CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN #3

 The Celtic Church in Britain #3

Passover/Easter battle with Rome

by Leslie Hardinge (1972)

THE CELTIC CHURCH AND THE SEAT OF ROME

Frequently the remark is encountered that Celtic Christianity had

no fundamental differences with Roman Christianity. This view

should be set against the ancient records of the contacts between

Celtic Christians and the representatives of the bishop of Rome.

Wherever and whenever these initially took place there was

conflict. By creed and temperament the Celts were seemingly

unable to adapt themselves easily to the suggestions of others.

Used to interpreting the Scriptures in their own way and

following their traditional manners, they were not immediately

ready to change.

Without consultation with them Augustine was granted jurisdiction

over the Celtic Christians by Pope Gregory. The Roman pontiff

ruled: "All the bishops of Britain, however, we commit to your

charge. Use your authority to instruct the unlearned, to

encourage

......

*Writing of Wilfrid and his training under the influence of

Lindisfarne, Margaret Deanesly said of the attitude of the Celtic

Church towards Rome: "There was no hostility, no suspicion, of

the see of Peter; ... Rome was a place of pilgrimage, very holy,

very distant" (The Pre-Conquest Church in England, 8;).

In contrast with this view Nora Chadwick stated the basic issues

thus: "The fundamental and far-reaching nature of this great

spiritual and intellectual contest between the Celtic Church and

the adherents of Roman usage can hardly be overestimated"

(Studies in the Early British Church, 14).

......

     

the weak, and correct the obstinate." In 601 Gregory sent

Augustine the pallium and a letter in which he declared: "You, my

brother, are to exercise authority in the name of our Lord and

God Jesus Christ both over those bishops whom you shall

consecrate, and any who shall be consecrated by the Bishop of

York, and also over all the British bishops." Two categories of

bishops are here noted, those to be consecrated under Roman

jurisdiction, and "the British bishops" of Celtic tradition.

Augustine was arbitrarily placed over the latter, but his

authority was not accepted by them. Gregory went as far as to

deny that episcopal authority existed among Celtic Christians.

"You", he assured Augustine, "are the only bishop"' of the Church

in England.

In opening his discussion with the leaders of the Celtic

Christians, the emissary of the bishop of Rome learnt to his

surprise that, besides a difference in the date for celebrating

Easter and the mode of tonsure, there were "certain other of

their customs ... at variance with the universal practice of the

church" A century later Bede noted that the Celtic Christians

differed from the Roman "in many other observances". These

consisted not merely of ritual, they included also "doctrine!?"

("disciplines ac moribus, rendered so by L. Sherley-Price).

At their second meeting the rift between the two parties widened.

The Celtic leaders consulted "a wise and prudent hermit", who

told them that Augustine must meet his Celtic brethren as equals

by rising to greet them. Should he fail to do this, the hermit

warned, "do not comply with his demands" It turned out that the

Italian remained seated and submitted four demands. The Celtic

"bishops refused these things, nor would they recognize Augustine

as their archbishop". The last sentence is vital. The Celtic

Christians were unwilling to submit to the authority of

Augustine, as the representative of the Roman Church, and by

their subsequent actions showed their determination to maintain

their independence.

Laurentius, who succeeded Augustine as archbishop of Canterbury,

also worked for unity with the Celtic Church. He "sought also to

extend his pastoral care to the original inhabitants of Britain,

and to the Scots of Ireland adjacent to this island of Britain.

For having learned that in their own country the life and customs

of the Scots and of the Britons were unorthodox ... he wrote a

letter jointly with his fellow bishops ..." This statement is

very important as it indicates two items: first, that early in

the seventh century the Celtic Christians in Ireland did not

differ in "life and customs" from their brethren in England and

Wales with whom Laurentius had closer contacts, and also that

Roman Christians regarded Celtic Christianity as "unorthodox". 

A copy of the pastoral epistle has been preserved in which

Laurentius confessed:

     Until we realized the true situation, we had a high regard

     for the devotion of the Britons and Scots, believing that

     they followed the customs of the universal Church; but on

     further acquaintance with the Britons, we imagined that the

     Scots must be better. We have now, however, learned through

     Bishop Dagan on his visit to this island, and through Abbot

     Columbanus in Gaul, that the Scots are no different to the

     Britons in their behaviour. For when Bishop Dagan visited

     us, he not only refused to eat with us, but even to take his

     meal in the same house as ourselves.

Rome and its representatives were apparently unaware of the

actual beliefs and practices of Celtic Christians. It would seem

natural, therefore, that the Celts were also ignorant of the

peculiar beliefs and practices of the Roman Church. This fact is

fundamental to all study of life and works of the Celtic

Christians. They had lived for so long cut off from the Western

Church that they were unaware of the changes which had taken

place in theology and ritual. Commenting on the outcome of the

appeal made by Laurentius, a century and a quarter later, Bede

sighed that "the present state of affairs shows how little he

succeeded"  Neither party would give way.

Even as late as the seventeenth century Cardinal Caesare

Baronius, Librarian of the Vatican (+ 1607) echoed the Roman

viewpoint. Laurentius, he said, laboured "with might and main for

the purpose of extricating the Britons and Scots from their

schism, and reconciling them to the Catholic Churchä." That this

difference was recognized as an actual schism at the time was

noted by Bede. He lamented that "even in our own days the Britons

pay no respect to the faith and religion of the English, and have

no more dealings with them than with the heathen".

With the enthronement of Theodore of Tarsus in 668 as the seventh

archbishop of Canterbury the cause of Roman Christianity received

its most successful champion. He was commissioned by the Pope 

"to draw together a new people in Christ, and establish them in the

Catholic and Apostolical faith". Theodore's attitude towards the

Celtic Christians was shown both by his legislation and by his

actions. In the first canon of his famous penitential he

recommended that, "If one has been ordained by heretics, if it

was without blame (in the matter) he ought to be re-ordained".

That Theodore lived up to his own rules is witnessed by his

dealings with Bishop Chad who had been ordained with the help 

of Celtic bishops and became an adherent of Roman usages:

  

     During his visitation, Theodore consecrated bishops in

     suitable places, and with their assistance he corrected

     abuses wherever he found them. When he informed Bishop 

     Chad that his consecration was irregular, the latter replied with

     the greatest humility: "If you consider my consecration as

     bishop to have been irregular. I willingly resign the office, 

     for I have never thought myself worthy of it.

     Although unworthy, I accepted it solely under obedience." At

     this humble reply, Theodore assured him that he had no wish

     to deprive him of his office, and completed his consecration

     according to Catholic rites.

At the time of Chad's consecration, "Wini was the only bishop in

all Britain who had been canonically consecrated". His

consecration had been carried out in Gaul, evidently because in

665 the Roman party in Britain was still very small. Wini had

actually been assisted by two bishops in the consecration of

Chad. But Theodore regarded this consecration of Chad as

"heretical". Eddius, who denounced the Celtic Christians as

Schismatici Britanniae et Hiberniae, sneered at Chad as having

been consecrated by Quartodecimans. He added a most revealing

detail, that Theodore "fully ordained Chad through every

ecclesiastical grade" to demonstrate the Roman feelings.

Theodore also ruled that baptism performed by Celtic clerics

should be regarded as invalid: "A person from among these

nations, or anyone who doubts his own baptism, shall be

baptized." Communion was restricted. "If any one gives the

communion to a heretic, or receives it from his hand ... he shall

do penance for an entire year"," Theodore further legislated. The

"heretics" with whom he had to deal were, in the main, Celtic

Christians.

About the middle of the seventh century, Ronan, a champion of the

Roman Easter, sought to bring Finan, a successor of Aidan of

Lindisfarne, into line with Rome. But Finan became a "more deter-

mined and open adversary of the truth", Bede regretted. When

Wilfrid, a student of Lindisfarne, returned from a visit to the

Imperial City, he was an ardent convert to Roman usage, convinced

that what he had learned in Italy "ought to be preferred above

all the traditions of the Scots". His biographer noted that

Wilfrid had discovered the correct computation of Easter "which

the schismatics of Britain and Hibernia did not know, and many

other rules of ecclesiastical discipline". About this time Eata,

Cuthbert, and other Celtic brethren were actually expelled from

their residence, and their settlement given to others. This

eviction took place from Ripon, which was then handed over to

Wilfrid (c. 661-2).

The story of the Council of Whitby (664) has often been told.

Against the arguments submitted by the representative of the

Celtic party, which Bede reported in a most fragmentary fashion,

while he devoted much space to those of the Romanizer Wilfrid,

the latter rudely replied to Colman: "The only people who are

stupid enough to disagree with the whole world are these Scots

and their obstinate adherents the Picts and Britons, who inhabit

only a portion of these two islands in the remote ocean." In his

summing up, Wilfrid was reported as having spoken patronizingly

of Columba and his pious successors. He declared that, were they

living, they would immediately accept Roman usages. He then

accused Colman and his friends of obstinate sin, adding:

     For although your Fathers were holy men, do not imagine that

     they, a few in a corner of a remote island, are to be

     preferred before the universal Church of Christ throughout

     the world. And even if your Columba-or, may I say, ours also

     if he was the servant of Christ-was a saint of potent

     virtues, can he take precedence before the most blessed

     Prince of Apostles, to whom our Lord said: "Thou art Peter ..."

As a result of "Wilfrid's farago of fictitious tradition and

fabricated testimony", King Oswy was won over to the Roman side.

But the Celtic ecclesiastics, loyal to their faith, were prepared

to relinquish lands, homes, and positions, for what they regarded

as their faith. "Colman, seeing his teachings rejected and his

following discounted, took away with him all who still dissented

from the Catholic Easter and tonsure--for there was no small

argument about this as well - and returned to Ireland in order to

consult his compatriots on their future course of action."

There is something very moving about Colman and his faithful

companions, vanquished yet unconquered, leaving everything 

behind them and setting out for an unknown place in which they 

might worship as their consciences dictated. On the lonely island 

of Inishbofin, "The Isle of the White Calf", off the coast of Mayo,

they established their new settlement. Fifty years after the event 

Bede characterized the accomplishment of the Synod of Whitby 

as "the exposure and banishment of the Scottish sect".

There was apparently no doubt in the historian's mind of the

schismatical nature of the Celtic Church.

Following the council of Whitby the cause of the Roman mission

prospered. Bede noted Wilfrid's achievement thus: "He introduced

into the English churches many Catholic customs, with the result

that the Catholic Rite daily gained support, and all the Scots

remaining in England either conformed to it or returned to their

own land." But while the initial victory had been gained at

Whitby and the Roman tradition accepted by King Oswy, it was 

not without centuries of struggle that the Celtic party was finally

absorbed.

Aldhehn, abbot of Malmesbury, (+ 709) like Wilfrid a convert to

the Roman party, was also an ardent advocate of his newly found

faith. He complained in a letter to Geraint, king of Devon and

Cornwall, that:

     beyond the mouth of the Severn the priests of Cambria, proud

     of the purity of their morals, have such a horror of

     communication with us that they refuse to pray with us in

     their churches, or to seat themselves at the same table.

     More than this, what is left from our meals is thrown to

     dogs and swine; the dishes and bottles we have used have to

     be rubbed with sand or purified by fire before they will

     condescend to touch them. The Britons give us neither the

     salutation nor the kiss of peace, ... and if one of us went

     to live in their country, the natives would hold no

     communications with him till after he had been made to

     endure a penance for forty days.

He added his estimate that the teachings of these heretics were

not in accord with the Catholic faith.

Sometime about 768 the Celtic Christians of South Wales, that is,

Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, appear to have accepted the Roman

usages. Elbodus, bishop of Bangor, finally persuaded the people

of North Wales, that is modern Wales, to receive Roman traditions

(c. 777). Long ago Ussher published a poem of Taliessyn, "chief

of the bards" of the ancient Cymri, in which this conflict

between Roman and Celtic Christians is poignantly put:

Wo be to that priest ybom

That will not cleanly weed his corn, 

And preach his charge among: 

Wo be to that shepherd (I say) 

That will not watch his fold alway, 

As to his office doth belong:

Wo be to him that doth not keep 

From Romish wolves his sheep 

With staff and weapon strong.

But scattered remnants of stubborn Celtic Christians persisted in

their own ways until the eleventh century, when they were finally

absorbed by the Roman party.

Having considered the relationship of the Celtic Christians in

England and Wales with the See of Rome, it is necessary also to

study the case of Ireland. Cardinal Baronius entitled one section

of his Annals for the year 566: "The Bishops of Ireland,

Schismatics". He noted how the Irish Church, which had been

apparently thriving well "made shipwreck in consequence of not

following the bark of Peter which takes the lead of all". 

For the year 604 Baronius added the opinion which was evidently

current in Rome:

     It is quite plain that the Scots were also just in like

     manner tinged with the same dark dye of schism as the

     Britons, and guilty like them of separating from the Church

     of Rome. And for this reason they were visited by God with

     the same vengeance as came upon the Britons in being given

     up for a prey to those inhuman savages, the Angles and the

     Saxons.

There seems to be no reasonable doubt but that the cleavage

between Roman and Celtic Christians was very wide, and could not

be bridged without one party's giving way to the other.

The way southern Ireland was induced to conform with Rome came

about something like this. About 629 a synod was held at Campus

Lene (Magh Lene), near Tullamore, with Cummian the major advocate

of conformity. He tells the story in a letter to his superior at

Iona, listing the reasons why he left the Celtic traditions. He

related how he had consulted "our ancient fathers, Bishop Ailbe,

Kieran of Clonmacnoise, Brendan, Nessan, and Lugidus, what they

thought of our excommunication decreed by the Apostolic Sees". *

This sentence is clear. Rome had evidently anathematized the

Celtic Christians in Ireland sometime early in the seventh

century, possibly following their rejection of the appeal to

conform made by Laurentius. This would confirm the statement 

of Baronius that the Celtic Christians "were separate from the

Church". Cummian sought to heal this hostility. The result of the

Synod of Campus Lene was that the majority agreement "that the

more worthy and approved practice, recommended to us from the

source of our baptism and wisdom, and by the successors of the

Apostles of the Lord", should be adopted. But Cummian and the

Roman party did not enjoy the success for thich they hoped. He

complained bitterly that "a certain whited wall" arose who caused

a revulsion of feeling, "who did not make both one, but caused a

separation and partly rendered void what had been agreed to; 

whom the Lord, as I hope, will smite as seemeth him good".

To mend this further rift, Cummian persuaded some Celtic

representatives to journey to Rome to study the matter further.

The delegates returned about three years later when there was

another  great Council of the people of Ireland in the White Field

(near Carlow), among whom there was contention about the

order of Pasch. For Laserian, abbot of the monastery of

Leighlin, to whom were subject one thousand and fifty monks,

defended the new order which came recently from Rome, but

others defended the old. 

Fintan Manu, the venerable representative of the Celtic party,

urged the assembly to stay by the old order. "The people

therefore decided according to the opinion of the holy man and

returned home with joy." But even this decision was short-lived.

Pilgrimages to Rome had become common, and more and more Celtic

......

*Note Cummian's reference to "Apostolic Sees", sedibus

apostolicis. Later in his letter he mentions "the fourfold

Apostolic See, namely of Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, and

Alexandria, in which there exists a perfect unanimity on the

subject of Easter". He was evidently unaware of any dominance on

the part of the Roman See.

......

Christians were influenced by Roman usages. That the union party

under Cummian achieved its aims is suggested by Bede, who wrote

of the year 635: "The Scots in the south of Ireland had already

conformed to the injunctions of the Bishop of the apostolic see,

and observed Easter at the canonical time."

The swing to Rome was precipitated by arguments similar to the

well-known one made by Cummian: "What more harmful ideas can be

held concerning our Mother the Church than if we are to say Rome

errs, Jerusalem errs, Alexandria errs, Antioch errs, the whole

word errs, but the Britons and the Scots are the only people who

think right?"  A letter from the Bishop of Rome himself also

probably helped. Bede has preserved the information that

Pope Honorius also wrote to the Scots whom he learned to be

in error about the observance of Easter, as I mentioned

earlier. He earnestly warned them not to imagine that their

little company, isolated at the uttermost ends of the earth,

had a monopoly of wisdom over all the ancient and new

churches throughout the world, and he asked them not to keep

a different Easter, contrary to the paschal calculations and

synodical decrees of all the bishops of the world.

John, who had just been elected pope, followed this up with an

earnest appeal:

“[We] learned that certain persons in your province are attempting

to revive a new heresy from an old one, contrary to the orthodox

faith, and that they ignorantly refuse to observe our Easter on

which Christ was sacrificed, arguing that it should be observed

with the Hebrew Passover on the fourteenth of the moon".

The Pope concluded: "We therefore beg you not to rake up the

ashes of controversies long since burned out." And so the Celtic

Christians of southern Ireland capitulated and joined in

communion with Rome.

But for more than half a century northern Ireland continued to

hold out. Adamnan of Iona was the apostle of union. Recommended

by his brethren to study abroad, Adamnan left his island retreat

and travelled to England. At the court of his friend Alfred he

learned the Roman way of "keeping Easter and many other

observances". On his return to Iona, "seeing that his own

following was very small", Adamnan tried to lead his own people 

in Iona and those who were under the jurisdiction of that monastery 

into the correct ways that he had himself learned and whole-heartedly

accepted, but in this field he failed. Then he sailed over to preach in 

Ireland, and by his simple teaching showed its people the proper 

time of Easter. He corrected their ancient error and restored nearly 

all who were not under the jurisdiction of Iona to Catholic unity, 

teaching them to observe Easter at the proper time. Having observed 

the canonical Easter in Ireland, he returned to his own island,

where he vigorously pressed his own monastery to conform to

the Catholic observance of Easter, but had no success in his

attempts, and before the close of the next year he departed this life

    

It was probably at the Synod of Tars (697) that northern Ireland

capitulated. But a further meeting was held in 704 to confirm the

decision. The ancient annalist recorded that:

     In this year the men of Erin consented to receive one

     jurisdiction and one rule from Adamnan, respecting the

     celebration of Easter, on Sunday, the fourteenth of the moon

     of April, and respecting the tonsuring of all the clerks of

     Erin after the manner of St Peter, for there had been great

     dissension in Erin up to that time; i.e. some of the clergy

     of Erin celebrated Easter on the Sunday [next after] the

     fourteenth of the moon of April, and had the tonsure of

     Peter the Apostle, after the example of Patrick; but others,

     following the example of Columbkille, celebrated Easter on

     the fourteenth of the moon of April, on whatever day of the

     week the fourteenth should happen to fall, and had the

     tonsure of Simon Magus. A third party did not agree with the

     followers of Patrick, or with the followers of Columbkille;

     so that the clergy of Erin used to hold many synods, and

     these clergy used to come to the synods accompanied by the

     laity, so that battles and deaths occurred between them; and

     many evils resulted in Erin in consequence of this, viz., a

     great murrain of cows, and a very great famine, and many

     diseases, and the devastation of Erin by foreign hordes.

     They were thus for a long time, i.e. to the time of Adamnan,

     who was the ninth abbot that took [the government of] Ia

     after Columbkille.

But while the majority of Irish Celtic Christians accepted the

Roman traditions, there was apparently a sizeable minority that

continued to exercise independence. Even four centuries later, in

the time of Malachy O'Morgair, the Bishop of Rome had grave

misgivings about the way things were being carried on in Ireland.

In 1142 Malachy became abbot of Bangor and coarb of Comgal. His

great biographer, Bernard of Clairvaux, called him an axe or a mattock 

casting down evil plantings. He extirpated barbaric rites, he planted 

those of the church. All outworn superstitions (for not a few of them 

were discovered) he abolished, and wheresoever he found it, every sort 

of malign influences sent by evil angels ... Moreover in all Churches 

he ordained the apostolic sanctions and the decrees of the holy fathers, 

and especially the customs of the holy Roman Church.

This reform entered into all phases of the surviving practices of

the Celtic Christians. Malachy introduced the "canonical hours

after the fashion of the whole world ... For there was not such

thing before, not even in the city" of Armagh. 

Some Celtic usages had evidently persisted long after outward

conformity to Rome had been achieved at the end of the seventh

century.

But the monks of Iona, and the other Christian settlements owing

allegiance to it, remained firm to their ancient traditions in

spite of Adamnan's persuasion. It was left to Egbert to bring

about the union of Iona with Rome. Egbert was an Englishman who

had been educated in Ireland. He vowed to become a pilgrim away

from his homeland, and resolved on a missionary journey into what

would today be called Germany. He was persuaded to change his

plans because of a vision granted to Boisil, to whom an angel

gave this directive: "Now go and tell him that, whether he wishes

it or not, he is to visit the monastery of Columba, because their

ploughs do not run straight, and it is his duty to recall them to

the right way." Egbert's mission was a success, for not long

afterwards the Scottish brethren who lived in the Isle of Iona,

and also the monastic settlements under their jurisdiction, were

induced to adopt Roman usages.

But while this might be the decision of the majority at Iona, the

matter was by no means settled. Rival abbots ruled side by side

for some time in the island. King Nectan was disturbed by these

divisions, and, having received a reply to a letter he had written

(c. 710) to Ceolfrid, abbot of Jarrow, explaining the Roman

traditions, he resolved to act. And so in 717 "the family of Iona

were expelled across the mountains of Britain by Nectan". To

those who had refused to comply exile beyond the Grampians was

decreed. Having brought about a clean sweep of the schismatical

element, the Roman cleric Egbert "consecrated the island anew to

Christ". But as in Ireland, so in Scotland, remnants of Celtic

Christians persisted until the coming of Margaret, the bride of

Malcolm, king of Scotland. This energetic queen soon set about

eradicating "wholly the illegalities that had sprung up in (the

church). For when she saw that many things were done in that

nation contrary to the rule of the true faith and the holy custom

of the universal church", she worked with the Celtic church

leaders to reform them. The queen finally offered the remnants of

these Christians, in Ninian Hill's terse phrase, "conformity or

Canossa". They prudently accepted the former, and eventually

disappeared from the British scene. By the Council of Windsor

(1072), Scotland was placed under the Archbishop of York;  and

Lanfranc was as triumphant in Scotland as he had been in Ireland.

The weight of the arguments from the sources irrefutably show

that there existed fundamental and far-reaching differences

between the Celtic Christians and the Roman Church, which held

them as schismatics and heretics. Rome was ignorant of these

differences until the opening decade of the seventh century. It

seems reasonable that the Celts were also ignorant of the usages

and beliefs of Roman Christians. The rights and wrongs of the

situation are no concern of the historian. His purpose is to

discover what these differences were. These divergencies will aid

in shedding light on the actual beliefs and practices of the

Celtic Christians.

..........

NOTE:

DID  YOU  CATCH  ALL  THIS?  CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN WAS WAY DIFFERENT FROM THE CHRISTIANITY OF ROME. YES, IT WOULD BE, FOR CHRISTIANITY HAD ARRIVED IN BRITAIN BEFORE THE DEATH OF THE APOSTLES, AS PROVED IN OTHER STUDIES ON MY WEBSITE.

HERE WE HAVE SEEN THE GREAT DIFFERENCE IN THE OBSERVATION OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST - ROME'S EASTER OR THE TRUE PASSOVER ON THE 14TH OF THE FIRST MONTH. THE CELTS HAD BEEN TAUGHT THE CORRECT WAY BY THOSE COMING INTO BRITAIN TO BRING CHRISTIANITY IN THE FIRST CENTURY AD. IT WAS NOW IN BRITAIN THE SAME OLD BATTLE AS IT HAD BEEN BY POLYCARP AND POLYCRATES OF THE CHURCHES OF ASIA MINOR, WITH THE BISHOP OF ROME, WHO HAD IN THE SECOND CENTURY ACCEPTED AND ADOPTED THE PAGAN EASTER.

THIS IS A VERY GOOD ILLUSTRATION AS TO THE SLOW BUT GRADULE

DOMINATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OVER THE WORLD AS CENTURIES LATER INTO OUR 21ST CENTURY, WE HAVE THE WORLD ADOPTING THE PAGAN CHRIST-MASS IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER, AND ALSO THE PAGAN JANUARY 1ST AS THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR.

THE BOOK OF REVELATION MAKES IT CLEAR THAT ROME HAS MADE ALL NATIONS DRUNK ON HER SPIRITUAL FORNICATION.

AS JESUS AND THE FATHER CALL OUT IN REVELATION "COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, PARTAKE NOT OF HER SINS SO YOU WILL NOT PARTAKE OF HER PLAGUES" AND AS SHOWN IN REVELATION, HER FINAL FALL AND SMASH TO DESTRUCTION.

Keith Hunt

To be continued