Chapter XII

The Mediaeval Church in Great Britain and Ireland

A.D. 500-A.D. 1500

Section 1. The Church of England.

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.

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 Liturgy and usages into agreement with the Roman pattern. 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. 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. 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 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]. 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.

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.

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), they were for a while subdued, and numbers of them settled as peaceable colonists in England, where they gradually embraced Christianity.

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. Evangelization of Scandinavia. In fact, at this time Scandinavia seems to have been the chief mission-field of the English Church.

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 case was, however, altered. 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.

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. 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. 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 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. 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 à 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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. 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. 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. 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 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.

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. 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 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). 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.

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 à, 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.

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.

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