have been influenced by any religious feeling in their contest, and after the miserable death of Boniface VIII. (A.D. 1303), and the murder of his successor, Philip's unprincipled interference in the {126} election of Clement V. was productive of great evils. [Sidenote: Evil results of the conduct of Philip IV.] The cruel massacre of the Knights Templars, the corruptions of the Papal Court in France, and more indirectly the Great Schism in which the Church of France espoused the cause of the anti-Popes, may all be traced to the conduct of Philip IV.

Section 3. The Church of Spain and Portugal.

[Sidenote: Conquest of Spain by the Moors.]

Before the end of the sixth century, the Visigoths, who had settled in what is now Spain and Portugal, had been converted from Arianism to the Catholic Faith. In A.D. 711 the Mahometan Moors crossed over from Africa to the South of Spain, and in A.D. 713 all the Peninsula, except the small mountain district of Asturias, had fallen into their hands. The more independent and hardy amongst the Spanish Christians took refuge in this inaccessible portion of the country, whilst others dwelt amongst the Moors, and appear for a time to have been allowed the exercise of their religion unmolested by any systematic persecution. [Sidenote: Persecution of the Spanish Church.] About A.D. 830, however, the policy of the Moorish conquerors underwent a change, and during the next hundred years multitudes of Christians in Spain suffered martyrdom for their faith. [Sidenote: The re-conquest of Spain by the Spaniards.] After the death of Hachem, the last Caliph of Cordova (A.D. 1031), and the subdivision of his dominions, the Christians of Asturias succeeded in making head against their oppressors, and gradually won back from them district after district, until Ferdinand III. (A.D. 1214-A.D. 1252) succeeded in reducing the Moorish possessions to the single province {127} of Grenada. This last remnant of Mahometan dominion was wrested from the Moors A.D. 1492, and Spain, as well as the separate kingdom of Portugal, was once more entirely Christian. [Sidenote: Effect of national circumstances on Spanish Christianity.] It is perhaps hardly to be wondered at, that the continual state of religious warfare in which Spain was so long plunged should have given a somewhat stern character to Spanish Christianity. The Inquisition, when introduced into Spain by the mistaken zeal of the good Queen Isabella towards the end of the fifteenth century, found a readier welcome than elsewhere, and gained an additional tinge of severity in a country which had been brought into such close contact with one of the deadliest forms of unbelief.

[Sidenote: The Spanish Liturgy.]

The original Liturgy of Spain was, like the ancient Liturgy of France, a form of that used at Ephesus. It received the name of Mozarabic, from having been in use by Christians living in the midst of Arabs, or Moors, and was not discontinued in the Church of Spain until A.D. 1080, when after much resistance on the part of the Spaniards it was abolished by order of Alphonso VI., King of Castille and Leon, under the influence of Pope Gregory VII., and the Roman rite substituted throughout the country.

Section 4. The Church of Germany.

[Sidenote: Conversion of Germany by French]

The large tract of country which is now comprehended under the name of Germany was won to the Church by a long series of missionary labours. In the beginning of the seventh century Frankish missionaries laid the foundations of a Church in Bavaria and on the banks of {128} the Danube, thus paving the way for the conversion of Southern Germany. [Sidenote: and British missionaries,] Central Germany, then called Franconia, was the scene of the labours of Kilian, an Irish missionary (A.D. 630-A.D. 689), whilst the English Bishops Wilfrith (A.D. 677) and Willebrord (A.D. 692-A.D. 741), preached with much success to the Frieslanders in the Northwest of Germany, now included in Holland. [Sidenote: Labours of St. Boniface] It is, however, to a Devonshire clergyman, Winfrith, better known as St. Boniface (A.D. 715-A.D. 755), that the title of Apostle of Germany is generally given, not only on account of his unwearied missionary labours in still heathen districts, but also on account of his success in organizing and consolidating the different branches of the German Church. He became Archbishop of Mentz, and Metropolitan, and at last suffered martyrdom at the hands of some heathen Frieslanders at the age of seventy-five.

The Emperor Charlemagne endeavoured to compel the rude Saxons in the neighbourhood of the Baltic to embrace the Christian faith; but eventually he was induced to trust less to the force of arms for their conversion, and more to the missionary work of the Church. [Sidenote: and of Willehad.] Amongst the prominent members of this Saxon mission, we find another English priest, Willehad, a native of Northumbria, afterwards Bishop of Bremen, who died A.D. 789.

The first attempts to plant the Church in Moravia were made by German missionaries in the ninth century. [Sidenote: Eastern missionaries in Moravia] These do not appear, however, to have been very successful, and about A.D. 860, two Greek monks, Cyril and Methodius, entered upon the same sphere of labour. Methodius was afterwards consecrated Metropolitan of Pannonia {129} and Moravia by the Pope; but there was considerable jealousy on the part of the Latinized Germans towards their Eastern fellow-labourers, and eventually the Moravian Church was subjected to the Bishops of Bohemia.

[Sidenote: and Bohemia.]

The first Christian Duke of Bohemia was converted about A.D. 871, whilst staying at the Moravian court, probably by Methodius; but the Church made very slow progress in Bohemia until after the conquest of that country by Otho the Great (A.D. 950), and the foundation of the Bishopric of Prague by King Boleslav the Pious (A.D. 967-A.D. 999). In Bohemia, as well as in Moravia, the influence of the Greek missionaries made itself felt in the impress it left upon the ritual and usages of the two Churches, especially in the fact that the native Sclavonic language was used in Divine Worship; but in the end German influences prevailed in both countries, and the national "use" gradually made way for the Latinized ritual common in Germany.

[Sidenote: Conversion of North Prussia,]

Until towards the middle of the tenth century, the Church made but very small progress in the northern portion of what is now the kingdom of Prussia. These regions were then occupied by a Sclavonic race called Wends, who yielded an unwilling submission to the Western emperors, and disliked Christianity as being the religion of their conquerors. Between A.D. 964 and A.D. 968, several bishoprics were founded in this country by Otho the Great, and amongst them the metropolitan see of Magdeburg. A revolt of the Wends frustrated for the time the success of the emperor's plans, but in the next century Gottschalk, who became king of the Wends A.D. 1047, and was himself a Christian, did all in his {130} power to aid the missionary work of the Church among his people. He was martyred by his subjects, A.D. 1066, and heathenism triumphed once more. During the twelfth century, the Wendish kingdom was dissolved, and its territories divided amongst different German princes, after which the Church gradually regained and extended its hold on the country. The northern Wends, who obstinately adhered to their Pagan superstitions, were at last converted chiefly by the labours of St. Vicelin, who became Bishop of Oldenburg, A.D. 1148.

[Sidenote: of Pomerania,]

The conversion of Pomerania was first attempted by the Poles, who, on obtaining possession of the country at the end of the tenth century, founded a bishopric at Colberg, A.D. 1000. It was not, however, until their more complete subjection to Poland about a hundred years later, that any marked result was obtained. Otho, Bishop of Bamberg, who placed himself at the head of the Pomeranian mission A.D. 1124, was at last enabled to overcome the fierce opposition which the heathen natives offered to the work of the Church, and by A.D. 1128 Christianity had gained a firm footing amongst them.

[Sidenote: of Prussia Proper.]

From Pomerania the Church extended itself eastward to Prussia Proper, about A.D. 1210. Here, too, Christianity was very distasteful to the natives, partly as being the religion of their enemies the Poles. About A.D. 1230, the "Order of Teutonic Knights" was instituted for the purpose of subjugating Prussia; and, after a depopulating warfare of fifty years' duration, the remaining inhabitants embraced Christianity. Before the end of the thirteenth century, the German element had quite superseded the Sclavonic in Prussia, as well as in Pomerania, and in what had formerly been the kingdom of the Wends.

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[Sidenote: Extent of Roman influence in Germany.]

The Church in Germany, taken as a whole, was very much under Roman influence, partly, perhaps, on account of the early connexion between the emperors of the West and the see of Rome, and partly from the constant state of civil warfare into which Germany was plunged from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. In these contests the near neighbourhood of the Popes to the Italian possessions of the Western Empire gave them a hold on the affairs of Germany which they were not slow to use, and the turbulent German nobles were disinclined to resent an interference which was so often exerted in their behalf against an unpopular sovereign. The temporal power of the Popes was, however, much weakened by the great Schism; and though the Church of Germany acknowledged the true Pope, there was, amongst its members, a very widespread sense of the urgent need of some searching reformation. To this feeling may be traced, not only the unhappily disappointed expectations with which so many persons looked to the Councils of Constance and Basle, but also the unsound and exaggerated teaching of such men as John Huss and Jerome of Prague.

Section 5. The Church of Hungary.

[Sidenote: Conversion of Hungary.]

The Hungarians or Magyars were descended from a Tartar or Finnish tribe, who settled in Pannonia towards the close of the ninth century, and thence made fierce inroads on Italy and Germany. In A.D. 948, two Hungarian chiefs were baptized at Constantinople, and the daughter of one of them afterwards marrying Geisa, Duke of {132} Hungary (A.D. 972-A.D. 997), Christian influences were, by degrees, brought to bear upon the Hungarian people. About the same time German missionaries began to labour in Hungary, but it was not until the reign of St. Stephen, the first King of Hungary (A.D. 997-A.D. 1038), that the country was completely evangelized. [Sidenote: Hungary Latinized.] Stephen did all in his power to aid the work of the German missionaries; Hungary was divided into dioceses, and the originally eastern origin of the Hungarian Church, as well as the Sclavonic origin of the people, forgotten under the desire felt by the king to keep on a friendly footing with the German emperors and the Popes.

[Sidenote: Attacks of the Turks.]

The Church of Hungary suffered severely from the invasion of the Mongul Tartars, A.D. 1241, and when, about a century later, some of these Tartars returned from Asia and settled in Europe under the name of Turks, Hungary, owing to its frontier situation, was constantly liable to their attacks. During the fifteenth century, Hungarian bravery was the great barrier that opposed the spread of Mahometanism over Western Europe. Even after the fall of Constantinople, the Turks vainly endeavoured to make themselves masters of their Christian neighbours, and found themselves obliged to retreat discomfited from the siege of Belgrade, A.D. 1456.

Section 6. The Church of Poland.

[Sidenote: Conversion of Poland.]

The Church of Poland was founded about A.D. 966, when a daughter of the Christian Duke of Bohemia married Miecislav, Duke of Poland, and introduced Christianity into her adopted country.

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[Sidenote: Romanizing the church of Poland.]

The Polish Church at first bore traces of its Eastern origin in its liturgy and ritual, but these traces were removed by Casimir I. (A.D. 1040-A.D. 1058), who, previous to his accession, had been a monk in a French or German monastery, and who made a point of bringing the Church of his own country into uniformity with the other Churches of the West.

Section 7. The Scandinavian Churches.

[Sidenote: Conversion of Denmark]

About A.D. 822, a mission was sent from France to Denmark under Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, which resulted in the conversion of Harold, King of Jutland, who was baptized at Mayence, A.D. 826. At the request of Harold, a fresh mission to Denmark was organized and headed by Anskar, a monk of Corbey, near Amiens, who is often known as the "Apostle of the North." [Sidenote: and Sweden.] From Denmark Anskar made his way to Sweden, A.D. 831, where he was favourably received by the king, and a year or two later was consecrated Archbishop of Hamburg, with jurisdiction over the whole northern mission. [Sidenote: Slow advance and vicissitudes of the Church.] At first the progress of the Church, both in Denmark and Sweden, was very slow and fluctuating, and the ravages of the northern pirates, or Vikings, caused great loss and suffering; but after some years, Anskar was enabled to disarm the opposition of Eric the heathen King of Denmark, and to make a favourable impression upon the Swedish nobles. After his death in A.D. 865, the Church in Denmark went through many vicissitudes owing to irruptions of the Northmen and other invaders, as well as to native opposition. {134} Svend, who reigned over Denmark A.D. 991-A.D. 1014, though brought up a Christian, persecuted the Church until his re-conversion during a victorious sojourn in England. [Sidenote: English missionaries in Denmark] Svend's son and successor, Canute the Great (A.D. 1014-A.D. 1033), was very zealous in his endeavours to undo the evil effects of his father's violence, and sent missionaries from England, by whom the bulk of the Danish nation were converted to Christianity.

[Sidenote: and Sweden.]

In Sweden, too, the Church made but slow progress after the death of Anskar, until, in the beginning of the eleventh century, the King Olaf Skoetkonung, having been himself baptized about A.D. 1008, invited to Sweden certain English clergymen, who laboured there with great success. The first bishopric in Sweden was placed at Skara in West Gothland, and filled by Turgot, an Englishman.

[Sidenote: Conversion of Norway, by English missionaries.]

The knowledge of the Gospel was first brought, in the tenth century, into Norway from England by Hacon, who is said to have been educated at the court of Athelstan, and who endeavoured, with the aid of English priests, to bring about the conversion of his subjects. Hacon was, however, induced, by the bitter opposition of his countrymen, to yield a weak compliance to their idolatrous practices, and the Church languished and almost died out until the reign of Olaf Trygovason (A.D. 993-A.D. 1000), who had been baptized in the Scilly Isles during a piratical expedition. The labours of the English missionaries were finally successful in the reign of Olaf the Holy (A.D. 1017-A.D. 1033), who was earnest in his efforts to further the work of the Church. It may be remarked that Norwegian Bishops were usually consecrated either in England or France, {135} though all the Scandinavian Churches were still professedly dependent on the Archbishopric of Hamburg.

[Sidenote: Conversion of Iceland,]

In Iceland some traces of early Christianity, probably the result of the labours of Irish missionaries, were still remaining when it was colonized by Norwegian settlers in the ninth century; and towards the end of the tenth century successive attempts were made by a Saxon Bishop and by missionaries from Norway, to revive and deepen these impressions. The opposition of the heathen colonists was, however, of so determined a character, that it was only by the gradual conversion of the mother country, and the labours of new bands of missionaries, chiefly English and Irish, that Paganism was by degrees overcome.

[Sidenote: Greenland,]

From Iceland the Church made its way to Greenland, another Norwegian colony, which was converted mainly by the instrumentality of an Icelandic missionary, in the first half of the eleventh century; but this ancient Church died out in the fifteenth century. About the same time Christianity spread through the Norwegians to the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands.

[Sidenote: and Lapland.]

The Church was first planted amongst the Lapps by Swedish missionaries in the thirteenth century, but it was not until the sixteenth and two following centuries that Christianity became the religion of the country.

Section 8. The Churches now comprehended in European Turkey and Greece.

We look in vain in the history of the Church in Eastern Europe for the missionary activity which {136} bears so prominent a place in the annals of Western Christendom. [Sidenote: Lack of missionary zeal in the East.] The minds of Eastern Christians were still much occupied by continued contests between the Catholic Faith and developments of already condemned heresies, and to these succeeded the scarcely less absorbing controversy about Image-breaking. Nor was there in the East the same pressing contact with Paganism, which made it in the West a political necessity no less than a religious duty at once to christianize and civilize the ever advancing hordes of heathen barbarians. [Sidenote: Conversion of Bulgaria.] The evangelization of Bulgaria was, however, begun early in the ninth century, by the carrying off of the Bishop of Adrianople and many of his flock, in a victorious inroad of the Bulgarians, A.D. 811. Half a century later the Bulgarian King Bogoris, influenced by his sister, who had been brought up a Christian at Constantinople, put himself and his country under the tuition of the Greek patriarch Photius. Soon after, becoming weary of his Eastern instructors, he applied for aid to the Western Church, and, in A.D. 867, the Pope Nicholas I. despatched two Italian Bishops and other missionaries to Bulgaria. [Sidenote: Collision between Greek and Roman missionaries.] This interference of the Roman Church, in an already occupied field of missionary labour, added considerably to the jealousy between East and West, and helped to bring about the eventual and lamentable schism. Bogoris soon after returned to his allegiance to Photius, insisted on the withdrawal of the Roman Mission, and obtained a Greek Archbishop of Bulgaria from Constantinople.

[Sidenote: Peculiar position of the Eastern Church.]

The state of external isolation in which the Church of the Eastern Empire was placed by the {137} Schism of A.D. 1054, had a tendency to increase its exaggerated spirit of conservatism, which was also encouraged by the indolent unenterprizing temper of the Greeks of the later empire, whose blood had not been quickened by the same admixture of races as had given new life to the worn out nations of the West. [Sidenote: Effects of the Crusades.] Under these circumstances the crusades were hardly less a cause of terror to the Greeks than were the advances of the Turks themselves, and tended to widen rather than to heal the unhappy breach between the Latin and Greek Churches. [Sidenote: Unjustifiable proceedings of the Latins.] The foundation of a Latin Patriarchate at Jerusalem, after the taking of that city in A.D. 1099, could not but be accounted an usurpation on the part of the Pope, which was, however, far surpassed in injustice by the erection of a Latin empire and a Latin Patriarchate in Constantinople itself, A.D. 1204. During the time that this oppressive arrangement lasted (i.e. till A.D. 1261) the rightful Patriarch took refuge at the court which the Eastern emperors held at Nicaea in Asia Minor, and the fugitives there clung to their national Church, and her rightful independence. [Sidenote: Attempts at reunion.] The Emperor Michael Palaeologus, after driving out the Latins from Constantinople, endeavoured once more to effect a reunion between East and West, partly from political and partly from personal motives, and a formal act of union was signed, A.D. 1274. Neither the Greek Clergy nor the Greek people would, however, consent to give up their own national religious customs, nor to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope; and this shadow of union died out with the death of the Emperor, its originator. [Sidenote: Invasion of the Turks.] In the fourteenth century {138} the Turks were treacherously invited over to Europe as allies of the usurper, John Cantacuzenus (A.D. 1347-A.D. 1353), and so firm a footing did they gain, that the rightful Emperor, John Palaeologus (A.D. 1341-A.D. 1391), found himself obliged to appeal to Rome for aid, promising in return to reconcile the Greek Church to the Roman communion. The affairs of Western Europe, were, however too unsettled to admit of such aid being afforded, and the Emperor was obliged to give up all his possessions to the Turks, except Constantinople, Thessalonica, part of the Morea, and a few islands. Another appeal was made, with the same results, by his son, Manuel Palaeologus (A.D. 1391-A.D. 1425). [Sidenote: New attempts at reunion.] John VII. (A.D. 1425-A.D. 1448) opened fresh negociations with the West, and he and the Patriarch of Constantinople, together with twenty-one other Eastern Bishops, appeared (A.D. 1438) at the Council of Ferrara (afterwards transferred to Florence). At this council a decree of union was once more signed by the Greeks, on condition of their receiving aid against the Turks (A.D. 1439). This fresh attempt at union was repudiated by the Eastern Church at large, but a troop of French and Italian crusaders started for the East. Constantinople was, however, doomed, and the good and brave Constantine Palaeologus (A.D. 1448-A.D. 1433) was the last, as he was one of the best, of the Greek emperors. [Sidenote: Fall of Constantinople] The city fell, after an obstinate defence, on the 29th May, A.D. 1453, and Constantine was among the slain. The Turks pillaged and slaughtered indiscriminately, and turned into a mosque the beautiful Church of St. Sophia, built by the Emperor Justinian in honour of the "Holy Wisdom" of God.

{139}

[Sidenote: and the Greek Empire.]

All the Greek Empire had now fallen into the hands of the Turks, except the small mountainous district of Albania, which held out until the death of George Castriota (dreaded by the Turks under the name of Scanderbeg), A.D. 1467. The rocky strip of land known as Montenegro has been enabled to maintain an unbroken independence.

[Sidenote: State of the Church of Greece under Turkish rule.]

The Church of Greece was now no longer the dominant and recognized religion of the country, but it was not extinguished. The numerous mountain monasteries, inaccessible from their construction and position, were the chief strongholds of the Christian Faith; and so, "cast down, but not destroyed," the Church in Greece struggled on, until, after nearly three centuries of Turkish rule, Greece itself once more became a Christian kingdom.

Section 9. The Church of Russia.

[Sidenote: Decay of the Church after its first planting in Russia.]

The Church, founded in the South of Russia by St. Andrew, appears not to have spread to the other parts of this vast country, and to have died out, perhaps under the influence the hordes of barbarians who poured westward from Asia to Europe.

[Sidenote: Foundation of the present Church.]

The Church of Russia, as it now exists, owes its foundation chiefly to Greek Missionaries, who began their labours about A.D. 866, amongst the tribes bordering on the dominions of the Eastern Empire. Before the middle of the next century Christianity had gained a footing in the ancient capital of Kiev, and about A.D. 933 the Princess Olga was baptized at {140} Constantinople. [Sidenote: It flourishes under Vladimir.] In the reign of her grandson, Vladimir (A.D. 986-A.D. 1014), the Church made great progress in Russia. Vladimir made a public recognition of Christianity, and by his marriage with the sister of the Greek Emperor strengthened the links which bound Russia to Constantinople. The Greek missionaries were aided in their labours, churches and bishoprics were founded, and the Holy Scriptures and Service Books translated into the native Sclavonic language; the Greek monks, Cyril and Methodius, who have been already mentioned as instrumental in the conversion of Bohemia and Moravia, taking also an active share in the Christianizing of Russia. [Sidenote: Independence of the Russian Church,] In the reigns of Yaroslav and his successor (A.D. 1019-A.D. 1077), the empire became completely Christian, and the Church of Russia was placed on an independent footing, with a native primate at its head. Innocent III. (A.D. 1198-A.D. 1216) attempted to win over Russia to the Roman communion, by offering to confer the title of King on Prince Roman, but his offer was at once rejected. [Sidenote: which it has steadily refused to give up,] Russia suffered severely from the ravages of the Mongul Tartars, A.D. 1223, and Pope Innocent IV. took advantage of the distressed condition of the Russian church and the removal of the Greek Patriarchate from Constantinople to Nicaea, to make another attempt at detaching Russia from communion with the Greeks. David, Prince of Galicia, professed himself willing to receive the crown and title of king from Rome, but this arrangement was not of long duration, and about A.D. 1230 a Metropolitan of the Russian Church was consecrated by the Greek Patriarch, to fill up the vacancy which had taken place {141} ten years before during the Tartar invasion. Kiev, the original seat of the Russian Patriarchate, was burnt and pillaged by the Tartars, and the see was transferred to Vladimir, A.D. 1299, and thence during the early part of the next century (A.D. 1320) to Moscow, where it has since remained.

[Sidenote: and has preserved unbroken.]

For more than two centuries, until A.D. 1462, Russia was oppressed by the yoke of the unbelieving Tartars, but the Church still maintained her independence, and steadily resisted the various attempts which were made to bring about a reunion between East and West, by the subjugation of the former to the unjust claims of the latter.



[1] The preaching Friars having been in vain employed for the conversion of the Albigenses, their efforts were supplemented by the institution of the Inquisition.



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CHAPTER XII

The Mediaeval Church in Great Britain and Ireland

A.D. 500-A.D. 1500

Section 1. The Church of England.

[Sidenote: Trials of the English Church under the Saxons.]

We have seen (p. 74) that the native Church of England had not succeeded in converting the Anglo-Saxon invaders who gradually took possession of the country, and that such as remained of the Bishops and Clergy had been compelled for the most part to take refuge in mountainous, and therefore inaccessible, districts. It was, however, only in A.D. 587, that Theonas, Bishop of London, and Thadiocus, Bishop of York, retreated from their sees, and they were both living in exile in Wales, when, ten years later, St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to found a mission in England.

[Sidenote: Roman usurpation.]

It seems uncertain whether St. Gregory was aware of the previous existence of a Church in these islands; at any rate, he acted as if ignorant of the fact, by bestowing on St. Augustine a spiritual supremacy over the whole country; and the good Italian missionary, when brought into actual contact with the living representatives of a national Church already five hundred years old, appears to have considered himself justified in endeavouring to bring its {143} Liturgy and usages into agreement with the Roman pattern. [Sidenote: Consequent disputes.] All this was not unnatural, especially under the circumstances of weakness and depression in which the Church of England was then placed; but it was equally natural that such interference should be felt to be an usurpation, and resented accordingly, and that much misunderstanding and bitterness should be the consequence. There probably was a recognition of the claims of the elder race of English Bishops in the fact, that St. Augustine was consecrated to the see of Canterbury rather than to that of London, of which the rightful occupant was still living, and that neither the latter diocese, nor that of York, appear to have been filled up until after the deaths of Theonas and Thadiocus. [Sidenote: English independence partially recognized.] It was also eventually found expedient to leave to the English Church its own national Liturgy and ritual (originally derived through a Gallican channel from that of Ephesus), instead of insisting upon an exact conformity to Roman rites. [Sidenote: Some account of the English Liturgy.] This ancient English Liturgy, revised in the seventh century by St. Augustine, underwent a second revision at the hands of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, about A.D. 1083; and, though certain variations existed in some dioceses, the "Use of Sarum," as it was called, became the general "use" throughout the southern portion of England, and was even at length considered to be the Liturgy of the country. It is from this Sarum Use that our present Post-Reformation Liturgy is derived.

A very considerable amount of new life and energy was infused into the Church of England by the mission of St. Augustine. Though the native Bishops and Clergy could not bring themselves to look cordially on those {144} whose religious zeal was not always tempered with justice or courtesy towards their predecessors in the field of their missionary labours, still both foreigners and natives worked for the same cause, each in their own way, and a new evangelization of the freshly-heathenized population ensued[1]. [Sidenote: Amalgamation of English and Roman successions.] By degrees the two lines of Bishops became blended in one succession, which has continued unbroken until the present day.

[Sidenote: English missionary zeal.]

The Church of England, thus strengthened and quickened, soon began to give abundant proofs of its vitality by sending out missionaries to convert the heathen in other lands. A large part of Germany and the Netherlands owes its Christianity to English Bishops and Clergy, such as Winfrith or Boniface, Willebrord, and a host of other less well-known or altogether forgotten names. The eighth century was especially distinguished by these missionary labours abroad, whilst, at home, were to be found such good and learned men as the Venerable Bede (A.D. 672 or '3-A.D. 735), an early translator of the Holy Scriptures, and his friend Egbert (A.D. about 678-A.D. 776), Archbishop of York, and founder of a famous school in that city, where the illustrious Alcuin (about A.D. 723-A.D. 804) was a scholar.

[Sidenote: Invasion, and conversion of the Danes.]

In A.D. 787, the Church of England began to suffer severely from the ravages of the heathen Danes or Northmen; but, by the wisdom and valour of the good King Alfred (A.D. 871-A.D. 901), {145} they were for a while subdued, and numbers of them settled as peaceable colonists in England, where they gradually embraced Christianity.

[Sidenote: King Alfred.]

Alfred was very zealous in his endeavours to repair the spiritual and intellectual losses which the Church of England had undergone during the contest with the Danes, whose ravages had almost entirely swept away all native scholarship. The king was especially eager to secure a literature in the vernacular for his subjects, and himself translated into "simple English" parts of the Holy Bible, and other religious books. In these labours he was assisted by a small body of learned men, including the two Aelfrics, Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and Wulfstan, supposed to have been Bishop of Worcester. The conversion of the Danes who had first settled in England to Christianity prepared the way for the evangelizing of later colonists; and when, through the crimes and weakness of the later Anglo-Saxon princes, the country fell altogether into the hands of Danish invaders, Canute the Great (A.D. 1016-A.D. 1033) not only embraced Christianity himself, but secured for his native country the services of English missionaries. [Sidenote: Evangelization of Scandinavia.] In fact, at this time Scandinavia seems to have been the chief mission-field of the English Church.

[Sidenote: Roman influence comparatively small under the Saxons.]

We can hardly be wrong in gathering from all this, that Roman influence had only to a certain limited extent been introduced into the Church of England by St. Augustine's mission, and that, as time passed on, the foreign element had become absorbed in the national one. With the Norman conquest of A.D. 1066, the {146} case was, however, altered. [Sidenote: Much increased under the Normans.] The claims of the Popes to temporal as well as to spiritual authority were by that time definite and authoritative; the Conquest itself had been undertaken by the permission of Alexander II., and the authority of the foreign conquerors, (as the Norman and early Plantagenet kings continued to be,) required foreign support. Hence the Bishops of Rome gained an amount of political influence in England which was thoroughly unconstitutional, and which could probably never have been attained by any foreign power, had the English sovereigns immediately after the Conquest felt themselves more firmly fixed upon the throne they had seized.

[Sidenote: Denationalizing of the Episcopate.]

The appointment of foreigners to the highest ecclesiastical offices in England, was one means by which the Norman sovereigns sought to secure themselves against disaffection amongst their new subjects; but the real result of this policy was to foster the claims of the Popes to religious and secular supremacy in this country; for these foreign ecclesiastics, though English Bishops, were not loyal subjects of the English crown, nor were their interests identical with those of their flocks. [Sidenote: Lanfranc.] Thus the Italian Lanfranc, when appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by William the Conqueror (A.D. 1070), did not hesitate to obey the summons of the Pope to Rome for the purpose of receiving the pall, and thus acknowledging that he held his Bishopric from the Papal see. [Sidenote: St. Anselm.] His successor, St. Anselm (A.D. 1093), also an Italian, and a man of great learning and holiness, was prepared to carry out a similar line of conduct; but the covetous and irreligious tyrant, William Rufus, was seeking at {147} the same time to reduce Bishops to the state of mere nominees and vassals of the crown, and a long contest ensued[2]. The dispute was carried on into the next reign; and at length, in A.D. 1107, a compromise was agreed upon, by which it was arranged that Bishops should receive investiture from the Pope, and, at the same time, take an oath of allegiance to the king. [Sidenote: St. Thomas of Canterbury.] Anselm's unflinching advocacy of Papal claims cost him years of exile from his diocese, and much suffering; but, in the following century, similar conduct involved still more serious consequences to St. Thomas a Becket, the then Archbishop of Canterbury. The new question in dispute was the right of clerical offenders to be tried in the spiritual courts, instead of coming under the jurisdiction of the civil power; but, in reality, it was only another form of the constant endeavours of the English monarchs to free themselves from the foreign bondage which was, to some extent at least, self-imposed. Becket fell a martyr to his own sense of duty and the king's displeasure, A.D. 1170.

[Sidenote: Roman influence strongest in England.]

Papal usurpation in England reached its height when, in A.D. 1208, Innocent III placed the kingdom under an Interdict, for refusing to receive as Archbishop of Canterbury his nominee, Stephen Langton, who was unacceptable both to king and people; and soon after proceeded to excommunicate John, and depose him from his throne. The king's cowardly and unconstitutional conduct in resigning his kingdom into the {148} hands of the Pope's legate (A.D. 1213), and receiving it again at the end of three days as a tributary vassal of the Roman see, caused England to be looked upon for some years as only a fief of Rome.

[Sidenote: Kept up by the Friars;]

In the reign of Henry III. (A.D. 1216-A.D. 1272), Roman influence in England was greatly sustained by the introduction of the Preaching Orders of Franciscan and Dominican Friars, who, being many of them foreigners, and all of them independent of any episcopal control, and subject to Papal jurisdiction only, were very energetic in their endeavours to maintain and extend the authority of the popedom.

[Sidenote: by the habit of appeals;]

By this time, too, appeals to Rome against the decisions of English courts had come to be a great bar to national independence. Such appeals had been altogether unrecognized in England until the days of Stephen, and the practice was again forbidden in Henry II.'s reign by the Constitutions of Clarendon (A.D. 1164); but, after Becket's death, the prohibition was once more repealed. It is easy to see how seriously this system of appeals must have delayed and interfered with the regular course of justice in this country, and how capable it was of being made a political engine in the hands of the Pope, or of those who held with him. The exemption of most of the monasteries from the supervision of the Bishops was also a serious evil, interfering as it did with the Divinely-appointed functions of the episcopacy, and opening the door to disorders which the distant and usurped authority of the Popes had not power to remedy.

[Sidenote: by large money payments.]

In the fourteenth century another means was resorted to of increasing the power of the Popes at expense of the monarch and people of {149} England, by the payment of annates, or first-fruits, on the appointment of each Bishop; and so heavy did this burden become, that between A.D. 1486 and A.D. 1531, 160,000 pounds (or about 45,000 pounds a year of our money) was paid to Rome under the head of annates.

[Sidenote: All these evils borne under protest.]

It is not to be supposed that these encroachments of a foreign power were accepted without a murmur or remonstrance on the part of the people of England; on the contrary, there was a constant undercurrent of discontent, which found occasional expression in some official or popular protest. Such, on the one hand, was the statute of praemunire, passed in the reign of Richard II. (A.D. 1389), to prohibit Papal interference with Church patronage and decisions in ecclesiastical causes; and, on the other, the irregular proceedings of Wickliffe and the Lollards, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which, though they eventually degenerated into seditious agitation, had their rise in a feeling of opposition to Romish abuses and usurpations. This feeling was increased by the fearful state of profligacy into which Rome, and indeed all Italy, was plunged during the fifteenth century, which effectually destroyed the character formerly enjoyed by the Roman Church, whilst it could not but affect the spiritual health of the other Churches over which Rome exercised so wide an influence. Wiser and calmer men than Wickliffe saw the need of some reformation, though they questioned, and, as the event showed, rightly, the wisdom and the justice of the steps he took towards his object. Wickliffe's teaching in the fourteenth century had, in fact, little or nothing to do with the real Reformation of two hundred years later, except that some of his dangerous theories on political matters took deeper root than did his {150} religious peculiarities, and bore fruit in much of the unprincipled licence which was an unhappy, though by no means an essential, feature of the Reformation era.

[Sidenote: English longings for reformation.]

England, in common with the other nations of Europe, was willing to hope for great benefit from the councils of the Church held in the fifteenth century; and, at each of them, we find English Clergy making grave and urgent protests against the abuses which they saw around them, and pleading for a return to purer and better ways. Thus, at the Council of Pisa, A.D. 1400, one of the English Bishops who attended it presented a memorial which complained of the evils resulting from the want of episcopal control over the monasteries, from the practice of appeals to Rome, and from the ease with which dispensations for non-residence and pluralities were obtained[3]. Again, at the Council of Constance (A.D. 1415) a sermon was preached by Dr. Abendon, an Oxford professor, which painted in very strong language the worldliness and covetousness of the non-resident Bishops and Clergy; and these protests were followed up by an official appeal to the Pope for a reformation, on the part of the Kings of France and England, A.D. 1425, as well as by official instructions given to the English deputation despatched to the Council of Basle (A.D. 1431), to use their influence for the same end.

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Section 2. The Church of Ireland.

The Church of Ireland was not, like the Church of Great Britain, to which it owes its foundation, a prey to the depressing influences of the heathen Saxons; and, at the time of the mission of St. Augustine, the daughter was in some measure enabled to repay to the mother the benefits which the British St. Patrick had conferred on the scene of his missionary labours. A constant intercourse was kept up between the numerous monasteries of Ireland and those of Wales and Scotland, some of the abbeys in the latter countries being founded and frequented by Irishmen. [Sidenote: Early reputation of Ireland.] Ireland, in the sixth and seventh centuries, had a great reputation for learning and missionary zeal, both of which were called into play to help in the reconversion of a large portion of England, as well as to encourage the efforts of English Churchmen in retaining in the National Church the national characteristics, with the loss of which it was threatened from the large admixture of foreign elements introduced by St. Augustine. [Sidenote: Irish missionary work in England and elsewhere.] Nor were their missionary labours confined to England: they shared in the toils and honours of the conversion of Germany, and are believed to have penetrated as far as Iceland and Greenland. [Sidenote: Unjustifiable conduct of England.] The aid given by Irish ecclesiastics in preserving the religious liberty of the Church of England was ill requited in the twelfth century, when the English, having taken possession of Ireland, forced the Irish Church to abandon her distinctive Liturgy by a decree passed at the synod of Cashel, A.D. 1173. The state of anarchy and restless discontent into which {152} Ireland was thrown by the presence of English invaders, had a very unfavourable effect on the Church of the country, as had also the appointment of Englishmen to Irish bishoprics, and the consequent non-residence of the Bishops. It is curious that the influence of English conquerors should have tended to extend Roman authority in Ireland, much as the policy of Norman conquerors produced the same effect in England. Before the Reformation, the state of the Irish Church had become thoroughly unsatisfactory, and was felt to be so by many of the Irish themselves.

Section 3. The Church of Scotland.

[Sidenote: St. Columba.]

The country of the Southern Picts, christianized by St. Ninian (see p. 76), having fallen into the hands of the heathen Anglo-Saxons, something like a fresh evangelization became necessary; and this was accomplished by the labours of St. Columba and his successors, who, having crossed over from Ireland (first about A.D. 560) for the purpose of preaching to the Northern tribes of Scotland, extended their mission southward. [Sidenote: Irish or Scotch missionaries in England.] The monastery of Iona, or Icolmkill, was for some time inhabited by Irish missionaries, and became the chief source of missionary labour not only in Scotland, but also in the North of England, the Scotch or Irish missionaries using all the weight of their influence to uphold the independence of the National Church against the Roman tendencies of St. Augustine and his successors. St. Aidan (died A.D. 651), Bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, and the head of the mission for the conversion of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia, was a monk of Iona. His diocese included {153} Yorkshire, and extended to Scotland; and, in consequence of this, the Archbishops of York long laid claim to exercise metropolitan authority over the whole of North Britain.

Roman influence gradually made itself felt in Scotland, in great measure through the monastic system, which received a great impetus under David I. (A.D. 1124-A.D. 1153). [Sidenote: Longings for reformation.] The constant wars with England, and the confusion and bloodshed they entailed, had a very unfavourable effect on the prosperity and spiritual activity of the Church of Scotland, so that from Scotland, no less than from England and Ireland, there arose that cry for a return to older and purer ways, which ended in the Reformation.



[1] The native Clergy seem to have laboured chiefly in the north, where they were aided by Scotch and Irish missionaries. St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island (who died A.D. 651), may be mentioned as a successful agent in the conversion of Northumbria and Mercia.

[2] This dispute between St. Anselm and the English king was another form of the long strife between the Popes and the Emperors of the West, which is known as the War of Investitures.

[3] Many of the Bishops, at this time, were foreigners, who lived away from their sees, and did not even understand the native language of their flocks. The Kings of England and the Bishops of Rome seem to have equally abused their powers of patronage in this respect.



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INDEX

Abendon, Dr., at Constance, 150 Abyssinia, Church of, 82 Africa, Church in, its early history, 80 ———, Church in, its mediaeval history, 120 Aidan, St., 144, 152 Alban, St., his martyrdom, 73 Albigenses, 122 Alexandria, Church of, 80 ———, School of, 81 Altar, its arrangements in Eastern and Early English Churches, 54 Ambrosian Liturgy, 123 "Angels" or Bishops, The Seven, 49, 52, 85 Annates, Payment of, 149 Anselm, St., 146 Anti-Popes, 109 Antioch, Church of, 23, 28, 84 ———, St. Paul and St. Barnabas at, 28 "——— St. Peter's Throne at," 28 ——— first sends Missionaries to heathen, 29 Antioch disturbed by disputes about circumcision, 34 Antioch, Probable visit of St. Peter to, 36 Apocalypse, The, 52 "Apology against Heathenism," The first Christian, 32 "——— Judaism," The first Christian, 20 Apostle, St. Matthias chosen to be, 8 Apostles, extent of their labours, 43 ——— trained by our Lord, 5 ——— taught by the Holy Ghost, 5, 6, 48 ———, Commission given to the, 6 ——— a living Gospel, 12 ——— Creed, an instance of traditional teaching, 13 ——— St. Paul and St. Barnabas complete the number of, 30 ———, how they differ from Bishops, 31 ———, their deaths, 43 Apostolic office, Nature of, 5 n. ——— Doctrine, 12 ——— Fellowship, 18 Apostolical Succession in England, 144 Appeals from England to Rome, 148 Arabia, Church of, 86 Arianism, 68, 81 ——— in Greece, 79 ——— in France, 78 ——— of the Goths, 77 ——— prepares for Mahometanism, 88 Arles, Council of, 78 Armenia, Church of, 85 Athanasius, St., 70, 72, 81 Athens, its intellectual pride, 39 ———, St. Paul at, 39 Augustine, St., 82 ———, and Church of England, 142 Authority of the Jerusalem Council, 36 Avignon, The Popes at, 108, 123

Baptism, Nature of, 2, 3, 4 ———, its necessity, 26 ——— of St. John different from that of our Lord, 7 n. ——— of the Three Thousand, 10 Barchochebas, 83 Barnabas, St., Conversion of, 11 ———, ordained Apostle, 30 Basil, St., 111 Basle, Council of, 110 Becket, St. Thomas a, 147 Benedictine rule, The, 111 Bible, The, in Middle Ages, 117 Bishop, Meaning of the word, 33 n. ——— and Priest originally one office, 5 n. Bishops, Consecration of, by the Apostles, 33 ——— rarely appointed at first, 46, 47 ——— especially subject to persecution, 65 Bohemia, Church of, 129 Boniface, St., in Germany, 128 Books, Christian, kept hidden, 63 Bread, The Breaking of the, 7, 13 Breakspear, Nicholas, 106 Bulgaria, Conversion of, 136

Canute, Conversion of, 145 Cashel, Synod of, 151 Catacombs, Use of the, 63 Corinthians, Heresy of the, 50 Chalcedon, Fourth Council of, 71 Charlemagne, 122, 124, 128 China, Church of, 87 Chrysostom, St., 84 Church, Definition of, 1 ———, a Kingdom, 1 ———, the fruit of the Incarnation, 2 ——— the New Jerusalem, 8 ———, its gradual development, 47, 48 ———, its Divine Foundation proved by persecution, 62 Church, Growth of, unchecked by persecution, 62 Church Militant, a preparation for Church Triumphant, 4 ———, Outward recognition of the, 66 ——— Government modified by persecution, 65 Churches, Primitive, their arrangement, 53 Circumcision, Apostolic Decision respecting 35 ———, Wish to impose it on Converts, 27, 34 Columba, St., 76, 152 Confirmation by the Apostles, 22, 24, 32, 37, 40 Continental Churches, their early history, 76-80 ——— in Middle Ages, 120 Constance, Council of, 110 Constantine, his English parentage, 73 ———, Conversion of, 66 ———, Council summoned by, 69 Constantinople, Creed of, 70 ———, Building of, 67, 80 ———, Second Council of, 70 ———, Fifth Council of, 71 ———, Sixth Council of, 71 ———, Fall of, 138 Conversion of the Three Thousand, 10 ——— Five Thousand, 11 ——— of Gentiles, Obstacles to, 29 Conversions after appointment of Diaconate, 17 Corinth, its luxury and unbelief, 40 ———, St. Paul at, 40 Cornelius, Conversion of, 25, 26 Council of the Church, First, 35 ———, Second, at Jerusalem, 46 Councils, General, their nature, 69 n. ——— guided by the Holy Ghost, 36 Creed, Apostles', 13 Crusades, 113, 125 ———, Effect of, in the East, 137 Cyprian, St., 82 Cyril, St., 81

Danes, Conversion of, 145 ——— and Church of England, 144 Deacon, Meaning of the word, 17 n. Deacons, their work, 18 Decretals, The false Papal, 103 Denial of Cup to Laity, 119 Denmark, Church of, 133 Development, Intellectual, in the Church, 72 Diocesan system, its late development in Ireland, 75 Dioclesian, his false boasting, 62 Discipline, its strictness increased by persecution, 64 ——— relaxed, 68 Division between East and West, 95 Docetae, Heresy of the, 50 Domitian's persecution, 49, 59

Eastern Church, 83 ———, its want of missionary zeal, 136 East and West, Division of, 94 Elders. See Priests. Endowment of Church, 67 England, Church of, its early history, 73 ———, in Middle Ages, 142 ———, its Liturgy, 143 English Bishops at early Councils, 74 Ephesus, St. John at, 49 ———, Heresies at, 50 ———, Council of, 85 ———, Liturgy of, 124 ———, Third Council of, 71 Episcopacy, its permanent organization, 46 Ethiopia, Church of, 82 Eucharist, Daily, 7, 13 ———, the chief act of worship, 14, 56 Eucharistic Sacrifice, 2, 3, 13, 14, 56 Eutyches, his heresy, 71 Expectation, Days of, 7

Fathers, value of their writings, 72 Ferrara, Council of, 110 Florence, Council of, 110 Forty Days, The teaching of the, 6 Foundation of Church, its Divine Origin, 4, 7 France, Church of, its early history, 77 ———, its mediaeval history, 124 ———, its Liturgy, 78 French Bishops from Asia, 77 French interference in Papal affairs, 107 Friars, Franciscan and Dominican, in England, 112, 148

Gallican Liturgy, 124 General Councils, 69-71 Gentiles called into the Church, 26 Germany, Church of, 127 Gnosticism, Simon Magus the author of, 22, 51 ——— at Corinth, 40 ——— at Ephesus, 51 Gospels, Holy, great reverence shown to them, 54 "Grecians," Who meant by, 16 Greek Church, What meant by, 80 n. ———, its early history, 79 ———, its mediaeval history, 135 ——— under Turkish rule, 139 ——— Empire, End of, 139 Greeks, their liability to heresy, 79 Greenland, Conversion of, 135 Gregory, St., 103 ———, and Church of England, 142 ——— VII., 106 "Hebrews," Definition of, 17 ——— and Grecians, Dispute between, 17 Hegira, the Mahometan Era, 89 n. "Hellenists" or "Grecians," Definition of, 16 Heresy, how opposed, 69 Hilary, St., 102 Hildebrand, 105 Hincmar, 104 Hungary, Church of, 131

Iceland, Church of, 133 Iconoclast controversy, 95, 121 Ignatius, St., 84 Ignorance, Causes of, in Middle Ages, 115 Incense, its burning made a test, 59 ———, its use in heaven, 55 India, Church of, 87 Indulgences, 109, 118 Innocent III., 107 Inquisition, Origin of, 107 Interdict, England placed under, 147 Investiture, Disputes about, 106, 147 Iona, Monastery of, 76 Ireland, Church of, its early history, 74 ———, its Liturgy and customs, 78, 151 ———, its mediaeval history, 151 ———, English influence in, 152 Irenaeus, St., 78 Irish missionary labours, 151 Italy, Church of, its early history, 76 ———, its mediaeval history, 121 ———, its Liturgy, 123

James, St., the Great, his martyrdom, 27 ——— the Less, first Bishop of Jerusalem, 27, 35, 83 ——— presides at the First Council, 35 Jerusalem, The Apostolic Church in, 27, 83 ———, First Council at, 35 ———, Second Council at, 46 ——— taken by Saracens, 113 Jewish Worship, and scheme of Redemption, 4, 56 John, St., his special work in the Church, 45, 47, 49 ———, his sacramental teaching, 47, 52 ———, his universal patriarchate, 51 ———, his writings, 51 ———, his Epistles, 52 ———, his Revelation, 52 ———, his martyrdom in will, 57 n. ———, King, Unconstitutional conduct of, 147 Judicial powers first exerted in the Church, 16 Julian the Apostate, 83

Koran, The, 90

Labours, Apostolic, Extent of, 43 Lanfranc, 146 Langton, Stephen, 147 Lapland, Conversion of, 135 Latin, Use of, in Middle Ages, 116 Law, Christ's obedience to the, 15 Lay investiture, Disputes about, 106 Letters of Peace, 64 Lollards, The, 149 Love of the First Christians, 13 Luke, St., joins St. Paul, 37

Macedonius, his heresy, 70 Mahometanism, 88 ——— in Spain, 127 Martyrdom, seeking it forbidden, 63 Martyrs, Immense number of the, 61 Matthias, St., chosen to be Apostle, 8 Mediaeval Church, its true state, 119 Meletian schism, 81 Middle Ages, Learning in, 117 ———, Religion in, 116 Ministry, Christian, Three-fold nature of, 2, 5 n. ———, Jewish, replaced by Christian, 4 Miracles, Gift of, 11 Monastic Orders, The, 111 Monasticism, its good results, 112 Moors in Spain, 126 Moravia, Church of, 128 Mozarabic Liturgy, 127 Music, its use in heaven, 55

Nero's persecution, 49 n., 59 Nestorius, his heresy, 71, 82 Nicaea, Council and Creed of, 70 Nicolas of Antioch, 18 Ninian, St., his mission in Scotland, 76 Norman influence on English Church, 146 Northmen, Conversion of, 124 Norway, Church of, 134

Ordinances or traditions, 13 n.

Paganism not revived by persecution, 62 Papal supremacy, its dangers, 101 ——— Supremacy in France, 125 ——— aggression, The first, 102 Parochial system, its late development in Ireland, 75 Parthia, Church of, 85 Passover replaced by Eucharist, 3 Patrick, St., his mission to Ireland, 75 Paul, St., Conversion of, 23. ———, his fitness for the Apostolate, 24 Paul, St., ordained Apostle, 30 ———, the Chief Apostle of the Gentiles, 31 ———, his first Apostolic journey, 31 ———, his second Apostolic journey, 36 ———, his third Apostolic journey, 40 ———, a prisoner, 42 ———, in England, 73 ———, Martyrdom of, 43 Pelagianism, 78 Pella, Flight to, 83 Penances, their severity, 64 Pentecost, The Day of, 8 ———, The effects of, 9 Persecution, Causes of, 57 ——— under Herod Agrippa, 27 ———, Progress of, 11, 57 Persecutions, Nature and extent of, 61 ———, Table of, 60 ———, Effect of, on the Church, 63 ——— cease under Constantine, 66 Persia, Church of, 85 Peter, St., results of his first Sermon, 10 ———, his special work in the Church, 45 ———, his first Apostolic journey, 24 ———, his imprisonment and deliverance, 28 ———, Martyrdom of, 43 Peter the hermit, 125 Pharisees, their opposition to the Gospel, 19 Philip, St., the Deacon, 21 Pisa, Council of, 109 ———, English Bishops at, 150 Poland, Church of, 132 Pomerania, 130 Popes of the Middle Ages, 102-111 ———, Worldliness of the later, 110 ——— and anti-Popes, Disputes between, 109 Portugal, Church of, its early history, 78 ———, Church of, its mediaeval history, 126 Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons, 77 Praemunire, Statute of, 149 Presbyters. See Priests. Priest, Meaning of the word, 32 n. Priests, First ordination of, 32 ———, their functions, 33 Prussia, Church of, 129 Purgatory, 118

Reformation, what it was, 102 ———, Longings for, 123, 131, 150 Reunion between East and West attempted, 137 Ritual, Early Christian, 53 ——— checked by persecution, 63 ———, Heavenly, as shown in the Apocalypse, 53 ——— developed in prosperity, 67 Roman Empire, its decay, 77 Roman influence in Middle Ages, 118 ——— influence in Germany, 131 Rome, St. Paul at, 42 ———, its influence in extending the Faith, 67 Russia, Church of, its foundation, 80, 139 ———, Church of, its independence, 140

Sacrifice, The Christian, 2, 3, 13, 14, 56 Sacrifices under the patriarchal dispensation, 3 ——— under the Mosaic dispensation, 3 Sadducees, their opposition to the Gospel, 12, 19 Samaria, Conversion of, 21 Sarum Use, 143 Satan, his enmity against the Church, 58, 62 Saul of Tarsus, 19 Saxon and English Church, 74, 142 Scandinavian Churches, 133 Schism, The first, in the Church, 16 ——— between East and West, 98 ———, The forty years', 109 Scotland, Church of, its early history, 75 ———, its mediaeval history, 152, 153 ———, Saxon influence in, 152 ———, Roman influence in, 153 Seven Churches, The, 84 Simon Magus, his unbelief and end, 21, 22 Sin, First deadly, in the Church, 16 Spain, Church of, its early history, 78 ———, Church of, its mediaeval history, 126 ———, Church of, its Liturgy, 127 Stephen, St., ordained Deacon, 18 ———, his preaching and inspiration, 19 ———, results of his Martyrdom, 21 Supremacy, Papal claims to, 100 Sweden, Church of, 133

Table of "Fields of Apostolic Labour," 44 ——— Persecutions, 60 ——— Councils, 72 Teaching of the Church, Reserve in, 49, 63 ——— its gradual development, 49 Temple Services, Attendance of the Apostles on, 13, 15 Temporal power of the Popes, its rise, 100 "Theological Gospel," The, 47 Theotokos, 71 Timothy, St., his circumcision, 37 ———, Bishop of Ephesus, 33, 41 Titus, St., Bishop of Crete, 33, 41 Tongues, The gift of, 9, 11 Tradition, its value, 13 "Traditores," 64 Turkey, European Church in, its early history, 79 ——— in Europe, Church in, its medieval history, 135 Turks, their inroads in the East, 138

"Universal Bishop," Title of, 95 Universities in Middle Ages, 117

Vernacular Bibles in Middle Ages, 116 Visigoths, Arianism of, 79

Waldenses, 122 Wales the refuge of British Clergy, 74 Wickliffe, 149 Worship, Jewish and Christian, 3

THE END