The English Church in the Middle Ages

Epochs of Church History

EDITED BY
PROFESSOR MANDELL CREIGHTON.

 

THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN
THE MIDDLE AGES.

 

 

 

 

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THE ENGLISH CHURCH

IN THE

MIDDLE AGES.

 

BY
WILLIAM HUNT.

 

LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1888.

All rights reserved

 

 

Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

 

 

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PREFACE.

This book is intended to illustrate the relations of the English Church with the papacy and with the English State down to the revolt of Wyclif against the abuses which had gathered round the ecclesiastical system of the Middle Ages, and the Great Schism in the papacy which materially affected the ideas of the whole of Western Christendom. It was thought expedient to deal with these subjects in a narrative form, and some gaps have therefore had to be filled up, and some links supplied. This has been done as far as possible by notices of matters which bear on the moral condition of the Church, and serve to show how far it was qualified at various periods to be the example and instructor of the nation. No attempt, however, has been made to write a complete history on a small scale, and I have designedly passed by many points, in themselves of interest and importance, in order to give as much space as might be to my proper subjects. Besides, this volume has been written as one of a series in which the missions to the Teutonic peoples, the various aspects of Monasticism, the question of Investitures, and the place which the University of Oxford fills in our Church’s history have been, or will be, treated separately. Accordingly I have not touched on any of these things further than seemed absolutely necessary.

I wish that, limited as my task has been, I could believe that it has been adequately performed. No one can understand the character, or appreciate the claims, of the English Church who has not studied its history from the beginning, and it is hoped that this little book may do something, however small, towards spreading a correct idea of the part that the Church has borne in the progress of the nation, and of the grounds on which its members maintain that it has from the first been a National Church, as regards its inherent life and independent attitude as well as its intimate and peculiar relations with the State. A firm grasp of the position it held during the Middle Ages is necessary to a right understanding of the final rupture with Rome accomplished in the sixteenth century, and will afford a complete safeguard against the vulgar error of regarding the Church as a creation of the State, an institution established by the civil power, and maintained by its bounty. Those who are acquainted with our mediæval chroniclers will see that I have written from original sources. I have also freely availed myself of the labours of others, and, above all, of the works of Bishop Stubbs, which have been of the greatest assistance to me.

 

 

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CONTENTS.

  Page Preface v   Lists of the Archbishops of Canterbury and the Bishops and Archbishops of York to 1377 xiii   CHAPTER I. Rome and Iona. St. Augustin’s Mission—Pope Gregory’s Scheme of Organization—Causes of its Failure—Foundation and Overthrow of the See of York—Independent Missions—The See of Lindisfarne—Scottish Christianity—The Schism—The Synod of Whitby—Restoration of the See of York 1   CHAPTER II. Organization. Archbishop Theodore—His Work in Organization—New Dioceses—Wilfrith’s Appeals to Rome—Literary Greatness of Northumbria—Parishes—Tithes—The Church in Wessex—A Third Archbishopric—The Church in Relation to the State—to Rome—to Western Christendom 15   CHAPTER III. Ruin and Revival. Ruin of Northumbria—Æthelwulf’s Pilgrimage—Danish Invasions of Southern England; the Peace of Wedmore—Alfred’s

Work—Character of the Church in the Tenth Century—Reorganization—Revival—Oda—Dunstan—Seculars and Regulars—Dunstan’s Ecclesiastical Administration—Coronations—Dunstan’s Last Days—Ælfric the Grammarian 34   CHAPTER IV. Exhaustion. Characteristics of the Period—Renewed Scandinavian Invasions—Legislation— Archbishop Ælfheah: his Martyrdom—End of the Danish War—Cnut and the Church—The King’s Clerks—Spiritual Decadence—Foreigners appointed to English Sees—Effect of these Appointments—Party Struggles—Earl Harold—Pilgrimages—A Legatine Visit—A Schismatical Archbishop—The Papacy and the Conquest—Summary: The National Character of the Church before the Norman Conquest 55   CHAPTER V. Royal Supremacy. The Conqueror and Lanfranc—Canterbury and York—Separate Ecclesiastical System—Removal of Sees—Extent and Limits of Papal Influence—The Conqueror’s Bishops—Change in the Character of the Church—An Appeal to Rome—Feudal Tendencies—St. Anselm—Struggle against Tyranny—Investitures—Henry I.—Councils—Legates—Independence of the See of York—Summary 77   CHAPTER VI. Clerical Pretensions. Stephen and the English Church—Archbishop Theobald and Henry of Winchester—Thomas the Chancellor—The Scutage of Toulouse—Thomas the Archbishop—Clerical Immunity—The Archbishop in Exile—His Martyrdom—Henry’s General Relations to the Church—Conquest of Ireland—Richard’s Crusade—Longchamp—Archbishop Hubert Walter—Character of the Clergy 105   CHAPTER VII. Vassalage. The Alliance between the Church and the Crown—Coronation of John—Quarrel between John and the Pope—The Interdict—Vassalage of England—The Great Charter—Papal Tutelage of Henry III.—Taxation of Spiritualities—Papal Oppression—Edmund Rich, Archbishop—Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln—Alienation from Rome—Civil War—Increase of Clerical Pretensions—The Canon Law 135   CHAPTER VIII. The Church and the Nation. Character of the Reign of Edward I.—Archbishop Peckham—Statute of Mortmain—Conquest of Wales—Circumspecte Agatis—Expulsion of the Jews—Clerical Taxation and Representation in Parliament—Breach between the Crown and the Papacy—Confirmation of the Charters—Archbishop Winchelsey and the Rights of the Crown—The English Parliament and Papal Exactions—Church and State during the Reign of Edward II.—Papal Provisions to Bishoprics—The Bishops and Secular Politics—The Province of York—Parliament and Convocation 161   CHAPTER IX. The Papacy and the Parliament. Ecclesiastical Character of the Reign of Edward III.—Archbishops and their Ecclesiastical Administration—Provisions—Statute of Provisors—Statute of Præmunire—Refusal of Tribute—Relations between the Church and the State—Causes of Discontent at the Condition of the Church—Attack on Clerical Ministers and the Wealthy Clergy—Concordat with the Papacy—The Good Parliament—Conclusion 192   INDEX 219

 

 

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ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY TO 1377.

  Accession. Death. Augustin 597 604 Laurentius 604 619 Mellitus 619 624 Justus 624 627 Honorius 627 653 Deusdedit 655 664 Theodore 668 690 Brihtwald 693 731

class="blr">Tatwin 731 734 Nothelm 735 739 Cuthberht 740 758 Brecgwin 759 765 Jaenberht 766 791 Æthelheard 793 805 Wulfred 805 832 Feologeld 832 832 Ceolnoth 833 870 Æthelred 870 889 Plegmund 890 914 Athelm 914 923 Wulfhelm 923 942 Oda 942 959 Dunstan 960 988 Æthelgar 988 989 Sigeric 990 994 Ælfric 995 1005 Ælfheah 1005 1012 Lyfing 1013 1020 Æthelnoth 1020 1038 Eadsige 1038 1050 Robert 1051 1070 Stigand 1052 ... Lanfranc 1070 1089 Anselm 1093 1109 Ralph 1114 1122 William of Corbeuil 1123 1136 Theobald 1139 1161 Thomas [Becket] 1162 1170 Richard 1174 1184 Baldwin 1185 1190 Hubert Walter 1193 1205 Stephen Langton 1207 1228 Richard Grant 1229 1231 Edmund Rich 1234 1240 Boniface 1245 1270 Robert Kilwardby 1273 res. 1278 John Peckham 1279 1292 Robert Winchelsey 1294 1313 Walter Reynolds 1313 1327 Simon Mepeham 1328 1333 John Stratford 1333 1348 Thomas Bradwardine 1349 1349 Simon Islip 1349 1366 Simon Langham 1366 res. 1368 William Whittlesey 1368 1374 Simon Sudbury 1375 1381

 

 

BISHOPS AND ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK TO 1377.

  Accession. Death. Paulinus 625 ... Wilfrith 664 709 Ceadda

class="c6">664 res. 669 Bosa 678 705 John of Beverley 705 res. 718 Wilfrith II. 718 732 Ecgberht 732 766 Æthelberht (Albert)   766 780 Eanbald 780 796 Eanbald II. 796 812 Wulfsige ... 831 Wigmund 837 ... Wulfhere 854 900 Æthelbald 900 ... Redewald cir. 928 ... Wulfstan cir. 931 956 Oskytel 958 971 Oswald 972 992 Ealdulf 992 1002 Wulfstan II. 1003 1023 Ælfric 1023 1051 Kinesige 1051 1060 Ealdred 1060 1069 Thomas 1070 1100 Gerard 1101 1108 Thomas II. 1109 1114 Thurstan 1119 1140 William 1143 1154 Henry Murdac 1147 1153 Roger 1154 1181 Geoffrey 1191 1212 Walter Gray 1215 1255 Sewal de Bovill 1256 1258 Godfrey 1258 1265 Walter Giffard 1266 1279 William Wickwain 1279 1285 John le Roman 1286 1296 Henry Newark 1298 1299 Thomas Corbridge 1300 1303 William Greenfield 1306 1315 William Melton 1317 1340 William Zouche 1342 1352 John Thoresby 1352 1373 Alexander Neville 1374 1392

 

 

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THE ENGLISH CHURCH
IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

 

 

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CHAPTER I.

ROME AND IONA.

The Gospel was first brought to the Teutonic conquerors of Britain by Roman missionaries, and was received by the kings of various kingdoms. From the first the Church that was planted here was national in character, and formed a basis for national union; and when that union was accomplished the English State became coextensive with the English Church, and was closely united with it.

The main object of this book is to trace the relations of the Church both with the Papacy and with the State down to the new era that opened with the schism in the Papacy and the Wyclifite movement. St. Augustin’s landing at Ebbsfleet, 597.Our narrative will begin with the coming of Augustin and his companions in 597 to preach the Gospel to the English people. They landed in the Isle of Thanet. The way had, to some extent, been prepared for them, for Æthelberht, king of Kent, whose superiority was acknowledged as far north as the Humber, had married a Christian princess named Bertha, the daughter of a Frankish king, and had allowed her to bring a priest with her and to practise her own religion. He had not, however, learnt much about Christianity from his queen or her priest. Nevertheless, he received the Gospel from Augustin, and was baptized with many of his people. By Gregory’s command, Augustin was consecrated “archbishop of the English nation” by the archbishop of Arles. Æthelberht gave him his royal city of Canterbury, and built for him there the monastery of Christ Church, the mother-church of our country.

Gregory organized the new Church, in the full belief that it would extend over the whole island. He sent Augustin the “pall,” a vestment denoting metropolitan authority, and constituting the recipient vicar of the Pope. Two metropolitan sees were to be established—the one at London, the residence of the East Saxon King Sæberct, who reigned as sub-king under Æthelberht, a crowded mart, and the centre of a system of roads; the other at York, the capital of the old Roman province north of the Humber. Both archbishops were to receive the pall, and to be of equal authority. At the same time, the unity of the Church was ensured, for they were to consult together and act in unison. Both the provinces were to be divided into twelve suffragan bishoprics, and as the northern province took in the country now called Scotland, they were of fairly equal size. This arrangement was not to be carried out until after Augustin’s death. As long as he lived all the bishops alike were to obey him, and he was, we may suppose, to continue to reside at Canterbury. Moreover, the clergy of the Welsh or Britons were to be subject to him and to the future archbishops of the English Church. Augustin endeavoured to persuade the Welsh clergy to join him in preaching the Gospel to the Teutonic invaders, and held a meeting with them at or near Aust, on the Severn. But they refused to acknowledge his authority, or even to hold communion with him, and would not give up their peculiar usages with respect to the date of Easter and the administration of Baptism. At Augustin’s request, Gregory sent him a letter of instructions as to the government of the Church. It bears witness to the Pope’s largeness of mind. While morality and decency were to be enforced, the archbishop was not bound strictly to follow the Roman ritual; if he found anything that he thought would be helpful to his converts in the Gallican or any other use, he might adopt it, and so make up a use collected from various sources.

Excellent as Gregory’s scheme would have been had Britain still been under Roman rule, it was unsuited to a country divided as England then was into several rival kingdoms. London did not become a metropolitan see, probably because Æthelberht was unwilling that the seat of ecclesiastical authority should be transferred from his own kingdom to the chief city of a dependent people, while Augustin had no wish that the church which he had founded at Canterbury, and the second monastery, now called after him, which he had begun to build there for a burying-place for himself and his successors, should be reduced to a lower rank. Other Roman clergy had been sent by Gregory to reinforce the mission, and of these Augustin consecrated Mellitus to be bishop of London, Justus to be bishop over Kent west of the Medway, with Rochester as the city of his see, an arrangement that marks an early tribal distinction, and Laurentius to be his own successor at Canterbury. Thus the metropolitan see remained with Kent. More generally, Gregory’s scheme failed because it was founded on the old division of Britain as a province of the Roman empire, and was not adapted to the tribal distinctions of the English. Moreover, political circumstances determined the development of the Church; for the Roman mission received a series of checks, and the work of evangelization was taken up by Scottish missionaries. The kingdoms into which the country was divided were finally converted by efforts more or less independent of the Kentish mission; the work of evangelization followed tribal lines, and for sixty years after Augustin’s death the tendency of the Church was towards disunion.

Although the king of the East Angles received baptism in Kent at the bidding of Æthelberht, he fell back into idolatry on his return to his own land. And as Æthelberht’s son, Eadbald, was a pagan, many of the Kentishmen and East Saxons also deserted Christianity when he became king. Eadbald was converted by Laurentius, and did what he could to forward the cause of Christ. With Æthelberht’s death, however, the greatness of Kent passed away, and Eadbald could not insist on the destruction of idols even in his own country. While Kent sank into political insignificance the Kentish mission made one great advance, and then ended in failure. Foundation and overthrow of the see of York, 627-633.The Northumbrian king, Eadwine, who reigned over the two Northumbrian kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira, from the Forth to the Humber, and gradually established a supremacy over the whole English people except the Kentishmen, married Æthelburh, the daughter of Æthelberht. She was accompanied to her new home by Paulinus, who was ordained bishop by Justus, the successor of Mellitus; and Boniface V. wrote to her exhorting her to labour for the conversion of her husband, and saying that he would not cease to pray for her success. His prayers were heard; Eadwine was baptized, and made his capital, York, the seat of the bishopric of Paulinus. The people of Deira (Yorkshire) followed their king’s example, while Bernicia, though Paulinus preached and baptized there, remained, on the whole, heathen; no church was built and no altar was raised. South of the Humber the authority of Eadwine and the preaching of Paulinus effected the conversion of Lindsey, and of the king, at least, of the East Angles. In 633, however, Eadwine was defeated and slain by Penda, the heathen king of Mercia, and Cadwallon, the Briton. Heathenism was already triumphant in East Anglia, and on Eadwine’s death many of the Northumbrians relapsed into idolatry. Æthelburh and her children sought shelter in Kent, and Paulinus fled with them. Only one Roman clergyman, the deacon James, remained in Northumbria to labour on in faith that God’s cause would yet triumph there. Ignorant of the calamity that had befallen the Church, the Pope, in pursuance of Gregory’s scheme, sent the pall to Paulinus. When the papal gift arrived in England the Church of York had been overthrown, and Paulinus had been translated to Rochester.

After the success of the Kentish mission had received this terrible check, the work of evangelization was carried on by efforts that were more or less independent of it. East Anglia was finally converted by a Burgundian priest named Felix, who was consecrated bishop by Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, and fixed his see at Dunwich, once on the Suffolk coast. The Italian, Birinus, who was

consecrated in Italy, brought the Gospel to the West Saxons, and received Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, for the place of his see. Northumbria was evangelized by Celtic missionaries who were not in communion with Rome and Canterbury. About the middle of the sixth century the Irish Scot, Columba, founded the monastery of Iona. He and his companions preached the Gospel to the northern Picts and the Scots of the western isles, and Iona became a centre of Christian light. During the reign of Eadwine, Oswald and Oswiu, princes of the rival Bernician line, had found shelter in Iona. Oswald returned to become king of Bernicia shortly after the death of Eadwine, and before long brought Deira also under his dominion. As soon as he had gained possession of the kingdom of Bernicia, he sent to Iona for missionaries to instruct his people. Aidan, a missionary from Columba’s house, came to him, and so it came to pass that Bernicia received Christianity from Celtic teachers, from Aidan and his fellow-workers. Foundation of the see of Lindisfarne, 635.Oswald warmly seconded their efforts, and fixed the see of Aidan, who was in bishop’s orders, in Lindisfarne, or Holy Isle, not far from Bamborough, where he resided; for though he ruled over both the Northumbrian kingdoms, and completed the minster at York, he made his home in the North, among his own people. Bernicia thus became the stronghold of Celtic Christianity under the rule of the kings of the house of Ida, while the Christians of Deira were naturally more inclined to the Roman usages which had been introduced by Paulinus and practised by Eadwine and his queen. Aidan built a monastery at Lindisfarne, and peopled it with monks from Iona. This gave him a good supply of clergy, and the work of evangelization prospered and took deep root. The greatness of Oswald provoked Penda to renew his struggle with the northern kingdom, and the Northumbrian king was defeated and slain at Maserfield. As his foes closed round him he prayed for their conversion. His words sank deeply into men’s hearts. “‘May God have mercy on their souls,’ said Oswald, as he fell to earth,” was a line handed down from generation to generation. From his hermit’s retreat on Farne Island, Aidan beheld the thick clouds of smoke rise from the country round Bamborough, and cried, “Behold, Lord, the evil that Penda doeth!” Still the work of God went on; and when Oswiu came to the throne the prayer of Oswald received its answer, for a marriage between his house and the house of Penda led to the evangelization of the Mercians and Middle Angles by the monks of Iona. From them too the East Saxons received the Gospel, and Cedd, an English monk of Lindisfarne, was consecrated to the bishopric that had been held by the Roman Mellitus.

By the middle of the seventh century only Kent and East Anglia remained in full and exclusive communion with Rome; for Sussex was still heathen, Wini, the West Saxon bishop, acted with British bishops, and Scottish Christianity prevailed in all the rest of England. The Scottish missionaries were full of zeal and self-devotion, and were masters of a considerable store of learning. Their nature was impulsive; while they were loving and tender-hearted, passionate invectives came as readily from their lips as words of love. Celtic Christianity was a religion of perpetual miracles, of deep and varying emotions, and of contempt for worldly things, that, however noble in itself, was sometimes manifested extravagantly. While its teachers seldom failed to win men’s love, they were not equally successful in influencing their conduct. It was well that the English Church turned away from them, for their religious system could never have produced an organized ecclesiastical society. It was monastic rather than hierarchical, and a Celtic priest-abbot was a far more important person than a bishop who was not the ruler of an abbey, though in England the bishops were probably always abbots. In founding their sees they sought seclusion rather than good administrative centres, and the bishop’s monastery was less a place of diocesan government than the headquarters of missionary effort. They had no regular diocesan system, and bishops and clergy ministered where they would. Their monasticism was of a specially ascetic character. Both Aidan and Cuthberht loved to leave the society of the monks at Lindisfarne, and to retire to the barren little Farne Island, where they could only hear the roaring of the northern ocean and the crying of the sea-birds. Cuthberht, indeed, even after he joined the Roman Church, kept the characteristics of the Scottish monk. He left the duties of his bishopric altogether and ended his days in his island-hermitage. This love of asceticism was fatal to the well-being of the Church; the individual soul was everything; the Church was nothing; and though great victories were won over heathenism, the Scottish Church remained without corporate life. Lastly, it was not in communion with Rome, and so lay outside Catholic Christendom. And though it had much to offer the English both in religion and learning, every gift would have been rendered fruitless by isolation from the progressive life of Western Christendom.