THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
showed at the beginning of the seventh century
are easily explicable. It must not be forgotten
that the position of the bishop of
1. Reason Rome in the time of Leo the Great for the (440-461) was different from that of
Diverg-en- Pope Gregory the Great (590-604);
ces from that the fourth century knew nothing
Rome. 0f that rigid uniformity of institutions
which at the beginning of the seventh century was looked upon as an essential requirement of the unitas catholica ; and that innovations domesticated themselves slowly in the more distant members of the Church. About 400 the British branch of the Catholic Church was cut off because political Rome lost its hold on Britain. A series of events of the early fifth century is instructive for the immediate consequences. The popes Innocent, Zosimus, and Boniface (401-422) energetically opposed the teaching of Pelagius, and the emperor, Honorius, supported them by issuing a rescript (Apr. 30, 418) threatening banishment to every Pelagian. The suppression of the heresy in the empire was thus due to the civil power. But the arm of the emperor did not reach to Britain and in 429 Pope Celestine could only send Germanus of Auxerre thither to eradicate the heresy by moral suasion. Later all connection between the Celtic Church and Rome was broken for 150 years by a double and threefold wall of barbarians — Burgundians, Visigoths, Franks, and Saxons. The development of the Western Church during all this time left no impress on the Celtic; and local conditions could not fail to influence the latter. This explains how a Columban of Luxeuil presumes to address the pope in a way which two hundred years earlier would not have been remarkable in a bishop of North Africa or Alexandria. It explains why the Welsh Church of the sixth century knew only of independent bishops without metropolitan; the British Church in 400 knew nothing of this institution. The difference in the date of Easter is due to the fact that in 600 the Celtic Church still used the older supputatio Romano, which had been followed by Rome till 343, but was then superseded by the younger supputatio Romano, . Other changes — the paschal table of Zeitz in 447, the nineteen-year cycle of Victorius in 501, the cycle of Dionysius about 550 — were all unknown to the Celtic Church.
The representatives of Britain at the Synod of Aries subscribed the canon that when possible
seven, and in any case three, bishops
2. Conse- should take part in the consecration cration by of a bishop. Yet consecration could
a Single be performed by a single bishop in Bishop, both the British and Irish Churches long after their contact with Rome. This is not as surprising as it has been thought (cf. Warren, pp. 68-69). In the nature of things, particularly in the earlier period, consecration often had to be by one bishop if it took place at all. Gregory the Great recognized the necessity and gave Augustine permission to consecrate alone with the remark, " Since you are the only bishop in the English Church you can not ordain otherwise than without other bishops " (Bede, i. 27). Boniface V. gave the
same permission to Justus, Augustine's third successor, "when the occasion made it necessary" (Bede, ii. 8). Custom with the English makes law without specific enactment. Hence it is comprehensible how consecration by a single bishop became first established usage anil then law. In respect to the markedly monastic character of the Irish Church and the position of the bishop in it unlike that in the Western Church, it must 3. Monastic be noted that in the older monasteries Character (sucn as Armagh in the North and ° . *e Emly in Tipperary) the abbots were Church a^so bishops; that is, the heads of the dioceses were abbots and bishops in one person, but their power of church government rested on their position as abbots. This is explained by the political and social conditions of the Celts and the time and manner of their conversion. The first step was the establishment of a monastic missionary station with a clan. A member of the chief's family inevitably became the head of such a station. In some cases the right of succession to the abbacy remained hereditary in the chief's family for centuries. The necessity for some one to perform episcopal functions would not be felt immediately. When it did arise an original lay abbot may have received consecration, but, living as he did far from the sight and influence of an episcopal church, it was only natural that he should continue to perform the duties of church government in the church of the clan by virtue of his position as abbot and member of the chief's family. It is not advisable to attempt a complete picture of the doctrines and institutions of the Celtic Church in its prime. The material at hand is not sufficient, although it is adequate to support the conclusion that the Celtic Church of the sixth and seventh centuries was a reproduction of the Western Church of the fourth century, modified only in special points. An important difference, however, must be noted. The spirit of the Roman and Celtic Churches when they first came in conflict was not the same. The representatives of the former were intolerant and uncharitable, as Augustine toward the British bishops (Bede, ii. 2), Wil- 4. The frid toward Colman (ib. iii. 25), Aidhelm in his letter to Geraint (MGH, Epist., iii. 231-235). The Irish, on the other hand, such as Columban on the Continent and Aidan and the rest in Northumbria, only asked that they be allowed quietly to follow the customs of their fathers. As soon, however, as an Irishman went over to the Roman party a new spirit entered into him. Ronan, an Irishman who had been in Gaul and Italy, began the quarrel in Northumbria with the gentle Finan (Bede, iii. 25). Cummian in his famous letter expresses the pious wish that God would " strike " Fintan (his chief opponent) " as he would " (col. 977b), although four or five years earlier he had himself kept Easter at the Celtic date. Again, the spirit of deliberate falsification to serve church interests does not appear in the Irish Church before its contact with Rome. That it appears immediately thereafter is abundantly shown by the history of the Patrick legend. Lastly, the new spirit which
Celtic and.
Roman
Spirit.